Hot and Heavy

Anastasia woke up that morning tired and store, but satisfied. The Akari Genin had been spending the last several days working with her family in the Akari clan forgeworks, learning the trade of bending metal to her will. She was no master of the craft by any stretch of the imagination, she was still learning after all. That did mean, however, that she could always be learning, and while her family would be the best source of training for her, they couldn’t always be giving her instruction because of the amount of work they had. She also wanted to try and work out some of it on her own, without her family’s guidance. To that end, she would go and visit the dojo yard, where there were practice yards for this very purpose. She wasn’t going there for weapons training so she could leave her weapons and armour at home for the time being. Not that it would be a problem; she had attached armoury seals to them last night so she could summon them to her in an instant. Her plan set for the day, she would get a light breakfast and get dressed, wearing a sleeveless white dress underneath her normal blue, high-collared outer tunic. She could remove that when she arrived so that it didn’t get damaged or dirty. Once she was dressed, she would leave her family home in the direction of the dojo yard.

At least it was a good day for it. It was a little cooler today, with the clouds covering up the sun. Always a good thing when you’re expecting to be working in a hot environment. It almost looked like it may rain later. That would be a welcome prospect after working in the forges, nothing like a nice rain to help cool off. She enjoyed the walk over to the dojo yard. Casually stretching her upper body, smithing was hard work and she would need to be limber to make sure that her muscles didn’t hate her more than they already did.

The Dojo yard was busier today with various shinobi training in whatever it was they needed to work on. Anastasia made her way to the area reserved for the forges, off to one side where the noise and heat would disrupt the least number of people as possible. Once she arrived, she would take off her outer tunic and hang it up, swapping for a thick leather apron to protect her dress from heat and sparks. She was going to work on building swords in preparation of forging her own proper blade. She had ideas for how she wanted it done, but she would need to improve her skills first, and doing that here, with materials that would test her ability to force the lower quality metal at the practice forges to obey her hammer. Once she was ready, she would get started by heating up the metal she had selected in one of the forges and then transferred it to a nearby anvil for shaping.

WC: 508

Amikiri Guhin made his way to the training grounds. Today’s temperature was pretty mild, so he simply wore a navy blue t-shirt, black jeans, and simple brown boots. However, he did bring with him a nice leather apron and a leather roll of tools. Inside he carried all the various tools, ranging from blacksmithing tongs to his favorite hammer to a diamond whetstone. The dark haired Hyuuga needed to perform some basic maintenance on his Great Spear and armor. Additionally, he brought with him his most expensive tool. It was a heavily modified airbrush. Normally used to apply coats of paint, this was used to spray metal coatings. Of course, it had to be greatly modified to withstand the high temperatures of the metals he was working with as well as some other upgrades, like an adjustable nozzle side and an adjustable flow rate valve. Before heading out, he grabbed a pair of metal goggles, a simple mask to filter out fumes, and he slung his Great Spear over his back. His armor, Kavacha, was marked with an armory seal, so he didn’t need to carry it with him. After all of that, he packed up his supplies, and made his way down to the forges within the training grounds.

As he arrived, he saw the blond women from earlier at the training grounds. He walked over there and, since he saw her taking a piece of hot metal out from the furnace, he patiently waited for her to finish working it. No need to stop someone from working on hot metal and make them heat it up another time. Once the metal cooled down, he would say, “Well, funny to run into you again. Sorry I had to head out early at the training grounds the other day. What are you making there? I’m just here for a bit of maintenance on my gear.”

WC: 315

The shaping process took a while for Anastasia. She had physical strength, but not to the same level as some of her family’s smiths. As a result, while she understood the basics, she would need to reheat the same piece of metal multiple times to get the same progress that one of the other members of her family would need in a single try. That was not to say that she would be an inferior smith; time did not affect the end result, provided you did not make a mistake during the process.

While she was working, she caught the shape of a person out of the corner of her eye. It was one of the shinobi from the training session the other day; he’d walked up, commented on her weapon and had excused himself before any actual training had begun. She glanced briefly in his direction before immediately returning to her work; if he wanted to speak with her, it would need to wait until after she had at least completed drawing the blade. The process itself was mostly finished by that point, but it would need at least one more re-heating first. She would put the sword back into the flames of the forge, while she did that, she also chanelled fire release chakra into the blade to increase the heat of it to start the tempering process. With the added heat, it only took her a little more time to finish bending the metal into the rough shape that would make the katana’s blade and where it would slide into a hilt. She would quench the blade in a nearby barrel of oil to complete the tempering process. Before laying the rough blade on the anvil.

It appeared that he did have a smith’s etiquette for he did not attempt to engage with her until she had put her tools down and wiped her brow. He was wearing different clothing today, and he had smithing tools with him, along with a spear on his back. He apologized for leaving at the beginning of the training session yesterday and asked what she was working on, stating that he was there to perform routine maintenance on his equipment. She would accept his apology with a nod, “it’s not a problem, family’s important and it would only be natural to prioritise them.” When asked what she was working on, she would answer truthfully, for the most part. “I’m in the middle of designing a new blade, or rather, making practice blades in preparation of the real thing. My current weapons are leaving me wanting, and inspiration struck me to try something else. Before I make the actual weapon itself, I am practicing using the materials available here for training so that I don’t ruin the material my family has put aside for this purpose. Normally I would be working with them and seeking instruction, but they are busy this time of year with additional requisitions from the village and other clans, so I have opted to keep out of their way and seek to improve my ability on my own.” She paused for a moment, “for now at least.” She would afford a small smirk of amusement. She would go to examine the blade now that it has cooled a little. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that there was a few imperfections in the blade, causing her to snort in disgust and to put the blade off to one side before grabbing some more material. “Apparently I must be missing something,” she would say by way of explanation, “you wouldn’t happen to be able to share any pointers that can help me perfect the craft, would you?” She would pause again before adding, “I’m Anastasia by the way, Anastasia Akari.”

WC: 630
TWC: 1138

As Amikiri watched her work, he noticed a clever trick on her part. She seemed to have used some fire release chakra of some sort to reheat the blade mid process. The man took note of that for two reasons. First, it was just an interesting technique to use while forging. Secondly, as someone in the pursuit of Fire Release, it was a great example for him to see. The dark haired Hyuuga filed that away for later.

Amikiri would give a nod of understanding as she explained her process and, looking at her results, was more than happy to give some tips to help her out. Over his many years of repairing tools and a few recent months of working with rare materials, he truly felt like he was approaching a high level of skill with this type of thing. “Well, first, I recommend staying away from that fire release trick. As much as it seems tempting to have that quick and easy convenience, using the fires,” Amikiri made a gesture to one of the blazing forges, “Will get you nice consistent results every time, with no risk of your chakra’s natural tendency to fluctuate. If you only change one variable at a time and don’t include some unknown, like your chakra, you can slowly figure out what you need to change.”

“The next thing is to be thoughtful of the material you’re working with. I know that sounded a little strange, but don’t worry, I’m not asking you to empathize with metal. Just remember the material's properties and also what you’re trying to do with it. For example, something like Meteoric Iron. A very simple metal, it doesn’t require much special technique. But something like Silver requires a lot more thought. For example with my armor,” and at that moment, Amikiri would weave two handseals and, thanks to his Armory Seal, he would be holding Kavacha, his armor, in his hands. He lifted it up so it would be easier for her to see. Upon closer inspection, she would find that while the armor remained a dark steel gray color, there were almost microscopic flecks of silver across the entirety of the armor’s surface. “Applying the silver required a very delicate process to apply and work with it.”

“And my last tip is, just be patient. I know you’ve probably heard it before, but it’s very important. It can take a while to get good at this and remember, the first tool you properly augment won’t be perfect. For example, my armor used to have a rare steel variety embedded into it. However, after discovering Silver’s corrosive resistance properties, I managed to remove the steel and apply the Silver to the armor.” While Amikiri certainly spoke for a while, he hoped he could impart some of the same knowledge onto her as he learned over the years.

WC: 479
TWC: 797

It would seem that he was more than happy to share what information he had on the blacksmithing process, which pleased the Akari Genin greatly. The more information she could get, the better her end result will likely be. The first thing he suggested was to avoid using fire release as part of the heating process because it provided uneven heat. She thought about it for a moment. It was fairly commonplace among her family to use fire release to augment the forging process. ‘Perhaps they have more control over the element, which allows them to apply even and consistent heat…’ she thought to herself as she nodded along with his explanation. It made sense that trial and error by adding or subtracting individual elements would help to determine what areas needed to be improved upon. After that, he started talking about how important it would be to be aware of the materials that were being used in the crafting process, and followed that up by summoning a suit of armour the exact same way she would with her Armoury Seal. He held it up for her to examine, explaining what materials had been used in the process. She would lean in to get a closer look at the fine details of the armour. She could indeed pick out the flecks of silver that he described as had been imbued as part of the process. “I can only imagine,” Anastasia said as he commented on the process of applying the silver, “it’s a relatively soft metal so I imagine it would be rather tricky to incorporate without affecting the integrity of the armour itself.”

The last thing he went over on the subject was the same thing her elders had taught her; patience was the key to perfection. It was something that the Akari Genin felt that she had plenty of already, so that would not be a problem. The fact that she was being so thorough in the stages leading up to the actual forging should be testament enough to herself that patience would not be an issue with something as important as this. “On that I agree with you,” she said to him, “patience if anything, is the most important aspect that I’ve come across when it comes to any act that involves even the smallest modicum of skill.” Speaking of patience, it was probably time to put the tools down for a little bit and rest before pickup this up again. “I think I’m going to grab a bit of fresh air, work on something other than blades that aren’t quite up to snuff yet. Would you like to join me?” Perhaps after his teaching, she could return the favour. Regardless of his answer she would take the apron off, and make her way outside of the forge, to a clearing not far from there. She would leave the rest of her things by the forge. She had made sure that this particular forge would be accessible to her all day if necessary, so she wasn’t worried about someone coming around and mucking about with it while she was here.

WC: 523
TWC: 1661

Mid Thread Claim:
500WC towards Augmentation (500/500, 75% ATF discount)

Approved

As Anastasia listened to Amikiri’s remarks and agreed with him, the dark haired Hyuuga would give a slight nod of agreement to the young woman’s point. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind the fresh air either.” With a few quick handseals, Amikiri would stow away most of his tools within Storage Displacement, only keeping his Great Spear on hand, which would be slung across his back.

As the two made their way outside, Amikiri said, “Well, is there anything else you’d like to learn? Currently I’m trying to work out how to incorporate this Fire release stuff into my normal weaponry techniques, but it’s been a bit of a struggle. You seem to have the skills for that already, so have you been working on something similar or do you wanna work on something else?” Amikiri was not trying to be controlling of the conversation as he said this. He was genuinely trying to see what Anastasia was interested in learning. Besides Toneri, the dark haired man had spent the last few months training relatively alone, so company to train with was always a welcome sight. The Hyuuga took his Great Spear off of his shoulder, and warmed up by swinging around the weapon's great heft.

WC: 205
TWC: 1002

It appeared that the other shinobi would also take a break and join her outside, putting his effects into what appeared to be a dimensional storage space before following. He still had his spear with him, likely if he wanted to work on any bukijutsu techniques, so she would grab one of the blades that she was making and brought it with her.

When they got outside, he asked her if there was anything she was currently working on, and mentioned that he was trying to incorporate fire release chakra into his repertoire. ‘Perhaps I could incorporate fire into those breathing techniques…’ she thought to herself, thinking about the other recent training session she had. “That’s not a bad idea,” she said to him. “I haven’t mastered it yet, but there’s a breathing technique I’ve been working on lately that revolves around using bukijutsu and imbuing your breathing and your weapons with elemental release chakra. If you’re looking to learn to control fire release, this may be an excellent way to do so.” She would step away a little bit so that they both had room to swing their weapons. “Like most fire release, it’s all based on pulling chakra to your diaphragm, so I imagine that incorporating fire release into these breathing styles wouldn’t be much different.” She started building up fire chakra normally and incorporated the increased breathing method from Total Concentration Breathing, imbuing that with her fire release, which resulted in a small amount of fire escaping her mouth as she exhaled. It seemed that the Akari Genin was on the right track, perhaps her fellow shinobi would be able to shed some additional light on the breathing side of things that they would be able to figure it all out.

The practicing took a little longer than expected, but between the two of them, she was confident that they were able to figure out how to master flame breathing. Unfortunately, she had other duties that required her attention so she couldn’t stay here all day. She would bow respectfully to her training partner, “thank you for helping me today, your assistance has been most beneficial. I suggest that when I have more time, we look for more techniques that we can work on together.” With that, she would gather her things from the Forge and leave the Dojo Yard, heading home to assist with familial duties.

[EXIT]

WC: 400
TWC: 2061

500 WC already spent, 1561 remaining:
1000 WC towards Flame Breathing (1000/1000, 50% group training discount)
476 WC towards Cloak of Concentration (S-Rank 1250/1250, 75% ATF Discount, Slotless) Proof here
85 WC towards Temple Style: Discovery of an Incomplete Truth (2149/2500) Proof here

The Hyuuga listened to her ideas, and recognized the validity of the idea. Fire Release was largely based upon the diaphragm and breathing, so it should naturally incorporate into Fire Breathing if he followed the same principle. Amikiri took a large breath in, before holding his blade up to his mouth, and spewing it out in a fine, controlled stream. The flames seemed to lick the edge of the blade, traveling up his Great Spear until they reached the very tip, where they then cascaded down the opposite side of the weapon. After a brief second, his blade would become extinguished. However, when they Hyuuga spread his legs, took a firm stance, and performed a large circular slash. A burst of fire flashed in a circle around Amikiri, mimicking the path of the blade, before expanding outward. He chuckled and then turned to Anastasia, saying, “Well your advice really did the trick. If it works out, I’d love to train with you again.”

WC: 163
TWC: 1165

[Exit]

Claims: