Spec Change

Komori woke up rather early that morning of his own free accord. It did not appear that Komon had moved his curtain today, as he left earlier than usual to spend a good portion of the day training. He felt that his brother and even some others he had met and sparred against were progressing a lot faster than he himself was. He was left to ponder the significant advancement of his peers as he ate his breakfast by himself in the currently empty house. He felt himself dropping behind the others and began to wonder what he could possibly do to improve himself and his skill set.
 
He had always found sealing to be appealing, and very practical. It is not very easy to start with it as a primary focus however. Seals are very difficult and even dangerous sometimes. Komori realized that he would not be able to keep up with his brother and friends if he did not shift his primary focus to ninjutsu, and train hard to learn moves that would make him stronger. His entire goal in life was to protect those he cares about, even at the cost of himself. The only thing stopping him from being even more reckless than he tended to be sometimes, as he was more emotionally driven than he cared to admit, was the thought that he would be unable to protect his loved ones if he were to die. There were cruel shinobi out there who were prepared to kill others to attain their own selfish goals. Such as the Hidden Mist shinobi who killed Komori and Komon’s mother simply for her dojutsu. He swore on that day that he would find that man and take his mother’s eyes back.
 
He pushed his food away from him as a tear rolled down his cheek. It would be a while until he became strong enough to ensure that something to that nature would never happen to him. He would not let that happen to Komon or Gorami or Lilly. Komori decided then and there that he would become even stronger than he originally swore to become. This would mean having to hone his ninjutsu skills further and more than he had before. Grabbing his signature blue hoodie to protect himself from the cool morning winds of the mountains, he walked out the door, no longer in a rush to train. His first stop would be the library.
 
Komori headed down the roads at a more leisurely pace than his usual morning jogs that he took to get to the training grounds. However, he made a left turn where he usually made a right, and continued walking until he reached the library. As he walked into the front doors, he made a quick glance to see if Yuko was working that day, but did not see her at the front desk. He meandered over to the fuinjutsu section himself, rather disappointed that he was going to return the sealing book. However, he was fully determined to step up his ninjutsu skills and headed towards the appropriate section to find a new book or scroll as a source of reference to better hone his jutsu techniques.
 
He found a book on water style ninjutsu that interested him and pulled it off the shelf to look at it. Once he had moved the book, Komori saw Yuko’s face through the shelf and jumped as she let out a small squeal. They had both caught each other off guard. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Yuko worriedly apologized repeatedly. Komori moved his hand away from his heart to check to see if it was still beating due to the fright he had just experienced. One look at her and he could tell she was on the brink of tears from a simple accident so he hurried to reassure her. “It’s fine, Yuko, really.” This seemed to alleviate some tension from her body, as she relaxed slightly more, however, she still remained in her constant state of borderline panic.
 
“It’s good to see you again, Komori,” she said as she closed her eyes and put on a forced smile, still obviously upset at their abrupt meeting. Komori responded, “It’s good to see you, too, Yuko.” She gave him a puzzled look. “If you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing in this section? I just sort of assumed you would be more into the sealing section.” Her look once again turned to one of panic. “Was there something wrong with the book?! Was it unsatisfactory?! Oh dear, why do these things happen,” she said as she then spouted off into incoherent mumblings more towards herself than directed at Komori. Komori rolled his eyes at her, but she did not notice as she was looking more towards the ground, contemplating what a book means to her own self and the library and the customers and probably one thousand more different issues at the same time. “Yuko.” Komori grabbed her shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. “Snap out of it.” She looked at him confused at first and then regained her composure. She was probably the most incompetent librarian in the entire shinobi world.
 
Komori began to explain, “You see, for a while now, I’ve begun to realize how much faster everyone else is progressing compared to me. I feel like I just need to focus more on my ninjutsu and train towards that more instead of sealing. And don’t get me wrong, Yuko, I’ll be back for that book someday.” He gave her a reassuring smile. The pair walked towards the front desk with absent minded chatter shared between the two, as Komori’s mind wandered elsewhere, thinking of a thousand different skills he could train while focusing on ninjutsu. Yuko checked out the book in his name before Komori bid her a farewell and headed outside with a mind filled with wonderings.
 
Komori decided to meet with his former teacher and friend Gorami to discuss abandoning his focus on seals in order to hone his ninjutsu. He navigated the streets and bridges of the Village Hidden in the Cloud on his way to the man’s home. Komori knocked on the door several times before Gorami appeared at the door, smiling as he saw his star student. “Ah, Komori, what brings you by?” Komori replied, “I wanted to talk to you about being a ninja. I was just thinking of how I wanted to be stronger and should focus on my ninjutsu more than I’ve been focusing on some sealing jutsu lately.” The older man nodded his head, “Do you want to come grab some ramen with me?” Komori, happy that he had an instructor that cared so much about him, eagerly accepted the man’s offer and headed towards the ramen shop, sure that he would be able to talk about the topic once they reached their destination.
 
When the master and student arrived at the shop, they noticed a young boy, slightly older than Komori, shouting at the owners of the shop. His voice gave off a feeling of superiority and arrogance in itself, which led to Komori immediately taking a disliking to the new guy. The boy turned and scowled at Komori and Gorami before turning back to the shopkeepers, “If you idiots actually knew how to cook food then you would be getting paid for this!” He shoved an empty bowl over the counter into the chest of the head cook, spilling out the remainders onto the man’s apron. He then headed towards Komori and Gorami before bumping into Komori’s shoulder. Komori called out to him, “Who the hell do you think you are?!” He was angry at this kid’s treatment of the shop’s owners as well as being an overall unpleasant person. The other boy turned around and pointed to himself with his thumb. “Name’s Joka, and I’m the guy you shouldn’t mess with,” he said before storming off looking pissed at nothing and everything at the same time.
 
“Oh, I am so going to kick his ass!” Komori said clenching his fists and holding his hands up into the air. His expression quickly changed as a hand was placed on his shoulder. Gorami’s voice rose up from behind him, “Oh, are you now?” Komori quickly turned around and bowed towards his instructor, looked at the ground, and said, “My apologies, Gorami Sensei.” Gorami shook his head and hid a smirk. He thought to himself, The fire in this kid is nearly intolerable. Komori grabbed his sensei’s arm and dragged him to the ramen shop, thoughts of hatred turned into the sensation of hunger.  He continued his thought, Nearly.
 
The pair sat themselves and each ordered an individual bowl of ramen. As the ramen bowls were delivered rather quickly, Gorami spoke up while his student devoured the food presented in front of him, “So, Komori, what were you wanting to discuss earlier?” Komori took a break from inhaling his meal before wiping his mouth with the cuff of his hoodie’s sleeve. “Oh right. Well, Gorami Sensei, I’ve just been thinking a lot lately.” His expression turned to one of uncertainty. “Right, so I just have been feeling,” he searched for the right words, “weaker lately. Especially compared to what Komon has been doing. He got a new teacher and has been excelling.” He flashed a smile of sibling pride. “He’ll probably make chuunin in no time at all.” A raised eyebrow from Gorami sent Komori into a slight state of panic. “Of course, I would never replace you, Gorami Sensei!” His instructor smiled before asking, “Ask yourself, Komori. Why do you want to become stronger?”
 
Komori did not even need to think through his answer. “I want to be able to protect those around me to the best of my ability. Even if it’s against people like that one kid that was rude to the owners of this shop.” He looked down at the ramen and twirled his utensils in his bowl. “I meant what I said about wanting to fight him.” Gorami dropped his smile, looking more concerned than anything and saying, “Even if you don’t like someone, Komori, you should always respect a person. This especially applies to those you don’t like. Respect those who do not respect you even more than others. It shows everyone else that you are the bigger person.” He smiled, “That affects them more than any fight would.”
 
They talked for a bit more, Komori discussing his most recent fuinjutsu incident at the training grounds and recapping his sparring match with two new friends he had made. Gorami remembered he had a class at the academy to teach soon and bid Komori farewell. Komori had barely left the ramen shop when a familiar sounding, arrogant voice spoke to him. “So your babysitter is finally gone.”
 
Komori turned to the source of the voice only to see Joka leaning against the wall. His spiky bleach blonde hair peeked out above his shinobi headband as he smirked. The boy had been smoking from a pipe, but with less class than any other person Komori had seen with one. Komori instantly became defensive, “He isn’t my babysitter, dumbass.” He could not tolerate disrespectful people. “As I was walking away, I couldn’t help but hearing that you wanted to kick my ass.” He flashed a cocky yet arrogant grin. “I came back to see if you were all talk or not.”
 
The two boys walked to a proper training ground, although it was one that Komori had never been to before. He immediately noticed that there was no nearby accessible pool of water that he would be able to draw water for his current water jutsu. The only nearby source of water was a waterfall on a nearby mountain, out of range for his style. Joka walked across the field and Komori bowed, as shinobi were supposed to. When Joka did not return the gesture, Komori became insulted at such a disgraceful act. Joka simply laughed it off, “I have no reason to respect you, kid.” Joke then came at Komori without even performing handsigns. “I am tired of your attitude!” Komori shouted before applying the Dark River Breaking Seal and shooting out a bolt of chakra. Joka easily sidestepped it, as the range had given him time to react, causing the bolt to hit into the mountain behind him. The waterfall slightly changed his direction as the bolt hit which gave Komori an idea. He was going to try to divert the water to reach a position where he would be able to manipulate it to suit him.
 
Komori performed the basic clone jutsu and both ran towards Joka, who was still advancing. The clone and the original Komori continued to trade places until Joka reached his hand out to grab the nearest one, only for his hand to pass through the clone. He quickly turned his attention behind him as Komori ran past and began aiming for the waterfall. Joka made a noticeable advance on Komori which caused Komori to lose focus, allowing the Dark River Breaking Seal to backfire once more, sending him flying backwards into Joka. Joka then grabbed Komori by his shirt and raised his arm into the air before shouting “Lightning Release: Lightning Rod!” Komori was quickly affected by the lightning technique, rendering his hydrification technique useless. Joka scoffed, “I should’ve known some punk ass kid like you couldn’t live up to what you said.” He let go of Komori’s hoodie, causing Komori to thud against the ground.
 
He was not able to defeat Joka, despite the tactic he had thought of. He did not even get a chance to put it into practice. If he had spent more time focusing on his ninjutsu, then he might have been able to win that battle by being able to use a technique that did not require a water sources. Even using his seal that he had thought that he mastered, it had still backfired on him once more. If only I had a stronger ninjutsu technique I could have used, Komori thought to himself. Joka had pushed Komori to his limits and Komori crumbled as a result. I have to become stronger, Komori thought to himself as he passed out on the training grounds.
 
After a rather painful walk home, Komori was crudely patching up his newly earned wounds when he heard a knock at the door. “It’s probably Komon back from his training,” he wondered aloud before forcing himself out of bed to answer the door. When he opened the door, however, he was greeted with the shock of seeing Lilly there, holding a small white bag in both of her hands. She gave him a warm smile, causing him to stumble over his words a few times before inviting her inside. “So, Lilly, what are you doing here?” She looked around the house with curiosity before Komori realized that this was his first friend he had had visit. Beafosu had stopped by the other day, but he did not know her at all before then. Besides, Lilly was here for him. After she had completed her initial scan of the room, Lilly looked at him and said, “I heard you got hurt in some fight earlier and wanted to make sure you were okay.” She looked him over, noticing the sloppy bandages adorning his arm. “Which you clearly aren’t,” she said in a rather displeased tone before looking him straight in the eyes. “So, where’s your bedroom.”
 
After getting over the initial shock, Komori muttered some incoherent babble before escorting her down the hall to his room. She hid a small laugh and followed him. When he got to the door, he motioned for her to walk through, which she did. She sat down on his bedside and opened her bag, “Come on, Komori, don’t be so shy.” Once he had sat down to her right, she unraveled the poorly wrapped bandages and began performing her medical ninjutsu once more. Komori stifled a grunt caused by the pain of his arm, which she either did not notice or chose not to. He spoke up to break the silence, “This feels all too familiar.” He put on a grin and rubbed the back of his head, running his fingers through his own hair. She continued the process of healing him. “As long as you keep getting yourself hurt, Komori, I’m going to have to keep healing you.” She smiled before adding, “At this rate, I’ll become the best medical specialist in the entire village.” He laughed and continued with idle chatter until he stopped and opened up her bag, pulling out a roll of bandages. Komori was infatuated with her voice as she hummed a soft melody whiles she worked.
 
“Aaaaaaand. There. Good as new.” Komori flexed his hand, still feeling a tingling sensation of pain, but for the most part, he had been fully healed. That is when he confirmed his decision. He realized that he would lose the ability to use Dark River Breaking Seal as a result, but then again, that jutsu almost killed him. Twice. He felt lucky to be alive. There is no telling what would have happened had Lilly not found him when he was first learning the move. He started talking, “I’ve been thinking lately about not using sealing jutsu. You know, at least for a while.” Lilly looked slightly confused but nodded her head in a “go on” sort of manner. “I think it would be best if I attempted sealing again when I became a more experienced shinobi, you know?” Lilly exhaled deeply and nodded in agreement, probably relieved that Komori was going to be putting himself in less danger before saying, “If you think that’s what’s best than for sure, go with how you feel.”
 
He looked outside and saw the sun setting, casting a warm orange glow across the room. She must have noticed it, too, because she began to get up to leave. Komori got up to walk her out. They walked out of his bedroom and down the hall towards the door. Once they arrived at the front of the house, Komori said, “Thanks for taking care of me all the time.” She gave a light laugh and said, “I’m always here for you if you need me.” Komori laughed as well before saying, “Well in that case I should get hurt more often.” They shared a laugh together. They looked at each other for a moment before Lilly leaned in and gave Komori a kiss on the cheek and headed out the door. As she walked away, Komori placed his hand on his heart for the second time that day. However, this time, it was not out of fright. This time was because he knew he had fallen in love with a girl named Lilly. A girl he placed among a group of people he was willing to give his life to protect. People he had to become stronger in order to protect them to the best of his ability, which he would do by honing his ninjutsu.
 
WC: 3200 Exactly

Requesting: Spec change from Fuinjutsu to Ninjutsu and 16 stat points

Approved, Komori

[Rewards]

-Ninjutsu Spec
- 16 Stat points