Controlling the Chakra (MENTOR)

[Sunaku Shikai]

[OOC: Requested mentor thread with me as the Pupil and Kurokawa as the mentor]
[PL at initiation: Me: 1280, Kurokawa: 1300]


Sunaku Shikai had come a long way since he joined the ninja academy. He had done a few missions, taken some classes and even participated in an intervillage exam by now. He was now an ANBU and would soon go on to join a team formed by one person from every branch under a Guardian leader. One could not be more all over the place even with much effort. A few things were still missing though. While he could learn a great deal from this guardian, he wanted to at least reach a certain level before they formed the team. He would like to learn how manipulate Ink element. For that he needed to master wind to a certain degree which meant that it was still far off. So far he had gotten quite used to Lightning and Earth was not that far behind but wind was totally uncharted territory for him. For now he would seek out a like-minded peer for whom he had respect. Hashigaki Kurokawa. This particular person had already not only acquired her own Advanced Element but even gotten a Kinjutsu. Getting some pointers here would surely come in handy, and this person could help him. She had also spared with him before she left him in the dust. It was not that she was that much stronger in terms of raw power but she had accomplished so much more in the ways of techniques.

For now he had requested that she help him get closer to if not obtain an advanced element. He had asked her to meet him on the proving grounds, since it seemed like the most appropriate place for this stuff. The meeting point was suppose to be when the sun was at its peek but he could not sleep much that night and had shown up to the place way early. With him, he had a bag of provisions and some medical kit just in case. Now all he needed was his mentor for this training session.

[MFT]
[WC: 336]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Kurokawa arrived a whole hour before the appointed time only to find Shikai there waiting for her. She had brought a bag with a few tools for training that her Spirit had told her would fit the bill. Unlike Shikai, Kurokawa had a nag for learning these things. So far she had a total of three Advanced elements. One came from the power of the Spirit, now teaching her to control it, one stemmed from her bloodline, and one was developed in the same way that Shikai would now have to. She did indeed have a lot of experience when it came to getting access to these elements though she had not spend enough time training the techniques yet. This could be good practice for her as well.

"You are way, way early."

She herself had arrived early to make sure she did not keep him waiting but she did no expect to find him waiting for her when she had decided to arrive and hour before she was suppose to. If there was such a thing as too early that would be Shikai.

"Okay to first things first. We need a target element for you. If you don't have that then we don't know what we need to work towards. I grabbed some stuff but since every training is different I won't know what we need yet."

Kurokawa would give Shikai a moment to think before answering and then take it from there.

 

[Sunaku Shikai]

Shikai knew he wanted Ink but he aslo knew that Kurokawa did not know it, so how could help him achieve it. Well she did have water and blood, and ink was kinda like a liquid even though it didn't require mastery of water to get better at so he figured he'd rather try and see what she would do.

"With so many arms I was thinking that I would be able to draw pretty fast, and earth is one of my elements so. Ink?"

He tried to make it sound like he had thought it through but had done so just now, and not a while back.

"It's not one of yours, so do you think you can help me out there?"

He was very sceptical about this whole thing.

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Kurokawa lid up at bit at the sound of the response from her companion in reaction to Shikai mentioning Ink element as his desired target.

Ink? The energy that flows through the air like water in a creak. A fine choice for one that knows his lightning and wind. This one however only knows his lightning. Take the pipe with the holes in it. He needs to learn how to play the flute without using the air in his lungs.

Kurokawa would drop her large bag on the ground and pick out a standard windwood flute.

"Okay so basically mastering any advanced element is all about mastering the base elements surrounding it. Ink needs a lot of lightning which toy have, and some wind which you currently lack. Here is what you will be practising wind control with."

Kurokawa put it to her mouth and played a few tunes with one had switching between the holes in the flute and the planted in her pocket. Afterwards she pulled her other hand out of her pocket and grabbed the place she had previously blown into.

"The task is simple. Play the flute without using the air from your lungs. How musical you are is not as important as getting a consistent and correct amount of air through the flute to make the right sounds."

She would then chug the flute towards Shikai, to whom catching something in the air should be a breeze given that he was equipped with three pairs of arms.

[MFT]
[WC: 252]

 

[Sunaku Shikai]

Shikai looked at the flute while Kurokawa explained how this was going to go down. When she threw it he shot out a string of spider web and pulled it in. First he blew through it a few times to try and grasp how much air would need to go through and what tones he could make with covering different holes. One thing was for sure. He had now clue how to play the flute.

Placing on hand on the end of it and the other with fingers fixed in a certain position to cover half the holes he started trying to send wind chakra through it. He quickly realised that just moulding it like one would do for wind was hard enough but on top of that, sending the chakra through like that yielded no result. He would have to actually move the winds and make a localised gust that could then be guided through the flute. This would take some getting used to. After all he hadn't mastered wind element yet either.

"Just don't tease me while I go through sweating concentration. I feel a little off trying to play a flute. I mean I get how it will help with control and all that, but still"

After saying that he would get down to it, concentrating on controlling the chakra and working up a sweat, without much resembling a tone coming out of it yet. Just like when he would mold lightning into a form he tried to visualize the form he wanted the wind to take on. He wanted to make sort of a staff shaped flow through the pipe.

[MFT]
[WC: 274]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Shikai was concentrating. That was very apparent even to the sightless. He was not a silent trainee. Kurokawa figured it would make for more of a learning experience if it included breaks to do other stuff as well as obstacles when concentrating. The brain breaks would help to put all the excess potential to use instead of it going to waste, and the obstacles would make it more like an actual combat situation preparing Shikai for the stress of using something that does not come easy to him in combat.

The break activity first. Kurokawa would take out her scroll and unroll it. Molding chakra through it made 5 tree trunks appear. From her bag she took a set of dominoes and some thin bamboo sticks. She used these to make different activities on the trunks. One the first one she would place five dominoes on a straight line with a little space between them. The second one would have three bamboo sticks places together so they stood up like in a native American tent. One the third one she just stuck three bamboo sticks into the trunk quite close to each other. Running out of bamboo she made two feet of standing dominoes and let the last stick balance on top. The fifth trunk became her seat.

"Okay lets see how far along you are with the fine control. I have put up some different ways to train."

She would point to the other trunks and as Shikai stopped what he was doing she would continue.

"Okay so on the first one is five dominoes. Knock over number two and four with win without knocking over the rest. Second one has three sticks. Trip the one closest to the first one so the bamboo falls in that direction. Third one you cut each bamboo in a different height whilst still only cutting each stick once. Three separate attacks. The last one is about breaking the stick in half without the dominoes or the stick itself falling off."

The last trunk was a bit larger than the previous four and big enough for Kurokawa to lie back, so that is precisely what she did.

"I'm gonna do like the old senseis used to and just relax and observe. Begin at your leisure."

After setting it all up and explaining it to Shikai, Kurokawa now had to pay attention to how Shikai was going about the task and what he could improve on. Luckily her sight had nothing to do with it allowing her to stay relaxed on her back while he attempted to complete the tasks.

[MFT]
[WC: 436]

 

[Sunaku Shikai]

Shikais efforts did not match the outcome atm. There was some part of it he was missing. For now he would just keep at it with hard work as Kurokawa was setting up some kind of picnic arrangement.

After she was finished setting up she arrangement she addressed him with a change of phase, which Shikai readily accepted. He listened as she started explaining how to do each task using wind. She then pulled a lazy one and went horizontal on one of the trunks. Her dress was not made for lying down. She of course had her shorts as pr. usual but one day when the weather would be too warm she would end up having to change clothes or risk exposing herself if she kept that up. Still what really bothered Shikai was the fact that she seemed to not care about the completion of the tasks.

"Okay so one at a time."

The first one seemed simple enough. Don't make a giant gust but shape it more like lightning. He moulded chakra and shot out air from his mouth quickly realising the error of his ways. Unlike Lightning with would travel in a thin line, an air bullet had quite the diameter and affected the area around where it flew. He knocked over all 5 dominoes in one go.

The next one was simpler though. Here he just had to discern how far away from the setting he would have to shoot to only knock over one stick. Putting less energy into this one he mad the air bullet much smaller and quickly tumbled the tent poles.

The third one was less about flow and more about control. You could put your hands together so the thumbs ran parallel to each other and the thumbs would just barely fit between the sticks. Shikai used a wind slicer as far to the side as he could to only hit the first stick. So far so good. Then came the middle stick which had to be shorter still without hitting the third one. Visualising how he air would flow he limited the output of the slicer to its absolute minimum and aimed for the middle. The slice would cut into the bamboo but not through it. Simply using more energy would make the slice wider so he needed to come up with something else. For now he would send another limited energy slicer to cut the rest of the bamboo and then leave the third on as was. Three attempts, three lengths Close enough.

Now came the last one. He had seen with the dominoes how air is not just where you shoot it but all around as well. The cutting exercise had given him an idea of the minimum effort needed to cut the bamboo clean. Also to not push it at all it would need to be a tad sharper than before. At least that was apparent after the first two tries that would push the bamboo off when cutting it and also tumble over the dominoes. Using the sticks from before, Shikai was able to try a few times until he found the right amount of cutting power with the lowest amount of air preassure pushing on things.

"That should be all. Not flying colours but good enough I think?"

[MFT]
[WC: 554]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

He is still thinking only with lightning. He needs more flow in his ways. But he is not far from getting it, it seems. Some of the tasks were done. Somewhat.

Kurokawa got up from the trunk and stretched out a bit. Shikai had not rushed through the exercise which gave her enough time to almost nod off if she hadn't been focusing in his training. As she was warming up her shoulders she went over to the other trunks one by one and started packing it all down.

"My other half tells me you are still not feeling the wind of it. You need to let the air flow. WInd and lightning are very similar for some aspects but for an advanced element you need all aspects. The fluid motions of ink comes from the air. As does the stability. Let it flow like feathery water through the flute."

Kurokawa would make wave motions with her hands as she explained, as well as sway a bit back and forth as if affected by ebb and flow. Water coming in and going out.

"Try to use what you got from the exercises and keep at it. You seem close to getting it."

From her bag she picked up some thing rope and took a Kunai from her belt pouch. She bound the rope in the ring of the kunai and started swinging it above her head.

"I think you are ready for some added pressure to push you the last bit. I'm gonna periodically trying to hit you with this so stay sharp."

 

[Sunaku Shikai]

Apparently Kurokawa was the fan of hard work and stress over taking your time. In any case now Shikai had to dodge random attacks while trying to concentrate on the training. On top of that he had to use what he just got from the other exercise to feel the wind, whatever that meant. He didn't even have time to figure that out.

He jumped to the side to dodge one of the attacks.

"I think maybe slow and steady is the way to go. We are not under any kind of time pressure. I mean, we can just pick it up here tomorrow?"

As he said it he realized that learning something like this in one day was insane enough as it was. But it would certainly prove something if he was able to get what he needed to start practising ink jutsu all in one day. He decided to buckle up and keep at it. Just follow Kurokawas lead seeing as she was the teacher in this scenario.

Didn't stop him from breaking even more of a sweat than before. But help can come from the most unlikely places. As he was forced to dip, dug, dive, and dodge, he felt the air flowing around him cooling him off where the sweat was. It didn't move in a straight line, rather it wrapped itself around him as he moved through it. Kinda like water. Using that as a frame of reference he tried to imagine something very thin, like a hair, going through the flute and water around it being cooled by the air the way he himself was cooled at the moment. Doing that enabled him to make his first real tone through the flute.

[MFT]
[WC: 288]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Kurokawa swung the Kunai regardless of Shikais wish to take it slow. She had agreed to help him get started and until he was there she still had work to do. A crash course was the way to go. One often find new ways to look at it when put in difficult situation. Suddenly the flute actually made a sound. They had been at it for hours. When she heard it she stopped taking swings at Shikai.

"Progress. Wonderful. Now that you got the hang of it a little, hold that thought and try to play the flute"

She would give him helpful suggestions as to how to move the fingers on the free hand to create different tones. The less holes covered in the flute the more air would need to be pumped through it. Since Shikai only did enough to make a small sound so far he would need to take what he had just learned and apply it on a larger scale. After doing some practise without the motivational attacks he was sure to get more of a hang of the playing part of the training. By now the sun had started to set and it was getting rather chilly.

"Lets take a break and find out what we need from here. It's getting dark so we might need to pick it up later, if you feel like we are not at a good point yet."

She packed up all the gear other than the flute, since Shikai would still be using that.

"Hmm. next time lets plan what the training should be towards. I brought way too much stuff."

[MFT]
[WC: 273]

 

[Sunaku Shikai]

Shikai was appreciative of the change to train without the assault parts. By now he had gotten the hang of how to send air through the flute the right way and he could now follow instructions on how to play the flute rather than how to play dodge ball. After a few hours of getting the hang of the correct airflow they took a break.

The sky had turned from blue to slightly red as the sun was not long for this world. At least for the day.

"I am busted. I don't think I have any more in me for today. However I do feel like I got the hang of wind a but better. And since we focused less on just wind and more on how to make it flow I think I'm good when it comes to getting ink into the mix. Now all I need to learn is how to draw and to do it fast."

Shikai looked at his hands. All six of them. He certainly had the possibilities to draw fast but with just one head he would still need to keep and eye on what each hand was doing until he could draw without looking. At the moment he couldn't even draw well with two hands while looking. But that stuff was more of a solo affair than anything else. Kurokawa started packing.

"Here's your flute back as well. Next time I need help I will have thought up what I want to go towards and let you know in advance. For now I think I'm good."

[MFT]
[WC: 264]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

After packing up Kurokawa swung her bag onto her back and started walking some of the way back from the proving grounds with Shikai. They used to live in the same area but since she moved into the barracks they kinda couldn't walk the same way for long before it would be seen as something other than what it was.

"I hope you get it all down before the team forming Shikai-san"

They would part ways after a job well done. Kurokawa had learned a little something about teaching, and about preparing for the situation rather than making a large catch all prep bag. It was heavy as all hell, and hurt her shoulders despite her being fit and used to stuff like that. She was just happy she didn't have to have the gravity training gear stuffed in the bag but could hold that in a scroll. That would have made it even worse. Shikai on the other hand had hopefully gotten enough pointers to manage on his own until they would see each other again.

"Well cya"

[Mentor session complete. Topic left ]