Learning the Family Technique

Izumi was in the training grounds practicing her Taijutsu. She chose the first training area because it was the smallest and that meant it would probably be the most private. Normally, she didn't care how many people were there because she got so absorbed in her training that she didn't notice anyone else. This time she was actually told to pick a secretish location by her brother. He wasn't very specific about why, but he mentioned teaching her something, so she was already excited.

By the time her brother, Izumo, arrived, Izumi was super warmed up from punching and kicking and jumping all around. She knew some basic taijutsu stuff, but nothing very special. Her brother knew bunches of techniques, but he had one set of Taijutsu that he relied on the most.

"Good morning, sis. Are you all warmed up?" He asked.

"Yep! So what are we gonna do today?" Izumi replied.

"Dad says it's time you learn our family Taijutsu, so we'll be working on that today. I'll show you the basics and you'll have to refine it on your own. Don't worry if you don't master it all in one day." He said with a smile.

"We'll start with the primary style." Izumo began and then went into explaining how the base style, Way of the Dragon, went. Izumi followed his instructions to the best of her ability and eventually, she managed to get the hang of it enough to move on to the next one.


Learned Way of the Dragon Custom C-Rank Taijutsu.

"Good, you've got the basics down." Izumo started. "Now we'll move on to the next one. Way of the Dragon is the base style upon which four other styles are based."

"Four?! I knew Great Grandpa made a complicated Taijutsu, but that's too much!" Izumi exclaimed.

"Yeah, he was kinda crazy," Izumo laughed, "but I gotta admit, it's effective. There's a style for every situation and once master them, you'll be able to switch between them seamlessly."

"So, let's start with the first one." Her brother said. He put his body into a stance. "This is the Wind Dragon style. It focuses on kicking and emphasizes speed. You'll be able to rapidly manipulate the spacing between yourself and your opponent to always stay at the optimal range for delivering a barrage of kicks."

Izumi mimicked the stance as best she could, then her brother moved in. He was so fast with it! She could tell that he was holding back for the sake of training, but even still, his movements were so fluid and swift that he was obviously a master of the style. He started with a kick and Izumi jumped back in reaction. She broke her stance to do it, so Izumo gave her time to reset and then went at it again.

Eventually, Izumi was able to get the hang of moving back to keep her kicking distance while avoiding Izumo's attacks. Then, she started to retaliated with kicks of her own. When she got close enough to landing one, Izumo figured she had that down and moved on to the next.


Learned Wind Dragon a Custom C-Rank Taijutsu.

"Not bad, you're picking up pretty quick." Izumo commented.

This was actually a pretty big deal because Izumi's line of the Shimura family was especially gifted in Taijutsu. They were all Taijutsu fighters and they all picked it up really fast. They could learn other styles super easy but often just analyzed them to win over them with their own Shimura Taijutsu. The Shimura Taijutsu is specific to Izumi's family line of the clan and is why they're sometimes referred to as Dragons, because it's named after elemental dragons.

"This one is called the Fire Dragon. It's based on power and uses punches and kicks. It's generally more close ranged than the Wind Dragon, but it can blend close and mid. You can even use it right after the wind dragon to deliver a heavy blow after covering a distance with high speed. You'll see later on that the combinations are virtually endless." Izumo said as he got into the appropriate stance and demonstrated a few moves.

He motioned Izumi to come at him. After copying his stance and spending a few seconds getting it rightish, Izumi came at him. She tried to attack, but he avoided most everything. It wasn't until she corrected her form that he allowed a blow to land, but it didn't look to phase him.

"Good, your power is about right and you're even aiming correctly. This is the Earth Dragon, your next task." He said, unmoving. It must have been how he took her blow head on without dodging. At least that's what she thought. Her brother might have been strong enough to just not be hurt by her anyway, without a technique. Still, as the hours of the day were draining away, she was getting more and more excited.


Learned Fire Dragon a Custom C-Rank Taijutsu.

"The actual defense of this style comes with training. You won't be able to handle damage as well when you first start. Let's get to it." Izumo commented.

Izumi took to copying his stance. This one was way different than the others. She wasn't positioned to really reach out to far and it would take an extra move or two to get in close enough for a solid hit, as compared to the others that had her starting poised for optimal reach. She had one knee raised a bit because her front foot was only touching the ground with her toes and hardly any weight was on it. Her arms were up in front of her, facing out, with her fists at the same level as the top of her head, which was dipped down a bit. It felt super awkward for her.

Her brother started to grin. He could tell Izumi felt unnatural in this style. He looked the same way to Dad a few years ago. "It's alright," he assured her, "you'll get used to it in time. He then moved in and went through a few basic patterns to let Izumi get the hang of operating in that style. This one took a while longer than the others. He expected as much. By now, though, it was past noon and there was still a lot to go over. He'd hoped to get through everything at least once all in one day. Right then, it looked like they'd go well into the night at their current rate. It's a good thing that didn't bother either of them!


Learned Earth Dragon a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

"Not bad." Izumo said once his little sis looked to be getting it for the most part. "You'll get better at it with time. Don't worry about perfecting it too soon."

The elder Shimura shifted his stance to the next one. "This is the last style of, well, the last basic style of Way of the Dragon. You'll be learning to use your body to ensnare your opponent and lock them into any kind of submission hold you want. For missions against serious enemies, you'll be able to use this style to break limbs with a bit more ease than normal." Izumo went on the offensive as soon as Izumi assumed the stance. She fumbled at first and got locked on the ground before she could even blink!

"Yeah, it can happen that fast. Let's try again." Izumo went at her again, but he was slower this time. He reached out lightly and allowed her an opportunity to counter his moves a few times before he snaked in around her and brought her onto the ground. That's where the real struggle began. He left openings every time he went in for a submission hold to let Izumi get an idea for how to get out of them. That's a response she'd need to know like the back of her hand later on.


Learned Water Dragon a Custom C-Rank Taijutsu.

While this one took less time than Earth Dragon for Izumi to master, she still took a while. She'd spent so much time hitting things hard and when that didn't work, she'd hit it harder! Learning to grab and twist and stuff was super different. When she did get it enough for Izumo to let up, he stood up and created a distance between them.

"Now we'll revisit the Wind Dragon. I'm going to teach you four basic techniques for the style that should be enough to get you through most fights. You'll want to switch between styles and techniques regularly, so there's not much need to have a ton of techniques under each style. We'll start with the basic. This is the Flying Charge. Use it to close distances or, in some cases, increase distance."

Izumo bolted forward and leaped into the air. He aimed his foot forward and Izumi thought for sure he was gonna hit her. She closed her eyes and went to duck, but he whooshed right past her. There was no way she could dodge that!

When she stood back up, she went right into giving it a try. She lost her balance a few times and it took a while to get the jump and positioning right. But she got it eventually!


Learned Wind Dragon's Flying Charge, a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

It took a lot less time for Izumi to get the kick down than it did for all of the other stuff so far. That's because they were all styles that were way different than each other. Now she just had to learn specific techniques for each of the styles. Since she already had the base style down, the moves should come way quicker. That's what Izumo was hoping for, at least. He figured they could spend the first part of the day learning styles when they weren't pressed for time. With how quick she could learn the techniques, they'd be done a lot sooner and never have to worry about stressing over a ticking timer.

"Alright, next is the Spinning Tail Whip. You've probably done this before. It's just a spinning back kick with your heel as the impact point. The only difference is doing it within the bounds of the Wind Dragon to take advantage of the enhanced speed that the style gives you."

Izumi's brother demonstrated the kick a few times. He was slow at first, to show how to do it in detail, and then he went super fast to show how it would be done in a fight and why it was better than just any old spinning back kick. Izumi studied in earnest and made a few attempts of her own before getting the hang of it.


Learned Wind Dragon's Spinning Tail Whip a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

"Good stuff. You're going through these just quick enough that we might still make it home for dinner. Let's pick up the pace, just in case." Izumo said. He watched Izumi finish her last practice run of the spinning tail whip and nodded his approval. Then, he moved on to the next move. "Next is the Rising Shield. Throw a punch at me. I'll show you how it goes."

Izumi grinned a little too big. It wasn't very often that she got a chance to try and hit her big bro without assurance that he'd counter tenfold. She gave the punch her all and even threw in the method of the Fire Dragon style to make it extra hard, but Izumo blocked it with an intercepting kick. He didn't even flinch, even with her extra power boost. "Surprised? The difference in our power is still too big for you to really damage me. This block, though, adds to my defense. Try it out." He dropped his foot after Izumi retracted. She got into the Wind Dragon stance and he threw a punch at her. He didn't add any power boost to it, but he really didn't need to. Izumi knew he was super strong and she also remembered how hard he could hit without even trying.

He moved slow enough that she could catch his fist with her shin using the move. To her surprise, it barely hurt at all!



Learned Wind Dragon's Rising Shield a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

"See? Didn't hurt as bad as it usually does. Now then, this is the last technique for the Wind Dragon. At least, the last one you'll be learning from me. You can add to the style as you go, like Dad and I have. For now, you'll be equipped with the basics as a starting point." Izumo explained. The most important part of the Shimura Secret Taijutsu was the core styles and techniques. Beyond that, each member of the family was encouraged to make it their own and invent new ways to fight based on it.

Izumi watched Izumo demonstrate the final kick. It was the hardest one, but nothing compared to the overall style itself. Luckily, Izumi had pretty good balance for this sort of thing, so she figured she'd pick it up quick. That is until he kept spinning. "The trick to the Flying Sweep is that you keep spinning until you are able to plant your foot onto your opponent's head. You don't have to aim for the head, actually, but it's generally a good spot." Izumo said as he slowed the kick and eventually stopped.

Izumi tried to move her body around without going into the kick so that she could get a feel for it before falling on her butt. She still fell on her butt. After a couple go arounds and Izumo holding her hand through half of it, she eventually picked up on the move and could do it by herself.


Learned Wind Dragon's Flying Sweep a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

"And with that, you've got the Wind Dragon down. Just three more styles to go." Izumo commented with some excitement. They'd be finishing up soon, which was good for him. More importantly, his little sister would finally be able to begin her own Taijutsu journey. She may even end up being some good competition for him in the future. There was still a lot to go over though, so he brought his focus back to earth.

"We'll do the Fire Dragon next. The techniques are just like the style: hard and direct. This one is the easiest and also the most powerful. It's called the Fierce Fist and it really is just a punch with some modified body mechanics." Izumo demonstrated the move a couple of times before letting Izumi give it a try. She did it in slow motion and sped up consistently until she was doing it in full motion. "Nice!" Said Izumo, "Now try hitting me with it." Izumi smirked and threw the punch his way, but he blocked it with the Wind Dragon's Rising Shield. "See? There's a lot of use for all of these techniques." He lowered his leg. "But you've got that down. On to the next one."


Learned Fire Dragon's Fierce Fist a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

Izumo went into the Fire Dragon stance and motioned for Izumi to come at him. She obliged and launched that punch she had just learned, but her brother sidestepped her super kick and went in for a knee to her gut. Izumi flinched and prepared for a heavy hit to her sensitive little belly, but it never came. She was so happy about that when she opened her eyes and saw Izumo's knee still a few inches from her. "Well that's something you're gonna have to get over. Anyway, this is the Dancing Tail. You sidestep your opponent and hit them your knee or your fist. Either is fine.The important thing is the sidestep. It's a pretty good move to use when someone's coming at you head on. Give it a try."

Izumi got into her stance and waited for Izumo to attack. He was too fast! Izumi fell back and almost hit the ground with her butt when her brother caught her hand. "Alright, I'll go slower next time. Try and pay attention." He rushed her again, but slow enough this time for her to get the sidestep off and go in for a knee. He caught it, of course.


Learned Fire Dragon's Dancing Tail a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

Izumo nodded an approval over the maneuver. Really, they were all pretty simple and should be grasped within the first try or two. The fact that she was mostly keeping up just meant that she was an average Taijutsu user. That's how he preferred it, though. That's how their whole family preferred it. People who were born natural geniuses had it way too easy and would never understand the effort one needs to put into things in order to make it far in life. They'll never understand the value of hard work. Izumi would understand that, though. That much was obvious, even now.

"Okay, now we go on to the defensive move. Fire Dragon is a bit different because it focuses on attack. So when you take a hit, you aren't going to use up a limb. You're going to harden your body, take the hit directly, and then use your freed up limbs to counterattack. Watch." Izumo readied himself and motioned to Izumi. She went in for a kick and it hit Izumo head on. She was aiming for his solar plexus, but he moved ever so slightly and took her foot with his ribs. Then he grabbed her foot before she had a chance to move it and took her for a ride.

By the time that was over, Izumi was already shaken up, so it took a few more tries for her to get the hang of not blocking hits with her arms. She got it though and that's what matters!


Learned Fire Dragon's Steely Scale a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu.

"Alright, last one for the Fire Dragon. We're almost half way through these techniques." Izumo said with a smile. Izumi was kind of happy to be honest. This had already been a long day and all they were doing was training. She ran out this morning without grabbing any breakfast. That was a big mistake! She didn't know she'd be skipping lunch and probably also eating a really late dinner.

"This one is pretty simple. You use the Fire Dragon style to launch a barrage of attacks. The way you do it isn't important so long as you stay within the style. What's important is how fast you attack. The Fire Dragon is already a high powered way of fighting. This adds speed to it and that makes it deadly." Izumo explained. "Give this one a try on your own. I think you can manage."

Izumi got into the stance and made her way towards her brother. Once she was within range, she started unleashing all kinds of punches and kicks as fast as she can. Izumo consistently dodged every single one. When he did that, he also slyly moved Izumi's limbs just a little bit every time. He was correcting her in the middle of her attack! That was all it took for her to catch on and get it down.


Learned Fire Dragon's Flaming Fury a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

Once Izumi had calmed down from punching so many times so fast, Izumo moved on to the next move. "Back to the Earth Dragon. This move is called the crunching claw and unfortunately, I can't really show you why. It's designed to break bones through a punch, a kick, or a pincer attack with the elbow and knee. I want you try all three on me and don't worry, you won't break me."

Both Shimura got into their stances for the earth dragon style and closed in on each other. Izumi went in for a punch, but her brother stopped it easily. "Not powerful enough. Pivot your hip with it, just like you do with the Fire Dragon." Izumi nodded and repeated the punch, this time pivoting her hit. It was much harder that time. Then she went in for a snap kick. Izumo caught it and said, "Almost, but you need to thrust with it."

Again, Izumi nodded and tried again. That time was successful. At least it was successful enough for Izumo to have confidence that she could do the rest of the work on mastering that move on her own. He threw a punch and allowed Izumi to catch it with her knee and elbow. That one she got right away!


Learned Earth Dragon's Crunching Claw a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

"Next up is another block. This one is for the Earth Dragon, so you can imagine how well it works. If you do it right, you'll take basically no damage. Throw a punch, I'll show you how it's done." Said Izumo. Izumi nodded and went to punch him. He blocked it with his forearm. 'Again' he nodded and Izumi went in for a kick. This time, Izumo blocked it with his shin. Izumi could feel the pain in her own arm and leg just from hitting him. How effective that move was!

Izumo pointed to Izumi, motioning for her to give it a try. She assumed the earth dragon stance and waited for her brother to make a move. He shot a punch at her, but she narrowly missed it with her forearm block. If Izumo hadn't stopped it, he would've punched her right in the chest. She got back in her stance and he threw another punch. This time, she caught it with the block and she hardly felt anything!

Next, Izumo fired a kick at her and she caught it with her shin, but not good enough. His foot grazed her bare leg and left a scratch. She tried again a few more times before she had it down.


Learned Earth Dragon's Stone Shield a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

"Now that you have the block, let's try the barrage." Izumo started. "This is a lot like the Flaming Fury with the Fire Dragon, but you'll also be incorporating your elbows and knees into this. I'll start off by showing you. Try and block as many as you can." Izumo went into the Earth Dragon stance. It was weird seeing him stand like that. The Fire Dragon and the Wind Dragon and the Water Dragon were so similar to each other and then the Earth Dragon was super different!

Izumo moved forward and started in on the attack. Izumi blocked as many as they could, but her brother was way faster than he normally was with the Earth Dragon. She didn't expect that! A few of the hits got through, but thanks to her using the Earth Dragon, they weren't nearly as effective as they could have been if she was using a different style.

With a nod, Izumo swapped with her. He went on the defensive and allowed her to try out the barrage attack. She started swinging with her fists and her elbows and her knees and her feet as quick as she could. It didn't work too well at first, but she eventually got it down.


Learned Earth Dragon's Roaring Rush a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

They practiced the barrage move for a while longer because Izumi wasn't quite doing so good with that one. If it was just her hands and feet with punches and kicks, she could be able to get it a lot faster. Even though she had already learned the Earth Dragon style, she still felt awkward with it. After all, she had only learned that stuff today! It's not like she was supposed to master it all in one day. That's crazy!


"Alright, that's good enough. You'll need to practice that one a little bit more before you break it out in a fight. You've got the basics. Now then, the last technique for the Earth Dragon is called Wingbeat. It's pretty straightforward. All you do is rush your opponent and hit them with a punch or an elbow. This is designed to close a distance quickly and lead into other attacks."

Izumo demonstrated the move to Izumi by very nearly bopping her in the face with his elbow, but he stopped short just in time to scare her but not actually damage her precious little nose. Izumi nodded her head and pursed her lips. Finally! An easy one!

She copied the move and tried it on her brother. She actually had wanted to stop her elbow before hitting him, but she moved faster than she expected and went too close. Luckily, he caught it.


Learned Earth Dragon's Wingbeat a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

With the rushing distance closing speed boosting elbow punch attack down, Izumi knew all the basic techniques for three of the styles. All that was left was to learn the basic techniques of the Water Dragon style. She started to get pumped again now that she was in the home stretch. It was good timing too. The sun was about to start setting and before they knew it, it would be night time. Training in the dark was no fun, so they had better hurry!

"Last style," Izumo started, "this is the key technique to the Water Dragon. It's called the thrashing thrust and it is designed specifically to close distances. Water Dragon is a very close range style, so this is going to be the most important move for you to learn. If you can use it well, you'll be able to get right up on your opponent and bring them to the ground for submission before they can even properly react."

Izumo demonstrated the move for his sister. She looked at it and thought to have some fun. She went in for a leg sweep while he was running, but he dodged it like it was nothing while still staying in the style! He then tackled her and they went to ground wrestling for a bit before she was able to give the move a try herself. It was pretty simple though once you know the style, so she picked it up super quick!


Learned Water Dragon's Thrashing Thrust a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

"So you know how to get close to an opponent with the Water Dragon. Good. Now you need to learn what to do with them once you get there." Izumo started. His sister figured she could just use the basic style by itself at that point. She could probably muster good enough moves to make that work. But she was learning more and more lately that there really was something to these types of techniques. Back in the academy, she hadn't used much of a style to her Taijutsu. Kanna taught her how much of a difference a style makes. Now Izumo was teaching her how much of a difference techniques within styles made.

Instead of protesting like she normally would, Izumi nodded along and waited for her brother's demonstration. Izumo approached her, closing that small distance between them, and went into the move. He snaked his leg behind hers and flung her to the ground like an old rag doll. She couldn't even fight it! It's like her own body was working against her.

"Get a feel for how it works?" Her brother asked. He helped her up and they went to letting her practice it over and over again until she got it.


Learned Water Dragon's Twisting Torrent a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

It felt super awesome to actually throw her older brother on the ground like that! That was easily the best part of this whole day. Izumo saw this and had to hide his smile. There's no way he could let his little sis know that he was feeling proud of her! She'd caught on to so much in that short span of time. He had to admit that she was pretty good at this. She picked up on the moves really quick. So quick, in fact, that she managed to actually throw him on the ground. Back when dad taught him, he tried for days to put his old man on the ground with that same move. While he eventually got it, it took way way longer than it did for Izumi.

She was still too happy, though. Izumo waved her in, saying, "Try again." This time, he stepped up to avoid her leg and wrapped himself around her and brought her to the ground. "Not exactly how it's done, but this is the Dampening Defense. You prepare yourself to take a hit and use that opening to bring your opponent down. Give it a try."

Izumi retaliated against Izumo's initial slow punch, but he sped it up at the last minute and bopped her on the head! He probably thought she was getting a little too cocky and decided to tease her. It went on for a super long time until she was red in the face. Then, he finally let her get some practice in for the move.


Learned Water Dragon's Dampening Defense a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu

"Haha. Took you long enough, slow poke." Big bro teased. Izumi pouted and squinted her eyes. "You're so mean sometimes!" She exclaimed. Then she stuck her tongue out at him. Before he had a chance to raise an eyebrow, she sucked it back in with eyes super wide. She almost forgot what used to happen when they were younger and she'd stick her tongue out at him. That was no fun. No fun at all. No sir.

"Alright, time for the last one. Looks like we'll be just in time for supper. Last one's called the drowning deluge. It's the go-to move for when you actually get your opponent on the ground. Let's give it a try." Izumo got Izumi on the ground and very nearly instantly put her in a submission hold. She didn't have time to hardly react!

"It's pretty quick. Your turn." Izumi took a little longer to get her big brother on the ground. He kept fighting it! Eventually, he got tired of it and basically collapsed for her. If he didn't let her do it, she'd probably never get the move and they'd be there all night. Next time, he'd have to make it harder, let her learn. In short time, Izumi had the move down and managed to wrap herself around him and twist his arm a bit beyond comfort. Izumo jumped up with Izumi still on top of him and started home. "H-hey! What do you think you're doing?!" She shouted.

"I'm going home for dinner. Looks like you got the move." He replied.

"I-I must not cause you shouldn't be able to walk around like I'm not even here!"


Learned Water Dragon's Drowning Deluge a C-Rank Custom Taijutsu
(Exit)

It was a whole other day now. Izumi had been on a few missions and gotten a whole lot more experienced! She felt like she was doing pretty great for how much time had passed. There was always more to learn though. She had a pretty good handle on Taijutsu. That was especially true after learning her family's specific styles. They were super cool and pretty powerful too. The only problem she had was when people like Hiroshi come along. Punching things is great, but what happens when she has to fight someone that can create an army of themselves? Or maybe they can spit fire or move the ground around? She couldn't just punch those problems away. She probably couldn't punch those problems away.

Izumi didn't have any particular talent for Ninjutsu, but she wasn't totally lost with it either. She learned the basics in the academy and felt like she could probably understand it if she really put some effort in. Up until her run in with those bandits at Mr. Asano's farm and her short spar with Hiroshi, she didn't see any need for anything other than Taijutsu. Now that she knew better, she had to put in the effort. The first thing she wanted to learn was definitely the shadow clone technique. Hiroshi used that one against her and actually put her in a tough spot just with numbers. If he had used any of his actual ninjutsu with them, she probably would've lost. What that led Izumi to though was what might happen if it was her making the clones and they were all using her Taijutsu styles that she learned from Izumo. Now that would be hard to beat!

She'd watched Hiroshi do the technique once, and she had actually heard of it back in the academy. All the other students in her class would dream about performing that technique instead of the regular clone technique for their graduation test. They said they'd make Chunin right away if they did that. Izumi didn't try that. She was good at Taijutsu and it carried her through the academy. So she just did the minimums with Ninjutsu and Genjutsu to pass. That way she could focus on making her body stronger. Unfortunately, she had a feeling that she hadn't gotten quite strong enough just yet.

Izumi made the hand seal for the shadow clone technique. It felt so weird, making hand seals after so long. She did it with Rin's technique back at the farm mission, but that was totally different than this one. She wasn't firing some ball of light this time. She was actually making something! The clone started to form, but it was obviously missing a few parts. Izumi was not one to start all over again and she definitely wasn't going to give up! She kept up her focus and reshaped the clone over and over. It changed constantly until it finally looked right. Izumi finished up the technique and gave it a once over. It sure looked good. But now she wanted to see how tough it was. If it couldn't even make a punch, then that meant she did something wrong and would have to try again. But she wanted something a little more awesome. She wanted the clone to be better than the average clone.

Izumi knelt down on the ground and started rubbing her hand on the rocky ground that was in between the patches of grass. This was another ninjutsu she'd heard about. She hadn't run into this one before, but she had heard plenty about it. The chakra methodology behind it, all that stuff. It probably would be easier to pull off if she had seen some diagrams of how to perform it. Not like that mattered to Izumi! She was on a roll!

There were no hand signs for this jutsu. Instead, she just closed her eyes and focused on the rock she felt with her fingertips. Using her chakra, she began to assimilate it until she was actually made of stone! She stood up, but she could feel her body loosening up. She could've sworn it was rock that she was touching, but what she assimilated turned out to be sand! What good would being made of sand do?!

She shook her head and decided to roll with it. The clone came at her with very basic Taijutsu. It looked like the clone was just like her after all. It wanted to ease into things and progressively try harder instead of going all out right from the start. Izumi dodged the first few hits and then took one. She was mostly curious how it would react with her sand body. She actually ate the fist! Like it went right into her belly! Izumi grinned real big and decided to give this sand thing a go! She held up her hand like she was reaching for the clone to grab hold. The clone moved back out of reach, but the sand reached out further to grab it! Izumi kept her hand out and more sand rose around her and covered the clone completely. It was just as surprised as Izumi was!

She then got a bright idea to try and make the sand close in around the clone. She closed her hand into a tight fist like the sand on the clone was just an extension of her arm. It followed her! The sand basically shrank into a solid rock and a bunch of smoke shot out from inside of it. That was the end of that clone. But at least it worked pretty well!

Now that she had all that done. She went ahead and let the assimilation thing wear off so that she wasn't made of sand anymore. But it was still all in her clothes! That was super uncomfortable. She tried her best to shake it all out and then moved on to the next thing. There was one thing she was dying to try for like ever and she finally felt like she was really ready for it.

Izumi made another shadow clone real quick and then she put her hand to its forehead. She closed her eyes and thought real hard. Super duper hard! Her chakra flowed into her clone's brain and started to scan. Images popped up in Izumi's mind. The harder she focused, the faster they popped. By the time her head started to hurt, she'd gotten to see all of the things she experienced the last few days. She just read her own mind!



Learned Shadow Clone Technique a B-Rank Canon Ninjutsu (200)
Learned Assimilate All Creation an A-Rank Canon Ninjutsu (250)
Learned Assimilation: Sand Binding Coffin a B-Rank Canon Ninjutsu (200)
Learned Assimilation: Sand Waterfall Funeral a B-Rank Canon Ninjutsu (200)
Learned Psycho Mind Transmission an A-Rank Canon Ninjutsu (250)

The next item on Izumi's list was Genjutsu. This was just like Ninjutsu back in her academy days. She did the minimum that she had to and relied mostly on her Taijutsu to keep her moving through the ranks. It got her through basically every test, every spar, and until that farm, every mission. She just learned a whole bunch of Ninjutsu to try and help out with that, but she also felt like she had better learn some Genjutsu to go along with it. Looking at her shadow clone, she suddenly got a great idea for how she might can go about doing that. If she cast Genjutsu on the clone and the clone cast Genjutsu on her, and then she made the clone go away, she could learn twice as many Genjutsu in half the time!

The only bad thing was that Izumi wasn't very familiar with that many Genjutsu. Not a whole lot of people used them, so she didn't hear a lot of talk in the village about them. It seemed like an overall favorite was the one with the feathers. People liked to use that to put other people to sleep so that their missions were easier. Izumi figured that would be good to start with, but beyond that, she'd have to try her own thing.

She made the hand seal for the technique and started focusing her chakra. It didn't work right at first, but eventually she was able to affect her clone to the point that it started seeing feathers fall out of the sky. That must have been an odd sight, Izumi thought. She kind of wished she could see it. But she wasn't totally sure what would happen to the clone if she fell asleep. It might just vanish and then she'd be sleeping away the whole day when she had lots of training to do!

The clone fought the feeling at first and then started to give in. Before long, it was on the ground knocked out. Izumi stopped the technique and tried to shake the clone awake. It was really out! She eventually got it to wake up and continue on with the training. This was the hardest part and she definitely didn't want to try it alone.

Now she had to think of some Genjutsu to use on her opponents. She wasn't a very creative type because most of all she ever did was beat people up. There was a whole art to fighting and it didn't involve the kind of creativity that Ninjutsu and especially Genjutsu needed. It shouldn't be any surprise that the best way she could think of using Genjutsu was to make her Taijutsu more effective. The temple of nirvana jutsu focused on making the opponent fall asleep. So she figured, what if she could make her opponent weaker than they should be? That means she could beat them up easier while they're afflicted.

Izumi started off right away. She was making this up as she went. That means it was pretty slow going. She used the hand seal that she most associated with strength, the ox, and started focusing her chakra. It's a good thing she started with that other technique so that the whole genjutsu chakra focus thing was fresh in her mind. Otherwise she might've screwed this up super bad. Her chakra reached out from her hands as they held the seal and went on to the clone. Luckily, the clone was looking right at the hand seal. If it was looking anywhere else, the technique wouldn't have started and Izumi probably wouldn't have been able to figure out why it wasn't working. The whole Genjutsu trigger thing was still pretty confusing to her.

With the chakra in the clone's body, Izumi started targeting its mind and constructed what she thought would be a good way to try and convince the clone that it actually wasn't as strong as it thought it was. She actually took this a step further. She changed her hand seal to the horse and sent another wave of chakra to alter the illusion. This time, the clone started to feel weaker. She had to confirm with the clone that this stuff was working. When the clone nodded, she started to feel like she was on a roll with this new stuff!


Learned Temple of Nirvana an A-Rank Canon Genjutsu (250)
Learned Demonic Illusion: Weakness a B-Rank Custom Genjutsu (250)
Learned Demonic Illusion: Frailty a B-Rank Custom Genjutsu (250)

Izumi let off with the illusion for a little bit. She was started to feel mentally drained. She had just gone from doing maybe one genjutsu every few months to using three in just a few hours! That was crazy! Her brain was already feeling like it was going to pop. She didn't even want to think about the other genjutsu ideas that were floating around in her head. If she tried too many of them, she might just pass out. There's not much training you can do when you're passed out.

Izumi sat down on the ground. The clone thought that was a mighty fine idea and did so as well. Most of this training was going to be in the mind. After all the Genjutsu, Izumi would probably feel too exhausted for much of anything else. Fortunately, she had the clone to help out. The clone also had some similar ideas to Izumi about what kind of Genjutsu could be useful. It made the dragon hand seal and Izumi, happy that she wasn't having to make this one, made sure to look directly at it. the genjutsu started up. Izumi could feel something was different, but she wasn't seeing anything that might give that away. As the clone molded the illusion into what it was going for, Izumi could feel her heart start to beat faster. This was just a genjutsu. Why was she getting so excited? All of a sudden, she started to feel tired, like her body couldn't keep up with how excited it was getting. She nodded to the clone. That's how they indicated whether or not the genjutsu was successful. All they had to do was guess what the other was going for and give a nod when the feeling hit.


Learned Demonic Illusion: Lethargy a B-Rank Custom Genjutsu (250)

Izumi decided to take a quick break from the genjutsu. They were pretty tough and she was starting to get a headache from them. Instead, she figured she could try some more Ninjutsu. That worked pretty well when she tried it and it didn't give her any headaches? Maybe the chakra control was just easier when it's out in open like that. She didn't have to think nearly as hard, even if she wasn't all that familiar with the technique.

She already knew the body flicker jutsu, but she wanted to try and use it a little better. All she could really do with that one was move one direction and once she stopped, that was it. She didn't like that very much, so she wanted to make a better version that helped her out a little more. She started to focus her chakra on her legs and her feet, just like with the body flicker. She used the hare seal for this one, since rabbits are fast and she wanted to go fast. It makes sense!

Izumi took off with hand seal and she was going really fast. She flew right by her clone and started to release the hand seal, but she started to slow down when she did that! Izumi made the hand seal again real fast and held it while she was zipping around the place. It took a little bit to figure out that she could still only move in a straight line, but at least she could change directions without starting the whole thing up again!

The world was moving by super quick. Her eyes couldn't really keep up. That means she needs more training! But for now, she started to get a good idea with how to use this technique. What if, with all this speed, she went to punch something? She knew that whenever she got a good running start with taijutsu, she could hit a lot harder. It should be the same way with this ninjutsu. Izumi ran really fast right towards a tree and then she punched it. She ran so fast that wind started to trail behind her and she put it all into her fist. Her windy super strong punch put a pretty good dent into that tree trunk, but it stopped her short. She had to stop the hand seal to make the fist and then it used all her momentum up, too.


Learned Flicker Style a C-Rank Custom Ninjutsu (200)
Learned Flicker Style: Impact a C-Rank Custom Ninjutsu (200)