A rock in a hard place

He was finished with his breakfast, and now the only thing he wanted to do was to go to the training grounds, and begin his training in his clan's specialty, ninjutsu. He had learned a few different techniques throughout the last few weeks, but now he was going to be learning a 'crown jewel' of the shade release techniques, and that was the Corrupted Dragon technique. His parents had read him stories of great shinobi that were members of their clan, that used the Corrupted Dragon, even if his own father used it in concert with his swordmanship. 

He would use it mostly to close the gap with his enemy, and that was a method that he was sure that he would be able to adopt into his own fighting style, but he would use it to not only close the gap, but he would try and use it to constrict his opponent. He would use this method to create a giant opening for his sword to meet his target, ending the life of his opponent. He had so much to learn about the corrupted dragon, but he knew that he was going to get it learned today, and today he was going to be able to add it to his abilities.

He was still sitting on the couch, gearing himself up to getting up and getting his armor on. When he had them on, he was going to hit the road and start his day of training and it was going to be great. He got up from the couch and he brought his dishes over to the sink, there was a couple days worth of dishes in the sink as he had been getting lazy with his chores the last few days, being so exhausted from training all day.

He decided that he was going to catch up on his dishes before he left the house to start his day of training. He stacked the dirty dishes on one side of the sink, and one by one he began scrubbing the dirty dishes with a brush coated in a dish detergent. As he washed the dishes that stood before him, he couldn't help himself but to think about the finer workings of the corrupted dragon, and of all the different techniques that he was going to be learning from the lists of techniques passed down by the different generations of his clan.

He washed the last of the dishes and he began to dry them all, he wanted to make sure that the job was done before leaving. He knew that if he didn't get the job done now, then he was just going to have to do it later and that didn't exactly appeal to him for he knew that when he got home he was going to be exhausted once again. Training was something that he wanted to take seriously, as he wanted to already prove himself of being more than just a genin, but he understood that he was going to have to wait at least a little longer before he was going to be able to prove himself in that way.

After drying and putting away all of the dishes, he walked over to his front door, realizing that he had nothing left to do to get ready, and it was time for him to get all of his equipment on and head out the door so he could get himself to the main road of the village and decide how he was going to spend his day. He could either spend it completely engrossed in the training grounds, working on all of his ninjutsu and bukijutsu. Or he could instead go to the mines and make himself a little bit of money today and then go to the training grounds afterwards. 

Both of his available options were good ones, as he was the master of his own timeline now that he didn't have to go to the academy any longer and he didn't have parents, so that got rid of a layer of expectations of what he was to do in a day. He figured he would let the day decide for him and just go wherever his body decided to go. He reached the front door of his apartment and he reached over the back of the couch, grabbing the pieces of his armor. The armor he wore wasn't heavy, it was more of a middle weight type of armor. Which was perfect for him due to his high levels of strength he could wear it with little to no real issue. He enjoyed owning his own armor and weaponry, it truly made him feel like he was a ninja on his way to making a name for himself, and not just his parents or even just his clan.

He put the breastplate of his armor on and lashed it to his body, ensuring that it was a tight fit. He would also make sure that the fit wasn't too tight as he didn't want it to be a hindrance to his movement. When he decided that the fit was just right, he moved on to getting the leg pieces of the armor, and did the same as he did with breastplate, making sure it was tight enough, but not too tight all at the same time. He lashed that to his body when he felt that it was just right.

Now all he had to put on were the forearm protectors and the helmet. The helmet was easy, as he just slipped it on his head and it seemed to fit pretty much perfectly. Once he was done with putting the helmet on, he placed the first forearm protector on his left arm and he lashed it on properly, making sure it was tight as he used it plenty when shooting his bow. He then grabbed the forearm protector for his opposite arm and lashed it on properly. Now that he had his entire suit of armor on him and it was fitting properly, now it was time for him to grab his weapons and get them ready for combat.

He knew that there was a low chance that combat was actually going to come to him, but he like always being ready for it no matter what. He faced his weaponry and he began to place each of the pieces onto his waist, starting with his sword. He grabbed the sword and it's sheath, tying it to his waist, favoring the right side as he was in fact left handed. He then grabbed his quiver, after he made sure that he had counted all of his arrows and made sure that his arrows were all sharpened and accounted for. With the arrows all being ready for combat, he grabbed the quiver full of arrows and he tied it to his waist also, opposite the sword. He had it favoring the left side as he pulled arrows with his right hand and that seemed to be the most efficient place for him to hold his arrows when he was in training, and he figured that that would hold true for when he was in true combat also.

With his sword and quiver in place, the only thing that was left was for him to place was his bow. He grabbed his short bow and he threw it over his shoulder, resting it place and being sure it didn't press to hard on his shoulder causing him discomfort. Once he figured that he was all equipped and ready for combat, he took one last breath before he left. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't forgetting anything as he didn't really want to have to come back to his apartment if he did forget something. He felt confident that he hadn't so he opened his front door and took his first few steps out onto the concrete landing that was outside his door.

He took in a deep breath of fresh air and he turned to face the steps that led down to the main road of the village. He began walking down the steps, and he was realizing that he was going to have to decide fairly quickly just what it was that he was going to do for the day. If he turned right, then he would be heading for the mines outside of the village, but if he was going to be going straight, then he was going to be headed straight for the training grounds and he was going to spend the day in training. As he neared the final step he had finally decided. He was going to go to the mines for a few hours, and then he was going to go to the training grounds to close the day out. That is what he had been doing and it was seeming to be working for him as his physical strength had increased significantly, and he was also improving greatly in his ninjutsu and weaponry skills at the same time. 

He turned right and he began walking toward the village gates so he could exit the village and take the short trek that was going to the mines. He was just going to go for some more high grade steel, he figured that even if he couldn't use it any more on his sword, he could surely use it for something else like another weapon. Or even if he had no use for it, he could easily sell the high grade steel to someone else who could use it and make some more money on the small task that was mining the ore.

He could see the village gates beginning to get closer, and at the very same time, so was the sun. The heat was a little intense today, almost enough for him to wish he could take off the armor and take a little bit of the layers that was covering his body. But that would be unwise to take off his armor for he would be one step less prepared to get into combat and that was just flat out, plainly unacceptable. 

He walked up to the village gates and he stopped for a moment, thinking about the time he had left on his first official mission with another individual. He hadn't even realized that he had been assigned to another individual on the mission, but when he ran into Tsuna, he just rolled with it, and he was very glad that he had. Tsuna was another individual that focused very much on weaponry and armor, he was the reason that the young Shinkou himself had actually begun taking his armor even more seriously. He knew that he had loved weapons and armor, but he didn't truly appreciate them like he should, like Tsuna did. 

He left the village gates and he headed straight for the mines, he wanted to get in and out as soon as he could so he could get back to training. He rushed through the village gates and he began to sprint through the sands, being ready to get to the mines so he could get the hell out of there and start working on that brand new jutsu that he wanted to add to his arsenal. Not to mention the countless other things he could work on in the training grounds.

Countless sand dunes were off in the horizon, and he was happy to see them for it meant that he was just getting closer to the mines. When he finally arrived, the guard at the front gate commented on the fact that they hadn't seen him in a few days. He told the guard that he had been taking care of other missions around the village and he just finally had the time to get back to the mines and get some more high grade steel that he could throw into his inventory and possibly attach it to his weapons.

The guard said welcome back the young Shinkou and he opened the gate to the mines and he told him where the foreman could be found. The boy thanked the guard and he headed straight into the mines so he could find that foreman and get this part of his day out the way. When he entered into the mine, he headed straight into the shaft that the guard had told him to go to to find the foreman, and luckily for him the foreman was exactly where the guard had told him to look.

The foreman greeted the boy with a grand smile, knowing that he was going to have a huge boost in his mine's efficiency for the day. The foreman shook the boy's hand and he told him exactly where he wanted the young Shinkou to mine. He told him that there was a chunk of rock that was in the way of one of the shafts, and he wanted the boy to break through the rock so they could get to the rest of a certain vein that they were grinding through in that particular shaft. The boy figured he was perfect for the job.

Kurayami nodded his head and he headed straight for the shaft so he could start mining the rock and get the rest of the men into the rest of the vein and he could contribute another service to the village, which was always his main goal in his life. He got to the mine shaft and he found himself a pick axe that he was going to use. He was pointed in the location of the rock, and that was all the information that he was going to need for this certain objective. He ran through the mine and he saw the rock in question. 

He got to the end of the shaft and he leaped forward at full speed, and he swung the pick axe as hard as he could. The mine began to shake and the Earth below him began to quake as a result of his mighty swing, attempting to strike straight through the rock blocking the mine's progress and preventing any further sapping of the vein. When he landed on the ground, he noticed that there was a large hole that had popped up directly where he had landed his large impact on the rock face. 

He was surprised that there was only a large hole, until he noticed that the hole began to expand. The rock began to shake some more until finally cracks began to expand from the location of the large hole that he had put into the rock. Slowly more and more cracks began to show and large chunks of the rock began to fall to the floor of the mine shaft. He decided to drop back and take one more shot at the rock, thinking that that would likely clean off the rock and get that shaft back to full capacity.

He stepped back a decent amount before sprinting directly for the rock once more. He readied the pickaxe as he was sprinting directly for the rock, then he finally leaped forward once more and he struck the center of the rock once more with the pickaxe, which had actually shattered in the action of striking the rock. The rock then shattered and it's pieces fell to the floor, the roof of the mine shook hard, and the young Shinkou was sure that the mine as a whole was going to collapse, but luckily for him it held quite strong.

The rock began to fall to pieces and it was finally able to be passed. The foreman arrived at their location and he thanked the young Shinkou profusely before giving him an envelop and a hunk of high grade steel. He said that it was a thanks for his hard work and said he didn't need to worry about filling the mine cart of ore as he had definitely done enough work to constitute a day's pay and then some. The boy thanked the foreman and he headed out of the mine with his pay for the day. 

He was happy he was able to get the work part of his day out of the way quickly, and now he was able to get himself to the training grounds so he could start working on his additions to his arsenal. He left the mines and he was full steam ahead for the training grounds, he knew that there was nothing in his way now and he was actually quite happy that he decided to go to the mines today as there was an issue that only he could have helped with and made it that easy for the men of the mines.

He reached the village gates and he knew that he was going to have to make a quick stop at the house to drop off the hunk of high grade steel that he had gotten and leave at his house so it didn't get in the way of his training while he was in the training grounds. He passed through the village gates and he headed down the main road until he got to the steps that led straight up to his very own apartment. He went up the stairs and into his apartment, dropped off the hunk of high grade steel and he turned right around and headed back down the steps. 

He got down to the main road and he turned left this time, this time he was going to be headed straight to the training grounds. There was nothing that was going to get in his way, and he was going to learn that new technique, and maybe he was going to have some time to get through some training about some other techniques. He was going to make the most of the time that he had in the training grounds today.

WC: 3000

+6100 Ryo
+30 AP from mission +30 AP from WC
+1 High Grade Steel
+735 towards Corrupted Dragon (completed) (Previous progress)
+1500 towards Arrow Shadow Clone Jutsu (completed)
+250 towards Genjutsu Release (Completed)
+500 towards Body Flicker (completed)
Discarding final 15 words