Taking this one step at a time (P)

Being alone never got any easier, not for people like Asuka. He lived for helping people, being around them. It was the kind of feeling that made him want somebody, anybody, to take notice of him, to talk to him. Days like these, when his thoughts got too much, he came to the training grounds. He meditated, or studied books on jutsu and medicine, or worked on his fitness. Anything to chase the dark thoughts from his head. These were the days he couldn’t stand to help people, the days when he knew his emotions displayed across his face in all their raw glory.

Today was a day for meditation, trying hard to stay calm in this isolated little training ground. He couldn’t quite clear his head of thoughts, there was too much running around in there, but he could at least control it to the point where it was manageable. Sat here on this dusty ground, the young man worked through some of the darkest thoughts he’d ever had. It was like someone had seized a hold of his body, was squeezing his heart so hard surely it would burst from the pain. His mother was gone for good. She wasn’t coming back, and he was alone in the world.

Sure, she’d never been a good mother. She’d used him, and tossed him aside when he was no longer worth it. He was a mere tool to her, not a son or even a human being. But she was still the woman who’d raised him. She’d played a major role in his life. He was free now, but he still felt the need to grieve. Screaming and crying weren’t his style, but even he felt like his world had been changed to be unrecognizable. He’d never even considered his mother would die, not like this.

Years of pent-up emotion seemed to come forth all at once and recede just as quickly. Some days he hated her, for making him nothing more than a puppet. For not being a good mother. Some days, he felt crushed. Today, he wasn’t even sure what he was feeling. All he knew was that the emotion was powerful enough to steal his breath, leave him shaking and weak and confused. What emotion was this anymore? He didn’t know.

With a deep sigh, he removed his hands from his knees and clasped them in front of him, not opening his eyes. This was all too confusing for him, too much. Was it too much to crave companionship, while also wanting to hide?

WC: 423

The sun that beamed down on Suna was always a hassle. Even inside the dome, in the training facility, he could feel the heat. In an effort to cover up some of his faults he decided a work out section would be for the best. The sweat from his intense workout clung to his arms like diamonds on a desert floor. Kenta admittedly checked himself out in a small like as he walked towards the meditation area. A standard full course required training the mind and spirit as well as the body. Kenta felt like his spirit was more of his strong point anyway.

The news coming from his dad in Konoha was not the best. The pressure of having an adversary like the Mizukage weighed heavily on his soul. If Kenta was being realistic he understood that he was green as far as ninja standards went. He had to become even stronger than his old man, if he wanted to carve a path for himself. It was a fact as well as his hard truth he had to bear with. His ninja way was an uphill battle covered in thorns. If he stepped out and fought the man too early he would fall. Kenta was the type to believe in himself and did not think too hard about it.

Kenta entered the meditation room. He did not pay close enough attention to his surroundings. The village training grounds were too secure for him to worry. The self absorption from focusing on himself made him nearly blind to the other presence. When he turned to sit down he noticed the beautiful view. The man was pale with red eyes that looked like rubies. It was a feature that stood out to him because of the other pale tones on the man. Kenta was receiving moon blessed deity vibes from him. He could only imagine how dangerous the sun could be for a man as pretty as that.

“Wow. You are the prettiest thing I have seen in Suna.”  His husky voice was pleasant and blunt. It was in his nature to be straightforward. “Would it be okay if I use this room for practice as well? I can be accommodating if you want me to leave. Like leaving to take you out for dinner at least.” His tone was playful and bright. Kenta was having a good time flirting with Suna’s finest.

Not bothering to wait. Kenta sat right across from the man. He did not bother to hide his flaming gaze as he gave the man a full look over. He may have been flirting but he was serious about training. Kenta was one to believe the best training results were achieved when working with another.

WC: 457

Just when Asuka thought he’d finally gained some semblance of control, he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, soon followed by the sound of someone sitting down. A distinctly pleasant voice was then heard, shamelessly and bluntly flirting with him. At first, he ignored the sounds. He didn’t open his eyes nor make any indication he had even heard. For all the other individual knew, he could’ve been asleep. His whole body was still and calm, unbothered and seemingly unaffected by the horrid heat and the annoyance of being interrupted mid meditation session.

Inwardly, though, he really wanted to tell the other to go away. He wasn’t in the right mindset to be around people at the moment, and he certainly didn’t want to deal with blatant flirting. If he could work up the presence of mind to tell the other to leave, or stop flirting, he would. The only problem was trying to choke down the emotions he’d been feeling enough to sound as calm and steady as he looked. If he spoke now his voice would surely crack, even if he’d never cry in front of a total stranger. The thought was enough to keep him silent though, not even moving in the face of this new person.

It did have him wanting to get up and leave himself just as much as he wanted to tell the stranger to leave, though. He’d hoped to have a private session, and leave feeling refreshed, but that wasn’t going to happen with an unfamiliar person in the room. What was he supposed to do in this scenario? Practically every option stainless to him made him look emotional and weak, and he didn’t dare expose weaknesses to some random in the training room. Honestly, why couldn’t he have any peace?

WC: 298

Kenta waited for a moment. He was thinking that the cutie would be seriously considering his offer. The silence was practically deafening to him. He looked over the person to make sure they were alive. He saw the slight rise and fall as if they were breathing.

Nothing feels off in the chakra department. Probably in deep meditation. Rude of me to bother but at least he did not say no. It would be easier for me to act as a spotter as well. Chakra deviations could happen. I could at least hang around till they are done. Kenta was thinking to himself that he was being pretty selfless.

“Sorry to bother.” He said in a light whisper. He did not want to be disruptive to the training environment. It was also in case the guy heard him and just chose to ignore him. An apology could travel for miles.

Kenta stood up to move to another section of the small room. He felt oddly compelled to stay. He gave the other guy enough space to meditate and breath as far as the confines of the room would give him. Flirting was fun but time was precious. He could take the time to focus on himself and meditate. He sat down in the lotus position and closed his eyes.

The mind of an easily excitable man was hard to tame. Even now Kenta could feel his mind wander off instead of focusing on himself. He thought about various points in his childhood that could have gone differently. He thought about the times that he was happy, the times he was sad and various things in between. Kenta could not tell how long he was lost in the illusionary wonder of his life. It calmed down at some point and he was able to enter into his meditation.

A while ago Kenta noted that when he meditated time seemed just as fake as it was real. Often time hours could be seconds or seconds could be hours. He never knew how much time passed until he came out of his meditative state. The meditation started when he was properly able to connect his main to his chakra. It was like casting a low level jutsu but keeping it inside to see how the chakra moved.

A deep breath brought the air into his lungs. His chakra was excited and started to circulate through various tenketsu points in his body. Some of the points were used more frequently than others. If a Hyuuga was watching, they would see a map of his habits. His chakra points moved in a spiral motion. As if a galaxy was starting from the center of his stomach. It was the method he used to control his chakra and work on its flow. As he got better with it over time his chakra would flow like a stream. It would allow for him to save on chakra the more proficient he becomes with it.

The galaxy swirl that was his chakra was starting to spin faster and faster. If it could be seen it would show that he was getting better at it. The spinning vortex of chakra would not stay at that speed and was unstable. It could only reach this point when he is in a meditative state. As soon as he got out of such a deep contemplative mode the chakra would slow down, it would not slow down to the point of how it was before he started the exercise. Kenta felt the inside of his body reach a lock. As if there was a limit to the speed that he could rotate his chakra. He could only take the moment to stop his meditation. His dad described these blocks as a sort of spiritual dam. It could not be brute forced through without damaging numerous tenketsu points, it could only be unlocked through enlightenment and growth.

Kenta felt his body lay flat backwards as he opened his eyes. He was unsure of how much time had passed as a small layer of grime covered his body. For a moment he even forgot that he was not the only person in the room. “That was exhausting to say the least.” His body was a bit strained and he found moving was hard. It would take him a few minutes to recover enough to even sit up. He could only lay there weakly like a baby bird.

WC: 743  TWC: 1,200

It was almost a relief when the stranger whispered an apology and moved to another side of the room. However, he didn’t leave, which was almost as bad as before. He still felt unstable enough to wish for solitude, even if he wasn’t quite on the verge of tears anymore. Either was, he was still in a bit of a predicament. If he left now the stranger might know he’d been pretending to not hear, but if he stayed he couldn’t guarantee that he’d stay calm. Really, if he could curl up in his bed right now, he would. It would certainly be better than sitting in the meditation room with some stranger, one who’d blatantly flirted no less. Flirting was completely tiresome for him, his looks getting him mistaken for a woman more often than not. (Though he was physically strong enough to teach most civilians a lesson about respect if he needed to.)

Instead of moving or opening his eyes, he opted to continue taking deep, steady breaths. He’d hold it for a few seconds, and then release and repeat. It was an effective method for calming down, usually, but it was harder to maintain his concentration with someone right there in the room with him. Deep breathing always felt better when he had the privacy to do as he liked. In those scenarios, he had the option to cry in peace, without fear of judgement or pitying looks. He obviously couldn’t do that here, though. That would be showing a vulnerability, which he refused to allow any kind of stranger to see. It wasn’t something he felt he could afford, at any rate.

At this stage, he was still uneasy, uncertainty roiling in his gut. Could he realistically leave this room before the stranger could notice anything amiss? Doubtful, if he was here in the training facilities Asuka was heavily skeptical the other was anything less than a shinobi. He could only pray the other was unobservant enough to have not noticed his troubled expression when the stranger had walked in. Or at least, so he hoped.

Skepticism aside, he could at least enjoy the fact that the stranger was seemingly respectful of his boundaries, having backed off immediately when he was ignored. Most of the types to flirt with him were gross men who like getting into his personal space, so that was refreshing enough, at least. It certainly felt nice enough to know that he was unlikely to be bothered for the duration of his stay in the meditation room. Peace and quiet was very important for meditation, and equally important for his own sanity.

As time passed, he found that his deep breathing had worked to some degree. He wasn’t at the tipping point of emotion anymore, and he didn’t feel about to burst into tears or yell at a total stranger. Said stranger must have had some success too, since Asuka could hear him moving around on the other side of the room. (Though it did sound like he was struggling, just a little bit.

WC: 509

Kenta could feel the strength returning to his body. He sat up feeling dirty and peaceful. The training went really well for him and his chakra was flowing better throughout his body. A few more minutes and his body was feeling well enough to move. Kenta got up to move around a bit. Letting his muscles loosen he stood and took a gander around the room.

Seeing the pretty boy in the same spot gave him a nervous feeling. Most people did not sit and try to meditate that long. It took incredible concentration to manage and not everyone could do it. Kenta was feeling admiration and was genuinely impressed. He found himself getting closer to the guy again.

“You know you should not be overdoing it. Getting stronger is fine but proper rest is important. I am not sure how long you have been doing this before I even got here.” It was one of the rare moments that Kenta was being polite. He rarely took the time of his day to see after people. The only reason he was bothering now was because the guy was pretty. Kenta was a sucker for a pretty face and just believed beautiful people should run the world. 

“If you do not open your eyes at least. I fear I will have to carry you to the hospital. I would prefer not to do such a thing at the moment. Not that I would not carry you. I just do not think you would be a fan if I did. Then again if you have been out cold and close to death the entire time. It would be better for me to grab and carry you then.” Kenta was feeling a bit of a conflict about it. He was the type that could respect personal space. The only time he would completely ignore boundaries was if he needed to get close enough to kill. In a polite setting consent was king.

WC: 329   TWC:  1,529

[Exiting due to Kenta being killed off]

Claiming 12 stat points, putting into Chakra.

Claiming a total of 1,230 words towards Mochi release, adding into the existing 574 for a total of 1,804/2,000

Approved