Black Spirits {Solo Training}

The black forest of Kumogakure was a well known place. The most amazing part about it was not the fact that the trees were larger than the average tower. Yes, those magnificent trees towered over everything, with the one in the center being equal to a mountain. It was not even the appearance of the trees and leaves. The surface of the trees were pitch black, with white veins, and black leaves. The most amazing part of the forest was two fold, actually. The first, no one knew how it had become what it currently was. Before it was created, the area was completely lifeless, with nothing in sight. Afterwards, however, the place become so filled with life it was as if animals of all kinds were summoned for the expressed purpose of decorating this fabulous landscape. The even more amazing part was how long it had taken to form. It was a story straight out of legend, actually. Before, a deserted valley with not even grass growing. Now? A forest abundant with life and legendary trees. Indeed, the forest had become a legend among shinobi from everywhere. One may imagine this would take many years, or perhaps even a decade, but the truth was, it took about a week. What did it form from? Kuro decided to train Mokuton one day, and with his immense chakra, the trees formed. At first, they were merely tall and large trees. Eventually, though, the trees began to grow even larger, both feeding off of and creating natural energy, making this place perfect for sages of all kinds. Even if one was not a sage, the feeling was in the air. It felt like a presence, all around you, a helping hand. Even the untrained could feel it, which spoke of how much there was in this specific area. The reason for all the energy was rather simple. What few knew, was that natural energy came from literally every living thing. The trees Kuro created were chakra based, and gave off a lot of chakra. This was normally a fixed amount, but as all living things needed chakra, the trees had to adapt or die. In this case, as many trees had before, they adapted to create chakra from the same method they acheived photosynthesis, creating an ever-lasting chakra producer. Of course, if the human body could take all that chakra continuously, Kumo would be invincible.

It was not without it's problems. The natural energy created some rather horrific things, when it came to animals, and sometimes even humans. It was a perfect training grounds for jounin because of this. Gennin and Chuunin were allowed, but they were warned before hand that it was dangerous. The fact was, the natural energy had mutated the animals and few humans into feral beasts imbued with chakra, on par with chuunin. If that were all, Chuunin and groups of gennin would have no problems in these woods. The reality of it all was that while these animals were on par with chuunin, they were also pack animals. Those that were not, such as the lions, humans, bears, or even insects, were far above chuunin level. Of course, Kage were also too powerful to derive any real problems from most of the animals, or they had maxed their skills. For Kuro, the maker of the forest, it was simply that the chakra that these creatures were imbued with was his own, albeit altered slightly. Indeed, the instincts of the animals were heightened enough to make sure they never attacked him, but some of them tried anyway. Much like the giant spider-woman he was facing now.

Instead of a normal spider, or even a normal woman, this thing was a giant spider, with lava chakra imbued into it, for reasons Kuro could not comprehend, as he had not even had fire as an element yet and he had created the forest which created the spider-thing. Of course it was possible the spider had originally had a fire nature chakra, and his earth based chakra had affected it, but that would mean it had to have been there when he first created the forest, otherwise there would only be mokuton chakra left. Most animals did not show any signs of elemental capabilities. Fewer still showed the capability of vomitting fucking lava, then walking on it like it was nothing. This spiderwoman was not most animals. This thing was actually dangerous, even for him. Most assume a battle between two powerful foes would be long and hard. For a duel, with no twists, this would be true, depending on the two foes. For a fight for survival and food, this was not true. Kuro did not call himself a ninja anymore, but he did not have a problem using their tactics.

How had he gotten into this mess? Oh, right, he was trying to get to the center tree to get the two Zetsu bodies he had left there. At first, it wasnt too bad. Very few animals had tried to attack him, due to his sheer presence. When he got closer, however... Strange things began to happen. Shit straight out of a comic book. A giant bug looking thing wielding the biggest hammer Kuro had ever seen attacked him. While it was rather easy to deal with, Kuro was impressed at how strong the beast was. The hammer was slightly hard for him to weild, yet the beast had weilded it with ease. That alone was impressive. Did not stop him from stealing the hammer and using it for various foes afterwards. Not that it helped much, actually. It was slow, and relied on strength. Kuro was always a speed and chakra focused ninja. While he was no slouch in strength, health, or stamina, he was far from focused on any of them. His strength was slowly catching up with his speed, but even then, he knew better than to rely on a faulty weapon. Instead, he had taken out Yoru, and sliced the strange bull beast that attacked him into tiny chunks, before cooking and eating the meat it left behind.

After that, he continued further into the woods, beginning to realize he was not the only sentient being in these parts. It seemed as if his chakra had an affect on humans as well, but only civilians. Not too shocking, as the natural energy infected everything here, and with no chakra training of their own, civilians would be bound to get infected easily. These infected seemed to be undead, but they more looked like their skin had shriveled up and dried into a strange brown color. Many of them were feral beasts, but a few seemed to retain their sanity. In fact, there was a crafty little merchant that sold his wares, few that they were, to whatever travelers passed through. Naturally, he did not get much business.

Onto the part where he discovered this spider-woman. Kuro had been traveling for quite a while, walking a calm pace as he had no need to run. Then he came across what he thought was the largest cave system in the world. Being the curious man he was, Kuro decided to take a look. Having not brought his paths, and not caring to use a clone, he was rather annoyed when the cave entrance collapsed. Not because he could not get out, but because he could barely see. If not for his dojutsu, he would not be able to see at all. Thankfully, creating a torch with creation of all things was rather easy, all things given. Turning from the entrance, he noticed he was in a cavern, not a cave system. It took a moment for him to notice these caves were made of webs. About that time, he spoke only one word.

"Fuck."

It got worse when he noticed a small fortress, likely what had once been inhabited by ninja trying to scout out the forest. Not because it was rare in the forest, during the first year the forest had existed, many tried to set up citadels and safe houses in the woods, only to be killed. There were even rumors that someone built a castle, or a small city. They were doubtable, but possible as well. The forest was at least two years old by now, and was definitely large enough to house a few cities. Actually, that gave Kuro an idea, but that was interrupted by the sound of tiny foot steps. Whatever Kuro expected when he turned slightly to focus on that noise, a giant red spider was not it. Especially not a giant red spider which had the upper body of a rather endowed female, covered only by her hair. Amusingly, the woman's smile could be seen, which was enough to tell Kuro this would not be easy.

Easy was boring anyway. Hard was just another word for more fun. At first, Kuro's main goal was to break through the exoskeleton of the spider, but every time he got close, the damn thing jumped away and spat lava at him. His incredible speed not being useless, he was able to dodge rather easily. However, he could not get close enough to attack. Not with his current speed. COAT could only increase his speed so much, so he decided to attempt using a jutsu he had recently thought of, but had not had time to train. If he failed, he could create a black hole and destroy the planet. If he suceeded, well, he got a cool power.

The idea for this jutsu came when he began to study properties about gravity and trying to use his control over spacetime to induce changes in gravity. At first it did not work too well, but when he mastered his rinnegan, it got easy. Of course, he could only alter his own gravitational presence for now, but he hoped to be able to do others later. For now, however, he had to focus. The spider took a moment to charge its lava back up, so that would provide adequate time to charge this... hopefully. He jumped at the spider again, trying to get it to use the lava it had stored up, so it would give him a slight repreive.

It took a few tries, as the upper body of the spider started to swing fucking whips of fucking fire at him, but he honestly just stopped caring at this point. This was ridiculous. Finally, after stabbing Yoru into the beast's hide, and ripping it out, of course, the beast turned to him and spat lava. Instead of dodging to the far side, he stepped back, completely dodging the lava, before focusing. His chakra was powerful and hard to control, but he had experience on his side. First step was to generate lightning chakra, to enhance his speed. This was easy, considering how easily lightning natured chakra came to him. In fact, it had been his first element, before various mutations canceled that. It may have been why it came so easily.

Second step was to direct his body's gravity towards a different location, creating a pull system based on where he located the gravity. It was an incredible sensation that made it feel like he was being pulled by every single atom in his body. While it caused him no damage, it did feel slightly uncomfortable. With more use, it would likely feel natural, perhaps even good. The final step was to access his gravity and use it as a power source. Easier said than done, because gravity was a pain in the ass. It was not the most powerful energy in the universe, it was the most permanent. By that, it was literally permanent. As in, would last forever. The key for Kuro was to transform the gravitational energy into chakra, giving him access to much more energy than before. Unfortunately, Meteor, the jutsu he was using, could not last off of the reserves it created. It relied on his own reserves.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a blast of lava coming at him, seeming much slower than before. Instead of going around the lava, he went straight through it, blasting through before it could even attempt to do anything more than warm him slightly. Ninja were resilient, especially when they were using an S ranked enhancement jutsu. No, that wasnt the only reason the lava did nothing to him. It was actually because he used the preta path ability to absorb the chakra that enhanced the lava, which made it far less powerful. It was basically the same heat as a warm oven, now. Pathetic. Take away chakra and this beast was absolutely pathetic.

He had just wasted an hour of his life, fighting this stupid beast, all the while attempting to use a jutsu, only to learn he had no need of it on this beast, right as he finished it. Now he was pissed. Position himself so the spider was between him and the apparent exit, Kuro spoke two words. "Shinra Tensei" The world buckled in on itself, creating a push from this legendary jutsu. The spider's body was crushed instantly, and used to push the rubble out from the exit, leaving it open and perfect for Kuro to leave with. Kuro walked out calmly, an emotionless deadpan on his face as he saw what lay before him now. Before him was the spiderwoman's corpse, but that was not the reason he felt so irritated. A giant red dragon was eating the corpse of the spider-woman he killed. Kuro stared at the beast. "Honestly, this doesnt even surprise me anymore." He shrugged, before walking towards the center of the forest again. At least that was the plan.

The dragon roared, and Kuro realized there was a giant problem. Apparently part of the world simply collapsed around him, because he was now on a bridge, with the dragon flying towards the side he needed to go to. "And now, I see the problem." Most picture a battle with such a beast as hiding and attacking when possible. Kuro denied that, and flew into the air, punching the dragon in the face. Why? Because fuck this shit. Indeed, he was trying to be nice and let the dragon go with the corpse of HIS kill, but then it decided to block his path. He was done with this shit. The fact that he had killed so many stupidly dangerous creatures had not even phased him, mostly because he was not even being pushed yet. Though, knowing his luck, this dragon would be the thing to do it.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he was having quite a bit of fun here. Most of the time... He had to hold back. Holding back was horrible, it limited his powers, but it kept it from affecting the village. Sure, if it were just him and Yaju, he could let his full power out, but with civilians nearby, they would literally explode. His chakra was chaotic, and introducing that kind of chakra into a foreign host was a certain death. His chakra, when active, was definitely dangerous. When inactive, it was possibly dangerous, but only to civilians who remained close to him for too long. He was basically a human bijuu in that sense. Suddenly, his body went crashing into the bridge. "Fuck." He really needed to pay more attention to his surroundings when he was thinking, otherwise he might just start to walk through walls without realizing it.

"Alright, I really want to tame you and all, but this is getting ridiculous. I may have to kill you." Indeed, the beast was powerful. Its strength was far above Kuro's own, but it was also dangerously fast. That fire was even worse than the spider's lava had been, even without using Preta Path. The beast sent another blast of fire, and Kuro simply absorbed it with the Preta Path. The beast seemed to realize this did not work, so it attempted a flying bite at Kuro. Kuro was not having any of that shit. He flicked his wrist towards the dragon's head, using Shinra Tensei. To Kuro's amazement, the dragon, regardless of the fact that it had been going full speed towards Kuro, and thus, doubling the power of the Shinra Tensei, was not flattened. It was pushed so far away he could not see it anymore, yes, but the beast had definitely survived. Incredible. "That is... honestly pretty damn awesome. I almost wish I had a dragon summon. Eh, Might find my own summon later on. Maybe even in this forest..." He COULD bind the beasts in the forest to a summoning contract, given they were chakra beasts, and many were intelligent, if not capable of speech. By now, his chakra was active, so most beasts knew better than to attack him.

"Jeez, just try to get two bodies, and I get attacked by every living thing in this damn place." Kuro noted angrily. Admittedly, he was impressed. It was not actually his chakra that had changed them, but it was most of the cause. Without his chakra, this forest would not exist. "I wonder then..." The spider had been as strong as a damn dragon, but the dragon had been at least the strength of a bijuu. Incredible. Either way, he seriously hoped that was the strongest thing here, because he was not sure if he could fight much stronger opponents. That thing had scales that couldve repelled Yoru, strength to resist a half powered Shinra Tensei in mid air, and the speed to keep up with his Meteor form. That dragon was impossibly powerful, likely having been a summon who had gained some kind of sage mode. Too bad he couldnt learn sage mode, itd be nice.

Finally, he noticed that he was legitimately on a castle bridge. He was so focused on the fight that his excitement clouded his mind from realizing this. "Absolutely incredible!" He found a hide out. Now to... 'barter' with the current residents. Yes, by barter, he meant kill, or subjugate. Either one would work, but these feral humans would have to die. Humans did not have many instincts when compared to beasts, infected humans even less so. They did not avoid stronger beings, they fought regardless of intention, power, and danger. Having been subjected to the horrors of human experimentation before, Kuro could understand the beasts rather well. They simply wanted to live. Oddly, the feral humans did not attack beasts. Nor did they seem to eat.

Coming across the rooftop for the castle, Kuro just stared. While he believed anything was possible, he was pretty sure God was just fucking with him now. Between him and the tower that led to the even larger fortress, were two gargoyles, somehow moving and living as normal creatures. Damnit. Kuro calmly turned to the stone and smashed through it with his head. He slowly turned back to the stone beasts. "See that?" He gestured to the damaged wall and his undamaged skull. "That is what will happen if we fight. You still want to fight? Because Im pretty much done with this shit now."

Apparently, they did. The two descended upon him, and he realized they were pathetic compared to the dragon or spider. Unfortunately, they worked together and seemed to have some form of teamwork. Kuro dove forward with Yoru, trying to cut one, but he was forced to halt when the other attacked, forcing him to block with Yoru. This cycle repeated for some time. Finally, he got fed up and decided that he would rather just kill them and be done with it. Fuck the subjugation routine. These beasts were dead.

And so they died. Not by Yoru, not by his rinnegan, but in the cheapest way possible. He kamui'd them. To be more accurate, he Kamui'd their fucking heads off. "Okay, fuck it, Im going full speed to that tree, flying as well." Indeed, he did go full speed, not even bothering to look down. This was tiring, and he needed to find those damn bodies. He really did not desire to losing his bodies because he got too tired by fighting monsters to continue. That would be a bigger cop out than a certain pink haired little shit's win against... well, pretty much everyone he fought with decent power. He would be angry beyond all reason if that happened. Thankfully, he had yet to deactivate Meteor, so he still had that large reserve of power it gave him to use. Even more, he could fucking fly, so those pitiful walls and towers did not worry him in the least.

Finally, the tree was in his sights. Well, a lot of them were, but this one towered over the rest it was like a tree compared to a blade of grass. The tree itself was even darker than the surrounding trees, and much thicker. When Kuro had first revisited this tree, he carved a minor cave into it, which served as his home. Of course, it was at the very tip of the tree, which meant lots of climbing, as silly as that was. The tip of the tree was shaped like some kind of tower, but it was due to twisting vines and branches that it formed in the manner it had. Oh, when he had formed the 'minor cave system', he had used COAT to do so, making the apparent tower actually function as one. Thats right, Kuro's idea of a minor cave system was making a god damned tower. He had issues, we have all known this for a while.

Unfortunately, he could only fly thirty meters from a physical structure, which meant he had to pretty much stick to the tree all the way up. On his way, he realized how many buildings there actually were in this forest, overrun by ferals. It was absolutely insane, how many buildings they had developed in less than two years. They must have been incredibly fast to do so, but he realized ninja had done far more impressive things in far less time. While meteor made the trip far less difficult, it was also tedious to keep it up for so long. Kuro did not have that high of stamina compared to most kages, but he was able to keep it up for a while, since everything else had he done so far was taken by Meteor's own reserves of energy. The only real issue was that he was getting bored, and hungry. The Minotaur meat he had eaten had already been used up, and he did not want to eat spider, or gargoyle, so he had no food for now. He just hoped he had food in that tower. If not, he would be pissed.

Eventually he came to the top of the tree, and finally got to see the tower from his memories. His memories were odd, but they were useful too. While he did not remember much of what Kuro did, he remembered some events and other shit that Kuro had left alone for the express purpose of his own survival. Further, there seemed to be some kind of way to unlock the memories with either time, or specific events, such as finding the tower. Finding the tower had unlocked the memory of making it, giving him the perfect map of the place. Walking up the steps to the top of the tower, Kuro smiled as he saw the throne from his memories, with the chess board near it. "How amazing. Even so long ago, I was capable of such grand things." Finally deactivating Meteor, Kuro sighed as he felt a bit of fatigue. Using that technique for so long was annoying, but thankfully there were no beasts in this tower. His chakra was too prevelant here, too powerful for beasts to be stupid enough to even try using it as a home... he hoped. Thankfully, the throne room seemed to have access to a fridge, filled with fresh food. "Now to find those damn bodies." Meteor worked, so all that was left was Altairis, then he had to find his bodies and pathify them.

Speaking of meteor, he had to figure out a way to better use it so it was not so taxing. Perhaps finding some way to get more stamina, sure, but that would sacrifice either his strength, speed, or chakra, which he did not want. The way meteor worked could be altered a bit, but it was rather hard to do, considering it was literally impossible to use the stamina granted by Meteor for using Meteor. That would be impossible, since it was activated originally by his own reserves, and he had no way to transfer it to another source of reserves without deactivating it, which would disable him from doing it in the first place. It was basically a cycle of 'fucking cant'. Annoying as it was, he may have to sacrifice his strength for stamina. His speed was his secondary focus, with chakra coming in first. He could alter his body at whim, but doing so was dangerous because who knew what enemy he would come across that he may need a certain attribute for?

Last time he did it, he did it to balance his powers so that his strength was not pathetic, but also so that his stamina was not abysmal. He had sacrificed a bit of speed, which was easily made up by his mask. Oh, right, he should probably find that too. Naturally, it took some time to explore the place, even with his memory of making it, but he did not mind. The peaceful walk allowed him to breathe easier, calming down after using Meteor so long and fighting so many stupidly strong things that did not make a bit of sense. That dragon was still pretty cool, though. He really should find it and subjugate it, once he felt better. Maybe it was that Minotaur meat he ate. That would explain why he felt a great deal weaker than he should. Not just in the tired sense, but in the sense that something felt off. It may also be a side effect of his first use of Meteor, given that the body was not used to existing with a pulled sensation of gravity, but still.

Finding his way to his armory, which was mostly empty, Kuro grinned. After searching for a full day in this god-forsaken forest, he found his two Zetsu clone bodies. Not only that, but his mask and Armor were right over in the corner there. The mere sight of them made this trip worth it. "Ah, now I could use a shower, that would be nice." And so he took the mask and armor, and found the bathroom. The bathroom had been created to store rainwater and purify it, so that it was clean and usable for his shower and sinks. Not an advanced system, but a simplistic and easy to use one. It was also made with the idea that he would probably not be here everyday, but it could still be used in emergencies. Even so, it was the best shower he had ever taken before. "That is so much better..." He slipped on the armor, which had its own cloth for comfort, and put on his mask, before pulling up his hood. "Ah, that feels so natural, I cannot even describe it." It was true, his body seemed to have adapted to feel comfortable in the mask and armor. He slid the mask and hood off of his head, fusing the mask with the hood via COAT.

He took a breath, before closing his eyes and letting it out. He needed to fix this place up, and make it seem far less sinister. He should also probably try to find Echo, Kurisu, Misaki, and whoever else he met. Oh, Koroshi! That was the Kazekage, he remembered. Kurisu was apparently some kind of monster, but was once Raikage, before Misaki, while Echo was... someone. For all he knew, Echo was a clone of him from some alternate universe or something. With ninja, you never really knew. It would honestly not be strange in a world filled with dimensional planes, spacetime alterations, and various techniques that made less sense than most of the monsters in this forest. COAT alone broke the laws of reality on a level beyond anything acceptable by science, but what other lay out there? Was there someone else on his level with reality manipulation? If so, he may like to meet them. Likely, they would fight him at first, before they both realized it was fruitless to fight someone who could alter reality on a level far beyond what anyone else could even imagine. It would likely end with the two of them having a nice conversation and a cup of tea, preferably natural, as COAT did not make tea too well, though that may just be Kuro. It amused him how he could make tea in the normal manner with ease, yet he could not make it for shit with COAT. Might be some hidden ingredient or some shit. Certianly possible, given the state of things. Or maybe he just couldnt place the taste right in his imagination, making the tea he made flawed.

In any case, he needed to get started with fixing the tower and pathifying his bodies. They wouldnt do it themselves, though that would save him the trouble. He stood on the roof of the tower, looking towards Kumogakure. This was it. The beginning of his new life. His former self wanted a new start, some way to forgive himself the sins of his past, whatever they may be. Kuro was going to make it happen.

Kuro spoke, eyes still closed. "Now..." His eyes shot open, revealing his rinnegan eyes. "Let us begin!"

{5003 words, unlocking Meteor}

Approved