水遁：海泡 {Suiton: Umiawa ~ Water Release: Seafoam}:

The straw dummy stood dopily on the wooden pedestal, its arms flopping in the gentle wind. Kokoro stared at the dummy from across the training area with enough intensity to set it ablaze with her eyes. Her breath was heavy, and her shoulders rose and fell with each inhale and exhale. She looked at her bandaged hands and saw how the white cloth was stained with brown dust and dirt and began to fray at the edges. Her yellow eyes then focused back on the dummy. All right, she thought. Think about this scenario carefully, Kokoro. The enemy is all the way over there. You want to deliver a great big elbow to the temple, but he'll see you coming from a mile away. What can I do? Her eyes never broke from the dummy's potato sack face as she pondered. I know! This is the perfect time to practice my new Ninjutsu!

Kokoro twisted her fingers in a short series of seals. Chakra began to accumulate in her lungs, and she took in a massive breath. "Water Release: Seafoam!" She felt a cold chill travel up through her windpipe. The girl pursed her lips as her entire breath escaped through her mouth in a thin, invisible stream. Her breath slowly diminished into nothingness, and she inhaled sharply and again, soon rhythmically panting. Her eyes darted around the whole area. After a few moments she furrowed her brow, confused. That should have worked. But where are they? She waited another minute, but each second seemed to linger languidly. Kokoro bit her lip with her razor sharp teeth. She brought her hands together and formed a seal and then another. The chill returned, traveling from her limbs and gathering in her stomach. "Water Release: Sea--!"

Then something floated towards the corner of Kokoro's eye. The coldness retreated into the recesses of her body. Kokoro slowly turned to the right to see a tiny globe of water no bigger than a marble. This must be it! she thought as she smiled.The orb rotated and glistened in the sunlight. Kokoro looked forward again, and more watery globes, a minefield of floating spheres, had appeared all throughout the area. Kokoro gleefully turned to the right again and was shocked. The orb had grown to the size of a ping pong ball. Kokoro squinted at the orb, and upon closer inspection, she noticed that as it spun infinitesimal dots of water added to the mass of the sphere. Before long, the orb was about as large as a baseball. That should be enough, right? Staring down the dummy as if it were an live opponent, Kokoro gave a devilish grin. She held her fingers to her face in a single seal. "All right. Go!"

A high pitch whining like air escaping a balloon sounded from her right. She shifted her peripheral vision to see the results of her jutsu. Brown foam gurgled and bubbled from the orb, and it expanded uncontrollably. Then suddenly, the foam violently bursts out of the surface, sending countless droplets of water everywhere and spraying the brown foam in a wide radius. Her entire right arm became coated. Dozens of the orbs began to pour out foam nonstop as if some tap was opened, creating a distracting array of hissing and spurting. "Now's my chance!" Kokoro sprinted as fast as she could, but her feet could not get proper traction on the sand. She attempted to weave around the spewing orbs with mild success. The closer she got to the target, the more plentiful the orbs were. Her clothing soon became soaked with foam. A stray globule of thick brown foam slapped Kokoro in the face, and she lost her footing. Regardless, she wiped it away and tried to regain her speed. Through the thick brown cloud, she could see the dummy within her reach. Kokoro leapt forward with her fist tight and elbow propped up. As she descended onto her target, she thrusted her elbow across the front of her, colliding it with the straw dummy's potato sack head. The head bucked down the side of the neck as if like a real human skull, but the weightless sack detached from the body, flying across the training area. As it fell, massive amounts of foam coated it, and the dummy's head skipped across the sands like a flat stone on a pond. The head was almost out of sight when it rolled onto the ground and eventually ceased, laying still as a messy, destroyed sack. Kokoro stood proudly and smiled. Didn't know what hit him.


819/600

Bokator: Turtle Shell Shatter:

Bam! Biff! Bam! Biff! Kokoro rhythmically slammed her elbows against the head of the straw dummy, floppily ping-ponging it between each strike. Her feet raised and fell like a graceful dance. Her bestial eyes glared menacingly at the dummy's blank face with murderous intent. Kokoro lowered her guard, keeping the bounce to her step as she worked out the kink in her neck. Her eyes wandered up and to the right as she thought of all the possible close combat scenarios she could achieve. If an opponent grabbed her, she could defend herself. If an opponent tried to punch her, she could defend herself. An elbow strike? Check. An uppercut? Check. A kick. She could only name a few maneuvers she could use, and she needed to rectify that.

Kokoro walked over to her backpack next to the dummy and riffled though the back pocket. Her hands emerged holding a beige scroll about as long as her arm and as thin as two of her fingers. She pulled the scroll at both ends, unraveling it and revealing its contents: visual diagrams of two figures sparring. She traced her black fingernail down the different series of diagrams. She recognized every single one she put her finger on except one at the bottom of the page. Kokoro leaned in closer, intrigued. It depicted an attacker giving a roundhouse kick to the defender. The defender strafed to the opposite side of the attacker and grabbing his head. The final image showed the defender throwing the opponent onto the ground by pulling him down by his head. Kokoro gave a slight grin. "I could do that."

Kokoro delicately slipped the scroll back into the pocket in her backpack and walked over to the dummy. She exhaled and shook her arms to release any tension. She then stared up at the straw dummy. The murderous intent returned to her eyes. She raised her guard and began to shift her feet. She had to get back in her rhythm. She smacked the side of her elbow against the side of the dummy's head and began alternating blows with her other elbow. Bam! Biff! Bam! Biff! She started slow and steadily and soon accelerated the rate of her blows. Faster and faster she went. She clenched her teeth, eager to perform the new technique. She hopped backwards, imagining that the dummy retaliated. She dug her back foot into the sand. Kokoro propelled herself forward, and her feet cleared the brown sand. She rotated her body toward the dummy and reached her hands to the back of its potato sack head. As her feet neared the ground, she yanked her elbows back, forcing the dummy to bend forward. Her bare feet impacted the sand, and she let go of the dummy, letting it spring back to its original post. She watched it shake wildly. Kokoro then continued to ponder. Her footwork seemed correct, but she was not yet satisfied with her technique.

Chakra began to flood to her ankles. Kokoro sprinted to the dummy, kicking up sand behind her in spurts. She leapt past the immobile enemy, clearing the ground significantly. As she rotated toward the straw dummy, she lurched her hands forward and grasped the side of its head tightly. Her black nails dug deep into the stitching. A flood of Chakra traveled down her arm and to her elbows as she pulled the dummy's head towards the ground as she fell to the ground. She was so caught up in the heat of the moment that she gave a aggressively loud yell. The dummy snapped from its post, and it feel forward violently onto the sand, making an an audible thud and sending bits of sand flying in the air. Kokoro caught her breath as she grinned at the success of her technique.

648/600

Jujutsu: Wood Sprite Dance:

Kokoro sat with her legs crossed on the warm brown sand. She skimmed her bestial yellow eyes across the contents of the scroll, which depicted silhouettes performing various grabs and throws against attacking shadowy figures and brief descriptions of how to perform the techniques. She perused the page for ones that she had not practiced yet. She removed her eyes from the scroll to admire the red-violet sky. Breath-taking as it was, she knew she could afford to waste any time, for the sun was about to set. When the sun sets in Suna, the nighttime air becomes more frigid than the most brutal of winters. Dry air holds no heat. Kokoro would not last very long in the night, so she focused her eyes back on the page and urgently scanned.

Her eyes froze on a series of diagrams. A new technique? She brought the scroll closer to her face to accommodate for the waning sunlight. The first image of the diagram showed an attacker throwing a punch at the defender. The second image showed the defender grabbing the attackers arm with one hand. The third image showed the defender kneel, pulling the attackers hand forward and causing the attacker to bend down, and press his other hand into the attackers stomach. The fourth and final image showed the defender flip the attacker over his head and slamming the attacker onto the ground. Kokoro could not help but grin. This is exactly the technique I need. The series of diagrams was labelled Wood Sprite Dance.

Kokoro dug her foot into the ground and rose to her feet hurriedly. She rolled up the scroll haphazardly and tossed it back into her backpack, nearly missing the pocket. She sprinted towards the straw dummy, her guinea pig for this new technique. She was about to ready her defensive stance when the pressing problem hit her like a ton of bricks. The dummy could not attack her. Kokoro's body tensed, and she clenched her teeth. How am I gonna do a defensive maneuver is the opponent can't attack?! Usually someone was here to help her puppeteer the dummy's limbs and simulate and attacking opponent, but everyone had cleared off before dusk, leaving her the only one in the Tsumi Sand Grounds. Kokoro gazed at the sky, and the clouds were shifting to a darker hue of purple. Before she exploded, Kokoro attempted to breath out all of her stress. It's okay. Calm down. I'll just... improvise.

Kokoro ran over to the dummy and yanked the stiff stick-like arm forward. I'll just pretend it's punching. As per the instructions, Kokoro kneeled on one knee in a fluid motion. She smiled, as the technique was successful so far. Suddenly, she hear a crackle and a snap. She no longer felt the weight of the dummy. Her eyes widened, and she blinked a few times before standing upright. The dummy was missing its arm, pulled clean off by Kokoro. The girl clenched the stick with all her might, snapping it in two, and gave a guttural growl. "C'mon! I'm running of time!" Kokoro lunged her hand forward and held the other dummy's arm in a vice-like grip. She slammed her knee onto the sand and thrusted her arm back. She pressed her hand onto the dummy's lower torso so hard that it was almost a strike in itself. She channeled her Chakra to her palm and gave an echoing roar. The dummy's post uprooted from beneath the sand. Kokoro forced the dummy to flip overhead, and the helpless victim fell flat on its back with a ground-shaking boom. The shockwave sent a wall of sand to the edges of the training area.

But she was not done yet. Kokoro focused a small amount of Chakra to her core, giving her the strength to flip backwards on top of the dummy. Her knee pressed deep onto its soft chest, and her other foot lay flat on the ground for support. She started wailing on the dummy's face with unrelenting, animalistic fury. Each punch to the face she delivered she growled, and her eyes were on fire. Eventually, she slowed down her blows until she came to a halt. She panted profusely. The dummy's head was torn to pieces, and bits of straw lay strewn about everywhere. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and took another deep inhale. She had the technique down. All she needed to do was work on her control.

796/600

Water Release: Water Clone Technique:

"Water Release: Water Clone Technique!"

The wooden bucket filled with water began to ripple. The tiny waves bounced off the inside of the container. Soon more and more ripples began to form on the surface of the water, and the tiny waves churned the water as the rate of the tiny waves became faster and faster. The churning escalated to bubbling, as if the water inside was boiling. Kokoro continued to watch, grasping her fingers tightly in a seal, concentrating immensely of keeping the Chakra flow consistent. She then saw the water rise from the bucket in a thin wavy strand, like a cobra emerging from a wicker basket. Kokoro perked up, and an inkling of excitement began to run around in her body. Another crystal clear liquid stand rose from the bucket then another, and soon a dozen were arising, coming together, and combining into an even taller and thicker column of water. Kokoro smiled and could not help but hop in place. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" Suddenly, the column began to waver and undulate. The rising form began to succumb helplessly to gravity. Kokoro gasped. "No, no, no, no, no! Come back!" she shouted as she tried to concentrate more Chakra. The pillar of water continued to shrink as if weakening. "Please!" The pillar then popped like bubble, spraying tiny droplets of water all over the brown sand. "No! Dammit!" Kokoro roared as she punched the open air relentlessly and kicked a wad of sand in the air. She then dragged her feet over to the bench outside of the training area and pulled her hair angrily before sitting down.

"This is keeps on happening! Why wouldn't it work?" Kokoro growled as she grit her teeth and dug her black nails into the soft flesh of her palms. The sharp pinching sensation pulsed in her hand. Breathing became rigid for Kokoro. In her rapid, shallow breaths, she felt the humid air creep into her nostrils. The muscles of her body gradually relaxed, and her grip loosened. She exhaled heavily, defeated. She slouched over, pressing her palms onto her thighs. She did not just want to learn this jutsu. She needed to learn it. Ever since she hear of the Water Clone Technique, she could not stop fantasizing about the endless possibilities of its potential in battle: restraining an opponent while Kokoro goes in for a kick to the stomach, serving as a decoy, performing the Hidden Mist Technique will Kokoro ambushes the opponent. Kokoro could not stop thinking about the countless ways she could use this jutsu, and she was irritated that it was becoming such a chore for her to do. In her daydreaming, Kokoro all of a sudden felt a light bulb go off in her head. "That's it. I should... imagine... imagine the clone as me. I've been so preoccupied with trying to control my Chakra and... maybe it needs a little more than that." Kokoro looked at the wooden bucket. Its mere image stirred up so much contempt inside her. Nevertheless, Kokoro rose to her feet and walked with her head held high. She tried her best not to drag her feet in the sand, accustomed to it as she was. She turned to face the wooden bucket. She shook her hands and stretched out her arms and legs, but her yellow eyes never broke contact with the bucket of water. She let all of the anger and stress escape with her exhale and brought her hands together in a seal. As the Chakra overflowed her body, Kokoro shouted, "Water Release: Water Clone Technique!"

The surface was graced the return of the infinitesimal ripples. The miniature waves increased in number and speed. A single bubble burst at the top followed by another then three then a dozen. Before long, the water was churning with raw Chakra again. A strand of water no thicker than a pencil arose from the bucket. Another followed suit. Kokoro watched with an unchanging expression. She did not want to get her hopes again. A couple dozen stands combined to create a thick pillar of water that continued upwards out of the bucket. Kokoro quickly closed her eyes. To the best of her ability, she tried picturing an exact copy of herself emerging from the bucket, though it sounded completely absurd. While her eyes were closed, she saw a black void. The bucket stood alone. Instead of water rising from the container, she saw pictured a pale hand with black nails, her hand, grasp the edge of the bucket. An arm in a black hoodie arose next, pulling itself to the surface. She heard the water shift and churn, almost aggressively. Kokoro then saw a shoulder then her own face break the surface of the water and stare at her. Kokoro tensed, slightly taken aback, but she continued to concentrate her Chakra and stayed in this imaginary state.

At one point, she could not hear the water moving anymore. Kokoro tensed again. Did I screw it up again? She wanted to open her eyes, but they were shut tight. She did not want to be disappointed again. Without moving any other part of her body, she peeked her right eye through the thin opening between her eyelids. The darkness faded, and reality began to flood her eyes. Kokoro felt a chill run up and down her body. She was practically frozen solid. When she opened her eyes, she saw an exact copy of her standing in the empty wooden bucket. She stared dumbfounded at the clone, and the clone stared back. "I... I did it," she said in a raspy whisper. Kokoro broke her hands out of the handseal and leapt a foot in the air, throwing her hands up triumphantly. "I did it! I actually did it!"

1011/1000

Bokator: Falcon Spear:

Kokoro sat in the light brown sand on her knees. She wiped the thin layer of sweat from her forehead and flicked her hand. She then wiped her hand in the sand, and hundreds of tiny grains stuck to the surface of her skin. Most were brushed off on her jeans, but the persistent ones remained. She scanned the contents of the scroll silently and intently. "Done that one. And that one. And that one too," she mumbled to herself as she gave a cursory glance to the list of offensive Taijutsu. She had been searching through her scrolls high and low for a Taijutsu that would give her the advantage of speed. Bokator had a great combination of offensive elbow and knee strikes, which had the potential to do massive amounts of damage coupled with her strength, and jujutsu worked well as a method of defense with its extensive variety of grabs and submissions. The only problem was getting close to an opponent to perform these techniques, and with Kokoro's speed, accomplishing that was nearly impossible. She needed a jutsu that could close the distance between her and her opponent, and she had been sitting in the sand perusing her scrolls for nearly half an hour. Nevertheless, Kokoro continued reading eagerly.

Kokoro's eye then came across something foreign, something new. She sat up straight, intrigued, and brought the scroll closer to her face. She focused her eyes on the diagram. In the first picture of the series, a shadowy figure of a man ran toward an opponent. In the second picture, the figure leaps at the unknown enemy. In the third, the figure becomes horizontal and delivers a flying double kick, which impacts the middle of the enemy's chest. The fourth and final one depicted the opponent falling backwards and the attacking figure landing on his side and using a breakfall with his arms. Kokoro reinspected the set of diagrams and then again, feeling more confident about the technique with each look. The corner of her mouth raised, forming the beginning of a grin. "This could work," she said to herself. Kokoro quickly but carefully curled up the scroll into a tight roll and placed it gently inside her pack. She then brushed the sand off of her pant legs and stretched out her arms as she walked toward the sparring dummies.

Kokoro moved into a position about 5 meters in front of the dummy, as seen in the diagram. She leaned forward in a lunge. The tightness in her thigh and calf surged, and she gave a painful hiss. She had been training all day, and all the strenuous exercise was starting to take a toll on her body. She then leaned forward on her opposite leg. After a minute of stretching, Kokoro leapt to her feet anxiously. Her feet alternated hopping on the sand. She shook her wrists and rotated her sore neck before assuming a rigid offensive position. She raised her hands in front of her and spread her legs apart. She stared at the dummy and imagined that it had vindictive intent. She took a moment to breathe, letting the tension escape from her throbbing muscles and making her body feel pliable, fluid. There was a brief second of silence where only the whistling wind could be heard.

Exploding her foot forward, Kokoro initiated the attack. Her arms swung like pendulums, propelling her forward. Her wide steps were very heavy, but she tried to move as quickly and light-footed as possible. It did not help her speed that her feet sunk an inch into the sand with every step, but regardless she kept gunning forward. She closed in on the dummy's location. Kokoro bent her knees and leapt towards the lifeless opponent. As per the diagram, she flew towards her opponent with her two bare feet sticking straight forward. The dummy took the full impact of the blow and was pushed backwards, bending the flexible wooden pole that held it into the ground. Kokoro soon felt her momentum lessening and felt the tingling sensation of gravity pulling her down to earth. Kokoro prepared her arm as she rotated to the side. As she fell, she slammed her arm into the sand, creating a layer of fine brown to jump into the air and fall. The force of her fall was distributed to her arm, allowing Kokoro to land safely onto the sand. The girl looked up at the dummy to catch it wiggle back into its original standing position. Her mind immediately began to wander. "That was good, but I think I can improve it."

Without wasting a second, Kokoro pushed herself onto her feet. As she ran towards her original starting position, she had an inkling of an idea grace her mind. She kept running forward, unaware of how far she was traveling from the dummy. When she turned around, the dummy appeared as a minuscule figure in the distance. This was the optimal distance for the attack. After all, she could not always guarantee that she would be so close to the target. She dashed forward. A surge of Chakra crackled through her knees, calves, thighs, and ankles. She felt like she was gliding over the sand rather than running. It was only a matter of seconds before Kokoro was closing in on her original attack position, made evident by the trail of footprints left in the sand. Fueled by mere instinct, Kokoro leapt and soared through the air. All she could hear was the wind roaring past her ear. She jutted her feet out at the last moment before the impact and slammed her feet onto the dummy's chest. The wood of the pole snapped. Her knees buckled. She launched herself off of the surface of the dummy, flipping backwards over her side. After suspended in air for a brief moment, she landed in the sand on her own two feet. She grinned with immeasurable glee as she stuck the landing. She turned towards the dummy to see that the top half was completely missing. The remains were in a broken mess behind the broken pole. Kokoro made a fist and smiled with content pride.

1045/1000p