The training of Maku Jemuzu

Maku awoke early to the sound of his uncle’s voice.  The jovial man looked serious at Maku.  “It’s time boy, your father has passed, and I have my own family I need to return to, it’s time for me to train you in earnest.”  With that Maku got out of bed and dressed.  He wasn’t sure what his uncle meant by training him in earnest.  He hadn’t know his uncle to work hard in years, so to find out that he even still knew how to train in earnest was a stretch.  In a way he had hoped that his uncle would move and stay, if Maku hadn’t found a new sensei in Taiga, then he didn’t know what he would have done.
                After finishing getting ready Maku ate his breakfast in a rush.  His uncle was already waiting at the door for him.  His uncle wore cloth pants and a jacket, with a long blue robe.  He didn’t look like a man that was ready to train someone in the jungles of Takigakure.  Walking down the streets, Maku couldn’t help but feel he couldn’t ask for a better day.  The wind was gently blowing, with a warm feel to it.  The sun was warm as well giving it a nice feeling.  His uncle was silent throughout their walk into the jungle.  But it wasn’t long before they arrived and his uncle brought them to a stop.  They were in a clearing with a few old ruins scattered around, now telling what they had once been.  Maku’s uncle sat cross legged on the ground and pulled out an old looking flute, and bid Maku to sit as well. 
                “I will be placing you under a genjutsu, but not just any genjutsu.  It will be layer upon layer upon layer.  If you are able to break free, then you will be ready to inherit all your father worked for.  This will be more difficult than even you can imagine.”  His uasully jovial uncle looked at him seriously.  “I will not be here when you wake up; I will not be here five minutes after you go under.  You will die if you are unable to break out.”  With that the flute began to play.  Maku submitted himself to the jutsu.  He allowed it to engulf his senses, and when he opened his eyes he awoke to a new world.
                The colors of the world seemed inverse.  The grass, and leaves where now blue and the sky was green.  Everything seemed backwards.  Voices filled his head, they were indistinguishable.  Spirits seemed to appear and disappear.  Maku knew that each level of the genjutsu would have to be broken and it wouldn’t always be easy to figure out how he would do that.  He started by wondering from place to place.  Monsters seemed to move in and out of the shadows, But Maku largely ignored them.  The monsters where just illusions after all, and as long as he ignored them, they didn’t have much weight against his journey.  He had been walking back towards the village, but when he got to where it was supposed to be there was only a crater with a large lizard in the middle.  When he approached the lizard it looked straight at him and spoke
 
 “"First think of the person who lives in disguise,
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies,
Next tell me what's always the last thing to mend,
The middle of middle and end of the end?
And finally give me the sound often heard,
During the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together, and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"


Clearly the point of this layer was to answer this riddle and break through.  He thought hard on the riddle.  It was difficult to decipher.  After long hard thinking Maku answered a spider.  Spy was someone who talked in lies, d was the middle of middle and the end of end.  And after thinking of what creatures he wouldn’t want to kiss, that popped into his head.  The creature looked at him with dead eyes and collapsed.  It seemingly was eaten from the inside out, and then burst into purple flames.  As the flames dissolved the carcass transformed into a large golden door.  Maku was impressed with himself, passing the first test so easily, though he didn’t think that it had helped him develop many of his skills.  Opening the door and walking through once again everything changed.
                This new world was one of intense horror.  The sky was black and the fields where in a dank red glow.  Crows, and beetles covered the landscape constantly devouring each other.  And it wasn’t long before they spotted Maku’s presence.  Maku began attempting to run and escape the vermin.  As far as he ran though there didn’t seem to be any escape.  Using the body flicker jutsu, substitution and clone jutsus as much as he could he still was only barely a step in front of them.  Trying to think what could be the perhaps of this level, he couldn’t think of one.  As they caught up to him they began gnawing and clawing their way into his skin.  The pain was immense.  Even knowing it was a genjutsu, he couldn’t help but scream out.  The gnawing continued, even though he fought as hard as he could.  After the pain had become almost unbearable, to where he couldn’t think straight, he had one final thought.  Perhaps this was a lesson in submission.  And with that he quit struggling.  And the instant he did and opened his eyes the scenery had changed once again.  Everything now appeared normal, however he knew that he must still be in the genjutsu, because he wasn’t sitting in the correct spot.  Upon looking around he saw himself sitting across from himself. 
                This was going to be to be interesting.  The clone began to speak to him; it said awful things, about how he was never going to make his dreams, never become powerful enough to make a difference.  Maku gave himself a grin and stood up.  “I think I know how this works, you talk me down, and then we fight.  Honestly it’s pretty cliché in my opinion.” Maku said to his clone.  Flashing a couple signs he created his own genjutsu.  Demonic Illusion: Acid rain, by catching the clone’s eye, the jutsu activated.  It appeared to the clone that dark clouds had begun to form.  And as they formed a light rain began to fall that seemingly started to melt the environment around them.  This was a brand new skill and as such the clone was likely to not have access to it, since this whole dream world was a construct of his uncles.  The clone began to scream and run around, obviously believing that he was in pain.  As the clone fell to his knees attempting to wipe of the acid rain that wasn’t real, Maku considered what he looked like in extreme pain.  This was a unique opportunity, and not one that he thought was al that wonderful.  Appearing behind the clone, Maku drew his wakizashi in one quick motion.  With it he stabbed the clone in the back of the neck causing it to vanish. 
                Blinking, Maku realized that the scenario had reset itself.  The clone started the same speech.  Again, Maku killed the clone, only this time faster, not even letting the vision finish speaking.  Once again the vision reset itself.  This time Maku let the clone speak and tried agreeing with it, but once he did it just reset again.  Trying something different, Maku ran from the clone as fast as he could, disappearing from it.  After making it several meters from the clone, he was once again stuck in the reset.  Utilizing his chakra he tried to flex through the genjutsu.  Once he started doing this he was surprised to feel that his own chakra had changed.  It felt stronger than he remembered.  Obviously just by training in this genjutsu he was getting stronger all the time.  Now that he focused he realized the constant pressure this world was putting on him, forcing his chakra to grow all the while.
                He was starting to get worried that he wouldn’t be able to figure this riddle out.  Finally he realized that maybe this wasn’t a riddle.  Maybe this was the last layer.  So instead of doing any fighting, Maku sat and focused on his own chakra.  Flexing his power as hard as he could against the walls of the genjutsu.  He already could feel them start to give way.  Since this was a construction that was developed to be broken, he knew he didn’t need any special techniques to break out.  He just needed to use his strength in chakra control.  Continuing to do this while the clone kept talking, he felt the dimensions of the genjutsu starting to give way.  In a great effort Maku pushed out with his mind as hard as he could and felt the genjutsu give way.  Opening his eyes he noticed he was back in the jungle. 
                He noticed how hungry he was, looking around things looked different; he must have been out for a couple of days.  There was a pouch next to him that had a few rations that he ate voraciously.  Feeling only slightly filled, Maku began trudging back to town.  He could feel that his chakra had grown.  Arriving in town it was clear that his uncle was gone for good.  He met his mother who apparently was also leaving.  She had decided to travel to see family, since Maku was busy with his new life as a ninja.  The family shop would be closed down until Maku had time to reopen it and return to the business. 
                With his father passed away, uncle gone, and mother traveling Maku found himself alone for the first time in his life.  Living alone in his parents’ home, he dedicated more of his time to training.  The next few days where solely dedicated to his life of training.  He woke and would train himself when his sensei couldn’t be found.  He focused on chakra control most of all.  Challenging himself to hang upside down from trees by the soles of his feet for as long as possible.  He also was studying out of his father’s, now his, books on ninja skills and abilities.  These were difficult to read by himself, not to mention dull, however being out of the academy this was the best way to learn when not out actively training.
                His uncle’s training had helped a lot; it had taught him some different styles of genjutsus and since this was developing into his forte, it was of great help.  He continued to practice these skills by putting them on animals and attempting to control them.  While this went well, he needed to discover some new skill to use in combat, as eventually that was where he was going to end up.
                In addition to his mental training, Maku also began taking up a more physical regime.  Working on his stamina mostly, while his chakra could be as strong as he wanted he knew he needed the endurance to keep them up.  Because of this, he had taken up to doing some simple missions that a genin could do alone; of course the lack of other ninja was also a large contribution to this.  Applying to the squad of his new sensei would hopefully bring about more opportunities to train.  His next bit of training was that of developing his nature element.  He had an affinity for the earth element, so he began trying to control the movement of stones.  This proved difficult and even after hours of training he had made only limited progress.  His goal was to develop some defensive style jutsu that would help him stay alive while preparing his illusions.  He knew that without some kind of defense he would be very vulnerable in one on one fight.  His trainings would continue, but for now he rested and finished his book, Make Out Paradise, thinking sadly he’d have to work up another 200 ryo to buy the next book.
 
(Word count = 2,046)

Approved for 10 stats and 20 Jp.