In the tallest tower she was (Solo Training)

It was raining outside. Yozora did not like the raid, she liked it when she could see the sky. She had no more lessons in the academy today, not that they were useful in any way. Because of the rain she decided to do her training inside. Tengakure had these training towers exactly for this kind of activity and there was useful equipment here too. One of which the girl was standing in front of right now - it was a wooden training dummy. Crude but effective. No high tech involved in beating a piece of wood. Yozora's training was with a sword though. She would not use her katana for this, so the one she was holding right was was wooden too - bokken so to say. The exercise she thought of was to hit the dummy. Repeatedly. She smiled to herself. "Very creative..." Well, the point was to find out when she would be unable to keep hitting it. Yozora knew her strengths and weaknesses. Her major strength was her speed, but she lacked endurance and power. She also kind of lacked the knowledge, but it's something she could deal with at the moment. Endurance first. The girl assumed a stance in front of the dummy. Distance between her feet increased to about twice the distance between her shoulders - not too much, but it was quite balanced. And she did not need her weight's center to be low, it's not like she was trying to withstand a hit anyway. Light on your feet, hit hard and run fast - that would be her motto. The stance was somewhat light, focused on speed. The wooden blade was held with two hands next to her head and pointed at the dummy. Eyes closed. She imagined a person in front of her. Where would she aim, what to hit, which parts to disable first? The person would be holding a blade too. A duel. Swordsman versus swordsman. The priority would be the weapon, but for that she'd need an opening. The opening would not come easily in a real fight, she knew that. She would need to force it. Hit some part that would draw away the opponent's attention and break their concentration. The knee! Yozora swiftly opened her eyes and while loudly exhaling unleashed her quick combo striking the knee, then the arm and then making a flurry of strikes at shoulders, chest and head. She would keep on hitting, even if her opponent would probably be mince now. She was at it for good ten minutes, the sound of her strikes and her loud breathing echoing throughout the tower and its halls. The girl would not stop until she no longer could lift her wooden tool. Completely exhausted she dropped it and fell backwards on the ground herself. With her eyes closed she felt think pain in all her muscles that were pushed to the limit in this training. Her body would slowly return to normal and she decided it was time to think. Can't do anything else anyway...

Yozora could hear the rain outside. People talking outside, people training in other rooms of the same tower. Everyone was doing something. Her eyes remained closed. She focused her attention to her body. The muscles were still in pain, but not so bad now, a bit too early to move already though. At least her arms, the legs were fine. Did not hurt at all. The girl opened her eyes. The wooden bokken was next to her. The crimson eyes shifted towards what was left of the practice dummy. It was pretty much broken, a well aimed hit would make it fall apart. She slowly reached for the wooden sword. Her arm barely moved still in pain. She grabbed the weapon about in its center and then relaxed again. Now looking at the ceiling the girl imagined starry sky. She liked it. It was not changing, but it did not need to, it was perfect. Having those thoughts the girl fell asleep. When she woke up her body was still hurting, but much less than before and she could make quite freely. While she was sleeping nobody else had entered the room, or at least they did not stay. First thing Yozora did after looking around was throw her wooden sword at the dummy and collapse it completely. She whispered to herself "Done..." Then she got on her four to the nearest wall and sat in a meditative pose leaning against it. Being in this shape she decided to do chakra training. Her chakra was something she wanted to master badly and was also seriously lacking at the moment. She would close her eyes again, focusing and trying to mold chakra in her hands which were made into a seal. It did not come easily, but she finally had it working. She could feel the chakra in her hands. Petty she would have to dispel it, as she did not know any techniques to use it on yet. The feeling began to slowly withdraw. Yozora opened her eyes and for a moment there she thought she can see her own chakra in her hands. The vision lasted only a moment and then it was gone again. She stayed confused when she felt something else. It not a physical sensation, more of an emotion. But it was not hers. It was as if she was being told to try harder with a warm smile. It was comforting, even though she knew it was strange.

The girl got up. She would try improving her physical fit. She began doing push ups and other exercises. Pretty basic stuff. She was it for some time, when one muscles chain would tire, she would change the exercise and train another chain. With this system it could last a while. Maybe even the whole day. After like half an hour the girl was interrupted. A boy came into her room. When he noticed her training like that he stopped "I-I'm sorry. Did not know somebody was training here..." Yozora would stop and sit down. Then answer "No need. This is pretty public area anyway. And you're not really interrupting much..." She looked curiously at the boy who brought a few wooden swords with him. Apparently he would train with them. Yozora decided to ask him about it. "Are you going to use bokkens to train? Would you like to spar? I train my sword techniques too..." He looked a bit surprised but then agreed. Why not? Training together was more fun than alone anyway. Yozora got her training weapon and assumed her stance. This one different than before - while her feet were in pretty much the same positions, she would wield her weapon with both hands again, but keep it in front of her, to quickly block any possible attacks. Her today's opponent assumed his own stance. His legs wider - a sign of more defensive stance, and he wielded two training bokkens instead of one, one in each hand. His stance looked pretty usual, one weapon in the front and another next to his head - a balanced stance in both defense and offense. He asked "Ready?" Yozora made a nod to show confirmation. For a moment they just stood there silent, nobody making the first move. Then suddenly the boy launched himself towards her, probably decided not to have a fight of wills, but rather just take a chance in offense. He briefly swung his left blade that he had in the front. Yozora parried the strike with ease and was about to retaliate when she saw his second blade come with much greater force, as the first was just the initial strike meant to force her to the exact thing she was going to. Just in time the girl managed to back away avoiding the strike. Then, she would counter attack. Aimed at boy's shoulder she raised her weapon and swung it down vertically. He parried with his left bokken and attacked again. This time Yozora blocked both strikes, then launched an attack at his legs. He dodged it and continued the fight. They were at it for a few minutes. During that time she got a pretty good understanding of his skills. He mostly blocked or initiated with left sword and used his right one for stronger strikes or counter attacks. His attacks were more powerful than her, but she was faster than him, dodging much more and attacking faster. Sometimes she even managed to unleash a flurry of up to 10 strikes before he even managed to counter attack. But he had more endurance. After a while she got tired and missed one hit that knocked her on the ground. It was something she needed to work on. They both were breathing heavily. Boy lowered his weapons and walked up to her, giving her a hand and helping stand up. "You're good..." he said smiling "Would you like to try again some other time?" Yozora got up. "Sure..." "There's is a dojo I go to train to. There are more people trying to master their swords. Why don't you join us?" Yozora made a nod agreeing to the invitation. Then she left, leaving the boy to train alone. She would go home quite satisfied with her today's training. Now she knew where she could better her sword mastery. And she probably could find some fights in the academy to work on her speed and strength. That leaves chakra control and endurance... After deciding to train those alone in the nature she went to take a shower briefly touching her katana on the way. Then there still remains that mystery of her lineage.

1621 w.

Good Job.

8 Stats 16 JP.

The following day Yozora would check out this Dojo the boy invited her to. But first the Shinobi Academy. The time-waste. She would go there only to sit good three hours in one place and listen to how the village was built, then why they were the best and why their enemies were worse than them. The girl took the new information with caution deciding to see it for herself instead of believing these teachers who probably never went to the places they're talking about themselves. As soon as the lessons were done, Yozora was the first to dash out of the academy building. She went straight for her home, where she kept her katana and tanto, never taking them with her into the academy. Right after that, without even getting anything to eat she departed to the Dojo. She was excited, wanted to see how strong the others were, wanted to beat them and get stronger herself. In a few minutes she approached the Dojo, which was right next to the towers she'd go train to. The dojo did not resemble one from the outside at all. First, it was not wooden, but made from the same material all Tengakure building were. She opened the door and walked inside. The interior actually resembled what she hoped to see, the walls were wooden, so was the floor. There were people there too, but she did not see them at first, they were probably in the other room. The room she was standing now appeared to be some sort of entryway. Normally people were supposed to leave the stuff they won't need inside here. She looked at herself, she wore woolen sweater, cloth shorts and sandals, her katana was on her back, and tanto around her waist, she kept the kunais inside her ninja pouch. Well, she would most certainly not need the kunai and tanto, also she knew she was supposed to take off her sandals. After putting everything in a little pile and leaving it in a corner Yozora continued to the second room. It was brighter, she could hear talks inside and wooden blades clashing. When she came it the talks got more silent as people who were mostly sitting on the floor would turn their attention to her. Some of them were standing, some were in a middle of their fights. One of them came up to her and said with a smile "So, you came..." it was the same boy who she fought yesterday. Yozora made a nod, then he asked "You know I did not ask your name, as you left in such a hurry... " "Yozora Shinkou, pleased to meet you." "Likewise, I'm Taren Suite" He then introduced her to the others. There were about 12 people inside, most of them from 10 to 20 years old. After all the introductions they sat down in a circle making an arena of sorts. Then one pair would stand up and fight. First one they watched, but when they were finished Yozora said "I don't want to watch others fight. I want to fight myself and I want to get better at it!" Taren paired her up with some guy, apparently not as good as him and she pretty much defeated him in a single strike. Then she got to fight Taren himself. Like before he was using two bokkens, so to counter that Yozora asked for a second one too. Then they would fight.

Both took their stances, both pretty much the same, left sword in the front and right one by the head. Yozora closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again she was ready, with a signal from one of the people around they started their match. This time Yozora started on the offense, launching the first attack with her right weapon she waited for Taren's counter attack. After blocking it with her left blade she aimed the right one at his knee with a spinning movement also preparing for the follow up strike from the blade. He would step aside avoiding her strike and then block the second strike with both of his weapons. He smiled impressed and Yozora backed a few meters. Then they launched themselves at each other again, Yozora attempted a strike with both blades at the same time, but it was easily parried and avoided, so she learned not to try something like this again unless she knew it was going to hit. After a few more attacks and parries Taren decided to try her own tactic and began aiming her lower of the body. At first she parried the strikes and would dodge a few and then she saw an opening. Both of his blade were coming at the same time, which meant no defense. Yozora suddenly jumped forward avoiding both attacks. She landed directly on him with her weapons aimed at his heart and throat. Taren looked stunned for a moment. Then he admitted defeat. Yozora helped him get up and then asked if anybody else would like to fight her. There were a few, although they were surprised she would not wait and rest. She took them on. One on one she defeated three in a row, then asked to fight three at once. It was interesting. She was never in a sword fight against multiple foes before. Still wielding two weapons she stood still as the three positioned themselves around her. When the first one came swinging at her, she'd use her right blade to stop his and hit him from the left one. Right after she'd look behind her where her second prey was coming from above. It was a heavy strike so she blocked it with both blades and immediately saw the last opponent come at her from her left. She did a rollover and appeared behind the second one landing a few strikes at him. Only one was left standing now. She would play with him for a bit, parrying all his strikes, but not returning any. Then suddenly she'd swing her left blade disarming him and then thrust her right one at his stomach winning the fight. She could feel how fast she is getting stronger, these people could not give her a challenge anymore. At least that's what she thought. Everyone seemed very impressed with her skills. Soon there was a ramble, everyone talking about this. It was quite noisy and she did not like it.

Suddenly everything went quiet. A man who was sitting in a corner up until now stood up. From the way everyone was looking at his, Yozora got an impression that he was very strong, if not the strongest here. It was just what she needed. The man smiled, he made a nod as if saying "I'll be your next opponent" and she replied in kind. People formed a circle again, making room for the two to fight. They both took their stances. He was using a single weapon and was holding it above his head. Yozora decided to adapt her stance to match the one this guy had. She took her right blade backwards and put it behind her, while keeping the left one in front of her. When the fight began Yozora took an aggressive approach. While leaning forward she launched a strike with her backward blade at his legs and kept guard with her left one. The man simply stepped aside and launched an attack from above. By its force the girl was forced to the ground, but the next moment she was on her feet again. Amazingly quickly the man approached her and swung his weapon so she had to duck to avoid it. She tried to thrust into his stomach but he parried the strike and backed away returning the fight back to where they started. Yozora attacked again and this time, with a quick movement he disarmed her and landed a soft hit in the head. She was defeated. Her day pretty much ended like that, even though she did not pass out from the hit. She was emotionally crushed so to say, that defeat wiping all the confidence she had in herself. Suddenly she became very weak again, but only when she got home she understood the lesson of that day. Just like Taren was superior to her a day before, now this guy was stronger. Just as she left all those weakling in the academy behind, she had surpassed Taren too. And she was going to surpass the one who defeated her today also!

1431 w.

Yup.

7 Stats, 14 JP.

Yozora opened her red eyes. It was another day, another time. A new adventure. She remembered. This day was one of a few days she was free and did not have any missions or duties. This is the day she will spent entirely on training. After wasting like half an hour at home, eating breakfast and preparing her lunch, she finally left the house and went to the training grounds. While getting there she stayed away from people's sight, making her way through roof tops and avoiding the rabble bellow, in the streets. There was nothing there for her to see, only fools and clowns, people who had no idea where they are going and why they are doing it. They were pathetic. The girl did not go to the training towers, but to the grounds around them where people would come to train in open spaces. She hoped to find someone she could spar with here, but the field was quite empty. The girl stood there for a moment, looking at the field. She imagined people training there, a big lesson like training, where at least twenty students are being instructed by a teacher in sword fighting art. That would be cool. Yozora smiled - maybe when she was older, more powerful and higher ranking she could be the instructor herself. But that was just a dream, nothing to be all too hyped about. She turned around and walked out of the training grounds. There was one place she could improve her sword fighting. It was the Dojo, there she had one undefeated opponent waiting. After everything that she went through after that last fight they had, she was now fairly confident she could beat him.

Finally she reached it, the Dojo. Like before it looked off style from the outside, but everything inside was completely different. There were some people by the doors, who immediately recognized her. Although they did not say much to her, from the way they acted and whispered to each other she understood them slightly fearing her, or at least that she commanded some of their respect. She did not mind it. When entering she even made a small nod to them - in her eyes anyone who practiced sword arts was worthy of at least some degree of respect. She walked inside, left her shoes and her stuff in a corner and proceeded into the next room where the interesting stuff would be happening. When she came in she saw a fight. Like before everybody were sitting in a circle and only those in the middle were fighting. Yozora sat down in the circle, while leaning towards the nearest man and asking "Who are those two fighting?" She knew one of them - it was Taren. The boy who actually invited her here and introduced her to everyone. She was better than him as she proved last time she was here. The boy looked a bit different, first he was wearing a bandana on his head above his green eyes, covering his bright brown hair. His body had slightly changed too, but the most drastic change was in his sword fighting. It had improved a lot. His opponent was a boy with gray hair covering one of his eyes. The one visible eye was brown. He was a bit shorter than Taren, but his look expressed a well tempered concentration and discipline. What already was impressive about this kid was that he was withstanding Taren's dual blade barrage, blocking or parrying every single strike and even managing to offer some attacks in return all using a single blade. "This is our Taren and a newcomer named Jyumaru. He only came here yesterday, but already managed to defeat more than half of us and now he's even fighting on equal footing with Taren who became the best of us after you left. Only the master is better than him. You're here to fight the master again, aren't you?" Yozora nodded and whispered "Yeah, but this kid may be worth my interest too. His foot work is great and he does not seem to waste his movements, all of his blade positions are correct never leaving an opening for even a moment." ... Unlike Taren who was on all out offense. This was the only thing keeping him from being defeated, the fact that he wielded two blades and did not give his opponent a fair chance to launch a decent counter attack. Yozora switched her eyes on the master who was sitting to the right of her outside the circle. It was clear that he could see it too, that the newcomer was actually not on equal footing with Taren. Master's expression did not show any emotion and Yozora wondered what he felt seeing somebody so talented, how he felt when he saw her fighting the last time. Could it be that he was afraid of losing his status of being the best here? Or maybe he was simply happy to see somebody talented enough to surpass him? Either way he masked whatever feelings he had and watched the fight with poker face.
Yozora heard a silent shout and then the swords stopped clashing. She turned her eyes back to the two and saw the fight was now over. Taren was on the ground, his bokkens were on the ground next to him. Above him standing was Jyumaru, his expression did not show triumph, nor antipathy. In fact he seemed fairly satisfied with the fight, the boy reached out his hand to helf Taren stand up. "Good fight." he said in a silent and calm tone, with a faint smile. Yozora expected the fight to end this way, but apparently not everyone did. Some people were cheering on Jyumaru, while others were whispering among themselves. The girl closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again their color had slightly changed, becoming more deep. With Meigan now active she could see chakra of everyone in the room, well at least the chakra that was leaking out of their bodies as it seemed there always is a certain amount of overflow. She did not know if she didn't know how to look inside the bodies yet, or if Meigan even had that ability. Anyway, what she learned to do with this is based on the amount of chakra leaking she could roughly determine chakra levels of that person. After looking at everyone in the room she decided that Jyumaru had the highest level of chakra in here, second was the master and everybody else was more or less in academy student level if not bellow that. Taren was the only one approaching Genin level. Pity though, that Yozora could not compare her own chakra with their, her chakra was leaking out together with traces of her yuumei and it made it complicated. Either way, she remembered how much chakra other genins she sometimes sparred with have. Jyumaru had those levels of chakra, which made her even more interested in him. She whispered to the man sitting next to her again "Say... does anybody know where the newcomer came from?" "They say he is a son of a shinobi, but for some reason he did not go to the academy." "I see..." Now this actually made some sense. Yozora became slightly interested in the reason the boy did not attend to the academy, he looked fairly talented. "Well, then I guess it's time..." She stood up, picked two bokkens and pointed one at the master saying "Last time I tasted defeat. This time I'll repay in kind, if you would face me, master." Jyumaru and Taren, as well as the others seemed quite surprised with her sudden appearance and immediately asking to fight the best one. But it did not surprise her opponent who smiled while standing up and grabbing his own weapon. "Here for a rematch, are you? Well, I guess I can't just decline somebody like yourself." He walked into the center of the circle and nodded to Jyumaru and Taren as if saying "go and sit down", while in reality he said "It was a good fight, you two. Good work, Jyumaru, maybe Yozora here will be your next opponent once I defeat her. I guess she'll want to prove herself even more then" Taren patted Yozora on a shoulder and sat down in the circle, while Jyumaru nodded and sat down in his own place. He looked a bit confused, after all to him it looked like an absolute stranger came in and claimed his prize - the fight with master. Yozora assumed her stance and faced the master who was by now in his own stance. And then the fight began...

"Tsuki!" Tip of Yozora's blade stopped a couple inches from master's throat. She was victorious. Both fighters were breathing heavily, although Yozora could go on, she considered herself fairly exhausted. The fight was an impressive one, she did not expect the master to be this good. Although she did not use any techniques, she did not use chakra it was fair swordfighting, but he was just a civilian after all. Yozora won, she cleared this obstacle, she was the best here. But she decided that turning her back on them now would be ungraceful. She smiled while reached her hand to the master and saying "Good fight, master." But he backed away bowing. "You're the master now, you beat me." Yozora was surprised. She never considered this. Being a master of a dojo never accured to her. She was not even sure if she actually wanted it. Her lips opened as she was about to protest, when she suddenly heard somebody shout "No! This isn't fair!" It was Jyumaru, he was standing and pointing at her. "I wanted to become the master today! You can't waltz in like this and claim being the best!" The discipline and concentration he had in his expression when she first saw him were gone. He looked pretty desperate. "I'll fight you!" Yozora smiled. "With these?..." Her left bokken was broken from the fight against the master. Jyumaru did not back down after those words. "I'll fight you with real katana if you want!" This became more and more interesting. "If I win, you will forfeit your master title and I-" Yozora cut him short, she already knew that. "Fine. I accept your challenge. If I wind you will tell me why you did not attend to the Ninja Academy. If you agree, then let's meet in the training fields beneath the towers in 15 minutes."

There they were. Jyumaru accepted her terms. Yozora now stood in the field, she had her katana on her back with the hilt over her right shoulder. As the fight was only with the swords, she did not take her tanto or any other weapons. Jyumaru stood on the other side of the field, he had a katana too. Everyone from Dojo gathered to see the fight. Yozora put on her Tengakure headband and looked at her opponent, who's eyes widened when he saw it. "You're a Genin?... This makes you even more worth defeating!" Yozora laughed. "I knew you'd feel that way, which is why I put it on. Now, I hope you don't mind if I don't hold back and use my Kenjutsu techniques?" Jyumaru's face changed. He got the same expression as before - concentrated and absolutely calm. "I won't, go ahead." Yozora's right hand grabbed her katana's hilt and after unsheathing it she assumed her one blade stance where she held the weapon close to her face pointing it at her opponent. He assumed his stance too - it was a standard kendo stance with weapon in front of yourself. It was a balanced stance for both defense and offense, while Yozora's stance was more offensive. After a moment they began their fight. Yozora initiated by lunging forward and faking a frontal thrust while actually aiming to disarm him by changing the attack and hitting his hand at the last moment. He saw right through it and put up a decent defense. After her barrage failed he took the upper hand and was now overpowering her. To react to his fast and tricky attacks Yozora activated Meigan which allowed her to see fast movements more clearly. Right after that she gain the upper hand again. But the boy's defense had no blind spots and he seemed to have a guard ready for any attack she would throw at him. Their fight raged for some time. Yozora tried almost anything, she would back off and instantly initiate again, she would use her Iaijutsu technique for fast striking. Only thing she did not use was her Genjutsu and Wind techniques. Finally when he no longer would get an upper hand Jyumaru kind of closed himself into this defensive shell, no longer launching attacks of his own only defending. He probably decided to let her tire with her continuous attacks which could not get past his guard and then when she was tired enough she'd make a mistake. And there were only a few options in this situation. Either back off from the attack, making a pause to the whole fight, or overpowering his defense before she got too tired. Yozora decided to go with the last option and use her newest sword technique which she called Sacred Song. In between her strikes she would put fake attacks which she would miss on purpose. After a couple of them her blade began to silently chime. By the time Jyumaru realized the connection between missed strikes and her chiming blade it was too late as her technique was ready. Yozora raised her singing blade which was now glowing with her chakra and swung it with all the force targeting lower part of her opponent's blade. "Mikagura!" The impact threw the sword out of his hands and he was left defenseless. With a swift kick she knocked him on the ground. When he raised his head her katana was already next to his neck. The surprise could be seen in his eyes, the fight ended to suddenly, so unexpectedly to him. Yozora did not smile, nor did she frown. She said "Tell me now. Why did you not go to the Ninja Academy? Your father is a shinobi, right?" He looked down and said in a different tone. "Yes, he is... I did not go because of this." He raised his left hand and revealed his left eye which was concealed by his hair up until now. It was blind and it looked bad. "I'm sick. This is something that only happens in my clan. There was no point for me to become shinobi because this sickness will kill me before I turn 13. Before I died I wanted to be somebody. The Dojo was a place I could strive to achieve something before my time here was over." Yozora had mixed feelings. The sickness disgusted her and she felt sorry for the boy. He got this curse from his clan, while she got a blessing. A thought of ending his misery crossed her mind, it would be easy to just kill him now. Finally she decided. After sheathing her blade and giving him a hand for a lift she spoke. "You can be the dojo master. I don't want it anyway. I will grant that wish of yours, it will be interesting to see how much you can grow before your time." After that she walked away. This day surely was an adventure. Today she learned how cruel the fate can be. He fate surely wasn't all that bad, after all.

2622 w.
+13 stats
[2622/1000 - Sacred Song Mastered]

Approved for applicable rewards

Well, if this was happening then it must have been morning already. That's what she thought in her thoughtless head, while slowly waking from her slumber. Yozora was in her house, on the second floor, in her room, in her bed, under her blanket. Around the bed there were small piles of various scrolls, books and other stuff. Before going to sleep, she had spend quite a few hours studying. Recently she had grown interested in the illusionary arts, had been reading all she could find about them. Her mother had taught her well, when she was a kid. Without studying much she was able to use some genjutsu already. But she wanted more. She wanted to develop a whole style of genjutsu using her blades. Masking her movements with illusions or causing her enemies to see various visions forcing openings. It seemed fun. And worth the effort. On top of it, genjutsu did not seem too popular. Most people focused on more physical things like Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. Sitting in her bed, the girl looked at all this stuff on her floor. Genjutsu had a certain elegance, which she liked. It was well known to exploit your opponent's weakness over focusing on your strengths. Her blade techniques exploited physical weaknesses, while Genjutsu exploited both physical and mental weaknesses. The girl's naked feet touched the cold wooden floor. She did not want to be slow on this floor, so she quickly ran to the closet, got a sweater and ran to the first floor while pulling it over. On the way out of the room she picked up a couple of scroll she did not quite finish reading last night. Might as well do that now. The girl got down the stairs and entered a fairly big chamber on the first floor. She never understood the reason for all this room. It was certainly not meant to live in, nor was it for storage and it did not have some other function like the kitchen. One thing the room had, the the girl liked was a big fireplace, a hearth of the house. It also had a big window letting her see outside into her garden and even see the sky outside. Basically she used this room to chill out in, you know, read books, watch the fire, eat warm dinner. Whenever she was no training, or sleeping or somehow else busy, she would come here. This was not an exception. The girl dropped the reading she took with her from her room on a small table next to a couch and proceeded into the kitchen. Skipping all the boring stuff, she came back with a bowl of hot, steaming soup half an hour later. She did not even notice how during the cooking she lit up the fireplace. It was now nice and warm. She would coil on the couch opening one of the scrolls. It was on chakra points in the brain and how they effected senses. Basically effecting which points would effect certain senses or how would perception be altered by effecting certain combination of points. It wasn't all the complex - just a light morning read. The girl would eat her soup, while looking at the roaring flames in the hearth and occasionally reading a sentence or two from the scroll. The combination of soup and the fire pleasantly warmed her body, which... actually after a bit it made her want to go to bed again and not come out for another hour or two. She shook that thought and finished her breakfast. Sloth is evil! Leaving the empty bowl on the floor Yozora now focused on learning all she could from those scrolls. She spent about an hour like this - sitting on the couch with her legs crossed under her long sweater and her eyes moving rapidly over the test and images. From time to time she would drop the scroll and pick another one. Finally she dropped the last one and fell on the couch sighing. Now she needed to think of a way to implement all that crap she spent hours studying. Most of it was meant for regular genjutsu, though there was a section for sounds based genjutsu, it did not tell her much. Her sounds would not be so easily controlled like flutes or words. Her sounds will be words and songs of her blades, hymn of battle, not some half assed lullaby. Eager to get to training already she jumped up and ran back to her room. She knew it will come to her moving, swinging her blades, under pressure, maybe even fighting, but certainly not laying on a couch or reading a scroll. That information was useful, as the more she knew the more she could implement into her fighting style. But she was never good at making up stuff when she did not really need it. In her house she did not need genjutsu. She was safe... well, considering some S ranked criminal would not slam her doors open and eat her cake before stealing her neighbor's wife's grace. But that was long sighted, it did not feel like an immediate threat. And she needed one. So, she grabbed her gear, put on some clothes and got out of the house after putting out the fire - did not want to come to find her house burned to the stone, right? Her destination was the training towers. She would always go there when she needed some training. On her way there the girl decided to pay a visit to her mind, or more specifically to Yuumei, who lived in her mind, or her inner realm or whatever the place was called.

And here she was walking the strange halls again. And it was dark as usual. The place was unknown to her, which was not all that surprising - after all she could not have known all of her subconsciousness, now could she? The hall she was in had stone walls with wooden pillars. There was only one door right in front of her and no doors behind her. As always it seemed like she just popped up in this world, without coming from anywhere, but from all her experience here, she knew getting to her goal would not be too much of a problem - the towers rarely became a maze, usually she would see only one door and no alternate paths and the path would always lead her to where she wanted to go, all she had to do was follow it. And so she did, walking through the hall and opening the doors in front of her. And then she was surprised. Never before had something like this happened. At first she thought the next room was simply even darker than this one and that she could not see where she was going. But she she felt no floor under her feet and that she was starting to fall, Yozora realized that there was no next room. She had no idea where or what she stepped into and there was no light for her to get anything on that. In fact she was really much falling down. She lost track of time of how long she was falling, it seemed like an eternity, but it certainly was not. Without much light around her she felt sudden cold shocking her whole body. It took only a second to realize she fell into water, or some sort of fairly pure water like liquid. She did not go deep and easily resurfaced. The liquid had no smell or taste - it was just like water, but everything around her was pitch black. There was no way to tell in which direction she should swim. So, she just swam, without trying to go into any direction as that was all she could do, well other than trying to dive which would be stupid as she could not see anything underwater anyway, so she would have even less idea of where she was going. Unless the water was not deep, which she sincerely doubted. In another short eternity of blind swimming she saw something. In front of her she saw distant light. With time the light came closer and became bigger and brighter. At some point she saw a door. It was in stone, with stairs to climb out of the water right next to it. The light came from a few hovering torches, which burned in blue flames. Damn this world was strange, how could she let nonsense like this be in her head? The girl got out of the water and only when she was standing above it, in front of the doors she realized the water was no cold at all and she wasn't cold when she stepped out, in fact she was not even wet as if she had not been in the water a moment ago. After deciding to skip the part where she pondered on the meaning of all this, the girl pushed the stone doors. They were heavy, but inch by inch they moved finally opening just enough for her to squeeze inside. And then she walked into another hall. This one was made of marble and gold. It looked very exotic. The floor was warm, actually everything was warm, as if the outside was burning. It may as well had been burning, but Yozora could not see that as there were no windows. Only one doors - the usual. Without much of a choice she stepped towards the doors, hoping so see something more pleasant in the next room. The doors were made of gold and glass, they were light and opened easily unlike the previous ones. Now she was in a cavern with torches on the walls. As she looked back she saw no marble wall or glass doors only the same cavern. Torches were not burning blue now, but unnatural red - the whole cavern was red. And it was hot. Continuing the cavern Yozora noticed everything getting hotter. If this was to keep going in the same direction soon it will be not bearable anymore. Luckily it did not come to that. The girl stepped into a clearing, let's call it. The walls here were almost red hot and she actually saw magma in the center of the chamber. Next to it was Yuumei. It was looking at the molten stone in front of him and did not seem to notice the master. Yozora made a couple of steps towards him, but the heat stopped her and she gasped for a breath, which made Yuumei look around and notice her. In almost an instant he appeared in front of her, shielding her from the heat with his shadow cloak. She soon started to feel better. "You were not supposed to come here. Not yet, anyway..." Yozora pierced him with her eyes. Her tone was somewhat unhappy, blaming. "What you mean? What is this place?" Yuumei stepped a bit to the side, letting her see the magma vein but still covering most of her body from the heat with his mysterious cloak. "This is your drive core, my dear. This is what keep you going, your motivation." Yozora was absorbing the sight in front of her, the magma looked alive and somehow even felt familiar. As if everyday's event were poured here into the engine. "I got curious and fancied a look, could not resist, sorry. I really wanted to see what was driving you." "And?" She asked curiously. "What did you find?" After a pause "Let's say I was pleased of what I found. Now, you had questions?" Suddenly the heat disappeared and their surroundings changed. They were now standing in the star chamber, the one with walls and floor looking like the sky at night. Yozora stepped back, escaping Yuumei's embrace. "Yes, I wanted to ask you about genjutsu. Is my clan somehow tied with it, is there something I should know?" It seemed interested. "Hm, yes, genjutsu, yes. Actually, your assumption is right and you are not interested in it just like that. You clan indeed has genjutsu abilities, it's in the eyes. The one who knows how to wield Meigan can produce a hypnotic gaze, trap their victims in illusions. I even heard some possessed the power to enter someone's illusions." Yozora was happy to hear that. Apparently being able to see chakra or see clearly in the dark was only the tip of her bloodline's powers. And she could bet there was even more. "Any tips?" "Mm? No, not really. Well, yes, you could read about other doujutsu with illusionary powers, if you wish, I believe Sharingan was a more popular from that branch. Other than that, it should come to you on its own, if your body has all the needed talents." He would pause for a bit, then add. "Shall we go and see if it does?" But Yozora was already thinking about other stuff and dwelling deep into her mind again did not quite attract her at this time. Her thoughts were flying somewhere else and she did not really notice that he conversation had ended. And if there was nothing more to say, there was no more reason to stay. She got ejected.

Back into the reality Yozora noticed she had been walking sort of on autopilot while in her inner realm. She was already more than half way to the training towers, when she noticed a familiar sight. It was a building, a dojo - the same dojo she used to go in for sword fights. The one she always got stuck as a master in. She defeated the two strongest there, the last time she visited it. The girl remembered the fights and decided to come in, see what changed. The interior did not change much, although there were some new furniture. Mostly everything else was wooden as before, just like a traditional dojo. There were some new faces too. She would not leave her stuff in the entryway as before, instead she just peaked into the main chamber where fights were happening. She was Taren fight somebody new, who was not all that good as Taren was fairly obviously winning as well as holding back. Yozora looked for Jyumaru and found him sitting among the others, in a circle around the fight. He looked a bit sick, apparently things were not getting better for him as his time was running out. As the newcomer was defeated Taren now pointed one of his wooden swords at Jyumaru, obviously calling him in for a fight. The young master would slowly stand up, step into the circle and take his stance. It was over in a few strikes, Taren lost. It was good to see Jyumaru was at least keeping his art in good health. What surprised her even more, was that after losing Taren said something to him and everyone stood up, then Jyumaru started explaining his move, teaching them. Then they all paired up and started practicing it. Yozora smiled and turned away, walking out of the dojo. She was glad she visited. Somehow now she no longer wanted to go to the towers. She wanted to be alone, so she turned back and got back home. She would train in her garden. Hopefully the neighbors will not be too displeased with her chiming blades. After getting back, she dropped most of her stuff in her room, taking only Shigure with her. After climbing back, she would light up the fire place to heat up the house before going outside into the garden. Once there she would start gently swinging the blade, infusing it with her chakra. Gracefully now the blade started to vibrate letting out a soft chime. The chakra flow was very faint, without a chakra seeing ability one could not even see it. Yozora practiced, moving her blade through the air, modulating the sound. After a while she decided to do faster and more sudden moves. The chakra flow changed too, now it was more similar to her Sacred Song technique. Still emitting a now slightly pitched sound the Autumn Rain sliced the air. With a thrust Yozora noticed the chime change. The blade was now visually glowing, but it was not chakra. Activating Meigan the girl realized she had Yuumei flowing through the blade. But apparently the Yuumei was not flowing like normally chakra would, it did not form any currents, more like just stuck there. The sensation was somewhat familiar though. Thinking back, Yozora remembered she felt like this when Yuumei covered her from the heat in her inner world. Matching the feeling, the girl channeled more chakra into the weapon extracting some Yuumei from her body and sending it down the blade. Now it worked fine, the Yuumei perfectly coated the blade as well as chakra flowing through it. Apparently she just found how to infuse Yuumei into a weapon.

2836 w.
[+14 stats, +28 JP]
[1000/1000] Yuumei infusion for Sacred Song

Nice! Approved for appropriate rewards!

Approved. Well double approved.