A new bow

The light jangle of tools rang out in the new case Seresana carried along with her as she walked back to her house from the market. A large smile was plastered on her face despite spending almost all of the money she'd just recently raised from a mission that had proved to be far more challenging than she'd been expecting, but still now the fruits of that mission were finally about to pay off as Seresana was about to make her first official bow as a true ninja. This was going to be her first great achievement and Seresana wanted to make a powerful bow like her father's, one that surpassed those she saw at the market. Or at least she hoped to create something like that as she didn't have enough money left over to just buy a bow should this creation fail. "No, don't think like that Seresana. You've got all the tools you need, and all the supplies you need. Sure you could have just used your father's but now you've got your own set of customly designed tools just for yourself, bought with your own money that you earned from your hard work, and you are going to make an amazing bow that will be the envy of all who see it," Seresana thought to herself to chase away that slight notion of doubt that had tried to worm it's way into her mind. This was going to be her shot to really show her father and her sensei what she was really capable of, that they hadn't just wasted their time showing her all those things, that she was ready to be taken seriously.

A short ways later and Seresana's house came into view and she picked up her pace as her excitement welled up inside anew. Though Seresana didn't head for the front door and instead started cutting through the yard about halfway down the path, going to the left side of the building and towards a different door, the larger workshop door. When it came into view, Seresana wasted no time in setting down the heavy tool case so that she could open the larger door and then pull all her supplies inside to where she could begin work. The workshop was just as packed as it usually was, filled with other projects, tools, and materials for her father's other projects. Currently a few small hides hung from the hanging lines that slightly drooped from the ceiling, and there was the beginnings of a new set of bowls being carved on one of the desks, but past those, it was mostly just Vesken's haphazardly placed tools and open desk space. Seresana quickly made her way over to one that had almost no clutter on it, and was noticeably shorter than the others. A few years ago, Vesken had made the smaller work bench for his daughter so she'd have a space to work on her own little projects while Vesken worked on his orders, generating many a fond memory for the still fairly young Seresana. She breethed in deeply for a moment to savor those passing thoughts before refocusing on the tool box and hefting it up onto the shorter desk, "no time for reminiscing, I've got a bow to make!" Seresana said to herself as she leaned the pieces of wood she'd planend to carve the bow out of against the edge of the desk. With her confident smile still plastered on her face, Seresana looked over her tools to make sure she had all she'd need for the process and as soon as that was done, she went back over her supplies to make sure she'd not only remembered to buy enough for the bow but also the 10 arrows that were to accompany it, and when she found all of it in order, Seresana grabbed up the first piece of wood and the first of the tools she'd need before geting to work.

Careful, long, and smooth motions were made, shaving off a sliver of the wood at a time thanks to the good quality of wood and the fresh sharpness of her new tools. It didn't take too long for a small pile of wood shavings to begin to grow from the piece of wood slowly and amost gently being whittled down until it was in a shape that Seresana desired and when it was, she sat it off to the side before seizing up the sharpeneing stone. Even though the new tool had been used only once, Seresana wanted to keep the blade razor sharp and so after wetting the weht stone a little, she began to slide the blade across the stone to resharpen it. Since it was already still freshly sharp, it didn't take long to reapply the keenest edge she could manage currently and with that accomplished, Seresana turned her attention back to the other pieces of wood she had acquired from the market and began to give it the same treatment she had for the previous one, taking it one sliver of wood at a time to make and taking frequent breaks to make sure that it was just right. When it was finished, Seresana grabbed up the next piece of wood and began again with the same work and would continue to do so until she had all the wooden parts to the bow that she wanted. When the last strip of wood was carved to her specifications, Seresana got out the bow string she'd actually bought and examined it for a while, trying to think if that was anything she could do to the string to make this bow truly stand out in a practical sense, but nothign at the moment was coming to mind. So Seresana instead turned her attention towards actually making the bow then, starting to piece it together and binding it tightly with some of the treated leather she had. Gradually, the bow was continuing to take more shape and become more like the kind of weapon that she was wanting, and once all the pieces were in place together, Seresana picked back up the whittling tools so she could continue shaping the now fully together bow, making sure to trim out the slot for the arrow to rest and also the slots for the string to be sat. While she was working though, Seresana got a quick icea about her bow and so she made a quick modification to the bow before getting back to the more traditional processes in order to finish the bow and then a bit of extra work to make the bow look a little nicer before coating the freshly completed bow in some darker wood staining varnish to complete the look before turning her attention to the string. It was a farily quick treatment of the string before she was experimentally attaching one end of the cord to the bottom end of the bow and then stringing the other end to the far side of the bow while bending it down so that it could reach.

When the bow was strung, Seresana experimentally pulled the string back a couple times only a short ways before drawing it back the full length to test the draw weight at a full draw. It was strong, but not so much as to truly pose issue with drawing it back and holding it there. With a grin at her accomplishment, Seresana then turned her attention to the arrows she'd bought supplies to make. The shafts were already made as the smooth and straight slivers of wood they were, leaving Seresana to just worry about adding the fletching and then finally the arrow heads themselves. "Next time, I'll make my own custom arrow heads from scratch," Seresana thought to herself as she inspected one of the pieces of metal. Still, it was satisfactory for now and Seresana quickly placed it back down among the others before grabbing up her tools to make the shafts ready for their fletching and arrow heads. Seresana quickly made the slits on the shafts, and then began to slide the fletching into place, before securing them with a very small but durrable string, though Seresana had to take a minute to question why not just use some of the steel wiring that was practically a ninja tool for this part, and could only assume it was because of the cost, still, she continued attaching the fletching until each arrow had those wonderful feathered ends just a little bit before the actual end of the shaft which had a slit cut into it for the string to rest so she could knock the arrows to it when shooting. Then Seresana turned her attention to the other end of the arrow shaft, making a slightly deeper, but thinner slit in it for the arrow head to be set in, and then a bit more of the thin and strong string to anchor the arrowhead to the shaft. The process was repeated until Seresana had ten competed arrows sitting right next to her now dry bow. Seresana could hardly contain her excitement as she grabbed up the bow and the first arrow and ran back outside. She set the arrow the string, took aim at a tree, and drew the arrow back until her right hand was almost at her cheek. After another second spent keeping the arrow at full draw, Seresana released the arrow and watched as it sailed straight and true until impacting the tree right where she'd been aiming, sinking in a good few inches into the hard wood. With a big smile Seresana glanced around a bit to quickly make sure no one was around before making the few handsigns for the ice arrow jutsu, and then holding out her hand for the arrow to form in. When it was finished, Seresana set the arrow to the string, drew it back as well, and watched wtih gleeful enjoyment as the ice arrow sailed just as well if not better than her freshly crafted arrow as it sunk even deeper into the tree. Seresana even went so far as to jump up in happiness as her creation lived up to her expectations and then held it before her as she studied it briefly to see if it was exactly as she wanted. Already, there were a few ideas Seresana was beginning to entertain on how to make the weapon even more powerful and impressive, but that would have to wait for now as she needed to get a bit better at understanding exactly what her new weapon could do.

As she continued to ponder these possibilities, Seresana wandered over to the tree and retrieved her real arrow. After getting the weapon in hand, Seresana looked at it as it rested in her hand, and a new idea came to mind as she ran back to the workshop to retrieve a couple more of the arrows she'd just recently made and then ran back outside. Setting both arrows to the string, Seresana got two of the arrows and set them both to the string at the same time. Drawing back the string, Seresana took careful aim and quickly began to make adjustments in her grip and holding hand to get it to a point where she was confident that both arrow would fly at the single target that was the tree. When she was ready, Seresana released both arrows and watched as they sailed forward. Her primary arrow managed to smack right where she was aiming, but the second arrow was a little off. Noting the difference, Seresana once again glanced around to make sure no one was around before using the ice arrow jutsu two more times and then trying her 2 arrow shot with the two ice arrows this time. The results were similar, but the secondary arrow was closer this time. Not wanting to use up too much of her chakra, Seresana ran up to retrieve the two real arrows she'd shot. After returning to the spot where she was shooting from, Seresana grabbed up the extra arrow she'd brought out with her and this time, sat all three arrows to the string at the same time before taking careful aim at the tree and trying to make similar adjustments so that she'd manage a hit with all three arrows. Regrettably, only two actually hit the tree while the third one went off to the right side, smacking into a tree a short ways back. With her grin faltering, Seresana ran over to retrieve the arrows, vowing that she would get the shot down before stopping.

Hours later, Seresana once again set all three arrows to the string, pulled it back and released after a short time spent aiming. She watched as all three arrows sailed forward and sunk into the tree. Then however instead of rushing forward to retrieve the arrows, Seresana grabbed up another three arrows, set them to the string and took a few seconds longer aiming before releasing the arrows and watching as they sailed towards three separate trees. Three 'thunks' later and Seresana was running over to collect up her arrows, more than happy with her new little trick as she proceeded back to the workshop to double check over everything to make sure it was all in order. When it passed inspection, Seresana went back into the house for some well deserved lunch.

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