A Long Moonlit Night--Storm over Suna

Beams of moonlight peered through the spaces between the tall stone buildings that flanked every side of the large Sand Square known as The Sand Forge. The Sand Forge had for years been used as training grounds, and tonight was just another night being used for just such a thing. A dim reflection of light across the surface of the Sand square would highlight two silhouettes, they looked like perfect twins--and upon further inspection it was almost true--one being a Shadow Clone.

Sweat dripped from the nose of the real Shinobi in the Forge, a glint of the moon's light reflected in the drop of sweat before it fell to the sand below. It was Azuma, Naginata in hand...he'd clearly been practicing for hours. Truth was he'd been coming here every night for the past few days and working on a new style...he'd seen the flaws of his usual Fighting Style, its focus on the ability to use it with a multitude of weapons did have some disadvantages, it didn't make great use of individual weapon's strengths. Strength behind each strike was an issue, his form was very fluid but with such a free flowing style it lacked power and force behind it. Azuma wished to fix this, and adapt the style to specialize in the use of his Naginata--his favorite weapon. This new form was solely made for it...

Azuma and his perfect shadow would clash, each strike utilizing the leverage made possible with the length of the handle of his weapon, adding more power behind each strike. This style wasn't as energy conservative as the original Ryutai no Kiba, but the benefits was deemed worth the cost. Azuma breathed fairly heavily...he'd been going most of the night, his clone had also taken a fair chunk of the man's chakra to create...Shadow clones was no fun, really. He'd reach up, wiping his brow, before lowering his weapon, sighing softly. His clone would disperse, and Azuma reaped the rewards of having trained basically twice the time with his clone earning him experience as well. "I think I got that down...but geez it burns my energy...maybe I should work on that refined Shiden technique...can help out."

((366 out of 350 WC Required. Learned Kudakeru Nami ('Crushing Wave').))

Azuma gave himself a few minutes to catch his breath, before he'd take one more deep inhale, and slowly exhale, readying himself. He'd spread his feet, widening his stance a little--extending his palm outward. He'd feed chakra into his hand, carefully balancing how much chakra he used. He was doing exactly what he would do to activate Raiton: Shiden, but doing his best to use as little chakra as possible to form it. Arcs of purple lightning bolted from his hand, but quickly fizzled out. 'I need to put in just a little more chakra...but not so much to defeat the purpose of this...I want the bare minimum needed to form the smallest Shiden I can...' went through the man's mind.

He'd try again. Once more chakra formed in his palm, more arcs of the Purple Lightning would form from his hand. It sparked to life, The Electricity gathered enough to form a tiny orb blazen with arcs. But again it didn't hold, and flared out. Azuma narrowed his eyes. One more time. Chakra formed in his palm, Azuma determined to make it work. He was refining an S-rank Ninjutsu to use less energy and serve a different purpose then just attacking...

The Lightning formed, palm lit with Purple arcs, and soon a small orb formed in his palm from the chakra, gathering, condensing, and holding shape. This is what he wanted, it was stable, but only used a amount of chakra equal to a B-rank jutsu. Figuring he had it, he'd shoot the orb into the air. It would take a bit of time to rise, but Azuma followed it with his eyes all the way up, the chakra reaching the same level of height as the clouds, before bursting in all directions--disappearing into the night sky...he smirked. It was a success, even if it'd take a bit to see the results.

((313 out of 175 WC required, halved by Training Reductions. Learned Raijingu Arashi ('Purple Lightning: Rising Storm').))

Azuma awaited the fruits of his labor, he was low on energy from training all night so the down time was ok. Above the village, clouds was forming...being in the desert clouds would never form so rapidly, it may had been years since the village had even seen rain. The Desert Rogue smiled as his eyes gazed above, watching the moon be blocked out by the clouds as they formed overhead. Soon enough, the roar of thunder echoed across the entirety of Sunagakure...this would surely draw the attention of the whole village, or at least a majority of it, and it was Azuma's doing.

It came...drops of water would fall from the sky, slowly at first, but picking up in intensity within moments. Lightning ripped across the night sky, illuminating the village, and the rain poured. Azuma's jutsu had successfully manipulated the weather local to him, and a storm had now formed over the Desert Village. It'd rage overhead, thunder, lightning, rain, even a hint of wind gusting through the streets, enhanced as it passed between buildings in a near wind tunnel effect. Azuma was proud of this one...

But he couldn't sit and enjoy his handywork any longer. He had one more jutsu in mind for today. But first...some energy. Azuma would grip onto his Naginata and hold it low to his side, using his impressive speed the man would take off for the wall of a building in front of him. His speed was enough to allow the man to run straight up the wall, no chakra required, zipping up the vertical surface with relative ease. As he neared the top he leaped, a flip coming into play as he'd land on the roof of the tall building overlooking the Sand Forge.

Azuma would look over the village from this vantage point, watching as the Lightning would illuminate the scene for brief moments of time. His feet would slide apart, a wide grounded stance. He would push up his free hand overhead, held this hand high with his palm open to the sky, and prepared himself for what was to come. A bolt of pure Natural Lightning came forth, offering its strength, but only to those who could wield it. The bolt of lightning struck Azuma, right at his raised palm, and its energy would flow through his body, using it as a Lightning Rod to reach the building and eventually ground beneath his feet. In this split moment Azuma trapped a piece of this energy within him, and as his hand lowered, his head rose--a freshly energized smile upon Azuma's face--the rain soaked black locks hanging a frame about his features.

He'd use his new found energy and put it to use. He'd go ahead and seal away his Naginata into its scroll, putting the scroll away on his person. Azuma would pull his hands together, forming a single Tiger Seal. This was something he'd been working on for months--scratch that, years...perfecting a jutsu that would push his body's limits to the extreme. Raiton Chakra would flow about Azuma's form, filling his limbs with the energy, the Lightning unlocking the potential of Azuma's muscles. His body would begin to emit arcs of Azure electricity as the aura coated Azuma, the man becoming a human Tesla Coil, the naked eye easily seeing the Raiton Chakra bursting from his seams. He'd done it...Tonight was a successful night of training, months of work, even years had paid off in spades.

With that Azuma would burst across the village, rooftop to rooftop with a level of speed he'd never reached before. This level of speed was near Legendary...maybe not the maximum of Azuma's potential, but for sure reaching for the ceiling. In the heart of a Storm, Azuma could be seen blitzing across the village rooftops, likely seen by many of the villagers, if they could even keep track of him. To most he was a blur, to some he appeared to be teleporting. A true freak of speed. He'd done enough...Azuma was heading home with Lightning at his heels.

((Do I even need to with this one? 679 out of 175 WC required, halved by Training Reductions. Learned Kaminari no Manto ('Cloak of Thunder').))