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The massive flurry of sand did nothing more then engulf the flames, smothering the air fueling it and putting it out with a snuff of smoke, only a few diamond like portions falling to the earth as the sand will then overwhelm Kanji in one foul swoop. Smothering him in an instant, as Ares simply raises his hand, slowly closing it into a fist in order to activate the Sand Waterfall Funeral technique, and hoping that it will indeed crush his opponent easily, and end this battle once and for all. Ares shakes his head slowly, should something happen that would cause this battle to continue further, he would draw in the reigns of the Hunter nin not too far away. Ares had come on different objectives then that of killing a missing nin. Of course he was fulfilling rights he needed to on other areas of trade, namely his own Organization's order. With a chuckle he squeezes his hand shut, finishing this man off and ending this battle once and for all, blood splattering from the squeezing sand as the sand becomes a crimson color in some areas thanks to the blood. it was about time that this shinobi was defeated. They had a lot to learn, and their time in this specific clan was over and done with as it may seem. He smirks and soon drops his arms to his side, awaiting the sand and corpse to fall to the ground.

Maeva and Nirvana casually made their way through the forests in order to observe the battle that was raging before them. They were both here for one thing, the soul and body of the shinobi that was being killed right now. What a worthwhile thing to be traveling all this way to gain. Nirvana giggles as she stands there, awaiting the final moments so she could drain away and devour the soul.

Leiko waited patiently for her sensei to appear. She had been away for her exam that she knew she didn’t pass. She wasn’t expecting to pass. It wasn’t like she really got to do much of anything while she was there. She sighed as she looked up at the sky, wondering what was going on and what was happening. She also worried about her Sensei. Last she knew of her, she was in trouble. “Where is everyone?” she said out loud. Not that anyway was there to hear her.

Leiko shrugged. “It’s not like there won’t be any more chances. So I bombed this one. Not like I can’t train, become stronger and then dominate the next exam.” Leiko smiled a bit as she stood up. “I don’t know where Inori is. Last I saw her was before the exam. She was looking for you.” Leiko brushed the dirt off her knowing full well that she was only going to get dirty again. “Do you want me to go find her?

Syrahn walks up to the Ichiraku Noodle Bar. He finds Naruto and asks, "Naruto, can you please teach me Kage Bushin no jutsu?" Naruto finishes his bowl of ramen, "Who are you?" Syrahn gets him and Naruto bowls of ramen, "I'm Takeshi Nara, Shikamaru's cousin." Naruto slurps some ramen, "Oh, Shikamaru, that lazy bum. Okay I'll teach it too you." Syrahn bows, "Thank you Naruto-san." Naruto finishes his ramen and gets up, "Okay follow me." Naruto leads Syrahn to the forest where Naruto learned the kage bushin no jutsu. "Okay, its simple, but it uses a lot of chakra.” Naruto instructed, making twenty shadow clones.
"The kage bushin no jutsu or shadow clones is a good technique and creates multiple shadow clones.” Naruto informed. "Right, Kage bushin no jutsu!” Syrahn yelled, making the hand sign. He made about eight clones this time. "Good, good.” Naruto said. Syrahn repeated the technique and now made thirteen clones. Naruto told him,” keep trying as long as you like, but don't kill yourself." Syrahn nodded,” I’ll make sure I don't push too hard." Naruto and Syrahn repeated the kage bushin no jutsu, making their clones fight each other and continued this until they were exhausted.
Naruto and Syrahn went over too the ramen bar and ate some more and then returned to training. Naruto charged at Syrahn, but Syrahn countered with kage bushin no jutsu, making thirty clones attack Naruto. Naruto countered with thirty-one clones, sending himself and a clone at Syrahn. Syrahn made ten clones to attack them and when a clone hit Naruto, he substituted behind Syrahn and kicked him, but Syrahn substituted and punched Naruto. They both sat down. "Huff, huff, you're good kid.” Naruto said, but just then Syrahn turned out to be a clone. "Huh!? When did he do that?” Naruto yelled, jumping up.
Syrahn yelled "Kage bushin no jutsu!" One-hundred clones came down from the trees. Naruto was able to take out most of them, but a few remained and hit him and then disappeared. Naruto stood up, "Man you're good." Syrahn sat on the ground, "Huff, huff, huff. This is so tiring." Naruto started to leave, "Meet me back here tomorrow night." Syrahn got up and headed home. Syrahn stopped for a quick bowl of ramen. He sat down, resting and finished the bowl. He was almost home when he heard a loud crash, "What the hell!?" Syrahn ran towards the noise.
Syrahn saw that a group of fifty robbers were pillaging a small town, just outside of the village. "Damn!" Syrahn ran too the people. The villagers were putting up a fight, but they were getting pounded. Syrahn threw a handful of shuriken at the robbers, "Mind if I cut it?" One of the robbers stepped up, "Who the hell are you? Do you have a death wish?" Syrahn stretched a little, "No, but if you're pillaging these people then obviously you do." The robbers charged at Syrahn "We'll kill you little b*****d!" Syrahn made a hand sign, "Kage bushin no jutsu!" He made sixty shadow clones. The clones pounded on the robbers and none were left standing, but then suddenly his clones were being cut down rapidly. "What the hell!?" Syrahn yelled as the leader of the robbers appeared in front of him.
The leader said, “I’m Ikkaku, the leader of the robbers you beat down." Ikkaku then charged at Syrahn thrusting his sword through his shoulder. Syrahn substituted, but not quickly enough, so he was wounded. "I don't care who the hell you are, I'll take you down for what you did to these people." Ikkaku laughed,” You? One little genin? Don't make laugh." Syrahn yelled, "Kage bushin no jutsu!" This time he made fifteen clones. Ikkaku cut them down and then sliced at Syrahn. *Poof*. "What the-? Where is he? Huh? I can't move!" Ikkaku said in a fit of rage. "Over here! Now I got you in my shadow imitation." Syrahn said, standing ten feet from Ikkaku.
Syrahn made Ikkaku toss his sword away, while substituting it with a clone. Syrahn released Ikkaku and made 5 clones attack him. Ikkaku beat them down and yelled,” One trick pony." Syrahn stood and said nothing. Ikkaku ran and picked up his sword, but it turned into a clone and kicked him in the face, knocking him out. The rest of the robbers had started to run off while Syrahn tied up Ikkaku. The villagers thanked Syrahn as he left to go back to the village to turn Ikkaku over to village authorities. He went back to his house and arrived at about nine thirty. He ate and went to sleep, preparing himself for more training tomorrow night.
Syrahn wasted away the day, doing a couple of odd job missions and hanging with some friends. Night fall came and he headed to the forest, after having a bowl of ramen. He went to the meeting place, but no one else was there. "Banzai!" he heard from above in the trees and he saw Naruto and one hundred clones drop in. "s**t! Kage bushin no jutsu!" Syrahn yelled, mustering up one hundred clones. The clones battled on until only Naruto and Syrahn stood. "Nice job, you're quick." Naruto commented. Syrahn rubbed his head, "Thanks, but next time don't ambush me from above. Some of your clones fell on me."
"Ha, ha! Yeah sorry about that." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh well. Let’s continue, kage bushin no jutsu!" Syrahn said, releasing twenty clones on Naruto. Naruto jumped back and released his own clones. Syrahn threw a windmill shuriken at the clones, taking them all out and grabbing the shuriken. Naruto made ten new clones each armed with shuriken. He instructed them to throw them at Syrahn, "Eat this!" Syrahn yelled, “You’ll have to do better than that!" making two clones to receive the shuriken.
Syrahn made eleven clones. He had ten surround Naruto and sent one up in the trees. The clones threw kunai at Naruto. Naruto hopped up, avoiding the kunai as the kunai hit the clones, "I think you need to do better." "Heh," Syrahn said as the clone sprang out of the trees, tackling Naruto to the ground. "Crap, kage bushin no jutsu!" Naruto called out, making clones under him to cushion the fall. Syrahn watched as Naruto and the clone fell into the small group. Naruto emerged from the smoke, "Okay Syrahn, you got me there. Your not quite as smart as Shikamaru, but you are smart."
"Thanks Naruto, but I think I'm done for the night." Syrahn said bending over. "No problem. You've basically mastered this technique. I hope you use it for real." Naruto said, looking up at the night sky. They both left the forest, heading for home. Syrahn headed over to Iruka sensei's house. "All right time to show Iruka sensei what I've learned, kage bushin no jutsu." Syrahn said, knocking on the door and making fifty clones. Iruka opened the door, "Hello Syrahn.......how are youuuu!?" Syrahn stood there and then the clones dissipated. "Where did you learn that, Syrahn? I'm impressed, good job." Iruka said. Syrahn answered, "Thank you. From Naruto." Iruka smiled, "I figured."
Syrahn headed back home. Syrahn walked in greeted his family and had dinner. After this he went up to his room for some well earned sleep. The next day he walked around the village and later found himself on the academy rooftop. Syrahn looked around and saw Choji Akimichi eating chips near the rail. "Hi Syrahn! Seen Shikamaru?” Choji asked. Syrahn walked towards him," Hey. No, I haven't. "Choji dropped the bag of chips and they fell over the railing. He jumped to get them and fell off the roof. "No!" Syrahn cried, and ran to the railing. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" Syrahn yelled, making a chain of clones to grab Choji. He saw Choji standing on the ground below waving up to him with the chips in his hand, "Thanks Syrahn!''

Syrahn found Jiraiya in his usual spot. He was surprised that Naruto didn't find him first. But that means Naruto won't be jumping in during his training. "Jiraiya-sama!" called Syrahn; Jiraiya didn't seem to be listening. Gathering all his breath, Syrahn shouted louder:"Ero-senin!!!!!" This caught his attention. Jiraiya hopped off the tree and put away his notes, acting all innocent like. Syrahn wasn't impressed. And he wasn't trying to hide it. "I've come here to do more training, so you must remember the deal we had." Jiraiya glowered and nodded…….
"Now this technique is a really advanced trapping and defensive move. Nobody has ever escaped this move before, except for one of those Takatsuki bastards." said Jiraiya. "You’re going to summon an esophagus, that's right, the esophagus of a giant fire-breathing toad." Jiraiya paused and scratched his head. "This does not require a contract in blood with your name, but it does need the usual kuchiyose hand seals." "This technique is a bit difficult to use out side to trap somebody, so, I suggest you use it for defensive purposes when your fighting outside."
"Now observe!" doing a string of hand seals, Jiraiya slammed the ground with both hands and suddenly they were both inside a large cavern of meat. A drop of thick liquid splattered down and dissolved a rock. "Once I command the esophagus to contract, nothing will be able to escape it." Syrahn was quite impressed. Drawing his katana, she plunged it into the meaty wall, but it didn't even leave a mark. This really was quite a good jutsu. However, there is no doubt that is takes more chakra than his ice prison technique. Syrahn made the hand seals and poured his chakra towards the jutsu. There was no white cloud, but a bunch of flesh appeared beneath Jiraiya's feet and started sucking them in. Jiraiya shook his head and pulled his leg out with some difficulty. "Don't settle for just trapping the legs, trap the entire body." Syrahn nodded while Jiraiya went off to his peeping once again. Doing the hand seals, Syrahn created a cavern around himself. She stabbed at it with her katana and it convulsed. It looked like the esophagus was in pain.If his summoned throat can be hurt, than he's probably not using enough chakra. Releasing the wall of meat, Syrahn did the hand seals and summoned another one, this time a red one just like Jiraiya's. Stabbing at it, Syrahn found that it didn't flinch and that it actually grabbed on to her katana with some sticky substance. However, there was no acid, so Syrahn decided to try again. Acid probably wasn't THAT useful, but he didn't like to be thought of as inferior to Jiraiya. "Gamaguchi Shibari!" shouted Syrahn as a giant fleshy cavern emerged and covered a small tree. A few seconds later, there was no tree left. There was just a little noxious puddle. Syrahn grinned and settled down for lunch. This was good progress, especially since Jiraiya was ignoring him and focused on spying on girls. With the absence of his instructor, training was bound to take longer. Syrahn focused on trapping another tree. This time, he commanded the esophagus to implode. And it did, crushing the tree entirely. Syrahn was having a dream about a large white fox when one of her kage bunshins woke her up. Apparently another thief was trying to break in and steal his money. Syrahn smiled at another chance to test out his new technique. The door slowly clicked open and a shadowy figure appeared. Doing his hand seals, Syrahn slammed the ground. Sensing the commotion, the intruder ran out. Suddenly, the entire corridor turned into a cavern of meat. The intruder found his foot stuck inside a puddle of slime. The intruder's scream was muffled inside the giant cavern. Syrahn wished he would shut up and let him get some sleep. She considered killing him with acid, but that would be kinda drastic. Making the esophagus contract, Syrahn effectively shut the guy up. She would worry about the thief in the morning. I would make a great ANBU member, thought Syrahn. I'll probably set the record for the greatest number of naive spies captured. Suddenly, a scream echoed down the corridor. Groaning, Syrahn realized that someone has found her esophagus.
The nest morning, Syrahn woke up with numerous complaints from his neighbors that their hallway has been converted into the esophagus of a fire-breathing toad. He did get a thank you letter from the Konoha police force for capturing another criminal, though the criminal would like to press charges against Syrahn for the trauma of being trapped in Toad Mouth Bind. Syrahn made her usual trip to the Ramen bar and found Jiraiya conversing with a woman about 20. She had blonde hair and quite a nice figure. How the hell did Jiraiya-sama hook such a girl? Thought Syrahn as their conversation became more animated. Jiraiya always said that he was too attractive to be considered a hermit, but Syrahn never took him seriously. This was seriously strange. It doesn't appear as if she is being drugged. Overcoming her curiosity, Syrahn tapped Jiraiya on the shoulder and asked him. "Oh, this is my old team mate, Tsunade!" said Jiraiya, annoyed at the fact that Syrahn would question him on this kind of thing. Syrahn almost fell over. A-because Tsunade was one of the Konoha sannin, B-because she looked kinda young for a 50-year old lady. Tsunade smiled and said "Oh, so you’re taking lessons from the old pervert. Well, don't do anything he asks you to do. And don't volunteer to become one of his research subjects like Naruto." Syrahn was incredulous, how could Naruto become his research subject? Jiraiya sensed what she was thinking and explained "Naruto used his utter genius to invent his own Oiroke no jutsu, combined with his kage bunshin, it turns into Haaremu no jutsu, the ultimate seduction technique." Syrahn was at a loss for words. Konohagakure was a weird village, with powerful ninja’s perverted hermits, and fifty year olds that look like they're twenty.

___

As Syrahn was training, Lee came up to him. He asked him a few questions as they were taking. “Do you know how to fight hand to hand, when you are not using Drunken Fist?”
“No. Not formally. I still know how to beat someone, even if I have no formal training with my hands.” Syrahn goes to the bench to take a seat.
“You will do a lot better if you have a formal training with me. I will teach you Strong Fist. It means the fighting style that beats people up.” Lee slows down, waiting for Syrahn to decide. “Sure teach me.” Syrahn gets up, and follows Lee to the training rooms. Lee was jogging all the way there. “The first thing you need to learn is, ‘Power and Speed have to be balanced.’ This doesn’t mean that if your speed is low, stop working on your power and work only on speed. Keep working on your power, but work more on your speed. Keep them balanced as you grow. You have weights that are used for speed and strength. They will help you very much with this training.” Lee gets in his fighting stance. “Are you ready to show me what you know?” “I am ready. Let us start.” Syrahn gets in his fighting stance. Right when he attacked, Lee countered the attack. Then Syrahn started to think. ”Maybe he can see what I am thinking. Or maybe I am moving too slow. He would have enough time to counter the attack. I will just have to let him attack next, and try to counter it.” “I have attacked enough times. Now it is your turn.” When he started to attack, I could see all his moves.
“You are finally noticing. You can see my attacks before I do them. That is one of the many advantages of using the Strong Fist style. It gives you a second sight of the person’s Taijutsu attacks. This is very good for counters, and reverses.” Lee continued. “Next you will learn a new part of the Strong Fist style. Attack me.”
Syrahn started to send blows at Lee. Lee started to dodge the attacks. He knew where the attacks were coming from, and when. “This is an advanced version of the Strong Fist. If you keep training, then you will learn to feel vibrations on the ground and air. This way, no one will be able to sneak up on you.” Lee then stopped, and started to attack Syrahn. Syrahn couldn’t do anything, but attack exactly like Lee. Each attack was hit by itself. None of the attacks hit the other person. “That was a technique that I was about to teach you right now. If you put the same amount of force on something that is coming at you, you will stop it. And since you have been attacking my every attack, you have stopped them all in their tracks. You have mastered the part about countering and the part about deflecting attacks.”
“The deflecting just came to me. I started to do it just because I had no other way of stopping your attacks. I was in the middle of an attack when you started to attack me. If I had another option, I would have taken it.” They both take a second to rest their bodies.
“You have master two out of three parts to this style. The last part is the attack. You can learn any kind of fighting style, but I prefer this one.” Lee once again gets in his fighting stance. This time he starts to turn, and face a bunch of bricks. He does an attack, and stops an inch away from the bricks. The bricks then all fall down. “Did you see how I did that?” “I think I did.” Syrahn starts to scratch his head. “Did you hit the bricks with your hands, and then pull your hands back really fast? If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you hit the bricks with your mind.” “Then you don’t know better. I mixed my speed with my power. That way, the force from my hands went through the air. I saw Asuma yesterday. He told me that you are an air student. He also told me that you want to learn fire as your secondary attack. You will have better control of wind if you can control the air right around you.” As he said air, he pointed up. He did it one more time. This time he stayed a bit farther. When he did it again, the bricks started to fall. Syrahn, amazed, said. “That is a nice technique. It will be very helpful once I learn some air techniques. Can we get back to the attacking process?” He put his hands up. “Now it is my turn to try.” Syrahn tried it once, but he didn’t get it right. He kept trying over, and over. Lee didn’t notice, but Syrahn was messing up on purpose. He was practicing new ways to make the attack more powerful. He finally did it the right way, and blew the bricks back. “Now you are getting it. Keep practicing that part of the technique. You will soon understand that part. However, we have to move on. You still need to learn the defense. This is probably the hardest part of the training.” Lee continued. “Regularly, you either dodge, or counter. This time, you will block. Not by your swords, or your body. You will be using the body of the person you are fighting. Use their strength against them. If they charge you, trip them. If they punch, you flip them over your shoulder. Do you get what I am saying?” “It makes sense. Are there any other parts of defense that I will need to know?” Syrahn asked as he was about to punch Lee. “Ya. Make sure you are ready to fight me.” They both get ready to fight. Lee goes easy on Syrahn, but not for long. He has to fight harder because Syrahn had learned how to attack many ways that Lee didn’t know.

___

Before Syrahn left he asked Lee one question. "Can you teach me Sleep Fighting? It sounds like a technique that I want in my darkest hour."
"That technique is used by me, but I don't really know how to teach it. I can try, but I don't think that it will be a hundred percent on the first try, Do you still want to do it? It might not work."
Syrahn thought. "If Lee can teach this to me, I might be able to master it. If it dosn't work, then it will be a waste of time. Thank God that it is easy to understand." Syrahn nodded.

"I have thought about it. You don't know if you can teach this to me, but I have faith in you. You will be able to teach it to me without any problems. One thing that I will be needing is some info on your background. Do you have a dream? Or even someone that you want to impress? Or someone you would do anything for?"
Syrahn thought for a second. "Yes I do. My...My brother. He died a while back. I will do anything for him."
"Then you have all that you need. Make a clone to watch us when we get knocked out. Tell him to wake us up if there are any problems." Syrahn does everything that Lee tells him.

"Now, hold this." Lee hands Syrahn something in a bag. "Now do Shadow Imitation, and knock us both out cold. Make sure that you give it lots of power and speed. And also, makesure that you are thinking bout " Syrahn does Shadow Imitation, and knocks them both out. Lee stands up immideatly. It takes Syrahn a couple seconds, bu he gets up. They both start fighting for their lives. They both only use Taijutsu, even though Syrahn could have done a Ninjutsu technique. The Syrahn cloe wakes them up, and tells that what happened.
"Congratulations are in order Syrahn. You learned a technique that I thought was impossible for others."


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Momiji was bored, he'd escaped the destruction of his village by only a hairsbreadth and now he was left without a home to return to, a Kage to report to, or a mission to finish. Basically, he was free to do whatever he so chose, and what he chose to do today was bum around Konoha picking fights with anyone who looked at him twice, like he mentioned before, he was bored and there was nothing really better to do.

Syrahn was walking around the village listening to music. He was supposed to be meeting up with Azal soon. They again, hadn't seen each other for years. "Byakugan!" he said, noticing a stranger in the leaf. He studied him and walked up. "You're obviously not from around here, who are you and what is your buisness in the leaf?" Syrahn said. He decided to take a little initive in his duty as a shinobi for konoha. Maybe he would be promoted to Chuunin that way or something. He also knew that the village was generally off limits to people who were not invited, expecially to other shinobi from far off villages. And this guy was DEFINETLY not from around here.

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