i wanna be... soaking wet? (open,nk)

Kotonaru walked through the village, carrying a small bag. The bag was filled up to the handles with special bits of paper that could be used to determine one’s chakra nature. He knew he already had one element, Lightning, but he wanted to see if he had a second one. After a quick stop by the library for some research, he headed over to an open training ground.
Stopping in the middle, he opened the bag and pulled out a slip of paper. Careful not to use his lightning chakra, which would be rather dominant over any other elements he might have, he ran chakra without any element through the paper. He did it several times, before he noticed that the paper was getting soggy. Curious to see if he had a third element as well, he pulled out another piece of paper, and went through the same process, this time avoiding usage of both lightning, and presumably water element chakra. He could have sworn he singed the paper he was holding, but he could not be sure.
Anyways, it was time to try to train water element. He began pulling out slips of water and using his non-lightning chakra to make them as wet as he could, before pulling out another piece of paper and repeating the process. He was no expert, but presumably he could try making actual water in small quantities, after using his chakra to soak paper enough.
If anyone were to rather easily find him whilst in the middle of all this, he would be busy soaking paper as much and fast as he could. Upon noticing anyone else, he would politely ask if they knew anything about training for the water element.

It would seem the allure of the training grounds could not be denied as Shinji found himself there once again. He wore his usual attire, dark blue loose fitting jeans and a white long sleeved shirt with the Uzumaki emblem emblazoned on the back. On his left hip hung Solace and strapped to his lower back was a ninja pouch. Lastly, to complete this vision of pure manliness, the headband of Tengakure hung around the man's neck, a memento of times long past. It was a rather overcast day, but otherwise it was quite nice out, not too cold nor too hot. Now as chance would have it the training grounds were oddly empty save for a kid who seemed to be fiddling with some paper. Trying not to pay the other occupant of the training grounds too much mind, Shinji stood twenty meters from the younger boy and began his training. Now, this was not so much physical training as much as it was a bit of form and jutsu training. The Uzumaki had been working on a rather interesting technique and he was here to put it into practice. Thus, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath the man's right hand reached across for the hilt of his sword.

In a matter of moments his right hand gripped the familiar hilt while his left hand held the neck of the sheathe. Then opening his now distinctly different eyes, the sharingan and Byakugan active in their respective eyes, Shinji exhaled and in his same breath drew his sword in a rather dramatic way. Though this time, as opposed to his last trip the Konoha training grounds, he infused a bit of futon chakra into the blade, but the effect he was looking for was not produced, shame really. With a single failed attempt the Uzumaki dropped his right arm to his side, bringing the sword along with it such that the point was now directly harmlessly at the ground. Sighing ever so slightly, Shinji turned his mind inwards, this was going to take more work than he thought initially, funny how such things worked out like that.

Kotonaru had nearly gotten through soaking the entire bag of paper, the droopy remains being piled up on the ground near his feet. Soon, he felt that he would be able to avoid using the slips of paper, which conducted chakra really well, and just make his hands wet. Oblivious to the man who had also entered the training grounds, Kotonaru continued through the bag of paper slips. Eventually, he ran out of them, and decided to try making up a step of his own. It appeared that the local library was not too well stocked with books on elemental training, as the only book he had found at all close to what he currently needed, only said in 500 pages what reactions you would get when you had various chakra natures running through the paper, and why. That was hardly the most helpful thing he had read, even as an academy student.

Having run out of paper, he took a moment to put all the wet slips into the bag. Then, just for fun, he decided to try giving himself sweaty palms. He held one of his hands out, the other dangling at his sides. He tried running the same chakra he had ran through the papers just a few moments earlier. At first, he got nothing. Disappointed, he tried surging the chakra through his hand. Several drops of water pooled on his hand out of nowhere. Unsure whether this was his doing or not, he looked to the sky, for clouds in the sky that may have had rain dropping down from them. There were no signs of such clouds, in fact the sky was a clear crystal blue, and the ground around him was dry. The exception was where the pile of wet paper and bag had sat, as the water was slowly draining away, through small holes in the bottom. Obviously the bag would not function well as a sieve.

Kotonaru tried again, convinced that he had created the water from his chakra. Running the chakra through his hand again, as much as he could, he saw more drops appear on his hand. He paused his actions, and contemplated why this might be happening. Then it occurred to him - his chakra network was probably not used to generating water chakra, so as he practiced it would become easier. Unsure why he had not thought of this earlier, Kotonaru continued practicing. When he was able to wet his hand all at once, by running chakra through his palm and fingers, he fist pumped the air. Then, looking up, he noticed another person had entered the training grounds.

Curious, Kotonaru examined the man from afar. He looked to be a fairly quiet type, the amiable kind that was easy to get along with. He noticed that the symbol on the headband the man wore, was different than the Konoha shinobi one. This man was a traveller, huh? If he was wandering around freely then he must be on good terms with the Hokage, and as such, was likely to be trustable. At the moment, he appeared to be practicing with an interesting looking sword. Kotonaru watched in fascination as the man exerted himself, swinging the sword in a arc. After a while, Kotonaru's curiosity got the better of him.

He walked up to the stranger. "Judging by the headband, i'm guessing you are not from around here? It is good to visitors from other places, it helps our economy among other things. Perhaps you had relatives in the area? I would guess that you are fairly strong, as I have never seen you before in the village, so you must have arrived recently, largely unhurt too."

Kotonaru paused. "Sorry to be so inquisitive, it is not like I see many people from other villages."

It seemed the training grounds were lively as always no matter the village you were in. Youka had cassually walked around Konoha looking for the library but instead had found two ninja in the middle of a open ground. One had a very nice chakra signature that caused his skin to tingle with excitement, the other well was simply just smothered. Youka the priest watched from a short distance to see what would happen between these two. If they were to look his way they would see him in his normal priest garb black in color that flowed down to barely skirting the ground. On the front of his robes was sewn in a golden cross, and his cross necklace hung from his neck gleaming in the sun.

"Good day my children, it's good to always see the generation in high spirits, it does my soul good."

Youka would continue to close the distance between himself and the two unless halted.

It would appear that Shinji would be unable to train in peace, unfortunate really as he was hoping to get somewhere with this jutsu. Luckily Shinji's back was turned to the younger boy as he approached, which gave the former kage ample time to deactivate both his doujutsu without outright revealing them. Furthermore Shinji gave one last flick of his sword and in a flourish, more for looks than anything else, sheathed his blade and turned to the boy with the smaller chakra signature. Alas, the boy was quite the inquisitive one, luckily the Uzumaki was not a very rude person so he heard the boy out and began to respond before being interrupted by another newcomer, "I am but a simple traveler from---" At this point another, much larger, chakra signature made its entrance into the fine training grounds of Konoha. Shinji took careful note that this was the largest chakra signature next to that of the Hokage that he had felt since arriving in the village, though he doubted it was hostile considering he was within the village itself. Then again he would not put it past anyone, people were sometimes foolish.

All the same Shinji fronted a jovial and welcoming smile to the man in the weird garb and greeted him, the training grounds were getting crowded, "Good afternoon to you as well." Well, in a word, this was awkward. The people of Konoha were a strange breed, always wanting information, but never wanting to give any up, the case and point lying with Kenshin, a genin Shinji had met the other day. Perhaps it would not be wise to give out information so freely. Then again what was the harm, he had very little to fear from the truth save for possible ridicule and embarrassment.

Kotonaru had started trying to run water chakra through his hands again, while he spoke to the first stranger. When he had finished speaking, he listened quietly to the other... well, he was probably a ninja. Indeed, it seemed he was indeed a traveler, but from where? Well, that did not really matter, Konoha was not at war with anyone, as far as Kotonaru Uchiha knew, so he was probably not an enemy. Not that Kotonaru would be able to do much to a guy who traveled without a scratch. Still, he seemed relatively... friendly was not the right word, but he did not seem hostile. That was good 'cause to be frank, Kotonaru was a bit of a wimp for a ninja. He would fix that later if he could though.

Kotonaru from his vantage point saw the other man, with a slightly weird hair style, and robes, walk into the training ground. At first he seemed to be a priest, and just a normal one at that. However, Kotonaru noticed that the first traveler stopped talking, and turned to face the priest who was walking towards the two already in the training grounds.

The weird bit though, was that the first traveler had been relatively quiet and had listened quietly to Kotonaru, as Kotonaru had been for the traveller. However, he seemed to suddenly change his attitude when he noticed the priest. Lots of possibilities here.

Kotonaru wiped his hands off, as they were getting rather unpleasantly damp from his efforts to try to run water chakra through them. He wondered what the priest was doing here. Judging by the first travellers reaction, they had either met before, or the priest had been sensed using some kind of sensory technique, similar to what the Adacemy students had mentioned in class. Either the priest made the first traveller nervous, which would be something to worry about, or the priest was a genuine friend, someone who could be trusted. Either way, Kotonaru was pretty sure he had not seen any priests like that before. Konoha was a large village so it was entirely possible he just always looked at the wrong time, or the priest had been cloistered up somewhere for a while, but still. There was a fair chance he was an outsider, like the first traveller.

Kotonaru surpressed an urge to hide behind the first guy, the traveller, and instead watched the other man's face carefully, curious to hear about him. After the traveller had finished his brief speech, Kotonaru would add on - "Hi, how are you doing?"

Meanwhile, he dried off his hands on his clothing, and tried running a stronger concentration of water element chakra through his hands.

Youka could tell just from the way that the bigger chakra signature flicked the sword just before sheathing it that he was proficient enough to be deadly with a blade. One also had to have an amazing physique as well to be able to perform such a movement, so he must have trained very well on his body. This one was on par if not higher than Youka was and he itched to test that theory at one point, but now was not the time.

The priest was here to gain knowledge and insight on Echo as well as find a subject that would be able to stay behind and gather information for him while he wasn't in the village. The elder of the two spoke first with a simple greeting, a smile crossed Youka's face even more as he closed the gap to be mere feet away from the man. Now that he was closer he could look over the prize and notice any details of importance, of course the first that he noticed was the headband was different from the konoha nin, which meant he was a traveler just like Youka.

"It's good to see a traveling man just as myself in this village, it's nice to know i'm not the only stranger in this village, My name is Youka."

Looking towards the younger of the group the priest could tell he was just starting his life in the ninja world, which meant he had not experienced loss or true pain yet. Oh the things Youka could teach this child, and the ways he could rip his body apart piece by piece and stitch him back together. No, he was not here for that, that came later. Extending his arm to both of them he would offer it in a handshake manner to offer a sign of peace between them. If accepted, he would shake Shinji's hand firmly while looking into the mans eyes hoping he would pick up on the sign of respect he was giving off.

Turning to shake the young boys hand is where the magic would happen, if it was accepted Youka would mark the inside of the kids palm with his summoning mark, just to keep an eye on the kid as a future project of his. Looking down on the child he would smile deeply and then pat the child on the head with his free left arm.

"You seem to be looking to become stronger, but first you must increase your spiritual power and let the father into your heart so he can show you the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father but by my hand."

After Youka finished quoting the scripture he raised both his hands into the air and made a wide gesture of drawing a cross in the air in front of them.

"Might you all be blessed in his presence."

While he did all of this talking he also started formulating the plans on hos he would work on his mental jutsu some more, there was still an aspect missing that he needed to understand.

Meeting new people, what a pain. Though it was a necessary pain and as a result Shinji returned the handshake of the man named Youka, he seemed amiable enough. Naturally the Uzumaki met Youka's gaze with ease taking in each detail of the man. Youka on the other hand would no doubt see a slight scar on the Uzumaki's right cheek, earned on the Uzumaki's rather unceremonious tumble from the highest building of Tengakure. Furthermore he would, in all likelihood, note the odd coloration of Shinji's eyes: the right one black as midnight and the left as white as a ghost. Naturally the former kage's face betrayed nothing on his inner thoughts, which were more so focused on developing the jutsu he had been working with before being interrupted. Rather Shinji's face was marked by a genuinely friendly smile. In accordance with this smile Youka's greeting was matched by Shinji's own introduction as the two men shook hands, "It is pleasant to meet you Youka. My name is Shinji, Shinji Uzumaki." With that said the handshake would be broken and the Uzumaki's hands would settle by his sides and find their way into his pockets.

Call it inexperience or lack of culturing, but Shinji had not met many religious men in his time. Of course he did not have any aversion to them rather he had just never been exposed to religion beyond the brief explanation that was merited in the academy. As a result the Uzumaki was quite intrigued by Youka's blessing. Though he was unsure how one responded to such a thing, thus once Youka finished Shinji merely nodded and then spoke with a bit of concern leaking into his voice, "You mentioned you were a traveling man Youka. Have your travels ever brought you to Tengakure?" Now this may seem like an odd question, but for Shinji he needed, no thirsted, for information about the regime change in Tengakure, were his people alright?

Keisukee walked onto the training grounds with a smile on his face.He was going to learn a justu that would start him on the path of being a uchiha.He looked at the scroll in his hand while he was walking and was reading what he scroll said.The scroll was a gift from his older sister who was a chunnin.It read"The road to learning the family justu is a tough one.But this one will help you start on that path.first you...."He was going to keep reading when he bumped into something.He fell on his but and looked up.It was a tall skinny guy in a preist robes and he had long hair."Sorry sir."He got up picked up the scroll and began to walk away.

Kotonaru's palms were rather wet, and this was not just because of the water training he was still trying to accomplish. His hands were rather sweaty as well, it seemed. Hopefully there was nothing to worry about here. The second traveler seemed to feel familiar with people he had recently met. That smile though… Kotonaru did not quite understand why that second traveler was so happy. Kotonaru could not help feeling a little suspicious, as the smile, combined with the fact that his eyes seemed to be mostly shut. This made the second traveler look a little like he was plotting  something that was no good for someone, he was not sure who.The second traveler spoke shortly with the first traveler, who had asked about Tengakure. Kotonaru had heard of that place, in the Ninja Academy, when the teachers had been talking about economics. Kotonaru was tempted to politely ask about Tengakure, and what it had to do with the first traveler, whose name was apparently Shinji Uzumaki. He wondered where Youka, the second traveler came from, but was not sure he wanted to be around to ask. The combination of the mostly closed eyes, and the big smile, reminded him of a comic character, one he found rather creepy.

While Youka was talking to Shinji Uzumaki, but Kotonaru only half listened to what turned out to be a brief conversation. This was because he saw another newcomer, the third so far in the space of a few minutes it seemed, approaching. This newcomer had his head buried in a scroll, almost literally, and was walking along without looking where he was going. Water dripped down from Kotonaru’s hands as he was still attempting to run water chakra through his hands, but he did not notice as he was preoccupied elsewhere.
Youka finished talking to Shinji Uzumaki, shaking his hand. Kotonaru was then introducing himself as Youka turned to him, hand extended. Kotonaru did not accept the proferred handshake and said – “Good to meet you, my name is Kotonaru Haru-“ when he paused mid-speech suddenly. The newcomer approached, and Kotonaru had opened his mouth to speak, managing a “Hey, uh- wai-“ when the newcomer walked right into Youka. Seeing the guy fall over, Kotonaru suppressed his urge to laugh, not letting any flickers of emotion cross his face. He wanted to run over to the fallen boy and help him up, but this conflicted with his self imposed rule of avoiding contact politely when possible – he still remembered the massacre carried out on his clan before he had moved to this village, and he sometimes had issues that he preferred not to surface anywhere, especially in public.

When the boy got up, he started to walk away. Kotonaru realized that he might want to ask for advice, now that there were 3 different people, all of whom may or may not be skilled in the ninja arts – he had heard of fighting monks before, so a fighting priest was not too weird. “Hey, mind holding up a sec?” he called after the other boy.

Then he remembered his wet hands and the chakra that he had stopped running through his hands. He quickly backed up about 20 feet so that he had plenty of room around him to practice. He tried running water chakra through his hands, trying to push the water forming off of his hands, and said “Does anyone here know anything about training water jutsu?”

If anyone approached within 3 feet he would back up slightly, and ask that they not approach too close, as he still had some rather traumatic experiences he would rather avoid reliving.

(lol, 2 uchiha spawn in one topic!)