Teaching the Next Generation

"Send a letter to all the shinobi that I will be giving jutsu lessons in the training grounds. Only taking three students today though, first come first serve." The Mizukage would then walk along with his path to the training grounds. Once there he would simply wait for the first to show up his path on the lookout for a new arrival.

After a long night of good sleep, Izu was finaly awake. The week had been exhausting, and she took her previous day to relax from all the missions she was doing previously. After the hot baths, a visit to the docks and to her favorite food stands selling shrimp yakitori, Izu took her time to read and sleep early, wanting a good night and long one, to contrast with the restlessness of nights on missions.

*BIBIBIBIP! BIBIBIBIP! BIBIBI-*


Izu shut down her morning alarm, stretching out of her 10 hour long night. As she yawned and looked up the ceiling of her small appartment she inherited from her mom, she could see how decrepit and poor this place was. The paper was stained, the wood torn and washed up, some part having stains of mold and more proof of replacements pieces than original content. It was verry small too, with barelly working lights, sometimes flickering when thunder roared, or the wind too strong. It was also barely furnished, having only 2 rooms, with the essentials in mismatched colors and style. But it was home.

''Training day''  said Izu to herself, as she got out the bed and stretched. As all morning, she checked her mailbox to see if the funds for the poor households arrived, eager to always go get food and money as she still cashed in her mother's right to the funding, lying about her death since years. The letter was there, but another letter was there too, suprising Izu who never received letters and mail except her mom's funds. The letter had the seal of the Mizukage. The envelope aws a light blue-grey, with on one side the 4 waves symbol representing Kirigakure, the village of the hidden mist, and on the side with the opening, a seal with the mizukage symbol. As she ignored the usual letter for the funds and took a particular interest in the newly arrived letter, Izu oppened it straight away, curious as to why this letter was different, as usually missions letters came in form of scrolls and or letters with the hidden mist symbol, but never came with the mizukage logo itself. As she read the short letter offering training from the Mizukage himself to students who came first, she couldnt help but feel honored, even if she disliked the actual mizukage. After all, it was a tittle of honor and respect, and Izu had a lot of respect for the culture of Kiri and the land of water and islands. 

She geared herself, and went to the training facility, as usual, the belly half empty from not being abble to afford more to eat. It didnt matter tho, as she was used to a hard living and to being still hungry.

As Izu arrived to the facility, she could see the same figure she saw accompanying the mizukage at the tavern the other day, with the same menacing purple eyes, made entirely of concetric circles, known as the rinnegan. Izu was well aware of those dojutsu, being herself proficient in the medical field and reading a lot on it, as well as having an encyclopedia of jutsu and chakra.

''Im here for the training with Mizukage-sensei.'' said Izu to the path, her voice cold and monotone, showing she wasnt affraid nor phased by the extremely powerfull path and presence of its owner, even tho she knew they could reduce her to nothing if they wanted. But Izu knew not fear, as she was able to master and control most of the time her emotions. Nonetheless, fear was something that, in her mind, was only made for cowards and weak people. She wasnt affraid to suffer, nor to die. It didnt mean she wasnt cautious and had no will to live, quite the contrary, but she wasnt affraid to confront those situation if there was no other option, but she was still wanting to live at all cost. 

As she passed the path, she entered the training facility, and saw the Mizukage Akabayashi himself waiting for students and shinobi from all around Kirigakure to train them. As Izu layed eyes on him, she approached and said:

''Yo. Im here for the training. I have a few techniques in mind I want to learn, if you know them.'' said the girl, pointing to pages of her encyclopeadia.

''--Humm I mean please Akabayashi-sensei, it would be an honor to be personnaly trained by a Mizukage, I mean, THE Mizukage.'' Ushered in a lazy voice izu, trying to not forget her respect and maner for such a grand leader, forgeting for a second that even tho she didnt like him, she still needed to show respect to his office and role in the village.

WC : 791

The path said nothing and simply directed the girl inside. Akabayashi was watching who was entering with his shared vision with the path outside. It was the girl who decided to stare at him awkwardly in the restaurant. He knew what this village thought of him that he was simply there to drive home this place was now run by Hoshi and well those people were right. In fact keeping Akabayashi in charge of the place was likely also meant to nail it in further. You don't place a dude with a reputation for murder such as his in charge unless you mean to intimidate the people working for them. Well the doctor had a choice laid before him change or continue his life as the killing corpse collector. Not much of a choice, people don't change that easily.

He would look at what she was pointing at and certainly knew a few things on the page.

"No need for the honorifics no one is around, lzu." He would say standing up as she spoke. He wanted his ninja to be honest with him in private and respect him in public perhaps now was the time to request such a thing. "When we are alone you can say and do as you like. In public however, I want you to stop staring at me like in the restaurant. If we are agreed we can begin. Where would you like to start first?" He would ask remembering the list she had pointed to. Maybe he could learn a little more about her by giving her the opportunity to speak freely without fear of death or other punishment.

Izu was relieved when the Mizukage told her to be herself and to drop the act. As she wasnt one for acting and behing dishonnest, she noded and said : ''Alright. Let's be honnest here. I obviously don't like you, but you are still the mizukage, and im still a ninja with a duty to her village. I've come here because I decided to be pragmatic, and learn, without my opinions going against that. We don't need to talk, in fact i'dd rather keep it practical only. Do we stand on common ground ?'' 

As she said that, her look was intense. The situation was dual in nature, both in the fact that they got along and were polite for their first interaction and discussion, wich suprised Izu since Akabayashi had a bad reputation, but also because they both didnt seem to like each other, Izu not liking him because of his conquest of the hidden Mist, and him seemingly not liking Izu probably for her nationalistic views and her want for Kirigakure to get rid of the mizukage and the Hoshi influence altogether.

Nonetheless, her intentions and what she said was honnest. She was here in a pragmatic way, wanting only to train and learn form an experienced ninja with legendary capacities, and for now, she put aside her emotions opinions and feelings toward the state of the village and its regency. As such, after her little speech to be on the same page as the kage of the Mist, she began training, with a deep seriousness.

Firstly, she trained her basics ninja skills. She spared a bit with the kage, learning how to move herself fast enough to dodge but also travel while using all her chakra system and muscles. After a bit of basics, she got to what she really wanted to learn, wich was weapon use. She also had a small interest in some genjutsu, but it wasnt her focus, it was only complementary to her other techniques and skills. At first, she asked to spar with the mizukage and his path, to block incoming attacks with thrown weapons, but also to adujst her techniques and movements when attacking to be able to hit properly the target. She also learned to feint, in a way to always have the upper hand on her opponents, and to be able to be in control, as combat was to her a duel of the minds, as the people battling are usually trying to strategise to dominate and outsmart their opponents. As she wanted to always be two step ahead and take her opponents by suprises by being always very clever, and able to adapt, she also wanted to learn a few genjutsu, notably the ability to influence one mind to both disable her opponents, and also genjutsu techniques to help her with the mind of her allies. 

As the learning continued, Izu tought to herself that the mizukage was impressive indeed, and even tho she still didnt have him close to heart, with this session on training with him showing her things, a small respect for the man started to grow inside of her mind, leaving her wondering if there was more to the man than what she had heard, or what he represented.

At last the farce was ended. She no longer needed to keep up appearances and flatly stated what the problem was. Izu simply didn't like him. Assumedly, because he was a foreign ninja occupying the highest position in their village and less to do with him as a person. Though, he understood even as a person he was usually seen as unusual albeit capable. He would nod to the request of simply keeping things practical and not talking. Although, part of today's activity was supposed to be learning about the ninja he was now in charge of. Perhaps, it would be better suited to simply show he was capable rather than try to force conversation with those who didn't wish to.

Akabayashi was not a weapons expert however he had tricks to make himself appear better at it than he actually was. Such as using jutsu to throw or slash with weapons instead of his own hands. With the cloak of true sage transformation he could throw as well as any weapon specialist and with his rinnegan he could read the genin's movements and adjust the speed of his throwing to a level she could dodge with effort, but not easily. The snake heads of the cloak whipped the kunai around for the kage as he moved taking different angles on the throws. He would collect the weapons once they finished training with them or until he ran out whichever came first.

They then moved onto some basic genjutsu techniques. He couldn't teach any requiring the sharingan, but he knew a few that were easy enough to teach. He began by saying the names of the techniques then demonstrating the hand seals for Demonic Illusion: Flower Garden. A field of flowers would be created before Izu who would be paralyzed by the display and if the technique was broken she would feel the energy within her arms and legs drain away (Debuff -20 strength and speed) he would then make seals for the false surroundings technique and change his hair color to blue and his eyes orange. He would give an explanation of the technique and then give Izu the opportunity to attempt the techniques.

WC: 365

As they learned more and more, Izu started to understand all the hype and quantity of talk around the man that was Akabayashi. He was trully a powerfull individual, and it wasnt for nothing if he was able to invade Kiri almost alone, and maintain the title of Mizukage of the village he conquered. Even if Izu saw him in her mind as her enemy, she respected him for the cold killer he was, a trait shared by herself and akin to her own personnality. They continued to train for several hours, until Izu had learned what she wanted from the mizukage, and was starting to be exhausted. Also, she didnt want to take all the time of the kage of the hidden mist, as the letter concerned and was asked to all the others ninja of the village too, and surely some others shinobi would like to learn techniques from the 'doctor' himself. As she left the practice, she noded in silence to the mizukage as a way of saying ''see ya', and took back her vest, covering once again her muscular and lean shape. As she left, she turned around, looked at the man and said ''Thanks for the training. Hope it will be usefull, and serve the hidden mist rightfully. Peace out mr mist kage.''  said Izu, now less hostile towards Akabayashi than before. As she wandered out of the training grounds, she couldnt help but to think to herself that the man was in fact pretty cool, and if he wasnt a foreigner dictator and if life had been different, they even could have gotten to a friendship or grown to appreciate each other. But the sad truth was, that even if she admired and respected him, he was a conqueror, a man appart from her culture, and to Izu, he remained in the enemy category to her.

[EXIT]

TWC 1647

stats increase +16 going towards speed

learning following jutsu at 75% discound (trained in the training grounds, and by a sensei)
-adjustement 500 WC 
-false surroundings c rank 1000 WC
-body flicker 500 WC
-feint 500 WC
-chakra absorb b rank 1500 WC
-demonic illusion flower garden c rank 1000 WC
-genjutsu messenger 1000 WC

total 6000-75%= 1500 WC, 167 WC going to the void

Izu Momochi wrote:[EXIT]

TWC 1647

stats increase +16 going towards speed

learning following jutsu at 75% discound (trained in the training grounds, and by a sensei)
-adjustement 500 WC 
-false surroundings c rank 1000 WC
-body flicker 500 WC
-feint 500 WC
-chakra absorb b rank 1500 WC
-demonic illusion flower garden c rank 1000 WC
-genjutsu messenger 1000 WC

total 6000-75%= 1500 WC, 167 WC going to the void

Approved

It starts out slowly to the east. Just a shift in the sky, reaching up from far behind the mountains, spreading lines of a deeper blue. If he keeps sitting there, and he will, it will shift further, the blue mingling with an ever-growing haze that wavers into a softer shade of golden-green, like a transparent curtain, before it all goes tipping and spilling over into a harsh, rich crimson, flooding the valley with a blood-red dawn.

Kaimera checks his footing, pulling himself up that last bit of the way so he can lean against the branches, turning his face towards the rising sun. Here, in the heart of the woods, where the trees stand almost bark to bark, boughs curling together so tightly that he could walk across the canopy like a carpet, nary a light reaching down beneath the leaves, giving the forest floor an air of perpetual gloom. He likes it that way, much prefers not to see what lies beyond, the vastness of a world that has almost lost its meaning. Almost. Dawn is the only time he allows himself to do so, to climb to the top of the highest tree and watch the night turn into day. To ascertain, in the manner of someone who has been asleep for too long, that everything is still in place, the Earth is still turning, and it will be another quiet day below.

In the moments he retained from another time, dawn was a relief, an end to the grip of primal fear that took a hold of men when they were lying in a pitch-black hole, clutching at what may well have been twigs for all the good they were going to do, listening to the staccato of their own breaths in the darkness and praying that they would remain the only ones. Dawn was something to be greeted, celebrated even, a joyous kind of collective relief sweeping through the ditch at something that should have been a matter of course, but wasn't. He remembers different dawns, long ones, gray ones, brilliantly piercing ones, and he remembers thinking them beautiful in the way an amnesiac knows that a portrait of a person used to mean something, but now...

Now they are not the same. Ever since they died.

Shaking his head out of his stupor, he looked down at the scroll unraveled in front of him. The contents that lie within tells him the information that the Kage has given out. Training regime for the first three students that come to the facility.

Remnants of a written request. Footprints and ink spillage. Mere remains and vestiges. Harune followed one fragment after another, trying to grasp at those illusory shadows that were brought on by the broken beams that fell upon the land from the sunlight. For a time, he felt like he was chasing ghosts. The cool breeze whisked upon his cheeks, giving a subtle reminder of the attractions of the early morning of summer. A rejuvenation. Just like the sun shining through the storm. If only humanity could reach that state.

Continuing his path forward, the trees disbanded their unified front into a large opening. The sun rays directly hitting him could also be felt in her veins, as if he was one with the celestial body. Perhaps, he could be. Gazing around the area, she took note of the landscape. Most notable, a lake sat in its midst. Pristine waters so clear that the only source could be that of a spring. Songbirds could be heard in the distance singing their hymn songs awakening the world around them. If heaven was a place, this would be a close second to that recognition.

But what caught his eye the most was a building, the training facility where Kaimera has spent some time here recently. Walking towards the building, he took in the sight of the rather lackluster detail the outside had to offer. Even if the building was boring to look at, the contents inside were that much more valuable. Entering the building, he soon found the person he was looking for. The Mizukage.

Approaching him, he took note of all his features, blemishes, and insecurities. He stood quite tall, like his brothers and father. A scar running vertically across his right eye and bright red hair just as himself. Speaking of eyes, they were something entirely different as they were ringed with black lines and took the color of an unnatural purple. Nothing else could be talked about thus far. “Greetings, Lord Mizukage.” The scorch user said standing before Akabayashi as Kaimera saluted him with respect. “Hopefully my arrival is not too late, for I have much to learn,” he finished before raising his head. Kaimera knew his abilities and talent were much more short comings than his fellow comrades, the Yuki and the Hyūga. Perhaps, he could learn something from the kage so that he will be able to be on par with them.

Continuing on, “if I could request it, I’m in dire need to learn wind release. I need it to help develop my clan's kekkei genkai, scorch release, and I have been having trouble learning it on my own. Also, a few fire release techniques could be good as well,” Kaimera asked, releasing information on what he would like to learn and his limitations on learning them.

TWC: 897

"Greetings Kaimera." The doctor would say glad to find the first person seemingly enthused about his presence. "You are certainly not too late, I actually just finished training someone else so you came at a good time. The doctor would salute back to the genin showing his respect.

"Wind release. I can certainly teach that." As he said this a bulge and ripple of clothes would begin on his back. It continued until the ball of threads slid all the way to the ground and crawled from underneath the cloak of the kage. The mass of black threads had a pale blue mask. "This will be your wind instructor to teach you the element." The mass would shoot a blast of wind away from Akabayashi and Kaimera. "To use wind gather chakra and focus it in front of you. Think of the energy as a blade and use your control to sharpen it. When its sharp release it to cut down the things in front of you." Akabayashi would narrate as the masked beast demonstrated what was happening.

Once, Kaimera got used to wind release he would show him any wind techniques he wished to learn that the doctor also knew. He wouldn't use the masked beast however it would simply stand there as the masked beast did not use seals for wind jutsu of certain ranks. Akabayashi instead utilized the hand seals and went through each technique.

As Kaimera would watch the creature made of darkened thread come to life from out under Aka’s attire, he would listen attentively to the Mizukage and his instruction. Watching this creature would create wind and use it as a blast. Kaimera was determined to make one for himself; if not, learn wind release and work towards scorch release. Kaimera thought since he was able to use fire, how could wind be so difficult right? With a dangerous amount of overconfidence, Kaimera stepped into the middle of the training area. He began to build his chakra. He knew that this release was going to cost an extreme amount of chakra to learn. After gathering a sizable amount, he slowly began focusing on the chakra in his hands, careful not to make a careless mistake. He then began to manipulate the chakra nature and give it the wind element it needed. 

Feeling the chakra pulsating through his body he made the release. A powerful wind current emitted through Kaimera’s whole body. His teeth began shuddering as his body locked up. He instantly felt his body light up in pain coursed through his body as the sudden release of wind blew him into the wall. He collapsed on the ground, his arms and hands numb. Lying on the ground Zunair felt the occasional muscle spasm from the impact. Luckily, Kaimera has always been resilient to the pain of being thrown into objects. After regaining his composure, the ambered-eyed Yakedo sat up and looked down at his hands and started to wonder what went wrong.  He got up from the scroll and began to walk over to the sink to wash his hands and face. 

Kaimera stuck his hands into the water and gazed into his reflection in the water. Kaimera was not going to stop until he was able to master wind release. Kaimera wiped his hands off his shirt. Kaimera had formed a hand sign correctly, but something went awry. 

Kaimera stood up from place, widening his stance and began to gather his chakra once more. Staring at the creature, remembering the Mizukage’s words, he made the release. Kaimera’s vision went white as he once again collapsed to the floor in involuntary convulsions. After the tremors left his body Kaimera couldn't help but smile. How could he use fire release with ease but not make a blast of single wind release? 

‘Alright. Some things are not right here.' Kaimera thought as he walked over to the edge of the water and began to contemplate the process of making the wind release.

But why do I keep blowing myself away when I fail the ability? 

"I've got it this time," Kaimera said to no one in particular. He stared down at his hands. He gathered his Chakra once more and visualized his wind-infused chakra gathering on a point three meters in front of him. He made hand signs and applied the wind element to his chakra. He made the release.

Kaimera winced in anticipation but there was no pain. About three meters in front of him there was a small ball of wind currents that shot out in a few directions before dissipating. Kaimera wiped the sweat from his forehead. At least he wasn't blowing himself into a wall this time. A small smile broke through his face. 

“I did it! It was small but I did it,” Kaimera said, standing up and cheering for himself. “Thank you so much, Lord Mizukage, I will never forget this.” He said with a gleaming smile upon his face. After that, Kaimera would ask for help training other areas with the Mizukage giving pointers. Not sticking to a defined room as before, Kaimera would find himself in the open field that is part of the training facility. 

The Yakedo channeled chakra to the bottom of his feet as he stepped out into the water, a little unsteady at first, he thought he was going to sink straight down. He stood perfectly still on the water, a bird fluttering loudly overhead breaking his concentration and with it his ability to stay above the water. With a splash the Genin was no longer dry, climbing from the river edge he cursed to himself silently. Kaimera had quickly mastered the art of climbing walls and trees with chakra, but he had never taken the time to master water walking. It was a similar, yet different beast entirely which Mikaela knew was a contradiction, but he knew the skills from the former would only carry you so far through the latter.

Sending chakra down the bottom of his feet once again Kaimera stepped out onto the water, he felt the energy below his feet repelling him away from the water ever so slightly. Just enough to keep him from sinking but still able to walk along the surface, it was an incredible feat to those not versed in Ninjutsu but to Shinobi it was a basic yet essential skill to master. Mikaela regulated the flow of Chakra through his body in a practiced manner, many hours had gone into getting to this level of control.

Mikaela began walking the width of the river, going back and forth occasionally turning it into a zigzag as he traveled. The entire process was taxing for the young Genin, determination was carrying him through in this regard in the past Mikaela would have called it a day. This time was different, he had something he wanted to prove himself not because someone expected it but because he wished it. Mikaela was going to become one of the Yakedo with Scorch style, he wanted to learn how to control the monsterous heat and he knew he had a long way too. Also, he wants to serve Kirigakure to the fullest extent, he was not sure where this sudden burst of patriotism and feel-good emotions stemmed from but in the present, he paid it no heed.

The Genin changed it up a little, moving at a slightly faster pace along the length of the artificial river. This made the journey not only slightly longer but increased the taxation caused by chakra use, he was starting to tire through the constant use. Kaimera had begun to feel the effects of his training settling in on, they were not massively noticeable, but they were present at the least. His footwork had become more stable on the uneven and ever-changing surface of the water, the flow of his chakra down to his feet had become steadier as muscle memory.

It was at this point he began to pick up his pace along the water, sprinting on the surface kicking up droplets as he set each foot down. This movement further unbalanced the liquid surface he was running across, for a moment his footing faltered but a quick centering of self-fixed that. Kaimera dashed to and from the river, occasionally he would spring off the river and back on again to keep his adjustments to the chakra he was supplying to his feet, constantly tweaking. Kaimera kept this up well until the sun began to set, he had taken an occasional break to recover before starting up all over again and it seemed he was eager to stick around all night.

Kaimera would then proceed in the same area as before, this time amongst a large series of blocky pillars that created a grid-like pattern. It was here that Kaimera would begin his next training exercise, channeling chakra to his feet he began bouncing around from pillar to pillar increasing in speed until he lost his footing. The sound of his feet crashing into each pillar left a large thudding sound as he pushed away from each stone surface to land on another, once his footing was lost, he would leap towards safety or attempt to regain his footing on a different pillar.

Each time he fell he would reset the speed of it back to a slower tempo and begin to work his way up again, he had seen he do brother use this method in his training it was some kind of punishment system that would just increase the amount of training you needed to do it also meant Mikaela training was more tiresome though.

The Shinobi would proceed to add acrobatics into his movements, performing turns mid-air and somersaults as he darted from pillar to pillar. Kaimera once again felt his grasp over chakra usage tightening, becoming more refined the more he used it, perhaps the task. He still had three days to achieve some results, not only did he want to improve his abilities with ninjutsu but also his repertoire of jutsu alongside it.

His father had suggested that he attempt to increase his ability by merging the two elements of fire and wind to create scorch, Kaimera intended to go a step further than that and branch out into a new style of Jutsu alongside increasing his understanding of Scorch Release. Kaimera bounced from wall to wall making his way up to the summit of the central pillar, standing up on the stone plateau he admired the view of the training area from here. Reaching into a pouch he pulled out another scroll, it had a red band around the center and was embossed with an artistic rock on the center of the band. 'The Fundamentals of Scorch Release' was the title of this particular scroll; a second scroll was taken out alongside the Scroll Release scroll. 

Kaimera spent hours learning scorch release and it felt like it had taken a toll on the long red-haired genin. So that's when he decided he was going to stop since he just had learned it but the next day he will need to work. Once he learns some jutsu, he can learn scorch release and then try to develop his own style with it, if that was even possible for him. He shook his head as his stomach started growling. Kaimera laughed at himself as he decided it was time to go eat and jumped off the pillar.

EXIT
TWC: 2,578
Claiming:
500/500 to Wind Release: (75% off because of learning from another pc player and ATF)
1500/1500 to Scorch Release: (25% off because of ATF)
375/375 to Blast Wave: (75% off because of learning from another pc player and ATF)
125/125 to Body Flicker: (75% off because of learning from another pc player and ATF)
Adding 78 to 369/4000 to Kashōgan: Stage 2 (from here) making it 447