// A story for Asuka learning each of the academy jutsu. Please take the time to read it. :) \\

*Opening a leather-bound journal, you realize it isn't yours. It doesn't have any unusual markings, and the first few pages don't have anything interesting written. They're mostly explaining what she thinks about her new home in Kirigakure. You realize that the journal belongs to Asuka, and you have a feeling she'll want it back.

Entry 3, Thursday

It doesn't stop raining here... it's always raining. Not that I don't mind it, it's a little soothing, but... it's depressing. Kind of makes it hard to write in my journal, too. I was sitting near a tree, all on its own. I smiled up at the tree, thinking how lonely it must've been, and how I made it happier. But then I realized, that happiness is just an illusion... people aren't happy in this world. Not too long after, I started to fall asleep, before I felt a certain presence. I let my eyes slowly open, to meet up to a strong-looking man, with silver hair and bright blue eyes. "Get off your ass, I'm supposed to teach you shit." He grabbed my arm, and I felt myself twitch. He lifted me to my feet and I gave out a deep sigh, before looking up at him. "So...? What was it you're supposed to teach me?" He grinned and pointed to the top of the tree. "Walk up there." I blinked. He didn't even want to show me how to do it... luckily for me, I'd have studied a few of the basics with my father, I knew how to do it... I've just never done it before. I peered up at the tree, as the rain hit my face, I took a grasp at the trunk, and began to focus my chakra through my body, especially at the soles of my feet. When my foot made contact with the tree, it stuck for a moment, but then slid... Apparently, my chakra didn't hold strong enough. The man just chuckled loud, annoyingly. He explained to me, how the chakra was actually supposed to bond to the tree, acting like an adhesive. I thought it was supposed to just latch onto it, not literally stick to it.

He showed me a few more tricks to it, and told me to try again. So I did, and this time, I took a full sprint towards the tree, hoping to scale the side. My foot made contact with the tree.. and I ran about six feet up the tree, before I had to break from it and land softly onto the ground. I glared up at it, and the tree, once my friend, now became my enemy. I drew my knife and dashed up the tree again, feeling the flow of chakra seep into my feet, I scaled the tree, striking the trunk with the dagger as I scaled it, treating it like I would any opponent. I knew it wouldn't fight back, but it helped me concentrate, if I thought of it as an enemy. Seven feet. I ran again. Eight feet. I slowly scaled the tree after a short while... it felt like hours, but I couldn't tell, it was always dark in Kirigakure. My instructor, whom later introduced himself to me as "Toshiro Kubara" told me that I was pathetic.. He put me down, explaining how he'd learned this after only a few tries, and how it's taken me several. I yelled at him, knowing he was just trying to enthuse me to try harder.. but it also made me hate him. I glared to the tree, after he turned to leave, and made another dash for it. My foot met the surface, and I continued running, until I nearly tripped on myself... I could see the whole village from here. I was at the top. I'd mastered the Wall Walking technique.

Entry 4, Friday

I can't ever get over how much it rains here. I'm starting to enjoy it, actually... But I'll never get over how difficult it is to write in this. He found me again, and smacked me over the head. That -really- upset me. "Stop your writing, you've got work to do" he'd told me. It upset me how badly I wanted to hurt him, but I couldn't. Not because of my skill, but because of how I need to become a shinobi here. It's imperative that I make it to the ranks. He explained to me that he was here to teach me again, this time another one of the basics. He suddenly reached behind me and bound my hands together, then my arms to my sides. I couldn't move and it was extremely frustrating... I was actually starting to get afraid. I noticed how he made the wires tight, enough so that it was literally impossible to move. He told me to escape from them, outright. It started to feel like his first training... telling me to do it without giving me any tips or explaining how to do it. I gave a sigh and started to move and struggle a little, before I had an idea... like I did to make my way below, vibrate my chakra? It could work. I closed my eyes and started to, as the wires started to loosen, but they still held tightly. "Well, one you've actually got a good idea on. Try focusing your chakra around you, and vibrating it all at once. You need to remove all of the wire's bindings, not just a few."

I listened to him for a moment, and started to follow his suggestion. I let my chakra shake off a few of the bindings and he watched me carefully.. I could tell that I was doing it right, because the wires loosened and fell, my bindings having released me. He looked to me and smiled rather creepily. "Got time? I wanna take you to eat somewhere, guess you could call it a reward for not screwing up." I hesitated before nodding to him, letting him take me to some sushi-stall. A woman stepped to the counter, with black hair and a weird grin. "Welcome to Natsuki's Sushi Stall~ What can I get you?" She spoke a little brightly, as opposed to the dark scenery... but this village was starting to grow on me. I liked it. Toshiro-sensei ordered for himself and me, one of each, so that I could try them and see what I liked. I ate each one and felt a little happy, tasting the sweet, the spicy, the plain, they all were really good. Then he spoke to me. "You know, Asuka, you're doing pretty well. Keep it up and you'll be a ninja in no time." I could feel my face flush when he told me that. For the first time in a long while, I actually felt really happy. I felt like a person.

*After going over a few pages, you realised that she didn't continue her training for quite a while. You noticed she took a small break, writing about other things, such as the people, or the atmosphere of Kirigakure. You catch a page that continues her training, noticing a difference in the way she writes them. Maybe she was starting a book?*

Entry 8, Tuesday

I found a place to stay, and I'm really enjoying myself. The people don't outright piss me off, except for a few, and my teacher isn't an asshole, like the one I had in Konoha. Today, I started more training. Picking back up after I slacked off for a few days. Toshiro-sensei found me again and told me I was going to be defying physics again. I just blinked and shrugged, following him as he led me outside the village. We walked for about twenty minutes, finding a small pond, and he grinned to me, creepily again. I learned to get over it by now, he didn't mean anything by it. He told me to walk on the water. Just flat out, walk on it. I figured it was similar to the tree walking technique, so I focused my chakra to my feet, and took a step. And sunk. Right into the water. Lucky me, I left my journal home today, so it didn't get ruined. But I was extremely pissed again.. He let me fall into the water and when I came out, he just snickered like a little kid who played a prank. I pulled out and wrung my clothes dry, and he started to explain the basics of the water walking technique, how instead of pulling it towards me, like the tree walking technique, I had to repel the surface with my feet, to stay afloat. Duh, that made sense. Why didn't I think of it before?

I began my training again, focusing my chakra to my feet, and I could feel it flow around me... I could also feel myself start to hover over the ground, as if I repulsed the ground. It became surprisingly slippery! So I took a clumsy step towards the water.. and I was doing it. I floated atop the water for about twelve seconds, enough for me to turn to him and start to say something, before I just fell right back into it with a splash. When I came back out, he was laughing again, not even trying to hold it back. I wrung out my clothes and hair again, grunting a little, before making my way back over the water, after focusing my chakra, keeping my mind on my chakra and the water, refusing to break it for a second. After I remained atop the water for a good thirty seconds, I had enough courage to turn to him and smirk. "Well, look at that.. I can walk on water, too." He grinned to me and stood back to his feet. "Yep, but now you've only got the more difficult stuff to learn." I walked home that day, feeling great about the fact that I just mastered the water walking technique.

Entry 9, Wednesday

Today was a great day. I spent the morning training, focusing on my hidden techniques, before moving on. When I got home, you-know-who was waiting for me, standing there with his usual grin. He motioned me towards the woods, and I followed. Of course, for anyone else, that would be beyond creepy and I would probably have said no... But he hasn't given me any reason to. When we got deep into the woods, he stopped dead. He looked to me from over his shoulder and asked me where I was from, and I told him that I was from a little village in wave country. He scoffed at me, and apparently knew I was lying. He asked me again, with a strange look in his eye... I didn't want to upset him, so I finally told him, I was from Konohagakure. He nodded a little and turned to face me. Next, he asked my family. My real family. I didn't say anything. He asked again, and I muttered, before saying, "I was.. from the Uchiha family." He nodded and grinned. "That's why you're so talented. I've been watching you, I know what you're capable of." He told me that he had another test for me. He asked me to replace myself with anything in the woods- anything at all. I looked a bit confused, but he explained it was the substitution technique... didn't say a word on how to do it.

As always, he kind of just expects me to get it right on my first try. This time, I astounded him. I formed a single handseal, and focused my chakra around myself and something else, my target was a bushel of leaves. I activated the chakra, and my body was immediately replaced with a cover of leaves, I did the substitution technique on my first try. He probably didn't know that I'd already studied long on this, and even practiced it on my own a few times... But he just nodded and smiled at me. He told me he had another task for me, then, since I'd finished the substitution so quickly. "I want you to appear like me. An -exact- replica." I tilted my head, confused. He wanted me to look just like him? Shrugging, I knew I had to do something, so I handsealed and.. literally nothing happened. I didn't even know how I was supposed to go about that technique. He explained the henge technique to me, and told me how the chakra was supposed to flow. Like a thin sheet, that replicated what I saw in my mind. So I did.

I finished the handseal he showed me, and formed my chakra like he asked me to, creating that sheet of chakra. The layer of chakra turned into a replica... sort of, of him. It had a mangled face. It was my first try, after all! He told me to do it again, and I felt a certain air about him that made me feel uneasy. He was getting more strict... kind of reminded me of my father. I handsealed again, and tried to turn myself into a copy of him, everything looked... decent, I think. But my slender body didn't change its shape- I still looked like a woman. So I tried again, and repeated the process... Almost an hour went by, I think, before I finally got it right. With a handseal, I let my chakra flow into a layer over my body, and imitated his appearance, as I locked it in my mind. I became a copy of him. He smiled and nodded a little to me, and I dropped the henge. "Good enough for today... we'll work again tomorrow." I still felt uneasy after today, but it was a good day, nonetheless. I proved my mastery over two techniques.

*The journal skips a little again, she notes a few pages about how Toshiro left on a mission for a while, and how lonely she was getting. It appears he was gone for about a week, before he showed back up, though she wrote in every entry, none were as long as the days she trained with him.*

Entry 15, Tuesday

He's finally returned! I was starting to get a little worried... my first real friend since I've joined this village, I didn't want anything to happen to him. When he got back, he patted my head lightly and told me that he only had a few more things to teach me, then I'd have to work on my own, with a new instructor. I knew it'd happen, but I still got upset over it. He told me to follow him towards the fountain, and told me he wanted me to look exactly like the backgrounds. He wanted me to use a cloth to do it. I was a little.. confused, but I figured it was like the henge technique, just with a piece of cloth. I took the cloth from him- he provided it for me, and he told me to get started. I shrugged and started to cover it in chakra, just like I would for a henge.. but nothing happened to it. Nothing at all. He snickered and told me it was totally different. One is to create a replica of a person, your entire body shifts appearance.. and the other makes a replica of your surroundings, and makes you appear invisible. He explained to me how the chakra control worked for it, and wanted me to try again.

I took the cloth in hand, and focused my chakra through it, making sure to cover every piece and corner. I glanced behind me and tried to memorize my background, but it apparently wasn't good enough... the picture shown on the cloth looked pathetic. He started to laugh again, and he told me to try it again, and so I did. I began working on my chakra again, flowing it over the cloth, after the remnants of the last attempt faded, and looked behind me to project my background onto the cloth.... it looked much better this time, at least I thought so. But Toshiro-sensei pointed out flaws in it, and told me to fix them. When I did, he smiled brightly to me and told me it was good enough, not many would spot the differences. He told me to go home and get some rest... as tomorrow was my last training day, with two techniques to learn.

*Oddly, when you read the next entry, it doesn't say anything about her training, or Toshiro. It seems he wasn't there that day, it reads in the next entry that she was a bit upset how he told her he would train her, and then didn't show. But the entry after seems to read as the day she trained.*

Entry 17, Thursday

I waited outside, next to the tree, and Toshiro finally came. He sighed a little depressingly when he got close and looked to me with sad eyes. He apologized to me for having missed yesterday, but explained to me that his daughter just passed away. She was killed during a mission, and he had to bury her. Why wasn't I told of this? ... I felt bad. I knew something was wrong when he didn't show up yesterday, but that was his daughter. I couldn't even begin to understand how badly he must've felt... He told me he wanted to finish teaching me the basics today, the two most difficult techniques to learn. I didn't really want to, but I nodded and went along with it. He told me that the first of the two, was the bunshin technique. To make a perfect replica of yourself, to confuse your opponents. I nodded a little, and had no knowledge of this technique before, so I waited patiently for him to explain it.. I didn't even want to try. He apparently knew I didn't know anything about it, and explained to me how the technique was, to create a manifestation of your chakra, that holds a physical bonding... though this form of the bunshin technique couldn't engage in combat, it was nothing more than an illusion.

I began to handseal, and manipulated my chakra, pulling it into existance. When it formed, it shifted and shaped into a creature that didn't even look human... I was way off. Again, I tried, and created a garbled mess of flesh. I wasn't very good at this one. Toshiro-sensei showed me that the way to make it is to feel yourself in the clone, envision yourself as part of the bunshin. I followed his advice, and tried again... still nothing. It was hopeless. But I kept trying. Finally, I made something that resembled human, after a few hours. Luckily, my chakra made this training rather easy, but I still had issues creating the damn thing. After a few more attempts, I finally created a bunshin that resembled myself, except.. the eyes were a little off, and the hair was too short. He told me it was good enough, just to practice it. I smiled and nodded a little, then he told me about the next technique. "Kai. A technique used to purge a genjutsu from your mind."

As soon as he finished saying that, everything... shifted. I noticed the ground turn to water around us, and he smiled to me, a small girl appearing beside him. She looked much like him, and my eyes widened a little. That was his daughter. The moment I realized this, she waved a little to me, and blood began to rush from her nose, mouth, eyes, ears... anywhere that had an opening. She turned into a horrifying mess of flesh, and he looked sad at her, and I fell to my knees... I'd never seen anything so horrible in my entire life. He explained within the illusion, that I needed to break it, using chakra. Push against the chakra to shatter the genjutsu. I tried, and tried... but the girl's remains called out to me, it distracted me. It made me feel pain. Soon after, I felt my own body start to 'melt', and he shouted to me, telling me to fight against it. I screamed as loud as I could, and then... nothing. It broke, and he looked to me, pulling me up to my feet with a huff. I now realized how much pain he was really in... when I went to talk to him after, he barely even looked to me. He told me that was it, that there wasn't anymore he could teach me. Told me to take the entrance exam, to become a shinobi... and then it hit me. He was upset to see me put myself in harm's way as a ninja... he didn't want me to go. He thought of me like another daughter.

*After that last entry, the pages are blank, at least for now. She keeps the journal either at home or on her person, she apparently is looking for another reason to write in it.*