Maeno Aritomo concentrated on the disk of chakra between his hands, slowly shifting it. This incarnation of Kaze Katai no Jutsu was far too thin to serve as an effective barrier, but it did serve other functions. A though occurred to him—the new technique would be the exact opposite of the simple Hatsuen. When the smoke cloud blocked vision, this technique improved it, bending light after the fashion of a magnifying lens to produce a clear image that would otherwise be impossible.
The technique was mastered after a surprisingly short number of trips between his scroll and the practice field. Ari gave it a final trial run be re-reading the passage that inspired him in the first place— the lone Sannin, outnumbered twenty to one in the bright desert sun, turned and faced his opponents. With too little chakra to perform one of his signature wind-enhanced fire blasts, the warrior instead controlled the light from the sun itself to incinerate his pursuers. Heh. He must’ve had hands like the Lizard King. This isn’t a jutsu I’ll be using as a weapon.
The legendary Sannin might have been a flame expert, but his admirer’s secondary element was Earth. It’s never going to be as efficient a tool as wind—it’s slow, blunt… Instead of bemoaning the stability of the ground beneath him, Ari attempted to develop a technique that would take advantage of the fact. He’d often noticed with technique such as Bunshin that he could sense the presence of his clones even when he couldn’t see them. But clones were to fragile and mine are too fast to serve as effective guide marks. Earth, on the other hand, was almost impossible to break. Chakra there would be pretty stable, if it would just stay in one place… It took a while to master the technique of feeding a ‘plumb line’ of chakra down underground before forming it into the appropriate structure, but as time passed Ari’s speed did improve noticeably.
The scroll under the tree included a detailed description of how the legendary Sannin made camp. The author, a Fuuinjutsu specialist, did his best to make the techniques sound as exciting and useful as ninjutsu that could immolate whole armies. It was a noble attempt, though not particularly effective. However, some of the notes about techniques that allowed the Sannin to sleep securely even in less than secure areas were most interesting. There was no way a Genin would be mastering the complicated triggered barrier jutsus described, of course. But some kind of a tripwire… I should be able to do that. Interestingly, it was his father’s Chakra Kyuushuu technique that finally provided a solution—tether energy in one place, have it return when it was disturbed. It was kind of like wrapping a hair-thin lens around a sphere of energy. Kind of.
Finally, Ari sat down to practice with a set of notes on water and earth chakra. The instant barrier of Iwatate no Jutsu was fascinating, if frail. The genin looked up at the large stone heads suspended on the cliff above the village. The shinobi who’d made them had felt the same way, apparently, even if they had almost no talent with water jutsu. Using chakra, they’d been able to simulate the flow of wet earth. It was potentially even better, since using their technique a shinobi controlled the flow instead of gravity. Mostly as a control exercise, he committed to mastering their technique. It wasn’t until he began forming a small statuette of the Hokage in formal robes that the combat applications of the technique became evident. He returned the scrolls to the library later that day, well satisfied with the results of his training. He also borrowed the next book on the travels of the legendary Sannin.
Word Count: 633
Subject: Training Topic #2 
