The face of ecstasy

Sunny skies, few clouds, and not a single speck of rain in sight. Nan had just talked with these guys. They said they wanted some info from this one place. Real fucking specific.

Actually, they were rather specific. They wanted literally any and all information he could get about Hoshigakure, some new upstart ninja village, as well as... actually no, that was it. They gave him some directions, and said someone else was off to do the same thing, and they may as well go and do it together.

Cool, Nan thought, as he strode to the path that lead to the place. He had a rough description of the person, but no name to work with. Nan hoped the guy had not left already! So, whenever Nan saw someone that matched the description, he would put his hand up, wave to the guy with a large, almost too large, closed lip smile upon his face. "Hello", he began. "My name is Nan Higashi. Nice to see you. We're both headed to Hoshigakure, if those guys at the contract center are to be believed! Is that where you're going?" Shortly after his wave had finished, while still giving the introduction, Nan's hand would lower to be alongside his body, and his face would relax. It would still possess a smile, but that was it.


Nan himself was rather bland. He had longish white hair that hung down slightly past his ears, with one large bang in the middle of his forehead that almost brushed his nose. His eyes were a bright but muddy purple. His skin was very fair. Upon his upper body he wears a white zipper hoodie, partially zipped up, under which is a plain white tee shirt. The zipped portion of the hoodie hangs past his waist, covering up almost entirely the jean shorts that only descend to slightly past mid thigh. Of course, there is a purpose to this getup. Nan's ninja tools and pouches rest under the hoodie, concealed by the much too long nature of the thing.

Furthermore, it is important to notice that this entire image, from Nan's appearance to his clothing, was crafting using Ciel's advanced transformation abilities. The clothes are connected only loosely to his body, to allow him to rip them off (quite literally) if need be, but being able to simple remerge them into his body if he decides to transform again. Of course, if he does rip them off, the clothes would not simply poof away! They would continue to exist until Nan either released the transformation, or used it once again. At least it was comforting knowing that, mere moments after he would rip the clothing off, the cells of the attire would die. It was also nice that, even though the clothing was grown from his body, it still felt like clothing, and was quite comfortable.

So here, where the road splits, one path to Hoshigakure, another to who knows where, Nan would stand, hoping for his potential ally to walk past.

[507]

After the events of the black market, Masaki had finished one of his goals and now he was well on his way to complete a mission or two. Taking something along the lines of infiltration wasn't bad in the slightest so... what to do but simply play it out. Along the roads leading to Hoshi was the tall and stout man, soft clankings of two swords playing in the wind. His favorite weapon, Stormhowl sat close to his back and the regular Katana laid strapped to his right side with his right arm nestled on top of its hilt. The lone ninja had walked a great deal to get here, took about a single carriage to get to this point to meet a single person. Whoever he or she had been this mission required the two of them and of course because infiltration type missions took a more ...delicate approach he would need it to fit the bill.

It should've been noted that Masaki was wearing his usual clothing. His clothing flowed in the wind as he tried to address the situation of them. His clothing had been multilayered, each one showing some form of distinguished style from a family long gone until he had finally fixed the last layer of pale-lilac samurai pants and woven robes. The chestnut brown hair would soon fall flat back onto the kimono as he was finally back in order. For some reason when he traveled the wind loved to mix with the soft colors and cause them to dance which eventually lead to them becoming out of place, go figure right?

At long last he had finally came to a stop once he had seen someone, this person had likely seen him first and since they had started talking this was the person he was looking for. A name was finally put to a face as he waved to the male, looking at him thoroughly with the only eye visible and smiled," Masaki. Nice to make your acquaintance. As for the other question, Yeah Hoshi is my destination for the purpose of this mission. To be honest going anywhere like a ninja village scrapes my nerves a bit, but a little information never hurt anyone," one of the few things Nan would be able to pick up on was the subtle country accent from the male, it had a small mix of something else but the countryside accent was something to be proud of for him. It was all he had besides his brother and his sword of their home and it made it harder for people to pin him to a village.

Nan heard his response, and his smile faltered a little. "Yes, ninja villages are rather... scary. It probably will nto be all fun and games there." He stood in silence a moment, the edges of his lips drooping, before they popped back up. "But we can do this! There's this thing, called chakra suppression. Do you know about it? Or maybe can do it?"

Nan's next statements would be based upon how Masaki reacted. If he said he knew about chakra suppression, but did not know it, Nan would respond "Oh, that's too bad. Well,...". However, if Masaki did NOT know about it, Nan would instead bring it up differently. "Oh! Well, let me tell you what I know. First off, chakra is, like, in us. And sends out waves. Like, vibes, only... real. And everyone has a distinctive signature. And... ok this is taking too long. Long story short, you can make it tiny. Like, really tiny. UNNOTICEABLY tiny. It makes you unable to use jutsu but like, it's great for disguise, ya'know? So like, lets figure it out. Chakra suppression. It can't be too hard, right?"

Hopefully, the one known as Masaki would respond roughly in the affirmative. "Here's what I know," he would continue. "Your chakra is, like, in your gut. So if we can just... keep it there, that's the hard part. We gotta keep the chakra in our gut, and only allow super minimal amounts to move around our body. You know, so we don't, um... die. Yeah. So, we have to compress the chakra into our gut, in a small area." And of course, Nan would be doing exactly this as he started walking, taking the path towards Hoshigakure. "It's hard, yaknow? I've lived my entire life just letting my chakra roam free. So keep it caged is like, I don't know, weird? I've never had to keep my chakra 'caged' like this."

Nan was walking with his hands clapped together. Occasionally, his eyes would close and his face would contort in pain. No, not pain. Exertion. Yes. His face was contorting in exertion. It was a bit of a sight to behold. He was concentrating on the chakra within his body, trying to keep it caged. Compressing it into a single point. It was still weird. It felt... wrong. Nan had no desire to do this often.

Perhaps there was a better way?

Bah, there is a time and place for everything. Any "better way" would require thinking. It would require experimentation. Right now, Nan did not know if he had enough time to experiment. They were not terrible far from the village, if the route they were given was correct.

[449]

"Chakra suppression?"

The question sort of rolled off his tongue in a more conventional way, expressing a curious side of him than an ignorant one. He had heard of the technique yes, it had been talked about rarely among some of the other bandits and brigands of the black market, a skill to them but a jutsu that could help with their next big score. At the time the technique meant nothing to Masaki since people often mistaken him to be a samurai than a ninja, but if this could help personify that more? He'd take the time to learn the technique and use it to his advantage in the long run. As the two progressed in their talking, the male had been keeping up with the lecture on chakra suppression enough to have a generalized idea for it and a practical use. So it took keeping your chakra where it had been centered there while also allowing it to faintly spread through your body so you didn't combust or kill yourself because you kept it all corked in.

Simple enough and to the point where he could experiment on it for a bit. As the two walked, Masaki was silent concentrating on pushing his chakra into his gut and holding it there. For one moment his chakra would subside, retaining itself in the males stomach before trying to get out. An issue he was slowly beginning to understand and counteract. Keeping his hands pressed in the inseams of his kimono, he slowly began to allow his chakra to flow into his body like a small stream until he had managed to successfully control both. Though he figured out the basics there were still a lot of obstacles to overcome in order to fully complete this jutsu. His eye slowly trained back and forth from Nan until Masaki felt something odd. His chakra was acting erratically as if something had been inside of him. The feeling had been so foreign that it caused him to lose his train of thought no less.

"Maybe, like, some food will help." Nan was grabbing some panda shaped onigiri from a bag in one of the pockets of his hoodie, and unscrewing the cap of a water bottle in the other pocket. He took a bite and started nomming away while looking over towards Masaki. "I've got some extra, if you want some," he said. If Masaki said he would like one, then Nan would shift the bitten onigiri into his off hand, then reach back into the pocket and pull out the bag. There were a total of three onigiri left within the bag.

"Made them myself," he said. "They're.. less than terrible? Bean paste isn't curdled this time, at least."

Such inspiring words of confidence.

Of course the onigiri were actually quite good, if you liked all of rice, seaweed, and bean paste. The bean paste was not exactly amazing, but it was not shit either.

Anyways, Nan was not eating just to eat. Food in his stomach left a feeling. A feeling of fullness. A beautiful feeling. A useful one. He could force his chakra to surround the area that felt full, to surround his stomach. That was where he had been guiding it anyways. Now he just had an extra beacon.

And you know what? It kinda worked. He kinda felt his chakra wane. Then it waxed. Then it waned again. Wax. Wane. Wax. Wane. So on and so forth. It was hard work, and it was in a single breath that Nan downed the entire water bottle.

"Any luck?" Nan would ask. "Also... I just realized. Can you sense chakra? Cause I can't. And if you can't, how will we know if we succeed?"

[283]

He went silent for a moment as he continued to suppress his chakra, the single act causing his eye to close and open for a few seconds maybe more until finally he had relaxed himself. He could tell at least to some extent that his natural flow of chakra had slowed to some degree though by how much he couldn't simply measure. He was going to ask the male what made him want to take on this mission and yet the subtle shifting of food wafted past his nose and made him stop.

Since the male had offered so generously he slowly reached for one of the onigiri and ate it in silence, the taste wasn't too bad considering he has had worse and compared to that this was godsend. The small meal would definitely do him some good until he and his partner arrived into Hoshi. Speaking of wasn't a village that didn't have shinobi until recently? The small piece of information only came to him while sitting in a bar, no one carded him or even asked his age. Why? Because no one cared in the black market. None the less he had only a small tidbit to go off of so actually getting there would increase the knowledge on it by quite a bit. Looking back to his companion he shook his head and shrugged," Guess you'll feel it when it happens. Like mine right now feels really low, and yet if I had did it then i'd feel it? It might be a different feeling for you as well," he still wasn't sure on what the other feeling was within him.

At some point he'd need to sit down and sort this out, what if it was some sort of deficiency within his chakra network or worse? Providing push came to shove he'd sit himself down and go over what he thought was the case and if not? Well he'd simply go back to the drawing board. In the meantime he continued to walk forward with his friend, pushing his chakra back into his gut and slowly releasing it so that it didn't pop out of him.

"Well," Nan began. His words were muffled, and the sounds distorted by the continuous movement of his jaw that was not a part of his speech. "I think it's working? Or maybe that's just my belly being contented. Still feels weird. Kinda like... I'm lacking something? Yeah, like I'm lacking something I've always had before today." He was still working on forcing the chakra into his gut, though at this point it almost felt like he was forcing it onto the food. Maybe if I do this enough, I'll discover a new food based jutsu! Or perhaps a bile based one... ew.

Anyways, Nan was walking along. It was a beautiful area. In a sense. They had left the trees behind awhile ago, but were not an an area of total desolation yet. There was supposed to be a desert near the Hoshi place, so Nan imagined that at some point he would be looking at nothing but sand. Dear god that would be annoying. The ground was bleak, but the plants looked like they were fighting hard, and there were no flying demons of death, or rather vultures, currently, if there were ever any in this area, so that was nice.

Nan took as much in as he could in between attempts to disguise his chakra into nothingness. It did feel like it was working. Slowly. Hopefully. Kinda.

Maybe it would be better, instead of just trying to push the chakra together, to imagine more of a molding of chakra. Yes, mold it like clay using the hands of consciousness. Nan began rubbing the sides of his hands against his stomach (or rather, against the clothing atop his stomach), with palms cupped inwards, imagining that he was directly manipulating the chakra within his body. He started moving the hands across his entire body, too, dragging it first from the opposite hand all the way to the shoulder, past the heart, around the stomach, and finally to the navel. He repeat with the other hand on the other arm. Then came swiping down from the face. The back of the heads. The sides. Always passing by the heart. Always moving around the stomach. It... kind of felt like it was working? He kind of noticed, maybe, possibly, the feeling of chakra leaving his limbs and migrating towards his core. Or he was imagining it. The placebo affect is strong, after all.

[402 | 1641]

"Well if it was your stomach i think you'd know the difference between the two unless the feelin of both is the same. If not? Well then we'll find out when we get to Hoshi now won't we?," there wasn't much to his words except the whole "It'll happen when it happen," of course with that being said he was looking forward to seeing what would happen in this event. A "samurai" and a ninja both walking into a shinobi village sounded like a bad set up for a bar joke, but it made sense.

In fact in helped their case considering no one could suspect a wandering samurai to be up to no good. Perhaps he had simply been traveling the world seeing the shinobi villages to see if anything had truly changed among them. Rather or not that wasn't the case and he played the part very well. With how he acted these days there was little to be wondered about his alignment, but that was a different story altogether. For a moment he stopped trying to suppress his chakra to feel the difference between unsuppressed and suppressed, which the difference was very noticeable. His body felt...full in a sense which only meant that void like feeling was the absence of his chakra running normally.

For a moment he went back into suppressing his chakra, taking one small breath as his chakra slowly reverted back into his gut and the void like feeling slowly returned. It was as if he had finally learned it in a sense, but not enough to fully master it. Whatever the achievement was for this jutsu he would probably wind up only using it once before shelving it completely. Then again it could prove to be a very unique asset in his fighting style if he ever were to implement it.

His eye slowly returned to Nan, the boy seemed to be continually trying to get the feeling of the suppression down and it looked like he had been getting the hang of it, but then again he couldn't tell because he couldn't sense chakra. At either rate he could see that the trail was growing ever closer to Hoshi and he at least hoped before getting to the gates they had it down. One thing he did notice from where they were had been some carriages slowly getting into line, assumingly for the village though this wasn't confirmed yet. He kept close watch on the carriages before looking back to Nan and tilting his head," You got it down yet or still trying to get the feeling down?," it was a rather simple question for the moment since he seemed to be having trouble...he thought.

"Yeah, you're probably right, especially since I just ate. It's a weird void, not feeling the chakra running through your body. I kinda hope I don't have to do this often. But I guess we'll have to do it most of our time in the village, won't we?"

Nan chewed on the rightmost end of his lower lip a bit, mulling the idea over in his head. It was not... uncomfortable, but it was not nice either. That was the best way he could think to describe it. Not wrong, but certainly not right. Not natural, but not bad.

He figured a lot of things in this world were like that, actually. Not natural, but not bad. Pretty much anything man made was unnatural. Yet houses themselves were not bad to the environment. Not much at least.

"Hey, do you think houses are bad for the environment?" Nan would ask, deciding to shift his eyes to the skies and entangle his fingers together behind his head. Assuming Masaki responded either with a look or words of confusion, Nan would respond "Oh nevermind, just a random train of thought."

It would be a little while later, when the pair stood in what appeared to be a line, with the village, or at least what Nan presumed to be the village, visible in the distance that Masaki asked Nan if he had it down.

"I think?" Nan replied. "I can totally make myself feel really different. So I think I've got it."

Nan tried one more time. He had to force the chakra into his core. This time... it happened much easier. There was no need to fidget with his hands, no need to practically caress his body. I just kind of... worked. That's nice, he thought, his eyes glancing downwards as if they would actually see something, perhaps a glowing circle around his navel. Of course, there was no such spot of luminescence. His body was perfectly normal. Normal and boring. "So, how are we doing this, divide and conquer? I'll chat up the locals, you do some digging? And how about we meet up... I don't know, every day? We can decide where to meet up once we're inside. Sound good?"

[372 | 2013 (training complete)]

"If what i've been hearing through the vine maybe. More so for you. I just look like an ordinary samurai to them but you? You look a little more to the bill. Plus side you could say you're looking for a home and decided to try out Hoshi. If it doesn't work out? We can split and take out information elsewhere. Simple right?," of course there could have been an endless possibility of options for them, but seeing as he just learned his technique? Well this was the most obvious for him...and also meant that Nan would have to do all of the talking.

His question was certainly...weird in a sense, but he did have a small answer to his query which was all his own," I think sleeping outside among the stars is better. So perhaps they are? I dunno," it wasn't a full answer but hey he got one none the less. It didn't help that he was unknowingly turning the wheels for the train of thought, but hey any conversation is good at this point. Since it was just a thought it was simple to denounce the answer but now...where did this go from here? Their trail toward Hoshi was now almost complete and that meant the two should have had the technique down to be used. With that being said he looked to the male and nodded," Good. I have it down as well so that means...we shall fit in perfectly. If you want to do the talking then by all means do so. I do better without talking," he looked to the male to see if he had agreed for a moment.

Now we were going in the right direction as he looked at the male and scratched his chin, his eye closing to think on it for a moment before nodding," I can do some reading, try to find a major source of information that the village has combined. While you deal with the locals i deal with the books. Agreed?," since they had a general idea, a plan of attack and even a way to get out...well they were certainly in a good position. The only thing to do now was to get into the village. With the looming gates of the village finally coming into view the male could only wonder what kind of people the "Shinobi" were in this place.

For the time being he sat in silence until something was said again, maybe until they finally reached the destination. Who knew?

2014, training complete
10 stats and Chakra Suppression learned
[Exit if nothing else is needed?]