In the Shadows, Strength Grows

Early in the nighttime, the moon had just peaked over the horizon through the trees of the training grounds, the sound of cracking against what was only assumed as a training post echoed through the fields. One punch after another he threw pushing his body past its normal limits as he attempted to push his own power, wanting to unlock more than he could handle. With each of his experiences he met people more powerful than himself, those of his past as his sensei and close friends such as the Raikage herself, people of his own line the student that he had trained whom had surpassed him and of course the previous Hokage of this very village.

Each hit became thunder as he punched harder and harder a shrew yell as he began to breathe harder than he ever did before, the sweat permeating from every pore of his body as he pushed and pushed. Even the spirit within him coached his friend and vessel to push to his limits, knowing when his master put a task in front of him he was going to push until there was nothing left. Garbed in his jounin attire, his Konoha head band slinging from his belt loops not actually looped through just hanging from a single loop, he threw a faster succession of punches the last one cracking and breaking the post sending it flying into a tree and splintering as he sighed," Dammit...It needs to be more," flicking his wrists naught but a moment he moved to a tree in which was at least fifteen meters by twenty, its trunk massive and sturdy.

His eyes glanced it over as he tapped it twice and sighed, he continued what he had begun on the post making sure that this time he pushed harder. He could feel his hands getting numb as if his hands or more specifically his bones were starting to crack yet they would only repair themselves as his body reached a point in which it was moving as fast as it could. The moans of the tree were loud through the silent training grounds as it began to crack and sway before a swift kick sent it to the ground. Standing upright he pulled a towel from a bag located two meters from him and wiped himself down, plopping onto the ground and sighing as he finished wiping himself down," Maybe I should travel again to find myself...I wonder," the thoughts of returning to the lands of the world pushed him to find out what sort of power could he really find if he searched for it?

Earlier that same day, a young girl about the age of 12 with long brown hair exited her house in the Hyuuga district carrying a book containing information about how that the Hyuuga clan used to put seal on its members to protect the Byakugan. She wore a plain yellow colored hooded jacket with some wrappings on her arms. She had on blue jeans and had a weapons pouch on her right hip. She wore sandals of the same color as her pants. On her forehead, she wore a headband that signified that she was a Genin. She made her way to the training field and once she got there, she sat down and opened the book and started reading. "I see, so I just infuse chakra into a seal on a piece of paper and then I apply chakra to the point in which I'm applying the seal to in order to transfer it over. Sounds simple enough!" She grinned as she pulled out her journal from her pocket and ripped a blank piece of paper out of it and then pulled out a pencil and closed her eyes as she focused her chakra in the pencil. She then drew an X in the center of the paper with a horizontal line a couple of inches long on both sides of the X. She then took off her headband and put it in her pouch. She then laid the paper horizontally across her forehead before running her chakra through it.  A sharp pain spread outward from the center of where the X was drawn on the paper. It felt as though someone had taken a burning hot piece of metal and bent it into an X and then shoved it into her skull. The pain traveled downward into her eyes, and after a few minutes of the agonizing burning sensation in her head, she passed out and the contents of her pouch spilt out and scattered on the ground beside her and the paper fell of her head.
Several hours later as the sun was setting, the young girl woke up. "What happened?" She asked herself a bit groggily as she pushed herself up and looked around the training area she was in and noticed that her ninja tools which consisted of a couple explosive tags, 2 Kunai, and 2 Shuriken as well as her ninja headband had fallen out of her pouch. "My gear!" She quickly grabbed the ninja tools and put them back in her pouch and then picked up the headband and looked at the Konoha symbol on the metal plate. However, she also caught a glimpse of her reflection. On her forehead was an exact replica of the markings that she had drawn on the piece of paper earlier that day except that the ones on her forehead were a pale teal color. When she saw this, she jumped backwards and dropped the headband. "The seal? Does this mean it worked?" She slowly approached the headband and grabbed if again, using it try to get a good look at her forehead. After a few minutes, she smiled at her successful use of her clan's mark. However before she could celebrate her success, a loud snapping noise came from a nearby area. "What was that?" She quickly put her headband back on her head covering the new curse mark and started walking in the direction of the sound and soon found the Jonin that had promoted her to Genin status. "Oh! Hey, Sensei! Is it okay if I join you during your training?" She smiled at the superior ninja.

WC: 603
Claims: Hyuuga Curse Mark +3 stats

Jason had seemingly by accident wandered into the training grounds of Konoha. His armor gleamed in the moonlight above. His work day had finally ended and he was looking to find a strong training partner. Perhaps one of the Jounin in the village would still be training. It was worth a shot. Jason's bow and quiver hung loosely off his right shoulder. His clan's symbol was clearly visible on the quiver in a forest green color. A cool breeze flowed through the air, making Jason's hair move slightly out of his face. 

As he approached the training grounds he heard the distinct sound of something hitting a tree or training post with considerable force. So there was someone still here after all. Jason's hazel green eyes scanned the area quickly looking for the source of the sound. It didn't take long for him to notice Hideyoshi near a tree exactly ten meters from where Jason was standing. A young girl was near him, a Genin by Jason's count. He remembered her face from the records in his office. She was a branch member of the Hyuuga family. Akiko Hyuuga was her name. Jason hadn't had any interactions with her personally yet. Slowly walking his way over to the two, Jason would say "Hideyoshi! Akiko! What are you two doing out here still?" Even though he hadn't interacted with the girl before Jason was sure she would recognize him as the Hokage of the village.

His eyes scanned the eyes in search of the stars on this clear night, the clouds becoming non existent as he focused heavily. Those still yellow eyes were searching fro a simple answer that the Gods above could answer and yet there was nothing. From amidst his thoughts he could hear the inner voice inside him speaking rather poetically," So you are thinking about things you shouldn't doubting about yet if you want power there are things "we" can do to get stronger...At the risk of losing yourself yes, but stronger none the less, just think about what i've said because we have company now," at the end of his words he sat up slowly to see one of his students, Akiko.

The first question was why was a young girl out at this time of the night yet he knew that age and sleep were two separate issues. Looking over at the tree for a moment he laughed when she asked could she join him in his training, he didn't find it being silly it was just kind of amusing to him," Sure if you can break a tree down with your fists that it. We'll see what we can get you doing in this training tonight though I wouldn't be too surprised if someone else heard this tree falling in the distance. Speaking of which your family know that you're out and about in the village after dark? You should be asleep you know," as to his surprise though he picked up the chakra of yet another individual coming this way, one of which he could recognize right off the bat.

Turning to face the Hokage he laughed when the male had asked why he had been out this late," Well since there's no curfew in the village I thought i'd do some training here though I didn't think people were about to hear that tree fall," pointing his thumb at the tree cracked at the trunk and fallen over he stood up and stretched after resealing the gauntlets into the arm guards. From what the two could see his hands had been battered and bruised a bit though they had been healing at a pretty good rate while his bones had be reset. Looking towards the two he would remind himself on the question of Akiko," Well while your here Jason we can do some training or something, I need to push myself a bit more, I have a reputation to uphold and a village to protect," his task of continuing to grow in power would push him to gain more power though what would happen to him if he did.

"Yeah... Um... About that..." The young girl was obviously nervous at the fact that the Hokage not only was there, but that he knew her name. She shakily removed her headband and showed the two her new curse mark. "I kind of heard about how my clan has a seal that makes the user's Byakugan become useless after the user dies, so I put it on myself! I guess that I passed out of something, because that was this morning... Either way, my parents don't typically care how late I stay out as long as I'm training!" She noticed the condition of her Sensei's arms. "You must have been training really hard if your hands look like that, Sensei!" She then looked towards the Hokage and grinned slightly. Just being in his presence was making her nervous.

The girl seemed a bit nervous but that was ok. She would get used to Jason being around sooner or later. After all he felt the need to interact with all of his ninja. He couldn't help noticing Hideyoshi's arms and hands were bruised and bloodied. How long had he been training? And he was still at it. Jason was impressed at Hideyoshi's determination. Akiko had mentioned something about using a curse mark to destroy her eyes after she had died. Even now she was protecting the secrets of the Hyuuga clan from her enemies. 

Jason was proud to have ninja like these two in the village. Hideyoshi had mentioned doing some training with him. Jason would subconsciously rub his ribs where he had been hit from his last little spar with the Jounin. He remembered vividly what that was like and was definitely up for a rematch. Jason would nod at Hideyoshi. Then he would turn his attention toward Akiko. "Hello Akiko. My name's Jason. I hope you don't mind if I train with you and Hideyoshi for a bit. You're lucky to have him as a teacher." Jason would smile at her as he said this. Hopefully Hideyoshi would be amenable to training with both of them.

When Akiko mentioned the Hyuuga curse seal he paused for a moment and sighed remembering the last person he had a conversation about that with," No good ever comes from that seal. To have that curse seal means that you can not protect yourself and mean to take a cowards way out. Sorry if I seem a bit hostile with this, I used to date a Hyuuga woman and knew a Jounin of the same clan, so i'm always iffy on that whole seal business because anyone with a brain could knock you unconscious and remove it via other means. Just rely on your own power and don't might off more than you can chew alright?," ruffling the girls hair only slightly he would smile and give her a thumbs up before looking over to Jason and then back to her," And don't be so fidgety about Jason being around, he's mostly harmless in a ....friendly sense," his joke was mostly harmless though he was just poking fun at the young Hokage.

When Jason actually wanted to train with them he nodded and smiled before moving onward to a nearby tree, the one he had actually knocked down and thought about how this was going to go down," Guess it can be me and my student here vs you Jason if you'd prefer that. Don't know how a free for all is going to do down with her not being accustomed to fighting higher ranked people so i'll take her with me and we'll have some fun," looking over to her he would wait to see what she would think of this before seeing what Jason himself thought of it.

[C'mon guys I know you can make longer posts than that xD]

"I know that I'm not the strongest person in the world, but I wanted to do my best to protect the Byakugan and if I get into a situation in which I have to fight a Shinobi that's much stronger than I am, if I keep the  mark concealed by my headband then they won't know about the seal and so they wouldn't have the knowledge to leave me alive in order to take my Byakugan! I want to protect the secrets of the Leaf with my very life if it comes to it! It's not always the coward's way out!" After this outburst, she realized how disrespectful she had been. "Sorry, Sensei! I didn't mean any disrespect!" She was so embarrassed by her outburst as she glanced to the Hokage and her face started to grow red in embarrassment. I'm making a great first impression for the Hokage... She sighed as se glanced towards the ground. She was so embarrassed that she didn't hear her Sensei's suggestion for a spar.

There was that damn cool breeze again, blowing Jason's messy hair all around his face. He hated his hair some times. It really did tend to do whatever it wanted. It even hid his hazel green eyes from time to time which was annoying and caused Jason to not be able to see to well every once in a while. Jason would be called back out of his thoughts at Akiko's outburst about her new curse seal. Even though Hideyoshi had a good point, Jason couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at the girl's words. Even she was doing her best to protect the Leaf and it's secrets. A smile crept across Jason's face. 

He would glance from the girl over to Hideyoshi as he spoke about how he wished the spar to go. It would be Hideyoshi and Akiko against Jason. That would certainly be something he hadn't done in a while. He remembered back to when Tatsuya, Risako and himself had a short free for all in these very training grounds. Risako had just become a Genin and Tatsuya and himself were almost Chuunin. He remembered the earth and fire style techniques he had went up against while using his own water techniques to take them on. Tatsuya had almost gotten the drop on him back then.

The smile was still on his face as he glanced back over to the Hyuuga girl. It looked to Jason as if she hadn't noticed Hideyoshi's suggestion. Actually, she seemed to be kind of embarrassed and then apologized to the Jounin for her outburst. "There is no need to be embarrassed Akiko. I'm proud to have a shinobi like you in the village. It means a lot to know that even now you are doing your best to protect the Leaf and it's secrets. Now, how about that spar?" Jason would glance back over at Hideyoshi at this point. "I'm fine with you and Akiko against me. I don't want to push your student too hard just yet." 

Jason would finally glance down at this point, to his fox Nami who was at his feet just to the right of him. She had sent Jason a wave of annoyance at the mention of a spar. She was enjoying her time alone with him and didn't like being interrupted by Hideyoshi and Akiko. Jason suppressed a laugh at this. Nami always had a way with being selfish and lazy. Though the fox was right. It had been some time since Jason had last merely spent time with her. He missed their walks together.