There goes the sun, and I say it's not right (Training)(P)

[Hamura]

(Part 21 of 32)

Whether that day would actually come or not was uncertain, though he was certainly keeping busy ever since he had come to the land of Wind. His investigations here, while private, were but a small part of what kept him busy these days. Returning to the present when the woman opened the second door, both she and the disguised Hamura entered a room that had a lot less light falling in through the window. Closer observation showed that the window had been boarded up more than the one in the girls' room. According to the woman that had been tending to the sick, this was because the man laying in this room was experiencing headaches.

[Hamura]

(Part 22 of 32)

Believing them to be due to the light falling into his eyes, she had moved his bed to a darker corner of the room and had boarded the windows up to let less light in. Stating that the elderly man was close to losing his sight, it would seem that he was already further along than the young girl was. Doing the only thing he really could do now was to take away this man's pain as well and see whether or not making contact with Hamura's healing chakra would have a similar effect on him. While he hoped that it would, there was really only one way to be sure.

[Hamura]

(Part 23 of 32)

Placing his hand over his forehead, he utilized his ninjutsu, which seemed to instantly take effect. Claiming that his headache had disappeared for the time being, Hamura could clearly tell that the haze in his eyes had partially lifted. By now, there was really no longer any use in questioning whether his earlier hypothesis could be considered as fact or not. Soon, he would be able to go back to the village and get some real doctors on the scene to help these people out, but now was not yet the time for that. There were still two people that needed to be checked up on, as well as a creature roaming the settlement that would pose a threat to anyone.

[Hamura]

(Part 24 of 32)

Sooner or later, Hamura would need to go after it, but for now, the people in this house were his priority as they were clearly in more danger than the non-existent people walking the streets. Looking out through the window, he checked whether or not he could see the creature anywhere, though that was obviously not the case as it was far too elusive for such a quick observation of the streets below. Once he would engage his sensory abilities however, it wouldn't have any place where it could hide from the young Shinobi, and when the time came, it would certainly be made to answer for what it had done.

[Hamura]

(Part 25 of 32)

As he looked out, he did see what looked like a large brown dog skulking around the borders of the settlement before venturing straight into the ocean. Whether it had been a pet or was just a wild dog, Hamura felt bad for the creature as it was bound to starve in this part of the country. For now, he wouldn't have the time to deal with that though as the fake doctor left the elderly man and went to check up on the third patient. This was a man that had already gone blind and was experiencing no pain, which was rather weird considering that he had scratch wounds and scabs all over his arms.

[Hamura]

(Part 26 of 32)

Figuring that the painless sensation was due to the illness, his first response was to do something about the wounds. Using his healing hands technique, he used his chakra to slowly close up the wounds in a way only a medical shinobi could. Infusing the man with his chakra rendered some unforeseen results though as the man suddenly started yelling loudly and started lashing out. Strange as it was, the woman quickly made her way over to the bed to hold the man down while Hamura stubbornly continued healing him. In time, the wounds started to disappear almost completely, though that was not all that happened.

[Hamura]

(Part 27 of 32)

As he rounded up his treatment, it seemed that the man had regained the ability to see, as well as being able to talk again. Though it did not explain why his healing chakra hurt the man as much as it seemingly did, one thing was clear, there could no longer be any doubt about the fact that medically infused healing chakra such as the healing hands school was most likely the only thing that could help these people fight the disease. That, and it made him that much more certain of the fact that the disease was in fact of chakra origin, but not just any ninjutsu or fuuinjutsu technique. The origin of this disease was most likely a lot more foul and nefarious.

[Hamura]

(Part 28 of 32)

Feeling that he was just about done here for now, he figured that he had bought the people of the settlement enough time for the real aid to arrive. This meant that he was going to need to see the final patient, the owner of the fourth and last bowl that sat on the counter. When he brought up the notion of there being any other people here, the woman told Hamura that there was no one else around. While he could instantly tell that she was lying, he did not want to blow his cover by calling her out on it without reservation.

[Hamura]

(Part 29 of 32)

Instead, he said that he figured that there must have been someone else here as he had only encountered an elderly man, a young male and a young girl, but no other women. That, and he had noticed the fourth bowl sitting on the counter, which was something the woman had not expected for him to notice. Fortunately, this brought the woman to open up some more in regards to the final patient, and that there was really no need for him to meet with her since she was beyond saving. Claiming that there was no such thing, Hamura insisted that the woman would take him to see her.

[Hamura]

(Part 30 of 32)

Spouting some crap about a Hippocratic oath and whatnot, he made sure to really sell his doctoral act to her, and that seemed to have paid off. Leading him down the stairs, she brought him to the center of the living room to where a rug had covered the floor. Before she uncovered a trap door that had seemingly been bolted up quite a bit, she asked that he would not think less of her and her husband for what he would find down below as they had no other option but to do what they had done. Making him highly curious, the two of them started removing the bolts so that the trapdoor could be opened.

[Hamura]

(Part 31 of 32)

Revealing a small drop down and a staircase, he chose to take the normal route down to where he encountered what could be called a woman strapped to a wooden construct so she would remain on the ground. Seeing her blackened skin, her pale white eyes and thin strands of hair that were on the verge of falling out too, it seemed that there was not a whole lot of humanity left in her. In fact, she seemed to resemble the creature that had attacked him, albeit more human in appearance. When he watched her, he no longer wondered why the people had been so afraid to open their door, as well as why there were so many names carved on the walls surrounding the mass grave.

[Hamura]

(Part 32 of 34)

They had been killing the people that had turned into these creatures due to the disease, which also went to explain why the shark had exhibited abnormalities. Whatever this disease had been made up of, it had a failsafe that caused the body to rapidly mummify upon death so that it would be harder to locate and treat. Aside from that, Hamura also realized that he had been lied to when he was told that these people died from the disease. Though he understood why the people would feed him these lies, he would have to report it back to the village sooner rather than later. If nothing else, they would need to send people to contain these transformed humans.

[Hamura]

(Part 33 of 34)

Just to be sure, he tried using his healing hands on the woman, only for her to burst out in a violent rage as her skin started to crack open upon contact. Instantly quitting once he realized that he was doing more harm than good, he believed that this woman was already too far gone for him or anyone else to save. Whatever had done this to her, it already had her, meaning the humane thing was most likely to kill her. That said, Hamura was not all that humane, not when it came to someone who had already stopped being human and might be able to help out others once the real medical nin could investigate her.

[Hamura]

(Part 34 of 34)

With a frown on his face, he made his way back up the ladder and helped the woman close it back up. Stating that he had seen all that he needed to, he went back to the front door while swearing that he would make sure to come back within the next two days with help. When he said that, he was partially lying, mostly because he had no intention of returning once he left her, feeling that a full report would do for the trained men and women from the Sand village to do their jobs properly. Once the skittish man let him out into the outside world, Hamura made sure to make his way out of his line of sight before reverting to his normal form. While feeling somewhat sad, he could call his mission a success.

[End of Training]

[Starnaess]

learned

[Hamura]

Animal Training (Canine)
Rank: "D"
Skill: Sophisticated Skill
Effect: User is trained at working with animals, and can teach them tricks, get them to follow the user's simple commands, or even domesticate them.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Relevant Abilities: Charisma Skill. Die Rolls: 5 Die Rolls. Check Requirement: Described. Characters with this skill can train 1 type of creature (declared when the skill is chosen) to obey simple commands and perform tricks. A character may acquire additional animal training skills to train other types of creatures, or can improve their skill with a type already chosen. A trainer can work up to 3 creatures at 1 time. The trainer may choose to teach general tasks or specific tricks. A general task gives the creature the ability to react to a number of nonspecific commands to do its job. Examples of general tasks include guard and attack, carry a rider, perform heavy labor, hunt, track, or fight alongside soldiers. A specific trick involves the trained creature doing 1 specific action. A horse may rear on command, a falcon may pluck a designated object, a dog may attack a specific person, or a rate may run through a particular maze. With enough time, a creature can be trained to do both general tasks and specific tricks. Training for a general task or trick takes up uninterrupted work equal to "E" Rank training. Both the user, nor the animal gain Training Points when learning these tricks. At the end of the training, a skill check is made. If successful, the animal is trained. If the die roll fails, the beast is un-trainable. An animal trainer can also try to tame wild animals. Wild animals can be tamed only when they are very young. The taming requires 1 month of uninterrupted work with the creature. At the end of the month, a skill check is made. If successful, the beast is suitable for training. If failed, the creature remains too wild to be trained. It can be kept, though it must be leashed or caged. Synergy: A user with Animal Training gives a +5 per Mastery Level Synergy Bonus to Riding (If it's a creature). Some practical applications of Animal Training follow:
Limit: Must learn from Skills.

________________________________________

Being rather sick of having pretended to be someone else for such an overly long period of time, he was glad that it had rendered him some results that he would not have been able to get his hands on if he hadn't done something that went so very much against his character. But that was the life of a Shinobi, and something he was going to have to get used to as it was likely something he would need to be doing a lot more frequently if he ever managed to pass the upcoming Chuunin exams. But that was not something he wanted to trouble himself with right now as there was currently nothing he could do about it.

Having put some distance between himself and the makeshift infirmary, the young ninja reached into his cloak in order to get out some of the food he had brought with him. While it was really nothing special, all that he had brought with him was jerked beef, a plastic bag containing various nuts and dried berries and a bag of croutons, really anything he could bring with him that would not get ruined due to the heat and to being inside of his pockets for an extended period of time. As such, it might not have been the most nutritional meal he could have brought with him, though it beat starving.

Finding a good place for him to sit down and eat, he made sure to do so outside of town on an earthen slope overlooking part of the settlement and the ocean itself. Knowing that there was at least one of the changed ones stalking about, he did not want to risk leaving himself exposed to attack knowing how quickly it tore apart one of his clones without seemingly having to try all that hard. Reaching into the bag of nuts he had brought, he figured that the fats stored in them and the remaining vitamins in the dried berries might help him keep up his strength.

[Hamura]

(Post 2 of 8)

Upon stuffing some of the nuts and berries into his mouth, his eye fell upon something familiar up in the distant. As he looked out across the ocean, he saw a red brown hue coming up from beneath the waters and rapidly making its way towards the shoreline. As it picked up speed, Hamura could spot from the distance between that something hairy was making its way onto the beach. Once it fully emerged from the water, it violently shook its entire body so as the swipe most of the water out of its fur before running off towards the slopes Hamura was sitting on top of.

Wondering as to where it might be headed, he was certain that the animal had already taken notice of him but had chosen not to care about it too much. This could only mean a couple of things, one of them being that the creature did not consider the young boy to be that much of a threat, which was actually quite a common thing which he experienced at almost every turn. Animals were one of the slightly less evolved and intelligent variety, so that was something he could not care all that much about. Humans were a different kind of story though.

When a grown man or woman saw a kid walking around in a way similar to him, they did not think much of it, which allowed him to go and see places without really being questioned about it. On the other hand, people would often try and stop him from getting to grotesque scenes of violence or death, as had been the case in the Hidden Cloud a couple of times. However, since that particular train of thought brought him back to thinking about things he'd rather forget, he quickly snapped back to reality and the animal going into the rocky zone beneath him.

[Hamura]

(Part 3 of 8)

In this particular case, Hamura figured that it was likely due to him not looking like all that much that the creature considered him as not much of a threat. And in cases such as these, that was likely for the best as it would allow him to get a lot closer without getting into trouble. While he had never really seen an animal quite like it, he could tell that it was of the canine variety without a doubt in his mind, though he could not tell whether it had been a large hound or if it was some kind of a desert wolf.

As his curiosity got the better of him, the young boy made his way down from the slope, slipping through cracks and making his way across rock and stone with a fair deal of agility and speed. Once he made it back to ground level, he could tell that he stood at the entrance of some sort of cave. Though it was not the kind that went deep into mountains or was overly dark, it had a lot of entrances and was really only covered from two sides which were covered by thick walls of stone. One thing was clear, he could see just fine in here.

Wandering deeper into the cave-like structure, he could tell that it was something that had been carved out of solid rock by the ocean and the wind alike, corroding the rock and carving out the shallow cavern that was now being used as a den by the canine creature. Feeling that his mind should not drift too far from the subject at hand, he knew that most wild animals would not be all that friendly when someone came into their lair unannounced, or at all really. And just because it did not consider Hamura to be much of a threat, that did not mean that it would tolerate having him around.

[Hamura]

(Part 4 of 8)

So as Hamura was getting closer, he could tell that the hound-like creature had heard him coming. Since Hamura's own hearing and sense of smell were like that of a canine, he was certain that the animal had heard him coming a little while before Hamura had sensed it. By the time he had progressed in deep enough to where the cavern had ended, he could tell that the ceiling was roughly four meters above the floor, while the room itself seemed to be roughly ten meters wide on all sides, making for a fairly overseeable den for an animal with such well developed hearing.

After all, if someone were to make their way down the corridor-like pathway leading into the end of the cavern where the hound resided, the echo-like sounds made just by moving and breathing would tip the dog off to one's presence and get it in defensive position before whoever ventured in even knew what to expect. But since Hamura had seen it go in and could now probably hear the dog almost as well as it could hear him, he knew exactly where the animal was before venturing into the lair itself. Once he arrived though, he noticed something peculiar to say the least.

The first thing he noticed was the wolf-like creature, now being clearly visible even in the darker part of the caverns due to Hamura's very well adjusted sight. Spotting the red brown hair on top and the beige belly and legs, the animal had a bushy tail and rounded ears, though one of them had seemingly been bitten into quite roughly. Even though the animal had all the colorful characteristics of a red panda, the fact that it bore its teeth at him as soon as the young Shinobi had wandered in proved that it did not share the fairly kind and non-threatening attitude.

[Hamura]

(Part 5 of 8)

In the far corner of the room however, he saw another shape, though this one no longer seemed to be alive, nor did it seem to share any of the characteristics with the wolf-like animal itself. Reaching into his pocket, he tossed a piece of beef jerky at the wolf in an attempt at distracting it, successfully one might add. It was clear that the animal had not really eaten much in some time as even all of that hair could not hide the fact that it seemed severely malnourished. Maybe that was why it had not instantly gone on the offensive by the time Hamura entered.

But with the animal occupied with rapidly working down the piece of meat, Hamura traversed the room quickly so that he could get to the thing laying in the far corner, finding something he had not exactly expected. It was one of the dark creatures that had attacked him roughly an hour ago while he was dissecting a shark carcass. This one closely resembled the woman that he had encountered while tied down in the basement of the infirmary, meaning it was likely one of the many inhabitants of the settlement that had contracted the chakra disease.

Observing closely to see what might have happened, it did not seem like the wounds it had sustained by fighting the wolf had been what killed it, but rather sheer fatigue and malnourishment. More so, it seemed that the wolf had not made any attempts at trying to eat it either, probably been able to smell the putrid scent that originated from it. At this point, Hamura could only imagine how bad it smelled when it was still alive, seeing as it was nothing short of nauseating now that it was dead and rotting slowly in the back of a cave.