One handed hand seals

The sun was high in the sky this day breathing down on earth's neck with it's hot breath, the heat rose in waves and caused a slight shimmering throughout the area. One would believe the whole place was a sea of shimmering waves it could even be called beautiful if one were to be so sentimental about things like this, the grass as always covered everything it was endless they said. The figure wondered if it were truly endless could anything truly be endless he asked himself he didn't think so but who knew, the world was full of surprises maybe that's what made it exciting. A gentle breeze blew by causing the grass to shift across he could hear it as it moved making it's odd noise it was almost silent but not quite. He leaned down and picked up a handful of the earth and opened his fingers slightly the dirt and grass begin to seep out between the cracks between his fingers slowly, he watched wondering how many little beings he had let pass through his fingers a thousand or maybe ten thousand who knew. The thoughts brought a smile to his lips as he began his slow walk once more he had to get away from everyone their energy was stifling the flow around him.

This lone figure was Ares genkai a chuunin of kumogakure, Ares is a rather plain person to most who see him, he most outstanding feature is his hair, it is a dark red that stands out against most peoples but that is about it. He combs the majority of his hair back though he leaves his bangs hanging over his forehead a bit so he has the tiniest bit of style. He keeps his hair in check with a low ponytail crudely made from some strings. His eyes are a sickly yellow color almost like that you would see in a cat's eyes, often they are half closed as if he is nodding off to sleep though this is just how he keeps them comfortable. His skin is a light pale color, though he spends his time out in the sun often he does not tan well at all, his body due to training often is slim and athletic. His body is toned slightly but not overly as someone who works out just to build muscle constantly, it merely shows he is a hard worker when he finds something he needs to train. Across his stomach which is often hidden from the view of others is a jagged scarring pattern that seems to have been inflicted by an animal of some sort.

Ares chooses to wear rather formal clothing, even on missions he finds that formal or traditional clothing works for both business and pleasure giving him the added benefit of being quite comfy upon his skin. His upper body wear is just a simple vest like piece of clothing that fits over his shoulders and ties together in the middle so it does not fall from his body it is white and red to match his hair and skin quite well. Around his midsection Ares has wrapped white and red cloth around his body to hide his stomach completely from the eyes of everyone else. Around both his forearms he has also wrapped white cloth to hide them from view, his lower body is covered by a pair of black kung fu pants black in color and baggy to move easily in. To the surprise of most Ares often does not wear shoes, he prefers the feeling of having the ground against his feet without the barrier of shoes.

Ares walked farther along the dirt road tediously as he stared at the scenery before him it was like a moving picture everything was different he thought it was rather interesting. The road slowly began to disappear as Ares walked into the forest he smiled slightly seeing the open road turn to a forest before his eyes as he walked. As a gentle breeze blew by instead of the sound of shifting grass Ares could hear the leaves on the tree's rustle together, as he felt the breeze through the tree's. It was cool and refreshing under the tree's it gave an actual feeling of being a breeze and not a blast of hot air as it would have been out in the open as he had been earlier. A river rolled by calmly a mere ten or so feet away as it supplied this forest with it's life energy without this river there would be no forest kind of amazing how one thing can give life to so many things he thought. In a way to the tree's the river might actually be their god after all it gave them life and if it disappeared they would receive death it was an interesting thought one he would think on later he told himself. As he walked through the tree's he could hear a multitude of animals running and hiding from his presence but he could feel their eyes on him as he walked. He sighed lightly he would have liked to see the animals up close maybe even pet them if they allowed him to get that close but he doubted that would happen after all he was an intruder in their land and they feared him as they should after all he was human and humans killed them.

He had come here for some intense training today as he had seen something ever so interesting he had seen a shinobi who was able to do one handed seals quite a feat he thought to himself one he intended to try and learn himself. Now how to start he thought to himself should he try the powerful jutsu first or build up towards them he had to be careful he didn't want to waste a lot of chakra in the attempts, but he had to try something so he went with something simple the fireball technique. Exhaling slowly he made the hand signs with his hand to get a feel for using the jutsu in it's most stable form with one hands to see where he needed to control his chakra better. As he finished the last hand sign he noted that he felt a slight drain from his chakra as a fireball came bursting out wildly and hit the ground with little more then a sizzle as he could barely control the chakra at this point. Now he needed to do the same thing this time it had to be right but could he really do that he asked himself calmly as he disabled his chakra flow to his hand with the snap of his fingers.. He was doubting himself now and that wouldn't help his concentration in the least he needed to be confident and ready to tackle this challenge, sighing lightly he held up his one hand and started a slow sequence of hand signs. With a single hand he made the same hand signs but he could feel the strain as he tried to control the chakra through a single point it was hard almost like someone was trying to tug back the chakra he was trying to unleash.

With a grimace of annoyance he released the chakra and sighed his first try had been a failure what a pain he thought to himself angrily. This was going to be harder then he thought at first he thought maybe he could get it right off the bat after all people had called him a genius before so he had to do it easily right he asked himself. But this was different it was like trying to make a house without having the tools to build it with using his left hand hadn't worked he wondered if using his right hand would be any better maybe that would work somehow. Bringing up his right hand now he closed his eyes and imagined the hand signs he was going to use before exhaling slowly one again, slowly he began to try form the hand signs with his right hand alone to activate the jutsu. Opening his eyes Ares looked at the stump that was his right arm now, he had completely forgotten that it had been blown off in the fight with the amekage. Ares was having a hard time adjusting to having nothing there now as it felt like his hand and fore arm were still there but each time he tried to use them he was quickly awakened to reality once again. Literally growling in frustration he threw his hand into the air sharply like he was trying grab an imaginary person, this was so stupid how did that random person know how to use hand seals with one hand so easily it made no sense. With only one hand how could he possibly channel the right amount of chakra to the jutsu and keep it active without worrying about losing the connection he asked himself mentally. He sighed lightly knowing he should calm down as getting angry wasn't going to help him in any way at all, he closed his eyes and began to think of a river calmly flowing by itself just flowing not heeding anything else.

At the rate things were going Ares was going to have to stay the night and sleep in the forest so he could continue his training in the forest right as he awoke. This was going to be some annoying training he told himself as he sat down cross legged in the dirt not caring what would get on his clothes, as he wanted to concentrate completely on the challenge at hand. The chakra was still there he just had to stabilize the medium and the flow of it as he let it run through his body he knew this but it wasn't so easy he thought. It was like trying to run at full speed on one leg he grinned lightly as he thought of something instead of limiting the chakra flow what if he just let it flow out at full power wouldn't the chakra go into the jutsu and make it work and any excess just got wasted. He was gonna try it after what part of that kind of logic could be flawed he asked himself, obviously ignoring the chakra waste in the calculation he began to slowly form the hand signs with his left hand again. Letting his chakra flare up inside of him at full power he activated the jutsu with all the chakra he could muster and watched as the fireball came bursting from his mouth once again but it was unwieldy to say the least and he watched it crash into the mud with little to no force. But it was now that Ares felt the immense drain on his chakra he had waster at least thirty percent of his chakra alone with that one jutsu he ground his teeth together in annoyance.

He couldn't afford to do that every time just for a mere fireball technique or else this one handed seal making was worth less to him and he would not fail here. Smiling to himself he brought his hand up again and this time with rapid hand speed he used a set of hand signs to activated the jutsu once again, he would not lose here he would master this art and become even better then he was already. Activating the jutsu once more he poured more chakra then needed to make the jutsu work, his breathing came out ragged and hard as he had lost over half his chakra now. 'God dammit I can do better then this there has to be something I am missing what could it be' he asked himself as he disabled the technique and let the inert fireball fall to the ground. Going back to his left hand he went through the same steps pouring his chakra into the technique to make it work, having failed again to create it with the same precision and speed as one would with two hands Ares let himself fall back onto to the cool ground. He had used almost all his chakra trying to make it work and with such a low level jutsu it was actually rather pathetic he thought to himself in that same calm way.

He stared up into the sky as the sun had begun to set now he had wasted a lot of time and learned nothing about the technique itself what a dreadful day he thought as he sighed lightly. Well it looked like he was going to be stuck here for a bit longer then he had really expected to be and he really didn't like that after all he had no extra clothes so he might start smelling like garlic or chili when he got sweaty. So he took off his vest throwing it over his shoulder and began to search for a river or even a creek to use the water, if he could use water he would have no problems but he didn't so now he had a problem. It was simple to find a creek after a few minutes of walking and there was plenty of mud around here to make sure if the fireball technique did work it would not start a big fire with that it was ideal to stay here and figure out how he was going to use this one handed technique soon. 'But first he told himself time to clean yourself off as you don't smell so fresh after a hard days work', he laughed lightly to himself as he scooped up some of the water and washed himself off slowly getting rid of the work stench. After cleaning himself off Ares made a small fire on the edge of the creek bank and began to think on the one handed seal technique he knew the process it was like using two hands but one it was the chakra flow that was messing with him at this point he needed a different focus point.

He began to fall asleep slowly to the sound of the creek flowing the sound filled his ears as he closed his eyes and drifted off to a fitful sleep. His sleep was filled with the same constant flash of images the creek flowing down the way slowly as a fireball formed on the side of it then to his confusion it had a face within the fire that winked at him before falling into the water and disappearing. When Ares awoke in the morning he yawned lightly as he woke up wondering what the hell that dream meant he didn't really get it at all, of course he never really did get any of his dreams as they were often weird. He almost didn't want to get up and do this again after all he had failed yesterday, but he was also very stubborn when it came to something he wanted and he really wanted this style of hand seals and what he wanted he would get himself. Now he couldn't begin the day without some food as he needed to recharge, so he left the creek and headed towards a different spot as he was very choosy in what he ate. To be specific Ares did not eat meat as he detested killing things even plants but at least plants didn't have emotions and family they just existed and were returned to the earth. So he set out to find an berries or fruit he could within the forest to eat it within ten or so minutes he had food enough to eat and was sated for the time being so he needed to get back to his one handed seal training.

Walking back to the creek took a few minutes but he found it easily remembering right where it was now time for the training again he thought to himself calmly as he looked at the mud on the bank of the river. Suddenly bringing up his left hand he made the hand signs with only his left hand with astonishing hand speed and activated the jutsu using the least amount of chakra he could. The air before him began to shimmer with heat as he drew in a deep breath and expelled the fireball once more, it was still incomplete he could see as it burned little. But he had found something out it was just thinking about how he used the chakra not how much he used at once this was the way of using the minimal amount of chakra to activate the jutsu to it's fullest potential. Bringing up his left hand again this time he used the same speed to make a set of hand signs and activated the jutsu once again slowly this time building up the chakra using his full concentration. The fireball slowly began to form in his throat and then fired out completely it was too slow to be used in battle of course but so far this was a great breakthrough in his training he needed to continue his training even more so now. With this he had a real chance of learning how to use this technique in a real battle with great results if he could do this he could activate two jutsu at once using just one hand each it was a very useful thing to learn at this point or so he thought until he remembered his right hand was gone.

It was a matter of controlling the flow of the chakra he knew but it was like the flow wasn't going exactly where he wanted it to each time and it was so annoying he thought. The air within the forest was humid causing him to sweat profusely although he wasn't doing any strenuous work at the moment, he could feel the beads of sweat fall down his back slowly causing his shirt to cling to him uncomfortably. His hair stuck to his head and the sweat dripped into his eyes making it hard to see, humidity was a curse he thought to himself as he hated it very much. He wished there was a way to clear up the humidity for good but he knew that was impossible to do, and even if he could it would only last so long as mother nature could be very mean when you defied her. This thought caused him to laugh lightly to himself as he wiped the sweat from his brow and flicked it into the soft earth, he had been at this for an hour now making the fire balls with one handed seals and then letting them fall to the ground. Each time was the same thing they molded so slowly they would be useless in the battles to come, he didn't understand what he was doing wrong it was like the chakra refused to obey his commands. With a growl of frustration he slammed his fist into a pile of rocks knocking it into the creek watching it fall apart in the murky waters of the creek and get carried away by the flow of the creek.

Ah he thought what it would be like to be a creek to have no worries in this world and just flow along, and keep flowing no matter what got in the way not heeding what others thought of it. As he stared at the creek he could pick out small specks of dirt at the bottom with the pebbles and rocks that coated the bottom. An interesting thought came to his mind right then he wondered how many specks of dirt and little pebbles it would take to fill this creek completely, had to be quite a few as there were already many at the bottom. It would most likely take a person their entire life to even try such a feat and even then they would have failed for the creek would never stop flowing it would flow as long as it could despite being blocked it would find another way to go. His eyes widened slightly as he thought of that of course a creek or river even when blocked found ways to get past the things that dared to block it he needed to use another point of focus then just his fingers. But what he thought as that was the main point of his focus what else could he focus on and channel his chakra through quickly and efficiently while molding the katon chakra within him to what he wished he asked himself confused by his own thinking which he found rather odd as would anybody.

It was strange he never really bothered with chakra control before but now it felt like he should have, if he had maybe then he would be able to do this technique so much easier he thought to himself. He needed to break for lunch and regain some of his stamina and chakra before trying to do the training again or at this rate he was going to be stuck here again all night. So standing up from the bank of the creek he stretched out his arms and his legs while wiping the dirt and mud from his pants slowly watching as it fell into the creek. He figured he would just head to the same area he had before and eat the fruit like earlier the only problem with his plan was that he had forgotten where the fruit patch was and now he had no idea which way to go to find it. His stomach rumbled in protest as he wandered around for a bit, with a grimace he looked at his stomach calmly "oh shut up you" he said softly as he began to sniff the air trying to get the sweet scent of the fruit. He smiled slightly as he got the scent that hung in the air and walked towards it, he found a different clearing this time it was a different fruit as well but not only that there were animals all out in the open here. He felt their eyes upon him as he entered the clearing with the fruit, he froze in place looking back at the animals not moving an inch so as not to frighten them away.

It was odd the entire clearing seemed to be at a stand still as Ares and the animals stared at one another, as quickly as it had happened the tension was broken the animals looked away and went back to eating. He couldn't believe it shouldn't they have fled the moment he came into the clearing he asked himself, but they seemed to be at peace with him like they were not worried about him harming them at all how did they sense that feeling within him he wondered. He walked tentatively to the fruit bushes and sat down in front of one, before slowly picking out the berries in the bush and eating them slowly not trying to make any sudden moves. But this was a wasted effort by now the animals were not even paying attention to Ares as they had sensed no ill intentions from him so they continued to eat like he wasn't even there anymore. This was too weird he thought to himself as he ate the berries these animals just sat there unaware that he could kill them in an instant, the thought crossed his mind right then and the animals suddenly took off running from the clearing all of them gone within a second. That made no sense he hadn't even moved when he had that thought but his intentions came up for even that split second they sensed it and ran before he could do it. Then something just clicked within Ares mind the river flowing so calmly the fire ball with a face forming in front of him, it made sense he had been preventing himself from using the technique all along.

He was trying to control everything but in a sense he needed to let go and let the chakra do what it knew it was suppose to do, he had been working against himself by treating this technique like a jutsu or chakra technique. He was forcing the chakra to do what it wasn't supposed to be doing he needed to let the chakra flow on it's own and control the parts that were unstable what a fool he had been trying so hard to control something that didn't need to be controlled at all. If he had found this clearing sooner maybe he would have realized what he was doing wrong the entire time he had been here, of course there were other hints in his subconscious. The weird dreams of the flowing river and the fire ball with a face forming right next to it he was trying to tell himself what he needed to do, and he had blown off the dreams as utter nonsense how foolish of him he scolded himself mentally. He had been arrogant in the thought that he had full control of everything but he realized now there were just somethings you couldn't control and to try to was foolish. Not only would he use this one handed hand seal training to increase his strength he had used it to increase his wisdom and understanding on things which was a great improvement in itself at least he thought so. So now he needed to just get back to the training and he would be set to leave this forest by the late afternoon maybe even dusk but either way he would not have to spend another night in this humid forest which he was very thankful for.

After gorging himself on many many berries Ares burped loudly before standing up slowly, it was almost getting up lazily which he often did when tired or bored with something. He had wanted to sit there for a bit longer but he knew he needed to get to work on the training once again or he would sit there all day eating berries and looking for the animals that had fled earlier. So with that thought he took off towards the river but at his own pace it was a slow and uneventful walk back to the small creek which had not even noticed his absence of course he thought why would it notice him when it noticed not even the rocks which were determined to block its flow. He closed his eyes and listened to the slight sounds of the forest around him and smiled slightly as he heard the bird in the tree's chirping softly and the creek right in front of him slowly moving at its own pace ignoring all who got in its way. He exhaled slowly and sat down cross legged in front of the creek staring at it calmly as he felt the flow of everything around him it was like being omnipotent he thought but on such a small scale. If there was a god is this what he felt like most of the time Ares asked himself calmly, would god even notice the being such as humans under his almighty gaze. Of course not he thought god was a being of immense power and knowledge if he actually existed why would he noticed the specks of dust called human beings who lived for only a short time and knew so little. His thoughts were rather morbid at this point but then he wondered if there were a god would he understand everything that was or is and if he did why didn't he fix it all isn't that what a god should do Ares questioned. Then again this was all in theory for no one truly had proof that there was a god or there was not a god in this world there were those who believed and those who did not Ares was the kind of person who needed to see to believe so until then he would believe in nothing as nothing had been shown worthy to believe in. But such thoughts were to complex for a mere mortal to think of he thought to himself as he quickly shrugged away the thoughts, and turned his sights towards his original goal to master the one handed hand seal training.

Bringing up his left hand he began the sequence of hand seals slowly for the fireball technique and then with the last seal finished he activated the jutsu. The fire ball formed almost instantly in front of him perfectly it was so much easier when he didn't try and force the chakra out or hold it in he just let it go the way it needed it was the perfect way to do the technique he thought to himself. The fire ball then moved towards his will and smashed into the surface of the small river sending up waves of steam, it was too easy now he thought to himself the technique had been mastered at least enough for now as he could use it in battle if he needed to. With a bit more training the technique could be used any number of ways he thought to himself calmly as he stared at the river and then bowed his head to it slightly giving it a slight thank you in helping him complete his training in this matter. But for now he just wanted to go home, so with that last jutsu he was done with the training at least for now of course later he would complete the training. Today Ares had learned more then just a new technique he had learned more about nature and the world itself he had come to understand things just a bit better, now time to go home. With that he began to walk the way he came into the forest knowing that he had become a better shinobi and a wiser person then before he entered and trained in this forest.