Forest Meditation [solo/SC training]

Age : 28 Posts : 46

The air was cold and the morning new as Shi left his home. Normally he would not awake this early but he had some special training he wished to tackle early on. Today was something new, something focusing on his chakra instead of anything physical. The first thing he wished to accomplish was much greater control over his chakra, allowing him to perform hand signs with a single hand. A feat such as this would be an amazing asset in battle, allowing him to perform countless tactics that at the moment would be too difficult to perform accurately. Secondly increasing the amount of chakra his body holds would be next on the agenda. This would require deep meditation however; something Shi had never really done a lot of in his time as a shinobi. Of course, it was never too late to start. He had been spacing off for quite some time so Shi was surprised when he noticed he had already reached the village gates. He stood motionless and silent, looking out into the forest that lingered outside the walls of the village. While the hidden leaf would always be his home, the forest always felt more like home to him than the buildings and people that were scattered about the utopia that is Konoha.

He dashed quickly up into the first tree nearest him, hopping from branch to branch quickly; it would take no time at all to reach the training location he had in mind. ”Home sweet home. Sometimes I wonder why I ever leave the comfort of the trees.” Shi couldn’t help think to himself every now and again. About ten to fifteen minutes later, Shi arrived at his intended destination. Hopping lightly down to the forest floor below, he now stood at the edge of a small clearing. The clearing was surrounded by trees only about ten meters or so in diameter; by now it had begun to warm up a little, as the sun steadily climbed to its throne in the sky. Slowly walking to the middle of the clearing he kept his breathing steady and his mind clear. Sitting down, legs crossed, eyes closed, and arms relaxed, he prepared for his first session of deep meditation.

Regulating his breathing extensively his subconscious eventually faded away and it now felt like he was awake. He had awoke in what appeared to him, at first, to be nothing but a dark room with nothing in it at all. After a few moments of curiosity he finally figured out where he was. ”This must be my consciousness, whats inside my psyche.” Just mere seconds later the black faded, a shadowy figure appeared. He shifted into a combat stance instantly but, what happened next was something Shi would never have imagined. ”Relax Shi, I am not your enemy, in fact, I am your father.” A shocked expression raced a crossed his face, his stance shifting back to normal. Dad? Show yourself to me. Iv waited so long to see what you look like.” However the shadowy figure remained un-identifiable. ”I can’t son. I am merely a figure within your subconscious and while I can speak to you, since you have not seen what I look like in the real world your mind is unable to portray that; even in here.”

Only a few moments later the figure was gone, Shi felt empty and drained afterwards. Opening his eyes in the real world he shook off what he had just saw. He allowed himself to relax again, taking a few deep breathes, he re-closed his eyes prepared to enter his consciousness yet again. Upon his re-entrance to the black room he was now faced with a new figure, however, this one he could see clearly. It was none other than, himself, staring him down intently. The vibe he gained suddenly was not a good one so he instantly lowered into a combat stance. ”Do you plan to fight me? Here, in my world? I am you, the negative you, I know all your moves and I am much more aggressive, much stronger than you are.” The original Shi said nothing as he prepared for the impostor to attack. He made sure to keep himself calm and collected, this person in front of him would indeed know all his moves, this meant that most of his jutsu would useless as the other Shi would know the hand signs before he could finish weaving them. This meant, for the most part, this battle would be restricted to hand to hand combat, leaving the better fighter to come out on top.

[776 words]

Age : 28 Posts : 46

They dashed towards each other with intense speed, that of which, normal civilians would be unable to keep up with. Shi swung forward with momentum, an attempt to land a punch on the imposters jaw. However, as expected, the imposter dodged the punch with ease and retaliated with a swift kick aimed for Shi's midsection. Shi jumped backwards to avoid the blow, and as he landed he had a quick thought come to him. "He moves at my pace and knows all my moves. I was going to refrain from using jutsu because he will know how to counter it but at this point a long drawn out taijutsu battle will get me nowhere. Ill have to disguise my handsigns and try to weave them out of view if I have any hopes of catching him off guard." Finishing his thought as he pulled a kunai knife from his leg pouch. He leaped forward using his own momentum to increase the velocity above that a normally thrown kunai.

The imposter dodged to the side, breaking his focus away from Shi for a split moment. This moment was more than enough for Shi to quickly get behind the imposter and in his blind spot. "Your less like me then you think if it was that easy to distract you!" Shi stated forming a quick succession of hand signs. A moment later water formed around his hand in the shape of a claw; with a fast swipe the imposter was sent flying a few meters away and landing with a loud thud. The water dissipated as Shi began his approached the now still version of him that lie on the ground. The figure, a few moments later, simply faded away and Shi was left alone in the dark world that was around him. However soon the dark world around him faded as well and he was shifted back awake in reality. He stood up and looked around, the bright light that beamed through the trees seeming surreal at this point. "It only felt like a few moments but it appears as if at least an hour or so went by in the real world. Today's training session has only begun and already it will be one to remember for quite some time."

Deciding to move on to the next objective on the agenda for today; he wasn't sure how but some way he felt as though he had completed the first objective on the agenda. For the second, and more challenging in Shi's opinion, of the two objectives would require more trial and error then anything else. Forming hand signs with a single hand was not going to be something easily mastered or even easily obtained in any way. However, a feat as such would sure be shocking to those opponents Shi faced in later battles once he was able to do so. Basically he figured, practicing his less complex jutsu with the single handsign maneuvers would be the way to do. Working his way up from his less complex jutsu to his much more complex ones in a ladder like fashion. Just as he was about to begin a thought floated through his mind that he had yet to be able to get rid of since he awoke this morning. "I can already tell this one is going to take some getting used to even after iv mastered it. Forming handsigns with a single hand sounds incredible just to think about. Normally id question how that's even possible but for now I think I should just get started."

[597 words]

Age : 28 Posts : 46

Combining and mixing his physical and spiritual energies using nothing more than a single hand would take time. Mastering such a skill in a single day would be near impossible for anyone, even Shi. However today wasn't the day he wished to master said skill, no, today he wanted to at least learn how to do it and then he would master it by using it. Still though, he couldn't get the thought out of his head that he wasn't sure exactly where to start. In all his dads journals he had never read anything about a ninja performing jutsu and manipulating chakra with only one hand. If he had read about it beforehand perhaps he would be much more able to break down how its done and learn it. "Okay so forming hand signs with a single hand is going to be difficult no matter what, but, I think if I practice doing so using a less complex jutsu then it should come easier; I hope." Of course thinking about how to do something was most of the time easier than actually doing it.

Off the top of his head he couldn't exactly think about what the least complex of all the techniques in his arsenal actually was. However, after a few moments of though he realized that perhaps his least complex jutsu was in fact, not a ninjutsu technique but in fact one of his taijutsu techniques. His Mizu Kuro, water claw jutsu seemed to be the easiest of all his techniques to perform. While it was a C-rank technique it required only a few hand signs and was very adept for fighting in close quarters where the amount of signs that can be weaved is restricted. First he formed the hand signs required with both hands slowly, not actually activating the jutsu but simply forming the hand signs so he could study the position of each of his hands as he did so. He formed the signs that were required using only his right hand. "Mizu Kuro! Water style: Water claw!" He stated out loud the jutsu name, normally he wouldn't do this but for the sake of training he was going to for now. Water began to churn, however it failed to form the claw around Shi's hand like it was supposed to but this failure was one Shi had already anticipated. Nothing was ever perfected on the first try anyways.

He tried and tried a few more times with the exact same result each time; the water moved and churned but never successfully formed the claw like it was supposed to. Growing slightly frustrated in his failures Shi paced back and forth for a moment, almost to the point of giving up but then again, that was something Shi almost never did and he didn't plan on starting now. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, meditating for just a few seconds. Keeping his eyes closed he formed the hand signs, yet again, with only his right hand. Speaking the name of the jutsu to himself instead of out loud, the water near him twisted and clung to his hand forming the shape of a claw. He opened his eyes and slashed the air a few times with it before allowing it to fall to the ground and turn back into water. "Success and its about time to. I was starting to get a little frustrated with how progress was coming but I think I pretty much got it down." He took a moment to look up at the sky as the thought rang throughout his head. Manipulating his chakra as much as he had been had left him feeling hungry for some reason. Some food would definitely hit the spot for Shi right about now and he figured he had accomplished what he wanted to so heading back was now an option. Deciding to walk back to the village slowly and enjoy the scenery, he slowly, made his way home.

[673 words][2046 words total](Exit thread)