Strength of the Hidden Mist [Training and Training Missoins]

[Mrj9797]

Name: Training Day - Ninjutsu
Rank: C
IIC Length: 2 days
Difficulty: Moderate
Description: Since it is the spirit that rules the body, one must continue to strengthen it. Do so and find your reward in both chakra manipulation and ryo.
Objective: Train a C-ranked technique in Ninjutsu.
Reward: 8000 ryo

Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden Mist Skill)
Rank: "C" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: A Skill where a user uses the water around them to create a massive mist to fill around the user.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: ---
Description: A skill which creates a very dense fog that decreases the surrounding visibility to near zero. It produces an environment perfect for a silent assassin who follows an opponent through sound. This mist can not be blown away by any type of Wind Jutsu.
Limit: Water Release

0/30

Susumo sat on a bench on walkway in front of a ramen shop in the Hidden Mist Village. The street overlooked a canal like the many that crisscrossed the Mist Village in such a way that they were almost a second set of roads. This particular canal was about ten yards wide in a fairly quiet area of town. For Susumo, it was a perfect spot to train. Rarely did boats ever pass through the canal as it was off the beaten path and away from the busier parts of the city and few people used it for fishing. This made it a good place to train low to mid level water ninjutsu. Susumo would have to move to a different spot for some of the higher level jutsus but he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

This spot wasn’t only good for training water ninjutsu. The alley next to the ramen shop led to a grass area that had a large tree in the middle making it good for training Earth and wood jutsus. The alleys of this part of the village were also home to many cats and dogs, both stray and feral that could be used for practicing genjutsus or even medical jutsus.

Perhaps the best part of this training spot was the ramen shop right across the bench on which Susumo was sitting. Matsumoto’s Ramen was perhaps the best ramen in all of the Mist Village.

Anyhow, enough fooling around. Susumo thought. It was time to train. He got up and walked down a staircase (the canal was about six feet lower than the sidewalk) to a 3 x 3 foot concrete platform. Focusing his chakra, he walked out into the middle of the canal, balancing himself on the clear green water. Now then, the hidden mist jutsu.

Susumo started by making a few handseals and focused on simply creating mist from the water beneath him. Training the hidden mist jutsu took place in three parts: The first part involved simply creating mist. The second consisted of practicing condensing the mist into an impenetrable fog. The third and final part had the user practicing using their chakra to anchor the mist to the ground so that even wind ninjutsu couldn’t move it.

Mist began to rise up beneath his feet. Not nearly enough mist that was required for the jutsu. Perhaps enough mist to conceal one of two adults when condensed down but not nearly enough for a true hidden mist jutsu. Susumo grunted and then returned to the concrete platform and sat down. Let’s see…He began to think. I focused on simply ejecting the water into the air. Maybe I’m missing something more fundamental. He sat contemplating this possibility. He thought about water and about air. No, this jutsu didn’t need the wind release so the problem couldn’t be with the air. It almost certainly had to do with the water, the mist.

That’s it, the mist. Susumo began to reflect about mist and what caused it. Let’s see, mist is merely water suspended in the air. Most commonly seen when moist air meets sudden cooling. A lightbulb went off in Susumo’s head. Getting up with renewed interest, he walked out into the center of the canal and made the handseals. This time, in addition to chakra to eject the water into the air, he also focused on rapidly cooling the water so that it was colder than the air above it. This caused a billowing cloud of mist to rise up. It simply filled the canal and shifted with the breeze. Much of it went up either into the atmosphere or dispersed over the edge of the canal and what mist did stay could still be easily seen through. Now then, time for part two: Condensing the mist.

[Mrj9797]

0/30


Condensing the mist, how would I do that? I would assume that it would involve pulling the water molecules together. There was still enough mist in the surrounding area to practice with. He made the handseals required for the jutsu and instead of releasing water into the air, he used his chakra to grab the water particles into the air and condense them into a thick fog. Susumo reached out with his chakra and tried to pull all the water together but to no avail. The mist became only slightly denser. Susumo exerted himself but the effect was minimal at best.

After a minute Susumo gasped. Using his chakra to try and net the water particles and squeeze them together was like herding cats. He stumbled onto the concrete platform and just in time as his chakra gave out. He sighed and walked up onto the street to take a rest.

After an hour and a bowl of ramen, Susumo walked back down the stairs and back out onto the canal’s surface. While eating the ramen he thought about what he was doing wrong. Netting the mist and pulling it together clearly wasn’t working. So he turned the question over in his head and concluded that instead of pushing and holding the water particles together, he should instead try glueing them together using his chakra. In addition, instead of using mist that he already created, it would be more efficient to glue the mist as it was being created from the water.

Making the handseals, Susumo began to create the mist. As the mist rose up from the water, he released his chakra, using it to stick the water together. It didn’t require much chakra at all once he got the hang of it. As the mist rose up it formed a thick cloud that was nearly impenetrable.

He looked up at the fog surrounding him and felt proud. While he was working a wind kicked up and the fog moved away in a single cloud. Well, it was apparent that Susumo needed to learn the third part: anchoring the mist to the ground.

[Mrj9797]

0/30

Susumo thought about how to go about securing the cloud to the ground so it couldn’t be blown away. He had to hurry as his cloud was being blown away. He still had his chakra focused and was still holding the last handseal. Susumo decided to do the same thing he did with condensing the mist. He tried sending his chakra out into the mist on the bottom to make it stick to the surface of the water. The water would be good to practice with because his chakra would be assisted by hydrogen bonds. Sticking the mist to a non-water surface would be harder. The cloud of mist only jerked for a moment, easily breaking the chakra bonds. At the same time, he could also feel that the wind was tearing his chakra apart inside the mist.

Susumo tried adding more chakra to the entire cloud and focused particularly on the part that touched the surface of the water. The cloud of mist held steady, quite nicely. Despite this, Susumo released the jutsu and watched as the water floated up into the atmosphere and mixed with the mist that already covered the village. He exhaled. He had nearly exhausted himself for a second time in one day. This wasn’t right. The Hidden Mist Jutsu was supposed to be a low to mid level jutsu, but Susumo was using an absurd amount of chakra simply trying to keep the the jutsu from tearing apart in the wind. In frustration he walked back up to the sidewalk and sat on the bench to think for a moment.

Let’s see, to keep the jutsu together I tried using a chakra gluing method similar to what I used to keep the mist dense. Not only did that use a huge amount of chakra to keep up, but it wasn’t even all that effective. A few gusts of wind took it apart. Even an average wind jutsu would destroy it. The problem is definitely with the gluing method. Susumo picked up a pebble and began to turn it around in his hand. What am I trying to do? This was what he did when he was confused with a jutsu. What was he ultimately trying to accomplish? I’m trying to make an impenetrable, immobile cloud of mist. He turned around and looked at the water. I’m just trying to keep it in place. Susumo threw the stone. It hit the water with a splash and sunk to the bottom. He watched as bubbles rose to the surface before popping.

That was it.

Susumo realized that he was doing the wrong thing all along. The chakra gluing was very inefficient. He could probably create a shell around the mist to contain it. Not only would that contain the mist, but a shell like a bubble would eliminate the need for condensing the mist.

Susumo went down onto the canal. He made the handseals and water rose up around him. He then created an invisible shell with only a minute amount of chakra around the area of the jutsu. Then it hit him, he wasn’t able to easily project chakra that far. Susumo sat thinking as quickly as possible.

The mist continued to rise up before Susumo’s eyes which gave him an idea. Maybe I wasn’t entirely wrong with the chakra bending. He took some of the mist and moved it out to the perimeter of the jutsu and glued it together firmly. While creating a shell of pure chakra was very difficult, creating a shell with water particles as the bricks and his chakra as mortar was easy. It also adhered to the surface of the water well. The mist still rushed up until it filled the dome. Mist still rose up and the thin mist became a very thick fog. The wind came up again but the dome held, Susumo smiled. Here it was: The Hidden Mist Jutsu.

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Plus Twenty six.

[Mrj9797]

26/30

Susumo admired his work. There was one problem however: The jutsu took too long. The Hidden Mist was supposed to take only a second to cast but the jutsu he cast took ten seconds. He released the jutsu and took a rest. The mist drifted up into the air as it was no longer bound by the chakra shell. The issue now was to speed up the jutsu. He thought again. The problem is that I’m not creating the mist fast enough. Susumo revisited the question of creating mist.

Mist can also form when warm air over land meets cool air over water. I’m already cooling the water to make it colder than the air above it. What if I try adding using my chakra to cool the air around me? Its not the kind of manipulation that requires the wind release. I could simply cool the water vapor that’s already in the air.

Susumo made the handseals again, this time he also used his chakra to cool a layer of air above him. Mist formed faster but still not as fast as he would have liked. He released the jutsu and watched the mist drift off into the air.

Let’s see, the jutsu took six seconds. It is only supposed to take a second. Susumo frowned as he realized something else. I’m only covering the canal. This jutsu is supposed to cover an entire area.

He decided it would be best to work on the speed of the jutsu before worrying himself about the area.

What if I try creating multiple layers of warm and cold air? Right now I have cold water, warm air, and then cold air above that.

Susumo made another set of handseals. He created multiple alternating layers of warm and cold air. He was not ready for the result. He had creating even more mist than before. Mist exploded out and pushed against the chakra shell. He struggled to expand it and ended up covering the entire block in a shroud of mist in the space of a second.

“Well I guess some problems take care of themselves.” Susumo smiled. “Now to go back to the tower and get paid.” He was then hit with a realization in the form of many annoyed shouts from the street above. Susumo was reminded that he wasn’t the only one in that block. He quickly released the jutsu and used the remaining mist to go in the direction of the Mizukage’s Tower hidden from the angry shoppers who were on the street.

[Father 'Suke]

+4; learned

[Mrj9797]

SPOILER: Click to show

New Missions 

Name: Training Day - Genjutsu
Rank: C
IIC Length: 2 days
Difficulty: Moderate
Description: Take pride in having the ability to strike fear into the hearts of your foe. Learn how to perfect the craft.
Objective: Train a C-ranked technique in Genjutsu.
Reward: 8000 ryo

Name: Training Day - Taijutsu
Rank: D
IIC Length: 1 day
Difficulty: Easy
Description: The Mizukage requests that his shinobi be strong in body. Train a basic Body Art technique and reap the benefits of physical labor.
Objective: Train a D-ranked technique in Taijutsu.
Reward: 4000 ryo

Name: The More, The Merrier
Rank: C
IIC Length: [Depends on IIC Length of total missions taken]
Difficulty: [Depends on Difficulty of total missions taken]
Description: To increase the supplements of the village ninja, the Lord of Mist has decided to reward those who take on more than one mission at a time.
Objective: Take on at least two missions at once!
Reward: 4000 ryo

Sensory Deprivation
Rank: "C"
Skill: GenJutsu
Effect: Rather than creating an illusion of something, this Jutsu creates an illusion of absolute nothingness.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: ---
Description: A Mind-Affecting Technique. Affects 1 living creature. The user is able to perform this technique at a distance of 30 meters plus 15 meters per class level. The duration of this technique lasts for 5 rounds per class level. This technique may be negated. The Jutsu effect surrounds the target in a dark clinging shadow only it perceives, which blocks all auditory, olfactory, taste, and visual sensations. In addition, it blocks finely tuned senses of touch such as those that provide a creature with Tremorsense. A subject that fails its save is blinded and deafened, it gains no benefit from blind sensing techniques. The subject retains any telepathic or empathic links it might possess with other creatures while affected by the Jutsu.
Limit: Must know the Phantasm Perception.

Susumo sat in the alley of his normal training area. Before him was a stray cat that he had managed to cage. This cat was unruly like you wouldn’t believe but Susumo had managed to calm it down with a bit of milk and a piece of fish. It would be ideal for training the sensory depravation jutsu as if it lost sight, it would react in a way that he would immediately know.

Anyhow, time to get down to business. One trained the sensory deprivation by practicing cutting off the parietal lobe of the brain, which processed all incoming sensory information, from each lobe that controlled the senses individually, and then putting it all together and completely depriving the lobe of any kind of sensory input.

Susumo took from his backpack two objects: A diagram of the brain that listed the functions of the various part of the brain and a bottle of smelling salts. One started by cutting off the farthest are from the parietal lobe and working inward. Susumo started the small part of the frontal lobe which control the sense of smell. He put the smelling salts under the cat’s nose who was currently lapping a bowl of milk. The cat jumped back once the aroma hit its nostrils. This was to just to see if they worked. Susumo made the handseals and reached into the cat’s brain who had returned to lapping its milk. He prodded around in the neurons connecting the parietal and frontal lobes. While he was doing so the cat screamed, then went completely deadpan, then started doing the cat equivalent of crying while Susumo poked clumsily around in its brain. “Mustn’t mess too much with the part of the brain that controls personality”. Susumo said outloud to himself. He stopped all chakra within the cat’s brain and gave it a moment to calm down.

He focused his chakra down near the part of the cat’s brain that controlled smell trying to avoid everything else in the frontal lobe. He held it for a moment before getting up and putting the smelling salts below the cat’s nose. It didn’t react at all. “Well that went smoothly enough.” He said. “Now then, onto the next one.” He looked at the diagram. Next came cutting off the vision part of the occipital lobe.

Next Susumo took out a laser pointer, the kind one would find in an office or on a keychain and shown it into the cat’s cage. The cat looked at it apprehensively and pawed experimentally at the small red dot. Susumo looked at it with amusement and then shut off the laser pointer. The cat looked surprised and looked around, finally fixing on Susumo. He merely smiled and made another set of handseals and focused on the back of the cat’s small brain. He forced his chakra to cut off the communication between the occipital and parietal lobes. He picked up the laser pointer and pointed it into the cage. The cat pawed at it but not accurately. Before it could hit the red dot but not anymore. “I must have affected its depth perception somehow. Not quite what I’m going for.” He put the laser pointer down and made the handseals again a little more chakra into the cat’s mind and focused on creating a barrier within its brain. Finally the cat looked up and started looking around. Susumo shined the laser pointer but it didn’t react.

“Well there we go.” He said. Now for the other parts of the brain. He looked back at the diagram.

((OOC: The sources I’m using for this: askabiologist.asu.edu/what-your-brain-doing
and www.brainandspine.org.uk/anatomy-brain ))

[N A T S U M I]

+8; horrible cat-hater -.- So mean...

[Mrj9797]

8/30

The next two steps included cutting off the part of the temporal lobe associated with hearing along with weakening the sense of touch. Touch couldn’t be cut off entirely but one could dull it so that things like tremor sense didn’t work.

Susumo pulled another item out from his backpack, a whistle. He blew it and the cat immediately took notice. He gave it a moment to lose interest and return to its bowl of milk which was nearly empty. Susumo was surprised that the cat stayed calm even after all it was put through. Now then, time to cut off the cat’s hearing. He made the handseals and sent his chakra into the part of the temporal lobe that controlled hearing. What made this part difficult was that this particular part of the temporal lobe rested right against the parietal lobe. Susumo sent his chakra into the cat’s brain and tried to block the individual neurons. The cat looked around in surprise as it seemed that it could no longer hear the usual hum of machinery that was ever present in the mist village. As soon as Susumo released it the cat stopped as if it could hear the machinery again.

“Hmm, this takes too much focus. I have to hold the jutsu or it stops working. The sensory depravation jutsu is supposed to be a “fire and forget” jutsu.” Susumo stared at the feline in consternation. “Blocking the individual neurons also isn’t very time efficient.” He turned the problem over and over in his head. “What if instead of affecting the individual nuerons, why don’t I just form a wide barrier of chakra?”

Susumo made the handseals again. Instead of coating the individual neurons with chakra to block their electric signals, he formed a solid barrier of chakra. The barrier wouldn’t need him to constantly focus to stay together. The cat started growling and attacking the bars of the cage. It was clearly furious with Susumo. He released the chakra from its brain. It began to calm down though not all at once.

“Now what did I do?” He looked at the diagram and noticed that the temporal lobe controlled emotion. “So that’s it. My barrier must be too wide and unstable. The chakra in the barrier is probably touching something in the temporal lobe that it's not supposed to.” Susumo took a bottle of milk out and refilled the cat’s bowl of milk. The cat, which was still a little on edge, calmed down after sampling the liquid. Susumo watched it thinking about a solution to his current problem. “Well it's obvious that I need to practice condensing my chakra. This should be easy.” Being a medical shinobi, Susumo had expert chakra control. But it was obvious that there was room for improvement.

He held his hands out infront of him with the palms facing eachother. He focused his chakra in his hands which started to glow with a faint blue light. He strained and created a small wall of chakra in between his hands. Creating chakra in the air was much harder than creating one inside a living body. The wall was a 10 x 10 centimeter rectangle and was about a millimeter wide. No, this was too wide. Even being a millimeter would touch and affect a multitude of neurons within the brain. He pressed and compressed the chakra, nine tenths of a millimeter, three fourths, one half Susumo strained trying to press the chakra together. Four tenths, one quarter. The chakra was becoming less and less visible. One tenth. “Just a little smaller.” With a monumental effort, Susumo squeezed the chakra down below being seen with the naked eye. He gasped for air, this had taken a huge toll on him.

After a ten minute break he repeated the exercise. Then once more after another ten minute break. Seeing as the chakra compression got gradually easier, he only took a five minute break after his second practice. After two more tries, he felt his had gotten it down and was able to make a small amount of chakra without straining himself.

He made the handseals and created a very barrier of chakra within the cat’s brain. It was markedly easier as the barrier he had to create was both smaller and was around living tissue. Again, the cat took notice of the absence of any kind of sound. Susumo picked up the whistle and blew it. The cat was looking around confused and didn’t notice the whistle. He released the jutsu and the cat stared at an air conditioning unit in the alley as if it was wondering why the machine seemed to be starting and stopping.

“Well now that that bump in the road is solved, time for the next step.”

[Father 'Suke]

This guy, yeah... this guy gets a +10

[Mrj9797]

18/30

Only two more steps remained: Reducing the sense of touch and then putting it all together. Dampening the sense of touch promised to be as if not more difficult than eliminating the hearing. The part of the parietal lobe controlled touch was nigh on impossible to block off from the rest of the lobe. However, one could use a bit of chakra to muddle the parietal lobe’s communication with the brain stem slightly so that lighter feelings wouldn’t be felt. To do this required finding positioning and calibrating one’s chakra along the brainstem to fully allow neural communications that flowed down through the brainstem to the rest of the body but slightly reduce the ones traveling up towards the parietal lobe.

Susumo sighed, this jutsu required more chakra control than some medical jutsus. He shut his eyes and focused in on the place where the cat’s spine met its brainstem. He sent a little bit of chakra into that area. Not to affect anything but only to observe. The chakra could help map which neural connections sent signals where. He then made a few handseals to focus his chakra and sent it throughout the cat’s nervous system. Taking out a feather, he touched the cat with it on the back. It lurched and Susumo felt the electrical pulse go up the cat’s spine and through its brainstem. He couldn’t exactly get a fix on where exactly the pulse went through seeing as it went at the speed of light but had a general idea due to where his chakra was disturbed. He touched the cat again and felt another pulse through his chakra. He had a closer idea but still couldn’t get a fix on it.

He replaced his chakra and touched the cat a third time. There it was! Susumo had found where the group of Neurons was. He touched it again just to make sure. The cat was now staring him down, clearly not pleased. No doubt about it. Now all that was left was adding the correct amount of chakra to it. He made the handseals again. he had already practiced fully blocking two lobes from communicating with each other and weakening the signals of a group of neurons couldn’t be that hard right?

Susumo made the handseals and sent his chakra into the base of the cat’s skull. He positioned it around the neurons and focused it, trying to push it together so that it would only affect the pertinent neurons. The amount of chakra used was almost negligible because he only had to slightly reduce the electrical current. After Susumo was sure that the chakra was firmly in place, he picked up the feather and touched the cat with it on the back. The cat didn’t seem to take any notice.

[Father 'Suke]

+7; 25|30

[Mrj9797]

Susumo made the handseals again. Now it was time to put it all together. He sent his chakra into the cat’s brain all at once, trying to form a complete barrier around all the neurons that communicated with the parietal lobe. First the frontal, than the temporal lobe, next the occipital lobe, and the finally the brain stem. Immediately the cat started jerking around spastically. Evidently something was being affected that wasn’t supposed to be. Susumo massively reduced the amount of chakra he was using but to no avail. The cat was still moving erratically. Susumo fully let up on the chakra and looked at the cat thoughtfully. What could be causing this?

His best guess was that there was so much chakra being sent into the cat’s brain that it was starting to bleed from the correct neurons to other parts of the brain. Susumo tried to think of a solution. He decided to reduce the amount of chakra flowing into the cat’s brain. It didn’t work the first time but it would be worth a try if at least for research purposes. He made the handseals and forced a little chakra into the cat’s brain. Susumo wished he could see through its eyes, hear through its eyes, etc. That would make this much easier. He bent down and whistled sharply to see if the cat could hear him. The caged feline did indeed hear but it only looked at him lazily. Just to make sure the cat’s hearing was reduced and not that it was the kind of animal who didn’t care about high pitched whistling near its ear, he released the jutsu entirely and then whistled again. It jumped back and menaced him. Susumo stood back up and reflected.

Evidently he needed more chakra control to make this jutsu work. Reducing the chakra made the jutsu ineffective. The only solution was to squeeze the chakra down so thin so that it didn’t bleed over. He sat down again and made a small wall of chakra in between his hands again. He crushed the chakra tightly together. Susumo strained. The chakra wall grew so dense that he couldn’t see it anymore. He released it and sighed. The cat didn’t look impressed. Now then, time to finish this jutsu.

After a short break he returned. The cat looked at him angrily, wanting to be let out. “You’ll be free soon enough.” He said. Susumo made the handseals and forced the very dense chakra into the cat’s brain. He shut off neuron after neuron, clogging the axons until the cat started to look around confused. Susumo waved his hands in front of the cat with no reaction. He whistled and the cat didn’t notice. He held the smelling salts up to its nose and the feline did nothing. Satisfied, he released the jutsu on the cat and opened the cage. The cat went back into the alley after trying to scratch Susumo’s grieves. “Well then, that’s enough for today.” Susumo felt an uneasy feeling in his throat before entering into a coughing fit. It was the second one today. “I hope I’m not getting a cold.” He said before going home.

[Dr. Neuro, RN]

+5
Post away, I'm highly active and I'll keep up.

[Mrj9797]

Neutral or Passive Stance
Rank: "E"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: The Neutral, or Passive, stance is your natural, unprepared position.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: It is extremely useful for all aspects of training, considering that, on the street, you will most likely need to perform combatives and self-defense techniques without any preparation. Be sure to train from this position at least part of the time when working on combatives, and at all times when practicing self-defense techniques. The Stance: Stand with your feet about hip-width apart (or less), with your arms hanging to the sides.
Limit: Must learn from a Master of Krav Maga.

Susumo stood in a small gym near his usual training spot. However he wasn’t in his usual training gear. Today he was dressed loose fitting pants, a black tee shirt, and a yellow belt. Before him stood an older man in a similar outfit save for a black belt. He had long black hair and a hard, no nonsense face. Susumo bowed to him. “Good morning master Kondo.” The man bowed back.

“Well then, it’s always good to see genin taking up a style like krav maga.” He smiled. “Now then. Let us begin with the basics, starting with the stances. Krav Maga is first and foremost a self defense technique. Anyone, especially a shinobi, can be attacked at any time. You might not always be ready. So we will practice neutral stance. This is the stance you assume when you are not ready for an attack. We always train self defense from neutral stance to simulate being caught by surprise. Anyhow,” he clapped his hands. “Start by standing with your feet at shoulder length and your hands at your sides.” Susumo did so while clenching his fists. “Don’t clench your fists. Just relax.” Susumo relaxed his hands and the man nodded.

[Dr. Neuro, RN]

+1

[Mrj9797]

“Now they did teach you some blocking techniques in the academy right?”

“Yes sir but only from a fighting stance.” The old man shook his head.

“And this is why I think that the academy should teach krav maga. Anyhow, let’s practice blocking from the neutral stance.” Kondo moved into a fighting stance.

“But you haven’t taught me any-” Kondo threw a jab at Susumo which hit him in the jaw. Susumo was momentarily stunned. “Hey.” He rubbed his jaw with his left hand, still standing with his feet hip width apart. “What was that for?” Kondo threw a straight punch. This time Susumo blocked it with his left hand.

“Now that was too easy. Return to your stance.” Susumo did so and returned to the passive neutral stance, but with his feet about shoulder width apart. “So tell me what’s wrong with that stance.” Susumo’s mind raced. His hands weren’t clenched and he couldn’t think of anything else wrong with his stance.

“I have no idea sir.”

“Your feet!” The old man nearly yelled. Susumo adjusted his feet to be wider apart causing Kondo to facepalm. “That’s the exact opposite of what I meant! Don’t they anything at the academy?” Susumo took the message and moved his feet to be hip width apart.

“Not krav maga. You just said yourself that they don’t teach it in the academy.” Susumo said. Kondo sighed with his hands still in his face.

“Well then, I guess so.” Kondo returned to his fighting stance and then punched him. Susumo moved to block it but wasn’t fast enough and was knocked over. Kondo looked at him impassively. “Well I suppose the blocking will come in time. Now get because I have more to teach you.” Susumo managed to stand up and assumed the passive neutral stance. Kondo inspected his stance to look for errors. He found that Susumo’s stance was satisfactory causing Kondo to nod in approval.

[Dr. Neuro, RN]

+4

[Mrj9797]

Fighting Stance
Rank: "E"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: Take this stance when preparing for confrontation. The description assumes you are right handed; if you are left-handed, simply substitute "right" for "left"
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Stand with your feet high-width apart and take a comfortable step forward with your left foot. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet. The Toes of both feet should generally point forward, but the forward foot may turn slightly inward for better balance. Keep your hands relaxed, hold them above your chin height and a comfortable distance away from the face. Make sure your elbows are in and fairly close to your body, and your shoulders are relatively squared to an opponent.
Limit: Must learn from a Master of Krav Maga.

“Now then, of course you need an actual stance for fighting. The fighting stance is what you will use when you actually know that you have to fight.” Kondo stood with his feet hip width apart. “Now imitate me.” He stepped forward with his left foot and put his open hands up in front of him with Susumo mirroring him.

“Like this?” Susumo could feel the old man scrutinizing him. He held his hands forward at about chin level a bit far from his face and he clearly had his weight on his heels.

“No, bring your hands a bit closer and put your weight on your heel.” Susumo made the adjustments and the old man nodded in approval. “Now reverse your stance.” Susumo moved into a mirror image of his stance. “Good.”

“Sir, I have a question.”

“Well then spit it out.

“Why do my hands have to be open? Wouldn’t fighting be easier if I held my hands in a fist?”

“Tell me Susumo, did you end up here only because you took a wrong turn on your way to the boxing ring?”

“Uhhh,” the question took Susumo by surprise.

“Well did you?”

“No sir.”

“WELL THEN WHY DO YOU THINK FIGHTING IS ONLY PUNCHING!” Kondo yelled causing Susumo to flinch. The instructor closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing in a softer tone of voice. “You know, I didn’t know the academy had such low standards for taijutsu knowledge.” This didn’t surprise Susumo. From what he heard from the chunin who told him about master Kondo, the man blamed everything on the academy. No Mist genin in the final round of the chunin exams? The academy’s fault. Did the ANBU fail to catch a missing nin? Bring it up with the academy. Was there so much rain that this year’s crops were ruined? Chalk another failure up to the academy. It was starting to annoy Susumo.

“You see Susumo,” Kondo started. “Krav maga is more than stand fighting. If you are attacked you need to be able to effectively defend against it. If you keep your hands open you can go into a defensive action. Why simply block boxing style when you can redirect the punch while counterattacking? Besides, keeping your hands closed signals you're going to attack. Open hands help you defuse a situation.”

“With all due respect why would I want to defuse a situation?” This caused Kondo’s eye to twitch.

“Typical academy. Turning our future shinobi into a bunch of overly aggressive maniacs.

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Plus three.