[Hokuran Keikōbu]

Keikōbu sighed while laying on the floor of his apartment. The past week had been spent by him moping around the village. He had recently been put on Genin Team 2 with Gurē An and Shouki Yashura after spending a year training and taking on D-Ranked missions on his own. Despite thinking he had been advancing at a good rate, it had turned out that he had made far less progress than he thought.

He wasn't too surprised by Yashura's progress given that she had graduated from the academy quite a few years before him. But An had been in the same graduating class as him, she shouldn't have been able to surpass him so quickly. Nevertheless she had and his ego had been badly damaged. As such Keikōbu had spent the last weak moping with his inferiority now coming out in full force. But now his competitive spirit was beginning to emerge and he resolved himself to catch up.

Keikōbu quickly decided on a course of action - he would learn the Act of Tree Walking. It was the single most useful jutsu to learn that he could think of right now. Being able to easily climb up trees or other objects would greatly enhance his ability to carry out ambushes. But he was worried how long it would take him without any guidance - he didn't want to fall farther behind while An continued to make progress. He decided to seek out someone to help him learn the jutsu.

While he could ask An or Yashura his inferiority complex wouldn't allow it - asking An would be especially humiliating. Thinking of someone who could help teach him didn't come easily. He had spent his last year on his own failing to network with anyone. He knew his father would shake his head learning the fact - his father had spent the better part of Keikōbu's first thirteen years on how to run a business after all. Eventually he thought back on his academy years and the different instructors he had.

After some time he decided he would ask Minami-Sensei to teach him the jutsu. Now that she was the team leader for a Genin Team she would probably have more time to spare compared to his previous instructors who still worked at the academy. Besides, he had come to like how she took her classes seriously. Some of the other academy instructors would just tell the students what to do and then just lounge around - occasionally shouting directions. Minami-Sensei on the other hand had closely watched over her students during her Bukijutsu lessons and given corrections and demonstrated the techniques multiple times. More importantly she was someone for him to admire and emulate. Like him she hadn't come from a clan background and had managed to climb up the ranks all the way to Jounin.

Now all he had to do was find her. He figured the first place he should look was the training ground near the academy. He figured there was a good chance she would be training her team at one of the two training grounds and he lived closest to the one near the academy.

Keikōbu quickly made his way towards the training grounds and upon arriving there quickly spotted Minami-Sensei. He began to walk towards her saying "Minami-Sensei," and then he bowed politely in greeting before continuing "I'm Hokuran Keikōbu, a former pupil of yours during your time at the academy." Thinking on whether to bother with any niceties he decided he should just get straight to the point and said "I apologize if this is an inopportune moment to bring this up but I would like your assistance with learning a new jutsu. Specifically, the Act of Tree Walking." He paused for a moment before continuing "If possible I would appreciate starting now but I understand if you need some time to prepare or if you do not wish to do so."

Sora Minami

[Sora Minami]

Sora stared at the small pond that took up the center third of Team One’s preferred training ground, her sky-blue gaze distant and unfocused as she took in a series of slow, steady breaths. Since her trip to Amegakure, she had been practicing a meditative technique meant to help clear her heart and center the mind on what was going on, rather than letting it drift towards what might be or what was. It was a surprisingly difficult exercise, requiring a fair bit of concentration and focus, though it had been getting easier since she had learned to embrace the storm within rather than fight it. She wasn’t perfect at it, but with the way things were going, it looked as if she might actually gain enough mastery over her emotions to-

The sound of footsteps, unhurried and, more importantly, unfamiliar, touched the Jounin’s ears, her eyes opening in an instant as she turned towards the noise, gaze sliding across the trees until it came to rest on the boy approaching her. He looked vaguely familiar with his pale skin, brown hair and bright green eyes, though she couldn’t quite put a name to the face. He was young, no older than fifteen, which put him squarely in the camp of "former Academy Student,” a fact that the boy quickly confirmed with his own mouth. There was no subterfuge in his tone, no trickery or attempt to flatter her- just a simple request for help from a boy who likely needed it more than he was willing to admit.

"You’ve come at a good time, Keikōbu; I’m usually training my Genin at this time of day." Sora said as she looked the boy up and down, casting her thoughts back to when she had been an Instructor to see what she could remember about him. Middling at best when it came to Bukijutsu, but sharp in Academics. Good control, low reserves, as expected from someone without any Shinobi heritage. There was something else as well, something important that wasn’t quite coming to her right now.

"Why don’t we start with the basics; what do you know about Tree Walking?"

Hokuran Keikōbu

[Hokuran Keikōbu]

Keikobu felt a tinge of satisfaction from hearing Minami-sensei's praise. It hadn't been the hardest conclusion to come to but deciding to check this training ground first had saved him time when trying to find her. The sense of satisfaction quickly disappeared as the Jounin began to speak again and he focused on her words.

The little bit of tension inside Keikōbu from needing to ask the Jounin to help him train and the fear of her saying no vanished upon hearing her ask him what he knew about the jutsu. While it didn't outright confirm that she was willing to help it at least meant she was considering it. His shoulders relaxed ever so slightly and he took his arms and crossed them as he began to think on what he knew about the jutsu.

He had seen more experienced shinobi using the jutsu here or there but never had the opportunity to ask about the jutsu and how it worked. He had gleaned a few pieces of information however. "The purpose of the jutsu is to allow the user to stand on any solid surface - even walls or ceilings," Keikōbu stated confidently before continuing "This is achieved by sending chakra to your feet and manipulating it."

Keikōbu's confidence ended there however. Unfolding his arms he furrowed his brows and frowned very slightly before saying "Though I don't know how the chakra is supposed to be manipulated in order for the adhesive effect to be possible." He did have a few ideas of how it could possibly work but he wasn't going to share his conjectures without being prompted.

Sora Minami

[Sora Minami]

Sora listened to Keikobu’s answer, her sky-blue gaze zeroing in on the slight tension that bled out of his stance as the boy spoke; she didn’t remember much about him from her time as an Instructor, but what little she could remember painted a picture of a boy who hadn’t liked asking for help. That he was here now, rather than with whoever the Mizukage had set as his Sensei, spoke volumes about how desperate he had to be to learn, and how negligent his current teacher was. When I find out who his Sensei is…

Still, the boy had given a decent enough answer- purely academic in nature, but thorough enough that it covered the basics and provided avenues for her to expand his understanding of how both chakra and, more important, the Tree Walking technique, worked.

"The how of it is fairly simple." Sora said, gesturing at a nearby tree as she walked towards it, pushing chakra through her hand in order to give him a visual demonstration of what she intended to do. "Chakra, when it is focused through the tenketsu and out of the body, can take on many unique properties. With the Tree Walking technique, the chakra is precisely regulated to a specific level which, when it comes into contact with a solid surface, acts like a form of glue or hold, allowing you to gain purchase."

She paused then, giving the boy a moment to process her words as she fluctuated the chakra in her hand, pushing more out for a few seconds before choking down on the flow, then returning it to the level she would need to properly perform the technique. "The amount needed to achieve this effect varies from person to person, which is part of why you aren’t taught this in the Academy; most children don’t have the chakra reserves necessary to practice this level of control without exhausting themselves. Use too much and you’ll blow yourself right off whatever you're trying to walk up- too little, and you won’t gain any purchase at all."

To emphasize her point, the Jounin reached out and placed her hand onto the tree, once more modulating the amount of chakra in her palm, this time in the reverse order of what she had explained. First using too little, pulling her hand free of the bark with relative ease, then using too much, the excess chakra pushing her arm back and, more importantly, blowing a small section of bark out from underneath where her palm had been a moment before.

"Unfortunately, the only way to get better at it is practice. Lots and lots of practice."

Hokuran Keikōbu