Masanori pulled at the colour of the stupid fucking shirt he was wearing. It was a lightly cream coloured sheet of some description, which was about as thin as a sheet of paper and hung loosely over his bones. The air was disgustingly hot, so much so that those who lived here had to wear fucking sheets instead of clothes. Still, Masanori had to get used to it, and quickly. He knew that whatever the exams threw at him, at least one round would no doubt involve exploiting this disgusting environment that seemed to hate life itself. For that reason, he had to adapt; he had to start developing moves to help him survive this heat; and quickly. His first port of call was developing a way to create a source of water that wouldn't simply spread thin and evaporate or get absorbed by the sands. He needed a way to create a reservoir which he could fill with water, otherwise he'd never have a fuel source for his attacks. Sure, he could use his jutsu by creating the water as he casts it, but that's always more expensive for him. He wasn't an expert at moulding chakra, if he didn't ration every drop he had he'd run out very quickly, and then he'd be screwed.

After wandering around Sunagakure no sato for a few minutes, keeping a firm grip on his sword's sheath the entire time, lest someone pull it out of the flimsy loose sash it hung from, Masanori stumbled into a market place by pure luck. The sweat on his brow was so thick after a few minutes in this heat that he needed a drink; badly. Making his way to a water stall, Masanori forked over a small note to a bored looking woman and bought himself a clay bowl of water. Skulling the bowl in one mouthful, Masanori smiled, before placing the bowl back down for the woman to collect. As he watched a few surviving drops of water roll down his bowl, it occurred to Masanori; why not simply create a bowl in the earth? It would be simple and he'd be able to fill it with water. All he'd have to do really is cause a small pit of ground to crumble away. Hell, Azumi always said he had both water and earth elemental chakra, even if he'd never really used the earth part, it wouldn't take him too long to pick it up. After all, they insisted he learn how to form chakra of both elements, even if he hadn't used it in years. "Is there somewhere quiet I can train around here?" he asked the water saleswoman, with no small amount of awkwardness. "A few kilometres that way, a clearing has been segmented into small, private training areas for the Shinobi that traveled here for the event." Masanori nodded in acknowledgement, turning to make his way towards the area with haste. Eventually, he found a large clearing outside town, where some Doton genius had created a massive series of walls, separating a good 10m squared space for each Shinobi to train in complete privacy. A few Jounin from Sunagakure were managing this elaborate system, and as Masanori approached, he was quickly waved down, his ID requested by a man whose eyes smiled warmly at him, though the rest of his face was covered by bandages. Masanori reached into his left jacket pocket, withdrawing a small passport, which he extended to the man. Security had increased internationally, and they wanted to make it as hard as possible for Shichiouza spies to get into the event. Once Masanori's identity had been confirmed, he was lead to a free section of the wall. Like all the other sections, the entrance side was completely unmasked to the naked eye, yet somehow they had made them private. Masanori could hear people doing things as they walked past row after row of empty chamber, so clearly there had to be some dark ninjustu at work.

When Masanori stepped into his training area, he felt a ripple as he crossed the line. He turned to face the men that had walked him in, but found that all he was met with was another wall where he initially entered. He extended his arm, tapping it curiousity to find it wobble in response as though it were a sheet. If he wanted, Masanori could step straight through it and end up outside again. An absolutely ingenius idea. Still, he wasn't here to praise Sunagakure no sato, hell, if he were to talk about them at all it would be a simple complaint about how FUCKING HOT IT IS HERE! Hell, Masanori found it difficult to regulate his own body heat at this point, let alone fight. Still, that's why he had to train, if he didn't get used to it now he'd get knocked out in the first round. But hell, that's not what he had to worry about at the moment. He had to figure out how to create a Reservoir. Stepping into the centre of the training area, Masanori took a second to examine the ground. It was sand on it's outer layer, but after brushing it about a bit, he found it hit a more solid stone base roughly seven inches down. The solid grounds properties he already knew, but he had to figure out exactly how sand reacted to water. Masanori's mouth filled with water, which he promptly spat into the surface of the sand next to the small hole he dug. Staring at the water, he saw the water sunk down about three inches before stopping, but spread quite a bit. Hmm. Making a small well with his fist, Masanori did the same trick again. The water, like before, sunk into the wet sand a bit, but as it was unable to spread out, and the water only sunk so far into the sand before the wet sand created a dam of sorts, some water hung behind. This meant that Masanori could indeed create a Reservoir even in the heart of the desert, as he'd only lose a bit of his water to the sand.

Now that Masanori knew his idea would actually work, he simply had to perfect the execution. Although it had been years since he'd done it, it only took Masanori a few minutes to remember how to convert his chakra to the earth element. It felt wrong in his veins, given his mighty alliance with the ways of water, but he did it anyway. He stood there in the scorching heat for the better part of an hour, simply practicing converting larger amounts of his chakra to earth, before releasing it harmlessly into the ground. He was experimenting, trying to figure out how to get the earth to respond in the way he wanted. Eventually, with enough perserverence, he found it. A batch of chakra that he released caused the sand grains to begin grinding in on themselves. That was exactly what he needed if he was going to create a well; a center point that causes the area around it to collapse in. Once this relevation arrived, it took Masanori no less than fifteen minutes to create exactly what he wanted; a [rather massive] reservoir which sunk four metres into the earth, with a diametre of a whopping ten metres. This reservoir was filled to the brim with beautiful, fresh water.

Masanori allowed himself a moment to smile at his work before continuing on. Sure, he could now create a Reservoir, and as such he had a fuel source [or a bath] but now he needed a jutsu. In fact, two very specific jutsu he had dreamed up on his trip over. The first was a variation on the confinement jutsu: Water Prison. In this technique a victim would be bound underwater, either til they lose enough air that they black out and the user can restrain them or until they drown. Granted, there were also variations that allowed the victim to breathe, but those were less fun. Masanori's idea was incredibly familiar. In his idea, he would create an almost identical sphere, which he himself would hide within. The outside layers of water would be rotating violently, which would knock aside projectiles and increase it's defensive powers. It would rehydrate him and keep him safe from area of effect fire attacks. First, he had to perfect the sphere itself, which wasn't as simple as it sounded. He had to suspend a large sphere of water in the air, then get part of it to violently gyrate without injuring himself in the centre. Focusing his mind on the task at hand, Masanori began to lift a fist sized sphere of water out of the puddle. As it rose, it grew, a strand of water steadily reaching from the puddle to the sphere. Once he got it to the appropriate size, Masanori dropped it and started again, repeating this process until he could quickly form the right amount of the water. It wasn't something he had the time to slowly build; he had to form the right amount of water rapidly.

After he had pinned down the amount of water needed, Masanori moved it towards himself. As he did, it began to hemerage water out the bottom, losing a decent chunk of it's water content durnig the trip. Masanori refilled the sphere with water from the pool and began moving it up and down slowly above some dry sand, watching the ground carefully for any signs of moisture. There was some dripping at first, but he continued, attempting to adjust his control so that not a single drop could escsape from his sphere. He repeated this process for roughly an hour as he attempted to get a tighter control over his ability to bind the water. It took Masanori a decent chunk of time, but eventually, he could move it all around the arena without losing any water content whatsoever; a vast improvement from the violently drippling ball he had previously made. Next, he had to get the outer layers of the water to begin to rotate, so that it had some defensive properties. Masanori started slowly, getting used to the feeling of rotating the sphere on the spot. He kept the sphere rotating gently like a happy merry go round of water, and slowly added the occasional dash of speed. As the speed increased, the surface of the water began to ripple faster, creating a ripple pattern as the faster currents took on a lighter appearance from the darker blue water. Withdrawing a handful of Senbon from his pocket, Masanori tossed them towards the sphere. The thin metal needles bounced off the surface of the water, rocheting left and right.

Masanori returned the sphere of water to the pool, gathering up and dropping his senbon back into his pocket. He had the technique down, now he just had to get it set up with himself inside it. Masasnori kicked off the ground with force, bringing his knees into his chest, his arms wrapping firmly around his knees and his head buried firmly in his chest. A stream of water rose rapidly from the nearby pool, wrapping itself around the mid-air Masanori as it formed a sphere. Masanori suddenly went from jumping to floating, and as he opened his eyes, he found that, as he expected, the sphere was suspended mid-air, the outer layers of the sphere thrashing about violently while he floated in the centre, completely safe.

As he sat inside his cocoon of safety, Masanori felt relieved. The water was seeping into his skin, which had instinctively turned to liquid. His technique was both rehydrating him and cooling him down after a horrible day of training in the intenise heat. Sunagkaure could rot for all he cared. Only idiots would choose to live in such a hell hole. Still, it had forced him to be rather creative in his planning, which had forced him to create the reservoir technique, as well as the current defensive bubble he was floating in. It still wasn't complete, however. He needed a way to turn this purely defensive technique into something that has at least a bit of offensive potential. His idea was simple, however, and it wouldn't require much water, therefore it wouldn't threaten the integrity of the sphere. Masasnori was... fond of senbon to say the least. They are small and deadly, able to be hidden in and withdrawn from almost any space, and an expert can kill with them with a simple flick of the wrist. It is a simple idea: create numerous senbon out of water which are then fired towards the intended target.

The water cocoon crumbled as Masanori released the jutsu, allowing him to land on his now solidised feet once more. Forming the Ram hand seal, Masanori focused his attention on the water source once more, slow bringing up a fist sized sphere from it's face. Masanori patiently split this sphere into ten smaller bubbles, which he then began to stretch out, eventually forming senbons out of each bubble. Masanori fired these senbon, but they crumbled after travelling a few feet. Still, Masanori pressed on, forming batch after batch and firing them at the wall until finally he had managed to get the individual senbon solid enough to not crumble mid-flight. Taking a brief moment to glance up at the sky, Masanori allowed himself to show a brief grin of satisfaction. The sun was beginning to set, and he had spent the entire day training in the desert without passing out. Granted, it could've gone worse if he wasn't working with water in a confided area where he couldn't see the dunes, but still, progress is progress. He was doing a decent job of staying hydrated and dealing with his Xerophobia. Still, it wasn't bad when he was so near civilization. The problems wouldn't truly start til he was in the desert herself...

Walking through the strange barrier that hid his actions from the world, Masanori checked out of the training area before making his way back to the market. His plan was simple; stop to get a nice dinner and then straight to bed to rest for tomorrow. Hell, if he was lucky, they might even have some Sushi here, not that it was very likely. Still, today had been a good day for him, he had mastered several jutsu that would make desert survival a lot easier for him, and that was definitely something he could be proud of. Hell, for all he knew, he was the first Hozuki to travel to the desert to partake in something this physically intense. Granted, there was a reason for that; people made of fire don't often go swimming, and nor should people made of water go to the driest place imaginable...

Word Count: 2526

Math:

Two C ranks, One D Rank [spoilered below]
1000 + 1000 + 750 = 2750

Quick learner discount:
750 divided by 10 = 75
1000 divided by 10 = 100

2750 - 250 = 2500

Trained moves: