Starring:
Date: June 10, 2015
Summary:
Michiko continues with her training, slowly mastering the combination of nature chakra and her own until it stops transforming her into a fox. … Or not.
"Michiko's Sage Training - Balance is Key"
Land of Tea
With the coming of morning after Michiko's success with training with the oil, Shuuren got up rather early and had a Shadow Clone prepare breakfast while he prepared for the coming training. Michiko would be given time to eat and wash the smell of snake oil off in the springs on the other side of the oasis before beginning the next step in training. Waiting patiently in their normal training area, Shuuren sits drinking a cup of tea with the staff that has become both Michiko's savior and her bane over the last several days on the ground beside him.
Michiko took full advantage of washing off the snake oil in the springs, spending a good twenty minutes in the water! (that's a long time for her…) She does that before she eats, actually, so at least she doesn't have to smell that scent while she eats! Well, it's not as strong… The girl then goes to Shuuren, sitting near the man as he drinks tea and eyeing that staff suspiciously… She knows what's to come, and that thing hurt when she got whacked with it.
Shuuren looks over to Michiko as she comes back, smirking slightly as he notices how she's eyeing the staff. "It's not pleasant, I know, but you're getting closer. Once you've mastered entering a state of balanced nature energy without it overcoming you, the staff goes away." He taks his time with his own tea, allowing her as much time as she'd like to get ready for the next session to begin.
Michiko nods lightly at the comment. "A long ways away, it feels like," she notes, waiting for Shuuren to finish his tea. She was ready when he was, the girl determined to get this new power down. "So… Now I have to gather natural energy without the help of the oil?" It sounded a lot like how she was trained as a medic… First learn with training wheels. Then pull them from under her and leave her to master the skill on her own. At least there was a somewhat-guide here while she worked on this…
"This is definitely not a jutsu the impatient can master," Shuuren says, chuckling a bit and nodding before finishing his own tea. "Yes, that's what you have to do now. It's going to seem a bit more difficult at first, but it's like starting to work on muscles you've already worked on. After a while it'll feel natural, and you'll pretty easily get the hang of it." With that he stands and stretches a bit, preparing for his tedious part in the training. "At least by the end of this you'll have built up a higher pain tolerance and threshold. I think you'll be surprised what all areas this type of training helps you improve in."
Michiko nods and takes a breath before closing her eyes. "Well… This might take a while. Don't fall asleep," she quips before trying to focus on the energy around her. It was hard… The chakra that had come so easily through the oil had to be actively sought after and absorbed. And not being a sensor, she was unable to really grasp where she might actually find the natural energy. So for now she's just trying to find this energy and allow it to enter her body and gather.
Michiko nods and takes a breath before closing her eyes. "Well… This might take a while. Don't fall asleep," she quips before trying to focus on the energy around her. It was hard… The chakra that had come so easily through the oil had to be actively sought after and absorbed. And not being a sensor, she was unable to really grasp where she might actually find the natural energy. So for now she's just trying to find this energy and allow it to enter her body and gather.
"We'll see," Shuuren says, smirking slightly as he watches her try to grasp the concept of finding the chakra she needs to find without being able to use the oil to feel it. Now it's up to her own abilities. He's apparently quite patient, waiting silently for her to begin to gather the chakra and to see when it goes over the balance. This might days or even weeks for her to fully master, but she should be rather happy with the results afterward.
Michiko concentrates on her surroundings, trying to draw in the natural energy into her body. For what feels like many hours, there is really no change in her chakra composition. Several hours of practicing later, she's managed to draw in enough natural energy that a transformation would eventually begin.
This day's going to be a long one. Shuuren takes time to have a Shadow Clone prepare tea and such while they wait, finishing off a few kettles before the transformation finally begins. When she finally starts to transform, he watches, carefully observing until at last it starts to go over what it should and… WHACK! The chakra is driven from her. "Again," he says simply as he waits for her to try to gather the chakra once more.
OW… That whack really hurts, and it also startles Michiko a bit. At the 'again', she just nods, closing her eyes and grumbling a bit inwardly before actually concentrating. While the gathering of energy takes a while, it is shorter than the last attempt.
No matter how long it takes, Shuuren is patient in allowing her to gather the energy. Once it becomes too much again, another strike of the staff would drive the chakra from her once more. Still, the fact that it's taking less time to gather it now means soon she'll be able to be pretty close to balancing it and will be ready for the next exercise… Merging with her fox to obtain the transformation and be able to use it in combat.
Michiko feels the whack and her gaze cuts to the staff with a big ol' glare. Still hurt… At least she wasn't getting hit every couple minutes, but still. "… How close do you think I am..?" she wonders, preparing herself to try and gather natural energy again.
"I think you're getting closer to being able to pull off the final step," Shuuren says with a shrug of his shoulders. "Once you can balance the chakra without yourself and maintain it without dying, the final step will be to practice sharing nature energy with Kimura as she's gathering it while transformating and maintaining the balance. I'd say you'll probably get there within the next couple days."
Michiko gives a small nod and refocuses her attention on her surroundings, trying to draw the natural energy into her body again. It was getting a lot easier at this point, since she's drawn on the energy twice. This instance only takes an hour or so before the energy flow becomes too much. So now she's able to draw it within, but she has to work on balancing it out.
THWACK! One might figure Shuuren's arm is getting tired from this. He could get Daoma or someone to come handle the whacking at Michiko, but, since he's been down in a cave with a woman that the samurai woman doesn't know for quite a while now, he figures some jealousy issues might arise and the striking with the cane would get to be a bit more violent than it is supposed to be.
Michiko rubs the spot where she was hit. If Shuuren was getting tired of hitting her, that THWACK was poor evidence of such. It felt just as painful as the last time. She was close… She could feel the nature chakra pouring into her and knew how to draw on it. Now she had to focus on balancing … She takes a breath, closing her eyes to gather the energy and attempt to balance it. The natural energy enters her body faster, and Shuuren could sense that much. It takes a few more hours for the chakra to overwhelm her… again.
WHACK! When it takes hours of true gathering for the transformation to become overwhelming, it seems she's getting close. "You're getting close. Manage to keep the balance a bit longer, and I think you'll be ready to get some sleep so you can start training with Kimura on being able to do this during comment.
Michiko wonders about her chances of ripping that staff from Shuuren and bashing him with it herself… Probably low success. The girl just nods again and tries to focus, once again gathering the natural energy. It's a learning process, sure, but one that she's gone through with the snake oil. She had done it once before, so it should be (in theory) easy to do again. All that was needed was just a little more focus… And several hours later, she's still going. She's managed to at least pass her last attempt, exceeding it by another hour before she needs another WHACK.
Noticing how Michiko's looking at the staff, Shuuren chuckles a bit, saying, "I don't think you'd enjoy turning to stone if I failed to hit you with this. " He notes how long it's taking for her to lose control now, figuring she's probably pretty close to mastering this level enough that they can move on to the next.
"Well, I don't think I'd be trying this if you weren't around with that staff…" Michiko replies steadily, a small smirk before she closes her eyes again. Maybe she'll get it down /this/ time… Or maybe not. Regardless, she begins to focus her chakra and try to draw in the natural energy around her. It's now easier for her to draw on the natural energy, taking a few minutes when it took her several hours to begin gathering. Then she starts trying to balance out the energy, and this process ends up going on for a good long while…
