Across Time and Space [Private training]

The night was dark and the silence deafening. All alone at the top of the world stood Shinji Uzumaki. His office had recently been wasted by a pair of marauding missing ninja yet still he sat in it. The hole in the ceiling had been fixed, but the large gaping hole in the wall remained. It was at the edge of this hole that Shinji stood gazing down at his beloved village. All he ever wanted to do was protect it and with the position of Tenkage he could now do just that. Although as it stood his capabilities were rather limited he knew only of the ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. Both those were indeed formidable, but not enough. It seemed they were never enough. These thoughts of power drifted slowly through Shinji’s mind as he looked down at the twinkling lights of the city. How small they looked and how vulnerable-there had to be a way to better protecting them. Maybe he could increase his breadth of knowledge-that would no doubt allow for more power. After all knowledge was power after all.

With this thought in mind Shinji stepped away from the hole in the wall and pulled a curtain over the large hole to keep the slight draft out-thankfully it was not a windy night. Slowly meandering over to his seat that now sat in the corner of the room he took a seat. He racked his brain for ideas. There were some obvious ones such as genjutsu and taijutsu, but Shinji did not want the obvious ones. They were, well, too obvious. For a while he sat there puzzling until there came a knock at his door. Jumping to his feet Shinji ran to the door and threw it open with a slight bit of rare enthusiasm: it was after all time for his dinner. Anbu operative Cat handed him a tray of what smelled like delicious food. It was something called meatloaf and mashed potatoes with stuffing. And to top it off a side of green beans. All in all it was a full meal. Thanking Cat Shinji closed the door and took his tray back to his seat.

While thoughtfully eating his dinner one bite at a time Shinji dredged his brains for ideas and then one occurred to him. When the former Tenkage left this same office he had disappeared in a crimson flash and, according to the last tenkage, was going to his own world. Shinji did not have a taste for having his own world (after all this one was not too bad), but he did like the idea of seemingly vanishing in and out of existence. The only problem was that he was unsure of how to exactly go about studying such an art. This was only a minor setback as Shinji was sure he could find some book on it in the grand library of Tengakure that lay beneath the Kage building-really it was effectively the basement of the kage building. Granted this was a rather high security library separate from the public one that lay elsewhere in the village-this one was meant for personal use by the kage and his/her anbu. Luckily Shinji just so happened to be Tenkage, which granted him unlimited access.

Finishing off the last of his mashed potatoes Shinji got up and made his way to the elevator. The whole floor seemed vacant as could be, so Shinji found that his elevator ride was a lonely one. Although he did have a rather catchy bit of music playing-was it elevator music? Shinji did not know nor did he care. After the short elevator ride Shinji stepped down into the dank library that was somehow climate controlled to keep all the old books from going to hell. Though it was a bit on the chilly side.

It seemed that there was no one in the musty vault of a library save for an old librarian who must have been about a billion years old, but Shinji was no good at judging ages, so he could be a bit off by a few years give or take. Regardless the old man did not bother Shinji-he obviously knew he was the Tenkage. However, Shinji found that he would have to bother the old man, because, honestly, he had no clue how to navigate this maze of a library. Stepping up to the old man Shinji spoke up in a surprisingly reverent tone: “Hello, I am looking for a book on...er” Shinji did not exactly know what he was looking for, so he put it into terms for himself and the old man. “I need a book on learning to teleport...” For a second or two the old man stared at him and then burst out in a deep mocking laugh. After a few seconds he stopped and responded to Shinji: “Forgive my laughter Tenkage-sama, but your phrasing was a little less than elegant, but I know what you are looking for. It is something called space time techniques. And as it just so happens that I should have a book around here somewhere with what you are looking for.”

With that the old man raced off into the large corridors of books for a while. Shinji heard a few thuds now and again. Until at last the old man returned with a large ornate book in his grasp. The old man handed Shinji the book and sent him on his way without a word. Bowing Shinji walked over to a rather large table and sat down. Placing the book in front of himself Shinji opened the cover page and read the title. It read “The ins and outs of Space Time”. The book was written by some whack job by the name of Hawking-it takes an odd guy to write about the nature of space and time. Then again Shinji did not care as long as the information was good.

As time crawled ever onward Shinji got further in the book. He passed through chapters upon chapter of the book with ease-reading had always been a passion. Some of the chapters he read included “Mastery of Space” “The Fickleness of Time” “Do not kill your grandfather while time traveling”. The list went on and got weirder, but the weirder it got the more interested Shinji got. He was first of all intrigued by learning how to go about using jutsu, but he was more so interested by the science that the book seemed to detail. The paradoxes and setbacks seemed to abound in space time jutsu, but the possibilities seemed limitless, which was what drove Shinji to read the book with more rigor with each passing page. How odd that reading seemed to put his mind at ease. For now there was no Tengakure. He was no Tenkage. He was just Shinji Uzumaki reading a book. For the first time in a long time he felt like a burden was off his shoulders.

Finally after hour upon hours of reading without any breaks Shinji put the book down. He understood all the concepts and the way to work with the space time techniques. All that remained was for him to start crafting his own techniques. That was the only way he could get any real practice. There was no drills or such like that he could do to hone his skill. He had to just practice these techniques by doing and nothing else-it was a challenge. It was fun.Standing up for the first time in hours Shinji gave his feet a few stomps to wake them up again. he then picked up the book and placed it on the old man’s desk. The old man was sleeping in a large lounge chair not too far away from his desk, but Shinji did not want to disturb him, So he left soundlessly. Although Shinji did take a few pages of notes that had been in the back of the book. Some other person must have sued the book and wrote a flurry of notes, which seemed to depict various ideas for space time jutsu.

As Shinji once again stood in the empty elevator he reviewed the dos and do nots of space time. The dos were simple: do anything and everything possible. Though the do nots were rather odd: do not time travel to see yourself, do not influence events in the past-the list went on and on, but Shinji could see that these do nots were there for a reason, so he chose not push the boundaries too far. He already had a plethora of ideas and the notes he had found would help him even more. Shinji was so engrossed in thought that he failed to notice the group of his aides that flooded the elevator when he arrived on the ground floor. They were all trying to hand Shinji paper to sign and another was telling him that he needed to have a meeting with the elders. It was at this point that Shinji wished he could teleport away to some far away place, but he knew that would be rather irresponsible. So, once again the burden of the village fell upon his shoulders the slight release from his duties given by the thrill of learning was now gone.

With an internal sigh Shinji would start responding to each aide in turn until at least they reached the top floor and Shinji’s office. Acting quickly Shinji made a hasty retreat to the sanctuary that was his office only to be confronted by a large stack of papers-it seemed no where was safe from the endless work of a kage. Maybe he would create a dimension where he could throw all his useless stuff like paperwork, annoying aides and probably the elders-yeah definitely the elders. However, for now Shinji was no where near being able to use those powers, so the best thing he could do was avoid his duty as a kage for just a while to watch the sun rise. Thus, with a few quick steps Shinji was at the hole in the wall again. He threw open the curtain to reveal the early morning scene of Tengakure. There were a few people moving down below-probably market workers stocking their respective booths, but that was not the real spectacle.

The sun had just started to rise, which reminded Shinji that he had not slept all night-a shame really. It was no wonder he was always tired. Regardless Shinji stood tall as the morning sun broke across the horizon. He felt like this new dawn was not only a new day, but maybe a new start for Tengakure. With the power of space time who knew what he could do? Or better yet: not do. Shinji allowed that thought to leave his mind as he watched the natural beauty of the sun. It slowly crested and sent its warm rays across the landscape bring it to life in a heartbeat. That was a power no shinobi could ever surpass-the power of the sun itself. It was a comforting thought that even shinobi had limits.

Alas Shinji knew his limits and his time was up. He now really had to get down to business and sign his name on every scrap of paper that comes by. And then he would no doubt have to go listen to the elders drone on and on about how he was failing to get a another budget report out on one of their stupid sub committees. Naturally he would have to simply agree with what they said or it would turn into a full on arguments, which would do much more harm than good. Oh the idea of being a kage is, so... glamorous, but the job is anything but that. Then again, on the bright side, Shinji could now potentially bend space and time to his will, which was not half bad. Who knows where he will go with his new found knowledge. The only thing that he knew for sure was that he would be moving forward and not backward.

{WC: 2018, Space time spec. learned. And topic closed.}

Approved