Live for the Moment(Private Training)

[Speed Training and Character development all wrapped into one Very Echo-like package~]

The Anbu Barracks....An Underground facility hidden deep under Konoha with Privacy seals, Traps, Barrier seals and Anbu operatives wandering around constantly one of Konoha's great unseen marvels a testament to 'Look Underneath the Underneath'.

Deep within the structure a familiar sound to any Shinobi that has felt battle rings outwards, a sound that one never truly forgets for to forget is akin to death for a Shinobi..That sound is the sound of blades slicing air.

The groaning of metal is heard as the sound rings out and light footsteps and slightly labored breathing inside the training room the Anbu Captain Code named:Kitsune, Is utilizing the momentum of previous movements and his own flexibility he pivots ducks and side steps the swinging Pendulums of blades and studded log used for training the newer operatives.

the Kitsune masked Anbu member is currently shirtless his mask tilted upwards the shadows of the covering masking the top part of his face from view. His build is lean not entirely chiseled but his arms are slightly defined the way the muscles tighten and clench suggest a taste for weapons rather then hand to hand combat the way his feet slide and bend his body away from the danger suggest to the trained eye thus boy has been trained in Niten Ichi-ryu the style of greatest Samurai to ever live of course the way his body contorts and the slight signs of fatigue are definite signs he is an amateur in this art.

The lazy way he is avoiding the deathtraps suggests his mind is on something else let's drop thee third person and delve into the POV.


Echo Uchiha weaves ducks and slides his way from harm as he thinks on his promotion to Anbu Captain thinking to himself of all the things he's done and how he's reacted with such a small force to work with, Himself and two Injured support operatives...That's it. The rest were killed during the assault and these two weren't part of the squads Echo used to harass in his younger days, That hit him hard the chases and curses following him were never heartfelt and eventually the chase became fun for all involved Echo thought highly of the Anbu squad members who used to chase him along the rooftops and streets of the Village all the while the Anbu set traps and he avoided them.

Echo ducks forward avoiding a blade impaling him as he stepped forward curving his spin to allow him to stand straight again and with a quick pivot and reversal of his feet he avoids another blade a slow breath being let out as he pauses for a moment before blurring into movement once more to avoid the strike of a log positioned to knock him into the concrete walls of the training room.

The bandit raids after Konoha was rebuilt the fact that Echo was the only combat specialist that could step into to stop them was daunting...and that one that slipped past him....that one made all the difference to that poor boy and his now dead mother...'How could I let that happen...? That boy is in the orphanage because some two bit bandit slipped past me...Damn!' Echo stated as he a blade lightly nicks his forearm cause he was slightly slow on the draw not much of anything just a small scrape not even enough to draw blood, Echo grimaces and steps it up increasing the pace of his steps and movements as he pivots bends and slides out of harms way of the swinging hazards.

He knows he can get more from this he has to. No more Orphans on my watch that's not happening this village will be defended if it kills me inside I don't care what it takes I will not have Konoha or the Shinobi and Civilians who live in it fall. I am Anbu Captain first and foremost no more show boating that can happen when the mask is off and the Village is safe, I am Anbu Operative Kitsune and the ones who threaten my home won't be threatening it for long.

Pain, Despair, Fear and most of all...Death. Death awaits those who step into his home with the intent of destruction.

Their hearts will know fear, The fear that only the Boogeymen of the Ninja world can bring....the fear that the Masks brings to a Nuke-nin with evil intent.

Echo slides his left foot back his right knee bending as he tilts his body to the right avoiding a blade before he extends his bent knee and springs back suddenly leaping away from the blade that swings into the path of the other, His steps are light as he springs in between the blades and bludgeons with a unconventional finesse to his movements the sloppiness is gone from his musings....That's not him.....Planning for the future like this...hoping despair onto anyone....It's not him.....clinging to a past mistake and beating himself up for it....That is not Who I am....I am Echo Uchiha....The great one....The past is too far away and if I try to prepare for tomorrow my whole today is wasted....Echo Uchiha lives in the moment....and right now....He needs to duck!

Echo's feet stay firmly planted on the ground with the aid of chakra and he bends back entirely his left hand touching the ground as his right hand quickly grips the flat part of the pendulum and it takes him and swings him forward his right hand generating a strange swirling blue chakra as he's flung towards an incoming log, The swirling chakra is compressed into the shape of a ball and is thrust forward Echo's Rasengan drilling into the construct which splinters as it's grinded and flung away from Echo's now firm stance the chain breaking and slamming into the wall Echo smirking forward before sliding his mask down and turning towards the rest of the rooms death traps now blocking his exit.

Sliding his right foot back two feet from his left bending his knee and leaning forward as he places fingertips against the cold ground of the training room, He chuckles from behind his mask his eyes observing every detail of the room without that Devils eye....He doesn't need it. His smirk widens wishing there was a crowd to watch his Greatness as his legs tense and he pushes off diving over a swinging pendulum and rolling on his right shoulder with his neck and head tucked in to avoid injury, Quickly spring to his feet he runs past another blade as it swings, A log swings towards Echo's front and with a pivot and hop of his right foot he spins just out of reach while continuing his forward moment laughing gleefully as he returns to his sprint angling his back forward so he's a bit more aero-dynamic in his mad dash for the light at the end of the training room, during this mad dash he hops up and with a quick shift of his weight utilizing his right shoulder he spins side ways in a cartwheel motion his right hand catching himself before his head hits the ground as he bends his knee's his legs spread slightly avoiding a blade which slides right in between them, after that occurs he lets his body fall right once more picking up in his run without missing a beat or losing any footing. With that done he runs straight out the door and stops under the lamp of the hallway staring straight up at it with a smirk filled with confidence.

Echo Uchiha is back and he's ready to fight the way Echo Uchiha fights...The way only he can pull off and not die.

Echo turns to his left his body un tensing slightly as his right hand hits a button outside to lock the pendulums in place, He begins a slow walk deeper into the rather bleak building that is the hidden Barracks of the Anbu Black-Ops only the Hokage and Anbu themselves know the exact location...and Anbu never defect...At least not for long.

His stride is noticeably more confident or rather back to his old confidence the tired look and bleak look now missing in place of Echo's old fire his second wind hitting him in that training room as he marches back towards his office and outside the door he slides a kunai from his pouch with his left hand, He stares for a moment before he brings the Kunai down into the concrete carving up down left and right circular motions and quick switches upward before he removes the kunai his task complete a smirk on his face at his graffiti reading in surprisingly neat Kanji "Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." He chuckles before opening the door to his office and stepping inside for a quick rest...then it's back to training.
[WC:1'517]

Approved, +7 Stats, +7JP.

[Switching Fuinjutsu Spec for Time Space]

Echo in his office inside the ANBU barracks pours over his Fuinjutsu book to no avail.

Now let's take a break from filling your head with arrays, and making you repeatedly practice making that pesky seal that makes your fingers cramp up. I don't want to be responsible for ending your career because of carpal tunnel after all.

'What...?' Echo's brow furrows in annoyance 'I've been training non-stop and can't make a single seal my calligraphy is some of the best in the Ninja world by now and I have enough control to spin a damn boulder on my nose!!!' He thinks aggravated at his psuedo-Sensei's lack of attention

The stronger you get you will either develop one of two personality traits. You will either become a bitter manipulator that will have legions of pawns at your disposal and will repeatedly avoid trouble by moving them and using them purely for your own gain and nothing more, or you will become a respected and revered figure that will place the lives of the many above your own… we like to call this a hero complex.

'...?' Echo blinks at this questioning the point of this book by now the jokes were funny at first but it's beginning to wear on the ANBU captains nerves.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. If you become the first then you'll have a veritable wall of human meat shields at the ready to cover your ass after you piss off the wrong guy. They will also either believe in you to a fanatical level or they'll fear you enough to walk into certain death since what you'll do once they fail will be way worse than just dying. However you won't exactly be attracting those with admirable personality traits if you go down this route, and surrounding yourself with people like this will mean that your back will always be turned to at least one of them which is a bad move… because the one you don't have an eye on may think that the world will be better without you and will sink a knife into your spine.

Echo visibly grimaces looking at these words for a few moments before shaking his head and continuing 'Just gotta have faith...I'm sure he'll teach me something more about control soon...'

For the hero complex you'll have people that will be loyal to you due to your actions in the past that probably helped them or kept them safe… if you live that long. Those with the vaunted hero complex tend to die young because they would rather solve their own perilous problems and the problems of others instead of letting things slide. They tend to put themselves in danger's way to keep others safe even though they know that they wouldn't be better off than the other person would have been. The bad thing though, is that this breeds the dreaded 'reliable' tag that makes people think you can handle anything, eventually everyone will expect you to be the first to stick your balls in the salad shooter whenever anything especially nasty goes down, and if you don't step up and solve the problem then people tend to turn on you.

'Jackasses' Echo thinks 'It's better to be off the radar as much as possible, There is no danger if no one knows you exist.'

Because of this, eventually you'll bite off more than you can chew and that will be that. Now by proxy most village leaders have a touch of the hero complex. Why? Because people trusted them enough with their lives to make them the damn village leader in the first place. It's the only way to really get control of a village without staging a hostile takeover (If you do that then you're probably a manipulator like a previous paragraph states). It is also the reason why most kage-level ninja die in battle. Don't believe me? Okay, Go through the entire list of kage from every village and tell me that over 65% of the list didn't die in battle instead of peaceful retirement somewhere.

'Ninja don't retire...they just take prolonged vacations every so often' Echo thinks with a chuckle

And I don't want to hear your bullshit that there's no such thing as retirement for a ninja. I'll be damned if I'm still doing this shit when I'm 75. I've got a career as an author to fall back on… right after I launch my new book idea. It's sure to be gold.

Echo's left eye twitches in annoyance breathing in through his nose "Just be patient...it'll be useful soon..."

But anyway, that's that. You don't really have a third option, those are the only two ways I've ever seen it work for a powerful shinobi. No one just flies under the radar if you're famous for being good at your damn job (Except maybe Hatake Kakashi. I don't know. The kid is still too young at the time of me writing this to give a better opinion).

"Hatake Kakashi...?" He blinks vaguely remembering that name before shrugging off that thought..he's still getting quite annoyed with his book

Look to strike a happy medium like myself. I'm a generally good guy, but then again I can be something of a douche, and I generally don't care particularly what my enemies think of me since I'm either about to beat them up or kill them.

But if you tend to lean more towards the dark side, then make sure a lot of your underlings are women, because I've noticed that bad guy kunoichi tend to show more skin than their good guy counterparts. At the very least you'll always have something good to look at while you're scheming and conniving, and I bet it'll attract a lot more male dumb muscle to be human meat shields to die aimlessly for you and your diabolical cause, and isn't that the most important thing about having a legion of evil?

"THAT'S IT!!!" Echo shouts tossing the book aside and shooting up from his chair and sliding his mask on Fuinjutsu...just might not be his thing he realized...At least the way Jiraiya of the original Sannin teaches it.

After a minute or so of walking down the bleak corridor Echo comes at a stop at a meditation room, He slides open the door and shuts it behind him the room being cast over a high level perception altering Genjutsu which gives the user of the feeling of being in a serene looking grotto with a waterfall falling gently nearby.

Echo breathes in the fake crisp air and steps slowly over to the middle island of the small lake sitting his legs crossed over each other in the center of the circle of land staring at a rock.

He's heard legends....Legends of an art that can be learned through intense mental training...the art to manipulate time and space to your will...maybe this could be his calling..? Echo raises his head slightly looking up towards the calm peaceful and fake sky before narrowing his eyes and focusing on a single point in the sky.

Their the young Shinobi stares and attempts to mold his chakra his Tenketsu flashing every so often as he concentrates harder and harder attempting to will the fake sky to falter under his chakra.

There he stares for the longest time unaware of the time passing just staring forward in his state of calm which would have been impossible under his old mentality of worrying about his past mistakes and future problems, Now in his state of peace he stares forward attempting to do the impossible and bend space and time itself to his will beginning to feel the churn of his chakra he continues to focus forward breathing in and out slowly as his coal black eyes stare at the fake blue sky of the meditation room.

Slowly ever so slowly does the chakra of the young ANBU begin to pour from his body visibly flowing upwards Echo not letting his break through break his concentration as he stares forward and grits his teeth stifling the sounds of the need for nourishment his body is making, He couldn't stop when he's so close time means nothing for Echo's Determination his Concentration and his Control there will be nothing that can stop the young ANBU Captain from reaching the height of his power, He feels it...the connection between him and this strange feat for a Ninja...the ability to control space and time will be his he can feel it as his chakra flows outwards and his image flickers slightly.

Echo drops his concentration and breathes in heavilly gasping for air as his eyes widen 'That was it!' he screams mentally 'I definitely felt something that time...' The doors to the chamber open and Echo turns his head towards his operative Parrot who waves happilly before sliding a tray of food next to her Captain and retreating from the room.

Echo blinks twice 'That was unexpected...' he thinks before sliding his mask up just above his mouth and taking the fork.

The meal consists of what looks like teriyaki chicken diced into small cuts a side of assorted fried vegetables including Carrots, Celery, Potatoes and some cabbage and finally a small portion of chow mein.

Echo digs in not realizing just how hungry he was until the smell of the food brought him out of his funk, Chewing slowly Echo wonders just how long he's been in here.

He spends a good ten minutes eating his meal and wondering why this is so important to him...That moment he was training he felt a connection through his chakra....a strange sensation of being free...He rather liked that it felt like he could do anything at that flicker of his vision like he could go anywhere do anything and accomplish any and all of his dreams...True Freedom.

Echo muses on this before turning his head slightly to the left laying eyes on a single rock....His eyes narrow again and he begins the method of concentration once more as his eyes absorb the detail of the rock and it's surroundings...his chakra begins to flow throughout his body again as his Tenketsu begin channeling it outwards through his body as he radiates chakra and stares forward at the point of his concentration, A single stone slightly weathered under the current of the fake water, Echo once again begins detaching himself from the thoughts of space and time meaning anything...staring....waiting as his chakra is channeled outwards and begins slowly spiraling around the stone as if trying to entangle it in Echo's mentality of the moment, The young ANBU captains concentration is once again unwavering as he banishes thoughts of having to be anywhere...he was not a being of matter or time now...he simply was and flowed in between the realms of the flow of eternity, their was only Echo and his point of concentration...the rock begins to shake slowly the Genjutsu wavering slightly under the strange chakra flux of the Anbu Captains powerful found ability and his connections....To break the mold of what it means to be An Uchiha....To break the prison of being seen as Just an Uchiha that was Echo's goal...and he was hounded at every turn....Banishing the thought of ever using the clans hated dojutsu Echo persevered through the Clans harsh words and beatings and simply grinned...and grew more powerful through each passing day this will be the pinnacle of his labors...the true feeling of being free breaking the bindings that is the Surname 'Uchiha' Echo was Echo...from here on out and forever more, The Uchiha had nothing to do with the creation of this Shinobi it was all Echo's guts and determination His knowledge, His power never using the clans resources and only using what was available to the public and going off on his own instinct he rose and grew powerful....and now in this room in solitude he will bend Time and Space to his will.

The Rock vanishes suddenly Echo's eyes widening as the Genjutsu is dropped revealing a small rock shaped hole in the floor Echo staring wide eyed before a chuckle escapes him.

Echo was now a Manipulator of Time and Space itself.

[2,081 for Switching Fuinjutsu Spec to Time and Space awaiting approval]

Approved.