Starring:
Date: October 28, 2011
Summary:
Team 10 starts off on a mission, but runs into a problem. None of them know how to tree walk save Atsuro, and the way to their mission is best accessed via treewalking. Thus Atsuro has to teach them tree walking, with a mistake here or there.
"Team 10 Amongst the Trees"
Outside Konoha, on the way to an outpost village
It's about noon on this cool, clear day, and the team has been marching since late morning. They've gone out of Konoha, down the main road, down a side road, past a bend, down a well-used hunting trail, and now they've come to this just-barely-a-path. As the leader, Atsuro is at the front of the group, with Taizen trotting along not far behind him. He's been keeping the team at a pretty steady pace the whole time. He's also been pretty irritable the whole time (although that's probably not a particular surprise), but hasn't interacted much with his students so far, except to actually respond to them if he's been directly addressed. Not too far in the distance up ahead is a thick patch of wood.
Found within the formation would be the Uchiha member of the group, for the mission she brought along a new backpack which had straps that were just a bit too stiff to walk around with comfortably. Every now and then she would fiddle with the straps in an attempt to get more comfortable with it but, wouldn't really succeed. Like Atsuro, she wasn't doing much talking at all but, that was because she was trying to memorize the hand seals for a technique she spotted earlier.
The girl dared not practice Fire Techniques while on the go for the sake of avoiding accidentally lighting someone on fire but, it was good to think on it, at least she could ignore the "terrible length" that this walk has become. Minutes went by like seconds as she lazily follows along with her subconscious leading the way, eyes drifting in and out of the scenery until the thick patch is noticed.
Realizing that her attention may be required to get through that without tripping she actually focuses up and tilts her head to the side, looking beyond their leader.
"Neh, aw we going thwoo theyew?" The butchered sentence coming out a little weak from not talking for so long.
As the newly minted team continues along on their apparent walk, Hitoshi is wandering along between Taiki and Berii, and Atsuro. A scroll is out and held out in front of him… a small one, but moderately sized. If one were to pay attention… it was a map for the local terrain. Perhaps he was studying it and trying to get an idea of things…
But one thing had crossed his mind as he and the rest of his team had continued along… even though it was a stupidly long walk… They hadn't really been briefed on the subject of their mission yet. As Berii actually breaks the silence, though, he looks up, looking over his shoulder toward her. "Possibly. I don't really think there's any other way around, if I'm reading this map right…" He then glances back forward.
"Atsuro-sensei… when are we going to get more information on this particular mission we've set out on?" he asks carefully. "Not that I'm… complaining. But it may help if we, as a team, discuss the particulars…"
Taiki leads the rear, looking deceptively relaxed. He and Shinobu are apparently practicing hand codes, as each seem to look at each other, then look elsewhere. One eye is kept on the group while the other is kept a look out for trouble. They are at war, after all. When Berii speaks it takes him a fraction of a second longer than it normally would for him to figure out what she said, which causes him to look at the trees ahead. "That's going to be a little hard…" he whispers so he's heard only by his team, and not much further beyond. Shinobu barks once in agreement with Hitoshi, but otherwise is pretty quiet himself.
GAME: Save complete.
Atsuro stops and turns around as the genin begin to pipe up. Addressing them in the order they've spoken, he first focuses on Berii, whom he didn't understand at all. He figures it was just because he wasn't facing her. And maybe it was drowned out by the sounds of walking. "Didn't hear you," he says, "What were you asking?" He gives Berii an opportunity to reply, then goes on to Hitoshi.
"Huh, fine," he says, "If you're just so desperate to know, we're heading for a small fishing village where one of our informants lives. He keeps a watch on things there and reports back to Konoha, but he hasn't sent anything for a while now. And with the war, that stuff is more important. So we're going to find him." He nods. "And yeah, we'll be going through those woods."
To Taiki, he gives a frown. "Hard? Did you hurt your leg or something? You just jump from branch to branch. You must have done it a million times before."
When Atsuro misses what Berii said, she'd just shake her head in response as the other two were asking questions now, ones that would most likely lead to an answer for her own. While the head Inuzuka makes a few responses, Berii backs up to look over the map with Hitoshi for a moment. Not able to make sense of much of it off the bat so she quietly scans for a starting point on the map while they get debriefed.
A few slight nods would be all that is given to the mission details before Atsuro mentions just hopping from branch to branch. "Neh…" Berii raises her hand up, "Inuzuka-sensei? I'm not weally good at that. I've been trrrying it out but, I usually end up fawwing." Berii's natural pout deepens as she looks up to the upper tree branches, it'd even be a pain just to get up there.
A soft sigh follows but, she reaches into her sleeves to pull out some kunai, preparing to use them to climb like she often has to.
When answered, Hitoshi sort of crinkles his nose a little bit, nodding and tilting his head… He hrms a little, tilting his head and looking back to the map. He starts to run his finger along it, showing Berii the path as she seems to look over his shoulder at the map. "A lot of woodland to have to go through," he points out lightly, "but it's also less likely we'll be spotted by enemy forces going this way, too. So it'd make sense to cut through here."
he then looks toward the thicket, blinking slightly as he then looks toward Atsuro. "I'm… yeah. I've never really had that much easy luck with this either," he remarks softly, coughing behind his hand slightly. He's not sickly. Just… trying to keep from seeming too derp-ish.
Taiki on the other hand, is slowly learning that assertiveness counts a lot with their new sensei. So he's a bit more… rough about expressing his views on the heavier wooded area. "Uh… no. I haven't started on that yet. I can stick a leaf, or any other lightweight object anywhere on my body and make it stick. But climbing up things, or treewalking? No, not done that yet. It's not taught at the Academy, and … the Clan Elders are … not forthcoming, as you already know." He strives not to notice the fact a faint blush is crossing his face, in hopes to not draw attention to it.
Shinobu merely growls at the mention of the Clan Elders. Taiki is /not/ going to translate that.
For a moment, Atsuro just puzzles over why Berii's talking like this. But whatever, he can figure that out later. The tree thing though… "What?" he asks, "Are you serioous? You just walk up the tree and jump over to the next br— " His jaw drops as Berii takes out the kunai. "What are you /doing/!? Those aren't for climbing, they're— " He goes dead silent as Hitoshi and Taiki speak up.
"Out of all three of you, nobody can do this?" he asks, stunned. "That damn academy is totally useless, I guess. Wish somebody had mentioned that I'd have to teach all of you super-basic techniques." He sighs loudly. "Okay, fine. We'll take a break and see if I can teach it to any of you. Follow me and we'll get some trees." He waves the group over to the dense woods.
Berii seems to physically shrink when Atsuro's volume escalates, with her right foot sliding back a bit she shifts and adjusts to put Hitoshi between herself and Atsuro. "Um, I know but…" Berii was confused on what was going on, what should they be able to know how to do? Taking everything into account, she makes sense of it 'Tree-Walking' is what Taiki said. The girl had heard mention of the technique but, never really knew what it did. "So…"
Flashback:
Berii looks up to the tree, thinking back on a recent mission she had outside of the village, a Kirigakure ninja just ran straight up a tree. There wasn't even any speed involved but, gravity did not appear to be much of an issue at all.
Flashforward:
"Trree… walking, hnnnn." Berii squints ahead at Atsuro as he takes them off course. The idea of a new technique exciting her yet, she still wanted to keep her distance from Atsuro so without hesitation she places both hands on Hitoshi's back and pushes him in the direction of Atsuro. Probably moving the poor boy a bit faster than he'd like unless he started walking quickly.
Push.
Push, push. Hitoshi looks back behind him as Berii kind of pushes behind him. He sort of stares at the woods as they begin to approach the dense foliage, tilting his head a little bit and taking a deep breath as he begins to look toward Atsuro, then. "Okay, then," he remarks quietly, looking back toward the woods… and he begins to stretch a little.
"I know it requires channeling chakra to the feet," he remarks softly, "and that flow control is the important factor here. Right?"
Taiki blinks as Berii more or less puts Hitoshi between her and their sensei. He also notes her tendency to shrink when volumes increase, which causes him to look at her speculatively. He starts watching the interactions between his other two genin teammates, then shakes his head as Shinobu tugs on his pants leg. "I know boy…" he sighs before steeling himself up. Time to act like an Inuzuka. "Alright then, let's get this learned," he says excitedly, but not too loudly. He walks forward, quickly coming up even with Hitoshi. "Come on Hitoshi, Beri… Uchiha'san. It's something new to learn!" The dog appears excited, wagging his tail as he follows.
"Geez," says Atsuro, glancing Berii's way, "No reason to be so scared. Worst that'll happen is you'll fall." Kids. Luckily, it seems like Hitoshi's going to be better about this with an answer like that. "Good. That's right," says Atsuro. He waits for Taiki to get up with the rest of the group, then begins to explain, "You're trying to emit chakra from your feet. If the flow of chakra is too weak, your feet won't stick to the tree and you fall off. If it's too strong, it pushes against the tree and you fall off. If it's just right, you stick to the tree and you don't fall off. Not as easy as it sounds though. The foot is one of the hardest parts of the body to release chakra from."
He walks over to a tree and sticks a foot against the trunk. "Just like this. Get on the tree and start focusing chakra." He brings up his other foot, then he's walking straight up the tree. "But since you're just starting out, it's probably easier if you get a running start. You can just step on once your control's better." He sits down on a sturdy branch and looks down at the genin below. "Start whenever you're ready."
It would seem as if Berii was the only one who didn't really know about Tree Walking, feeling more and more useless with each passing moment. Lips pursing when Atsuro calls her out, she lets her hands drop from Hitoshi's back while taking a step to the side herself so that she was out in the open. Berii's attention shifts to Taiki when he somewhat attempts her name, only to shift mid way. All Berii would really do in response is smile as she listens in for a quick guide on tree walking.
Mental notes are taken and she moves to her own tree. The girl bounces on her heels a few times, hair flailing about as she does so before lighting bouncing on one leg. Then shifts to the others. "Hnn." A nod, her right foot them comes up to press against the tree. Her head tilts to the side and she focuses the rat seal.
"Hnnnnn…"
Continuing on with her quiet motions, Berii may actually just become a background character as she does not appear to do anything spectacular in the realm of tree walking.
And so the challenge was presented in front of them. The map that Hitoshi had been consulting was put away for now, the scroll rolled up and placed in his bag - which is, likewise, discarded for now and placed aside as he approaches one of the trees. He squints a little bit as he begins to try and gauge himself… stepping a few paces back…
"Don't even think about it," he calls toward Berii and Taiki both as he begins to form a handseal… "Just let your chakra flow. This is something that comes naturally to us as shinobi!" He thumbs up before forming a handseal - a dragon handseal - and focusing for a moment or three. He breathes in, and out, eyes closing… before he opens them, staring intently at the tree. And then…
… off he goes, running, bowing down and picking up speed… just a foot or so from the tree, though, he comes up… his feet coming up and out, from under him, making contact with the tree. "GAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Two, three, four… And it seems, after five steps, he stops, pushing himself off the tree and landing, crouched down.
… "Huh. I… well." He seems to flush a little at the face, somewhat embarassed. "Well."
Stomp stomp stomp
Thunk thunk
THUD!
Taiki made all of two steps up the tree before falling on his backside. Shinobu, on the other hand, made it five feet before springing off and landing on his feet. The dog whimpers quietly as he licks Taiki's quickly reddening face. Okay, that was embarassing. Damn it, he was first in his class in ninjutsu, chakra control should not be much of an issue! He absently pets Shinobu as he sits up and reviews what happened. But whatever he came up with only made his blush go deeper, which showed the burn marks on his face rather starkly as he stands up. Now forming the rat seal, he starts concentrating his chakra downward, into his feet. This is just like the lightning manipulation control exercises he's doing. Or so he thinks…
Atsuro suppresses a laugh at Hitoshi's misfortune. "I— heh heh heh. Ahem." He pauses for a second, then continues once he's sure he's got himself under control. "I think you'd better think about it, Hitoshi," he advises, "It'll come naturally /after/ you've got the hang of it. Right now, you need to be really aware of how much chakra you're releasing or… well, you know." He gestures vaguely at Hitoshi. "Timing, Taiki!" he calls over to the other boy. "If you run out of momentum before you've got your chakra going, you're screwed."
Berii looks back at the two, it seems both of them were going off instincts, that's one way to burn the inside of your mouth or… well in this case one way to snap your neck. Berii would cover her cowardice mentally by telling herself that she was going to take this in a more reasonable, if not slower, approach. The girl perks an eyebrow up as Hitoshi comes back down to earth, a slow two-clap would be given to his performance just as Taiki comes falling out of the sky, lacking style.
"Ah…" Berii pauses for a moment, though notices he was back up quickly and that Atsuro seemed to have no worries. The girl just smirks and goes back to placing one foot on the tree. For now she just focuses on trying to find the right amount of chakra to stick, learning how to rapidly release and reapply the chakra would have to come later.
"Nnnnh."
Hitoshi takes a deep breath as he begins to slide out of his crouch, rolling his neck a little as he looks to the tree again. "A little more pressure," he remarks lightly, "and that should get things set up properly." He takes a breath, again, standing up straight. "Another try, then?"
As Taiki takes his own pace, he watches the boy for a moment, wincing when he hits the ground. "Focus," he tells himself quietly, before turning away, and back toward the tree. For a moment, he had noticed Berii taking things slow. That was OK too, of course. So… he just relaxes, again, taking several paces back from the tree… and again, taking off in a run after focusing himself.
This time, when the feet make contact with the tree, he keeps moving. "Keep… it… Fluid!" The branch he was running for in this particular situation was only a pace or two up further… and at this point, he slows, continuing to keep his focus…
…until he's on the branch, anyway… at which point, he stops, crouching down for his center of gravity and resting there.
"How's that, sensei?!" he calls down.
Taiki takes the barest moment to glance over at Atsuro and nod before he returned to the task. Okay, he's been practicing making a level film of chakra all over his body for weeks now. The only thing he had to remember was to shift it down and skip converting the chakra to lightning. Once he's sure he has it, he runs again. This time he makes it 10 steps before having to jump off. Shinobu barked at him from a higher branch. Taiki chuckles and nods to the ninken before concentrating again, and trying once more…
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk…
ZZZZZZZAAAAAP! POW!
Srrrrrrrrrrr…. CRASH! SNAP! THUD! GRRRRRR….
A lower tree limb in behind the group was snapped off as a Taiki shaped and sized missle was flung through it, being propelled from a brilliant flash of light from the tree. This was followed by Taiki slamming into a tree behind that limb, where he slid down into a sitting position and started to circle-sway as little birdies flew around his head. His hair was doing a remarkable imitation of Albert Einstein, sticking out in all directions and smoking. He appears to be physically alright, but he says, "But mom… I don't wanna go to school today… I wanna stay at home with you!" Shinobu is still on the limb, barely, shaking violently as he is between desperate concern for his master and hysterical dog laughter.
"That's an interesting idea," Atsuro tells Berii, "But sooner or later you're going to have to try it for real. It doesn't hurt to get a feel for it like that, but it's different when you're putting your whole weight on it." He gives Hitoshi a nod, and even a thumbs up. "Better. But you haven't truly mastered it until you can just walk all over the tree with almost no effort. You've still— "
Whatever was at the end of that sentence, Atsuro doesn't get a chance to finish it what with Taiki somehow sending himself flying. "What the hell!?" He jumps down from the tree and runs over to Taiki. "You don't have to go to school," he says, his concern allayed once he sees that Taiki can still talk. "Can you get up? I don't even know what you just did."
Berii makes note of all that was going on, a good mixture of success and failure was happening around her and while it was all amusing, she'd like to get started on walking against gravity. So when Atsuro comments on her having to try it for real, she gives him a nod, "One second, hnn."
Once again she focuses with the aid of a handseal, now she was making use of Taiki's failures, slowly increasing the chakra sent to her feet until the bark beneath it snaps. This would warrant an observational nod of the Uchiha's head before she tests the waters for the other foot. "Hnn, this is one of the pwaces where it's best to staht fwom the end." Berii backs up, using the her felt out calculations to set a certain limit on how much chakra to use.
Luckily for Atsuro, he had a bunch of Ninjutsu specialists and masters of chakra control(At least compared to most Genin). So with a few steps back, Berii runs forwards and takes a few light steps up the tree before her right foot slides, this would be compensated for with a bit of strength and self control as she forces chakra into her left foot, just to the limit before Taiki like explosions may occur, in order to keep herself up.
"Hyyyyup!" With a quick burst of energy, a few more steps are taken before she leaps up into a branch and, flops onto it as she apparently exhausted herself in using much more chakra than what was truly needed, just to be safe. A lazy thumbs up would be given from a limpy hanging arm. As she lets off an exhausted sigh.
Deep breaths. Hitoshi leans against the inside of the tree, relaxing a little and crossing his arms quietly. The fact Taiki begins to set the woods on fire - with apparent -LIGHTNING- - he stares, and just tilts his head. Oh, dear. He smiles, though. At least he's trying!
Meanwhile, Berii begins to ascend the tree, steadily, and he grins, nodding. "You guys are going to get this!" he calls out.
At Atsuro's urgance, though, he nods a little bit. He begins to examine the other branches of the tree, slowly, looking upward and hrming slightly. "Walk all over the tree, huh?" he asks himself idly, rubbing his nose. He begins to balance himself a bit more, standing tall and breathing in… he reforms his handseal, beginning to get a little more focused.
"Okay."
And with that, he takes a step onto the side of the branch. Focus, focus focus….
… Creeeeeeeak…
Focus… step.
And step, step, step…
And suddenly, Upside Down Hitoshi. "Oh, -awesome!-"
Except, one problem: the sudden flush of blood going to his brain causes dizziness. Aaaaaaaaand…
SNOP.
There goes his focus. And there goes his body, his arms and legs flailing as he yells out… before hitting the ground with a -thud.-
Taiki stops swaying for a moment before shaking his head violently. Small sparks jump between spikes of his singed hair before he places both hands on the ground. "ZAP!" Fortunately this doesn't seem to affect Taiki any. Instead he starts to gingerly push himself up, testing each part of his body for breaks as he does. "Oww… that… hurt." He appears to be okay though, at least until he looks over at the tree he was climbing, and the rather large hole in it. "Notes to self: use normal chakra for tree walking, wood does not conduct electricity at all, and crashing through trees hurt." He lowers his head for a moment as if in solemn prayer before looking up at Shinobu first, then his sensei. "I'm okay Shinobu. And yeah… that probably was kinda funny to watch… at least until I hit the trees."
Taiki then turns face his teacher and bows his head. "Gomen. I kind of automatically converted my chakra to lightning chakra in the middle of the exercise, and was blown away from the tree. My mind was apparently not fully on the task that time, and wood and lightning do not mix well. My only defense is that I've been practicing converting my chakra to lightning chakra so much it was nearly automatic for me to do so. I will not make that mistake again."
Atsuro sighs. "Okay," he says, shaking his head, "Whatever. But just so you know, if one of you dies on a mission, people are going to start asking me some uncomfortable questions. So in the future, it would be /really nice/ if you didn't kill yourself. Plus, the post-mortem report will say something like 'died of stupidity.' Just a thought." Hearing another loud noise behind him, he wheels around to see that Hitoshi has managed to hurt himself as well. He runs over. "You okay?" he asks, holding a hand out to Hitoshi. He glances over to Berii. "You're doing the best so far, I guess. Congratulations?"
"Died of stupidity…" Taiki muttered, shocked at the phrase. He looks at the tree and gulps, then says, "A large part of me thinks it might be a good idea to hold this off at least until I've mastered lightning manipulation…" he says as he dubviously approaches the tree next to the one he was originally climbing. Taking time this time, he starts to focus regular chakra into the foot planted on the tree. Once he thinks he has it right he starts to slowly climb the tree until he reaches a limb of good height. "Yeah… I'm not a monkey… I think that I'd better stick to the ground when I can for the moment. Otherwise I'll slow everyone up…"
Berii looks over to Atsuro, half tempted to throw something at him though instead she responds to him with a flat, thank you. Nothing else is really said as Berii decides it'd be best to recover her energy in the mean time in this pseudo comfortable position. Berii would return to her observational ways once more in the meantime, taking in more dos and donts as she lets the boy tackle the problem head on.
After a little minibreak, she gets up onto her feet and starts to hop from branch to branch like she commonly did in Konohagakure. It was somewhat second nature to her at the moment and the chakra magnetation helped quite a bit her only issue now would be to get up a tree and second time or actually stick to a wall.
Berii eyes the ground below, not wanting to prove to herself she can do it twice just yet as she continues to hop around, adjusting herself to shut her chakra flow to her feet off and on quickly. Soon she starts to become truly unimportant, as if Berii was no longer there!
Of course, when Hitoshi hit the ground with a -THUD,- he hadn't immediately gotten up. Instead, he laid there, facedown. And as his Jounin so valiantly checked upon him… a simple thumbs up is all Hitoshi goes with. "… Blood rush," he groans out, "doesn't go well just yet." He slowly begins to roll over, quietly, rubbing the front of his face for a moment, and it's burning.
"It'll just take some getting used to…"
"Died of stupidity…" Taiki muttered, shocked at the phrase. He looks at the tree and gulps, then says, "A large part of me thinks it might be a good idea to hold this off at least until I've mastered lightning manipulation…" he says as he dubviously approaches the tree next to the one he was originally climbing. Taking time this time, he starts to focus regular chakra into the foot planted on the tree. Once he thinks he has it right he starts to slowly climb the tree until he reaches a limb of good height. "Yeah… I'm not a monkey… I think that I'd better stick to the ground when I can for the moment. Otherwise I'll slow everyone up…"
