A new wood element technique, Cutting!

It was a day like any other when Kirito decided to learn a new wood element technique. He had only known one of his clans techniques, the wood clone, and it was about time he started to learn more. Especially now that he was head of the Senju clan. It had finally been announced just days ago that the council had agreed to step down and let Kirito take power as his rightful place of head of the clan. They grudgingly agreed to it on Kirito's uncle's proposal after learning that he had almost completely mastered his tailed beast and had some powerful jutsu in his arsenal, not to mention how quickly he was getting even stronger. Kirito had spent that day doing paperwork, shaking hands and getting accustomed to the position. Today however, he had some free time. That was why he woke up early and decided to head out to the forest to train. He needed to continue getting stronger or else he risked losing his position to the power hungry council. They wouldn't hesitate to seize control if he couldn't defend his position. This meant he had to find time in his now busy schedule to keep on training himself and befriending Isobu to further his power.

When he had woken up it was still so early that the sun hadn't yet risen. He quickly got dressed and slid Kubikiribocho onto his back before quietly slipping out of his chambers so as to not attract attention. He had been moved into the Village Leader's chambers as it was now his position to hold since the head of the Senju clan was also the Village Leader. Even in his spare time if someone had spotted him he would've been forced to stop and talk and probably have more paperwork and village affairs thrust upon him to take care of and this is why he was eager to quietly slip out now when everyone was still asleep. After he had successfully exited his new chambers he hastily made his way to a circular clearing in the forest he had found and made his own personal training area complete with training dummies. The circular clearing had a radius of 40 meters with trees lining the edges and training dummies set up at 5 meter intervals lining the edge to form a sort of inner ring. Today he would be practicing on these specific dummies.

When he arrived at the clearing the sun had just begun to rise and there was only faint sunlight seeping through the treetops above. He found it extremely peaceful there with the birds singing their morning songs and the quiet gentle breeze making the trees sway ever so slightly. He had always enjoyed being in the forest though. It was where he was able to think the clearest and felt most at ease, a sense of peace and tranquility taking hold of him. He realized he hadn't heard from Isobu yet this morning and so he thought he would try to start another conversation as the Sanbi had been getting more friendly towards him as of late and Kirito quite enjoyed his company. 'You ready to get some training done today Isobu? You've been unusually quiet today, something wrong?'

'I don't feel like talking much today Kirito. I will watch your training from the side today and keep to myself.'

Kirito wasn't sure what was bothering Isobu but he let the conversation die. Kirito was standing 3 meters in front of one of the training dummies. He began stretching out all of his muscles from his arms to his legs and back. He had already memorized how to perform the Wood Release: Cutting technique so he didn't bother bringing the scroll with the Senju clan's wood element techniques with him. It was an easy technique to learn. It only had one hand seal to perform it. You could activate a secondary effect by performing the hand seal a second time as well. The technique allowed the wood element user to create up to 10 branches from his body in any way shape or form by performing the Ram seal. The branches would grow up to 5 meters long and one meter thick. The user could also detach the branches from his body to either throw them at specific targets or use them as weapons such as swords, axes, staffs etc. Overall it was an extremely useful jutsu to have since it could be used to surprise an opponent or opponents.

After he had finished his stretching and going over the necessities for the jutsu in his mind, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, centering himself in preparation of performing the technique. Kirito opened his eyes and began to knead his wood element chakra. He let it flow through his entire body, not really focusing it onto any particular area since this jutsu activated from anywhere on the body the user chooses. He then performed the ram hand seal. At first nothing seemed to happen but Kirito could feel his wood element chakra flowing underneath his skin just waiting to conform to his will. According to the Senju clan's scroll, the user could manipulate the branches however they wish as long as they are still connected to the user. This meant the technique was only limited by the user's imagination. Kirito willed a branch to grow from his left shoulder which he grabbed with his right hand and pulled out to reveal a sword 5 feet in length with one sharp edge and 2 inches thick. The Senju clan symbol was etched into the hilt of the sword shaped branch.

He looked over the sword for two minutes before throwing it to pierce the head of the training dummy 3 meters in front of him. Kirito then performed the Ram sign again to make four branches grow from the sword he had just thrown, slanting downward to pierce the torso of the dummy making more damage. That was the secondary ability of this technique, although it could only be used on three branches at a time, so it had to be used strategically. That was one out of three and one out of ten for normal branches. This time Kirito decided to charge at the dummy with his right arm raised so his hand was even with his left shoulder as if he would be using a sword to slice at the dummy. When he was 2ft away from the dummy a long sharp edged branch grew from his right hand and he used it to slice the dummy in half from shoulder to hip and then let the branch disconnect from his hand and stab the ground at an angle as the top half of the training dummy toppled over backward onto the ground behind it.

He was making good progress but he wanted to test this technique even more. He was curious as to how much he could manipulate the branches he grew. He walked over to the center of the clearing, deciding to make a few different objects to test his manipulation.  How ironic would it be to create a hammer out of wood? It didn't really matter. He began by kneading his wood element chakra, spreading it again throughout his entire body. He felt that he should first try and create different weapons. The first one he would make was a one meter long and four inches thick katana shaped branch with a sharp edge and the Senju clan symbol on the hilt. This katana grew from Kirito's left forearm, shaping in to Kirito's ideal sword, protruding hilt first so he could grab it without injuring himself before separating it from his body. He examined the katana for a moment and then decided to create a sheathe for the newly made katana. Growing again from Kirito's left forearm was a long wooden sheathe, made to fit the katana perfectly. The Senju clan symbol was three inches long on the center of both sides of the sheathe. He pulled it from his arm and slid the katana in to it perfectly. That was three branches down which left Kirito with the ability to grow only seven more before having to re cast the jutsu. He preferred to create the different objects from his left forearm because it made it easy for him to grab the different weapons quickly, which he would need to be able to do if used in battle. For the third weapon, he made a one sided battle axe three feet long with the handle two inches wide and the wooden blade was sharp and a foot long. The Senju clan symbol was again located in the center of the blade on both sides. Kirito had a strong loyalty to his clan, being he was now the clan head and even before that, so he felt he had to make the Senju clan symbol appear on each of the weapons and other objects he created through his wood style. He knew he could create up to seven more "branches" from his body now. This time Kirito would create a two meter long and four inches thick staff with a one inch long Senju clan symbol on either end of the staff and pull it from his left forearm just as he had the other weapons. What was he going to do with all the weapons he was creating anyway? He wasn't sure but he was having fun stretching his imagination regardless. Next would be a five foot long war mace with the round spiked end being six inches thick and growing shaft first from his forearm so he would again be able to grab it quickly without hurting himself. He was having a fun time trying to come up with different weapons to make this way and Isobu had even taken a vague interest in watching him pull various items from his own body. 'What are you going to do with all of these weapons you are making? It doesn't seem very practical for you to keep them.' Isobu had said in his mind, finally speaking up a bit and coming out of his seclusion. 'I'm not sure actually. I'll probably just leave them here for now. The point was to stretch my imagination and test the limits of the Wood Release: Cutting technique.' Turning his attention back to the jutsu and away from Isobu, he decided to try and create a sort of wall or shield for himself. A wood tendril extended itself from Kirito's left wrist and formed in to a meter wide, six inches thick and five meter tall rectangle and detached itself from Kirito, creating a small wall that would shield him from certain dangers. Of course the wall had the Senju emblem on the front of it as well. He continued creating different items until all ten branches were used up.

When he was finished he decided he might as well try the jutsu out by fighting with one of his wood clones. He would stand up and make the seals Tiger-Dog-Snake, creating a wood clone from the ground 1 meter in front of him. The clone moved to stand a little farther away so that they stood facing each other five meters apart. The clone pulled out Kubikiribocho just as Kirito had. They charged at each other and clashed sword against sword. They pushed away from each other and Kirito took out a kunai and threw it at the clones head. The clone blocked it with his sword and Kirito ran at the clone performing the Ram hand sign. When Kirito was a meter away from the clone he jumped, growing two branches from his feet propelling him further in to the air. The clone took this opportunity to throw his own kunai at Kirito. Kirito didn't have time to dodge so instead he grew a thick branch with a point from his right hand and knocked the kunai away, intending to then throw the branch at the clone. Just as Kirito threw the branch however, the clone tunneled underground, narrowly escaping being impaled. Kirito landed on the ground and knew he had to keep moving so that the clone couldn't track his movements. He started running but it was too late. The clone reached up from underground and pulled Kirito under leaving only his head above ground.
Options flew threw Kirito's mind. Should he try and break free, should he tunnel underground, should he use his V2 cloak or just create a sharp branch from his head to attack? He needed to make up his mind now. The clone just one meter from Kirito and had a sharp branch growing from the palm of his right hand which was extended toward Kirito's head. Kirito tunneled underground, the branch piercing the air where his head was just seconds ago. Underground Kirito could sense the clone's every movement. He tunneled his way through the ground to a point one meter behind the clone and tunneled back up to the surface. Kirito ran at the clone growing a sharp branch from the palm of his right hand. Just as the clone turned around it was impaled in the heart, Killing the clone and dispelling it in a pile of wood now on the ground. Kirito pulled the branch from his hand and stabbed it in to the ground. That had gone better than he had expected. It was a good thing he was able to think quickly and adapt to different situations or he would have ended up really killing himself. He should be more careful training in the future. Making mental notes about everything he and his wood clone experienced as he always did, Kirito walked back over to the edge of the circular clearing. 'Well Isobu I think that's enough training for now. I need to get back to the village. I'm sure there is even more work for me to do now.' Isobu hadn't responded but Kirito could tell he was listening. Kirito just shrugged and took it as Isobu going back to secluding himself for the day and then he headed back to the village, not looking forward to the work that was sure to be waiting for him.
[exit]
WC: 2394
Claiming Senju clan head, Village Leader, Wood Release: Cutting and 11 stats