The Imperfect Storm [solo,nk]

Kozurou woke up with a determined face. Today would be the day that he was able to advance his martial technique. He felt that he was on the edge; not of glory, but of his personal training bottleneck. For someone with such a low power level, it wouldn't be too difficult to get past this block in his training unless it was something big. As such, he knew that after breaking through, he would have acquired some kind of body enhancement technique, one even greater than the ones he had studied before. Indeed, he could already start to feel the tightening feeling in his bones, which signalled exactly what he had been expecting: an ablution, a partial purification, the end of this long bottleneck. When he reached that point, his body (having reached a higher level) would forcibly expel many of the impurities and microscopic deformities within his body. It was the dream of every martial practitioner. He got up and got dressed, going through the routine while his mind dwelled on other things. He needed to focus on ki expelling techniques while he looked around for his breakthrough. There was a process to these things, and he planned to follow it. Even training errors, under exacerbating circumstances, could ruin a person for days.
 
Stepping out into the morning half-light, Kozurou began walking toward the training grounds without hesitation. Before, he had been always the “smiling one”, that jerk asshole who had always seemed so smug. At the moment, he still had reason to be; he was stronger and smarter by far than the vast majority of his old academy classmates. However, if he kept up with his apathy, he would be the one to face the smug grins of others. So, he decided to teach himself a lesson before life taught it to him and wiped the smile off of his face. He had the discipline to change his mindset about the world, and decided to become more serious about his training. To be “the best” was no longer merely a side goal, but was slowly becoming more and more of a focus of his life. At any rate, there he was, walking along and minding his own business, when some old hobo somehow managed to work his way across the early traffic'd street, and accosted him brusquely. 
 
The old geezer couldn't have been more than 4 feet 4 inches tall, and you could almost see the bones through his weathered, papery skin. Some relic of a time long gone, of when this village was still Shimagakure. 
 
"Give me back mah time machine!" Wait, what? Did those even exist? Perhaps it was a problem that Kozurou's brain even stopped to consider this point before even thinking about the old man himself. He picked up the old man and dragged him off to get him booked for vagrancy. The walk to the training grounds alone wasn't much for him, but it did serve as a good warm up. 
 
As for enhancement, now... medical chakra had done that for him recently in terms of strength. He could toss a rock a huge distance away at awfully high power. However, he couldn't take that rock to his face. Medical chakra to increase durability... How would he go about doing it? It's not like using it to make his skin tougher would help against blunt trauma, so he tossed that idea out pretty quickly. No, he needed to go back to the root. He stood there in the middle of the training grounds and closed his eyes, visualizing the truth before him. Healing, right. 
 
But healing had to be done after injuries were inflicted, right? By then, it would be too late. Injury could break his concentration, and that was bad news bears. No, there was some other solution here. He could, of course, take a detour to the library, but he already had the technique he wanted in mind. Yin healing wound destruction... the technique was certainly a rather daunting task that had been set before him. How would he go about doing this? It wasn't like he could deliver or attempt to deliver a realistic injury to himself. He'd probably have to go and grab himself a training partner. But it seemed that Aryll was occupied at the moment... well, it looks like it was up to him to do this all by himself. 
 
That wasn't a problem, though. He'd done plenty on his own up until now, he just had to get inventive. Maybe a bit of working out would help him find what he needed to. Right, the ocean. The boy jogged along to the coastline, where the azure waves of the sea lapped gently at the shores of Kirigakure. He knew nothing of meteorology, so the child foolishly stepped out onto the waves, preparing himself for some training. 
 
Quick fact: waves are strange. They interact with each other in very intuitive and mathematical ways, but the results can be very... counterintuitive. Let's take a small example first. Sound waves can drown each other out via their magnitude (what we perceive as 'volume'), but in truth, sound waves cannot be negated in such a fashion. It requires a very specific and opposite wavelength to completely negate a soundwave, which is something that a lot of people don't realize. An interesting fact, to be sure. However, waves were not on Kozurou's mind as he stepped out onto the ocean, though they most certainly should have.
 
Another much bigger example of wave dynamics occurs in outer space. Due to something called resonance where waves amplify each others' energies, gravity is capable of stretching large bodies in space, such as Jupiter's moons. This is less a part of Jupiter's own gravity than the cycles of rotation of the moons around it.  The bodies stretch at the equator, creating truly and literally volcanic reactions on the surface of the moon involved. Resonance could save or destroy lives, and it was all part of the physics of waves. What did this have to do with Kozurou? Find out soon...
 
Either way, there he was, strolling across the ocean. The air pressure was something he noticed after a while. Didn't it seem a bit oppressive today? He also noticed the lack of fishing boats, which was odd. It was something worth noting that the wind hadn't quite picked up yet, so the boy had no clue what he was getting into. He was pretty far out when he started to notice the sky being a little darker than usual. Or the mist, that is. The sky wasn't always visible through the thick blanket of mist that surrounded the village all the way out to the storm barrier beyond. 
 
It was when he almost tripped that he started to worry a bit. It hadn't looked stormy when he had left... well, it was too late to turn back now. He'd have to make it through to one of the outlying islands first. No problem, he thought to himself as he picked up the pace, remembering the waterfall one he'd used for training about a week ago. He'd try that, no harm in doing so. Would he make it in time though?
 
Around him, the waves began to get a bit choppier as he went along, and the air started to fill with droplets of water falling from high altitude. Rain, he thought grimly. He didn't want to have to use up more energy than he had to, since there was the return trip to think about as well. So, he pressed on, speeding up his pace a little. There was no longer a need to look up at the sky, as the growing intensity of the frigid rain told him what he needed to know: that this had been a bad idea.
 
Remind me to ask the locals about the forecast, he reminded himself as he trudged on, holding his jacket tighter around him. In his frustration, he didn't notice the wave until it hit him square in the face, knocking him off balance as he lost contact with the surface beneath his feet and fell into the ocean. The water was like a shock, punching the air out of him and almost making him lose his thinking process until he gritted his teeth and pushed upwards, stepping back onto the surface of the water. What the hell... this was no everyday storm. No wonder the fishermen had decided to stay home today. 
 
No sooner had he gotten back on his feet, then he saw another monster wave headed his way. This one wasn't just going to knock him off his feet, this was going to HURT. He grimaced as the purple aura of the Stellar Transformations blossomed around him. He needed to get a hang of this yin healing wound destruction technique, and he needed to do it FAST. Otherwise, he'd be lost at sea and probably drown. Naturally, such a strange end to his life was abhorrent to Kozurou.
 
As the wave hit him, smacking the wind out of him yet again. The terrible defense he had set up had clearly not been enough to stop nature's onslaught against him. Tch, how annoying. Was humanity not supposed to be above nature? The large waves that were now smacking him around seemed to contradict that. Either that, or he was just too weak. That sounded like the correct answer. He hadn't bonded enough with this body of his yet... whatever that meant. Each blow, each instance of pain that he suffered, engraved his power onto his own soul more and more. So, he just had to endure, like he always had.
 
Getting back up, and now thoroughly soaked, he growled at the sea and sky. Come, 'nature', and just try to kill him! He'd show the world just how much ability he had. In the back of his mind, though, he remembered that the most important thing was to make it to dry land. He knew where it was, as he hadn't been addled in the impacts that had just been forced on him a few seconds ago by the water surrounding Kirigakure, his home village.
 
The wind whipped at his face, the rain stinging him slightly as he plowed on. He'd hop over a wave here, plow through one there, and now and then get knocked over by a few. Two steps forward, one step back. Over and over again, the cycle continued. He realized now that he was going to run out of steam before he hit the coast of the island. He had to think fast, lest he actually die out here, farther away from the village than he intended. How did he want to die? Certainly not to some lame natural disaster, and definitely not to an accident. Neither was dying to an enemy. Human beings... should he lose his life to one, his death would be shameful. No, dying to an unbeatable enemy, someone who had transcended humanity... THAT seemed like a glorious death. The journey to surpass the insurpassable was  bound to end in failure, but the journey was oh so worth it. It was the focus of his life, a life that he would NOT lose here! He tore through another wave, the purple aura surging around his body. He could feel himself getting more powerful, but training wasn't something he needed to worry about at the moment.
 
With one final push, the waves threw him, and he prepared for impact. He got it... but what it took him a few seconds to realize was that he had landed on sand. The island! It was here! He only hesitated for about a second before he got back on his feet and stumbled into the interior of the island, seeking the cave behind the waterfall. Finally. He sat down on the rock floor and thought. The rhythm of the overflowing waterfall and the rain above set up a hypnotic pattern... perfect.
 
Kozurou entered a meditative state, his mind cast into oblivion as concepts appeared before him like bubbles. He used the medical chakra as a defensive mechanism, which didn't work too well. It didn't correspond with the truths that he had learned about the techniques themselves, which meant that it wouldn't function as he wanted it to. Everything needed to be in harmony, he thought to himself, just like the raging waves and the falling rain all corresponded to some kind of rhythm around him. Indeed, everything aligned to a pattern or cycle. Death and rebirth, the cycle of life was one eternal Samsara that he bore witness to.
 
Right, similar to how the cycle of creation and destruction was there in the truth of medical ninjutsu. Just as he had done when he discovered the truth of it, so too would he now put his mind to working on this new mystery. Start with something he knew already, something OTHER than the root of what he wanted to know, and work his way inwards. That was how he learned something that he had no concept of to begin with, and it seemed like a simple and thorough method. As such, it was the best way for him.
 
If an attack hit him, and he healed afterwards, it was of no use. He ran through the concept over and over again in his head, the same old bubbles cycling around him like planets around a star, reminding him over and over of what he was trying to find. A method to prevent attacks... something that he could use to stop an attack from hitting him with its full force that was somehow related to medical ninjutsu. He mulled over it a bit more before considering something else. The storm hadn't let up yet, and was showing no signs of doing so.
 
He walked outside the cave, and was immediately hit with a wall of rain. Crap. He quickly went back inside and thought to himself for a bit. The second the storm calmed, that meant that the eye of the storm was passing over. If he were to walk out now and try to make it back to the mainland, he would be caught in the other side of the storm wall and probably perish. Timing. Timing was everything here. He wanted to use the storm for training, but needed to time it so that he was caught in the weaker part of the storm. However many variables were under his control, he'd use them to the utmost.

He figured that the cave would distort the sound of the storm, giving him a false idea of what was really going on out there, so once the winds and rain started back up again, he  would periodically poke his head out of the cave. For now, he'd rest up and sit in meditation for a few minutes. Things began to spin around him as he sat down, and the world spiralled out of focus as he began his period of introspection. He was missing a crucial and integral piece of the technique here, one that he could not move on without. He needed to find it within the next half an hour. So, he had a task and a time limit to perform it in. Inwardly, he grinned. Perfect. 

The two points of his chakra center began to open, allowing him to channel the energy of heaven and earth. He'd have to move beyond this stage soon, but that could always come later. His aura flared as he began meditation.

[WC 2600,
13 stats
2600/4000 towards Yin Healing Wound Destruction, will finish the rest soon-ish ;-;]

Approved

Three.

Kozuoru stood up, his eyes seeming to glow with enlightenment. He’d had some good fortune coming to this cave; the air around him was thick with world qi elements. He'd been able to empower himself even further, and now he'd gained important enlightenment as to the nature of the technique he was going after. Things would be much, much easier from here on out. The only thing that mattered now was preparing himself to enter the storm once more. This time, he was sure that he'd be able to stroll through it with significantly less difficulty. The storm roared outside, as if challenging that notion, and the boy smiled. It seemed that nature... no, heaven itself was trying to suppress him today.

"You want to put me down? Ha, you're not qualified." There was a sort of bubbly feeling in his soul, the feeling that came after every breakthrough. Every step he took on the Path took him closer and closer to his goal. For what reason did natural laws exist? Why did reactions go certain ways, and why was the universe more inclined toward chaos? The answer was simple indeed. Heaven was above the Earth, and the difference between them was as a giant to an ant. As such, Heaven suppressed earth, just as the storm was trying to do now. 

Two. 

Kozurou began to walk toward the entrance of the cave, smelling the sea in turmoil outside as the force of the typhoon came down upon it. Even the sea, which was home for millions of mortal creatures, could do nothing but rise up to its limited height before being forced back down by Heaven. Even the air around him, as light and gaseous as it was, could not help but bow to Heaven's gravity and stay close around the planet.

One.

The chakra began to fill his muscles and tissues, empowering them and strengthening them. A resonance began to form within his body, signalling the approach of a elongated burst of absolute power. 

Zero.

Kozurou burst out into the rain and off of the island, stepping onto the waves that surrounded Kirigakure. He didn't dare to approach the storm barrier, but this normal storm would do just fine for his purposes. The sky above him roared and rumbled, as if it were about to be split open. In a similar vein, the clouds poured forth from themselves, the rain coming down hard. 

He took his first step onto the waves, and realized that the trip back might be a bit easier than he had imagined. His body had now been strengthened to the point where tasks that he had considered to be herculean before were now barely within reach. As such, it wasn't necessary to state the obvious: that getting back through this storm, if he actually tried his best, wouldn't be too difficult. The wind that had previously buffeted him was now nothing more than a breeze, if he so chose. The only problem would be as he got farther out, but he was more than prepared.

A few large waves began to form. He could sense them coming as they began to gain momentum, rearing up from the surface of the ocean to careen towards him. He raised his hand and swept it across, deflecting the force of the wave and dissipating it. As he did, another larger one came up behind it, slamming down on him with force. When it had done its worst, Kozurou was still standing there, the increased chakra flow through his body causing the impact of the wave to be merely nothing to him.

The stellar aura flared around his body, and the wave that was coming next simply... "popped". The water dissipated and he walked through like some kind of anti-messiah, an omen or portent that humanity could overturn the natural order. Life itself was like one enormous glitch in the system. While life couldn't drive entropy backwards, it was definitely a huge roadblock in the universe's headlong hurtle towards ultimate destruction. While many weren't aware or didn't care about such a thing, it was present in Kozurou's mind most of the time. It wasn't just he who was standing in the face of the universe: every sentient being on the planet was doing so every day. He just chose to show it off more.

He raised his arm and pointed it forward, palm outward. Not much offensive power yet, he noted to himself. He'd have to work on that next. There wasn't much use in drawing out a fight to the point where he became fatigued and exhausted. No indeed, he preferred to finish things off a little faster than that, but there was a balance. The sensation of battle was like a drug to him, something he couldn't live without. 

The idea of being able to grow this body of his by participating in a fight with a stronger person was like icing on the cake. While the ocean wasn't exactly a perfect training "partner", it would have to do for now. Besides, this weather was kind of fun to play around in. Kirigakure always had the most interesting of climate patterns, being that it was surrounded by a massive storm basically all the time. So many things to experiement with and play around with when it came to training, and so little time... still, cultivators like him were said to have great longevity, so he had more time than he thought he did.

It never payed to procrastinate though. So, here he was training in the ocean. 

A fisherman dragging in his gear away from the incoming wave of storm winds saw something like a ghost light in the mist far away. Dropping to his knees, he began to mutter mantras of some local cult, praying to whatever cosmic forces to ward away the evil that was out there. As it got brighter, his chants became a little louder. The tyndall effect scattered the light from whatever source it came from and made it seem like some kind of luminescent cloud of light that revealed itself to the people on the shore like some kind of specter. 

Suddenly, with a snapping noise, whatever was causing the light swept its arm to the side and dispersed the mist, revealing a young man with a profound brilliant white aura raging around him. The people on the shore didn't understand. The headband on his head denoted him as one of the young ninja of the village... then why was he giving them this kind of feeling? 

Kozurou's eyes passed over them as he walked toward the shore, his destination reached at last. It was if he was looking at a table upon which lay an assortment of random objects. These people had less combat prowess than one of the kage's hounds. It'd be more entertaining to play with those dogs than to spend time with these people. Perhaps there was loss in such arrogance... or maybe it was a sort of "standard". There was no need to pick on the weak, because the weak could not harm him. Rather, as he saw here, they gazed in awe at him despite his power level still being somewhat low. Hmph. He supposed that there was all some kind of relative scale to it that he didn't quite understand yet.

With a leap, he was gone, going across the rooftops to return to his residence and get some well deserved rest. The chakra that was infused into his flesh had done him well, and he began to withdraw it as it was no longer needed... for now. He'd be able to use this little trick in the future against Aryll and her puppet to greater effect, so he hoped. It'd be fun to be able to walk right through those water cannons of hers.

Still, he was exhausted. One doesn't spend time out at sea in a storm without incurring some kind of fatigue. So, he quickly dried himself off, and fell asleep. For once in his life, Kozurou slept without dreams. A sign of power, to be sure. As a person cultivates to higher and higher leverls, his dreams slowly begin to disappear as they become less of unreachable dreams and more of attainable ambitions. Aspiration to power, that is. For Kozurou, this was only the beginning of his journey.

[WC 1400
7 stats
1400 towards Yin Healing Wound Destruction
EXIT]

Approved, next time please link the jutsu you are training.