Starring:
Date: January 29, 2015
Summary:
Okumo Naoya has been tasked with teaching three Students or Genin how to climb with the assistance of chakra in place of hand or foot holds, Tsubaki is his first victim.
"Teaching a Student to Crawl"
Land of Water, North Sea
There were several things odd with the end of February. The first was, from the continued conflict with Silence in many countries, most Chuunin and Jounin were the only ones permitted to conduct missions outside of the main village. The second was the student and younger genin were pressed harder than before, not for obedience or loyalty, but effectiveness to be able to survive long enough to injure attackers at least before being killed. As a result, several Genin were paired with others along at times with students to accelerate their practice as long as the training did not result in death or permanent injuries.
Okumo Naoya was assigned with teaching basic maneuverability to three others before he would be allowed to operate on his own again. Fortunately for him, he had found a student quickly, though it mat be unfortunate for the student in question. The pair were on a small sailing ship, the purpose wasn't spoken just yet, and over all hardly any words were shared until they were a few hundred meters off the coast.
"That's far enough.." Standing up in the ship, Naoya adjusted the sail rigging and drew them in, leaving just the current to shift them out at sea. "I was told you have yet to learn to walk on walls or water.. Can you swim?" Not once does the young Okumo look to the side to look at the girl, but keeps focusing at the task at hand.
Tsubaki looks briefly to her companions, who both nod their heads to the question. Then she looks to Naoya. She remembered him from the lake… He was interesting, and perhaps a bit scary. But at least he seemed to be playing nice today. The girl also nods, green eyes not leaving the Okumo. She doesn't ask any questions. They'd been told that they were out here to train. What they were going to learn was … Ah, so it's /that/ skill. Her parents had demonstrated it to her often enough.
"Good.. One less lessons then." Turning around, Naoya focuses onto Tsubaki for a moment, tilting his head to one side. The young Okumo's skin would shift as 'something' under it began to crawl near the surface before going deeper within his body and settling. Walking a few steps towards the girl, he leans back slightly and push kicks at the girl's chest suddenly, quickly trying to kick the girl off the side of the ship. "Task one, get back into the boat. If you tell me how you think I want you to, then I'll give you a tip on how the technique works."
Tsubaki isn't able to avoid the kick, stumbling back so she's suddenly in the water. She takes a moment to re-orient herself and resurface, the girl spitting water out. "You want us to walk up the side of the boat, right?" she calls over to Naoya, frowning minutely as she tries to think of how to climb it. "You want us to do it with chakra, right?"
A light smile appears on the young Okumo's lips before he nods once. "Walking along the ship or standing on the water before hopping up here. Either would do.. But most importantly, you kept your head." Continuing to walk a bit further, Naoya would walk off the edge of the ship and land on the water's surface without so much as a splash but he does cause ripples. "Although.. if you get too tired, you can swim to shore and then we'll begin again tomorrow, but a kilometer out to sea further each time."
Turning to look back at the ship, he nods lightly to the hull of the ship and says, "Chakra can take the shape of your will. It isn't something solid to most at least.. what you must do is shape how it is in your mind. Just focusing it on your feet will likely destroy them or worse.. the boat. Think of a paste, sticking to the curve.. Don't think about walking at first."
Tsubaki sighs a bit as Naoya shows off. Nothing to be noticeable. It could be considered her trying to take a deep breath or something. The girl eyes the ship nearby, swimming over to it. Fortunately it was static as possible in the water, and she didn't have to exert too much energy to get to it. The girl starts trying to focus her chakra, sending a lot of it to her hands so she can get a grip on the boat. Having her feet do the work as it is now might be… difficult…
"Good. You aren't a fool like some. Chakra flows through your skin, not just your feet.. but your hands and even your hair. " Standing back a few meters from the girl and the ship, the young Okumo observes, though he couldn't even begin to feel the chakra that girl was controlling. "The true test will come in a few hours.. a storm should we rolling in. I don't plan for us to be back on shore by then.. training will continue through it." Crouching down, Naoya rests his arms onto his knees, patiently.
Tsubaki lets her chakra surge through her, the chakra managing to stay in her hands. When she puts one on the boat, it sticks! She allows herself a small smile at the success, but now she had to /keep/ doing it. The girl takes another breath, focusing on making sure the same amount of chakra was focused to her other hand and making that stick. Now how long could she hold it… Long enough to climb up?
"Good good, some progress. Don't let it go to your head and keep focusing." Standing up, Naoya draws closer to within one meter, his eyes focusing onto the girl's hands as they managed to take hold in minutes than what he thought might take hours. "Remember this feeling.. how it feels to have a blend of chakra that enhances your grip. This is something you will need to learn when holding a blade.. When focusing on positioning, running or even making sure your clothes don't flap open during a storm."
Tsubaki tries to keep her focus, but Naoya's talking makes her concentration break, and she ends up falling into the water (further). She resurfaces again, blinking the water from her eyes and shaking her head, also forced to wipe her hair from her eyes because long hair is a bit detrimental when it's wet. She simply nods to Naoya, though, not bothering to glare at his 'interrupting'. She was the one that lost focus. Her eyes narrow a bit, though, green eyes staring intently at the ship. She needs to focus… Once more, she's able to cling to the side of the ship by her hands, though it takes a bit of scrambling to get herself out of the water and have both hands attached quite nicely.
"Good good.. you aren't complaining when you fall. You're already making progress." Looking away from the girl, Naoya moves two fingers out to touch the ship, allowing a single small spider to slip from his sleeve and crawl onto it. The spider takes its time in crawling all the way up the side of the ship to the railing. It would be only a moment before the spider repositioned above where Tsubaki was gripping onto the ship, watching her progress intently. Naoya for his part waited silently, his own eyes having lost a lot of color.
Tsubaki starts to slip a bit. Not enough to completely fall, but her grip on the hull is definitely worse than it was a few seconds ago. She's not used to keeping her chakra controlled in this way for so long. The girl sets her jaw a bit, determined to get to the deck of the ship before the storm hits. The odds of that happening were pretty low, but the girl can hope.
While Naoya was quiet and Tsubaki's progress was slow, the winds were beginning to increase as the dark clouds that were in the distance slowly made their way closer to the coast. Fortunately for the young girl, the water was remaining still around the ship though the sea itself began to churn more the further away from the ship it was. "Hmm.. I was thinking it was going to be at least another hour.. the storm will be moving in more quickly than I had thought."
Tsubaki is actually able to climb up the side a bit! Enough that she's out of the water and fully on the boat. This makes her even colder than she was in the water, especially with the breeze. The girl is, however, very determined to climb to the top. She starts to make her way up the side of the ship, going rather slowly.
A light smile returns to Naoya's lips but then he touched the ship gently again, and once again spiders flowed from his sleeve. This time several dozen which stay close to the center of the ship, not one watching the girl. Raising his voice, Naoya offers "You'll be given a reward /when/ you manage to make it on board.. You'll even be dried." Removing his hand from the ship, he returns it to the water where most of his own focus was on, trying to keep it relatively still during the first lesson.
Tsubaki is rather slow as she moves, sometimes losing her grip, but mostly able to press on. The girl doesn't advance much, Naoya's voice distracting her a bit, but she closes her eyes and just focuses on her chakra, sending it to her hands and now her feet. Split attention doesn't help. The girl makes her way up and up and up… Nowhere near her target, but she's getting there.
The fact that Tsubaki had yet to fall for a while, perked the young Okumo's curiosity and he stands. Naoya begins to half circle around the young girl as she inches herself upwards, even though her true progress was minimal she didn't slide too far backwards. Turning back towards she ship, the young teen raises a finger and twirls it slowly. The spiders on board reacted in kind, weaving a massive web within the forward middle section of the ship, layer after later of it, as if it was to snare something massive like a deer or even a shark.
Tsubaki struggles a bit more, but eventually pulls herself up onto the deck. She takes a few breaths, glad that it's over. Then she struggles to stand up again, legs a bit weak from all the cold and such and so.
Hopping into the air, Naoya lands onto the railing after the young girl. As she was struggling to even stand, he had no difficulty in grabbing her by the shoulder suddenly and slapping his hand against her chest. The force was mild but Tsubaki would feel her clothes and hair snag as the shock wave causes all the water soaking the girl is forced backwards and off into the surf. "Good work.. I was actually waiting for you to fall back into sea. Rest." The word 'rest' with met with a mild shove, trying to force the girl to stumble backward and into the thick webbing behind her, planning to snare her securely.
Tsubaki straightens in her spot a bit when Naoya grabs her, eyes blinking but still staring at the Okumo. The allowance of rest was much appreciated, and she made her way over to the webbing, not entirely intentionally. Most of it involved stumbling back thanks to Naoya…
Once Tsubaki stumbles into the webbing, the tumble to the ground was to a thumb but a gentle sag. The anchor points of the web yield until they shred all together, wrapping around the girl securely, but also warmly, shielded from the winds that continue to howl and now rock the ship. "You used up quite a bit of chakra.. don't worry. You'll learn to use it more efficiently. This is lesson one.. there are more, but not today." Walking around the ship, Naoya begins to raise the sails partially, preparing to guide them back to the port. "If you're as dedicated then as you are now, should only take a few lessons.. if not, it'll be many more."
