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Deep down in the darkness...



Outside of the new training area for the many Otogakure Ninja rested the well known waterfall cavern, the caves behind the waterfall known by many as the perfect private place for meditation or practice. However, a smaller set of those in the village knew of another perk of these caves, or rather the area around them. There was a well worn path, leading well up, to a small ledge near a waterfall. It is close enouh to get many fine details, yet the ledge's location keeps the spray of the water from reaching it. The view over the village from this spot is amazing, and almost unparalleled for best place in the entire village to be when the sun is reflecting off of the buildings. This is a place known to quite a few of the aspiring artists of the village, as it combines the perfect serene tranquility with a nice gentle breeze, quiet background noise from the falls, and an absolutely amazing view. It is quite often a regular sight to see several artists there, painting, composing, or doing whatever other form of art they may practice. But, at present, only one person is on the ledge, kneeling on a small portable mat, with what could be a covered painting easel or something similar in front of him, holding a paintbrush thoughtfully in one hand, with a small jar in the other.

The figure on the ledge happened to be the recently graduated Rowan, new Genin of Otogakure, sitting with one of his twin puppets, Naga. He was currently working on finishing a new painting on Naga's upper back, an additio to the wide collection of white snakes painted all over the puppet. The snakes seemed to be something to occupy Rowan, or something that might hold a certain significance to him, as he often ends up in remote places like here or other areas outside the village when he begins painting them. This particular snake was circling inwards in a tightening spiral, culminating with the eye in the precise surface location on the human spine of the fifth thoracic vertebrae. The head and much of the perfect spiral were done, a work of over an hour, with only the finishing touches of the tail left to complete. Rowan was currently tapping the back of the brush in his hand against his chin as he looked at the wooden surface in front of him, the only part of Naga currently showing, as his cloak was covering the entire rest of its body except the part Rowan was painting. Rowan ended up looking up at the waterfall, watching the water endlessly streaming down as he thought, in the silent company of his puppet.

In the darkness, you are never alone...

Deep down in the darkness...



Rowan was shaken out of his contemplative trance when he heard the sound of rocks rolling down a little slope. Rowan leaned out, looking off the ledge at the ground below, and saw that someone had come here, to the waterfall. Well, okay, not technically here, but the person happened to show up close enough by that the elevated vantage point let Rowan see them. Dismissing them for the moment, Rowan dipped the brush into the white paint he was holding, carefully putting the brush to the back of the puppet in front of him, and with careful movements of his hand, finishing the tail of the snake. Rowan then sat back on the mat, waiting for the last of the paint to dry. As he waited, Rowan caught a whiff of incense. It was supposed to be the light stuff, but the scent carried quite a ways when a large amount was burned together. And at that Rowan recognized the other person, even with all the distance separating them. It was almost certain to be one of the other Genin from here in the village, Milano. Rowan had picked up on the guys habit of smoking incense like that. After all, he had observed the ninja training for hours, to learn his style to apply to Naga. Of course Milano was still better, he would be. He knew his style better then Rowan. But Naga was still a nasty fighter with those same twin katanas.

Rowan stood up, flipping the cloak back to cover Naga's back. Then, invisible to most people, each of his fingertips began emiting a tiny string of chakra, five of them linking into the Naga puppet in front of him, the others sliding down the cliff, and latching on to what looked like a rock. Rowan started walking towards the edge of the ledge, as the fingers of the hand connected to Naga flexed and moved, causing the puppet to stand and follow, swishing cloak occasionally giving hints of the sheathed swords beneath it. Then... Rowan walked right off the ledge. But there was never any fear, as Naga followed and Rowans other hand flexed. The seeming boulder suddenly seemed to erupt, as Helscorch threw back the boulder-colored cloak, a hand reaching out and catching Rowan as he fell. As Rowan dangled, he pulled on the chakra threads attached to Naga as it fell past, jerking the puppet to a halt. Then the three lowered to the ground, Rowan stepping away from the puppets. Then, he walked off, the quiet sound of wood walking behind him signalling that his two puppets were following his finger signals.

Rowan made his way over towards Milano, the sound of him and his puppets walking giving the man plenty of warning. "Hello there Milano. What brings you out here to this fine training feild?" Rowan asked.



Chakra 85/90

In the darkness, you are never alone...

Deep down in the darkness...



Rowan let Haru work his head out of the trance that incense seemed to put him in to. He had certainly spent enough hours around the guy to know that it took him a moment to pull his head from the incense clouds. Once Haru actually managed a complete sentence, then Rowan decided he seemed to have recovered. "Well, this certainly is a good place to practice. Plenty of rivers around here." Rowan said when Haru said why he had come down to the training field. Rowan smiles slightly when Haru asks about the puppets, then throws his last name at him. He had accidentally slipped and used Haru's, so it was to be expected. "Their as functional as they are going to be for now. I was just painting." Rowan said. After all, the flamethrower wasn't coming along as planned. It kept malfunctioning, and he was just glad it hadn't blown up yet. It was gonna take a lot more work before it was ready to go. "Now about all I can do is some training while the reconstruction goes on, until Miraku assigns a team." Rowan said. It was pretty much true, the Otokage hadn't set any missions for anyone to take, so until something happened, training was about all he had to do for now, at least workwise.



Chakra 87.5/90

In the darkness, you are never alone...

Deep down in the darkness...



Rowan smiled and surpressed a laugh when Haru refferred to the girl as 'the pink kitty girl'. Now, he couldn't talk, he didn't really remember her name either, and it was an apt description. "Well, glad to know she made it through too. The more the better, right?" Rowan asked, a tad awkwardly phrased. It was good that she had passed and all, he just... wasn't quite sure how to express it. Thus it just came out kind of awkward. When Haru asked if he wanted to join in, Rowan only thought for a moment. "Sure, I'll join you. After all, may as well both get soaked at the same time, right?" Rowan asked, smiling at Haru. He enjoyed his own little joke at least.

"Yes, the Otokage who insists that we use his name unless the occasion is overly formal." Rowan said, sounding almost exasperated. One way to disillusion a village with the whole awe thing was to be that friendly, even with the little Genin. As for the paint, Rowan smiled again when that was mentioned as being easy to wear off, a sly little smile on his face this time. "Yes, it would, but nothing else holds that kind of white. And I can always use a brightly colored distraction piece." Rowan said. It was actually true too, up to a point. Rowan had basically no skill in the area of Taijutsu, as could be expected of any puppet user. So, making a puppet meant to draw attention bright helped distract the opponent for that critical fraction of a second. Plus, a lot of genjutsu had a stronger psychological effect when it looked like those snakes were doing it, which was another of Rowan's tricks. And, of course, he enjoyed painting them.



Chakra 90/90

In the darkness, you are never alone...

Deep down in the darkness...



Rowan frowned as he thought about Haru's suggestion of using a layer of crystal. That might be an idea, I'll need to see about it." Rowan said, as his fingers manipulated his puppets up into a couple of nearby trees, concealing them and supporting them, before his Chakra Strings released. After all, to practice a new jutsu, he was going to need to focus.

Looking at the flowing river, Rowan surmised that this was probably going to be a lot more difficult then the Tree Walking Technique. He decided that, rather then rush in, he would pause here and think about it for a moment. The Tree Climbing Technique required the concentration of chakra in the soles of the feet, strong enough to grip and hold onto the tree or other surface against the pull of gravity, but not too strong. If it was too strong, the object being climbed would be damaged and collapse, forcing the user to jump off to avoid tripping and falling off like an incompetent. The other issue, if it was too strong but not damaging the object, the user would have to tear their foot from the surface, costing critical time and energy with each step.

Rowan looked at the flowing river itself, turning his mind to a comparison of the water and the tree climbing technique, looking for the similarities and differences. The water wouldn't be fighting gravity, but it's flow and constantly changing density and motion would require a constant adjustment of chakra flow to keep up. Along with that, it was a liquid, not a solid, so the basic density would be harder to figure out. Rowan resigned himself to at least one or two dips in the cold water before he figured this one out. Even with his knack for Ninjutsu, this was a lot of variables that he wasn't used too.

Rowan slipped out of his thoughts as Haru tried and failed at the technique a couple of times before managing to shakily keep his footing. But Rowan wasn't laughing. After all, he fully expected to get plunged into the water too. Even from here he could tell this was not going to be an easy jutsu.

Rowan walked over to the edge of the river, and nodded to Haru as he said he thought he got it. "It looks like you did, your feet aren't in the water." He said, in case Haru couldn't quite tell for sure. You never knew after all. Rowan put his hands together, exhaling slowly as he gathered his chakra into himself and directed it down into his feet. Then he took a step out into the river, fully expecting his foot to sink right in, since he had started light.

Good thing he was expecting it, as Rowan's foot sank right to the ankle in the icy water. Rowan grimaced, but forced the icy cold from his mind, and slowly increased the chakra to his foot until it raised up, floating to the surface. After the concentration was just right, Rowan stepped forward with his other foot, eyes still closed. His other foot hit the water's surface and sunk in slightly, and Rowan started adjusting the chakra flow. But, as he started, his back foot started sinking, the flowing river and divided concentration thwarting him.

Rowan tried to quickly adjust his back foot up again, and as it started going up, his other foot started sinking again. Then Rowan made a big mistake, accidentally channeling extra chakra to both feet faster then he should have. This resulted in his back foot launching from the water like a spring, his front foot following just after. This caused him to go soaring into the air in an uncontrolled frontflip, splashing face-first into the water with a big splash, the water only barely not reaching Haru.

Rowan came spluttering to the surface, shivering at the sudden cold immersion as he forced his way out of the river. But he forced it out of his mind again, running through the few seconds in his head. He stepped quickly to the river, both feet on in under a second. His concentration managed to match the rivers flow before he fell again, causing him to waver momentarily before stabilizing. Then Rowan finally opened his eyes, and smiled towards Haru. "I seem to have it now too." He said, dripping just as much water as Haru, little waterfalls running out of his hair for several seconds thanks to how long it was.



Chakra 75/90

Jutsu Learned: Suimen Hokou no Waza - Act of Water Surface Walking

In the darkness, you are never alone...

Deep down in the darkness...



Rowan cut a look at Haru when he started laughing. "I never laughed when you went for a dunk." He said, pretending to be serious for a moment before he laughed himself, walking off the river before his concentration lapsed and he fell in again or something. "Oh who am I kidding, that probably looked funny." He said, laughing as he leaned over the water to wring his soaked hair out so it stopped dripping all over him. Then he took his own shirt off, hanging it up on a conveniently placed and oddly human arm-looking piece of wood. More specifically, it was hooked over the half-clenched hand of his Naga puppet, one of the many little ways keeping the things around would come in handy.

"That would be nice at times like this, but no, I'm a Wind Jutsu user." Rowan said, seating himself down cross legged, and putting his hands together again. "I got an idea for another Jutsu from some of the scrolls back at the academy about Genjutsu. They mentioned using chakra to sharpen concentration. I think I'll give that a try now, while I'm still warmed up." Rowan said, half talking to himself and half to Haru. as it was, a quick couple of minutes with a tree blocking the light breeze would do him no harm, and experimenting with a new jutsu now, when he was already warmed up, would be a lot easier then trying it sometime later. Rowan closed his eyes and his hands shifted to the basic tiger seal in front of him, almost a habit as he focused inwards. Rowan drew a mental picture of the chakra network over his own mental body image, a basic meditation technique that helped focus inwards for techniques such as this one. Then he began to imagine the flow of chakra through his body. Nothing so detailed as the full chakra network, he wasn't a Medical ninja to have that memorized, but just general flow of chakra. Then, he slowly tried to increase the flow towards his head. Unfortunately, all he got was a mild tingling on his scalp and some slight warming of his entire head. Rowan let the energy re-assert itself back to its original flow, before trying again, this time trying to push more to his head at once. This time however, just as it had on the stream, it proved to be too much, as a sharp lance of pain hit him square in the head. Rowan let the Tiger seal break and put a hand to his forehead as the pain dulled and faded. "Ow... Alright, better to use too little then too much, got it." He said out loud, although if he was talking to himself or Haru only he knew. He was actually talking primarily to himself with that comment.

But the two failures, also as before, had led him to figuring out what he needed to do. A controlled pulse of proper strength, straight to the brain. Rowan reformed the tiger seal, focused on building the chakra pulse to just the right strength, the moving it right to his brain. Then Rowan opened his eyes, and it was like his mind opened with him. Everything seemed clearer and sharper, and his mind felt like it was sprinting where it had only walked before. "Woah... That's really awesome..." Rowan said, swinging slightly from side to side, as he just took in the sights and sounds and smells, all his senses feeling sharpened even as his mind raced on.

But, almost too soon, the feeling faded, mind going back to normal as his perceptions shifted back as well. Rowan shook his head slightly, standing up again, and grabbing his mostly dried off shirt. Thankfully, since the shirt was just light material, it dried quickly. If he needed something heavier, he could grab a cloak from Naga, which had a double layer cloak, with the inner layer able to be removed with ease, giving Rowan an easy access cloak if he got cold.



Chakra 47.5/90

Jutsu Learned: Chakra Concentration: Mind

In the darkness, you are never alone...

Deep down in the darkness...



Rowan blinked at Haru's comment about being glad there were no girls around, and his chuckling. "What? Why... Did I look funny or something?" he asked, although it was probably a stupid question, considering how Haru was reacting. But he could already think of a couple of potential uses for that new trick of his. Aside from the fact it was probably as close to feeling stoned as you could get without drugs this first time, it had actually sped up his mental processes. That could come in handy, especially for his genjutsu, where the minds speed and agility were the key factor. Which reminded him yet again of something he had heard of, a specialized genjutsu he had been wanting to try out, but simply hadn't actually asked anyone for some help. That was the core of certain genjutsu after all, to learn them through practice would only go so far. You needed another person willing to act as a target for it. Or unwilling, as the Sound Ninja used to do when Orochimaru ran business...

"Hey Haru?" Rowan asked, as he put his shirt on, then, shivering, started doing some quick stretching. Sitting on the ground trying to alter chakra flow hadn't exactly warmed him, after all. His face felt like a decent temperature, but the rest of him was cold. "I'm just curious if your willing to help me out a little bit. I've been working on a new Genjutsu, but it's one of the ones I need someone to use it on. It isn't inherently painful like some of the higher-up ones, plus I bet you'll be wanting to know about it in case you run into it on one of your missions." Rowan said as he stretched, trying to warm up a little. He figured it was better to lay everything out on the table from the start. It would be faster, easier, and honestly it made more sense. It wasn't like he had any intent to harm Haru after all, so why bother hiding it?



Chakra 50/90

In the darkness, you are never alone...