C Rank Jutsu Training

When Homura was 10 years old, her father, Ryuunosuke Uchiha, decided to train her in the Uchiha clan's most valued technique.

"Listen up, Homura, and pay close attention. What I'm about to show you is a secret skill that has been coined as a famous technique used by the Uchiha clan. You are not considered an adult by the Uchiha until you've mastered this technique."

Homura's father took her to a remote training area inside Johogakure. He led her to a place where a forest wrapped around a pond, covering it in a veil of trees. There no one would be able to disturb them, as it was a secret spot that not many were aware of.

"You already know about chakra and the importance of handsigns to create jutsu. However, you do not know much about jutsu themselves. I am going to teach you all I can, starting with the first lesson, the Great Fireball Technique."

A light "Oo" is released from the young Homura's lips as she seems excited to receive her father's lesson.

"Now, let's begin, shall we?" Ryuunoskue said. "First, the handsigns. The signs that we will be using to activate our jutsu are, snake-" as he stated this he made the snake sign with his hand. Every consecutive sign afterward was first listed by him then demonstrated with his fingers. "Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, then Tiger. Once all signs are made, you must focus fire chakra to your lungs. When you feel the heat inside your throat is when you know the fire is there. Then you spit it from your mouth like so."

Ryuunosuke pointed his head towards the pond. He breathed out heavily, which prompted flames to eject from his lungs. The ball of fire was titanic in size. Its length was great enough to cover the entire pond. The light from the fire lit up the entire area, and for a moment Homura wasn't sure if the sun had been blocked out by the size of the hot flames. When the fireball dispersed into ember particles, Homura was left with a strange feeling of warmth that represented the remnants of heat that her father's jutsu left behind. Ryuunosuke Uchiha looked to Homura afterward and gave his daughter a smile.

"Now, it is time for you to give it a try."

[Fireball Technique 1/3]

Homura spent the rest of the day trying to learn the great fireball jutsu. After performing the necessary handsigns, she focused her chakra to her lungs just as her father taught her. There was always a problem with the steps of converting chakra to fire, though. She had trouble with the method of transforming her chakra into fire release chakra.

Fire was hot and often burned her when she touched it. She was afraid that the fire would burn her mouth if she tried to breathe it out. Her father would often tell her that it's alright, that the flames would not harm her, that her own chakra would not burn her. However, that didn't stop her from being frightened. When she would get the chakra hot enough to convert it into flames, she would stop herself. Every Great Fireball technique would then turn into a tiny ember that she spat from her mouth.

"You're too scared," her father ended up telling her. "Fear is the number one destroyer of a shinobi. You must always keep your heart steady and your mind clear."

Homura understood this. She truly did. However, her fear was sometimes overwhelming against her logical thinking. The thought of pain kept her from really letting the flames from her body loose.

"Hmm... If that's how it is then... Maybe we should try something?"

If the fire was her fear, then her father would make her unafraid of flames. Ryuunosuke ordered Homura to sit in front of their fireplace. For an entire day he had her place her hands above the flame. He made her adjust herself to the heat. "No matter how hot it gets for you," he ordered her. "Don't remove your hand from the heat."

Homura did as her father commanded. With a lot of fear dripping from her person, she remained near the flames until the heat became unnoticed. She made herself used to the temperature. Finally, after a full day of this, she lost her fear.

[Fireball Technique 2/3]

"I can do this... I can do this... I can do this!" On the third day of Great Fireball training, Homura stood on the edge of the pond. She mentally psyched herself up, preparing her mind for what she was about to do. All day since yesterday she had trained herself to understand that the heat from her fire wouldn't burn her. She now knew that she shouldn't be afraid of it. She had held her hand above the embers of her fireplace to help her. Through that time, she never once burned herself or ruined the skin of her fingers. The heat didn't harm her.

Fire release was the number one chakra nature that every Uchiha shinobi used. She couldn't consider herself an Uchiha if she didn't master this fire technique. It was the knowledge of these things that pushed her forward.

She started by forming the handsigns. "Snake, Ram, Monkey," she mouthed out the signs as she formed them with her fingers. "Boar, Horse, Tiger." She leaned her head back and focused her chakra at her chest. She felt the energy flow deep within her, forming with immense density at her wind passage. She began transforming that chakra. As she thought of the heat from the fireplace, the chi started turning hot. The longer she thought, the hotter it became. She felt herself sweat just from the temperature of her own chakra. When it got to that level of heat that made Homura fearful of it, she didn't stop herself like she always would. Instead, she fought through her fears and pushed herself to continue.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. Just as she thought that she couldn't take the heat anymore, she spat it from her mouth. The flames exploded through her throat and careened past her tongue to soar into the open air. A giant fireball was what Homura created. It wasn't as large as her father's was, but it still held power and size to seem menacing. The ball of flame reached the open air but turned into embers when it went too far away from Homura.

"I did it!" Homura shouted with a bit of excitement at the success of her jutsu. "I actually did it!"

That day of learning would mark the beginning of Homura's road to Fire Release Ninjutsu mastery.

[Fireball Technique 3/3]

Jutsu:

It'd been a year since Homura began her practice with fire chakra. It was a tough thing for her to manage. Every day since she learned the Great Fire Technique she's been reusing and mastering it for herself. She had breathed fire so much that she's started to hate spitting it out.

"Looks like you're well on your way," is what Ryuunosuke would say whenever Homura brought this subject up. She would tell him that she was sick of using the same jutsu and that she would love to learn some new ones. Of course, her father would always laugh that last bit off. "I fear not the man that knows a thousand kicks," was what his answer to her would be.

One day, Homura had gotten tired of his cryptic answers and cornered him in their home. "Teach me a new fire technique, papa!" This became the staple words that she would use against her dad. every time she would have to wake him up, she would jump on his stomach and demand him to teach her a new technique. When she would arrive from school and he would be home, she would jump on his leg and hold herself there to the point where he would have to drag her with him to move around. "Teach me a new fire technique! Teach me a new fire technique! Teach me a new fire technique!" She would say that over and over in his ears until he finally cracked. And, when he cracked, it was marvelous.

"So, here's your new fire technique..."

Ryuunosuke had brought her back to the secret place at the pond. He'd thought up a new technique for her to utilize. "This is called the Phoenix Sage Fire technique." Ryuunosuke began weaving the handsigns. It was at such a fast rate that Homura couldn't keep up with it. Finally, he faced the pond and blew out his flames. Instead of a giant fireball like the last time, these flames were smaller and more in numbers. In total, he spat out around five miniature fireballs. What was more impressive? The fireballs didn't just move out in a straight line. They went flying in every which direction and in random patterns. After what almost looked like a magic show, with the flames dancing in the air, they fell into the water with a splash, causing some of the liquid to sizzle up.

"Now," Ryuunosuke said when he was finished. "Do you have any questions?"

[Sage Fire 1/3]

The handsigns were as followed:

"Rat, Tiger, Dog, Ox, Rabbit, Tiger." It wasn't an easy sequence to memorize for Homura. Sometimes she would use Ram and Monkey before Rat and Tiger. It was muscle memory that was her problem. Though, that wasn't her only issue. When she used the right handsign sequence and began spewing the fire from her mouth it would come in random bundles that would disperse immediately upon contact with the air.

"You're not doing it right," Ryuunosuke would tell Homura. "You're still thinking about the Great Fireball Technique. When you release the flames, don't release it all at once. Do it one at a time and focus on adding just enough chakra to have it take shape."

It was tough for Homura. She would spew the flames one at a time with some of her tries, then she would spew them all together in others. When she managed to get it right, she would still fail at controlling it. This was, by far, the most difficult technique for her to use.

"I can't get it, Papa," Homura told her father one day after they both walked home from training.

"Don't worry, you will. It just requires a bit more experience."

"How did you master it?" the 11-year-old asked, looking to her father for some form of inspiration.

"Hmmm, let's see. I kind of practiced it every day? Sometimes I wouldn't even go home. I'd be so focused on just giving it a try and learning from it. I eventually got it. It just took a bit of hard work."

"Hard work..." Homura repeated. "Okay," she eventually said. "I'll give it my all. All it requires is hard work!"

[Sage Fire 2/3]

"Hard work is all it takes..." Homura walked to the secret training area as she repeated these words to herself. She had heard her father's advice and was now ready to follow it and see where it led her. For the entire day, she would not leave that secret spot until she could use the Phoenix Safe Fire technique with proficiency.

"Let's repeat the hand signs." She started with that as a warm-up for her practice. She would perform the hand signs in the right order several times so that her mind could remember the sequence. After she felt that she did this enough, she would try to fire out the flames from her mouth.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique."

Homura performed the Phoenix Sage Fire for a full two days. She didn't go home but focused more on utilizing all of her time on learning the jutsu. Her father came in the morning to bring her breakfast that her mother cooked. During the middle of the day, he would bring her lunch. At night he would be there with her, giving her pointers on what she was doing right and what she's doing wrong.

After two long days of performing the jutsu until she ran out of chakra, she finally managed to somewhat master it.

"Alright so..." Tired and nearly depleted of chakra, Homura looked to her father with a huge grin. "I think I finally got it working."

"Yeah?" Ryuunosuke responded. "I think you did too."

[Sage Fire 3/3]

Jutsu: