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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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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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