Failed One Roll, Time to Fail Another [IO]

Senshi had been giving out free tattoos with special fuinjutsu imbued in them and he was looking for test subjects. Reizo felt it would be fun to give it a shot. He wasn't a huge fan of being inked, but he trusted that Senshi's fuinjutsu would be an incredible boon to his own attributes. He recalled Senshi establishing a shop that he had passed by a couple of times where he would conduct his tattoo business. That's where Reizo was headed today. Reizo assured himself that getting a tattoo wouldn't be that painful, but he always had a slight fear of needles. It's not that he was scared of them, he just didn't like how they felt against his skin. He could take getting punched and bruised, but the idea of getting pricked with a thin foreign object bothered him. Just for the occasion, Reizo had decided to bring along his new mouth guard in order to give him something to bite on while the tattoo was being etched.

He never really thought of Senshi of an artist, surely though he must have some training if he was tattooing people. Reizo wondered if the twins or Max had gotten tattoos. Max might be a little young, even Reizo himself was.

Walking over from his house at nearly 4 pm, Reizo passed by his mother's dumpling cart and picked up dinner for himself and Senshi. He wasn't sure how long this tattooing would take; the Chuunin guessed it would take several hours if not a couple of days considering how much work Reizo was going to have done. Senshi had mentioned that for the boosts he had planned for their group it would require a lot of time and surface area to be inked. Nevertheless, Reizo was willing to make his sacrifices to become stronger. He trusted Senshi more than anybody else, especially if it was for the betterment of the village.

After a few minutes, almost exactly at 4 pm, Reizo arrived at Senshi's shop. Peeking in through the doorway, Reizo let himself in. "Senshi? I brought dinner," Reizo asked, although he didn't immediately see his friend. The blonde Chuunin gritted his teeth at the thought of sitting under a needle for several hours, and the feeling wouldn't fade. He was practically shaking in anticipation, shuddering at the prospective procedure.

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390 words

Senshi was attached to the ceiling of his shop, in his arms was a huge steel beam, far larger than the sword still strapped to his back. He was hanging in the far right corner of his shop, on  the same side as the door. So that when the door swung open it would briefly conceal him from the view of anyone walking in. He was currently shirtless, and didn’t have his normal wraps on him. Instead he was wearing only a pair of black shorts, that ended about mid thigh on him. He had been so busy tattooing people with his seals recently that he had found that he needed to work out in the shop, in between sessions.
 
As he performed upside down sit ups with all the extra weight he was holding he also routinely curled the steel beam was holding in his hands to also work out the muscles there. This was proving to be a good full body work out, that was helping him keep in shape. His chakra senses picked up the approaching signature of Reizo, but unlike with the narcissitic chuunin Komori, Senshi felt no need to try and scare his teammate. Instead he continued his exercises, not bothering to count them out only focusing on making his muscles scream with pain.
 
As the door open, with Reizo announcing that he had brought dinner, Senshi would look at him from his little almost hiding spot. “Good evening Reizo, come to try your luck with one of the seal tattoos?” He continued to work out as he waited for Reizo to respond. Once he did so, Senshi would release the chakra holding him to the ceiling, flipping in the air to land lightly on the ground with a small burst of wind chakra to make it so that he didn’t break the floor. Turning he placed down the beam and pulled his sword, Gureto, off his back placing it next to the beam. If Reizo, were to look around he would see the table like bed in the center of the room.
 
A comfortable looking rolly chair right next to it, with a rolling table also next to it. On the rolling table was senshi’s purple tattoo gun, and some basic antiseptic and cleaning supplies for a tattoo. On the right side of the room were several tables, packed with bottles of ink. ON the left side of the room were several tables with cleaning supplies, and antiseptic first aid supplies. Walking over to one of the tables on the left side, Senshi grabbed a towel wipsing the sweat off his body before placing the towel in a small bin, that was helpfully labled, dirty linen. He turned to face Reizo, the massive burn scars on his chest and arms open for view.
 
Reizo would be able to see the burn scars covering half his stomach, the entireity of the ribs on his left side, crawling up to cover most of the left pectoral muscles, going up the entirety of the left side of his neck, and part of his face. His left shoulder had bright purple marks crawling around it extending down his back. The right side was litered with scars from stab wounds and cuts, both arms had light burn damage scars as well. All in all, he looked like he was used to taking damage regularly. “So I should explain the seals in more detail, please sit on the table, we can eat while I explain.” If Reizo would take his offer to sit on the table, Senshi would move sitting in his chair, placing all the items on the rolling table on the ground, and then placing it between them so that Reizo could place the food on it.
 
Senshi would wait for Reizo to unveil the food before speaking, “Thank you for bringing a meal, I was too busy to prepare my own dinner for the night.” Senshi would begin eating only after Reizo had taken his first bite, a respectful thing he had learned from his family. Plus a precaution against being poisoned. Even for someone he considered a friend he was as always, extremely suspicious of everything. After a few bites Senshi began to speak again. “Basically the seals that I developed can enhance any of your attributes, be it your speed, strength, chakra, vitality, or even your stamina. They have a risk that if you do not have a strong enough vitality you could possibly suffer serious side effects. The seal will not take hold, and you could lose some of your chakra, speed, strength, vitality, or stamina. You would then have to work hard to bring everything back up to their previous levels.”
 
Senshi paused, taking a few more bites before continuing on. “The seals are tied into your blood and chakra system via my own chakra. I hide the seals within an image, of your own choosing. Once you are ready choose the color inks you want and let me know what image you want and where you want it placed. Also I need to know what you want to enhance, if you want to enhance more than one attribute let it be known that there are only a few seals that can be combined. We will only be able to do one tonight, however.” Senshi would quickly finish eating before cleaning up his side of the table.
 

He would wait for Reizo now to ask any questions, to tell him the image he wanted, what attribute he wanted to enhance, and where he wanted him to place the seals and image. Senshi would then gesture for Reizo to pick the colored ink while he finished cleaning up the rolling table, and placing all the supplies he needed on it. Once Reizo gave him the ink Senshi would gesture him towards the table and finish preparing his work station picking up the small tattoo gun, he would roll his chair until he was facing Reizo. “If you’re ready?”


wc: 1004

Senshi's sudden voice startled Reizo a bit. To his right, Senshi appeared to have setup a makeshift gym to keep in shape while he was running his shop. Hanging from the ceiling like that, Senshi looked even more massive than usual. The two of them shared similar musculature, but Senshi was nearly a foot taller. Although Reizo didn't mind the difference in height, it still made him feel a little inferior in strength and stature, even if that may not necessarily be the case.

"Yea, I hear they're likely to be pretty useful. That's an interesting rig you've got. Looks pretty spontaneous. Is it effective at keeping you in shape? I can't imagine lifting that beam is good for your back. Gotta have perfect form," Reizo would say, somewhat in jest. Looking around the shop a bit more, Reizo got a little curious about the shop. He didn't touch anything, since he didn't want to risk upsetting Senshi as he knew he could be sensitive about his tools, but he looked around. He noticed a wheelie table with most of the needed sanitation precautions and equipment that Senshi would probably use for the tattoo, and he saw a larger table, similar to a massage table or bed, where the Chuunin would likely be spending the next few hours gritting his teeth as he was inked. Another table housed the inks, while a third table held even more cleaning sprays, wipes, and devices. This relieved Reizo, as one of his biggest fears of the tattoo came not from the needle itself, but from the transfer of disease and potential infection that he knew could result from a dirty needle. Seeing Senshi take his job so seriously, especially regarding hygience, was a relief to the anxious boy.

Reizo's right eye twitched when he turned back to face Senshi, indicative of his discomfort upon seeing his scarred, burned, and battered body. It was only an ephemeral gut reaction, but it was one that Reizo could not hold back. Initial facial tells are very powerful; it would've been nearly impossible for the Chuunin to curtail his emotions, despite all of his training. The blonde took the large man's offer and sat down at the table, setting his large box of food down on top. The container was pretty simple – a solid dark blue base with a royal blue lid speckled with white stars. Pulling the lid off the large 24 x 36 x 6 inch box revealed an assortment of 18 chicken, pork, and beef dumplings (6 of each), shredded salmon, a large block of white rice, 2 small plastic containers of soy sauce, similar containers for teriyaki sauce, broccoli, cucumber, and a couple of ounces of cold sesame noodles. Two pairs of cheap disposable wooden chop sticks were stacked neatly to the side in one partition by the sauces so they would remain untouched by the food.

Grabbing the first pair, Reizo would miraculously make a clean, no splinter break to separate the two wooden instruments. He pretended like he did this every time, but in the back of his mind the Chuunin knew he was a Cool Cat. He noted that Senshi was waiting for him to make the first move, so Reizo picked a juicy looking pork dumpling, dipped it in the teriyaki sauce (after removing the lid of course), and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. The blonde would continue eating until they had emptied all of the contents of the box, leaving only a little bit of sauce and a few grains of rice left.

The Chuunin intently listened to his teammate as he outlined how the procedure would be done, and how it worked. It was interesting how Senshi had managed to design a seal that powerful with such low consequence. ”It is rather impressive that you managed to develop a seal that is so strong but yet so low risk. I’m sure this isn’t surprising to you, but I’d like seals that enhance my speed and strength. It would complement my Taijutsu the best. It’s a shame we can only get 1 done tonight, but I guess that’ll give me some time to recover. I actually had some designs in mind. I had one of my mom’s friends design a couple of sketches and paintings. They were originally meant to be framed in my room, but I think they should be just as suitable. Since we’re only getting one done today, let’s start with the speed seal. I think that one would make sense to be the one on my back, and I guess the strength tat will go down my left arm. Seems like that’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” Reizo would respond, pulling out a cluster of folded papers with various pencil sketches and even a few water color rough drafts, out of his pockets. ”This is the one I had in mind for the back tattoo, for speed. Pretty basic as far as colors go, just black and gray, but the details might be a little tricky. I don’t know how good you are, but I trust that it shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Reizo would say showing a design depicting two fu dogs (Chinese lions) facing each other with a Chinese character between them. Truth be told, he didn’t know what the character meant, but it was artsy. Perhaps he shouldn’t be getting a tattoo of something he wasn’t sure the meaning of, but he was 15, young and dumb, and figured his mom’s friend wouldn’t have drawn anything less than inspirational.

”I have some more design ideas for the sleeve tattoo for strength, but I suppose we’ll save those for another time,” Reizo would finish, folding up the other designs and stuffing them into his pocket. He had a million questions he had thought of to ask beforehand, but in the moment, he was at a loss for what those questions were.

”I’m ready,” Reizo would say, pulling his shirt off to reveal a divine physique that looked like it belonged to someone 10 years older than the Chuunin. He was built like a tank, but still thin enough to maintain some semblance of a teenage boy. His skin was flawless and virgin, a stark contrast to his teammate’s wildly scarred and marked body that could’ve passed a topographic map of Earth Country. Reizo was pale, but not remarkably so. He took a seat on the bed-table hybrid, and turned so that his smooth back would be facing the tattoo artist. He half folded his shirt around his arm; it was a very lazy fold, but at least it wasn't a crumpled ball, and left it in his lap. Lastly, the blonde pulled his red mouth guard out of a weapons pouch and unpackaged it. He put it in his mouth as soon as he turned around and clamped down on it hard with his teeth. He’d never had a procedure like this before, so he was oblivious to how painful or not it would be, but wanted to be prepared for the worst.

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1185 + 1004 + 390 = 2579

Design:

Reizo winced when the needle first pricked his virgin skin. It didn't hurt as bad as he thought it might've, but it certainly felt invasive. The procedure would take a couple of hours because of the level of detail required, meaning Reizo would have a lot of time to himself. He knew Senshi wasn't one to talk, and he didn't want to distract from his work. The needle felt abrasive, like something was constantly nipping at him. It was less like a knife through his skin and more like someone digging their nails into him.

It took everything in his willpower to fight his body's urge to move and wriggle. It was certainly uncomfortable, and he had to endure this for a couple of hours. He could feel Senshi's chakra entering and mingling with his own, made ever more apparent with his chakra sensory. The seal would be the first part completed, as it was the most important part, and then the design would follow. The blonde was initially extremely sensitive to both the needle and the foreign chakra, but after only 10 minutes of exposure he had grown accustomed to both. It was still uncomfortable, but the pain wasn’t really a problem anymore.

What bothered Reizo more than the needle and the chakra, though, was the intense boredom. After 20 minutes, the Chuunin really wanted to find something to read, or just to talk, but he didn’t know what he would even say to Senshi. They continued in silence for the remainder of the application of the tattoo. They would take breaks to stretch every now and again, and finally, after 2.5 hours, the design, seal, and final touches were done. The blonde examined the work in the mirror. It was a bit red, but there was surprisingly little blood. Senshi had done a very good and clean job on the design, and Reizo appreciated that it was in the form of a sketch. He liked the graphite look for his back. When he came back in the future for his strength seal, he would likely get a more colorful design for his arm, but this was a pretty neat graphic for his back.

After removing his mouth guard, Reizo slipped his shirt back on and thanked Senshi for the wonderful work. He headed home, as it was approaching 8 pm pretty quickly. Upon arriving at his house, his mom called him into the kitchen and pointed to a package that had arrived addressed to him. Reizo thanked his mom for bringing it in before examining it closer. It was a black box with a red cloud, and the Chuunin immediately recognized it as a symbol of the group Maku was a part of. Inside the box was a cloak and hood of similar design. There was a note along with the package, but it only had one word printed: “TOMORROW”. The Chuunin understood that meant that he was to depart for war tomorrow, which was a shame since it meant that he wouldn’t be at full power- he wouldn’t have ahold of a strength seal from Senshi. Still, the speed seal would at least mean he’d be able to keep pace, which was probably the most important thing.

---------- EXIT -----------
540 + 2579 = 3119
Claims: Speed Seal (No roll necessary; 55 health thanks to the mouth guard) 3000/3000
119/1000 for recovery