Long Journey

Ita stood in the middle of a cleared area surrounded by trees. The boy was hunched over slightly panting as a droplet of sweat slowly made its way down the boy’s face. The sun was high in the sky and there was a slight breeze. The rays of the sun illuminated the boys light complexion. The breeze felt well on Ita’s skin as it was wet due to his sweat which caused a cool sensation to fall over his face. Ita let out a deep breath and then straightened his posture as a smile slowly crept. The area around Ita resembled a battle field. Although the damage was caused over an extended period of time. This location was one near Ita’s home where he often spent time training rigorously. A majority of the trees around the area where either crippled or bore many scars from kunai practice and other jutsu.
 
The boy had changed much since he graduated the ninja academy and became a genin. He was now a part of a team, team nine and he wondered where it might lead him. When he was not with them, on days like today, he would train so he wouldn’t miss a beat. He was still not close to his other team mates yet and hoped that may someday change, until then he would not allow himself to fall below them as he somewhat thought of himself as the undeclared leader of the genin on his team, although he had yet to truly see their abilities first hand. Ita was interested for that day to come though. Ita was wearing a loose white shirt and black pants. Two ninja weapon pouches containing various tools and items were also fashioned to the back of his waist, along with the konoha shinobi head band which was now tied firmly to his for head instead of his waist; which was different from how he typically wore it.
 
Ita now became a bit more serious. Kimaru had been looking for some time for Ita because it was of urgent importance and he finally found him. Kimaru was making his way through the foliage to where Ita was training and Ita came into his sight, although he looked busy and was unaware if Ita had noticed him or not. Kimaru saw him moving and figured he would wait and watch to see what Ita might do next. Positioned around the area where 30 or 40 so targets most likely constructed from Sai’s wood style which Ita took it upon himself to paint into targets with red paint in the shape of circles. The targets were positioned 360 degrees all around the boy. Kimaru thought to himself, “He doesn’t plan on hitting all those targets, does he?”, as he leaned closer interested to see what Ita might do.
Ita’s head which was now looking downwards snapped upwards, his eyes opening once more revealing his three tome sharingan. Kimaru could feel the change in Ita’s energy almost instantly. Ita thrusted both his hands behind him into his ninja pouches retrieving 5 shuriken in each hand. Ita then ran a few feet gathering momentum and jumping into the air, spinning, his head eventually facing towards the ground, Ita then released the shuriken a few at a time. The shuriken would then collide with each other, hitting targets which were blocked by trees, obscuring his view of them, but somehow hitting them dead on. Kimaru watched in ‘awe’ at how good Ita had grown to be. Ten targets Ita had hit spot on, but that didn’t account for the numerous other targets which were positioned in plain view of the boy, unlike the others which were blocked by foliage and other obstacles which he was still able to hit. The boy then landed in a crouched position with his arms crossed in an ‘X’ position. Right away the boy would do something that even shocked Kimaru. As Ita thrusted his arms apart so that they were open straight to both sides, small thin senbon made of raition released in every direction towards the targets in an abundant amount, most of them hitting the targets spot on, some targets being hit by multiple senbon, some senbon missing the targets and colliding with various objects around the training grounds.
Ita stood up seeming a bit unsatisfied with his result, but figured he had done enough training for today. On that note a familiar face made an appearance from the brush on the outer banks of the training area.
 
Kimaru made his way to the center to see Ita, Ita standing up and brushing some dirt from the sleeve of his shirt. Kimaru seemed pleased to see Ita and Ita seemed to be a little pleased as well, It had been some time since they had met last. “Hey, that’s a sick technique, although I think you missed one!” Kimaru said to Ita, smiling as he licked to get underneath Ita’s skin and bug him. “Oh shut up. What do you want?” Ita responded, seemingly annoyed, but deep downed he enjoyed his presence. “Well, I’ve been looking all over for you, I should have known to come here first. Sai told me to find you because we’re going to be leaving soon on another mission. Dante’s waiting at the house as well. You’ll be coming won’t you?” Ita blinked, his sharingan disappearing and his eyes widening with interest as he was conveyed such news. “Well of course I’ll be going, who’s going to be around to save you when you get in trouble you idiot.” Ita poked back at him, letting a smirk come over his face. “Well, are you going to keep playing around or are we going to get going? Were late anyway! I’ll race you there!” Kimaru turned and quickly ran off into the bushs and then shunshining to the house, Ita shunshinning as well. The two of them both appeared at the doorway to the house roughly at the same instant and they both struggled to get through the door way first, eventually bursting through and both of them falling on top of each other in front of Sai and Dante who were caught off guard by their noisy and abrupt entrance. “I was here first!” Kimaru said, struggling with ITa on the floor. “No, I was loser.” Ita snapping back. “Alright! Enough you too we are running late!” Dance shouted at the two quarreling ninja on the ground catching their attention quickly as he stood over them, causing the two to stop and quickly jump to their feet.
 
Now that the two boys were standing at attention, Ita looked over the two men in front of him because he hadn’t seen them in a while and quickly noticed that they were heavily equipped with supplies, baggage and gear. “Hurry up Ita and get ready, we are continuing our previous mission.” Sai turning beginning to turn to attend to coffee in the kitchen and speaking once more to Ita, “Oh, and don’t pack light. This might be a long one.” Then he turned and exited into the kitchen. Ita went into his room and gathered his belongings. Ita was wearing his white loose shirt and typical black pants along with black sandals. Behind his back were two ninja weapon pouches containing various items and ninja tools that he might need on their journey?. Over this outfit he wore a white grey cloak which matched Kimaru’s, but differed slightly from Sai’s and Dantes, as theirs we’re a tad bit more fashionable. Ita began to pack fresh clothes and supplies into a durable backpack which hadn’t gotten much use lately. He then strapped on his back pack, grabbing his leaf headband off of his bed and instead of tying it to his head, he opened his gray cloak and strapped it to his belt, hiding it like the rest of his squad in order to not draw any unwanted attention while traveling. Now that Ita was equipped and fully stocked with rations and fresh clothes, he was ready to set out on his mission with his group. Ita left through the door way, quickly making sure his room was in order before leaving then shutting the door behind him. Ita stood by the door way and Sai reentered from the kitchen. “Great Ita, you’re ready to go. Let’s be on our way.”
 
 
The four man team exited Sai’s modest home and made their way towards the gate of the village where they exited and began their decent from the village down the long and windy dirt path which Ita had traveled only a few times before. Ita had only left the village a few times, but looked forward to his adventures, as the ninja world was fascinating to him and he was completely mesmerized by it and wanted to learn all that he could. The boy was truly beginning to make progress. He started as nothing more than a boy with potential and was now capitalizing on the potential and gaining true power. He was now almost 12 and a Genin who was on the brink of becoming a Chuunin. Ita had even begun to become more involved in the shinobi community of his home, even beginning to train academy students in his spare time, which was somewhat unusual to Ita because he had never been the social type nor a teacher for that matter. The pieces were beginning to come together for the boy, he was starting to blossom and was no longer the sad, lonely boy he once was, but was now beginning to have purpose in his life. Now, all he could do was continue to move forward and see where life took him.
 
 

The Sun was at its highest point in the sky for the day and there was a mild breeze. Ita enjoyed the breeze as it caused it hair to shift slightly with each passing. The four of them had some time to talk as they would be traveling for what seemed to Ita, as forever. Ita was walked next to Dante and Dante had asked him, “So Ita, how is your ration training going since we last met?” Ita smirked and said, “It’s alright. I’ve learned a few things since we last trained together. Maybe you’ll get to see them.” Dante replied, “I’m looking forward to it. Maybe we can get some practice in of our own while on our journey and Sai and train with Kimaru.” Dante continued to question Ita, “Do you have an animal contract?” ITa thought for a few moments then replied, “Yes, with some old crow.” It had been so long since Ita had thought about it he had almost forgotten. Dante’s eyes shifted towards Sai as they walked a little perplexed, yet a smirk found its way onto his face. Dante thought to himself, “Sai. Your always one step ahead you old bastard.” Ita didn’t think much of it. Dante spoke again, “You should look into training with them. They could be of some use to you.” Ita replied, half paying attention to the conversation, “I’ll look into it.” The group continued to walk in silence for a while before stopping at the the town of Tanzaku, where Ita had been before on their last trip. Ita reminisced about the hot springs and wished he could return. Maybe on their way back. They merely stopped to eat and continued to travel, stopping at a modest looking eatery where they were served rice balls filled with meat and small portions of ramen seasoned well. They all got extra rice balls for their travel and packed them away in their back packs in case there wasn’t time to stop again and eat, they wouldn’t be starving. The four man team left and they began to make their way through the city to the outer side so they could continue their journey. Sai and Dante seemed to be enjoying themselves, marveling and drooling over the pretty girls which flooded the street. The town was lively, but not as lively as it was that one time they had visited during the evening hours going into the night. It was much more rowdy then Ita thought to himself. Ita had to also admit, the girls were very pretty in this town specifically although he was never truly one for chasing after women because he was mostly too focus on training all the time. The four of them finally made it out of the town and were back on their journey.
wc: 2097, 2087 towards chidori senbon, claim 10 stats and chidori senbon, 10 words extra

As the group of four was leaving the gabling town, something peculiar had happened. There was a group or maybe 10 or so men wielding weapons closing in on two women just outside of the town. Upon further speculation, the men didn’t seem as though they were shinobi, but ordinary thugs. Ita could hear them shouting at them for whatever reason, but besides the four of them, there were no others around to witness what was going on. Ita could see the fear on the young girls faces and he didn’t like it. Not one bit. Ita did not think it was right for men to bully women. In the shinobi world, this could be interoperated a little bit differently, but in this case, Ita could tell that these women just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The group stopped, Ita figured that everyone else had noticed what had been going on too and figured they had the same beliefs as them.
 
Ita wondered what he should do? By the looks of the weapons they were carrying, it wouldn’t be safe for him to just run in and initiate some type of hand to hand combat, and based on the jutsu that Ita knew, he didn’t want to draw the attention of slaughtering 10 or so men outside of a non-shinobi village. Ita, someone who wasn’t typically hot headed unless someone really hit home on his emotions was clenching his fists tightly and Sai could sense ITa’s anger. As Ita began to press forward to intervene, a sturdy, strong hand met his chest and stopped him dead in his tracks. The power of the hand had calmed all emotions Ita was feeling at the time and left him a bit stunned. Sai then spoke, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. We don’t need that kind of attention. Let me deal with it.”
 
Ita, Kimaru, and Dante stood and watched as Sai stepped ahead of them. Ita could only wonder what he might do, but at the same time was completely eager to see how he would handle the situation. At first, Sai simply came into range of them and stood. He was only just a few feet away from them, but the heard of men were so busy harassing the nice young women that they paid no attention to an older gentleman such as Sai. For a moment Sai stood there wondering when they would finally notice him, but when he realized that they hadn’t he spoke, “Uhm, Excuse me.” He said. With no response. Ita took another look at the men, and they seemed fairly large, a few unordinary large and most likely lacking no special ability what so ever except brute strength and enough coordination to wield a heavy weapon and swing it sporadically, most likely hurting themselves in the end. Regardless, Ita hoped that Sai would hurt them. Sai now became a little annoyed that they were ignoring him and it actually hurt his ego somewhat. He then coughed, clearing his throat while holding his hand to his mouth to stop the spread of germs and then spoke once more, in a louder pitch, almost yelling. “HELLO! OVER HERE!” The group of men in front of Sai proceeded to go along with what they were doing besides on of the fellows, the one closest to him, turning and speaking before returning to what he was doing, “Get lost grandpa before you get hurt.”
 
The man calling Sai ‘grandpa’ had really angered him because Ita could now see the frustration on his face. ‘who is this guy calling grandpa?’ Sai thought to himself before speaking once more, moving towards the man who called him grandpa slowly. “Now watch and learn Ita.” “Who you calling grandpa fatso?” This remark clearly made the rather large thug angry and he turned to Sai and began to speak, “What did you sa-.” Before he could finish his sentence, Sai had delivered a nasty looking punch to the thugs gut causing him to lose his breath, drop his weapon, and fall to the floor.  The heavy man made a ‘thud’ as his large body smacked against the hard surface of the earth, clearly gathering the attention of the other thugs standing around, even the women didn’t really understand what was going on. Before anyone move, Sai motioned towards the girls, smiled, and spoke “You girls can get on out of here, these bozos won’t be giving you a hard time any longer.” Another one of the thugs spoke, enraged by Sai and readying to attack “you aren’t going anywhere, and neither will you grandpa once we’re through with you.” The rest of the thugs tightened their grips on their weapons of clenched their fists ready to attack, but before they could, Sai simply raised his hand in the air creating the ‘tiger’ hand seal and all their actions immediately froze. The thug spoke once more, “Wha-what is this, I can’t move!”, “neither can I!” said another one. The girls however, were able to move and quickly ran off after realizing that had happened, but thanked Sai before they left. Sai had a real soft spot for women, and by the looks of Dante stairing them down as they left, he did too. Or maybe there were just perverts Ita thought, whatever it was, they had done the right thing, although It was still a little perplexed about how he was able to stop the movements of all those guys with a single hand sign? Not being able to move only made the thugs madder so Sai figured it would be best to sedate them before leaving again to avoid a travesty. Simply, Sai made a few more hand seals, and out of the ground came wood which coiled over all of the thugs and restricted their movements thus more. Sai smiled and spoke once more, directing his words towards the thugs, “I suggest that you don’t pick on any more pretty girls, because if I hear about it I will sure to be back. By the way, have fun getting out, fatso. Grandpa Out.” On that note, Sai merely chuckled and walked away returning the group and going on their way.
 
As they made their way down the long and seemingly endless dirt road on their journey to who knows where, Ita and Kimaru continued to prod Sai with questions pertaining to his technique from earlier. “Hey Sai how did you stop all those guys from moving earlier?” Kimaru asked, following up was Ita who spoke, “Yeah, come on Sai tell us how you did it. Was it genjutsu? Ninjutsu?” Sai, who was loving all the attention and clearly must have felt good about himself after saving those women spoke back to the young shinobi, “Alright guys alright, I tell you how the great Sai stopped them. It’s simple. Magic.” Ita and Kimaru did not seem satisfied with Sai’s answer. Not satisfied at all, as their faces drooped down upon Sai’s ridiculous answer. As they walked, Sai could sense the disappointment in his young students demeanor and figured that he might as well teach a crash course on the temporary paralysis jutsu while they traveled. For the most part, their journey was going to be long and extensive and they might as well get something out of it on the way. They continued to walk for a while longer before coming to an area where Sai thought might be a good time to start. Sai spoke, halting the group once more then direction his attention to the genin before him. “Alright listen up, if you listen closely you might be able to be as cool as me one day. I am going to teach you the jutsu I used earlier, but before I do, you both must promise me something.” The two genin spoke at the same time, “We promise.” “Okay, great” Sai said then continued to speak to the boys, “You must use this jutsu so save many pretty ladies, okay?” Ita and Kimaru could not tell if he was joking or not, but did not really care. They just wanted to learn a new jutsu. Sai pulled the group off of the beaten path and brought them into a nice area that was shaded by trees. It was unusually hot out for a fall day, but that wouldn’t stop them from learning, Ita enjoyed the way the sun felt upon his face anyways.
 
Sai began to speak to the boys and begin the lesson, “Alright. To begin, this technique is not magic and is actually a fairly simple ninjutsu. It is only D rank, but based on how much you practice and how powerful your chakra is, it can become a fairly dangerous jutsu if used in the correct way. For the most part, it’s used to detain thugs for enough time for us to either deal with them or detain them.” Sai now had the boys captivated in his lecture, which was actually peculiar to him because they never seemed very interested in what he had to say. Sai continued to speak, “This jutsu makes the victim or target feel as though they are being restrained by steel ropes, making it impossible for them to move. The technique however, only lasts for a short amount of time. The most you use it, the more people you will be able to affect at once with it as well. Oh and it only required on hand seal, the ‘tiger’ seal.” As Sai finished explaining, ITa remembered him making the hand sign. Ita, being an Uchiha, had pretty good visual prowess and picked up on small things very easily, such as hand signs and small details which most people wouldn’t normally catch onto right away. “I’m going to make several weakling clones for you to practice on, once the both of you are able to detain up to five clones at a time, and then we will be able to get back on with our journey. Okay?” Both the genin agreed and prepared to train.
 

Sai stepped back and then five clones out of wood which sprouted from the ground all in similar fashion, starting out as just bark and then forming into human bodies and taking on the same exact characteristics as Sai. Now the two of them would take turns trying to immobilize Sai’s clones. They decided who would go first by the old fashion rock, paper, and scissors. Kimaru won, and he stepped up and tried first. He attempted to make the ‘tiger’ hand seal several times before finally detaining at least on of Sai’s clones. Next up was Ita, who was able to get the hang of the jutsu a little bit faster than his comrade had. Sai figured this was due to ITa’s great ability to control his chakra. Dante was off sleeping under a tree with a book, open and resting upon his face blocking the sunlight which found its way through the trees leaves, from his eyes. Ita walked up and made the hand seal, after two tries he was able to control not one, but up to two of Sai’s five clones. This had made Kimaru angry and he stepped up again to go next. He attempted to stop more than one, but failed. Ita walked up and offered him some advice and Kimaru tried again, this time getting two.  The two of them continued to practice for some time before eventually they were both able to control up to five of Sai’s wooden clones. Ita, coming in first place, didn’t like to brag, but instead help his fellow comrades. He could tell Kimaru was a bit salty that ITa was able to do it before him, but in the end the both of them had learned something and that was good enough for him. The four of them now made their way back to the path and on their way.
wc:2003
Claim 10 stats, temporary paralysis jutsu