Kozan's Path to Chuunin 2 [mission, solo, nk]

Spoiler:

Link to Mission

He didn't dream of his aunt that night, but of enormous eyes that somehow had mouths... eyes that flew about and killed villagers. Oh, how terrible. He knew that it wasn't real, but when he woke up, he was still shaking and had broken out in a light, cold sweat. It must be those weird archetypes they had been talking about in the academy, he thought. He hadn't exactly liked the subject of psychology, as easy as it had been for him to ace. Many of the others had complained, saying that it had been too abstract... but Kozan knew how to study for such things.
It didn't take much to be honest, he remembered, as he got out of his bed, not noticing the small packet on his nightstand. Stretching slightly, he thought about how he was going to spend his day. Probably training again, though he really had no issues with that. He would rather spend his days working to make himself stronger than spending them goofing around and not getting anywhere... unless it was with Ashur. He was the only person with whom Kozan really found himself relaxing. For the first time, he wondered if that was a good thing.
It probably was... Ashur most likely wouldn't betray him. He trusted Ashur even more than he trusted the Raikage, which was something to be wondered at. Perhaps he'd need to try and get more information from Ashur... surely, that wouldn't be a problem. Since they had already fought together and gone on a trip together, he felt at least a little more entitled to learn more about Ashur's various motives and drives. Kozan himself desired power, but it was almost certain that the feather wielding boy wanted something more. Was it something to do with his clan?
At any rate, Kozan saw the packet on his dresser. Huh... another mission? Opening it, he found with a bit of a surprise that it was not just any old standard mission, but one in that same building that the maze had been in. Huh, interesting. As he read on, he realized that this was basically a recap of the genin exams, except with more advanced jutsu... the jutsu were to be of his own choosing, too. Well, in that case, he thought, better to show off his best ones. He couldn't afford to lose face now, especially being examined.
[400/1500, not done yet]

By the time he got there, he was almost late. Rushing into the examination room, he found three training dummies lined up at the back of a rather long, white room. Hmph. He smirked slightly, he already knew what he had to do. No doubt there were some silly exam proctors watching him through some method, munching donuts and wishing that they could get home already. The key, he knew, was to draw their attention. At the very least, he needed to say something. Noise ought to rouse them from their donut munching, or whatever they were actually doing behind there.
"My first technique will be the bukijutsu, Rupture." Kozan spoke, drawing his normal katana. Nightblood would be there by his side, silently goading him on while enhancing his body like it always did. What would he do without it, he wondered? Well, he wouldn't perform too poorly, but he'd lose a lot of enhancement power. He needed to find something different for sure. This fit well with his thoughts the other day about finding something else to play with other than that dark blade. Well, at any rate, he found himself already channeling his chakra into the katana. The feeling of not using this technique with Nightblood was definitely one of weakness, but it would suffice.
He briskly swung the katana horizontaly, the blade cutting cleanly through the air, as was expected of it. The sword was not merely an extension of himself, it was a perfect one, that bowed to his will. Not like those involuntary parts of his body. To an extent, the sword was better. As he did this, a blue wave of chakra would appear and fire forth from the blade, shooting toward one of the dummies. It wasn't too fast, but it served its purpose. The dummy's head was severed, and a large gash was made in the white wall with a large "BOOM" noise. Hmph. That ought to rouse them.
[727/1500]

...
No response. Well, he suppose that they wouldn't very well just stand up and give him an applause, now would they? What an unrealistic expectation. No, he'd have to finish the test before anything significant happened. Very well, time for another one. He gritted his teeth, and observed his work with the rupture. Way to start off with a bang, he thought. A slow attack, but a powerful one indeed. It'd be useful for hitting people who decided to jump in some stupid fashion. No doubt there were many of those out there who needed to feel airborne before dying.
"For my next technique", he said, feeling not a little like a performer there to merely amuse the proctors (were they really so powerful as to be only humored by him? Perhaps; it wasn't out of the question). Huh. Well, regardless, it didn't matter what he did, as long as he got out of here with his reward. The ryo, that is, was secondary to the other thing he got, which was another step out of the six towards chunin. That was the most important thing here. The farther he was able to ascend in the ranks, the closer he'd get to the raikage. And the closer he got, the more resources he would have access to.
"... I will be performing the Flying Swallow. It's essentially a more advanced chakra infusion, allowing the user to bring his blade to a much more optimal state than even the regular chakra infusion would allow." With that, he would place his left hand on the end of the hilt that his right hand was holding, the blade held sideways away from his body and held by his right hand in a reverse grip.
"Hmp!"
He channeled his chakra into the blade and initiated the flying swallow jutsu, the blade glowing with his chakra. No attack would be make this time, rather, he walked up to the wall, and with his mere katana, would plunge the blade into the wall like it was just so much fluff that he could tear through with his blade. Such was the power of chakra infused correctly into a tool such as this one. With a satisfied smirk, he would backstep a little, and pull the blade from the wall, revealing a nice, clean gap. That was the result of the flying swallow, which he had already tested before coming here. He turned, and waited...
[1131/1500]

...
Again, no reaction. Well, that was fine. He had only one jutsu left to go. "Hmph." He walked up to one of the training dummies, a rather determined look on his face. This time, he would succeed for sure. There was no turning back from this, he knew very well. As the final technique, he would have to regulate himself to a very specific one. Something that would be subtle, yet upon closer glance be something possibly as powerful if not more so than the other two techniques that he had just performed. He'd get through this with this final technique.
Kozan resheathed his sword, the blade slipping easily back into its scabbard. He took a step toward one of the training dummies, the one that he had cut the head off of using his rupture technique. Focus your chakra... you're going to do this in one strike, he told himself. Gripping the sword, he focused his chakra into it, but it wasn't just that. His whole body was focused yet flexible, coiled like a spring (or better yet, like a serpent) ready to strike. Breathe in and out, the breath was also key to what he was about to do.
At that moment, the proctors hidden behind the wall to the side would only see a cut appear in the training dummy, as the top half of the dummy wobbled and fell off the bottom half.
...
"Please repeat that."
It seemed that they wanted him to do it again. Finally, a damn reaction from the proctors. He knew now that they were suckers for the subtle. Smirking a little to himself, he nodded.
"Very well."
He resheathed his katana, then positioned himself in front of one of the other two training dummies. This was easier than he had thought.
One more time. He breathed out and moved his hand. To the judges, once again, the dummy would simply appear to fall apart.
"This is the iaigiri, which is a fast quick draw technique." Kozan explained smugly to the proctors, with an air of triumph. He had sensed their slight disbelief at his speed.
A few minutes later, he left the building, having passed. Well, it hadn't been all that bad, had it?
[1504/1500
3 stats from B-rank mission
1200 towards Hoho
304 towards Jibashi
Appropriate ryo/ap rewards]