The Wandering Kaishin [Training Thread]

[Saiyuki]

??/100

Akira decided to get up and try to combine the two concepts together. Of course, it would take some work, but he could try to make it work and he had the time as well. So he tried to separate the feelings and the actual kick. That meant that he would try to take the feeling from kicking normally and add it to his handstand kicks. His normal kicks were stronger after all. It would help if he could tie them into the technique that he was learning. He tried to imagine the feeling, to try to describe it into words. He guessed that one way of describing his normal kicks was that they felt more solid. To test out this feeling, he kicked at the sandbag a few times. Then he tried to grasp this feeling and ingrain it into his muscle memory. He kicked at the sandbag a few more times to grasp everything else that he thought there was to grasp. Then he got into a handstand and decided to test if he could retain the same feeling when kicking at the sandbag. He breathed deeply and relaxed his legs for a few moments while he went through the same feelings as before, trying to feel them ahead of time. Then he started to kick at the sandbag. Kick after kick, he tried to put in more and more of the feelings that he had from before. And each kick seemed stronger than the one before it. Then, with a final burst, Akira kicked as hard as he could, breaking the sandbag.

I should have thought about that before kicking like that...

Akira immediately got back up and went on to fix the hole that he made in the sandbag. It was not a simple hole, as Akira’s kick did not pierce the sandbag, but the force of it had caused it to explode on one side. This was not the first time this happened, so Akira knew how to fix it. Just when he finished fixing it, somebody came in to tell Akira that it was time for everybody to eat dinner. The young Kaishin nodded and headed upstairs to change his clothes. Afterwards, he headed down to eat. He had done a good day’s worth of training and it had gotten him somewhere. He felt prepared for whatever Kenishi was going to throw at him tomorrow. Of course, he would need some food and a good night’s worth of sleep before he would tackle that. He arrived at the table and sat down. The meal was pretty good, as always and Akira had a larger appetite than usual today. Afterwards, he relaxed a little, talking with some of the other students there about various light-hearted topics. He got up and walked around a little by himself, not really thinking about anything. He found it a good way to clear his mind before he went to sleep. It usually helped him sleep better, since Akira was a guy who liked to ponder about things, sometimes too much. After a short while of that, Akira headed to his room to turn in for the night. He was quite tired now and everybody else was heading up towards their room as well. He gave a yawn before he blew out the lamp.

The next morning, he found that he did not have additional weights added to him this time. He smiled when he realized this. He got up and refreshed himself before heading out to do his morning jog. After keeping the same amount of weight as before, it felt pretty much like a normal jog. He got back without sweating as much as he had yesterday and in good time as well. He showered and then went to get breakfast. He ate his meal, wondering about the next part of the training that Kenishi would have the young Kaishin do. After breakfast, when everyone had left, Kenishi got up and motioned for Akira to follow him. Akira nodded as he got up and then followed his master towards wherever that they were going. It seemed like the same spot as with the wooden boards. Akira wondered what he would be doing there. But he decided that he would find out once he got there. But what he saw there surprised him. Instead of wooden boards, there were now cannon balls. Or at least, they looked like cannon balls that were attached to chains. And the wind seemed to have gotten stronger since last Akira had been here. Kenishi knew that Akira would know what he would have to do and left without saying a word. Akira smiled as he shook his head. This might turn out bad for him. If he got hit, it would not only be a bruise. He would more likely be finished off with just one hit.

Well, there’s no point in backing off now.

Akira then started for the center. He could easily dodge the cannon balls on his way there. As he kept moving towards the center, he felt his confidence rise in him. He had been improving his body strength and he still had the experience from with the wooden boards. If everything went alright, then nothing should happen to Akira. The greatest challenge would be overcoming one’s own self. He would not be defeated by his own nervousness. And with that, Akira flipped over to a handstand position and started his training. He did not immediately start kicking. He had to first get used to this feeling. After all, the last time he had done this felt so long ago, even though it was only two days ago. He did not have to take long to get used to that feeling of intuitively sensing where the cannon balls were. He decided to practice his movement a little, to see how much his arm strength had improved. Since his arms were basically his legs for this technique, they were quite important in deciding how well the young Kaishin would move when executing this technique. To his pleasant surprise, he found that he moved quite well compared to how well he moved last time. His body responded exactly as he wanted it to respond. This made dodging and moving between the cannon balls not as difficult as he would have imagined. And then, to test the waters, Akira decided to try for a kick at one of the giant metal spheres of destruction. He kicked at one which had missed him. Once again, the young Kaishin was surprised when it flew away with a nice dent where it had been hit.

[Saiyuki]

??/100

However, then matters started to become complicated. By sending that sphere away, it hit off of the others, which caused a chain reaction. Now the spheres were flying around, more chaotic than ever. And their speed had increased as well. This was certainly not as easy Akira had expected it to be. Then again, he should have expected it. After all, Kenishi was not going to simply give his student a slightly more advanced form of a previous training. He liked to be more complicated than that. And so, this forced Akira to be on his toes, or rather, on his fingers. If every kick at Akira made transformed the situation into something more dangerous than before, then this would indeed be quite the fun challenge for the young Kaishin. He gladly accepted this type of training. After all, it was not like this training was impossible. One only had to have the determination to persevere and simply obliterate all of the large metal spheres that were here. Of course, that might take longer than Akira would have hoped. But he was not complaining. If he rushed and made a mistake, then he would have to pay a hefty price for such a mistake. He also had to use his analytical skills as well. If he could detect a pattern beforehand while still dodging perfectly, then it would be as Akira could predict the future and act accordingly to how the spheres moved.

Time to start.

And so, Akira began his dance. He had to be quite careful of what he did here. After every kick, he would have to be on the lookout for any incoming spheres of steel. If many came at him, then he would have choice but to knock them all away. Additionally, the young Kaishin would try his best to try to destroy a sphere with a single kick. If he could, then that was one less problem that needed to be factored into his calculations. And so, calling upon the kicking power that he had discovered yesterday, Akira slammed his foot into an incoming cannon ball, effectively sending it away from him. He had tried to aim to a place where there were no other spheres, but it seemed that his aim needed work. It managed to collide with a sphere, which set off a mini chain reaction. But Akira had no trouble keeping track of that one. He span around and slammed his leg again into another one of those swinging metal spheres. However, another came just after it and in Akira’s blind spot. He just managed to dodge it. But he saw that it crashed into a nearby boulder and went right through. Akira shook it off and kept his attention on the spheres. It seemed that the spheres had more force and durability to them than the young Kaishin had expected them to have. But he felt that it would only make every destruction of a sphere more satisfying to Akira and the finishing of the training even more so. But now was not the time to think about the future. Now was the time to focus on blowing any sphere that dare come close to Akira.

Akira went at this systematically. He tried his best to destroy a sphere and then see what kind of collisions it would make. Of course, he would try his best to try to avoid collisions, but there were too many in the way, since the sphere would go away and then come back, like a pendulum. There was no way that it would not have a collision, especially when there were still many spheres around. But Akira didn’t lose his drive. He kept kicking as hard as he could while observing the movement and flow of the spheres. His perseverance was starting to be rewarded when he finally crushed one of those spheres, breaking it into large pieces while separating it from its chain. The sight brought a smile to Akira’s face. This fueled him to kick even harder. But he kept his cool and still kept his practical approach to this training. Eventually, as time wore on, more and more spheres started to be blasted away into pieces from the force of Akira’s kicks. It seemed that only two or three of Akira’s kicks at the moment were enough. Once the number dwindled down, Akira judged that this training was no longer as dangerous as it used to be. There was no need to be so patient anymore. Akira’s hands spun him around faster than ever, adding more centrifugal force to his kicks. The risk of danger was quite low and he wanted to finish this training up. And so, this was the best way. Moreover, it was a lot more exciting compared to his previous approach of kick and observe. He smiled as his kicks further decreased the number of spheres still swinging around.

Kenishi decided to personally come to get Akira. He yawned as he stretched his limbs while walking towards the training site. What he saw there brought a smile to his face. Akira was simply sitting down on a boulder, nodding off into a nap with what seemed like the result of a tornado around him. Then he noticed his master and got up. One smile from his student was all that Kenishi needed to able to figure out what Akira wanted. He began to lead Akira back to where they had been on the first day of training. It was truly time to test him out. Originally, Kenishi thought that Akira would complete the training in the afternoon, but it seemed that he had slightly underestimated his young Kaishin student. And so, after several minutes, Kenishi brought Akira to where the circle of dummies were. On the first day, Kenishi had showed off his mastery by knocking them all up into the air almost instantly with a swift, fluid motion of multiple kicks. Akira had tried then and failed. But now was different. Akira went into the center of the circle with confidence in his spirit this time. Neither master nor student thought that Akira would fail this time. He took a deep breath, and then flipped over into a handstand, his smile signaling the start of the technique. Almost instantly after going into a handstand, Akira began to rapidly spin. And as he span, he kicked as hard as he could upwards, knocking every dummy around him upwards into the sky. Then he flipped back over. When the dummies landed with a loud thud, there was another footprint underneath Kenishi’s on every one of them. Akira laughed as he and Kenishi started for the dojo to eat lunch.

"Well, that wasn't so bad, now was it?"

[Hana~Kyo]

Learned

[Saiyuki]

Deîpu Furîzu (Deep Freeze)
Rank: "C" "B"
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: Utilizing advanced mechanics of the Water Creation and Ice Creation, the user forms a ball of water near the freezing point, before hurling it at the target. Once the ball comes in contact with the target; it freezes on contact.
Special: "Eight Handseals"
Drawback: The user is incapable of moving while performing this technique. In addition the jutsu only moves along a straight line.
Description: Utilizing the Water Creation jutsu, they perform eight handseals before swaying their hand in a circular motion. The swaying of their arms drops the temperature of the created water as it begins to forumlate into a ball within one of the user's hands (preferably the dominate hand but this is not necessary). When the user is ready the ball is hurled at the target. The water in question is at a temperature which is near freezing point and instantly freezes upon contact within a meter radius for the B-rank version. The B-rank version is capable of completely freezing anything within the three meter radius; making this variation a death move requiring death approval.
Limit: Kaishin Bloodlimit, Requires Water Creation and Ice Creation.

0/70

And that ended yet another memory of Akira’s days with Kenishi at his Ake Sune dojo. Now he started to think about his own clan, thinking about all the techniques that he had learned with the people of his bloodlimit. And so began another flashback to when Akira perfected a Kaishin technique that was well capable of winning a fight with one attack. In this flashback, Akira was walking around in another forest in wherever he was. He had gotten used to just wandering around for the fun of it, not having any destination in mind nor any sense of what he was going to do in the future. It was pure freedom. He had met a great deal of interesting people during his travels, good and bad, funny and uptight, wise and foolish. But it was during long travels like these when the young Kaishin found himself to be getting a little bored with traveling by himself. So he started to do what he usually did when he was bored. And that was to train in any techniques that he had heard about lately. Having none come into mind, he decided that he would refine his current level of technique in his own clan’s abilities. And it was not hard to choose which technique.

The technique that the young Kaishin wanted to work on was his Deep Freeze technique. He had already learned the basics of it back home with his clan. But now he wanted to perfect it, though after thinking about it somewhat, it would be a bit more difficult than he imagined. Akira knew the mechanics of the technique. The idea was that the Kaishin would use his Water Creation powers to create an orb of water that was right before the freezing point. Then he would throw it and it would freeze anything within a one meter radius of the contact point. It was truly a powerful technique. But then, Akira had heard rumors that one could take this technique to an even higher level. And that was by increasing how far the sphere could freeze after hitting something. When Akira was still living with the Kaishin clan, he had heard that someone had been able to freeze everything up to 3 meters around the contact point. Akira did not believe it and challenged that person to a duel. Upon execution of the technique, the kid who claimed that he could do it had failed poorly. But even though he lost, he still proclaimed that it was doable and he even had the nerve to say that even a genius like Akira could not reach that level of power.

Those were the times.

Akira disregarded what his fallen clan member has said and simply left after calling him a loser. But now, such a thing interested him. If there was a Kaishin was truly capable of doing such a thing, then it would be a great way to quickly finish any troublesome fights. Actually, after thinking about it, he thought that he had once heard his parents talking about the same thing. That was certainly interesting. Now he was sure that such a thing was doable. Of course, he had little to no idea on how to transcend his current level and gain the power to simply freeze whoever he wanted in an instant. Then again, his parents told him that he had done that once when he was a baby, but he did not think he could recreate such an attack again. He kept walking along the road as he thought about how the technique worked and what he had done when he first learned the technique. He thought that it would probably be wise to think back to what he had done the first time he had trained in this technique. Perhaps the flash back could give him a clue on how to perfect the technique. After all, back then, he was not alone and had access to every Kaishin technique there was before he had been exiled. Akira found a small town and decided to rest in it as he recalled days that seemed ages ago.

He had been many years younger when he first started learning this technique. It was one of the more basic techniques, one that every Kaishin should know and it was also a prerequisite technique for some of the more powerful techniques in the Kaishin bloodlimit, so it was no wonder that Akira was being taught this technique so early in his shinobi training. The one that was going to teach it to him was his father. This also was the fourth technique that he had learned as he grew up from a child within the clan. The two were outside, walking around as they usually did before learning a technique. Akira’s father did not want to be teaching inside the clan, as they were not particularly liked, however powerful that they might have been. Akira’s father then explained about what this technique was about to do. He went over the hand seals for the technique, the special hand motion that was to be done, and the drawbacks of using the technique. Akira, young as he may be back then, was still a sharp little prodigy that did not take long to understand his father’s words. However, he did have some questions to ask and they were all advanced questions beyond his years. The current Akira replayed through that question and answer series, to see if there was anything he could use even now.

[Saiyuki]

??/70

But unfortunately, there was nothing there that would serve to help him in his current situation. So, as Akira drank his tea, he continued his stroll down memory lane. After some questions, his father began to demonstrate the technique to his son. Akira sat off to the side as he watched his father look around for something to freeze. He decided on a boulder that was off to the side. There were trees around, but Akira knew that his father was not one who wanted to do anything to hinder life if he could help it. Now the chibi Kaishin carefully observed his father as he stood still in one spot for a few moments. Then he started to perform the eight hand seals needed for the technique. Afterwards, he would do this strange hand motion that he said was hard to explain, but easy to copy once one had taken a look at it. Even though it was said that it was to be in a circular motion, that motion had a few eccentric details to it. Akira made sure to remember it so he would not have to ask his father to repeat it again, wasting time for the little Kaishin. Then, his eyes would focus upon the sphere of water that had formed in his father’s hand, which was raised for dramatic effect. Of course, Akira had his eyes follow his father’s hand. The older Kaishin smiled as he turned his head towards his target.

“Watch and see what this technique can do.”

Then his father aimed at the boulder and threw the sphere of water at it. Akira tracked its course through the air, all the way to the boulder, where it made contact and blossomed into an explosion of ice. It was as if a silver flower had grown out of the boulder. Akira noticed that the boulder was not completely frozen. Akira asked his father about this, but he just smiled and said that Akira should not be so greedy and focus on learning the technique first. This was the first hint of anything having to do with a higher level of this technique. Of course, the chibi Akira only took it as a way of dodging his question and went to go try the technique out for himself, with his father watching over him from the background. The young Akira already knew how to mold chakra, though he did not have much experience with his chakra control. However, prodigies learn easily, so nobody worried about whether Akira would have trouble or not. After what he had done before, they all assumed that he would have no problem learning the clan’s techniques. Luckily, his father decided to go at his own pace, in order to escape the pressure that the clan would put on the young Akira. The present Akira was thankful for that as he kept going through his memories, wincing a little on how he had done his first attempt with this technique.

So now it was the chibi Akira’s turn to try to perform this technique. He gathered up his chakra like he had been trained to not so long ago. He knew that this technique was a combination of Water Creation and a little Ice Creation. In reality, someone as young as Akira could not get it right on his first try. However, because he was that young, he thought that he could. His father knew that he was thinking that, so he was having a quiet chuckle to himself as he watched his son concentrate on this technique. After gathering up the chakra that he estimated he would need, the little Akira went over the hand seals a few more times, to ingrain them into his muscle memory, a habit which Akira still possessed even today. When he thought that he would be able to execute the hand seals rapidly now, Akira began to perform the technique for real. His chakra control back then was elementary, but it was pretty good for someone his age. Once he had finished making the eight hand seals, he calmly did the circular motion that his father had shown him just moments ago. Having carefully watched his father, the little Akira had copied it movement for movement. His posture was even the same, and he did not even give so much as a twitch while performing the technique. Once he was finished with all of the preparations for the technique, Akira raised his hand to see if the sphere was forming correctly.

Contrary to his wishes, the sphere was not. It had weird bulges popping out of it and retreating as it formed. And it did not form as quickly he hoped that it would have. There was a moment of awkward silence as the sphere slowly formed. His father’s laughter grew while the young Akira just threw it away, giving off a mood of frustration. However, he knew that it would be quite useless to be frustrated. So he quickly calmed down and prepared to try his hand at this technique again. His father stopped laughing as well and just smiled as he looked on. Akira gathered up his chakra again, somewhat more than before. But this time he spent more time molding it. The last attempt was just horrible. The young Akira, who wanted to be better than everyone else, did not want such an event to happen again. After he thought was he ready, he started to perform the hand seals. They were performed flawlessly and swiftly. As if it had been rehearsed over a long period of time, the execution of hand seals fluidly went into the circular hand motion. Then he went to start forming the sphere in the palm of his left hand. It was forming much better than the last attempt. Actually, it formed too well and it ended up freezing itself before Akira could throw it. As his father started laughing again, an indignant Akira threw it at him. The present Akira smiled to himself when he remembered that scene.

[Saiyuki]

??/70

Now the young Akira had to try again at this technique and see if he could succeed. He had not expected the sphere of freezing water to actually freeze over like that. That’s when it occurred to him that this technique would take quite a bit of chakra control to do. If one did not lower the temperature enough, then the technique would not be able to be utilized efficiently. If one went over the freezing point, even if by just a little, then the water would freeze over and that would be the end of the technique. To the little Akira, who barely had any experience with chakra control, this posed quite a dilemma for him. The last technique that he learned, the Flying Needles of Death, just required him to be able to summon a larger than usual amount of chakra. But for a technique like this, there were some fine lines that a Kaishin had to tread in order to learn this technique. This was the young Kaishin’s first experience of having to practice chakra control to the level where the technique that he was training into required him to be. This experience would prove vital in the future, when Akira had to learn multiple techniques of different kinds by himself, each time having to somehow refine his chakra control to a higher level. Of course, in the shinobi world, this was not so special, as many other shinobi did the same thing.

His father, who had only been watching from the sidelines, decided to step in and give his son some clues about how to train in this technique. Obviously, one had to have a great deal of patience, especially since if the one training the technique is as inexperienced as the child Akira. The other tips were mostly about visualization tips and philosophical teachings from the clan. Akira at the time guessed that they would help, but did not really think that they could actually mean something. But the current Akira, who was looking back at his child self listening to his father’s teachings, was focusing on his father’s words. Perhaps they would include a clue to learning the next level of this technique. However, the sayings and analogies were quite vague and out there. Akira, even at this age, could not see how they could apply to what he wanted to learn. However, he still kept them close at mind. After all, he might suddenly have an insight that might involve something his father had said. Now he went back to going through his past. His child self nodded to his father and the two went back to where the rest of the clan was. There was no need to keep training out here, since now Akira could just do some self-training now that he knew what he was supposed to do.

The young Akira did not try that technique again until he had some free time the next day. He was off alone in a quiet place where no one would come to bother him, except his parents, who somehow always knew where he was. Once he was there, he pumped his fist, determined that today would be the day that he would finally learn how to use this technique. Then he calmed down and took a deep breath. Though it was good to have determination, he could not allow it to color his mind. Precision would be needed for this technique and that could only come with tranquility and focus. And so, after a few deep breaths, the young Akira began to gather up his chakra. It was more or less the same amount of chakra that he had used the day before. He was pretty sure that the amount of chakra had not much to do with the technique. The chakra control was the most important factor here. After he gathered up his chakra, he started to carefully mold it, using what little experience he had in such a skill. However, he found out that every time that he tried, he improved his control a little. After finishing the molding, Akira then went to raise his hands and start performing the eight required hand seals. Then he separated his hands and made the circular hand motion.

Did I succeed that time...?

Contrary to his guess, the young Akira had not, even though it certainly seemed like he had. The sphere of water was forming well within the palm of the young Kaishin’s hand. However, now came the hard part. And that was to consider giving the sphere more chakra or not. If he gave too much, it would freeze. But Akira wanted the maximum effect, so he fed his sphere a little bit of chakra. He still felt unsure, so he fed a little more. And then, maybe being a little greedy, yet another bit of chakra was added. However, then it went overboard and froze over. Akira stared at it for a few seconds and then slammed it into the ground. Afterwards, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He had seen other kids go on tantrums. He would not do the same thing. He immediately started to try again, gathering up the amount of chakra that he needed. It was slightly more than the previous attempt. Then he molded it as he did before, perhaps a bit more careful this time. He was a bit hasty, so he quickly moved onto forming the hand seals for the technique. Once those were done, he started making the circular hand motion again, anticipation rising in his small chest as he did. Then he looked at his hand and watched the sphere of water form. The present Akira sat back and smiled.

Ah, yes. That time I did succeed.

[Saiyuki]

??/70

The young Akira was not as greedy this time around. He was searching for the balance needed in the technique and he did so with a calm heart, unfettered by any traces of greed or pride. He closed his eyes as he did so. He was determined not to go overboard this time around. It would be better to have a weaker effect than no effect with a sphere that was completely frozen over. So he focused on the forming sphere in the palm of his hand. When he felt he was ready, he stopped doing anything with the sphere and simply looked for something to throw at. Finding a weirdly shaped rock, he threw the sphere of water at it. On contact, ice blossomed from the sphere into existence, covering the rock. It was more or less a one meter radius from the contact point. The young Akira smiled at the sight of this. Now he was satisfied at being able to do such a thing. So to him, this was yet another technique learned. He felt a little proud of himself. Presently, looking back on his child self, the teenage Akira could not help but smile at the feelings of his younger self. Then, the younger Akira noticed that his father had been to the side, watching him with a smile on his face. It seemed that he had been watching his son learn to use this technique for not a short time.

“Well, it seems like you mastered it.”

“Yes.”

“Well, why don’t I show you how to use it?”

Of course there were drawbacks to such a technique. That was what Akira’s father wanted to teach him about and how to use it in a real life fight. Since it would be a bad idea to do it here, where many things could get frozen, the two of them decided to go outside to train. Once outside, Akira was taught the drawbacks of the technique, which was why he could not move and that this technique could only be used in a throwing fashion. Those two conditions would make it hard for a Kaishin to use this technique effectively, and so Akira’s father explained to him what kind of situations Akira would have the best chance of succeeding with this technique. To make Akira have a hands-on experience with this, Akira’s father decided to do a battle simulation. Akira was to try to freeze his father. Akira did not know how, but his father had a technique that prevented him from being frozen, a forbidden ninjutsu that he learned from the village that he had went to a very long time ago. So Akira could practice without having to worry that he would freeze his own father. Not that he would worry anyway, since his little self wanted to dish out some payback to his father for his teasing. Choosing a good enough spot for the training to be effective, a somewhat dense forest within the Country of Mist, the two began their little spar.

The point of this spar was to try to freeze the older Kaishin. Akira could use whatever method he wished, so he brought a few weapons with him to help him out in this task. His father brought nothing, teasing his son by telling him that he would need nothing. The little Akira was fuming and was already planning out his strategy. Once the spar started, Akira disappeared into the trees, hiding himself from view. The mist that always came around in this country helped a bit, though it was not as strong as the Kirigakure no Jutsu, a technique that Akira would learn later, thanks to the inspiration that he had received from this training. His father lazily looked around, not even trying to find out the location of his son. Akira stealthily made his way through the lush forest, trying to get into a position where he thought that he would be able to place his father in a situation where he would just have to be hit by Akira’s Deep Freeze technique. Of course, it did annoy him a bit that his father decided to sit down and wait for his son to attack, but he kept his patience. All the while, he was setting up a trap for his father to fall into. Finally, he got close enough to his father, within his Water and Ice Creation range, though still well hidden. And it did not look like his father was trying to look for him, so he was pretty sure that he would not be discovered.

And let’s begin.

Akira started to make hand seals. Luckily, the mist was strongest right where Akira wanted his first technique to take place. After making the hand seals, 500 needles of ice formed within the mist, all behind his father. He held the tiger seal to make sure everything was ready. Then, the moment he released the seal, making the needles fly off, he immediately started making the hand seals for the Deep Freeze technique. His father noticed the needles and quickly backed away while deflecting a good amount of them. However, then he tripped a wire, setting off a trap with several kunai and shuriken flying at him. He chose the option of jumping up into the air, still deflecting some of the ice needles that had been purposely aimed upwards. When his father was in mid-air, Akira finished forming the sphere of water and threw it at him. Since he was in mid-air, Akira thought that it would pretty much be impossible for him to dodge. He thought that he had succeeded. However, the young Akira forgot that his father was also a Kaishin. Forming several hand seals, his father created an obstacle in the path of the sphere, using his own Water Creation ability to form water in between him and the sphere, making the sphere freeze the water first and not him. The young Akira sighed when he saw this happen. It seemed that his plan had failed. However, his father was laughing, praising his son for thinking out such a trap at such a young age.

[Saiyuki]

??/70

The young Akira fumed and went back again, trying to think up of another plan to use on his father. He would have to somehow trick his father and get in his blind spot to throw the Deep Freeze sphere at him. Of course, now the question was how many feints he should put into his trap. First, he set up a kunai and shuriken trap, using a wire to set them, like he had done so before. His father was now seemingly sleeping with a hat over his face, but Akira knew his father’s sleeping habits. He also knew that the straw hat could also been seen through. So he stayed in hiding while setting up his traps. When he was done, he prepared to use a couple of water feints. He started out by using Water Creation to create a sphere of water, about the same size as a Deep Freeze sphere, above his father’s head and let it drop away. His father reacted swiftly, fluidly dodging it. But then he set off the trap of the wire and let a barrage of kunai and shuriken fly at him. Then the attack that everyone should have been expecting came. Another sphere of water was launched at him from the side. Akira’s father smiled as he prepared to easily counter the attack. However, his intuition told him that something was wrong. And that was confirmed when Akira showed up behind him, with a sphere of water in the palm of his hand.

“I got you!”

The first two spheres were just water that held their shape with a very thin layer of ice. That was how Akira tricked his father. So now he threw the real sphere of freezing water at his father. In reality, his father was able to counter the attack, but that was when things started going wrong. Right when he countered the sphere with an ice weapon, several bolts of lightning hit him from the side, knocking him back into a tree. Akira could hear an icy laugh as he looked for the person who dared do such a thing. It seemed like a shinobi, since that was clearly ninjutsu that he had just performed. The straw hat fell over his father’s face, though Akira could tell that he was still breathing. Angered, the young Kaishin quickly formed 500 needles of ice and sent them all at his father’s attacker. They were all brushed away, but then Akira was nowhere to be seen. Having taken something that he should not have, an explosion pouch, Akira decided that now was the best time to use it. From the bushes, Akira could reveal himself by throwing the pouch right at the enemy. On contact, it exploded. Smiling, Akira leapt back to see if he had slain his foe. However that smile quickly disappeared as through the smoke, Akira could see movement. Cursing, Akira put his hands together as he disappeared into the trees, readying his next attack. The man spoke with the tone of a death god.

“So the Kaishin clan resides here? Looks like I’ll be having some fun.”

Akira then used the same trap that he lured his father into. Using multiple spheres of water that were just water, he let them fall on the rouge shinobi. They were swiftly evaded; though the man let some hit him since they looked harmless to him. However, then he made the mistake of letting a certain one him, freezing a good part of his arm. He then cursed out loud as he found Akira’s hiding spot and used a Shunshin to get there in a matter of nanoseconds. With a single swing from his frozen arm, he knocked Akira out of the tree, breaking the ice that had been formed with Akira’s weak chakra. The impact was enough to prevent Akira from getting up again due to the pain and the fact that everything seemed to be going around in circles in his point of view. The shinobi made an evil smile as he then performed hand seals, creating a weapon out of lightning, ready to impale the little Kaishin beneath him. However, then ice blossomed everywhere around him. The lightning weapon fizzled out of existence as its master would stay there, standing on the tree branch for the rest of time. Akira saw it, but he could not quite register what just happened there. But the present Akira could.

Ah, so that was when I first saw it.

That was the first time that Akira had been shown the higher level of the Deep Freeze technique, its true nature as a single hit killing technique. That technique had effectively ended the fight. Apparently, Akira’s father had just managed to somewhat protect himself from the Raiton technique and was only pretending to be finished. He wanted to see what Akira could do and intervened when he saw that Akira could do no more, though he was proud that his son managed to hit with the Deep Freeze technique. Later, as they were walking back, Akira’s father told him about the true Deep Freeze technique as he carried Akira on his back. Akira certainly heard the words, but he was both tired and on the verge of blacking out while his father was talking. But after some searching, Akira managed to remember what his father had said, though only vague bits and parts of it. It seemed that Akira would have to work with whatever he got, though he did wish that he had paid more attention to his father when he was speaking about the technique. But that was no matter. After finishing his stroll down memory lane, Akira got off, paid for the drinks that he had ordered and went out of town. After all, he could not be freezing things in a normal town like this. It was finally time for him to see if he could use what he had learned from his memories to strengthen his Deep Freeze technique.

[Saiyuki]

??/70

Akira headed to a place that he had passed by earlier that he thought would be a good spot for him to train in. It was a rocky plateau, with many large boulders. It would be the perfect place for him to be by himself and have targets for him to freeze. He did not take long to get there. The weather was good for him, as the probability of anything happening in the clear blue sky right now was pretty much zero. He had reserved a room back at the town, so he was not going to spend the night in this rocky place. But he was expecting himself to be finished with learning this technique before night had fallen. He looked around for a decent target. When he found one, he started to gather up his chakra, calling upon the powers of his icy blood. This was easy for him; after all, he did train in this technique when he was but a small boy and had been using it frequently ever since. The molding did not take long either, as he had the experience and natural gift for using techniques like these. Then he started to quickly form the hand seals of the technique. After he was done with the eight hand seals, he moved on to making the circular hand motion. After he was done with that, he raised the palm of his right hand and watched as a sphere of water formed above it.

This was merely a warm-up for the young Kaishin. He was not trying to augment his technique right now. He wanted to remember the feeling of the technique. It felt quite weird considering how he had just dived into his memories of learning this technique. But it felt quite natural, which was a direct result of Akira’s using it often in any battles that came up where he was able to twist the situation to where he was able to use the Deep Freeze technique. After the sphere had finished forming, Akira then threw it at the rock that he had chosen earlier. The boulder froze over immediately upon contact. However, that particular boulder was not as large as a person. It would seem that Akira had to increase the area of effect of his technique threefold if it were to be able to be considered as a killing technique. That seemed quite difficult to the young Kaishin. He had much trouble with it as a child, though it became much easier as he grew up. Now it seemed as if he was going to take a giant leap. He also had next to no idea on how to proceed from here. He sat down on a rock and closed his eyes, thinking about ways to try to increase the area of effect. He thought back to the hints and tips that his father had given him so long ago, though they were very vague in meaning and Akira had not heard all of them since he was half unconscious when he was listening. Several minutes passed by like this as Akira quietly came up with a few theories on how to proceed from here.

He opened his eyes and decided to try out one of his theories right now. He would try to increase the size of the sphere that he was creating. Hopefully, that would allow him to be able to put in additional amounts of chakra before the sphere would freeze over and become useless. Of course, this was only a theory. He had no idea on the details and how he should mold it and things like that. However, as a Kaishin, he believed that he had the power to do this. After all, this technique belonged to his clan and his clan alone. So he started to gather up the amount of chakra that he would need, which he thought would be slightly more than usual. He did not want to increase the amount of chakra he was putting in since he was being cautious and did not want the sphere to freeze over. Once he was finished with that, he started to mold the chakra that he had gathered up, trying to be as efficient as possible, since he wanted to push the limit of this technique without actually going over the limit. Once he was done with that, he took a deep breath and then started to perform the eight hand seals needed for this technique. Once he was done with that, he swiftly moved unto creating the hand motion that a Kaishin needed to do to perform this technique, no matter what the level. Akira smiled as he had a rather interesting thought while performing the circular hand motion.

If only one could increase the amount of hand seals to get what one wanted...

After he was finished the hand motion, Akira raised his left palm to chest level and waited for the sphere of water to form. As he hoped it would, the sphere was getting to be a bit bigger this time around. But he could only hope that it would achieve the results that he hoped it would. He tried to add in a little more chakra, but then it all went wrong as the sphere started to freeze over. It was an irreversible process, so Akira threw it away before it even finished freezing. It seemed that he had reached the maximum input of chakra for that sphere, and it had even been bigger than usual. He did not think that he would have reached the limit so soon. So he decided to try again. He gathered up more chakra this time around. He wanted the sphere to be much larger than it was supposed to be. After doing so, he started to carefully mold it, so that it would turn out as he desired it to be. This took him a little more time than usual. But when he was finished, he had high hopes for this attempt. Then he started to form the hand seals, executing them swiftly and flawlessly. Then he quickly moved onto the circular hand motion. Once that was done, he started to observe the forming sphere of water in his palm. It was indeed larger than it had been in the previous attempt. Curious at what the change of factor would do, Akira threw it at a rock. To his delight, the distance frozen from the contact point had increased several inches. He smiled at his progress, but then noted the hunger in his stomach.

Ah, better get something to eat then.

[Saiyuki]

??/70

As Akira headed back to the town that he had been reminiscing at earlier, he thought about other ways in which he could augment the area of effect of his Deep Freeze technique. He came up with a couple more theories, though in retrospect, he thought it might not have been a good idea to think about such things right before lunch. They made him want to skip eating and go right back to training, but he would not allow himself to do that, since he had once suffered extreme hunger and he had been traumatized from such an event. So he resisted his urge to try out his new ideas. They could wait, since it was not like someone was going to pull the idea from his head, though he had heard of a clan that could do that to someone. And so, he banished all thoughts of training from his head as he made his way to town. Doing such a thing would make his lunch more enjoyable in his opinion. He entered the town from the same entrance and got something simple, but filling, to eat, since he had a limited amount of money to spend out here. Afterwards, he slowly made his way back to where he had been training before, not wanting to train so soon after having eaten. When he arrived at the rocky training grounds, the frozen boulder was still there, serving as a memoir to Akira’s progress with this technique. He smiled the moment he saw the frozen boulder.

Let’s see if I can freeze a bigger one.

After taking a few deep breaths, Akira decided to replicate what he had just done before he went on a lunch break. But this time, he would try to increase the size again, trying to get an even larger area of effect. That was the only factor that had been confirmed to be able to play a large role in the power of the technique. He would search for other factors later since he wanted to work on this one first. He started to gather up his chakra, which was somewhat more this time compared to the last attempt. Afterwards, he molded the gathered chakra in pretty much the same way that he had molded it last time, though he spent a little longer on it. Once he was done with that, he raised his hands and commenced the execution of the eight hand seals that the technique required. Swiftly finishing them, he then moved unto making the special circular hand motion, the second, and a rather unique, requirement for the technique. Afterwards, he would raise his hand and watch the sphere of water form, greater than before in size. He added in a little more chakra, sure that it would not freeze over. It did not. Smiling at his successful guess, Akira then chose a target for him to throw the sphere at. Choosing a bigger rock, Akira aimed for the spot that would cover the most surface area. Throwing the sphere, he then watched as a flurry of ice blossomed forth, covering a good deal of the rock. Once again, there was some improvement in how far the ice could reach from the contact point. Smiling at his improvement, Akira then started to think about his next theory.

Knowing that he could not rely simply on size to carry him all the way to success, Akira thought about other ways to increase the area of effect. What he came up with was simple. And that was to try to increase the area of effect by spreading the water right after the sphere connects with the water. Of course, that was doable if one threw the sphere hard enough, but Akira had an idea that one could use chakra to try to make the attack more explosive. He decided to try it, but with his original Deep Freeze technique. If he tried to combine size with explosiveness, then it might freeze over and Akira did not like wasting chakra. So he gathered up his estimated amount of chakra, which should be somewhat more than the original Deep Freeze technique. Afterwards, he molded it and tried to make it more explosive. When he thought he got it, he raised his hands and started to perform the necessary hand seals. When he was done with those, his last hand seal fluidly flowed into making the circular motion for the technique. Finished with all of the technique preparations, the young Kaishin then raised his hand and watched the formation of the icy cold sphere of water. Looking around for a moment, he chose a target and threw it at the chosen boulder. It was roughly the same size as the last one that he had decided to freeze. When it hit, the results were as Akira had theorized them to be. The area of effect had increased. The appearance of the technique also looked more devastating.

The young Kaishin smiled at the sight of this. This meant that he was yet another step closer to completion of this deadly technique. Now all he had to do was to take what he had gained so far and put them all together. Having trained in both aspects, Akira felt relatively confident about his ability to combine the two aspects, which were size and explosiveness. Gathering a good amount of chakra, a amount greater compared to either one of the separate Deep Freeze spheres that he had attempted before, Akira began to mold the chakra, making sure that it would be able to fit into both aspects at the same time. If everything turned out to be what Akira expected it to be, then the two should have at least a additive effect, or if he was a lucky, an synergistic effect. Done with the molding, the young Kaishin then began the execution of what he hoped to the last time that he had to make hand seals for this technique. Finally, his hands waved into the air, tracing the circular hand motion that he was to do every time that he would use this powerful technique. Focused eyes stared upon the large sphere of forming water, its very essence seemingly to radiate power out from it. Locating a target, the young Kaishin would raise the sphere, hold it for a second for dramatic effect, and then threw it at his target. He chosen a boulder which was about three meters tall. It was wider and taller than the normal person. If he could freeze that, then he could freeze anything. Upon contact, Akira turned and left, an explosion of winter seemingly having occurred behind him as he left with a smile on his face.

[Hana~Kyo]

Learned

[Saiyuki]

Kagemane no Jutsu, ‰e^Ž—‚̏p (Shadow Imitation Technique)
Rank: "C", "B", "A" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: The signature move of the Nara family, this jutsu allows the user to control their own shadow and merge it with their opponent's shadow, combining them. This links the movements of the user with the target; the target is subsequently forced to make any movement the user makes. It is an extremely versatile technique, as the user can contract and change the shape of their shadow, potentially grabbing multiple targets at once. The degree to which the user's shadow can be stretched is limited by its total surface area.
Special: "Hanseals"
Drawback: Must Be Learned Multiple times in order to truly achieve something grand. Must hold Rat hand seal until the technique connects with the targets shadow.
Description: Using the shadows of other objects, the user can extend their shadow beyond its normal range. The amount of time for which an opponent can be held is limited by the user's chakra, since the user must constantly maintain the jutsu. The jutsu is also more difficult to maintain at greater ranges or for multiple opponents, since the user's shadow must be stretched constantly. At closer ranges, it requires considerably less effort on the user's part. Additionally, the target can force their way free with enough effort, though the amount of effort required to do so is considerable. There are two tables or understandings for this technique that consists of the Difficulty class of the User as well as the Opponent, and as to how far the user is capable of using this technique. When first learned the user is only capable of using this technique at a distance of Ten meters. Each higher Rank archived, the user is capable of extending the shadow another five meters. The user must first however, learn each rank a certain amount of times before then next rank is obtainable. The C rank version must be learned five times total. At which point the ditance is upgraded to "B" Rank training and now extends ten meters each time trained. This version must be learned 3 times total. The "A" Rank version, extends the range to Seventy meters, and every additional "A" Rank training extends it another ten meters. This technique caps out at 100 meters. The user is capable of making their shadow split and by doing so takes up the distance of the total form of the original technique. This means that if a user has this technique to where they can use thirty meters and wishes to make this technique split to three shadows the maximum distance is ten meters per shadow.

Difficulty on Escaping: Escaping the Kagemane is a tricky art for some, easier for others. Depending on your Stamina and Difficulty class depends on how well the opponent can escape the Kagemane. The Kagemane is held for a Certain time frame depending on Rank of the technique learned. "C" Rank can be held for 18 seconds before it breaks no matter what. "B" Rank 36 seconds, "A" Rank 54 Seconds. For every difficulty class the user is above the opponent, add another five seconds. If the opponent for every difficulty class above th user, subtract five seconds. If the Opponent captured is a Taimaster, subtract 15 seconds additionally. If the opponent is a Tai specialist, subtract 5 additional seconds. If the opponent is a Taijutsu No specialist, leave it as is. After doing the math, the amount of turns held will be apparent.
Limit: Nara Clan Technique

0/20

Akira was soaring through the skies on his liquid bird when he suddenly thought of a dear friend that he had made. He was a skilled Nara, trustworthy and clever, always one to take up challenges and defend his beliefs. His name was Tai. The two had met spontaneously, both in the midst of their traveling to their own destinations, Akirafs being nowhere. The two had met while they were staying in the same town. Akira was outside of a noisy and rambunctious bar, staring at the stars in the night sky when he heard a rather large noise and then suddenly everybody inside the bar was silent. Akira got off of the porch that he had been sitting on and peered inside to see what was happening through the doors. It seemed like a rather heated argument had escalated into a fight of some kind. There were too many people in the way, so Akira had to walk in and get to a higher elevation to see what was happening beyond all the crowding people. After getting to a balcony up above, it seemed like a couple of men were standing and looked pretty pissed at one guy who was calmly sitting down and drinking what seemed to be tea, which was a rather odd choice in a bar where drunks frequently populated, but that raised Akirafs impression of him. He carefully listened to their conversation, if it could be called a conversation at all.

"What did you say about me?"

"You heard me the first time."

The person drinking tea took the hood off of his head while muttering something that was inaudible to Akira, who was far away and had to deal with all the noise of the people talking about what was going to happen. Akira was surprised to see that this guy was about the same age as him. The men who were arguing with him were surprised as well, thinking that this boy in front of them must be a retarded fool to try to insult two grown men, both looking quite fierce. They laughed and started to back away after telling the boy that he was touched in the head and should take a look in the mirror before he can go around saying what he wanted to. However, the boy simply smiled and repeated what he had said earlier. Akira could tell that he had repeated it from reading his lips. This then angered the two men who had been walking away. They snapped and started to tackle the boy. However, the boy simply disappeared. No one but Akira could see that he had used the Body Flicker technique. He was surprised that the boy knew that, but now he knew that he was a shinobi. The young Kaishin was looking forward to seeing how he would make the two drunks eat dirt. Of course, this would have to be taijutsu or a genjutsu of some sort, since Akira could not see the shinobi performing ninjutsu here. If he did, he would endanger the bystanders and that would be when Akira would have to step in, since he would not stand for innocent people getting hurt because of a stupid fight.

The shinobi alighted on the balcony railing, not so far from Akira. The two made eye contact, and Akira had a knowing look in his eyes, something that he could tell had surprised the boy. But then he went back to focusing on the two men beneath him. He was both literally and metaphorically looking down on them. They threw beer bottles at him, which had a next to zero chance of hitting any decent shinobi. The boy leapt up into the air, gracefully diving down while slamming both of them into the wooden floor. However, that did not have enough force to make them stay down. They got back up, albeit a bit wobbly on the legs. However, then their friends came to back them up. From the look on their faces, they were not taking too kindly to a stranger brat coming in and looking down on them. They were peeved beyond hell in how someone as small and insignificant as he could have simply blown down the hierarchy established in the town. No one had ever dared challenge them before. Now, there would be hell to pay. The men get some weapons, while the crowd drew farther back, anticipating a rather bloody fight, though they kept cheering and jeering on, most of them wanting to see some action already. Akira was among those who were lazily watching on. He felt as if he was going to fall asleep when he watched the men slowly get closer to the young shinobi. However, he quickly started paying attention when he saw what the boy was doing.

Apparently, no definitely, the boy was making hand seals! Akira was on guard and was ready to perform hand seals of his own. However, when the boy finished on the last hand seal, which was the hand seal for the sign of the Rat, nothing spectacular seemed to have happened. However, all of the men suddenly stopped moving. Akira was a bit surprised and tried to look for the cause of such a thing. He could not find any until the boy started to move. Thatfs when he noticed the peculiarity in the situation. The boyfs shadow was connected with the shadows of every man that was opposing him. Upon further observation, he could see that whatever movement the boy did, all of the other men did as well. That was truly an astounding technique; one that Akira thought would be very useful if it were in his possession. The boy moved closer to one of them. He punched out at one of the men, which all of the men did the same. However, his fists were above the boyfs head, his abnormal height going against him. The boyfs fist connected and if it were not for the shadow technique, then that man would have surely fallen. Akira could tell that he had been knocked out already. The other men had fear in their eyes, something that everyone could see. The boy told them to never again even dare to talk back to him and then let his shadow recede. Then he walked out of the silent bar, calmly, as if nothing had ever happened. Akira sat back on a chair, stifling his laughter with his hand, pretending that he was just coughing. Those men had finally found out that they were just fishes in a small pond.

[Saiyuki]

??/20

Akira was now interested in the shadow technique that the boy had used. But he had already left and that would only be a fleeting desire for the young Kaishin. Thinking back, he thought he had been told of a clan that could manipulate shadows. He recalled being told that the name of the clan was Nara. Akira took another look at the look on the men’s faces. Stifling another laugh, he hastily made his way out of the bar. If he had laughed, then he would feel very bad if he was forced to further lower the self-esteem of the defeated men if they dared to challenge another boy after getting their heads handed to them and then being told to go die. Once outside, Akira laughed to the stars and the moon as he made his way back to his rented out residence in the town. He would be leaving tomorrow morning, though he harbored some regret in not making the acquaintance of that Nara shinobi. Telling himself that the clan was well known and he would be able to meet more of them in the future, Akira went to his room and went to sleep. He wanted to wake up early the next morning to leave. He was the type of person who wanted to silently leave. After the night had passed, Akira woke up, a few minutes later than the time that he had hoped to arise at. He hastily got out of bed and packed his belongings. He had already paid for everything the night before, so he could just leave without having to wake anybody up. Stretching out his limbs, he made his way of town.

Back on the road again, the young Kaishin felt a sense of belonging in him as he made his way down the road. He was expecting a nice, quiet journey when he suddenly heard an explosion. Quickly detecting the direction of the explosion with his Sonar technique, Akira then started to make his way there. Once he arrived, he stayed hidden from view to observe the situation before acting. If the level of the people fighting was beyond his, then he would have to have a death wish if he wanted to go into the fray. However, he saw the Nara boy there. And it seemed that two other shinobi were ganging up on him, seeing as he was injured. His wound did not seem that bad, but it was certainly going to be liability for the rest of the fight. Akira did not think that he would win, even with the shadow technique. Judging from their statures, these two were long range fighters, something that Akira did not think the shadow technique would be effective against. Finally able to see the headbands of the Nara, as well as the other shinobi, Akira could tell that he was from the Village Hidden in the Rain, while the others were from the Village Hidden in the Cloud. Thinking that this would be a good opportunity to gain a favor from the Nara, Akira decided that he would fight alongside the Nara. He began by making hand seals while carefully watching the movements of the two Kumo shinobi. He was ready when they began to move. One launched a direct ninjutsu attack at the injured Nara, who dodged, only to fall into the path of another stronger ninjutsu.

“Hey, you were doing so well last night. What happened here?”

After the smoke cleared, Akira was in front of the Nara, with a large frozen sphere that had been a technique once. Akira had effectively negated it. The two enemies were angered at his appearance and prepared to attack but then mist started to form, covering the two teenage shinobi from view. For a ranged fighter, this was their worst nightmare. For Akira, this was a playground. After making sure of their location with his Sonar technique, Akira then shot off 500 needles of ice before summoning his liquid bird. The needles might or might not have killed the two Cloud shinobi. Akira did not really care at the moment. He formed the bird right under him and the Nara. Then the two soared off into the blue skies, out of harm’s reach. The Nara was in pain, but his life was not threatened. When asked why he helped him, the young Kaishin replied like a true mercenary, laughing as he did so. The Nara fell silent as Akira took him to a place where he knew had some people that could treat this wound. After being treated, the Nara agreed to teach Akira the special technique of his clan. But Akira had to be inducted into the clan. Seeing nothing wrong with associating himself with this clan, Akira agreed right away. Then the two formally introduced themselves before Tai started to teach Akira the move. Moving to an open space, Tai told Akira to watch carefully.

He formed the hand seals quickly, though Akira could see them clearly. There were not that many, so it was not a hard sequence to memorize. Then Tai held the Rat hand seal and led his shadow extend, easily reaching Akira’s. This was the first time that Akira had this sensation, where his body was beyond his own control, though he could somewhat resist. Tai explained a few things to him, moving his body in a few simple ways to make Akira see his point. Releasing the technique, he then told Akira to try this technique out. Nodding his head, the young Kaishin would then call up some chakra for the technique and then start to perform the hand seals. They were swiftly and flawlessly delivered, something that Tai noted, since Akira had only seen it once and he had done it quickly before. Afterwards, Akira held the Rat hand seal and tried to extend his shadow. It was not working out right. It was as if his shadow and turned into blobs and were trying to crawl out in a blob like fashion. Tai quickly figured out what Akira was doing wrong and told the young Kaishin to focus only on one point. Understanding his advice and reproaching himself for not having thought of it earlier, Akira focused. Slowly, the blobs began to combine into one fine line of shadow that started to extend outwards the more Akira focused. Soon enough, he was able to reach Tai. Releasing the hand seal, Akira tried out a few things with the technique, making Tai copy his actions. After doing so, Akira released the technique, smiling as he finally got his hands on this special technique.

[hotaru]

+20

[Saiyuki]

Kagemane no Jutsu, ‰e^Ž—‚̏p (Shadow Imitation Technique)
Rank: "C", "B", "A" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: The signature move of the Nara family, this jutsu allows the user to control their own shadow and merge it with their opponent's shadow, combining them. This links the movements of the user with the target; the target is subsequently forced to make any movement the user makes. It is an extremely versatile technique, as the user can contract and change the shape of their shadow, potentially grabbing multiple targets at once. The degree to which the user's shadow can be stretched is limited by its total surface area.
Special: "Hanseals"
Drawback: Must Be Learned Multiple times in order to truly achieve something grand. Must hold Rat hand seal until the technique connects with the targets shadow.
Description: Using the shadows of other objects, the user can extend their shadow beyond its normal range. The amount of time for which an opponent can be held is limited by the user's chakra, since the user must constantly maintain the jutsu. The jutsu is also more difficult to maintain at greater ranges or for multiple opponents, since the user's shadow must be stretched constantly. At closer ranges, it requires considerably less effort on the user's part. Additionally, the target can force their way free with enough effort, though the amount of effort required to do so is considerable. There are two tables or understandings for this technique that consists of the Difficulty class of the User as well as the Opponent, and as to how far the user is capable of using this technique. When first learned the user is only capable of using this technique at a distance of Ten meters. Each higher Rank archived, the user is capable of extending the shadow another five meters. The user must first however, learn each rank a certain amount of times before then next rank is obtainable. The C rank version must be learned five times total. At which point the ditance is upgraded to "B" Rank training and now extends ten meters each time trained. This version must be learned 3 times total. The "A" Rank version, extends the range to Seventy meters, and every additional "A" Rank training extends it another ten meters. This technique caps out at 100 meters. The user is capable of making their shadow split and by doing so takes up the distance of the total form of the original technique. This means that if a user has this technique to where they can use thirty meters and wishes to make this technique split to three shadows the maximum distance is ten meters per shadow.

Difficulty on Escaping: Escaping the Kagemane is a tricky art for some, easier for others. Depending on your Stamina and Difficulty class depends on how well the opponent can escape the Kagemane. The Kagemane is held for a Certain time frame depending on Rank of the technique learned. "C" Rank can be held for 18 seconds before it breaks no matter what. "B" Rank 36 seconds, "A" Rank 54 Seconds. For every difficulty class the user is above the opponent, add another five seconds. If the opponent for every difficulty class above th user, subtract five seconds. If the Opponent captured is a Taimaster, subtract 15 seconds additionally. If the opponent is a Tai specialist, subtract 5 additional seconds. If the opponent is a Taijutsu No specialist, leave it as is. After doing the math, the amount of turns held will be apparent.
Limit: Nara Clan Technique

0/20

Now that Akira had learned the Art of the Shadow Binding, it was time for him to meet up with some of the other members of the Nara clan, just so all the formalities could be concluded. Tai did not think he would get in trouble for teaching Akira, since the young Kaishin did save his life. Tai arranged a time and place for a meeting by mail and once his request was confirmed, the two set off for the meeting place. On the way there, Tai told Akira about the history of the clan, which was something that was rather interesting to the young Kaishin. He never imagined that a shadow dragon had been the originator of the clanfs techniques. He wondered why the technique never became a bloodlimit, but Tai did not know the answer, simply responding that Akira should be grateful that it didnft, otherwise he would have never been able to learn the technique. Laughing, the two continued on their way to their appointment, which was tomorrow. Akira suggested that they go by air. Tai agreed, since it was faster and they needed to reach a town before night fell. Forming a few quick simple hand seals, Akira created a bird of water and the two clansmen got on it and soared off of the ground, flying into the twilight sky. From the view up there, the two could see a town. That was the one that they were supposed to pass through, so Akira went full speed ahead, quickly getting there while the sunfs last orange rays were still glimmering in the darkening sky.

While the two settled in for the night, Tai asked Akira to practice his Shadow Binding technique. It was a foolish question, because the young Kaishin was going to practice the technique anyway. Of course, Tai came along to oversee his training and point out any errors that he might have. He would not be practicing it on anyone, since it was the part between the initiation of the technique and the success of the technique that mattered the most. Once the enemy was captured by the technique, then it was just success, nothing else to it, or so Akira thought. He was told by Tai that this technique was not perfect. There was a time limit at which he could hold the technique. And that time limit was affected by several factors. One was the Narafs own skill. Tai refused to talk about any more until Akira had reached a good enough level with his own Shadow Binding technique first. The young Kaishin noted how stubborn his traveling companion was, but he brushed that aside and proceeded on with his training. First, he gathered up some chakra, roughly around the same amount as the last time that he had tried this technique. Then he started to perform the hand seals of the technique. They were not that much, so the young Kaishin was quickly finished with those. Afterwards, he held the last seal, which was the sign of the Rat and then tried to extend his shadow out. As he was just a beginner in this technique, which he had been told needed to be trained in many times before it could become something powerful, the process was rather slow.

Taking into account what he had learned before, he focused his chakra on one point and one shadow only. His original shadow changed form and simply became a line that stretched from the base of Akirafs shadow. As he kept stretching, he could see why one needed to train in this technique. He was slow and his shadow was not stretching out that far. After it stretched several meters, Akira dispelled the technique and went over to Tai, who was sitting down. This technique definitely took a lot of concentration. When the young Kaishin asked Tai about how to improve, the Nara said that at this stage, he should just keep using the technique and try to improve it a little bit every time he used it. The more that Akira would use this technique, the better that he would get at it. Even though he had been hoping for some kind of advice that could really benefit him, he knew that what Tai was saying had sound reasoning behind it. After all, he had learned several techniques by doing the same thing. Seeing as it was late, the two decided to stop for today and get something to eat. They were both hungry and they knew it. Tai told Akira that they had some time, so Akira could practice his technique tomorrow morning as well. Nodding, the young Kaishin opened the door to a restaurant and invited his friend to go in first before he did. After eating, the two would head back to their rented rooms, which were side by side to each other, and head in for the night.

The two woke up early next morning. Akira was glad to see that he could find someone who shared the same sentiments as he did. Going back to the same place that they had been the night before, Akira resumed his training while Tai watched over him. Akira wondered what would happen if he used more chakra and so decided to try it. He gathered up a larger amount of chakra this time and hoped that it would help him improve. All he wanted was to have the feeling of the technique. Once he got the feeling down, then he would be able to perform this technique much better, hopefully with less chakra used. Next, he raised his hands and rapidly executed the formation of hand seals, ending on the Rat. After he was done with that, he then proceeded to see how well he could extend his shadow this time around. Perhaps it was the increase in chakra, perhaps it was the difference in experience, but this time around, Akirafs shadow extended easier than before. Yesterday, it seemed like a slug. Today it was more like water, though Akira wished that his shadow moved as fast as flowing water. Still, Akira found it easier to focus on the technique. This allowed him to stretch out farther than he could yesterday, by a few meters. However, he was not satisfied with this. Taifs voice rang out like a sharp battle cry. Akira was losing focus and his shadow was beginning to curve and whatnot. The young Kaishin immediately regained his focus and his shadow went back to normal, even extending out roughly about another meter or so. Then, the two started to hear the noises of people waking up and decided to stop and get some breakfast.

[Saiyuki]

??/20

Akira and Tai quietly went to get their breakfast, ate quickly and then left. They still had a ways to travel before they would meet up with the other Nara clan members. So it would be better for them to hurry a little. After they ate something simple and not too costly, the two headed back to their rooms to pack up their belongings. They had already paid for everything beforehand, so there was no need to drop by the front desk. They could go right ahead and leave and that was just what they did. They attracted a few glances on the way out, thanks to their outfits and the peculiarity of guys their age going out like this. Once outside the village, Akira created some water for him to use and then used his ninjutsu to form an eagle out of the water. Getting on top of the eagle, the two then set off for the skies. Thankfully, it was still good weather today and they could afford to safely use this method of transportation. Akira had once seen someone who was electrified by pure lightning once when he was flying. He related the sight to Tai, who shuddered a little at the telling of Akira’s story. The two flew northeast, to another town where they were to meet their clansmen. It was a large town, but still a bit far from here. Akira flew as fast as he could in that direction, while Tai served as a navigator of sorts, having been in the region before. His knowledge of the topography of the area helped greatly as a guide, as wind and whatnot had deterred Akira from the right path more than once.

After a few hours of flying, the two had to stop for a lunch break. They were making good time, so they could afford to be a little more relaxed with their break. Once on the ground, they took out the food that they had bought at the previous time and ate it for their lunch. Afterwards, Akira thought that it would be a good idea to train now. Tai agreed, since it would look better if Akira had some skill in the Nara’s clan special technique, though the clansmen did not usually look for that. Akira decided to work more on his extension. Hopefully, he would be able to get it past ten meters, which he had just barely reached before. He could tell that the farther out one went, the more chakra that they would need to just hold the shadow at that length. This was a technique that truly required a great deal of training in. Deciding to start right away, Akira began to gather his chakra. He decided that he would see how well experience played into this, so he did not increase the amount of chakra that he was using this time. After he had finished gathering his chakra, he started to form the hand seals for the technique. Ending with the Rat seal, Akira began the technique. His shadow started to change and then extend outwards in front of him. It started off at a good speed at first, but then gradually became slower as it grew closer to Akira’s previous limit, which was ten meters. But Akira tried harder and increased the intensity of his concentration, fanning his ever burning desire to improve himself and his techniques. This made the shadow keep extending.

“Good job, Akira...”

Tai, who was quietly looking from the side, was watching his friend in deep concentration. He softly muttered these words, words that would never register in Akira’s mind nor would they reach his ears. But he was impressed with how far his friend had come. He had only learned the technique not too long ago. He had not met many prodigies before, but if he had to call someone a prodigy, then Akira would be the one who fit his standards. Still, he kept observing and analyzing Akira’s technique. He had been using this technique his whole life, so he knew every subtle detail that there was to know about this technique. This made him the perfect teacher. But he only sought to catch and remember any eccentricities that he found, not wanting to disturb Akira’s focus. Meanwhile, the young Kaishin was still concentrating on extension. Stretching ever further, Akira gritted his teeth and pulled his shadow ahead. It was quite a slow process, but after a few moments, Akira finally reached the goal that he had set for himself. And that was fifteen meters, five meters past his original limit, which was ten. After doing so, he released the technique, taking in a deep breath and then making a sigh of relief. But he felt that he had improved and this made him content. Tai, who was sitting down, got up and walked in front of Akira, a smile ever dancing on his face. Akira could tell that his Nara friend had something to say to him and focused his attention on him. The words that he spoke made Akira recall the thing that he had wanted to ask Tai about.

“You’ve done well so far. But I wonder, do you remember the time when I was at the bar?”

“Yeah...you used your shadow to bind every one of them.”

“Correct. It’s time that you learn to do that as well.”

Nodding, Akira listened to what Tai had to say to him. Obviously, holding multiple opponents with this technique was a whole different story compared to simply holding one opponent. The strain was a lot bigger and so more chakra would be needed. Additionally, the distance at which the Nara could extend his shadow was proportionally reduced for every opponent that he would try to capture with this technique. That was why Akira had been told to work on his shadow extension first, since he would need a good enough distance if he wanted to achieve something with this part of the technique. Now, Tai told Akira to try to split his shadow into a pair of shadows, each that could extend out half of what Akira’s maximum reach was, which was fifteen meters. Doing all of the math, the longest distance that each of the shadows could reach out was seven and a half meters. Nodding to his friend, who sat back down, Akira started to gather up his chakra again, this time increasing the amount of chakra that he was using. He had no idea on how to split his shadow, but he hoped that he would learn with experience. He tried to mold his chakra this time, visualizing two shadows as he did so. After he finished molding, he started forming the hand seals of the Shadow Binding technique. Once he was finished with that, he held the Rat hand seal while watching to see what his shadow was doing. One extended out in a decent manner, but the other seemed to be struggling. Akira gave it a burst of chakra, which allowed for it to extend out, but it was not going as well as Akira had hoped it would be. Tai, noting the amount of time that had passed, decided to end the training for now. The two still had to get to where they were supposed to be.

[Kuro]

Learned.

[Saiyuki]

Kagemane no Jutsu, ‰e^Ž—‚̏p (Shadow Imitation Technique)
Rank: "C", "B", "A" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: The signature move of the Nara family, this jutsu allows the user to control their own shadow and merge it with their opponent's shadow, combining them. This links the movements of the user with the target; the target is subsequently forced to make any movement the user makes. It is an extremely versatile technique, as the user can contract and change the shape of their shadow, potentially grabbing multiple targets at once. The degree to which the user's shadow can be stretched is limited by its total surface area.
Special: "Hanseals"
Drawback: Must Be Learned Multiple times in order to truly achieve something grand. Must hold Rat hand seal until the technique connects with the targets shadow.
Description: Using the shadows of other objects, the user can extend their shadow beyond its normal range. The amount of time for which an opponent can be held is limited by the user's chakra, since the user must constantly maintain the jutsu. The jutsu is also more difficult to maintain at greater ranges or for multiple opponents, since the user's shadow must be stretched constantly. At closer ranges, it requires considerably less effort on the user's part. Additionally, the target can force their way free with enough effort, though the amount of effort required to do so is considerable. There are two tables or understandings for this technique that consists of the Difficulty class of the User as well as the Opponent, and as to how far the user is capable of using this technique. When first learned the user is only capable of using this technique at a distance of Ten meters. Each higher Rank archived, the user is capable of extending the shadow another five meters. The user must first however, learn each rank a certain amount of times before then next rank is obtainable. The C rank version must be learned five times total. At which point the ditance is upgraded to "B" Rank training and now extends ten meters each time trained. This version must be learned 3 times total. The "A" Rank version, extends the range to Seventy meters, and every additional "A" Rank training extends it another ten meters. This technique caps out at 100 meters. The user is capable of making their shadow split and by doing so takes up the distance of the total form of the original technique. This means that if a user has this technique to where they can use thirty meters and wishes to make this technique split to three shadows the maximum distance is ten meters per shadow.

Difficulty on Escaping: Escaping the Kagemane is a tricky art for some, easier for others. Depending on your Stamina and Difficulty class depends on how well the opponent can escape the Kagemane. The Kagemane is held for a Certain time frame depending on Rank of the technique learned. "C" Rank can be held for 18 seconds before it breaks no matter what. "B" Rank 36 seconds, "A" Rank 54 Seconds. For every difficulty class the user is above the opponent, add another five seconds. If the opponent for every difficulty class above th user, subtract five seconds. If the Opponent captured is a Taimaster, subtract 15 seconds additionally. If the opponent is a Tai specialist, subtract 5 additional seconds. If the opponent is a Taijutsu No specialist, leave it as is. After doing the math, the amount of turns held will be apparent.
Limit: Nara Clan Technique

0/20

The two were now flying for their destination on Akirafs eagle of water. It must have been an astounding sight to see a transparent blue bird zipping through the sky, but that was just how things were. The two were flying quickly and making good time. Their rendezvous with a few of the other members of the Nara clan was supposed to be in the evening. Judging from the speed and the distance that they still had to travel, Tai told Akira that they would most likely arrive at the two ahead of schedule. This was not a bad thing, as Akira wanted more time to train in the Shadow Binding Technique. Just as the skies were beginning to show the faintest signs of orange in the great expanse of blue, Akira and Tai started to descend unto a road that led to the village. Once landed, Akira dispelled his bird and the two walked towards the village on the main road. They had landed very close, so it was not a long walk. After going through some basic security and authenticating Taifs meeting with the Nara clansmen, they were let in. Shinobi were not usually let in, but a few of the shinobi clans, the Nara being one of them, were actually widely respected here, even if they came from different villages. Quickly finding an inn to stay at, the two settled in and then went out to find a place to train. It was a rather busy village, so it took some time to find a good place for Akira to practice.

Once they found somewhere for Akira to train, Tai told Akira to practice his splitting of the shadow, though that did not need to be said, since it was just what Akira was planning to do. Gathering up a good amount of chakra, slightly more than last time, Akira closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Once he had finished gathering up the chakra that he needed, he started to carefully mold it into what he wanted it to be. He took a little bit longer this time compared to last time, but as this was for the sake of training, he did not mind. Next, after finishing the molding, Akira raised his hands, put them together, and then started to form the hand seals for the Shadow Binding technique. They were quickly done and so, Akira held the last hand seal as both he and Tai observed what his shadows were doing. Akira had done better this time, as there were two shadows coming out of the base of his original shadow. However, they still seemed a bit shaky to him, and Tai, who knew that Akira noticed that, kept his silence about this. Before trying again, Akira tried to see how far his shadows could extend like this. Tightly holding the Rat hand seal, the young Kaishin then commanded his shadows to extend outwards, one more to the left and the other more to the right. They stretched well, but then it seemed that he reached his limit at five meters. He could not hold it any longer and had to release the hand seal. Shaking his head, he decided to immediately try again. However, then a carrier bird arrived at the scene and landed near Tai with a letter tied to its leg. Looking at each other for a second, Tai and Akira went over to untie the letter and see what it was all about.

After reading the letter, the two chuckled. It seemed that their fellow clansmen had run into a rather interesting sort of trouble. One of them had been a playboy and now one of his previous women was now obstructing their path with her considerable influence. After much arguing and wasting of time, the others decided to just leave him there to sort things out while they went on ahead. They would be here tomorrow. Smiling at the letter, the young Kaishin realized that this would mean that he would have all of today to train as well. This was good news indeed, funny as well. Akira then went off and prepared to train again in the same aspect of the Shadow Binding technique, the splitting. Taking a deep breath, the young Kaishin started to gather up his chakra. He knew that he would need more this time, so that was why he summoned up more chakra. After doing so, he started to carefully mold his summoned chakra. He had to be more efficient with his resources. Judging from his last attempt, he guessed that it was because he had not utilized his chakra as well as he hoped it would have. Making sure that he would succeed this time, he started on forming the hand seals. After they were quickly made and down with, he held the last seal and then waited for the technique to take effect. Looking at his shadow, he watched as two separate lines of shadow stretched outwards. This attempt was a lot better. It looked better and it felt better. Akira smiled as he kept extending, going past his previous limit, which was five meters, to where he was supposed to hit, 7.5 meters.

"Good job, Akira. Hey, just train on your own for now. I have to reply to this letter and take care of the arrangements for tomorrow."

"Alright. See you later."

Akira then waved at his departing friend, knowing that they would meet up later at the agreed restaurant. Now that he was alone, he did not know what to do. Seeing as he could not learn anything new without his friend, he decided to work on the basics of the technique. And that was to practice on extending the shadow. Seeing as he had been training on the split shadows, perhaps he might have made an improvement upon the normal one shadow extension. Wanting to find out, Akira prepared to try it like he had before. He did not gather as much chakra this time, though it was still a decent amount since he was trying to break his record again. Once he had finished gathering his chakra, he would mold it. The feeling of molding something in its simpler version when you had practiced molding in its more complicated version was quite strange. Nevertheless, it felt good anyway. The molding did not take as long, as there was not much to mold. Once that was done with, Akira went straight on to making the hand seals. Having went over them many times now, not to mention it was the only technique he had been practicing for a few days now, the hand seals were done very quickly. Then he held the Rat hand seal and with a twinkle in his eye, watched how his shadow would do this time. It extended pretty quickly, all the way up to ten meters. Then it started to get gradually slower. Once it reached fifteen meters, Akira felt that he could still go on, but then he would need to expend chakra. He did just that, and the shadow slowly kept extending. However, then Tai dropped by and broke his concentration. The Nara, realizing what he did, apologized, but Akira did not mind. It was late anyways, and the two went out to eat.

[Saiyuki]

??/20

After they ate, the two went around town, browsing through the many stores and stands that littered the town. There was a great deal of wealthy people around here, so it was no wonder why this town was so booming in business. It was a nice atmosphere. Tai informed Akira of when they were to meet tomorrow, which was late in the morning, and where, which was in one of the cafés at the far end of town. Akira nodded, telling his friend of his wish to do some more training tomorrow morning. Tai simply nodded with a smile. The two then headed back to their inn. The mere wealth in this town made the two poor fighters feel even poorer, so they did not want to stay, since they could not spend their money on anything they wished to buy, the reason being that they had no money. Akira was tempted to go destroy the competition in this fighting arena thing, but Tai dragged him away with the Shadow Binding technique, saying that it would not be a good idea to let people know that there were shinobi in this town, even though he shared similar sentiments, especially since there was quite a bit of prize money in the tournament. The two went to bed early, since they wanted to get up early the next morning to do some more last minute training. The town still lived on, lights dying only well into the night, leaving many littered things on the streets, something that the two noted when they woke up and went out the next morning. However, they knew that there would be people coming around to clean up.

“Well, you’ve learned how to split your shadow. Why don’t you try to see if you can increase your range again?”

“That was what I was doing yesterday, but good idea anyway.”

The Nara duo then went back to where they had been training before. True to its isolation, there was not as much party litter around here as everywhere else. Tai then went off and stood to the side while Akira circulated his chakra through his system, warming it up for some training. After doing that, he started to summon up the chakra that he would need for this technique. It was slightly more than his interrupted attempt yesterday, since he knew that he would need a bit more than what he had used yesterday. He was also relying on the fact that every attempt improved him to further increase the range at which he could extend his shadow. After calling up his chakra, he then commenced the molding of the chakra. Having done this yesterday, it did not take him as long as it had last time. Once the molding was over and done with, Akira’s hands began to rise into the air and come together. Then, in a series of quick flashes, Akira’s hands flickered through the hand seals for the technique. Ending with the Rat hand seal, Akira then waited for his shadow to start extending out. It came out quite fast, faster than it had been yesterday. This was good, since it seemed that Akira had finally reached the level where he could use such a technique in battle. It rapidly went past ten meters, and then fifteen meters where it distinctively slowed down. However, Akira kept pushing and pushing, trying to further extend the range that his shadow was covering. Finally, after a few more moments, Akira’s shadow went into the twenty meter range. He released it with a smile on his face.

“Good job, but there is something that I want to make sure you can do before we go and meet up with the others.”

Tai then elaborated on his words. He explained the limits of the technique and how one was able to escape from the Shadow Binding Technique. Akira had expected something like that, but was still a little surprised to hear about them. Deciding to see Akira’s limits, Tai then asked Akira to use his Shadow Binding technique on him. Being someone who was well trained in the taijutsu arts, Tai had it easier than others in escaping the technique. The point would be to see how long Akira could hold Tai in the technique. Agreeing, Akira then summoned up his chakra from reserves deep within him. Quickly molding it, he started the hand seals before he even finished molding it. This was for battle practice, since he would need to act fast in a fight. He finished the molding nanoseconds before he finished the hand seals. After he was done, he sent his shadow out at Tai. Deciding to make things a little harder, Tai dodged, which Akira then curved his shadow’s path. After a few more evasions, Tai let himself get caught. Then, Akira thought that he had him. But then he felt something from Tai. Several seconds later, the technique broke. The young Kaishin was surprised, but he was told that all he needed was practice, since the two of them were roughly about the same skill level. Akira nodded his head and tried the technique again. He called up a greater amount of chakra this time. Deciding to make this one harder, Tai started moving around more. Wanting to waste less chakra on extending, Akira moved as well while molding his chakra and forming the hand seals. Once he was done with those steps, he fired off his shadow again at Tai.

The Nara put in more effort in dodging now, but Akira still managed to capture him this time. Then came a battle of wills. However, Akira did much better this time, though he could feel the strain. Each second that passed felt like an hour while the two just stood there, each straining for victory. However, after twelve or so seconds passed, the technique broke. But the look on Tai’s face signaled that this was Akira’s victory. Now that their training was done, the two went off to the café at the far end of town, where they had arranged their rendezvous. It did not take long to get there, so the two got there a bit early. The other Nara clansmen got there a few minutes later. The introductions were made and it did not take long before Akira was accepted as fellow clansmen, since he had rescued Tai from a few enemy shinobi. He even showed off his technique a little, showing that he had learned their special technique well in just a few days. They stayed around, chatting at the café well into the afternoon, but then all good things have to come to an end. Having been reunited with his fellow clansmen, Tai decided that this would be a good time to return to Amegakure no Sato, a place that Akira would journey to later in his life. Even though Akira was a loner, and a wanderer, by nature, the last few days had not been so bad for him. He bid his friend, and his clansmen, farewell, and hoped that they meet again in the near future. With that said, they parted ways. The memory ended there, with Akira lying back on his eagle, wishing that he could see Tai again.

[Uchiha Satoshi]

Learned