Pushin' to the Limit (Solo)

When the day finally came, Kita's alarm began to blare next to his bed. Kita groaned and leaned over, slapping the alarm to silence it. Kita groggily sat up in his bed, yawning and stretching. Kita had decided that today would be dedicated to training, and had called off any mission requests he had for today. Kita threw off the covers and moved his way into his kitchen, fixing himself a bit of coffee and something to eat. It wasn't long before Kita had a bagel readied, and a cinnamon coffee in a to-go cup. Kita set it aside for a moment and returned to his bedroom, changing from his pajama clothes, into his standard clothing. Kita threw them on and fastened his ninja tools, looking up in the mirror. This wasn't exactly a standard training for Kita today. Kita thought back to the moment when he snapped the man's neck. When he impaled that man with his blade. Kita closed his eyes and sighed. He was getting better about it, but he was still haunted by their murder. Kita turned around and went into kitchen, picking up the bagel and coffee before exiting out the front door. Kita was sure that he wouldn't have to feel guilty anymore after today.

Kita found himself in front of the Kirigakure Military Training Facility. Kita had long since finished off his bagel, and after drinking the remaining dregs of his coffee, he tossed it in a nearby garbage can. Kita walked forward and opened the glass door, making his way inside the building once again. Now was Kita's chance to rid himself of any negative feelings that he might have had about that mission. He walked down the long hallways of the facility, his shoes clicking against the tile floor. Kita looked to the rooms on the side, looking for the perfect one. There were rooms dedicated to specific exercises, with Kita seeing a number of punch machines and acrobatic courses, but Kita was looking for something a little more personal. Eventually, Kita found it. Kita stood in front of a small metal door, with a plastic plaque to the side, proclaiming this room as a, "weather simulating sparring ground." Kita flung the door open, and entered into the room. Inside, the floor was covered near entirely in soft gross, with bushes and plants dotted around the room. In the corner of the room was a small, clear body of water, presumably for aesthetic purposes, although Kita noted that it could be used for water style jutsu. Looking up at the walls and ceiling of the room, relatively realistic screens had been set up to simulate real weather conditions. To the side of the room sat a panel, in which Kita could manipulate every facet of the room, from humidity, to temperature, to simulated conditions, and even the opacity of the pond in the corner. Kita looked at the room as it was, and nodded. This would do.

Kita began to bring up his hands to his chest to make the clone symbol, but he hesitated for a moment. Kita wasn't sure that he was ready for it yet. Kita shook his head and sat down on the floor of the sparring ground. Kita could do that in a moment. He had wanted to do more than just spar, but he was going to put it off until after his fight. Kita shrugged, and began to form two hand seals. He could switch his schedule around a little bit, it wasn't a huge concern. Kita finished the last of them, and held out his palm. Several small, glowing blue orbs formed in the air around his hand, and began to flow into it, forming into three books (Storage Displacement). Kita set two of them to the side, and began to read.

Kita started with the first book, a book titled, "Human Body, The Ultimate Machine." Kita slowly read through the pages of the book, realizing slowly that it was a medical book as opposed to one dedicated to teaching strength training techniques. As Kita looked over the pages of the book, he felt himself growing weary with it. It wasn't that the book was bad, or uninformative, but the subject matter itself was boring to Kita. However, that wasn't to say to it wasn't useful. Kita persevered, finishing the book before long, having absorbed its subject matter. Kita had learned significantly more about the pressure points of the human body. It wasn't the particular style of fighting that Kita was accustomed to, but it could be handy to know in a pinch. Kita pondered for a moment if he would ever be in such a position where he would need to rely on the techniques listed here to win a fight, but set aside those thoughts for now.

The next book that Kita picked up was the "Jutsu Encyclopedia." Kita had decided to pick it up so that he could analyze any foreign jutsu that might come up. As Kita flipped through the pages of the book, Kita debated trying to pick up some of the jutsu listed within the book. The book didn't contain many high ranking jutsu within it, but it contained a great deal of low ranked jutsu that could be useful to Kita. Some of the fuinjutsu within the book seemed particularly interesting, but Kita decided to reserve his curiosity for later. Just like the first book, it wasn't long before Kita completed yet this novel as well.

The last book that Kita pulled out was a bit more thought provoking in Kita's mind. When Kita picked it out at the store, Kita almost didn't take it. However, something about the book drew Kita to it. Apparently it detailed events that occurred before the eruption of the volcano. Kita cracked open the book, and began to read. As he did, he observed the life of a man, downtrodden and beaten from a village that didn't want him. As Kita's eyes shifted through the pages, he began to empathize with with figure from the pages. The book started with the early life of the boy, and cycled through until the end. As Kita read through the early pages, he could see himself in the boy. Of course, Kita wasn't bullied that much, but he admired that a ninja without a clan could go as far as he did. However, as Kita read onward, his disappointment began to grow more and more. The man in the pages was not a clanless ninja like Kita thought, but rather he was a member of the Uzumaki clan, a group of several powerful sealers with incredible chakra reserves. Not only that, but the man was apparently the incarnation of a line of powerful shinobi. As Kita read through the book, his perception of the man began to darken bit by bit. However, one peculiar thing did stick out to Kita. Apparently, a powerful demonic fox had resided within the man, and leant him power in times of great need. It was one of nine so called "tailed beasts." Kita wondered exactly what these creatures were, but pushed the thought out of his mind. Kita stood up and performed the jutsu once again, returning the books to his dimensional space (Storage Displacement). He was ready to begin his training.

Kita brought his hand together in the familiar clone seal, and summoned a shadow clone to one side of himself (Shadow Clone). Once it was summoned, Kita performed another hand seal. As Kita formed the seal, the dog seal, the shadow clone erupted once more in white smoke. However, when the smoke dissipated, the clone had a different form than before (Transformation Technique). The Kita clone had morphed from an identical copy of himself, to a copy of the man in the brown coat. Kita depicted him as close as he could to the man that he fought in the alley, but they were some small differences. His coat was a little less ripped up than it had been before, and his hair was a bit less greasy. However, it worked well enough for what Kita intended. The clone turned to face and salute its creator, and spoke in what Kita assumed that the man sounded like. "What do you need boss? More sparring practice?" Kita nodded, and motioned to the other side of the training ground. "Yes, we're doing more sparring practice. Same drill as before, try not to kill me, but don't hold back." The clone nodded, and made its way to the other side of the training ground. Kita wondered for a moment if this was the same shadow clone as before, but pushed the thought aside for now. Kita had to focus on the real reason that he was doing this training. Getting stronger was only a small part of it. The real reason that Kita was doing this was so that he could get over killing the man with his back turned. Kita had come to terms with all the other thugs, except for this man. Kita had killed him with his back turned, whereas at least the other criminals had gotten a fight. This was Kita's way of making up for that. Before long, the clone made its way to the other side of the sparring ring. "Ready when you are boss!" Kita nodded, and made his way over to the other side of the room. "Then lets get started."

The clone reached into coat at its side and pulled out a kunai. It wasn't quite the kitchen knife that the original man had used, but it would do the trick. Kita unclicked his sword from his sheath, and stared down the clone, each waiting for the other to make a move. With a flurry of motion, the clone threw its kunai at Kita, and began to form hand seals. Kita knocked the kunai out of the air, and raced towards the clone, softly wondering what to expect from the jutsu he was preparing. The clone finished this hand seals, and several darts flew from the pool in the corner of the room, glowing with a light blue light and arcing towards Kita at high speeds (Suiton: Mizu Senbon). Kita noticed them approaching him at breakneck speeds. The jutsu itself wasn't that intimidating, even with the power that the clone had used it at. Kita leapt back at the water needles flew into the area that Kita had just been in. Kita and the clone stared at each other for the briefest of moment before breaking into hand seals once again. "If that's the way that you want to do this, how about this!" As Kita finished a single one-handed seal, he tapped his blade against the water that just landed against the ground. As he tapped it, Kita channeled his chakra into the blade, and the water on the ground flew into and surrounded his sword, enhancing its power with a deadly and watery sheen (Suiton: River Cutter). The clone finished its own hand seals, and flicked its wrist outwards, water materializing from the air downwards, forming into a jagged watery blade (Suiton: Water Cutting Sword). Kita looked to the blade in its hand, watching it morph and form into a twisted version of his own sword. Kita knew that the weapon wasn't as sharp as his own weapon right now, but it was still more deadly than a traditional sword. Then the clone infused the blade with chakra, and it began to glow with an inner light (Flying Swallow). Kita grimaced. "This probably won't be a pleasant experience for me."

The clone ran forward, not having time to spare, attempting to rush Kita before its jutsu runs out. The clone slammed the tip of its blade into the ground, rushing forward with the blade in tow. Kita watched the clone, anticipating the same strike that Kita used against his own clone in the last sparring match. Kita raised his katana to the right side of his body, preparing to swing and block at the moment the clone swung at his eyes. When the clone got into position however, instead of swinging at the head, the clone pulled the sword from the earth, and forced his sword forward, readying a forward strike, hoping to impale Kita on the blade (Jab). Kita's eyes widened, and he swung with as much force as he could, stepping to the side to avoid the worst of the attack while swinging his blade in a clockwork motion, slamming against the side of the blade. Kita winced in pain as the blade cut Kita's side, ripping through his clothes and flesh. The clone finished the slash and spun about, twisting the momentum of the blade from a stab into a slash at the back of Kita's neck, aiming for a clear decapitation. Kita followed through with his block as well, carrying the momentum from blocking the blade at his side into the air, his blade crashing against the clone's. The clone's blade was knocked to the side, and Kita followed through with a kick to the clone's chest, knocking it down and back. Kita quickly inspected the damage at his side, and sighed in relief. It wasn't as bad as it looked. It was painful, but ultimately it wasn't a major wound, and wouldn't leave any permanent damage. It was however, too deep to heal quickly with his basic medical ninjutsu, and would have to survive the rest of the fight with it. Kita turned to the clone, eyes narrowing. "I thought I told you not to go for the kill." The clone picked itself up off the ground, slowly rising to its feet. It pointed its blade at Kita and grinned. "Don't worry boss! I knew that you'd be alright. Remember, you also told me not to hold back as well, so I'm just following orders. Besides, you turned out alright! No harm done!" Kita shook his head, checking his wound once more. "Fine. Don't expect me to show mercy on you for that." The clone laughed and readied its blade. "I wouldn't expect you to. It's going to be a little bit harder to fight with that cut in your side though. I don't really envy you." Kita readied his own blade. "I don't expect you to." Kita feigned a forward rush, putting the clone on guard before dodging to the side, rushing towards the pool of water. The clone turned around in confusion, running towards Kita, attempting to run him down. Kita slowed his speed so that the clone was just behind himself, barely out of attack range. The clone readied its blade for a forward slash at the exact moment that Kita reached the pool of water. Kita leapt up lightly into the air, performing a back flip as the clone slashed at the space where Kita's back just was. The clone watched as Kita barely avoided the blade, staring the clone in the eyes as he completed his circular motion. Kita kicked forward as he completed his flip, driving his foot into the back of the clones head, sending the clone flying into the pool head first, splashing clear water everywhere. Kita landed on his feet with a cats grace, and flipped his katana so it was facing downwards in his hand, and readied a stab at the waterlogged clone. Under the waves created by its fall, the clone swiped its blade upwards towards Kita. Kita backed up just the slightest bit, cursing how slow he was in not finishing the job, but relieved that he managed to dodge the blade of his clone. Kita had only a moment to thank his luck before realizing that the clone had readied more than a simple slash, sending a wave of chakra flying towards Kita (Rupture). Kita couldn't dodge in time. Kita barely remembered the fact that his sword currently possessed the river cutter technique's benefits, and slashed at the wave of chakra, severing the attack at the center and creating the slightest of openings for Kita. The rest of the wave faded away harmlessly, and Kita stood unaffected.

The clone sat up from the water, coughing profusely, choking up water from its lungs and nose. Kita smirked as it rubbed the back of its head, still hurting from Kita's kick. "I told you that I wouldn't show you any mercy. I can give you a minute if you need." The clone continued coughing, and looked at Kita with a scowl. "I hate you. I'm taking you up on that minute since you offered." Kita laughed. "Alright then, you take that minute. To be honest, I'm surprised that you didn't vanish the moment I hit you. I didn't expect you to fall for such an obvious trick. The rupture was a nice touch though, I nearly died." The clone sat on the ground, wheezing. "Although, you're wasting a lot of chakra trying to kill me. You're going to run out eventually." The clone shook itself like a dog. "I still have a lot to burn through. How about you though? Are you starting to feel any better?" Kita was taken aback for a moment. Now that he thought about it, he was starting to feel a bit better about it. Through the clone, it almost felt like he was giving the man another chance. Kita was intent on killing him again of course, but at least he got a fair chance the second time around. Kita looked at his blade, still maintaining its watery sheen from his jutsu. Would he become fully hardened to killing, like some of the other village ninja? Kita didn't know, but for now, he was coming to terms with the deaths that had happened. "Yeah. I think I am starting to feel better." The clone stood up, its blade turning into pure water and falling to the earth. Kita looked to his own blade, noticing that the water that had clung to it was falling to the ground as well. "Good. It'd be a shame if we came here for nothing. However, I'm winning this fight, so you'll have some new trauma to cry over later." Kita gave a slight laugh, and drove his blade into the ground, readying a Taijutsu stance. "Unfortunately, that isn't happening. I'm ready to end the fight whenever you are." The clone raised an eyebrow at Kita, motioning to the sword in the ground. "Aren't you going to use that? It's not like I have a weapon that can actually stand up to you." Kita shook his head. "Unfortunately for you, I don't need it. I'm winning this fight in the next few seconds." The clone laughed, and readied its own Taijutsu stance. "We'll see about that."

Kita and his clone stared at each other for a moment or two, unmoving and unblinking, before awakening in a flurry of motion. Kita rushed at the clone with a simple punch with his right hand, which the clone blocked with its own right, and retaliated with its own punch. Kita leaned to the side, letting the punch move past the left side of his body, and grabbed the clone's fist, holding it in position. The two sat at a standstill for the briefest of seconds, before Kita took his punching arm back ever so slightly, ramming his elbow just beneath the ribcage of the clone in its diaphragm. The clone wheezed again, still reeling from its time under the water. Kita continued the assault, bringing his fist upward, and knocking the back of it into the clones face. As it staggered back, Kita readied one last attack, taking his back left leg up and pivoting in place, kicking the clone in the side of the head, sending it sprawling to the ground. The clone took a moment to recover, and Kita let it do so. It quickly scrabbled to its feet, and rushed for Kita's katana that he had planted in the ground. Kita tutted softly. "That hardly seems fair." The clone turned around and grinned, katana in hand. "Fair doesn't really matter much in a fight boss. Right now, I'm fighting to win." The clone readied the blade, and leapt into the air, picking up momentum and speed as it prepared to cut Kita right down the middle with the blade (Metal Crusher). Kita looked up at the blade approaching towards himself, and quickly readied hand seals to avoid the threat. Kita finished just in time as the blade collided with Kita's head, sawing through his skull, and severing him into two perfect halves. Suddenly, the remains of Kita's body disappeared in a puff of smoke, and two halves of a large rock appeared in its place (Substitution Technique). The sword slammed into the ground, and the clone panted, eyes widening in surprise. It's head turned around just in time to see Kita finishing the last off his hand seals, the snake seal. Kita rushed forward, and with an outstretched hand, slapped the back of the clone struggling to take the blade out of the ground. Black images of chains, almost resembling tattoos, but blacker than any void and spreading across clothes as well as skin, spread across the clone's body (Paralysis Seal). The clone didn't even have time to change its shocked expression before the chains full wrapped the targets body, and the clone's body locked stiffly in place, completely unable to move itself. Kita moved around to the front of the clone, and looked at his handiwork. "I did tell you that the fight would be over in a few more seconds. Honestly I was wondering when the Paralysis Seal would come up. I hadn't expected it to come in handy so soon! Honestly I thought that the next time that it would come up would be against an actual opponent. I guess not!" The clone didn't respond. Kita didn't really think that it could. He was pretty sure that the jutsu shut down the ability to speak. "Well, I think that it's time that I finished this. Thanks for your help in this." Kita reached towards the clone's frozen hands, wresting the sword from it, and holding it aloft. The clone sat completely still. Kita held the sword, and looked at the frozen clone. Suddenly, Kita felt just the tiniest bit quesy. Kita knew that he had just beaten the clone in a fair fight, and that not only was it not the man in the brown cloak but instead a disguised version of his own clone, but he still felt nausea at the thought of killing it. Kita lowered the blade. He was going to kill this man when he couldn't fight back, again. Kita thought of what he could do to avoid it, but he had already read his books. He didn't want to just leave the clone sitting there, someone might find it and get the wrong impression. Kita didn't want to dismiss it either, because then the exercise would have been pointless. Kita felt like he had to kill the clone. He had beaten this man in combat, and he could die an honorable death. The clone stood unflinchingly still. It had served its purpose, and Kita was sure that it knew it. Still, Kita couldn't help but feel that he was doing something wrong. "I don't know if I can do this to be honest." The clone didn't respond. Kita sat down on the floor, thinking about that day once again.

The images kept coming back to Kita's mind. He could still recall what had happened, bright as day. He remembered watching over Mr. and Mrs. Noboru as they went about their day shopping. They had decided to walk into an abandoned street while the man in the ripped brown coat followed them. Kita remembered following them, and arriving just in time to save Mr. Noboru from being stabbed to death. Kita remembered striking the man in the neck, and the aftermath. The man had fallen to the ground and twitched for a moment before passing on into the next world. He hadn't even been looking at Kita. Instead, Kita kicked the man from behind. He didn't even see his death coming. After that, the other criminals arrived, and Kita had to fight them off to protect Mr. and Mrs. Noboru. Kita still remembered what happened the aftermath of what had happened with those men.

Kita felt his mind drifting back to the same day that he had saved the Noboru's lives. After killing those men, Kita cried in the alleyway, shocked and upset by what he had done. The Noburo's had comforted each other, and were looking at Kita, horrified. He hadn't blamed them. He was also disgusted by what he had done. It was a bit of time before Kita had calmed down, tearful wails turning into shuddering sniffles. Mr. Noboru had taken that opportunity to speak up. "Is it over? Are we safe?" Kita had nodded, looking at the two remaining thugs who had decided to surrender, and two others who had managed to survive, albeit unconscious. Four in total. Kita remembered speaking in a shaky voice. "I think so. If any were left, they would've shown up by now." The two criminals standing shook their heads vigorously, and Kita gave a long exhale. "That fight caused a bit of noise. It shouldn't be long before some other ninja come along and arrest the others." Kita wasn't wrong. Before too long, two chuunin arrived onto the scene. Kita remembered explaining the situation to the two ninja, telling them about how the man from the marketplace followed and attacked Mr. Noboru, and Kita defended him. Kita showed them the mission scroll, telling them all about the suspected attack. One of the chuunin went ahead and began the process of taking the surviving thugs into custody, while the last chuunin stayed with Kita. Kita remembered him leaning down to look Kita in the eye. "Don't worry kid. It's over. You did a good job, and your mission was successful." Kita remembered nodding, small tears still in his eyes. The chuunin sighed, and looked over at his partner. "We've got it from here. We'll deliver these guys into custody, and take Mr. and Mrs. Noboru back home. You get back to your place and rest. Just write your mission report, and you're done for the day." Kita remembered nodding, and heading back to his apartment.

Kita remembered feeling terrible that night. As he walked away, Mr. and Mrs. Noboru looked at him differently than when they met him. Kita couldn't fully describe their look, not just because he didn't have the words, but he couldn't meet their eyes. Kita had gone home that night and written his report as quickly as possible, just wanting to put the events behind himself. He had dug through his father's ninja scrolls, studying ninjutsu, just trying to put it out of his mind. Kita had settled on the shadow clone jutsu. What drew Kita to it, Kita didn't know. It might've been that he wanted someone else to do the work if a situation like that came up again, or maybe it was just convenience, with no inner motive other than distracting himself influencing his decisions. Either way, Kita remembered practicing the jutsu to no end, studying with the same fervor that he had in his academy days. In one night, Kita had mastered it, working relentlessly to achieve the technique. His first few clones were more than subpar. The first clones were either entirely unintelligent, incredibly weak, inaccurate to the original, or completely disobedient. Usually however, they were all of those at once. Kita remembered trembling, hands formed together into the clone seal, trying desperately to get a coherent clone out of it. Several of the clones addressed Kita by his real name, confusing the other clones, who were also named Kita. Kita remembered snapping at the imperfect clones, "You aren't Kita! I'm Kita! We're not going to have this confusion anymore! From now on, you'll call me Boss! Boss!" The clones had mocked their creator, calling him "Boss" as sarcastically as they could. However, with each clone summoned and dismissed, they got a little more accurate. They got a little more effective. They got a little more obedient. The moment that the first perfect clone was summoned felt liberating. It was late in the night by the time that it happened, and Kita was exhausted. Kita dismissed it and summoned them five more times, just to be sure that he got it right. Each clone addressed him by his preferred title. Each clone called Kita Boss. With that, Kita tucked himself into bed, and feel asleep, the exhaustion he felt overpowering the sheer horror of what he had done.

Kita snapped himself out of his thoughts, and turned his gaze to the still paralyzed clone. It sat completely motionless, Kita not even seeing its chest rise and fall to breathe. Kita looked at his katana again. "It's a bit ironic, isn't it? The same jutsu that I learned distracting myself from that man's death, is the same one that I'm using to get over it. I don't know if that's irony or not, but it's certainly funny to me." Kita turned to face the still motionless clone. "I know that you can still hear me in there. I just wanted to say thank you. This really did help a lot." The clone didn't respond. Kita took his blade, and lined it up with the neck of the clone. He took a long inhale, and raised the blade high above his head. Then, he exhaled. Kita swung down at the neck of the clone, slicing through bone and muscle, decapitating the thing. There was a brief pause, where the clone's head fell slowly to the ground, but the pause lasted only a moment before the clone dissipated into smoke. Kita felt the remaining chakra of the clone flow into himself, and the memories of the fight flow into his head. Kita saw each of the clone's attacks and thought processes, working through how it saw the fight. Kita felt the pain of the injuries that the clone felt, and the drain on its chakra. Kita winced when he saw the clones memory of the seal, but put it aside. The clone was okay with it for the most part, so it didn't bother Kita that much. Kita sighed, and sheathed his sword, the battle finally over. Kita shook his head, and began to reflect. Truth be told, Kita didn't feel much of the guilt that he felt before. Kita had come to terms with the killing of the man. It had been in the defense of Mr. Noboru and his wife, and in service of his mission. There was nothing to feel guilty about. Kita felt a wave of relief wash over him. Of course, there were still doubts in his mind as to if he did the right thing, and Kita was certain that he would never truly work through his problems in this manner, but it did help. Kita felt the tiniest bit drained. He knew that he should have been exhausted by fighting in this manner, but Kita still felt like he could go for another round or two. Kita thought about training some more, but decided against it. Kita was done training for the day. Kita readied the snake hand seal, and send chakra sparking through his body. The hand sign triggered Kita's chakra storage seal, and Kita felt his chakra begin to fill, coursing through his body once again (Chakra Storage Seal, acquired in this mission). Kita dropped his hands to his side. He knew that it was pointless to dismiss the seal now, but if Kita was being honest, the seal was a bit outdated, and needed to be reapplied any who. Kita had applied the seal to himself when he was a far weaker ninja, and he could store a significantly larger amount now. Kita debated for a moment reapplying it with the chakra that he just got from the old seal, but decided against it. Even if he wasn't physically tired, Kita was emotionally tired, and he needed a break from ninja training. Clashing with clones in that way wasn't pleasant, even if Kita wasn't that physically exhausted. Kita wondered if the time would ever come when he ran out of energy in a fight. Kita shrugged. If that fight ever came up, Kita would deal with it then. For now, Kita was heading home.

Kita walked out of the training facility calmly, leaving the room in the same position that he left it in. As he walked by the other rooms in the hallways, Kita wondered what other ninja were training, and how they did it. Kita honestly wasn't sure. He was sure that other ninja also used shadow clones, if they had them, but Kita wasn't sure. Some of them probably sparred with each other. Kita thought about it. He had trained with other people before, and there was only so much that he could get out of shadow clones. Kita thought back to some of the people that he had worked with. All of them seemed fine enough people, and Kita wouldn't mind training a bit with any of them. He would have to ask them sometime when he wasn't done with training already. Kita walked out the front doors of the facility, making his way slowly back to his apartment. Kita thought a bit more on the ninja that he had met so far. Most of them had been clan ninja as Kita suspected, with the one exception being that Murata woman that Kita had met during the storm that hit Kirigakure. Kita shuddered thinking back to it. The cold, the rain, and the wind whipping against his skin was an unpleasant memory at best. Still, nearly everyone else was a clan ninja. Kita wondered how their training differed from his own, possessing special techniques and abilities that Kita could never hope to achieve. Did they learn their techniques on their own? Were they passed down from clan elders? Maybe Kita would ask one of them sometime. Whatever the case, they did seem kinder than other clan ninja that Kita had met in the past. Maybe clan ninja weren't so bad after all. Kita shrugged. Some clan ninja seemed alright, and some of them seemed like jerks, no different than clanless ninja. Still, Kita didn't want to stand on a pillar made of the gifts that he got on the circumstances of his birth. Kita was proud of the fact that he was born without any special powers or abilities. Kita had gotten to his level of power based entirely on his own hard work, not a genetic lottery that fate had picked out for him. Kita smiled softly. It wasn't something that the clan ninja could understand, even if Kita explained it to them. They were nice, but each of them was born with a privilege that Kita simply didn't have. They were certainly strong, and Kita would never say that they got to where they were without hard work, but their birth into a clan gave them advantages that ninja such as Kita would never have, and for Kita to stand at an equal level of power spoke volumes to him. He wouldn't let it reflect in his actions however. Cooperation was important, and they weren't bad people. There was no use in stirring the pot unnecessarily. Kita shook his head. He wasn't in much of a mood to think about the shinobi life much more. All that Kita wanted to do was return home, and have himself a sweet drink.

When Kita returned home, he went to his fridge and picked up a soda for himself. It was some foreign drink that Kita had wanted to try, but hadn't had a chance yet. Kita opened the bottle and sipped. It was exactly the kind of sugar that Kita was craving. Kita drank the bottle slowly as he prepared himself a basic dinner, and ate slowly, letting his chakra replenish as he did. Kita polished off the meal and the rest of the drink, tossing the garbage away as he did. Kita went to his room and slipped off his ninja tools and standard clothes, getting himself ready for bed. Before he did though, Kita decided to do some late night reading. Kita was a bit tired of training for the day, but it couldn't hurt to learn just a little bit more. Kita went over to his closet, and slid it open, looking for a small pile of scrolls on the floor. Kita reached into it and grabbed one off the top, sitting back against the foot of the bed, and opening it. These scrolls had belonged to his father and mother, who had written down some common ninja techniques in case someone ever needed to learn them. After Kita became a ninja, the scrolls were passed on to him. As Kita cracked it open, he began to read aloud from the first technique in the scroll. "The Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu is a useful technique for when you have chakra to spare, but don't have ninja tools to match. With this technique, a ninja can clone a projectile that is flying towards an opponent, similar to a traditional shadow clone. It can only clone physical objects, so weapons from existing shadow clones will not work. The weapons must be in motion when the user uses this jutsu, or it will fail. Small items, such as paper bombs, may be attached to the technique when it is cloned." Kita followed through the jutsu, carefully soaking in the words that were being said within the scroll, taking careful note to follow the instructions exactly as stated. The worst that would happen if Kita got it wrong would just be that the technique would turn out subpar, but Kita still wanted to ensure that it turned out correctly. After all, Kita was still tired after a long day of training, and wanted to ensure that he had learned all that the scroll had to offer, so he wouldn't have to go back to it again.

Jutsu Used-

Kita Action Points= 995/1015

[Storage Displacement - 10 AP] x 2

-Kita performed Shadow Clone Jutsu, splitting Chakra into two pools-

Kita Action Points= 428/508

[Transformation Technique - 5 AP]

[Suiton: River Cutter - 65 Power - 30 AP]

[Substitution Technique - 5 AP]

[Paralysis Seal - 65 Power - 30 AP]

Clone Action Points= 347/507

[Suiton: Mizu Senbon - 60 Power - 25 AP]

[Suiton: Water Cutting Sword - 60 Power - 20 AP]

[Flying Swallow - 20 AP]

[Jab - 20 AP]

[Rupture - 65 Power - 30 AP]

[Metal Crusher - 35 AP]

-The Shadow Clone jutsu has ended, returning to one AP pool-

Kita Action Points= 855/1015

[Chakra Storage Seal - 40 Power - +80 AP]

Word Count= 6401

Claims:

Approved. Great work.