The name of the Sandy Arena really did live up to it's name, much to the delight of the pale redhead who was now thankful he had not brought that cumbersome gourd with him. There was more than enough of the grounded down minerals for the boy to practice any sand jutsu he needed to train, thousands upon thousands of tons contained within the giant fence marking the arena's border. Don't be mistaken; every inch of Suna and Kaze no Kuni was covered in the substance, but this area certainly had a surplus of sand that must have stretched hundreds of feet into the ground. And by the spirits, it was so soft! That was the best thing about sand, it was warm and soft, and gets everywhere. It was enough to make the obsessed Sabaku lay out on the ground and make a sand angel, enjoying the granules rubbing against his skin as they scalded it slightly. So soft and warm, it almost made him want to fall asleep right there in the arena. He was just a few hundred feet from the entrance to the training ground, anyone entering to train wouldn't bother him unless they approached.

But unfortunately the boy had no time for a quick snooze, he came here to practice some new jutsu he had planned to learn. In place of the gourd containing his sand Roku instead brought with him his leather knapsack containing all the things he would need: forearm length scrolls containing the information to learn the jutsu, all purchased from a shinobi supply store; bottles of water to replenish his fluids after practicing a few Suiton jutsu as well as his new Sabaton technique, three in total contained in plastic; and finally, a piece of notebook paper given to him by Sana that contained on the new Sabaton jutsu in question, written out in her neat curly handwriting that was well practiced for Fuinjutsu. He had hounded her all week to teach him a new jutsu, something offensive that could do a good bit of damage, but the best she would give him to shush his whining was her Wet Casting technique. It wasn't the Whip or Senbon he was hoping for, or even something offensive in the slightest, but Roku was a firm believer that beggars cannot be choosers. And he would face a Suiton user at some point in his career, it would be best to have something that didn't leave him 100% helpless.

And what really had made him eager to train were the two Futon jutsu scrolls he had purchased. Out of all the elements Roku could call upon Wind was easily the most dangerous and damaging, even compared to his beloved sand. Until this point the young Genin could only call upon Stream, a big puff of air that had it's uses but did no damage by itself. Useful for reorienting himself in the air or knocking aside projectiles, but did little more to an opponent than knock them back a bit. But these new two were something in a whole different vein. Both C-Rank offensive techniques, they had costed two entire missions worth of payment and would take a good bit of training to nail down. The thought of an enemy rushing him just to take a blade of wind across the face tickled the redhead deep down delightfully. But the boy was one for anticipation and suspense, and would practice his other techniques before he got to the good stuff.

With his training all planned out the boy ceased making his sand angel, stopping only to add two dots for eyes and a line as a smile in the shape's face, and rolled to the side over by his bag. Flipping open the top Roku pulled out his scrolls and set them to his right, then retrieved the bottles of water before placing them to the left. The paper the scrolls were written on weren't water resistant and getting them wet would be a serious waste of ryo. The teen took a bottle in hand along with a Suiton scroll in the other and walked a few paces away, eager to see how it would work. Water Release: Rising Slice the label said as the boy set his bottle aside and cracked open the scroll, reading over it carefully. Some Suiton techniques could use the fluids in a user's body but others relied on water in the environment, and Suna was not known for it's lakes and rivers. This Rising Slice would require a most body of land around him, and so the boy set his scroll aside and picked up the bottle before dumping it's contents on the ground before him. As a desert dweller it pained him to watch the sand drink up that precious liquid greedily, but at least any that wasn't used by his technique would drain into the aquifer Suna was built atop. The empty bottle was tossed back towards his pack, the scroll finding itself in his hands after, and Roku read up on what he would need to do.

The scroll mentioned this technique would not require hand seals but they helped the redhead channel his chakra effectively, so as the boy flooded the wet sand before him with his chakra he made the Dog seal with his left hand atop the right and focused. Roku could feel he moisture in the sand flow together, and with a release of the chakra built up a short jet of water split through the sand in front of him, shooting forward about 5 meters before it collapsed in on itself. It was a sudden movement and Rokumaru had not expected it to work on his first try, and though it was not at it's full power he gave a wide grin. The Sabaku Genin was a quick learner when it came to ninjutsu and he had felt exactly how his chakra had been spread too thin in the wet sand. After a few more minutes and several waves later, Roku was happy to see a much taller jet of water spring forward taller than he was and bisect the ground 20 meters ahead of him. A few more tries later, sweat beginning to bead down his forehead in exertion, he was confidant he had mastered the technique in just under 15 minutes.

A quick trip back to his pack left him drinking up his second bottle of water while flipping through the other Suiton scroll, and a small smile spread across his face when he noticed this next technique would need him to be hydrated. Water Release: Gunshot drew upon the water in his body, and so Roku drained half the bottle and stepped away to practice it. This jutsu actually did require the Tiger hand seal, and the redhead made the movement while he closed his eyes and concentrated chakra along his throat. He could feel moisture begin to line his esophagus and compounded on that, struggling not to cough it up as drops of water soon became larger and larger. Many Gunshots could be created at a time but the boy was only trying to practice and so he kneaded the chakra in his throat into one entity, the coin-sized balls of water flowing into each other until they congealed into an orange-sized mass. Lack of oxygen was beginning to burn his lungs and so he opened his mouth and breathed the ball out, only to see it arc low into the ground a few feet away. The ball was perfectly cylindrical but hadn't gotten much propulsion; perhaps he needed to breath out air along with it. To test this the boy created another, this time taking a deep breath before hand, and exhaled quickly with a big gust of air. This ball went much further much faster, slamming into a dune about 20 meters away with enough force to throw up a cloud of sand. Roku grinned and tried again, with the same effect, and decided he had the basics down. It was actually rather dehydrating, though, and as he placed both Suiton scrolls in his pack he drained his second bottle.

While drinking he glanced over Sana's paper, reading more about the Wet Casting technique. Sand being manipulated by Sabaton was notoriously difficult to wield when doused with water, and so his elder sister had managed to find a way to use this to her advantage. Most Sabaton techniques did not require hand seals at all as Sabaton was innate to a Sabaku, but three were required to over come the extra moisture and weight in any wet sand. Rokumaru wasn't great with hand seals in general, probably only being about as quick and precise as a brand-new Genin, so he had to set the paper on the ground and practice the string of hand signs. Bird-Dragon-Horse; at least they all seemed to flow together well, no extreme movement in the wrists or needing to reorient the hands. A few minutes passed as he practiced the motion over and over until he felt happy with his speed, a little slow for combat but sure to get easier with practice.  Roku kneeled down and read over the page again, absently practicing the seals. Wet Casting wasn't useful just by itself, more reliant on defending against incoming Suiton attacks, but at least he wouldn't need to immediately reduce the moisture of his sand to mess with it. Feeling he had the basics down Roku put the page in his pack with the Suiton scrolls and picked up his final bottle.

Moving a few yards away the redhead poured half of it's contents into the sand and set the bottle aside. He poured his chakra into the wet sand and connected with it; like most wet sand trying to move it made him feel sluggish and weak, like trying to pull a heavy weight around. When the sand did respond it moved slowly and took much effort on his part, and he could really see why a whole different technique was needed to affect it. The teen let his connection wane and decided to try out the technique Sana gave him. The hand seals were done carefully to guarantee they were precise, and he did them a few times as he focused on connecting with his true element. The hand seals immediately made their effort known; they concentrated chakra into the water itself in the sand, rather than the grains, and by calling upon his control Roku was able to shift the wet patch before him with ease. This would have immense effects in combat, he could let his sand be doused with Suiton and immediately shift it into a new technique rather than needed to separate the moisture, something that'd take about half a minute to do. He pulled the wet sand toward himself and let it flow through the air onto his chest, and was delighted to see when he cut the control the wet patches stuck to his clothes. Lovely, lovely wet softness, able to caress him like the arms of a lover.

But Rokumaru immediately felt rather drained as the sand fell off him suddenly, getting very dizzy and needing to lay on his back before he passed out. He had gone a bit overboard with using multiple jutsu in only about 20 minutes, and he cursed himself for being so reckless. He wasn't completely empty of the energy, or even halfway empty, but using so much left him with a headache and sore in his chakra coils. He still planned to practice those two Futon techniques today, but he needed a bit of a breather in between. Pulling himself up on shaky legs he hobbled over to his pack, stopping to grab his last bottle on the way, and lay down beside it as he sipped the drink. He was on a high dune that overlooked much of the surrounding area for a few dozen meters, and enjoyed the rays of the sun as they washed over his sweaty skin.

WC: 2045

Chakra 100/150:

Today was the day. Several weeks after the successful transplant from the Kazekage Midori, Syekren was staring in the mirror in his quarters of the ANBU designated area. It had been so long since he'd went on the road to recovery after his operation and he was finally ready to see the fruits of the kazekage's labors. Syekren breathed in deeply, then slowly breathed out, reaching his hands up to grip the edge of the bandages covering half of his face on the top half.  With careful hands, he began to pull the bandages back, unraveling them from around his head, the rolling them into a compact shape as he did so. It took a few minutes but eventually the bandages were in a compact form and in his right hand. He set them down upon his desk and looked into the large vanity with his right eye. There was a new scar on the left side of his face, stretching from his left eyebrow, down through his eye lids and onto the top of his cheek. It was rather large and almost a bit horrible should one care about their physical appearance. But that's not what he cared about, Syekren quietly looked at the eyelids on his left side then slowly began to open them. When they had opened, he sighed with relief. The left eye was a lighter color than the right but it was there.. He could see with it and it worked. But what about the Sharingan?

Syekren sighed and closed his right eye, staring into the mirror with the left, willing his chakra into the eye. It took a moment, but the eye started to change, the iris spinning and becoming red, with a single tomoe shining in black. The eye then turned back to its normal color, the Uchiha sighing to himself. One tomoe. That was all it had. Still, it was better than having no eye at all. At least he could fully see again and this eye would be possible to get trained up. For now though, his body needed that sort of attention. He'd been stuck in bed for a few weeks, and hadn't kept up on his training. He'd have to start again from nearly scratch.  Syekren sighed and left his bandages where they were, tying his hitai-ate around his forehead, smiling at himself in the mirror as he noticed he could leave it in the normal position now. His smile was small, but genuine, bringing up his scruffy short beard as his lips curled up. The man was standing there in boxer shorts with only his hitai-ate in. His chest scar in the form of an 'x' in the middle of his pectoral muscles showing for the first time in years. With a sigh the male started getting dressed.

He'd opted for his casual shinobi tights and socks with sandals. His black netted shirt and black out sleeves covering his arms were covered with a shinobi gi vest. With a silent nod to the mirror, he walked out of his room in the ANBU quarters, walking down the long hallway. To get to the sand arena, he'd be better off following a tunnel the opposite way towards the kazekage's office exit. He figured the sandy arena would be the best place for him to catch up on his training once more.  With a silent yawn the shinobi began to make his way through the tunnel systems underneath the administration building that spanned all the way through sunagakure no sato, and even into the lands outside the village itself. It took him about thirty or forty minutes to navigate the twisting and curving tunnels to find the right path, and press the right switches to open the right doors. Eventually though, he found himself at a ladder and climbed up it rather quickly. After two minutes climbing he came up to a hatch which he opened and pushed up. Once this was done, Syekren climbed out of the tunnels and reclosed the hatch, noting that it looked like another patch of sand among the grains.  He was near the sandy arena, in the fenced off and dangerous portion.

Syekren yawned and made his way out of the fenced in portion to leave the horrors of the place behind, entering the more common grounds of the sandy arena. He stretched his arms above his head and looked around, smiling a bit. It was time to get back to it and he was ready to finally get himself back to his prior abilities. Before he started training though, he looked over to see a young red haired lad with pale skin laying upon a dune, resting and drinking water. Syekren tilted his head and approached the dune, gracefully making his way up to stand beside the ninja, the sun at his back as he looked down to the ninja. His eyes stared down quietly, his confusion noticeable as he watched the boy before he spoke.

"Already worn out, are ya? I came here to train, not see someone die." He chuckled and moved to sit next to the boy, yawning a bit and rubbing his eyes. He winced slightly at the pain in his left eye and made a mental note to be more ginger to it. He then turned and took a better look at the boy next to him and something hit him. "Wait, I remember you. You're that kid I met when I encountered those wanderers after my mission. What are you doing here, resting? Uhm.. Well forgive me I didn't actually catch your name. I left before I could." Syekren sighed and scratched the back of his head, looking back towards the sand grounds, observing everything around, noting a few changes in the landscape that meant someone had been training recently. Did that mean that the kid next to him had been training that hard? Or perhaps was it something just left over from someone else and he'd just started resting after light training? It would be hard to tell.

WC: 1,026

As Roku lay there for about 10 minutes he could feel some of his stamina return to him, but that familiar burning in his body that signaled his chakra was depleting would take an entire day to fade away. What a rookie mistake; he was so amped up to practice new jutsu that he forgot to pace himself, and used about as much chakra as he would in a spar in half the time that would take. 'Should've brought more water', the teen thought to himself as he tried to make his last bottle last for more than a few minutes. Or at least, he should have waited to train Suiton for tomorrow. It is the very duty of a Genin to make mistakes and learn from them, and this was one that would stick in his mind forever.

In fact Rokumaru was so tired he almost didn't hear the sound of sand crunching under someone's foot, too focused on letting the sun shine down on his sweaty skin, and actually jumped a bit when he heard someone say "Already worn out, are ya? I came here to train, not see someone die.". The Genin cracked his eye open and looked up at he newcomer, but was relieved to see it was someone he recognized. The man sat down next to where Roku was laying, chuckling at the younger man's exhaustion. The redhead had to smile at his own stupidity and closed his eyes again, and greeted the man. "Have to get stronger somehow, Syekren."

The Special Jounin seemed to realize the two had met before. "Wait, I remember you. You're that kid I met when I encountered those wanderers after my mission. What are you doing here, resting? Uhm.. Well forgive me I didn't actually catch your name. I left before I could." Rokumaru couldn't blame the man as he had bigger issues to deal with, namely carrying that mountain Zu around and keeping an eye on the sharp-toothed Kimura, so he offered up his name.

"Rokumaru of the Sabaku, and you just caught me burning myself out on learning jutsu." It would be a touch embarrassing for the boy if he wasn't worried more about the burning in his body. Well, he had rested up enough and had to get back to the grind, so he sat up gingerly and pushed himself into a sitting position.

Syekren looked much like he had previously, though his left eye was not covered up as it was before. It was a blue color, much like his right eye though a shade lighter, and it made Roku question of it was originally his own. At least he didn't have that heavy cloak. Having taken the man's appearance in Roku leaned over towards his pack and trapped a strap to pull it closer, then began rummaging around in for his Futon scrolls. Finding both he set them both aside and closed up the pack, and pushed himself to his feet.

As he bent down to pick up his scrolls Roku wondered if he should invite the man to train with him. As much as he wanted to deny Syekren access to his scrolls, as he himself paid a pretty penny for them, a larger part of him decided he should share knowledge with a fellow Suna-nin. With one scroll under his arm and the other being pulled apart to read, Roku spoke to Syekren. "If you came out here to train, I could let you use my training scrolls to learn a bit if ninjutsu. I'm willing to guess you can't learn Sabaton, but I have some Suiton scrolls in my pick and I'm about to try out some Futon." As he read the scroll for it's technique, seeing it was Spiraling Wind Balls, he continued. "If you wish, you can take these Futon jutsu with you after I'm finished, or practice those Suiton techniques in the meantime." Though the Special Jounin was likely more experienced with Ninjutsu than Roku was, the redhead was a very quick learner and did not want to slow himself down for the sake of a training partner.

With the instructions for the jutsu memorized Roku set both scrolls aside, and took a few weary steps away from Syekren and his pack. "I will hurry and learn these Wind techniques so you can take them with you. Just, stay a bit back, Futon can backfire sometimes if I mess up." Or might have been rude to ignore his guest in favor of training, but he'd been on a roll before he had to take a break and wanted to keep it up.

He pushed his new acquaintance from his mind and focused on the Spiraling Wind Balls. These balls were made from Futon chakra breathed into the user's palm, shaped into individual round balls, so Roku would need to infuse both his lungs and his hands with Futon chakra. As he pumped the energy into his lungs and took a deep breath Roku coated his right hand in chakra, necessary to make the balls stay in his hand, and held it up with the palm facing the sky to his face. As he breathed out he could feel cool wind flow into his hand, a large amount capable of making two separate spheres. But the practice of sculpting them into balls was unpracticed and so he flowed the Futon chakra together into one large sphere, and began swirling his chakra in a whirlpool motion.

The effects were immediate, to his joy; slowly a tangible sphere of swirling wind began to grow larger and larger in his palm, a pale blue that bordered on completely transparent. Roku allowed the sphere to grow into the size of an apple before he cut his breath of, concentrating entirely on maintaining the ball in his hand in its swirling motion, careful not to let it 'pop' prematurely and shred his hand in the process.

Feeling that it was stable enough Roku dropped his right hand from his face and pulled it back behind him to throw the ball underhand, slowly fading out the chakra infused in the palm. With only enough left to keep the ball stuck to his palm Roku tossed it down the side of the dune suddenly as he cut off all chakra flow, and was proud to see the ball maintain its shape as it quickly fell down into the sand. The effect upon touching the dune was immediate: the ball burst open with Futon chakra outward, shredding the sand causing it to puff up in a cloud. The impact zone was a small dent in the dune that quickly filled with sand again, but to Roku it was a success. He repeated the motion one more time and created a single ball again, and this time raised his hand over his shoulder and threw the ball as hard as possible. It sailed off about 25 meters into the training ground, and upon hitting the ground burst open with a cloud of sand.

Roku grinned, ignoring the draining feeling of his chakra leaving him, and turned back towards Syekren and his pack to retrieve his second scroll.

WC: 2045+1218=3263

Chakra 85/150:

"Sabaku, eh? I once met someone claiming to be from them. Weird guy. Used sand to fight me and nearly would have killed me. Ah but I was young and naive. I'm guessing though, by Sabaton, you mean sand? In which case: no I can not use it. But I can use flames to turn that sand to glass. Haha ha." A soft and fluid chuckle escaped the man as he spoke, watching Rokumaru get up and ready to continue his training. Syekren tilted his head as his acquaintance grabbed a scroll and read from it, apparently memorizing what was within it. He then said that Syekren could use them when he was done and perhaps use the suiton scrolls in the meantime. With a yawn, Syekren pulled his headband down over his left eye, using his right eye to stare at the other while he set the scroll down to get to work. Syekren smirked and activated his two tomoe sharingan in his right eye, allowing the tomoe to 'spin' as he watched Rokumaru. "I am Syekren, of the Uchiha. And I think you will find I'm a bit of a 'visual' learner. Not only that, but I can't use suiton, it's not in my clan's nature."

With another yawn, Syekren stood and took in every minute detail of the kid before him, focusing his chakra. He watched the chakra be focused into lungs and hand, the hand covered in such to keep the fuuton chakra in place. Then Rokumaru breathed out the wind chakra into his palm, willing it to shape into the form of a ball, then making it spiral. It was a bit of a process, to make it do what he wanted but he did so and tossed it underhand, towards the dune. It caused a bit of a ruckus in the dune, pushing outwards for a puff of sand debris. Quite impressive for a genin, if Syekren was any judge. The boy continued to do this technique a few times, trying to get it right. In which Syekren observed, using his sharingan to capture every movement he'd seen the boy perform, and watching his chakra. Syekren's mind began to run through the process in his own head, imagining how he would do it himself, tidying up the movements here and there to make it somewhat different but mostly the same technique. One would need to keep their eyes on the battlefield in order to keep an enemy from attacking while they were using this jutsu. So, forming the fuuton chakra into their throat and then focusing a spiral of chakra from their hands to their lips would make it easier to pay attention to the battle and use the jutsu perfectly.

It's all rather simple.

Syekren sighed and moved to the side of the male, making handseals. "Guess I'll practice a jutsu I was working on too." After finishing his handseals, the Uchiha locked his right hand to his left wrist, and focused chakra into his palm. This chakra became erratic and shocking, forming into raiton natured chakra, then raiton itself. The lightning began to spark from his hand, growing into the size of an orb, sparking more and more. Syekren then released his wrist and pulled his arm back, focusing on a dune sixty meters away from their position. It was rather large for a dune, and this would be the perfect thing to showcase his new jutsu. With a quiet resolve he breathed and pushed his arm forward, launching out the lightning in the form of a running hound. "Lightning Beast Running Jutsu!" The hound ran forth at thirty-five meters a second and Syekren moved his hand left and right, controlling the hound in a zig zag formation. It reached the dune in question after a few seconds, contacting it and exploding with raiton chakra. The dune in question would then become nothing but raining sand at the location it had previously been at.

Syekren chuckled, and watched the sand fall, sparks still in the air. He then scratched the back of his forehead as the last grain of sand fell and the dust was beginning to settle. "Perhaps that was a bit much. I have other jutsu I was wanting to try, though they're mostly taijutsu. Then again there is a fire ninjutsu I had, but due to the nature of it, it would be nigh impossible to extinguish." With a sigh, the male sat back down, looking to where the dune had been, tilting his head. He might have completely overdone it with that jutsu, showing off his most powerful one so quickly. He'd have to train more jutsu now so that he could supplement his arsenal with something a bit more mysterious. If the day ever came that he would have to fight off this sabaku kid, he'd know full well what this jutsu was capable of and learn how to protect himself from it. There were other jutsu he was working on, of course, but he was nowhere near proficient enough with them to use them, or attempt to. He'd need to train more if he wanted to do that. With a yawn, the male stood once more, trying to figure out what other jutsu he could use to train with this young ninja. He had all sorts of fire jutsu, but hadn't done anything for his fuuton techniques. In truth, he'd really just learned how to use fuuton and then just left it at that. He had a lot of training to do already for the rest of the jutsu he was trying to learn and hadn't even considered adding wind style to his list. Syekren sighed, shaking his head at his less than pragmatic approach to training jutsu.

"Just realized that I really do not have any other wind style jutsu to train with. Admittedly, I only learned it and left it as is instead of trying to refine it and learn more jutsu in that respect. I probably could have trained more, but didn't."

TWC: 1,026 + 1,026 = 2,052

200/250:

Jutsu Copied:

Training:

As Rokumaru made to start training he heard Syekren repeat the name to himself and mention another Sabaku he head met in the past, one who had not been on such friendly terms as the two standing on the dune were. Besides his own close family Roku had not known very many other clan members, and he decided he would ask about that previous sand-user later. Well, that meant Syekren couldn't use Sabaton as Roku had hoped. Instead the Special Jounin mentioned he could use Katon, an uncommon element in Suna and one that was the bane of every sand-user in existence. Roku made a mental note to himself not to spar with this older Suna-nin until he had a sufficient amount of Suiton jutsu to counteract his flames.

As Roku was preparing to train his first Futon jutsu Syekren watched causally, and said he was 'Of the Uchiha' just as casually, as though it hardly meant anything special. And to him it probably was nothing out of the ordinary; for Roku, however, it was like he was suddenly in the presence of a greater-being. But just as soon as that feeling of awe washed over him it passed just as suddenly. The pale redhead had met another of the fabled Uchiha relaxing at the Oasis, swimming along and being friendly just as any other person would. Roku was glad Kuno had come along to drill the point that Uchiha are rather ordinary, or else he would've likely descended into awe of Syekren and bombarded him with questions.

But he had never seen the Sharingan outside of a book before, and it caught him unprepared when Roku turned back to look at his guest. The sight of crimson made him freeze for a split-second, and Roku immediately counted the two tomoe in Syekren's right eye. It was a humbling experience to look at sheer power made flesh; as though a minnow was looking into the eyes of a shark, Roku felt so weak just from the sight of it. The tomoe spun around in a circular motion as Syekren declined the Suiton scrolls, the reasons being he had no affinity for the nature and that he learned better through other ways than from scrolls. It did not take much research into the Sharingan to learn it has the ability to copy techniques.

Roku realized he was staring and quickly turned back to practice, ignoring his guest even though he knew what he was practicing would immediately be copied. While he went through the motions, infusing his breath with chakra and pooling it in his hands, he felt envy and jealousy pierce through him before he quickly moved to stuff it down. It took a few tries to get the Spiraling Wind Balls down perfectly, and even then it would need practice before it was ready for combat use, but he had it in just a few short minutes. Again he felt jealousy tinged with anger stab through him; for all the effort he just went through, it would mean nothing to an Uchiha's eyes. But he squished that feeling down as well; the Sharingan could not copy his Sand jutsu, so Roku was not left out when it came to unique abilities.

While Rokumaru bent down at the waist to catch his breath, in short supply after just being used for jutsu a few times, he felt Syekren move to his side and face the same direction the redhead had just tossed his spheres. The Special Jounin was making handseals absently and mentioned he needed to practice a technique of his own. As he finished his seals Syekren grabbed his left wrist and sparks erupted from his skin, pooling into an erratic sphere shape in his left hand while Roku took a few steps back in careful curiosity. Seeing the sparks of lightning in his hands meant Syekren had an affinity for Raiton, his clan's penchant for Katon, and likely a bit of Futon if he could utilize the Spiraling Wind Balls Roku had showed earlier. All very offensive-focused chakra natures, making this a very deadly shinobi standing a few feet away.

The slowly growing sphere of sparks became larger and larger in the Special Jounin's hand until his covered his entire palm in bolts of lightning, and upon deeming the sphere large enough Syekren pulled his hand back and thrust it forward. The sphere shot from his hand and immediately took on the shape of a four-legged creature, sparks cutting through the quiet surroundings with their chirp as the beast ran faster than Roku could watch. Barely a few short seconds after it left Syekren's palm the beast had crashed into a dune over 50 meters away, lightning fast. Lightning fast hadn't really been demonstrated for the boy before but it made sense now: one second the beast had materialized, the next it was zigzagging across the sand, and the next had it crashing into the dune with a significant impact. The dune itself could hardly withstand the attack and burst apart entirely, leveling it down to the sand around it and creating a huge plume of raining sediment. As the raining sand slowly fell down on the two of them Roku looked at the impact zone of his spheres, small dents in the sand, and compared it to the destruction of that dune.

Syekren rubbed his head bashfully as the sand rain settled, and said that might have been a bit much, to which a small part of Roku agreed. Apparently Syek had meant to train that technique along with a few Taijutsu ones, and a Katon jutsu that wasn't very safe apparently. The older man sighed and sat down, before confessing he really didn't have that many Futon techniques. Roku could guess that he had plenty of Katon jutsu, a byproduct of his clan's preference, and plenty of Raiton if that powerful beast of lightning was any indicator. But his Futon was not as developed apparently, so he had either just learned it or not used the nature at all.

Roku took this in and looked at his scrolls, contemplating helping his fellow Suna-nin out. Soon his helpful nature overcame his pride and he walked over to his pack for the last scroll, fished it out and came back over by where Syek was sitting. As he unfurled the paper and skimmed over it quickly, spying the word Slash as the title, he decided to assist the Special Jounin. "If you would like, you're more than welcome to have the two techniques I came out to learn. I'll guess you've already seen the Spiraling Wind Balls already and know how to do those, so I'll move on with Slash." He stepped a few feet away to test out this technique, knowing it utilized very sharp blades of pure wind.

Roku stood on the crest of the dune looking down, and concentrated on pooling his Futon chakra into his fingers on the right hand. This technique relies mostly on the sweeping motion his hands would do to create a sharp gust, rather than concentrate air into blades around his hands like a higher-ranked ability would, so his chakra needed to be focused at his fingertips and be released as they were sweeping through the air. Or so Roku hypothesized. So, upon feeling his fingers tingle and burn up to the first knuckle, Roku held his hand out to the side and quickly chopped through the air in front of him horizontally and released the chakra. The sound of his arm cutting through the air was overshadowed by the sound of condensed air cutting through air, a loud gust that made him flinch. But the technique had been hampered when he didn't release his chakra from all five fingers simultaneously, and the blade of wind collapsed on itself before it could travel more than a meter.

It took a few more attempts, each a bit more refined than the last, until Roku was able to create the blade perfectly even. As he swung his hand down towards the dune an imperceptible gust of wind cut through the air down into the sand suddenly, and a long but shallow slash appeared in the sloping dune suddenly. It was not as sharp as the more powerful Futon techniques, and couldn't completely destroy the dune like that Raiton technique did, but for a Genin it was a useful technique. Roku could imagine an overzealous Taijutsu user running right into the Slash and cutting themselves up pretty bad.

But that burning sensation of drained chakra quickly crept up on him forcing Roku to sit down before he fell down. He laid back on the dune with his legs hanging over the slope and shielded his eyes from the sun with his hands, and not wanting to have to stand up, laced the sand close to him with chakra. Calling on his Sabaton ability Roku moved the sand around him towards his pack and situated it under the bag, than slowly pulled it closer and closer towards him until he could grab a strap with an outstretched hand. Still on his back, Roku dug through the scrolls for his bottle of water and began sipping it to make the water last.

Dizzy but slowly recovering while he lay there, Roku spoke out to Syekren. "That is the extent of my Futon techniques, unless you'd like to learn Stream as well."

WC: 3263+1603=4866

Chakra 65/150:

"I appreciate that, but I want you to know: it's not as easy as it seems. It costs chakra to keep my sharingan active. It also costs chakra to copy your techniques. The main thing is to remember to pace yourself, you know? Slash, hm? Sounds particularly.. sharp."

Syekren chuckled and continued to watch the male he was training with and study his every move. He was preparing wind chakra of some sort but Syekren wasn't sure exactly how he would use it until he noticed that he'd held his hand as though to chop something. There was chakra gathering mainly in his fingertips, which then traveled up to the extent of his first knuckle on each finger. Then it came, he chopped towards a dune, a gust of chakra wind coming out, to collapse upon itself. It hadn't been fully formed when it had been released and so it wasn't powerful enough to do any damage or go very far at all. Syekren was analyzing his movements and recording them in his head, already preparing better or more efficient ways to do what he was doing as he continued to attempt to perfect the jutsu. He was eventually able to get it to make a gust of razor sharp wind that cut shallow like into the dune, breaking apart the sand as if a blade had slashed through it. It was quite impressive how quickly the genin grasped what he was doing. Syekren smiled and nodded, noticeably impressed.

"Very impressive. You pick up new jutsu almost as quickly as an Uchiha with copy wheel eye would."

Syekren was about to pat the young man on the back for his effort but noticed that he was quite worn out from exerting so much effort and using up a lot of chakra. Syekren scratched the back of his head as he watched the kid lay in the sand. With his eyes activated he saw chakra lacing into the sand underneath Rokumaru's backpack, bringing it close enough so the genin could grab a strap from the bag and pull it to him. He dug around for a bit and pulled out a bottle of water, sipping on it to rehydrate himself but also to allow the water to last. Or so it looked like to the Uchiha. With a chuckle, he stood up and stretched, rubbing his scruffy bearded chin while he thought of what he would do next. He wanted to show the young man something that he probably wouldn't have seen before from normal ninja and nodded to himself as he figured out what he would do. He figured that since he was shown a few jutsu and kekkei tota, he could show something he learned from his time in his clan as well. Rokumaru spoke once more, breaking Syekren's train of thought, mentioning that was the extent of his wind jutsu but he could show Syekren stream as  well. Syekren shook his head and waved this off.

"Nah, go ahead and rest man. I figured since I got to see you use your clan's specialty, I'd show a couple of mine. You've done enough, but I feel as though you should see the Uchiha's pride and joy other than the Sharingan. Maybe you'll learn about defending against them or working to improve your own jutsu based on them. Anything you see in one element can be used in another as long as you work hard enough and use chakra correctly."

With that Syekren sighed and breathed in deeply, then out once more. He focused his chakra into his lungs and throat, making handseals and ending on the tiger seal. Once that was done he breathed in deeply, and aimed at another dune about seventy meters from their position and breathed out. As the chakra and his breath contacted air, it became a roaring flame and into a fireball the size of a bus. It traveled at roughly fourteen meters per second, and reached the dune in roughly six seconds. Once it contacted the dune, it exploded and caused sand to turn to glass where the dune was, a small crater formed with super heated sand. The rest of the sand had rained down or became shards and rained down.  Either way, there was now a permanent glass bit in the sand of the dunes. Syekren was not finished yet though. He coughed a bit, a small amount of flame following it as though he hadn't completely emptied his lungs. It was then that he turned his head towards a pair of dummies rather close together.

After stringing more handseals together, he ended on 'tiger' once more and breathed in deeply again. The dummies were about seventy meters away and wouldn't be a problem for this next jutsu. Once his throat and lungs were filled with heavy chakra, Syekren breathed out, the chakra infused breath hitting air once more and becoming great flames. These flames took the form of a chinese dragon, spiraling while it flied straight towards the dummies. It reached the dummies in near no time, colliding with the chest of the closest one in its path, exploding as it pushed the two back. Chains that held the dummies in the sand held them from moving and the burned to ash in mere moments. All that was left of the dummies' presence were the chains and red hot metal rods laying in the sands that had been used to keep them from being moved. The red hot metal turned the sand underneath it to glass, fusing with it as they tried to cool. Syekren looked at his handiwork, sighing slightly. He sat back down next to Roku, chuckling.

"Take this knowledge and use it well so that you're prepared if someone uses these on you. You don't want to be caught by surprise. You did well today though, I'll admit I am impressed.  You remind me of myself when I was a genin. Though I used to lose a lot, didn't stop losing until I hit special jounin actually. I was the youngest ninja to hit special jounin in our village, at the age of sixteen. The youngest to do a lot of things. All you have to do is work hard and you can outshine anyone, even me. You gotta focus on what you want and hold onto it, make it your nindo, your ninja way, to become the best and you'll see results. That's how I've done it. That and by using my flame of youth!" He clenched his fist and smiled down at the young genin next to him, his sharingan deactivating shortly. Once it was deactivated, he reached up and pulled his hitai-ate back up onto his forehead instead of covering one eye with it.

TWC: 1,154 + 2,052 = 3,206

150/250:

Jutsu Copied:

Training:

Syekren declined Roku's offer with a wave of his hand, the younger boy shrugging and continuing to sip his water, laying down on his back to recline on the dune. The Special Jounin instead offered to show Roku a few of his own techniques, specifically what he called the Uchiha's pride and joy besides the Sharingan. A mop of red hair poked itself up at that suggestion; the Uchiha had many talents, including their ability to thrive in close-combat in conjunction with their eyes. But the true patron of the ancient bloodline was Katon, everyone knew that. Syekren mentioned that seeing him do these techniques could help him form a counter to them, or adapt what he would see into his own techniques. Eager to see what he would certainly encounter in the future but in a much more safe manner, Roku pulled himself up to a seating position despite the burning in his body.

A few yards were put in between the two, and Roku watches as the raven-haired man took deep breaths before blazing through a set of hand seals at an impressive pace before landing on Tiger. Another deep inhale was accompanied with the hand signal, and after a moment of holding it Syekren breathed out.

Flame shot from the man's mouth in a blazing ball larger than himself, startling the younger redhead as the temperature singed the sweat from his face. The jutsu Syekren used was absolutely massive, at least in his opinion as he didn't have much experience with Katon, and the ball rocketed forward at a moderate pace, slow enough to follow with his eyes but still too quick for comfort. It's target was a distant dune of sand, and after a few seconds of watching the fireball travel through the air it collided with the dune in a small explosion. It was loud, and it was violent; the impact zone was hidden in a cloud of flame as sand lucky enough to escape the inferno was thrown in every direction. A slack-jawed Rokumaru could see thick balls of glass that were once precious sand raining down, and a small crater was left in the now almost completely leveled dune. Syekren coughed a bit, tendrils of flame being breathed out.

It was a surprising thing to witness, but Roku was trying to piece out everything he had noticed about that fireball. It was not the fastest technique, giving a few seconds to prepare a counter, but the destruction it wrought would make any lesser-ranked defensive jutsu seem like nothing. For all it's glory it did take a few seconds of preparation and that would serve as an indication that something was being prepared, but every shinobi knew handseals in combat meant danger.

But the Special Jounin wasn't content with that showing: another set of hand signs and another few deep breathes, once more flame erupted from the man's open mouth. As soon as the fire was ejected from his mouth it twisted into the shape of a long, thin dragon, and its speed was MUCH more dangerous. Rokumaru only had time to see it had an open maw of its own before it slammed into two distant practice dummies. Another explosion of fire was the result of the impact, another cloud of sand and glass being thrown up, but when the flames receded there was no sight of the mannequins anywhere. Only a red-hot bar of metal that once held them up, glowing chains that glasses the sand they came in contact with.

If he had any hopes about countering the last jutsu, they were not shared with this one. Once that fiery dragon was formed there would be no dodging it. Only a defensive technique could hope to shield him from becoming cinders, and though his Sabaton required little or no hand signs he could not make a wall dense enough to stop it.

Syekren laughed a bit as he sat next to Roku, still awes by what he had just seen. But his words brought the boy out of his awe. Syekren once again instructed him to use what he had seen for his own benefit, and praised the boy a bit. Apparently the older man saw something of himself in the young Genin, and Roku was a bit surprised to hear he had made Special Jounin by the time he was sixteen. Roku's own fifteenth birthday was on the horizon, and it would likely be years after that before he could match the power Syekren held. The Uchiha stressed the importance of hard work and diligence, blaming his success on hard work as well as something he called "flame of youth". That struck the boy as a bit odd, his eyebrows knitted together as he tried to puzzle out what the hell "flame of youth" was, but he thought it must be youthful enthusiasm. That, or an inside joke among Katon users. With a sense of finality, Syekren's eyes faded from crimson to blue, and he pulled his hitai-ate up above his eyebrows.

Roku was still a bit speechless from what he had just witnessed, but he recovered after a few moments. "I... would be lying if I said I wasn't even more wary of Katon users now. But I appreciate the opportunity to see some of your own techniques. I will do my best to use what I've seen to improve my defensive jutsu, or maybe experiment with offensive ones."

Feeling the sensation of his drained chakra making him sleepy, as well as achy, Roku decided it was a good time to end his training today. Finishing off the last of his water and throwing the bottle back in his pack, the redhead pulled himself up on shaky legs and gathered all of his items into the bag. As he slipped his arms through the straps he turned to Syekren again. "I am glad you stopped by, Syekren. And I apologize for questioning your authority when we had met those two rōnin." The pack weighed heavily on his back, so he made his farewell brief. "I hope we can have more interactions in the future. Perhaps we could swap Futon techniques. Until then, good luck in your endeavors." Giving a brief bow to the seated man, stomach and back muscles moaning from the motion, Roku turned away and began to make his descent from the dune back towards home.

WC: 4866+1088=5954
Exit Thread~

Training 5954/5625:

He seemed appreciative of what Syekren had shown him and this was no small joy to the Uchiha. Truly it made him happy when he could help those in his village learn more and possibly grow stronger from it. Showing off wasn't something he'd intended to do today, but all in all, it had turned out well enough for the two of them. Syekren had learned a few new jutsu and felt stronger and more confident with his Fuuton nature chakra. While Rokumaru would no doubt have something to study up on now to learn about defending himself and becoming a stronger ninja. The man smiled to his companion and watched his form as his body language shifted when Syekren had finished speaking about his flaming youth. He did seem rather confused at some point, as it wasn't exactly something for a normal ninja to say. Syekren  liked to mess with people like that, to make them completely think twice about what they knew about him, or rather thought they knew. Syekren watched the other male quietly as he threw the bottle into his backpack once more and got ready to leave.

He put all of his items, including the scrolls, back into his pack and got up on rather shaky legs. It was apparent he'd worn himself out by using way too much chakra and Syekren could understand how he felt. With a yawn, Syekren waved to the form of the departing genin and watched him until he was completely gone. Syekren figured he may as well get on home as well and rest. He'd done quite a bit today and had done quite a lot of damage. The metal bar was cooling off, having been fused completely with the glass that was once sand and the arena was looking rather worse for wear. He'd have an ear full of it from the groundskeeper, no doubt about it. But it was worth it to help a young ninja from his village. Syekren stood and stretched,  and after dusting himself off, he slid down the dune. Looking around at the grounds once more, with the sun beginning to set, the Uchiha exited the sandy arena, and headed home.

EXIT

374|3,580

Trainin: