She had been working hard for so long. She didn't know who she was, or where she belonged, but she knew that everything she'd been working towards was worthless if she couldn't complete this one damned thing. "Did you get the eggs?" Her mentor had asked. Of course she hadn't gotten the fucking eggs, she always forgot the fucking eggs.
Off she ran as fast as she could, the market would close soon so she really had to hurry to get things done. She slammed open the door as soon as the final words left the man's mouth, and she was off running faster than she ever had before. Luckily eggs were light, so getting them back wouldn't be too much of a hassle. Her feet slapped the earth noisily, and she was already starting to feel exhausted, the long walk to and from alone leaving her in a worse state than she was used to.
She was spoiled to some accounts, but in many ways she grew up poorer than others. All the same, she did have a soft upbringing that made such labors as this difficult. She fell to the ground suddenly, having tripped over a divot in the road, likely caused by one of the large, heavy steam tractors that plowed the fields and chugged along. She cursed again. Fucking tractors. Fucking eggs.
Slowly she pushed herself up, and her ankle was a bit twisted, so she walked fast, but limped across the road, trying to force herself through the pain. The sudden stop and trip had also ripped a hole in her cheap leather shoes, and her socks underneath were getting a little wet from the solid mud that caked the road at all times. She felt the earth underneath her foot, cursed again, and took a second to stop herself.
Quickly, she pulled off her shoes and socks, throwing her socks over her shoulder to help them dry out, and keeping her shoes in her hands where they wouldn't be exposed and made worse, possible to repair at least. The man she mentored under would have her head if she brought back shoes that couldn't even be patched well.
Again she took off running, one foot in front of the other, bare foot this time as her toes squished between the mud. It wasn't a pleasant feeling when you couldn't take the time to appreciate it, but at least was better than the feeling of wet socks. Nobody enjoyed that. Fucking wet socks. Fucking eggs. One of the aforementioned tractors was barreling down the road quite fast behind her now, likely heading to deliver goods, but its speed was faster than she expected, she'd never seen them up close.
Now she had more motivation to keep it up and keep going faster, if she slowed down at all, she'd have to step to the side and let the tractor pass, or risk getting run over. Neither of which would get her to the market in a timely fashion. Her legs burned, and her lungs moreso felt like they were catching fire as she powered through. Suddenly, the burden seemed to lighten a bit and she paced forwards, hitting her second wind.
Another door was thrown open, to the general store this time. "Oh, did you forget something?" The man behind the counter asked. The girl ignored her, running down to the corner where the eggs were kept, picking up a crate of them, running back to the front of the gate, and tossing ryo onto the table to pay for the eggs. The man waved her off happily, she still ignored him.
Now she was running back towards her mentor, she put the crate of eggs up onto the shoulder that her socks weren't on, holding it up with the side of her head and one arm as she pushed through the pain once more. The second wind was coming down and her breathing was becoming ragged. Her feet ached, and had several sores already starting to form from hitting the ground so roughly, blisters forming quickly.
Then she remembered, why was she running? She had run all the way to the market to get there before the building had closed down for the day, but now that she was on the way back...? She had a point to prove, she supposed, she definitely didn't forget the eggs, she just set them down outside to make bringing the other groceries inside easier, yeah, that was her story, and she was sticking to it. Fucking mentor. Fucking eggs.
Her anger controlled her speed even more it seemed, pulling her along like a puppet string, yanking her back towards her house as she seemed to speed up even more. She was hurting in many ways, her feet were bleeding now, her legs were aching, and her lungs felt like they would burst out of her chest at any moment. All the same, she had a duty to fulfill, she had to prove that her mentor was wrong about her, didn't she?
Tears began to roll down her face, this was not so easy. Who was she really trying to prove anything to? Slap, slap, slap, the feet hit the ground louder and louder as she approached the door, throwing it open. She was crying and she didn't know why, the tears stung her eyes and made her nose began to drool snot onto the floor as she set the eggs down in front of her, finally falling to the ground in rest, her knees and palms on the floor as she pounded the floor. Fucking tears. Fucking eggs.
"I didn't fucking forget the fucking eggs" she lied. Why would she even lie about this? Was the mentor that antagonistic that it was a real problem between them? No. He walked over and picked the eggs off the ground for her, giving her a light pat on the head and walking away. "No, you'd never do that would you. You're too smart, too good for that."
[Speed +1]
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
Last edited by Nick on Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
 | Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
She had been working towards this for a long time, and boy was she regretting all of it. She'd been being pushed for weeks by her mentor, and it was getting harder and harder to work through these things. The classes weren't easy, and neither was her private tutoring, but she'd known that going into it. So why was it such a struggle now?
She picked up the first bucket and started to walk towards the lake. This test was not one of skill, not one she could finesse her way around, and it was observed, too, so not one she could talk someone else into helping her with as she often did. It was just her and this heavy wooden bucket, outstretched in her arm. She bent at the knees and picked up the other one. They were both empty, but that didn't mean they weren't already heavy, especially with her arms held straight out like they were.
One step at a time, just like when running, right? Easy. She's got this. No worries whatsoever. Her arms were already starting to shake a bit. That was just how confident she was. Who needed straight arms when they could be wobbly? It was just added challenge. She walked slowly but steadily, before realizing if she ran, she'd be able to get the job done faster with less effort on her arms! Her weak, noodly arms that she was starting to feel the burn in.
She picked up at a jog, and the buckets swayed back and forth dramatically making it hard to keep good balance. She took a deep breath, starting to lose control of her oxygen intake, a hiccup in the grand scheme of this problem. One step at a time, easy goes it, no worries here. Her arms burned more. It was fine. Just that added challenge she'd given herself. She had to do stuff herself, after all, she was killing it. Really the best there was at this kind of stuff. If she didn't have so much more important stuff to do, she'd be the best bucket handler they'd ever had.
At the lake now. Oh god. She was what, maybe a quarter done? She stepped down the little hill that acted as flood insurance during the rainy seasons. Her arms fell to her sides finally as she approached the water's edge, and she took her time, sandbagging herself as she very carefully lifted one of the buckets up with both hands now, scooping up the water after getting down onto her knees, gulping as she realized how heavy it was now that it was full.
She repeated the process carefully with the second one, trying hard not to fill them up to the brims and give as much of a weight buffer as she could by filling them maybe three quarters of the way. Her mentor didn't mention anything to the effect of them needing to be filled all the way, so why wouldn't she take advantage of every little bonus she could give herself? She was smart and clever, after all, this was maybe the only advantage she'd have in this kind of test of strength and stamina.
Getting back up off her knees, she slowly bent her knees again, using proper lifting technique as she grabbed a bucket in each hand, heaving upwards as she lifted them up off the ground with an audible groan. Slowly, she started to take steps forwards, earning her a light glare from her mentor. She glared back with a pout that would brook no argument against one of her peers, but against her superior, it was perfectly ineffective. She groaned again, and slowly started to raise her arms up.
A herculean effort all by itself, the girl was clearly breaking a sweat just from the idea of lifting up these buckets full of water. Why was water so heavy? When she drank water, she didn't feel so much heavier. Clearly this water was cheating. Maybe her mentor had sprinkled lead in the water beforehand? He was a cheater and a manipulator after all, that jerk.
She finally got them both up at shoulder level, arms outstretched completely. Her arms surprisingly didn't hurt all that much this time, but her shoulders and wrists were not pleased with the action. Wordlessly, she huffed and started to walk back towards the goal. Ugh. Was this punishment? This was going to be impossible! But then she remembered her ultimate trick, jogging! With a bit of a runup, she started to move faster, only succeeding in slipping a bit, the moving water throwing her off balance.
Suddenly, she was soaked and there was water all over her. Once again, her mentor said nothing. there was less water in the buckets now, but being soaked like this was not only humiliating, but also made walking out like this more difficult as her pants caused her to chafe fiercely, and her shirt rubbed up against her chest uncomfortably.
She didn't turn back to refill the buckets, keeping her arms outstretched the whole itme, having learned her lesson, she did not run this time, walking more calmly, measuring her pace. Seemed t obe a lesson she'd learned.
One step at a time. She had this .She was the best, after all. Destined to do great things and all that. It didn't matter that she was on the verge of crying over this task, she just had to get over the finish line. Left foot, right foot. Oops, avoid that rock! Ahah, perfectly executed and oh my god do the arms hurt, the shoulders now numb with pain, the wrists starting to fail, and the forearms now bearing the brunt of the weight, weighing her down fiercely.
When would it end? She was near the end. One more step. One more goal. That was it. Ah yes, the end. She dropped the buckets dramatically, water splashing out all over her. This was the worst. She wanted to go home and have a bath that wasn't with cold lake water.
[Endurance +1]
She picked up the first bucket and started to walk towards the lake. This test was not one of skill, not one she could finesse her way around, and it was observed, too, so not one she could talk someone else into helping her with as she often did. It was just her and this heavy wooden bucket, outstretched in her arm. She bent at the knees and picked up the other one. They were both empty, but that didn't mean they weren't already heavy, especially with her arms held straight out like they were.
One step at a time, just like when running, right? Easy. She's got this. No worries whatsoever. Her arms were already starting to shake a bit. That was just how confident she was. Who needed straight arms when they could be wobbly? It was just added challenge. She walked slowly but steadily, before realizing if she ran, she'd be able to get the job done faster with less effort on her arms! Her weak, noodly arms that she was starting to feel the burn in.
She picked up at a jog, and the buckets swayed back and forth dramatically making it hard to keep good balance. She took a deep breath, starting to lose control of her oxygen intake, a hiccup in the grand scheme of this problem. One step at a time, easy goes it, no worries here. Her arms burned more. It was fine. Just that added challenge she'd given herself. She had to do stuff herself, after all, she was killing it. Really the best there was at this kind of stuff. If she didn't have so much more important stuff to do, she'd be the best bucket handler they'd ever had.
At the lake now. Oh god. She was what, maybe a quarter done? She stepped down the little hill that acted as flood insurance during the rainy seasons. Her arms fell to her sides finally as she approached the water's edge, and she took her time, sandbagging herself as she very carefully lifted one of the buckets up with both hands now, scooping up the water after getting down onto her knees, gulping as she realized how heavy it was now that it was full.
She repeated the process carefully with the second one, trying hard not to fill them up to the brims and give as much of a weight buffer as she could by filling them maybe three quarters of the way. Her mentor didn't mention anything to the effect of them needing to be filled all the way, so why wouldn't she take advantage of every little bonus she could give herself? She was smart and clever, after all, this was maybe the only advantage she'd have in this kind of test of strength and stamina.
Getting back up off her knees, she slowly bent her knees again, using proper lifting technique as she grabbed a bucket in each hand, heaving upwards as she lifted them up off the ground with an audible groan. Slowly, she started to take steps forwards, earning her a light glare from her mentor. She glared back with a pout that would brook no argument against one of her peers, but against her superior, it was perfectly ineffective. She groaned again, and slowly started to raise her arms up.
A herculean effort all by itself, the girl was clearly breaking a sweat just from the idea of lifting up these buckets full of water. Why was water so heavy? When she drank water, she didn't feel so much heavier. Clearly this water was cheating. Maybe her mentor had sprinkled lead in the water beforehand? He was a cheater and a manipulator after all, that jerk.
She finally got them both up at shoulder level, arms outstretched completely. Her arms surprisingly didn't hurt all that much this time, but her shoulders and wrists were not pleased with the action. Wordlessly, she huffed and started to walk back towards the goal. Ugh. Was this punishment? This was going to be impossible! But then she remembered her ultimate trick, jogging! With a bit of a runup, she started to move faster, only succeeding in slipping a bit, the moving water throwing her off balance.
Suddenly, she was soaked and there was water all over her. Once again, her mentor said nothing. there was less water in the buckets now, but being soaked like this was not only humiliating, but also made walking out like this more difficult as her pants caused her to chafe fiercely, and her shirt rubbed up against her chest uncomfortably.
She didn't turn back to refill the buckets, keeping her arms outstretched the whole itme, having learned her lesson, she did not run this time, walking more calmly, measuring her pace. Seemed t obe a lesson she'd learned.
One step at a time. She had this .She was the best, after all. Destined to do great things and all that. It didn't matter that she was on the verge of crying over this task, she just had to get over the finish line. Left foot, right foot. Oops, avoid that rock! Ahah, perfectly executed and oh my god do the arms hurt, the shoulders now numb with pain, the wrists starting to fail, and the forearms now bearing the brunt of the weight, weighing her down fiercely.
When would it end? She was near the end. One more step. One more goal. That was it. Ah yes, the end. She dropped the buckets dramatically, water splashing out all over her. This was the worst. She wanted to go home and have a bath that wasn't with cold lake water.
[Endurance +1]
Last edited by Nick on Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[march training event, -100 words off each stat, 1800 words total]
Ugh, another day of this bullshit. Another day dealing with the creation of this stupid body of hers taht they insisted was getting stronger and stronger over time. She already had a body, so why werre they so focused on turning it even stronger, remaking it again? They didn't mean literally, of course, they weren't growing her in a lab or anything crazy like that, but they were doing soemthing maybe even less humane than that: Making her work out. It had started with running, and holding buckets of water, but it was only getting worse with time. What was next?
Mental exercises? Apparently. That was maybe even worse. She already had homework! Her mentor was crossing too many lines with this, but it wasn't like she could say no, her grades weren't great and her foster family wouldn't have her doing poorly in their name. She had so many people falling behind because of her, this stupid team focused environment, and they knew it was because of her, they talked about her behind her back constantly, she never heard it, but she didn't need to, she coudl feel it in the way they looked at her and she could feel it in every time they talked. Sure they seemed nice, but it had to all be an act, for sure.
So she started off on the right foot, taking advantage first of the extra assignments that had been passed down. Ninjutsu classes weren't totally necessary, an elective course just like the many samurai styles offered that she'd half-heartedly attended just to fill her schedule, but this was a little different. It focused so much more on her mental acuity, which of course she should be more successful with, she was a genius! Her grades only weren't the best because she just didn't care enough. That was all. She could have the best grades in the entire academy if it weren't for her own lack of care getting in the way! Surely the teachers were at fault, not able to make her care at all.
This wasn't just ninjutsu classes, though. She'd been entered into an even more exclusive course that was such a small class size that it may as well have been just her and one other student, and the teacher, during most of the classes. These genjutsu classes were odd for sure, similar in many ways to ninjutsu, and yet it pulled on her mental muscles in ways that no other class had, even the academics classes that were quite difficult. This conundrum left her with no choice but to give it her all! Nothing could get in the way of her success here, not even herself!
The end result of the class was the similar to ninjutsu before it, with her molding her will into some kind of physical form, but it was different enough with genjutsu, her will being made manifest was simultaneously more and less literal. She was forcing her will on the teacher and the other student in the class, and rather than making something physical manifest, it was like a dream that she had to share with them, something that was simultaneously more and less difficult, and definitely more embarassing, especially given the small class size. She could get away and skirt around being noticed when she wanted to in her larger class sizes, but it was hard not to be noticed in such a personal setting.
The game was afoot, though, and she had to conconct her own genjutsu as part of the final class. Her subject was wide, she could have made it about anything. The teacher had mentioned that where they came from, genjutsu was often used as a form of psychological torture to extract information from foreign agents without actually harming them, something about feeling better about themselves for not having to murder a prisoner of war, whatever, Suzuko didn't actually care about all that. But it did give her an idea, what if she could do something similar to embarass all those idiots that thought they were better than her? They were wrong of course, but the embarassment was really something that they'd never recover from surely.
Her skill had grown over the coruse of the class significantly, and while not as good at it as the other classmate, she'd never admit it. This fight of hers was never ending it seemed, and if she could just find a way to admit to herself that this wasn't about being the best or winning, maybe she could make real progress on it. The classes weren't easy still, and even with extra tutoring from the teacher, her mentor still gave her the same cocky grin that told her she could do better, even as he congratulated her on her improving grades. It was nonsense. Why did she care what he thought? He had tried to kidnap her at one point! Well, maybe he'd succeeded if she was so caught up in the idea that she needed to impress him, even if she wasn't actively being moved to another location. All the same, she had to come up with this technique, her final action as a class member of this stupid elective that she never should have taken up in the first place.
Embarassing people was one way to make herself feel better, but it would also be a potentially good battlefield tactic, if the opponent was embarrassed enough, that might open them up to a surprise strike! She wasn't a very good fighter, unfortunately, and so she needed to get every piece of advantage she could whenever she could, or else she'd never stand a chance against fellow students in these combat exercises that she was so often forced into as part of the samurai classes. Of course, dojo crashing still happened often, and even if she didn't want to get involved, she was expected to step in and save her dojo from invaders, as one of the older students. She hadn't won many of those fights, and yet they kept asking her to step up against the groups of students coming in to make a name for themselves, embarass the sensei like she often did for them.
Unbeknownst to her, her inexperience was WHY she was so often called up to defend the dojo's honor. "Look!" the sensei seemed to say, "If this inexperienced fool can hold her own against you, you do not stand a chance against the better of my students!", of course if he ever said that to her face, the two would likely be throwing hands, and she would be likely to get expelled, or at least suspended from the academy for it. Her hotheaded nature didn't help her, especially with her noble attitude that kept her nose pointed towards the sky.
All the same, she first needed to procure a test subject. One of her roommates would do the trick. She asked so sweetly if they'd help with a project, not explaining what it was, and getting them to agree to it before actually knowing what was going on. They never would get to know what was going on, and that was perfect.
She had to start on the ground stage, working up the concept on paper. If she was to use this to extract knowledge from someone, she'd have to force her will onto them loudly, proudly, and without any sense of hesitation. She barely understood the makeup of a genjutsu, but she did understand that it required handseals to form her chakra, and then a trigger to force someone into it, to bring their mind into her will and force them to experience what they wanted her to. Handseals were the hard part, they didn't seem to make a ton of sense, and ultimately were being used for things way over her head. There were ones that had simple implications, like fire or danger, but those were obviously unused. After reading several books on the matter, she became convinced that handseals were just a conspiracy that were unnecessary and made people feel good about what they were doing. A stupid confidence building exercise that she couldn't abide by.
Her handseals were now on paper though, a relatively short string given the simplicity of the technique in question, and then she needed to test it out by forming the seals slowly, one at a time, while moulding chakra into them, forcing the chakra to perform her will in such a way that nothing could stop her. This technique was used in ninjutsu as well, and made a lot more sense when the handseals could directly translate to animals or elements that you were attempting to manipulate. With genjutsu you were extrapolating on much more abstract concepts, and finding ones that made her feel confident enough to actually use the technique was hard enough.
She'd gone through half a library figuring that out, and then started to form the seals one at a time, flooding chakra inch by inch into every finger and seal as it came out of her. Finally, the next part, the trigger needed to be established. Sometimes the simplicity was the best way to go, and she wasn't trying to be especially tricksy. The intent of the jutsu was to make someone embarass themselves in such a way that they couldn't easily recover from, long after the effects of the technique ended, and so she set the phrase simply to "Tell me a secret", an audio trigger that most wouldn't be able to stop themselves from hearing easily, and one that had a direct result that she could blame not on casting genjutsu, but on people making snap decisions. Most of the idiots in her classes barely understood genjutsu all the same, which made decisions on these things much easier. If more people knew about genjutsu, it would be painfully obvious that she was exerting her will on their feeble minds, but with the knowledge of it so far on the downlow, anything she used as a trigger would likely be seen as just a simple, innocent question, a playful touch on the arm, anything . The world was hers to manipulate, and she was quite interested in it now that she was getting into it.
Of course, it was a project to complete, and despite being obstinate and lazy in many ways, once she set her mind to something, nothing would get in her way. Not food, not morals, not her annoying roommate playing their stupid flute too loud when she got home from her classes. The dorms were always loud, maybe she could make an even louder trigger later to make all of the students shut the hell up? It was a trick she'd have to work on in the future.
[Control +2]
Ugh, another day of this bullshit. Another day dealing with the creation of this stupid body of hers taht they insisted was getting stronger and stronger over time. She already had a body, so why werre they so focused on turning it even stronger, remaking it again? They didn't mean literally, of course, they weren't growing her in a lab or anything crazy like that, but they were doing soemthing maybe even less humane than that: Making her work out. It had started with running, and holding buckets of water, but it was only getting worse with time. What was next?
Mental exercises? Apparently. That was maybe even worse. She already had homework! Her mentor was crossing too many lines with this, but it wasn't like she could say no, her grades weren't great and her foster family wouldn't have her doing poorly in their name. She had so many people falling behind because of her, this stupid team focused environment, and they knew it was because of her, they talked about her behind her back constantly, she never heard it, but she didn't need to, she coudl feel it in the way they looked at her and she could feel it in every time they talked. Sure they seemed nice, but it had to all be an act, for sure.
So she started off on the right foot, taking advantage first of the extra assignments that had been passed down. Ninjutsu classes weren't totally necessary, an elective course just like the many samurai styles offered that she'd half-heartedly attended just to fill her schedule, but this was a little different. It focused so much more on her mental acuity, which of course she should be more successful with, she was a genius! Her grades only weren't the best because she just didn't care enough. That was all. She could have the best grades in the entire academy if it weren't for her own lack of care getting in the way! Surely the teachers were at fault, not able to make her care at all.
This wasn't just ninjutsu classes, though. She'd been entered into an even more exclusive course that was such a small class size that it may as well have been just her and one other student, and the teacher, during most of the classes. These genjutsu classes were odd for sure, similar in many ways to ninjutsu, and yet it pulled on her mental muscles in ways that no other class had, even the academics classes that were quite difficult. This conundrum left her with no choice but to give it her all! Nothing could get in the way of her success here, not even herself!
The end result of the class was the similar to ninjutsu before it, with her molding her will into some kind of physical form, but it was different enough with genjutsu, her will being made manifest was simultaneously more and less literal. She was forcing her will on the teacher and the other student in the class, and rather than making something physical manifest, it was like a dream that she had to share with them, something that was simultaneously more and less difficult, and definitely more embarassing, especially given the small class size. She could get away and skirt around being noticed when she wanted to in her larger class sizes, but it was hard not to be noticed in such a personal setting.
The game was afoot, though, and she had to conconct her own genjutsu as part of the final class. Her subject was wide, she could have made it about anything. The teacher had mentioned that where they came from, genjutsu was often used as a form of psychological torture to extract information from foreign agents without actually harming them, something about feeling better about themselves for not having to murder a prisoner of war, whatever, Suzuko didn't actually care about all that. But it did give her an idea, what if she could do something similar to embarass all those idiots that thought they were better than her? They were wrong of course, but the embarassment was really something that they'd never recover from surely.
Her skill had grown over the coruse of the class significantly, and while not as good at it as the other classmate, she'd never admit it. This fight of hers was never ending it seemed, and if she could just find a way to admit to herself that this wasn't about being the best or winning, maybe she could make real progress on it. The classes weren't easy still, and even with extra tutoring from the teacher, her mentor still gave her the same cocky grin that told her she could do better, even as he congratulated her on her improving grades. It was nonsense. Why did she care what he thought? He had tried to kidnap her at one point! Well, maybe he'd succeeded if she was so caught up in the idea that she needed to impress him, even if she wasn't actively being moved to another location. All the same, she had to come up with this technique, her final action as a class member of this stupid elective that she never should have taken up in the first place.
Embarassing people was one way to make herself feel better, but it would also be a potentially good battlefield tactic, if the opponent was embarrassed enough, that might open them up to a surprise strike! She wasn't a very good fighter, unfortunately, and so she needed to get every piece of advantage she could whenever she could, or else she'd never stand a chance against fellow students in these combat exercises that she was so often forced into as part of the samurai classes. Of course, dojo crashing still happened often, and even if she didn't want to get involved, she was expected to step in and save her dojo from invaders, as one of the older students. She hadn't won many of those fights, and yet they kept asking her to step up against the groups of students coming in to make a name for themselves, embarass the sensei like she often did for them.
Unbeknownst to her, her inexperience was WHY she was so often called up to defend the dojo's honor. "Look!" the sensei seemed to say, "If this inexperienced fool can hold her own against you, you do not stand a chance against the better of my students!", of course if he ever said that to her face, the two would likely be throwing hands, and she would be likely to get expelled, or at least suspended from the academy for it. Her hotheaded nature didn't help her, especially with her noble attitude that kept her nose pointed towards the sky.
All the same, she first needed to procure a test subject. One of her roommates would do the trick. She asked so sweetly if they'd help with a project, not explaining what it was, and getting them to agree to it before actually knowing what was going on. They never would get to know what was going on, and that was perfect.
She had to start on the ground stage, working up the concept on paper. If she was to use this to extract knowledge from someone, she'd have to force her will onto them loudly, proudly, and without any sense of hesitation. She barely understood the makeup of a genjutsu, but she did understand that it required handseals to form her chakra, and then a trigger to force someone into it, to bring their mind into her will and force them to experience what they wanted her to. Handseals were the hard part, they didn't seem to make a ton of sense, and ultimately were being used for things way over her head. There were ones that had simple implications, like fire or danger, but those were obviously unused. After reading several books on the matter, she became convinced that handseals were just a conspiracy that were unnecessary and made people feel good about what they were doing. A stupid confidence building exercise that she couldn't abide by.
Her handseals were now on paper though, a relatively short string given the simplicity of the technique in question, and then she needed to test it out by forming the seals slowly, one at a time, while moulding chakra into them, forcing the chakra to perform her will in such a way that nothing could stop her. This technique was used in ninjutsu as well, and made a lot more sense when the handseals could directly translate to animals or elements that you were attempting to manipulate. With genjutsu you were extrapolating on much more abstract concepts, and finding ones that made her feel confident enough to actually use the technique was hard enough.
She'd gone through half a library figuring that out, and then started to form the seals one at a time, flooding chakra inch by inch into every finger and seal as it came out of her. Finally, the next part, the trigger needed to be established. Sometimes the simplicity was the best way to go, and she wasn't trying to be especially tricksy. The intent of the jutsu was to make someone embarass themselves in such a way that they couldn't easily recover from, long after the effects of the technique ended, and so she set the phrase simply to "Tell me a secret", an audio trigger that most wouldn't be able to stop themselves from hearing easily, and one that had a direct result that she could blame not on casting genjutsu, but on people making snap decisions. Most of the idiots in her classes barely understood genjutsu all the same, which made decisions on these things much easier. If more people knew about genjutsu, it would be painfully obvious that she was exerting her will on their feeble minds, but with the knowledge of it so far on the downlow, anything she used as a trigger would likely be seen as just a simple, innocent question, a playful touch on the arm, anything . The world was hers to manipulate, and she was quite interested in it now that she was getting into it.
Of course, it was a project to complete, and despite being obstinate and lazy in many ways, once she set her mind to something, nothing would get in her way. Not food, not morals, not her annoying roommate playing their stupid flute too loud when she got home from her classes. The dorms were always loud, maybe she could make an even louder trigger later to make all of the students shut the hell up? It was a trick she'd have to work on in the future.
[Control +2]
Last edited by Nick on Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[March training event (again, lol, man some of these trainings are old) -300 words off stats.]
It was hot. So, so hot. Christ in heaven it couldn't be hotter if the devil himself wore that cologne that reminded you of your father. She was underneath probably over a ton of metal, reaching up over her head while on her back to help the Kisama clan member who was her sponsor for the pilot program. Did she really need to be here? She hadn't really signed up for the program so much as she'd been voluntold, and days like today she regretted it. But she was a star student, and the pressure on her was almost as hot as the machinery she was working under.
There was nothing explicitly wrong with her puppet, but her Kisama sponsor insisted that it was a 'real steam hog', and needed some adjustments so it didn't eat up as many steam cannisters in such a short period of time. He was always insistent he could make it better and better, and whenever she got it back from the shop, worked on, cleaned up, as good as new... It always seemed like he'd done hardly anything to it. The only exception was when she'd specifically asked him if he could add additional cushioning to the inside of the puppet so that she wasn't jostled so much just riding around inside of it. Maybe she should make more requests like that, she thought, but then he really didn't like talking while working, ever since he got a mouthful of oil.
Why was she even there, sweating her butt off? He was a Kisama, he didn't need her to hand him tools, he was plenty strong enough, especially compared to the physically weak Suzuko laying down next to him, all he did was ocassionally ask her to put her hand somewhere for an uncomfortable period of time, until her arm felt like it was about to fall out of its socket, before a single 'click' with a wrench was all it took before she could put it back down. At least it was an extracurricular activity that was earning her extra credit with the academy. She didn't really want to continue on past the academy phase into the military, where these extracurriculars might matter the most, but truth be told she didn't know WHAT she wanted to do with her life at all. She'd been somewhat sheltered in her very young life, and her school years so far had left her wanting for something more, but she wasn't really all that special.
Sure, her grades were great, her teachers loved her, she got along with most of her fellow students, but who was she, really? She wasn't some mechanical genius like the Kisama clansman next to her, she wasn't especially strong or fast like Goro, she wasn't some mighty expert of the mystic arts like some of those that had succeeded so well in the ninjutsu and genjutsu classes. She was just... Suzuko. Sweaty, boring, unsure Suzuko.
So, so sweaty. Her arm trembled on the piece she was holding up, and sweat dripped down from her palms down into her eyes. A burst of steam went off next to her and she flinched, her arm trembled more... but she didn't drop it, at least. The clansman sighed and reached his wrench-hand over to click one last thing in to place, before tapping her arm, letting her know it was safe to pull it back away. She sighed this time, and pulled it back, flexing the fingers and gently massaging her wrist with her other hand.
"Ouch." She whined, and the Kisama clansmen scoffed and shook his hand mockingly, chuckling as if it was the most hilarious thing... Only for the piece he'd just tightened down to loosen suddenly, swinging down to smack him in the head, and let out a gout of hot steam once more, pushing him back and into the wall, waving his hands in front of his face trying to dissipate the steam, earning being laughed at by Suzuko this time, a deep belly laugh that ran her out of breath, an unpretty laugh that left her snorting and guffawing... Until she sudddenly stopped, and realized that the piece had fallen down, which meant she was going to have to hold it. Again.
[Endurance +1]
It was hot. So, so hot. Christ in heaven it couldn't be hotter if the devil himself wore that cologne that reminded you of your father. She was underneath probably over a ton of metal, reaching up over her head while on her back to help the Kisama clan member who was her sponsor for the pilot program. Did she really need to be here? She hadn't really signed up for the program so much as she'd been voluntold, and days like today she regretted it. But she was a star student, and the pressure on her was almost as hot as the machinery she was working under.
There was nothing explicitly wrong with her puppet, but her Kisama sponsor insisted that it was a 'real steam hog', and needed some adjustments so it didn't eat up as many steam cannisters in such a short period of time. He was always insistent he could make it better and better, and whenever she got it back from the shop, worked on, cleaned up, as good as new... It always seemed like he'd done hardly anything to it. The only exception was when she'd specifically asked him if he could add additional cushioning to the inside of the puppet so that she wasn't jostled so much just riding around inside of it. Maybe she should make more requests like that, she thought, but then he really didn't like talking while working, ever since he got a mouthful of oil.
Why was she even there, sweating her butt off? He was a Kisama, he didn't need her to hand him tools, he was plenty strong enough, especially compared to the physically weak Suzuko laying down next to him, all he did was ocassionally ask her to put her hand somewhere for an uncomfortable period of time, until her arm felt like it was about to fall out of its socket, before a single 'click' with a wrench was all it took before she could put it back down. At least it was an extracurricular activity that was earning her extra credit with the academy. She didn't really want to continue on past the academy phase into the military, where these extracurriculars might matter the most, but truth be told she didn't know WHAT she wanted to do with her life at all. She'd been somewhat sheltered in her very young life, and her school years so far had left her wanting for something more, but she wasn't really all that special.
Sure, her grades were great, her teachers loved her, she got along with most of her fellow students, but who was she, really? She wasn't some mechanical genius like the Kisama clansman next to her, she wasn't especially strong or fast like Goro, she wasn't some mighty expert of the mystic arts like some of those that had succeeded so well in the ninjutsu and genjutsu classes. She was just... Suzuko. Sweaty, boring, unsure Suzuko.
So, so sweaty. Her arm trembled on the piece she was holding up, and sweat dripped down from her palms down into her eyes. A burst of steam went off next to her and she flinched, her arm trembled more... but she didn't drop it, at least. The clansman sighed and reached his wrench-hand over to click one last thing in to place, before tapping her arm, letting her know it was safe to pull it back away. She sighed this time, and pulled it back, flexing the fingers and gently massaging her wrist with her other hand.
"Ouch." She whined, and the Kisama clansmen scoffed and shook his hand mockingly, chuckling as if it was the most hilarious thing... Only for the piece he'd just tightened down to loosen suddenly, swinging down to smack him in the head, and let out a gout of hot steam once more, pushing him back and into the wall, waving his hands in front of his face trying to dissipate the steam, earning being laughed at by Suzuko this time, a deep belly laugh that ran her out of breath, an unpretty laugh that left her snorting and guffawing... Until she sudddenly stopped, and realized that the piece had fallen down, which meant she was going to have to hold it. Again.
[Endurance +1]
Last edited by Nick on Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[March Training Event, -300 words off stat trainings]
Suzuko had always been an avid runner. Ever since she was a child, she loved the thrill of racing, the wind in her hair and the pounding of her heart. But no matter how much she trained, no matter how fast she ran, she always seemed to come up short.
Suzuko had been training for months for the upcoming race. She had run countless miles, pushed herself to the limit, and sacrificed time with friends and family to prepare. She was determined to win this race, to finally prove to herself that she was a true champion.
But on the day of the race, things didn't go as planned. Suzuko woke up feeling sick, her stomach churning and her head pounding. She tried to shake it off, telling herself that she couldn't let a little illness get in the way of her dreams. She had to be present for the race, she'd been working so hard, and today was not the day to give up, no matter what stood in the way.
As she lined up at the starting line, Suzuko felt a wave of nerves wash over her. She looked around at the other runners, all of them lean and strong, their eyes focused and determined. She knew this was going to be a tough race. Suzuko herself was relatively scrawny and undertrained, having lived in a house of nobility up until moving to the school dorms with her fellow students.
The announcer set the runners to go, and Suzuko took off at a sprint. She felt the rush of adrenaline as she weaved through the other runners, her legs pumping and her lungs burning. For a moment, she felt like she was flying. There were so many racers, and she was ahead of so many of them, though her head was focused on winning, rather than racing.
As the race wore on, Suzuko's illness began to take its toll. She started to feel dizzy and lightheaded, her legs heavy and her breathing labored. She pushed herself harder, trying to ignore the pain, but it was no use. One person launched out ahead of her, then another, and another
Suzuko watched in frustration as the other runners passed her by one by one. She could see the finish line in the distance, but it felt like it was getting further and further away. She wanted to give up, to collapse in a heap on the ground and forget about the whole thing.
But something inside her wouldn't let her. She thought about all the hours of training, all the sacrifices she had made, all the dreams she had for herself. She couldn't let them go to waste.
So Suzuko pushed on, her legs screaming in protest, her mind determined to see this through. She could hear the cheers of the crowd, urging her on, and she felt a surge of hope. She passed one runner, then another, she was catching back up, she could do this!
Finally, Suzuko saw the finish line looming ahead. She could see the other runners, their bodies straining to cross the line. She knew she had to give it everything she had. If they were hurting, then it meant she had a chance.
With a final burst of energy, Suzuko sprinted towards the finish line. She felt like she was flying, her legs carrying her forward faster than she ever thought possible. She could hear the roar of the crowd, the thumping of her heart, and the sound of her own breath.
As she crossed the finish line, Suzuko collapsed onto the ground, her body shaking with exhaustion. But she had done it. She had finished the race, and she had done it with everything she had. But everything she had hadn't been enough. She'd finished third.
She scolded herself mentally and looked off into the crowd, where her mentor was once again, that usual dumb smirk on his face, she looked away. Her frustration built even more, third place simply wasn't good enough. When she eventually got to see her mom again, she wanted to be able to tell her about all the great things she'd done, and winning third place wasn't going to cut it.
[Speed +1]
Suzuko had always been an avid runner. Ever since she was a child, she loved the thrill of racing, the wind in her hair and the pounding of her heart. But no matter how much she trained, no matter how fast she ran, she always seemed to come up short.
Suzuko had been training for months for the upcoming race. She had run countless miles, pushed herself to the limit, and sacrificed time with friends and family to prepare. She was determined to win this race, to finally prove to herself that she was a true champion.
But on the day of the race, things didn't go as planned. Suzuko woke up feeling sick, her stomach churning and her head pounding. She tried to shake it off, telling herself that she couldn't let a little illness get in the way of her dreams. She had to be present for the race, she'd been working so hard, and today was not the day to give up, no matter what stood in the way.
As she lined up at the starting line, Suzuko felt a wave of nerves wash over her. She looked around at the other runners, all of them lean and strong, their eyes focused and determined. She knew this was going to be a tough race. Suzuko herself was relatively scrawny and undertrained, having lived in a house of nobility up until moving to the school dorms with her fellow students.
The announcer set the runners to go, and Suzuko took off at a sprint. She felt the rush of adrenaline as she weaved through the other runners, her legs pumping and her lungs burning. For a moment, she felt like she was flying. There were so many racers, and she was ahead of so many of them, though her head was focused on winning, rather than racing.
As the race wore on, Suzuko's illness began to take its toll. She started to feel dizzy and lightheaded, her legs heavy and her breathing labored. She pushed herself harder, trying to ignore the pain, but it was no use. One person launched out ahead of her, then another, and another
Suzuko watched in frustration as the other runners passed her by one by one. She could see the finish line in the distance, but it felt like it was getting further and further away. She wanted to give up, to collapse in a heap on the ground and forget about the whole thing.
But something inside her wouldn't let her. She thought about all the hours of training, all the sacrifices she had made, all the dreams she had for herself. She couldn't let them go to waste.
So Suzuko pushed on, her legs screaming in protest, her mind determined to see this through. She could hear the cheers of the crowd, urging her on, and she felt a surge of hope. She passed one runner, then another, she was catching back up, she could do this!
Finally, Suzuko saw the finish line looming ahead. She could see the other runners, their bodies straining to cross the line. She knew she had to give it everything she had. If they were hurting, then it meant she had a chance.
With a final burst of energy, Suzuko sprinted towards the finish line. She felt like she was flying, her legs carrying her forward faster than she ever thought possible. She could hear the roar of the crowd, the thumping of her heart, and the sound of her own breath.
As she crossed the finish line, Suzuko collapsed onto the ground, her body shaking with exhaustion. But she had done it. She had finished the race, and she had done it with everything she had. But everything she had hadn't been enough. She'd finished third.
She scolded herself mentally and looked off into the crowd, where her mentor was once again, that usual dumb smirk on his face, she looked away. Her frustration built even more, third place simply wasn't good enough. When she eventually got to see her mom again, she wanted to be able to tell her about all the great things she'd done, and winning third place wasn't going to cut it.
[Speed +1]
Last edited by Nick on Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[July Chuunin Exam training discounts, -500 words off]
Suzuko had been training rather hard over the last several months, with lots of time spent in Pebble country under the Iron banner to improve her many attributes, or more specifically, to learn a lot about what was going on in her body and outside of it as well. Some of her training had kept her busy physically, sweating her ass off inside of that damned mechanical puppet armor that she’d been asked to try out and keep on for a significant portion, but a large part of her training had been focused on taking care of her mental knowledge of chakra by exploring her inner chakra workings, especially the strange threads that connected her to other people and forced her to feel what they were feeling whether she wanted to or not.
She’d practiced with fuuton too, but doing so had led less to knowledge of fuuton, and more to some strange uninteractive element that seemed to be associated with it that emptied out some of the chakra from techniques. She’d been calling it karaton, void, something that made her feel like she was floating by comparison, its power seemed to be able to sever the strings that linked her to other people, which was useful enough in and of itself but was difficult to control, and difficult to see what other uses it might have at this very moment. She’d figure it out eventually, she knew, but it wasn’t quite the bombastic and exciting techniques that she’d seen ninja use before in demonstrations or trainings, and she’d even seen Akihiko of all people do more interesting things than that.
Well, she couldn’t be less interesting than Akihiko, that just wouldn’t do. Unfortunately, the training to be more interesting wasn’t the most interesting thing in the world, as she found herself blowing fuuton jutsu over and over again, the biggest one she knew was the “Great breakthrough” that Takeshi had shown her at the festival, and she was purposefully overexerting herself to train, even though she knew for most things that was the least helpful thing one could do. She was working on her stamina, specifically as it applied to casting jutsu, as jutsu casting was especially tiring, but it made sense when you considered the wonder of what the human body could do. Or were they really human at all?
Another Great Breakthrough, and then another, and then another. Even one or two she could feel a little light-headed, but it wasn’t so much that she couldn’t push through it. Another. Another. Fukuro-kun belched out a fireball in support for her efforts. It mixed with the great windblash she’d put out and made an awfully large fireburst in the air, which caught the training field on fire. She stared at it unblinking for a bit, thinking that if she let the fire burn for a bit, she could take a break from training as she was questioned, before panicking and running off to go get a bucket of water to put out the mistake.
[506 Words, CP +1]
Suzuko had been training rather hard over the last several months, with lots of time spent in Pebble country under the Iron banner to improve her many attributes, or more specifically, to learn a lot about what was going on in her body and outside of it as well. Some of her training had kept her busy physically, sweating her ass off inside of that damned mechanical puppet armor that she’d been asked to try out and keep on for a significant portion, but a large part of her training had been focused on taking care of her mental knowledge of chakra by exploring her inner chakra workings, especially the strange threads that connected her to other people and forced her to feel what they were feeling whether she wanted to or not.
She’d practiced with fuuton too, but doing so had led less to knowledge of fuuton, and more to some strange uninteractive element that seemed to be associated with it that emptied out some of the chakra from techniques. She’d been calling it karaton, void, something that made her feel like she was floating by comparison, its power seemed to be able to sever the strings that linked her to other people, which was useful enough in and of itself but was difficult to control, and difficult to see what other uses it might have at this very moment. She’d figure it out eventually, she knew, but it wasn’t quite the bombastic and exciting techniques that she’d seen ninja use before in demonstrations or trainings, and she’d even seen Akihiko of all people do more interesting things than that.
Well, she couldn’t be less interesting than Akihiko, that just wouldn’t do. Unfortunately, the training to be more interesting wasn’t the most interesting thing in the world, as she found herself blowing fuuton jutsu over and over again, the biggest one she knew was the “Great breakthrough” that Takeshi had shown her at the festival, and she was purposefully overexerting herself to train, even though she knew for most things that was the least helpful thing one could do. She was working on her stamina, specifically as it applied to casting jutsu, as jutsu casting was especially tiring, but it made sense when you considered the wonder of what the human body could do. Or were they really human at all?
Another Great Breakthrough, and then another, and then another. Even one or two she could feel a little light-headed, but it wasn’t so much that she couldn’t push through it. Another. Another. Fukuro-kun belched out a fireball in support for her efforts. It mixed with the great windblash she’d put out and made an awfully large fireburst in the air, which caught the training field on fire. She stared at it unblinking for a bit, thinking that if she let the fire burn for a bit, she could take a break from training as she was questioned, before panicking and running off to go get a bucket of water to put out the mistake.
[506 Words, CP +1]
Last edited by Nick on Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[July Chuunin Exam Training Discounts, -500 words off]
Suzuko was working as hard as ever to get work done, and boy was it getting harder and harder to get work done. She was fighting for her life on every moment to get as strong as she could and make as many people happy as she could, and yet the more people she worked to please, it seemed like the less of them actually got done anything that was worth time. The important bit of all of this was really that Suzuko should have been learning something like proper time management, but instead she was losing all of her time on activities like training and schoolwork when maybe, just this once, she could have instead looked at everything and decided “Well maybe I deserve a day off.”
And she did. Deserve a day off, that is, not take one, that would be insane. Her mind constantly raced with what to do next, and yet the more she thought about it the less clear her path to success was, and so she decided to do the one thing that always made everything better: Panic. In a rush, she did everything that she could think to do at once, focusing on her breathing, focusing on her strength, focusing on her speed, focusing on her focusing, and still the more she got done, the worse she felt about the whole ordeal. Why couldn’t she just do everything all the time and be successful at all of it, all the time?
Well, none of that made sense to her brain, really, and so instead of working on a solution to the problem, she tried to do everything even more than she did before. She invented running by trying to walk twice at the same time, and because running was a new concept to the world, she tripped and fell on her face more often than she actually got somewhere, especially when she could have gotten there just as fast if not faster by just walking normally.
Of course, she didn’t actually invent running, but that seemed like as good of a metaphor as any for what she was trying to do, which was focus on her chakra flow and get strong output by doing it en-masse, the flow of chakra within her own body as clear to her as mud at the best of times, especially with how often it seemed to just be leaking out of her all willy-nilly without any kind of repurcussions, aside from the fact that it made it hard to take care of and get better at.
What was she supposed to do? They’d told her in school that the easiest way to increase your limited chakra supply was to expend all of your chakra as often as possible, training it like a muscle so that as it stretched it had to grow back stronger. Of course that analogy left her to wonder if she could also permanently damage her chakra pathways by doing it as well, just like how one could tear a muscle by doing exercises recklessly or too extremely, but the number of teachers available for chakra based actions were limited, and she felt bad about taking the time out of their day to ask them questions like “why” and “how” and “will this kill me?”
Of course, it wouldn’t kill her, or we wouldn’t be writing this right now, but Suzuko sure didn’t know that, and it made her worry all the more which made keeping an upright view of the task at hand even more difficult. She focused again on her chakra pathways and felt like they were veins full of water waiting to burst, as if the problem wasn’t necessarily her chakra output, but her bodies ability to focus, channel, and exactly use the chakra, and maybe that made sense to some degree. Maybe she had more chakra than she needed, really, and maybe she was doing okay for her age and weight class, but she wouldn’t see reason in that unless someone whose opinion she respected told her.
And even then, she would probably take it as a sign to keep overworking as she had been doing, rather than taking it as a sign she was doing more than enough. Being enough was something she’d struggled with from the earliest age she could remember, and her chakra teachings made the whole thing even more difficult because it was a whole new set of teachings that got tacked onto her schoolwork when she was already struggling to maintain her straight-A existence before more got thrown on top. Of course, the chakra stuff was purely elective and she didn’t NEED to partake, but an elective sounded an awful lot like a challenge… Plus, it was something Goro couldn’t do, and if she could shove something like that in his face, well, maybe he’d shut up and leave her alone one of these days. Seemed unlikely, though.
The classes were pretty boring overall, but did have some useful tips as discussed previously, and they played games to improve both chakra output and control such as levitating a coin in the air with pure ninpou chakra versus eachother to see who could push it the furthest towards their opponent without dropping it. It was silly and simple, but Suzuko had a competitive streak that was a mile wide and anything that took advantage of that got her fired up and ready to go.
Of course, she was quite talented in her classes, and often did better than the other students in a lot of these games and challenges, but her cocky attitude and easily thrown demeanor made her susceptible to getting into internal battles with herself that meant she would lose as often as not just by underestimating a classmate, or overestimating herself, trying to show off, trying to prove she was better than the rest of them.
She wasn’t better than the rest of them, and that was the hardest thing to learn, probably. She was just another girl. Just another girl who could just chakra, at least.
[1014 words, Control +2]
Suzuko was working as hard as ever to get work done, and boy was it getting harder and harder to get work done. She was fighting for her life on every moment to get as strong as she could and make as many people happy as she could, and yet the more people she worked to please, it seemed like the less of them actually got done anything that was worth time. The important bit of all of this was really that Suzuko should have been learning something like proper time management, but instead she was losing all of her time on activities like training and schoolwork when maybe, just this once, she could have instead looked at everything and decided “Well maybe I deserve a day off.”
And she did. Deserve a day off, that is, not take one, that would be insane. Her mind constantly raced with what to do next, and yet the more she thought about it the less clear her path to success was, and so she decided to do the one thing that always made everything better: Panic. In a rush, she did everything that she could think to do at once, focusing on her breathing, focusing on her strength, focusing on her speed, focusing on her focusing, and still the more she got done, the worse she felt about the whole ordeal. Why couldn’t she just do everything all the time and be successful at all of it, all the time?
Well, none of that made sense to her brain, really, and so instead of working on a solution to the problem, she tried to do everything even more than she did before. She invented running by trying to walk twice at the same time, and because running was a new concept to the world, she tripped and fell on her face more often than she actually got somewhere, especially when she could have gotten there just as fast if not faster by just walking normally.
Of course, she didn’t actually invent running, but that seemed like as good of a metaphor as any for what she was trying to do, which was focus on her chakra flow and get strong output by doing it en-masse, the flow of chakra within her own body as clear to her as mud at the best of times, especially with how often it seemed to just be leaking out of her all willy-nilly without any kind of repurcussions, aside from the fact that it made it hard to take care of and get better at.
What was she supposed to do? They’d told her in school that the easiest way to increase your limited chakra supply was to expend all of your chakra as often as possible, training it like a muscle so that as it stretched it had to grow back stronger. Of course that analogy left her to wonder if she could also permanently damage her chakra pathways by doing it as well, just like how one could tear a muscle by doing exercises recklessly or too extremely, but the number of teachers available for chakra based actions were limited, and she felt bad about taking the time out of their day to ask them questions like “why” and “how” and “will this kill me?”
Of course, it wouldn’t kill her, or we wouldn’t be writing this right now, but Suzuko sure didn’t know that, and it made her worry all the more which made keeping an upright view of the task at hand even more difficult. She focused again on her chakra pathways and felt like they were veins full of water waiting to burst, as if the problem wasn’t necessarily her chakra output, but her bodies ability to focus, channel, and exactly use the chakra, and maybe that made sense to some degree. Maybe she had more chakra than she needed, really, and maybe she was doing okay for her age and weight class, but she wouldn’t see reason in that unless someone whose opinion she respected told her.
And even then, she would probably take it as a sign to keep overworking as she had been doing, rather than taking it as a sign she was doing more than enough. Being enough was something she’d struggled with from the earliest age she could remember, and her chakra teachings made the whole thing even more difficult because it was a whole new set of teachings that got tacked onto her schoolwork when she was already struggling to maintain her straight-A existence before more got thrown on top. Of course, the chakra stuff was purely elective and she didn’t NEED to partake, but an elective sounded an awful lot like a challenge… Plus, it was something Goro couldn’t do, and if she could shove something like that in his face, well, maybe he’d shut up and leave her alone one of these days. Seemed unlikely, though.
The classes were pretty boring overall, but did have some useful tips as discussed previously, and they played games to improve both chakra output and control such as levitating a coin in the air with pure ninpou chakra versus eachother to see who could push it the furthest towards their opponent without dropping it. It was silly and simple, but Suzuko had a competitive streak that was a mile wide and anything that took advantage of that got her fired up and ready to go.
Of course, she was quite talented in her classes, and often did better than the other students in a lot of these games and challenges, but her cocky attitude and easily thrown demeanor made her susceptible to getting into internal battles with herself that meant she would lose as often as not just by underestimating a classmate, or overestimating herself, trying to show off, trying to prove she was better than the rest of them.
She wasn’t better than the rest of them, and that was the hardest thing to learn, probably. She was just another girl. Just another girl who could just chakra, at least.
[1014 words, Control +2]
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |
[Training] Pebbles in my shoes
[July Chuunin Exam Training Discounts, -500 words off]
What was Suzuko even doing these days? It really didn’t make a ton of sense for her to be working all this hard, as we’d discussed previously, but she was still really going at it in every sense of the word. She had worked so hard on her chakra manipulation and her internal chakra batteries, and it was exhausting in its own ways, but today she was working on being exhausted physically and that was potentially even worse. Goro had set up some time for her at the training ground, as usual without asking for her permission in anything, and again she was left to her own devices to figure out how to improve herself without a real mentor available. The bastard.
She decided that it was best to improve her endurance, and started to focus on doing lots of different things than lots of the same thing, which was probably the smarter thing to do. She’d started off by jogging from her home at the compound to the training ground she’d been assigned to, and the jog was nice, not too fast, not too slow, but just enough to get the blood pumping and get her brain working on what she was supposed to do. She didn’t really get what she was supposed to do, still, but this was a good start, she figured, or if not, at least she could lie to herself and SAY it was a good start.
This all was unimportant, except for the jogging part, as she started to work on whatever else she could get her hands on, which mostly comprised of her own hands. She did a long stretching session once she arrived, doing all sorts of over the top maneuvers such as bending over backwards, jumping up and down in a jumping jack type formation for awhile, and even cracking her knuckles. Disgusting. She’d been sweating since she took the first few steps outside, as she was a sweaty person in general and while it was usually only so bad in the worst kinds of social situations (all of them), it was also hot out today. It being hot out made everything harder, but it being harder meant that it was probably more effective, right?
The effectiveness of the workout started to show almost immediately, as it got really hard when she started doing things like “way too many situps” or her other favorite activity “High jumping over the highest equipment she could get her hands on”, which was really a fancy way of saying that she’d been working hard again. Did I mention the hard work? Yeah, there was a lot of that. The hard work wouldn’t stop any time soon though, as she got down on all fours and did one of the most dreaded exercises known to man: The plank. She sat on her elbows for over a minute before collapsing, that core energy and strength she was building taking way too much out of her, and more importantly… She forgot to breath in situations like that a lot.
After a few more rounds of hard work, involving all sorts of different jumping jacks, crunches, pushups, and other multi use words that would make a man blush… Because of all the blood flow, not because there was anything perverted, you pervert. Whatever. Stop staring. After those rounds, she decided a couple things would be helpful. If she was working on her resistance and breathing, a bit of meditation in a more hardcore environment seemed to make sense, so she went to the sauna not too far from the workout grounds.
Suzuko’s heart and soul were torn asunder as she realized that a sauna on a hot day was a terrible idea. She realized it pretty much as soon as she stepped into the room that absolutely reeked of sweat and regret, and her own regret added to it in compound multiplications that made the air harder to breath than the water that she decided to splash into the hot coals. The room heated up immediately, and she was left to breath in the steam, but at least she was remembering to breath, and sweat, lots of sweating going on. As usual.
With this sweating going on, her body was also ridding itself of lots of impurities, and the little bits of chakra that her body ate up by just working out and throwing punches and running were burning up at a prodigious rate, this eating her energy up more and faster than if she’d just worked out! Maybe it would have been even worse to do workouts inside the sauna, and if it was worse, it was harder, and if it was harder, it was more effective! Great idea, Suzuko. She started to do a bit of a cooldown session in the hotbox she’d found herself in, starting to jog in a circle around the little hot coal plate that was making all the steam, and she started to feel light headed, which probably meant that this was a good idea and working just fine.
With it working just fine, she went back to stretching the areas that she’d worked out so hard, stretching, and remembering to breath to the best of her ability. No way was this a bad idea in the sauna, as the last drops of water left her body, and the author realized he hadn’t had her drink any water all day like some kind of an asshole. Probably Goro’s fault. So instead of forgetting about it and assuming it happened, he had Suzuko go over and drink water from the small barrel that held the water you were supposed to splash over the coals to make steam. She took a scoop in the wooden spoon and drank directly from it. The water was gross and warm and probably at least a little bit sweat by volume as it tasted awfully salty. She almost retched, but it was water.
Finally, she was done and good, that was a lot of work for the day.
[1010 words, Endurance +2]
What was Suzuko even doing these days? It really didn’t make a ton of sense for her to be working all this hard, as we’d discussed previously, but she was still really going at it in every sense of the word. She had worked so hard on her chakra manipulation and her internal chakra batteries, and it was exhausting in its own ways, but today she was working on being exhausted physically and that was potentially even worse. Goro had set up some time for her at the training ground, as usual without asking for her permission in anything, and again she was left to her own devices to figure out how to improve herself without a real mentor available. The bastard.
She decided that it was best to improve her endurance, and started to focus on doing lots of different things than lots of the same thing, which was probably the smarter thing to do. She’d started off by jogging from her home at the compound to the training ground she’d been assigned to, and the jog was nice, not too fast, not too slow, but just enough to get the blood pumping and get her brain working on what she was supposed to do. She didn’t really get what she was supposed to do, still, but this was a good start, she figured, or if not, at least she could lie to herself and SAY it was a good start.
This all was unimportant, except for the jogging part, as she started to work on whatever else she could get her hands on, which mostly comprised of her own hands. She did a long stretching session once she arrived, doing all sorts of over the top maneuvers such as bending over backwards, jumping up and down in a jumping jack type formation for awhile, and even cracking her knuckles. Disgusting. She’d been sweating since she took the first few steps outside, as she was a sweaty person in general and while it was usually only so bad in the worst kinds of social situations (all of them), it was also hot out today. It being hot out made everything harder, but it being harder meant that it was probably more effective, right?
The effectiveness of the workout started to show almost immediately, as it got really hard when she started doing things like “way too many situps” or her other favorite activity “High jumping over the highest equipment she could get her hands on”, which was really a fancy way of saying that she’d been working hard again. Did I mention the hard work? Yeah, there was a lot of that. The hard work wouldn’t stop any time soon though, as she got down on all fours and did one of the most dreaded exercises known to man: The plank. She sat on her elbows for over a minute before collapsing, that core energy and strength she was building taking way too much out of her, and more importantly… She forgot to breath in situations like that a lot.
After a few more rounds of hard work, involving all sorts of different jumping jacks, crunches, pushups, and other multi use words that would make a man blush… Because of all the blood flow, not because there was anything perverted, you pervert. Whatever. Stop staring. After those rounds, she decided a couple things would be helpful. If she was working on her resistance and breathing, a bit of meditation in a more hardcore environment seemed to make sense, so she went to the sauna not too far from the workout grounds.
Suzuko’s heart and soul were torn asunder as she realized that a sauna on a hot day was a terrible idea. She realized it pretty much as soon as she stepped into the room that absolutely reeked of sweat and regret, and her own regret added to it in compound multiplications that made the air harder to breath than the water that she decided to splash into the hot coals. The room heated up immediately, and she was left to breath in the steam, but at least she was remembering to breath, and sweat, lots of sweating going on. As usual.
With this sweating going on, her body was also ridding itself of lots of impurities, and the little bits of chakra that her body ate up by just working out and throwing punches and running were burning up at a prodigious rate, this eating her energy up more and faster than if she’d just worked out! Maybe it would have been even worse to do workouts inside the sauna, and if it was worse, it was harder, and if it was harder, it was more effective! Great idea, Suzuko. She started to do a bit of a cooldown session in the hotbox she’d found herself in, starting to jog in a circle around the little hot coal plate that was making all the steam, and she started to feel light headed, which probably meant that this was a good idea and working just fine.
With it working just fine, she went back to stretching the areas that she’d worked out so hard, stretching, and remembering to breath to the best of her ability. No way was this a bad idea in the sauna, as the last drops of water left her body, and the author realized he hadn’t had her drink any water all day like some kind of an asshole. Probably Goro’s fault. So instead of forgetting about it and assuming it happened, he had Suzuko go over and drink water from the small barrel that held the water you were supposed to splash over the coals to make steam. She took a scoop in the wooden spoon and drank directly from it. The water was gross and warm and probably at least a little bit sweat by volume as it tasted awfully salty. She almost retched, but it was water.
Finally, she was done and good, that was a lot of work for the day.
[1010 words, Endurance +2]
"It's so sad!" the reader said to the writer with a frown. "The character in my book just died!" The author turned to her and burst out into tears, "I know!" he said, "So did mine!"
Ninja Info CardsShow
| Suzuko Just another girl |