A Ninja Should Adapt Like Water [Private - Kaseki]

Roku sat in the middle of a very small, open training ground.  It was only about 50 meters long and 50 meters wide. The grass was cut extremely short and in certain places, it was scorched away by Katon techniques, or simply missing.  It was about midday, and most people were out eating their midday meals.  Birds flew overhead singing the songs they sung as they went out looking for food.  Some, baby birds learning to fly, others, adults searching for food for their offspring.  The air had a slight chill to it though not because of the temperature, rather because of the feeling the air produced.

The Kaguya sat cross-legged in the middle of the field in a meditative state, though that wasn't his actual intention.  He was simply waiting... Kaseki was supposed to come by and help him out with learning to use Suiton.  It seemed like a skill Roku needed to pick up, and Kaseki had the ability to use it, though he wasn't the most skilled at it because of his specialized puppet training he assumed.  Roku could use bones, fire, and earth... Though he lacked something with properties like water.  He needed something that had properties like the push and pull of water, the brutal power in combination with the subtle delicacy.

He wore all white with some black articles of clothing.  He wore white pants that were made of a cotton material so as to allow maximum maneuverability. He wore a top that looked like the top of a robe, similar to what karate practitioners used. It opened wide at the chest to reveal the black t-shirt he wore beneath it.  Around his waist was tied a black rope in a bowline knot.  He wore simple black shoes that did not open anywhere like the shoes he usually wore.  He wore a pair of black gloves, made specially for his hands so that they didn't lose any of their dexterity. He wore no cover on his left eye as usual, revealing the white eye that was usually hidden.  The dormant state of the Byakugan.  It caused for his eyes to mismatch in color but he was ok with that.  He wasn't exactly looking for a girlfriend...

He awaited the arrival of Kaseki as he rose to his feet. He wobbled a bit as he was stricken with head rush and stood still to allow his head to clear so he could see straight again.  He then began to place one foot in front of the other as he began to walk.  Ten paces, turn.  Ten paces, turn.  Ten paces, turn.  He paced back and forth, not because he lacked patience but because his legs had stiffened from sitting on the ground.  Paced the perimeter of the training ground, taking in the surroundings of the field.  To the north was the Leaf's hospital, and on the other sides was the residential district of the village. Kaseki would be coming to lend his advice in Roku's training any time now.

WC: 504

The tree began to rustle as a breeze began to pick up. He had planned it out in his mind. He wasn't going to get close enough to actually get harmed. If he wanted to really teach Roku, he had to attack, but with a target that could be easily repaired.

Kaseki was far off, hidden among the trees. His black cloak worn over his Akatsuki cloak. There was no time to play around, he would be invisible for the rest of this training. He pulled his strings on his Gray Knight, launching him into the air. "One fluid movement." The knight spoke, almost as if it was Kaseki. "To learned water, you must be water."

The knight seemed to lightly fall at the ground, as if Gravity was the acting force. However that was false, seeing as Kaseki manipulated his toy with a great number of strings for control. He could easily teach Roku how to use Water, should he have the power, but that was not the case. Kaseki couldn't pass down techniques, for he could no longer preform Ninjutsu. It wasn't so much that he lacked training, but his body reacted to such jutsu in a negative way.

His knowledge of all elements existed, along with the training in each of them. He knew Medical Ninjutsu, as well as how to activate most Kekeei Genkai. The only issue was not that he no long knew how, but rather he was unable to preform them.

"It is not bursts, but a fluid motion. Dance like the waves." The knight said, stumbling over his feet much like a Drunken Fist Taijutsu ninja would do. Kaseki was going to teach his techniques, without even using them.
____
CP : 400 > 394
Puppet Used : Gray Knight
Jutsu Used : Ancient Chakra Threads

"One fluid movement." A voice Roku didn't recognize. He he searched for the source of the voice before finally pinpointing it; above. The Kaguya dove backward and planted his hands on the ground, only to spring off of them further backward to complete a back hand spring to hurl himself out of danger. He landed on his feet and slid about a half a mater further, resulting in a grating sound that was his shoes sliding in dry, hard dirt. Dust upset around his ankles. Catching in his lungs a bit, but it wasn't dense enough to obstruct one's vision.

Roku identified the presence that had snuck up on him as a puppet. Probably Kaseki's given the next statement he made about water. Dance? A cocky smile spread across Roku's face. He was a Master Taijutsu practitioner of the Kaguya Clan. If there was anything he could do, it was make his Taijutsu resemble a dance. "Ah, good afternoon Kaseki. That's a good look for you." He laughed. He knew that wasn't actually Kaseki, because the puppet's movement was not natural, but he was in a teasing mood.

Roku thought inside his head; "Now, what do I do from here? I could quite easily use the Byakugan to follow the chakra threads back to Kaseki and strike. But... That doesn't seem to be the point of this exercise. It isn't to win, it is to make my body movements fluid like Taijutsu. The puppet is simply a means to invoke that. So... I guess what I must do is fight the puppet and not target Kaseki."

Then it was time for action. This was to train, not to win, so caution did not cross Roku's mind. He bent his knees as if he was in a position to strike, much like the "S" a snake bends itself into to maximize its striking speed. Using his Shikotsumyaku, a handle of a blade made of bone grew from his right shoulder. Using his left arm, Roku gripped the handle and drew the blade from his arm - temporarily causing his right arm to be a floppy mass of skin. Using his left arm, he tucked his temporarily useless right arm into the opening in his top that revealed the black shirt underneath so that it didn't get in the way.

And he struck. His knees extended and propelled his body forward before bending once more and extending. He leaned forward, making a sharp angle with the ground as his speed as a Taijutsu Master was showcased. He arrived at the puppet extremely quickly. It was times like this that one of the main weaknesses of a puppet master were showcased. If they decided to erase their presence and control their puppet from a distance, they could not make the acute observations required to react to an opponent precisely. However, in specific scenarios, a puppet master could make up for this because it wasn't THEIR body that was fighting. They could afford to take risky attacks because a simple attack didn't place their life on the line.

Roku held his arm across his chest in an upward and right direction. Upon reaching the puppet, he lashed. He swung the sword downward and to the left. If it would strike, it would land on the puppet's left "shoulder" in a diagonal direction toward the rest of its body. The possibility that the puppet was resistant to cutting crossed Roku's mind, but such a thing wouldn't matter because his bones were so strong that the sword could double as a club, and with his Master Taijutsu strength, could probably cause severe damage to the puppet. He was also careful as to the placement of his steps, ready to easily change direction at a second's notice. For others, changing direction at such speed with such momentum and strength could break their ankles, but because of the durability of Roku's bones, that shouldn't be a problem.

WC: 659
TWC: 1163

Chakra: 385/400
R. Arm Bone Regen: 1/2 posts

"You're striking like fire." The puppet said, "Dance like water!" The puppet fell to the ground, as if it were to take a nap. The momentum of the wall caused its' tiny legs to sway and spin him around, making him gracefully move to the right of where he once stood, which was now to the left of Roku.

Kaseki laughed as he sat in his tree, he watched it unfold. With a single hand he pulled the strings and made a play to tell his story. He had no need to fight Roku, he had only purpose to train. With his quick movements of the flame, with the force of the earth, Kaseki could step aside from everything. He was by no means faster than Roku, but being at the advantage of 2 sets of vision, Kaseki could mimic his Byakugan.

He knew that he could be found with his eye, and so he made his precautions. With a great practice, he wore his Akatsuki cloak for the first time. Even if he used his Byakugan, he would be invisible. With it, Kaseki tested another of his. He had all of his knights all over the training area. All of them held strings to his Gray Knight, and they all watched.

"Do not hit. Only move." Kaseki's voice echoed from the Knight. His voice was being sent over all of his chakra threads, causing the vibration to be sent of the long distances. It was something only he could muster up the courage to try something so foolish and useless. After all, it gave the illusion that he possessed something like the Rinnegan, but of a puppet variant.

____
CP : 394> 388

How was he supposed to make himself move like water? Water was shapeless, it had no form. Roku's body was perhaps the most rigid body in the Shinobi world, even among the Kaguya. He had reached a mastery of his Shikotsumyaku that has never before been seen, not even by the man known as Kimimaro. His bones were strong, straight, and the very essence of the word rigidity. It made no sense as to how he could take no form, yet every form, just like water. He had speed, power, and grace. That seemed to be what one could consider "moving like water" and yet he wasn't.

Roku faced the puppet, a look of confusion and slight frustration present on his face. He spoke, not to the puppet, but at the puppet, unsure of whether Kaseki could hear him through the puppet; and he refused to personify it. "So how DO I flow like water? And how will this even help me to learn Suiton, this has nothing to do with my Chakra!"

If he was going to learn to use Suiton, shouldn't he be doing some sort of practice with his chakra? It only made sense. That was how he had learned to use both Katon and Doton, why would Suiton be an exception? He sighed. Or perhaps there was simply more than one way? Or some underlying meaning behind what Kaseki said? Roku was unsure.

He looked down at his right arm as he began to regain feeling in it. He could tell that the bones were fully regenerated now as his arm began to unfold from the awkward way he had stuffed it into his robe top. "Just a few more seconds." He thought. "A few more seconds and I will regain control of this limb. He felt his chakra drain away as the hard bone grew beneath his skin. And he thought once more; "I definitely need to find a way that I can use less chakra when doing this. Or simply gain more chakra... Either would be beneficial right now."

WC: 345
TWC: 1408

Chakra: 360
R. Arm Bone Regen: 2/2 Posts [Complete]

The knight seemed to spin and fall like an old drunken man."You have fire, the technique is the same, but in one fluid motion." The puppet seemed to speak. Kaseki could have easily shown Roku the motions, if he actually had the element inside of him. Because Kaseki had to rather, teach his body to create the water, his teachings had to change.

"You have body like Volcano, I move like leaf." Kaseki said through his puppet, "Before you can use water, you must be water." The knight did a jump and spun in a cartwheel. It was almost as if he was drying himself off, for the water seemed to fly off his feet.

Kaseki couldn't do it all the time, but at times he did... his puppets mimicked the Hozuki. If Kaseki could master double concentration, he could liquefy his puppets, and essentially possess the living with his toys. But for him, it was all a theory. Before he could teach water bullets, or even his previously mastered Water-Dragon... he had to get the element into his pupil.

And to that, he would either have teach him to turn his chakra to water, or to puppet him himself and transfer his own chakra...
___
TWC: 564

Frustration boiled in Roku's eyes. He had no idea what he was doing. With fire, it was easy. He simply had to use his chakra to amplify the energy in the air and transform it into thermal energy so that it would ignite. And with earth, he had to learn to take a powerful stance and bond his chakra with the ground because Doton users rarely created their own rocks and boulders and such. They always used what was there. But how... Would he go about doing this one? Before, he had hypotheses about how to mold his chakra. Then, he just tried them, and adjusted as he saw fit.

So he began to think about the properties of water. First, he thought of the most basic properties, those of the liquid state of matter. No definite shape but definite volume. In other words, the space water takes up does not usually change... But the shape of it changes depending on whatever container it is placed it. So how does that relate to his movements? How was he supposed to change his movements, and more importantly, his chakra, to reflect these properties? It didn't make any sense. He definitely had definite shape, and he had a definite volume. That is, unless he cut a toe off or something.

His finger twitched. He thought to himself; "Finally. I can move it again." He clenched his right fist a few times inside his robe top to be sure he had fully regained dexterity and motion with his hand. Confirming that this was true, he pulled his right arm out of his clothing, now allowing it to hang freely at his side. He always liked the way a limb felt after it had newly regenerated a bone. It always felt clean, and for a few moments, stronger, though it would usually feel normal again as soon as he was distracted with something else.

Roku turned toward the puppet Kaseki was controlling, opening his mouth to speak but closing it once more. It felt so strange to talk openly and freely to an inanimate object... But as the thought came and passed, he opened his mind once more to speak. "My body is a volcano... So since water has no definite form, it simply molds when necessary, must I do the same with my body and chakra? If I'm thrown into a situation, allow my body to change and move to accustom the situation at hand while at the same time maintaining a graceful transition from one form to another? And use my chakra to form the same way and form water into the Ninjutsu I need?"

Roku thought of the martial art known as Tai Chi. Its practitioners were masters of slow and graceful movement, transferring form and energy, while at the same time, not moving slow at all, but simply only as fast as needed. Roku could mimic this. He had at least a basic understanding of most known martial arts, and the Taijutsu of the Kaguya Clan - the dances of the flowers - were very similar to Tai Chi and its graceful movement.

And so he tried it. He stood in a low stance, feet spread wide apart and began leaning to the left with both open palms pointing in that direction, focusing most of his chakra into his left palm. Slowly, he bent his knees and eased his body to the right, drawing his right arm across his body and pointing it to his right. His chakra followed, beginning in the fingertips of his left hand and flowing - as if it was a running stream - down his arm, across his chest and to the fingertips of his right arm. Then he drew his left arm across his chest as well, pointing it to the right. He copied the movement again, returning to his original position. He then began doing many movements, moving in different directions. Eventually, the path of his chakra began to become wet; and not with sweat.

WC: 672
TWC: 2080

[SUITON ACHIEVED]

The puppet fell to the ground, as if it had been struck by an assassin at a distance.

"NOW YOU MOVE LIKE WATER!"

Kaseki leaped from a tree, only to fall directly on his face. He was proud to be able to pass such a skill onto Roku, only after so much focus. He could have been more elegant, perhaps to appear clapping, congratulating his pupil. But that just wasn't who he was.

He had nothing more to say in this event. He could walk away and everything would be done. However... he could have changed the tables, and asked to be trained in Ninjutsu. But perhaps another time.

He pressed himself off the dirt with a sinister smile on his face. He knew of a few forbidden techniques... one that he would share with this member.

"However, with how you have already lived life... You could have achieved the same with the Great Chimera." He laughed...

Roku was two fifths from completion.