No End in Sight [Training, I/O]

Loneliness. That was a thought that would haunt Honey Bunches throughout his weeks as he became accustomed to the main Sunagakure limits. Although he had met dozens of people, the scent of kin had settled at the bottom of his mind, lingering around. Encounters, missions, dips into the supernatural-- knowing that truly there were no other Lycanthropes like him, at least none that he had ever encountered. He never knew who he could trust, even now. It was terrible.

As he stepped into the training grounds, he envisioned a young wolf by his side, shaken by the power that nature took over those with his bloodline. He would teach them what the man learned the hard way over as many days as it took, following him through the chaos until the change took hold. There would be no confusion, he would show that young wolf what it was like to harness true power, and also protect the wolf from causing harm to everything around it. He smiled. His great strength as an alpha lycanthrope would allow him to speed the process of which that untrained beast would know control.

Thinking to himself, Honey Bunches idealized that any lycanthrope within his range of smell would be tracked down and trained by him, regardless of the willingness. This longing for kinship was disguised as knowledge of the danger they possessed, and that it must be controlled. Spending a long while looking for the shadow in his mind, Honey Bunches smiled to himself. He could, however, pass on the curse if he desired. But, one of his kind would not be made out of need for a student. It could only lead to bloodshed, or fear.

He was no longer in that great desert that surrounded these lands, nor part of a small village that sent shinobi to their deaths for each great war that needed completion. Seemingly a simpleton in regards to the politics and great evil in these lands, something else brewed entirely off in the distance. Honey Bunches felt a strange pull to the lands beyond the gates once more, but behind that was the feeling he was being watched, and fear.

Shaking off the feeling, Honey Bunches holds his head high in his trance.

Honey Bunches no longer had to run scared like an animal. If there were ever to be peace in these lands, he could not slack around at the expense of his advancement through the mission ranks. It felt like just yesterday he had received a new docket of missions to complete, and the clean laminated card made Honey feel somewhat hopeful. Now that he was entrusted to do more than rip up weeds and beat the tar out of sexy assassins, he figured that his next step should be to come to a greater understanding of himself and his mind, and then an understanding of his body and how it would work for him. The only place to start was within.

Humble meditation was easy for a nicely placed reception area on these training grounds. They were empty at this time of day, and the weather was cool and refreshing enough that a canteen of water and light snack was enough to get Honey Bunches in the mood to refine his skills. Closing his eyes once more, he began to let his mind wander at his teachings he received in the past few days.

He understood now that some ninja got their power through different parts of their body. Some were to use their eyes, while others seemed to be entrenched in their own specialties, something about it shaping their very appearance, and especially their scent.

It was possible to control blood like water, the scent once again causing Honey Bunches to shudder from within his trance. He had seen life fade from deep red eyes that seemed to steal everything that entered them away, and he had traded blows with someone who seemed to see everything with pulsing blue eyes, his control over chakra enough to send this huge man not only flying, but also able to block his further advances to wrestle him to the ground.

As his mind wandered to the battle in which he was not only called a mutt, but mocked by a fellow village nin in response to being tossed by a child. He grit his teeth and stood abruptly, finished with his peaceful meditation.

Stomping into a main battle area he started setting up a battlefield.  Shaking off these thoughts Honey Bunches once again headed back to a small platform and grabbed some more items to set up his ‘battlefield.’

The training grounds looked fresh, and with it came a variety of props that were perfect for any kind of learning. It was obvious that he would learn much more here than he would be able to with only the environment at his disposal, and for that he was once again grateful to the administrators of this region. As everything was starting to be finished, Honey Bunches grabbed a spot crouched on top of a very long bamboo pole, surveying the training grounds 2 meters beneath him, holding this balance with every ounce of skill he had available.

Honey surveyed his battlefield. He made sure to set up a variety of posts, where he would properly be able to aim his attacks and understand the distance of each helpful tool at his disposal. There were also spinning dummies, dummies that would catch him if he was not accurate enough, as well as a large sack over each one that did not have mechanisms required for movement, in order to properly catch kunai and shuriken to show where accuracy might have missed. Internally tracing the pressure points of the dummy, Honey Bunches smirks again viewing this small army set in front of him.

Hopping down, he got to work. Whipping throwing stars as well as kunai at some of the sack-covered dummies, he quickly drew his sword in his left hand and punched one of the spinning arms, quickly countering it with his blade and drawing his second, backing off and slamming two spinning arms at once, catching them with each leg.

He would repeat this exercise about twenty times before losing track of the motions, sweat beginning to bead down the side of his head as he repeatedly chopped at the limbs, and then blocked the strikes that followed. It was a tedious exercise but as such he was able to get lost in the motions, his mind wandering once more to his previous explorations.

Once again the heat of the desert whipped his face in his thoughts, the day he nearly died playing once more in slow motion. He had not seen the woman he had met that day, or the man since then. The strange hallucinations from the desert heat faded just like they did back then, but it was somewhat more clear and less abstract than it was in the head of a dying man. Constantly at a loss, his mission where he eventually ended up completely disregarding his boss, eventually having him arrested for illegal activity. He also had not returned there, and he doubted he ever would. Honey shuddered thinking of the filth that coated those walls and the grimey floor that slid under his feet.

His mind obviously found itself back to the people he had met along the way, pushing the memory of his recent battle with Souji as far out of his mind as he could. He realized that he hadn’t really established much of a friendship with anyone, his attitude usually secluding him from most invitations. Acting like a wild animal was somewhat of a buzz kill to the more serious members of this village. Honey rubbed his head, remembering his punishment for scaring the daylights out of many innocent ninja with his shenanigans. It didn’t hurt, but the fact that he would so carelessly put genin in possible danger just to wash his pits showed that he had a bit of growing to do.

That brat, in the guard tower. Something about him set Honey Bunches on edge. The sheer audacity of one child, and the disrespect he showed someone obviously his senior, and at his level of power. He had not drawn a single weapon that day, but if he had, things would have resulted in a much different ending.

Not only would his opponent have found a long, fur covered arm where his heart should be, but he would have to feel the blade not only enter from his sternum and break into the ribs with a twist, but also as it pulled out, bringing large chunks and organs with it. Calming his blood lust once more, Honey Bunches realized that he had not been breathing correctly, and fixed it as fast as he possibly could, trying to get back into the swing of his training without having further distractions. The thought of blood and retribution pulsed in the back of his mind, but Honey Bunches was not an evil man. His actions would result in his execution, and if he were to do it again, he would only stay at a polite distance so as to see the boy’s true character. He shakes his head, the rage pulsing once more.

It was more so how soon it has been since Honey was spoken to like a peasant and further disgraced with some stupid screaming dragon. Honey Bunches was a huge fan of dragon folklore, and he felt that use of it as an icon by someone he did not like was a crime worse than murder. Pounding into the training dummy, he ignored the spinning arms by breaking them off of the one he was using with two drops of his arms like hammers

There was something he could not put his finger on about the Kazekage, and a few other of his friends. The scents in the great city were varied, but none were similar like they were. Honey Bunches thought about Kazue, and started to determine that it must be a medical background. The smell of blood was ripe in their virtual battle, and Kazue had admitted to being a doctor.

Perhaps he was often in the fray of his father’s medicinal business, gloves and smock ready to assist in even the most delicate surgeries. This would lead to him to smell like blood, although it was not the jutsu that smelled off. Honey Bunches starts to tangle his theories in his head, and ends up getting nowhere.

Thinking back to the final scent that was alike, Sukotto, Honey Bunches remembered that the man had no medical background that he had mentioned at any point. Scratching his chin, Honey sighed as he had sufficiently confused himself. The smell of blood was not the only thing in common, but it was a factor in Honey Bunches sense of the matter. It was foggy, and his leg was starting to hurt like hell.

Stepping back from the motions of kicking this dummy, he knocks it onto the ground out of frustration and takes a seat once more, the pain throbbing down his right leg.

He must have blocked incorrectly in his confusion, and the pain that ran down his leg was given life by the large welt on his leg. Honey knew that he likely struck some artery that was causing the dark coloration, but in the moment he received it, it had felt merely like a stronger bump than usual.

He pulled the shuriken out of each dummy, as well as his kunai. Returning to a position away, he threw them once more, this time aiming to dig all kunai deep in the heads of the dummies. He would keep up this target practice until his aim was exact, and without a shred of doubt he would be capable of littering a foe with perfectly placed tosses to the head. A moving target would spell death for anyone offering to be a target. The tradeoff was not worth knowledge on behalf of his training, and Honey knew that he would have to adapt on the fly if he wished to truly succeed in live combat.

Looking at the positioning, he once again littered them with shuriken, feeling a great deal of remorse for his kill recently. Drawing his blades, he slashes into the sacks, cutting them open and spilling straw all over the battlefield.

Spinning with his blades tucked into his body, he hummed a quiet tune as straw flew around his rapidly attacking body. He started taking deep chunks out of the wood with his bladed fury, letting out a scream as he crushed one of them clean in half with a crushing blow. He screamed again, dropping his full force onto the poor wooden spectator, the wood creaking and crying out against the man’s sick fury.

Checking his blade for rolling, he is satisfied with the current condition and puts them away in their proper sheath.

Looking once more at the destroyed items, Honey Bunches sighed. He would need more than this to really get into it, but this was a start.

2200

25% training grounds discount applied

1500 used for Nature Chakra Proficiency unlock
1000 words for Metal Crusher unlocked previously, 225 words used to unlock {1725}


not applied

575 words put towards Shuriken Shadow Clone {2200} CAN'T LEARN THIS TECH
Chaning to 575 words towards Temple Style Bark

Training 44 AP from WC

[CLAIMING TRAINING ON STATS TO THIS POINT]
EDITING TO CLAIM EXIT AS WELL, SINCE MY BLOODLINE GOT MURKED

Approved

edit to claim exit bc my bloodline got murked