Earthy Matters [solo,nk]

Of course, there was no way Kozai was done with what he needed to do. After all, how could he stop at a mere E-rank earth technique? He should at least learn another couple of earth jutsu before moving back to wind. There was so much to be learned here and so little time to do it... Oh well, that was how life as a whole went for everyone except for Kozai. Being immortal, he had nothing to worry about in terms of old age, while most others did. The same, he knew, probably went for Denkiteki as well, but how someone achieved immortality was of no concern to him. He only needed to care about himself. 

At any rate, he knew of earth jutsu that could create spikes under an opponent, but he decided to go back to the basics. There was always room for that, was there not? From there, he could just work his way back up. Because he had not taken enough time in his younger days to train harder and make a reputation for himself, he now felt bereft. Everything he knew was meant to kill, but not to help. He decided to take on a task that would deal with both aspects.

Of course, this was that moving earth core jutsu. He had already known about it, having read the encyclopedia at least 38 times physically, and having reviewed it at least twice a day mentally. After all, his memory was pretty spectacular for someone with his mental age. Although, to some extent, it was a curse. He couldn't forget the names in the Iwa roster, representing the names of those who had died in that attack... including people who he had sworn to protect as leader. The guilt might never wash away, but he could ignore it by growing in power to compensate.

On that note, there he was in the back yard of the library after closing time, so no one would interrupt him. Placing his hands to the ground, he felt around with Coriolis Revelation. Now that he had spent a good time with the element, he knew how it worked, he just had to apply it. To someone who had basically never used earth jutsu before, this was a new thing to him. Perhaps he could get acquainted with it a little faster? He did know that this was not something wrong with his mind, but with his body. He just hadn't conditioned it enough yet. 

Well then, he just needed to feel out the area that he wanted move, right? Easy enough. He sent a pulse of chakra through the ground, nodding to himself. This wasn't too hard, really. He just had to get in the right mindset. He wasn't dealing with the fluidity of water or of wind here. After all, earth jutsu dealt with solid things. Solids, as anyone knows, are things of both definite volume and shape, while liquids had definite volume but variable shape. Gasses had variance in both properties, sometimes to an extreme.

Sending out another pulse of chakra, Kozai realized something that he was missing: hand seals! Going through the information in his mind again (he didn't have to even take out the handbook), he realized that he had missed a merely simple step. Sighing in aggravation, he would move, clapping his hands together. This wasn't really a handseal proper, but it would do. At least, for this jutsu. The more simple the jutsu, in general, the less complex the handseal patterns. Though, there were some exceptions, of course. Anyways, after clapping his hands, Kozai would slam them against the ground. 

The earth that was in front of him would suddenly have a pulse of chakra sent through it, which was easy for Kozai. After all, his chakra compared to most jonin was massive, even slightly stronger than some S-ranked nin. This was a result of Kozai's dedication to self-improvement. After all, if he wasn't making himself better every day, then he wasn't making use of his talents. Someone who didn't make use of their talents... could that person not be described as "trash"?

The earth that had been targeted by the chakra rose upwards, in a smooth, powerful motion. The chakra that was feeding the worms within Kozai's body made this jutsu stronger than it normally would have been, he thought. He wondered how this would do in combat... judging by how slow it was, not that good, but it had its uses regardless. Not bad. 

[TWC 754
750/750 for Moving Earth Core, with 75% discount
TOPIC CLOSED]

Kozai didn't stop there. Now that he had something on his mind, there was no way in hell that he was going to settle with mediocrity. That was simple not his "ninja way", or whatever was left of it. Just like the process of his everyday life, that too had been whittled down by the passage of time and the bleak outlook on life that he always held. It's not that he believed that life was worthless, it was more like "perfection is impossible, but the journey to perfection is the best thing in life". As such, life was constant pain, and never ending struggle, which was fine by him. He had all the time in the world. 
Now that he had acquired a supplementary earth jutsu, the moving earth core, it was time for him to move on to stronger things. Let's take it a step farther, he thought to himself. Why not go for something like a lower ranked offensive jutsu? It was easy enough for someone like him to work his way from the ground up. After all, he had the chakra strength required for it. Now, scanning through the information in his mind again, he needed to pick out something that meshed well with his current abilities. For example, his certain kill ice spears, which were powerful when used right, and had gotten him out of many a sticky situation. Naturally, there was no problem when it came to using them to kill people, but he couldn't really make the ends of the spears blunt for training purposes. That was why he had injured Lucian when they had first met, but it mattered not to Kozai. He just healed the kid and moved on. There was no need to worry, as the only thing Kozai couldn't do in that regard was bring the dead back to life. Oh well.

At any rate, there he was, thinking about which jutsu to pick. Hmm, why not something that he could easily grow his ice spears off of? Due to the nature of chakra itself, he couldn't really grow ice spears off of other people's jutsu, but he could certainly grow them off of his own. So, an offensive jutsu that he could grow spears off of... suddenly, a rather humorous thought hit him. How would it be, he thought to himself with a small chuckle, if he could grow spears off of other spears?! Oh, fantastic! What a great insight.
So, the low ranked jutsu he wanted would probably be the technique of "rock pillar spears". These were like his jutsu, except less versatile. Sure, they could grow longer, but they could only come from other earth jutsu... then again, when he thought about it, this was a mere C ranked jutsu. He should not really expect it to have the same advantages as something of a higher rank. Still, one could dream. It was an interesting fact of life that earth jutsu were pretty solid when it came to material attacks.
Now, how to go about doing this? First, to think about the jutsu, he guessed. The rock pillar spear technique needed a good source of earth, which he already had. Incidentally enough, it just so happened to be his library's own back yard. Hooray for originality. He really needed to find a better spot to train, though at this point, it really didn't matter. It seemed like a while ago that he had gained access to the swamp of the underworld technique, and had realized that 'hey, earth jutsu really are worth training after all'. He needed to be a more well rounded ninja, after all.

Kneading chakra within his system, he thought back through his memories. Just how many earth element users had he known, and what did he know about them? Inevitably, he would have to fight some, and if possible, he should learn from them. After all, the sharingan had that mysterious capability to copy jutsu. Where did this come from? Why was it able to do this? Kozai still hadn't figured it out, but he had a hypothesis: it had to do with the 'root of all jutsu'. In essence... where did jutsu and chakra come from? He just had to know.
Knowledge was power. Even if he didn't develop a new technique or some kind of weapon with this, he could use it in some other way. Everything that he learned in theory could be applied to the world, whether he knew it or not upon first learning it. How fantastic for him, then, that he was living in this day and age. Everything was advancing, and he could learn both from that and from what was left behind by those who had gone before. However, Kozai didn't believe in providence.
He believed in fact. What was true was true, just as A = A. It was a law of the universe, and as such, was not contradicted by anything. However, things like sentiment still bothered him. Setting these thoughts aside, though, he got back to business. How was he to learn this earth jutsu, the rock pillar spears, without focusing? It was just a C rank technique. He should have learned it long ago, but simply had not had the time. Or was that just an excuse? He truly didn't know. Kozai had been a very different man in his younger days, something that he sometimes regretted. 

He must have been.... sixteen years of age? The year after, he remembered, the voice in his mind had vanished and he had taken the path of objectivity and cold hard rationality. All in all, he thought, it had worked out well for him. What could possibly go wrong? Lots of things, he thought. If life didn't go wrong, he wouldn't be here right now. Iwa would still exist. Agito.... would still be alive. Well, to that effect, he attributed probability and Maku's power. And that was partly why he wanted to gain more knowledge and power. He, too, could then change the thread of destiny, and that was not a power to be underestimated, by any stretch of the imagination. 
Now, about this jutsu... he could produce up to six spears at a time, he knew, and they could be quite long and wide. As such, they were of great use as training tools, since he could make their tips blunt so that they didn't pierce through the soft bodies of young genin. Mm, that sounded kind of weird. Anyways, they were good for that, since he could materialize them at great range. Manifestation of spears like this was a useful thing in combat.
Imagine, he thought, their uses in training as well. Normal genin didn't have very good chakra senses, so he could use these to train their reflexes. If they dodged out of the way, good for them. If not, they could be punished inherently with bruising by the spears themselves. Not bad, he thought to himself. This jutsu might have its uses after all, despite its low power. Hmm, he had plenty of time, but he wanted to get onto something else today, so he decided to expedite things a tad. 

Focusing his chakra into the ground, he got a good sense of what he wanted to do. He needed to aim the spears precisely and accurately, since this was a higher standard that he was setting for himself. He had seen genin practice earth jutsu such as this one, and they had always started by creating little nubs of earth, and trying to make them get larger. No, but not Kozai. He was already at the peak of normal chakra power, so he was searching for better things. To create earth spears without any precedent... well, maybe the ice spears counted there, but this was an entirely different element.
However, having practiced earth jutsu quite a bit recently, he knew what he was dealing with pretty well. Kozai sent a pulse of earth chakra through the ground as he was accustomed to doing, then performed a bird handseal and slamming his palms against the ground. Ah, there was another disadvantage, he thought, as he performed the jutsu, this one required handseals, while his ice spears did not. Oh well, that was perfectly fine. It wasn't like it mattered for such a low ranking jutsu. He could do without the efficiency of not having to do handseals.

There was a slight rumbling in the earth, just like there had been before, then the spears burst out of the ground. All six of them in fact. Hey, not bad. He had gotten it on the first try. Then again, that was what was expected of him as an expert in ninjutsu. Had he taken longer to perform the jutsu, he would have hated himself. Why settle for less when you could do better? That was how Kozai approached these lower ranked jutsu. There were no new concepts to develop, were there?

[WC 1500
learning rock pillar spears]

lol no denied


Trial approveded.