Disclaimer: Still don't own it... Never expect to either.
Chapter 12: Desert Water Torture
Neji would have sighed had he been the kind of person to do such a thing, but Hikaru's constant annoyance at his training requirements was fast getting on the stoic jonin's nerves.
"For the last time Uzumaki, you are supposed to scale the column while the water is going. I'm not going to turn it off."
"But it's throwing me off! How am I supposed to climb if it keeps dragging me back down?"
"Figure it out. The exams are less than three days away. Pay attention to how your chakra and the water are reacting to one another."
Hikaru grumbled as he placed his foot against the bubbling fountain in the center of the pool. Amaya and Takeo were having similar difficulties, not being able to keep their connection to the column as the water interfered. It slipped between the treads on their sandals and would alter the balance of chakra.
It was a vicious combination of the tree climbing exercise where a fixed balance of chakra was necessary to cling to the surface, and the water walking exercise where a constant circulation of chakra was required to remain afloat.
It was ironic that they first learned of this exercise in the middle of a desert.
Amaya, deciding that heeding her sensei's advice would be prudent, simply left her foot against the waterlogged pillar and studied the effects the water had on her chakra.
After twenty minutes, Amaya had realized that Hikaru had activated his byakugan and was simply watching her foot.
"I got it!" Hikaru cried out triumphantly, scaring Amaya from her concentration and into the water.
Amaya crawled out of the pool coughing around a mouthful of swallowed water and gave the exuberant Uzumaki a livid glare.
Hikaru, under the full attention of his three comrades, set about explaining his theory.
"Okay. We've been tryin this like the tree climbing drills right?"
At his teammates' affirmatives, he continued.
"That's what we've been doing wrong! We're concentrating chakra from our entire foot, and the water passes by and alters the rules of the game. If we tried to focus our chakra in higher concentration, but at specific points of the foot instead of the whole thing, the water wouldn't have as much influence on our chakra!"
The blond demonstrated by focusing his chakra through the balls of his feet and his heels as he got in position for his latest attempt. Though it made him a bit more unsteady on the surface of the water, it proved to be the key to counteracting the torrent of water pouring from the top of the pillar.
Takeo jump and started praising the strength of Hikaru's youthful flame before making the attempt himself.
Amaya growled, as she herself had steadily approached that same conclusion.
The rest of the afternoon was spent practicing on holding their flows from such specific points of their bodies.
-ooo-
After a hardy lunch, Team 12 returned to the field of their chakra control torture sessions. Neji pointed to the looping contraption overhead and explained the final exercise.
"You are now going to climb the pillar and onto the track. The line carved across represents the starting line. You are going to do timed laps. It will be necessary to use the skills you have just learned to pull this off, as the water shot onto the course is enhanced by chakra to interfere with your control, much like the downpour on the pillar has. Hikaru, since you seem so thrilled with figuring out the last test, you shall go first."
Wearing confidence like a mantle, Hikaru quickly scaled the pillar and set himself upon the track. He took off like a shot when Neji called his start, and promptly slipped off at the first jet of water.
It took him a minute to recover from his fifteen foot belly flop.
His ungraceful splash earned him a glare from a now drenched Amaya as she stalked past and made her way up the column.
The genin soon learned that the water jets weren't the only obstacles of the track. The eternal looping made one quite dizzy as they raced Neji's stopwatch, vying for best time.
Hikaru was soon grateful for his training in the kaiten, as he had been conditioned to ignore the dizzying effects.
"Alright team, that's enough," Neji called as his young students trudged their way off the pool.
They soon arrived at their hotel and immediately headed for the wash rooms.
Their first night was quite a surprise, as the desert village felt that using precious water to bathe was far too wasteful. Not even Hikaru was tactless enough to question the excessive water usage in the training room. Instead they used steam rooms, fine grained sand, and fairly sharp scrapers to clean themselves.
While it seemed that Amaya and Neji adapted to the curious custom with apparent ease, Hikaru and Takeo often complained about sand in uncomfortable places, but neither wanted to risk pride enough to ask for instructions to proper cleaning techniques.
They weren't little kids after all.
Emerging from the dreaded sweat cell, Hikaru couldn't help but think that failing the chuunin exam would be a good thing. It'd that much sooner that he could get home and take a proper shower!
He swore to never argue with his mother about bath time again.
The blond was startled from his vows when a small hand swatted the back of his head.
"What'd ya do that for?!" he barked at an annoyed Amaya.
"Neji-sensei told you three times now to get dressed nice and get outside. The Kazekage has invited us to dinner tonight. Seems to be the only night he has free before the exams start.
"Gaara-ojisan is havin us over for dinner? Sweet!"
End Chapter 12
A/N: Can't think of much to say here... Um, go forth and watch anime... The moss always grows on the outside of the tree... Life is a Limit Break...
Okay, I'm done ;P
Not the story though, just the random babble.
Bye.
