Lessons Learned (Eliwood, Taichi) NK

Eliwood sat at the bank of a river near the restaurant, holding the fishing pole he had bought in the land of rivers. He hadn't gone fishing since the day he met Maku, but today the pantry was looking a bit light. He decided to try his hand at catching some fish that hopefully Aki could cook up. He cast his line out and stuck the pole into the sand. He wouldnt be able to play any music if he had to hold the pole the entire time.

Now leaning back reclined against a rock, he would begin tuning his Sitar. The last time he had fished he was still playing his old beat up guitar. The monk smiled as he strummed a chord. The hypnotic sounds of a Sitar were unmatched by other stringed instruments. He let his head tilt back as the music began to carry him away. After a few minutes of this a splash in the water jolted Eliwood back to reality. There was a tug on his line. The fish on the end of the hook was putting up a good fight and Eli was struggling a little bit. He needed better leverage to pull this creature out of the water.

Focusing chakra on his feet he stepped out onto the river and got himself directly above the struggling fish. Now in a better position the monk was able to yank the rod and send the fish flying onto the bank beside him. It flopped about for a moment before Eliwood stabbed it into the ground with a kunai.

"Ooh this'll do nicely." He said to himself, "If only I had a fire, I could cook it right now." For the moment however, he would have to wait and catch more fish.

This time Eliwood would stand directly on the water, again with the surface walking technique, and let his line hang down into the river. He would be ready when the next fish bit.

(WC 330)

Taichi walked out of his log cabin that he built with his wood chakra nature and he looked up at Fang Mountain. After a few minutes of marveling at it's beauty, he realized that he had not yet filled his house with anything but alcohol. He decided that he was going to go fishing, he never ate fish in Suna or in Wind country as a whole, so he had plenty of time that he needed to catch up on. He thought about buying a fishing pole, but he realized that he had a much more efficient method of fishing.

He walked through the island and the sun was just beginning to rise, he walked to the closest shore as he tried his best to rub his eyes to have them open all the way. Still yawning, he wasn't sure that he was going to stay awake while attempting his new method of fishing.

When he reached the shore, he saw a figure standing on top of the water. There was a pole in the ground so he knew the figure was fishing, I guess he thought he knew. He wasn't entirely sure. Taichi walked up to the water and he performed his one with the water technique and melded into the waters and started chasing after the fish. As he rushed through the ocean, he found a small school of fish as they slowly swam near the ocean floor. Taichi got right next to them, and in one fluid motion he came out of the water and sliced the fish's heads off with his chakra scalpel. He gathered the fish and returned to the surface of the water.

Taichi yelled out to the figure standing on the water, asking if they were interested in some of the fish that he had gathered. Taichi laid out a bed of leaves to protect the fish from the sand, then made a fire pit in the ground. He lit the fire with his fire stream technique and built a spit to cook the fish on. As Taichi created some sharp spikes with his wood release, he waved the fish at the figure, yelling out again. "These will probably be done in a few minutes and you're welcome to have as much as you'd like!" Taichi looked down at his pile of fish, counting almost ten of them. Taichi hoped the figure would come and partake in his bounty, but he would understand if they didn't.

WC:413

Eliwood was absorbed in his new fishing method, he had to concentrate on chakra control and watching the fish. Because of this he was taken by surprise when he heard a voice of someone right near him. When he spun to see who it was he saw a stranger setting up a fire pit and laying down a few already gutted fish. Could this man have been here the whole time? Eli was confused and a little nervous. The more that he did jobs for Akihana, the more suspicious of others the monk became. He wasn't proud of it, but in a world where any person could become an occupational hazard, you could never be too careful. This stranger could be very dangerous, but at least he seemed friendly. He was offering food and company, two things Eli had a hard time passing up.

"Alright, sounds fun. I shall join you." He would say as he started walking towards the man, hand out to shake, "Name's Eliwood. You from around here?" He would ask as he sat down next to the newly made fire pit. The smell of fish already beginning to fill the air.

(WC 195)
(TWC 525)

Taichi had finished the spit and began impaling the fish with the stakes he created with his chakra. When he got the first fish over the fire, the figure that was standing on the water began walking his direction. Taichi gave the newcomer a warm and inviting smile. Taichi began to turn the fish over the fire with one hand, while impaling the next fish with another stake with the other.

When the newcomer to the fire pit sat down on the other side of the spit, just after shaking Taichi's hand. He introduced himself with the name of Eliwood. Taichi thought for a moment on just how beautiful of a name that was. "Its great to meet you Eliwood. My name is Taichi. Here's a few fish. Way too much for me to eat at once." Taichi chuckled as he handed over five if his ten fish that he had already impaled, leaving the unimpaled next to him.

As Taichi handed the fish over to Eliwood, he placed his hand on the spit and as he channeled his chakra into it, the frame began to shift and change, creating a spit with two spots to cook the fish. Taichi motioned to Eliwood as to say "be my guest".

Eliwood then began speaking again, asking who Taichi was. Taichi continued to impale the remainder of fish when he began responding. "No I am not from here. I am from the land of Wind. More specifically a village within the sands called Sunagakure no Sato. What about you, you from this gorgeous island?" Taichi eould wait patiently, impaling fish, as he looked for ward to Eliwood's response.

Wc:276

The man introduced himself as Taichi, and gave Eliwood more food than the monk could eat in a sitting for sure. This man was clearly a better fisherman, and the way he utilized jutsu to help in everyday actions, like making a fire pit and a spit for the food, was highly impressive. It reminded him of Aki working in the kitchen.

"I am also an outsider here, originally from a temple in the land of Haven." Eliwood would say between bites, "I came here for work, I run deliveries and odd jobs for a restaurant here in Fang."

The wood style Taichi was using reminded the monk of his employer, he had met Maku in almost the same way. He was fishing while sitting on a chair formed of wood and shaped with chakra. Wood techniques seemed to be limitlessly useful. "Your control of wood style is a sight to behold. Not often you meet someone capable of it." He would say, shifting his Sitar from his back into his hands. "I specialize in using my chakra in artistic ways. Not nearly as convenient but perfect for moments like this."

He would begin to strum the strings, playing an old tavern song he had picked up a few months beforehand. With each strum he would pour more chakra into the instrument. A green flame appearing on the candle at the head of the Sitar, the music would carry far through the air and give a soothing feeling to any who would hear it.

As he played he would continue to talk, "I know this may be a sensitive question, but what is it that brought you here? Not often shinobi show up out in the boonies like this."

(WC 289)
(TWC 814)

As Taichi continued to eat his fish, he listened as Eliwood spoke on the Wood release that Taichi was using and how helpful it was. Taichi thought for a moment about his wood release, the power he gained from the transplant in Suna months ago. "It is helpful, honestly it makes life much easier. I found an empty clearing deep in the forests of this island, just built a house there. It isn't very common, I believe it's because they worry themselves that if someone sees their abilities with the wood release, they would become a target. But I have lost my fear of death long ago, so I use it all the time!" Taichi would laugh slightly as he finished his sentence.

Eliwood would then speak on his own unique abilities with his chakra use. He pulled out a Sitar, an instrument that he had seen played in the land of Rivers during his travels, and he began to play. The sound was so beautiful, it calmed Taichi's mind, even pushing the flashbacks away while he played it. His mind felt at ease for the first time in many years. He leaned back against a lean to that he created with his wood style before falling to the floor due to just how relaxed he was with the music playing. "Wow, that is absolutely beautiful. Honestly a gift to be able to hear it." Taichi leaned forward once again when Eliwood would ask what brought Taichi to the land of Fang.

Taichi was silent, staring blankly at his fish as it sat in his hands. After about a minute of silence, except for the music being played, Taichi spoke. "There was a man in Suna. He led a group of bandits called the Walls of Jericho. He was trying to become the next big crime lord, ransacking caravans, raping and pillaging small villages, whatever he wanted and needed to expand his authority. I had been gone from Suna since it's invasion, but when I got back, I found out that the interior was filled with criminals and missing ninja like you wouldn't believe, especially when that was your home. I thought that there was no one good left in the village, until I was walking through the town and heard a woman being beaten inside the old scroll shop. I ran to her aid and ended up lure the bandits away from her after hiding her unconscious body. I had to fight my way through the village and out into the opening that was the training grounds. I ended up killing about a hundred bandits with one of my fire techniques.

When I saw that they were all gone, or at least the rest had run off. I hurried back to the scroll shop to aid the woman back to health. Her name was Bri and let me tell you that this woman was beautiful. Not just her looks, but she had a hot temper and a fiery attitude. Even though she had almost been beaten to death the day before, that next morning she asked me when we were going to train." Taichi stopped for a moment, tears beginning to well in his eyes. He wiped his eye with a laugh, then he continued. "That was our biggest mistake. She and I went to the training grounds and after training for only an hour or two, a massive caravan came through and they took her. I was to busy fighting off several of the caravans members, so I couldn't stop them.

After I finally killed the ones that were keeping me busy, I chased after the caravan that had split up down the way. I killed all the members of the caravans trying to find her, but came up empty. Finally after searching the deserts through the night, I found an encampment. Turns out that was where they took her, I heard her swearing up a storm trying to fight her way out of their clutches. I snuck my way through until I went into the tent that she was being held in. They had beaten her so bad I could hardly recognize her. So naturally I burned all the people that were inside the encampment, or so I thought. I brought her to their infirmary and tended to her wounds she fell into a coma, which was for the best, would allow her body to heal much better.

iI decided to look through the leader's house and see what I could find in there, being sure that I had torched him in my fighting the night before. Well that was when the leader ran out the building, the place blew up and I was pinned underneath a desk. By the time I freed myself, the leader was gone and so was Bri. I chased them down and brought her back to the camp, but there was already a group of bandits here, about twenty or thirty of them. I knew that I was out of chakra, I was exhausted, but she needed to be back in that infirmary and Suna was no safer for her, so I fought like hell to clean out the camp once more. I culled their numbers down to eight or nine until my body finally gave out on me. I lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

When I woke up, I was tied to a chair and the leader was sitting directly in front of me. They beat the hell out of me and tortured me for hours just because they felt like it. Then they finally revealed that Bri was in the tent next to the one we were in. The men all went into the tent and they brutally beat, raped, then finally killed her. I couldn't get out of the chair, my body was passed the point of exhaustion. When I finally was able to free myself, I ran to the tent and the men were gone, all that was in the room was Bri's naked body. Puddle of blood surrounded her. Her face beaten to the point that you couldn't recognize her at all. I torched the whole camp, burned the entire thing to the ground. I laid in the middle of the inferno, praying that I would finally be released from this hell that we call life. I lost consciousness again and when I woke up, I was lying outside of the camp, still not dead. To this day I have no idea who or what got me out of that fire.

After that I searched endlessly for the men that did what they did to Bri. The Walls of Jericho. They were running a string of outposts, filled with more bandits than I have ever seen. I enlisted the help of a bandit gang in Suna to help me with the numbers, and I went to war with them. After days of endless fighting, I finally reached the leader's building of the main outpost, expecting to see the man that had done what he did to Bri. I had already killed all of the other men that were there that day. But when I got into the building, he had already ran off to the far side of the land of Rivers.

There was cat and mouse chase for a while, until he sent a mercenary to kill me. The merc was clearly just a boy and that was probably his first contract, poor soul. He stalked me for a couple hours, I waited to come at him so I can know for certain that he was tailing me. He and I fought a one sided fight for a while until he finally relented. I had my wood clones rip him apart, using their chakra scalpels to peel his limbs off. But before I did that, I found out that the leader had run off to this island.

The leader of the bandit group that helped me clear the Walls of Jericho a week earlier, happened by on my path to Fang and I helped him with a contract to kill a lord in the neighboring town. He and I were forming a bond and I even was able to call him a friend after we spent plenty of traveling time together and even the contracts that week took on. Then one night, he tried to kill me when he saw me using my wood style techniques, wanting to use my transplants to make him some money. I went back to the outposts that I had just cleared for his men and burned them all to the ground, after killing him in front of his men.

Finally, I went to the Land of Rivers and found myself a mean old sailor that agreed to take me here. I searched for a day or two and finally found a lead as to where the leader of the walls had ran off to. I found a new encampment that he was running and I killed his men first, then allowed the woman prisoner that he was holding beat the hell out of him. After I got most of my aggression out, I impaled the man on a spike and left him to die slowly. While I thought for those months chasing him that I was going to feel satisfied after watching him die and taking him off of this planet so he couldn't hurt anyone again, I left that camp feeling even more empty than when I arrived. I lost my purpose, Bri is still gone, and I failed to protect her. So now I am here, mainly because I don't have anywhere else to go. My home is a lawless wasteland. The woman that I felt like I loved is dead, but her screams still ring through in my head every moment of every day. So I just go through each day, waiting for my number to come up. Waiting for my day to die."

Taichi realized that he had talked for a long time and apologized to Eliwood for such a long winded answer, he just felt like being exact and explain exactly why he was here. Not knowing what to say, he just leaned against the lean to, eating his fish bit by bit. Waiting for a response from Eliwood, if there was one to hear.

WC: 1732

Taichi dove into a tale of adventure, love, heartbreak, and revenge and at the end of all of it he was left there in Fang with no family or place to call home. The whole thing reminded Eliwood of himself. Though less adventurous he too had no one and no place to return to, until recently.

"A somber tale, but a remarkable one at that. A man like you could surely find worth in this world. Hell if I can find a home anyone can." Eliwood would go on to recount stories of his childhood at the Flame Monastery before, "Naturally being a temple of The Flame, fire was an important signifier of your faith. Now I am devout as any other monk, but the problem was, I cannot produce Flame. No matter how hard I try the only techniques I can muster are those of wind. Because of this, I was seen as a cursed child. One unloved by the Eternal Flame. The elders would avoid me, and the other monks looked at me with such a deep disdain. I wanted so badly to just fit in. To be a proud monk and follow the way of the Flame." Eliwood had not talked to anyone about this before so deeply, it wasn't something he was happy to share. For some reason however, this stranger had shared his own darkness from his past, and Eliwood felt it only right to reciprocate. He would pause for a moment before continuing,

"Eventually the monks at the Monastery wanted me to leave. Had they just asked me I would have been saddened but I would have left willingly. Instead some of the warrior monks conspired to make tragedies occur around me. They stoked the fears that I was cursed and made the others fear me. On one particular night as I walked through the temple garden, one of the elders approached me. His name was Gorosei and he was the kindest of All the elder monks. One of the only people I knew who never looked at me like a pariah. We chatted about the flowers that were beginning to bloom when suddenly, Gorosei was engulfed in flames. I tried to help him, I called out for others, anyone who could save him. When the monks came rushing all their biased eyes saw was me, standing in front of a beloved Elder, dying from Flames. Gorosei was one of the most devout followers in the history of the monastery. The others could not believe it was anything but punishment from the Eternal Flame for keeping me in the monastery." Eliwood began to choke up a little. It was hard to remember that night, the heartbreak he felt.

"The monks came at me with intent to kill and I didn't know what to do, so I ran. I ran far and fast until my lungs felt like they were going to explode. I haven't returned since then. After that I spent about 2 years wandering from country to country. I learned how to survive in many environments. Spent about 5 months walking aimlessly through the deserts in the land of wind alone. It wasnt until I ended up in the land of Rivers that I finally found a place to call home. A good ma....a kind soul....let's go with an interesting person, hired me to work at his restaurants. One of which happens to be here in Fang. And so that is how I ended up here myself." Working at the Chuunin, was nice and it played well, but the real happiness came from the family he had made there.

"Apologies for the lackluster story, but what comes next is what I tend to think about. The past is just that, past." He'd say as he finished his last bite of fish.

(WC 638)
(TWC 1452)

Taichis kind words helped Eliwood's mood rebound from the sad memories. He tried not to think about the past much and keep thinking forward. He wasn't the same person he was back then anymore. So much had happened to him since he left the monastery.

Taichi certainly had quite an appetite, not unlike that of a certain sick young swordsman. "Yes a wonderful restaurant by the name of The Chortling Chunin. The chef there, Akihana makes food that is to die for. You don't seem particularly like a picky eater, but the variety is also impressive. There's not much that woman cannot whip up for you." Eliwood's sales pitch was getting better.

"Its not but a five minute walk from here if you were in the mood for something a little more..." he looked at the crude spit and seared fish, "professionally prepared. I could show you the way." He would say beaming a smile. If this man, capable of wood style, wasn't already on Aki's radar, he would be soon.

(WC 171)
(TWC 1623)

"There are a lot more interesting people on this island than I thought" Taichi thought to himself silently. Taichi looked around at the fish corpses and he probably looked as though he was one to overindulge in food, mainly because he sometimes did! He had never really cooked food, being that he was always on the road. Seasonings and spices were hard to carry and took up too much space. Taichi leaned back on his leanto and he agreed to go with Eliwood. Being sure that this wasn't a trap, he would willingly go along with him.

He thought to himself about all of the other people that we was destined to meet when Elliwood escroted him to a quite interestingly named restaurant. He thought of who he would meet working there, and may be whatever ninjas that would be there. When he was first arriving in this island, he was picturing a bunch of tiny villages with regular people within, but he was seeing that he was sorely mistaken. 

Taichi placed his hands on the ground and he channeled his chakra into it. The spit along with the leanto went back into the ground, leaving only the fire pit and the fish. Taichi placed the fish and the remaining sticks into the fire pit. When he stood and faced the fire pit, he used his Fire stream technique to scorch everything into ash. Then he switched to his water releasing scroll, flooding the fire pit and putting out the hot coals. Then he kicked the sand over onto the remaining fire pit, then walked over to Elliwood.

"Ready to go whenever you are." Taichi said with a smile. Waiting for Elliwood to show him the way to their destination.
Just before he was able to follow Elliwood, he had the sudden feeling that something was not right at home. He got the directions to the Chuunin and he hurried home. 

EXIT

WC:321
TWC: 3061

+1875 towards Rain Tiger At Will Technique (Complete) (Overwriting Chakra Scalpel)
+1186 towards Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees (1186/1875) (Overwriting Foo Dog Heads)