Cloud Academy's silent broke with the ringing of the bell for end of the day. A roiling tidal wave of screaming, running, laughing and chatting children brimmed over the walls and through the gates, spilling into the streets of Kumogakure. Not all kids were present though, Shokkimaro was back in the main hall for physical practice, broom in hand, enduring a scolding from his teacher.
He didn't -mean- to break his sparring partner's nose, it was an accident. Unfortunately, he had a precident for hurting his partners so the teacher didn't really buy his reasons. At this point, Shokki had just accepted that if he wanted to win in sparring he'd have to accept the fallout if he actually hurt then. Then help his partner out with catching up with schoolwork when they came back to class. After abscently agreeing to cleaning up the blood and the entire hall, Shokki was left alone in the hall with a bucket and a mop; calmly just dealing with his punishment. He'd rather do this than lose.
Then an idea came to him, they were doing the clone technique in theory today. If he could ace it as well as that Wall-walking lesson from Kotoyo-san, then he could ace this one and do the punishment twice as fast! his crooked grin peeled across his face as he leant the mop handle against his shoulder and slowly went through the motions to produce a clone.
Poof! so appeared his duplicate, all be it one that looked like it was made of silly putty. He frowned and released the technique, thinking back to his lessons as he began to mop up the blood again.
"It's not a good technique unless it can mimic me properly..." he muttered. "..maybe it's soft cause I'm not using enough chakra"
With that, he went to make a fresh clone but this one was worse than the last, it just flopped to the ground like a boneless cartoon. He let out of a raspberry of a sigh and went back to mopping once more. For 30 minutes, he mulled over his lessons and his clones, wondering how he could improve them; the teacher was impressed with his skilled wall-walking so he wanted to get back in good books by suprising once again with clones... how could he do it.
He passed by the windows, carrying some equipment towards the storeroom, his reflection catching his eye. He had some hair out of place! he went to swiftly fix it but placed his hand on the wrong side of his forehead to do it. However, his eyes widened and he dropped the equipment he was carrying; glaring at his reflection. He had an idea!
With a swift flourish he commited to another clone technique, envisioning himself creating the clone as if he was looking at a reflection. Manifesting his chakra in a model opposite to how he felt it swirl in his body. Since as soon as the clone turned around and mimiced his facing and movements, it would look exactly like him!
Poof! what came free was a spectacularly better clone than his previous, drawing a crooked grin. His clone was lop-sided, not fit for purpose -but- it looked solid. he was making progress. Soon his mind filled with questions and decisions on how to fix his issues. his mind raced with training, his punishment forgotten. The day grew dark as he trained away in the hall.
Hours later, his mother arrived, worried of her missing son. only to find him panting and sweating on the floor of the hall. She had gotten used to the one-track mind of her son and simply helped him home. Leaving a note for the teacher to explain what happened.
It would be a later supper for him tonight...
((learning Clone technique)
