Tarnished Steel.

It started with a a great whirlwind, he wasn't in ground zero but he felt it like everyone else, he was rushing to ground zero where the fighting was but was very quickly carried away by an older woman who he couldn't escape from, a Taijutsu specialist from his examination, carried in a fireman's carry he couldn't wriggle out of. They escaped near the outer walls to guard the civilians...But that's when the explosions started and everything started to blur together as the Kunoichi picked up her pace and dashed throughout the village, when she took to the rooftops he knew she made an error..Especially when he saw it coming for them, his heart stopped in his chest and his veins filled with ice as he opened his mouth to shout his warning- Too late.
It struck the buildings and they tumbled forward as the roof collapsed inward, a flashback of the assault that took place years ago echoed in his mind and perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of instinct..His skin shone a deep metallic color just before his head and shoulder impacted the surface and everything came tumbling inward...Blackness.

He doesn't know how long he was out, only that when he awoke, the screaming was still going on and he was covered in..the Kunoichi and that he was dangerously low on chakra, he fired his buster gun and tore his way out shuddering, shaking and covered in his own allies..- shaken to the core he pulled himself free of the wreckage and began to cut towards the escape tunnels, the steel fading from his skin feels like a security blanked being ripped away leaving him exposed and in the cold..His steps become faster and his chest burns as his vision goes white, instincts take over as he tries to comprehend the bloodied images surrounding him and his breathing hitches..Shock, but he doesn't know anything about that, he just keeps running until he collapses...Deep snow, hard stone and wreckage...
When he comes to, he's cold, his feet are covered in blisters and his throat is dry as the Land of Wind, he stands shakily through the pain, blisters popping as he trudges forward, steel girders provide him enough sustenance and loose shrapnel along with nails are the only source of food he can find...Everything else is rotten, he fills a survival canteen with water from a broken pipe and he continues on. He doesn't know where he's going, but he can only..make the assumption that if the fight was won, they'd send someone to track him..
Slowly everything began to hit him as he walked, he should be numb...Shinobi in the Academy are trained to not..react to death, but this was..his first experience with it and maybe it would have been different if it was an enemy Shinobi but...This was an Older Kunoichi just trying to help him escape, she was...dismantled so utterly that he could barely recognize her and her...parts covered him, the smell was unbearable and the scenes surrounding him as he fled may have..
He can only call himself a coward, despite the psychological damage and this being his first open scenario, he ran...He couldn't stop himself from running and now all he can do is wait for confirmation..
He continues walking, he needs to find civilization and a proper place to bunker down, perhaps another settlement has news about Kumogakure?
His travels take him through the Snow Country, decimated...And through the Stone..Also destroyed, a chill runs down his spine as he connects these dots across the map..And finally he's on a pathway to..Somewhere, but he can see somewhere in the distance. The connections he's making has him nervous, anxious to get there because..If there doing this one at a time..Perhaps this place is next. And so he continues his walk, wishing he could go faster without walking or aggravating his injuries which he's barely kept from getting infected..
His goggles are cracked in the upper right corner, but still in tact, his gas-mask is slightly deformed but functional and his pack and attire is concealed by a tattered brown travelers cloak which peeks up a bit...From a Katana sheathed on his hip, a gift from his Sensei, Yaju Hayate..His head turns towards a passerby and while he wants to ask for information on the town ahead....Uhhhh...What if he's a criminal? What if he's a guard and thinks him an attacker? Oh no! He's still wearing his Kumo headband! What if they don't like Kumo Shinobi? What if-
Outwardly, he seems to be staring stoically, a curious tilt of his head seemingly waiting for acknowledgement...But once again, inwardly..? This boy still doesn't know how to talk to people.

If Hado was completely frank, he could have travelled a lot faster, though then again, he was not fleeing like a certain some one else was. Instead, he had focused on trying to scavenge supplies from the ruins he had encountered. Here and there, there were things he could find useful in the wreckage, his metal sensing on high alert for moving metal, both as a way to avoid booby traps, but also larger falling debris, and people carrying metal as well.

He had managed to scavenge a decent pair of shoes from one set of ruins, and some water bottles. A decent backpack, had been found as well, though that had developed a hole in the bottom and had to be left behind. One place had even had some cans of food miraculously intact, protected by a cabinet in the small hut that had seemed to have missed half of its roof to begin with. The trip took a very long time, but then again he was in no particular hurry now was he? He was mostly worried about getting enough food to eat, and stocking up on potentially useful looking items where he could. A rusty katana here, a few cans there. Eventually at the first ruins he had enough supplies to get him through a fair amount of travel, some matches being the key here for making a fire.

He had discovered one of his abilities to be the capability to sense metal, during one of his excursions into the ruins. At first, he had not really noticed, but when he felt something falling towards him, disturbed by his movements, he jumped backwards, in time to see a steel girder fall to the ground, after being destabilized. Woah. A cluster of small objects had started approaching, he was able to sense them and dodge all of them, before getting hit on the head by a falling rock. He could not help but notice though, that he had been able to sense the falling objects with metal in them and not the little stone. Interesting….

When he was properly equipped, he headed out, following one of the other paths, and finding himself after a number of days travel, to be at a second set of ruins. This one had a much different look to it, he must have crossed into another country at some point.

Restocking on his canned food supplies and such, keeping the cans around to hold rain water and the like, or just as empty containers, Hado looked for a path to another civilization.

The third time is usually said to do the trick, but not in this case. Another village destroyed, here and there there was evidence of fighting, such as a crater from a massive explosion. There was very little he could scavenge here. He began to conserve his food more now, knowing that he would be running low on supplies.

Looking around, it seemed he had reached the edge of civilization. Had missing ninjas destroyed all the known ninja villages? Including his own? Who knows.

Hado decided that he might as well set off on the same direction as before. After a while he found a route that was frequently used by farmers and the like, at other times, by the looks of it. Hmmm. Following it, he wandered through the countryside, up and down the hills. At the top of one of them, he climbed a tree, and looked around, attempting to find some where he could live with normal people. His pulse quickened, as in one direction, he saw a gleaming city of sorts. Ohhhh. Looks like that place is still alive and kicking!

Excited at the prospect of meeting people again, now that he was not starving as much for food and better able to take care of himself, Hado wondered what he would say the next time he met someone. For the first time since his village was destroyed. Honestly, he had travelled so far by now that it was unlikely that he would find any of his old friends, so it was time to move on. Living in the wilderness by yourself tended to help people clear their minds a little, and Hado was no exception.

Walking through the grass in the sunlight, he tried to practice his decided speech, which would comprise of a few words – a simple greeting, and his name. Then maybe a bit of asking the nearest way to the civilization, on the off chance that there was somewhere closer than the gleaming city he had seen in the far distance, almost on the horizon.

He travelled a long distance, mentally rehearsing, before he actually tried to speak out loud. The results were disappointing. His voice cracked a little from underuse, since he had almost never spoken. He resolved to keep his vocal cords active, and practiced, with a lot of water handy for soothing his throat, until he could talk normally again. The gleaming city was blocked from view by a hill, when he thought he saw some one else on the same road as him.

Remembering the people who had chased him before, he was suddenly over-come with shyness and fear, wanting to figure out what this other person was like.

He stealthily approached through the bushes, the other person with his left shoulder facing Hado Kirino. Stopping about 15 meters away, Hado scrutinized the other fellow. Under the goggles, it looked like this fellow was a few years older than Hado Kirino. It looked like he had some kind of equipment on his person, a sword visible, and a mask on his face, and a cloak. Looks like a well worn traveler.

For a moment Hado froze, thinking that the other sensed him, but it looked like the older boy was just thinking of something.

Unsure of how to approach, Hado looked himself over, to see if there was anything particularly nasty on his person. The fox fur make shift cloak he had made earlier was gone, having been shredded when fleeing a bear. The shoes he had found in the first ruins were still holding together, though admittedly this was mostly due to his slow pace and extremely light weight. His weapons were crammed in one of the weapon pouches, the kunai dangling from the strings on said pouches by the rings. He was obviously not expecting a fight, as the empty cans and their sharp lids had been left behind, and the rusty katana had broken when he tried to kill a bear before. Instead, his second weapon pouch had been crammed with the remaining cans of food, which was not much actually. He had just one left.

Deciding that he did not look completely suspicious, Hado stood up boldly, and walked out towards the other fellow, who was still just standing there, his head turned towards Hado as if he had seen Hado in the bushes.

Hado walked up until he was a meter and a half from the other boy, at the same time saying “Hi! First person I have seen in a while? Who are you? Do you live around here? Is that head band from a place nearby? Are you from that place on the other side of the hill?” His voice spilled the words out like a tipping bucket of water, he was happy to see someone who was not immediately trying to kill him, so much that he barely refrained from spewing any more queries at the other boy. Hopefully the other boy did not take it the wrong way. If he did, well, Hado had been practicing some techniques, but unfortunately those Academy techniques he had not yet perfected, and he was hesitant to use them.

(wc 1295)

He stares for a long moment, outwardly appearing to be sizing the shinobi up, while inwardly..
T-those are a lot of questions, maybe he's on border patrol? No, he says he hasn't seen people in awhile, unless he's lying? No, why would he lie? Unless he's an enemy of Kumogakure? But, he doesn't seem hostile...Unless he's trying to lull him into a false sense of security? But what if-
Whilst his mind whirls at a thousand miles a minute his voice, like a soft whispers comes out without his spurring and he introduces himself "I'm Blues, I'm a Cyborg." He blurts out before he seems to jolt in surprise at his sudden speech and deflates with an embarrassed frown at his introduction, his voice is soft, barely a breath above a whisper and his seems to curl into himself slightly..He firms his resolve for a moment and shakes his head "I have no information on the structures ahead...But I'm heading there, I need to warn them, villages along these borders have been attacked and destroyed..." He states with a deeper frown now, his Kumogakure headband a topic he ignores for now, he's got a long hike ahead of him and he's still injured if the tenseness in his left shoulder is any clue along with the bandages underneath his sandals.
He's not quite sure what to do once he's there, but after all this time no one has caught up with him..Perhaps, they will have more information on his Home in this village, worst case scenario is...Well..he's captured and executed, or worse..Used as a ransom, no way would Yaju-Sensei let him stay in capture..Which is too dangerous, he'd rather turn the business end of his Buster Gun on himself than do harm to his village. The others will think him a coward, he'll definitely receive a black mark on his record for this...But what else does one expect? He did desert..Regardless of the circumstances or his...state of mind, he deserted..Now all he can do is hope his village pulled through, but regardless..He'll have to warn and then ask for information on Kumogakure from the large civilization ahead.
Nervously, a habit he's picked up when subjected to a social situation, he plucks a nail from his pack and sticks the end of it into his mouth, slowly gnawing on it the jagged broken end and the point swaying as his teeth move along it. "Are...you heading the same way?" He asks, gathering a bit of will from the familiar taste and feel from the clearly cleaned piece of stainless steel. He adjusts his cracked goggles slightly, he looks a bit like a bug, his gas mask being lowered in order to chew on the steel nail. In fact, this particular Shinobi, might sense the way his body seems to be drawing the steel from the steel..which almost seems to dissolve..Kinda akin to a pocky stick slowly melting in someones mouth before they crack it in half with there teeth and begin chewing the wafer. Perhaps, this one who appears to be just as worn down as he is can assist him..He doesn't appear to be too far ahead of him in skill and that's not saying much...But there are safety in numbers even for the weak, as shown when he and Angel managed to force Yaju Sensei into using a Ninjutsu and to use his full strength. He's good at analysis and synchronizing with another, so perhaps he can form a quick team with this one, who seems to be a couple of years his junior..But that doesn't matter much, he just needs help.

The other boy was either very shy, scared, suspicious, a combination, or something else entirely. Hmm… Hado was getting a sneaking suspicion that perhaps this fellow, Blues, the self proclaimed Cyborg (whatever that was) hailed from one of the three destroyed villages. Well, looked like this was not a good time to ask though, Hado would ask him later though if he seemed calmer. “A cyborg?!?”

Hado took a moment to digest the rest of the information as well. Hmmm. That explained why none of the ruins seemed taken over by nature yet, at least. “Well, I can give you some good bits of news then. I saw a city that must be your destination, just a few kilometers away past the swell of that hill there.” Hado Kirino pointed at said hill that was currently to his left, and Blues’ front. “The other is that I am in search of civilization and that place I had set as my next destination when I saw it from a tree on the top of a hill, yup!”

Hado looked this fellow up and down and saw the bandages. “We don’t have to move quickly, since we are rather close, and you don’t look too well. Are you hungry? I got some grub here.”

Hado Kirino reached into his weapon pouch and pulled out the remaining unopened can of food. “I have a little practice hunting so this does not have to last us the rest of the journey. Want some?” He waved the can back and forth a little.

His metal sensory was going nuts, and he had only just noticed the nail that Blues had stuck in his mouth. “Hey, that’s rusty…” His voice trailed off as he realized the nail was slowly disappearing. “Hey, does that hurt? Does being a Cyborg have anything to do with biting nails?”

(1295+309=1604)

The loud exclamation causes him to tense slightly and nod slowly, his eyes widened slightly from the sudden loud noise that came from the boy in front of him. He follows the boys finger as he begins explaining the good news, this was pretty good news actually, so much so that a soft smile curls at his lips, especially since he seemed to very quickly pick up on the hint that he could use a travel companion, the boys obvious note of his current state has his smile turn a bit strained as he's reminded of the constant stinging...Except, he does have an idea that could fix that..Something he's been working on for awhile. The first time was out of necessity, instinctive but after he became aware of it, he could refine it, improve it and make it more applicable to the situation at hand. The hardest part is and always has been..finding the correct amount of lift and control...Balance was the key.
A can of food and an offer is produced and he smiles at the offer "Yes, thank you." He states with an inclination of his head, he hasn't eaten real food in weeks! He's been sustaining himself with the metals and ore he's found on his journey but despite being able to survive well enough by..somehow converting the metal into calories to keep himself going but nothing beats actual calories and real food, even for a...strange case like Blues.

The nail pauses in it's movement and he tilts his head curiously, before he frowns softly and begins to wonder if perhaps he should attempt to break this habit..? What if he thinks he's weird now? What if he tries to steal his bloodline? What if he doesn't share his foo-
Outwardly, Blues seems to be coolly regarding the boy who's remained unnamed as he thinks of an answer, inwardly he's going through a million scenario's before he blurts out an answer. "It's a bad habit." He says before he jolts again, then he bites the weakened nail in half and it vanishes, dissolving in the Cyborg Shinobi's mouth after it disappears inside his mouth...
Of course he doesn't really just how scary that image might have looked and his habit of doing so is what lead to quite a few people giving him a wide berth. "I..Store it somewhere for my jutsu." He explains with a timid shrug of his shoulders and a weak smile. "We don't need to slow down on my account..I've got a way to move without..aggravating my injuries." He says pausing often, in order to find the correct words to get his point across. Of course, part of this is him not wanting to appear weak...So perhaps a small show of this basic ability will be impressive enough, though he's never used it before...He's got basic theory and training..So perhaps..He can make it work this time.
So he takes two steps back, raises his hands in a disarming gesture, to show that this isn't an attack or anything like that and then...He brings his heels together.
It's at this time that perhaps the boy across from Blues would suddenly feel the change from this simple gesture, the Ram seal is used as a focus and then. His legs open up, flip backwards like panels and his feet vanish inside a quick flip and transformation, two red metallic appendages appearing in there place, which causes Blues to grin..Before he tilts backwards and lands firmly upon his back, his elbows tilting him up...
He pauses for a moment before crimson lights up his face and very calmly, he stands again, dusting himself off while he clears his throat.

After a moments pause, to regain a bit of his dignity and inwardly promise to bury his head in the sand somewhere later, he floats upwards, stopping a mere foot or so above the ground, two light projections causing the lift and he smiles weakly. "Should we go? I've got some money for a room if they let us inside.." He offers with an awkward hand rubbing at the back of his neck slightly.

[Total WC, 2,134, Claiming Rocket boots as a learned technique.]

“Does it matter what kind of metal it is for your jutsu?” the happy little kid pulled out a kunai and ferociously began trying to pry open the can. After several groans, the metal twisted, and the lid flipped in the air, falling onto Hado’s outstretched hand. Hmmm. He looked around for a bowl. He didn’t see anything that might be good for a eating utensil, so he passed Blues the can and said “Wait a second.”

He held the can lid carefully, scraping the side so that the side with a little bit of food stuck into it would dump the extra bits of food into the can as well. Holding the can lid carefully, he cut out a spoon shape from the can lid. It was small but better than nothing perhaps, he had made it as long as the can lid was wide, in essence cutting off the sides. He held out the other bits he had cut off to Blues along with the spoon. “Would the extra pieces be helpful as well?”

Then he saw the other boy’s abilities. His eyes became like saucers. His jaw would have flopped on the floor if it was able to reach that far. “Holy- c- COOL! AWESOME!!!” He started running sideways in a circle around the other boy in his excitement. “How do you do that?!? What is your bloodline? Is that a clan ability or something you made yourself? What kind of jutsu is that? Medical?” His questions began shooting out at a zillion miles an hour again. “Is that the kind of jutsu you needed that nail for earlier?”

Then he remembered he should go train some stuff too. “Hey, wait, I just remembered there were some things I was supposed to practice.” He ran off about 3 meters, leaving Blues as suddenly as he had approached. A look of intense concentration covered his face, as he began forming hand seals. Clone… Tiger… Ram… no, wait, it was Ram… Snake… Tiger. Poof! A couple of mirror images of him popped up, and looked as confused as Hado did.

(1604+351=1955)

He nods to the boys simple question answering as he begins prying open the can, whilst this act occurs he answers with his quiet voice "The higher quality the metal..the better the effects..." He pauses for a moment and continues "Steel is so far the most useful, it's malleable and tough.." But what he really wants is some titanium, that would be really great! He accepts the spoon and the can as he begins hovering, shaking his head with a simple "No, thanks anyway." Tin and Aluminum simply aren't suitable for the way he fights or for his defenses which he hopes he won't have to activate anytime soon..
He blinks and follows the running boy with his eyes, he dips his head awkwardly at the loud praise and takes a bite of food from the can to quell a bit of his anxiety as he's praised. "I-i'm not sure..?" He stammers out after he swallows the food, only to spy the unnamed boy dashing off to...Train....In the middle of the road.

Blues blinks twice and watches for a few minutes as he performs the basic clone jutsu and chews with interest as he eats the can provided to him, he hovers over and hands him the can. "Actually...maybe, we should get going...?" He offers softly he ponders this for another moment "Maybe..we can get further up the road and I can help you..training the Clone Jutsu that is?" He offers while turning his head towards the road and a clearing farther off in the distance.

“Let me try that again.”

Hado frowned in intense concentration, comically, and weaved the appropriate hand signs again. Two frowning replicas, that were pretty much identical to the genuine article, appeared. Taking a look left and right, not to cross the road, but to check his clones, Hado replied “No, I think I have this ok now, but thanks anyway Blues.”

Looking at a rock closely, he tried forming a chakra net around himself, crouching down, releasing a second puff of smoke, all after the clones had dispersed. When the smoke cleared, there were now two rocks, of similar appearance lying together on the road. He waited a couple of moments, and then released it. “How was that? Did I look like a rock? Or was it noticeable?”

(1955+128=2083)

He frowns softly at this but nods, he steps back again and continues eating while they eat...Who knew that corn could taste so good after a long time of nothing but metallic flavoring and hard cold metal? It's the only thing that's keeping him from insisting at the moment...A few minutes couldn't hurt, but he wants to warn that..city up ahead before something bad happens.
The poof of smoke and the transformation causes him to blink and his eyes narrow behind the goggles to look for any small imperfections before he finds himself nodding in approval at the application of the technique and he raises the spoon to his mouth once more.
He blinks and tilts his head behind the goggles as he's asked, chewing softly, he swallows and states "I could not spot any imperfections, should we go now?" He asks, a little more urgently, perhaps they could get on ahead before the sun goes down? It looks like a few days from this place on the horizon...He would like some food, lodgings...And perhaps a doctor..
He's still in bad shape all things considered.
If the boy should agree, Blues nods and begins floating alongside the boy, hovering over the ground, he could go faster but for now? He doesn't wanna be left behind, or to leave him behind, no reason they both shouldn't go to the City safely after all.

If not, Blues will listen to his proposal.

[possible exit.]

Hmmm. Blues seemed like he was not feeling too good. Hado might be able to figure out something to help him but for now he only said “Sure thing! Let’s go!”

Grabbing the rock he had been imitating, he poured his earth chakra into it as he ran, in an attempt to make a walking stick. Slowly, the stick grew, until it was all of 2 meters long. “Hey, that worked out pretty well.” Hado began running along the roadway, using the stick to smack the occasional tree branch coming his way, or to help himself pole vault over particularly large pot holes. “WHEEEEE!!!!!”

He zipped along, finally breaking his stick when it smacked against a particularly sturdy rock. Oops.

He hastily reformed a second one, running along next to Blues or as close as able, using the stick as a third leg of sorts. “Hey, this is actually kind of cool, this thing here.”

He needed a way to put away the stick though. Hmmm. Hado had heard of the sealing techniques, perhaps it would be possible for him to do something similar with the stick he had made. Pouring his chakra into the stick, he watched as it seemed to explode into little particles, but he could still feel his chakra and its presence. Odd.

Pouring his chakra into that same space, he was surprised to see the stick reappear again, like in a magic trick. OOOOhhhhh. Cool. He was on to something.

His legs pedaled frantically down the roads towards the village as he continued to try to practice this new skill he had found. Perhaps he could make some magic tricks out of this some how. He could see the improvement as he practiced, after a while he was able to make the objects disappear almost as fast as he could think to make them, though retrieving the stick always took longer than he wanted. He was getting there though.

(exit)

Ttl wc:

2083+ 324=2405
Claiming:
+12 stats
250 words towards http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22306-transformation-technique, 250 words towards the http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22310-clone-technique,
250 words towards the http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t23971-earth-release-rock-section-cane
And 1000 towards the http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t25856-storage-displacement