Chapter 8: C Rank: Protect the Egg!
Two Months Later
Shoryu awoke upon the noisy beeping of his alarm clock to the sultry smell of his mother's pancakes wafting all the way upstairs and into his room. With a sure incentive to get up, the boy quickly got dressed and packed his gear before heading down to his well-deserved breakfast. He'd had yesterday off, though he used this time only to practice his jutsu and form all day with only the essential food, water and rest. Today he'd be back on another mission with team thirteen, but not before his essential breakfast had supplied him with enough energy.
"I spoke to Reizo yesterday," voiced the boy's mother as Shoryu ate. "He said he had something special in store for you guys today."
Shoryu recalled no such promise on their last mission; it must've been something he'd only recently scheduled. "Oh yeah? What's that?" he asked.
"He wouldn't say. He said he wanted it to be a surprise," she revealed.
Shoryu's eyebrows rose in surprise at this development. Whatever it was, the boy was now more eager than ever to see what his sensei had planned for them. He swallowed the last morsel of his sugar coated pancakes before retrieving his pack and heading for the door.
"Guess I'm about to find out – see ya mom!" he called.
"Wait," insisted Yuuko. Shoryu rolled his eyes as his mother strolled over to him and planted an unnecessary kiss on his metal-protected forehead.
"Aww mom," he groaned. She did this every day, and for a teenage ninja he deemed it unnecessary and embarrassing.
"Just be careful out there alright?" Yuuko stepped away from him.
"I will, I will," he said, rolling his eyes again. "Don't worry – like I said before, a child could do the missions we're on right now. We're just doing simple errands until we get stronger; you've got nothing to worry about!"
"Well just be safe."
"I will." Shoryu opened the door, letting the fresh breeze blow at his face and ruffle his unkempt hair into its natural, wavy arrangement. "Bye mom!"
As usual, the boy crossed the wooden gangways of the village for a solid fifteen minutes to reach his destination of the Academy, which during the day also doubled up as a place for Genin and their squads to receive assignments. He wondered what kind of surprise Reizo-sensei might have for them as he traversed the sturdy bridges, enjoying the wind that blew at the village's altitude as he did so. Was he going to teach them a new jutsu, or perhaps a new form of training to make him even stronger? Whatever it was, Shoryu's mind kept him guessing and he walked in anticipation for what felt like an hour before finally reaching the Academy doors.
He entered the standard classroom they'd met at countless times now to find that Kazuya and Reizo were already present, with Ayako joining in behind him ten seconds later. She looked radiant as usual even with droopy eyes that had yet to fully awaken, and today her hair had taken on a shade of purple. Using this, he knew she could use her powers split the colour evenly between red and blue should she ever run out of supplies.
Kazuya looked as glum as always, taking on a bored outlook whenever he wasn't sitting cross-legged in that weird state of meditation he employed. In the last two months Shoryu had hesitantly deemed him bearable, mostly due to the fact that he hadn't almost attacked him like he did back at their initiation; not yet anyway. In fact the two had spoken barely a word to one another in over two months. Kazuya remained silent throughout most of their missions whilst still maintaining an air of superiority whenever Ayako and especially Shoryu tried so much as to speak to him. He acted like this was all too childish for him; like he was better than it all somehow. In many respects Shoryu figured he probably had a right – he'd scored a perfect fifteen in the test and was easily the most qualified Genin to graduate from the exam, despite never actually considering himself a shinobi.
"So guys, how was your day off?" the Jonin queried.
"Eh, it was alright," Shoryu offered, remaining modest about the fact that he'd spent it working himself hard to death.
"Good enough. Ayako?"
Ayako smiled and replied as she forced her eyes open, "Yeah it was good - I helped make clothes with my mother."
"Well good for you; it never hurts to spend time with family," he said sincerely, knowing that he'd be in for trouble next time he tried to spend time with his own family. He still hadn't confronted them since taking on Shoryu and crippling Zakari. "Kazuya?" he dared to ask.
"No comment," wearily answered the boy, never meeting his sensei's eyes.
"Yeah that's what I thought," Reizo laughed. "Well you should look happier, because today we're gonna take off the gloves and give you a real challenge." The Jonin retrieved a handy scroll from his jacket pocket and unravelled it: It was a mission briefing as usual, though the familiar lettering stamped by its title had changed to a prospect far more challenging. "This is a C-rank mission."
Both Shoryu and Ayako were stricken with a look of surprise as Kazuya turned finally to Reizo; clearly even he hadn't expected this.
"Really? A C-rank? But aren't we too inexperienced to do one of those?" checked Ayako nervously. She rationalised her query to try and make herself seem braver, noting that she must've looked like a coward to both Shoryu and Kazuya. "I mean, Genin are usually left on D-ranks for about four to five months before they move on to the C-rank missions. It's only been two months. . ."
Reizo laughed to himself before continuing, "It's alright – those are just guidelines. You and Kazuya had the highest results so it's only natural that you should be able to take on tougher missions a little sooner. Besides, you've got me around, and I've never failed a mission," he boasted.
Over the months Shoryu had noted that Reizo had a comically big ego. He never seemed pompous or a total show-off, but at the same time he never missed an opportunity to reaffirm to them just how great a ninja he was. Seeing Reizo as practically a walking god meant that Shoryu was always happy to hear his sensei's tales and it all assured him that he was in safe hands whenever Squad Thirteen went out on a new assignment.
"So. . . What's the mission about?" he asked.
"We'll be transporting goods to a mountainous region in the north. It'll be a few days to get there, meaning if you include the journey back we'll be gone from the village for just over a week."
Ayako looked around the room, still confused. "What kind of goods are we carrying? I don't see anything," she confessed.
Reizo fished around in his bag before retrieving what appeared to be an egg about the size of Shoryu's head. It was a faded tint of gold in colour, dulled by the passage of time with the occasional darkened blemish colouring the shell. Aside from its clear age there was nothing at all distinctive about it. Shoryu reckoned it was from an ostrich or some other creature that lived out in the wilderness, yet Reizo's claims were far more ambitious.
"Apparently it's a dragon egg," he said.
"What?" came the inevitable cries of astonishment from Ayako and Shoryu. Even Kazuya looked mildly surprised.
"Sensei, aren't dragons just myths? And if it really was a dragon egg then it'd be super rare – you'd be talking at least a B-rank mission for that kind of thing, probably an A," stated Shoryu, with Ayako nodding her head alongside him.
"Well that's the thing; I said 'apparently' for a reason. I don't think anyone, especially the Raikage, is convinced that it's really a dragon egg at all, and there's one other thing."
Shoryu and Ayako leaned forwards in intrigue.
"I've done this mission before," he revealed. Reizo shared the expressions of amazement and confusion on two of his students before elaborating once again. "So I did some research: the request is made by an anonymous client – they just give the money and ask that it be transported to the same spot every year. It's been going on like this for the last ten years with never a failure or even a hitch – the mission is done and the ninja get paid. Back when I did it about seven years ago, the mission was a B-rank, and I'm assuming before that it was an A-rank. I suppose the Raikage realised eventually that it's not really a dragon egg and got tired of assigning such an easy mission to his most elite ninja. That works out well for whoever the client is too since he or she will just have to pay less."
The group nodded in understanding.
"Well it's a C-rank alright, but since it's never gone with any real hiccups I'm sure we'll do fine. I'll use the time to teach you a few new techniques in order to improve your skills too. You've got an hour to pack your bags, after you do so meet me at the shuttles."
"Right."
The three immediately left the building and back onto the walkways of the village's spires each with different outlooks. Shoryu was excited by the idea of travelling so far – it had been his dream to roam the land as he'd stated before, and this mission could provide him with the skills he'd need to do so. Plus the money he gained from a C-rank mission would help fill his wallet considerably. He could see that Ayako was still nervous with the daunting prospect of a C-rank so soon even despite Reizo's assurance, though what struck him most was the look Kazuya sported.
For the first time in two months, Shoryu saw the boy with a genuine smile on his face; not one of malicious patronisation that he'd seen before; he seemed happy somehow, like he'd planned this all along. At first Shoryu suspected that it was merely his satisfaction at being granted something more challenging, though with Reizo's insistence that the mission would be a walk in the park he began to suspect something else. Even as he walked home and packed his things with the help of his mother, the boy's motives still played over in his mind.
It was all down to the fact that it was completely alien to him; he'd never seen Kazuya look anything beyond chastising or silently content, and just now he'd been positively happy. Shoryu packed a pair of spare windmill shuriken and enough food for a week, ensuring that fruit and even his most hated vegetables were on the menu for his meals. If he ever wanted to catch up to Kazuya and eventually Reizo he had to become much stronger.
"So, you're off on a C-rank mission then?" enquired his mother as the boy packed a loaf of bread. "Isn't it a little early for that?"
"Yeah Ayako said that, but Reizo assured us that it wouldn't be all that hard – apparently he's done it before."
But Yuuko wasn't interested in the mysterious mission that concerned the supposed 'dragon egg'; what had piqued her curiosity was something Shoryu believed to be far more trivial. He'd hid it from her for two months for this exact reason, though a slip of the tongue had doomed him to her questions.
"Wait, 'Ayako'? Aww, Shoryu you never told me there was a girl on your squad."
"Oh come on, don't-" he began to protest.
"Do you like her? Is she pretty?"
Shoryu sighed as he buckled his leading sword onto his back, careful not to get his tangled with his oversized backpack. "Yes. . ." he finally groaned.
"Aww, you should ask her out!" she teased.
Shoryu sighed again. Ayako was indeed exactly the kind he'd go for: she was smart, charming, sweet and beautiful, and in the last two months they'd made great friends. He was unsure of whether she felt the same way back, though one strict part of his personal code restricted him from asking her anything of the sort. "Mom, there's a time for romance and there's a time for getting stronger. I'm only thirteen, so I'd say now is the latter."
Shoryu waited for a response for a few agonising seconds before one came in the most unlikely manner. His mother suddenly burst out laughing; was she making fun of him for trying to be mature? He waited for her to elaborate, but the woman simply fell into hysterics, prompting an annoyed Shoryu to press her for an answer.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
Yuuko's laughing eventually subsided as she replied, "Nothing really, it's just that when we got married, your grandmother told me that your father said that exact same thing to her a bunch of times when the two of us ended up on the same squad."
Shoryu's concealed a gasp at hearing such a startling coincidence. Was she just messing with him to try and make him embarrassed? No – why would she? She rarely spoke about his father to him, so anything he could get out of her had become vital to him.
"Wow. . ." he breathed, only now realising how much he must've taken after the man. "So. . . How did you two end up together then?"
"Well we were on a squad together for six years until he finally asked me out on a date. He was eighteen by the time he plucked up the courage."
Yup, deduced Shoryu. That sounds like me alright – give it another five years. For now I've got nothing to worry about.
"Oh, and before you go," said Yuuko as she remembered something. The woman retreated into a nearby storage closet and searched around for a few moments, leaving Shoryu to merely stand at the doorway looking perplexed. "It gets colder up north so you'll need to keep warm unless you want to catch something," she said.
Finally the boy's mother emerged from the small opening with a simple waist jacket in hand, stitched in a night sky blue with a lighter shade trimming its edges. It was roughly Shoryu's size; if anything a tad too big for him, though he liked the look of it regardless.
Yuuko smiled. "Something for the road – call it a late graduation present."
"Whoa." With only another sound of wonder to reply Shoryu took the jacket and threw it on. As he'd guessed, the sleeves were just a little loose, but in a year or two's time he knew it would fit him perfectly. The material was soft on his skin, though clearly tough and thick enough to take a hard time as it clearly had done already. A small patch of colour had faded from its back, presumably from crossing harsh terrain in the middle of a demanding winter.
"This was my father's wasn't it?" he guessed.
"Yes: that was Shoichi's combat jacket," said Yuuko.
"Mom, I can't take something so-"
"Please," she insisted, forcibly fixing the collar with one hand and straightening it with the other. "You must – he'd want you to have it. It's better out there than just gathering dust in some cupboard under the stairs."
"Well. . ." Shoryu considered; clearly the jacket meant a great deal to his mother, and the danger of harming such a precious thing would be constantly weighing over him if he took it. Then again, the presence of odd stitching in three or four places meant the thing was used to it. "Alright," he conceded. The boy took another glance in the makeshift mirror of his spotless kitchen window before noticing something he'd not seen before. On the jacket's right fold an insignia was clearly emblazoned in purple, one he didn't recognise.
"Hey mom, what's this thing here?" he pointed to it. "I never knew my father was part of a clan?"
"He never really spoke about his family very much. I know they were a very small group; he mentioned a few brothers and sisters but I never saw any of them, not even at our wedding. And if they had any kind of special jutsu I know he never got around to learning it."
"Oh. . . it looks cool," he remarked, turning to the door. "Well I'll be off then. Try not to miss me too much."
"Right back at you! You might be all big and tough now but you'll be crying like a baby without my cooking in the morning!"
As the two shared a laugh and Shoryu headed out the boy realised that his mother had been right. He'd have to wing it out in the wilderness and survive on the canned, no doubt over or undercooked crap he'd call food. Being raised by such an overprotective mother meant he'd yet to acquire such basic skills, and any time he could've set aside to learn them he'd spent either in training or relaxing. The absence of his warm bed would also be a problem, but he told himself that walking all day and the subsequent intense training would put him to sleep like a log.
Once again Shoryu headed over to the shuttles that led down to the ground-level on the other side of the village. He'd carried out a handful of missions down there like the aid of farming and escorting traders since his first experience with it, and in that time he'd become fully accustomed to the ride and was wholly convinced that the secure wire could hold another ten tonnes before it dropped them. As usual, Reizo was the first there, waiting for Shoryu in one of the stationary pods.
Ayako arrived a few moments later, followed soon after by Kazuya. Shoryu couldn't help but wonder where exactly the guy lived: his clan and village lay far to the south and he had no guardians as such that the boy knew of. He must've lived in the village; that much was certain. Shoryu supposed that his clan must've paid for his fee to live there in exchange for the money he brought back into their clan for completing missions and the like.
After a smooth ride to the surface the foursome headed out immediately, towards and then through the forest in which they'd looked for colour two months ago and carried out their second initiation mission. Shoryu enjoyed the walk and spent whatever time he could spare blasting off a jutsu into the trees or hurling a shuriken to a faraway target, keeping himself on a strict regimen of training that would help him stay focused even whilst on the move. Kazuya and Ayako exhibited no such methods, though since they were naturally ahead of him Shoryu figured he needed all the training he could get in order to catch up.
Reizo informed them that they'd be on the move for a solid day and a half before stopping at a town named Kateri. Once there, Reizo would gather some more supplies and the group would have the chance to see a different culture aside from that of the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Further up north they'd encounter the village of Hilan, a small hamlet just a few miles south of their destination. On their way back the Jonin assured them that an annual festival would be in full swing at Kateri, allowing them to spend their hard-earned money they'd saved over the months.
The group said little as they walked. Whenever he wasn't spinning a shuriken over his head Shoryu would occasionally talk to Ayako in order to pass the time, and Reizo joined in whenever the subjects of the village or their training came up. Kazuya on the other hand remained completely silent and absorbed in his own world. He stayed at least five paces away from them at all times and ignored any comments made about him.
As a small experiment to test the samurai's iron-clad state of passive-aggressiveness, Shoryu took it upon himself to retrieve the flute he had stowed away in his side pocket. Despite him walking a few yards ahead, the boy's ears pricked up once he heard the melodic whistle of the simple instrument. At an educated guess Shoryu supposed that similar instruments existed back in his own village, as his mother had told him before that his father picked up the flute from a similar place not too far south. The sound must've reminded Kazuya of his home, and as such his expression generally softened up just a little and he grew less bitter as soon as he heard the high-pitched chime.
After walking all day through the northern woods with only a handful of stoppages the sun began to set, so Reizo at last commanded that the group stop to make camp. It was still too early in the day to be going to sleep, though he deemed that they'd made good time and needed the one or two hours of sunlight they had left to practice a new trick.
"Alright," he started. "I'm going to teach you all a new technique today that should help you in your chakra control. You see chakra control can be a difficult thing to master: it's common for Genin and even Chunin to use either too much or too little during battle, and it becomes inefficient – you can waste your chakra and become completely drained in just a few moves if you're not careful, which is something that could get you killed."
Ayako gulped.
"As such, it's best to kick the habit of wasting chakra early, so that mastering how much or how little you put in becomes second nature. I'm going to teach you a method of moulding jutsu called the 'Stream' technique that should help you with this, and luckily all three of you can perform jutsu that are compatible with the move. I'll demonstrate."
As Reizo rolled up his sleeves Shoryu knew immediately what move his sensei was about to employ. He took great care to study it with detail, having only ever seen it once before and being in awe of how powerful it was. The second and most powerful level of the Raikyogan weilded by modern ninja was surely a sight to behold.
"Daimyo Raikyogan!" he cried. Instantly a surge of electric blue washed over the man's bolt shaped markings of his hands and all the way up the tribal signs etched along his forearm. His eyes finally shifted to the same colour, sporting a series of miniature bolts stretching out from his iris and shivering wildly with the current of thunder coursing through them.
"Lightning Javelin! Stream!"
Shoryu watched as the same bolt of lightning he'd seen before erupted from his sensei's palm to fry the flat side of a nearby tree into nothing more than blackened, sizzling bark. Instead of releasing one explosive attack however, the move was thinner and weaker, though it never stopped in its assault. Reizo carried on almost effortlessly blasting the tree with the continuous stream for a full fifteen seconds before finally letting go and releasing his prized dojutsu.
He dusted off his hands, turning back to the group to explain, "The trick is to release your chakra as a steady flow rather than just one explosive burst," he revealed. "Like I said, the three of you each have compatible jutsu: Shoryu, you try it with the Air Slash, Kazuya can try it with the Cryo Blast, and Ayako, use it with the red Shading Jutsu."
Shoryu nodded and took his place opposite one of the many ferns populating the clearing as Ayako and Kazuya did the same at either side of him. The three fell into respective stances, bearing the hand signs of their signature attacks and directing varying forms of chakra to the points of their seals.
"Remember:" reminded the Jonin. "A steady stream – imagine your chakra as a waterfall rather than a water balloon."
With this in mind Shoryu executed the jutsu.
"Wind Style: Air Slash Stream!"
"Cryo Blast Stream!"
"Shading Jutsu! Red Stream!"
Rather than one burst of chakra, Shoryu did as Reizo instructed and let a steady flow of his energy seep from his fingertips, realising immediately that this was far more difficult than merely visualising a waterfall. At first he poured too much chakra into the hand seal, and so he lowered the volume only a touch to find that the force of his powerful wind blades weakened into nothing more than the breeze of a handheld fan.
With this in mind Shoryu concentrated more chakra to the points of his fingers as the Air Slash geared up once again to a far more powerful level beyond his control. The ordeal was agonising; not only did he have to manipulate the amount of chakra to a level finer than he thought possible, but at the same time the strain such a powerful technique put on his body was made unbearable. At such a young age Shoryu had no idea how to describe such an experience, though he'd later come to compare it to 'supporting more than your own weight on a bench press whilst trying to count the exact amount of beans in a jar.'
Once Shoryu tried again to regulate the flow of chakra he suddenly found himself going overboard. He sunk to one knee out of sheer exhaustion and after losing control again the volatile Air Slash slipped from his grasp like a wet bar of soap. Buckets of sweat dripped from his unruly mane of hair and his heart raced inside his chest at close to two hundred beats a minute. To his left, Kazuya looked just as tired as he did, though to his right, Ayako was far worse.
The poor girl; even the first time Shoryu saw her fight he knew that she had a slight issue with her chakra. Either she contained only a small amount within her body or her control was out of balance. Shoryu hoped it was the latter, as it was something that she'd be able to work on, whereas having a naturally low supply of chakra wasn't something any amount of training could hope to correct.
"I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much for your first try," began Reizo. "Ayako you managed about a second and a half. Shoryu and Kazuya, you both managed about two seconds."
Two seconds? wondered Shoryu. One look at Kazuya told him that the samurai's thought process mirrored his own. But that felt like a lifetime! This must be a pretty good technique if just two seconds can wear me out this badly!
Yet Reizo was hardly finished yet; to spice things up for the team he introduced a challenge for the three of them. "Whichever of you can make it to ten seconds, being steady and controlled without stopping once, will get my fee for this C-Rank assignment on top of their own. If none of you can accomplish it during the week we're out here then I'll just keep it for myself."
Reizo relished the looks of motivation on his three subjects as Kazuya immediately pushed himself back to his feet and formed another hand sign. This time he managed only one second from the Cryo Blast Jutsu thanks to his lack of remaining chakra, but even a second near-collapse experience never stopped him from finding his legs again and trying one more time.
"Easy Kazuya – you don't want to go burning yourself out so quickly, especially since I've got more training for you."
Kazuya was about to fire off a third blast before Reizo's revelation demanded his courtesy. Wordlessly he turned back to the raven-haired sensei.
"Actually, it's more like teaching if I'm honest," Reizo confessed. "Kazuya, until I say otherwise you will personally train Shoryu in the art of kenjutsu."
"What?" horrified cries from both Shoryu and Kazuya suddenly frightened off the few remaining birds in the area. The very idea of spending time together was unbearable for the two of them. Ayako almost laughed at the cringe-worthy awkwardness as the two locked eyes in a glare of common resentment.
"Sensei, I really must protest-"
"You don't get to protest Shoryu, this is happening." Reizo interrupted.
Kazuya stopped to object, "Sensei, with all due respect: you really can't expect me to train this talentless idiot can you? Why waste my time?"
"Yeah right!" complained Shoryu. "What makes you think I need training from you?"
"Enough! Both of you!" Reizo demanded, waiting for the boys to be silent for a few moments before elaborating. "This isn't just to be cruel to you both – there are reasons for this decision."
"Such as what?" demanded Kazuya.
"Well first of all, the two of you have been on this team together for two months and you've said barely a word to each other since your first day!" observed the sensei, wrangling begrudging looks of acceptance out of the two. "I figured this would fix itself with a bit of time, but since we're onto C-Rank missions now we'll have to do it the hard way. And secondly, you both could use the practice, Shoryu especially – I'm no good with a sword but Kazuya is from a clan that specialises in kenjutsu; we're killing two birds with one stone here."
"But I don't want to!" Incidentally the two boys shouted the exact same line with microseconds of the other, leading to another loathing glance, as if they crossed a serious line from daring to even think in the same way.
Reizo chuckled. "See look at that, you're agreeing already. And anyway I didn't ask what you wanted – I'm not your father, your brother or your best friend; I'm your teacher, and you'll follow my lead as long as I'm captain of this team."
"But sensei-"
Once again the Jonin cut off Kazuya's complaint. "I'll tell you what: if either of you refuse to do this, the stream challenge will be called off - I'll keep the money for myself."
Immediately Shoryu saw through the hand his sensei had played. It was a sneaky trick to say the least, but he had to give him credit – it was smart of him. Reizo knew that Ayako and Shoryu had made good friends over the last nine weeks, and that friendship would be put on the line if Shoryu refused. Could he honestly look her in the eye again in knowing that he'd potentially robbed her of at least thirty thousand ryo?
"Fine," Shoryu conceded at last. "You win sensei, I'll do it."
"Good, and you Kazuya?" asked Reizo.
For a few seconds Kazuya was only silent as he considered. Shoryu would've staked money on him still refusing, which was why his next words surprised the boy:
"I'll think about it," he said.
Shoryu narrowed his eyes in suspicion; what incentive could Kazuya possibly have for agreeing to this demand? What were the pros? He'd never shown that he cared about insulting Shoryu or Ayako. Shoryu figured that training him would be an insult to his honour or some other samurai moral that he thought was stupid and unnecessary, so why even consider saying yes? Was he really that bothered about winning?
"I'll expect your answer by tomorrow night then," assumed Reizo.
"Okay," Kazuya agreed. "Excuse me sensei."
With only a couple hours of sunlight remaining Kazuya walked off alone to the countryside. Shoryu presumed it was either to train or perform that strange meditation technique that he often exhibited, but on the chance that Kazuya was off to practice the stream technique Shoryu knew he had to do the same. He wouldn't be beaten – not again.
With his latest rivalry spurring him on Shoryu left setting up camp to Reizo and set off into the wilderness to find a spot suitable for his training. After around five minutes of heading west the boy came to a small stream, weaving through a set of rocky banks and surrounded by suitably decaying trees on all sides.
"Here should do," he declared, falling into a sequence of three hand signs. Even since their training missions Shoryu had become so adept at the D-Rank jutsu that he could pull off the Air Slash with just a single sign, though immense control was required for the stream technique, making the whole three necessary.
"Wind Style: Air Slash Stream!"
Just as before, a torrent of countless, tiny wind blades erupted from Shoryu's sign of the bird to lacerate the bark from his targeted tree. Again he struggled to regulate the amount of chakra that came from his palms, resulting in a jutting effect, rising and falling in intensity at every blink of the eye. After another two seconds that felt like an immeasurable infinity Shoryu sunk to his knees again, exhausted from his lack of chakra. The boy quickly realised that there was no easy way of doing this; the stream technique could only be mastered through trial and error; seeing where one had gone wrong and tweaking their chakra only slightly to get used to the fine control.
Once more Shoryu rose and blasted off the technique again, only to find that as he expected, he did far worse due to not recovering properly.
Well that's one thing to remember, he noted. I need to replenish my chakra before trying again – there's no point in practicing when I'm all out. If I know Kazuya he'll keep on going and going without taking a break, but he won't progress quickly if he does that – the only way to win this is to wait between attempts; it's easier to do with a clear head and a decent supply of energy.
With this in mind, Shoryu retreated down to the stream and collapsed onto the bank, soaking his head in the cool water and filling up his flask before downing it in just a few gulps. For a few minutes the boy simply sat and listened to the unseen birds chirping in the depths of the forest. Far off in the distance though, Shoryu could distinctly hear the cry of Kazuya's practicing.
"Cryo Blast Stream!"
A crash of shattering ice broke the stillness of the wind as a flock of birds fled to the skies some half a mile north. Only a few seconds later though, Kazuya tried again; and then again as the tirade of ice only grew weaker in potency. Shoryu smiled; Kazuya had done exactly as he thought – the guy was too stubborn to take a break, even if it would work out better for him in the long run.
After cooling off Shoryu got back to his feet. He still would've preferred a complete recovery, though his heart rate had slowed at least and the water had quenched his thirst. Wasting no time, the boy took his place opposite the same tree.
"Wind Style: Air Slash Stream!"
Again Shoryu's chakra dropped like a stone in trying to sustain the explosive jutsu for more than a half-second. He steadied the flow of chakra as instructed, pouring it from his hands like a waterfall rather than a bomb. After what felt like a lifetime the technique jumped from Shoryu's hands again like a slippery fish, yet something was different this time: he'd held it for longer. Not much longer – perhaps a tenth of a second, though a tenth of a second was vital when faced with such an exhausting task. Whilst he'd still jutted like a malfunctioning vacuum the flow had been far more regular than it had been the last time and he'd ended the jutsu with a little more energy to spare, whereas the sound of distant Cryo Blasts told him that Kazuya had not made the same progression.
It's just trial and error Shoryu, he might be better than me, but I'm starting to get the hang of it much quicker, he told himself. We'll see who wins this time Kazuya.
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Author's Notes: Hey guys, I know it's been a while, sorry about that. I couldn't upload the picture of Kazuya earlier in the week since my scanner has died and I didn't want to post this chapter without it, so it's up now. :) You guys might notice it - I thought a cool thing to do would be to put his clan's insignia on his sword rather than his clothing. He is a samurai after all.
So yeah, you may remember last time that I said I'd make a fairly odd move considering Naruto's universe, which as you probably realised is the inclusion of a dragon egg. Here's the thing: there's basically every other kind of creature in the series and I know the myth concerning dragons is at least still intact - there's a couple of references them like the technique 'Dragon Flame Jutsu' and 'Water Dragon Jutsu', so they have to be based off something that the characters know of right? So yeah there's my justification - it might seem like a weird thing to do but I just wanted to introduce something new.
The stream challenge is something I put in to replace the tree-climbing exercise in Naruto. According the the Naruto-wiki it's another one of the good techniques for learning how to use chakra efficiently, and since the group it just starting out it seems fitting.
Also, I know the whole Shoryu's new jacket scene was a bit weird and it seems a little silly, but when I described him in chapter 1 he's just wearing a shirt and trouser-shorts, but in the picture I drew he's wearing a jacket with a clan insignia on it, so I figured I had to incorporate it.
Anyway, this chapter's late arrival will just mean that the next chapter will come sooner, and since the plot's finally showing itself - stay tuned!