Education While Sightseeing [P]

Here he was, finally. The Black Forest and he had read all about it while in the academy's simple geography classes, but only until now - after having left his village could he merely just wander over to the mysterious Village Hidden in the Clouds to see these sights himself. And honestly speaking he was thankful he did abandon the sinking ship that was Iwagakure. 

But there was another reason he was here. To train, and that was to train, he needed to make sure he was always learning new jutsus to use in combat. And this one was quite special indeed. A jutsu created by the young man's father himself. Kawada Shinkou was a ninja well recognized in his clan for his immense knowledge of chakra. A man capable of manipulating it to perfection, and to infuse the clan's legendary Yuumei into a lightning jutsu gave birth to this new, and almost unknown technique, the Godslayer. Akira had experience with Lightning Jutsu, learning it from the tender age of 10 years old as his second element.  Even without his father in his life Akira was destined to follow in his footsteps to be as proficient with ninjutsu as he was.

A very strange technique indeed, and the origins of it were even more farfetched. The jutsu originated as an accident. But it was one for the best, as the technique was supposed to be a much more powerful version of lightning infusion, to be used with a blade and not as a stand-alone jutsu. But it was in the latter role that the jutsu appeared to actually flourish. Firing a long-range stream of lightning that could cut through steel and stone alike, and could rend through trees and other durable objects. If this destructive force was not enough, the jutsu was lined with Yuumei chakra, allowing it to pierce straight through chakra-based defenses such as shield jutsus or chakra barriers. And the jutsu became a very good one to use against summons, limiting the chakra of powerful beasts after having been struck by its' bright blue grip. 

Akira sat down on a tree stump in the middle of this vast expanse of black trees, the coloring making the overall appearance of the place dark and gloomy, despite there still being quite a bit of sunlight in the Kumogakure sky. The tall trees were certainly to blame for the light-deprived terrain he was forced to train on. The almost completely black tree bark meant that any lightless area was completely pitch black. Perhaps not the most ideal place to train. But he would do it anyway.

The jutsu was rather complex however, and considering he had only an 18 year-old scroll to learn it from. 18 years, exactly how long it had been since Akira's family was taken from him. His mother, Mitsuru, his father Kawada and his older sister Megumi, they were all taken from him since his birth. And he had no idea by whom. But all he knew was that he was the only one who survived the massacre. But he was only an infant at the time and had no clue of remembering specifics. But he vowed he would find who did this to his family.


He analyzed the scroll, still inscripted with his father's calligraphy. "This jutsu requires precise shape manipulation to get produce lightning at such a concentrated level. Learning first starts with chakra control, lightning never strikes in the same place twice, but merging these erratic currents is the way to form such a devastating strike. The user must condense their Raiton chakra to the fullest level."

It was detailed enough that Akira understood what he had to do. He first had to make sure he was capable of actually condensing that much chakra in order to shape the jutsu. He held out a palm and channeled as much lightning chakra as he could. Sure enough, his hand began to spark, but the current was rather erratic, the color a dark turquoise as opposed to the bright cyan the jutsu was supposed to be.

He couldn't do it, he couldn't sent out a bolt longer than 20cm, and that wasn't going to do, as Kawada said he had managed to hit a tree from 150 and cut it it half. That just went to show how easily this devastating lightning-based technique could cut through solid objects like a hot knife through butter.

But he just couldn't nail it. He had to try again. He stuck his hand out again and channeled all his chakra, attempting to condense it by clenching his fingers, and it almost seemed to work, the almost sentient sparks nearing collision. But all that managed to do was cause a massive spark which singed his hand. "FFFFFF" Akira staggered, trying his best not to swear, but that was immensely painful. He took a look at his hand. It had a few cuts and the wound seemed to smoke under the intense heat. 

Was that the first sign? Well, it hurt like shit so he assumed he got some part right. He didn't quite understand how he knew full well how to form a solid lightning clone - but could not concentrate his lightning into a single focused beam to hit a long-distance target.

Strange. He figured that he'd eventually be capable of executing it. Perhaps he dived into it too quickly and didn't properly examine the scroll.

Walking right back to the tree stump he picked up the scroll once more and unraveled it another notch. And there it was, it turns out the user also had to channel their Yuumei chakra into it. 


"The chakra of your Yuumei must help you combine the lightning chakra emitted from all five of your fingers. Otherwise you risk causing serious injury to your hands. But you must make sure your Yuumei is fully synchronised with you as the technique requires good timing after the handseals." 


Oh, what an idiot. There were also handseals to this jutsu, which he didn't realize. He couldn't help but chuckle embarassingly, even when there was no one around him he managed to embarass himself. Classic.

That meant he had to communicate with...ugh...Izanami. His Yuumei hadn't talked to him in a while actually, it was strange when 'she' went all like this. He figured meditating was probably the easiest way. 

And with that he sat down on a clear patch of grass and crossed his legs, taking deep breaths and activating his Meigan, awakening the Yuumei within him. Attempting to manifest her as a vision. "Akira-kun. It has been a while. Do you tire of me already?" The living, almost breathing mass of chakra was manifested into a very pale woman in a white Kimono

"Izanami. Not at all." He responded through thought, confronting the tall almost monstrous form that was his Yuumei. "I've awoken you to ask you for help, actually..." The 18 year old man requested. "Oh? And what makes you think I'll give my power to a foolish mortal?" Oh great, more of this again. "Beg me for it." She grinned, she looked pretty good for someone who supposedly spent the rest of their life burning in the underworld. As a matter of fact her whole upper body aside from her arms were still covered in pale flesh. Such a sweet looking woman seemed to have a monstrous personality.

Then again this seemed rather unsurprising for a woman who was once known to have created the world alongside her husband. Izanami seemed so lonely, so cold. In any case as much as Izanami insisted she was nothing similar to the standard "pathetic" mortals inhabiting Akira's realm. They had both gone through the same kind of loneliness. Akira's life condemned to a Living Hell, while Izanami suffered in the real one.

"Please Izanami...Lend me your power..." Akira pleaded. "...It's for my father." Akira sighed and pointed to the scroll, which Izanami looked at, her eyes capable of reading the text from afar. "...Your father is no longer around, Akira-kun, you're merely chasing someone who had been taken from you forever. I am all you have now, and you'd do well to remember that. Very well, I shall lend you my strength. But remember, you cannot atone for the foolish pride you have to walk in the realm of the gods." 


Akira sighed. Finally that was over with, she was always so grumpy recently, she didn't even look that old so she had no excuse to be all cranky like this. Then again the God of Creation manifested herself to him in many, many different forms, but most often in the form of a pale-skinned, black haired girl in her early 20s, always with a white kimono.

But with that now sorted. He needed to return to practice. After all this jutsu was not going to learn itself. Although at this point he sort of wished it would, especially after the damage dealt to his sore, aching hand.

It was time to try again, and by god did it feel like he was never going to make it, and he already tried once. But his battered hand made the situation so much worse. But he'd have to ride it out and focus, after all it wasn't by standing around weeping about a couple of cuts that he'd learn it. It'd take practice, and it'd have to start now.

Akira looked at his palm, clenching the upper joints of his fingers and his fingertips, each fingertip channeling a compact ball of lightning, and in the center of his palm an invisible heat-wave resembling Yuumei chakra billowed menacingly through. His eyes began to glow red as his Meigan activated. he clenched his fist together, his whole fist illuminating and screeching with powerful lightning chakra, lightning currents flew in all directions, singing some of the grass around him. It didn't hurt anymore, most likely a thin layer of Yuumei chakra was preventing him from actually injuring his own hand any further. Thank god for that.

The screech then turned into more of a whine, the lightning in his palm getting brighter and brighter with each and every drop of Lightning chakra he channeled through those bloody, scarred fingertips.

Next step, he had to fire out all this condensed lightning chakra as a long, straight beam of chakra which was supposed to blast straight through any solid object in its' path, but what he got was more of a very powerful jolt, which sent a small explosion when it hit the tree he was aiming for, but all it did was burn some of the bark and produce an almost blinding flash when doing so. Accompanied of course with a disappointing bang, akin to the kind you'd hear in a fireworks display.

He went over to assess the damage he had done to his target, and it was honestly not too substantial. But it was however a start and that gave him a good education that he was on the right track. He then came to assume that he was perhaps a bit hesitant to channel all of his lightning chakra. Most likely due to fear of injuring his hand again. But after he revised what he had read on the scroll, he noticed a very important sentence: Your Yuumei should protect your hands while you execute this jutsu. 

So perhaps he just needed to place more faith in Izanami. After all to learn all of his clan's techniques he required her aid in some way, shape or form. And infact all of his power was thanks to her. So he figured he should put more faith in her if he was going to attempt to execute this jutsu properly. He was now determined as ever. Ready to give it another shot.

His fingers a blur as he performed the required handseals, the five orbs of condensed lightning chakra returned at the tip of all five fingers, holding his hand completely flat he fired at the target, which was 150m away, but all the jutsu did is accelerate with a loud whine before merely fading away into nothingness at around the 40m mark. Well, it was much much better this time around. It still didn't look quite like the lethal, fear-inducing jutsu it should have been. But he was on his way to reaching that point with every attempt he made. Even if it took him all night he would find a way to master this rare technique.

"You seem hesitant. You will not get injured as you did before. Besides even if you were, you'd be weak to let pain stop you." Izanami echoed through the confines of his mind.

"Wow, you really don't know much about me even after spending 18 years in my chakra system." Akira glowered at her. "I'd pay proper attention to you if you weren't completely uninteresting. No different to any other mortal in that regard."


"Thanks for that." Spoke an unamused tone, accompanied by rolling midnight blue eyes. But even with all her mocking he could tell that he was getting somewhere with this now that Izanami was actually co-operating with him. He still had a long way to go however, he was only that bit closer to achieving it. It could take him all day, possibly even a week. But great ninjas never give up, and he sure as hell wouldn't.

He looked at the target. 150 meters was quite far, and infact he was rather surprised he could find such a barren area for 150 meters instead of a mass of trees. But that target looked far, almost impossibly far. If Akira's father could nail the jutsu from this kind of distance, then surely he could as well.

This was no laughing matter by now. He had already injured himself, he wasn't going to be disheartened by this. He brought his hands together, his hands quickly forming the figures of the neccessary handseals before his fingertips illuminated once more with that familiar bright, almost white cyan glow of lightning chakra. This time, he swallowed his fear and channeled as much chakra as he could into each of his five fingers to form the first stage of the jutsu's use.

Next came the second stage, uniting all five of the chakra deposits with the help of his Yuumei chakra. This was definitely the toughest part of the jutsu, he reckoned. As it required not only merging different kinds of chakra but also compressing said chakra to form a powerful, long-distance blast. That was the hardest part, but since the lightning here was a lot louder and brighter, he assumed he was getting somewhere here.

He then fired out his palm ahead of him, a large bolt of lightning scorching through the air, a lot more powerful this time, but only managed to gain about an extra 20 meters over his previous attempt, not bad. But it could be much, much better. And he knew that. 

"Ugh. No good." Akira grunted, he couldn't pull it off. But the key here was not to get frustrated. Frustration usually made a task more difficult, and while a false sense of determination can be achieved with frustration. It usually leads to that person merely rushing the task they needed to perform and messing up as a result. He had to stay calm and collected if he were to learn this Jutsu effectively and to the point.

He needed to rest though, he could feel his chakra level had lowered. It was no biggie though, a 10 minute break should suffice amply to regain his stamina. In the meantime he figured he should probably patch up that wound obtained from practicing the jutsu. 

He pulled out a small roll of gauze from a pocket in his coat, quickly sterilizing his wound using a cream, which burned like hell and caused him to basically contort his face in pain as the solution got into a few cuts on his hands. He followed suit with a layer of burn cream before enveloping his palm with gauze, along with a few smaller, ring-shaped strips around whatever cuts his fingers had, this beat the use of standard band-aids as his fingers were still fully movable. 

Taping his gauze together he analyzed his work. Not Med-Nin quality, but it'd definitely do in order to keep the wound away from any infectious substances or other nasties willing to do further harm to his poor hand.

Covering up the gauze on his hands with a glove to maximise further protection he pulled out a bottle of water from a small bag he had brought along with him, which featured his lunch, a few bottles of various drinks. Notably a thermos flask of chakra-enhancing tea, although standard mineral water and fruit juice were present among other things. Learning jutsu was thirsty work. And Kumogakure wasn't the coldest village imaginable.

He twisted open the cap on a bottle of water, taking a few large gulps of the refreshing liquid, letting out a satisfied sigh afterwards. Taking a seat on a tree stump. He'd be fine after a little rest before resuming training. He was almost done, he could tell, perhaps about two-thirds of the way through. That was his guess anyway.

Pulling out a bar of chocolate, he took a look at his surroundings, a good time to do so now that he wasn't focusing on learning this technique at that moment, so a nice browse was definitely something to keep his mind off the training, even briefly.

Unwrapping it tactfully he took a bite out of the milk chocolate block. This chocolate didn't have any particular health bonuses, it wasn't chakra-enhancing or anything. It just kinda tasted good. But he had to be wary, Akira's gargantuan eating-habits meant that he could probably eat about 20 of these and still feel hungry, albeit with a terrible stomachache. 

The place looked rather mystical, pitch black trees. Just as the geography textbooks described. It was rather funny as a matter of fact. Almost if he within the geography book himself. Such a mystical place obviously wasn't real. This place must have been created rather than merely formed over the course of hundreds of years like most forests. This forest seemed really man-made. Black trees seemed to be a very dubious natural phenomenon.  

He had no idea who had made these forests however, definitely a Kumo ninja, sure. But unsure which one, the identity of the creator wasn't mentioned inside any form of educational book. But this forest was definitely an impressive creation if it was not natural, was these merely a pocket dimension within the real world? Or was it just a very high level genjutsu? He couldn't tell but the first theory sounded far more plausible. The ability to create a dimension within another was surely very impressive. And must have been the work of a true Space-Time master. A set of techniques Akira respected, but had no intentions of learning. Being much more Ninjutsu-centered as a ninja. But his Meigan meant that he was also very proficient in Genjutsu. Something most Shinkou were naturally talented in, although. Akira's Meigan was that of the Ninjutsu-based ilk. A deep shade of midnight blue, with red pupils once he activated the said Dojutsu. As opposed to other colors such as Green or Red.

Akira's bright, blood red pupils analyzed the area around him one more time, taking in the sights and sounds of this strange...world? What did this place even qualify as? It was barely a real thing if it was its own pocket dimension. But it even made the sounds of a proper forest, he could here crickets, birds chirping. This felt more real than it was, a strange occurance.

In any case, he got back up, he needed to experiment with this jutsu once more. He could feel that he was very close to actually learning the whole thing at this point. A relief since he felt as if he had just lingered around this forest all day. But he was almost finished, he basically performed an underpowered version of the technique, all he had to do was man up and perform a full-powered version. Which he knew he'd be capable of very soon.

But once he prepared himself to perform the jutsu. He heard something move and rustle the grass beneath them. Akira quickly turned around to face the source of the strange noise. But he couldn't hear anything. Not surprising, if that was usually the case, that meant that he was being snuck up on by something. So he needed to keep his eyes peeled, but he instead feigned ignorance towards the sounds.  Pretending to have ignored whatever was planning to surprise the man merely trying to learn a new technique.

He channeled lightning chakra to his fingertips and pointed towards the target, he'd hit it this time, regardless of any interference or not, but then. Akira got just what he wanted.

"Akira Shinkou?" He heard a voice, a female's voice echo behind him. And then he turned around. Hand still sparking from the jutsu. "You have some "unfinished business" from Iwagakure." The woman spoke with a grin, she looked like she was looking to kill him for some form of profit. "Who are you?" Akira asked in a monotone voice, to which the woman almost took shock. "We're part of the Black Hand Group, you decided to slaughter my family." The woman growled with rage. Akira wasn't too confused, or too bothered at killing this woman's family way back when. They were criminals, they deserved to be put six feet under with the swift justice that he brought among them.

"I don't remember killing your family. And I won't remember killing you either." Akira merely spoke, but didn't act. The young man's caustic words were enough to send the woman and her squad to rush towards him in a fit of rage. The woman drew out a Tanto, attempting a vertical slash to Akira's midsection, Akira used his forearms to block the womans wrists before kicking her in the stomach and following up with a powerful uppercut to the chin, the power behind the strike audible as it send the woman flying skywards and clattering into the ground. 

They used the time that Akira used to attack to attempt to ambush the young man, Akira deflected a few stray punches and kicks before performing a series of handseals and producing a Lightning Clone to help him ward off the squadron of mercenaries set up against him. Handling them by himself would be quite the task so he figured a little bit of tag-team action wouldn't do any harm.

The clone charged forward and parried a sword slash aimed towards the real Akira, before dealing three swift punches to the stomach, winding the opponent he was locked into combat with before sweep kicking him over. The real Akira vaulting over his clone to deliver a powerful leg drop to the man's face, pretty much knocking him out immediately. 

They then swapped positions to confuse the enemy as he never knew when he'd be on the receiving end of a killshot, and the more chance they had of hitting his clone instead of him, the better as he needed to stay alive to learn this jutsu and he was going to do that even if it was his dying wish.

The man he legdropped seemed to be in pretty bad shape, with a visibly broken nose which trickled out blood onto the soil of the forest floor. Both copies of himself got into a fighting stance as they prepared to engage with the rest of the bandits. This was how it was going to be done, he was going to kick their asses, learn this jutsu and eat about 5 bowls of ramen. Sounds like a good game plan to him anyway, he could eat all day.

They stood back to back as the bandit squad circled them. The real Akira produced a kunai from out of his pocket and parried a slash from a coming katana. He could feel the Katana's sharp blade cleave halfway through the obviously less well crafted Kunai. Akira twisted the blade, snapping the Kunai in two but also wrenching the Katana out of the bandit's hand and straight into Akira's, who followed up with a series of cross-shaped slashes to the man's now defenseless abdomen. And shortly after his entire body fell into gory chunks onto the floor. A smirk on Akira's face as the man was killed by his own weapon, blood still dripping from the very recognizable almost crescent-shaped blade that made a Katana so easily distinguishable.

Akira couldn't help but grin, he always thought it was funny when people got cocky against him. And that was what he did, don't ever try to outplay a man who can kill with whatever he has in his hand. That was the joy of everything he had learned from the wise old man in Iwagakure. And infact probably the only good thing Iwagakure had ever given him in the 17 years he ended up living there for.

Nonetheless, there were still more enemies to dispose of. And he had to do it fast. If people got wise about this scenario he could end up never getting citizenship to this place, regardless of whether they were bandits or not. The clone of Akira sped forward, performing a couple of handseals and blowing a solid ball of wind towards one of the other ninjas, who easily ducked it, but the clone sped forward again and kneed the man in the chest, followed by two quick punches to the face. Followed by a spinning kick which struck the man straight on the side of his temple with enough strength to make him almost spin around on the spot. But as expected, the kick basically knocked the man out by collapsing his temple, which can cause serious damage.

The bandit clattered to the floor unconscious, while knocking out an actual ninja is pretty complicated, it was unsurprising considering the gargantuan amount of force that he impacted on his target. Plus the area which was struck was incredibly sensitive and pretty much collapsed his eye socket as a result. Painful, but also very scarring.

The clone then turned his attention to the next enemy he had to face, who rushed him wielding a set of dual claws, a very unorthodox choice of weapon but perhaps also not the best one to attack a fighter such as Akira with. The real Akira however followed up to the side of the enemy, parrying his claws with the Kurokamisori, a sword forged by Akira's great-great grandfather, the legendary Hazama Shinkou. 50 centimeters of Yuumei infused titanium made this weapon not only durable, but destructive.

The sword deflected the claws before Akira followed through with a horizontal slash, which the claws parried, but the sword carried enough momentum to slice through one of the bandit's pair of claws, but stopped at the second once said momentum had run out. And the bandit on the other end looked rather shocked to see his prized weapon completely sectioned off by the ridiculous cutting power of the Kurokamisori. The pieces of claw clattering to the floor before Akira struck the man in the jaw with the back of his weapon before throwing another charging bandit over his shoulder and onto the floor, holding the one handed shortsword in his right hand. His left open for doing jutsu using one handed seals. Such was the tactic behind using this weapon. Using it with one hand while having the power to also perform jutsu and the weapon absorbs any wasted Yuumei, reducing overall Yuumei consumption.

He then parried a coming blow from the woman who finally seemed to come back around from her unconciousness and tried to take down Akira with a slash from her Katana which was quickly repelled from the durability from the two pronged black shortsword that he gripped. He then followed back with a straight stab in the stomach. Her eyes widened and she immediately coughed out some blood. That was it. 

Both prongs from the sword lodged straight into her stomach, he then pulled the sword straight back out and parried a strike that came from behind him. If he thought he could sneak up on Akira, he was dead wrong. He had trained hearing from his experience as a jounin and could pretty easily tell when someone was trying to silently take him out. That was his job to do and not his. So he took swift justice. Channeling his wind chakra through the blade and spinning around, doing a vertical slice at the man's abdomen, the blade slicing straight through him like a hot knife through butter, bisecting him with both halves of his body hitting the ground in mid air. 

And that was pretty much most of them dealt with. And rather quickly at that. He was pretty happy with the work he did. There were about 8 people attacking him and he pretty much halved that amount in the space of about 30 seconds.

But he still had more people to beat up. This time two people tried to gang up on Akira. But he wasn't having that at all, at this point he just wanted to get this training done. So why not try to kill two birds with one stone? So he once more channeled lightning chakra to all five of his fingertips and closing them, mixing his Yuumei chakra along with it, and he finally executed it. The Godslayer shredded straight through the chests of both his opponents, leaving a good fist-sized hole where their hearts would be, pretty much killing them instantly considering they no longer had the organ required to pump blood. Only two bandits were left at this point and he'd make sure their justice was swift. Akira body flickered behind one of them, who attempted to strike him with a Tanto, Akira merely appeared behind him and jammed the blade into the back of his neck, emerging through the front and rupturing a few major arteries in the process, spurting blood like a fountain as he pulled the blade back out, a swift death. Unfortunately by now the forest was beginning to look like a bloodbath. Not really what he had intended from what was supposed to be only a harmless day's training. But he was attacked first. So he had every right to fight back.

Only one left, and this one was obviously pretty shaken up considering his first reaction was to try to flee - wrong move entirely. Akira merely held the blade by one of the tips and threw it towards him. The blade striking him straight in his back and through his heart. Killing him rather quickly as he toppled over. The clone disappearingw ith a few lightning sparks at last. Thank god for that being finally over, and he had also learned the jutsu in the time he spent fighting. Very practical indeed.

He let out a long sigh as he walked towards the man's body to retrieve his ancestral sword, he wasn't going to leave that behind considering he had that sword given to him when he was born. He did wish he could meet the long-gone Hazama Shinkou, but he lived almost a century ago and it would've been impossible. But he seemed to have so many forging techniques and also seemed to have taught his father so much about not only learning jutsu but also how to forge some of the clan's famous weaponry, this sword being one of them, almost a century old itself so it wasn't exactly a relic. But it had been around for a few generations now to be of quite a lot of value for the clan. It was just unfortunate that all his family in Iwagakure were dead. 

That wasn't an issue though, as he figured he wasn't the last of his clan. It was a rather large group and the clan had branches over pretty much all of the major villages. 

In any case he'd have to shift his priorities. After he had settled down here he needed to go on a quest to find out what had happened to his family, he needed to find relatives. ny shred of his family's existance to this point. He didn't know where they were right now but he vowed that he could find them and try to look for answers for the many, many questions that he had to ask them. 

He obviously didn't know too much, his family taken from him at the age of 3. Giving him severe trauma for the first stages of his life. He couldn't remember what his father - or even still, his mother was like. No clue whatsoever.

He grabbed his stuff and decided to make himself scarce. This place was a mess.


5514/5000 words

Lightning Release: Godslayer learned.
Convergence Learned.