Turtle Turtle

**Date Started:** August 4, 2019
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Users Involved:** User:Dal101
**Setting**: TBD
**Characters Involved:** Ao Hōzuki

## Training Again

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..." Ao groaned as his back landed in the dirt once more. Staring up at the sky, the young genin looked at the tree above him. He had been practising his chakra control all day, but he still couldn't move like he wanted to, like he felt he should be able to. He had been considered a top prospect at the academy, the Kage trusted him enough that he even had received the ultimate gift from him.

Yet here he was in the dirt once more. The young ninja slowly rolled to his feet, ignoring the stares of the half a dozen of his clansmen that were watching him, watching him to make sure he didn't lose control. Ignoring the soft weight in his gut he had felt ever since the ritual.

*Again!* He thought to himself.

Then he moved, running up the tree as if it was solid ground beneath his feet. Near the top, he leapt off, sliding down the bark of the next one as his feet regained the grip using his chakra. He leapt again to a branch, before leaping once more towards a nearby tree. A target had been laid in his path, mere wood but still important.

Ao smashed his fist into the wooden target, breaking the thin board with his momentum and strength. The loss of momentum from breaking the board proved disastrous. He hit the tree far lower than he had planned, sliding down it again despite his best efforts, hitting the ground below hard, driving the wind out of him.

The young man groaned, anger visible on his face. This had been so easy before the ritual... why was it so hard now...

"Complaining isn't going to help," Ao whispered to himself. "Again..."

And with that, he continued.

## And Again

Another day, another attempt to stabilize his abilities. Ao still hadn't fully recovered his chakra control, or body control, since the ritual. Just how far he had been knocked down stung.

"It's an honor to have this blasted turtle inhabiting my body, but this is ridiculous." Ao grunted to himself. He was continuing to use the trees and his ability to walk up them to train his chakra control.

A pair of heavy rocks were tied to his wrists as he slowly climbed up the trees. As usual, his classmates were watching from a distance. Ready to act in case anything went wrong. The rocks were heavy, almost monstrously so. It took most of Ao's not insignificant strength to hold them up, and was an example of his chakra control to avoid falling off the bark under the weight.

He slowly worked his way, concentrating on keep his flow steady as he went up. Step by step, he slowly conquered the tree. Step by step, he slowly mastered his body once again.

Ao reached the top several minutes later, huffing and puffing under the exertion, the rocks having taken a large amount of effort to life. He slipped the restraints off his wrist, letting the stones fall to the ground a hundred feet below where they sank into the mud.

"I did it... This time." He huffed and puffed to himself. "Now for another." With that, the youth wandered down the tree, before picking up the rocks once more as he climbed that towering oak once more.

## And Again...

Ao raised his arms up above his head as the chop came down, the impact of arm against arm audible as his Chuunin of a senior sparred off against him. He was doing taijutsu training today, fortifying his body and endurance against an experienced opponent.

His foot lashed out at his opponent's ankle, aiming to throw him off balance even as Ao shifted to the side.

His opponent spun away, dodging the foot as a straight kick lashed out. Ao took it with crossed arms, doing a flip as he was knocked away. He pulled three shuriken out of his pouch during his flight, tossing the brace of them as he slid backwards along the wet grass.

The Chuunin pulled out a kuunai as he deflected the thrown projectiles with ease.

"Not a bad combo, but your footwork is too sloppy. You'll have to do better Ao. The clan expects it of you." The man said as he addressed Ao. "Now again."

The young Genin charged forward, running straight at the older ninja. The man threw his kuunai, which the Genin deftly dodged as he jumped into a spinning heel kick. The Chuunin grabbed his ankle, swinging Ao through the air before releasing him.

Ao flipped in mid air once more, not allowing any distance to be made as he moved back in towards the Chuunin. The roles were reversed this time as the Genin's straight punch landed true on the older Ninja's abdomen, knocking the man back.

"That was much better this time, now again." The older man smiled, Ao was now making progress.

## Genbu

*Drip... Drip*

Ao's breathing was the only sound to be heard within the shrine beyond the dripping ofthe water above, a deep steady breath as the youth concentrated. In and out, in and out, breathing almost in rhythm with the water as he focused.

The Genin sat in the center of the shrine, meditating as he sat in a pool of water. Arcane symbols were inked upon his body, and the surface of the pool shook under the weight of the power within.

The Genin was a host to one of the monsters of old, a great beast named Isobu. Sealed into him shortly before graduation, he still hadn't had time to fully assimilate its power and presence. Something that had been painfully apparent to him ever since day one. Between the massive presence straining on his substantial chakra reserves, and the random swings inherent to the beast's displeasure at being sealed, Ao had struggled to catch back up to where he was.

That's why he was currently sitting within this shrine. This was the place where the beast had been sealed, and the place where the Jinhuriki bond was bestowed. Of any place in the world, this is where the seals were the strongest.

This was the place where he would make his first contact with the beast.

A dozen jonin stood outside the shrine, watching the young Genin's first attempt to contact his own demon, prepared to act if he was overwhelmed. It had happened before, they were here to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

Ao ignored their presence, focusing on the here and now, on the water he was half submerged with, the water dripping from above, the water flowing inside his soul. Closing his eyes, he let his mind drift into the water.

He was no longer in the shrine when he opened them, staring across a massive cavern. Water flowed from above, bubbled from below. It flowed and waved, causing the massive sea in front of him to shake and stir. He had entered the world within, a place between the jinchuriki and its beast. This cave was representative of his mind and soul, and within this cave, resided the beast

At this distance, Isobu almost looked small, a giant form chained up in the center of the cavern, stuck half in and out of the water. Massive chains encircled the beasts form, representative of the numerous seals that bound it. Each one was massive, the individual links each dwarfed the young ninja. For most they might seem Overkill, but considering what they restrained, one could almost say they weren't enough.

Unlike the Eight Trigrams seal of Konohagakure or the Iron Armor Seal of Kumogakure, Kirigakure didn't have a single seal capable of restraining a tailed Beast on its lonesome. Instead, nine separate seals worked in concert to restrain the three tailed beast. Each was strong in its own right, but together they were capable of handling one of the largest units of chakra in existence.

As Isobu noticed the young ninja, his slow testing of the seals that bound him intensified, while the sea surrounding him began to churn and roil. It would be impossible to cross while it was like this.

Chakra leaked from Ao's form, bathing the water around him in its cerulean energies. Ao focused on sharpening and expanding his chakra, slowly arresting the turmoil in his inner ocean. A battle of wills between himself and Isobu as their chakra's clashed. While Isobu's power was stronger, it was currently restrained, and the Genin took advantage of this to slowly force the malicious chakra back. He stepped out into the water,

A small Oasis existed in the middle of the storm as Ao forced his way closer to the beast. His chakra wasn't capable of suppressing the full fury of the beast, but it could provide him shelter from the storm. He moved closer and closer to the beast, even as the beast's chakra battered away at his shelter. He was about to reach the center when a particularly violent squall broke his concentration, causing his Oasis to falter and fail.

Ao attempted to regain control over himself as his body was swept away by the rapids. Trying to regain his center, he focused deeply upon his chakra, furthering his attempt to weather the storm. Eventually regaining control, So noticed he had fallen all the way back to where he had started, this was enough for today.

Ao opened his eyes to see most of the water had been forced from the pool, slowly soaking the wood around it. His clansmen had already left as the Genin was waking up, leaving him alone as always.

Ao stood up and stretched his aching legs, allowing his body to recover from the experience before he called it for the day.

## Fire Fighting

Fire was a rare thing in Kirigakure, the wet climate of the town usually preventing all but the most devastating of blazes from catching, let alone spread. On the few occasions that it popped up, the various ninja of Kirigakure would show up and use the cities reliable affinity to water to put out the flames.

Ao had been asked to assist with squelching the flames of a fire at a chemical plant on the outskirts of Kiri. His elders figured this was the perfect chance to further refine his chakra control and proficiency in the Water Release.

While he couldn't use many water-based jutsu at all, and virtually none that were useful in combat, at least yet, he was more than capable of utilizing the abilities to train. His hand seals simply weren't up to par yet to use Water Release in combat.

"Water Release: Stream," Ao announced as he finished weaving his signs. A stream of water gushed from his mouth, joining the numerous others that were pouring on the inferno. The downpour continued or several minutes as Ao focused on continually kneading the chakra in his body to fuel the spell.

The fire at the current part of the factory, the front door, had been suppressed for now. Now it was time for the ninja fighting the blaze to venture further into the factory to fight the fires at their root. Ao rushed in with the other shinobi, nearly a dozen of them spreading around as they entered the smoke and steam-filled interior. Ao coughed several times, breathing soft breaths to avoid breathing any chemicals in too deeply.

This was the dangerous part of the job, the chemicals making it dangerous to be inside of the factory. Most of the ninja covered their faces with a cloth whenever they breathed in, a gesture that Ao copied.

He ran towards the largest section of the blaze, right near the central boiler that had caused the inferno in the first place. Several other ninjas followed him, rushing towards the boiler.

Ao prepared a higher tier jutsu this time, fumbling the hand seals twice before he finally did them properly. "Water Release: Wild Water Wave!" He announced as he finished the signs. Another torrent of water ejected from his mouth, this one easily four times the size of the one that preceded it. He fed chakra into the jutsu like water, creating a torrent that grew with every passing second as he sweated under the sweltering heat of the blaze.

Ao upped his chakra again, attempting to match the power of the shinobi around him, creating torrent under torrent of water with his chakra. The blaze resisted, sputtering around the water again and again as the flames simply refused to go out. But the ninja persisted, dumping gallons, upon gallons, upon gallons on the recalcitrant fire. But persist the ninja did, pouring water until their chakra ran out, switching between each other as they could to keep the flow going.

Ao didn't stop for one moment, keeping up the flow for as long as he could, exercising his high reserves of chakra to their fullest as he continued to use his jutsu past when other shinobi were forced to fall back.

Until at last, the blaze realized that it was beaten.

By the time that the glow faded from the boiler, Ao was in a cold sweat, most of his chakra depleted by the effort of maintaining a jutsu for so long. He reached for the cloth again, taking deep breaths through it as he slowly walked towards the exit.

It had been a while since the last time he had run out of chakra, and it wasn't an experience that he relished. But he had completed his training assigned to him by his elders, and that was what mattered. Personal comfort always took a backseat to the safety of the village and the honour of the clan, and Ao was more aware of that than anyone.

Ao slowly approached his watchdog, one of the Hozuki Jonin in charge of watching over his training who looked at him with a critical eye.

"Did I do good?" The young genin asked his elder.

"Your effort was passable, there is always more work to be done on your performance, but it is definitely passable. Go get some rest Ao, we'll continue your training tomorrow."