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Who: Sakura & OPEN
When: April 15th
Where: Konoha training fields
Notes: Sakura gets some training in before her mission. Also genjutsu training with Shisui before his upcoming mission.

She'd had a headache off and on this week, and it was either from a lack of sleep or thinking about the part where she fell into a different country in front of that country's self-proclaimed god. On the chance that it was the latter, Sakura had decided to throw herself into training and work for a while until her anxiety over her future as a shinobi quelled.

Despite what it may look like to some villagers, her training did not exclusively involve jumping across rooftops. She was a Chuunin, not a fresh graduate. She spent quite a bit of time also training jutsu, refining technique, and...catching up. She still felt like she was catching up to all the others who were raised with family and clan techniques and practiced favored jutsus while they learned to read.

Shisui had told her to meet him here for genjutsu practice (wide open fields were apparently great for secret genjutsu training), but she'd decided to practice earth jutsu as well before then. It kept her mind clear of worries, warmed her up, and gave her an excuse to be out on the field.

She flourished the blade in her hand and stabbed it into the ground, sending a surge of chakra through it and into the grass. The ground cracked and then peeled away in a jagged line leading away from her. Three, four...five feet long, three wide. The depth varied somewhat depending on the substance of the earth, but...she squinted down at it. Seven? About seven feet.

She could do better. That technique needed work.

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Whatever work the technique might have needed, it was enough to draw Sasuke's attention sharply as he was passing through the training fields, heading towards his usual early-morning warm-up in the more deserted areas away from town. The technique was similar enough to Tsunade's ground-breaking that he stopped in the trees, Sharingan flicking into his vision to judge the path of chakra.

Adela used something similar as well, but not quite as refined. And while lightning accomplished the same thing, it was much flashier, ill-suited for a surprise attack. Definitely interesting.

There were many ways to shatter the ground, to be certain. Destruction was the easiest of the uses of a ninja's jutsu, after all, so it wouldn't have surprised her to know that her technique may have looked similar to others. Even from what little she knew of Tsunade's technique (tales and legends, for the most part) she would have quickly countered her technique was far more limited and less impressive than what the Sannin's attack would have looked like.

Although she was currently training to resist the sharingan, she had none of the observational skills, nor the chakra-reading abilities it provided. Wherever he stood amongst the trees, she couldn't see him. At least, not until he revealed his presence in some way.

Instead, she remained focused on the task at hand. Although re-knitting the ground together did serve as a simple form of chakra warm up and the most basic kind of training, the real reason she knelt down and pressed her hand to the ground, returning the ground to its previous flat state (less grass and weeds too ruined to lay flat again) was simply that it was an unnecessary hazard (and would quickly rob her of any room to train) to leave the ground shattered and split as it was.

Unfortunately for the grass, the ground only remained undisturbed briefly, before she slashed through the air (horizontal this time, little more than a flourish) once more, and sliced through the ground below where the tip passed.

...It was not an artful slash in the ground--it was rather ragged, in fact. That wasn't a surprise, though, manipulating earth chakra without touching the ground to channel it directly into the earth was...complicated and difficult.

That technique needed work, too.

The benefit of the Sharingan wasn't so much that it allowed him to copy jutsu -- after a certain amount of convenience with basic techniques, things tended to get impractical -- as that it allowed him to dissect them much more rapidly than just looking at movements would. The sharpened intent of her chakra was a fascinating thing in theory. With refinement, it would be a useful distraction technique at the very least, a decidedly useful way to combat other earth-natured shinobi at best.

And it was a theory that could easily be adapted to other chakra types. Wind, most easily, if Sasuke had to wager on it, with its smooth edges and flexibility of movement, but even with more stubborn lightning chakra ...

"That last technique," he said, dropping into her clearing without warning and obviously distracted from social niceties by his curiosity. "Where did you get the idea for it?"

She did from time to time idly wonder how a Sharingan user could keep in their memory so many jutsus once they collected many, even if they could observe and copy them easily with the Sharingan...but there never was an appropriate time to ask even Shisui about it. Her training dealt with genjutsu abilities related to the Sharingan, not whatever else it provided. Asking that kind of thing would probably always be inappropriate.

She spun toward him when he suddenly appeared out of the trees, naturally assuming a defensive stance out of instinct (and surprise) rather than reason. The moment passed as soon as she noted the fine features of an Uchiha (and reminded herself that the training area was too close to the village for hostile ninja to arrive without some sort of warning or another), and she let her sword arm drop to her side.

Was that...Sasuke...Uchiha?

No, obviously it was. She knew his facial features well enough to recognize them readily, even if she didn't encounter him often any longer. But...that present the more important question of 'why' he would appear in the middle of her training? Surely a member of Team Hokage had better things to do than observe the practice of a lone chuunin.

She watched him for a curious moment or two, inwardly checking to see if this was some sort of genjutsu. Nothing seemed to indicate that it was...but she eventually rejected the idea on the premise that there wasn't presently any point to the genjutsu, rather than that Shisui couldn't simply make a genjutsu she could neither detect nor break on her own.

"...Hayama Shirakumo-sensei." He was known for using blades of wind in his kenjutsu. It was different with earth, but she was still looking for ways to emulate his chakra-strikes with her earth instead. "His jutsu uses wind chakra, which is...more effective." Its execution was also entirely different, sending blades of wind through the air at the opponent, rather than slicing through the ground underneath the opponent (ideally), but it would be disrespectful and claiming undeserved credit to say that the idea was her own.

The defensive posture was to be expected, Sasuke reflected, given that he'd totally forgotten about common courtesy out of curiosity, and he very belatedly offered -- "I'm Sasuke."

They'd shared a class long enough that he remembered her name (and it was hard to forget hair quite that colour), but there was no telling if Haruno Sakura would be able to pick his face out of a sea of Uchiha; it probably would have been less alarming if he'd introduced himself first. Still, the information matched both his initial assessment of the jutsu's essential structure and the likely source of it. Sasuke had seen Shirakumo's work on a very few occasions, mostly through chance observation in the training fields.

"Is Shirakumo-sensei your teacher?" He strode more fully into the clearing as he spoke, inspecting the damage that the attack had left. A good start, he could see it already, and with more precise shaping of the chakra, perhaps ... more neutrally, he added: "Adapting for earth from wind-based techniques is unusual."

Common courtesy wasn't exactly number one on a shinobi's priority list anyway, she couldn't say she was bothered by that, once she realized she wasn't under threat.

She considered his expression curiously a moment when he introduced himself. Was he introducing himself under the impression that she didn't know him (a reasonable assumption, ignoring her young obsession with him), or because he didn't remember her? The latter was a reasonable conclusion as well, as there had never been any significant interaction or importance to their shared status as classmates in the Academy. She had hardly been the only girl who'd been swooning over him back then, after all, and if he remembered any particular fan of his, it wouldn't be one of the unimportant ones like her.

Ultimately, there wasn't really any telling, and it wasn't important enough to try in more than passing anyway. She inclined her head slightly in acknowledgement. Whether he remembered her or not, she still had to introduce herself in return. "...Sakura." Presumably he'd left off his clan name because it should have been obvious by his name or his face that he was Uchiha. However inadvertent, the casual nature of his introduction provided the opportunity for her to leave off her family name all the same.

"Shirakumo-sensei was my squad captain." Strictly speaking, as a chuunin, she was no longer bound to Team Shirakumo anymore. Even if Konoha rarely gave Chuunin teams of their own except on brief outings, she was shuffled up on missions often enough that it didn't feel right to claim possession of him as her current captain.

Regardless of whether the honorific was already possessive.

She glanced down at the slice in the ground, re-analyzing what she'd already done when she'd first made her strike. There were probably more impressive jutsu she could have been caught performing than the one she was still developing...

"Shirakumo-sensei strongly believes that a shinobi should adapt to fit whichever team they're given." Was that really an answer to his observation and non-question? It was to her, at least. Lacking his uncommon chakra nature was no excuse not to learn from his jutsus.

He hm'd acknowledgement when she offered her name as well, mild confusion (as far as he knew, pink-haired kids weren't a dime a dozen in the village the way Uchiha were) easily brushed aside as he paced the perimetre of the jutsu, still inspecting. Her having spent any significant amount of time under the tutelage of a wind-natured shinobi made sense given the way she'd been manipulating her chakra, even with the palpable tang of earth jutsu in the air.

The deliberate past tense in describing her sensei made sense if she'd made Chuunin, which Sasuke assumed she had by now, though it was clear enough that her sensei's teachings had stuck with her much the same way Obito's blithering about protecting one's comrades had with his team in turn. In any case, more importantly --

"Can I see it again?" He'd made the full circle of the damage, observing the angle of the slice, and stood to the side once more.

Whether or not he remembered her, it made her feel more comfortable to cement the illusion that she simply didn't remember him all that well from her time in the Academy. It...was the best way to save face after the embarrassment she'd subjected herself to over him at that time. When everyone finally forgot about it, including her, it will never have happened at all.

She blinked slowly at him, processing the request. A demonstration...? That...wasn't objectionable, given he was a fellow Konoha-nin, and a member of the Hokage's team besides. It was just a mild surprise to hear from him, since after all the jutsu wasn't finished yet, it lacked any semblance of artistic value, and still had very little combat benefit either.

Ultimately, though...she gave a short nod, and took a few steps back away from the ground she'd just sliced (She could just fix it but it was generally a good idea not to split open and fix the same ground over and over again). "You should step back a bit. The jutsu isn't...very precise yet."

He moved back with a nod, recalling the disaster zone he'd created when first starting to manipulate his less-malleable chakra -- lightning tended to get everywhere in a way very different from fire chakra's tendency to all flow together. Even if he'd seen the jutsu from a distance while passing through, it would make it much easier to see exactly how the shape of it was being molded.

And if it wound up impractical for lightning chakra, then fire would work just as well.

"Go ahead," he said, Sharingan flickering to life. "I won't copy it," not exactly, anyway. "I'll just watch."

Edited 2014-06-12 22:09 (UTC)

It's probably fortunate for everyone that she wasn't just starting out with Earth chakra, or even with manipulating it this way: it was just...early on in her development, not the start. If it were, she probably wouldn't demonstrate it for anyone, because it would be dangerously unpredictable.

She hesitated a moment when she noticed the activated sharingan. Her immediate inclination was to summon up chakra for genjutsu instead of earth...which was probably something she should worry about with so many Uchiha in the village. Although...maybe not, considering the fact that, now that she thought about it, she almost never came across a sharingan that wasn't on the training field (which made sense anyway).

Still, she managed to kill that urge after only a moment, and then gave a slow nod. Right. She'd have some misgivings to an Uchiha copying her technique before it was even finished...but it was easy enough to believe his assurance that he'd do no such thing. It may have been a long time since she'd had any kind of crush or...hang up...on Sasuke Uchiha, but she still trusted him more than she needed to. He was a member of the Hokage's team, though, that meant he was trustworthy.

She nodded, then, and straightened, turning away from the damaged ground to better give her room, and gripped her sword in her hand, working to dismiss any distractions and focus on summoning her chakra and readying the difficult jutsu.

It would be a great show if her demonstration was the first time she could get the ground to do exactly what she wanted it to do. That didn't happen, but it would have been great.

She slashed the air, sent a spike of chakra to follow the path of the blade, and sent the rock and ground bursting outward. At them. Still in a jagged shape.

The pause almost made him deactivate the Sharingan, assuming that she didn't believe him when he said that he had no intention of copying the jutsu, but after a moment she began to gather chakra. It looked like any other earth jutsu at first, the way the form and flow of chakra surged first slowly, then like an avalanche to her hands. To form what was normally a stubborn chakra nature along an element that didn't always like it was particularly interesting.

And impressive, something he hadn't expected to associate with a classmate who had made chuunin long enough after they'd all graduated that he'd lost track of which exam it had been.

Earth was still stubborn, though, and he could see where it was almost lifting away from the sword before it swung outward, the shape of it not quite a clean scythe. He could only imagine how effective it would be with the malleability of wind-natured chakra.

"Your control is excellent," he said, because it was. "It's the last part -- earth chakra doesn't like to be shaped so tightly.

"What's the practical application you intend to use this for?"

She wasn't a genius who conquered ninjutsu in minutes, and her sensei had refused to take part in the frivolous manner many of the sensei of that batch had wanted to rush their genin to chuunin. To her, it made sense why she'd become a Chuunin so much later than the others. Even if she was a slow learner and had much more to catch up on from the start, though, she liked to believe she was still capable of being a respectable and useful kunoichi for the village.

In fact, she was determined to succeed and excel in every way that she could force herself to do so. Which was part of why she worked on forcing Earth chakra to act as her sensei's wind chakra did, despite the basic incompatibility of the two chakras (neither opposing nor in harmony with each other, they were not easily adapted to each other).

She gave a small nod of appreciation at his statement: Chakra control was one area that she had learned to master well so far, but she thought that was no surprise when much of the training she received from both of her teachers revolved around precise chakra control.

"Earth is easier to shape and hold than water. Even if it's harder to force it to shape precisely than wind, sculptures like the Hokage monument can be made with it." For that, she supposed, she was thankful her nature wasn't water. She didn't know how she'd adapt water chakra to do what she wanted with it. It had been discussed that she would need at least one other chakra nature to reasonably become jounin...but she had yet to decide what other nature that should be, other than that she had no affinity for Wind.

As for the subject at hand...she hadn't decided yet if what she needed was a firmer hand, or if she was missing a way to coax it into cooperation instead.

"It's because..." She turned slightly, and stabbed into the ground without hesitation this time. Her sword was a flash of light and metal, charged with a sudden and violent burst of chakra, and through the blade it poured directly into the ground, exploding outward away from them, creating a fissure that was far deeper, expansive, and controlled than the one she'd just made.

It could be improved, still needed to be, in her opinion, but it was a move she'd used in battle countless times and quite functional even in its current state. "This is too limiting. The movements and results are too easy to predict for experienced shinobi, and it's less flexible than the one I'm working on now. If I can achieve similar results without the need to contact the Earth directly, then the situations in which it's useful increase dramatically."

Easier to shape and hold, but very unhappy to be compressed. One of the benefits of dealing with a huge variety of injuries at the hospital was that Sasuke had grown used to the differences between chakra natures -- the way they behaved, the personalities that seemed to go with them, and the jutsu that most naturally suited them. That didn't mean that chakra nature couldn't be cleverly adapted into what appeared to be unsuitable techniques, but it did mean that the shinobi who most often tried to do so also most often ended up needing treatment for burns, or overloaded pathways, or sometimes worse.

At least this technique wasn't particularly likely to engulf Sakura in flames, though it did run the risk of impaling her on rocks on the right (or wrong) terrain. And the second jutsu she demonstrated made it clear that it was definitely a possibility, given the way she could control the release of it when the conduit actually touched the earth.

But the limitations were obvious enough even without her explanations, and Sasuke folded his arms in thought, Sharingan still swirling lazily, watching the last wisps of her chakra dissipate away from the new crack in the earth.

"Have you tried using a conduit other than your sword?" The way Sakura carried the weapon made it clear that she was experienced with it, but there was little point being experienced with one weapon without backing it up with a variety. "Projectiles, maybe. They would extend the reach of your chakra further than your sword for long enough that it could find the earth."

A spray of senbon would have made the technique child's play for lightning chakra; earth might have been less willing to travel through the air, but a more solid conduit might give it enough weight to extend her natural reach.

She was aware of the dangers that were associated with forcing incompatible jutsus onto chakra natures, at least as far as she'd been told and the minor accidents she'd suffered before, but she wasn't willing to allow that to prevent her from continuing her training. It would be too easy to do that with too many things. If pushing herself too far landed her in the hospital, then it was better she discover where she couldn't go when it wasn't necessary than fail when it mattered.

And if she were impaled somewhere no one knew, at least the village wouldn't lose much if it were only her at stake.

She shook her head slightly, placing her hand on her hip. "Projectiles? It would have to be an object large enough to carry the weight of Earth chakra without wavering..." A kunai, perhaps. Senbon and shiruken were both roo lightweight and small: they'd never fly right. Chakra blades were designed for that purpose, but far too expensive and obvious to carry many into a fight.

"I guess it would be an improvement, at least."

"Standard-issue kunai would do it if your control is good," Sasuke said thoughtfully, flipping one of his own kunai out and testing the balance of it with an absent toss. "You can recreate the slashing effect if you extend the shape of your own chakra until the last minute, then release it in an arc from the kunai.

"It's easier with lightning, but here," and he tossed the weapon an easy handful of metres away, lightning chakra crackling into visibility around his hand and travelling with the kunai, extending into a narrow thread of light before he let it break. The chakra coalesced briefly around the weapon, lightning easily conducting through the metal, then sparked apart in a wide arc.

It was no earth jutsu, but it was enough to char the dirt in every direction, and now that Sasuke was thinking about it ... if Tsunade could concentrate her lightning-natured chakra into raw physical strength, maybe it could be extended to distance as well --

But more immediately, he looked at Sakura, waiting for her response. He'd spent too many hours teaching jutsu to Naruto and Hinata not to look expectant now.

She did indeed observe him closely as he worked, curious about lightning jutsu (as, after all, it was the natural nemesis to her native chakra affinity, it was important to know about). The lightning lent itself easily to using metal as a conduit. Earth wouldn't be quite so helpful...but then, it was possible, perhaps, she could use sharpened rocks to transfer the chakra naturally in much the same fashion.

She would have to test that when given time to on her own.

For the moment, the kunai would have to do as practice tools. She paused after observing the scorch mark on the ground, and drew out one of her own kunai. Although earth chakra didn't race along metal as well as lightning chakra presumably did, she had extensive experience making it do so with her sword. Although it wouldn't be as effective a carrier for this particular trick...it should still work...

After a moment's concentration, she drew her chakra into the kunai, then, following after a similar pattern that the lightning chakra made (she lacked the sharingan to see what he actually did with his chakra, so she could only guess due to the nature of lightning chakra's movements) and following his simplistic instructions, tossed the kunai, laden with chakra.

It wasn't completely incorrect. The chakra did indeed transfer, and it was the amount she wanted it to...but her control of it didn't extend properly, the shape and depth of the fissures that shot out from every angle of the kunai were ragged and unpredictable. Useful, but not as useful as the technique where she channeled it directly through her sword into the ground. It was...also not as precise as the other technique she'd been working on when he approached, but it was certainly more destructive and long range.

"...I'll need to adapt it and practice it further before it's much use in battle."

Definitely more of a Hinata-style student than a Naruto-style one, but it was as gratifying as ever to see the thoughtful comprehension as she observed, then turned to try it herself. It was an excellent imitation of what he'd done without the Sharingan's assistance -- he could see here and there where there might have been a more efficient disposal of chakra, but overall there was very little wastage.

Less might even have been more, here, working the chakra along its unfriendly conduit, and the end result might not have been attractive, but it could be adapted. If he thought about it, there were probably even applications for its unfinished form, but he nodded in agreement with her assessment.

"I'd be interested in training with you as you develop it," he said, extending his usual offer whenever he found an opponent or a technique of interest.

One thing she was quite good at was precise chakra control. If she knew or could intuit how much chakra something required then she could provide exactly that, even when she was distracted in the middle of battle. Figuring out how much was required though was the difficult part...

She blinked over at him blandly for a few moments when he extended the offer, and frowned thoughtfully at him. "Do you have the time to...?" After all, someone like him should be busy with all sorts of responsibilities.

Did he come off as unusually busy or something? He'd just stopped to observe someone who was practically a stranger working on jutsu. Sasuke gave her a look askance before striding over to collect his kunai, almost absentmindedly recalculating the shape he'd need to manipulate the lightning into for maximum effect against different substances.

"I make a point of finding time in my schedule to train with tactics that are interesting," he said finally, before belatedly realizing that it might have been a polite attempt to say no.

"Of course, you're not obligated to agree."

Wasn't he one of the clan heirs? Shino and Kiba usually kept busy more than she did, and that had to do with their clans and positions in them. With a clan like the Uchiha, there should have been much more.

She watched him with that same bland expression as he walked, keeping her thoughts carefully concealed. It wouldn't be the first time that she'd trained with an Uchiha...and assuming it didn't get her into more trouble, it would help conceal her training with Shisui if she did. Still...training with Sasuke Uchiha...didn't seem like her place. She was only a regular Chuunin, after all.

Yet, an Uchiha would presumably be one of the best training partners for dealing with chakra manipulation of this nature, and she wasn't likely to get an offer from any other Uchiha. Shisui himself was too busy to split their training time into anything but what they already had.

She settled a hand on her hip. "It doesn't matter to me. If you think it's worth your time, then we can practice it together. It'll take less time that way."

Edited 2014-07-05 13:49 (UTC)

... was that a yes or a no? Sasuke gave her a hard stare, trying to work out if this was something where he was supposed to start applying the rules of clan politics and assume all answers came with several layers of hidden meanings. Unfortunately, there were no context clues from what he knew of Sakura to provide a suggestion as to what might be her actual intent, and a total lack of either Itachi or Mikoto to whom to deflect anything truly confusing.

After a long frown, he finally spoke again, deciding it was on her own head if she couldn't give a straight no to a simple request and wound up wasting her time.

"Very well. What time do you usually train?"

Why did it have to be a yes or a no? She agreed, didn't she? Expecting more than agreement out of her was a little strange to do, wasn't it?

To his frown though, all he got was a patient, blank look, waiting for his response. Whether he was trying to decide if it actually was worth his time, or whether she was supposed to find a way to back out of it and she just didn't understand the language of Uchiha (who weren't Shisui), she couldn't actually tell.

In the end, it probably didn't matter. It wasn't like they knew each other well enough for it to mean very much if she offended him, given he wasn't known for being particularly vindictive (she certainly had heard nothing of that nature). If he didn't want to train with her, he could just not show up. Which she expected would be the case anyway, even if he was feeling generous enough with his time to offer sincerely at the moment.

The answer to his question was some shade of 'most of the time', but...really, she didn't need a partner for most of her training (she didn't need a partner for any of it short of genjutsu, actually, but...that wasn't the point). "I can be here early afternoon most days."

Sasuke was genuinely trying to work out whether Sakura was being polite to a fault or merely passive-aggressive. He'd been interested in her jutsu -- was still interested in it, and its potential applications if she could perfect it -- but he had neither patience nor training to deal with trying to decipher hidden layers of meaning in simple sentences. That had always been Itachi's fate and not his.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," he said finally, unknowingly drawing the same conclusion she had: if Sakura didn't actually mean to train with him, she would probably just not turn up at the appointed time. That would at least be a clear enough answer, however inefficient it might be.

If he was trying to dig several layers under her simple sentences, she couldn't help that. She wasn't raised in a big clan with all of its politics and double-dealing, so how could she know if she were giving off indications that in an Uchiha would mean something else? That was unreasonable of him to apply to her.

She gave him a short nod. "Very well then." She'd probably just train whether he was there or not, given 'early afternoon' was a wide enough term that even if he did choose to arrive, she'd have no idea when he'd choose to arrive for it. And training anyway would prevent her from wasting time if he didn't.

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I apologize for lateness, sudden computer difficulties

no worries, sorry for my slowness also!!

It's fiine~

continued slowness orz

Whoops, where did this come from

outer space!

It needs to come back down to Earth

what goes up

Takes out HBO for unlucky people

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