What Are The Chances

Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:53 pm

Kato was not exactly sure how to feel as he walked through the streets of Tanbo to the location on the note he had been given. On the one hand, he trusted Yamato with his life, he was the first ninja who had really been nice to him. Not that many had been particularly mean in Tanbo, but, Yamato was someone that Kato looked up to. The way he carried himself, his confidence, he had also taught him the Shadow Clone Jutsu and helped him master his Water Element. He had been instrumental in his development as a Shinobi. But, on the other hand, what Kato was walking into was something that could end badly. Very badly. Like, death badly.

Yamato had reassured him, of course, and the resident medical ninja was on standby in case things went south. However, the abilities that he could potentially gain from this were too great to pass up. At least from what Yamato had told him. He could not miss out on that. He could not miss out on a chance to improve even more. He had too. He had to protect his father and the residents of Tanbo. More than that, he had to be useful to his fellow ninja. He did not want to be dead weight to them. This was his chance. With the benefits provided he could be a much more useful ninja to everyone within the village.

He was dressed a bit more modestly today, simply wearing his black and blue robes, he did not carry any weapons. The only thing he did have on him was his Tanbo headband which was tied to his left arm. He always wore it as he was proud of being a ninja in the village of Tanbo. As he approached the designated meeting area he knocked on the door. "Its Kato." He said quickly trying to hide any nerves he may have been feeling in his throat.

WC: 326

Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:23 am

Hikari Hyuuga
Post WC: 597
Total WC: 597

AP:

410/410

Luckily despite having more guests over to her humble abode she was in a far less state of panic than when Asahi and Yamato had come to visit, her two bedroom room at the inn was still quite spotless since their visit not too long ago. Thus she had a bit more time to relax before Yamato and a new friend arrived at her doorstep, although she still wanted to give them the same hospitality she gave the guests before. There were new slippers at the doorway for them to put on once they stepped through her door and she put the kettle on the stove about ten minutes before they were scheduled to meet up, giving the water plenty of time to heat up and be ready to pour. The tea cups accompanying the tea this time were black with golden engravings across them in swirls, the curving lines going every which way as if there was no plan behind their creation.

After a couple of minutes the kettle went off, bringing the snowy haired woman to her feet as she rose from the cream colored couch in the living room area and made her way to the small kitchenette where the tea cups were already laid out atop the tiny teacup plates. She chose to leave the tea unpoured for her guests until they arrived, but poured her own cup since she would need to wait a few minutes for it to cool down enough to drink comfortably. The last thing anyone wanted was to burn their tongue on scalding hot tea.

She had just placed the tray carrying the teacups onto the table in the living room when a knock was heard upon her door. It took but a second before she found out who was behind the wooden frame, as the man revealed himself to be Kato. He had beaten Yamato, which was beginning to seem like a common trend with their meetups. Kuro, her wolven familiar, and herself made their way to the door, opening it with a smile upon the kunoichi’s face.

“Welcome Kato, my name is Hikari and this is Kuro. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Yamato isn’t here yet, but he shouldn’t be too long. Please come on in and make yourself at home. I have tea waiting in the living room so we can enjoy it while we wait.” Kuro’s crimson eyes shifted as he gave the man a once over, inspecting him to make sure he meant no harm to his friend. The wolf was a little overprotective of the person who saved his life and nursed him back to health, and Hikari couldn’t blame him for being too cautious. Someone had to be and it usually wasn’t her, so he had to make up for her lack of worry.

The snowy haired woman lead him further into the inn’s room and past the smaller hallway that branched out from the main one and was where the bathroom and her bedroom were. It didn’t take them long to be in the living room where a cream couch, a cream loveseat, a black recliner, a glass table, and a medium sized tv were placed strategically within the confines of the small area to make it look as spacious as possible. Hikari took a seat on the far left side of the couch, with Kuro sitting on the ground beside her left leg. “I have milk, sugar, and honey in these three small containers in case you want to add anything extra to the green tea.”

Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:17 am

Yamato knocked on the door, and walked in when it was opened. He had a backpack with papers overflowing, and he was still carrying as many notebooks and parchments as he could within his arms. "Hi." he addressed Hikari, assuming she was the one who opened the door for him.

Assuming Hikari made him the same offer she made to Kato, Yamato made himself comfortable, poured himself a drink and took a sip from his mug. He had skipped the tea Hikari had offered him altogether, and was drinking milk with honey. He had arrived shortly before Kato, and was going over his plans one final time. This was about to be the first operation after Asahi’s. He put on a brave face, but there was a shred of insecurity that remained from his last failure.

The plans were displayed openly over a table in the corner of the room. Yamato was going over them and Hikari was free to join him as well, if she deemed it necessary. "I think we should go slower this time." he muttered, in a range where Hikari could hear him, "I think it might be more painful but safer.". Speaking about the safety of the operation, Yamato realized he hadn’t spoken to Hkari since their last operation. He had been in his head about having failed and almost cost Asahi his life, but hadn’t considered Hikari might have been in the same place. He approached her, stepping a small distance away from Kato. "How are you feeling by the way?". He waited for a potential answer and added. "If you want to call this off, just say the word.".

Assuming there was no such objection, it was time to start. "So, Kato… I hope my letter explained the details well enough. If you have any questions or doubts, now is the time. As I said to Hikari, if you have changed your mind, now is the safest time to call this off. Let me remind you that the only thing to gain here is power, and it’s your choice.". Yamato waited to see if there was any questions or objections from Kato too. He would answer all questions in due time. Assuming Kato still wanted to go through, Yamato pointed him towards the couch. "If everyone’s ready, I think we can start. Be strong, everyone.". Once everyone was in position, Yamato asked his final question before the marking began, "Where do you want it?".

Yamato then started the operation, placing the mark wherever Kato asked for it.

Post WC: 424
Total WC: 424

Using the Oro Seal on Kato, requesting a survival roll. (Six-sided die.)

Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:21 am

Rolling for survival. Though I do not know the odds without looking. Hoping for the best

Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:21 am

The member 'Shinrei Yamato' has done the following action : Roll Dice/Flip Coin

'6 Sided Dice' : 3

Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:54 pm

Kato smiled meekly as he was met by a snow haired woman who he had not met yet. He had been told she would be there in case things went wrong, whatever that meant. Well, he knew what it meant, but he was trying to keep his mind off of the potential danger of the whole scenario. She introduced herself as Hikari and then motioned toward Kuro, a wolf. Kato was shocked that he had not noticed Kuro before but, for some reason, knowing it was in the room made him even more uncomfortable than he already was. Did she just have a wolf that followed her around? Normally he would consider that to be extremely awesome but given the context of what he was doing here it just made him feel a bit uneasy.

"Tea sounds nice." Kato said as he followed her to the sitting area. After a few moments of awkward silence he began to sip on his tea. His head immediately began to wander aimlessly. He wondered how he had gotten to this point where he was going to have a Curse Mark willingly placed on him. Of course he had researched the topic enough to know it was going to be a fun process. But, in the quest for power, one had to go through suffering. At least that was what he had inferred from reading the history of the ninja world. Hell, even his Sharingan would have never activated if his mother had not been murdered horribly. It seemed like to become a shinobi worth anything he was going to have to suffer immensely. Which is why he had volunteered for this. It was going to be worth it in the end when he could use its powers to help protect those he cared about.

He jumped when he heard the familiar voice of Yamato and he turned to face him. He had hoped that seeing him would put his mind at ease but, unfortunately, it did not. "No, we can't call it off," Kato said to Yamato as he put down his tea and stood up. He was scared, yes, but being scared did not stop him from being brave. It did not stop him from doing whatever necessary to ensure his comrades were safe. "I am going to use this power for the good of the village so there is not turning back." Strangely, he felt power when he said it out loud, it was the one thing that made him feel better. The confidence in his own voice was enough to keep him moving forward.

Kato removed the top of his robes and stood shirtless in the room. He pointed to his left pectoral "Place it here." He wondered if he would have to look away but he did the opposite. He watched the entire process from start to finish. He watched as Yamato slowly placed the seal on his chest and, for a moment, he wondered if he had worried too much as nothing happened right away. Of course, anyone who had ever done drugs knew that was a dumb thought, as almost immediately after he had that thought the pain began. The seal was not placed just on the outer portion of his chest, no, it felt like it was invading his chakra network. Without realizing it, Kato had fallen to the ground, and he began to howl in pain.

His body was seemingly fighting back against the seal as he writhed on the ground. The seal, only three distinct dots at first, began to expand rapidly on his body. He lifted his arm and watched as it spread all down it in a black wave of pain. He was not able to watch much longer as the pain seemed to clamp his eyes shut. Sweat poured down his brow and he continued to wiggle in pain on the ground. He felt worthless as he could do nothing to combat what was happening to it and he could only go along for the ride. Internal pain mixed with external pain was all he knew. He thought he understood what it meant to be able to push through something like this but he realized that his past self was just an idiot. Broken bones, pushing through that last part of his run, all of that was idiotic compared to this. His eyes flashed open and his Sharingan was active, he knew because he could see the chakra networks in his body and he could only see that when the Sharingan was active.

It was like watching a virus take over his body as the seal seemed to change his chakra code. This was Nature Energy that he was seeing, only recently being able to distinguish between his normal chakra and nature chakra. He had studied it in an effort to understand what he was doing to himself. So this is what dying felt like? How could he survive this? For a moment, he decided to just embrace it, death didn't seem so bad. He would not have to worry about anything if he just gave in. All of his problems would simply go away and he could finally see his mother again. Oh how exciting would that be? He had never gotten to say goodbye to her.

A room, black, Kato stood alone. The pain had seemed to fade away. He looked down at his arms and they were not covered in the black mass he had just been covered in. He felt like he had before the mark had been placed, normal. He looked up and around and realized he could not really see anything where he was. "Hello?" Kato called out and his voice echoed.

"My how you have grown." The female voice made Kato take pause.

He turned on his heel slowly and was overwhelmed with emotion at who stood before him. "Mother?" He could barely get the words out as the black haired, blue eyed, tiny woman stood before him. She looked just as he remembered her. Black dress, hair pulled into a ponytail, a smile on his face. She looked at Kato as if he was the only person in the entire world. She made him feel special, warm, safe. He realized that he had not experienced this feeling since she had been gone and that he had taken it for granted the entire time she had been alive. He sprinted towards her and she opened her arms for an embrace and he wrapped his arms as tightly around her as he could. "I am so sorry, mother! I wish I had been strong enough, so sorry!" He was sobbing now and all of his words were almost indistinguishable.

"Oh Kato, you have nothing to be sorry for," She laughed and stroked the back of his head like she had when he was a kid. She grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back so that she could get a good look at him. "Your hair is so long and your eyes.... oh your eyes." She was, of course, referring to the Sharingan. He could not say much and he was just trying to enjoy being in her presence again. "Kato you have to keep fighting. You cannot give in so easily. Your father needs you and so do your friends." Her voice was kind and caring and he could not believe how much he missed her.

"But I miss you so much. Dad misses you. I just.... I can't keep doing it." He was not sure he meant the last part. The mention of his friends reminded him of why he had done this in the first place. But he was not ready to admit that he wanted to leave her.

"You are going to do things far greater than you can imagine. You and everyone you care about are too important to give up just so they can come be with their mother." She was right, and, it was why all the other kids had made fun of him growing up. They had all called him a mommas boy his entire life. He guessed they were right. "You have to go back and keep them safe. Keep their parents safe. Keep your father safe." She smiled brightly to him and he felt himself perk up.

"I miss you so much. There was so much I wanted to say and so much I have to tell you. I am a ninja now, look!" He pointed to the Tanbo headband on his arm. "Dad and I moved away from Konoha after.... well.... Anyways I have made lots of friends. Hanzo, he is this big strong kid, he is so cool. Hayato is really chill, which is a funny joke because he is from the Yuki clan. Everyone in Tanbo is like.... family." Family. They were his family just as much as she was. She smiled when he had the realization. "I have to fight back...." He paused for a moment and then looked at his mother and she looked back at him.

"Yes... you do." She leaned in and gave him one more big hug before she whispered. "I will always love you, Kato."

His eyes snapped open and he was back in the room and the pain seemed like a memory. His body was sore, for sure, but he was not in a state of near death any longer. He instantly sat up and propped himself up against the wall fighting back tears over everything he had just experienced. He did not speak but he simply looked from Hikari to Yamato. He glanced down at his chest and noticed that the curse mark was there

"That.... sucked." Was all Kato could really muster as he gave a small chuckle. He forced himself to his feet and he ran his fingers gently over the curse mark like it was a new tattoo he had received. "I will do good with this." He mumbled under his breath to no one in particular. "Yamato... Hikari..." he looked over to the wolf familiar as well. "Kuro. Thanks for watching over me and making sure I didn't die. I really thought that was going to be the end." The memory was still fresh, and yes he missed his mother, but getting to talk to her one last time even if it was all a figment of his imagination had been worth the price of admission. Even if it was the worst pain he had ever experienced.

"You uh.... you got a place I can sleep? I really feel like I need some sleep." His body was tired as absolute hell and he gave a chuckle as he grabbed his robe and slung it over his shoulder.

A few moments later Kato found himself laying in his bed, tired, but unable to sleep. The entire process had been quite the toll on him but he was already thinking about how he could begin training. He knew that just because he had this curse mark he was not going to be some unstoppable machine, he would have to train with it just the same as he had to train anything else, but it would all be worth it in the end. After a few more minutes of thinking, before he knew it, he was off to dreamland.

WC: 1897
TWC: 2223

EXIT:

Claims:

Curse Mark Transformation applied successfully.

100 words for 1 stat point to Strength.

2,123 to 25% Jutsu Discount for Max Stats Training

750 words to C Rank Phoenix Flower

750 words to making Great Fireball Jutsu A Rank

130 to Blistering Webb

495/2000 mastering Curse Mark Stage 1

Sat Feb 05, 2022 3:09 pm

Claims approved for Kato

Wed May 11, 2022 9:02 pm

A shiver went down Yamato’s spine.
It worked.
Kato was alive.

He fell back into his seat. He took a few breaths. “We did it…” he mumbled. He glanced at Hikari. He had her to thank for all of this. Without a medical expert willing to walk a grey line like this while still passionate about keeping people alive… Yamato would have never dared to test his theoretical practices. “You’re a wonder… You saved Asahi… Glad you didn’t have to do the same for Kato… It works… It actually works… We are perfecting it.”. He was satisfied with the results of an operation, for once.

It was still… Exhausting…

He took a deep breath. “Well… If I stay any longer I’m going to fall asleep in your… Modest… Room… So, I’ll show myself out. I’ll contact you later, hopefully, you’re still interested in working on this. I see greatness in our near future…”. Yamato took off, with Kato if that was Hikari’s preference.

The future plans had to wait a little bit more, Yamato had to recover, rethink, and recalculate before he could let himself regroup with his colleagues.

Regardless of how much the operation, and the thoughts of his future work tired Yamato mentally, there was a huge smile on his face as he walked back towards his apartment.

Today was a win.
Those were rare.
And they meant so much more to him because of that.

He was driven to make tomorrow the same.

Post WC: 246
Total WC: 670

Exit

Taking max stat discount
Ninjutsu Amplifier A-Rank (144 + 670 = 814 / 2063)

Wed May 11, 2022 9:38 pm

Approved

Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:01 pm

Hikari Hyuuga
Post WC: 1,046
Total WC: 1,643

AP:

409/410

Shortly before Kato arrived on her doorstep did her blonde partner in this experiment arrive, his figure overflowing with papers everywhere. It was reasonable that he wanted to be prepared, after all this was their second attempt at this seal and their first was rather rocky. They had each been individually working tirelessly to practice and perfect their portion of the procedure so another Asahi incident didn’t happen, but there were always variables one might not be able to account for.

To relieve his stress he sipped some warm milk and honey, electing to abstain from the tea, which didn’t bother the snowy haired woman at all. Everyone had their likes and dislikes, and she just needed to figure out what his were so she would know the next time they met at her house for an experiment. Kato was enjoying his tea in the living room, and she hoped it would ease the nerves and jitters he was feeling. She could sense he had been on edge since arriving, although given what they were about to do it was no wonder he was nervous.

While he was, hopefully, enjoying the tea, Hikari went over to Yamato to discuss the plans one more time with him. He quietly mentioned wanting to go slower, even if it meant their patient would be in more pain. Normally she would’ve vehemently been against such an idea, but if they could prevent someone from dying and having to be forced back to life, she felt it was a worthy sacrifice. “I think you are right, the slower the better in this case. The alternative is far worse than a couple minutes of suffering.” She was glancing down at the pages inf ront of her when Yamato moved closer, a little bit away from Kato to try and keep the words between themselves. “I am doing alright now, it was worse the day of but now I’ve had time to come to peace with it. How are you holding up?”

Truth be told, the incident with Asahi hadn’t affected her nearly as much as one would’ve expected, she had been a wreck the rest of the afternoon but was mostly fine the next day. In part, she thought it was due to already having experienced a loved one die in front of her. Watching Salzem get murdered before her very eyes is something no other trauma could ever compare to.

Before Yamato could reply, he was cut off by the dark haired man’s rushed and worried voice, telling them they couldn’t call off the procedure and that he had to do it in order to get stronger to protect the village. Despite his very evident nerves he wanted to go through with the scary procedure in order to be strong enough to save those who cannot save themselves. She couldn’t help but feel moved by his aspirations and goals, and felt a renewed vigor wash over her from how confidently he made his declaration.

Her head bobbed up and down at Yamato’s confirmation, a fire blazing in her eyes. She would do everything in her power to make sure he didn’t become scarred like Asahi by greeting death, he would survive and overcome the power of their chakra and the seal.

Kato confirmed he was also ready, stating where he wanted the seal and disrobing in order for them to be able to easily access the area. It was a little unnerving to have him watch their every move, but it was something she had gone through during her time training to be a medic so she shrugged it off and focused on the task at hand. She activated her Byakugan and placed her hands on top of Yamato’s, infusing her chakra into his and watching as it fused into Kato’s body, the seal forming over his skin and his own chakra rushing towards theirs to fight against them.

Within seconds of their chakra colliding, he twisted his face and the pain of the chaka clashing caused him to fall to his knees. She wrapped an arm around his torso to steady him upright, not wanting him to fall backwards or to disrupt the sealing process. Hikari grit her teeth, feeling helpless as all she could do was watch and pray he was able to overcome the pain. “You can do it, Kato. You’re strong enough to fight through this.”
They sat in silence for some time after, waiting in anticipation to see what would happen to the boy slumped in front of them. Would he die like Asahi or would he be their first success? Would he wake up and regret ever having accepted doing this experiment?

What felt like an eternity, but was really only several minutes, flashed by before Kato’s eyes shot open once more, and a sense of relief came over Hikari. He was alive, on his own accord. She didn’t have to bring him back from the dead… They actually did it!

She gave him a few minutes to collect himself, turning her attention to Yamato, who was slumped against the couch. “WE are a wonder, Yamato. I never would’ve dared to try something like this without your expertise in this field. It’s thanks to you that we were able to succeed this time.”

Kato spoke up while they were talking, a tired laugh escaping his lips. “It sucked, but you were able to overcome it! Already on the path to becoming stronger because of that!” Hikari tried to keep an upbeat and positive tone in the air, hoping to ease the tension and dread of what could’ve been. “I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll do wonderful things with it, Kato.”

She let out a soft sigh as she finally allowed herself to breathe, content with the outcome of their experiment and how the other two were doing. Both tired but overall in good health at the moment. Hikari was going to offer for Kato to crash at her place, but Yamato was gracious enough to offer to take him along, and she figured the dark haired man might’ve preferred that over crashing at a semi-random woman’s house, since they had bonded over this tense experience but knew very little about each other.

(Exit)
[AP: 1- Byakugan = 409]
(WC: 1,046
(TWC: 1,643
(Will make claims later)

What Are The Chances

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