The Village People{Open to Leaf village ninja, nk}

The sweet smell of last night's rain still lingered in the morning breeze as the village of Konoha seemed to spring to life. Merchants were setting up shop and a few couriers could be seen shuttling packages back and forth. Among these merchants was where one could find  Shinji Uzumaki, former Tenkage and current exile. The Tengakure exile was readily noticeable by his long sleeved white shirt with the crimson Uzumaki clan emblem emblazoned on his back. To match the Uzumaki scion wore a pair of long brown pants that dropped to above his ankles, thus allowing for ease of movement. Also, hanging at his left side, was a singular blade that once belonged to his estranged father. In essence, Shinji looked like any other shinobi in the Leaf village save for the headband of Tengakure that hung loosely around his neck.

Sure, there were a few odd looks from some people, but it was nothing new to the former kage, he brushed it off and continued on his way. The young man had spent the day before recuperating from his journey, but now the Uzumaki felt antsy, he was not one who was made to wait. This being the case, Shinji was currently on his way to the training grounds of Konoha, he had received directions from the woman he was staying with, Rika. However, he had taken a detour through the market district to pick up a hearty breakfast, which was sitting rather heavily in his stomach. Despite this, in a matter of minutes, the Uzumaki had arrived at the training grounds. It was an odd feeling being here, it made him feel...younger. Luckily hardly anyone was training just yet, though that would surely change as the day went on.

Not one to waste time or energy, Shinji made his way towards the training dummies used for kenjutsu practice. Now, the Uzumaki was no master of the blade, but he had, in his retirement as kage developed a few good ideas regarding kenjutsu techniques. Alas, like most things in Shinji's mind, these ideas were theoretical and needed to be put to the test. Thus, this was why he was here. His idea was simple and clear cut, make use of ration chakra and a quick draw to create an electrical pulse of sorts. In theory it was simple, but Shinji quickly discovered that theory did not transfer over too well into reality.

With his left hand gripping the neck scabbard and his right hand gripping the hilt of his blade the Uzumaki drew his blade with an impressive speed and at the same time he infused ration chakra to his blade, alas the effect he was hoping for was not produced, though there was a sizeable gash in the training dummy. Re-sheathing his blade Shinji shook his head slightly, he was missing something, but he was rather unsure what it was. Perhaps it was the time of infusion of the speed of the draw that was off, trial and error may be the best way to find out, but for now the Uzumaki simply inspected his handy work on the dummy, his father's blade was indeed sharp and true, but it was also taxing. Were anyone to be around the training grounds they would see Shinji closely inspecting the clean gash he had made much like an artist views his own work with a meticulously critical eye to detail.

{-10 ap for Solace (the sword), 1024-10=1014}

He felt him before he heard him, Shinji was no fool he did not let his guard down, or his chakra senses in this case, despite being in the supposedly safe confines of a village. Although, relative to Shinji's vast chakra pool, the person's chakra was not that impressive. Though the Uzumaki concluded the person would be no threat, after all what idiot would start attacking people in the middle of a village, a fools errand and death wish. As a result Shinji continued inspecting the gash by running his hand over the inside of the gash, yes it was indeed a fairly clean cut. Alas, Shinji was interrupted by a greeting, which came from the chakra source he had sensed before.

Shinji was by no means mean hearted and he had no real reason to act hostile towards anyone in Konoha considering the village's overwhelming hospitality and general geniality. This being the case, Shinji turned to the chakra source and found it to be a young boy, perhaps a genin he couldn't tell. Not wanting to be rude he returned the greeting of the boy in a cheery upbeat tone, "Good morning, nice to see I am not the only one who thinks an early start is useful." With that Shinji turned once again to the dummy, he was not ignoring the newcomer merely making good use of his time. Much like last time his left hand dropped to the scabbard and his right to the hilt. Taking a deep breath the Uzumaki began to infuse chakra into his blade as he drew it with prodigious speed once again.

THUD....

For the second time that day Shinji failed to produce the results he desired. However, the bottom half of the dummy, from the chest down fell to the ground with a dull thud leaving the young man without much to practice with, perhaps his rate of infusion was a bit off. Thinking on this the sword was swiftly re-sheathed, which promoted its wielder to glance back at the newcomer to the training grounds with a rather hopeless look of embarrassment. In fact, as if to accentuate this, the Uzumaki could not help but awkwardly scratch the back of his neck for a brief second. In the back of his mind he hoped that the boy had not been able to see this as a failure. All the same, it was a rather awkward situation for Shinji to be in, he did not make a habit of showcasing his weaknesses and shortcomings to the world.

{-10 ap for Solace --->1014-10 =1004}

The kid was more well spoken than some politicians Shinji had met during his tenure as kage, go figure. Composing himself the  former kage turned to the younger boy once again and responded to his inquiry in a rather matter of fact way that most shinobi would understand, "Well, I am attempting marry ninjutsu and kenjutsu into one technique. Granted it is a crude technique, but hopefully it'll be effective. In essence I am infusing raiton chakra into this blade." Shinji vaguely motioned with his right hand to the sword that hung from his left hip as he continued with the explanation at a slow even clip, "The trick is releasing the raiton chakra in an arc as I draw the blade. The effect, as you might guess, will be particularly potent against other swordsmen, but also serve useful against those further away such as ninjutsu users. But, as you might have noticed my form is not the best and I have not achieved my goal." Pausing for a second the Uzumaki figured that was probably a satisfactory response and thus decided to stop there and see what the younger boy thought.

All the while Shinji was idly attempting to figure out what was going wrong with his infusion. Surely it was the timing. Alas, there was no manual for this jutsu and as such it required the Uzumaki to find the perfect timing for himself. It would come in time, but Shinji felt like time was one of the few luxuries he had very little of. As he stood here the Hokage's agents were no doubt scouring the shinobi world for Denkiteki and when he was found, well, Tengakure had better be ready for their return in one form or another. Shinji merely hoped it was in a form that still resembled life, coming back a martyr would feel rather pointless.

{-10 ap due to Solace -----> 1004-10=994}

This kid did not miss a beat, he was sharp, or so it seemed-many things were not what they seemed in the land of shinobi. The technique described by the boy was indeed a viable one, Shinji would be the first to admit it and was rather discouraged that he had not thought of it before, it was chakra infusion 101, perhaps stress of recent events? The one thing the kid may have missed was the fact that as the chakra being infused was of raiton nature it would have a unique ability to stun those it hits along with searing their flesh, but Shinji decided it was not worth describing such horrors to the younger boy. All the same the former kage took a deep breath and turned back to the upper half of the dummy that remained. Closing his eyes the man let out a slow stream of air from his mouth and closed his eyes for a brief moment as his hands instinctually took their positions and his feet spread shoulder width apart, forming a even platform.

It was odd, slowly this positioning was becoming more and more natural. The first time he had taken this stance it had felt stilted like the moves to some foreign dance. As opposed to know where it felt like he was starting to learn the first steps in the dance that is kenjutsu. As he exhaled Shinji took stock of his chakra reserves and prepared to put them to deadly use, well deadly for the upper half of the dummy anyway. Keeping in mind the boy's advice, the Uzumaki drew his blade in a motion far more fluid than the last two times, first the base, then the blade. Were one to be watching with some sort of chakra vision they would see the quick flow of raiton chakra travel towards the tip of the blade much like a ravenous beast striving ever further. Then, once the blade was fully removed from its sheathe, Shinji released the chakra now running up and down the blade. The strike was aimed to hit the neck of the dummy and send the rest of the upper body to the ground, and hit Shinji did.

The rest of the dummy fell from its support leaving only the head hanging there. Now, the strike was not as successful as hoped, but if one was observant it was not a complete failure either. A fine smoke rose from where the dummy had been cut down to size by the blade, evidence that the raiton infusion had indeed been a success. However, this time the failure was not a function of the wielder's insufficient skill, no, this time it was insufficient will. Shinji did not wish to pour all his chakra into the technique for fear of any collateral damage it may cause. To perfect the deadliness of the technique he would surely have to try it later in the day when people were not just arriving at the training grounds-the danger of hitting them with an unpredictable jutsu was not worth the immediate risk. That was one of the things wanting in the life the Uzumaki, freedom. There was a time all he did was experiment and build, those were the days before kageship and this whole mess, simple days.

Pulling himself from his melancholy Shinji skillfully sheathed the blade in a single motion and then turned to the boy for the third time. Giving the boy a shallow bow the Uzumaki took the initiative to speak upon coming out of the bow, "I must thank you for your assistance, it was invaluable." Perhaps the boy may not view what Shinji was able to accomplish as a success, but Shinji was and that was all that really mattered to him. Either way he continued speaking, "So, you clearly did not come here to simply help some old guy like me.  Are you training for the genin exam or maybe even chuunin exams?.....Or am I off the mark completely?" These last questions were more so a stab in the dark, Shinji had no clue what rank this boy was and this was merely a survey question of sorts to see where the boy stood in the ranks of Konoha. The one hope Shinji had was that he had not insulted someone by undervaluing their rank, what if he was a jounin-stranger things had happened.

{-10ap for Solace and -40ap for technique, 994-50=944}

Well, no one was perfect. The former kage had been impressed with the boy's concise and almost eloquent answers thus far, but he was lacking in social graces. Furthermore the boy's rather cryptic nature did quite the opposite of what one might think: it drew more attention to him and basically screamed 'I'm hiding something', ironic to the point of hilarity really. Naturally, Shinji was much too courteous to point out this singular thought to the younger boy, the boy could keep to himself if he wished. However, his motives for training seemed awry, training for the sake of power was rather pointless. Thus, at the boy's mention of why he was here, the Uzumaki could not help but crack a slight grin, whether it was a grin of pity or amusement was left to interpretation-at this point he also lazily crossed his arms over his chest. As the boy stared at the face of Shinji it would be readily obvious that the Uzumaki had two very different eye colors himself, his right eye was coal black like a starless midnight, not unlike the eyes the boy had, and his left was a ghostly white as if it were blind, which was far from the truth.

Taking it upon himself to carry on the conversation, no matter how one sided, Shinji elected to probe deeper at the reason for training, a misstep? Maybe, only time would tell, "You are here to gain power, huh? I once knew two people who seemingly wanted nothing but power. In fact, I was blasted out of the highest tower of Tengakure once as I stood in the path of their want for power. The quest for power should always be tempered by a goal, a reason if you will.....or it consumes and moreover blinds." Shinji doubted this piece of advice would get through to the boy, people were very often stubborn-Shinji was no exception. Since the two had begun talking the sun had slowly crawled higher into the sky and people from all walks of life and rank had started filtering into the training grounds, such places were truly equalizers.

{-10 ap for Solace, 944-10 = 934}