This Mark Is Cursed

The day following his excursion to see Yamato and Hikari, Kato awoke with his body feeling as if it might just stop working, his chest was radiating a pain that he could barely handle. For a few moments he considered just laying in bed and letting the curse mark do its work and slowly end him. Then the thought of his mother flashed before him again. Had it all been a figment of his imagination or had he really seen her? It felt so real in that moment. Her touch, her smell, her general demeanor. All of it seemed like it had actually happened but when he had come to, he was simply back in the room with Yamato and Hikari, his mother nowhere to be seen. 

He figured that by the next morning the effects of it all would have at least dulled, but, that was wishful thinking. Struggling, he forced himself to sit up with a loud groan, and he pulled back the chest covering of his robes to take a look at the new marking on his body. The three dots seemed harmless enough, like a tattoo he had gotten years ago, but he knew it was capable of so much more. At its touch, it did not hurt, but underneath his skin the pain was consistently throbbing. The rest of his body was trying to adjust to his charka network essentially coming under attack the day before. 

Laying around was going to do nothing, however, and he knew he had to get up and at least move around. Forcing himself to roll over, he threw his feet over the side of the bed, and sat momentarily trying to gather himself. After a lot of effort he attempted to stand to his feet but merely collapsed on the ground writhing in pain. What was the point? He needed to just relax and let his body heal. At least that was what a sane and normal person would have believed, but Kato was now determined more than ever, and with every bit of strength he could muster he pushed himself up into a standing position. 

He had not been this bruised and battered in a very long time. Honestly, probably ever, so he was not sure how to handle a situation like this. All he could do was try and take baby steps. He walked around the room a few times until his body seemed to adjust. The pain was all over but he was slowly growing accustomed to it. Every step was like walking on a broken leg, at first, but after awhile of learning to deal with it he was able to turn that pain into more of a dull throb. 

Step after step he quickly got his feet under him and then he had to get out of his room. With a lot of struggle he was able to put on his clothing. Headband tied to his left arm, Ninjato strapped behind his back, and his training attire put on he was able to leave his house. The first real challenge came with the stairs. First of all, how did he even get up the stairs? Then came the challenge of getting down them. Oh how quickly things became almost insurmountable and all it took was a little curse mark placed in a strategic part of his chest. 

He slowly descended the stairs and each step seemed to hurt more than the last. Each step, one closer to the bottom, was met with a grunt that did not help but he also could not stop them. His voice just made the noise without him even trying. With only four stairs left remaining his right leg gave out and he felt his body stumble. He tried his hardest to hold onto the hand rail but he was too weak to support his own body and he tumbled down them painfully. "Fuck....." he grumbled as he came to a crash at the bottom of the steps and a newfound bout of laziness descended upon him. Maybe he would just live down here for the rest of his life? No, he couldn't do that, he had come to far to give up at the bottom of the god damn stairs.

Using the steps as leverage, he grabbed hold, and pulled himself into a sitting position. He then turned over so that he was on all fours and grabbed the hand rail to lift himself up. He looked up at the once easily conquerable stairs and wondered how he was going to make it to the training grounds in this shape. He had maybe moved fifteen feet and it had taken him nearly an hour to get from his bed down to the stairs. By the time he got to the training grounds a week will have already passed. "Yeesh, stop talking to yourself, Kato. You are an annoying critic." 

Each step to the training grounds hurt. He limped his way through the village and passed by many people who could merely look upon him and wonder what the hell his problem was. Most of them would assume he had just gotten his ass kicked on a mission or something but none of them would guess about the mark on his chest. Most in the village would hate to know what he had done to himself. The mark was, in its name, a curse and the people of Tanbo were a superstitious folk. If they found out that they were being protected by an Uchiha who had also voluntarily given himself a Curse Mark then he and Yamato might both be ousted from the village. 

He did not intend for that to happen. The people of this village were one of the reasons he had even gotten this damn thing. It was all in a bid to grow more powerful so that he could protect them. Under normal circumstances he would never allow something like this to be placed on his body but his desire to ensure their safety, as well as his comrades, was what mattered most to him. It was also why he forced himself through the streets on this day instead of staying in bed and sleeping. He had to learn how to control this power he had been given. Every day spent sleeping was another day he was wasting and not improving himself. 

So, after what felt like an eternity, he arrived at the training facility and made his way inside. Once there he found a room and made sure to lock the door from the inside. He did not want anyone coming in to see him training with the mark. He was not sure how much the other ninja cared about the curse mark but he did not want to take any chances either. Once everything was set up he made his way to the middle of the room and then it hit him: he did not really know how to activate the mark. 

Had he come all this way for nothing? He had not even given any thought to how he was going to use it. First he closed his eyes and tried to will it out, then he tried hitting his chest thinking that maybe it was like a button, but nothing happened. Putting his hands on his head he wondered how he was going to be able to use this damn thing. He thought back to what he had been given and he vaguely recalled Yamato giving him a notebook. Maybe it had instructions in it? Of course he had gotten so focused on getting somewhere to train it that he had not even considered how it would work. 

So, he spent some times trying everything he knew how. Maybe it was already working and his jutsu would be improved or something. Snake, Ram, Tiger, he performed the hand seals and felt the chakra in his belly and then expelled the Fireball from his mouth. If anything, it was weaker given his current state, so that could not be right. He made some shadow clones and then made them attack him thinking that maybe if he was under duress that it would just come out? Nope, all that he managed to accomplish was to let himself kick the shit out of himself. 

After many hours of training he decided to give himself a break. His body was, after all of the movement, beginning to feel better he was realizing. He was still in a massive amount of pain but he was able to essentially block it all out of his head. How could he get this to work? Closing his eyes he tried to think back to what had been going on when he had received the mark. He tried to remember what it felt like and then he had an idea. 

It felt as if the mark was basically taking over his chakra network and replacing it with something else. Maybe that was the key? Maybe he had to become in tune with his chakra and knock on the door of the curse mark. With his eyes still closed he focused on the chakra inside of him. He hovered around the curse mark and, metaphorically, poked at it trying to get it to come out. He was not getting any closer to anything until he thought maybe he did not need to try and get in maybe he had to let the curse mark out. 

Focusing, he turned his chakra over to the mark, and immediately it began. All that pain, came flooding back, and he let out a loud scream. He felt his body surging with the chakra of the curse mark and for a few seconds he was deep in pain. Then, as quickly as it came, he sat feeling... different? At first he felt like nothing had changed and then he realized that all of the pain was gone. Jumping to his feet he felt ALIVE. The power of the curse mark was surging through him and he felt like his chakra pools were infinite! However, he noticed his hand, and the curse mark had spread again. Opening his robes he realizing that the mark had spread greatly. 

None the less, he knew how to activate the damn thing, and that was something. He figured it was time to give this dog and pony show a chance to shine and decided it was time to go into his bag of tricks. Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Tiger, Horse, he did all of the hand seals and then felt the chakra building up inside of him. From his mouth he shot a thin stream of fire and out of that fire ten small fireballs were made. This was one of his newest techniques, a branch of the Great Fireball, but instead of one he had ten that he could even control. What was amazing about the whole thing was that even after he had used such a powerful Jutsu he felt like he had not even used ANY of his chakra. 

Laughing, he played around for a bit with the fire balls, zooming them around the room and making them clash with each other. He practiced a few other Jutsu, even summoning some Shadow Clones, and doing some hand to hand combat with them. He was having a great time until suddenly, as if something had completely just ripped away his newfound power, his body seemingly collapsed and the pain came back. Grunting, he caught himself on the floor, and realized that he could only be active in the mode for so long. How long had it been? Shit, he had not been paying attention. He was going to have to calculate how long he could hold the transformation for or else he could really get himself into a pickle. 

Even still, though he was till in pain, he was not nearly in as bad of shape as he was when he first woke up that morning. Sure, it still hurt, but he had gotten so used to it that he could walk with almost no sign of trouble. Feeling good about what he had accomplished, Kato decided it was time to return home. As he made his way outside he realized it was already night time. Which, he guessed, was a good thing because he really did not want to come across his father. He was not ready to tell him about what was going on with his newfound powers. He would one day when he felt like he was ready for it, but for now, he would enjoy understanding a little bit more about the curse mark. He also made a note that he should probably read what Yamato had given him. 

WC: 2135

EXIT

Claims

25% discount towards training

1500/1500 towards Curse Mark Transformation Stage 1

635 towards Sharingan 3 Tomoe

22 AP for Max Stat Training

HELL YEAH LET'S GOOOO!  Approved