Time to get Serious

Two Weeks After Becoming Raikage

Day: 1

The boat ride had been an annoying trip, taking almost six or seven hours even with as fast as he was paddling the damn thing to go. Ever since he became a Jounin years ago, he wanted to come to the Turtle Island in order to get a serious amount of training in. About two weeks ago, he was first named Raikage, but the village Shinobi Council, and a day after that he began to his training regime again. Today would be counted as day Thirteen, once re reached the island and began his days training. Hana, and even his friend Katsuro, was curious as to why he'd be training so hard, after all the world was at it's longest sustained peace, and here he was killing himself in his training.

Even when told them why, they thought he was being paranoid. He couldn't seem to exactly explain why he felt something was wrong but he knew there was, he could feel it in his soul, and it troubled him beyond belief. This is what led him to his current thinking, he was strong but he wasn't strong enough he could push himself further, he could be better. He needed to, he had a Genin of his own now that he had to worry about, and if he wasn't strong enough to make sure they were ready how would he be able to say he tried his hardest.

It was then, that a strange curved looking island became visible in the distance, it was obviously an island, most definitely the one he was looking for. A smirk spread on Achilles face as he continue rowing ready to come ashore and finally get started on what he had planned on doing. He had sent a Messenger Hawk ahead of time, having the side he was going to for the Island care takers to be relocated to the other side of the island for their safety.

Once ashore, Achilles hopped out of the boat, anxious as he pulled the rope with him, pulling also the boat and typing it onto a rather large log, which he assumed was part of a makeshift pier that was destroyed. After doing so, he patted the large scroll left in the boat and lifted it up and strapped it to his back, it certainly saved him from having to carry several packs of things he'd need to live here for the next week or so. It all depended on how much training he could get in, hopefully he would be back sooner, but it was hard telling.

Making his way inland he soon came upon the house he'd be staying at for his duration here, and sighed it looked pieced together well enough. It was a simple one story building, made of wood, all of which came from the island he imagined, though he would have liked something a bit more cozy. This became even more so true when he walked in and noticed the ground was pretty much the same story, all wood, some of which wasn't sanded down really well. There would be many a splinter found on accident while he was here.

Putting down his scroll he began to walk into the kitchen looking for a cast iron pot which was actually easier then he had thought it would be. Grabbing the pot he quickly ran outside where he filled the pot in the ocean water, and brought it back to where he was staying. Using some rocks that were scattered about he built a stone like fire pit where he sat the cast iron pot on top of. Now came the interesting part.

Achilles began to place his hand to the side of the pot and began to concentrate and focus his chakra. Trying to turn up the heat as it were, comparatively to his Raiton and Fuuton training he assumed, Katon would be considerably easier to learn. It didn't seem to be the case, as hours later, he could feel himself lacking a considerable amount of chakra yet, the water hadn't even boiled a little bit. "Ugh, this is not going to be as easy as I had hoped."

He wasn't even close to ready to give up though, as he continued to sit there, stubbornly focusing his chakra the best he could trying to find the source of his Katon element within himself. He knew there was no way he was going to get it as quickly as a single day or training, but it didn't mean he wasn't going to spend every second trying. This became more evident as the sun began to come up, yet Achilles had yet to move from his spot, still trying to push as much Katon chakra as he could through his hand.

Despite feeling a bit tired, he'd continued to do so, until a painful tingling sensation began to hiss and pierce at the palm of his hand. Excitedly he placed his other hand on the pot only to feel the cool iron, confused he pulled up his other hand to see, first degree burns. "Well." Shaking his hand and pouring some canteen water on his hand, "At least I'm on the right track." Getting up, he felt a little dizzy, after having been focusing his chakra since the previous day, he was pretty sure he was near chakra exhaustion, but he got a lot of work in that day.

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Day 7:

After a full week of doing nothing but training, the results were finally starting to become quite obvious, as when he placed his hand up against the pot he could concentrate on his Katon Element and begin heating it. It still took some concentration but he could now, do it, and he was just getting started on the training. True, he was now finally able to actually draw out his Katon Element, now he needed to be able to train it.

Now that required a bit more work, as he needed to use Katon Jutsu in order to train, his affinity for Katon, but seeing as how he had no Jutsu yet. It was a painful and annoyingly difficult process, but he had the first step down, the ability to do it. Now he just needed to be able to do it, with more power, and with his considerable chakra reserves shouldn't be much of a problem for him to preform.

He had been considering a way in which he could practice the strength of his Katon affinity but nothing really sound right. However that evening after taking a shower, the idea finally hit him, it was simple, yet was going to be potentially miserable, at first anyway. Getting out of the shower, he let all of the hot water run into the drain before turning it off completely, and setting it to draw a bath instead. Yeah he was going to be very miserable.

After filling the tub up with what felt to his big toe as ice cold water, he considered backing out, maybe there was another way he could think up training to train his Katon Element. Sighing, he finally stabbed a foot into the water and lowered the rest of himself into the freezing liquid, his face exuded something that looked like pure misery. The water itself, being that it was a deep tub, reached all the way up to his chest, his neck if he allowed himself to slide down against the back of the tub's wall.

Which he began to do, sliding so that everything other than his head and submerged, he began to focus on his chakra once again. Of course with much more difficulty as the cold was definitely affecting his ability to think straight, however it wasn't long before he pinpointed the Katon element and was able to focus directly on it. Eyes closed, he began to focus on it, as he began drawing onto his chakra and could feel himself warming up, slightly that is, and he could feel the water around his hands becoming significantly warmer as well.

The problem as this point was though, he could also feel a significantly deeper drain on his chakra trying to warm up the entire pool of water. It seemed he was also warming his own body up as well, something he'd have to keep in mind and try to develop a jutsu surrounding it. Maybe engulfing himself in fire, would be useful against ice jutsu, or maybe against his good friend Katsuro's Mokuton, as well. Needless to say, he could feel the water around him heat up, but it was using up more of his chakra then he'd like. Seeing as how it wasn't regulated by hand signs, and was simply using his flat out chakra control, which given his large reserves was made difficult.

Exciting the bath, he quickly dried off and put his training clothes back on as he headed back outside, to attempt another way to train his Katon element one of which he hopped would benefit his control more than his power. That's when it occurred to him, why not simply use the regular chakra control method mixed with his Katon chakra control. Quickly grabbing a leaf while he was outside, he placed it on his hand and began to use his chakra to set only the edges of the leaf on fire hopefully burning it slowly, using his control.

That had not worked out well however, because as soon as he started the leaf on fire, the entire thing burned up in a few seconds. "This is going to take a while." Running back out to the trees and plants next to the house he was staying in, he quickly plucked as many leaves as he could and brought them back to where he was training. The first dozen or so, was of a similar result to the first one he had tried the chakra control technique on, they had started and quickly flushed through into ash.

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Day 8:

A smile wide across his face, Achilles grabbed a leaf and began to spark the edges of it, but not allow it go to any further then that. While doing so he began to make a bowl of ramen, which after pouring the water in, simply placed his hand on the pot and heated using his bare hands. It may have taken him nearly every waking moment in the past seven or eight days, he couldn't really remember by this point, but he was sure he had finished his Katon training. Next was attempt to create a jutsu using his new mastered affinity.

Though he wasn't going to be able to master the jutsu he was more just going to get it started, and he already had a good idea for it. He thought back to his assassination jutsu, The Raiton Strike, and thought he would do something similar though, it wouldn't have as big a drawback instead it would just be a simple straight forward attack. First he needed to make a combination of hand signs that would work well enough to control his chakra.

After spending about thirty minutes to an hour working on combinations, he finally found one that worked and gave him the right amount of chakra to give a control yet, strong attack. "Rabbit, Monkey, Ox," After charging his chakra he could feel both of his hands heat up quickly then explode in fire as they became surrounded by a red looking chakra. It didn't hurt or burn him but he could still feel the heat coming off of them, as he felt the fire pulse around his hands. Testing out his idea, he punched forward like he would in normal combat, smiling as a small ball of fire went with the punch before smashing into the side of a rock.

The fire had hit against the rock and after flashing in a circle pattern dissipated into nothing, it was gone. It wasn't a bad first attempt, though the power was low, he would need to channel more chakra into it for the next attempt, however at the moment he noticed he still have some chakra in his fists. Curious about something, he began to fire rapidly, at first through the usual punches which became quicker, and seemed to fire with more condensed power, as the rock he hit the first time was beginning to scorch.

Then he started to try some swiping movements like he was throwing a kunai or a shuriken, and true enough it worked. They even shot off like the weapons he was imagining, perhaps the jutsu he had developed somehow manipulated it's shape into whatever he was imagining while he threw the chakra forward. Shape manipulation in a long range jutsu like this, could be an extremely valuable weapon, and quite a dangerous jutsu as well. The drawback he began to notice, though it wasn't much of one, was that it seemed to be an activated technique.

Once he turned on the jutsu he could fire until he was out of chakra, as he was still going, but he could feel the tug on his reserves whenever he fired out an attack. Testing the idea once more, he concentrated on the "Ram" hand sign, and his jutsu released, leaving his hands back to normal without fire covering them any longer. Smiling at his discovery as well, as the beginning of a very handy little jutsu, he began to walk back to the house he had been staying at the past week.

Walking in he grabbed a canteen and began to chug some water from it as he began to wander about a bit. He had done what he set out to do, but he still had a good six days left to train. He would need to sit down and work on that jutsu, as it doesn't really require physical work anymore other than to just perfect it, which he could do easy enough. Though there were a few other things he could work on, he supposed.

"I could always work on my reserves." He tapped the canteen lid against his lips a few times as he considered the thought. Tapping whatever was in his hand against his lips seemed to be a habit of his, whenever he was in a process of deep thought. It didn't matter much at the moment though as he was taken out of his thoughts by a loud bellowing thunder that echoed overhead, it was trying to rain it appeared.

That wasn't all though, as he looked out into the distance and saw what appeared to be some kind of figure heading his way. It would be a while before it got to him, maybe it was someone coming out to grab him, he'd hoped there wasn't some kind of incident at the village. Though if there was they likely would have sent a Messenger Hawk instead of a person. Grabbing his canteen again, after dropping it from the thunder, he hoped up on the log he tied his boat to, and began to watch the horizon.

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Hana had been questioning why Raiki was training so hard after all this time, he was already one of the strongest known ninjas of their land and she could only assume he was one of the strongest among the others. She couldn’t assume of course as she hadn’t received any information about the others via her anbu squads. She was notified of where the man who had put her on the straight and narrow was now at which was a island a fair bit off as she was contemplating what means she should arrive by. swimming was always a hassle but an activity that was well worth. The boat ride was the easiest manner by which she could show up. But first I should get something for him, purely as a platonic relationship between anbu captain and Kage …. yeah It was a lie that she didn’t shirk her own duties by telling the anbu to keep watch as she went to make sure that the kage was specifically ok. She knew that no assassinations would have been able to make it in such time but she wanted to see him.

Walking over to a small dock with a man whose legs were dangling off the end beside a small row boat that looked like it was going to collapse but perhaps she could get there without getting herself soaked. ”Excuse me sir how much for the boat,” she asked quite politely as she was a bit more friendly without alcohol in her system. Pulling out her wallet that contained a few hundred ryo holding out one he smiled and grabbed and kissed it running off the doc presumably leaving the boat now in her capable hands. “That wasn’t exactly what I was planning on paying him, but ok I guess that works as well.”  Walking to the end she peered down at the boat that was hardly floating above the water and inside were two paddles that had been wedged into two large hole to keep it from sinking. Sighing she had realized that she had been swindled, Luckily that was change she could live without and if she really wanted that ryo back she could have caught the man easy enough and taken it back.

Instead of risking the sinking of the boat she rolled up her pant legs slipping the sandel’s off her feet. PIcking them up and weaving the straps between her fingers she would hold them in her hands in a flipper like manner and dipped her big toe into the water causing a slight shiver to course through her body. ”Ugh this is the worst idea you have ever had. I guess I won’t be bringing him dinner then.” Knowing it would all get cold she would sit down real quick and gobble up the four containers of noodles she had packed. Wolfing down the food in due time she then plopped them down in the boat so she had nothing extra slowing her down. Taking her position upon the dock she raised both hands above her head before diving into the water performing a breaststroke all the way to the island. She had to cough up a few mouthful of waters here and there but she would have made it there in relatively good time.

Raiki would be able to see a figure that was cutting through the water with slight ease as Hana approached standing up no on the shore line. Her usual outfit dripping wet now along with the soggy mop of hair as she began to make her way up to the boat and log that the Raikage was on, “Permission to come ashore?” The wet and shivering hana began to stretch out her arms as the swim wasn’t a minor exercises. Soaking she would part the hair that was over her face to look at Raiki.

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Once the figure had begun to close in on the shore it was rather obvious as to who it was, after all there were few people he knew of that had the Bright Silvery hair, and the long pleasing body, that he'd seen swim there way to him. By the time they had reached the shore itself, it just gave him total confirmation, which caused the tired man to smile brightly, especially considering the fact she would be wet from the ocean. Taking a moment to look over the buxom beauty as she began to climb back up to her feet, he was almost unable to think, until her shivering took him out of his thoughts, "Of course Hime".

Hopping off of his log that he'd been casually sitting on while he gazed out to the ocean waiting for the figure to reach shore, he wished he'd had his coat with him. At least if he had, he could give it to her, to help her with the cold she was no doubt feeling from the chilling water. There was a reason he had decided not to attempt Water Walking all the way here, even despite his immense Chakra he didn't want to risk having to swim in it.

Leading her to the house and camp area he had been staying at for the duration of his personal training he stepped over to the fire pit he made, what seemed like forever ago at this point. Holding a finger out from his mouth he blew out causing a stream of small fire to escape his lips and set the tinder ablaze. He was sure that would be a surprise to Hana, as his only documented Element Affinities were Raiton and Fuuton. Learning a Third Release was no mere accomplishment even for a Kage.

Thankfully while he had spent so much time out by the Fire pit he had a few benches out surrounding it. It had just been a situation of, he had forgotten whether he had one already out there and would just bring another one. So now the Fire pit had found itself surrounded by them, luckily it gave him a place for Hana to sit, "Please, sit down and warm up, you'll probably feel better. Also...." Depending on where she would sit down, Rai would go behind her and place his hands on her shoulders and start channeling a low amount of his Katon Chakra in an effort to help warm her body.

The bright smile across the Raikage’s face was enough to cause her to smile back, proud that he was in as good of condition as ever. Trudging through the water she emerge almost like that of a mermaid who had just recently made it’s way up and out of the water in hopes of living upon the shore as he now gave her permission to come ashore. She may have well been dressed in a bathing suit at all times as that probably would have covered more than her general outfit. Listening to the way he said her new nickname she smiled growing quite fond of it.

The swim while long was quite refreshing as the exercise itself ended up keeping her relatively warm. Leaning over her long white mane would stream down to the ground dribbling upon the ground. Hands reaching to the drenched mop of hair she began to wring it out so that it would be a bit easier to dry. “I think I will wait for the fairy next time.” she laughed jokingly as swimming wasn’t something she wanted to do again anytime soon. As he led she walked a silently behind him trying to dry out her clothes a bit by wringing them out as well finally they reached the campsite which he must have been staying at for some time as it was relatively set up. She awaited for the fire to start when she noticed what the raikage had accomplished during his training here. “You learned to master a control a new element that was what you’ve been doing all this time?” As she said this he told her to sit down and so she did as who would disobey the command from a raikage sitting down and closing her eyes as soon as she felt him begin to use his own chakra to warm up. “Taking it upon you to see to my needs a lot now aren’t you?”