AllHailDago
Rough Tough Creampuff
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!