Forks in the road

"So many different options to choose from, and yet you sit here doing nothing. Sparring like you are a simple shinobi, what are you thinking? You need to be going back to the borders and walk, walk until you can do nothing else. You shall go back to the days of living day by day, nothing holding you back." The voice spoke as Taichi laid in the bed sleeping. Ever since he had began cutting back on the drinking in the taverns, he had been having nightmares again, and he was regretting it. He wanted nothing more to start drinking once again, but honestly he was beginning to see again, he was beginning to see his life in a new light, or maybe it was the old light that he had seen so long ago.

He remembered the time that he had such a desire for life, but it all seemed like it was so long ago. So many things had happened since he had lost his light, the light that shone through his soul. He had killed friends, enemies. He lost his home, and he lost those he believed that he had loved. There was no true wonder as to why he actually had lost his spark, his desire to live. But there was a desire that was beginning to come back, meeting his old friend Stein, coming into a village where he felt as though he would be able to grow in strength, and even in his religion. 

There was so much about this village that he was beginning to love. He loved the people, he loved the other shinobi that he had observed that was within the village's training grounds. He had been watching the Chuunin exams and he was impressed with what he was seeing from the younger generation of the village, it was something that he was truly excited to see again. He wished that he could have gone to the Chuunin Exams after he had become a Genin, it was something that he wanted since he was small. He remembered how his mother used to always talk to him about their clan's history, the rich history of the Uchiha. She always wore their clan's crest of the fan on her jacket, always so excited to talk to anyone that would care to listen about her love of the clan and how she felt that they were the strongest clan around, except for the Senju, for who she believed they were equals. 

Taichi grew up in his younger years with such a desire to become the strongest shinobi and to become the best in the village, but after the night in which he had lost everything from the destruction of Sunagakure no Sato by Kirigakure no Sato, he lost his spark and truly fell off the wagon for a long time. He remembered how he had tried drinking himself to death several times, often waking up kilometers away from the inn that he was originally staying at, drunk and passed out on the side of the road. He knew that there was a comfort that he was always seeking from the bottle, there was just something that called to him from the bottom of every bottle he grabbed. But now that he was beginning to work on himself once more, he was beginning to take control of his body and his mind, but most importantly, his soul.

There were a lot of things that he had lost over the years, but there was things that he was beginning to care about once more. He was becoming to be glad about his past, knowing that because of his past, it brought him to be as strong as he was, and that was something he was thankful for. If he had just been a village ninja for Sunagakure, then who knows if he would have become the shinobi he was that day. He wasn't sure if the transplants were even allowed by the higher ups of the village, and he knew that the transplants that he had received from Ken and Stein granted him so much more power than he would have ever been able to achieve on his own. 

He wasn't sure just where he lined up on the pecking order, he wasn't sure if he was strong. He wasn't sure if he was a powerful ninja in the slightest. The only thing that he did know was that he was beginning to try once more in life, he was beginning to learn once more. He had found people in his life that he had a desire to learn from and to fight beside. He knew that his relationship with Stein was something of questionable beginnings, and even more so questionable relations, but he was at least to know someone that made him an even better shinobi.

If it wasn't for him then he may not have learned the things that he had the day they had their spar, their spar seemed to spark something within him, something he thought had died when he lost everything the second time. So much of his life had been a put down, a depressing string of events that showed to have no true happy ending, or middle, or really even a beginning. So much of his life would be enough to just end it. Just put a kunai in his own throat and end it right then, but for some reason he kept pushing.

He wasn't sure why he kept pushing, he just knew that he wanted to stay alive through the next day, he wanted to prove that he was worthy of life. The only problem was he had no one to truly prove that too, especially when one considered his life was just that of a nomad with no true family or group of people who even gave a damn about him. Why would he continue to push if there was no one to be helped or to acknowledge his own power?

It was a question that he often found himself asking to the void that stood above him as he lay in bed at night, at least on the nights that he wasn't drinking. He was beginning to feel better now that he was working on himself, working on his techniques and even learning new ones that were going to give him an even stronger edge in battle, or at least he hoped. There was so much about his life that he wasn't sure how to feel, and he didn't know what there was to do about that.

Who knew what the life would bring, but for so long he wanted to kill himself, trying to drink his body into a coma, trying to keep it from waking up again. But fortunately for him, or unfortunately depending on how he felt that day, he had failed up until this point at the very least. So much alcohol passed through his body that he was sure that if it wasn't from some form of divine intervention, he would very much likely be dead already. But the gods had a plan for him, and he just had to hold on long enough to find out what that plan was.

He had been praying to the gods so much in the recent past, asking for forgiveness for his misdeeds that he had done in the past, but also asking for guidance as he wasn't sure just what he was going to do in his life. Should he stay in the village that he had been residing within? Or should he retreat back to the borders where he was never truly feeling safe and knew that he had to constantly be ready for an ambush or an attack of some sort?

Sure the village was nice, but he was worried that he would become... soft. Or at least he was concerned that he would become softer. He wasn't the hard ass that he once thought he could be, but quite the opposite. He was a sweetheart who truly wanted the best for people, but he was always a territorial individual who always feared allowing people to get close to him or whatever he may hold dear. While he knew that this was going to be a personality trait that would be hard to get rid of, especially if he became a member of the village. He figured that it was better to find something precious to be territorial over, rather than trying to change his personality to that degree.

So much of his life was undetermined, and he was finally getting to the point in his mind that he was ready to begin his life anew and truly begin everything again. The village setting was seeming to sit well with him and he was hoping that he would be able to speak with the Hogokage before the Chuunin Exams were over, that way he would be able to make a case for him staying. He would certainly fulfill the needs of the village if it meant him having a home to stay in for the time being. There was no reason that he would have to leave, as this place did certainly provide him a place to stay and he wasn't always concerned with bandits ambushing him as he slept which was a pretty good benefit of living within the village. But then there was the downside of being stuck in the village, he didn't have the freedom that he once had. He didn't have the ability to leave and roam about whenever he pleased, which would be something in the con section of the village life.

He had been praying about it nonstop, especially when he sparred with Stein. He realized that there were people out there stronger than him, even if they were pretty close in power. He could stand to learn quite a bit within the village, even from the people who were originally part of his life of old. News had been coming in about the destruction of Kazan and Taichi couldn't help but to think about it, there was so much that he could have done, but instead he was in Suna of all places. 

He wasn't there to help in the village's time of need, the village that brought him in and gave him a home to have for himself. He wasn't hearing much from the gods at this point, not since they had given him the eyes that now inhabited his skull. There was much about his eyes that he didn't know about, so much power that he had still very little idea as to how to harvest. But he was giving it his all to figure out just what his new eyes could do.

During his spar with the young shinobi from Kirigakure, his eyes seemed to act on their own. The orbs of pure chakra that developed directly behind him before rushing directly for the child and wrapping around him, creating a sort of prison. That was the end of the match against him, but against Stein he wasn't so lucky. Stein was able to enhance his own strength to break the orbs power and destroy one of them with mere strength. There was still much that he had left to learn, but he was willing to put in the work to actually learn those lessons.

So much of his life was uncertain, but they were becoming more and more certain the longer he stayed in the village. His thoughts of leaving the village were waning as he became more and more comfortable within it's walls. He originally thought he would just go back to the life that he had been living for so long, just drifting off and wandering the borders. He had no one to look after him, and he had no one to look after. It was a lonely life, but it was a life that held so little responsibility that it was comfortable.

Mid Thread claim:

TWC: 2006
+40 AP
+1639 towards  Wood Dragon (Completed) (Previous \
Progress)
+348 towards Vidar's Grace (Completed) (Previous Progress)

Approved

Taichi wasn't sure what he was going to do today, it was kind of a toss up between drinking the day away or going to the training grounds and continuing to make himself stronger and stronger. Lately he had been trying to sober up so he could begin to focus on his abilities more, as he had been fairly lazy when it came to skills as a shinobi. He was honestly shocked that the gods would have given him such a gift with the eyes he now possessed as he didn't believe that he had actually deserved them due to this lack of motivation to better himself. 

But the gods had a plan for him, and that much was self evident as he was still breathing, but more importantly, he was still improving with the very minimal amount of effort. There wasn't much that he was doing, but he was still becoming more powerful, staying on par with the likes of Stein even though he started far later in his own journey than that of Stein himself. There was a lot that Taichi had going for him, if only he had even the slightest amount of motivation to truly focus inwards and become the shinobi that the gods obviously saw him able to become. 

He thought of the gods often, realizing that they were mysterious and slightly random with the power that they granted, he believed this due to the timing that he had been given the powerful eyes that he now possessed, there was something about them that he still didn't quite understand. He figured that this is exactly what the gods had decided to do to pry him from his lazy and unmotivated position to finally bring himself to his feet and learn a little bit about what his new eyes could do. 

He thought that this was truly an ingenious plan as he was becoming more curious about his own power, and even taking on the challenges that was sparring with Stein and trying to teach the young shinobi from Kirigakure the realities of life on the borders. He was caring for others again, like young shinobi that wanted grand adventures. He wanted to save that poor child from the disappointment that he would likely feel the moment he began to wander in their world, the world of shinobi. There was nothing truly good to be seen, even if there was beauty within the world. 

He remembered the land of Fang, the beautiful landscapes and the monumental mountain that lay at the center of that island. He remembered spending a lot of time with the blacksmith and Hiroaki Gekko. He missed a lot about his life, how simple it was to live his life in Fang. There was no true danger, but there was so much to see there. That's what he believed until the day that he burned his friends to a crisp that day. Both of their bodies, or what was left of them lying there on the ground, lifeless.

Careless is what he was, but mostly naïve. He didn't truly know what he was doing as there was so little experience gained before that moment that it was truly no surprise such an occurrence happened, as none of them truly knew what they were doing, and they were all criminals. They should have known better then to scramble around like they did, but alas they didn't. So many things could have been avoided, but unfortunately there was no way to get away from it now, as it was written in the stone tablet that was his past. 

He could have sworn that the alcohol was going to erase all of these memories, but unfortunately once again he was wrong. He had been drinking himself to near death for so many years now, trying to get away from the memories of his past. But no matter how drunk he got or how much alcohol passed through his lips, he always ended up remembering the worst of it the day after. He was deciding more and more that he was just going to move forward with his life, and stop trying to drink himself to death as it was obviously not working despite his best efforts. 

As he was realizing that he was going to be giving up the drinking though, his body, or more like his mind was developing a dependency on the bottle. His body had begun to have withdrawal like symptoms and even the simplest task was becoming a chore, but he figured that something like this was going to happen, and now he was going to have to continue to make the choice to keep away from the alcohol and keep working on moving forward in his life as that was going to be the only way he would be able to live with himself after the things that he had done. 

The more he thought about it, the more he thought of the good times that he had in his life. Meeting his fiancé, the academy, the long walks with his mother while she was guard duty. Even some of his oldest memories from before his father had fallen apart and turned into an abusive bastard. There was good in his life, he just had forgotten how to see it, or more like he decided to stop looking. He knew that there was plenty to be sad about, but he was beginning to remember that there was things to be happy about too.

The white haired shinobi was still sleeping, his mind being full of things that he hadn't allowed himself to think about for quite some time. He thought about all of the mistakes that he had made, and he thought of all the different things that he could have done to avoid those mistakes. He did this often, as a means to punish himself more often than not, but it was something that he just felt like he had to do so he could make sure not to make the same mistakes again.

He wasn't sure if this exercise was at all useful for his everyday life, but it was something that he was kind of forced to do every day, which was why he had been drinking so much lately, he just wanted to forget all of the things that he was being forced into putting himself through it all, but unfortunately it never seemed to work as his dreams were always so full of his mistakes and misdeeds that he could just never bring himself to forget or forgive himself. 

He began to stir himself awake in his bed, around the same time the sun was beginning to rise. There was much that he was going to be able to do today, but he wasn't entirely sure about what he was going to do. He could stay in his room at the inn and pray to the gods above for the day, asking them for guidance and for strength in his powers. He could go to the training grounds and he could truly work on himself, which would be a good option as he truly did need to work on his power and strength as a shinobi.

There were a lot of things that he could do, he could even go into the outskirts of the village, just outside the village gates as there were mines out there that were always looking for some people to help them out in getting the ore extracted from the walls, which was something he had already done in the time that he had been in the village, but he wasn't too sure if he wanted to do that kind of backbreaking work again as it just wasn't his kind of thing.

The sun crept into the room that he was staying in and he began to rub his eyes, blocking the sun from blinding him any further. Once his eyes were open, they began to adjust to the sun's blinding light and he turned over to his side to face away from the window that was letting the light in, not wanting to face the day quite yet. Well, he really didn't want to face the world at all as his sleep was subpar to begin with, and now this is when decisions needed to be made and he just wasn't ready for that.

As he turned over, his body ached slightly from the spar that he had with Stein. His midsection was only barely saved by the branches that he had protrude from his midsection as that was the only thing that was going to be able to stop a direct punch from Stein. He respected Stein, feeling as though he was his equal and he was okay with that. He liked having someone that made him want to be better, it was yet another avenue that the gods were using to create more motivation inside this Uchiha's body.

He shifted his weight slightly, trying to get comfortable inside the bed once again, he wanted desperately to go back to sleep as he just didn't want to start his day quite yet. He tossed and he turned, slightly thrashing about trying to get his body tired enough to go back to sleep, but nothing was seeming to work. So he figured that if his body wasn't going to go to sleep, then he was at least going to relax in the bed for a little while, for he was still resting from that spar with the young shinobi and Stein.

He rubbed his stomach, feeling it begin to ache with pain, he did this as he also rubbed his temple with his other hand before he decided that his branches would be perfect for this job. He formed a few hand seals and he felt a few branches protrude from his stomach and he made sure that the branches were rounded instead of sharp like he would use in combat. With the branches coming out of his stomach, they rubbed his temples for him as he just laid back in the bed and let it happen for a few minutes.

The rubbing was certainly helping, but the knowledge that he was going to have to get up sooner or later was just dwelling within his mind so he was just going to have to deal with that fact and actually do something with his day, rather than just try to pretend that it didn't exist and continue to just lie in the bed he was sleeping in doing absolutely nothing. He stirred a little more in his bed, and he finally decided to get himself moving, at least a little bit. He stretched his legs as he was still laying in the bed, then his arms.

When he was done getting stretched out, he slowly removed the blanket from on top of his body and he pulled his legs in and swung them over the side of the bed. With his legs now out from under the blanket, he pulled himself up to a sitting position, facing away from the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes once more as he felt his feet press up against the ground beneath him.

With both feet firmly on the floor he slowly lifted his body and shifted his weight from the bed onto his feet, standing up straight and stretching out his neck by pulling it down to the side by each of his hands before hearing a sullen pop. He would then switch to the other side and pull his head down the opposite direction and he would pull until he heard the same pop happen on the other side of his neck. With his neck all loosened up, he was going to work on his back next.

He slowly shifted his weight to his heels to counter balance the movement that he was about to perform, he was going to bend over and grab his toes. This would help stretch his lower back, which was imperative because he was in fact a stomach sleeper, so a lot of his lower back goes through constant stress throughout the night, so he wanted to make sure that he was able to get it as stretched out as possible so it wouldn't bother him too much or hopefully not at all throughout the day to come. He stretched his hands downward and he began reaching as far as he could, placing his palms solidly on the ground, hearing and feeling multiple pops come from his lower back, feeling a sudden rush of relief go through his body as he performed the stretch. He would stay there for just a few minutes, making sure he was as stretched out in his hamstrings as well as his lower back. This would help his overall performance throughout the day, making sure that his lower back was well taken care of was always a great idea in his mind.

He slowly rose up from the bent over position, feeling his hamstrings and lower back stretched out. Now he was going to move on to the arms, which was obviously important as his arms performed pretty much all of his combat actions throughout the day. His arms carried his sword and his bow, performed all the maneuvers for all of his weapons, so stretching out his arms was an absolute must if he was going to be performing at his peak level today. 

He straightened his left arm out and he reached it across his chest, using his right arm to loop around it to hold it into position. He felt the center of his spine pop a couple times and he could feel the outer side of his arm stretch. He held this position for a few minutes, waiting until he felt that his arm had been sufficiently stretched out. He made sure that there were no knots left in his arm, for if there were then they would just prove to get in the way while he was training, and today that was absolutely not an option. No day was that truly an option, but today seemed like it was going to be a special day.

When he was done stretching out his left arm, he released the left arm by straightening and lowering his right arm and allowing his left arm to just fall back into place. He then did the exact same motion with his right arm. He lifted his right arm and stretched it across his chest, then he held it in place using his left arm and hooking his right arm up with it. He could feel the stretch in the outer side of his arm, so he knew that he was stretching this part of his arm properly.

After his arms, legs, neck and shoulders were all stretched out, he hopped up and down a few times. The hops would be light, just enough to get his toes just off of the ground, and then he would come back down and bounce directly back up. He wanted to get his body woken up properly with a small amount of high impact pressure on his feet, ensuring that there was no parts of his body that was in pain that he was going to need to use an Epsom salt bath before training commenced for the day.

When he felt like he was all limbered up and ready to start the next phase of his morning routine. He walked over to the bathroom, which had the door facing the foot of his bed. So he turned his body to the left and he began walking into the bathroom. Upon entering the bathroom, he could feel a warm breeze passing by his body. This could only have meant one thing, that he had accidentally left the window open overnight, which wasn't truly an issue, but he didn't want the warm air coming into his apartment any longer, so he walked over to that window and he closed it, ensuring to lock it after he shut it all the way.

He felt the water rush over his head, soaking his hair and his neck. He cupped both of his hands and he splashed the ice cold water onto his face. When he was done soaking his head and hair, he turned the water off, still leaning over the bath tub and after the water had stopped rushing through the shower head, he grabbed the towel that was hanging off of the curtain rod. He patted his neck and face dry, then he began to dry off his long platinum white hair. 

Now that he was all finished taking care of his morning routine, it was time for him to get on with the rest of his morning routine so he would be ready to take on the day and actually make something of himself. He walked back into the bedroom and he began to grab his usual garb that he wore generally every day, his blue vest and black pants. He decided that he was actually going go with something slightly different today. He grabbed a white three quarter sleeve shirt and he grabbed some nice black cargo shorts, figuring that it would be a little easier to wear this outfit in the heat that filled the air of the village.

When he was done getting dressed, the next and last thing that he needed to do to leave his house was to make his breakfast, then he would be able to get to the training grounds and start making some progress in the higher level techniques that he had been working on, he could even get himself a brand new technique if he put enough time and effort into developing one. His eyes had become so advanced, that now it was time to begin honing that power and grow his strength exponentially.

wC: 3001

+30 AP
+3000 towards Sage Art Amplifier (Completed)

Approved

His morning was just getting started, he had so much that he was going to be able to get to and for once, he was actually excited. He needed to get through his morning routine to finally wake up all of the way, allowing his mind to be a lot more clear when it came to thinking about what he was going to bring into his day. He thought of the training grounds, the spars that he had been having, and he thought about just what it was that he needed to improve himself on. He had learned so much from so little experience that it was quite dizzying.

The spar with the young shinobi from the village hidden in the Islands, Kirigakure, taught him that he needed to understand himself much better than he did. This was especially true when it came to his eyes, he needed to understand so much more about his eyes that it was honestly insane that he had been gifted them by the gods with so little information, making it quite difficult to understand just how to work with them because he in fact knew so little. But he was willing to put in the work to understand them, no matter what. 

Another thing that he had learned from the spar with the young shinobi from Kiri was the fact that there were individuals out there who could use two techniques to combine into one large technique. He remembered the formation of the giant water dragon that came to collide with his wooden wall that he created to block himself from being utterly destroyed by the giant mass of water and destruction that the young shinobi's clones had sent out to take him out. It was an impressive feat to say the least, to impress Taichi of all people with a water technique, but that was exactly what the child had done. 

The collaboration technique was strong in his mind, he had been wondering if there was other techniques that he could have created or could create for himself. Maybe combining his wood release with a gigantic inferno, or maybe he could combine it with someone else's wind chakra to create a massive flaming tornado. He was so interested in the idea of collaborating techniques as it was something that he had never done, or even seen actually happen before and he was astounded.

As he was thinking of all of the different collaborations that he could create with his jutsu, he continued to think about that child from Kirigakure. He remembered in particular the time that the child had told him that Kiri was the greatest village in recent history, even dating it back to the great cataclysmic event that was the Great Eruption. To think that a child of his age would already have such nationalism, and to think the higher ups of that village would already have their children so convinced was actually quite impressive to the platinum haired, purple eyed shinobi.

 The child certainly was an extraordinary individual to think so highly of his village, but the fact that he wasn't too familiar with the history of his own village made him think that the higher ups were non too excited to share that part of their history. The history that would tax an entire village into near nothingness, and destroy other villages because it simply seemed to suit their agenda. They reduced two village singlehandedly to nothing but rubble, one they did it with the power of money and economy, and the other with brute force and destructive individuals.

He was hopeful that he would be able to meet that young child again, maybe he would just achieve his own dream in becoming an adventurer for his village. Should he accomplish his dream, then he would be a lot like Taichi, but he wouldn't be so much a criminal, but more of a village sanctioned wanderer that would be protecting the betterment of the village and greater good by being outside of the village's walls and completing tasks given to him by his Kage. The white haired shinobi was hopeful for the young shinobi, as he was just happy to see a shinobi that hadn't been torn down by the life they were forced to live.

There was a lot of things that he didn't like about living on the borders, the constant concern of being ambushed by bandits or other rogue shinobi, not knowing if you were going to have a place to sleep that night, and simply the nagging feeling that you don't belong anywhere and you are simply sentenced to wandering the borders for what feel like the rest of your life no matter what you do. So many things that he would prefer not to return to, and that young child was desiring that very life, even if it was for his village, it is still a miserable life indeed.

He remembered the times that he was living in Suna, as a young child, and a young Genin at that, just like the boy from Kiri. He was excited to become a guard just like his mother. She would talk about the great things that she felt that she was doing, protecting the village from any perceived damage. She was a sensory type ninja, specializing in long distance surveillance and also in using her Sharingan.

Taichi often wished that he could have seen his mother now, having her see just what he had become, the visual prowess that he had achieved, and then the higher visual prowess that he been gifted by the gods. But then again, he was glad that she didn't have to see her son become a criminal and fend for himself out in the wilderness. He was torn to say the least, knowing that he had to become a criminal and that his mother would likely not be too proud of the things that he had done, but then he also thought of the opposite perspective. 

He also thought of the things that he had accomplished and the good that he had done, teaching younger shinobi about the world at large. Making new friends in the land of Fang, even the friend that he had made with Stein here in Hoshigakure back when they both lived in Kazangakure. He had done some things that were worthy of praise, but he was just not sure if the good that he had done would outweigh the bad things that he had also done. Like robbing the young shinobi in the forests in the land of Fire.

That was back before he had for some reason lost his technique to form and manipulate spikes from the Earth made of solid wood. He had his spikes form all around the individual and he had some of the spikes go directly to the child's throat. He was ready and willing to kill that child if he didn't get what he wanted, and that was truly the moment he had become a criminal. Before then he tried to be as honest of a rogue ninja as he could be, but in that moment he turned his back on that and become what people imagined a rogue ninja to be.

This would all be fine if it was a once in a lifetime thing, but it wasn't. He then did a very similar thing to the woman he believed to be a Valkyrie's reincarnation, that of Hildr, who he found out later her name was Kaede. The jet black haired woman made for the perfect target for him to once again attempt to kill in exchange for all the valuables that she had on her person. He was truly going to kill her if the need came up, but he was thankful that it didn't come to that point. 

He was truly torn on the idea of seeing his mother again being a good thing or a bad thing. He was a criminal, and a murderer. He had killed his own two friends on accident when he had attempted to kill an intruder on their  little camp that they had set up in the island of Fang. He was so stupid to have used such an over the top jutsu against just one individual, but what could he say, he was extremely naive to say the very least, inexperienced to give him the most credit possible in that situation.

He could still remember their crisp bodies as they had been on the ground. He tried to take things to remember them by with his wood clones, but they had unfortunately gotten destroyed by the very man that was there trying to invade their campsite. There was very little in the way of good things that happened that day, as so many mistakes were made all around it was impossible to pin the blame on just one individual. But of course, Taichi blamed himself entirely for the situation as he usually did, and that would be another thing that he wouldn't want his mother to know about.

When it came to his father, he was just glad that the man was dead. He wanted nothing more than to be the one to kill him himself, but unfortunately his father took his own life and took away that opportunity for closure that Taichi needed with his father. Every day he was beaten by his father, shamed by him, treated like dirt by him. He would batter his mother, the only person that he had ever truly cared for, and that to Taichi was truly unforgiveable.

Every day when he was a child, he wished that he could have had the strength to kill his father, to keep him away from his mother and himself for good, but he was just a child. He was a weak and insignificant child, and to that end, he was no match for his father at the time. He knew that if he had been as strong as he was now, that he would have been able to challenge his father and finally kill him. But unfortunately, his father was already dead and he would just have to live with the memories of his father beating both his mother and him with no true reason for why he did it. 

He hated his father, but he always learned to love from his mother as that was her natural tongue it seemed like. She seemed to love all people, truly wearing her heart on her sleeve whenever she was in contact with pretty much anybody around her. This is how Taichi had begun, he wanted to care for all of the world like she did, always seeing the good in people. But after she was killed and he was left with nothing more than a father who hated him and was miserable even more so now that his wife had been killed on duty. 

After her death, Taichi was left with an angry and miserable old man who hated everyone and everything, including himself and his son. The beatings became so much more often once his mother had been killed. His father came home every single day from his work before he just quit, and he would beat Taichi senseless most days, torturing him, having his friends come and take a turn at torturing him in many different ways.

When his father quit his job, that was when Taichi's life turned from miserable to even more miserable. His father had nothing left in his life keeping him going, and the only time he ever seemed to feel any joy was when he was beating his child and leaving him to bleed for sometimes days at a time. It wasn't a life worth living, but for some reason he never thought of taking his own, but quite the opposite. The only thought that ever got him through the treacherous times that was the idea of killing his father.

The platinum haired shinobi thought more about his horrid past, being so thankful that it was now just that, his past. He didn't have to worry about being beaten like that anymore, for the skills and power that he had gathered in the time since then he was becoming more and more powerful, so now he would be able to protect himself no matter the threat. This was becoming so true that he was developing his own techniques and even beginning to take on the task that was learning the most sacred of all techniques to the Uchiha, the Susano'o. 

This technique was the ultimate protector to all Uchiha, used by the most famous Uchiha worldwide and well renowned to be the greatest technique that acts as an ultimate defense, but also the ultimate attack. To those born with the Uchiha genetics, they can also use a more compact version, one that just acts as a suit of armor that wraps around the user's body, or it can be a gigantic humanoid that wields immeasurable power if used properly. He only thought of just what he could do if he was able to enhance his power with his Sage mode, and tie it in with his new mastery over his nature energy with the Susano'o. 

He thought of the great things that he would be able to do, the power that he would be able to wield, maybe then he would be able to be a strong enough member to join the village's ranks. That was another thing that had been plaguing his mind as of late. He had been to see the village for a few weeks now, he had been enjoying the sights, the wildlife reserve that was put together on the edge of the village. He had even been able to work in the mines that lay just outside the village walls. 

He had been able to see so much of the village that he was beginning to be able to see himself stay in in the village long term. He thought of actually settling down in the village, buying himself a house and actually staying in the village, protecting the village, and even carrying out long distance missions for the village. He wasn't sure if the village would have him as he was a criminal and wasn't truly worth anything to them as far as they knew.

But he had hoped that the higher ups of the village would see him as more than just a criminal and he would be able to come into the ranks of the village and maybe even join their military, then he would be able to protect a mass of people. He wasn't sure what he wanted in life, but with the memories of all of the lives that he had made worse. All of the people that he had stolen from, all of the lives that he had ended both accidentally and on purpose, the people that he had just in general made less happy and safe were always on his mind.

He wasn't entirely sure if he was willing to give away his freedom, the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it. But who knows, maybe this Kage would be as forgiving as the last Kage, the one originally in Kazan. For some reason the name of the kage escaped him. He had many disagreements with the way that that Kage had run things in the village, he didn't protect his people like he should have, but he at least gave Taichi all of the freedom that he could have ever wanted, and he was hopeful that he would get the same level of freedom here.

He wouldn't be too surprised if he was on a shorter leash than the one that he was on in Kazangakure, but he would have been understanding to the lack of freedom as that would be something better earned than to just be given freely. He would have to work hard to earn that level of trust with the kage of this village, but he was more than willing to earn that trust. 

There was something about this village that just called out to him, something that made him want to call it home. He wanted to stop wandering the borders and just stay still for a while. He thought about his life and the recent past that he had been going through, or really just his past in general. He had been constantly going forward, trudging through crap and all kinds of horrible things, he had never truly been able to just stay still in his life. This was something that he was hoping that he would be able to change now that he had found himself a place that he would be able to possibly call home. 

There was much to the village that he liked, he enjoyed the wildlife reserve, he enjoyed the nightlife, mostly the many taverns that were within the village for his enjoyment. The training grounds were far more beautiful than any other village that he had seen. The pit that was in Kazan was just a sandy pit with no true beauty, except for when he would put his own forest within the grounds themselves. Other than that it was just a pit in the Earth that was surrounded by sand.

The village of Suna had training grounds that had a certain type of beauty. It was just outside of the village and it had a beautiful landscape of the sand dunes that laid outside of the village. If you were one of the people in the world that enjoyed sand, then that would be a beautiful training grounds for you. But this village's training grounds were absolutely beautiful, as if it was something that the people putting them together was actually trying to do, trying to make them beautiful and absolutely one of the most gorgeous things about the village.

Taichi was now standing in the kitchen, still in deep thought about everything he had been thinking about for the last few weeks, ever since he had gotten into the village. He knew that he needed to get a move on, for his breakfast wasn't going to make itself and he needed to get out to the training grounds so he could start working on his ultimate technique, the Susano'o. He knew that one must obtain a high level of his dojutsu, the Sharingan to obtain the technique. But he was extremely curious as to what his Susano'o was going to look like now that he had been given such a gift from the gods in his highly enhanced eyes.

He couldn't wait to see just what he was going to be able to manifest with his eyes, and it was something that was going to truly push his power level all the farther than he had ever been before, and that was something to be excited about. He leaned down as he opened the fridge door, he was going to get himself some breakfast, then he was going to head out to the village's training grounds.

He was hopeful that the grounds wouldn't be too packed today as he was sure he was going to need a decent amount of space to practice the technique that he was going to be practicing today. The Susano'o was told to be able to get to be taller than mountains could be, wider than some canyons. It would truly be a massive construct to be made up of pure chakra, something that only the strongest of individuals would be able to put together, and he was hoping that he was going to be one of the individuals in the world to complete this arduous task.

He grabbed some ingredients from the fridge and he set them down on the counter beside the stovetop. He figured he was going to make himself a quick breakfast so he could finally make up some of the time that he had spent standing still, thinking about where his life was going and what had happened in his past. He grabbed a chunk of sausage and he placed it onto the cutting board. He grabbed the pan from a cabinet and he set it on top of the stovetop as he turned on the gas and watched ignite almost immediately.

He gave the pan a few moments to pre heat before he began preparing his breakfast. He grabbed that same sausage and he held it in one hand as he grabbed a spray bottle of coconut oil that was sitting beside his stove. He sprayed the coconut oil onto the pan and he watched the oil immediately begin to smoke, only a little. He set the sausage onto the pan and he began to break the larger chunk into smaller ones with a wooden paddle. When the sausage was sufficiently broken up into smaller pieces, he used that very paddle to toss the sausage around the hot pan so it would cook evenly and thoroughly. 

Once the sausage was cooked through, he cracked a few eggs into the pan and watched as they immediately went from clear to white. He broke the yolks of the eggs and he began to stir both sausage and the eggs together, waiting for them all to set together and cook through. Once they were cooked through, he would shred some cheese into the mixture and stir it once more to get the cheese to melt all throughout the mixture and then his breakfast was prepared. 

He grabbed the pan and he poured the mixture into a bowl and he poured a nice thick layer of hot sauce on the top of the mixture, as that was something he was beginning to do more and more recently, craving that spicy flavor to things. When he was done cooking his breakfast and pouring it into a bowl, he sat down at his dining room table in the room he had at the inn and he ate his breakfast calmly. He knew that he wanted to hurry and get over to the training grounds, but he also wanted to make sure that he didn't eat his breakfast too quickly and upset his stomach. 

As he ate his breakfast, he couldn't help himself to day dream about the Susano'o. The giant monstrosity that would become his cornerstone of all of his powers, all of the ninjutsu that he had learned up to this point had been leading up to this point. All of his knowledge was for this, the ultimate ninjutsu that enveloped the user in a thick layer of chakra, chakra that was shaped into a skeleton. Usually shinobi's wouldn't be able to get much farther than the level in which a rib cage would cover their body, this would be the form that the Susano'o would take that would only provide the user a layer of defense, but that wasn't what Taichi was aiming for. He wanted to get himself all the way to having a giant monster, perfectly formed skeleton with skin covering the bones and maybe even a layer of armor that would also be formed from his chakra. 

He ate through his breakfast and he got up from the couch and he walked back into his kitchen where he would clean up all of the dishes that he had used that morning. He wanted to make sure that he had a clean house before he left for the training grounds, that way when he got home, he didn't have to worry about doing a bunch of cleaning as he was sure that this particular training session, he was going to be completely exhausted. When he was done cleaning all of the dishes, he turned back around and he headed towards his front door. He was mentally prepared and all of his weapons were lashed to his body, he was ready to train.

WC: 4006 

+4000 towards Susano'o (Completed)

Approved