Activating the Shokunin

Yoshi awoke the following day after her graduation. Things were going great for the new genin. Her training sessions were going smoothly and she now she owned her very own headband. Its redish cloth matched her open toed sandals. She had immediately donned the headband as soon as it was given to her which she tied around her neck and did not think to take it off before she went to sleep. When the young girl stretched in her bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes she realized she was still wearing it. This made her smile. Yoshi grabbed her hairbrush and brushed all the tangles out of her hair. After doing so, the young girl grabbed her clothes and got dressed. She then placed her long, brown hair up in her usual ponytail.

When Yoshi stood up to stretch, something terrible happened. A terrible sharp pain split coursed through her head. It felt like a bad head ache and the young girl could not understand why it happened so suddenly. It felt as if her a piece of sand was scratching her eyes, but when Yoshi tried to rub them, it only made things worse.

Ow, ow, ow! What the heck is going on? Yumi wondered as she tried desperately to stop rubbing her eyes.

Her eyes were red and inflamed. Yumi quickly ran for the bathroom and stood in front of the sink. Yumi held out her hands and turned the faucet on full blast. Yumi splashed water into her eyes but quickly realized there was nothing foreign in them at all. The soothing water did seem to help her splitting headache however. Yumi grabbed a washcloth and placed it under the running water. After ringing it out, Yumi placed it upon her forehead. This was the best way to sooth the pain but Yumi was still rather worried. Yumi walked down the hall and into the kitchen.

”What's wrong, sweetie?” her mother asked.

”My head hurts,” Yumi told her mom. ”And I don't know why.”

”Have a seat, Yumi. Breakfast will be ready soon,”

Yumi looked sat down and looked around the kitchen. ”Where's Daddy?” she asked in a pathetic tone.

”Your father is out with a fellow clansmen. He is picking up clay at the market district.”

The smell of food did little to make Yoshi's splitting headache go away, though the young girl was pleased to know that food was on its way. Yoshi's mother made tamago yaki, miso soup with dashinomoto, tako-san uinoa, and gohan. Everything was served on sandy-creme colored, square plates Yoshi's father had crafted.

Yumi placed her chopsticks in her hands, with her hands together, "Itadakimasu.”

As Yumi was about to take her first bite, something strange happened. For just a second, it felt as if she could 'feel' the chopsticks within her fingers. Not just normal sense of touch. Yumi could feel its entire form. Yumi could 'see' its shape. Yumi noticed the particles of wood, and not just the surface texture. She could see the grains on the inside. It was only for a moment. But doing so seemed to ease her headache a little. Yumi decided to reach for her clay cup. When her fingers touched, the strange sensation happened again. For a brief second, Yumi could feel the particles of clay. Its construction was different than that of the wooden chopsticks. It was more rigid. Yumi noticed the bits of sand within the clay. She could noticed how her fathers formed the drinking receptacle into shape it took. She noticed the small impurities in the clay. Her sharp, splitting headache turned into a tingling sensation. Yumi did not know what was going on, but at the same time, she wanted to discover more. When Yumi finished her lovely meal, she excused herself from the table .

”I, uh, I'll be in my room if you need me,” she told her mother.


”Of course, dear,” her mother replied.


Yumi bounded down the hall and into her room. When not about running a muck in the streets of Suna, Yumi could be found in her room drawing. But not today. Today the young ninja wished to meditate a little. An idea was forming inside her head. If she could mold her chakra and use this 'sense' at the same time, perhaps she could amplify this new found ability. Perhaps she could control how long of a period of time she could make it last. She had to try and her curiosity had peeked the first time she touched her chopsticks.


Yoshi sat upon her bed and looked around. She wanted to find a solid object to 'look' at. Something that had some substance to it. Most of her things were art supplies so the young ninja settled with a writing device. Yoshi placed her pencil in front of her and placed her fingers in the tiger hand seal. She closed her eyes and began to mold her chakra. Chakra swelled within her as her bed sheets ruffled slightly. Yoshi grabbed her pencil and tried to replicate the feeling she had while sitting at the kitchen table. Her suspicions were correct. This strange new phenomena seemed to react to chakra.


Yumi was able to see. Her eyes were closed, but Yumi could see her pencil. Not only could she make out the surfaces of the wood, she could also see the graphite that was placed inside which ran down the length of the shaft. As the young girl studied further, she began to notice dots. Her first thought was that they were sand. But when she rolled the pencil around in her hands a couple of times, she realized she just what she was sensing. Those dots were atoms. Their placement was repetitive. Their placement gave the pencil shape. What was more, Yumi noticed that the wood's atoms and the graphite's atoms were arranged in a different manor.

There's an imperfection in the graphite, Yumi thought as continued to feel the pencil.


Along the length of the pencil, two centimeters in, the graphite's atoms were strangely spaced. A gut feeling was telling her it was going to break there. It was going to break the next time she sharpened it. That was no good. This was one of her good drawing pencils. They were expensive.

If I can sense this, can I influence their placement? Yumi wondered.

Yumi molded her chakra some more. An atom began to move ever so slightly. Yumi focused on another. It too began to move. Yumi continued moving her pencil's atoms around until they all sat in uniform columns and rows. When Yumi opened her eyes, she noticed a black circle had formed upon the back of both of her hands.




(WC = 1128, claiming the first dot of Shokunin bloodline, +5 stats)