First Fuinjutsu Training

Sluggishly, Komori walked to the kitchen to prepare himself enough food to keep him ready for another day of training for a new jutsu. He was not even particularly sure which one yet, but he knew he wanted to focus primarily on sealing and some summoning jutsus. He decided that he would visit the library later that day to see if any jutsu caught his eye.
 
Once he reached the kitchen, Komori realized that they had run out of ramen and other food for that matter, due to their massive appetites and food consumption to maintain their energy. Instead, he got dressed and left the house, with plans to get food from the local ramen shop and then hit the library to grab a textbook he needed to check out. The feeling of hunger grew in his stomach which caused him to pick up his pace. He began to run more than walk before rounding a corner and bumping into someone, causing them both to fall backwards. Komori sat up, rubbing the back of his head and said in an agitated manner, “Hey! Why don’t you watch where-” before opening his eyes and seeing who he had run into a moment prior. A girl slightly shorter than him with blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail sat down on the ground, rubbing the back of her head as well. His demeanor instantly changed as he recognized her from his days at the academy, where he was not the most social person.
 
Komori stumbled over his words as he tried to apologize, “Sorry about that, I was just really hungry and on my way to go get some ramen and I didn’t look before I was running-” The girl cut off Komori’s ranting by smiling and holding her hand up in the manner that means “stop” before speaking up, “No, you’re fine, I wasn’t looking either.” He then noticed that a book about medical jutsu was lying opened on the ground beside her, face down. He must have knocked it out of her hands during the impact. “Well then it isn’t either of our faults,” Komori said before adding in a quieter voice, “or maybe both our faults?” Ignoring his own rhetoric question, he then noticed the rumbling noise coming from his stomach. He stood up and held out his hand to help the girl up, smiling and saying, “My name’s Komori, by the way.” She grabbed his hand and added, “Lilly.” Another grumble from his stomach sent him off on his way. He ran past her and began to run backwards to maintain eye contact with her. He shouted, “Sorry, but I have to go grab some food before my training begins, I was out of ramen at home. One day I’m going to become one of the most powerful ninja alive, you know. No one is ever going to die around me again.” His smile faltered as the overshare of personal information just kind of poured out of him before he turned forward and ran to grab breakfast. “What a strange boy,” Lilly said in a low voice as she walked away.
 
Komori wanted to make up for lost time, so he hurriedly ran towards the library to pick up a book on sealing that would give him an idea on a sealing formula that he would be able to learn, eating some dumplings while he was on his way.  He deposited his trash in a container outside the library before heading inside. He made a beeline towards the section devoted to sealing, which attracted the attention of the librarian, Yuko. She was a rather reserved redheaded woman with glasses hanging along the edge of her nose. “Komon, you can’t just run around the library like that,” she said in a hushed tone, as to not disturb the other readers. Komori turned and looked at her, “Oh, I’m not Komon. My name’s Komori and I’m assuming you’ve met my twin brother. Now that I think about it, he mentioned something about going to the library the other day.” She looked upset that she had called the boy the wrong name and began talking in a more nervous tone, “Yeah, he signed out a C-rank book about lightning style.” They chatted for a moment until Komori described what type of book he was looking for, and Yuko grabbed it for him before checking him out. “Come back any time!” she said in her usual hushed voice as Komori exited the building.
 
He began flipping through the pages of the C-ranked book on fuinjutsu on his way to his favorite training grounds. Komori held a certain fondness for it, as it was on the edge of the village and was more distant from others, unless of course Gorami showed up to the park to monitor his favorite student’s progress. He wandered over to the patch of grass near the koi pond, which he considered his personal training spot. The grass around him had grown slightly more than the rest of the patch, probably as a result of how much extra water they received. “Dark River Breaking Seal,” he said aloud to no one in particular. “This looks like a good one to start with.” The eager student quickly noted that he had to place the seal on his hand and then took a quick glance to the sealing formula before applying it to his left hand. He had left some targets on trees for shuriken practice back when he was an academy student and decided to aim at one of them to test out this new move. “This is going to be so cool.” These were the last words he said before the hastily applied seal backfired.
 
The backlash from the novice attempt at the seal caused his chakra to build up in his hand, before violently surging back throughout his body. This caused a wave of pain to seemingly hit his entire body, centralizing in his left arm, causing it to become numb as he lowered his still extended arm and held onto it in a pathetic attempt to stop the pain. It was at this time that a single, misshaped chakra bolt shot out of his palm into the ground, the impact creating a small crater in the ground. The sheer force of the chakra discharging from his arm was enough to launch him up into the air at least two feet off the ground. Komori began to panic as the blast pushed him backwards through the air until he landed on his back, thudding against the ground groaning. He was still pulling his injured arm close to his body, straining against himself to stop himself from having another misfire. He remained hunched over on the ground, until he passed out due to the intense pain he was still experiencing. His last thought before he fell unconscious was that he believed he heard someone calling his name.
 
Komori awoke in an unfamiliar, dark room, with the only light sources being a sliver of sunshine slipping past the window, and the lights of the hallway peeking through underneath the closed door. He found himself tucked into a white bed in a sterile room, that did not particularly smell of anything at all. His immediate thought was that someone had found him and brought him to the hospital, however, this room was laid out differently. The bed was not as plain as a standard hospital’s and had no machines nearby, instead there were various pieces of furniture, almost like a bedroom. Due to the innate darkness of the room, he did not notice the paintings that hung among various spots on the wall, depicting waves among the oceans and rather peaceful depictions of architecture. His left arm was bandaged and propped up. Any attempt to move his arm resulted in a sore feeling that resonated throughout the muscles below his shoulder. He worriedly tried to clench his left hand, unsure of what awaited him outside of the closed door.
 
He would not be left to ponder this for long, because soon a silhouette made their way into the room, holding what appeared to be a tray. His immediate thought was scalpels of some kind, so Komori quickly surveyed the room to the best of his ability, looking for any water he may be able to manipulate, however, he could not see any nearby, which meant that he could not perform Water Release: Snake’s Mouth. His arm was severely wounded, so he would not be able to perform the handsigns anyways. He glanced at his arm, considering placing the Dark River Breaking Seal on his arm once more if he needed to fend off his captors, even at the cost of his arm.
 
The light then turned on. Lilly was standing by the door, holding a tray with a bowl that smelt like ramen as well as a glass of water. She had noticed him looking at his injured arm and after placing the tray down on the nearby dresser, before running over and catching his right arm by the wrist. “Don’t you dare try whatever you did last time again,” she lectured him with a stern, serious face. Komori pulled the arm which was not injured away from her grip and sat up, using his right elbow as support. She began to say, “You’re lucky you didn’t blow your arm off with that…whatever it was.” “It’s called Dark River Breaking Seal. It’s basically a shortcut that lets me shoot out one or even more bolts made entirely of chakra. I must’ve gotten the seal wrong is all.” Believing he would not try to grab his injured arm, Lilly grabbed a nearby chair that had been left against a wall, “Surprised you’re not even phased by the fact that you would never be able to perform jutsu again,” she pulled the chair over towards the bedside before continuing, “It would be pretty difficult to become a ‘one of the most powerful ninja alive’ without the ability to use handsigns.” Her hands began to emit an emerald glow as she activated her medical jutsu and began the mending process as the realization about how dangerous training was hit Komori.
 
He waited a moment before speaking up, “So, where am I? What is this place?” Lilly shifted in her chair, giving a sense of a lack of comfortability as she blushed and looked away. “My bedroom.” Komori kept his excitement at being in the bedroom of a girl contained, but then realized that this situation only occurred because his jutsu attempt backfired. He begrudgingly clenched his jaw, upset at himself for making a fool of himself in front of this beautiful girl. He swore to himself then and there that he would prove to this girl, and to everyone else for that matter, that he was going to become a legendary shinobi. One who could protect others. One who could have stopped his mother’s death all those years ago. “How did you find me?” Komori wondered. Lilly smiled, relieved in a different topic of conversation, and added, “I ran into Gorami Sensei later on in the day and we got to talking.” Oh yeah, Komori thought to himself, we had the same instructor. She continued, “He mentioned something about heading over to these training grounds to oversee some training that a student he saw earlier was planning on doing. So I decided to accompany him. He left earlier than I did, and shortly afterwards I saw you in pain and headed over.”
 
Hours passed that were filled with conversation. His arm had not been horribly damaged, just slightly burned but such an intense concentration of chakra. When Lilly had finished with her medical jutsu, Komori swung his lungs over the side of the bed. He tightened his hand, making sure that he was able to do so without feeling any pain and flexing his arm. As soon as he flexed, he immediately became self-aware that a beautiful girl was watching him. He stood up, still dressed in his street clothes, and grabbed his shinobi headband showing the insignia of the Village Hidden in the Clouds from a nearby table. He walked to the window and looked outside. It was still daylight out. “How long have I been here?” Komori asked.  “About twenty-four hours,” was her reply. The backlash of this jutsu was more dangerous than he had originally anticipated. However, he was not going to give up. He wanted so desperately to master this jutsu, and start by placing the seal mark on his arm right then and there, but he wanted to check the sealing book beforehand. A quick glance around the room led him to believe he had left it at the training grounds. He looked at Lilly and smiled, “Thanks. For finding me and fixing me up. You’re pretty good at medical jutsu.” He started to head out the door when she spoke up, “You’re going to go train again, aren’t you.” Was that a trace of worry in her voice? Komori had always been an honest person and felt no need to change that. “Of course,” he turned around and faced her once more, “I’m going to become a legendary ninja, remember?” With that, he walked outside her house and headed towards the training grounds once more.
 

Komori noticed the book he had borrowed from the library earlier lying on the ground near the small crater his chakra bolt had left. He realized that Lilly had not even bothered to grab the book at all, which meant her full attention was diverted to him. He smiled at the thought as he turned to the proper page and made sure that he was going to have the seal be completely accurate. He took a deep breath and once again applied the formula to his hand. He focused his chakra into his left arm, where he began to feel the chakra course through him, without the pain this time. He hesitantly turned his head and fired off a bolt, scared of the potential backlash. He heard the sound of the target board slightly cracking and looked up. He had not hit the middle, but he had still hit it, without causing himself arm. Feeling confident, he began to fire multiple consecutive shots. Five in a row thudded into the target, their accuracy improving with each shot fired until the board cracked in half and fell to the ground. He pumped his fist into the air, proud of his achievement as he turned around to see Lilly watching him from a distance, smiling at him, relieved that he had not hurt himself.

--Exit--
WC: 2449
Requesting: 12 stat points and Dark River Breaking Seal