This was... long over due. He hadn't so much been putting it off, as just keeping to busy to find the time. He had a laundry list of new jutsu to train, as well as desperately needing to work on his elemental control. He'd recently discovered that he carried a slight affinity for Earth Chakra that he wanted to explore as well; it was fairly common in his clan to have an affinity for Earth Chakra, as it allowed them a slight control of the shifting sands of the deep desert. Living in their oasis home for so long had caused an explosion of Water Chakra within the clan, but their bloodline was strong, and no amount of outside influence could erase their ancient affinity for controlling the earth.

Given his already strong control of Water and Lightning, Hisoka was actually a little excited to work on his new found Earth abilities; it had been a long time since he'd needed to struggle, and this would certainly be one. He'd always taken to the fluid and quick movements and forms needed for Water and Lightning; Earth was the exact opposite, it was steadfast and strong, heavy handed movements that he wasn't sure he could handle; especially given how feather light his body was. That wasn't to say he was weak; he had some level of strength, but he was no Taijutsu user. He was a summoner, and his summons tended to be trackers and ranged attackers; quick movers that darted around the field to fast to be caught. His cacti would benefit from this training, however. They might use water overall; but by improving his ability to 'root' himself to the earth, he could strengthen the physical abilities of his cacti and give them stronger attacks, something he really needed overall.

He was currently in one of the smaller training grounds; less used and therefore empty; allowing him the room to work that he needed, while giving him the privacy he wanted. There was a good chance he'd end up messing up his robes and such, which would expose his ears and tail to the world. That was not something he felt like explaining to anyone that wasn't already privy to his physical oddities. Or the fact that the fur was starting to spread outward from the base of his tail. That was fairly new, something he'd only noticed when the area had begun to itch horribly one morning, and he'd noticed the soft fur was covering a larger area than it had before. He should have been worried by that; but as he'd taken to lately, he was just ignoring the physical changes happening to him and passing it off as nothing to worry about. He couldn't bring himself to deal with how much his body had taken on fox characteristics; dealing with it meant admitting that something was wrong with him, more so than being born with fox ears already forced. Dealing with the tail, growing patches of fur, odd changes to his diet... he wasn't ready for that, just yet.

No, he'd focus on training. Focus on what he could understand. Work on making himself useful for the village. That was what he needed to do, yep. That was why he was sitting in the shade with his two kits snoring softly beside him while he re-read the basic Doton training scroll he'd borrowed from the village academy; he was making sure he'd memorized the information, and had the stances he needed to work on burned into his memory. He'd work on the movements, then work on molding the developing chakra into jutsu. That was how you learned to use elements, right? He wasn't even sure; his clan was born able to use their basic elemental chakra with no issues; he'd been using Water chakra since he was old enough to sit up. Lightning had been much the same way; he'd been using it longer than he could remember. Giving his kits a quick pet, he rose to his feet and took a few steps away, to give him room to work without bothering their nap. First stance.... Horse.

He shifted his center of balance until it was low to the ground; knees bending to cause the change and shifting outwards while he lifted his arms upwards and brought them in toward his body. The stance felt very weird; it was a stance of physical power and such, but it wasn't hard to assume. Inhaling deeply, he focused on his feet, creating the mental image of his body rooting to the earth and drawing on it's power; which was where the issues would begin. That level of focus was something he'd never had; it required absolute concentration and determination; Hisoka wasn't the type to have either of those. He was quick witted; always thinking fast and acting faster; that left him ill prepared for the slower moving world of Earth control.

824/3000 = D-rank Third Element (Doton)

Marquetta was bored: there were only so many bar fights one person could cause or be involved in before they ended up banned from all alcohol serving establishments for a brief period of time. No one would dare ban her for good since she was known for always being more than capable of paying for her drink which was more than most could say. However, after the last fight in which the entire front of a bar was ripped off… well, the owners weren’t feeling rather happy with her, her brother, nor the other individuals involved.

So, not wanting to spend another minute in the apartment because she was beginning to go stir crazy, she had taken to wandering around. Of course, she was barefoot as always even with the fact she no longer needed to use Shinsai to see, she still was more comfortable in bare feet than shoes. Thanks to her newly found Jun Chi heritage and the ‘changes’ her body had gone through the sand no longer caused her to curse and swear as she walked across it because it no longer burned: these days it felt relatively cool to the touch. Of course, those she passed by still gave her odd looks, but she was in too good of a mood today to let them anger her too easily.

Marquetta had her orange-red hair tied back in a ponytail with bangs hanging down in front of gold colored eyes; and her skin was the dark tan it had taken to being since she had moved to the desert a while back: she was built like an athlete from years of training with the earth and carried with her a scent that was a mixture between freshly turned earth and smoldering fire. She was dressed rather comfortably; a thin white tank top that clung to her thin figure and a pair of matching white capris that tied off right below her ankles with gold thread and which were held up with a gold sash that matched which was wrapped around her waist and tied off on the right side. Her Yokuchigakure headband was tied around her left thigh.

She was whistling as she walked slowly, hands clasped together behind her. She had taken to walking around the training grounds and that was where she was when something caught her eye: a familiar stance that instantly spoke of an earth user, or someone attempting. With her curiosity peaked, and her good mood making her more than willing to be helpful, she turned in the direction of the stranger and moved in his direction while keeping a bit of distance in case the stranger happened to launch off an attack.

[Yanagi Earth Clan halves all of your training costs so long as Mar is being helpful/participating. <3 Enjoy~]

Focus.... focus.... hold the image. Root yourself. Feel the power of the earth and harness it. Focus... focus... focus...

Yeahno. That wasn't working. He was basically standing in a funny position with his eyes closed and an almost pained look on his face. He couldn't seem to connect with the earth; or at least, create the image. He really didn't even know what he was expecting; maybe some sort of.... anything? All he felt was the sun beating down on his robes, causing the slight temperature gradient that actually worked to keep him cool; the difference caused a slight breeze via heat convection, which kept his skin cool and not burned.

It likely would have helped if he was relaxed and not tightening his muscles; he was trying to imitate what he thought was the proper way to produce the strength of the earth user; not knowing he was doing it completely wrong. He'd tightened his muscles so hard that he was shaking, to the point that the first small gust of air shoved him over; his attempt to balance had thrown him completely off. Lovely. The noise he released was inhuman, sounding for all the world like a large fox. He'd landed wrong on his tail, bending and nearly crushing it so that the bent joint was almost broken. Paaaaaaain. He rolled onto his stomach and snaked an arm through his robes to adjust the appendage so that it was stretched straight up his back so that it could stretch and let the pain fade some. "Hnnn, that was not what I had planned."

Pushing himself to his feet, he brushed what sand had stuck to his robes and tried to clear his head again; blank the mind so he could focus. Horse. Focus on the horse stance. It was the most basic stance; once that was down, he could move on to the variants, and eventually to the chakra molding. Set the feet correctly, arms up and in positions. Now focus on the feet, focus downward into the earth; find the inner strength and connect with the earth...

Aaaand on his face this time. His ankle had cracked from the tension in his muscles and caved for a split second; long enough to kill his balance and have him eating sand. Yaaaaay. Thank the gods he was alone, the last thing he needed was someone seeing a well known Special Jounin falling on his face.

824+407= 1231/1500 D-Rank Doton Training (Yanagi Clan Member in thread credit)

‘Well, that training doesn’t look to be going quite so well...’, or so Marquetta thought as she watched from her distance away as the robed stranger fell over not once – which led to some eyebrow raising as she watched him adjust something in his robes after a very pained looking fall – but now twice. Marquetta frowned slightly: she knew the stances needed for molding earth chakra, in fact, it was something she could do so well at this point that she could do it lying down and not moving. But, that was simply because she was a Yanagi and so these sorts of things came naturally to her.

Perhaps it was time for her to pass some of this knowledge on to another? It couldn’t hurt of course, the most the stranger could say was no and she would simply go on about her business. But, if she had a chance to help someone else then perhaps she could.

With this thought in mind she moved closer, being careful to keep her footfalls steady and slow as to not startle the stranger away: she knew her athletic appearance tended to cause people to think she was some sort of brute at the best of times after all. When she was roughly fifteen or so feet away she came to a stop with her arms folded across her chest and her stance slightly widened to support her weight evenly and comfortably: the sort of stance she could hold for hours on end without changing.

“You have to stop trying so hard; it has to come naturally or it won’t happen at all. Stop standing on the earth and stand with it. Feel the different grooves and shapes of the ground beneath your feet and shift your stance to match. It’s not a flat thing, even if it looks like it. No use fighting with the ground, you simply have to go along with it. It’ll help you from toppling over. Might be best to practice bare foot; it’ll be easy to feel that way and once you’ve got that down it’ll be easier to stand with shoes on.”, she said in a calm and non-judgmental voice. There was just a pleasant and friendly smile on her face; even though she had seen the stranger fall twice she wasn’t judging him – earth was a hard element to control, and she had fallen plenty of times herself to know the embarrassed feeling all too well. “I’m Marquetta by the way, Marquetta Yanagi-Jun Chi.”, she said as an afterthought, figuring that if she was going to be offering out tips she might as well be polite and introduce herself.

"...."

Oh crap. He'd been spotted, and by a superior none-the-less. He recognized the new person's name; she was the highest ranking nija in the village beyond the current and former Kages. A Yanagi prodigy to boot. He'd seen her in her bar brawls, been part of the patrols that busted them on more than one occasion. This was... going to be fun. At least she wasn't laughing; and the offered advice was welcome, even if he was burning red with embarrassment now.

"Um... thank you. Earth is very different from my other specialties... I'm Hisoka; Hisoka Fennec. Water is my specialty, water and lightning; so you can see why earth is giving me issues. Polar opposites..." The most he'd spoken in many, many weeks; he rarely did unless he absolutely had to. He wasn't so much trying to save face as just... nervous babble. A bad habit, of course.

He was still on the floor, moving to sit so that he could unwrap the bandages that served as his shoes. His feet felt wrong in shoes now; even more so because he was starting to grow claws versus toenails. More signs something was wrong to be ignored for the moment. He rubbed at the ankle that had caved, making sure it was okay before moving to put weight on it; finding it stable enough now to stand up. Right, relax and don't fight it, don't be tense. Assume the stance and feel the earth. Feel it. Hnnn...

This felt more right, there was less resistance, and he didn't feel like he was an instant from falling over. He was still having the focus issue, but it wasn't so bad; he could sort of feel the energy moving from his feet to the earth and back. It wasn't strong, it wasn't much of anything, but it was a start. Sand overall was a weaker conduit for earth chakra; but it was still usable. It just meant he had to work harder, learn the element better. "That's... actually helping quiet a bit... thank you..."

342+1231=1573/1500 for D-rank Doton Training

73/1000 for D-C Rank Doton Training

Marquetta listened and nodded. She knew how hard earth could be to handle and train, especially when you were trying to learn it after you already were used to using other elements that were far less hardy. “Understandable, and you're welcome. Earth is very different than those elements, but the basics are the same. You can’t force it, you just have to let it come to you naturally. Work with it, not against it. Earth is just like everything else, it has a path it wants to take that is natural to it, and trying to force it won’t get you anywhere.”

Marquetta moved closer and over to a large boulder nearby. She jumped up onto it and landed lightly on the flattened area of the top of it where she then proceeded to sit indian style. Her elbows rested on her knees and she watched, relaxed, as Hisoka – who she now recognized from being one of the ones to top the foolishness that was the random bar fights they got into – attempted the stance once more with much better results.

“Hmm… try going to your happy place. Imagine yourself somewhere or with someone that makes you feel relaxed. Once you’re in that state it should help some more. And, don’t be afraid to make adjustments to your stance that better suits you. Sometimes doing it the way that is right for everyone else is very wrong for you. I learned that the hard way: I wasn’t as good with my stances when I was younger, not until I stopped caring about how everyone else did it and did it the way that felt right to me.”

She then went quiet, not wanting to disturb Hisoka's focus further. She figured she would stick around to continue to offer up tips, or to even answer questions if Hisoka felt the need to ask them of her.

Oh god, the happy place advice. He'd gotten that before, usually from the elder foxes that he'd trained under as a child. They'd meant well then, as did the female now; but it was not something he was ever able to use effectively. He didn't have much of a happy place; that wasn't to say he was miserable or anything, just that there weren't any times or places that made him particularly happier than anything else; not that didn't come with their own clusterfucks of issues. "Er, yes; that might help..."

If not for the way he wrapped the cloth covering his head and face, she would have noticed a slight deflating of the turban like dome that signaled he was pressing his ears tightly against his hair and scalp to block out extra noise; he wasn't trying to block her out per say, but he could hear basically every biological function of her body thanks to his enormous fennec fox ears, and that was the main reason for his focus issues lately. The more the patch of fur radiating from his tail grew, the stronger his ears seemed to be; bordering on the level of a pure fox now, if scaled up to his size. It helped some to flatten his ears, dulled the extra sounds to something he could mostly tune out; while not making it impossible to hear anything being said to him.

Focus returned, for the moment, and he was able to pay attention to the way the energy was moving between himself and the earth; learn to feel it out so that he could familiarize himself with it, make it less foreign feeling. She had a definite point about the chakra wanting to do it's own thing; it was rigid and wanted to move in straight, sharp angled lines. Similar to Raiton, in a way; but slower, less forceful but more so in a way he couldn't explain. Such differences, his Suiton and Raiton chakras moved together easily, they complemented each other. Sort of. Suiton was conductive to Raiton, so it was always easy to channel his secondary nature. Electricity could flow like water, given the proper path, and he'd never used Raiton like most ninja did. He used it to bring out and enhance his summon's physical abilities, as well as to change the very nature of the battle field; he often enough glassed the sand around him and used that to screw with his opponents, while giving his creatures the edge they needed. This earth was carving away it's own paths, heedless of anything that already existed and only following what was already there when it wanted too. Hmmm...  

Hisoka broke out of the stance he had been holding and dropped to a knee, splaying one hand flat against the ground and focusing on it, allowing the natural doton chakra in his body to connect to the earth and flow again. He wanted to feel it from another perspective; his hands where more sensitive to boot, so it would help him get the feel of the chakra better. He could get used to this; and it wasn't like he didn't spend a significant amount of time in this position; what with being a summoner and all. This was natural to him, and it was helping in a way. Even more so because the vast majority of this chakra was going to be used in conjunction with his cacti, far less so overall with the foxes; and when using his cacti he needed to be in contact with them in some way to control them, if he did; and one simple way to do so was to be on the ground touching a root; or else sitting high in the flowers or on the arms. He could make this work, yeah.

"I wonder..."

It was a bit early, but it might be worth it to try; the jutsu was simple enough, and given the concept, his mastery of water would come in handy. Earth Release: Earth Flow River. It was a way to create a stream of mud that could slow and or capture the target, while pushing them away to allow for time to escape or room to attack. Mud and water flowed in very similar manners, so imagining how the chakra should flow to work this jutsu was simple enough. Picture the way the water would flow, and then mentally substitute mud. Perfect the mental image, then work with the chakra. He could create the same general effect in the sand using just water; but he wanted to do this right, really learn how to use this new skill and new area of ability. The more diverse his skills, the stronger he was, and the more he could contribute to the village, after all. Even if his loyalties where to the few people he cared for, versus the village itself.

Aaand don't go mentally down the road right now. It won't end well.

Rising to his feet, he brushed the sand from his knees and hand before getting to work. This shouldn't be too hard; it was just a simple matter of changing which chakra he was using for the effect after all. Hell, all he had to do was gather enough chakra at his feet and let it flow like a river outward; simple enough. Making sure it was the right chakra was the hard part; it was too natural for him to draw on water chakra for something like this, so he ended up with a small puddle of water forming at his feet at first. If anything, that did help a bit, it gave him some real 'mud' to work with; and after a few minutes of focusing he was able to turn the water sand into proper mud; dark and earthen and barely 'wet' at all. Good, good. Focusing it to flow in one direction wasn't too difficult; there was a slight grade to the training ground that was pulling the chakra to flow toward the western wall; not directly in front of him; but it would do for now. Once he had the basics, he could work on making it flow the way he wanted it too. For now, he just allowed the chakra to flow how it wanted, only working to keep it in a generalize 'river' shape. A soft click of his tongue and his kits where instantly awake, Alexis almost teleporting to his feet she sprinted so fast, with Kit appearing an instant later. A series of soft clicks and yips commanded them to jump into the muddy river, they where too small to sink, but if the mud as flowing correctly they could ride it along the flow length, and tell him if it was working right. Neither hesitated and did as he asked, jumping onto the muddy earth and floating along. it was slow; but it was working; they where moving outward along the flow line. Perfect, perfect. He'd work on it more later; but it was something at least. He called them back with a chirp, stopping the flow of the chakra so they could walk on the earth without risking an ankle or something. Both returned to his side and crawled into his robes via his feet, lumps moving to their various favorite places to sleep in the cool darkness. "Well, that worked. Awesome."

73 + 1234 = 1307 Doton D-C Training
1234/750 D-rank Jutsu Earth Release: Earth Flow River Training.

Marquetta watched Hisoka curiously from her position on the rock. As she sat there she freely manipulated the earth in front of it; the tiniest of bits which she caused to rise and fall repeatedly, and change shapes every so often. All the while her golden colored gaze remained on Hisoka. “If the happy place doesn’t work you could always try and think of something that is soothing to you. That seems to work just as well. For me it’s when I encase myself in rock: the cool earth dampness and the muffled sounds. Like my own peaceful little paradise.”
 

A smile formed on her face as she spoke, eyelids fluttering closed as she took a moment to imagine this place. She did it often enough, so it wasn’t hard to imagine it as if it were happening. But, for the moment she didn’t allow it to become a reality – she wanted to be able to help Hisoka, after all, if he needed her for more advice.

.oO(Sorry for the shortness, didn't want to hold you up.)