He that lies on the ground cannot fall (Training)

[Deleted]

learned

[Hamura]

Investigate
Rank: "E"
Skill: Sophisticated Skill
Effect: The investigation skill spotlights large-scale inspections, ranging from wide collections of interviews to long information tours.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Relevant Abilities: Composure Skill. Die Rolls: 1 Die Roll. Check Requirement: Game Master/Described. Investigate skill encompasses a variety of applications. User can use this skill to identify and categorize evidence. User is able to foster important contacts, solicit rumors, spread information and pick up valuable information out of seemingly trivial conversation. Search areas, feeling the walls for hidden objects, finding traps, frisking a suspect, or looking for anything else that is not visible. Finally, investigate is used to analyze and enhance intelligence photographs and video. User can also use it to notice important events during a long stakeout or spot signs of someone watching. When a character enters a crime scene, they are faced with multiplicity of potential clues. The character must be able to decide what is significant and what is not. Characters use this skill when looking at an object to decide whether it is significant evidence or not. For example, if somebody is stabbed and there are knives in a kitchen nearby, the user should be able to recognize which ones could potentially match the wounds on the victim, as well as be able to tell bloodstains from items such as dried ketchup or molasses, etc. Synergy: A user with Local History gives a +5 per Mastery Level Synergy Bonus to Investigate when Coaxing. Synergy: A user with Investigate gives a +5 per Mastery Level Synergy Bonus to Anthropology, Arson Investigation, Ballistics, Blood Spatter Analysis, and DNA Profiling when investigating a crime. Some practical applications of Investigation follow:
Limit: Must learn from Skills.

________________(0/125) ________________

Mental Acumen Trained
2 Die Rolls per post total

________________(Part 1) ________________


Returning to the morgue that afternoon, it seemed that the coroner was rather stressed out, as well as a couple of nurses that seemed to have a bit of trouble keeping their composure. If nothing else, it made him wonder exactly what had happened to make them act this way, especially since they were all grown men and women acting like they had seen a ghost. It made the young Shinobi rather interested in what was going on, as it was likely conflicting with his continued training. He had rather enjoyed being around the morgue, getting to learn more about how the human body worked and figure out reasons as to why the person laying on the table in front of him might have died.

More importantly, he liked learning about the human anatomy for the sake of combat. Learning the weak spots of the human body, the places to strike and places to avoid due to not having the desired effect, even learning how toxins worked on the body was something he considered to be useful. While he did not see himself as the dishonorable trash that would resort to using such low to the ground waste that was poison, he did like knowing how long it would take for it to kill a person and the way in which they affected them before killing them. This gave him a window into knowing just how much time he had to treat himself in case it ever happened to him in a fight.

As someone who had slight training in the medical field, he made every attempt at figuring out how to best utilize these teachings and techniques that sprang from it useful in combat. This had also been the primary reason for him learning how to perform the chakra scalpel, figuring that he could use it to quite literally stop a human body from fighting once he used it to sever the muscles and tendons. While he could not use the technique for much else at this point, further mastery and augmentation was still required, and would happen before long. Until that time came, there was still plenty to do and plenty to work on.

[Hamura]

(Part 2)

Walking over to the nurses, they seemed to be in too much of a shock to actually respond to him properly, and so he left them to calm down, which was likely not going to happen for some time as the one kept activating the other and vice versa. Deciding to take it to the coroner, it seemed that someone had apparently made an attempt at taking various corpses from the morgue, and had even gone as far as killing one of the guards on his or her way out. With the guard dead and several of the bodies missing, there was no way of telling who the culprit was.

Finding it rather odd that someone would go into a morgue in order to take a few dead bodies, as well as outright kill the guard that was in charge of keeping the place safe on the way out, it was safe to assume that there was more to it. Having no idea what this was though, it seemed like the wise idea to get into the building and do some looking around on his own. Not allowing this, the coroner stated that he still had to go in and make sure everything was still there before the authorities came in to look into what had happened.

Not taking no for an answer, Hamura walked past the man and into the building. It seemed strange for someone to not want anyone to get into the building because they still had to tidy up and check up on their paperwork, especially when that might mess up with any tracks and prints that might have been left behind. While he could certainly understand why someone would want to do that, it was not going to help out the taskforce that would look into the missing bodies and the murder victim. This much Hamura knew to be a fact.

[Hamura]

(Part 3)

Closing the door behind him, he made sure not to touch anything from the moment he entered the place. Upon first entering the building, everything seemed in order, as if nothing had happened here at all, though this quickly changed as he walked closer to the metal door on the far side of the room, the door leading into the coroner's workspace and cold storage for the bodies. Even from the far side of the room, he could see a large blood stain on the metal door as it ran down onto the floor beneath it. Figuring that the body would be there too, he slowly walked toward it.

Not being entirely right, it seemed that the was laying several meters away from the door, laying behind a desk and on top of an office chair. Given the way it looked, it was likely that the man had fallen over onto the chair as he collapsed from the attack, or was literally pushed into it due to the attack itself. Since he hadn't been there himself, there was no way of telling exactly what had happened, mostly because he did not yet possess the skills required to figure out such elaborate things on his own. All he could do was base his reasoning on what he knew and saw.

And what he saw was gruesome at the very least, as he had never seen an actual murder scene before, especially not like this. Even so, it did not really shake him as much as it likely would to another person. His cynical and rather detached mindset allowed him to remain calm in a great deal of situations in order to assess things in peace. This was no different from that, even though he was the first actual Shinobi to look into the crime scene. Getting a bit closer to inspect the body, he made sure not to step in or otherwise touch any of the blood spatters and pools.

[Hamura]

(Part 4)

Leaning in to see how the man had met his end, he saw a large and deep gash in his side, just below his ribs that went almost as far in as his spine, meaning it was a wound of at least twelve centimeters deep. Not sure as to what kind of weapon could possibly do that, it seemed that the cut itself was almost too perfect as the flesh itself looked smooth instead of cut. Incapable of figuring out what kind of weapon could have done this, the chances that someone had done this with a bladed weapon and simple brute force seemed highly unlikely.

Given the way the wound looked, it gave rise to the thought that this wound had been cut with a weapon that had been imbued with chakra. If he was to make an uneducated guess, he figured that the wind release had been used as this was the elemental nature most closely tied to cutting force when mixed with weapon based martial arts. Based on everything he had learned so far, this was really all he could come to when thinking about how the man had met his end, and to what kind of weapon. Though this was only part one of his personal investigation.

The next thing he wanted to know was what exactly had happened, and if the man had met with a swift death. Given the wound he had sustained, it was likely that he would not have lived for long, but given the drag marks, it seemed that he had been left alive long enough to suffer a rather painful death. Whoever had done this likely had little to no regard for sympathy or the concept of empathy as he had likely allowed the man to struggle for a bit before he had eventually succumbed to his wound. But that was when Hamura noticed a smaller wound.

[Hamura]

(Part 5)

Due to the sheer size of the wound on his side, Hamura had almost completely overlooked the thinner wound that seemed to have been the final strike that ended the life of the guard. It was a horizontal wound that had gone in directly over the man's spine, severing it and therefore cutting off a massive portion of the nervous system. It was likely that this had not been done in order to stop the man from suffering, but maybe just to inflict even more pain. This pain however could not have been of the physical kind, as cutting into the spine where the killer had done would have rendered most of his body paralyzed.

The more he started looking into it, the more he started realizing that he was dealing with a sadist of the highest level, one that did not just enjoy killing a man slowly and in cold blood, but even went through the trouble of paralyzing his victim so they would feel utterly helpless as they slowly died from blood loss and stress. Hamura himself could not begin to fathom how scared the man must have been as he suddenly lost his motor skills and was left completely defenseless on the floor. It was similar to a fish on dry land, though even the fish could at least move around a bit before it choked.

Even for a Shinobi, this seemed like a pointlessly cruel means to end a life, something he honestly felt was not fitting for a Shinobi at all. Even among Shinobi, there was some form of honor, a code of conduct as no one could possibly want to meet such an end themselves. The saying "do onto others" came to mind as he inspected the corpse for a bit more as a means of learning everything he possibly could. Already knowing why the smaller wound had been inflicted, he returned to the larger wound one more time to see if he could learn anything from closer inspection.

[Hamura]

(Part 6)

Since the man was laying on his back and the wound was located on his left, it seemed that the blade had gone straight through the man's stomach, which in turn explained some of the stuff leaking out of the wound itself. Wondering why he had allowed the man to keep crawling, it was likely because he wanted to see how much it would pain his victim to experience having his digestive fluids leak throughout his body and eat away at everything that wasn’t protected from it like the stomach itself was. Yet again it amazed the young Shinobi how anyone could be so senselessly cruel to another human being, or any living thing for that matter.

Standing up straight, he had seen enough to make a fairly accurate diagnosis as to what might have happened, and how the man had met his end. Now it was time to figure out why it had happened, as it felt like way too much to do onto someone just for getting caught in the act of stealing some corpses. Gently opening the metal door that had been left slightly opened with the toe of his boot, he saw that the blood had already leaked in from under the door. This could not have happened if the door had been closed properly, as the metal door was made to keep the often nauseating odor from escaping into the main building.

Deciding not to dwell on this for too long, he gracefully leaped over the puddle of blood and started investigating the cold storage rooms to see which had been opened up and emptied. As he looked around, it seemed that the killer did not have the time he had hoped as the doors had been left open, making it that much easier for Hamura to quickly figure out which bodies had been taken. Looking at the list that had been left on the coroner's table, he started checking up on the names that went with the cold storage units.

[Hamura]

(Part 7)

Going by number, he located the two open storage units on the list and memorized the names on it. The first one was a male, the second was a female, though aside from that, not a lot of information had been disclosed. This did not strike him as weird at all, as most of this information was known to the coroner, the next of kin and the village officials that actually gave a damn about such things. It was not really for him to know, though that would not stop him from figuring out more about them. After all, there was no telling whether or not this would help him in his personal investigation.

With the names fresh in his mind, he went to the coroner's office, which was out near the desk where the dead body was. Leaving the workspace, he headed up a flight of stairs and made sure that everything up there was fine. Spotting no blood spatters or anything out of whack, he opened the door, or at least he tried. Given that the door seemed to have been locked, Hamura did not bother applying force as a means of opening the door. Using a Kunai, he slipped the pins anchoring the door into the doorframe before taking the entire door out rather carefully.

Not wanting to leave any permanent damage that might give away that he had been breaking and entering, something that might very well cost him his part-time job, he entered into the office and started rummaging through the files that had come in. Figuring that the files themselves were likely organized on either name or date, the fact that these bodies could not have been here long and Hamura knowing their names would not make it that hard for him to find them in the cabinet at all. Within two minutes, he already had both of their files laid out on the table in front of him.

[Hamura]

(Part 8)

The oldest file belonged to the male, Hyousuke Samidare, thirty years old and father to two children. Aside from some rather basic information, it seemed that a lot in regards to his files had been blacked out by the higher ups of the village, or by the coroner himself. This could only mean that whatever had been blacked out contained sensitive information of some kind, information no one other than those directly involved could know about. The more he started digging into things, the more it felt like he was venturing into waters too deep for him to swim in, yet could not stop himself from trying.

He had come so far now, and he could not keep calling himself a Shinobi if he backed out from an investigation like this just because he managed to dig up something that may or may not have been sensitive to the rest of the village. When he looked at the statement in regards to his death, it seemed that the man had been killed by a snake bite, something Hamura considered to be somewhat odd. There were plenty of snakes in the land of lightning, though to be killed by one of them seemed strange in this day and age. And given the amount of blacked out information, part of Hamura believed the man had been a Shinobi.

Had there still been a body, he could have checked it for signs of battle or go through any belongings that had been left with it, though all he had to go on now was simple intel written down on a piece of paper. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed for the snake that killed the man to have been used and trained by another Shinobi, most likely even the one that had come into the morgue and killed the guard after taking away the bodies. Slowly but surely, Hamura got more and more worried about this strange event.

[Hamura]

(Part 9)

Maintaining his composure, he placed the file belonging to Hyousuke back into the file cabinet and started looking into the other that undoubtedly belonged to the woman. As soon as he opened up the file and looked inside, his eyes fell on her picture and seemed to widen to what felt like ten times their normal size. The woman who had her body stolen was the exact same woman he had been working on with the coroner when he first came looking around the corner to see if the man had a job for him. He remembered her well as it had been the first time he had seen a partially dissected corpse.

That, and he had been allowed to do some looking of his own to find out that she had been killed through means of poison injected through senbon thrown into her neck and between her shoulder blades. Remembering it all in incredible detail, he remembered that she still had her Shinobi clothing laying next to the table which she had been placed on for autopsy. Looking through her file, it seemed that she had not been married and had no children of her own, though she had just as many blacked out sections in her file as Hyousuke did. Learning that her name was Kaiya Kurotsuchi, he now at least had a name to pin to the face.

Wondering if he could find anything consistent with the previous case, Hamura almost skipped over the part which described how she had died due to already knowing and having discussed this much with the coroner. As such, he was rather shocked to see that the cause of death had been written up as death by snake bite as well, knowing full well that it had been a snake toxin that was implanted through the means of senbon thrown into her body. As much as he tried to sketch a picture here, he just could not seem to put the pieces together.

[Hamura]

(Post 10)

Placing the other file back in too, he made sure to leave the office exactly as it was before he had come in. On his way out, he made sure to put the door back in the way it was, placing the pins back in and making sure that the door was still locked when he pulled at the handle. When this was all taken care of, Hamura felt like he had done all that he could for now and prepared to go back outside in order to meet up with the coroner. Knowing that he could not say a thing about what he had found in the files, there were a few things that bothered him.

The primary thing that was on his mind was the fact that both of the deaths had been written up as snake bites, even though he knew for a fact that one of the two deaths had been inflicted by using poisoned senbon, meaning they had been assassinated by another Shinobi. However, if he were to confront the coroner about it, the man who was currently his boss would know that he had been snooping around in his office and in his files, which might push him to inform the authorities and get him thrown into prison. For now, the fact that he had gone into the building on his own had been bad enough.

Wondering what the task force might do to him once they got to the scene, he figured that as a fellow Shinobi, they might like it if he disclosed all of the information he had to them so they wouldn't have to do as much digging. Once they got there, they would likely examine the crime scene, see which bodies had gone missing and figure out how the guard had died before cleaning everything up and turning it into an official case. That way, the coroner and the rest of the morgue could at least go back to work.

[Hamura]

(Part 11)

Once the village made an actual case out of things, they would put some of their better people on the case to look into all of the information again and might continue looking into finding the person who had taken the bodies and killed the guard. That said, the chances of them actually being capable of doing so were slim as they were likely not there to analyze the crime scene like Hamura himself was doing right now. As such, anything he could tell them was most likely going to make a difference, though he could not risk telling them about what he had found out in the coroner's office.

The risk of people throwing his ass into jail or stripping him of the right to be a Shinobi of the Hidden Cloud due to his meddling and going against local officials was too great, so he had to keep those things for himself and keep up his own investigation by following anything and everything that might hit the public ear. If he was to tell anyone about the fact that none of the deaths had been inflicted by actual snakes, he knew that he needed some kind of evidence, something he simply did not have.

Though that was when it suddenly hit him, the senbon, the ones that had been laced with the poison that had been used to kill Kaiya, they were still in her body when they brought it in. He knew this to be a fact as he had actually seen them after the coroner explained to him how they had been used to kill the woman. In so doing, he also remembered that the senbon had all been placed inside of a metal container that had been put onto a shelve with the rest of her clothing. Knowing that this might give his story the edge it needed without having to disclose that he had been into the coroner's office, he stormed off again.

[Hamura]

(Part 12)

Entering into the workspace again, he started looking all over the place for the container that held the venom laced senbon, though this proved to be easier said than done. Looking on every shelf and in every container, it seemed that the senbon had disappeared like snow before the sun. As much as he hated to admit it, this meant that he would have to keep information from the authorities in order to cover his own ass, and that did not sit well with him. Even though he did not feel obligated to the village, he felt obligated to the dead because he knew something was wrong.

Now, there was a chance that they might have an empty grave somewhere with the rest of the common folk, while they should have an actual grave alongside the other Shinobi that had died in the line of duty. While he did not know them, he felt like both Hyousuke and Kaiya deserved better than this, and he truly wanted to make it so that it was better for them, but that was something he could not see to at this point in time. That said, he was not going to stop looking into this until he could figure out a way to find their bodies and give them what they deserved.

Continuing his search for a little while longer, he established that the senbon and Kaiya's clothing had disappeared from the workspace. Whether this had been the coroner's work or if they had been taken by the person that had raided the morgue was something he could not answer at this point, though he was bound to find out about it at some point. That was, if he was allowed to look into it for that long before the village found out about what he had been doing. Whether they ever would was not known to him as he had been quite careful, but one could never be too sure.

[Hamura]

(Final Training Post: Part 13)

As he left the building, he walked straight into the task force that had been dispatched to look into things at the morgue. Not being all too happy about him going in, they also scolded the coroner for having made an attempt at going in in order to go through his own work and tidy up at a crime scene. Apologizing to the Shinobi, the coroner was taken in for questioning along with Hamura. Placed in separate rooms, Hamura made sure to tell the men and women everything he had been able to find out in as much detail as he could possibly have provided, of that he was certain.

Telling them about how the killer was an incredibly sadistic individual based on the wounds he had witnessed on the guard he or she had killed, how he believed that the killer had used a weapon that had most likely been infused with the wind element to increase its cutting power and how he had seen that the female body that had been taken had been that of a Shinobi, he kept out all of the information he had gained from the actual files such as the venom laced senbon and that the cause of death was wrong on paper.

With that, Hamura was allowed to go home, though they did state that they would come back for him in case any inconsistencies were to pop up in regards to anything he had told them when matched against what the coroner would tell them. Not knowing when this might come to bite him in the ass, Hamura figured he would leave the morgue for what it was for today and focus on other things entirely. After some of the scares he had had today, the only thing he really wanted to do now was ponder on what he had learned, be lazy and go to bed early.

[Skulking Shinzu]

Rolls

+65 TP. Learned 13 times.
+102 SP

[Hamura]

(1) Gate of Opening - Muladhara: The Root Chakra
Rank: "C"
Skill: TaiJutsu
Effect: Allows the user to perform extraordinary prowess using the extra power granted from the Celestial Gate.
Special: ---
Drawback: (Fortitude 15) User could become Fatigued for the rest of the encounter plus 1 minute.
Description: Located at the base of the spine. Its function is survival and grounding, its inner state is stillness and stability, its color is red. Its stones are: Garnet, Ruby, Onyx, and Obsidian. This Chakra is the Earth Chakra; it deals with Survival and is blocked by Fear. Balancing this Chakra gives energy to the physical body, controls fear, increases overall health and helps in grounding.

Takes 1 Movement to Activate.
+2 Pain Threshold Bonus to Will.
+4 morale bonus against Fear.
+2 enchantment bonus to Weapon Damage.
+2 enchantment bonus to Movements.

Unless the user wishes otherwise, the technique ends at the end of an Encounter. Each round the technique is maintained, the user suffers 2 points of Gate Point Damage. Mastery: Learning this technique a 2nd time, the user can activate this gate without sacrificing movements for the purpose of using a more powerful gate, without actually performing this Technique or gaining any of the penalties. User cannot otherwise perform the Technique without sacrificing movements.
Limit: Must be a practitioner of The Eight Celestial Gates.


________________ (0/20) ________________


Ever since the day he had uncovered something in the morgue that he probably shouldn't have, Hamura had been having quite a bit of trouble sleeping. As if it had all been planned, it had also been the night before this event transpired that Hamura had first seen an apparition in his dreams, or rather in one of his waking dreams. Naming it dreams and not dream for a reason, it had not been a one time thing as he had hoped, which was why he had been sleeping with his Tanto next to his bed for quite some time now. Whether it was the guilt from not being able to share what he knew or that the person who had been killing Shinobi from the Cloud could still be within the walls, he couldn't seem to find any rest.

While this was not something that he was proud of, it made him feel better when he went to sleep, knowing that he would always have a weapon to reach for if needed. Still, he did not want for this to become something he had to do every night, becoming like one of those people that needed a weapon on them at all times just to feel safe. And so it was that he went into the library, hoping that the answer to his problem could be found there. Going through a large quantity of books in record time, his scholarly mind skimmed over every potentially useful piece of information in regards to blocking out and controlling his fear for the unknown, but could not seem to grasp that which could actually help him.

Reading up on some interesting lore on specific chakra points located throughout the body, it seemed that unlocking and mastering these points could have a certain effect on the human body and mind. Whether this was even remotely possible or not, he decided to take the book with him and take it to the hospital. Figuring that if there was any truth to it, a doctor would need to know about it, it was for exactly that reason that he made sure to stop by the one that had checked up on his leg when he had been forced to stitch himself up. Wasting no time to get there, he went across the roof and ran straight up the wall of the hospital building until he got to the room he knew he would find the man. Peeking through the window, it seemed that there was still someone in there with him, and so he decided to wait it out.

Even though he was in a hurry, that did not give him the right to be rude and just barge in while the man was still working on someone that had problems of their own. After a couple of minutes, the woman that had been sitting with the doctor took her child and left the room. As soon as they moved out, he slipped in through the window, much to the surprise of the doctor. Without making an attempt at reading the room, Hamura instantly started questioning the man about the chakra points along the spine, if they had the actual potential to affect the human body and mind, and how one might tap into them. Telling Hamura that he had researched the matter, but had found no medical application for it, it made the trail go cold for a moment. That however changed when the doctor pointed him toward a local Guru.

[Hamura]

(Final Training Post: Part 2)

Not much later, Hamura found himself scouring the streets for an old man the doctor referred to as a Guru that seemingly knew more about the chakras than he himself had been capable of figuring out. Only having portions of a description as to what the man supposedly looked like these days, it really took someone with Hamura's set of skills in order to locate him. Due to his skill as a tracker, he would eventually catch wind of the man and see to it that he told the Shinobi everything he knew about it. Going through a fair amount of homeless people who matched the description to some degree, he eventually found one that actually knew a thing or two about the man calling himself the Guru. Obviously, he refused to part with the information for free, though a few pieces of paper managed to loosen his lips. While somewhat annoyed that the man could not just tell him, he figured that if he ever needed help from Hamura, that he'd deny him too.

Still, he had been pointed to a side of the village not too far from the docks and the marketplace where there was never a whole lot to do, nor a whole lot of people in the streets because of it. Finding the tree he was supposed to be looking for, he found the man he believed to be the Guru sitting among the roots, which were slightly elevated so a person could literally sit underneath the base of the tree and stay dry from things like rain and snow. Standing next to the man, he asked him about whether or not he was the Guru people had spoken of, and if he could teach him the secrets to unlocking his chakras to help rid him of his fear. Laughing at the notion of using the chakras in order to get rid of fear, the Guru told Hamura that the chakras were meant for those capable of ridding themselves of fear or at the very least controlling it.

At that point, utilizing the chakras would be able to help him out in further suppressing it to a point that was close to nothing. In spite of this not being something what he had hoped for, he still wanted to learn the technique that would allow him to tap into these chakras. Again the Guru laughed, though this time not to mock him or his goals, but because of his determination. Getting up from his seated position, he told Hamura to take off his shirt so he could tell him where the chakras were located by example. Doing as instructed, the Guru touched eight difference positions on his spine, starting at the root chakra and ending at the underworld chakra that encompassed the entire body. Matching most of the descriptions he had witnessed in his book, he decided to work with the man, as the alternative was going back home empty handed.

Spending the next few hours in an attempt to teach Hamura how to at least tap into the first chakra and make it his own, he was repeatedly told that the abuse of the chakras might very well result in his death. Urging him to get a handle on his fear before he would make an attempt at trying to master the celestial gates, he told Hamura that fear could be the kind of thing that pushed one into madness, making them do things they believed to be good for them while they would in fact just pull them under even further. At the end of his training, Hamura felt like he could unlock the first gate at any point, though the warnings of extreme fatigue and even death when used for the wrong reasons, at the wrong times or under the wrong circumstances made him hold off on doing so for the time being. While it was only the first step in the right direction, he figured that with this, he could take a shot at beating down his fear and rising above it.

[Deleted]

learned

[Hamura]

Impeccable Will
Rank: "D" (Special, See Description)
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: User has gained mastery over their own will power.
Special: ---
Drawback: (1/6 times learned)
Description: Each time learned the user gains 1 extra point to their save against the opponent's Jutsu. When the user learns this technique the 1st 2 times they train it as a regular "D" Rank Jutsu. When the user learns this technique the 2nd 2 times they train it as a "D" Rank Jutsu +10 Training Points. When the user learns this technique the 3rd 2 times they train it as a "D" Rank Jutsu +20 Training Points. This technique stacks with other Will saves.
Limit: Universal GenJutsu Technique.


_____________(Second Training - 0/10) _____________


Finding himself in a meditative state again, he pondered on the things the Guru had told him when he taught him about the chakras and the eight celestial gates. The way he had been informed of how using the gates might have adverse effects when used under the wrong conditions had really managed to shake him up and about. What he thought was going to be the thing that would beat his fear for him turned out to become yet another reason as to why he should do this himself, as using it in a state of fear might actually get him killed. Now, he meditated on what it would take for him to beat his fear, and realized that it was all springing from one place, and that bothered him more than anything else at this point.

The fact that he was incapable of helping those that had their bodies stolen away, that had their death certificates forged and were not even going to be recognized as Shinobi due to something he couldn't share with the authorities. Having no idea what sharing this information could mean for him due to the way in which it had been acquired, he figured that the slightest punishment was a suspension, while the harder ones might be imprisonment and being stripped of his Shinobi status. That, and the fact that there was still a killer walking around in the village made him somewhat afraid, but not of the things one might expect. His fear came from himself and the things he would do to keep himself safe.

Even though he felt bad about it, he kept the information he had illegally obtained by breaking and entering to himself, at the cost of two other Shinobi that had lost their lives and now even had their bodies stolen, as well as their status. Now, they would just be two unmarked graves somewhere in the local graveyard as opposed to being what they were supposed to be buried in. It went to prove how far he was willing to go to keep himself from becoming restrained, what he would do if his freedom was on the line. As a bead of sweat was rolling down his cheek, it seemed that there was still plenty within the confines of his mind that he had never really given any thought, never truly worked out, as that was what was biting him in the ass now.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

+ 10 TP Learned