[Yuie Junichi]

After a busy day at the clan's hot springs, Junichi found a moment to escape to the training grounds. The sun was already looming three-quarter-way through the sky, day winding down. The academy lessons had likely let out by now, but the grounds were still littered with sundry students here to practice their techniques to try to become great shinobi.

Junichi was here to practice, too, though his own internal narrative was less fantastical and heroic. He had long abandoned the idea that he could be a great shinobi - all he wanted was to be a shinobi that could survive. He'd spent a lot of time thinking about his performance in the most recent Chuunin Exams. Lots of "if I did this," "if I did that." None of it helped anything, but he did it anyways.

One of the things he became most convinced of was that if he'd done more to practice his single-handed seals, he could have performed better. Been more confident. Able to play defensively even while firing off jutsu. He needed the versatility.

So he focused on practicing this. Wielding his staff in one hand, he squared up against training dummies. He worked through the hand seals of a technique, firing off a series of water shuriken at the dummies. It still took too long to do, felt too clumsy... He huffed and scuffed the ground with his shoe.

"Not good enough," he muttered to himself. He'd found it easier to do in that bandit mission, when he knew he had to protect Sadako...

Jinjōi Chiyo

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

Chiyo was steadily earning the nickname "The cockroach of the training ground."

Because... she was always there! Well, when she wasn't at home or at the shinobi academy, at least! Right now though, the girl was taking a break from her usual sword-swinging routine. Sitting on a bench, drinking water from a bottle, and paddling with her feet, as she watched other people train. One of them seemed familiar! She recognized him as one of the seniors back at the academy. And... he had a headband now, didn't he? A real shinobi!

With a broad grin on her face, Chiyo hopped down and ran towards where he was, stopping to observe Junichi and what he did.

He already moved so far, being capable of forming and throwing shuriken out of water at the target! But... something was amiss. They splashed harmlessly against the dummy rather than doing damage. Upon observation, the astute girl noticed what was wrong. He was doing a ninjutsu using only one hand - the other one was holding a staff. Chiyo couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"Hee~ Yuie-senpai!" - the girl called out. "I'm Jinjoi Chiyo! From the Academy! Long time no see! Congratulations on making it to Genin!" - she said waving her hand. The latter part was a compliment that stung her a little. The girl might have been a genin too if she hadn't gotten sick!

"That ninjutsu you used was pretty cool! Why do you do it only with one hand, though? You're supposed to use both! Everyone knows that!"

[Yuie Junichi]

His focus was suddenly interrupted by a call from another young shinobi. When he turned his head, he spotted a girl he recognized. She had been one of his underclassmen in the academy, Jinjōi Chiyo - a memory that was confirmed when she introduced herself again. The two of them hadn't really seen each other much except for in the halls, but she was definitely a familiar face.

She congratulated him on his graduation. It really had been a while since they'd seen each other, huh? It almost made him feel bad. He didn't feel like he should be a genin at all. So many other academy students deserved to be out here in the shinobi world instead of him.

"W-well," Junichi began, a little flustered by her questioning of how he was trying to perform the technique, pushing up his glasses, as they'd started to slip down his nose. "Most people use both hands because that's the most efficient way to shape chakra to concentrate it into techniques. However with a lot of practice it's possible to do it with just one hand," he explained.

"I use a staff a lot of the time, so I want to learn to be able to perform ninjutsu without having to put away my weapon. It lets you transition between strikes faster."

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

"Ooohoh..."

Chiyo hummed, as her mouth made an O sound, and she understood the intent of the technique. That... That sounded very useful, actually! The girl gave a glance towards her wooden blade. If she could do ninjutsu without having to sheathe her sword, that'd be great! Opened all kinds of opportunities. Perhaps even make her able make that glowing chakra sword that the samurai in her picture books were able to make! She nodded, vigorously.

"That's actually very smart, senpai! Must be difficult though, otherwise you would have succeeded already!" - Chiyo said. The difficulty was certainly a daunting prospect. But let it never be said that Chiyo lacked in determination! 'I'm almost genin, I bet I can do it too! Just need a bit longer and harder to practice!' - she thought. A determined look appeared on the girl's face, as she took a step forward and took Junichi's sleeve into her hand, tugging on it.

"Let me train with you, senpai! Explain the thing! Together, we will defeat it!" - Chiyo said, with great confidence in both of them. And, if, somehow, she'd manage to get it before him, it would be an even greater success! 'I'd surely impress my teachers if I do the academy jutsus with one hand...' - the girl thought to herself.

[Yuie Junichi]

Oh! She wanted to learn, too. And was expecting him to help here. There was a saying... What was it? That being able to teach something showed that you truly understood it? He hoped that he had figured out enough of the theory by now that he could communicate it. She looked so determined, he didn't want to let her down.

"Okay," he said, his nervousness betraying him. "The way I started was... uhm, I haven't had any older shinobi teach me, so I've mostly been figuring it out through reading in the library and practicing myself, so..." He needed to calm down. He practiced this kind of thing with Kenichi all the time, so he should be used to it. He took a deep breath.

"First, run through the hand seals for a technique you ordinarily use," he said. He performed three hand seals, the sequence Chiyo might recognize as the seals used in the Clone Technique. "How you shape your chakra is probably pretty automatic by now if you've been practicing a lot, so it's important to really pay attention to it... Then try the same thing again, but only with one of your hands." He put down his right hand and started to make the shapes slowly.

"You have to mold the same amount of chakra but with only half your body, so it's kind of tricky..."

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

"Alright! Lets do it!"

Chiyo announced, clapping her hands together and rubbing them. She then took her position right opposite to Junichi, so that he could see what she does, and she could do the same. First, she put her hands together to make the ram, snake, and then tiger handseals. She did it with both hands, as per instructions. When she did, a clone copy of Chiyo appeared, having a cocky grin and finger-gunning at Junichi. The real Chiyo giggled, and repeated the motion. Each time, the clone appeared in a different pose of some kind, as if posing for the camera. 

After doing it ten or so times, the girl felt she was ready for the real deal!

For that purpose, she put her hand behind her back, and hand the remaining one in front of herself. Breathing in, and out, relaxing, letting chakra flow through her freely. Like a river, or a conduit. But with only one half of each seal.

'Alright, Chiyo, you can do this!' - the girl said to herself, as she channeled her chakra through. And then...

*POOF!*

In a puff of smoke... something appeared. It looked like a clone alright. A clone of Chiyo. Only arms were in place of its legs, the head was where the butt were, and legs were sticking out of the torso. Chiyo looked at her creation with horror.

"Ahhh! DIE DIE DIE Please!" - she yelped as she made the illusion disappear by flailing her wooden sword at it for a few moments.

"Phew... This... this will be tough! I'll try again..." - Chiyo said, but first wanted to see how well would Junichi do.

[Yuie Junichi]

This was something he'd done a few times now. He was able to get the jutsu to form as long as he was focused most of the time. When he was in combat that was the real tricky part, as distractions could easily cause his techniques to go splat. ...For example, right now. While he was zoning in, trying to concentrate on his own practice of the technique, Chiyo's illusory clone appeared as some kind of scrambled nightmare.

Wow! How did she even manage that?! It rattled his focus slightly and when he produced his own clone, it was a little more transparent than he would've liked.

At least it wasn't a monstrosity, and it still looked like Junichi, it was just pretty see-through.

Junichi huffed, blowing some hair out of his face. The clone mimicked the gesture and he dismissed it.

"Agh. Yeah. It takes a lot of refinement. I have pretty good chakra control and even I struggle with it. I've been working on it for months now," he explained. "I'm okay at using it in some fights, but other times I mess it up... I need to get more consistent," he said.

He shook out his hands and then prepared to try again.

"I try to think of shaping chakra kind of like... sculpting clay," he told her, hoping it might help.

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

"Chakra control! Hmm..."

Chiyo fell deep in thought. Chakra control, yes! That had to be the key. You used both hands to enhance your chakra control, so if you needed to do all that with one hand, you had to be real good with in in the first place! And Chiyo... was not that good. She was no slouch mind you, and she could probably get 10 kawarimis out of ten, but... that was the standard. She couldn't do it the fastest, and certainly not with one hand. That made her think. She rubbed her chin, observing Junichi for a little while longer, before an idea came to her mind. 

"Well, I'll keep doing it anyway! Even if I don't succeed today, I'll learn to better control my chakra! And then I will succeed tomorrow!" - Chiyo said, optimistically, and hit her chest with her fist a few times.

Then, she returned back to her position. The routine went as followed - ten clones using both hands, one using one hand. Once more, in a poof of smoke, another clone appeared. This time it looked more like a human centipede, with very long legs and six arms - three at each side. Its eyes were spinning and it made weird steps towards Junichi, before dissipating. The girl facepalmed and groaned.

"I'd rather they didn't appear at all when I fail. How are you doing, Junichi-senpai?"

[Yuie Junichi]

Junichi was surprised by Chiyo's optimism. He was surrounded by so many optimistic people all the time. He couldn't say he totally understood it, how other people were capable of remaining so positive, of feeling motivated by themselves like that. At times it felt like Junichi could only be motivated by fear and desperation. He wished he could have a good outlook like that.

Maybe he could try here and now. There was no threat. There was nothing to focus on but growth. Like Chiyo said, if he didn't succeed today, he could succeed tomorrow.

Following a similar process to Chiyo, he would practice a few regular clone techniques before trying it with one hand. He truncated the rotation, doing it in sets of four instead of ten.

Chiyo's bizarre creations would continue to be somewhat distracting, but he tried to really zero in on his practice and not let it shake him.

Gradually, as he worked through them, his clones started to get clearer, more distinct. They still had something about them that seemed incomplete, not totally opaque, or sometimes coming with a strange afterimage.

"Uh, I think I'm making some progress," he told Chiyo. "I'm struggling to finish... refining it. Uhm, I think because when you hold your hands together for chakra seals you're also allowing chakra to flow properly through your system. Not having the other side makes it feel more difficult to close the loop..." That was the best way he could think to describe it.

"Uhm, how are you doing?" He asked, shaking his head, realizing it was rude to just talk about his progress. Maybe he could provide her some tips if he knew what she was struggling with.

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

"Yeah... difficulty closing the loop... Something..."

Chiyo was listening with half an ear, as she bit her tongue at the side, trying to focus fully and concentrate. Her hands were moving on auto now, whenever she tried to make a regular clone. She even got faster on it too, shaving a second or two off of the initial attempt! However, whenever it came to one-handed attempts, the results were... bizzare. One time, it was a Chiyo with a dog's head. Another time - three tiny Chiyos in a trenchcoat, or something equally wacky! These results may have distracted Junichi, but for impatient Chiyo, they were all the more frustrating!

"Gah! What, you're making progress already! I need to catch up!"

With that renewed determination, the girl started making fewer regular seals and more one-handed ones. This did not work to her advantage - though the amount of tries increased, the bizarrness of results did too! One time there was a puddle with Chiyo's face on it. Another time it was almost perfect - a perfectly normal Chiyo... except with a katana blade sticking out of her forehead. The girl started panting, and suddenly felt woozy. She was just an academy student after all, and spamming this technique eventually wore off on her pool of chakra.

"Wahh... don't feel so good..." - Chiyo mumbled and wobbled in place, before falling on her butt.

[Yuie Junichi]

Apparently pushed to rush by seeing Junichi make progress, Chiyo started pushing herself too hard. Junichi watched her with a bit of concern, though didn't intervene for the time-being, allowing her to do her own work. Though the more she pushed herself, the stranger her attempts seemed to get, and if she was making any progress at all before it was probably stalled by her impatience.

Soon enough, the girl wobbled and fell over! Junichi paused his own exercise, abandoning a jutsu halfway through to kneel beside her and check on her.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"It might be a good idea to take a break for today... You need water and a snack," he insisted, standing for a second to jog to his bag and then come back with some snacks his auntie had made him and some water, offering it to her.

"You shouldn't push yourself to try to catch up to me in one day," he chastised gently. "You have to remember I've been practicing this for months and I've already used it on missions and stuff. Progress can be slow at first... When you're starting to get tired you'll only hurt yourself if you don't stop to catch your breath."

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

"Nhh... thanks..."

Chiyo soon gathered her marbles as the dizziness was kept at bay by water and snacks she was offered. She took a few sips, and a small, modest bite from the food she was given. And then, another modest bite. And another. And twenty more... Practically burying her face in the snack bag that held in front of her face. This... this was delicious! And home-made! And all that chakra expenditure did make Chiyo hungry. When she pulled herself away, there were crumbs on her cheeks. And now the girl was thirsty, gulping the water down, too. Leaving only half of it in the bottle.

"These snacks are amazing! Where did you get these?" - she inquired, looking up at the kind boy. Realizing that she was gushing over food, however, Chiyo quickly picked herself up, dusted off her kimono, and then bowed to him. "I mean... thank you for the delicious treat, senpai." - she said in a more serious tone, trying to look all respectful and cool, and not like a girl who just failed a task.

Still, it would take time for her body to convert food into chakra. That's how it works, right? So, she sat on the bench next to where Junichi was training, and said:

"I'm gonna watch you! Maybe figure out what you do that I cannot do right, yet!"

A reflection task. And while doing so, she would bring her hands together, as if doing handseals still. Only without chakra, this time around. Maybe the technique was just as important to chakra control as the actual flow!

[Yuie Junichi]

Wah, it seemed like she's really enjoyed the snacks. She scarfed them down like she hadn't eaten all day! There were crumbs on her face and everything. Part of Junichi wanted to instruct her to clean herself off, but it wasn't like she was his sister or anything, so he shouldn't be bossy like that. ...Even if he was tempted.

"My auntie makes things like that for my brother and I to take to training sometimes," Junichi answered her. Which meant Chiyo had chowed down on Junichi's snacks for his training session, but he really didn't mind. He often felt more motivated and successful when he was helping another person, so being able to help Chiyo made him more resolved to do a good job.

"No problem. Uhm, yeah, you can watch me while you recover."

Now sure that Chiyo was alright and free from the distractions of Chiyo's wretched clone creations, Junichi took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, centering his concentration.

He held up his staff with one hand, holding out his other to begin to forge the hand seals. He concentrated really hard on focusing and shaping his chakra through the left. He imagined a sort of ghost limb of his right hand, as if it was also forming the second half of the seals, forcing itself into the proper shape. It took him a little longer than a standard cast, but this time, he managed to produce a mostly very convincing clone.

He let out a shaky exhale, shoulders drooping.

"Still needs a little work, but I think I got it that time..."

[Jinjōi Chiyo]

"Your aunt's a good cook, senpai!"

Chiyo gave the boy a thumbs up from her bench, as she watched him continue to practice. It seems that he became more focused, somehow. His movements more fluid and controlled than before. Like he entered some kind of a flow, where his body just followed the chakra current. Kind of like those scenes in the girl's favorite picture books, when the samurai trained near a waterfall. 

She tilted her head to the side, inspecting clone after clone that he made, using only one hand.

Some of these were pretty good! Though it made Chiyo wonder if her leaving the training ground next to him was the cause of quality improvement. 'My clones weren't THAT distracting, were they?' - the girl thought to herself, and puffed her cheeks. There was a little bit of envy too. Junichi was almost done mastering the technique, while Chiyo wasted all of her chakra to spare, and didn't even start touching upon the basics!

"You've gotten pretty close! Can you do it when there are distractions, though?" - the girl asked, picking up a box full of training wooden kunai and such.

"I can be a distraction again if you'd like!" - Chiyo said, getting one of the weapons to spin around her finger. She'd lob it at Junichi too, if he gave her the go-ahead!

[Yuie Junichi]

It only took a little bit for him to get in a properly focused state, repeating the sequence to produce clones of a pretty standard quality. Alright, he was getting the hang of it now. Mostly... He was sure when he started again tomorrow he'd be shaky again and need to do practice once more to warm up, but it was good that he was consistently gaining ground.

Still, he felt like he wasn't able to utilize it in the most dire of times. Maybe he should -

Hey, Chiyo spoke up to offer her services as a distraction again! He felt a little bad relegating her to that task, but maybe watching how he was able to focus his technique even while distracted would give her some valuable insight, too.

"I'm not really good at doing it with distractions so far," he admitted. "I wasn't able to use it right when I went to the Chuunin Exams. But I used it on a mission once before, when I needed to fight a bandit... I guess when other people are in danger I can do it, but when it's just me I struggle to focus," he explained.

"If you want to try tossing some kunai at me while I work on it, I would really appreciate it," he said, giving her a grateful little bow.

He would prepare again, watching Chiyo carefully. He would begin to form the hand seals with his left hand while watching Chiyo. Already splitting his concentration like that made the chakra molding a little more difficult... Could he do it while trying to dodge?