Time to begin the impossible (Training, open, NK)

Togirama Hyuuga slowly made his way forwards to the center of the seemingly deserted training ground at a calm almost serene pace, being a training ground in Suna it was a lot different to the Hyuuga training grounds back in konoha that Togi was more used to, instead of immaculately cut short grass there was only a very dry mix of gravel and sand not that the blind Hyuuga could see the difference though he could sense the near lifeless state of the ground beneath his feet. Togi could almost imagine what it would feel like to be thrown down upon this surface but fortunately the Hyuuga was not here for a spar or even taijutsu training today. But he was here for an equally daunting prospect, having enrolled in the ninja academy in Suna he had soon learned that in order to graduate he would have to learn a number of ninjutsu and among these jutsu was not only the clone jutsu but the transformation jutsu aswell. While at first learning these simple E rank ninjutsu might have sounded like a trivial matter, for a student that could not see creating a duplicate of yourself that looked exactly like you or transforming yourself to look exactly like someone else was a near impossible task. This however was not the first time that Togirama Hyuuga had achieved what had been deemed impossible for him to do.

Sitting cross legged in the centre of the training ground Togi felt the heat of the sun wash over him as he thought back to the great feats he had achieved so far. Togi thought back to a good few years ago when he was still a small child and lived on the grounds of the Hyuuga estate, he was concealed in one of the small passageways that the servants and branch members used so as to not be in the way of the main branch Hyuuga. A short distance away just the other side of very thin walls Togi’s younger brother Zoishi was receiving training from their father Hazirama. ”Now my son as a Hyuuga your mastery of the Byakugan shall define you, it is what makes us as a clan unique and places us as the elite of the village. It is your birthright and it is your time to claim it!” Hazirama lectured making the hidden Togi somewhat cringe. ”But to master the Byakugan you must first master your chakra and to begin with the key is meditation…” The Hyuuga elder continued. Togirama meanwhile continued listen from his hidden position as he moved into his meditative stance with his knees crossed and his hands lightly resting upon his lap with his palms facing up. ”Now let your senses go… let the world around you fade away and focus only on your own being… feel your breath pass in and out… feel your heart beat and then look deeper look deep within yourself deep inside your core and seek out the energy within you the source of your lifeforce and power…” Togi heard from a distance as he let the words guide him. Letting go of his senses was strangely easy for the young hyuuga perhaps due to the fact that he had one less to let go of than most. The act of meditation itself was rather soothing and Togi lost himself in the whole experience… finding his chakra within himself however was not easy and after hours of meditation the young hyuuga still had not even felt the slightest flicker. When Togi eventually slipped out of his meditation all was silent… his brother and his father had long since left the dojo and Togi had been left all alone. Togirama however did not consider this time a waste, while he might not have gained access to his chakra he had learnt a new skill, one that he could easily practice on his own… meditation!

That was the point when Togirama’s secret training had begun, each night the young Hyuuga could be found deep in meditation seeking out his chakra. For many nights there was absolutely nothing but Togi was undeterred. After weeks of practice and meditation Togi finally felt something and saw something within his mind’s eye, a flicker of bright blue swirling light. For the blind child this was an absolute revelation suddenly there was colour in his world of darkness, the first colour he could ever remember seeing! Over the next few nights Togirama continued his meditations with growing success, it became easier and easier for the young Hyuuga to seek inside himself and find this chakra. Having found his chakra Togi was now confronted with the question of what to do with it.

Togi decided to seek the answer from his father however Togi did not have the traditional father son relationship so Togi gained his answers by returning to the servant passageways that ran behind the main branch dojo. Togi had arrived in the passageway slightly early and his father was not yet in the dojo so Togi sat down upon the hard floor in the passageway and crossed his legs taking up his favourite meditative position. In a matter of moments Togi recognised the by now familiar presence of his own chakra. Togi remained that way just taking in the feel of his own chakra while he waited for his father to arrive. He was not sure how long he had been in meditation when his focus was disturbed by a brief flash of light in his mind’s eye that did not come from his own chakra.

Slipping out of his meditation Togi immediately became aware of voices. His father and his brother had entered the dojo and Hazirama was instructing Zoishi in the use of the Byakugan. While Togi knew that he would never be able to use the Byakugan oh did he know after all the lectures that he had received from the clan elders, what interested him about this conversation was they were discussing how to channel chakra… the brief flash of light that had disturbed Togi’s meditation also had the young boy intrigued. Togi sat and listened as his younger brother received the training from his father that he himself would never receive. Togi did not resent young Zoishi for the different treatment he got and was actually grateful for the training his brother was being given for without it he would have nothing to listen in to for his own secret training.

That night Togi sat in his room in pitch darkness thinking over all he had heard. His father had been discussing hands seals and how they could be used to channel and focus ones own chakra by forming specific shapes and then directing your chakra to flow through them. At this point Togi took on a thoughtful look, if he was going to advance his training then he would have to learn these handseals and all he currently had to go on was that they were named after animals like tiger, ram and rat. Dropping back in to his meditation Togi quickly sought out his chakra and decided to find out if he could even encourage his chakra to move towards his hands in his first place. Instead of placing his hands palm up on his lap like he usually did when he meditated he instead interlocked his fingers and placed his hands together. Instead of just observing his chakra Togi began to experiment at trying to push and pull his chakra. At first this seemed to do nothing and this soon became a nightly routine. Unlike when he first discovered his chakra this attempt at moving it did not seem to be improving whatsoever. Uncharacteristicly growing frustrated Togi slammed his hands together and let out a cry of frustration as he pushed his chakra with all the will and determination he had. When Togi had slammed his hands together his fingers had ended up in a position that roughly resembled the Tiger handseal and when Togi had attempted to force his chakra to move it surged outwards from his core. Togi’s senses were suddenly overwhelmed by a huge flash of blinding white light. When the white light faded away Togi was incredibly shocked to find that he was still aware of sources of light, infact a very faint light was everywhere in colours that Togi could not remember seeing or experiencing before, there were also much more intense lights that shone like beacons… bright moving blue beacons that had a feel to them that resembled Togi’s own chakra. Togi however had little time to take in anymore before he collapsed in to unconsciousness and the darkness returned.

Togi smiled to himself as he returned from his trip from down memory lane. He had woken up in the hospital several days after that but Togi could now trace back to that day as the point that becoming a ninja had been a real possibility. Slowly standing back up Togi put his hands together in the tiger seal, a seal that by now he knew well and pulsed his chakra sending a surge of chakra in to his head that lit up his senses. There was little in the training field to sense but Togi became hyper aware of his own chakra and the flow of it through his own body.

”Ram, Snake, Tiger… focus on my own chakra then focus on splitting it…” Togi quietly declared to himself as he visualised the shape the chakra should take for each of the three seals. Since learning them Togi had spent a lot of time studying seals but not being able to see the position of someones hands made learning handseals that much harder. Fortunately what Togi could do was directly sense the chakra as it was being moulded and in that way the young Hyuuga could tell whether he was performing the hand seals correctly or not. ”Ram, Snake, Tiger… Ram, Snake, Tiger… Ram, Snake, Tiger” Togi then repeated as he slowly ran through the handseals without applying chakra a few times. Once he was confident that he was performing the handseals correctly he paused and took a deep breath. The young Hyuuga then once again performed the handseals though this time he applied chakra. At the completion of his seals Togi then detected two bursts of identical chakra one to his left and one to his right. A small frown then appeared upon Togi’s face not being able to see he couldn’t be certain if he had performed the technique correctly or not. Turning his chakra his chakra senses on the clones Togi ‘hmmmed’ to himself. He could easily tell from their chakra signatures that these were not people. ”I wonder if I just need more practise or if my senses can just tell the difference between clones and people…” Togi said to himself.
 

Wanting to be sure that he had the hang of this jutsu Togi quickly dispersed the jutsu noting how the chakra seemed to spread out in to the atmosphere before running through the hand seals without warming up this time. Once again there were two identical bursts of chakra that appeared either side of the Hyuuga student. ”Ok third times the charm…” Togi exclaimed dispelling the clones once again before running through the handseals at a quicker pace this time. A wide grin then spread across Togi’s face as for the third time in a row two clones appeared flanking him. ”I guess I will just have to show it to someone to find out if the clones actually look anything like me or if they look like amorphous blobs of chakra…” Togi said to himself with a slight shrug of his shoulders before he wiped the sweat that had built up on his brow that he had not realised had formed with the back of his hand. ”I guess I have earned a break…” Togi then declared ”Shame there are not many trees for shade in suna…” the young Hyuuga then commented.

(WC: 2006 claiming activation of Hanshō Byakugan bloodline (1000 words), claiming clone jutsu (500 words), Beginning to learn chakra sensory (506 words))

After taking a short break sitting at the side of the training ground fanning himself Togi considered what to do next. He could venture in to the village to look for someone to ask if he was performing the clone jutsu correctly but he didn't really know anyone but the academy instructors and he did not really want to disturb them until he knew that he had got the technique learnt correctly.


Perhaps there was the students though? If he couldn't speak to the other teachers perhaps he could speak to the other students. He didn't know any of them very well yet but surely they would be willing to take a look at his jutsu to see if they were doing it correctly perhaps Togi would even be able to do something for them in return and they would both be able to benefit and advance their training together. Now the problem was he would need to find one of his fellow students but he neither knew where they lived or frequented. He had heard some talk of a noddle bar that some of the kids went to but he wasn't sure where that was.


Well if he needed to find someone perhaps now was the perfect time to practice his sensory abilities. Returning to his cross legged meditation position Togi brought his hands back together and reformed the tiger seal as he began to channel his chakra. When Togi had first arrived in Suna Togi had spoken to his academy instructors about his ability to sense chakra and they had been very impressed. Apparently sensing chakra was a rather advanced skill for a ninja and few Genin learnt it let alone academy students. This filled Togi with a sense of pride however after further discussion with the academy instructors he soon discovered whatever he was doing was very different to the traditional way that most ninja sensed chakra. The fact that there was a different way to sense chakra intrigued the young ninja hopeful and he became determined to learn this other way to see if it had any advantages over his own method or if he could perhaps combine it with what he was already doing to further increase his senses.


Togi's chakra senses currently spread out in all directions from the young Hyuuga covering a decent area but Togi already knew that there was no one else at this particular training field. Concentrating his senses Togi began to focus in one particular direction aiming it back towards the village. When Togi focussed in this way he was able to sense things at a much greater distance but at the expense of sensing things all around. Still by performing sweeps Togi could cover a very large area in a short amount of time.


Concentrating on focussing his fledgling chakra senses Togi began to slowly sweep the portion of the village that was within his range. It did not take long before Togi began to detect the presence of people, there were bright blue beacons (that Togi recognised to be ninja) and other dark forms (that Togi recognised to be civilians or new academy students that had yet to build up their chakra levels). Deciding that now would probably be a good time to refine his chakra senses Togi concentrated and decided to focus in on just one of the chakra signatures. Togi decided to begin with one of the fainter bright blue beacons. This signature most likely belonged to an individual that had access to their chakra but did not have it in large amounts. There was a good chance this signature could belong to a fellow academy student or a newly promoted Genin. Using every drop of focus that he had Togi concentrated on this chakra signature and this chakra signature alone mentally blocking out everything else.


Togi already knew that he could detect the presence of someone based on their chakra alone that was nothing new for the blind boy but what Togi wondered was could he tell one chakra signature from the next? Obviously he could because he had consciously picked this particularly signature from a sea of others based on a criteria he had set himself. He knew he could sense the difference in the amount of chakra that was easy... He had been doing that for a long time without even realising. Someone with a high level of chakra appeared as a brighter blue light to the boy's chakra senses and their chakra felt denser and more solid more like it was physically there rather than being a mere mist or vapour. Togi focussed in further wondering what else he could discern about this person. Togi realised that he not only got to 'see' chakra but he felt it aswell, it was hard to describe but when he focussed in on the chakra he got more of a feeling that almost elicited an emotional response. This chakra for example felt bright and warm... he was pretty sure that he wasn't sensing the persons chakra nature nor did he think he that this person happened to have a fire affinity... no the feeling that the chakra was exuding was  perhaps more like a feeling of comfort and happiness. Having been studying this chakra for a while now Togi actually found himself smiling to himself in response to the feeling he was getting.  Now that was certainly interesting if each chakra signature gave a slightly different feeling then Togi would definitely be able to tell them apart.


Still Togi did not give up on studying the strange chakra signature wanting to find out just what were the limits of his sensory abilities. 'I wonder what kind of person they are... Whether they're male or female... young or old...' Togi thought to himself as he considered the signature. Letting his focus go Togi slipped back in to meditation and considered the problem. Everyone's chakra was different yet at the same time they shared similarities and likenesses. Hyuuga chakra for example felt a lot more like his own chakra did than the chakra of those outside the clan. If he could just work out how to identify the part of the chakra that made it unique then rather than just knowing someone was there Togi could find out who was there without having to rely on his other senses like his hearing or his sense of smell.


Slipping out of his meditation Togi focussed his senses once again and began to search for the chakra signature he had been studying before. By now it was in a different position but Togi was relatively sure it was the same one 'Huh...' Togi thought to himself realising he had already achieved selectively picking out a specific chakra signature from amongst a group. 'Still I don't know how I did it, it just sort of came naturally  after studying the chakra for so long...' Togi reasoned. Trying an experiment Togi picked out a second chakra signature of similar brightness while still keeping track of the first. 'Ok now what makes these two chakras similar and what makes them different...' Togi thought to himself as he began to compare the two chakras. "Obviously they are both of the same brightness which I believe means they are of similar size...' Togi began. 'Now do they feel the same?' Togi questioned as he considered this prospect. Yes they certainly had similarities they both had a certain warmth and energy about them that Togi found comparable but still there were certain differences. Togi could not quite put his finger on it but somehow the first chakra signature felt somewhat softer? Was that the word yes it was softer. The chakra itself felt no less dense than the second one but there was definately a softness to it. 'Hmmm interesting...' Togi silently declared. Continuing to study the chakras Togi looked for what other comparisons he could make. Focussing in Togi began to feel a sense of wildness about the chakra... now that was strange another very specific similarity... wait was it a similarity. The first while gave Togi a sense of freedom? While the second gave feeling of was it danger?


This was all very interesting infact to be completely honest Togi found it fascinating but he wasn't sure if it would be of any practical use... well it seemed he could indeed tell different chakras apart from each other that was useful but what the young Hyuuga really wanted to be able to do was focus on a particular chakra and be able discern information about the person that the chakra belonged to. Perhaps the only way to do that would be to get closer to the the person that the chakra belonged to and find out about them. Perhaps then he would be able to identify common traits that coincided with a common feeling that the chakra produced and then be able to link that feeling with that trait. Perhaps all females produced a chakra that felt a particular way or perhaps or ninja with a lightning affinity produced a particular feeling or all members of a clan had similar feeling chakra. There were so many possibilities and the only real way to find out would be through experimentation. It would be a lot of hard work but Togirama was one such individual that was not afraid of a bit of effort. Perhaps the first test though would be to find out if Togi could recognise one of the chakra signatures he had been studying today after a day had past.

(WC: 1597 (+using the unused 506 words from the first post) to claim the Chakra Sensory skill (2000 words))

Sitting back upon the hard gravelly surface of the training ground Togi had a sudden thought. Chakra was mutable you could change its shape and it's form... that was after all what you did when you moulded chakra using hand seals. If you were to consciously manipulate your chakra so that it became more like some one else's would you take on some of the traits of that person? Perhaps their appearance? Was that some part of the principle behind the transformation technique that he had to learn? He wasn't sure but if it was Togi finally had a way to overcome the obstacle of transforming in to someone without being able to see what they looked like. Perhaps it would not be impossible for the blind Hyuuga to graduate after all. Tigi smiled to himself as he wondered what the clan elders would think once he graduated and became an official Genin. Would they care? Would they admit they were wrong?

Togi was suddenly eager to try out the Transformation technique to see if his theory was correct despite the mental fatigue he had begun to feel and he quickly scrambled to his feet pause only to brush off the dirt and sand. "Ok so I believe the hand seals are Dog, Boar, Ram then you focus on the form you wish to take..." Togi recited to himself. "I was able to study that first chakra signature in detail so hopefully that will suffice..." Togi added as he pictured the chakra signature in his head and focussed on recalling every detail that he had sensed and felt.

"Dog, Boar, Ram. Dog, Boar, Ram. Dog, Boar, Ram..." Togi repeated as he ran through the hand seals without channelling any of his chakra.  Once he was sufficiently happy that he could perform the hand seals in a quick string without messing up any of the seals the young Hyuuga paused and took a deep breath to calm and center himself.  Running through the hand seals one last time Togi this time applied his chakra. On completion of the third and final seal Togi suddenly felt an incredibly strange sensation like his entire body had briefly turned to jelly or a ripple of energy had passed through him. It wasn't a painful sensation but it was certainly unusual and rather disconcerting.

Togi stopped and put his hand on his chin as he assumed a thoughtful position. This didn't sound or feel right. Togi had never heard about any physical sensation when performing the transformation technique and the completion of a transformation technique was usually accompanied by a burst of chakra smoke and while Togi might of not known what he currently looked like he was certain that there had been absolutely no chakra smoke.

"What am I doing wrong?" Togi declared as he began to pace back and fourth. "I performed the hand seals correctly I'm sure of it and I used the correct amount of chakra..." the young Hyuuga listed as he continued to pace "Then why didn't I transform?" he questioned. "Wait that's it! Transform! I was trying to transform ALL of my chakra that's not how the transformation works... It's actually not really a transformation is it? It's more of a disguise... and a disguise you wear on the outside!" Togi declared to himself having a sudden revelation.

With renewed determination Togi ran through the hand seals once again applying his chakra. Togi then visualised the first chakra signature that he had been studying earlier and then rather than trying to force his own chakra to transform his own chakra in to something that resembled it he instead allowed a small amount of chakra to seep out from his body and that relatively small amount of chakra he willed to take a new form. This time there was a burst of chakra smoke convincing Togi that he had atleast made some progress. The young Hyuuga however still did not know what he now looked like but when he looked over himself with his chakra senses he noticed that he now had an outer layer of chakra that felt different than the rest. Smiling to himself Togi released the jutsu detecting the chakra smoke once again. This time when he focussed his chakra senses on himself all he sensed was his own regular chakra.

"Well it's a good sign but like the clone jutsu I guess I'm going to need some one to look it over..." Togi declared with a thoughtful look.

Letting out a slight yawn Togi suddenly became aware of just how long he had been training for. If he intended to be on time for classes tomorrow he should probably call it a day and head back home and get something to eat and and some sleep. Togi smiled as he brushed himself off, today had been a productive day.... Hopefully tomorrow would be even more so. With that thought in mind the young Hyuuga left the training ground and headed home.

(WC: 843 claiming Transformation jutsu (500) words)

(Exiting
TWC: 4446, claiming 22 stat points and all above bloodline, jutsu and skills)