Hiroshi's Training Thread

[King of Cats]

Every morning was the same for Hiroshi and this one was no different. The artisan woke up from his bed wearing blue, silk pajama pants and nothing else. Hiroshi slept hotter than the average man and he liked to stay cool. He didn't use blankets and his bedroom windows were open all year long. Around five in the morning when the sun came up Hiroshi always awoke from his slumber, his Desert Vitality sprining his body awake by the sudden drain of chakra he endured as his body metabolized sunlight with chakra to create the vibrant life force his body used for supernatural regeneration. Hiroshi had a truly amazing body and he was a lucky man. Today he would be putting his luck to the test and practicing his ninja arts.

With his onyx colored eyes wide open Hiroshi laid in bed for a moment and stared up at his ceiling. It had a sort of popcorn texture to it and was painted beige like the walls. Hiroshi liked it because the light reflected off it well and gave him good visibility in the evening hours. He laid there thinking about what kind of training he would perform that day. Hiroshi wasn't exactly sure but he got up from his bed anyways. He sat up and rolled over at the same time, then with his feet on the ground Hiroshi was facing the east; he began praying. "Our Light, a savior of her grace, has blessed this day with glorious miracles. I pray to be blessed by Her Holy Light, and to bless those around me with the the same Light as Her body, mind and spirit is made up of. Amen."

Hiroshi had his eyes closed for the prayer then when he was finished he opened them. Perhaps it was the way his eyes adjusted from the darkness of his eyelids, or it was the glory of Her Light indeed, but Hiroshi noticed that the world seemed remarkably brighter than when he had closed his eyes. He was smiling big and stood up from his bed. Hiroshi went to the bedroom in his bathroom and took a leak. When he was finished peeing the ninja brushed his teeth and exited the bathroom. He went downstairs to the kitchen and opened up his refridgerator. He had a bunch of food in there, all fruits and veggies save for some milk and butter. Hiroshi was a vegetarian, but he did consume dairy. He grabbed a carton of milk. The artisan didn't need to sniff it, he knew his food was good because he went shopping every day. As a jounin Hiroshi was able to make pretty good money taking on high ranking missions. When he wasn't working outside of the village on ninja business Hiroshi also had some connections in the villages Sensory Network, a unit of Sensory ninjas who monitored people entering, exiting and persisting in the village. Hiroshi had lots of work available to him; he was also a merchant in the Craftsman's Guild of Sunagakure with his own shop. Hiroshi stayed busy making cold, hard ryo but that didn't mean he lacked time for training and today was one such example of it. He slugged the whole rest of the carton of milk while standing at the refrigerator then threw the garbage away.

With his stomach full Hiroshi headed back to his room to get dressed for the day. He threw on a white tunic with short sleeves. Hiroshi had decided what he would be doing for training today and he didn't want to tear up his favorite blue robe. Today Hiroshi would be practicing his ninjutsu skills. He was rather talented with Kugutsu and had sturdy chakra reserves, but Hiroshi was not exactly well versed in the practical application of elemental ninjutsu. Most of what he knew were basic D-Rank ninjutsu but Hiroshi figured he would get in some practice with those techniques. He grabbed his goud filled with sand and tied it to his back. All geared up with his puppet scroll and sand Hiroshi was ready to head to the Sunagakure training grounds.

Inside of the Village Hidden in the Sand there was a large expanse of desert that had a mysterious light refractive sand. The area got very hot from the magnified sunray and it was a perfect place to train if one wanted to get a real workout. Thankful to be in the sun Hiroshi often frequented this area for training no matter what skills he was utilizing. Once he made it to his favorite training spot Hiroshi took himself an hour to meditate on his training. He gathered his will and settled his focus on the goal most obtainable from this training. "I will see my strengths." Hiroshi told himself quietly and sat cross legged in the very hot sand. Protected by his clothes he only worked up the most miserable sweat ever while aligning himself.

Once he was mentally fit to push himself to the limit Hiroshi stood back up. With his gourd on his back Hiroshi planned on using the sand inside of it for his training. While it was useful to have sand on the ground all around him, that wasn't always the case and Hiroshi wanted to get some practical training. He was after all an elite ninja of the village. He wasn't always in the safety of his hometown village and to use the sand in the gourd helped replicate this struggle.

The first jutsu on the list was the first combat applicable Sand ninjutsu that Hiroshi ever learned, Sand Projectile. Hiroshi put together several hand seal in rapid succession and held his hand up above his head. Sand from the gourd began flying out quickly and settling in his hand. The ninja then came down in an arcing throw and lobbed the sand forward. As the pile of sand flew through the air it began coalescing upon itself and formed a sand shuriken. The weapon flew forward for 10 meters then poofed into a cloud of sand. Hiroshi was smiling, that jutsu always felt like the first time he performed it. Hiroshi was pretty proud of himself and repeated the jutsu three times. Four was the standard for repetitions when it came to training with Hiroshi. The jounin believed if one could perform a technique four time sin a row they were adept enough to consider using it in battle.

Ever so impressed with his skills Hiroshi prepared himself for the next jutsu. He would have to execute this jutsu with the sand on the ground, which kind of detracted from the purpose of the gourd but Hiroshi didn't want to miss anything in this training. Hiroshi performed a series of hand seal and then focused his chakra into the ground fiver meters ahead of him. Suddenly a giant pillar made of sand shot up from where Hiroshi was focusing on. The pillar was 5 meters long and quite thick around. Hiroshi was impressed by the speed at which Sand Pillar formed and he repeated the jutsu three more times before he was satisfied with his performance. Barely working up a sweat Hiroshi decided to kick it up a notch and practice some of the C-Rank Sand Style Ninjutsu that he knew.

In truth Hiroshi was not an expert in Sand Style. He had known the release for years, since he was fourteen years old actually; but Hiroshi always focused on his puppets, he didn't need a reason to perform ninjutsu. Not once in his life did his puppet fail him, though that is not to say that Hiroshi was bad at ninjutsu. He actually understood the application of jutsu quite well, it was just a matter of applying his knowledge properly in a fight. Hiroshi was a very one dimensional fighter when it came down to it. That was something he planned on changing real soon.

For his next practice Hiroshi was going to practice another release he was familiar with. Like many students of the academy Hiroshi was assigned to certain ninjutsu classes based on his aptitude, which was collected at the beginning of his ninja career. With prodigal talent Hiroshi was placed in the advanced Kuuton ninjutsu classes. Hiroshi had always liked using Gravity Release but he wasn't exactly skilled with it. Most of Hiroshi's talent with Kuuton was unorthodox and he was never able to grasp all of the concepts he was presented to. Despite his adversities Hiroshi learned to channel ninjutsu during these classes and he managed to pass. With graduation from Kuuton study classes Hiroshi was capable of a basic level of ninjutsu. As he got older this skill never really improved, rather it fermented like honey. Hoping to get drunk on luck Hiroshi put forth his best effort. Swiftly the ninja combined his hand seals and clapped. A circular field around Hiroshi boomed around him, pushing all of the air away from the ninja. Thankfully Hiroshi held his breath.

That jutsu wasn't good for much besides keeping contaminated air from entering Hiroshi's lung, but it was good to practice the feeling of using different jutsu. Thankfully Hiroshi had an impressive chakra pool and could use many different jutsu in a day. He was really a talented ninja. For hours Hiroshi practiced each of those jutsu over and over. He was impressed with how much they improved after each cycle, but Hiroshi was seeking greater effects. Manipulating small amounts of sand and creating gravity waves was super human to be certain, but Hiroshi needed something more exciting to fill up his training time. He needed to hone his skills to be more lethal.

Feeling a bit underwhelmed by his skills with ninjutsu Hiroshi pulled out his scroll to summon his puppet. Hiroshi pulled the scroll out about 1 foot and revealed Kogaku's seal. Hiroshi placed his palm on the seal and channeled chakra into it. A poof of smoke covered the ground around Hiroshi and his puppet was standing there. Smiling at the sight of his great masterpiece Hiroshi casually molded chakra into his hands and chakra strings began reached for the puppet. Once the strings were connected Hiroshi could feel the familiar weight of his puppet. The puppeteer moved his finger finger and the puppet took a step forward. Holding his hand forward Hiroshi began controlling the puppet. At first the puppet merely seemed to sway about without any direction but soon it was jumping in the air. Kogaku's long white hair flew through the air as the puppet danced with itself. The puppets claws extended from it's hand and the dance became a shadow boxing match. Hiroshi watched his masterful art at work with a smile on his face.

Hiroshi was a dedicated puppeteer. His entire battle style revolved around using his puppet to overwhelm his opponent. As a result of practicing such battle forms Hiroshi was incredibly skilled with close combat using his puppet. Using Kogaku Hiroshi could easily unleash a variety of combos including punches, kicks, knees and even headbutts. Hiroshi was a dirty fighter too, he didn't refrain from using underhanded tactics at all. With no one to practice on Hiroshi just went through the motions with his combat puppet. It was fulfilling but it was good practice and Hiroshi finished his day doing what he loved the most.

When he went home it was still early in the evening so Hiroshi had plenty of time to get any business done he had to do. As usual Hiroshi had a lot of work to be done. Between his crafts at the Sunlit Workshop, his store, and studying chemistry for Suna he was up to his eyes in work. Hiroshi decided he was due for a breakthrough in his studies and put off Mrs. Chang's custom windmill shuriken. It was supposed to be done in two weeks, and was an integral part of her puppet but Hiroshi just couldn't be bothered with the tedious work of forging more hairpin nails for the folding mechanism of the shuriken. Hiroshi had a sort of mind numbingly dull day practicing ninjutsu so what he really wanted to do was something that offered a reward and nothing was more rewarding than discovering a great property of a chemically abstract substances.

One such substance was currently being studied by Hiroshi. Inside of a specially prepared brief case was a rare serpent found in the wilds of Wind Country. The Tsukakuma Viper was a deadly venomous snake that wandered the deserts of Wind Country that Hiroshi had captured himself.

During winter months the Tsukakuma Viper began migrating to the southern deserts where rainfall best accumulated due to the clay underneath the sand. The snakes would leave their nests in yucca trees at the end of summer and follow the cold winds south. The snakes mated for life and so they traveled with their partners but finding two traveling the desert was incredibly rare. This rare occurence was a mostly lucky one too, for the vipers were incredibly venomous and possessed a potent necrotic venom. Exposure to the tsukuma venom was life threatening at any degree and high levels of exposure spelled certain death to the untreated. One bite from the Tsukakuma viper caused the surrounding area to experience cell death. With the cells dying at such a high rate muscle movements became impossible and eventually paralysis would set in. The venom was incredibly deadly and almost no one had ever studied it. Of the few people that had two were killed by viper bites, and the other one died by ingesting the venom in a tonic.

Among researchers Hiroshi was the first in decades to capture a Tsukakuma Viper. He had found a stray male roaming the desert as he came home from a mission. Hiroshi had hunted the snakes before and was following the early autumn winds in the hope sof finding two but he was most certainly surprised to find just one. The odds were astronomical and it was truly a blessing. He had seen the snake traveling through the sand from a good 20 meters away. Hiroshi had excellent vision, and it didn't hurt that the snake was absolutely enormous for it's species. Most Tsukakuma Vipers were around 1 meter in length but this one was double that. The sand colored snake had a marvelous hood with a black and white crescent moon shape on the backside of it. The crescent moon was what Hiroshi had saw from such a far ways away.

Preparing to sneak up on the snake Hiroshi summoned his puppet and began controlling Kogaku. The devil marionette walks silently over to the snake and grabbed it by the tail. Hiroshi was an outstanding puppeteer and moving in silence was one of his greatest skills. Hiroshideftly commanded Kogaku to snatch up the snake and without fail he had aquired a rare specimen. The viper began biting at Kogaku's metal frame to no avail. Hiroshi walked the puppet back to him and at a safe distance began preparing a fuuin to properly store the snake. He aimed to keep the viper in a state of suspended animation and to do that a certain level of heat was required, though it would requier fine chakra control to weave the necessary nature changed chakra into the fuuin. Fortunately Hirohi had such skill with chakra control and easily put together a storing seal in his scroll. Hirosih collected his new reptile and went home to study it.

Unfortunately for Hiroshi it would be months before he would get a first look at the Tsukakuma Viper. Between work for the Craftsman guild, ninja missions, puppet making, and managing a shop he just didn't have time to study the snake. It was a real shame but his time had finally come. The Tsukakuma Viper had been waiting patiently for Hiroshi to begin studying it, and the time had come.

In his workshop Hiroshi had the viper in a fuuinjutsu induced stasis, stored and preserved delicately in a sealing tag.