Starting Simple? [Tutor]

[Miraku]

It had been a few days since they had returned from their mission to escort the Konoha shinobi to Kumogakure, and Raku had decided he wanted to check in on the two genin who had come with him, and maybe try to help them out a bit. Raku had realized they were new to this shinobi life, and as someone who had been around it for quite a while now, maybe he had something to offer them. Raku woke up early that morning, earlier than usual. He wanted to get his own personal training in before he would help out with whoever would show up for his tutoring today. The day before, he had sent a request for the two genin to meet up with him, but apparently Kikei had been sent out on another mission with one of the Leaf kids, so only Hoshi was around, but it also appeared that Hoshi himself had gotten into some trouble not long ago, and had to end up in the hospital, and was still a little bit injured. This threw a wrench in Raku's first idea of evaluating their skills and seeing where he should start with them. It seemed he would have to start with something a little more simple for Hoshi today so that he could help him get back into shinobi ready condition as well at hopefully teach him something new.

Having returned from his early morning training, Raku was already a bit tired, but since he was only teaching today, it wouldn't be so bad to be tired, since he assumed it wouldn't require much effort on his part in general. First thing was first though, the training had made him hungry, so he would need to make breakfast and eat up before heading out to the spot where he had decided for them to meet up. It didn't take long for him enjoy a nice bowl of cereal before heading to his room to change into a new set of clothes since the ones he was wearing had gotten a bit dirty while training. He just wanted to wear a simple pair of pants and a black tank-top to cover up so that he could be comfortable and have unrestricted movement. After getting dressed, he was ready to head out and go wait for his pupil's arrival.

Raku had decided to meet up in the Nimbus Delectatio district, at the edge of the forest near a flowing river and grasslands. In his mind, it was the perfect place to train someone new. They had the forest for using the trees and cover, the open grassy field for more exposed land, and the river as simulation of random elements you can come across in most places. Arriving there earlier than he had requested, he wanted to make sure he was the first one there, and it would give him a chance to get ready and maybe even relax for a little bit on his own. Still unsure of what he would teach Hoshi, Raku realized he needed to wait to see his condition before he could decide what they would end up doing today. Walking up to a tree at the edge of the forest, Raku decided to take a seat at the base of it, back against the trunk of the tree, legs out in front of him, lifting the knee of his left leg to place his left arm on so he could be more comfortable. It was there he would wait, listening to the sounds of the animals in the woods, the flowing river and the breezy wind creating the ambiance of the area where he sat.

[Tutor thread with Hoshi]
[614 WC]
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[Shouyu Hoshi]

Step, swing, hop, step? No, step, hop, swing. Yes. He was trying to get the steps down the crutch supporting his left to take pressure off the right side of his body. He wasn't much too injured anymore, it was just a matter of over exerting himself and re injure something big. So far so good, so he was to head to the forest, to meet up with Raku.

He heard about a tutoring lesson, and these recovering injuries wouldn't stop the boy from learning, even if he had to watch and minimize his own movement. He wore his usually set of clothes, kimono top, loose thin fabric pants, and an apron, plus a pair of ninja sandals.

His goal was the edge of the fires and the trek itself proved to be almost difficult as the usual training. He was getting used to maneuvering though. Up and over branches, slight pressure on his bad foot didn't hurt too much, he could even make a fist with his right hand regardless of the soreness in his wrist. He was beginning to think he didn't really need the crutch. But it was a good fall back option if needed.

Shouyu finally came to a streaming flow of water and colorful vegetation, Kumo was sure beautiful. He had lost track of time and hoped he didn't take too long coming here like such. Shouyu arrived seeing Raku sitting down rather relaxed and Hoshi spoke up.

"Sensei Raku! I am here!"

The boy was chuckling as he strolled up with a million dollar boyish smirk. Even though he had recently been in bad shape, nothing injured the kid's rambunctious attitude!

 

[Miraku]

The relaxation was nice for once. Honestly, Raku was getting close to falling asleep for a nap under that street as he sit there comfortably with his eyes closed. But it was only a few minutes before Hoshi showed up to the area. His eyes closed, Raku didn't know he had arrived until the sound of his voice cut through the silence in the air around him, calling out that he had arrived. Opening his eyes, one still behind an eyepatch as usual, as he looked towards the direction of the sound, seeing Hoshi hobbling over on a crutch. As he came closer, it was apparent that he was feeling well enough by the look on his face, and seemingly a slight pep in his step, but that wouldn't really tell Raku how good of shape the boy was in.

Raku stood up from his sitting position and turned his body towards Hoshi, taking a few steps forward as he came close enough for them to speak in normal tones for a conversation. Looking the boy over, he certainly wasn't in as bad shape as he figured he would be with a trip to the hospital. Maybe the healing was going quick? No matter, Raku needed to find out how bad it actually was.

"So, I heard you were in the hospital. Seems like that was true. Though you're looking quite well for someone who was recently in the hospital." Raku said to the boy, as he looked down at him standing there before him. "How bad is it? I'll have to adjust our little training session here based on what condition you're in. Can you run, or jump, or use the rest of your body for strenuous activity, or should you be resting parts?" he asked, placing a hand on his chin, looking quizzically at the boy, "Because if you need to rest, I definitely have some less physical stuff we can work on. I don't want you re-injuring yourself" he said with a bit of a chuckle, feeling like Hoshi liked to push himself farther then he should, but definitely not wanting to encourage such behaviour himself.


[Marked for Training; 359 WC]
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[Shouyu Hoshi]

Raku took a second gathering himself from his relaxation. Shouyu looked away, rubbing the back of his head nervously.'I hope I didn't disturb him!' He shook that thought and returned his boyish smirk. Raku stood, faced the bot and examined him, meanwhile Hoshi just snickered.

Raku began to inquire Hoshi's abilities with his current physical state. Hoshi has to admit, he was feeling pretty great, but he knew he probably shouldn't push it. The scratched the top of his head with one index finger and responded.

"Well of course I can run and jump. While I was in the hospital. Sara visited me and performed a strange healing jutsu. I guess she jump started the healing process. Although, I should take it easy."

Shouyu let the crutch drop and showed his ability stand on his own two with no problem. He began to stretch, bending forward at the hip reaching for each ankle, stretching his arms above his head and across his torso.

"I've got plenty of rest lately Sensei, I'll be fine. Although, you'll have to wait for me to show you my new technique! But it's a secret! I actually have many secrets now."

Shouyu brought the palm of his right hand to his mouth and snickered lightly to himself. He then shot forward a thumbs up to gesture he was ready to start.

 

[Miraku]

Raku chuckled at Hoshi's current spunky demeanor as he explained his current position and also that the young Konoha medic chief had come to visit him in the hospital and healed him. It seemed the escort was already paying off for them and their village. It was certainly nice of her to heal a kumo shinobi on her own. Who knew her reason for it? It didn't matter too much to Raku as it had seemed to work, Hoshi dropping his crutch and standing on his own two legs with relative ease, stretching before Raku to show off a little bit.

Raku had to admit, he was actually quite curious after Hoshi's last statement, apparently keeping secrets now. He wasn't sure if he wanted to pry, as it really wasn't his business, but Hoshi was the one who brought up the fact that he had secrets. But Raku decided to attribute that his Hoshi's forward nature and general giddiness that he probably found it hard to keep it a secret that he had secrets, but at least he wasn't blurting those actual secrets out, so that was a good start for the young one.

"Alright well. I had originally planned to bring you and Kikei out here to test out your abilities and see each of your current standings as Shinobi for myself in order to best judge how to help you two progress further, but that requires some pretty intense physical testing, and I think we should probably avoid that, at least for a little while to let you take it a bit easier." Raku told Hoshi, explaining his previous thoughts on what they would do. But now he needed to teach Hoshi something else, something he could manage to do without putting too much stress on himself.

"I think since you have hurt limbs, teaching you about some Chakra Control, and how to use that to your advantage would be quite helpful." Raku said, as he turned around, away from Hoshi, walking towards the tree, as he gathered his chakra into his feet. As he got to the tree, he began walking up the tree, straight up with only the chakra in his feet. "Like this." he said, looking down at Hoshi, as he reached the first limb which was quite high up. Hanging upside down by only his feet, he then release his chakra for just a moment, flipping upright midair and landing on his feet, using the chakra still there to absorb most of the impact, letting him land safely from a decent height. "By using your chakra in certain parts of your body, you can increase their effectiveness, such as climbing that tree, or using it to land softly on your legs from heights." he told the boy, as he stood in front of him. "I think this will be particularly useful for you to work on since you're slightly injured right now, and this could be effective at helping you in the future when you need to keep moving forward with an injury." he smiled, hoping to have caught the boys attention a little bit. It wasn't too uncommon of a thing, but one could always use the practice. "Sound like something you'd like to work on?" Raku asked him.


[546 WC]
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[Shouyu Hoshi]

Shouyu nodded at Raku's first remark. At this time, he was slightly glad that Kikei wasn't here today. She'd probably just berate for him being injured and call him Kohai all over again. He gave a nervous chuckle. His eyes wandered left to right and Raku spoke of training on chakra control. Hoshi's eyes lit up.

Raku walked to a tree and began to walk upright against the tree with ease. He continued until he was completely upside down and flipped his way back down, into a normal standing position again. Hoshi would give out a small, "Ohhh" as Raku did this.

Shouyu nodded at Raku's advice and walked slowly up to the base of the tree. He looked it up and down meanwhile funneling chakra into the base of his feet. He inhaled and brought his right foot to the tree. He could almost feel his chakra clasping on to the tree as he attempted his second step with his left. He wiggled, almost stumbling from being startled at the success. Shouyu mirrored Raku's upside down, releasing the chakra, tucking and flipping his body to land crouching on his left leg, left palm supporting, and his right leg extended with chakra easily quieting and softening his landing.

Shouyu looked around at himself, and realized his body wasn't too sore from that move. Yes, he could feel how this could help his body when traveling through a sustained injury.

"You are right! That was amazing! I have also heard, of ninjas who can do the same to walk across the surface of water!"

 

[Miraku]

Raku watched as Hoshi walked over to the to the tree, and began to copy Raku quite well. He was a little shaky at first, but it seemed he got the hang of it quite quickly. Was was slightly surprised, but it was likely the boy had done a good amount of chakra training in the past since he seemed to be able to control it into his feet quite well, as well as maintain it at a good enough rate for him to climb up the tree, and even hang upside down momentarily before dropping down like Raku had before him and landing soft enough not to hurt his previously injured legs, falling into a more low crouching position to soften the fall even more. It was definitely easier to fall that way then Raku had just to his feet only bending his knees slightly, but it was good thinking on Hoshi's part to land lower like that to brace the impact even more, just in case the chakra wasn't enough to soften his fall enough for his legs.

Raku clapped a little bit for Hoshi, looking at him with a smirk, "Nicely done. It seems you'd had some practice with Chakra training before, though I guess it was done in another method since you hadn't use it this way before." he said to the boy, as he walked towards the river that rolled through the field, splashing softly against the ground on either side of it. It was wide enough that it could use a bridge, but not so wide that one wouldn't cross it without a bridge if they needed to get across. "You're right. You can use it in the same general way to walk on water. It's quite useful if you end up in situations surrounded by water and don't have access to a boat, or need to fight with water around." he said to the boy as he stepped forward onto the water, his foot touching the top of it, as he pushed forward, putting his body weight on it as it stayed above the water with the equal pressure of his weight versus the surface tension of the water.

Turning to Hoshi as he took his other foot and stepped onto the water, standing on water, looking like some kind of olden days miracle pusher, he smirked. "This is a little different than climbing a tree though. More difficult I would say. You need to use your chakra as a sort of equalizer between pressures. Instead of having it cling to something like the tree, you're using it to push off the water against your body weight to match the difference in body weight versus the surface tension on the water, so you're constantly having to change the amount of chakra you're putting out as you walk to maintain the proper balance."



[Marked for Training; 474 WC]
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[Shouyu Hoshi]

Shouyu slowly rose to his feet after landing. He was commended by a clapping from Raku, meanwhile Shouyu dusted himself off. Once he stood straight up he smirked and chuckles nervously feeling praise from his sensei.

"Haha yeah, last year my first lesson was on, chakra reservation I guess. I was then told to endure an indestructible boulder, but I was soon too tired exerting too much energy trying to crack the boulder. Yuii taught me a strong lesson then. But I've never thought to use chakra in such ways like this. Once I've heard that you can use chakra to walk on water, I have been more curious on these more advance techniques."

Raku then continued on the subject by explaining its usefulness, at the same time attempting to do it himself. Raku started with one foot and then another. His choice of words to explain the phenomenon was excellent, and easily discernible to the young Shinobi. It all made sense, a shift weight with the ever moving current of water. It would most definitely require a high level of concentration and awareness, especially if fighting on water.

Shouyu watched in awe of Raku performing the deed, inspiring him to try it as well. He made his way slowly to the splashing water. A bit hitting his face startling him, or taunting him. Shouyu cringed before placing a hand onto the water. His hand sunk all the way in, startling him again. 'Oh, right.' He tried it again generating chakra into his palm and now placing it on top of the water.

His eyes grew wide at the feeling. It was like he could feel the water breathing, inhaling and exhaling causing the wave. At first he just felt its rhythmic flow and sensed a sort of tempo of the water. He pressed his palm down, his arm wobbling slightly as he successfully pull himself up, placing another palm to catch himself.

Shouyu pulled himself to sit on the water with his hands and knees trying to focus the chakra evenly throughout his body. But as he layed on all fours he swayed with natural wave of the water. He was freigtened slightly, but almost there. He couldn't allow himslft stop now. He rose his right knee to position his right foot. The foot wiggled as well before getting its initial balance on the water. Shouyu repeated this with his left and was now crouching on the water, stalling now.

Shouyu slowly let his palms leave the surface as he rose at the same pace. He swayed, but didn't lose balance, his eyes were wide and focused. Shouyu was about halfway up before he stumbled and his arms flailed catching him to balance once again. He exhaled slowly and looked to Raku, a bead of sweat falling down the side of his face. His eyes fell to Raku's feet, who seemed to balance with ease, but how? Shouyu continued to slowly rise.

Eventually he caught on to the pattern of the water and shifting of chakra when the water would rise, it would mean to lessen his weight. It was really a balancing game, Shouyu was standing straight up now but still his arms slightly out in front of him, as if prepared to fall, but he was well balanced.

He looked to Raku and gave a weak chuckle, clearly nervous at this being his first time to do this. But he took a step, without looking, his pivot foot still able to feel the flow of the water, he was successful in taking a step, though it was slow and awkward. And he took another, his tongue hanging out the corner of his mouth from being so concentrated on movement.

 

[Miraku]

Raku stood watching Hoshi slowly attempt to follow Raku's lead, obviously taking it slower, and working towards standing much slower than Raku had shown him. It made sense though, spreading the weight over more surface area meant less chakra needed in one specific area to equalize the pressure. Lifting himself up slowly reducing the surface area of his body against the water and working towards the goal of standing, it didn't take Hoshi too long, with a lot of patience and a good amount of effort, he eventually managed to stand up and begin walking slightly.

Raku was enjoying the showing by Hoshi, and pretty impressed he was managing to pick it up so quickly. "Well done. You're getting the hang of it." he told him, as he took a few steps back to give Hoshi some room to move, and also just in case Hoshi would lose control and accidentally fall in the water, Raku wasn't looking to get wet from this little session currently.

"It's certainly difficult at first, you have to focus on so much, but I promise with a bunch of practice and training, this pretty much becomes second nature. You don't even think about doing it for the most part,
it just happens as a sort of bodily reflex to balance yourself, and just feel the amount of chakra you need as you go." he continued to explain, hoping to reassure Hoshi that it wouldn't be so hard, and hopefully tell him why it looked so easy for Raku. "It's definitely something a Shinobi should learn and master, because if you get caught in a situation where you need it, and it doesn't come naturally to you, or hell, if you don't even know how to do it in the first place, it's going to put you at a big disadvantage." he continued, hoping to impress upon Hoshi the importance of small skills like chakra control and how you use them.

Raku walked off the water, and headed over to the tree he had originally sat down against as it was close, and leaned against it now. "There are of course numerous things you can use chakra control for,
but I think this is definitely a good start for you. You'll want to practice this until you feel like it comes naturally to you. Could take a while, but it's definitely something you'll want to work on." he suggested, as he left Hoshi there to do what he wanted. "I think that's all we'll work on for today though. So if you'd like to keep practicing that'd be a good idea. I'll stick around here for a bit and can try to offer suggestions and answer questions while you practice, but if you have plans, feel free to head out and work on this more later." Raku offered, planning to relax here a bit no matter what, leaving the decision up to Hoshi, as I slid down the tree, sitting down to continue his day from there. (Sort of a fade out on the day for us lol)

[502 WC]
[Topic Finished(Left) with Hoshi; 2495 Total WC]
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[Shouyu Hoshi]

Hoshi nodded at Raku’s praise once more, but still had to focus on the ever shifting surface. Raku had backed up a bit, Hoshi took two more slow steps into the current. He swayed, wiggled, but never stumbled or loss balance. Raku then went on explaining everything that Hoshi was currently going through. It did in fact take much focus, a whole lot more than just walking up a tree or landing softly. He was breaking a good sweat with this new task before him. Raku made it seem like second nature, and he proposed with proper training and patience, it could be achieved.

Hoshi really thought about what he said. Later, he would be taking an ANBU exam to enter the ranks. He’d most likely come across tough terrains like this and be forced in a situation where the minimal chakra control like such could make a big difference. Hoshi watched Raku walk off the water easily, and back down to the tree he was at. Shouyu didn’t move, and when Raku exited peripheral vision he focused on himself once more.

Raku then proclaimed to end the lesson, suggesting he should practice this often, of which Shouyu agreed. Raku gave him a choice as he reclined to relax once more, free to go or continue training. And well he was already here so, why not? He continued to take slow steps while retorting back at Raku.

“I’ll stay for a while, maybe until I can jog on here, or at least catch my footing.”

Slow and steady baby steps, against a rather strong current of river. Hoshi imagined this would be easy on still waters. So, it was good to practice on this. Every step was a sure step he didn’t doubt, and it looked good, but still slightly awkward. He was in the center of the river now. He remembered, he was quite adept with water chakra. He lifted his right hand, spiraling thick tendrils of water ending with a sharp point streamed from the flow of water into the sky, falling down in a heavy misty rain. [Aqua Fang Jutsu] It caused a big disruption in the flow of water, Shouyu placed each arm out and balanced himself, even jumped a few feet back to dodge some water drops and caught himself a top the water surface safely.

He exhaled, and walked off the water, exiting with a leap. He looked over to Raku and smirked if he were to see it. The kid would look half way spooked and confident. It was definitely something he would continue practicing in the future. He’d give a peace sign to Raku and walk to grab his crutch.

“Well, I’ll see ya later Sensei Raku! I have to check into the hospital every now and then, so they can monitor my healing process. See ya around!”

The kid limped his away off in a hurry with the crutch, he would be seen darting off with a large smile across his young face, completing another lesson and learning something new and useful to his future.


[Topic Left]

[WC 1388 + 514= 1902]