Backyard Training

Typhon woke up in a pool of sweat with bright light beaming onto his face. Not an uncommon way to kick off a morning in Haven, but the heat lately was particularly scorching. The green eyed youth spent his entire life in Hoshi and yet he could never really get used to the summer heat. The dry air always made his coughing hurt worse and spending a sweltering day cooped up in a mask was never fun. But still he rolled out of bed and took a shower. His father depended on him and as much as Ty wanted to, he couldn't take a day off.

He went through the motions of his morning routine: getting cleaned and dressed, making a pot of herbal tea, and preparing breakfast alongside his father's morning set of medications. It was a cocktail of pills with varying effects that baffled the doctors almost as much as it did Ty. Medicating a carrier of the Canopic virus is no small undertaking. Normally simple things like painkillers need to be heavily altered to fit the unique physiology of a patient with rotten organs. The inability for doctors to do much good was the main driving force behind most clan members learning basic first aid. Over the years some degree of refined care has surfaced but it's still primitive in comparison to what normal people receive.

With his typical chores taken care of Ty found himself with free time. Though lately his time was never truly free. He needed to step up his training and keep pushing his body further and further. Watching the competitors in the Nova tournament on top of seeing the village defenders I'm action, Ty couldn't help but feel useless. His nonchalant attitude led to complacency and when things got dicey all he was useful for was directing traffic.

It's not like the young man wanted to throw himself into danger. More that he knew it was just an unavoidable part of the job and he wanted to be damn sure he was ready when the time came. He had already spent months working on his physical abilities. Ty was faster and stronger than he ever imagined he would be, but he was still heavily lacking in many areas. One of these glaring weaknesses being his control over his own virus. He naively thought that by improving physically control would come naturally. 

Typhon used the virus in a sparring match with Yamato, but the effect was weak and barely made the squad leader limp when applied directly to his leg. It was scary to think about increasing the potency of a virus that he spent his whole life trying to minimize, but it was the clearest path forward. Not wanting to damage any village property or put anyone at risk Ty decided he would train in his own backyard. It wasn't much to look at, just a 10 by 10 meter grass plot with some thin old trees. The young shinobi admittedly didn't maintain it very well and so the yard had become a tad overgrown with weeds. He figured at least at home he wouldn't have to train in his mask.

Walking into the middle of the plot he would start with his usual warmups. A grueling set of situps, squats, push-ups, and knee lifts. Considering he was already sweating it wasn't a good marker that he was warmed up, but his screaming muscles did the trick. After a couple minutes spent sprawled out on the floor coughing his lungs out Ty would get back to his feet and start the main focus for the day.

To this point Typhon had only really managed to utilize the virus in a physical sense. He could secrete it in a concentrate or coat himself in particles, but disconnected from the body the pathogens die extremely rapidly. To use it practically he would need to figure out how to change and adapt the virus to survive longer outside of a host. Holding up a flowery weed in front of his face he sat cross legged on the ground and started focusing within himself. He knew from his early shinobi training that imagery was extremely useful in learning new techniques and so he figured it was worth trying.

With his eyes closed he would imagine the viral particles flowing through his bloodstream. He could see the individual spiky balls floating around and zeroed in on that image. From there he began to picture those particles being funneled out through his regular breathing. He kept this up and imagined the flow of virus increasing more and more until his breathe was mostly virus. When he opened his eyes the flower he was holding had wilted into a grey shriveled blob. It was definitely promising. His normal breathe always carried some of the virus but never enough to cause damage this quickly. A small victory but it meant he had a foundation to build from.

He would spend the next couple hours working away at this, trying to increase the volume of virus particles more and more until he had a breakthrough. By adding on to the image in his head he could further the technique. He imagined his chakra also flowing into the mix, the blue atoms of energy attached to the virus particles could enhance the effect massively. Hours of heavy breathing led up to this light bulb moment. Everything lined up perfectly in Ty's head and when he let out an exhale he could visually see his breath turn green. It barely floated away from his face but the fact that he could see his own breathing meant that he was almost there.

As the young man's face lit up with excitement he would be surprised by a raspy voice saying, "Not bad kid. But it's still missing something." It was his father. The old man was sitting on the porch watching his son train. Ty wasn't sure how long his dad was watching, but he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. He had spent hours breathing like a dragon in the hot summer sun. 

"You're essentially trying to make a new jutsu here. There's a reason techniques have handseals son. They let you channel that wild flowing power called chakra and make it useful."

It was so obvious that Ty's face turned bright red. Of course he should have been using hand signs to help. But how does one even figure out the seals for a jutsu that hasn't been invented yet? It seemed ridiculous now that he thought of it. "How am I supposed to know which seals work?"

His dad, ever the helpful man, simply laughed and slowly walked back into the house. It was always like this with his dad when it came to shinobi stuff. For whatever reason he rarely liked to give advice as a former shinobi. He was on his own here and would figure it out the only way he knew how. With brute force trial and error.

He would begin breathing, maintaining the image in his head from before, only now he would start holding out every hand sign he knew in order until he felt something change. It started when he held a dog sign but it was a noticeable change. The breathe left his mouth thicker and further away than before. It was a great sign that he was onto something. The fun part would come from there. He would start with dog and run through the list again feeling out for a change again. Once he performed dog then rat the potency increased again. Every new discovery made a drastic improvement in the technique.

He made it three signs in and found the cloud was fully surrounding him at this point. It was a surreal feeling being enveloped in green toxic gas but he knew it was exactly what he needed to improve. As the gas dissipated Ty noticed the grass in a circle around him was brown and wilted. He hadn't intended to ruin the yard like this but it definitely proved the technique was deadly. It was something he would have to work at over time, but he was glad to start knocking out another gap in his skills.

(WC 1377)
(Exit)

Using 1000 words to finish learning Carrion Crush (A) prior wordcount from This topic