Revelations

Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:47 pm

The beeping of Gonk’s alarm clock pulled him out of his slumber and continued to beep until Gonk hit the top of it, silencing it for the morning. Gonk pushed his covers off him and stumbled over to his window, where he found no scroll. Smiling, Gonk walked over to his kitchen, and contemplated how to spend the day. It had been awhile since he had been able to get some training in, so he geared up, and prepared to leave. As Gonk walked out of his apartment, he saw Wakame standing on the walkway, gazing across the village.
“Huh Wakame must have the day off as well,” Gonk realized as he walked up to his uncle.
“Hey Wakame,” Gonk said, “how’s it going?”
Wakame turned around and said, “Oh I’m fine Gonk, I took the day off because I wanted to see if you would be interested in learning a new Hoshigaki clan secret?”
“What kind of secret?” Gonk asked, interested. “Is it a jutsu or something?”
Wakame pondered this question for a moment before answering with “Not exactly. Follow me, I’ll show you.” Gonk followed Wakame down the steps to the ground floor, then down another to the basement of the building.
“Why are we down here?” Gonk asked, perplexed. He looked around but the only things down there were water and electrical appliances.
“Come over here,” Wakame said as he walked to one of the walls. Piled against it was a bunch of boxes, and moving one of them revealed a lever attached to the wall. Wakame gestured to Gonk to open it, so he walked over, and pulled down hard on it. Doing this caused part of the floor to open up next to them. Gonk walked over to the newly made hole in the floor and peered down. There were no lights, but he was still able to make out a ladder leading down. Gonk looked over at Wakame in astonishment.
“How long has this been here?” Gonk asked.
“Years and years,” was Wakame’s answer. “This building was chosen to be our last remaining property because of the secrets hidden underneath. Now, you might want to leave your stuff up here, the entire area is filled with water.”
Gonk’s eyebrows shot up upon hearing this, “Filled with water?” he asked. “But why?”
“So that even if another clan finds this place, it will be difficult for them to access our secrets, now are you ready.” Gonk took off his equipment and nodded, following Wakame down the ladder. After going down a few rungs, Gonk heard a small splash, then felt water lapping against his feet. Gonk pushed back from the later and entered the water, which was cold and salty.
“This must feed in from the ocean,” Gonk realized as he followed the form of Wakame through the water. Due to his conditions, Wakame couldn’t move very fast, so it took some time for the two to finally arrive in a large open area. The two pulled themselves out of the water, and Gonk gazed around the marvelous room. It appeared to be a large cave that was only accessible through the underwater tunnel they had just swum through.
“Where is this?” Gonk asked Wakame, as he continued to look around.
“I’m not actually sure,” Wakame said after thinking about it for some time. “It’s hard to judge the distance of the tunnel but this is definitely not on the main island. It’s either on the ocean floor, or on one of the smaller islands that make up new kiri.”
“Wow,” Gonk said, impressed as he walked over to one of the walls. When he got closer, he noticed that small niches were carved into it, and in each of them, a scroll was placed. Wakame had followed Gonk over and said “This is where the Hoshigaki clan keeps all of their records. Be it information or jutsu. The area you’re looking at contains the family tree and other such records. This big scroll over here is the tree.” Wakame removed a huge scroll and set it on the ground. “This contains the entire lineage of the main branch of the Hoshigaki clan. There are other scrolls with the side branches." Wakame unrolled the scroll until he reached writing.
“Here’s our family,” he said pointing. “Your Grandfather, who is the head of the clan, and you are the only surviving members of the main family.”
“Wait what about you?” Gonk asked, confused. “You’re the son of the clan head, shouldn’t you be the head now?”
Wakame sighed and gazed at the cave ceiling. “Your grandfather and I don’t get along anymore. I trust you’re aware of my fated mission?” Gonk nodded slowly and watched Wakame. Wakame continued to look up, and gave a long pause before continuing. “My father thought I was a coward for surviving, and disowned me because of it. If I had completed that mission I would have been made the head of the clan. I was never as good as your father, but your grandfather was getting old and I was his only living child. But because of my failure, he disowned me and decided to stay the clan head. It’s unclear whether or not he will make you the clan leader when you become a chunin.” The thought that he could become clan leader had never occurred to him. While he knew his grandfather was the clan head, he almost never saw him.
“Well why wouldn’t he?” Gonk asked, confused.
“Well, as you know, after we lost many people, our clan was put into a bad state. With no heir, my father hid himself away inside his estate, making decisions from in there. As time went on his mental state likely decreased, and he started making bad decisions. You know, there were other ways we could have recovered, we didn’t need to sell all of our properties. So he is part of the reason we’re doing so poorly.” The last bit of information from Wakame shook Gonk to the core. Ever since his parents deaths, he had blamed it all on Xyxer. Gonk had no idea what to do with this new information.
“Anyways,” Wakame said with a sigh, “this isn’t why I brought you down here,” Wakame returned the scroll and walked over to a different wall. Wakame removed a scroll and unraveled it on the ground. On it was a diagram, and writing. Gonk tried to make out what it said but for some reason, everything just looked blurry.
Confused Gonk looked over at Wakame and asked “Hey what gives? Why is everything so blurry?” Wakame looked over at Gonk with confusion, until suddenly a look of understanding, and then shock passed over his face. Wakame reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses.
“Here, try these,” he said as he passed them over to Gonk.
“Huh, glasses?” Gonk thought, perplexed. “Why would I need glasses?” But nevertheless, Gonk put the glasses on his face, blinked, and suddenly he could read the words.
“What are these some sort of special glasses that let me read the scroll?” Gonk asked, confused.
“No,” Wakame replied, “they’re just regular reading glasses as far as I can tell. When I got home a few days ago, they were on my nightstand with a note saying that you might need them soon. It was signed HK. Do you know who that could be?” Gonk racked his memory, trying to think of who it could be. He felt like it was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t quite remember it. After a few moments, Gonk shook his head, stumped.
“Well anyways,” Wakame continued, “as you can see now, this scroll contains information on how to perform scale release.”
“What’s scale release?” Gonk asked as he studied the scroll.
“Scale release is a kekkei genkai formed by combining water release and yang release to create scales like the ones that cover our body. This scroll will explain how to perform scale release and I can provide assistance as well.” Gonk nodded and studied the scroll, reading it through several times before standing and walking over to the pool of water. Gonk first focused on connecting with the water, pouring his chakra into it. Then, he added yang chakra and started to mold the water into scales. After a few minutes of concentration, a thin coat of scales started to form over the water like a skin. Once the entire hole was covered up, Gonk released the chakra, and the scales turned back into water. Gonk turned to Wakame smiling triumphantly.
“Great job!” Wakame said to Gonk. “Now try forming scales on your body,” Gonk nodded, then outstretched his arm and focused on extending the chakra from his scales. After several minutes, Gonk saw scales slowly forming around his hand. Excited, Gonk tried even harder, and after a few minutes, his entire hand was surrounded in a case of scales. It looked like his hand was amputated. Gonk triumphantly waved his arm at Wakame who gave him the thumbs up back. Gonk released the scales, and they turned into dust.
“Great job!” Wakame said as he walked over. “You got the basics down. But now we should get going. You got the basics down so there’s no place in hanging around here. The rest will come with practice. If you ever want to come back here just let me know. But please don’t try to come down here on your own. You might not have noticed, but the tunnels down there are a practical maze.”
“Okay I understand,” Gonk told Wakame as he returned the scroll. After Gonk took his glasses off and put them in his pocket, the two dived into the water and began their journey back to the basement. When the two finally arrived, they dried off and pulled the lever, shutting the trap door. As they walked back outside, Gonk saw the sun was already descending in the sky, meaning it was sometime in the afternoon.
“Wow, I guess I took longer to learn scale release than I thought,” Gonk realized as he walked up the stairs to his apartment.
“Bye Wakame,” he said while waving as he opened the door to his apartment. “Thanks for teaching me.”
“It was my pleasure!” Wakame said in return, smiling. Despite it still being fairly early, Gonk was exhausted, so he spent the rest of the day and evening lazing about, before finally heading off to bed.
[WC=1758]

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Sat Jan 23, 2021 8:48 pm

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Revelations

Revelations

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