The Reality of The Situation

“I’m not really the Ninjutsu type either...it’s just too...flashy, for my tastes” Valen would hear the stitched and scarred man say before he began to do something with his hands. The man’s body was facing completely away from him so Valen couldn’t tell what he was doing. He did however drop his hand down to the hilt of his sword to be ready to defend if the man came at him. After all what he could tell was that the man was doing something about chest level with his hands based on how his elbows were bent and he didn’t remember any pockets on the man’s upper body clothing so he could tell the man was performing hand seals. After the thorough thrashing he had just received he was not keen on letting it be that easy again. He was surprised however when Kenshin showed his hands and he saw a bright blue chakra aura surrounding them before Kenshin snapped up and slashed the stone statue that he had created through sheer chakra control in half as if it wasn’t even there. He blinked a few times to make sure he had seen what he had just seen as Kenshin completed his turn and adorned a dark smirk and showed his hand. “While I do possess some skill in Ninjutsu, I prefer the art of Medical Ninjutsu…” He would go on the say as he deactivated the technique that turned his hand into an effective weapon. He didn’t go onto elaborate as it was relatively simple for Valen to figure out why. Not only would Medical Ninjutsu allow him to heal from any damage that make actually hurt him, but from what Valen knew it would allow him to create and cure poisons, augment his body to inhumane levels, and last but not least, allow him to draw out the sufferings of his victims before finishing them off. This of course made him an adept at interrogation tactics that involved pain or bodily stimulus as he would be trained to heal and or assault the human body itself. The functions that made it work the way it did. The kind of pain one could cause from such a field of study was the stuff of nightmares and it was a good reason why medical ninjutsu induced wounds were amongst the most difficult to deal with.

Valen would simply nod his head, a look of pensive comprehension adorning his features. It was at this point that Valen realized his hand was still on the hilt of his sword. He almost considered taking it off but realized that this man could decide to give him another life lesson in how powerful her chosen specialty was at any moment and so he’d much rather be ready to draw it at a moment’s notice. “So, does that mean you’ll accept my request to help me train my body?” He’d ask, wary of the man’s answer. He didn’t know what he would do in response so he kept himself ready. This man was so devastatingly fast compared to himself that he desperately needed every since advantage he could get his hands on in order to pull ahead and not get killed.

WC: 536
TWC: 4051

Valen felt Kenshin attempt to use some kind of paralysis technique on him as he fired a bolt of chakra at him. See Valen would have probably been slowed down by the technique had his strength been a bit lower, but thanks to the fact that his strength was over twice what the Temporary Paralysis jutsu was able to get to he easily moved as if he wasn’t affected in the slightest. With his hand already on the sword he would draw it out the moment Kenshin formed the finger gun. If he had waited until the man said bang he would have surely been too slow. Valen however was careful, to a paranoid level in some cases. As such he knew that the man in front of him was dangerous no matter what he did. In a situation where they were fighting Valen had to take every action as a threatening one. Especially with the difference in their power. The moment his sword cleared it’s sheathe he’d cleave through the blast of chakra that Kenshin would fire with his own from his sword. The blast would fire out from the blade at full power and speed (60) and fire toward Kenshin from one meters away as Kenshin had mentioned in his last post. Valen knew the silver haired man would easily be able to dodge the technique if he wanted. He wasn’t even certain the blast would be even close to strong enough to damage him but he had to try. The point of a spar was to fight back after all, but he simply didn’t have much.

Whether or not the blast would hit or not Valen would move away from the man, trying to gain some distance. ‘He managed to increase my weight to the point where I couldn’t move. I need to try to avoid letting him physically touch my sword or he could do it to that as well..’ He thought as he moved away from Kenshin as fast as he could (10) he would launch another blast of similar power and speed, knowing that he would have to let the sword recharge it’s ‘ammo’ before firing another. He would keep moving as he a fired the technique and keep his eyes on Kenshin at all times. Granted the man who looked like he played ‘operation’ with himself could probably catch Valen in an instant if he wanted to. He would continue to try his hardest, as he could not improve if he did not.

WC: 420
TWC: 4471

Valen would watch the man begin to manipulate his hair and begin to try to think of a way out what this problem. There were too many to dodge them successfully, he didn’t have an attack or defense that could handle them all at once. That left some kind of utility, he began to think faster, ticking off ideas in his mind as he subconsciously brought his hands together, shifting the sword between them so it wouldn’t be stabbing him. He had already decided what he would do, but it carried risks. He quickly went through the familiar hand seals of the substitution technique. At this point the great lion manes of hair would be coming toward him right as he finished the final one at a pace that must seem agonizingly slow to the pale skinned chunin before him. All of a sudden his body would be behind the man. As he Valen would substitute with the statue the man having a bad hair day had created earlier. He’d then proceed to swing for a fatal blow, knowing full well he’d have to fight this man as if to kill him if he wanted to have a decent survival chance. After all he didn’t know just what kind of mood that hair controller was in. Or if he fancied life as a mission nin. With these thoughts in mind Valen would swing his sword straight for the man’s neck as fast as he could. His crimson eyes glinting off of the light of the sun that was slowly rising higher and higher into the sky.

He knew full well the substituting next to the man was a stupid move, but it was certainly safer than the alternative at this point and the whole point of the spar was to push himself. He couldn’t do that if he simply gave up instead of actually tried to fight every situation the monstrously powerful individual was putting him into. He’d keep his senses open to try and see what kind of attack the man would use on him this time as he swung the sword toward his neck. He figured this wouldn’t end well though but he needed to see his own weaknesses. Needed to have them shown to him and brutally abused or else he’d never become powerful enough to contend with the overbearingly powerful earth wielder. Still, he had a feeling he really wasn’t going to like what would happen next.

WC: 411
WC: 4882

Pain, it was the greatest motivation the world possessed in most circumstances. It was extremely useful in interrogation methods, motivation toward certain work, training. It served as a reminder of our mortality and of how weak our bodies truly were in the grand scheme of things. Its importance could not be overstates, now could its effectiveness. Valen was now of course in a whole other world of it the moment the brutally fast and powerful kick that Kenshin launched at him landed. He felt, as well as heard the bones in his leg snap. Could feel the individual fractures, or at least it seemed like he could. That might have been his mind hallucinating that due to the sheer level of the pain caused. His eyes would widen suddenly and he would bite his lip until blood was drawn to keep back the agonizingly loud scream that threatened to tear out of his throat. He would manage to keep himself from screaming out, if only barely, but he would fall to the ground, unable to stand on the leg after Kenshin’s kick. He would proceed to hold his hand in surrender, knowing he was beaten, and easily too. He would sigh in thankful relief when his silver haired pain bringer knelt down and began to heal him, taking care of his injuries in short order. Valen would remain quiet during this process, allowing the man to work while he stewed in his easy defeat. After he was finished he would wipe the blood off his chin that came down from him biting down so hard to prevent the scream before helping himself up. He would then proceed to test his leg gently, putting a few pounds of pressure on it before putting all of his weight.

He would end up quite satisfied with the man’s healing work, granted he didn’t think the stitched up man would heal him anymore even if he did ask nicely. But it wouldn’t matter as the man did a marvelous job regardless. It was at this point that he’d swallow his pride and turn toward the man before bowing his head. “Would you be willing to teach me?” He’d ask simply, hoping the man would be willing to help him become stronger. He couldn’t believe how easily he’d been defeated and he desperately wanted to fix that. Kenshin simply seemed like the best option to help in that regard at the moment. Hell considering the no nonsense way he took him apart he could imagine him being the best option period.

WC: 426
TWC: 5308

Valen would raise his head as Kenshin agreed to teach him. He would look the man directly in the eyes as he asked if he could perform the genjutsu release to which Valen would simply shake his head in the negative in regards to knowing the simple, low ranked technique. To be honest this felt shameful to the crimson eyed youth as he should have learned that far faster than this. But he focused only on his swordsmanship in which not even that was spectacular. Thankfully he was shown the error of his ways in a spar. A fairly violent spar granted, but a spar nonetheless. He would pay close attention as the pale skinned man began to explain the technique and how to perform. He would then proceed to cast a simple genjutsu for him to dispel. Valen would watch the man perform two quick hand seals, boar, and rat. He would then watch as ten copies of the man began to slink out of the ground. Each one an exact replica of the man, down to the sweat matted hair and snow coloured skin. Each one would also sport the same confident grin as they moved toward him in a menacing manner, trying to fool him.

Valen would shrug at the illusory constructs before simply bringing his hands into the tiger hand seal as instructed and channeling his chakra. The illusion would burst apart in an instant and only they would be standing in the field. Granted of course the same cocky ass grin would be plastered on the more experienced shinobi’s face. But he had won the spar, so that was obviously his right. Valen would silently await the next technique he was to learn as he felt the man’s chakra in the earth beneath him. It wasn’t that Valen was particularly good at sensing chakra mind you, but when someone starts channeling A rank levels of chakra around you then you tend to bloody well notice. He could easily feel the chakra beneath the earth and he wondered what technique the man was practicing. He was also on guard of course, Kenshin had thoroughly wiped the floor with him without even batting an eyelash. Now he was training him, needless to say Valen didn’t feel as if it would be terribly out of place for the man to spring a ‘surprise’ on him to test his reflexes. As he considered this he began to try and figure out what the man could possibly be doing. Granted he obviously didn’t want Valen to know, or at least not know right now. But what the dark red wearing boy could tell was that Kenshin wasn’t using hand seals of any kind to do whatever technique he was practicing. That meant that the scarred man had to either be far more powerful than Valen had originally given him credit for, was extremely intimate with earth element chakra in all of its nuances, or more than likely, both.

This thought startled Valen slightly, as he wondered just how powerful the man was. He knew he last in less than a minute against him, but how strong was he really? When he wasn’t just toying around. He shook those thoughts out of his head. Best to not think about it, he might not want to see or know the answer. At this point the black haired young man would begin to wonder if he could simulate that same chakra burst from before without any hand seals. Being able to escape most gen without any of the chakra guiding signs would be extremely beneficial. Especially since if he were in an illusion there’d be no way for him to physically move his hands in the necessary fashion to bust out of it. With these thoughts in mind he began to take hold of his chakra, coiling the life energy that filled his body, a small pond compared to the vast ocean of the man standing next to him, and began to channel it throughout his body. He was trying to make the same feeling occur before, he only had the one time to get it down thought. Valen was a determined student however and wanted to try to prove he had some worth to the man who was using his precious time to teach him. He sighed as he felt his chakra burst out properly in the exact same manner as before. The release of the all powerful magic energy felt identical to the burst earlier. It also had the added effect of disrupting his chakra network, which he figured was the point of getting rid of an illusion. This didn’t excite him in any way though, as if it were that easy to learn to expel the illusion releasing technique then it couldn’t have been a notable achievement that would prove to the man before him that he had promise. “So what’s next?” He would ask politely, holding eye contact as he tried not to appear guarded about the massive amount of the chakra the man was moulding beneath both of their feet.

WC: 852
TWC: 6160
750 words will be toward Genjutsu Release +Mastery
TWCA: 5410

Kenshin could only smirk when he felt the dark haired young man's chakra flow faster and faster through his body, eventually managing to break him free of the Genjutsu that the scar faced Chunin had put him in. Sure he had made sure to keep the Genjutsu a lot weaker than it could have been, but he still managed to break himself out of the illusion despite not knowing how to do so before he had been placed within, all it had taken was a minor instruction from Kenshin and he had managed to do it. It really was too bad that he had to get going so soon, but he knew that if he stayed here for too long things would get very...bloody, as unfortunate as it was he could feel the innate bloodlust within him starting to rise. It had been almost two weeks since his last kill, and he was starting to get twitchy...something that meant the sooner he left the village and went on a little ‘hunting’ trip the better. Either way this was going to suck for Valen, as it meant that this little ‘lesson’ of his would have to be cut short...or would it. Now, usually Kenshin is the type of person to teach someone one thing, and only move onto the next once they had that mastered, but in this case he needed to leave as soon as he possibly could while at the same time ensuring that Valen learnt a decent number of things.
 
Well, he would have to hope that the fresh Genin was a quick learner, or else he would find himself leaving these training grounds having learnt only Genjutsu Release, and while that one technique was indeed one of the most useful techniques in the arsenal of any shinobi he had actually planned to teach him quite a few tricks that would prove useful during his time as a Genin. “Valen, unfortunately I’m going to have to cut this lesson of ours short, I just remembered that I am supposed to be meeting a few people shortly.” the scar faced Chunin would say as he gazed at the red clad young man, his face completely neutral “But before I leave I can show you a few techniques that I think you will find useful, I can give you some basic instruction on how to perform them but I won’t be here to actually supervise your training.” he would then say with the same neutral look on his face. As he was saying all of the stuff typed out above Kenshin would still be channelling chakra through his feet and into the earth beneath him, trying to perform his Swamp of the Underworld without the need for Hand Seals, so far it was indeed working, but it was going far too slow for it to be viable in combat. Hmm, he had mastered some techniques to the point of not needing hand seals in the past but this one was proving to be a bit more difficult in that regard, probably due to the fact that it this was an A-rank technique.
 
The swamp would finally form roughly fifteen meters away from both Kenshin and Valen, the swamp forming to the right of Kenshin and the left of Valen, due to the fact that the two were facing each other. The swamp had a total diameter of 25 meters, putting it’s edge roughly two and a half meters away from the current positions of both the silver haired Chunin and the dark haired Genin. Kenshin had ensured that when the swamp formed both he and Valen would be a safe distance away from the sticky and viscous mud, as the last thing he needed was either of them being dragged down into the depths of an eight meter deep swamp. Such a thing would only result in them being either crushed by the weight and pressure of being buried under such a large amount of mud, or being slowly suffocating...and neither of those options sounded very appealing to the stitched and scarred albino. “Finally, I’m starting to get the hang of this” Kenshin would mutter to himself as he looked over his muddy creation, it was not exactly a work of art like the sculpture that he had created earlier, but he did not care about that, all that mattered was that it was going to be very useful in combat.
 
“Okay, because you specialise in using weapons in combat I will start off by teaching you a few useful Taijutsu techniques, just in case someone ever manages to get disarm you” Kenshin would explain in a rather bored drawl, feeling he may as well give his reasoning on why he would bother teaching a weapon user Taijutsu techniques. “The first move I’ll show you is called Aerial Strip, All you have to do is punch your opponent in the face, it really is that simple, just your punch slightly upwards and punch them as hard as you possibly can right in the face. This will send your opponent flying back, and unless they have enough strength to resist they will find themselves spinning backwards due to the force of your punch. Best of all though is what happens to those who can’t resist the backwards spins, as they begin to spin faster and faster the clothes on their body are unable to resist being spun right off them, effectively stripping them as they go flying through the air, thus the name of the technique, the Aerial Strip.” Kenshin would explain with a small smirk on his face, demonstrating the punch itself on the air, simple really seeing as it was just a slightly upward angled punch. “Next up we have a move known simply as Discipline, it’s generally a move that is used by teachers on rowdy pupils and is more so used to show who the boss is rather than to cause any real damage. The move is pretty simple to perform, since for all intents and purposes it is simply a bitchslap.” the albino would then explain as his smirk widened a little, demonstrating the technique by bitch slapping an imaginary opponent.
 
“Next up we have a move known as the Leaf Gale, it is a simple rear spinning back kick, but if used by someone strong enough it can send even grown adults flying.” Kenshin would explain as he demonstrated the kick. “Continuing with the current Taijutsu trend we have a move known as the Dynamic Entry, an interesting name for an attack that is a simple jump kick.” Kenshin would say as he demonstrated the simple yet effective Taijutsu move. Now, usually he would explain the downsides of using such a move in combat, but he figured that Valen was smart enough to figure that out on his own, so he simply decided to move onto the next ‘technique’ that he would be teaching Valen. “Next is a move known as the Iron Claw, pretty simple really, just grab your target by the face and squeeze as hard as you can. For weaker people it is enough to cause others moderate discomfort, but for those who are strong enough the move can become a lot more lethal...and a lot messier” Kenshin would say with a rather dark smirk on his face, something that would make it very clear to Valen that he was speaking from personal experience. That had been a rather fun experience for him, activating his Assimilate All Creations Steel Form and walking into one of Haven’s many bandit encampments to test out the changes that the form made to his body. He found that while he lost a great deal of his speed he gained absolutely insane levels of strength and durability, so much strength in face that when he used the Iron Claw on one of the attacking bandits that the man's head had actually been crushed by the pressure...now that was a good memory.
 
“Next up we have yet another Taijutsu technique, this one being known as the 1000 years of death, a rather ridiculous name consider all your doing is forming a Tiger hand seal and poking it into your enemies ass. I’ve never actually used the technique, due mostly to how unsanitary it is, but who knows, maybe you’ll find it useful” the scar faced youth would say with a shrug, he truly doubted that Valen would find the technique any more useful than he had, but who knows. “Next up we have one of, if not the, most basic of Space Time techniques. The technique is known as Flicker Movement, and it allows its user to manipulate the basic flow of time around their bodies, effectively giving the user a miniscule boost to speed whilst active.” Kenshin would explain with a small smirk on his pale lips. The art of Space Time Ninjutsu had always intrigued him, as out of all the shinobi arts it was perhaps the only art that had seemingly limitless potential, and it was for that reason that Kenshin planned to begin his study in Space Time Ninjutsu sometime rather soon. “Next up we have a basic Fuinjutsu technique known as the Mark Seal. Now unlike all of the other techniques I have mentioned so far, the Mark Seal is completely Supplementary in nature, and possesses absolutely no use in a combat situation.” the medic of Hoshi would say as he casually reached his right hand out, extended his index finger, and used said finger to poke Valen on the back of his left hand.
 
When he pulled his finger away from Valens pale skin a small black dot would be visible on the teens hand, it was no more than a few millimeters in height and length, and it would seemingly fade away after but a few seconds, but it was more than long enough for Valen to spot the mark. “As you can see, the Mark Seal can be placed on someone with even the slightest of touches, and is only visible to the naked eye for a few seconds. Once it has ‘faded’ the seal is only visible to Chakra Vision, but only a Fuinjutsu specialist will actually be able to tell that it is a seal. Alone, all the seal really allows you to do is feel whether or not it is active, but the true use of the seal is when it is combined with other techniques. For example, when combined with the Summoning Technique, it allows the user of the summoning technique to summon anybody that they have marked in the past. There are various other uses, but I will let you figure those out on your own, it would be no fun if I told you everything after-all” the silver eyed heart thief would say with a small smirk of amusement. “I believe that here would be a good place to stop, teaching you more than eight techniques in one go and not supervising your training would be rather negligent of me...so we’ll stop at eight” he would then say as his amused grin grew just a little larger, before he turned his back to the young man and began to make his way back to the village.
 
“I look forward to seeing how you progress Valen. Maybe when you’re stronger, we can have another spar” Kenshin would call over his shoulder as he left the green Genin to his training, for he had a date with some soon to be dead bandits.
 
WC:1934
 
[Exit]
 
TWC: 11741
 
8000 words towards 20 stats, claiming (400 words per stat due to Degradation Serum)
 
4250 words towards Swamp of the Underworld Mastery, Claiming
 
2400 words towards Art of the Raging Lions Mane, Claiming (other 600 words trained here)

Discarding remaining words