Azran sat at a pond near the edge of his training field contemplating the nature of his chakra as he practiced a simple water manipulation jutsu in an attempt to develop a secondary affinity for that element.
Ever since he had been struck by lighting all those years ago using lightning chakra had become second nature to him. While it was true that emitting a simple electrostatic charge at first had left him weak and lightheaded at first now he could do it so easily he didn't even require hand seals which lead some of the doctors in the village to speculate if he had a latent bloodline ability.
None of the cared enough to presue the theory however. All he could do so far was manipulate electro magnetic force in various ways, something plenty of ninja in Gaioh where capable of which meant He wasn't anything special in their eyes.
But the price had been a heavy one as most other chakra types came as a struggle to him... All other chakra types execpt water that is and even that was by no means easy, just less difficult. Azran didn't know why that was, but if it meant he could add another weapon to his arsenal that much quicker he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
His quick assent from gennin to chunnin had finally given him the pay grade he needed to finally pay off his long lingering debts and live modestly but he was not content to rest on his larals and remain their.
He was mearly "good" when he wanted to become "great" and so he trained and studied harder and harder all in preparation for the jounin exam. The fact that he didn't know when it would be held hardly mattered, he simply needed to be as ready for it as humanly possible in order to obtain his goal of advancement.
Already in the last few weeks he had cracked some of the deeper aspects of his main element developing what he called Piercing lighting, a method of increasing an objects sharpness by vibrating it at high speed with an electric educed current.
But even he had to admit that his heavily taijutsu/ninjuts combo based fighting style had some serious flaws for him to work out. Sure as far as fighting other Chunnin level ninja went it worked well, but an experienced Jounin would find the holes in it and demolish him quickly with them.
For one he was overdependent on his main element, a fact he was working to rectify by cultivating an affinity for a second one that would complement his first one by both strengthening it and negating it's major weakness.
Water conducts electricity so it was a good way to increase his effectiveness. Plus if he came up against a Wind which lightning was weak against he would be able to fall back on Water jutsu to fight with while Earth users who could absorb his water would quickly fall to his lightning making it a well balanced combination.
The other major flaw was his lack of long range offense. Sure he had shuriken and kunai but so did any ninja worth their salt and those hardly ever made the difference in a real battle. His clawshot was good for mid range attacks but the length of it's chains and speed where both major limiting factors at a distance.
He had always had trouble with actually throwing lightning jutsu away from his body before. With out a medium like the chains on his claw shot to conduct the electricity with it the cost in terms of stamina of using them had been too prohibitive for him to prose.
But he was stronger now, his control better and thanks to his studying he understood the science behind his powers better now. It was really simple when he thought about it. 4-30KV/CM. When he absorbed that many kilovolts his body would exceed the electrical field strength of the atmosphere and he would be able to hurl lightning like a modern day zeus.
Know as Dielectric breakdown his body would become it's own conductor and he would finally be able to complete the speed boost jutsu he had been working on for the last long while among with several therotrical jutsu he had come up with in the meantime.
Over time once he mastered those jutsu and his new element the possibility of becoming one of the the villages top anbu would not be out of the question. He would not be a nobody like he had been in the past or merely average like he was no but one of the elite... but only if he was willing to work hard enough to obtain it.
After all lightning rarely struck twice. He had been given one divine gift in his life nessisary to move himself up the ladder, he could not would not count on that happening again and instead count on making all future advancements by the power of his own two hands.
Standing up he began to intensify his training once more. The time his village would call upon him to take action was soon, he could taste it in the air around him. And when that time came he would be ready!
