KaizenMinoru 改善 山崎實 Lotus of the Mist Weapon Specialist | Speed | Gobi Host | Chakra Control | Dance of the Thunder God
"We are the culmination of every choice we have ever made..."
Picking up the next scroll, marked as genin level techniques, Kai quickly broke the seal and began looking over the techniques listed. Quite a few useful techniques here, let's start with the basic of all basics, a clone, Kai thought to himself as he set the scroll down and took a few steps away. He had created plenty of clones before, and this one seemed like it should be no harder to master than the others. Picturing the seals in his head, Kai slowly went through them to commit them to memory and get his hands used to the sequence. After a few times, he flashed through the seals once more, this time at battle speed, before nodding his head, sure that he had the seals memorized. [1/5 Yojin Bunshin no jutsu]
Now to add chakra into the mix, Kai thought to himself as he began performing the seals, forcing a thin layer of Katon chakra to rest just atop his skin. As he had learned with other clones, the trick to creating a mirror image was to give the chakra a shape before projecting it away from his body. "Katon: Yojin Bunshin no Jutsu," Kai said as he pushed the chakra away from his body to stand next to him. In a roar of flame a mirror image of Kai appeared, eyes a brilliant ruby-red. Waving at the clone, Kai smiled in satisfaction as it waved back. [2/5]
Turning back towards the scrolls, Kai took two steps when a sudden explosion sounded behind him, throwing him forward violently. Throwing out an arm, he quickly righted himself with a flip that set him facing the direction of the explosion, one hand immediately flying to the blades at his waist as he sought out the source of the threat. As his eyes swept over the room however, all he saw was a large char mark where his clone had been standing. Letting himself relax, Kai shook his head in consternation, clearly something wasn't quite right. With a sigh, Kai walked towards the center of the room, making sure to keep well away from his scrolls this time as he prepared to try again. [3/5]
The clone is of course supposed to explode, he thought to himself as he tried to puzzle out what might have gone wrong, but not until it's attacked or I detonate it on purpose. It must not have been stable enough, but how do I give it enough stability to hold back the explosion? As he thought over the problem, a realization dawned on him, perhaps he just needed to focus more chakra into creating the explosion's container than the explosion itself. Flashing through the hand-seals once more, Kai created another film of katon chakra over his skin before saying, "Katon: Yojin Bunshin no Jutsu." [4/5]
Projecting the shell of chakra next to where he stood, this time Kai made sure to thicken the shell to reinforce it. As the clone formed once more in a roar of flame, Kai took a few cautionary steps back. As the two Kaizen's stood there staring at each other, the original began to count down from ten. three... two... one. Lifting his hands up in front of his face as if expecting the clone to explode at the end of his count-down, Kai waited for a moment before peeking behind his clone to see his clone standing there shaking its head, an amused grin playing on its lips. "And there's number two." [5/5 Katon: Yojin Bunshin learned]
"... but sometimes, the right choice isn't always clear."
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 8:12 am
SarutobiMokkuzai Redwood of the Mist テキスト翻訳 Suiton| Mokuton| Earth l ANBU l
Standing in the lobby of the Kirigakure training facility, Sarutoby stared up at the clock behind the shinobi receptionist. They were late, the whole lot of them. Exhaling through his nostrils, he wondered what sort of punishment to dish out. After all, it had been quite some time since Sarutobi had to actually train anyone. For the past year, the ANBU member had been back and forth within the village, doing some work for the Mizukage. More specifically, apart from using any extra time they had to hunt for traces of Zane Hajime, he was put into an elite scouting team sent to Iwagakure to survey the land. In recent times, Luo had begun to set his eyes on the land that was left abandoned after recent events. At first, they were only sent to survey the area, and just as well do the people who still remained in the outskirts a favor by snuffing out any rogue shinobi factions they found. However, after they returned with information that lined up with information Luo had received from Iwa refugees, the orders changed.
It had become apparent to Sarutobi that the man he had accompanied on a few missions and attended the chuunin exams with wanted to know just what the hell was happening in that place. The reports he received of magnetic fields and floating debris made Luo curious, and admittedly so. That was when Sarutobi and his team were sent once again to attempt to figure out the cause of this phenomena, all the while taking geological and ecological reports to bring back. The way Sarutobi saw it, Luo was planning a very delicate plan to seize some of that land in the name of Kirigakure. Although Sarutobi was curious as to why, the first reason that came to mind was definitely that the maneuver allowed Kirigakure a better look at what the other villages were up to. Just as well, he figured the land could be used as a military outpost for Kiri, allowing them to be closer to any allies they had in times of peril. Either way, it seemed the team came back with some good news, and earned a leave of stay for the upcoming weeks.
The man wondered how Masaki had been doing, having not seen him since the year before's festival of lights. Well rather, having not seen him with the boy's knowledge of him being there. He kept an eye on the boy when he could from a distance, remembering somewhat bitterly the actions that boy took that day. When he requested information on the boy's progress from Luo, Sarutobi was proud to see he had taken up a weapon style. Still, Masaki's training had not ended in the year past. He decided to wait a while as far as approaching the question that caused their falling out, however as his duty to the boy's father and his sensei, he feared it was only a matter of time until it came back up. For now however, he couldn't wait to get him into tip top fighting shape. He had been charged with training two genin for the summer, three if time allowed it. For now, he waited...albeit impatiently...for his students to get there.
Somewhere between his shop and the training facility, Matsuya had acquired a apple-flavored ice pop. He let it dangle from his mouth a bit, keeping it secure with his lips. He had a look of contentment on his face as he approached the building. As Matsuya entered the facility he saw yet another ANBU agent. This one seemed different somehow, though. Matsuya leaned against the wall, his hands tucked into the pockets of his trousers, still sucking on what remained of the ice pop. Matsuya's mind began wandering through meaningless calculations and hypothetical situations, as it always did when he was without something to do. Due to his absence, Matsuya could only surmise that Luo wasn't personally heading this boot camp. If that was the case, he'd send someone with enough training and experience to do it in his stead. Matsuya cringed a bit as he remembered the training sessions Luo, he, and the others had gone through. It was because of those experiences that Matsuya always double checked that there were no open fires around when doing push ups. And so Matsuya stood, wondering what this whole thing had to do with him.
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:01 am
Masaki walked lazily into the training center as per the notice he had received. He was a bit late, but wasn't super worried, merely confused about the events at the market bridge. After all that travel, and even fighting off that snake that wasn't a snake, they were disbanded at the last second before completing the mission. Masaki wondered if he would even get payed for the whole deal. He never did see the snake thing again, which in itself was odd since it seemed so interested in capturing that paper. It was a very odd, and wasteful day, not to mention immoral. He had been asked to protect someone who was too weak to even try and protect himself. He had been yelled at for attempting to track an enemy, even when he was still capable of continuing the mission (foul as it was) and protecting the transport. He stopped his train of thought early, as he entered the building. No use getting upset about it now. The lady in front merely pointed down the hall when she saw him. They were supposed to report to a training center for squad assignment, but that was clearly not the only reason. It wasn't a squad assignment center after all. Perhaps they would be tested, or trained.
Taiki made his way into the training facility, he was later than the last shinobi that walked inside, but he had just been released from the hospital so if anything he had an excuse to be late. He knew he had been slacking a bit on his training, but it wasn't his fault to be fair. For now he would just wait and see what was wanted of him as he stood in the lobby, arms crossed, waiting for directions.
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:26 pm
SarutobiMokkuzai Redwood of the Mist テキスト翻訳 Suiton| Mokuton| Earth l ANBU l
As people seemed to show up, albeit all late save for Matsuya, Sarutobi turned around to face the group. He gave a bow towards Matsuya before his eyes fell on the children. "Both of you are late, which is rather unfortunate." By this point Sarutobi paced back and forth parallel to them, his hands cupped neatly behind his back in a military-like fashion. "For those of you unaware, I am Sarutobi Mokkuzai. The man over there is Matsuya. We are to train both of you separately and then test your skills in an exhibition spar between the both of you followed by a joint mission evaluation. Apparently in light of recent missions the Mizukage has personally witnessed go awry, as well as read about, the genin in this village seem to be slacking off. It is his belief that this years batch of genin seem to have lost confidence in battle, as well as the ability to operate efficiently on missions. Basically, Luo is not happy with any of you. This training will include field training in different locations around the village to hone your mission skills. They will operate as real-life mission simulations. Beyond that there will be combat training to prepare you for the sparring exhibition. The second evaluation will be a final simulation mission with both of you on the same squad. The intention is to operate together with peak efficiency after having the chance to observe your comrade's skills in combat. I have been informed to tell you both, failure is not an option."
Sarutobi let what he had just said sink in, his eyes darting from one genin to the other. He hoped in explaining everything he had also informed Matsuya of why he was called here. Clearing his throat, Sarutobi spoke again after a few moments. "I will be training and evaluating Masaki, while Matsuya will train and evaluate you Matsumaya Taiki. Now, if there are no questions, follow your sensei to one of the available training rooms. I'm going to be frank with the both of you. If the Mizukage has directly addressed this issue and instructed the entire village's genin to undergo training, it means this situation is under his supervision personally. I don't know what happened to cause him to issue this official statement, but it put that man on edge which is hard to do. Whatever he has in the works for the future, he wants to make sure all of his shinobi have their allegiances in place, as well as skill surpassing those of genin of any other village. It is the reputation of the mist village that is at stake here, so let's take this seriously. Understood?"
Masaki groaned as soon as he realized this was Sarutobi. which inevitably meant they would be training together again. he would have much preferred to train in doton, suiton or taijutsu than learn anything from him. Still, if he didnt bring anything up, Masaki wasn't about to either. He simply listened quietly to the speech and nodded, keeping as straight a face as possible. Even though he knew his poker face wasn't exactly perfected. Even many non-shinobi could usually tell his mood when he tried to hide it. "Can i get Matsu...tashizawa van yegerman jenson to train me instead?" He stated as calmly as possible.
Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:32 pm
SarutobiMokkuzai Redwood of the Mist テキスト翻訳 Suiton| Mokuton| Earth l ANBU l
Before Masaki could get past 'Matsu' Sarutobi had already begun moving towards the boy. He had prepared for an outburst from Masaki, and the letter he got that morning from Luo also prepared for an outburst. They usually went somewhat unchecked when the situation allowed it, however this one simply did not. He made no strides to touch Masaki, instead only appearing in front of him not one foot away with his hands still behind his back as he voice boomed through the hallway, "No." He made no attempt to shout, personally believing shouting was basically the most ineffective way to talk to anyone. Even he was immediately agitated when someone shouted at him. No, the answer was in a raised tone, firm and authoritative. As he stared down at Masaki, he decided to n** his behavior in the bud, or at the least tame it.
"Masaki, you have been chosen specifically to train under a member of the Kirigakure ANBU. It is only out of coincidence and convenience for the village that I am here. Do not mistake my presence as a kind gesture, and in fact forget my face behind this mask." As he placed his mask on Sarutobi continued. Inwardly he sighed to himself, he couldn't believe what he was even doing. He hated talking for so long, even he tuned himself out as he spoke. Still, it was what had to be done apparently, so he obliged. "The reason an ANBU regimen was chosen for you, is because the Mizukage believes you have lost confidence, breeding a poor constitution. Out of anyone in this room, you hold no place to make requests." It was something he didn't want to mention, in fact he wished to avoid it. However, it seemed as usual Masaki was going to fight him the whole way through the ordeal, from beginning to end. If that was the case, he refused to have his feelings get in the way of his duty. Whatever happened to the kid in recent events seemed to make the Mizukage believe he'd lost a keen edge the man saw in the child. Sarutobi was there to set him on the road to getting it back, or at least trying.
During Sarutobi's speech, Matsuya's ice pop had melted in his mouth, leaving only the stick. A light frown formed on his lips as he moved the wood stick around with his tongue. He let out a small, quiet sigh as Sarutobi continued his speech. So Luo was appointing Matsuya as a teacher. It only made sense, given the situation. Once the ANBU started speaking of being stronger than other villages, Matsuya tuned out. That had always been the Kirigakure attitude. If you couldn't negotiate, a simple military engagement would do. It was a bit funny to Matsuya, really. As a child, he'd embraced that attitude, even encouraged it with his actions. But when he'd served his term as Hokage, he'd always attempted to come to peaceful solutions to politics. Matsuya sighed again as he considered the prospect of fighting. He'd hoped that his fight to avenge Asami would be the last time he'd have to raise his blade with the intention of killing. If it was war with Konoha and Zin, Matsuya had already pledged his loyalty and his blade to that cause.
Matsuya snapped out of his thoughts as Sarutobi told them who'd be training with who. Matsuya looked over at the boy he was to train. So his name was Taiki Matsumaya. Well it was time to see what the kid could do. Matsuya yawned, his mouth stretching wide with the ice pop stick still in it. He gave a small motion with his head for Taiki to follow him to a training room near them. As Matsuya walked away, he heard the other boy protest his training with Sarutobi. Matsuya laughed to himself and turned to Masaki. "I'm not that good of a teacher, I promise. Sarutobi is much better at it then me, no matter how quiet and cruel he may seem. The cruel ones always make the best trainers." Matsuya gave them both a wide grin and then continued his walk to the training room. He sat down on the floor of the room, cross-legged and waited for Taiki to join him.
Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 7:41 pm
Masaki frowned, watching sarutobi closely, his expression blank. "I'm not sure Luo gets it.Still, I'm past it already." The last mission was probably what provoked this whole deal. Luo was clearly upset with Masaki's opinion. That was a most fundamental understanding, and if nothing else Masaki knew Luo didn't understand that. Like most people, his morals were corrupted for the benefit of the weak. "Fine." Masaki bowed his head. "Where do we start?"
There was no surprise to Tai that the Mizukage wasn’t happy with any of the Genin of the village, but he also believed that he was expecting too much out of them. Tai himself had been in an ambush some days prior and was in the hospital, yet he was being expected to undergo some extensive training with a guy that had the same last name as him, though were not related. He stood with arms crossed as the Shinobi spoke and then switched his focus from one teacher to the other. He now looked at the other Matsumaya in the room. ‘So he’s my teacher?’ He thought seeing the head gesture that was given to him by his ‘sensei’, and followed him there. Tai wasn’t sure what to make of his current “situation” because he didn’t really care much for it. It was true that he had been slacking, even prior to his injuries, but it wasn’t something sensible to do to send him to some extensive boot camp training right off the bat after losing consciousness in the village gates.
Tai sat in front of his teacher the same way he was, legs crossed and looked at him straight in the eye. “So what’s the deal? Who are you?” He didn’t waste any time asking the quintessential question to the other man. The last name Matsumaya wasn’t one that was all that common amongst the ninja world, so it only begged to be asked if they held some relation to each other. “And further more, how exactly can YOU train me?” His tone showed that he wasn’t all too pleased with being there but he would have to suck it up and see how he could make the most out of his little situation in the ‘boot camp’.
iMat-kun
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 2:38 pm
Matsuya raised an eyebrow as the boy questioned him. Taiki wanted to know who he was and what he could teach. Interesting. Matsuya grinned, keeping the eye contact the boy had initiated. He thought for a moment, considering whether he should reveal identity. Sarutobi had already said his name, so there was no helping it. "My name is Matsuya Komihachi, sannin of Kirigakure and former Hokage. My hobbies include writing and traveling. My favorite food is any recipe with apples in it." Matsuya's grin grew as he purposely toyed with Taiki's questions. In many cases, including this one, Matsuya preferred to be humorous and sarcastic, as apposed to serious. Taking everything seriously led to stress and stress impeded Matsuya's thinking, which was something that would be disastrous for him to lose.
Matsuya tapped his chin, thinking of the answer for the next part. "I've mastered the Fire element. So I can teach you most anything you'd like to know in that area, assuming you have the skill to learn it. I'm also skilled in Water and Lightning jutsu, if that interests you. In the way of hand-to-hand and swordplay, I'm overall useless in formal styles. Though, I'll be more than happy to learn one if you wish to be taught in that area." Matsuya kept the ice pop stick between his teeth as he grinned at the boy. "Any other questions?"
Hearing that the man was a Sanin made no impression on Taiki, rank meant nothing to him; other than the rank of kage, unless you proved yourself worth. He had his arms crossed, looking at Komihachi, listening now as he said his skills. "I'm not going to lie-" He broke his silence getting up, feeling a stinging pain on his side due to the wounds he had contracted that had not healed to a hundred percent. "-most of your skills are useless to me, but you have lightning element, which I can very much use. My name is Taiki Matsumaya. I come from a little town outside of the village, which was recently attacked and destroyed. My elements are Earth and Lightning, I have little use for hobbies as I haven't found one that entertains me for to long, I'll gladly eat anything that moves so long as I can hold it down and cook it. There isn't a hand to hand style that actually catches my eye, much less a sword style. I don't do getting up close to my enemy; it opens a higher possibility of getting injured." He stopped talking and stared at Matsuya, expecting something from him, anything at all that would prove interesting, or at least Sanin-like.
iMat-kun
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:39 pm
Taiki's uninterested attitude only entertained Matsuya further. If the boy didn't wish to learn from him, Matsuya wasn't going to force him to do so. A small grin slowly spread across Matsuya's lips as he watched the boy, staying in the sitting position. "You say you don't like to be close to your enemy? And yet here you stand, overly trusting of a man whose name you didn't learn until a moment or two ago. You know neither my allegiance or my true power, so why would you stand so close?" Matsuya's eyes slowly closed and his grin widened. Perhaps, he could teach this boy a thing or two. He'd missed teaching and for some reason, Taiki reminded Matsuya of himself before he'd left Kirigakure as a child.
As he sat with his eyes closed, Matsuya's shadow had started slowly creeping out towards Taiki's feet. He had no intention of using any of his clan's jutsu on the boy, Matsuya only wanted to make a point. His mastery of the ascension to the second stage of his clan's abilities had allowed him to freely manipulate his shadow without any chakra. Matsuya's eyes slowly opened and looked up at Taiki and said nothing. The small grin now spread his face from ear to ear, the popsicle stick still gripped in his teeth. Matsuya would wait and see if the boy noticed the fact that a shadow was circling his feet slowly. Then their real training would begin.
SarutobiMokkuzai Redwood of the Mist テキスト翻訳 Suiton| Mokuton| Earth l ANBU l
As Matsuya went to a training room on the left, Sarutobi turned right down the hallway, opening one of the doors. Turning the lights on, he walked towards the middle of the room. This room particularly had been curated by Sarutobi for the past week himself. The conical shape of the building itself allowed for ceilings that reached all too high, meaning Sarutobi was able to turn the room into a mini forest. In the middle there was a clearing, a ring fifteen feet by fifteen feet. With his hands behind his back, he waited for Masaki to approach. As he did, Sarutobi further explained Masaki's situation. "This training as you are I'm sure aware of has to do with your recent mission with the Mizukage, however the reason is not one you are thinking of. I was asked to tell you your efforts to track the summon through the forest with a clone, were commendable. It was good that you thought on your feet. Just as well, there was a reason for the effort to be halted, one I honestly couldn't tell you." It was clear even Sarutobi was a bit confused about why Luo halted Masaki from doing what shinobi needed to do, think on their feet. The guy was a bit of a mystery sometimes.
"In that attack, the Mizukage saw what were the quite safe boundaries of Kirigakure, broken" It was true to be honest. Since Luo had stepped in as acting Kage, rouges and traitors were flushed out of the village in a huge effort no doubt completed by the shinobi force of Kirigakure at Luo's command. It had been quite some time since an attack had happened within its shores. "It ua the duty of all the assigned sensei to strengthen the resolve of Kirigakure's youth, if only to make sure no shinobi is unprepared. This training will consist of tracking mainly, with light combat integrated. The goal here is not to overwhelm the target with jutsu, but to apprehend them in a quick, quiet manner. This isn't to say using jutsu to trap or otherwise incapacitate your target isn't allowed, we're just going to focus meanly on tracking and hunting though. Any questions about the exercise, or shall we begin?"
