A Kage's Toil {Private, Solo Training}

Shinji sat in his desk high above the clouds. That was the beauty of the Tenkage’s office. On the right day the clouds descended below the building and it made the kage’s room seem to be a throne in that sits perched in the sky. What Shinji longed to be doing was gazing out into the endless sky, but alas he sat in his chair listening to the petty concerns of the elders. They seemed to think that revamping the sewage system was far more important than balancing the budget. The whole world seemed to be upside and sideways-peoples priorities were way out of whack. Following suite with this madness Shinji was not really listening to the elders blabber on. Sure now and again he would nod and say something superfluous and calming, but in reality Shinji’s mind was elsewhere. The sewer book, which until that day Shinji did not know existed, had been replaced without the elder’s knowledge with a more interesting book.

This book was on the five elements. Being a kage allowed Shinji a vast latitude to most any book that struck his fancy. It was quite honestly a dream come true for Shinji. His times as an orphan had left a void of knowledge that he now strives to fill. As one of the elders yammered on about how the walk ways need to be widened Shinji delved deeper into the book, which was supposedly illustrating how large the walks ways should be, but Shinji’s book was open to the table of contents. He was already familiar with the wind element as it was his natural affinity. Yet now he had to make the hardest choice: what would his next element be? Assessing each element with an intrigued mind he thought long on and hard on it. Earth would be great for defense. Fire would be excellent for offensive maneuvers. While water was an interesting element as it was a combination of both. Looking up from his book he nodded in agreement with the elder-at this rate they would solve their own problem without any input to Shinji. It was then that Shinji made his choice. Looking down at the book his flipped the pages lazily.

He quickly reached the fifth chapter that was marked by the kanji for water. Water would be his next element. Now came the truly interesting part: reading and then practicing. The first part gave a quick summary of the water element. There was nothing he did not know yet. So, he skimmed over it rather quickly. The next part talked about the actual training, which would no doubt have to be done after the elders leave. Of course Shinji did not want to wait, so he wracked his mind for a way to get the elders out of here. As the elders droned on and on and on Shinji’s mind worked on over time. Finally at last it all clicked together like a puzzle. With an internal smile he spoke up with a sage like voice: “May I suggest something?” The elders looked pleased that Shinji was participate in the conversation. Continuing in a more eloquent voice Shinji decided to move the meeting to another room: “So, I believe this meeting would better conducted in the command room where we have the map of the city. That will allow us greater latitude to discuss the sewers as we can see the city in greater relief.” The map was a 3D model of the city and quite honestly the idea was a good, which the elders hardly agreed with. The elders made their way into the next room and left Shinji to bring the stuff in. Once the last elder left Shinji used the shadow clone jutsu and had the clone take his place in the meeting. The clone would tell Shinji all he needed to know for the meeting. On the other hand the real Shinji had things to do.

With a whistle Shinji summoned one of his anbu. This one was Cat and also a water specialist-what a nice thing it was to have a teacher who was so good looking and knew how to fight; always a winning combo. With a terse command Shinji informed Cat what he was doing: “I am going to need assistance in learning the water element. As such I will need your help seeing as you are one of the best water release users in the entire anbu corps.” Cat merely nodded and went to gather supplies. She had learned not to question Shinji as he often had odd requests, but they were usually harmless: requiring shorter shorts to be worn be the anbu girls lower cut shirts-that sort of thing. All in all Cat could have it worse by no stretch of the imagination. Shinji waited in his office while Cat went to gather the needed supplies. While waiting he thumbed through the book rather fast, so that he would not look completely ignorant. Ignorance was something that Shinji down right despised as such he tried to avoid it as much as possible.

After about a ten minute wait Cat came back into the office with a handful of items that would supposedly be used in training the water element-it looked rather complicated. With a sigh Shinji knew this would be no walk in the park. Sitting down in his chair he waited for Cat to begin. Cat’s cool clarion voice called from behind her mask like the autumn breeze as the lesson began: “Ok, Tenkage-sama. The water element is a bit different than those other elements. It lacks the raw power, but when directed in the right way it can be the most powerful element there is. I know you have the wind element currently. That will be a great help to your learning of the water element as the two have some striking similarities as you will soon find out…” Cat took a large bowl of water in front of Shinji and continued: “Now before we even start learning about the use of the element you must learn to feel the element. Get to know the element and you are already halfway there. In fact this will probably be the hardest part. Place your hands in the water and really feel it. Feel its nature. Feel its movements.” Cat went silent as Shinji did as she said. At first he felt kind of stupid, because he could not feel a damn thing save for the wetness of the water. He half considered giving the whole thing up and going with some other element, but he would not be able to stand the look on Cat’s face should he have to tell her that. Instead he decided to tough it out and try to glean some meaning from the exercise.

Shinji swished his hands around and felt as the water flowed over each part of his hand and seemed to engulf them like some weird animal that surrounded whatever it touched. Shinji almost instantly felt the parallels to the wind element. For one both flowed over your hands with ease and made Shinji feel a bit more comfortable. At last after about four minutes Cat spoke up again: “Now tell me what you feel-aside from wet.” Cat knew Shinji too well. She knew he would point out the obvious rather quickly and thereby hopefully cop out of the exercise. Furrowing his brow Shinji thought of a good answer and then spoke in a crisp clean voice: “Well I feel how the water flows around anything it touches. Further it acts to adapt to whatever container it is in. Yet there is something more: it seethes with a potential power that has yet to be awakened.” Cat’s unfeeling face merely nodded-sometimes Shinji found that mask a bit unnerving. She then spoke up in her sweet voice that Shinji hoped did not carry over into the next room where the elders were meeting. Her voice seemed almost sing songy and Shinji was sure he would easily be able to pick it out of a crowd: “Very perceptive Tenkage-sama. The water element does indeed possesses unrivaled strength when use in the right hands. For example watch this.” Cat raised her right hand and aimed it at the water dish. Without much effort she was able to manipulate the water into a floating orb right before Shinji’s eyes. It was truly amazing how beautiful the orb was. However, it was quickly dropped down into the dish when there came a knock on the door Shinji pointed at with a childish grin on his face in hopes that Cat would understand.

Naturally she understood and did not miss a beat. She answered the door to find an elder there wanting to get in Cat explained to the old man that she was clean the Tenkage’s office and he would have to come back later. The old man was a bit flustered, but at last he left with various amounts of huffing and puffing. Mouthing a thank you to cat he smirked. Cat merely motioned for Shinji to follow her. In heart beat the two were sitting pool side. The pool was meant for work outs, but it easily doubled as many things for many uses as one could imagine for a pool. Today it would be a training ground of sorts. Both Shinji and Cat sat by the pool and cat made the water swirl around ever so slightly-she had a tremendous mastery of the water element it was rather incredible. The thing that really struck Shinji was water’s flexibility; it could really move in any way it wants to or is willed to. At last Cat got Shinji to the point where it was make or break and hopefully it was make. She told Shinji to swirl the water without touching it or suing the wind element. It was a bit daunting-like being thrown in on the deep end of the pool. Not that Shinji really minded. It was just a lot to take in in a short amount of time, but he was pretty sure he had it down. After all Cat was a damn good teacher that Shinji would not mind seeing in a bikini, but that was for another time. Focusing his chakra into his right pointer finger Shinji allowed it to flow down and into the water like a facet with a steady leak. He then started to slowly move the finger around and circles. At first nothing happened, but soon the water started to distort noticeably until at last he had a small scale whirlpool going. Granted this small feat would be petty and useless in the field of battle, but it did mean that Shinji had some control over his water chakra, which was what he had set out to do that day and better yet he achieved it with relative ease, according to Cat at least.

Thanking Cat profusely Shinji took his leave and made his way up to his office where he found his shadow clone waiting with an irked look-the meeting must have gone poorly. In a puff the clone disappeared leaving the real Shinji alone in his office. He quickly learned all the clone had experienced-the meeting had actually went just fine as the sewage problem had been solved and the budget was slated for next meeting. All that remained for Shinji to do was lay back and take a long ass nap. He was tired as hell working with the water element had really put him through his paces-he felt like a work horse or something, but it all paid off in the end. With the water element learned new doorways and powerful jutsu would now be available to Shinji and he hoped to capitalize fully on them. Of course that would have to wait till after a nap and a few meals, because for now the Tenkage would rest far above the clouds in the spire of the sky.

{WC: 2018, Water element learned, +20 JP and turning stat points gained into ryo 10statsx50ryo= +500 ryo}

Approved then