Getting Good

Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:02 pm

Gonk arose that morning with a goal: to hone his taijutsu skills. He had trained up his strength to monstrous levels, but he was sorely lacking in techniques to channel that power into. He could always use basic strikes, but those just didn’t hit like they used to. If he wanted to compete, Gonk had to learn some powerful techniques or else he would be left in the dust by the ever changing taijutsu community.

After a quick breakfast of cereal, Gonk donned his gear, and started heading for the military training facility. He hadn’t been there in quite some time, but he had heard that it had been upgraded with all kinds of new equipment and areas, making it even easier to train new jutsu. Today, Gonk wasn’t wearing his ANBU armor, but had instead donned a lightweight tank top and gym shorts since he wasn’t on the job. He brought kiribachi along as well, just in case he decided to also learn some new weaponry techniques.

Having arrived, Gonk pushed open the doors and walked into the training area, looking around at all of the equipment and rooms. He decided to go for a quick swim to warm up, and after changing into a swimsuit, he began doing laps to get the blood flowing. Several minutes later, Gonk decided he was ready to begin his training, so he dried off and changed back into his tank top and shorts. Reemerging into the training area, Gonk found a room that seemed perfect for the occasion. It was filled with a wide variety of different punching bags and training dummies, as well as an open space where two people could spar.

After setting his things down, Gonk walked up to one of the punching bags, and began unleashing some basic strikes and kicks, wanting to get the feel of things before he dove into some more complex techniques.

[WC=318]

Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:18 pm

It was time. Pino had spent far too much time in that wierd village of elves. There was some nice money to be made, and a fairly solid bit of items recieved from the various missions he'd taken, but like. it was cold, and he didn't get a chance to do much of anything interesting. THe highlight of his weeks spent in that frozen hell scape was getting to teach the young Yuki girl about weaponry jutsus. After all that though, he'd gotten nothing done. He stepped into the main area of the training facility, finding all of the training dummies set up and ready to get destroyed by whatever the village ninja had to take care of and subconsciously he let out a sigh of contentment. This was more like it.

"ALRIGHT! First, I'll do one thousand pushups. If i fail to do that, I'll do one thousand sit up. If I can't do that.... I'll do one thousand laps around the training facility." He'd taken to calling his current training style the "lee way" because yanno. There was no room for error or weakness. Thats the only reason. Why he'd decided to split the word into two he wasn't sure of. maybe there was a refference in there he was just missing? No matter, He prepared by limbering up with stretches, his Cloud stife style armor easily allowing for freedom of movement.

In the past month he'd had a vision. For reasons he couldn't really put a finger on, he'd dyed the entire armor set a forrest green color--every point of it except the arms and legs of course. Those he'd decided looked way better if they were a solid orange. The color scheme let him stand out in the ninja world. Heads turned when he crossed the village looking as vibrant as ever. The new look ensured anyone he passed would look down on him the moment he was in their vision, where looking down was taking as a compliment, of course. While usually the phrase would be look up to, it didn't make much sense to pinochio to use the standard statement because well. He was very small and only children really could look up at him. THe literal translation just made more sense yanno?

Gonk would enter after his warm up finished. As usual, he had no need to do sit ups or running. He'd completed the pushups, and so he began testing his weapon techniques. Leaping up into the air he would release two scrolls, forming the seals for his current second favorite technique, and a torrent of steel flowed across the battlefield. Over and over he spawned Kunai from the scrolls, tossing them into various dummies. Then something happened. With a flick of his wrist he released a single weapon at a moving training dummied that stopped directly in front of ano--Too late he realized that it wasn't a dummy. It was a shark boy.

"SORRY SORRY WATCH OUT!!!" The scrolls fell as he realized he'd just attacked a ninja preparing for his own training. THankfully he'd not put much into the attack.

(TWC 520)

Sat Jan 01, 2022 1:28 am

It would seem that when Gonk had entered the room, he missed a very crucial detail. It wasn’t empty, in fact, a very short, very green ninja had just finished his warmup and was preparing to unleash a maelstrom of kunai. In hindsight, Gonk wasn’t sure how he missed the little man. Perhaps he quite literally looked over him due to his height, or perhaps he was just too distracted by the allure of training. Regardless, the deed was done, and Gonk soon realized his mistake, in the form of a kunai flying towards him.

It was pure chance that he noticed it, as if he hadn’t turned away from the bag for a moment after a particularly hard punch, he might have found himself with a kunai lodged in his skull. But, since he had seen it, Gonk was able to act. Out of the many kunai flung around the room, only one was headed towards Gonk, so the boy simply raised his arm and tensed his muscles, causing the kunai to hit his forearm. But instead of leaving a bloody gash, the kunai bounced off the shark lad's arm and hit the ground with a clang.

With the immediate danger dealt with, Gonk turned around and examined the ninja who had flung the knife. As previously stated, the boy was very short, and strangely dressed in a green jumpsuit. Overall it was quite a comic appearance

“Is he an elf?” Gonk wondered, his mind drifting back to his adventures in the Christmas village. But after a moment of consideration he dismissed this idea. This boy wore a Kirigakure headband and didn’t have pointy ears or any elvish looks, barring his height.

“Care to explain yourself?” Gonk asked, cocking his head.

The way the boy handled the weapons certainly wasn’t bad, and his body seemed to be in good shape. Probably a user of weaponry and possibly taijutsu as well. He was curious to see who exactly this kid was.

[WC=331]
[TWC=649]

Sat Jan 01, 2022 7:23 pm

"I'm so so sorry I was just training my weaponry techniques and I--.....I... GONK HOSHIGAKI?! Like. The Go... Oh. Em. Gee. Mister gonk. Uh. Gonk sir. listen. I've heard about you from... someone and May I say i'm a huge fan! My name is Pinochio Pinochio, of the Pinochio Pinochio school for the anything goes style of martial arts. And also the Pinochio Pinochio Blacksmithing shop--best damn blacksmith in Kirikagure. I'm just a genin but one day I hope to be powerful enough to be on a team with you and Lady Mizukage Sugi Murata. OH! Check this out." He would approach the shark boy, beaming as he allowed the two scrolls to fall from their position and into his waiting hands. Just before the technique released, his fingertips would brush against one of the seals. A kunai poofed from the scroll, embedding itself in his palm. How did this always seem to happen?!

"So i've taken to body art of course. Cuz i'm like. A totally manly man and stuff so when I'm not pumping the irons or striking huge objects to break them I like to take the needle and get all inked up. Check this out. " Turning, he'd lift the shoulder of his armor so his most recent tatoo could be seen. To any who were aware, it would be a perfect realism tat of the Mizukage's Samehada that curled up from his wrist to seemingly be biting a chunk out of his shoulder. The detail work was impressive.

"I had a dream about a ninja wielding a sword like this. We fought hordes of ninja side by side and well. I talked to my tatoo girl and she somehow knew exactly what I wanted. Sorry about the whole weapon thing again. I've been trying to get more bang for my buck out of the Twin Rising Dragons technique, but I can't seem to figure out how to amplify it properly so I was focused, I didn't even see you walk in until it was too late. Thankfully you're skin is tough as nails!" In emphasis he waved his arms to gesture his level of impressiveness. The gesture was less effective because the kunai stayed planted in his palm, but it was the thought that counts.

Finally realizing, he'd pull the weapon free. There was a small spurt of blood, which he wiped with a towel set in the messenger bag at his side. THen he'd return the scrolls to the bag. Only after they were put away would he realize that the weapons.... Were still all around the field. "Damn it." He would begin the long process of picking up twenty individual kunai, listening for responses from the Hoshigaki man. Had he gone a little too far with his excitement? He realized after the fact that his tough guy persona was not made easier by him fangirling over one of the prominent Tai ninja in the village. Also he didn't really use Tai anymore. Maybe he knew wepaonry? Gonk was definitely cool enough to know weaponry.

(TWC 1030)

Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:55 pm

Gonk was extremely taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm of the little ninja, who had somehow recognized him and for some reason seemed to be a tad obsessed with the shark boy.

“What the heck is happening,” Gonk wondered, taken aback by the novel experience of being known.

The boy went on to introduce himself as Pinochio Pinochio, why his first and last names were identical, Gonk wasn’t sure, but he decided it would be rude to ask. Gonk also learned that the boy was a practitioner of the physical arts, a blacksmith, and apparently an avid tattoo fan. He looked a bit young to be getting inked, but thinking about it, Gonk couldn’t actually recall an age requirement for getting a tattoo.

“Maybe I should get one,” Gonk thought as he examined Pinochio’s arm.

“Wow, that’s really cool,” Gonk told Pinochio, thoroughly impressed. “That sword is Samehada, the blade of my ancestor Kisame Hoshigaki, and more recently, the former Mizukage Xyxer Gojin” Gonk also had a suspicion of who currently owned it, but he said nothing. Gonk had never seen the living weapon in person, but he’d seen pictures, and the tattoo looked spot on. But the tattoo wasn’t the only thing about Pinochio on Gonk’s mind.

“How has he even heard of me anyways?” Gonk wondered. Strangely, he was getting deja vu again. The kind he always got. Where it seemed like something had happened, but when he tried to think of it, no memories came up. But regardless, Gonk wondered who the person who told Pinochio about him was. “He mentioned wanting to be on a team with Murata as well, could it have been her? Maybe they’ve met. It’s also possible that it was one of the other newer genin that I’ve done missions with. Let’s see, who was there. That girl with all the puppets, Saya I think her name was, the Dana girl who was obsessed with Momo, Niko, the kid who tried to prank the other two. Let’s see who else. Oh right, Goro and Hafuma, although that was a dream right? Or was it?” This speculation was starting to hurt Gonks head so he stopped there. At the end of the day it didn’t really matter.

As the little genin began picking up the kunai he threw, Gonk took the time to study him more closely. Underneath the green jumpsuit his muscles were toned, but not incredibly large. Perhaps he focussed more on speed rather than strength.

“Anyways, I’m just here to work on some new techniques,” Gonk told Pincohio. “Feel free to join in if you want. Having a training partner makes things easier.”

With his invitation extended, Gonk turned back to the punching bag and focused. Individual punches were all well and good, but he needed a way to get them out faster and for them to cover a wider area. Gonk contemplated trying to do something with the air, but in the end decided against it. That could be another technique. For now, he wanted something with his actual fists. Gonk took a deep breath and after holding his fists up for a moment, started firing them off as fast as possible at slightly different parts of the dummy. At first nothing seemed to happen, but as he continued to punch faster and faster, he noticed them almost blurring together, forming almost a cone of punches. However, he was sacrificing quite a lot of power for this range, so after a few more moments of sustaining the punches, he stopped. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. With some more training, Gonk was sure he could train himself to be able to get more power behind those punches.

But for now he would take the opportunity of this short break to see what Pinochio was up to.

[WC=639]
[TWC=1288]

Mon Jan 03, 2022 2:01 pm

The moment he began speaking, Pinochio could tell that he'd impressed Gonk. There was something in his eyes, in the way he seemed so taken aback by his enthusiasm that confirmed for the small ninja that he'd really impressed his idol. Was he really an idol? He supposed technically that would be the term for it. Someone he looked up to for his impressive strength. His mind was brought back to the figure in his dreams who had destroyed an entire stone pillar after he'd failed to. What if Gonk was as strong as the unnamed dream teammate?!

"Woah! I didn't know all of that. Honestly I just saw it wielded by a super cook Konoichi in a dream back in like. October. I guess I dreampt of a legendary weapon of the past then. Do you think it's still around now? What if someone in the world is secretly holding the power that brought the former mizukage into such renown. What if it was Samehada that corrupted the previous leader and it was because of the sword that the dark days of Kiri happened?" He'd done uh. 'some' research on the village. Not enough to really know what had happened before they'd arrived, but it was hard not to come across horror stories of Xyxer Gojin.

"Right. Yea training partners are great. I can show you some of the power of the Anything goes style of martial arts!" It wouldn't actually help him practice. He'd performed the flagship techique of his martial arts style enough times that he all but mastered it's use, but it was really cool. Of course he wanted to show it off! There was a soft sound of wood scraping against leather as he released what would look like a full scythe in his hands from the loops holding it to his back. Chain rattled at his side where the ranged portion of his kasurai gama was looped around a special spot at his belt that allowed quick release of the second portion of the weapon, but for now he wouldn't draw the chain. As he prepared his strike, his eyes closed, fully focusing on the target dummies before him. His position would be about eleven meters to Gonk's left. It was important that he not attack the shark boy a second time.

"FOURTH GATE OF PAIN.... OPEEENNNNN" It wasn't necessary. It really wasn't given his most recent trainins would make the eight inner gates not a useful tool to keep in his arsenal, but it was fun and he was interested in showing off just a bit. He whistled four distinct tones as he tested the weight of his weapon. Power surged through his scythe for a momemnt before the combination of temple style discovery of an incomplete truth and the speed granted by his fourth gate allowed a swift strike forward in the air to show his power.

As the butt of his weapon thrust forward it fantom strikes flowed in a great wall of power origionating form the first strike. There would be a box ten meters on all sides that flashed with weapon strikes as it rushed fowards to overtake the target dummies with a speed of one hundred and fifty five and power of one hundred and twenty five. He would hold the field for only a moment, glancing back at gonk as it released to reveal the three dummies were completely gone.

(TWC 1603)

Tue Jan 04, 2022 8:51 pm

Gonk was a bit surprised to hear about Pinochio’s dream about Samehada, and for some reason, the talk of dreams made him feel deja vu again. This time directly towards the young genin. The constant feeling was really starting to get old, so this time, Gonk didn’t even bother contemplating it, as he had long since picked up that he wouldn’t actually remember anything. However, Pinochio’s speculation about Samehada corrupting people unsettled Gonk. When he thought about it, the previous two owners had been pretty evil. He just hoped that the trend wouldn't continue for Murata if she truly did have it. He really couldn’t see Murata doing anything bad or evil or anything like that, so Gonk wasn’t super worried. Still, he couldn’t help but feel unsettled.

Gonk studied Pinochio closely as the little genin prepared to unleash his technique. He used an interesting type of weapon, if Gonk’s memory from the academy served him correctly it was called a kusarigama. Basically a miniature scythe attached to a chain with a weight on the end. It was a weapon that Gonk personally had no experience with, so he was curious to see how the young ninja would use it. When the kid even busted out the fourth gate, a slight grin touched Gonks mouth. Peculiarly Gonk heard the sound of whistling right before the weapon was flooded with elemental chakra.

“What on earth was that?” Gonk wondered. “Did the whistling trigger the chakra?”

But Gonk put this speculation aside for the moment as the boy unleashed the attack. It was completely unlike what Gonk expected, a seeming wall of force erupted from the end of the kusarigama, obliterating three training dummies at once. Gonk had expected some fancy use of the weapon itself, maybe twirling it around or something, to create a devastating blow. But although it lacked a certain finesse, this was certainly more powerful.

“Is this what has taken over the physical arts scene?” Gonk wondered. “Using your body to create large effects that do damage instead of using your body directly to do damage?” Normally cutting out the middle man would be the best way to do things, but in this case, adding one it seemingly allowed for more versatility.

“That was quite spectacular,” Gonk told Pinochio with a smile, “and you even managed to avoid hitting me, nice job!” Gonk’s grin widened at the end to indicate he was just teasing the genin. “I actually learned more than you might think from that demonstration, but putting the attack aside for a moment, tell me about those whistling sounds you made before the strike. What was their purpose?”

Gonk was genuinely curious about these as it seemed like it could be quite useful.

[WC=457]
[TWC=1745]

Wed Jan 05, 2022 10:29 pm

"It could be way stronger but yanno. Still learning and becoming stronger. I've been studying up on some chakra based techniques lately so I may have to give up on learning the eight inner gates since they wouldn't improve any of my ninja arts except my weaponry. As much as I like the idea of being super strong, my speed has been the focus since I started training. " he considered what else he knew. Was there something he knew that would be so spectacular that Gonk just had to ask him how he did it? His thoughts were interupted for a moment at the comment. A real Taijutsu user had given him a compliment! It felt good.

"Ah good! I actually have quite a few techniques I know how to use. A bunch of weapon infusions and--oh. Uh. Yea. They were what's called whistle triggers. You can train your body to be able to use specificly whistled tones in place of hand seals. Super helpful if you hold weapons alot. I realized as a Kasurai user it would be dificult to actually seal the jutsu that I needed to enhance my fighting while wielding my weapon. Even if I'm releasing the steel ball portion using my training in rope dart fighting one of my hands is taken up so I can't exactly do hand seals in the traditional way. I'd considered learning how to seal jutsus with one hand, but for greater control I need the chain running through my off hand most of the time and shifting the momentum of the ranged portion of my weapon while also trying to do specific hand seals isn't terribly easy so I studied up on this ancient sect of ninja who used music to fulfil their hand seal requirements. " He finally took a breath, setting the weapon down against the ground beneath him. The blade hung at about shoulder height for the small boy, allowing him to lean against it as they continued convorsation.

"So the trick right, is that you have to test different tones until you find one that makes your chakra network react. It takes a bit to figure out what seal is what, but once you get that far it's pretty easy. What all are you looking to train? As the leader of the Kiri school for the Anything goes style of martial arts anything I know i'm glad to teach you. "

He'd offer the boy a notebook pulled from the messenger bag at his side. The cover simply said 'pino's totally awesome notebook of punchy good times'. He'd need to change that if he gave up his hopes of becoming a taijutsu master. On the first page was a list contining all of the techniques he'd learned how to do since he became a real life ninja.

"Feel free to check that out. It's not as full as i'd like, but it's the full list of everything I've learned in my travels so. Yanno at least it's comprehensive!"

(TWC 2104)

Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:32 pm

Gonk’s earlier guesses were confirmed when Pinochio told Gonk about how he focused on speed rather than strength.

“I bet that’s his ‘Anything Goes Martial Arts’ thing.” Gonk thought. “It must be a fighting style, kinda like my Brutal Art. But his grants his techniques more power from his speed, while mine is for strength.”

Gonk was slightly saddened to hear that the boy was possibly going to drop the Eight Inner Gates, however, he understood his reasoning. It was a challenging and vigorous technique with rather harsh drawbacks, so if it didn’t fully meet all of the boy's needs, there wasn’t much reason for him to use it. After hearing Pinochio’s explanation about the whistles, Gonk started to nod. The idea was something he would have never even thought to look for, let alone come up with himself. But now that he knew about it, he realized that it was crucial if he wanted to be able to use jutsu effectively while wielding Kiribachi. The boy also referenced the ability to form hand seals with one hand, an ability that Gonk had heard of, but never learned himself.

“Alright so I just whistle different frequencies while focussing my chakra,” Gonk thought as he created a small gap between his lips and began to blow air. Luckily, Gonk was fairly proficient at whistling, but it took him a few moments of playing around with different notes to even find a frequency that felt like it did anything. It would have been kind of embarrassing and annoying if he wasn’t able to whistle in the first place.

“This is gonna take some time to figure out,” Gonk realized, so he formed a few hand seals the good old fashioned way and two clones popped to life. One of the clones would be able to practice the whistle trigger technique while the original and the other clone worked on other things. The brilliance of shadow clones was that all experiences and memories returned to the user when the clones were dispelled. Meaning Gonk was effectively about to train three times faster than he would be able to otherwise.

As the first clone went off to the other side of the room to do that, Gonk took the notebook that was handed to him by Pinochio and scanned the first page. He recognized only two of the techniques listed other than the basic academy techniques, and those were the eight inner gates, and earth shaker. However, according to the notebook, Pinochio had learned how to perform earth shaker with his weapon, rather than his body. Other than those, Gonk didn’t even recognize most of the other techniques. However, one sounded awfully similar to what he had been practicing earlier.

“Could you tell me about 100 fists of fury?” Gonk asked, tapping the notebook where the technique was listed. “I’m trying to figure out a way to essentially make my punches have a larger area of effect, and the name of the technique makes it seem like this is it. So if you wouldn’t mind showing me that once or twice, I think it would help speed up the training process.”

A few other techniques in the notebook piqued Gonk’s interest, so he made a metal note of them to ask about later.

[WC=549]
[TWC=2294]

Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:40 pm

"Yep. Just whistle different pitches. I wouldn't try to whistle a tune tho. That just seems wierd. Who would want to run around doing musical numbers in combat am I right?!" He would let out a loud laugh at the end of his statement. A bit too loud. There was no doubt that anyone in the village who left their house would know his creator. As much as she'd done for him, he wanted to keep that black stain as far away from his reputation as possible, which meant keeping clear lines between her interests and the things that he is very much against. Suprisingly, in order to aid in his training Gonk had summoned shadow clones. That was actually pretty smart. While we the listeners know that they don't actually provide any benefit to training, it made far too much sense that practicing something three times for every one you'd be able to usually meant learning things at a much faster rate.

"Just keep working at it. Remember you just need to find a tone that fits for each posible hand seal. You'll be able to feel your chara react when you get it right, and then you just have to dial in exactly what you did until the pitch is perfect. I swear, with my weapon I dunno what I would even do if I couldn't whistle my hand seals. Far more efficient than being lame and doing them one handed am i right?!" Once again he'd overcompensate for his jab at Saya by letting out a loud, obviously faked laugh. His goal was 'it's so preposterous that it's hilarious' but it kind of came off more 'i'm awkward and don't know how to deal with people'. In his defense, he'd been made of wood for many many years before he was able to actually begin training as a real ninja.

"Oh that's easy actually. It works like the technique I showed you earlier, the one from my fighting style. Only difference is hundred fists of fury is much smaller and also tends to push the target away while winding them. My Katchu tenshin places a physical force on the target that's so opressive that they find their body unable to move. Basically uh. " How do you even explain this technique? The means of casting the jutsu wasn't anything too dificult, but describing the specifics of how to achieve the goal was something else entirely.

"Ok so listen. In order to use hundred fists of fury you punch really really fast. OH OH OH!!!" He rushed off. A few moments passed in silence as Pino gathered materials, and then in the center of the training area they'd been using he placed a large metal bin filled with wood.

"Ok listen. This is how I trained Katchu tenshin. It'll definitely work. " Lighting the wood, he'd step back as the flames rose up well past his face. He'd probably need to give that a minute. From a small bag set at his heel he poured a number of chestnuts into the fiire which crackled and sputtered from the heat.

"So heres the plan. You need to grab all of these chestnuts out of the fire. The goal is to do it so quickly you don't burn your hand. "

(TWC 2652)

Getting Good

Getting Good

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