Dense As The Forest [p/nk/io]

Kanshi sat in the branches of the forest for yet another fun thing: squad meeting! Today he was going to show them all he was human and try to ignore the fact that he just tore his best friends to pieces and thoroughly enjoyed every last drop of blood. In the end, they did all walk away safe and somewhat sound, but Kanshi remembered his first kill clearly and wondered how it impacted them.

It had been, funny enough, a Genin who might have gone a bit too far. The name was Yatu and he had confronted when Kanshi was only a month or so away from Chuunin about how much an idiot ghoul like himself didn't deserve such a ranking. He had never killed before, but boy did he dream everyday about it. Soon some kind of argument sprawled out of control he had only remembered slightly in his anger before he got into a fight with Yatu. In the end, he was kicked till he broke a rib and left to die in a alleyway with only a smug face and the clothing on his back. Kanshi knew Yatu made the mistake of keeping him alive and hid out at the hospital playing the role of a brightened kitten. He didn't tell a soul, because he wanted Yatu all to himself. Once his wounds were healed, he waited three nights to plan his attack before coming into Yatu's house through a window. Kanshi had stood on the windowsill, watching Yatu sleep with a strange new feeling of intense excitement coming over him. Before he knew it, he had multiple kunai going through Yatu in places perfect for dislocating limbs. The next thing he had done was watch Yatu's suffering in his eyes and told him that lowly people such as himself didn't deserve to breathe the same air as him. Once it was all done, Yatu was found dead without a trace and 30 stab wounds across his body.

He remembered this with a sick smile on his face as he waited for his squad to explain and live through what he presumed was their first kill.

[359]

Tatsurama was tired from his most recent mission with the squad. He had never imagined killing his first enemy yet, and was pretty disheartened by it. He wouldn't let it get to him in regards to his training though, as he had big plans for the future, and wanted to become a powerful shinobi like his ancestors in the Senju clan. He left the house with his gear and made his way out of the village to the forest where they had planned to meet up together and train. He got near and saw Kanshi waiting in a clearing in the forest and walked over to him.
"Hey sensei. Training after training, we've been doing it a lot lately. Perhaps we might even be able to become chuunin soon. Especially with how much we have grown over such a short time."
He said as he placed his gear down then began to stretch as he awaited the others to arrive. He planned to learn a few new techniques in this training. One he had his eye on for quite a while. The barrier canopy method. It was a useful jutsu to learn, but he also had plans to learn a genjutsu and taijutsu technique each, to become more well rounded at his level. He finished his stretching and and sat down on a stump, wearing his normal attire. 

WC: 228/228

Takamitsu was quite well rested for the team meeting, considering the large amount of rest he had gotten due to being specifically told by his old instructor to not get out of bed and to get his rest. Takamitsu wasn't quite sure if this team meeting was going to be more training, or just a talk about the outcome of the previous mission. Takamitsu was positive that he hadn't done poorly, despite passing out, as his genin was the only one that was left alive for questioning, which was required for the mission to be successful. All in all, it had been a good day for Takamitsu, he learned a new jutsu, he got a few extra Ryo, and he finally felt that he was making progress on the case with his brother. Before leaving to meet up with his team, Takamitsu slipped into a small restaurant to pass a message along. This time, Takamitsu wasn't operating through the shinobi in the academy to find his brother, and instead a shinobi that didn't operate in very...Conventional ways.

The boy watched silently from several dozen meters away between the trees, slowly approaching as he wasn't in very much of a rush. He was likely going to appear last, as per usual, as Takamitsu was arriving more than twenty minutes past the meeting time. Unless Kosu was extremely late, he'd probably even arrive earlier. When the genin finally did close in on the group, he'd glance up towards Kanshi and laugh slightly.
"The skin suits you."
Takamitsu glances towards his teammates and nods in their direction before looking up towards Kanshi once again,
"So are we going out for lunch or something afterwards? I'd even be willing to pitch in to pay."

WC: 291

Kosurama had been on his daily walk along the path surrounding the village. His mind would constantly slip off into a pool of spontaneous thoughts, not sure if he was supposed to be somewhere else at the moment. Once Kosu had walked approximately three quarters of the path's total distance, he began to hear voices coming form within the forest. He stopped in his tracks and glanced at three familiar figures.
"Shit..."
He now knew where he was supposed to be at this moment in time. He slowly walked into the forest, knowing it was hopeless to come up with any excuses - his brother knew he had no plans set for today. Kosurama approached his squad, listening intently as the three shinobi talked among themselves. He would wait for an opportune moment before he entered the scene.
Hopefully they're use to my tardiness by now...
He looked at both his brother and Takamitsu before peering up into the tree at the unfamiliar fellow. 
"Hey guys, sorry i'm late. I had uh, uh, uh, uh- okie doke..." Kosurama gave up before even thinking of his reluctantly petty excuse.
He held his gaze on the man in the tree for a prolonged amount of time before finally snapping back into reality.
"Hello, my name is Kosurama, are you, uh, new here?"
Although he hated to admit it, Kosurama was terrible with names and faces and was often forgetful about many things. It wasn't that he was disinterested in these types of things (maybe a little), but it was more so that he always had something else on his mind. He once again snapped out of his own introspection and surveyed the man sitting in the tree. 
He oddly looks familiar. Perhaps i'm missing something...


WC: 292

As Tatsurama placed down his gear, Kanshi grew a warm, fatherly face on himself when he realized how quickly all of them had progressed. He had turned human, Tatsurama and his brother seem to have helped each other out well, and Takamitsu probably had a better idea on how to fight close up. It was crazy to him to think that maybe his students are now equals with him already as he began to speak.
"We have only been training so hard, because it was kind of like a game of catch up. From what I have heard, every other squad is brutally strong and I am probably the weakest Chuunin in this village. This training session, as you will figure out, will be much different than the others and maybe even more enjoyable. Takamitsu is probably arriving about now as usual and who knows where Kosurama is."
He snickered towards the end as he stared off to see Takamitsu approaching and overall Kanshi seemed considerably happier than usual. After hearing Takamitsu speak, Kanshi began to smile deeply as Takamitsu pointed out his skin. It was around this time, he could see Kosurama join in and begin to question him.
"I am Kanshi, Kosurama. As you both have pointed out, I am human now thanks to this Chuunin I met who helped me out considerably. I was half of someone then copied someone's half and joined into my half to become whole. Anyhow, Takamitsu suggested we go to lunch after this, so that's going to happen now and this training session is going to be a bit different. This time, I am the one you guys need to teach. My chakra network and body can handle learning ninjutsu, and to my good luck, I have three ninja experienced in ninjutsu before me. I feel like this will help develop some of your teaching and leadership skills, but also I really just want to branch off a little from bukijutsu a little."
Kanshi hopped down from the tree and could barely contain the sheer amount of chakra rushing through him. He had been overwhelmed a little by his new form, but it was something he could probably get used to. Shooting a quick glance to each of the three of his squad members, he wondered how much he could learn in one day.

[392/751]

Tatsurama listened to Kanshi talk about the other squads, but he wasn't convinced. He was certain squad 14 would soon be on their level or perhaps even better soon enough. He did indeed plan on getting to chuunin and then Jounin as soon as possible, but he knew it would be a tough challenge no matter how many jutsu he learned.
"I'm sure we will get up there soon. Don't count us out yet to be the number one squad. If we can just get a little stronger, i feel we will be the best squad in Konoha. Although that might just be pride speaking. Heh"
Tatsurama turned to see Takamitsu join in, and then his brother shortly after. Ignoring Kosurama's excuse as to why he was late considering he was always late it seemed. Tatsurama had noticed that Kanshi was different now, but considering all the crazy things in the village currently he just considered it normal to change appearance.
"Congratulations on becoming a full human now then. And yes i have a jutsu i can teach you now. It is the hair jutsu i used on Takamitsu in our spar from the first training session. It is quite useful and powerful to say the least, and i feel you'll like it. It is called the Art of the Raging Lions Mane. I'll give an explanation and demonstration of it for you to try and learn it."
Tatsurama moved over into a clearing where they had some more room to practice and teach the ninjutsu. He would need quite a bit if he was to display the lion's mane technique. He looked over at Kanshi to explain as he gathered chakra and formed the snake hand-seal.
"The basic explanation to this jutsu is that it uses chakra to stimulate the metabolism of your hair and manipulate it to grow longer, harden and even move. It requires you to hold the snake hand-seal with one of your hands and gather the chakra into your scalp where the hair grows. Once that is done, you condense and move the chakra around inside your hair and do the aforementioned uses. I'll give a demonstration now."
The senju began to gather and mold his chakra into his scalp to have it seep into the roots of the hair as he formed the snake hand-seal and controlled the chakra that he placed into it. After a second, the hair began to expand and he clumped it together to form a long serpent-like appendage that extended 40 meters through the clearing to the other side and tearing apart a few trees on the tree-line.
"You can extend the hair at a maximum of 40 meters, and can have it spike out into sharp points or just tear through whatever it hits with it's strength. You can also restrain someone, or something and can form up to 5 of these serpents at once."
He then de-activated the snake hand-seal having his hair shrink back to the top of his head and to it's normal size and softness.
"It is a fairly useful technique. You give it a try now and see if you can do it. I'll be here if you need another explanation or demonstration on how to use it. And you guys can learn it if you want to as well."
He said changing his gaze towards Takamitsu and his brother. He then walked over to a stump on the edge of the clearing to sit down and watch whoever wanted to learn the jutsu attempt it.
"After you guys learn that, and Kanshi gets up to speed on ninjutsu, i would wish to learn a few things as well to get in some training for the day and stay caught up to speed."


WC: 630/858

Takamitsu gave a slight laugh as Kosurama arrived, realizing that he himself wasn't the latest one, despite nearly forgetting about the meeting. "Man, Kosu, you had me waiting here for at least an hour." The genin said sarcastically as he turned to look back at Kanshi, a warm smile on his face. "I'm glad that Chuunin was able to help, and I'd be willing to show you anything that I was able to learn since I left the academy." Speaking of Chuunin, Takamitsu had wondered when they would be able to take an exam or something of the sort in order to progress their rank. He knew that probably had a lot of missions that they needed to put under their belt, and there was a lot that Kanshi would still be able to show them, but Takamitsu wanted to keep the future in his sights as he continued to practice and compete with Konoha's Team 14, the mehest squad there is. The boy took a seat in the grass as Tatsurama began to walk off, talking about how he was going to demonstrate the hair jutsu. Takamitsu honestly wasn't quite listening to everything Tatsurama said as he was lost in his own world, but he seemed to perk up after a couple seconds of talking, as if he had snapped out of his haze and was ready to learn more about the jutsu. As Tatsurama spoke, Takamitsu had glanced over towards his brother, thinking. Although they hadn't really talked much yet Takamitsu had an older brother of his own, and although there were obvious differences between Kurushimi and Tatsurama, he still felt that they had enough similarities that Takamitsu might be able to find some sort of friendship with Kosu. Takamitsu, who never really actively tried to find companions, knew that a friendship might develop over time through proximity alone, but it didn't mean that the genin wouldn't eventually try to reach out towards his comrade. He redirected his attention back to Tatsurama, Listening to him say something about scalps and hair metabolism, and as much as Takamitsu wanted to find the speech interesting, his eyes dilated slightly as he completely zoned out during most of the explanation, instead thinking about what Takamitsu had spent most of his morning doing. Besides training for new jutsu and trying to make it to the meeting on time, he also had tried to make contact with other ninja about details on his brother, hoping that something would get passed over to him eventually. And although he knew that nothing good was probably going to come from meeting the man that considered killing him years ago, Takamitsu also figured that he could at least learn more about the circumstances that made Kurushimi defect, what exactly he had done on that day that Takamitsu was nearly killed, and what exactly was in the scroll that Takamitsu had saw the hours before the ninja had left Konoha. If one of the ninja would come through with information, then he would be able to put all of these questions behind him, and he was going to be able to finally progress as his own person, and not live in the shadow of doubt that Kurushimi had cast.

When Tatsurama had finally walked back towards the group of ninja, Takamitsu once again tried to shake his head clear of any intrusive thoughts and turn his attention towards the other ninja. He discretely performed the ram hand sign, wondering that if the few tidbits of information that Takamitsu had actually heard were enough to successfully use the jutsu, or if he was going to need to watch it one more time for it to be successfully done. The genin quietly began to move the chakra throughout his body, beginning to gather it within his midsection before attempting to change its form within his hands. If Takamitsu was going to be able to move it towards his scalp and 'stimulate the metabolism of his hair' as Tatsurama had said, then he would be able to use his chakra to manipulate said hair and form the Lions that the jutsu creates. Takamitsu felt he had a small advantage with learning this jutsu over Kosu or Kanshi, as although they had likely seen the jutsu before, Takamitsu was nearly positive that there were likely only a few number of people that Tatsurama had used the hair against, and Takamitsu was likely the only friend that had experienced it firsthand. The genin, of course, didn't blame Tatsurama for using that jutsu against him as he was only a couple inches away from blowing a hole in his shoulder, but Takamitsu was in a bit of a rough patch at that point, and likely didn't plan on using a jutsu of that level on a comrade ever again. He laughed slightly as he thought back to the first training session and mission, although they had only been on one more mission since their first, the life or death situations that it had put them through made them, in Takamitsu's mind, far closer than they were before they had any sort of battle experience together. The genin didn't exactly know what the future was going to bring, but he was sure that he was going to be able to pull through as long as Team 14 was going to stay together.

Takamitsu continued to build the chakra in his stomach, and also continued to attempt to change its form, slowly moving the mass of chakra up towards his head. The sensation felt quite odd, as if he was going to be able to balance on his head or that his face was moment away from creating a bloody explosion that would make most modern artists proud. He took his mind away from the feeling and continued to let the chakra seep into his his scalp, his hair beginning to grow a small amount. Although his sign would have been mostly obscured by his teammates before, the hair growth wasn't so hard to notice. To his team, it would likely appear that Tatsurama had started to walk back after his demonstration, and the boy's hair began to swiftly grow seconds later without much explanation. Any reasonable person would assume that Takamitsu had just done the jutsu in the few second span that Tatsurama had given them, but his team might have been too side tracked to even notice the growth at first. The boy began to slowly stand up as a a gaping mouth seemed to erupt from his dark brown hair, bursting away from the ground and into a nearby tree, which let out a small explosion of woodchips. Takamitsu didn't lie to Kanshi, he did make a lot of things explode during the training sessions. The hair receded and Takamitsu glanced towards his team mates, giving them a small smile.
"That was kind of simple, I'm sure it was your explanation that helped."
Judging by the slight pause that Takamitsu had after 'your,' it was a bit more clear that the boy wasn't really paying attention to the demonstration. "I guess I should probably demonstrate something soon after everyone finishes up with this, yeah?" Takamitsu laughed slightly, not quite sure what he would be able to demonstrate.

WC: 1215/1506 (1500/1500 for -50% Art of The Raging Lion's Mane)

Takamitsu calmly stood up after laughing slightly at what Kanshi had said. "You could probably break most of the bones in my body just by looking at me, I wouldn't say I'm that far ahead." The boy stretched as he began to walk in front of the group, trying to think of what he could possibly teach to the rest of the group that they would be able to learn, but also would be a useful addition to their skill set. "I'll demonstrate something that can help out everyone, I'll show my new lightning technique for our now human leader, and then I'll show off some basic taijutsu because I figured the Senju brothers would be interested." After his display, he was going to be heading off. He wanted to train, and he figured that it would be more effective for him to do it on his own. First, he began to perform the handsigns for Chidori, hoping that his demonstration would only require one example. Despite his constant use of the technique, he only seemed to be able to do two bursts before he was out of commission, and that wouldn't be ideal during a casual team meeting. He intensely looked forward as sparks began to fly from his hands. The sparks became lightning, as a loud chirping began to emit from his hand. Takamitsu ran past the group into a group of trees, extending his hand outwards. The explosion happened almost instantly, the boy's hand passing cleanly through the tree as if it had put up no resistance. A small smile was visible on his face as he began to slow down, the sparks fading from his hand.

After his demonstration he turned around to look at his team, which he assumed would all have amazed expressions. "And this is for the brothers who wouldn't touch lightning transformations with a ten foot pole." The boy flashes a smile with his currently unscarred face, and then runs towards yet another tree, jumping up before beginning to spin with a kick. At the last second, his initial kick fades away, missing the tree, as another flies from below the first. The initial kick was only a feint, the second kick being the kick that actually would do any sort of damage. "As you could see," Takamitsu says, beginning to wipe a bead of sweat off of his forehead. "My incredibly skillful and beautiful demonstration demonstrated that the first kick is nothing but a fake, and the other kick is what you really want to focus on." He laughs slightly, hoping that his team would see that the sarcasm was heavy in his self compliments. "Anyways, I kind of need to run, I have to meet with someone tonight and it'd suck if I was late." He begins to walk towards his team, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm glad we got to train today, even if it was just for a little while." It wouldn't take a detective to guess that something sounded slightly off about his farewell. The next night, he was going to meet his brother, and he wasn't quite sure about how it was going to end up. He turns and slightly waves the back of his right hand over his shoulder, signaling that he was done.
-Exit Thread-

WC: 552/2058
+10 Skill Points
+Art of The Raging Lion's Mane (1500/1500)
+558 WC towards Chidori Mastery