Nagare was at the construction site of the tower of heaven. Horui was behind him, looking out over the edge and into the clouds below. They were large and white, and the entire setting was like a painting.

"Naga, why are we up here again?" asked Horui, curiously.

"I'm not sure myself, I just felt like doing something scenic today."

They were silent again, and the only sound present was the howl of the wind between their two parallel figures.

---

Used Jutsu:

Kharis was drifting aimlessly around Kumogakure, working through a new composition that had been running through his head for the past couple of days. He had finally gotten the opening the way he had wanted it when he realized that he was at the edge of the construction of the Tower of Heaven. Although the scene was quite beautiful, Kharis didn't think much of the construction. It seemed to be just another thing that the Kumo ninja could boast about to other Shinobi villages.
Standing at the edge of the construction were two identical men looking to be in their late teens. Kharis assumed that they might have been twins, or they might belong to the clan that makes those strange clones. Regardless Kharis decided to go ahead and start a conversation. His parents had been pushing him to be more social lately, ans maybe if he made a friend they would leave him the hell alone. "Hello there. What are you staring at?"

"Hello there. What are you staring at?"

Horui turned in response immediately, but the fact that he couldn't talk stopped him. Naga answered instead.

"Just the sky. It's very beautiful today. And who might you be?" His tone was hostile, but he was actually trying to be nice. Horui telepathically scolded him.

"Can't you at least try to be nice!?" He desperately wished he had vocal chords, but he was merely a clone, a reflection of his human persona, and could only communicate with Naga.

Naga stood, half-smiling, waiting for an answer from the person in front of him.

"My name is Kharis Nekito." Kharis lifted his eyebrow at the semi-hostile tone. Either this guy really wanted him to go away or he was just really bad at getting his tone to mean what meant it to mean. Kharis was already put off, but he had already committed to try and have a decent social interaction, so he just figuratively gritted his teeth. He slid his flute into the pouch that was on his hip. "May I ask what your names are?"

Naga softened up, relaxing his tone and stance.
"I'm Nagare Sōseiji, and this is my clone, Horui. I always have him with me, so he's practically my twin. He can't talk though, he can only speak with me through telepathy."

Horui nudged Nagare and thought, "Tell him that I said hi!" Naga rolled his eyes and said, "He just asked me to tell you 'Hi.' So why're you up here?"

"Hello Horui. It's very nice to meet you both. I was kind of just playing my flute and ended up wandering in this direction. I saw that you were standing there and thought you might want a little bit of company."Kharis smiled hesitantly and hoped that the guy wouldn't snap at him again.

Nagare looked at the pouch that the flute was in. He had seen him put the flute in there before they began the conversation, and was now curious as to Kharis' musical prowess.

"Ah, a flute? Would you mind playing a bit for me? I'm a huge fan of most music." His crimson eyes were genuine and excited.

At this point, Nagare was completely comfortable with the Kharis person, which was rare for him, especially so soon. Horui smiled again at Kharis and then went back to his seat at the edge of the tower, his feet dangling off the side.

Kharis's face beamed with excitement as he realized that he had an audience for his new piece. "Of course. I would love to! I even have a new song I've been working on!" Kharis quickly pulled out his flute, and , with a flourish, began to play the opening of his new piece. It was a quick lilting piece that brought to mind children playing games. As he played, he began to spin a genjutsu that would create motes of light that spun around himself that moved and danced with the music.

Jutsu Used

Spoiler:

Light danced around Kharis as he executed a wonderful melody of calm tones. These tones heightened, fell, and heightened again in a rhythmic beat that left Nagare in awe. Horui heard the beautiful noise, too, and turned his attention to the musician as well. Lights danced around him, adding to the allure of the performance. A few seconds more, and the song ended. Naga clapped happily. "Bravo! That was spectacular."

Horui sent a thought to Nagare and smiled at Kharis. Nagare relayed the message. "Horui would like to know how you made those lights like that, as would I. I suspect it's a genjutsu of some sort?"

Kharis smiled at the praise. As he released the Genjutsu and the motes of light faded, he slid the flute back into its holster. "Yes, it was a Genjutsu. I usually use it to make illusory weapons, but I can use it for more entertaining purposes." Kharis decided to go ahead and admire the view, so he went over and sat next to Horui with his feet bouncing off the edge of the cliff.

Nagare went over and sat on the opposite side of Kharis, and the three looked out over the clouds. "You're pretty talented, Kharis. I'd love to go on a mission with you sometime. Hell, maybe we'll get put on a squad together." said Naga. Horui looked at Kharis and smiled, and reverted back to the view of the sky. Naga continued, "But for now, how about a little training session? I need to practice my ninjutsu, and you'd be a great help."

"Thank you so much. I would love to train with you, although I know very little Ninjutsu, and I'm hardly the most sturdy of individuals." Kharis poked his tiny arms for emphasis. They were probably about the size of small branches with no muscle. Kharis went ahead and stood up from the edge of the cliff, brushing off his clothing. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I'm not really sure, actually. What do you specialize in other than genjutsu? Depending on what it is, we could spar and you could get some training in, too.

Horui moved his hair out of his eyes, and a smile grew on his face. He was excited to see Kharis' abilities. "What jutsu are we going to train, Naga?"

Nagare responded back telepathically, so that Kharis wouldn't be confused. "Not too sure. Maybe a Katon technique."

"Well there was something I was going to try working on. It's something of a variation on normal puppetry jutsu." Kharis slowly spread his fingers in his normal puppetry position and slowly began to spin chakra strings. The strings extended from his hands and began seeking out some branches and some small rocks. After finding 5 such small objects, Kharis had the strings set them down at his feet. "It allows me to manipulate small objects. Ordinarily I would pick up kunai or senbon, but I'm not currently carrying any of those since I didn't anticipate needing them. These will do for now I suppose."

-----------------------------------------------

"Okay, Kharis. Since the technique we want to train is a powerful and destructive Katon technique, we'll instead make this a shape transformation exercise so we don't impede construction."

Horui walked over to the opposite side of the tower, and gathered chakra. Naga turned to him, and they made eye contact, their magenta-colored irises holding a stare. Suddenly, they began flashing hand signs in sync. Tiger, Boar, Monkey, Horse, Tiger. They raised their heads, and blew out beams of superheated flames. The two flames collided in the middle of the tower, and began to bend and mold into a spherical figure. Naga released his technique, and left Horui to maintain the flame. He turned to Kharis.

"Okay, so for our training, I think our best course of action is for you to use your puppetry to suspend the objects in the air. Me and Horui will aim to hit them with our fireballs, and you have to use the strings to dodge the fireballs. That way, if we miss, they'll just keep going through the air until they burn out, and no damage will be done to the tower."

Horui was maintaining the technique, and now had the flames in a perfect sphere, molten and red. "I'm ready whenever you are, Nagare." he thought calmly.

---

Kharis nodded his assent at the training idea and began spinning more chakra to extend to five stones that were on the group. He picked them up, and set them at varying height and distances away from himself to better work on his spatial awareness. As he focused more and more deeply, he began to move them in a pattern in each of their respective areas. "I am ready when you are. Feel free to fire at whichever stones meet your fancy."
-------------------------------------------

Nagare nodded. Horui made yet another Tiger hand sign, and the fireball launched forwards toward the largest rock that was moving in a circular motion. The blazing ball moved at extreme speed. Nagare moved toward the west, and created a smaller, faster moving fireball of his own, aimed at the rock that was moving in an erratic way. He wondered how Kharis would react and move the strings controlling the stones.

---

Kharis quickly tracked the path of the fireballs. They moved in an extremely precise path that was slightly difficult to predict. Kharis quickly stilled the 3 other stones in the air. While he was decent at multitasking, keeping 3 stones moving in a set pattern while attempting to dodge two fireballs was too much to focus on. Kharis tried to push both stones out of the way of the fireballs. The larger of the two rocks was struck by the fireball since Kharis couldn't move it quickly enough. The smaller fireball was easier to dodge and the stone came out unscathed. The other stone was blasted over the cliff. "Well then those fireballs are quite destructive. I'm glad that that stone wasn't me."

---

Nagare was determined to obliterate all of the rocks, not because it was the challenge of training, but only because he did love watching them burst into flames before being thrown off of the mountain, down to the far ground below. He made a tiger hand seal while running left, and Horui ran forward has he made his. They both split into separate figures until there were 3 Horuis and 4 Nagares. A total of 7 people. They all held the Tiger hand seal, and blew forth a burst of flame. All of the blasts followed separate courses, but only 2 of the seven fireballs were real. The 3 fake ones were aimed at the smallest stone, 1 fake and 1 real aimed at the medium-sized stone, and 1 real and 2 more fakes trailed to the now-largest stone.

Horui gained a determined smile as the diversion was definitely a good strategy on his part. Naga looked at him with a smile of approval and thought, "Great idea."

---

Used Jutsu:

As Nagare and Horui split into clones, Kharis was extremely annoyed. While it was possible to tell which clones were fake, the fake fireballs were a tad more of a problem. Kharis quickly tracked as many of the fireballs as he could, and attempted to move the stones out of the way. The smaller stone was able to get out of the way while the other illusory fireballs passed through. The other larger stone was not so lucky. It got hit by the real fireball and flew off the edge of the cliff into the sunset. The final stone was completely out of the way when the illusory fireballs blinked out after they passed by. "There are times when Genjutsu is a pain in the ass. Perhaps you would allow me to respond in kind?"

---

"Of course. You may respond however you like," replied Naga, with an overexcited look on his face as he dissipated the clones.

Horui had disappeared entirely. Naga knew exactly where Horui was, but he was not in view to the naked eye. Nagare stepped back before making multiple hand seals. Each was fluid and well executed to balance the chakra control and shape manipulation. This time, he was going to make the fireball into a flamethrower of sorts. He released the fire, spreading and weaving it into a steady beam toward the remaining rocks. It wouldn't be hard to dodge.

Suddenly, another fireball exploded out from the flamethrower, at a much faster speed, nearing closer to the rocks. The genjutsu that Kharis was going to use better have been good....

---

Used Jutsu:

Kharis noticed the strange flamethrower and the smaller fireball both. Kharis quickly realized that to avoid complete loss of the task he would have to use a couple of the genjutsu. He began by whistling a tune while spinning chakra to begin the jutsu. As he does, 10 more chakra strings spun from his hands and 10 more rocks appeared in midair in random places. As Kharis quickly shifted the rocks in midair, 1 of the illusions faded from existence as it was destroyed by the fireball. Kharis shifted the rest of the illusions and the real rocks out of the way. Kharis stopped whistling the tune as the Genjutsu finished its work and anchored in Nagare and Horui's mind. "Now you'll have to guess which ones are the real thing. It should make for a more interesting match."

---

Jutsu Used

Spoiler:

"Perfect execution, Horui. Well done."

A puff of smoke, and Horui appeared, behind the rest of the illusions. The last fireball had been a transformation technique, to get into the air near the rocks. There was very little chance of a fireball at this angle missing all of the rocks, so there was a guaranteed chance of hitting at least one. He made the needed hand seals and shot a large burst flame, shooting it directly at the rocks. Nagare worked just as quickly, and shot a fireball at the flame, making the two collide in the middle of the rocks. The flames, building heat and pressure, finally exploded into a giant ball of fire, scorching the surrounding air before becoming a plume of black smoke and losing its red luster. The heat was heavy in the air after such a collision, and Naga was eager to see the results through its effects on the rocks. Hopefully, all of them would be destroyed, but there was no way to be sure until the abysmal smoke cleared.

One thing was definite, however; their mastery of the technique. It was simpler than originally expected; mostly charging a large amount of chakra to fuel the thirsty flames, but also a fair amount of hand seals to shape the chakra into spheres or waves. It was a beautiful technique, really, as it showed the power of fire and all of its capabilities with vivid color and intense senses flooding the eyes, the nose, and the ears. This technique, Fire Release: Great Fireball, would be an asset to them in all future battles.

---