The gate is narrow, and few shall find it

Mon May 10, 2021 5:36 pm

Another sleepless night, but yet he was beginning to have a completely different dream. The dream that he had been having was he was in the training grounds, and the only thing around him was his parent's weapons. His father's sword was on the ground to his side, shattered into several different chunks of metal, while on the other side of him was his mother's bow. The bow had been snapped in half and the string shredded, as if it snapped when pulling the string back. He saw the giant sinister aura that he had seen surround the fellow Shinkou that he had met in the training grounds in the recent past. He would stand there as the giant aura would continue to get larger and slowly it would get closer to him.

As it got closer, it began to chant, the chanting that he was so familiar with as it was the very chanting that he had heard when he was young. Even as a baby he was chanted over by his parents, they felt that if they prayed over him that his bond with Yuumei would get only stronger. As the chanting got louder in the dream, the sinister chakra would continue to get closer to him. It would continue until it was directly above his position, looming over him, practically breathing down upon him. He would think about reaching for his sword, but the aura seemed to know what he was thinking as it would begin to cackle.

He would try to run, but his body would be completely frozen for some reason. He wasn't sure if it because of fear, or if his own actions were being controlled by an outside force. He didn't feel fear in his heart, but instead he just felt numb, as if there was nothing left for him to do except to stand there and allow the shadow to consume him. He began to stir in his bed, but in this dream, he continued to stay still. The chanting would be almost like screaming into his ears, causing him to have a severe migraine. He would try to cover his ears, but he was still too entranced in the monster's presence.

He realized that he wasn't stuck in fear, but he felt as though he was being hypnotized by the dark aura. "Move" he would hear his own voice begin to ring through his ears, trying to fight against the chanting. "Move" he would hear his own voice again. He could feel his body begin to move, albeit barely. His fingers began to shake slightly as he was beginning to gather his own power again. "Move!" The voice beginning to get louder, getting louder than the chanting that was still ringing through his ears. "Move!" The chanting then became quieter as he was able to grab his katana and swipe upwards, attacking the giant looming aura.

The swipe connected, feeling a few drops of what he thought was blood onto his face. He wiped it away, but it was black, not the red that he was originally expecting. The shadowy aura slinked away from Kurayami's position and the chanting went completely quiet, but the sounds of screams began to ring out. The screams weren't that of fear, but of anger. The shadowy aura turned back to facing the young Shinkou and rushed towards his position at a speed that even the young Shinkou would be able to follow. Next thing he knew all he could see was black, and all he could hear were screams of anguish.

He wanted to understand the relationship that he had with Yuumei. The relationship his father and mother had with him was something that was not so clear in his household and it was almost like it was a secret within their family. But as usual he hadn't a clue about the rest of his clan either. The rest of the clan didn't speak as many people just seemed to keep away when it came to talking about his clan or their relationship with Yuumei. He was told that he was a deity and basically an incarnation of darkness that granted his followers with access to a special natural chakra release, a nature release that turned one's chakra especially dark and sinister, but that was as far as he had learned for he was to young to truly have any more knowledge than that, according to his parents. He had done some research of his own, especially after his parents had died. He learned that the shade release also had a habit of causing the sinister nature of the chakra to seep into the clan member's own personality. This lead him to discovering the reason for his episodes that he would have, causing him to be a totally different person if he let it go unchecked.

He hadn't had an episode in about a week and for that he was absolutely thankful. He always seemed to be more productive when he wasn't in his episodes, so he had been getting so much work done in the last week. Now he was going to keep this momentum going and he was going to spend more and more time in the mines, as that seemed to be the best place for him to be able to get his strength training in, and not to mention just time to be with his own thoughts and just be himself. Swinging the pickaxe was always a comforting thing to him, but he knew that he was going to need to also get to the training grounds as his training was beginning to take a new turn to actually working on his abilities, and not just his base strength and speed. Now he was going to need to work on his combinations, and to make sure that he was as deadly as possible on the battlefield.

He was wanting nothing more than to become the most deadly swordsman in the ranks of Hoshigakure, but he knew that there were individuals within the village that were far suprerior to himself, like Tsuna. He saw what he was capable of when they went to gather that iron from the meteor, and he was still surprised to know that if he had worked hard enough, he too could become that power, if only he just gave it even more time. He knew that he was pushing himself as hard as he could, but seeing his comrade be as strong as he was, he knew that if he wanted to get to that level, then he was going to need to push himself even farther than he already was. Nothing was going to stop him, but his own inability to push himself that hard may just do him in in the end if he wasn't careful. Just thinking about Tsuna made him want to get to the training grounds and start training for that was where he wanted to get to. He had watched him in the Chuunin Exams and he couldn't help but to be impressed, but he was nowhere close to that powerful, and he had a long way to go before he could even rival the strength of Tsuna Bittersteel.

The work that he had been putting in was good, however, he was in fact putting in the time and the effort that was required of him to become the greatest shinobi that he could be. But that just wasn't good enough, the best that he could be was nowhere near where he wanted to be. He wanted to be the best in the village, he wanted to impress even the strongest of shinobi, and he wanted to do all of that in the role of being a protector of the village. His dream was to be the reason why invading forces would be afraid to come near their village, he wanted to be known far and wide as the strongest shinobi around, and strike fear into the enemies of the village's hearts. He knew that if he could reach that level, then he would be a shoe in for the Nova corps and he would even be considered a bodyguard of the Hogokage.

There were so many members of the village that he had to look up to, and there were so few that he was even able to just call his rival as he was still so new in his journey. He was brand new to his own gear, yet he wanted to reach a point where he was the greatest shinobi of all time. He was impatient, which was a good thing and a bad thing. It was a good thing as it was going to give him the drive to become that very thing, the best shinobi of all time. But it was a bad thing because it made him try to push his body passed its breaking point and caused him to take risky moves that he didn't overall need to make. He wanted to be the best, but to do that he was going to need to beat the best, and the best in his eyes at the moment was Tsuna. He wanted to fight him so much, and he wanted to win, but to do that, he had a lot of work that he was going to need to put in before he was ready.

What he was going to do next was the decision that would constantly change his trajectory of his skills, he could either go at the pace he was going and continue to become a stronger shinobi, maybe he would even get Chuunin. That by itself wouldn't be a bad thing as becoming a Chuunin of the village was an extremely respectable position for a shinobi to make in the village system, but that was not nearly enough for the young Shinkou. This young shinobi believed that he was destined for great things, he was destined to become a member of the Nova corps, but not just an ordinary member, he wanted to become one that would be hand picked by the Kage to be his protector. He wanted that as well as so much more, the hunger that this child seemed to be afflicted by was seemingly insatiable.

Every step that he took forward, meant that there were about one hundred steps that he wanted to take in that time. He wanted to get his journey to that last level, and stop dealing with the small and stupid things that he was dealing with at the moment, like practicing the basics of combat. He wanted to be able to dismantle any opponent with a single flourish of his blade, but unfortunately he had a long ways to go before that was a reality for him. So much practice was left for him to do, but fortunately for him he was absolutely willing to get it done. He was pushing himself to the breaking point and then some, no matter what and he was going to do it every single day to prove that he was worthy of all of the dreams that he had for himself.

With that drive, of course, came a great fear. It was a fear that he was sure almost every single shinobi had when they thought of all the great things they would have happen to them, all of the grand schemes they had planned. That question was "Am I truly good enough? Am I one of the strong? Or one of the weak?" This question haunted him day in and day out. He was truly worried that he would never be one of the strong, and that he would spend all of his days as one of the weak. Maybe his parents were one of the weak and that was why they died on a failed mission given to them by the village? Or maybe they were one of the strong and they just had some bad luck that led to their deaths. This was another question that he often found himself asking when he thought of his parents. It didn't really bother him that his parents had died, the only concern that he had with his parents being dead was the fact that they failed the mission that they had been given, and to fail a mission seemed to be unforgiveable when you become a Jounin, as every mission that you are given at that point is just too valuable to not complete successfully.

The boy was beginning to wake, the excitement that had been flowing through his mind must have been getting to him. The thought of becoming stronger than anyone else in the village was far too much for him to be contained about, he wanted to be there now so badly, but he knew that he had to put the work in. He didn't open his eyes, as he wasn't ready to fully get up, not yet. He wanted to continue to ask himself just what it was that he was going to do that day. He was going to go to the training grounds as that was just a requirement. This was a requirement because if he was going to become the greatest in the village, then he was going to need to practice each and every single day, as he was sure that Tsuna did.

He remembered that he had called himself lazy, but there was no way one can become truly great while being lazy at the same time. The young Shinkou failed to believe Tsuna when he called himself lazy, as he was far too great a Genin and possibly soon a Chuunin to be lazy. When push came to shove, he was sure that Tsuna was a hard worker and that he put himself through vigorous training if he was already in the Chuunin Exams and possibly going to be granted the rank up. Oh a rank up, what a sweet thing that would be, to become a Chuunin at twelve is exactly the thing he had dreamed of, but he still needed to get stronger first.

Finally he decided that it was about time he got himself up and out of bed, as he was in desperate need of getting ready if he was going to get himself through some vigorous training as well as throwing himself in the mines at least once today, he may even try and go twice. He was enjoying the money that he was making going to the mines, but he was beginning to have an abundance of high grade steel, so he figured that he would just sell it, or maybe just give it away to any young shinobi that dreamed of becoming a swordsman like he had for so long. He also was going to need to be able to get to the blacksmith soon as he had plenty of work for the local blacksmith. He needed to have not only his armor augmented, but he also needed to have his weapons augmented. He wanted to coat the blade with the high grade steel, granting it an even sharper edge and hopefully giving him the edge in battle.

His eyes finally shot open, he was ready to not just take the day on, but to make it his own. He turned his body to lie flat on his back and he began to move his arm towards the edge of the blanket and in one fluid and quick motion he threw the blanket off of his body. He stretched his legs as he was still lying in his bed, he did this by simply pushing them down and outwards as far as they could go. He also decided to stretch out his arms by having them go above his head and to the side slightly and push them as far out as they could go without hurting himself.

When he was done stretching out his arms and legs, he turned to his side and he swung his feet over the edge of the bed and he pressed them against the hardwood flooring that he had throughout his entire apartment, having his body follow his feet's momentum, sitting up straight in his bed. As he sat up in his bed, he brought his hands up and grabbed the top of his head, pulling it down to one side, feeling the stretch and the pop and cracking out of his neck as it was pulled down. He then allowed his head to rest and did the same but on the opposite side. His neck would slowly lean down to the other side and he would feel the muscles and tendons connecting his head to his shoulders begin to stretch out, and the tightness would begin to go away as the pops would be heard. When he let go of his head, he rubbed his neck for just a few moments to get all of the remaining tightness out of his neck. Finally he grabbed the top of his head and he pulled it straight down towards his chest, stretching out the back of his neck. He always wanted to make sure he was limber as he was going to need to be for combat at any part of the day, for you never knew when an attack was coming, or at least that was the way he always felt.

Being prepared was of the utmost importance to the young Shinkou, for if he wanted to be the protector of the entire village, then he was going to have to be prepared to protect it at all times, bar none. He knew that the villains of the world were not always going to proclaim their aggravations towards the village, so he was just going to have to be as vigilant as possible all of the time, just so he could be sure that the bad guys wouldn't get the drop on him.

WC: 3002
+30 AP
+1500 words towards Wind Pressure Damage (completed)
+1500 words towards Block (completed)

Mon May 10, 2021 5:42 pm

Approved

Mon May 10, 2021 6:17 pm

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 had to make sure that he was as limber as he could get, because he was in fact a physical fighter and one could never to be to careful when it came to his body and the finer things like the muscles and just how prepared his joints and muscles were for high impact, or heck even low impact training. He loved the fact that he was a physical fighter as he felt that it was the more exciting way of fighting. He wasn't sure how exciting it would be to simply perform hand seals and watch a technique fly towards your opponent, but he knew that there were plenty of individuals who did that, that was just something that didn't quite catch his interest as he would rather be up close and personal. This of course would lead to problems should the opponent that he was facing focused on long distance attacks, but that was just something he was going to have to get around and find a way to close the gap. If he wouldn't be able to close the gap, then he was going to have to figure out a way to get in some ranged attacks with his other abilities, like in Ninjutsu to close the gap for him.

He had nothing against Ninjutsu, of course, as that was the specialty of his clan and all that. He just simply didn't see the excitement, at least not as much excitement as working with weaponry and trying to find ways to have your opponent just not be able to do anything about a barrage of attacks that would be coming at him at a high speed. He was always trying to find ways to get himself an even faster individual as he knew that speed, while it wasn't the end all be all of abilities, fighting a faster opponent was often much harder than a slow one. Unless that slow individual was just crafty, then it would be just as hard. These were of course the plights of an individual who didn't have enough experience fighting and was still very much a newcomer to the realm of combat. He knew plenty of maneuvers and abilities in both the weaponry specialization and in the Ninjutsu specialization, but he wasn't anywhere close to where he wanted to be in regards to his experience. He knew in his mind that his experience was going to have to come in time and that experience wasn't something you can simply make happen, but he refused to believe it in his soul. His soul was a unbridled spirit that wanted nothing more than to feel his blade sever an opponent's arm or even their head, especially if they posed a threat to his beloved village.

He could see it now, the idea of a grave danger coming to attack the village, and while everyone else was focusing on evacuating the village, he would be the one to stand up and face the danger head on. Sword in hand and bow over his shoulder, ready to take on whoever thought it would be wise to attack his village, the village in which he had already sworn to protect at all costs. He was going to be the one to do it, he just felt it in his bones, and now he just needed the ability to prove it not only to himself, but to all members of the village. He wanted to prove it to the Kage, all of the Kage's superiors, all the Nova Corps, and every other member of the village that he could think of or left his mind completely. He wanted every single person in that village to know who he was, because that was how he was going to be able to strike fear in the hearts of every single threat to Hoshigakure.

He didn't really develop a love for the village, either. It was simply something that he just always had. He always had an undying desire to protect the village, a need to make sure that all of it's inhabitants were safe. He just wanted that from the very beginning and his parents were always so proud of him whenever he would do the right thing by helping the helpless within the village. Whether it be the poor or the elderly, he always wanted to make sure that each of those members of the village were taken care of because, just like his father had always told him. Every single small benefit you can provide to the village will add up. He always took that to heart and made sure to help the village in any way that he could. When he was an academy student he knew that he couldn't be assigned missions, so he just made sure that he would volunteer everywhere that he could, always trying to make the village a better place.

When he finally graduated from the academy, his first stop wasn't even the ramen shop to celebrate, but it was to the mission boards so he could finally take his first official missions. He didn't care so much about being paid as he had all of the equipment that his parents had leftover from their death, and he was able to make some small money on the side to feed himself. The thing that pushed him to do as many missions as possible was that very thought of every single small benefit adding up to become one large contributor of the village. He knew that if he just continued on with the missions, that he would become a great benefit to the village. While he may only be twelve years old, his parents instilled upon him a great work ethic, and with their deaths came a feeling of obligation to the village. For if his parents felt the need to die for their village, then what was his excuse for doing anything less than all he could for that very same village that they had given their lives to. He wanted to benefit the village as much as his parents did, but he wanted to live even longer so he could continue to be the great contributor to the village that he could be.

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. 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. It was something that he always hated about his sleeping, other than the constant nightmares that he would have, was the stomach sleeping. He knew that it was so terrible for his back, but for some reason he always seemed to get into that position, no matter how hard he may try to keep himself on his back, which was the ideal sleeping position for the health of anybody, was to sleep on his back. He had even created a perimeter of sorts around his body, it was made of pillows of course and they would surround his body as to try and provide his sleeping self a reason not to move. Trying to trick himself into staying still and thinking that he didn't have any room to move. But that of course never worked and he instead just plowed straight through the walls of pillows that he had made and just got back onto his stomach anyways. He always knew the nights that he had slept on his stomach because his lower back was always incredibly uncomfortable and he had to stretch even more to try and get that horrible kinked feeling out of his lower back.

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. The days that he didn't stretch out his lower back enough would be the days that his training would always take a hit in quality. If his body just didn't feel up to the task, then it would perform as if it wasn't up to the task. This was something that was incredibly unfortunate as there was little he would be able to do about it in those days, if his body was just sluggish then there was little he could do to push through that. Well that is what he used to believe, but he was going to institute a higher level of mind over matter, making himself believe that he could push through any wall that was set in front of him.

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. Not only was he going to be concerned with being at peak levels for his training, but he also wanted to make sure that his body was as prepared as possible for the mines, as that was a absolutely physical job and if he was going to be performing at a level high enough to be worthy of being paid, then he was going to need to make sure that he was as ready as possible for all of the work that the mines were going to be throwing at him every time that he entered that mine, especially from now as he was no longer going to be going half speed. Whenever he had the chance, he was going to be going full throttle, all out, and holding nothing back as that is exactly what he was going to need if he was going to become the great shinobi of the village and that's all there was to it.

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. It was going to be a special day because he was going to be making a statement today, a statement to nobody in particular, but mostly to himself that he was going to become the greatest. He didn't care who was already the powerful shinobi in the village, he was going to become greater than even the Hogokage himself, or he was going to die trying. He wanted to be an impressive ninja, and that was something that he wasn't going to sleep on. He wanted not the fame or the money that came with being a powerful shinobi, but he wanted his abilities to on the ears of all of those that would do harm on the village, and he wanted his mere reputation to keep the criminals away from his beloved village.

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. Properly stretching was so important, as he could feel it on the days that he didn't stretch that his body wasn't quite stretched out as much as it could have been. He would feel slightly sluggish, or he could feel his body actively fighting against him and not wanting to do the things that he wanted to do because the body's muscles or skeletal structure was just not warmed up enough. Even his joints felt like they were actively fighting against what he wanted to do if he didn't limber up properly or get a good enough breakfast in the morning. That is exactly why he wanted to make sure that every single morning he was as ready as possible and why he went through a freakishly similar morning routine as he felt it helped him gain consistency in not only his mental state, but in his physical state, which always lent itself to having an even more effective training day out in the fields.

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. As he was thinking about earlier, he wanted to make sure that his body was just as prepared for the low impact as the high impact, and a small bounce was the perfect transition between the two. It was enough impact that his body would have to rebound and recover, but it was also not too much that he would pull something because his body wasn't quite prepared for that level of exercise. This was the morning routine that he could never get away from because it always seemed to produce the best results for him and that's exactly what he was going to need if he was going to become the greatest shinobi in the village, consistently perfect training in the training grounds, and even more perfect results in the mines or wherever he may be working that day. 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. He didn't have to use the Epsom salt baths often, but they were certainly a good tool to get himself relaxed at the end of the day and getting hi body into a good position to recover from hard days of training that he certainly tried to put himself through. He felt that if his body was so tired by the end of the day that he needed an Epsom salt bath, then he was certainly doing something right as his body was being pushed to it's breaking point, but he was not listening to his body and he was pushing it far past it and getting to new levels of abilities.

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. His morning routine was so absolutely important as it made sure that his body had every single need that it had completely taken care of, and that was certainly the most important thing. He always believed that if he took care of his body, then his body would take care of the things he needed taken care of in the most dire of circumstances. If he was in a point in a battle when he wouldn't be sure that he could persevere, he would hope that his training would get him through that point in his battle and grant him great results and push him to fantastical heights. This was the only thing that he truly wished, to become the greatest and have no one b able to look down on him, feeling as though they were superior, and he knew that if he continued to push his body hard enough, that he would be getting himself to that point sooner than he could ever dream of, as long as he kept at it and didn't give himself any reprieve, as that would only give him a reason to become complacent.

WC: 3012
+30 AP
+1000 words towards Bukijutsu Quickdraw (Completed)
+1000 words towards Vacuum Sword (Completed)
+1000 words towards Hidden Arms (completed)

Mon May 10, 2021 6:48 pm

Approved.

The gate is narrow, and few shall find it

The gate is narrow, and few shall find it

Re: The gate is narrow, and few shall find it

Re: The gate is narrow, and few shall find it

Re: The gate is narrow, and few shall find it