Seals and so Much More

Senshi awoke to the quietness of his apartment, his hazel eyes staring blearily up at the ceiling. He didn’t particularly want to get upright now, but he knew that he needed to. He was a Chuunin now, he had a large amount of responsibilities. Plus today was one of the rare days where he had not been assigned to one of the many addition duties that Chuunin typically did. This meant that he had more than enough time to get to work on improving himself, and the best way to do that was to finally learn a second specialty in order to improve himself. Just being a proficient weapons user was no longer good enough. Chuunin were expected to excel at two different specialties so that they could better support the village.
 
As a Genin Senshi had focused on learning everything he could from every specialty that a shinobi could do. He had known that he was generally interest in seals and would greaty like to learn that but he had wanted to be thorough. Not only did he believe in being a versatile shinobi, but learning what he could of every art had taught him whether or not he was interested in that specific specialty. By doing this Senshi had discovered that he genuinely loved studying seals. Mainly because they were an intellectual sort of thing that allowed to use his brain and expand his knowledge. He had also learned that he rather liked space time techniques, but he didn’t believe that it was something that would be extremely useful right now.
 
There were very few seal masters in the world, and even fewer of them in Kumogakure. As such he had decided that learning seals would be extremely beneficial not only to his own progession as a shinobi but also to the village as a whole. Seals were an extremely versatile art and they would allow Senshi to not only assist himself, and his village but in combat would turn him into the true support shinobi that he had trained himself to become. He was extremely proficient in his use of weapons at a long range, and with his sword he still remained at a decent range from an opponent. Using the seals to boost not only his weapons capabilities but to also support Reizo, Max, or Itami from afar would only add to their team dynamic.
 
Thus he had used all of these reasons in order to justify why he would specialize in seals. He had made an appointment at the library several days prior to check out several books on fuuinjutsu so that he could begin his study into learning the art. He would need to understand the abilities that each seal held and what other things about seals that they could do. He already knew the basics from his time as a Genin and learning several D and E rank seals but now it was time to further his knowledge so that he could learn the higher ranked seals and one day become a master in the field of fuuinjutsu. Nothing could benefit himself or his village more than that.
 
With his thoughts in order the tall Chuunin pushed himself out of bed getting dressed quickly before heading to his kitchen and quickly eating breakfast. By the time he had completed all of this it was five in the morning, and just about the right time to go and collect the books from the library. He had learned that the librarians did not like it if he showed up earlier than five, and so he had made sure to plan his time around that. He moved quickly through the village towards the library intent on not wasting any time. It was time that he earned his rank as a Chuunin and stopped making excuses for why he couldn’t keep improving himself. Other Chuunin the village kept themselves in tip top shape and continued to improve while also doing all the duties required of them. He could do it too.
 
The Raikage had entrusted him with this rank and he would not fail the man by being lazy any longer. Once he arrived at the library he walked brazenly through the doors giving only a brief nod of acknowledgement to the woman manning the desk. He headed to the stairs quickly climbing them and giving another nod of acknowledgement to the two Chuunin guarding the door. He waited for several moments as they opened the door and then headed inside the vault. He was directed by a librarian, whom he suspected was also a Chuunin level shinobi, to a side room. The room had a desk, the three books he needed in order to become a Journeyman level Fuuinjutsu user, and several scrolls and pots of ink so that he could practice.
 
No notes were allowed to leave the vault as the techniques stored within were considerably higher ranked than anywhere else. A Shinobi was expected to memorize the information and use it as they saw fit. No leaks would be accepted and punishment was generally severe if a shinobi was caught misusing the information within these vaults. Taking a deep breath Senshi sat down at the desk, marveling at the comfortableness of the chair. He leant forwards grabbing the first book, a basics on fuuinjutsu and opened it up. As he started to read he lent back in the chair propping his feet up on the desk and tipping the chair back so that the front two legs were no longer touching the ground.
 
Despite his normally severe nature, he found this position to be the most relaxing in which to read in. He needed to be relaxed while reading so that he could better memorize all the information that he encountered. He found the beginning two chapters to be rather droll, it went over information that he had been forced to learn in order to learn the E rank techniques that he had encountered. The next four chapters then went into details that he had learned when he had taken the time to study for the D rank techniques. Though these four chapters did at least show him a few new ways to draw the seals faster and he grabbed one of the pieces of papers and a brush and began to draw several lines on it.
 
He spent several minutes practicing the new versions of the seals he already knew and ensuring that his calligraphy was good enough. After he had completed that he decided to take a break from reading the first book and instead practice his calligraphy. It was important the someone who used the fuuinjutsu specialty become proficient in calligraphy. While Senshi had a decent level of skill in this, he could always work to improve. Striving for improvement was what marked a great shinobi from merely a good shinobi after all. Not that Senshi would ever dare to say he was a great shinobi, he considered himself rather mediocre after all. There were too many other people like Akihana-sama, Raikage-sama, or Maku that were on a god like level for him to ever consider himself great.
 
As he went through several reems of paper practicing drawing odd things he became please with how much smoother he was getting. He practiced making his drawings larger, and then making them incredibly small so that they were hard for him to even see on the page. He then practiced on his speed with the seals knowing that it would be important for him to become fast at making the brush marks unless he wanted to waste time creating all of the seals regularly. Most seals were not usable in combat, though some were and the speed one could perform their drawing the seals at would be critical. He would never be so slow to react that he couldn’t support his teammate again, like he had been against Maku.
 
He had never felt so weak and useless as he had against that man, and he would not put himself in a situation where that could happen again if he could help it. Learning Fuuinjutsu was just the tip of the spear for his progression after all. Senshi finally placed the brush back down after more than thirty minutes of practicing his calligraphy. He was surprised by the level of improvement he was seeing from his first page to the last one he had created. He had not realized he was so skilled at calligraphy to start with. It seemed all those lessons his mother had insisted on during his childhood were paying off now, he would have to stop by and thank the woman.
 
He lent forwards grabbing the book again and restarting his reading, he was finally at the point where he was learning about new types of seals. The C rank versions of seals went more in-depth into why they were normally made in a circular pattern and how some symbols interacted with others. Powering up a seal like this was an incredibly delicate procedure as Senshi, or well any budding Fuuinjutsu user, needed to understand how the symbols drawn reacted with one another. The best way to explain it was like with the ninjutsu elements that shinobi used. Lightning was weak to wind and thus they did not cooperate well, it took and extremely skilled shinobi in order to make the two cooperate.
 
It was the dame with seals, an odd bird like symbol did not react well to the odd rat symbol so a balancing symbol needed to be drawn in order to connect the two. Senshi drew out several of the symbols he came across before going back to the book and continuing reading it. Senshi finally finished the first book, it had been mainly focused on the E and D rank versions of seals though had gone into some C rank versions. As he grabbed the second book and began reading it, he noted that it started out with the C ranks versions of seals and explaining more complicated, but more powerful ways to work with them and force them to better interact with each other.
 
Senshi finally reached the point in the book where it began to go over B rank versions of seals, and how the symbols could be made to interact with each other to become more powerful. Only someone who specialized in fuuinjutsu could learn these types of seals and higher since it required knowledge of how the symbols interacted and a better way to balance them out. It was in these balancing symbols that Senshi was learning how to increase the power of the seals he would be creating and he made sure to practice drawing them out on the scraps of paper several times before he continued reading. The book then began to explain the A rank version of seals.

These were interesting because instead of going clockwise in a circle the seal was powered counter clockwise. This added a new dimension to the seal since it began counter clockwise and then began to spiral in and changed the shapes of the seal. It made it even more difficult to understand because in these versions everything changed. Symbols that did normally work together just fine now needed to have a balancing seal and symbols that had not worked together well, were now perfectly happy together. Senshi spent over two hours re reading this portion of the book to ensure he had successfully memorized all the information before finally setting the book down.
 

He grabbed the third and final book and taking a deep breath opened it. His mind was immediately blown with the knowledge that lay within. S rank seals were a rule unto themselves. They were naturally smaller than normal seals, and they had no discernable shape. They could be made to take any shape that the user wished, and thus were much easier to hide. They also now incorporated what were known as connecting seals, as well as the balancing seals, and the normal symbols that made of each. Senshi found his hands flying across the papers and he drew out practice seals to ensure he understood what he was learning. He was forced to reread the book several times, practicing the entire time that he read as he did so to ensure that he fully understood the material and committed it to memory. With a final sigh of weariness he pushed himself up heading out the door of the room. He had other things he needed to conduct today as well.  

WC: 2103

Requesting:
Fuuinjutsu Specialty


((OOC: Not finished with this thread))

Senshi walked out of the room and gave the female librarian and appreciative nod before he headed for the doors. He was stopped at the door and checked over by one of the Chuunin guarding it to ensure that he was not attempting to sneak anything out, be it notes or an actual book of some sort. There could be nothing more important than the safety of the villages secrets so it did not matter how well known you were, the Chuunin’s made sure that no one attempted to leave this area with any of the material. Once they had finished patting him down and checking him over they all exchanged pleasant nods before Senshi headed down the stairs and out of the library.
 
He had completed his first task for that day, and that was to ensure that he learned his second specialty. The second task that he needed to complete for the day was a bit more difficult to do, and would probably take some convincing on his part. With a deep breath he began walking to one of the poorer districts but still rather well to do. He had, had an idea on his last C rank mission which he had done with Hyuuga Komon. The fellow Chuunin had used a skill he had called Super Beast Drawing technique that had allowed him to make a large hawk that they had then used to fly to their destiniation, a village on the borders of the land of lightning.
 
Senshi had not known that such an ability existed, but he could see the utilization that could come from it. He had applied that thought to seals and realized that the power of a seal could be amplified if it was tied directly into the chakra network of a person. Plus the seal could be ready to use, and more permanent if it were in fact branded into the body of a person. To tie it into the chakra network however he would need to use Ink not brand someone. Thus he had realized that if he could learn to tattoo to someone or even himself then he could learn to better apply seals and make them stronger. This would first require him to find a tattoo artist in order to learn how to tattoo and then to buy a tattoo gun for himself.
 
As he moved through the village he gave several polite nods to people, he was after all quite well known from the amount of missions he had undertaken to assist the village. He did not like the amount of attention he received but he was pleased that the people of Kumogakure knew that shinobi were around to help them out as needed. They needed to know that they could rely on the people who lorded such powerful abilities to protect them, not to use it against them. Doing E and D rank missions around the village afforded them this knowledge and allowed the shinobi to interact with the people more. Make them more human so to speak.
 
Senshi finally arrived at a tattoo parlor that he had scoped out several days prior, during ones of his patrols. With a slight inhalation of breath he pushed open the door and stepped inside surprised by how brightly lit, and clean the area was. He didn’t have to look around long before a man, that was covered in ink stepped up to him. “Good afternoon, Chuunin, how may I assist you today?” Senshi gave him a polite nod of greeting before speaking, “Good afternoon sir, I was wondering if you might be willing to sell me a tattoo gun and teach me how to use it? I need it to learn a skill that will greatly assist in my duties as a shinobi.”
 
The inked up man before him spent several seconds appraising the boy before waving him over to the counter. As Senshi took the few steps he needed to stand next to the counter the man bent down and pulled out a large drawer and placed it before them. On it were several odd contraptions in various colors, he could see a slot to put a needle it. There was a small trigger like mechanism on it, and some of them had springs that were showing or some were covered with a small black casing. The man moved forwards and picked up a rather nice looking dark purple one, that had light purple markings on it.
 
Offering it to Senshi, he accepted turning it over awkwardly in his hands before looking back up at the man as he spoke. “That’s the best one on the market right now, use lightning chakra to run instead of having to be plugged in.” Senshi nodded firmly as he finally figured out how to correctly hold it. He pushed his lightning chakra into it and felt a small shiver run up his spine at the buzzing sound it made. “All right, step around the counter here and I’ll show you how to work on this dummy before I let you use a person.” Senshi did as asked moving around the counter and following the man off to the back left of the room where a dummy that looked to have some kind of plastiflesh on it was laying.
 
It was clear that someone had already been practicing on it and as Senshi stood beside the man he listened intently as he began explaining how to properly tattoo a person. “All right so you want to use one hand to pull the skin tight, like this.” The man then demonstrated holding his own tattoo gun in his hand and using his non dominant hand to pull the skin tight over the dummys leg area. Senshi noted how he pushed down then pulled away and nodded his understanding to the tattoo master before him. “Once you do that it’s simply a matter of learning how much pressure to apply. You don’t need a whole lot, and a lighter hand is nicer on people since it makes it less likely that they will squirm. Practice on him for a bit and then I’ll allow you to do it on a real person.”
 
Senshi nodded to the man as he stood up and stepped away, as he stepped forwards taking his seat he spoke quickly before the man could walk out of ear shot. “Thank you for your assistance sir.” The man simply nodded, waving his hand as though to say it was nothing. Senshi turned his attention back to the dummy and positioning the tattoo gun, Irezumi Ju, into his hand and taking a firm grip on it he bent forwards copying the tattoo artists way of pulling the skin tight he pushed his lightning chakra into the gun and began to move the tip of it over the fake skin before him.
 
He was mezmirized as a small line of ink appeared on the skin and he moved the tattoo gun around making the seals. Taking it off the dummy he applied more ink before continuing to make the seals. He drew them around trying to create a small image out of them so that the seal would at least be slightly hidden instead of being completely obvious. His first try, was in short a disaster but as he continued to attempt it he found the creating and image from the seals was easy if he built in odd spaces. The tattoo artist had stopped by and commented that Senshi’s work was beginning to resemble a specific tattoo art known as tribal or even the Polynesian style.
 
Senshi simply nodded and continued to work focusing on making seals and then turning them into small images. He made the seals large initially but the more he worked at it the more he could see that he was creating images out of the seals. He used broad strokes before he could finally begin creating smaller and even smoother lines. All of his practice earlier had shown him that the calligraphy technique of drawing seals was incredibly different than this. His skill with calligraphy was however showing to be an incredible asset since calligraphy was a form of drawing anyways. Senshi didn’t have a lot of creativity and he found himself looking up and choosing and image that was posted on the walls of the tattoo parlor and making the seal fit into the image.
 
His initial attempts at this were a clear disaster but after two hours of work he found that he was beginning to get a grasp on the technique required to do so. He already know the seals that he would want to apply to people, they would be useful and hopefully save lives. Maybe he could even apply seals to Max’s puppets to help him out more. With the way he had lost a limb from Maku’s devastating attack Senshi knew that they needed more defensive options that could be activated quickly. This skill was just the tip of the iceberg in Senshi’s attempts to find a way to combat a person as dangerous as Maku. While he knew the Raikage was available in the village to assist, if Senshi found himself on another mission outside the village he needed to be able to protect his team.
 
He acquired a firm set to his bearded jaw line as he practiced the images of Max’s arm and the blood spurting out vivid in his minds eye. The tattoo artist finally approached him and spoke again, “I think you’re ready to try on a live person. Here you can tattoo my thigh. Remember it will be slightly different and holding the skin tight is key. Don’t press too hard, let the tattoo gun do the work for you.” Senshi nodded following the man over to a table and watched as he laid on it and lifted himself up so he could watch the Chuunin work. With a deep breath Senshi added more ink and then placing his left hand on the mans thigh he pulled the skin tight and applied the gun.
 
He was pleased that the man didn’t seem to mind the amount of pressure and didn’t try to move away. He was quietly giving Senshi advice as he worked, on how to better hold the gun and how to apply the right amount of pressure. After a short thirty minutes Senshi finally sat back and looked at the small image of a peg legged pirate with a parrot on his shoulder that he had created. The tattoo artist bent forwards and gave a firm nod of approval before speaking, “Good job, Chuunin. Haven’t seen someone pick up the skill so quickly before. I would say you’re ready to work with this abilitiy.” Senshi gave a small smile as he stood up and cleaned the gun off.
 

Placing it into his pocket he made a few short hand seals before pulling his wallet out of his storage dimension and offering the man the ryo for the gun. After it had been accepted his stored his wallet with the ryo back into the storage dimension before speaking, “Thank you for your assistance sir.” The man again just waved off Senshi’s thanks as the boy headed out the door. He still had some things that he needed to do today. He had plenty of things that needed done, period, but becoming a better shinobi and Chuunin was on his list right now.

WC: 1919
TWC: 4022

Requesting:
Fuuinjutsu Specialty
Tattoo Branding Skill

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