Encountering the Brother, and other mishaps (solo)

He awoke from a fitful slumber. The crumbling shards of a dream mansion gave way to the cruel reality of the morning sun. So far, the golden orb was winning the staring contest. His head hurt. Somehow he had managed to only sleep a few hours the entire night despite collapsing of exhaustion. Emotional confrontations were at least as draining as physical ones, and they usually lasted far longer. At least the long night gave him time to meditate on his situation; thinking over the results of the last few weeks of failed attempts only further steeled his resolve. That factory was profit with his name on it since nobody else would make a move on it.

He rubbed his eyes with his hands and then put one down to help him climb out of bed. From a young age his brother had literally jumped out of bed, and here Logos was, rolling out like a cripple. He winced as a sharp pain reminded him of his losing battle with tree bark the previous evening. His hand was still red and angry, though faint signs of stitched healing were beginning to take form.

He grunted, partly in annoyance, partly in acceptance.

At least he could be entirely guilt free if he cut himself off entirely from the clan, given that they rejected his attempt to help them. He would have stood to benefit immensely too, but that was hardly their concern. Perhaps he should have sent an envoy and pretended to be an unrelated businessman….

Oh well. No time for regrets. It was time to drop in on the latest classes at the academy teaching the basic techniques. He had a rough idea of what to do already, since his brother Nyusen had practiced early and hard at first. Nothing drilled the steps of a jutsu into your skull like an obnoxiously loud sibling. One who believed the best way to memorize the handseals and steps was to loudly sing them in a ritualistic sounding chant.

Fuck, the memories made his head hurt more. Both his brother and others of rather severe physical abuse meant to “help” him overcome limitations. Nyusen had signed up as a ninja pretty quickly. Basically as soon as he finished the Uchiha adulthood test with flying colors.

That was a few years ago. Nyusen was what, 15? God, it sucked being surpassed by your younger brother from the get-go. Logos wondered how far his brother had advanced since then.

He found out pretty quickly.

Ninjas, ninjas, more ninjas, and curious kids whose parents hadn’t successfully brainwashed them into hating ninjas. The class of beginners was a diverse group. Hell, there was another Uchiha in the class too!

It was Nyusen. Of course. Well that answered a few questions in Logos’ mind straight away. The two brothers noticed eachother about the same time, and paused for a few seconds: Logos about to sit in the audience of pupils; Nyusen at the front of the classroom with a pointer and one of those stupid looking hats graduating students wear. Nyusen’s mouth began a smirk. The trappings of a mocking jeer were taking shape as Logos turned on his heel and walked out the door.

Well.

Looked like that route wasn’t an option. There was no way Logos was going to sit through his younger brother’s attempts to humiliate him. Good thing the genin exams could be taken by “theoretically” anyone who felt they could perform the necessary two techniques.

He struggled briefly, then gave in. The sing-song words “Dog, Boar, Ram. Take Any Form you Can” flooded his mind when he pictured his brother practicing the Art of Transformation. Hopefully that didn’t become an earworm. Logos was close enough to a nervous breakdown with a third change of career, without his brother’s infuriating voice following him everywhere.

He found himself back at his apartment, with some of the day gone. Couldn’t hurt to practice the technique. Except that damn image of his brother “singing” wouldn’t leave his mind no matter how hard he focused on something else. Damn earworms. His hands formed the hand signs. Dog, then boar, then ram. Of course, he had to channel the chakra as well, whatever possible anyway. He didn’t have to look to know it was a weak impression.

One look in the mirror showed him the sneering face of his younger brother. Obviously Logos didn’t count as an elder to anyone, not even his younger brother. He had to stop his fist suddenly before he could try to smash it. Negative emotions surged up within him and he had to constantly remind himself to focus so he could maintain the appearance of his hated brother. The image nearly came undone, it wavered a number of times before finally settling again.

Logos sat on his bed - the mirror safely out of reach - and slowly let his breath out. That technique had been simpler than expected. He just needed to keep practicing it.

A wicked idea began to take form in his head.

*****

Nyusen strode through the city square. He sneered at everyone in an eerie manner. He kicked over a basket of fruit that a homeless child had painstakingly been gathering. He tried to trip an old man as she walked by - the proximity making it obvious who the culprit was even if the mechanism was not. He even “accidentally” stumbled and smacked shoulder first into a relatively rickety merchant stand. Nyusen then gleefully disappeared into an alley, a stuck out tongue and some mildly childish insults hurled in his wake at the targets in the city square.

*****

Safely out of sight, “Nyusen” fizzled, popped, then disappeared in a little puff of smoke. His older brother remained, looking rather more cheerful than usual. Too bad Nyusen was still teaching class. The locals would be upset about the young Uchiha for a reasonable while. Even if Logos was somehow suspected, it was highly doubtful that anyone thought he was able to perform any jutsu. After all, the Uchiha seemed to think he was blind and deaf, most others did not know of his heritage at all. For once this could play to his benefit.

Now he just needed a creative way to practice the clone technique…. He started wandering around town.

*****

He found himself in front of a slum - one of the ones known to house locals unfriendly to just about anyone. He rolled up his sleeves and began searching through debris, gleefully pulling up a largely intact table leg. It was one of those heavy ones that belonged to a rich person’s dining room set, but now it would serve a much more practical function for someone of his standing. There would be plenty of opportunity for use too.

These slums were pretty deserted looking. Don’t let that fool you. They were rife with gangs who regularly fought over territory. All but the most foolhardy civvies took a large detour just to avoid unpleasant encounters. All Logos had to do was pause and listen intently for the sounds of talking or such. Almost everyone left was some sort of criminal in hiding, the local police left it alone like the area was radioactive.

What was the steps for this again?

His brother surged to his rescue in that annoying sing-song chant. ”Ram Snake Ti-Ger! Make AnothER fightER! Take your c-”

He shook his head trying to clear the earworms again, before the chant could drive him crazy. God, he already wanted to hit something hard. He leaned his table leg against the nearby wall and formed the hand signed, channeling his chakra and forming a new imitative body. It was remarkably similar to the transformation technique in basic operation to be honest. The clone even mirrored his movements as he released the hand-signs.

He carefully positioned himself so his clone was in front of a door and his table leg was resting against one of his own. He knocked and quietly brought his hands down to grab the table leg - it was a slightly weird position but people didnt look below the waist when they first open a door typically.

A bald dude opened the door and saw the clone. “C’mere kid!” It was obvious the guy thought Logos’ clone was free money. His expression of sudden glee turned into confusion as his hand failed to grab the clone by the neck, his hand wafting through thin air. He leaned out further and looked both ways, in time to see a table leg with his name on it.

The thud was pretty audible. So was the second one as the thug landed on the ground hard. A bump would surely make him recognizable the rest of the week. Logos hitailed it out of there, table leg in tow. That had gone smoothly to be sure. There were plenty of other doors waiting to be checked in a similar fashion. Too bad his arms ran out of energy before he could finish a section of the slums. Hopefully his biceps would be discernible when they recovered.

Perhaps a break was in order, he could see the schoolkids his brother had been torturing with his voice fleeing the building in the distance. He skedaddled before they could see him.

*****

One siesta and a few slices of pizza later, our erstwhile “hero” was ready for action. A quick trip to the library to search for useful techniques later….

“I get that question a LOT. All these students coming in here saying “‘I wanna be the next kage! My parents were jounin so I have to rank it up too! Blah blah blah.’” All they want is another low level jutsu to study while they ignore their teacher in the classroom. So here. Take this. We have so many torn copies like this you could keep it and we wouldn’t notice. Don’t do that though or I’ll hunt you down. And I will end you.”

God, that librarian was annoyed today. Probably because preteens were *literally* crawling and jumping off the walls. Logos could see the librarian’s hand creeping towards a stick with the word “Discipline” on it in big red lettering. To be safe, he read the book quickly and returned it while the librarian was watching him, then went outside to practice.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know anyone with genjutsu skills that [i]wouldn’t try to murder him at this point. The rest of the Uchiha clan was clearly not viable. He could only settle for rapidly flowing his chakra without a catalyst or reason to practice the genjutsu release technique. He formed a hand seal and then pumped his chakra as much as he could. Which was not much. He suspected his was on par with a small cat. The fire too. It burned. His insides. He dropped to his knees, feeling nauseous.

No wonder the Uchiha valued him so low. Activating his chakra network like this was very unpleasant and he doubted he could use this technique in battle without throwing up.

Sweat stung his eyes as he stood up. Fuck. Its like he was running a severe fever. Why the hell hadn’t his prior practice hurt him like this. Probably because the narrator was running out of ideas. Ahem. Also probably because he had depleted his miniscule amounts of chakra earlier. His chakra system was like his brain or a muscle though. Even if it sucks at first, with some work you can slowly improve it. He grinned ironically. There was hope for him in a few years.

He stumbled his way home, his vision increasingly wobbly, his eyes trying to shut themselves before he reached the cot or even a shower, his legs wavering like jelly. He locked his door behind him and then tried to activate his chakra network one more time.

Logos found out the hard way what happens when you run out of stamina. The floor would have a minor dent for years due to intimate contact with his forehead. Since he had cheaped out a little on the DIY renovation and all.

(exit)

*****

(ttwc 2018)
(claiming +10 stats and
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22310-clone-technique
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22306-transformation-technique
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22313-genjutsu-release

I think this is correct, please lmk if my training is unclear or i misdid something)

edit: I'm missing a stat page thing, I'll make one and add this stuff if approved after I have a shower. Same goes for any free dough

Looks good to me.

Approved