Kakan's training grounds (Private/Training)

[matto]

-Enter-

The sun sat at a high angle above, several scattered clouds creating patches of shadows as Kakan neared the entrance to his family's training grounds. The training grounds had been more of a hand-me-down from his grandparents, in case the bloodline should continue with their children. And, it just so happened that it had. The training grounds sat at the edge of the village, in a far back corner with at least a kilometer radius of room to train. The orchards were lined with several trees, ranging in a large variety of fruits, making the training grounds double as a source of income.

Walking through the gate, requiring the use of the vines in his body, Kakan used six vines to unlock the door, inserting each vine into one of the six slots and turning the locks, letting the door slowly open. Closing the door as he passed, Kakan took in the sight of the training grounds. This had been where he had trained all of his techniques with his vines with fellow family friends that were willing to teach. But, as he got older, they began to train with him less frequently, saying that it was time for him to do things on his own. Which stood to reason, as there wouldn't be someone there all the time.

As he entered, Kakan walked over to a small building at the front of the orchard, where all the supplies for the orchard were kept, as well as a small room for Kakan to store stuff. It was there that he saw a black robe that his grandfather had worn, before he had died. It was close to Kakan's size, just draped a little longer on the arms, the hood overshadowing his face when he wore it. Maybe it was time he changed his attire. His father had mentioned it, how it was strange for Kakan to walk around plainly, his heritage visible to all. Maybe there was no fear in hiding, but a strategy behind hiding.

Taking the large robe and slipping it on, Kakan saw that he had grown a bit since the last time he had tried it on, the sleeves reaching just to the end of his fingertips and the hood, when over his head, shadow just below his eyebrows. It would be nearly perfect to keep his identity hidden. And, in the front near the stomach, was a small fold that allowed for the vine in his stomach to be used, without tearing the robe too much. It looked to have been scuffed many times in the past by his grandfather.

With his new robe, Kakan took the gray jacket and discarded it into the closet, pulling the hood back and placing the headband from around his neck over his forehead. A mirror in the small tool shed gave Kakan an impression of his appearance, which made him appear less as strong, but a lot more secretive with the hood pulled over his head. It'd do nicely.

Zassou Kakan, do you fear for your life?

The question had been his decided change in his attire, so that when he found the person who had killed off his ancestors, he'd be able to make them pay.

With that out of the way, Kakan decided it was time to do some training with his new attire, to get a better understanding of how he'd need to move with the baggier clothes.

[matto]

Hair Vine Manipulation
Rank: "E", "D", "C", "B", "A", "S" Rank

[/b]
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: Allows the user to
Special: "Hand Seals"
Drawback: Each rank has a certain length at which you may shoot you are vines out too:
E Rank - Able to manipulate the hair vines to a maximum of 5 meters.
D Rank - Able to manipulate the hair vines to a maximum of 10 meters.
C Rank - Able to manipulate the hair vines to a maximum of 25 meters.
B Rank - Able to manipulate the hair vines to a maximum of 50 meters.
A Rank - Able to manipulate the hair vines to a maximum of 75 meters.
S Rank - Able to manipulate the hair vines to maximum of 90 meters.
Description: The user will form a hand seal, and be able to manipulate his vine hair to great distances. The vines are very thin, therefore easy to break, but when the hair vines go at its target together, it is very difficult to break free.
Limit: Zassou Bloodlimit Only. Must have Kami Tsukene Hengen no Jutsu ("Hair Vine Transformation Technique") in effect.[/quote]

0/70

Stepping near the front of the orchard, Kakan eyed the end of the row, seeing a large sign he had put up. "200 Meters" the sign read, something Kakan had measured out sometime last year. It was a measurement for how far he could use his vines, as he knew he had limits that he couldn't go past without training. Several other signs were scattered out around the area, marking distances for when he had previously been training.

Activating his technique that allowed him to use his hair as vines, Kakan felt the vines begin to swarm around his head at the whim of his chakra, a sort of refreshing feeling. The hood was pulled back to allow himself full use of his hair, as it was quite long as is. Testing to see that he could move each single strand of hair, Kakan waving each strand in front of his face, smiling. It had been some time since he'd used it, but he hadn't lost his touch with it. It was this technique that made him keep his hair long.

Beginning to stimulate the vines with his chakra, Kakan sent the vines in separate directions, making the vines separate and come back together in a criss-crossed pattern, testing his control. Within nearing the fourth tree, the vines came to a halt, Kakan's head jerking forward. He had sent them 25 meters, at the same tree that he had reached in his original training. This was where the training actually became painful, because it required to slowly extend the vine's range, without tearing the skin on his scalp.

Retracting the vines, Kakan let them wave slowly around his face, giving himself a chance to think. He needed to know how far they were going, but the only way to know was to get an estimated distance. He'd merely keep a track on which tree he had reached the first time. If the fourth tree was 25 meters away, he'd keep going past that, trying his hardest not to tear the scalp on his head.

[matto]

??/70

Pushing the vines forward again, he put an extra amount of chakra into the forward movement of the vines. This would speed up how far they went, as well as hopefully stimulate more range in the vines. Pushing forward, the vines began to stretch his scalp, painfully tugging at the nerves in his skin.

Come on, just a little farther...

The vines pushed a little past the trunks of the fourth trees, but no longer moved on their own, as they began to pull Kakan's body with them. It always hurt to do this, especially when he overused his chakra and overexerted the length of the vines. Retracting them again, he decided that pushing them forward, as he had in the past, would not do the job alone. The problem, theoretically, came from the fact that he had to use so much chakra to keep the vines in the air, as well as a farther distance. The farther the vines, the more chakra he needed to line the vines with.

Walking up to one of the trees, Kakan looked it up and down. It couldn't be more than twenty meters high, so it would be a good test for his idea.

Forcing the vines upwards, Kakan wrapped the vines around the thickest branch he could find above him, the green vines intricately woven around the bark of the branch. With the vines firmly in place, Kakan began retracting any excess, tightening the loose vines. With the vines tightened, Kakan began trying to pull himself upward, using the same retracting motion he had with the vines to remove any slack. The roots of the vines in his head began to be tugged, the skin of his scalp beginning to stretch with the strain.

Just a little off the ground...

With his feet slowly off of the ground, Kakan pulled harder, keeping sure that the vines were steadily able to pull him up. Once he had gone a few meters into the air, Kakan released the vines from the branch and landed on the ground, his feet making a solid thud on the earth.

Never thought It'd take this much effort...

The skin on his scalp began to throb in several places, Kakan canceling the technique that made his long hair become alive. With his hair now sitting in a mess on his head, Kakan decided that he'd take a small break. Using one of his vines, he grabbed hold of one of the apples in the tree he'd been lifting himself with, clutching the apple and taking a seat near the shed.

[matto]

(??/70)

The short break had been mostly full of Kakan trying to figure out if doing the vines vertically gave him more distance than doing them horizontally. It would indeed be an interesting test for him to see whenever he went to test how far he could send the vines now.

Walking to the edge of the row, seeing the same 200 meters sign, Kakan performed the necessary handseals to make his hair come to life. With his hair back to life, Kakan decided to test the distance the he could move the vines now, upon stretching the roots and the skin of his scalp with his last attempt. Moving chakra through the roots, the vines beginning to move forward, Kakan moved the vines forward at a slow pace. He had done too much damage to his scalp as it was, doing that dangerous lifting.

One tree... Two trees...

Kakan was keeping count of the trees that the vines were moving past, still within his previous limits.

Three trees... Fourth tree.

He was now passing his limit. He could tell not just because of the tree, but at the feeling he was getting in his scalp. The roots were beginning to react less to his chakra, causing the growth in the vines to lessen as they went farther along. Then, as the tips of the vines were beginning to reach the fifth tree, his scalp began to stretch, the roots of the vines trying to detach themself from his skin.

He had made his limit go as far as the fifth tree, something that was nothing to scoff at. Normally, when he tried to use his vines past their limits, he'd only gain small increments of distance, nothing much longer than maybe two meters at a time. This had been a jump of four to five meters, judging from their distance from his body.

[hotaru]

+8
+9
+7
------
+24

[matto]

24/70

So, if what it was going to take to get his manipulation of the vines to go farther was building the strength in the roots, he'd need to definitely do a lot more work in the strength area. He'd test the vines across a distance after doing some more of the lifting he was doing before. Stepping below the trunk of the apple tree, Kakan sized up how far he'd need to get before he'd test himself again for the distance he was using the vines.

I see one branch twenty meters up, and that's the farthest I could go. Unless... What if I made the vines into a pulley? The thought had never occurred to him how much weight he was pulling off the ground and how it was just directly putting pain on the roots. Yes, it would do more good for strength building, but he couldn't actually build strength at a fast rate without having to take a break.

With his chakra, Kakan lined the vines along a series of branches, one that was five meters up, one that was seven meters up, and one that was fifteen meters up. He had made sure that he was within the thirty meter range, so that he wasn't pulling too hard on vines that were too long. With the loops complete, Kakan tightened up the slack, eying how far he'd be pulling himself up. Once he could pull himself completely up to the first branch, marked at five meters, he'd re-loop the vines to go farther up the tree, slowly building his strength, rather than nearly tugging out the roots in his head.

Beginning to slowly wind up the vines, the vines wrapping tightly around each branch. As he began to wind the vines back up, his body giving a slight tug away from the ground, he felt a lessened pain than he had whenever he had been trying to pull himself up from the twenty meter high branch. It still hurt, granted he'd probably not get near as many results this way, but he would slowly build his strength, instead of getting a large amount of progress and massive damage to the skin on his head.

As he slowly was lifted off the ground, he tried to keep his wait from fluctuating from either side, as it would more than likely increase the tension on the vines. Moving chakra up the vines, Kakan forced the vines to retract faster, his eyes closed tightly. Cutting off the sense of sight helped him to concentrate on ignoring the pain.

Snap... Crackle...

Kakan's eyes shot open as he realized that something was going on on the branch he was attached to. He was almost within grabbing distance of the branch and he could see why. The branch was beginning to fold down towards the ground, as if it were breaking under his weight.

Reaching up, Kakan tried to grab the base of the branch where it was snapping, trying to pull some of his weight off of it. It was too late, though, as the branch snapped, causing the vines to untangle from it and swing Kakan forward, towards where the other vines were wrapped around the next branch up.

Damnit!

Forcing chakra through the roots of the vines, the roots unwrapping from their individual places and zipping towards Kakan. With Kakan's feet firmly planted on the ground, he looked up at where he had been before the unsuspecting branch had snapped.

He'd managed to get a good distance up, but he didn't want to gauge how far he could go until another attempt at pulling himself up a tree.

[hotaru]

+10

[matto]

34/70

The sun began to push farther toward the horizon, the sky becoming an array of purples and oranges at the edges of scattered clouds. Kakan had been working most of the day and had found that he had mostly tired out the use of his hair vines. But, he had decided with the last bit of light for the day, he'd test how far he had managed to strengthen his vine reach.

Moving to the front of the row, Kakan decided he'd stick with the same row, as he knew exactly where he had been last time. Activating the hair vines with a simple set of handseals, Kakan thought back to how far he had gotten last time. It had been 30 meters, if he were correct. That would be to the fifth tree of the row. Forcing the throb in his head to subside, he would force the hair-like vines to move away from his face and forward, going at a slow and steady pace. He had pushed himself pretty far throughout the day and there was no point in doing more damage than necessary.

One tree...

Passing the first tree, Kakan kept a steady flow of chakra feeding through the roots of his hair, letting the chakra pulse throughout to the end of the vines. Each pulse of chakra pushed the vine further, acting as both as support for the vines, as well as a stimulant for direction.

Two and a half...

So far, the vines showed no rate of stopping, which proved to be a good sign. Normally around halfway, the vines would begin to go a fraction of a second slower, no matter the pace at which they moved. With the vines interweaving each other, gaining a farther distance, Kakan was unsure how far he would be able to push them.

Three and a half...

It was then that the vines would begin to give a subtle vibration in his scalp, as if they were warning him that they were leaving a range that was comfortable. He had began to notice the slower pace and forced more chakra into the vines, making the speed go back to a steady flow, as it had been before the vibrations.

Four and three quarters...

He was approaching the fifth tree, where he had left his limit last time. The vines slowly reached past the fifth tree, going even farther.

He was beginning to feel the tightness in the vines as they neared their limit. Slowly pushing them farther along, Kakan kept a good eye on where the vines would end up. With the vines at their limit, they began to tug at the skin of his scalp, the same familiar tug forward causing Kakan to stop pushing chakra into the roots of the vines.

Six trees. Probably about 37 to 38 meters.

Using the vines where they were, Kakan pushed the vines downward and made a line where the sixth tree was, marking the distance for later. Pulling the hair back, letting it shroud around his face before releasing the technique, Kakan went into the small storage building and laid down on a small bag of mulch, letting his head sit propped up on the wall. He'd continue in the morning, as he needed to let the skin on his scalp repair itself, as Kakan could feel throbbing bumps where the roots of the vines had nearly pulled themselves out of his scalp, taking pieces of skin with them.

[matto]

??/70

As the sun began to rise in the early morning, Kakan began to rouse, instinctively running his fingers along his scalp. Looking at the fingertips, he saw that there was no blood on them, as he had been expecting to see. It would seem that he had not done permanent damage to his scalp, nor had he left any scratches. But, it had been for the better that he not push himself too far the day before.

Standing up and brushing himself off, Kakan walked out of the storage building and into the orchard. He'd managed to extend his distance at least 37 meters away from his body. If he had remembered correctly, he had been told that doubling your distance was the best bet, as if you went farther than double in working with hair vines, you would possibly stretch them so thing that the hair on your head would tear and fall to the ground in clumps.

Examining the trees, Kakan decided that he'd try a new approach to extending the distance that he could go with the vines. Activating the hair vines, as he had done so many times yesterday, Kakan let each individual strand extend out five meters, moving the vines as a whole forward. If this technique required chakra control, he'd need to be able to manipulate the vines separately, as well as as a whole. Lining the vines in front of him, Kakan began to separate the grouped hairs into three separate lines, pushed together to look like a single vine. Extending the vines further from his body, Kakan added another five meters, the vines going further into the orchard.

With the three sets of vines further out, Kakan kept them as tightly together as possible. Testing his chakra control, he now split the three groups into five, moving each individual group further apart from the rest. Each moved just as he wanted them to, his control still maintained at ten meters.

Pushing the vines forward another ten meters, Kakan began to notice that the vines weren't as tightly knit at this range. They still maintained their group, but they didn't actually bend just as they should've when he changed the direction they should go. Adding another ten meters would prove to be a bit more difficult, as the chakra control at that distance was harder to maintain.

Extending the vines another ten meters, the vines now floated over the ground at thirty meters, the once organized groups of five now fraying and floating out of their groups. Adding more chakra, in controlled amounts, he forced the vines to group back into their original groups, the vines obediently moving into an organized pattern again. As he maintained the groups, Kakan felt the strain of holding the vines at this distance far greater when they were controlled down to the last vine, rather than when he simply gave them directions to go. The chakra strain wasn't too high, but it did prove that he had a bit more training to do before he could say he had fully figured out this distance.

[hotaru]

+20

[matto]

54 / 70

With a few hours of controlling the chakra flow that he put into the vines around his head, Kakan decided that it was time to put his vine control to the ultimate test. The technique would never call for this strict of control, but he wanted to aim for something that was probably a bit higher than most would expect. It was one way to keep from being behind anyone else, and it could only improve his abilities as both a Zassou and a grass shinobi.

Wiping a few beads of sweat off of his forehead, Kakan let the hair vines float around his face, just as he had been practicing for the last couple of hours. He had managed to keep control over groups of up to ten division in his hair. Now he would not only double that, but prove that he had full control of each individual vine. He didn't plan to do much training after this, so he would not hold his chakra back.

Extending the vines forward, ten groups of hair slowly pushing forward, Kakan closed his eyes and began focusing a large portion of the chakra in his body towards the roots of each of the groups, dividing the groups in half, twenty different sets of vines floating over the ground in front of him, ten meters away. The chakra strain was slightly more than he had expected, but he was not finished. Maintaining them at this distance was good, but he had to push farther. Extending the vines to go twenty meters out, the groups began to fray, looking as if they had a mind of their own.

No you don't.

Kakan dipped deeper into his chakra reserve and constricted the hairs into their groups, each a tight knit group again. The veins in his head were beginning to pop out in places, from the concentration and from the immense amount of chakra he was forcing into the control.

Pushing himself to a further limit, Kakan pushed more of his chakra into the vines, now splitting the groups into forty. Forty groups of hair hung in the air at a twenty meter distance, each one bending its own way. The strain of holding all of these vines at such a distance was now far more than he could handle, and the control that he once had possessed now collapsed like a house of cards, the vines mocking him as they flowed loosely in the air.

Retracting the vines, he felt that his chakra limit had been reached. Any further chakra usage would be dipping into his own life force, and he wasn't about to die today. As he looked towards the sun, he realized that he had spent a total of two days, so far, without so much as even telling his parents what he was doing. It was common for him to go off alone, but he often was careful not to worry them, especially since most of his Zassou heritage had feared the next massacre that was more than likely to happen.

Taking his usual spot in the storage building to get some sleep, Kakan felt the strain of a full day's training wash over him, instantly feeling his eyelids close, not wanting to release him from sleep until the morning came.

[matto]

?? / 70

With the next morning fresh and new, Kakan awoke to the sound of birds singing in the orchard. Or... were they singing or cawing? Listening closer, Kakan tried to make out exactly what noise the birds were making. If it was singing, he would know them to be just song birds that were common to find in the orchard. If they were cawing, they were birds that would threaten the orchard, taking some of his family's profit.

...ca....caw....Caw!

Someone was in a world of hurt. Kakan grabbed for the sword that hung from a hook on the wall, its sheath a deep blue, when an idea struck him. The birds had always been chased away with a sword, a scythe, some kind of metallic weapon that they were no longer afraid of. But... if he gave them something to be afraid of, they might think twice before deciding to show up again.

Silently moving into the orchard, the black robe swaying quietly behind him as he stepped, Kakan saw his target. Standing behind a tree, Kakan peaked around and saw that there was a large group of the crows. They normally kept well enough alone, but today stood to be their day of bravery. Changing his hair into the vines he had been practicing so much the past few days, Kakan sent out groups of five. Each group would have a specific target, requiring that not a single vine stray from the rest, lest the stray hair brush a leaf and startle one of the crows.

Slowly...

The vines slowly began to creep towards each of the birds, moving silently towards each. Each of the birds stood at a different range, some even going so far as to be almost fifty meters. He wouldn't focus on the distance, though, but where he was sending the vines. As the vines slithered like snakes through the air, Kakan kept his attention on each group. He could not strike until each vine was in position to grab one bird from each of the groups.

With all of the vines in place, Kakan pushed each group forward, grasping onto the talons of several of the birds.

CAW CAW CAW CAW!

The crows began to cry loudly, trying to fly away. Each time they got a few meters up, Kakan pulled them twice that distance down. He had only been aiming to grab one of each of the groups, but he managed to actually snag at least three in some. As he pulled the birds closer, he saw the desparation as they began to peck at each of the vines that confined them as prisoners. Tugging them closer, Kakan smiled.

Like shooting fish in a barrel...

With each group of vines now within five meters, Kakan gave each bird a good shake to get their attention towards him. Each crow would look towards the source of the vines and caw just that much louder, knowing that they had been caught. Feeling that he had done what he had intended, Kakan relaxed the vines and watched as several of the crows fell loose of his grip and landed in the soil, confused and befuddled that they were being allowed to leave.

That will teach them... Kakan would say, turning back towards the shed.

[Masakuni]

+16
(70.70)

[matto]

Mokuton: Toge Shuriken No Jutsu (Splinter Shuriken Technique)
Rank: D
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: The user makes shuriken out of splinters.
Special: Handseals “Horse” “Snake” “Ram” “Boar”
Drawback: None
Description: This jutsu is used after a piece of wood is shattered, or if the user’s Mokuton Jutsu is shattered. The user will use their chakra to pick up the splinters and then hurtle them at the enemy much like shuriken.
Limit: Mokuton Jutsu

0 / 10

Having cleared out the crows from the orchard, Kakan decided that it was time to do something that didn't require the vines in his body. While he loved to train them, as they were a part of himself, he knew he couldn't rely on them as he had forever. In another part of the orchard, where a large pile of dead trees lay, Kakan decided he would train here. Training in this orchard was fun, mostly because it had just about everything he needed.

As he picked through the different broken branches and limbs, Kakan found a particularly interesting branch that would prove useful. It was broken and splintered at the end, so there would be no need to break it any farther. Grasping the branch with the vines of his left hand, Kakan held the branch above the ground a few meters ahead. Stepping away from the dead tree pile, Kakan turned the branch so that he was facing the pile. Channeling chakra through the vines on his hand, Kakan pulled his sword from a small sheath at his waist and slashed the blade through the broken end, sending splinters of wood into the air.

With the chakra that had been channeled into the wood now residing in the splinters he had sent into the air, Kakan tried forcing the splinters to launch themselves at the wood pile. The splinters didn't cooperate so easily, firing in a wide variety of directions, some even zipping by his face.

Okay... bad idea...

The splinters had been somewhat cooperative, but they hadn't done just what he had wanted them to. Maybe a second try would do it.

Holding the blade steadily forward, Kakan struck the end of the branch and splintered the wood, none of the splinters popping off. With more careful channeling of the chakra, Kakan sliced through the splinters, letting them slowly float in the air before giving them a direction. The splinters each slowly began to turn towards the wood pile, the sharp ends of the splinters forward. With a final push, the splinters all shot forward, several sticking out of random branches, while others were completely lodged into the wood.

He could launch them all forward, but what other limits could he push for? Maybe a larger number of splinters instead? It seemed like a good idea, since the direction would always be forward.

Dropping the branch that he had previously been using, Kakan shot his vines forward and grabbed another branch, adding it next to the other branch. Sheathing the blade, Kakan extended all three vines from both hands, extending the vines forward and grabbing each vine on a different place, making it so that the vines were holding the two branches in three different places. Bending and breaking the branches, Kakan began to build a small pile of splinters in front of him, providing himself a bit of a challenge, as there looked to be a large number of splinters in the pile. Tossing the broken branches aside, Kakan now set his mind to the next task: Launching as many of the splinters as he could.

Channeling chakra through his feet towards the pile of splinters, Kakan forced several of the splinters to rise off of the ground and float two and half meters off of the ground. As he held those splinters in place, he began to try adding more splinters to the barrage, to test how many he could hold in his technique. As more splinters were added, several of the splinters began to become a bit unstable and spin in strange ways, as if a sign that he had too many. And, it was true, as he added more, several began to fall off.

Deciding that there was only so many he could use, Kakan pointed the mass amount of splinters towards the wood pile and launched them, one third of the splinters going first, the second third following up and the final third going last. Each set of splinters struck the trees with enough force that they were almost completely pushed into the dead bark, like nails in a two by four.

[hotaru]

+10

[matto]

With his training done for the day, Kakan would go home. It was high time that he let his parents know he wasn't dead.

-exit-

[matto]

[enter]

Oto no Jutsu (Sound Release Skill)
Rank: "C"
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: ---
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: With this skill, or release, the user is now capable of using, and performing techniques that deal with the element of Sound. This means that any NinJutsu or specialized TaiJutsu that deals the Sound Release will need this in order to be performed correctly.
Limit: ---

0 / 20

Kakan returned to his training grounds, deciding that he had some important things to work on. He'd been hard at work over the past few weeks on other things and had neglected to teach himself much, just basking in the mass amount of money he was acquiring thanks to the donations to the Kusakage.

With a sharp focus on the sounds around him, Kakan decided that it was time he do some work on things he had not considered possible for him to do. He was told when he was younger that he had a knack for learning new elements. In fact, he even was told that his diversity in techniques came from the fact that he was capable of a good number of abilities. This was shown in his Wood, Earth, and Water training. So, if he had the capabilities to expand his horizons as far as ninjutsu went, why not try for something that would prove extremely useful in the future.

As he looked around the orchard, taking into consideration various things within it, he began to pay more attention to the sounds that things created. There was a soft, distinctive noise to everything that moved. If one were to focus on it, they could actually identify an object or a person based on their sound they gave off.

As he sat down in the middle of the large cluster of trees, he sat in a meditative stance, his eyes closed and his mind closed to all thought, just his surroundings. It was strange, when one actually turned off their own natural thought and focused on the world, a wide array of sounds could be heard.

The sound of the wind blowing against the trees, rustling the leaves as they would wave absently in the wind, followed by the sound of an apple falling at least twenty meters away. It was a strange sensation he felt as he listened, as if the world were enveloped with invisible waves of water that only the ears could perceive. It was relaxing, and at the same time, kind of strange. It felt as if he were leaving his body and were able to hear things he'd normally just ignore.

The world seems to be full of something the mind could easily ignore...

It was true, actually, as he had ignored all this for a long time. There was almost an awakening of his single sense as he blocked most others out. And, this awakening would be the very thing he would learn to harness.

Focusing chakra along his ears, further blocking out all thought and movement of his body, Kakan began to give a far larger focus to his surroundings, taking note of the different sounds and the different things within them. Each sound was unique, as he had noted earlier, but his next task was to make a deeper understanding of this statement.

Chirp... Chirp Chirp!

A bird in the distance began to chirp in a long interval, its flight course coming closer to Kakan. He could tell this by the louder the noise got. It was similar to something he had read in a book a while back, about how bats were able to see with echolocation. Using their ears to determine the distance that the sound would come back, they could determine the terrain. As he sat, the birds flew behind his head, the sound almost disappearing as they went past his head.

[matto]

As a few hours began to pass, Kakan had begun to take on a new look to things that he had only barely been able to comprehend in the books that he had read as a student in the academy. The structure of the ear, from how he had understood it, was to catch the sounds that would be coming, giving it the various curves and depth to determine where a sound was. It was when energy was applied to various points that even more information could be gathered, just by the sound itself.

As he did more experimentation with different focal points of the ear, putting a varying amount of energy in various spots to determine where it did the most good, Kakan was able to not only determine the estimated distance of things around him, but he was able to determine what was going away and what was coming nearer without a doubt. There was only one way to push his understanding to a further level. Maneuvering without his eye-sight and actually having to harness his hearing just the same as a bat would.

Taking a few things from the shed, a rope with several large metal bells, Kakan tied them together and created a sash that held on it three bells, each creating a large amount of noise as he would walk wearing it. It was about as tacky as anything made on the fly, but it would serve its purpose. Taking a small cloth and tying it around his eyes, Kakan made sure that no light at all could escape the cloth. With the cloth and the sash on his body, Kakan began a small few steps out of the shed, his eyes closed to promote use of his ears more than his blind eyes. As he walked, the slight sounds the bells gave off would emanate away from his body and, to his knowledge not return. The longer the time it took for the waves to return, the farther away an object was, as the theory of echolocation went.

The sash actually began to feel stupid, as no sound seemed to return from in front of him. Were the bells not loud enough to actually give of long enough waves of sound to return back to his ears? It was then that he would barely hear a faint return echo from the bells. Was he nearing the orchard? He would not pull the blindfold off, as that would defeat the purpose of his sight deprivation. Taking another step forward, the sound actually got an echo that was slightly louder, as well as more noticeable. Had he actually constructed a smart mechanism for training his ears?

He would now step with more confidence, actually stepping around the first obstacle that he would come across, what felt to be a tree. The more noise he made, the more echoes he got from the surrounding environment. Now, if he could do it with chakra laced ears, could he do it without?

The true test was about to begin. Setting himself in what he believed to be the center of the orchard, as he had navigated it without his eyes, he undid the chakra that he had laced along his ears, now feeling a slight difference in his surroundings. It was like going deaf after hearing so well for years.

Giving himself a moment to regain his bearings, Kakan began to feel a returning of his hearing, not as optimal as it was when he had used the chakra, but somewhat better from being deaf. With a step forward, he concentrated harder on the noises around him, looking for the echo of the bells.

This really is hard to do...

[Tieren]

Well done, +20 Learned. Have a new release! xD

[matto]

[Thankies Tieren]

Jigoku no Mimi (Hells ears) Universal
Rank: "D"
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: With this technique the user is capable of figuring the location of where a sound is coming from. This takes a post in order for this type of technique may take place.
Special: "Hand signs" and "Holds with the Boar"
Drawback: The user must stand still, with their eyes closed in order for the user to gain the capability of judging the direction of the sound.
Description: The way this works is that the user concentrates along the Sound release as they push the chakra along towards their ears. As the user does this, they concentrate on certain sounds that surrounds the user. If the sounds are in a large area and more sounds is created the user is capable of identifying the general location as to where the sound is coming from.
Limit: Sound Release

0 / 10

The initial training of his ears had been a simple bit to master, had it of actually gone smoothly. With a few bumps on his head, and maybe a few cuts, Kakan began to focus on the training ahead.

The orchard/training grounds he usually trained in had a variety of things in it that were interesting to focus on when it came to sound. Everything had a distinct noise, and everything was varying distances away. Taking a seat in the center of the orchard, his mind focused on what he'd be doing, he created a few handseals, chakra began to gather along his ears. Closing his eyes, he began to do something that he had done in the previous training: Focus on his surroundings. The orchard was full of life today and he had a variety of sounds to pick from. Taking note of a single bird chirping in what appeared to be a tree, Kakan began to focus his attention on the animal creating the noise, holding the boar handseal as he focused. As the sound waves began to slowly become more focused, more refined, he began to notice that he was actually getting a slightly more precise location of the bird. With his eyes still closed, he released the technique and launched a kunai in the direction that he had determined it to be from where he sat.

The kunai would strike in the branch of a tree, 27 meters forward, the bird chirping angrily and flying away. So, he had a good range, but how far could he push his hearing? He hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he moved himself into a standing position, performing the handseals again and coating his ears in chakra, all the sounds around him multiplied in comparison to how they were prior to. This time, he sensed a slightly far off sound, something a bit more muffled and harder to trace to its source. But, he would put his effort forward and see where it got him.

The sound appeared to be coming from his right, and the sound was hidden behind what appeared to be two layers of obstacles, layered in such a way that he would have barely noticed the sound if he weren't searching for it. Expanding the range of where the sound came from, Kakan could tell more distinctly that it was behind the shed that hid to his right, accounting for one obstacle. Maybe the trees were acting as the second one?

Deciding to test his theory, Kakan stood up and moved to the shed, stepping slowly so as not to disturb the thing that created the sound if he were near it. Going around the side of the shed and poking his head around behind it, he saw where the sound was coming from. It was coming from a snake that was slithering along the ground, moving towards what looked to be its burrow in the ground. In its mouth it held a single white egg that had black specks on the top of it.

With confidence that he had done just what he expected himself to do, Kakan went back to the orchard to figure out what else he could do with his newfound knowledge.