Starting Point [IO, nk, Angel]

"Mitai Morikawa..... wake up."

His eyes flickered open. All traces of what memories of the dream he had just had vanished in an instant, as often happens when dreamers awake from their slumber. Streams of light were coming in through his bedroom window, casting a rather weak illumination on his somewhat organised room. By the angle of the light, Mitai inferred that it must be the middle of the morning, so he had overslept by a couple of hours; not really that big of a deal. He didn't mind the extra rest, or the waste of time; he had plenty of it.

What bothered him the most, was the fact that he had probably had a bad dream. The sheets and blanket of his bed were ruffled, and he was positive that he had tossed and turned quite a bit during the night. In addition, cooling beads of sweat were making their way down his forehead, which means that whatever he had been dreaming about had probably made him either nervous or afraid. That wasn't good, but then again, one could learn quite a bit from fear. Fright was a taskmaster, but an excellent teacher in times where one needed a quick, easy lesson. (Then again, whether or not the lesson is easy is debatable.)

The one other thing... why had his dream suddenly decided to wake him up? It was most certainly the dream, and not some random person. After all, there was no one in his room, and no one he knew would use his own voice to wake him up. How unusual this was, indeed. Maybe there was some kind of significance to it, but what it might be, Mitai did not know. Perhaps something unusual and mysterious would happen today that would blow his socks off.

He decided to go out, and let it find him, rather than sit and wait for it passively in his room. Slowly, he stepped out of bed and dressed. The simple genin uniform would do today, rather than a jacket and casual clothes; it wasn't that cold at the moment, so Mitai didn't deem that he would freeze to death if he ventured outside. So, he got his clothes on, and sauntered down the stairs and out the front door, into the streets of Kumogakure no sato. The village was somewhat cloudy, which might not be a bad thing. The environment wasn't too windy either, which was excellent.

He started jogging toward the general direction of the training grounds. Why not get some exersize while moving where you need to go, so he thought. It was at times like this that he forgot to observe other people (and their behavior and morality set) and just enjoyed his life. Thinking on it, it was like he was embracing his own personal illusion world rather than attempting to escape from it.

As he arrived at the grounds, he saw that it was nearly empty. He entered, wondering at the lack of people.

[TWC 500

Training goals:
Chakra to 40 - 500/5400
Learn Bringer of Darkness - 500/4000
Learn Temple of Nirvana - 0/4000
Learn Fire Release: Great Fireball - 0/2000]

Angel had waited a long time but she figured now that she was a new person, Her mother was gone, she was now a Jounin, Everything in her life was happening right now.  She had decided to think about the future.  She knew she was going to be on many more missions, and that the missions would end up quite difficult soon.  But Angel could tell she had grown.  When she first started out she had been a naïve kid who looked at the world through shiny love glasses that made everything look like it was a candy jar.  No that she was alone, her mother passing away really made her reconsider the beauty of the world.  On top of that not many people from the village had come to show their respects to her mother passing.  It hurt Angel to the core.  She lost her trust in the village.  But Her master was the only person who was a constant.  Yaju had shown his support on many occasions and He was now the only thing tying her to the village.  She didn’t want to disappoint him and she also had a duty that she also did not take lightly.  Angel had recently considered asking for a leave of absence so that she could get her head on straight.  Maybe do a bit of searching for her father.  But if she wanted to head out on her own she would need to create another puppet for protection. 
 
She would start in the market.  She went around to the many shops that she once frequented on a daily basis.  She was happy to see everyone again but the same wonder and excitement that she had once had was gone now.  Now she did this work as a necessity.  She brought along her cart and was now quite good at determining the required materials for the project she had in mind.  She said hello to her friends and listened to their stories.  Many of them expressed their condolences.  She thanked them for their kind ness and would move on.  Angel wished she could give anything to have her mother back in her life.  But that wouldn’t happen.  She had to live the life she was given.  But she was developing a way to develop her jutsu farther.  She would become even more powerful and be able to stop even death.  She would do anything for that power.  Her dreams were filled with memories of the future which made no sense to her or with thoughts of the world as a whole.  Somehow recently she had become much more connected with the planet.  It was an odd sensation and that was the only way she could describe it.  But she felt like life itself was something she could puzzle out and understand.  It seemed that the life of the world was connected to the life of the people somehow.  It was too big to think about right now.
 
Her cart was full of parts now and she would go to her favorite spot once again to put her new friend together.  Angel had spent hours in this spot building her puppets.  Walking up to the spot pulling the cart behind her, stomping on the ground an earthen slab rose up to become the table she would be using to build the puppet.  She released her insects to do the job she had taught them to do.  She was able to build her puppets rapidly now.  It used to take her days to put her puppets together.  Now she could do it in a couple hours.  It helped when you have a nearly 2000 hands to help out.  She wouldn’t be able to finish the mechanisms here, that took much finer tools that she didn’t have on her but she constructed the basic figure and the frame work of the puppet.  She would have to do the rest later.  Setting everything back in the cart she turned to leave and noticed someone new walking into the training grounds.  She never met the guy before.  She used to be very cheerfull training with every new ninja she could.  “eh what the hell.” 
 

Angel would approach the new guy.  “Hi I’m Angel, Jounin rank what’s your name?”

TWC 711

training goals
puppet building 711 / X
idk whatelse
Rasengan 0 / 4000
Blade of wind 0 / 4000
this will be rewritten as we go

Hmm... so no one was there yet, that was unusual, but not to the point where he would be astonished. To leave such a circumstance to the supernatural was somewhat irrational, and not like Mitai at all. He generally didn't believe that such a day could contain such a pre-destined fate that would reveal itself in a sign (for example, the training grounds being unusually vacant). To him, things didn't work that way. An illusion, (at least, his own) generally developed as per the development of the inhabitant's mental capacity, and not some kind of external, divine influence, although he didn't completely dismiss such a possibility. After all, anything is possible in a world where shinobi can spit fireballs from their mouths and destroy villages at whim within very small amounts of time.
As he thought about these things, he picked up a rock on the ground. It was a small-ish rock, which looked like it was made out of granite. Granite... and igneous rock, to be sure, which meant that it was formed from lava deep inside the earth. That granite should show up in the mountains meant wild things in terms of a prehistoric environment. It made Mitai wonder on how the mountains themselves were formed. Some geological phenomena, however, were beyond his mental grasp, so he stopped thinking about it pretty quickly.
With a flick of his wrist, he sent the rock (which was ever so slightly flat) into a circular target on the side of the training ground. It would hit about 1 inch to the direct right of the bulls eye. Eh, how unfortunate. His accuracy wasn't nearly where he wanted it to be. That would have to be one focus of his training at some point in the future, perhaps even his training currently.
He wanted to be able to plan out the focuses of each of his training sessions in order to attain exactly a certain status, physically, that is. "Know thyself", the older ninja and adults would often say. This, within reason, was helpful, to know and admit one's own weaknesses. However, "knowing thyself" was worthless without the motivation and the drive to eliminate said weaknesses.
As he surveyed his lack of accuracy, he noticed a female with a cart. As she approached him, he sized her up. The cart appeared to be filled with... well, who knows what. Parts of some kind? You could never tell. Was the girl... a mechanic? A blacksmith's daughter? The headband indicated something different entirely, and this was confirmed by her announcement that she was a jonin. So, a higher ranking ninja of the village.

How... interesting.

He made direct eye contact (always pays to be polite), and responded in kind. "I'm Mitai, a genin." There, he had responded directly to her inquiry, but gave no extra information. This was the beginning of a test, not just of Angel's personality, but also of Mitai's own social interactions. Now... why would a jonin approach him in particular?

[TWC 1000 exactly,
Learn Bringer of Darkness - 500/4000
Learn Temple of Nirvana - 0/4000
Learn Fire Release: Great Fireball - 500/2000]

It seemed unlikely to Mitai that Angel would just offer her teachings without some kind of ulterior motive, but perhaps, he considered, he was being far too cynical. Such moral suspicion would make him no friends later on in life. If Angel did indeed turn out to be the kind of person who would take advantage of him (which at this point, seemed unlikely), then he would be forced to adapt in the future. However, trust should be given at first, so Mitai made an executive decision mentally to accept Angel's offer. It seemed the right thing to do, after all.
Exteriorly, he would face Angel completely, giving her his full attention, as would befit a genin speaking to a jonin. He wondered what she could possibly be able to teach him, outside of physical training. Well... one never knew. In his experience, not only were jonin more skilled and powerful in general, they had many life experiences from which they derived their various abilities and lessons. If he could draw off of Angel's past... who knows how it might change his current perspective? For the better or for the worse, Mitai wanted to make the gamble; it might end up better than he expected.
"Very well, I accept your teachings." It sounded like he was making a deal with some demon, and was trading his soul for power. His mind hesitated for a moment. Could he possibly be stepping into a situation that he did not want to be in? A bargain with a demon grants great power, but at an unforgivable cost. Still... there was a possibility that this was not a demon he was making a deal with, but rather, just a jonin of the village, merely a benevolent soul who actually really desired to help the weaker ninja of Kumo.
"So... where to begin?" He would speak, inquiring on what they should work on first. Mitai had much to improve on, being a somewhat junior member of the village shinobi, so he realized that he should probably shut up and listen when Angel was speaking. Again, it would be the respectful (and somewhat advantageous) thing to do in this case. A good listener, in his opinion, kept quiet and absorbed all the information that was given to him. Like a sponge, he thought, soaking up water. He only hoped that the sponge of his intellect would be able to handle all of Angel's teachings.
Internally, Mitai hoped that they would begin with chakra-based training. He seemed to never be good at ninjutsu, so he knew that it was a point that should be ground into him and internalized as quickly and efficiently as possible. Then again, it was up to Angel to decide what was best. She was (at least, assumably) more experienced, and would probably know the steps of training for this specific case. If not, well, they could always improvise. That wasn't a bad option, all in all; but Mitai would have to see. 

[TWC 1500,
Learn Bringer of Darkness - 500/4000
Learn Temple of Nirvana - 0/4000
Learn Fire Release: Great Fireball - 1000/2000]

Angel watched as the kid mulled it over a bit.  He seemed curious enough and very formal.  Angel didn’t mind though.  Someone with self discipline learned faster and retained more knowledge.  Angel lowered the cart to the ground as she wouldn’t need it for training purposes.  “Well first off I need to know a little about you, strengths weaknesses, that way I can provide safe training.  Wouldn’t want to kill you , heh heh heh.”  Angel realized that her statement was very weird as was her laugh.  Didn’t matter though just push on like it never happened.  “I also need to know how you learn.  It is essential to match your learning pattern to my teaching method to properly have the information sink in.  Would you rather listen to my lessons or jump straight into combat lessons?  Are you stronger with ninjutsu or taijutsu?”  Angel was having fun.  She liked meeting new people.  Luckily today she was in a good mood.  Then again Angel seldom went out when she was in a bad mood.  Her mother’s death came to her in waves.  It was best to process it that way because otherwise she wouldn’t be able to work.  She was learning to channel that sadness into a dark corner of her that she could vent at a later time.  Angel had met some strange ninja though.  Kumo tended to have a problem with strange people.  Too many people have their moral alignment skewed.  But Angel so far hadn’t suffered any side effects of being around them.  Angel as an Aburame had a host of insects living inside her.  With their separate intentions they are able to keep Angel on a sane course. 
 

Now that she thought about it Mitai looked about her age.  Then again she was really young for her position.  She was one of the few elite ninja who were able to fight her way up the ranks at a young age.  It seemed like only yesterday she had graduated from the academy.  She had been given excellent marks due to her advanced ability to comprehend the course work.  She had graduated the academy in 2 short years and since then she had been able to fly through her missions and duties to rank up to Jounin.  And it was probably because she took the time to help others train.

"Kill you, heh....." So, it seemed that she was powerful, or at the very least more powerful than he by far. But she seemed a bit young for a jonin... Mitai wondered if, perhaps, that indicated extreme talent, or possibly a plethora of hard work. It crossed his mind, for a second, that it could have been sheer luck, but in major village such as this, it seemed somewhat unlikely. Things just didn't "happen randomly" in an environment such as this one. There was too much competition out there for such things to happen, although it was still a remote possibility.
In this case, surely, he did not want to upset Angel. Doing so could result in catastrophic endings for him, which could include death, or worse. Now, about Angel's query.... strangely enough, it appeared that her question concerned more or less the same things that he had just been thinking about. What a coincidence. Now, how to go about answering? He had just considered his own strengths and weaknesses, but he had been given two options (ninjutsu and taijutsu) that just weren't the thing for him. Well, he was technically better at ninjutsu, as he had learned during his academy years. His chakra was a little stronger than that of most academy students, so he had been somewhat gifted in that area, being able to master the basic few jutsu faster than most.
Well, as for strength...

"I'm a relatively new genin, if that helps any. Also, I would very much like to hear what you have to offer before exhausting myself." He would speak, taking on a slightly more cautious tone. Yes, it was true that he was a more new addition to the Kumo ninja force, and that he had untested potential. It was also ever so slightly embarrassing, he thought, being such a novice as opposed to Angel's apparent seniority and power.
However, such things were not greatly worrying. Mitai didn't let such things disturb him much.
"As for training preferences.... well, I prefer ninjutsu to taijutsu, as the former has usually served me better." Then again, had it really ever served him in a truly practical situation? Mitai did not really consider the genin exams and such to be a "practical situation" at all, rather, one where Mitai could apply more of his knowledge of theory rather than actual combat. No, he really had no practical experience, which was even more embarrassing. Theoretical proficiency is nothing without the practical knowledge to back it up.
Regardless, however, this was a chance to get that. Even if he had to humble himself, Mitai had no issues doing so. It was a golden opportunity, and only those talented or determined enough could reach out and take it. Mitai himself was resolved to do so, and without hesitation. He had to admit, he was actually somewhat excited about this, more than he had been in a very, very long time. There was so much he could gain from this... 

[TWC 2000,
Learn Bringer of Darkness - 500/4000
Learn Temple of Nirvana - 0/4000
Learn Fire Release: Great Fireball - 1500/2000]

Angel acknowledged his answers to her question and then began to ponder how to begin his training.  He stated that Ninjutsu was a little easier for him which told Angel a lot about him.  As one who favored ninjutsu herself she knew what kinds of things he would know and what he was able to do.  Angel thought the best course of action would be to start out simple.  “Alright then I have the perfect training exercise to get us warmed up.  This will be a combination of taijutsu and ninjutsu.  You ready?”  Angel would wait until he responded before telling him what it is they were going to do.  “On a mission what is the number one talent that is required?  That’s right it’s endurance.  If you can’t get to the end of the mission the mission is failed.  So we are gonna run.”  Angel said it matter of factly.  With a wave of her hand she beaconed him to follow. 
 
Angel started at a very light pace. She had remembered the run that Aya had taken her on.  Angel had pushed herself to the extreme to keep up with Aya.  She would make sure to be very careful and aware of his condition because if he were to have problems Angel had yet to master the ability to heal his body as Aya had hers. 
 
“The idea of this exercise is to flow chakra into your muscles to help them move and keep them in good repair as you run,” Angel would say as they ran.  “Remember to breathe properly.  Oxygen is necessary for the function of muscles.”  Angel took him along the same course Aya had taken her.  The trail wound through the trees of the training grounds.  It was 2 miles long.  As they passed the starting point Angel threw down a kunai like Aya had.  “Alright Mitai, you’re doing well.  Regulate your chakra and push yourself.  We will do 3 more passes each one faster than the last.  As you go try to sense your surroundings.  Use the trees and space to navigate your own path but follow me still.” 
 

Angel leapt over a fallen log grabbing a branch overhead and twisted her body horizontally.  Flipping off the branch she avoided another branch as it passed under her.  Using the surface walking technique she stuck her feet to the underside of a tree branch flipping herself back to the trail.  She rolled under another downed tree and continued on.  She made sure that Mitai was right beside her before continuing.  “You good?”  she would ask matching his pace.

"You ready?" Oh, Angel. She had no idea how ready he was in his heart and mind, but how unprepared he was physically. He had never been directly trained  by a jonin, so this experience would be completely new to him. So, he was all at once prepared, and not prepared. Paradoxes were no good to Mitai, so in this particular case, he pushed it out of his mind. Who knew how much of a hindrance thinking about such things would give in this training session? It was better just to listen to Angel, and see how much he could learn from her.
"Yes. I am ready." That was the appropriate response. If he wasn't ready now, well then, he would be in a few seconds. Physical excersize kept one's blood flowing, making a ninja ever the more "pumped" (if you will) for action and movement. As for endurance, well, Mitai had to admit that she was probably correct. Why even attempt a mission if you didn't have the stamina to see it through? Such a thing was absolute foolishness, and lack of knowledge (ignorance, that is) of one's own capabilities, which was one of the more important things for a ninja.
A run, huh? Well, nice and blunt. No need to waste word elaborating on things, he thought. Roundabout business was no good, it wasted time and prevented progress. Well, it looks like regardless, they were jumping directly into physical excersize. To be perfectly honest, Mitai had no problems with that. Once again, practical experience was important, and so was building one's constitution step by step, even by simple things such as these. So, yeah, overall, no issues whatsoever. This would be beneficial overall, so he merely nodded at Angel in agreement and followed her, attempting to keep up as well as he could.
It was a lot harder than he expected. His stamina, endurance, and strength weren't nearly on par with his teacher's. So, when Angel spoke about how to help him along in this run, he paid very close attention. Chakra, of course that was the solution. That vital energy... why had he not thought of that before? It was the perfect choice of action here.
Also, the oxygen. Of course, that too. Oxygen was the final electron acceptor for metabolic processes in the muscle cells of the body.
Mitai nodded slightly in assent as Angel threw down the kunai. He acknowledged her orders, and went on his own path through the trees, slightly to the right and above Angel. He was losing stamina quickly, and was on his guard in terms of strength. He didn't want to tire himself out to the point where he wasn't able to handle the rest of Angel's training.
As Angel lined up alongside him, he postulated that she was holding back. This was probably true, as she was most likely much faster than he. "I'm holding up, but I'm not sure I'll last if we go on for a while." 

[TWC 2500,
Learn Bringer of Darkness - 1000/4000
Learn Temple of Nirvana - 0/4000
Learn Fire Release: Great Fireball - 1500/2000]

Angel understood that Mitai was starting to tire.  “Okay then one last lap, then.”  Angel said as they ran past the kunai again.  “Alright Really depend on your chakra this round.  Use as much of it as you can.  Your chakra will come back with rest.  If you cushion the steps with the surface walking technique you put less pressure on your feet and save them from the repeated damage of each stride.  We’ll rest after this lap so push yourself.  Use the terrain again.”  Angel reached out sending several chakra threads to attach to a tree branch and used it to swing over a pile of rocks.  The swing pulled her into the underside of a branch which she landed on knees already bent.  Pushing of she sent herself spiraling into the ground activating her Mole technique and dove straight through the ground.  She pooped up on the other die of some shrubbery and leapt up into the branches again.  She landed in a one hand handstand looking behind her to check Mitai’s progress.  Then she dropped back down landing in a run.  It had been a while since she had just simply run like this, it was refreshing.  She decided to wind around all her obsticals which would give Mitai a moment to catch up. 
 
Angel knew how much it would take for Mitai to run out of steam.  He wasn’t that hard to read.  He was doing good so far and focused on his running and regulating his chakra and breathing.  Angel figured.  There was no point in starting a new lap if it would be difficult to train after it. 
 
“This is fine for now” Angel said when they reached her kunai again.  She bent over and pulled it from the ground and pointed out a nearby clear stream if Mitai wanted to take a drink or splash his face.  Angel would take a drink too.  The run hadn’t exhausted her she was just thirsty. 
 

Finally she would return to the field and begin to stretch a bit, limbering up.  When Mitai is finished she would say, “Okay warm up done.”  Angel sat on the ground and let Mitai catch his breath.  “It’s really a nice day to train isn’t it?”