Insert obligatory training title here {IO}

The clash of cold steel, blunted hits and the ominous poof of shadow clones. It was among these sounds that Shinji Uzumaki, the former Tenkage, sat reading under the warm afternoon sun. He had postponed his departure from Tengakure for a little while longer as he felt a pull. What was this pull? It was knowledge. Shinji had always hungered for knowledge even before he started his shinobi career. Sure, Shinji was fairly lazy at times, but when he put his mind to it he could be rather sharp. Currently the former Tenkage sat on the roof of the training tower. Luckily the roof was well made and meant for battles to be fought upon it.  In fact a few people were sparring on it right now. Shinji, however, was not. Instead he sat on the ground with his back leaned up against a bench reading. The book was one that he had recently checked out. Its name? The Tempest. The book was old and tatter and weighted quite a bit, but it was well worth its weight, at least in the eye of Shinji.

He had always been interested in the workings of the various nature transformations: suiton, doton, raiton, and katon. Each was very powerful, but lately Shinji had become intrigued by the possibility of making a new stronger element. This was why The Tempest was no ordinary book. Instead it was an instruction manual to creating the powerful storm release. Shinji had spent the past little while toiling away at the book until it started to dwindle in size- he was a voracious reader and this book had him hooked. The power of the storm release was immense. Shinji felt that with mastery of this element he could in fact roam freely through the lands as he had always wished- it would allow him ample defense and offense. After all Shinji knew what lurked on the borders and he did not much care to come face to face with them without a way to combat them.

Then came the problem. There was always a problem. Shinji had kind of sort of taken the book from the library of the Tenkage, which at the time he technically was, but all the same he hoped that Denkiteki did not miss the book too much. Shinji had also taken a spare kage hat and robes, why you might ask. Well, because he felt like it. Plus they would act as a small memento of his time as kage. Currently Shinji was not wearing these robes nor the aforementioned hat. Instead he wore a rather odd set of attire. He wore black shoes, black pants, which were in fact his lightweight jounin pants, a white long sleeved dress shirt and very that a black vest. Naturally this was not the full extent of Shinji's wardrobe. Underneath this semi eloquent attire he wore his maelstrom metal exoskeleton. On his hands were a pair of fingerless gloves. At his waist a ticking clock that resonated with his chakra along with a cool black blade and of course his power bracers in their respective positions. Though the most distinctive part of his whole outfit? An eye patch that covered up his right eye. He had purchased it from somewhere called Light's wares: it surprised chakra or something. It was kind of sad. Shinji's life had turned from kage to avid knowledge seeker. He could spend days researching.

Currently what he knew about the storm release was conceptual as he had yet to try and control it. For one he knew that it took control over both suiton and raiton element, which, luckily, he already had. Supposedly one could make electricity flow like water. The book Shinji was reading spoke of the ability wipe out an entire army with naught, but the whim to do so. With the raw power of raiton and the smooth flow of suiton Shinji was not surprised to read about the power the storm element possessed. The first step to learning the storm release was a simple one, or so it seemed. To start one had to make a lamp of the storm release that allowed one to see, but also use in  battle. Granted the spherical lamp of storm energy was not very strong but it was merely a stepping stone on the way to the true power of the storm. Alas, it was also a stepping stone Shinji had yet to reach. So, for now, he continued to read with head bent low over the loosely bound book.

Perhaps he would be interrupted, but then again perhaps not- he had tried to keep his identity under wraps, so that he was no swarmed with people asking all sorts of questions. For some reason people deeply enjoyed bombarding him with questions about his kageship. Lately he had had to beat off reporter after reporter who wanted the inside scoop on the goings on of a former kage's day to day life. It was rather irksome at times and actually quitee stressful. Reporters would probably make great ninjas Shinji often thought as they always seemed to sneak up on him- it was down right scary at times. However, for the most part, he had dealt with them and sent them home without much of a story merely a simple and concise: "no comment". Instead of focusing on such things Shinji had immersed himself in studies as he did now slowly page after page he would finish this book that much he knew and when he did then perhaps he would be on his way. Or maybe the tether of knowledge would keep him here longer. Who was to say?

{WC: 953}

Having returned from the depths of Kirigakure, the smell of sea water and perhaps just a little of fish internals could be smelt upon his body. For some strange reason his apartment was still unoccupied despite his abandoning of the village so he spent a few minutes in there to change his clothing to something that could be deemed more.. appropriate. Now wearing a grey V-collared shirt that clinged to his body as well as some casual jeans he exited onto the streets of Tengakure once more. This place sure stank the same the last time he came here. Walking the streets not many seemed to recall his face which was a great relief to the male, considering his past deeds had not been the most pleasant or honorable. A better view of the place would most certainly be called for! With that thought in mind the young Shinobi sprinted towards the training towers from which he had once attacked two genins, which was a rather funny event. His feet coated in chakra as he began running up the side of the building, the chakra acting rather sticky on the surface of the building as to cling to it. Soon, he reached the top and saw another figure. One that he unfortunately recognised.

Coughing a little into his hand, the chakra from his feet dissipating after he had stepped fully onto the roof of the building. "Tenkage?"

Ah yes, the city of towers. Skyscrapers galore. Such a rush it is to stand atop one. And an even bigger rush it it to jump from one.

The training towers were incredibly sturdy places. Their floors were each made to hold back some of the strongest people in the village's best attempts at attacking. And then there were the roofs. The roofs were for the daring. There was no guard rail. There were no walls. If you fell off, then you fell. And fell. And fell. And you probably died. Although Zee, Zee was one of the lucky ones. He once fell off. But he survived. And he knew just how high of a building he could jump from while still remaining perfectly fine. Now, where he landed didn't always meet the same fate as him... so he normally jumped onto the roof of a training tower. These places could take the impact. They could take a lot of force. This one, that he was jumping onto today? It was inhabited, in one sense of the word. A person was already up there on the roof, but no one was sparring on it, and they seemed to not be moving. Zee expected, at worst, that there would be a dent in floor where he touched down. He prepared for his descent.

His speed was minimal, but it would be enough to propel him from the edge of the roof of the residential building on which he stood. In the air, as he descended countless of stories, he would curl up, into a "cannonball" sort of position. His strength and speed and even most of his chakra pool (save ten chakra and one in the other stats) was converted into health. That would be enough to survive the fall with no harm, except maybe a bruise if he happened to land on a really hard pebble. And, once he landed, he'd just stand up. There was someone else on the roof now, who had said something, but to Zee it had been garbled in the sound of him smacking onto the roof. "Hello!" he would say to the people whom he could not yet identify, as the dust floating through the air that had been put there by his stunt blocked his vision.

((383 words))

Page after page after page....It was getting rather irksome doing all this sitting. Luckily, or perhaps it was unfortunately in this case, Shinji's concentration was broken by a annoyingly familiar voice: Xyxer, that son of a bitch was back. Glancing up from his book Shinji kept it simple and corrected Xyxer with a simple word that should explain it all, "Ex-Tenkage--" Normally Shinji would have added something witty and mildly funny onto the end of that, but he was cut short by a most peculiar sight. In fact, it was so odd that he blinked once and took a second to process what had just happened. However, Shinji was not one to remain surprised for long as he quickly regained his composure and acted, because unless his eyes and ears had deceived him a person had jumped from a nearby building and landed on the top of the training towers. Though, as per usual in the shinobi world, this was not the oddest thing of all. Instead of crumpling into a pitiful corpse the person who had jumped stood right back up, seemingly unharmed, and said a casual "hello" like it was no big deal that he just jumped from a building.

This occurrence brought a few things to Shinji's mind. One: the jumper was on some hardcore drugs and just did not feel pain. Two: Shinji himself was on hardcore drugs and was seeing things. Three: there was something more to this jumper fellow than meets the eye. Shinji figured one and two were rather unlikely, so he decided to find out who this mysterious person with a seemingly voracious death wish was. Naturally it would be flat out rude to inquire how one was able to do that, so instead Shinji got up from his sitting position, making sure to mark his place in the book, and looked right past Xyxer. With a rather concerned edge to his voice responded to the odd jumping man, "Hey there,...Are you ok? That looked like quite the fall." With a uncharacteristically concerned look on his face Shinji awaited an answer from the man. In the mean time he mentally went over what he had learned about the storm release again and again, so that it became ingrained in his head.

{WC: 1332}

The eyebrow of the lad raised as he was corrected on the mans rank. Not that he could blame the man for losing it, after all, he was primarily taking ANBU out on dates when he wasn't harassing them. Perhaps a more.. suitable person had taken over. Deciding to not press on, he soon heard a sound that rather resembled a 'splat'; his feet feeling a slight tremble. Turning his body around somewhat so that he could see the ordeal that had just happened he saw a cloud of dust covering a person he was not sure of. His lips just curled upwards at his remembrance of the shinobi he had seen in Tengakure. 'Most of them do seem to have no care for their own lives.. that one kid just stood there as the rain sharks ate him alive.' he thought. Deciding to not ask any questions to the boy, he simply took a step back at his now angled body so that everyone could see each other well. "Hello.."

"Why hello there. It was, in fact, quite the fall. If I thought you could survive it, I would suggest you experience it as well. It is quite the exhilarating one!" He recognized the one, Shinji, he had been the Tenkage for awhile, but had stepped down. Zee had never bothered to learn much about that, however, so he let the man have his mysteries. The other person, however, Zee could not seem to recall, which likely meant that he just did not know the person. The dust was settling, and he walked over towards the two. It was a fine day, and he noticed the book in the one persons hand. "If it is not too much of a bother, could I ask what that book is? And.. who are you?" The second was said towards Xyxer.

Indeed it would seem the man was unscathed. However, more than that he seemed to be a wee bit enthusiastic about jumping off high places: an adrenaline junkie? Shinji was not sure. Though another thing Shinji was not was rude. Thus, when the odd man who jumps from buildings asked what book he was reading he responded in a rather matter of fact tone, "Oh, its called The Tempest. It describes how to go about learning to master the storm element." To demonstrate Shinji held up his palm towards the sky and tried to will into existence a storm light, which was basically raw storm chakra and the most basic form of the storm release. Alas his efforts were met with failure yet again as for a brief second a small baseball sized orb came into existence and then was snuffed out when Shinji lost concentration. Shrugging he glanced up at the man again and continued to speak, "I did not catch your name...Mine is Shinji by the way." The former Tenkage used to have all the villagers memorized, but lately he had allowed them to drift from memory and beyond. Plus it was nice to meet new people.

The man seemed to be relatively.. undamaged. Naturally, if Xyxer was to repeat that process he would have ended up a cripple in every sense of the word if he was not dead. However, once his name was requested, he simply bowed down towards the boy before speaking, "I am Xyxer Gyojin." After saying that, he rose back up from the bow and looked at the boy for a few more seconds. This one at least did not get destroyed from the feat he had pulled, that was always a good start. It then dawned on him.. Perhaps Tengakure was manufacturing indestructible shinobi. It would make sense as to why all of them seemed to have death wishes.

Zee smiled. "Nice to meet you, Xyxer, and it is good fortune to meet you, Shinji Uzumaki. I am Zee Jesus Mikuo. I don't hail from this village, but I have spent most of my life here." It was the truth. The village he had originated from had been destroyed in a raid, along with everyone he had known. While not many knew the truth behind the raid, he did, and he kept that fact close to his heart. That very fact, in fact, was why he had figured out how to become Zouo, and that was how he had learned the technique he was about to display. "Now, I am going to show you something cool..." he said. He looked at Shinji. It was not long before his chakra bounced back up to its full value, as did his other stats, and his transformation began. It would take a little while to complete, but for now, his height was the first thing to alter itself, becoming that of Shinji's. In general, his form started shifting towards that of his target. "What do you think?" he said while still in mid transformation.

Zee Jesus Mikuo, there was a name. Perhaps it was Shinji's grandiose imagination, but it had an almost god like ring to it- especially around the middle part. Though the name did not ring any bells it was interesting to hear that the man was not born in Tengakure. Shinji was always interested in those who came from elsewhere and how they came to settle in Tengakure, but that was for another time as that was not something you ask about when you first meet someone. "Now, I am going to show you something cool" said Zee. To some people that may seem like an innocent phrase, but not to Shinji. In his time after he stepped down from his Tenkageship he met some rather weird people. The last time he had heard that phrase it was coming from a rather crazy dude who for some reason had tattooed Shinji's face on his back. It was really quite creepy and mentally scarring.

However, this Zee character did not seem like that kind of person, but if there was any sign of his shirt being taken off Shinji was ready to bolt out of there as fast as his feet could take him- his mind could only take so many scars. Luckily it seemed as if Zee had a different trick to show and it was a most intriguing one at that. The first thing Shinji noted was the change in height: Zee grew to be about Shinji's height. It could have been exact, but Shinji was not the best at judging heights. Then small changes took place on the man. It was odd, as if he was changing his very being into something else. Oddly enough the features started to look familiar until at last a few moments after Zee asked what he thought did Shinji grasp where these features were coming from: himself. Perhaps he had been blinded by his own handsomeness and not noticed sooner? Cocking his head to one side Shinji stated the obvious, "You are me...Thats wicked cool. How long can you hold that form for?" Shinji was always interested in these types of jutsu- they were always so versatile.