Third Whirlwind

[Ethereal]

SPOILER: Click to show

Training for the second retrain of

Kamaitachi (Cutting Whirlwind)
Rank: C
Type: Offensive / Fuuton Ninjutsu
Range: 10+ meters
Chakra: Mid
Special: Size of tunnel opening measures 5 meters, and wind blasts can travel 10 meters; each time relearned, the mouth grows by 5 meters and the blast itself travels an extra 10 meters..
Description: This jutsu was brought to fame by a legendary Suna shinobi from long ago, and was named after a mythical creature able to command the winds on a whim. After channeling wind chakra at either their weapon or limb, the user swings it around and brings forth a most intense tornado, coming out from the weapon/arm. Once it strikes the user, the tornado tips upward and takes the user up, keeping them imprisoned by the strong currents, and delivering multiple waves of cutting/slicing damage onto their bodies, as well as dropping them hard onto the ground afterward.
Domain: Fuuton.

Mission time. Scarcely fifteen minutes had passed since Ethereal left the Kazekage's Residence after getting his mission to track down the rogue genin criminal, and already he was standing on the fringes of the Sunagakure desert, scarcely fifty meters from the city, preparing for his training. Naturally his course to the desert had taken him by his own home, where he'd quickly swung by and grabbed his trusty katana, then set off once and for all for his training ground.

The air was quiet and peaceful, as the desert usually was - even in the near-fringes of the city like this there wasn't a soul in sight - leaving Ethereal with what he figured was the perfect opportunity to get a bit of training in. The object of today's practice wasn't to get something new, not at all. If he'd wanted to do that, he'd have waited for his teacher to accompany and teach him something, rather than striking out on his own. No, today he was out here for the sole purpose of increasing his prowess with an existing move; his personal favorite, the Kamaitachi. Cutting Wind jutsu, one he could perform without the burden of handseals, enabling it to be used even with his katana taking up a hand without having to go through the time consuming process of putting it down and picking it back up during combat.

And so, the training began, so signified by a slow, controlled change in posture. From his previous neutral stands, gripping his katana below the guard as usual, Ethereal released his hold on it briefly to lower the position of the grip and allow him to snatch it right-side-up in his hand, curiously keeping the sheath on. Next came the sliding of his feet into a wider stance, weight distributed between the forward left foot and the back right foot, though with a slight emphasis on that foot over the other, the toes of the forward facing straight ahead while those of the back were turned off to the side. The sword-wielding right hand stayed on its side of the body, arm downward but raised and curved just enough to keep the sword in a threatening position, covered tip facing forward yet still angled down towards the ground. His left hand was raised up in a guard position, his fingers forming what seemed to be the rough shape of a handsign - index and middle finger straight while the other two were halfway between straight and curled - though that was likely more out of habit than anything.

And with that, he was ready to begin. All that was left was the actual performance... "Fuuton: Kamaitachi no Jutsu!"

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[Ethereal]

Now that the name of the technique had been stated and his mind was as focused as it could be, the performance could begin. While normally the motion would be nothing more than a casual swing of his sword in the necessary direction, today he was focusing on something a bit... bigger. As always, in training one had to try their hardest. The psychological effect of a casual release of extraordinary power was meaningless; in this situation, no expenses could be spared in the pursuit of higher levels of power.

The summoning of his chakra was the immediate response to the verbalization of his jutsu. Calling on the release of the wind chakra dwelling inside his body, Ethereal forced the extension of his power down through his right arm, then let it burst out from across where his hand was gripping tight to his katana, causing the first subtle ripples of his Fuuton Release to begin working its way around the still-sheathed weapon. Those subtle touches of wind didn't stay quite so subtle for long though... with sudden raging intensity a raging whirlwind quickly erupted into life around is weapon, the raging vortex almost begging to be released into the air in front of him in the way the sand beneath his feet began whipping up into the air and flowing out from him in ripples.

The jutsu wasn't held contained for long though. Ethereal only maintained his focus for a mere moment before stepping further forward with his left foot, leaning into the motion before beginning the wind-up for the actual unleashing of his attack. His right foot began moving outward and backwards in an almost dance-like arc, leg staying fully outstretched with his toe of his shoe tracing a subtle line in the sand. Then came a sudden burst of motion, Ethereal's body making a sudden spin as his right foot snapped to his left, sword following suit as his arm lifted it up and above his head in tandem with the quick spin. Then, slipping into a posture that seemed almost too casual Ethereal allowed his sword to follow the momentum gained in a powerful downward swing, free left arm hovering by his side as the heels of his feet clicked together, expression nothing more than an emotionless blank as the raging winds of his technique were released.

Saying the sand around him moved was quite the understatement. The sheer force of the winds unleashed by his jutsu caused a literal wave of sand to stream away from him. More yet was thrown into the air as his Cutting Wind began streaming outward from the arc the sword had formed, the vortex of wind easily ten meters in diameter, possibly a meter or two larger if one had taken the time to measure the tornado that was beginning its forward leap. Then it surged forward, the effect on the environment resembling the rush of a high-speed boat creating a powerful wake on the placid waters with how it kicked up waves of sand on either side of the vortex.

The leap of the jutsu was impressively fast, though it only lasted for several seconds before dying down, allowing the sand to settle, shifting back into the impressive rift the raging whirlwind had formed. Luckily for Ethereal's eyes, the sand mostly stayed away from him, though his pants had been dusted with a light coating, much of which was shaken free as Ethereal began walking forward to inspect the distance of his technique. The size of the wind itself hadn't been quite what he'd been hoping for, but perhaps the length would make up for it... Sadly though, survey said no. By his estimate, the winds had only surged a mere twenty-five feet forward, if that. While it was an improvement, it wasn't quite to the degree he was hoping for, which was more than enough to draw a frown to his lips. "Well... time to try again..."

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[Ethereal]

Ethereal quickly got over the disappointment of failing to achieve the heights he'd been hoping for, expression fading back into its previous blank. He took his next position just past the rift and resulting wave of his first attempt at the jutsu, then assumed much the same posture as before, with the only two differences being that he now took a two-handed grip on his sword, weapon now held with the blade still angled toward the ground, yet instead of facing forward it was off to the side, and the way his feet were a bit closer than before. "Fuuton: Kamaitachi no Jutsu"

Next came the inevitable release of his attack, symbolized by the same arcing sweep of his right foot, this time in front of his body, hands swinging his weapon up and over his head to build momentum. This time his feet didn't snap together, instead just leaving his right foot forward as his expression underwent a rather large change for someone like him. His eyes widened with determined intensity, teeth gritting against the swell of sand around him as he forced the swell of his chakra to rise higher along his blade. Then came the inevitable downward heave of his blade, this time with a grunt of effort to increase the power of his swing - merely an action to further focus his mind - causing the tip of the sheathed blade to slam down against the sand, Ethereal leaning deep down over his outstretched right leg.

Once again wind swelled in front of him, this time leaping up with noticeably greater intensity than before. The heights were clearly larger, easily reaching a high of fifteen meters, thus causing the deep rift in the sand to form even deeper than before, an impression in the desert that was doubtlessly larger than its predecessor. And this time, when the winds died down, Ethereal didn't even need to walk the distance to confirm how much further it had gone. The determination that had previously flooded his face turned into a confident grin, eyes narrowing victoriously as he slowly rose back up to an upright position, amethyst gaze admiring the rift of his Cutting Wind. Not to say he wasn't going to measure it... but this time as he walked he looked far more confident in his success than he had before, that grin persisting across his lips.

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[Ethereal]

As he walked through the miniture valley formed by his technique, Ethereal couldn't help but feel a the swelling sense of pride rising in his chest. The power aspect was clearly down pat, if the scar he'd formed in the sands of the desert was any indication, and while time would surely wash away the mark of this achievement, Ethereal couldn't help but keep grinning in spite of it. Once he's reached the end of the rift, he couldn't help but turn around and admire his work, tossing his sword up then catching it below the guard before sitting down on the peak of the nice little hill formed at the furthest reach of his technique. Sadly, he wasn't quite comfortable with continuing with the final extent of his training just yet... his body was certainly complaining about the strain caused by the successive casting of two C-ranked jutsu in a row. His lips briefly formed a deep frown at the weak state of his chakra level, but after a small sigh and another glance at the rift valley in front of him, the maroon-haired boy couldn't help but adopt another expression of pleasure at his newest achievement.

It sometimes amazed him how the silliest things still managed to glean one of those ever-elusive grins. Apparently performing well on attempts to gain a higher level of jutsu counted as one of those very things, even if he wasn't willing to try it again just yet. He had a mission to do before the sun set, so overexerting himself before even setting out on it seemed like a rather huge mistake. Possibly a fatal one; the mission description had made it quite clear that his target wouldn't be coming back willingly. Not easily, at least.

---

In the end, Ethereal had wound up resting for a good half hour, sitting there on his self-formed sand dune while the sun continued to beat down on him. He'd long since shedded his jacket in lieu sitting in his thin button-down dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up while his chakra continued to recuperate itself, eyes staring up at the pleasant sky to watch the clouds roll by, distracting himself from the irksome heat that continued pounding against him. Then, finally, with nearly no warning to indicate to any watchers that he was ready to finalize the training, Ethereal grabbed his sword by the grip again and stood up in the already dissipating valley he'd formed, then made his way up out of it to face parallel to the edge of the village, rather than how he'd previously been facing away from it.

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[Ethereal]

Heaving a deep sigh to refocus his mind and prepare himself for the final stretch of his training, Ethereal shut his eyes to gather his focus after spending so much time letting his mind wander. "Final stretch..." he muttered to himself, lips barely moving, "Now to see if I can put it to practical use..." Ethereal's favorite way to fight was to make everything look as casual as possible, performing simple yet elegant dance-like motions to give his form some style while instilling the psychological blow of the possibility that he was hardly even trying. While it wasn't often that the change was actually noticeable, merely doing it was more than enjoyable enough for him. Something about exerting only casual effort while fighting just seemed to make it even more worthwhile.

As it stood, the way he'd performed his jutsu the last two times was unacceptable. For one, an opponent would hardly stand around while he prepared his technique, and for two the Cutting Wind was designed as a quick release of wind rather than a jutsu that needed a lot of prep time to perform. The sheer speed in which the technique could be executed was easily what made it worthwhile in his mind.

So, the final step was to execute it in his typical quick, casual way. Ethereal assumed a sideways stance, this time with his right foot forward, katana held out in front of him, arm out straight with the tip of the weapon elevated mere inches above the sands in a duelist style, entire body looking loose and relaxed. Even his gaze had lost the previous intensity it had held throughout the first attempt and the following success. Instead, as Ethereal visualized the phantom form of an opponent standing in the sands ahead, his gaze was filled with nothing but dismissive scorn.

Then came the lead-up to the attack, this time taking the form of the simple raising of his arm, wrist turning as his arm moved across then slowly bu his body, weapon parallel to that body for most of the rise. "Fuuton: Kamaitachi no Jutsu" Winds swirled up around him once more, lifting and throwing the sand around his body as the sword continued to rise. Then, just as his hand neared the mark where it was a just beginning to reach a foot above his head, Ethereal swung it down in a simple yet deceptively strong diagonal sweep in front of his body. The effect was instantaneous, raging swell of the winds rising up in front of him with the same fury as before, blasting his maroon hair back out of his eyes and causing deep ripples to flow across his clothing.

When the winds had died down and sands settled, Ethereal was already back in a neutral stance with his sword held, as usual, by the sheath beneath the guard, hair just beginning to settle back across his brow. His eyes weren't even on the rift in the sand this time, only flicking towards it briefly as everything stilled. That was all the regard he gaze it though before turning away to grab his jacket, slide into the sleeves, then set back off towards the village. But, anyone that listened could easily have heard the faint muttering of "Perfect..." that left his lips. That was all the mind he payed the thirty by fifteen valley formed in the sands as he walked away from it to begin his mission, now finally confident in the assuredness of his success.

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[Axcel]

Technique learned (or retrained). Add it to your bio.