Side Stories: Scorched Earth

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Time Frame: A few days after his first mission as squad 7

Moku grimaced as a twig snapped under his foot. His eyes darted around, glaring into the surrounding shadows amongst the forest's trees. He neither saw anything nor sensed any particular chakra usage. Not that his senses were particularly strong to begin with. He let out a soft sigh. Who was he fooling? He had no stealth capabilities. If Anbu, hell, if a basic genin wanted to stalk after him right now he'd be hard pressed to fool them like this. He simply kept walking, keeping quiet out of courtesy and habit more than worry.

He came to a wide clearing in the depths of the woods surrounding the Leaf. Flat ground lead to a lone shadowy stone outcropping. The mouth of the cave was not visible from here, despite pale beams of moonlight faintly illuminating the clearing itself. Yet Moku knew well enough exactly where it opened up. He knew how far it went down, the number of passages within. All manners of information he'd gained through curious exploration when his mom finally trusted him to train here solo.

He crossed the clearing to the cavern mouth in contented silence. He listened to the sounds of chirping crickets and a distant howl of some kind of wild dog. A good night for a moonlit walk. Unfortunately he was here to train, not relax. He walked a few paces into the cavern, footsteps echoing in the depths of the passageways leading underground. Moku took two steps to the left and used Subterranean Voyage.

Taking a large breath beforehand, he slipped into the stone and earth below. He continued sinking like a rock for approximately forty-five full seconds before breaking through the ground and falling straight down perhaps ten feet. He landed with a resounding echo in a lightless space. He stood straight, brushing himself off and lighting the lantern at his hip. He set it into the middle if the cavern floor and looked around warily. He stood in perhaps a one hundred foot across oval cavern deep under the main one he trained on and in. There were no natural passageways here. No ways for sound to escape or his chakra to be sensed without great difficulty. It was perfect.

He reached into the backpack he brought with him and retrieved the scrolls he had been given following his first mission with Sei and Ashi. As he laid out the scrolls carefully he thought about his new teammates. Sei seemed alright, though he really couldn't get a read on her. She was just… sorta quiet he guessed. He didn't really know what to say to her, which was probably most of the problem honestly. Ashi was….kind of annoying. Plus she seemed like she didn't like him, and he couldn't figure out why. He didn't remember having any problems with her in the academy. Also, what the heck was with her constantly messing up his name?


He took out a blank scroll to write his own notes on what he practiced. However he had… issues with getting brushes out without breaking them accidentally. A pile of broken halves laid at his feet, and splinters filled his fingertips, before he finally managed it. He grimaced at the injuries and hoped Umichi-sensei wouldn't punish him for bandages on his fingers next time she saw him. She seemed like she might actually do it when she spoke to him at the gates. Moku couldn't decide if she was terrifying or hilarious based on their outing, and it weirded him out.

Shaking the distracting thoughts from his mind he read over the first few passages from the first scroll. Bits of it detailed the origins of Lava release, created by a couple made up of a man from the Hidden Stone and a woman from the Hidden Mist several hundred years ago. He bit his thumb, a common physical sign of Moku being in deep thought. Being a Kekkei Genkai meant it was only inheritable, even if the techniques themselves needed to be learned or created. Was it… was it possible his grandpa and the old lady were distant descendants of the original couple? If so the abilities had been lost to time on his family's side until now, and the old lady's family had died in the war. This meant if Moku could learn it he'd be the only user in the world at the moment…

The weight of that pressed down on him immensely. He had been right to be so careful about training in secret. Other villages would torture and kill him for the scrolls or his blood itself. He had.. he would have to wait to tell his family until he was comfortable using it personally. His mom didn't really specialize in ninjutsu, and his grandpa was retired. His cousins were all too young or weren't shinobi. He took a deep breath inward through his nose, exhaling through his mouth. Worrying wasn't going to help him progress. Time to get to work.

Scanning the passage about the mixing of chakra natures several times I'm repetition, Moku extended a hand over a lone stone. The scroll said the mixture was a violent yet measured stream of fire chakra and a steady, resolute stream of earth chakra. Glass required a very gentle application of fire over a larger bulk of earth, setting it apart somewhat despite their relation. Moku eyed the rock warily, extending both hands over and around it as if shielding a flame from the wind. He poured earth chakra steadily into the stone, suffused it with his chakra.

Next he grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes as he forced a large supply of fire chakra into the same area and over the outside surface at the same time. He didn't expect the result to be so immediate and violent. The stone burst apart, sending shards careening in every direction. Most patterned off into the darkness, while several slammed into Moku's hands, face, and chest. Blood welled up from a number of gashes along his arms and forehead. He took a surprised and pained step backwards, wiping at the blood that dripped into his eyes. He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a tube of medical cream. Squeezing out more than was necessary on accident he slathered the varying wounds. He grimaced at the stinging sensation, but simply found another stone and sat further away from the lamp. He didn't want to break it and burn the scrolls after all.

Sitting cross legged, he set the new stone in front of him and tried again. Pouring the fire chakra in at the same rate, he tried reinforcing the rock more. His prize was more wounds as that rock exploded. And the next rock. And the next. And so on for hours at a time. Moku became more and more downtrodden and annoyed at himself as he went. He was starting to tire as well. Even for him this was starting to be tiring amounts of chakra use. He laid on his side, exhausted but refusing to give up. He extended his hands and poured a smaller stream of both chakra natures out into a larger stone than before. He could feel himself drifting off to sleep as he expended his last reserves of chakra for the day. Yet it wasn't the sting of failure that he experienced before drifting off. No, this time it was a warm glow and the hiss of steam.

~~~~~~~~

Moku woke to the sound of his own echoed snores. He was surprised at first to not be waking to the sounds of birds outside his bedroom window, begging him for food per usual. But the aches in his neck and the glow of the nearby lantern reminded him he had fallen asleep in the cave. He blinked sleep out of his eyes, wincing at a small point of brighter light a few feet in front of him. He glared at it in annoyance before his eyes flew wide open. Lava! The little rock had become lava! He leaned in closer while trying to figure how he did it.

He immediately regretted the attempt as he was not prepared for the brightness so close to his face, and the heat was comparable to weak fire jutsu. At such a small size?! He tilted his head to one side while he pondered why it worked the last time he tried it. He had used so little chakra that time too. Maybe… maybe that was why? The scrolls did say the combination was crazy violent. Maybe he was containing too much energy in too small a space. It could be possible he just needed to practice on a larger target, or pour smaller amounts into the little stones. He smirked as he reached for another one, setting it a few feet in front of him and to the right of the original.

Setting his hands around it again he poured a small, careful stream of earth chakra in before adding a single burst of fire. There was a small cracking sound and Moku screwed his face up and turned away. When the pain of new lacerations didn't come his face fell slowly back into a relaxed state. He turned slowly back to the rock to find a slowly pooling, bright, bubbling sludge. He stared at it slack-jawed in awe before breaking out into a peal of excited laughter that echoed off the stone surroundings. He'd done it!

With practice he should be able to replicate it repeatedly and on varied sizes of objects! Adapting it to be pure chakra rather than using a solid medium shouldn't prove too vastly difficult, but did present another problem. How in the world would he keep himself or others safe when pouring out large quantities of the stuff raw. The heat would be way beyond his fire techniques. He gathered up the scrolls and put them away. He would read over them in his room and see what tricks the prior users suggested. But before that he'd better hurry home. It was dark in here, but he'd been practicing for hours AND had slept. There was no telling what time it was, and he didn't want to piss off his mom if he didn't have to!

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Time Frame: The night after his fight with Aiko

Moku popped his neck and shoulders as he walked through the forest. He'd done a lot of physical training today, both before and after his…. “game” with Aiko. He couldn't quite get a handle on her. She was rather rude and didn't seem to pay much attention to the words not coming from her own mouth. Plus there was that whole ice thing coming off her the whole time. He'd been slowly working towards a fire cloak himself for a long time, but never considered what a cloak besides earth or fire would look or act like. Based on the results he was more motivated than ever to get his perfected!

Tonight however, that was not what he was here for. No, tonight was another night of training his lava style in secret. He had done so a few times since working out the proper output for a simple lava pool jutsu, but not as much as he'd have liked. A mission with Hideki and Yuuki, helping his family around the house, and an outing with his dad had seen to that. So tonight he'd resume working on protecting himself from the ambient heat of his lava. He'd worked it out enough to allow for the Lava Pool jutsu to be done from a mild distance, but he needed to produce it raw from his hands and body!

Crossing the clearing, he was unable to see the scorch marks from his earlier bout with Aiko in the dark. Though the crunch of his broken clone’s glass remains reminded him of his solo training bout. He smirked and entered the cave to the required depth. Then he used Subterranean Voyage at the usual spot and dropped deep down into his sealed private training cavern under the earth. Unlike before, he was capable of seeing now. In the center of the room was a glowing pit of lava. Producing more than its share of light, Moku had no need for bringing a lantern along now. A handy jutsu usage despite its simple nature.

Rolling out his scrolls a small distance from the pit, Moku reread the self protection section. Apparently it was a retooling of a pretty basic shinobi skill. You were supposed to adapt the use of chakra for water walking to wherever you're producing lava from, usually the hands. It worked as an insulation of sorts. Apparently advanced masters of this technique can create full body insulation and use cloaks made of lava. Moku understood the basics through his own Hearth and Home technique, but having not even produced a fire cloak for combat he decided to forgo trying lava on that scale anytime soon.

Instead he was going to focus on insulating his hands and feet. He figured adapting Fists of Flame and Kicks of Stone for Lava Release would be the best starting point, so this was the first step. He began by using Lava Pool to make a smaller pit than the one he used to light the cavern. While he did so he thought back over his mission with Hideki and Yuuki. It was really nice seeing Hideki again. Moku had missed him and Mai since graduation. Though seeing him in action Moku was doubly feeling left behind these days. Not to mention Moku's crappy mistakes when he led that mission.

To think he'd worked poorly in front of an old friend and the newly met Hokage's son. Moku grit his teeth thinking about the latter and their captured enemy. He couldn't believe the sudden and vicious cruelty. It even seemed to shock Hideki, who was supposedly more familiar with him than Moku. The torture and death was needless… right? Moku bit down in confused frustration, tasting iron as his lip began bleeding. Moku tried finding a more reasonable conclusion to their situation, but admitted to himself most imagined results seemed naive at best.

He snapped back to the matter at hand with a yelp of pain. The lava pool had formed, but a good amount had bubbled over the surface in response to Moku's turbulent thoughts. He back pedaled several steps as the heat of the lava nearing his feet became too much to bear. Having cut off his chakra from the pool it calmed down over a minute's time, either returning to the hole in the ground or rapidly cooling on the cold cavern floor. Moku sighed as his feet and legs took on a cool and clammy feeling due to temperature differential. He had to be more aware and attentive during this training. It was far more dangerous than even his usual fire release training.

He took several slow, deep, even breaths to calm his body and mind. Running chakra to his feet, he began to walk forward carefully. His intent was to first hold his feet over the lava, then slowly submerge them a bit at a time to minimize risk if things went wrong. Worst possible scenario he rushed himself to the hospital (again) and blamed his injuries on attempted fire release training. It wouldn't be the first time he'd ended up there for such a reason. He was almost as much a hospital regular as he was a regular at his favorite dumpling shop. However, he didn't even make it to the pool before mistakes were made.

Stepping onto the cooled lava, he discovered it hadn't actually solidified all the way through. Instead he went slipping and sliding to the side as he shifted his weight in confusion. He slammed into the ground several feet to the side of the pit, an angry and pained grunt escaping his lips. His breathing increased to ragged gasps and huffed of irritation. He punched the ground as he pulled himself up, shards of stone rocketing away into the shadows at the edges of the cavern. What kind of stupid friggin mistake?! He eyed the soles of his feet and the footprints in the cooled lava with anger and disdain.

At least he did at first. Then his irritation bled away into inspiration. He eyed the tracks of his slide across the room curiously. Under his footprints was a mix of cooled lava with a semi liquid consistency, not entirely unlike mud. His feet felt no trace of heet, and he was uninjured beyond a small bump on the head. He wondered if he could… maybe he could create a sort of swift movement technique with this? It'd take a fair amount of practice due to the control needed to steer himself on something so malleable. But the chakra usage and danger to himself and others would be nearly a moot point.

A wide grin spread across his face as he pulled himself back up to a standing position. Not only would it be safe, great for mobility, and minimal chakra usage, it'd also be great for practicing lava production and insulating himself. What a fantastic mistake he'd made! Without further ado he immediately began attempting to produce small amounts of cooled, semi liquid lava under his feet. It worked…. a little too well. Like before he made the mistake of pouring too much chakra out too swiftly. So instead of a nice stream of slippy, slidey, cooled lava, Moku got a huge, bursting bubble if the stuff.

He was immediately tossed unceremoniously from his feet, smacking his head against the ground in the same dang spot! Little dots of color suffused his vision as he sighed in a mental self flagellation. His excitement, much like his anger, frequently got the best of him no matter how often he was reminded by himself and others. These days he was always chastising himself for letting one or the other get too out of hand. Breathing evenly and counting backwards from ten, he pulled himself to his feet once more. He began the process again, albeit pouring chakra out far more thinly than before. The result was a thin sludge-like layer of semi cooled lava under his feet.

Smiling to himself at his apparent success, he tried sliding forward. He managed to get about six inches from where he stood before his feet went out from under him. This time he slammed face first into the ground, letting out a short bark of pain as he felt his nose break. Again. He could smell the iron in his blood as his nose reported serious displeasure with Moku's actions. Shoving himself into a sitting position, he winced in pain. Not the best start, but at least he got the chakra quantity about right.

Reaching into his pack he pulled out a simple white hand towel. He folded it into a thin strip then rolled it up and bit down on it. With one hand he steadied his head, and the other grabbed his nose tentatively. He held his face firmly in place despite wincing and letting out a small groan of displeasure. Seems he broke it relatively the same as he had last time. With a practiced motion, and a louder, stifled yell, he snapped the cartilage back into its relatively normal shape. He'd become unpleasantly accustomed to doing that over the years. He had been told it'd eventually lead to his nose being deformed from repeated breaks, but he didn't particularly care. That issue was completely commonplace in his clan. Heck, by his age his mom's nose was ALREADY deformed like that.

Speaking of, he was supposed to have brunch with her tomorrow. He should probably head back and rest up. Pulling himself to his feet, he wiped the blood from his face with the hand towel and put it back in his pack. He had no real need to clean up beyond that. All his injuries and clothing damage were pretty commonplace in his normal training as it was, so no one who knew him would really question it. He almost slipped again as he stood, but squatting and lowering his center of gravity led to him simply gliding a few feet forward at a slow pace.

He blinked in surprise but broke out into another textbook Moku grin. That was a good first few steps, all pain and embarrassment aside. He began gathering up his scrolls and moved carefully over to the newly made pit. Flicking through a few hand signs, he used Glass Sculpting. Cutting a thick sheet of earth from near the pit, he transformed it slowly into a thick, reinforced glass sheet. He fit it over the new pit of lava just in case someone somehow ended up in the cavern by blind chance. The only thing he could think of that was worse than someone prematurely discovering his Lava Release, was someone getting killed by it accidentally.

With that he made his way back up into the cavern proper via Subterranean Voyage. As he exited the cave he noted the position of the moon and was thankful to find it had only been an hour or two since he'd arrived. Plenty of time to rest before brunch tomorrow. The last thought he had as he entered the forest on his way home was, ‘Man, am I glad no one was around to see all of that!’