Ingenious Training Method(s) [Solo,NK]

In a muddy street, on a rainy day in Kirigakure... Nero, and his friend Kite, a 6’2’’ man with long black hair tied into a ponytail behind his back are arguing. “It’s genius!” Nero shouts.”. Kite sighs (in a manner clearly signaling they’ve been having this talk for a while now). “What about it is?” he shouts back. He is standing on the front porch of his house, the base of the balcony on top of him protecting him from the rain. There is just one table with three chairs on the front porch. Meanwhile, Nero is standing in the rain, proudly holding a long broom, that has two small buckets tied on each end, both slowly filling with water drop by drop. “I…” Kite was checking out this abomination of an ‘invention’, “What are you talking about, Nero? It’s a broom with two buckets…”. Those words triggered Nero into his presentation mode. “You see,” he started, taking a few steps back so that Kite may enjoy his magnum opus as a whole, taking in every last bit of this masterpiece, “This product is designed so that it will both train your strength, your balance and…”. Nero leaned forwards, pointing to his brain from the side of his head with his index finger, “...the mind…”.

Kite sighed again. “Alright,” he said, “It’s your call.”. He then sat on a chair beside him and started going through the books on the table, seemingly trying to choose which one to read. He then picks one up, opens it and starts reading it. Nero watched him do those, then looked back to his invention, amazed by his own genius. He then picked it up and balanced it on his shoulders. He then put his arms over it to grapple it over his neck and turned to face Kite again. He already seemed to be lost in the book he was reading. “YOU SEE!” Nero shouted then, startling Kite and afterward making him sigh and shake his head. “AS I HOLD-”. Kite interrupted him, “You don’t have to shout, dumbass. I can hear you…”. “As I hold the invention™, rain starts filling up the buckets, making it heavier, so it’s harder to lift it and balance it.”. Kite pouted, nodded and went back into reading. “AND TO TOP IT OFF-”. “DON’T SHOUT YOU DUMBASS!”. Nero looked down and nodded in shame, “And to top it all off, the way the raindrops fall are completely random, so they will keep trying to throw you off balance.”. 

Kite closed the book, then turned to Nero and stared him down for a few seconds. “Raindrops?” he asked. Nero took a few seconds, then nodded. Kite opened his, mouth, then forced it shut, holding his breath, then turned back to Nero. “Raindrops. Raindrops throw you off balance?”. Nero nodded. He was so sure of himself, “They’re heavier than they look.”. Kite pouted and nodded again. “Alright, Nero. Good luck with your training. I’m heading in.”. Nero waved him goodbye. He then closed his eyes and focused on his entire body, and especially the parts making contact with the broom on his shoulders, as he kept listening to the sound of raindrops falling on the ground. By now, his hair was already drenched in water. “Buying these water-resistant clothes are the second best choice I made all year.” Nero thought to himself. He raised one of his legs up to put his foot on his other leg. Now balancing was a little bit harder and Nero was actually pushing himself now.

“Happy birthday, Nero…” the young Yuki thought to himself, “I’ve at least managed to become a ninja before my 20th birthday. He opened his eyes and looked up, aiming to enjoy the view of the sky… Only until he remember it was raining (he never had a great memory), his eyes immediately being attacked with waterdrops, forcing him to close them shut once again, partially ashamed by his stupidity, but partially already making excuses in his head (like how he was bold enough to look a storm in the eye, etc.). “I’m wasting your time. You got your answer from Kite. This is dumb. You know it. You’re too stubborn to make it.”. He took a deep breath. “I can’t believe it took me this long to even become a genin.”. 

He focused on his entire body’s positioning, and the broom and buckets he was holding. He closed his eyes, and tried to feel everything. He started meditating on it, and the rain was creating a comfortable enough environment for him to do so. Then he started manifesting his chakra. He could feel his aura coming out of every pore in his skin. He knew that wasn’t how it really worked, and there were chakra points or whatever but first of all, he didn’t pay enough attention at the academy about this subject; and second of all, it sure felt like the aura was coming out of every single point on his body. Maybe it was because he didn’t have a total understanding over chakra, maybe it was because he didn’t have a 100% perfect feel and control over his body; but running on intuition felt like a better move than to try to match his training 100% with his teachings at the academy. 

He could feel his chakra slowly becoming stronger every time he would train like this. It was like a shroud over his body, or at least he liked to imagine it was. But he knew just having that chakra wasn’t of much use, being a newly genin the only Jutsu he could use that chakra on were the basic, easy ones you HAD to learn to become a ninja.Now that he was one, he needed to be able to do so much more if he wanted to be of any use to himself or his village. With that thought, he realized the chakra he had manifested was flowing with the wind. He didn’t yet have the ability to see it, but he could sure feel it. He wasn’t sure what really caused this effect on his chakra though. Maybe it was because he lost his composure, his peaceful state of mind, so it became less concrete; or maybe it was the opposite, because he felt more passionate about the subject, his chakra was energized, moving around like waves in the ocean. He meditated on that feeling. He tried to focus his chakra onto the broom, wishing to infuse it with his aura; make it part of his own body in that sense. The best he could manage was his chakra somewhat moving towards the broom from his hands making contact with it. 

The buckets have already been filled to the brim by now, with every raindrop causing some sort of movement, randomly causing some amount of water to spill everytime Nero made a sudden move. He had been standing like this, just focusing on his chakra, his body and the broom he was holding for almost an hour now, so he could feel the some smaller movements in the buckets that he couldn’t possibly have before. He started moving the broom up and down, working on his biceps and shoulders. In order to position himself perfectly to work the muscles he wanted to work, he put his head down, his now soaking wet hair falling in front of his face; water flowing through his hair reaching his eyes in a potency close to a shower. He tried to blow his hair away, but due to being wet from the rain, it was heavier (something Nero would have thought of he was specifically asked, and was given a decent amount of time to figure it out, but couldn’t at his current state at a pace useful to him) so he couldn’t. “Even my breath isn’t strong enough.” he thought for a second, then immediately mentally turning 180 degrees, “Or maybe my hair is just really strong.”. He wasn’t sure which deduction was the correct one, but either way he was getting more and more annoyed and couldn’t keep his balance up. He fell down to the ground, at the same time realising the streets were now almost “covered with a thin layer of sea” as he would have put it. 

Despite the unexpected fall, he had managed to keep the focus on his chakra, which was flowing around him, almost in unison with the water that was pushing against his body, being pushed back and moving down the direction of the street. He didn’t get back up yet, as he was still meditating on his chakra, and whatever came into contact with it. He reached to his left side to grab the invention with his left hand. He once again tried imbuing this broom with his chakra. The flood and the rain were almost helping him, in a way; creating a serene environment for him. His chakra moved from his hand, and a little bit onto the broom, before completely going back to his body. This try was more successful than the one before, but he was still nowhere near success. But when he really focused on his chakra; he noticed the his chakra had had an easier time fusing with the water than the broom. His aura was now extended into the water (a few inches), and it was dancing around with the natural flow of the flood. 

Nero grinned. It was time to move on, as he couldn’t keep his training completely on the ground, so he got back up. Looking around, he saw that both of buckets were almost completely empty now. He took both of them and put them down the right side up so they would start to fill again. “This isn’t doing it.” he thought while watching the two buckets fill up. It was a boring but also a somewhat meditating experience. “Even if it is a genius method of training, which it is, the preparation and the general handling of the invention™ is simply taking too much time. I am already far too behind ninja my age, and even ninja my rank who are generally much younger than me… I need a faster way to try to reach them and then to keep up.”. He then looked back at the door of Kite’s house, and remembered an advice given to him by his parents.”Competition pushes you to do better, more than most other things possibly can.”. 

It’s been more than a few years since Nero had last seen his parents. Even though he might not have been able to accept it himself, nowadays he had a hard time even visualising their faces. He had completely forgotten what they sounded like a long time ago. Most of what Nero remembered of them were the things they taught him, most of which was about being a ninja. But despite that he didn’t actually get trained by them because they never seemed to have time and energy for that. “Competition pushes you…” Nero repeated to himself, as he made his way to the front door. He moved his right hand up to knock, but it opened before he got a chance to do so. Nero and Kite made eye contact, and both were startled by the unexpected appearance of the other. Then they both chuckled.

Nero broke the silence first, “So you’re coming out to play?”. Kite chuckled again. “It’s raining like an ocean evaporated, Nero. You come in.”. Nero thought for a second then nodded. “Ok just let me grab the invention™ real quick.”. He turned around to jump towards the invention™ until Kite stopped him, “Uh, why don’t you leave it out? I’m sure nobody will have the guts to steal your invention.”. Nero looked back at him, “Oh okay. Just to be clear though, it’s called the invention™.”. Kite was puzzled “Yeah I get it. It’s the invention.”. Nero paused for a few seconds, creating an awkward silence. Kite was immune to Nero’s Awkward Silence Technique by now though. Nero acknowledged Kite’s strength against his technique, and gave in. “Yeah okay I’m coming in.”. 

Kite disappeared into the house first. Nero followed him, and as soon as he took his first step in, he was attack by Kite with a towel. Nero was an agile ninja, but Kite took him by suprise, hitting him right in his beautiful (again, in Nero’s words) face. “Dry up.”. Nero shrugged, starting to dry his hair, with a unique technique so to say. He was hitting the back of his head with towel. Kite was of course once again puzzled by Nero’s action, but he also knew an explanation would shortly come. “You got lucky.” Nero said, as Kite thought to himself “Here it comes…”. Nero continued, “I let you hit me. Because as you see…” he kept hitting his head with the towel, “this is the most efficient way to get the water out of your hair.”. Kite sighed, “Nero just get it over and done with…”. Nero waited for Kite to turn his back, and then swiftly dried his hair by using the towel like a normal person. 

The interior had a homey feeling. The color scheme was brown and red; brown mainly coming from the wooden floor, table and chairs, the red from other furniture like the sofa and carpets. It was warm, mainly thanks to the fireplace Kite had specifically had put in by ninja so that even if it was raining outside, he could have fire running inside the house, without either smoke filling the room or the rain reaching the fire and putting it out. When Nero learned about this a few weeks ago he first believed that a ninja must have somehow used a jutsu to block the top of the chimney to water. In reality, it was nothing more than a simple engineering trick. There were two holes in the walls going up, one from the chimney to the water supplies beneath the house, and one going up from the fireplace, and making a soft turn to lead the smoke to the other hole. Kite explained this Nero quite a few times but Nero always forgot about it in a few minutes. If asked about it, he would probably tell others that it was a jutsu.

“Kite…” Nero said, “I need to train. I don’t have time to drink tea or something.”. Kite shrugged, “Train, then. Is there nothing you can do inside? You know you’ll have missions where you will have to be infiltrating houses and buildings and stuff, right?”. Nero nodded, “Oh right. Good point. Well, I haven’t been on even 2 missions yet.”. He then thought for a few seconds about what he could do inside, without damaging any of Kite’s belongings. “Oh!” he raised a finger, looking Kite in the eye, “You know I did learn a few new techniques at the academy.”. Kite smiled “And you learned them from…?”. Nero’s heart skipped a beat. “People…” he answered. Kite kept smiling and looking Nero dead in the eye. Nero caved in, “I… A 12 year old genin…”. Kite chuckled, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Nero.”. Nero shrugged, obviously embarrassed. It’s only then did Kite realise Nero had only dried his face and hair (and those only a little bit, and he was spilling water everywhere from his clothes. “You’re making the floor wet, Nero.”. Nero nodded, taking his jacket, shirt and boots of, now only wearing his pants which he then covered with the towel Kite gave him. Kite blushed, “Yeah, I… Guess that’ll work…”.

“Anyway,” he said, trying to pull the conversation back towards somewhere he was comfortable, “Tie me up”. He then sat down on a chair. Kite blushed again. His pupils grew. “What?”. “Tie me up!” Nero repeated, this time a little bit louder, “I’ll show you this new technique I learned.”. Kite was now more puzzled than embarrassed. “I… Sure, I’ll go get some rope I guess. Because I keep a lot of unused rope around?”. Kite picked Nero’s wet clothes up from the ground and put them near the firework. He then started walking around the room, looking around and trying to remember if he kept any rope around. The minute Kite went to the next room, Nero palmed a shuriken from one of his ninja pouches. Then he started acting like he was meditating with his eyes closed, waiting for Kite to come back. “Yeah I guess this isn’t the most efficient way to train either.” he thought to himself, “But having company kind of makes up for it.”. He then realised he was still thinking about the fact that he just learned a really simple technique from a 12 year old kid. “Kite seemed really disappointed. Or rather, embarrassed for me. Even if he said otherwise. There is shame in how far behind I am… He’s trying to be good friend trying to comfort me but honestly I don’t want to be comforted, I want to be pushed… Pushed to become better, stronger. I want to become the cool guy I had… I HAVE the potential of becoming… I mean, hopefully still have…”. He then heard Kite’s footsteps approach and stop, so he opened his eyes once again.

When he did, the image that welcomed him was Kite, holding two string of ropes, both about a foot long, and quite thin. Nero was puzzled, “No those are… To thin and short, I meant like the kind of rope you tie around some- Wait! ARE THOSE MY SHOELACES?”. He then turned around to check his boots, and his assumptions were correct. He looked back at Kite to see him smiling widely. He then closed his eyes while he kept smiling, scratching the back of his head, “Yeah, sorry, I couldn’t really find any other rope in the whole… room…”. Nero had mixed feelings. He was kind of angry at Kite for pulling his shoelaces of without asking him, but at the same time feeling kind of happy and confident after realising his brilliant deduction and perception skills were once again successfully saving the day (kind of).  “You live another day, Kite.” he said, squinting his eyes, trying to keep a serious face. Kite smiled, “Thank you, generous ninja.” he answered. Only then did Nero realise Kite had also poured himself a cup of tea, apparently ready to enjoy his Jutsu Show performance.

Nero sighed, “Anyway let’s do this.” he said, putting his arms close to the chair’s legs so Kite could tie them.. And Kite did exactly that. He then pulled them a bit to make sure they were tight. “Okay go.” Kite said, taking a few steps back to sit on his sofa. “AND NOW!” Nero would shout only to be cut again by Kite, with a stronger shout, “STOP SHOUTING NERO WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”. Nero would look down, look back up to Kite, nod, and continue, “And now! For the greatest magic trick you’ll ever get to see…”. Kite would talk over him, “Okay, Nero just do it…”, only for Nero not to stop but on the contrary talk over Kite, “For your entire lives… The grand magical rope escaping trick.”. Kite would correct Nero “Those are shoelaces though.”. Nero would shrug and look away from Kite in a sassy manner, “Please do not try to talk to the master magician. This show does not welcome hecklers.”. 

Then Nero stopped talking, closed his eyes and started to focus. He was trying to manifest his chakra, as he hoped he had enough control over it after becoming a genin to do so. He tried to calm himself down, breathing slower and slower with each passing second. His heartbeat, as a result also started to slow down. In this calm and focused mind state, controlling his chakra felt more natural and (as a result) easier than before. He simultaneously focused on the part of his arms making contact with the shoelaces. He first focused the chakra being generated from his entire body to flow more potently into his arms. Then he focused on the chakra and the shoelaces, to guide it where Nero wanted it to flow towards; infusing the shoelaces. Now that Nero realised, this technique had a similar act behind it to what he was trying to accomplish before, with infusing the broom with his chakra. Maybe this could have been a gateway learning technique to accomplish that goal of his later. He maintained his focus on the shoelaces and that position of his chakra for 12 seconds until he realised they weren’t breaking. 

He then opened his eyes as his shameful gaze met Kite’s, merely amused but interpreted by Nero to be full of disappointment. He took a few seconds to think, then all of a sudden his facial expression changed from that of a shameful person to that of someone who just figured out the greatest plan in the history of humankind. Standing and acting proudly, Nero spoke, “Kite? Is that a new painting?”. Kite turned around, and as soon as he did, Nero started attacking the shoelace with the shuriken he had hid inside his palm earlier. “Oh that?” Kite said, still looking at the painting rather than Nero, “Yeah that one is new. Funny story actually… I know you’re not really that interested in art but- Wait!”. Kite quickly turned around, catching Nero on the spot. “Stop!” he shouted as he springed from his sofa and grabbed Nero’s hand holding the shuriken. He wrestled Nero for a few seconds but the genin was in a positional disadvantage. “You had the high ground…” Nero snarked at his friend. “Nero.” Kite said then, finally grabbing the shuriken and holding it between their faces, “If you keep acting this way, you’ll never learn anything.”. Funny enough, this last sentence gave Nero two seperate flashbacks, but he was quick enough to disperse those thoughts and  focus on what was happening right then. “I… You’re right.” he mumbled, once again starting to try using the jutsu instead of cheating. Kite then proceeded to put the shuriken on the table and sit back on his sofa, this time watching carefully so Nero wouldn’t cheat.

Nero closed his eyes and tried infusing the shoelaces with his chakra once again. It didn’t work. This time he didn’t admit defeat though, he kept his eyes closed, and started analyzing why he might have been failing. “What has changed between the academy and here?” he started thinking, “First of all, I wasn’t sitting back there. But that couldn’t possibly factor into this. Second off all, Those were ropes and these are shoelaces. It’s possible that that fact makes a difference, but I would expect it should be easier for a shoelace to be broken with chakra than a rope. But that conclusion is only by the fact that one is thinner. Ropes and shoelaces have much more differences. Before anything else, the rope I broke off at the academy was made of straw and my shoelaces are probably very expensive satin.” (it was in fact, not; but Nero didn’t know that). “Oh…” Nero had a minor epiphany, “The shoelaces are also wet. That could be causing a problem. In any case, the rope from before has different features from these things. Now to actually solve the problem. Should I be focusing more on those shoelace? Wait. Maybe if I focus all my chakra on one at a time, the chakra will be more potent, and so, strong enough to break the shoelaces.”.

He took another deep breath. He focused most of his chakra into his right arm, then infused that chakra into the wet shoelaces binding him, finally breaking the tie with his chakra. Kite started clapping, but Nero didn’t let that distract him, now focusing on the tie on his other arm, breaking that one too shortly after the first one. He then jumped up from the chair, raising both his arms in the most elegant way he could think of, then bowing before Kite, who had continued to applaud him. “Your Magnificent Magician Nero!” Nero would exclaim, rising up from his bow and smiling widely, obviously satisfied with his performance. “So…” Kite said, “What do you want to do next?”. Happiness disappeared from Nero’s face, leaving its place to confusion. “I… Um…”. Nero babbled, with a dead look in his eyes. He then looked outside with the smallest glimpse of a hope that the rain may have passed and Kite might now be open to going outside; only to be disappointed by the rain pouring perhaps even stronger than before. 

Nero grabbed the shuriken Kite had put on the table before, “I should be heading out. I still need to train, and being indoors is a huge barrier that is easily avoidable. It’s… Unnecessary.”. Kite nodded, “Sure. See you later then.”. Nero put on all of his clothes, which were not entirely warm or dry yet, but he still appreciated Kite’s friendly gesture. “See you later, Kite!” the ninja said, as he saluted his friend (who was already opening his book again) with his index and middle fingers and headed out the door. When he was standing on the front porch, he stopped. He breathed in, taking in the smell of the rain, at the same time enjoying the sight and sound of the millions of raindrops meeting the stone ground, some bouncing of a few times, creating ripples on the newly forming puddles. He found everything to be really peaceful.

“Regular old Kiri…” Nero thought to himself, “The buildings, the empty streets, the smell of murder in the air, the never stopping rain, the water flowing through the streets, the blood being carried with it-Wait…”. Nero shook off his head, hoping to throw his distraction (or to be more specific, this ‘fiend’ that was causing Nero to be easily distracted - in Nero’s own words) away. There was blood flowing through the streets along with all the water from the rain. “Regular old Kiri…” Nero repeated in his head. He took a step out of Kite’s front porch, aiming to follow the trail of blood, only to be tackled by the invention™, and fall to the ground, once again soaking himself and his clothes entirely in the water flooding the city. He fell face first too, hurting his nose by hitting the ground first, then getting water into it when he tried to breathe. After that horrific experience that was caused in a mere second, he turned himself around, now lying back on the street, watching the rain fall down to earth (and onto him, actually making it harder to watch it, a water drop managing to make a perfectly aimed fall from thousands of meters straight into his eyes), as the flood on the streets were washing against him from his left side. “I’m miserable.” Nero thought to himself, reaching for his nose with his right hand, then blowing hard to hopefully get some water out (as he didn’t really understand much about the human anatomy). “Still… Even despite this mess I just made… There’s something comforting in the rain. The wind, the water… The blood… Wait!”. He took a deep breath, as he usually did before getting from the ground. Only this time, due to the obvious nature of his surroundings, it backfired, actually filling his lungs with lots of water. “Ughh.” he shouted. He swallowed more water. “Mmmm.”. This time he was clever (?) enough to keep his mouth shut while letting his frustration out. Only now did he finally made the genius choice to jump up from the ground. 

He watched the water flow around his feet, like small waves. “Is this what giants feel like? Wait. Are there any giants in this world?”. Nero knew much about the shinobi world thanks to his parents but they were always secretive about the work they did, so even when they (or if they) encountered and fought beasts, Nero wasn’t really in the know. Either way, he wasn’t really that interested in monsters and mythological beasts anyway. He knew the cutthroat reality of this world, and he had grown to be okay with it many years ago. He was worried about himself, his close surroundings and his immediate future, and not much else (His clothing and sense of flare, he considered to be part of “himself”). 

He closed his eyes and turned his face upwards to continue to feel the rain again. “Wind and water…” he thought to himself. Then he once again had a minor epiphany. He opened his hands, lowered his head to look at his palms, and repeated those words in his head, “Wind and water.”. Then his gaze wandered a little bit, “...and blood- Wait!”. Yes, this was finally the time. He started following the flow of blood, surprisingly still quite potent in this flood, after the many seconds Nero has wasted after first realising it. Now that Nero was paying attention, the trail wasn’t even originating from that far. Once Nero had faced the direction the blood was coming from, it was obvious that he only had to go as far as the second street to his left. He reached the edge of the house, and took a turn to enter that street. It was mainly empty, with only a dumpster in it, and a few trash bags thrown next to it.  The dumpsters seemed to be where the blood was originating from.

“I can’t believe this.” the ninja mumbled, followed by a sigh. He approached the dumpster and the thrash bags with determined and quick steps, then stopped once he was in front of them. “I can’t believe someone would do something like this, so casually in broad daylight.”. A thunder would be heard all across the village. “So casually in broad day rain.”. Nero then slowly reached the thrash bags. He carefully picked them up and then put them into the trash cans. “Some people just don’t seem to care about the environment.”, he thought as he washed his hands in the rain, “Well shame on them.”. He then continued walking down this street, wondering where it led. Even before he entered that street, he could see a few of the buildings there. One of them seemed to be a book or antiques shop, maybe both. He read the sign, at least he meant to; because there actually was no sign of any kind. He walked closer to the shop’s front door. He was about to know on the door when he saw the “Closed.” sign, which in turn redirected him to the window up front so he could get a glimpse of what was inside. There were a lot of wooden furniture, some sandpapered, some already polished, and some barely crafted, splinters on them visible from meters away. 

All of a sudden, a small white dog appeared behind the window, barking at Nero with high pitched voice. Nero was startled, and took a step back. Then he realised how small and cute the dog was and took the step forward. He started putting his finger on the window, trying to attract its attention (which he already had, so this was kind of pointless but due to his history with raising and looking after them, Nero had a soft spot for dogs and whenever he saw one he got the urge to play with them). Out of the corner of his eye, a few meters behind the dog, Nero saw a figure coming out of the shadows. It looked to a white haired old man with a moustache, wearing a blue shirt with a brown vest over it, which immediately brought one thought into Nero’s mind “Poor choice…”. The old man smiled. He approached the dog and started petting it. He then looked at Nero and nodded. Nero nodded back, and watched as the old man gestured him to come in, and then opened the door for him, while he didn’t change the ‘closed’ sign to say ‘open’, (Nero noticed it because he was paying attention to that specifically as he was walking to the door).

“Hello!” the old man welcomed Nero with a weak but excited voice, as the dog was now wiggling its tail happily beside the man’s feet. Nero bowed briefly, “Hi!”. The old man grabbed the dog, and held him close to his chest, petting him. The dog was staring at Nero with beautiful giant black eyes, occasionally barking, still wiggling its taill. “She recognizes ninja.” the old man said. “Oh!” Nero answered enthusiastically, pointing at his forehead, “Does he recognize the headbands?”, he then turned to the dog and started talking in a higher-pitched voice, “Who’s smart girl? You are, yes you..”. The old man chuckled, “No, uh… I’ll explain in a minute. My name is Furui, I own this store of antiques.”. Nero nodded again, “And I’m Nero, a ninja of Kirigakure,...”. “Nice to meet-” the old man Furui could say before he was cut of by Nero, “The silencer of the loud, the boiler of water, the smokener of fire…” , he went on for a few seconds saying every fitting title he could come up with. “Smokener?” the old man was confused. He then laughed it off, “Oh, you younglings.”. 

With that word, Nero was triggered, “Younglings?” he thought, “Does that mean young people? Does he mean me? Am I young?”. He then tried to brush it off, and after a few attempts, he was successful. “So…” Nero said, outsmarting his unconscious behaviour to get lost in thoughts by consciously choosing to use his other unconscious behaviour of being easily distracted to his advantage to get out of that situation. “Gimmick unlocked: +1 Focus” he thought to himself, as he a second later realised he had fallen into his own trap and once again got lost in an unrelated thought. “So…” he said again, realising a few seconds had passed from him saying so before and him not following it with anything, “Ugh… The dog. The dog. How does she ummm, sense the ninja in the people, if not recognise them from their headbands.”. Furui chuckled, “Oh!” he said, “Right, well let me demonstrate it to you so you’ll understand it better. 

Nero’s eyes sparkled after hearing those words, “Oh my god. He should be a teacher at the academy.” he thought to himself, as Furui seemed to take two identical pocket watches from one of the shelves nearby. He seemed to be struggling with both holding the dog and the two pocket watches at the same time, so Nero took a step forward, aiming to help him but by then the old man had already put the dog on a table. “Now come close and watch.” Furui said, and Nero followed his suggestions. He then presented the dog with the two pocket watches. The dog walked slowly towards the first one, and started sniffing it. When she stopped, she pushed it down with its small paws, and went straight to the next one. After a few seconds of nose inspection, the dog started barking. Nero was surprised, “So… Does that second watch belong to a ninja or something?”. The old man chuckled, “Close. It was crafted by a ninja. It has an unusual amount of chakra put into it. I haven’t been able to determine the purpose of it though.”. Nero was intrigued. His eyes were on the pocket watch. He contemplated for a few seconds about whether or not he should attempt to steal it, but quickly remembered he was not the type of person to do such a thing, without a plan anyway. 

“The dog can sense chakra…” Nero thought, “And I can’t. Great. A 12 year old ninja is one thing, but a non-ninja dog? That’s a whole other level of being outmatched for me… A dog? Really…”. Nero was broken. At that instant, his philosophy on life started breaking down from the cracks that were made from being an academy student at age 16 to 18. His life was crumbling into pieces right before his eyes, “Okay cool, so…” Nero said, “Do you happen to specialize in things holding chakra or something?”. Furui answered, “Well, not specifically, but they are generally sought after items, especially by ninja. So being a shop owner in Kirigakure, it only makes sense I should be looking for and trading such items.”. Nero nodded, “I… Could I look around, maybe I’ll find something that’ll benefit me.”. The old man nodded, “Be my guest.”. Nero nodded, and started walking around the room.

After a few seconds, his eyes settled on the title of a book, “Yuki Heritage”, and he froze. He recognized the name, of course. It was the name of the very clan he belonged to. The heritage the title referred to was his heritage. Both his mother and his father were members of this clan, so he has been taught a lot about it. So much so in fact that he felt no inclination towards opening the book and seeing what was written inside. In fact, seeing the title alone gave a clear idea to Nero on what he needed to do next. “Hey Mr. Furui!” Nero said, not moving his eyes away from the book, “I have to go, I’ll return some other time to check everything out.”. The old man nodded, “See you later then, Nero. It was nice meeting you.”. Nero turned his face to make eye contact with the shop owner, nodding “It was nice to meet you two as well.”. Then he headed out, as the dog barked him goodbye (as Nero imagined at least).

What was in Nero’s mind, as soon as he exited the shop, was exactly what he was seeing everywhere, “Water.”. He used the surface walking technique to get to the rooftop of the building he got out of. He walked to the middle of the completely straight and empty roof, and sat down. The layer of water was thin here, because it was easily falling off the sides of the building. Nero closed his eyes, and started meditating. “Water.” he thought, once again, “I think that’d be good start. Mom and dad told me so much about the clan, but the exciting part was always the Ice Release. That’s what I wanted to be able to do. I guess somewhere along the way it drifted, and landed on “I want to be a ninja. Well, if I just trained Ninjutsu without committing to a village, wouldn’t I have been a Missing-nin. Or maybe not? I don’t know exactly how those rules work. Either way though, that’s not for me… At least not for now. I need this city, I need the competition, the fear of death. I need all of it to be pushed, otherwise I will get lazy as always.”. He looked around. There was nobody in his sight, just rain as far as Nero’s eyes could see, falling down to the rooftops, and the streets below. Nero took a deep breath, sinking in this feeling of solitude and serenity.

“I need that alright.” he kept thinking, “But that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t train for everything with others. Somethings, I need to work for and claim alone.”. He opened his palms, feeling every single raindrop falling on them, “Well, one thing at a time. I’ll start with my element. It’s the gateway to my heritage, Ice Release.”. He closed his eyes once again and started meditating on the rain, “I saw a lot of ninja at the academy using Chakra Paper to determine what their elemental affinity is. They’ve offered me a few times. I didn’t need them. I know exactly what my second element will be.”. He turned his face up, without opening his eyes; now feeling the raindrops falling on his face as well, “Water. It’s one of the two elements making up the Ice Release, after all; the bloodline of my clan.”. Nero faced forward again, opening his eyes, watching the water in his hands, dripping off to the roof as it’s being refilled by the rain. 

“I just need to think back to the day I first learned to manifest my elemental affinity in my chakra; and just change parts that differ between wind and water. Now let’s think… For wind the main words my mind meditated on while I manifested my chakra were floating, flowing, sharpness and force… I’d say water must be somewhat similar. I think the words I’ll focus on will be…”. He moved his hands a bit, watching how the water responded to his touch. “Flowing, fluidity, viscosity,...”. He stared at the water in his hands for what felt like a solid 5 minutes, unable to come up with anything. “Uhhh… It’s a lot easier to just feel what it is, and understand then to think and figure out… But it’s also less efficient so I don’t know what I should do… Oh well, here it goes…”. He then got up from the ground and started to moved with grace in the rain, as if he was performing a dance in slow motion. His goal wasn’t to perform for an audience however, nor was it to entertain, impress or inspire. He was trying to understand water, become water.

At first, it looked like an infant slapping the surface of the water, inelegant but joyful. After minutes passed, it started gaining pace, gravity and form. After a few hours, he was moving as he has intended in the start; he started his movements with his arms down, catching the raindrops from the air with his shoulders in as small an angle as possible. As the drops of water moved down the arm, he would raise it, turn around, add momentum to the tiny drops, until they would be released from his fingertips. An elegant, but (yet) harmless dance. He kept on with his ‘dance’ for another hour, before he was ready to move on to the next step. Not only that but also, after hours of non-stop motion (despite starting very slow and slowing down again from time to time) he was exhausted, his sweat mixing with the raindrops going down his body. “I hope I don’t unintentionally learn Sweat Release.” he thought to himself, immediately being thankful that he didn’t make that joke verbally, and that nobody was close enough to hear it even if he did. He shook his head in an attempt to regain his focus. 

“Dancing with water isn’t alone going to do the trick. My chakra will have to come into this training sooner or later.”. He then held both of his hands in front of him, his palms facing up, and waited for them to be filled with water. He would then try to focus hiss chakra into his hands, and maybe even pass some into the water he’s holding. Nero stood still like that, his only focus his chakra, for a few hours. He held the water in his hands until he couldn’t feel it, until the sensation of having water in his hands was slowly becoming normal. When he could simultaneously feel every drop of water in his hands, and also feel like he wasn’t doing any extra work or carrying something but this was how his hand felt all the time; he turned his hands face down, spilling all the water. Then he kept focusing his chakra onto his hands, while keeping the feeling of having water in his hands intact in his mind. A few seconds later, water started filling up. 

“Yes!” he shouted, then looked around to make sure nobody caught him at his dorkiest. “Oh wait.”. If his calculations were correct (and he was, because he was a genius if he had to say so himself) the water that was in his hands might have come from the rain. It was a no-brainer but so was Nero. “Oh…” he thought, “Wait. Then how would I be able to tell? I can go back inside and try, but then I wouldn’t be exposed to this much water. The atmosphere really helps with the meditation and the training.”. He thought back at conversations he had had with friends at the academy. “Can I find any useful advice there?” he thought, when he recalled a friend who played a ‘prank’ on him, “The Fish Spit Technique… Maybe learning the element along with the Jutsu would be much easier. And since the technique requires water to be manifested in the mouth, rain can’t get in the way. Let’s go.”. He cracked his knuckles, then started warming up his body. He was going to train back from the start, doing almost the same thing but with his mouth instead of his hands.

First, he faced his head towards the clouds, opening his mouth as wide as possible. When his mouth filled with rainwater, he meditated on that feeling for another hour, before spitting it out. Now, he focused on the sensation that he still had water in his mouth, and started manifesting his chakra inside his mouth. A few seconds later, Nero could feel the chakra in his mouth turning into water. He spitted it out. It was nowhere near enough water to be deemed a successful usage of the Jutsu, but Nero realised he was moving forward, step by step. He grinned. He tried doing the same thing, over and over again for another hour. After that time, he had almost perfected the technique. He tried once again. He spitted all leftover water from his mouth, then focused his chakra into it. It filled with water in just a second, and he spitted it forward, the water flying almost 2 meters away; now having more range because it being a Jutsu rather than a regular spit. Nero finally broke down with exhaustion, falling down to the base of the roof. He looked up and realised, it had already become night time. He chuckled. “If I trained like this every day, I seriously could have become a Genin years ago.” he thought, watching the rain pour down, “Anyway, nothing I can do about it now. I should look forward to the trainings ahead of me, and try to make the most out of every single one of them.”. He took a few more moments to catch his breath, then got back up, “Anyway. I should go back to Kite and report, I guess.”. He stretched, taking his time, when he was frozen by a sudden realization, “Oh no. The invention. I left it alone on the street! Someone must have stolen it by now.”.

With that, he dashed out of that rooftop, onto the next one, until he came back to the the part of the village Kite was living in, and jumped down to the street level. He hadn’t arrived exactly at Kite’s door, as he got these streets mixed up, even after hundreds of times of coming here. “Oh no... “ Nero thought, while trying to locate Kite’s house, “They’re probably already out of the village by now, out to meet investors from all over the world to get funded. THEY’RE GOING TO SELL MY PRODUCT!”. After a short while, he was back in the street he started today’s training.  He rushed towards Kite’s door. The invention, (the broom, which had two buckets tied to both ends) was still on the ground, though moved a bit down the street by the flood, but safe. Nero let out a huge breathe, and cleaned his sweat off his forehead, using his Kirigakure headband. “I knew this would come in handy one day.”. He took the invention up from the ground, and moved to Kite’s door, knocking on it relentlessly until Kite would shout at him from inside, “I’M COMING!!! GOD!!!”. 

When he opened the door, he wouldn’t be surprised by the sight awaiting him, Nero drenched in water holding his invention. “I’m super strong now.” Nero would say, in a very excited and happy voice. Kite would just smile, “I’m sure you are, Nero. Come in.”. Nero would do so. After a shower, and warming up, and a few more minutes hanging out with Kite, both would go back to their rooms. Nero would not sleep however. He would sit on his bed, holding the invention, focusing on it, once again trying to manifest his chakra both around himself and the invention. “After every step I took today, this would seem like the fitting next one. I started trying to do this, but realised I had an easier time doing it with water. Then I used practically the same technique on the shoelaces to break away from being tied down. Then I trained with manifesting chakra into water, and then later turning my chakra itself into water. After that, I think I have a better chance at this.”. 

And with those thoughts, Nero would not sleep but focus on infusing the invention with his chakra. It would work better than at the start of the day, but still nowhere near enough true success. “It doesn’t work…” Nero would think, and start theorizing on why, “When I started infusing water with chakra, it felt natural… I spent enough time, not only during this training but my whole life, feeling water on my skin, being around it… The invention is a work of genius alright… But it doesn’t feel right. I just don’t feel it with this invention…”. He always followed his guts rather than pure facts or deduction. He put the broom aside, walking around the room. Then it hit him. He started searching one his ninja pouches, and took out a kunai. He sat back on the bed. He tried infusing it with his chakra. It was instantly more successful than when he tried it with the broom. He focused on doing this until he fell asleep. When the morning came, Kite would find Nero in his room, holding the kunai, leaned against the wall in the sitting position, his hand still holding on to the kunai. When he approached the asleep ninja to take out the weapon in his hand, that he could fall on and hurt himself (as he had done a few times before), Nero woke up, startled. He instinctively held out the kunai between the two. When they took a closer look, they could see a faint glow of aura around it. Nero, after focusing on the chakra, trying to feel it the whole day, could almost sense it with more clarity now. He smiled at Kite, proud. “It’s been a long day.” he said, and fell down face first into his pillow, luckily not stabbing himself with his kunai in the process.



[EXIT, WC: 8480, Claiming;

42 Stats
Rope Escape Technique (500/500)
Water Release - Twice the WC because of lower rank (4000/4000)
Ou Tsuba: Fish Spit (500/500)
Chakra Infusion (2000/2000)
Chakra Sensory (1480/2000)]

Approved