I might as well...[Training]

Age : 28 Posts : 269

New territory. Unknown territory. Undiscovered territory. Thats where she was now, on this island known as the Moon Country. It was "discovered" in the sense that the world knew about it, but as far as she was concerned, she knew nothing about it. There were signs of civilization everywhere, and even industrialization. The whole country was almost like a giant tourist attraction really, but then, why shouldn't it be? Logically speaking, it was perfect. It was a tropical island with beautiful beaches and weather, the kind of place most people wanted to go on vacation or to just spend their money in general. It made sense, but that didn't mean she liked it. For one thing, it was too hot here, too hot and humid. Just walking around the beach she was already beginning to sweat, and that was something she hated with a passion. But she was here, and she would have to put up with it. She had already settled into her hotel room, and was doing what she had decided on shortly after arriving. As much as she was disgusted with the thought, she was here to participate in a tournament, which meant she needed to hone her skills, maybe even learn some new ones. So thats what she was doing, or at least was going to do. Right now she was looking for a good place to train, though with nothing but sand and buildings, it was hard to find a secluded place. She wandered around for quiet some time. A long time actually. She had started in the morning and it was already starting to get dark, and still she had found no good place. She came across many other people, but avoided them all. She stayed out of the streets and cities, because she knew she would find nothing there. Perhaps the most annoying thing of her search was that every time she found what she thought was a good place, such as a tucked away corner with some rocks by the sea rather than sand, there was always a family or something there occupying it. She once got fed up and just sat on the rocks, partially hidden, waiting for them to leave, but that plan backfired. A little boy saw her sitting, knees up to her chin with her arms wrapped around her legs, staring out at them blankly. He had quickly become disturbed, and informed his mother that there was a "creepy ghost" over by the rocks that was staring at him. She looked and saw Marina, and quickly informed her husband. She was then promptly asked to leave them in peace. So, she slowly got up from her rock while still looking at all of them, and slowly made her way off by turning her head slowly, then her body, and moving on. The family watched her go the whole time, and she only hoped she had left an aura of coldness behind her to make them uncomfortable.

So now evening was coming on, and she still hadn't found anything. She had even tried going back to those secluded places now that it was getting later, but they had been replaced by more people, usually couples who wanted to enjoy a "romantic" night at the beach with each other. Seeing this momentarily made her rather sad and alone, seeing them. She thought of Rysa and how much she missed her, how much she wanted to enjoy a romantic evening with her at the beach...alone and together. But she had impulsively left her behind without a word. She was probably to upset with her now anyway, so something wasn't a possibility right now. As she walked along a beach now, twilight coming upon her, she tried not to think of that, of Rysa. Doing so pulled at her heart and created a pain she could not endure. So, she tried to distract herself by focusing extremely hard on a place to train. She closed her eyes and just squatted in the sand, hands on her head, as she thought with frustration. Finally she just shot up and let out a quick, sharp scream. She needed a place, and she needed it now, because she tortured herself with her thoughts. She looked out at the ocean and froze...it finally hitting her. How did she not think of it before? It was perfect. She took off at a sprint down the beach, and when she hit the water, she began walking over it, the water freezing beneath her feet. She just kept on running, ran until she was a mile into the ocean and then some. Finally she stopped, slowing down, and coming to stand, looking up at the now night sky. She could see why it was called Moon Country...the moon was beautiful in the night sky, and she found herself looking up at it almost longingly. Once again she wished she could have Rysa out here with her to see the beautiful sight, but it could not be. She was back probably in the Fire Country...and she was all the way out here. She hung her head in shame as she thought about it, and sighed deeply. She really needed to focus on her training, especially now. This was perfect, because she wanted to practice some water and ice jutsu she had heard of, but never learned before. She had read up on the technique, and thought she would be able to do them with some practice, and this was the perfect area...surrounded by water. She had all the water she needed to do this.

She took a deep breath and took a piece of paper out of her back pocket. It had the name and instructions for various water jutsu, which she figured she would work with first. She had a few ides for ice jutsu, but these were all ideas, so she would have to come up with them herself. The water jutsu were a good place to start because they had instructions that she could follow, and would help her get her chakra flowing. The first jutsu she wanted to learn was perfect for where she was, because it could only be used if she was standing on a large body of water. For that reason though, it would come last. First she summoned a water clone in front of her and froze it so that it would not disperse upon being hit. She had it stand in front of her, performed a few hand signs, and thrust her hand into the stomach of the clone. Quickly, a bubble of water enveloped and imprisoned the clone, holding it still. She commanded the clone to try and move, escape, but it could not. Good, that jutsu was a go. It seemed a little week though, and with but one hand in the bubble to keep it sustained, she could see it wavering. To keep it completely stable she had to put another hand into the prison, and even then she felt it was somewhat iffy. Suddenly she thought of something, and used one of her already known ice jutsu. All of a sudden the bubble of water turned into a crystal ball of ice. Completely round and white, it looked beautiful. She retracted her hands from the ice sphere, and it held. She commanded the clone to try to move again, and she didn't even get a response from it. Maybe it was dead, but probably just frozen solid. Either way, she was pleased with this jutsu and the way it turned out. Even if she couldn't hold the base jutsu together with one hand, at least she could freeze it so it would sustain itself. Really, it was a deadly combination, and she was happy to have discovered it. She thought about taijutsu users, and wondered if she would get to use this combination on them if they ever got close enough. All it would take was a quick flip behind them, a thrust of the hand forward, and they were caught. She couldn't help but give a small snort of satisfaction.

She took another look at the paper with curiosity. She crossed off the water prison jutsu, and looked to another one. Most of these looked somewhat complicated, so she went with a simple one. She really didn't know why she was going to learn this one, because it created a sword out of water. She already had a sword, or rather a ninjato, which was currently in her room at the time. Then again, the ninjato was made for close range. Maybe the sword would be longer and therefor used for more ranged purposes. She shrugged either way, and decided to try it out. She looked over the instructions, and thought she had figured it out. She focused her chakra, and whipped her arm out to the side. She understood that this jutsu usually didn't require a water source, but since she was new to the jutsu, rather than spawning the water down her arm and into her hand, the sea water came up from under her hand and formed the sword. She was a little disappointed that she had to do it this way, but she would practice in the future to get better at it. She was right, the sword was longer. It was almost like a claymore, but since it was water, it weight almost nothing. She ran a finger across what she perceived as the blade, and was satisfied to see that it actually cut her finger. She swung it around a bit, and was happy with how aerodynamic it was. Then, she used her other ice jutsu and froze the sword solid. It was heavier now, and swung slower, but of course that meant it was more damaging. It was sharper too, she noticed. When frozen, the sword acted more like what it looked like, a claymore, though she could still use it with one hand. She found herself pleased with this jutsu, but tossed the frozen sword down which began to sink into the ocean.

She was satisfied with these water jutsu, and decided to move on to some ice jutsu. Considering her position, of the three she had planned to learn, the first would be easiest to train right now. She had been thinking about this one for awhile, and thought she had it down good. She performed three hand signs, but slowly, to get the right chakra flowing. She waited, and could feel the jutsu working into her left hand. She quickly sweeped that hand over her right arm, and she could feel the chakra leave it. Covering her right arm now were small ice particles. She took a deep breath, because all of this had exhausted her quickly, and she had to focus on maintaining the particles there now. So it was without hesitation that she quickly thrust her hand forward into a fist, and was very pleased to find the particles suddenly condense into a giant drill, spinning with the point one foot away from her fist. This was looking good, but she wanted to test the penetration potential. She walked over to the frozen ice prison, and performed the jutsu again. With a smirk, she discovered that the drill dug a nice hole at least halfway through the prison, which was good, especially considering the drill only existed for three seconds before disappearing. So far, so good.

She decided she was going to wrap things up considering it was getting even later, and she didn't know if there was some kind of curfew she had to uphold during her stay in the country. She had another jutsu she was planning on, one that could be particularly deadly, if used right. She focused on the ice prison she had made, looking straight at it. She performed hand signs just to get the chakra flowing, and focused it all on the ice sphere. All was silent for a few moments, but then suddenly, the prison exploded into a giant spike ball, shooting ice everywhere and crumpling away. Within was the ice clone, with a giant hole in its stomach obviously created from the drill attack. That was a perfect combination. Freeze someone inside, and drill a hole straight through them while they couldn't do anything. She was momentarily disgusted to find that she enjoyed this deadly combination, but tried to put those thoughts aside. She thought that now it was finally time to go back to her first water jutsu, the one she wanted to learn the most. She was out in the middle of the ocean, so it was perfect. She performed the proper hand signs, and suddenly a giant vortex appeared beneath her, sucking everything from the leftover ice to the clone down within it. She quickly jumped away and marveled at this sight from a distance. It was a beautiful sight really, and an amazing one. She sighed and thought of Rysa again, once again wishing she could be here with her. It was nice while it lasted, but now that she found herself done with the training, she was alone with her thoughts again. She knew now that it was a foolish thing for her to have come all the way out here, because now it was late, she was alone, and she had at least a mile of ocean to walk and at least a mile of land to walk back to her room. She was to be tormented by her thoughts the entire way back, but at least she could feel confident in her abilities now. She would come back to this spot every day and train some more, perfecting those jutsu that were still a little shaky as well as getting in the ones she hadn't been able to tonight.

Word Count: 2307/2250

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