Solo Leveling [Lonely]

[Zao]

A normal morning within the depths of Water country, inside the shinobi caste of the Hidden Mist village with its seemingly permanent layer of cool watery mist a young man walked through the droplets of water that were slowly causing his outer robe to become soaked. But this was nothing out of the normal for any of the residents of Kiri as he had his single tail curled underneath the exterior cloak that protected his normal attire from becoming completely drenched on this early morning walk. The cloak also had a hood portion that was pulled up over his spikey raven hue hair, also concealing the elongated furry fox ear that were position on either side of his head, giving him a slightly mysterious look but one that wasn't too uncommon in the village for those traveling in the early morning or late evening within the region. Little did the young genin understand that the mist while partially naturally formed was being produced by a tremendous village wide jutsu to deal with outsiders attempting to invade to attack the village.

Within the Tsukino compound that walled off the outside world were a series of training areas set aside to allow the Foxy house members to train in relative peace, at least for the vast majority of the Tsukino houses. But the young man could only sigh slightly to himself in the morning mist as he looked ahead being able to make out the outline of a large archway that was around ten meters tall. This was because beyong the massive archway was one of the personal training areas that his father used for him, today was just another day for him to come train on the order of his father. Shaking his head, the boy couldn't wait until he was more powerful than the man who always looked down upon him, especially after the war ended and he became a single parent to Hisato. Harsh would perhaps be putting it to simply for the old man who had lost part of his leg and an arm during the bloody conflict that ravaged a good portion of the known world for over five years and even still in his shape with a prosthetic leg the man continued to strictly instruct and train the young shinobi.

'Father...' There truly wasn't any type of fatherly or parental love that was shared between the two shinobi, the father and son had never held each other with any real feelings. His father only wished to use him to make a name for his family and had pushed his own personal goals onto the younger shinobi hoping that he could achieve what he was unable to, especially after the War had left him in this stat. Then there was his uncle, his father's older brother, Hitachi. A man who stood at the pinnacle of swordsmanship within the Tsukino clan and was most likely in the top three of the ranks of the Mist Swordsman. A man who had told the young man's father that he would never have the skill needed to even think about entering the ranks of the Seven. The pair obviously didn't have a good family relationship with one another, and his father had been wounded a number of times in their spars, never once being able to best his older brother.

With only a slight amount of hesitation, Hisato shook his head lightly from one side to the other now and reached out with his clawed fingers to push open the gate forcing the faint layer of mist to swirl around as the force from the gate created a slight gust of wind clearing a path for the younger shinobi to enter with almost no audible sound as he observed around him. The mist limiting vision to around ten meters or so, but he could already make out the large shadowy figure who stood silently within the training grounds center sparring area. Hisato's father was a broad-shouldered figure standing over six feet tall with grey fur ears and a set of five large grey furred tails that could be seen sprouting out from behind his large frame. A single long broad sword could be seen protruding over the tailed man's right shoulder. "Hisato, you're late." A disappointed sounding voice, one white the young man was truly accustomed to resounded out within the mist as the boy found himself unconsciously walking a bit faster until he arrived within the edge of the sparring ring.

Today was Tuesday, the normal training schedule was combat sparring with his father. Each day of the week had some sort of individualized training planned for it by his father, the man truly seemed to micromanage the shit out of the genin's life forcing him to focus on the Dao of the sword and the sword of slaughter. A sword was a tool to be used to kill another person, there was no other option for a weapon like it. It was designed to kill, be that through stabbing, chopping, or slicing. Some days would be focused on just the basic sword movements, others on physical training of the body and its different muscle groups split between days for endurance, speed, and strength training sessions. Twice a week was focused on meditation on the sword and studying the weak point of the bodies, how to strike out to kill and disable targets with a single stroke. If Hisato wasn't here training with his father or otherwise occupied by the stringent training cycle he would be out on missions with his current team, but he found the missions which his rank allowed him to do rather bland and almost useless to the progression of his skills as a shinobi.

The man's father wanted to train him how to fight openly, but this was only to hone the different maneuvers associated with the use of a sword, as he had driven into the shinobi's mind that the blade that came from the shadows was much more dangerous than the one that attacked from the front. Hisato would not allow for himself to be someone who had some sort of honor or righteousness about him when it came to battle, in battle the winner lived, and the loser died. The final result was all that mattered, wither you fought the person and openly defeated them or if your blade appeared from the shadow stabbing through their back didn't matter in the end. "Hisato, let's begin then." A rough sounding voice came from Jugo, the man's father, as he reached up and easily drew the wide bladed sword from the large sheath on his back holding it with a single hand with ease. While the young man didn't dare disregard his father's words and reached over his left shoulder withdrawing the thing glass like bladed weapon that was hard to see due to its slender forging and transparent blade. With a single cold word, he signaled that he was ready to begin training for this morning. "Ready."

In a flash both moved forward as the long sword from his father came down a powerful chop that seemed to not hold anything back as the young body pushed to his stronger left side using the blade of his own. Placing it at a downward angle the larger blade scraped past it being deflected just slightly off to the right side as he dodged to the left avoiding the blow as it crashed into the ground creating a small crack in the damp earth below their feet as just the tip of the sword touched the ground. Hisato flowed like water using the momentum he already had to spin around delivering a powerful thrust that came from down low up at a rising angle towards the older man's center chest. But as it closed on its intended target the thick blade parried forcing the blade to miss his upper torso entirely and as he felt the deflection Hisato pushed hard off his right foot as he rolled off to the left side as the afterimage of a slashing broad sword cut through right above the black furred ear of his son as though he held his life in no regards as the father and son continued to spar with one another. The youth, even while moving about in the heat of this combat with his old man was studying the former jounin's body and in his mind a set of different nerve clusters overlayed mentally onto his target along with the various major organs that would deal the most damage, inlayed with blue and red veins that ran along the inside of the body.

After training with his new instructor, fellow Tsukino Hitachi, the man had begun training him in the art of Yoshin that relied on a very meticulous knowledge of the body and allow the areas that were weak to attacks or which places to strike to most quickly kill or maim a target you were fighting. Even so the young man was still at only the first step but was quickly approaching the second level of understanding between killing weak outcast and visual instruction from the large fox figure who ranked third in the Swordsman group for his own personal power. Gritting his teeth the crystal like sword blade of the young genin slashed out in a wide arch catching the older Tsukino man off guard and with his mobility slightly crippled due to having a prosthetic leg after losing his in the war all he could do was lean back but as he did the boy rapidly rotated and spun around to the left side as the blade slashed out with the *[Yoshin • Sever the Tendon] attack which drew the nearly invisible blade across the side and back of the leg's ankle area. But thankfully for the old man it only left a shallow cut on the tempered wood that made up the fake leg he used to get around. Of course, Hisato had aimed for the leg that wouldn't truly injure the old man despite how he resented the brash old man and his methods of training him.

For now, it wasn't quite the right time for him to truly step out of the man's shadow as he slipped away into the thick mist around the edge of the training area like a true shinobi might have done before a handful of kunai flew out from the mist targeting the old man's upper body now. He used his own enhanced hearing and well training body to slash three times forming almost a star like pattern as he moved backwards deflecting each pair of throwing stars that cut through the mist. This was a standard combo to slow the speed of an opponent like the previous attack that Hisato had managed to land on the retired shinobi's left leg then follow up with ranged attacks to further drain and force the figure to attempt to fight while dealing with the bad leg. 'Either father is starting to grow old, or my own physical training is starting to show between my personal training and that with Hitachi-sama....' Normally he wasn't the one to rely on others, but he also was drawn to strong people as he felt that he could use them to increase his own strength in one way or another. This was also a silent statement to his father that his own skills would soon eclipse the old man's and that very soon he would step out of the shadow of his father and into his own light that he would truly start to forge his own bloody path as a swordsman.

The genin didn't plan to remain a dagger for long in the swordsman organization and was constantly plotting and thinking about moves he wanted to make in the future in order to secure himself firstly a position in the Seven before he would slowly climb the ranks. Those other members would either need to submit and admit they were inferior to him and his growing skills or die beneath his blade. War and conflict, two methods to allow one to grow into a truly powerful individual or die along the very narrow road that if one drifted off one side or the other meant falling into the abyss that was the netherworld. With a drive or goal in life, it was incredible difficult for one to truly find the desire or motivation to continuously improve or grow stronger. Without it one might as well just be some drunk bum who lived his live no worrying about anything but having a drink and sleeping in the nearby alleyway. At this point the old man leaped away and glanced down at the large gash that had been made in the ankle region of the prosthetic leg that he used to move around these days, while it hindered him a bit the older man wasn't much slower or nimble than he truly had been while on active duty as a Kiri jounin. Exhaling slowly the man reached behind him now at waist level, strapped across his lower back was a short sword, it would seem that his child had finally reached the level that he could no longer hold back by simply using the long sword in his right hand and would now need to fight with closer to his full force using his dual wielding style of sword combat that allowed for him to reach the threshold of strength that was a jounin within the powerful and rigid village of Kiri.

"Not bad my son, not too bad." It almost seemed like the retired shinobi was sending out the first bit of praise toward Hisato that his son could ever remember hearing exit the thin lips of the rough old man, it actually caused for the boy to pause mid movement, having been prepared to attempt and seize the initiative created by the successful impact of his targeted strike at the ankle of the false leg. It had allowed for him to build up some confidence, at least it made him feel that for once his strict and unloving father truly felt like he was worthy to be called his son. But for Hisato, he was far to withdrawn for those words to truly be ingrained within his heart or mind, it was too late for such feelings or emotions to be tied to the man that he would most certainly kill in the future. 'He's really planning to use two blades against me now....' Now Hisato couldn't help but allow his body to drift backwards a few meters as the single blade of his was places almost diagonally in front of him between the old man and himself, though he had heard that his father was a skilled swordsman in the art of dual blade combat it was something he had never seen or perhaps better said that he'd never been able to force the man to pull his second blade until today. Perhaps the stories that his family told him about his father's reputation, though be it far below his brother Hitachi who was a member of the Swordsman Organization, held some validity after all. "Let's finally get serious, my child." Once again he refrained to him as 'his child', something that also was rare as he was simply called 'kid', 'boy' or simply his name but never such a term as 'my child' was used by his father to describe him.

Shaking his head now the raven-haired teen narrowed his eyes and cleared his mind of such wishful thoughts, instead he allowed for a more murderous inteent to seep into his mind which allowed for it to radiate outwards from his very being, something that even caused the old man to tilt his head curiously. "Heh...what are you waiting for?" That was more like the old man he knew, a slight grin forming on the left corner of the youth's mouth revealing a few of his fang like teeth in the process before his muscular legs build up their strength and allowed for him to explode forwards toward his father now. But he didn't just attack wildly or in a straight forwards manner instead as he drew closer, he pivoted at a forty-five-degree angle to the left and led with another attack. This one was simple to his blood drop thrusting technique, but instead was aimed at the lower body. His decision to attack from the side would serve to keep him from receiving a full force attack with both of the blades and to hopefully limit his father to only being able to utilize one of the blades in his hands fully. This forced for the old man parry the thrust, not being able to truly block such a quick and powerful thrust with the flat of his blade alone, pushing it off to the outside as it was the easier motion before bringing the left arm around in a sweeping horizontal strike that seemed to have the power to cleave a normal person in two if one was to take the strike directly against their body.

This forced the foxlike youth to twist his body around, the blade of his switching grips mid movement now to a reverse grip as he reached up bringing his arm and the blade diagonally in front of his chest to receive the blow but he quickly found out that his father's actual physical strength was still at least one or perhaps two levels above his own at this point as the blade and his arm was collapsed with ease and the full strength of the strike transitioned into his own body which lifted him as his feet came off the ground. The power of the blow tossed the youth almost like a rag doll through the air causing him to spiral out of control until he impacted back first into one of the training logs that was positioned nearby at the outer edge of the circular sparring ring, the air which had been in his lungs was forcibly exhaled from the strong impact that left a slight indention in the thick log like pillar before Hisato who had been suspended in the air briefly slid down the post and crumpled on the wet earth below. Coughing up a bit of blood, a small line of it trickling from the right corner of his mouth as he attempted to catch his breath while the stinging pain filled the back of his head and radiated throughout his back at this point from the harsh impact against the training log. As his vision started to come back, having been shaken up from the hard hit on the log which had caused it to become a mix of blurry and double vision he could both see and now hear a quiet but methodical set of footsteps that slowly trolled there way towards him now as he fought to make his numb body set up.

Through some outstanding means the body had unconsciously still managed to hold onto his single sword, the hand still gripping it in a reverse grip fashion now as he instinctively brought it up between him and the blurry shadow that was undoubtedly the genin's father approaching him. His breathing was a bit labored, but his breath was coming back to him as he had to lift his vision to see the tall stature of his father that was only second to his Swordsman master and brother to the man before him. Shaking his head, "Perhaps my praise was too early..." the degrading words rolled off his tongue before he slashed another horizonal strike that cleaved the log just about an inch above the ears of the fox child apart sending it flying into the air and off to the side as it came crashing down with a solid thud in the wet earth nearby. "You've only improved this much..." Hisato felt his consciousness fading but he willed himself to stay awake and keep from fully blacking out as the man simply stared down at his injured son and spat to the side, silently each blade was slid back into its respected sheath and the man turned to leave but stopped after turning around for a moment as if contemplating something in his mind. "Hah..." It was in this moment that from the cracked lips of the genin that a simple, single laugh slipped out. Hisato was unable to actually form any words through the pain that was currently racking his body and instead chose to laugh faintly.

This caused for the sharp, predator like eyes of the old man to snap to the side as he turned to his left so that his left shoulder was pointed towards the young body who was still stooped upon the wooden pillar who had let out the laugh. With a snort the man twisted his body like a whirlwind and the right leg swept outward with a powerful round house style kick that seemed to almost instantly traverse from the other side of the man's body to the left side of Hisato's head. He didn't even feel the impact as it struck him and instead everything went black as his thoughts while unconscious drifted off and seemed to replay the movements that he witnessed during the fight. But there was truly no way at his current level to win against his father who not only held a slight advantage in terms of his skills with the sword but as someone who was physically stronger and faster than them by more than one level of power. 'Weak...' This word was mumbled by the boy as he finally began to regain consciousness from the strike that had completely knocked him out sometime earlier, it seemed that he had been unconscious for quite a while as the pool of blood from his mouth that had been drooled on the ground had already turned dark and hardened. Slowly his eyes were forced open, the action causing a pain to radiate from the left side of his head as the left eye was unable to fully open as it had already swelled up, but through his open right eye he could see that the sky was already beginning to grow dark in the distant horizon over the mountain range that protected the village of Kiri from outside attackers. As the eye panned over to his left side he couldn't help but force a pained smile as the left hand was still clenching tightly to the hilt of the sword, in fact he couldn't physically or mentally will his left hand to unclench from its grip at this point.

"Fucking old man..." The young man grunted as he pushed his right palm down into the earth, his fingers clawing through the damp soil into a fist as he slowly pushed himself up, ignoring what pain he could as he managed to push his slumped body until he was once more seated on his backside and could lean his aching back against the damaged wooden pillar before finally letting out a long exhale. "One day...." he muttered to himself, one day he would kill that old man and then he would move on to his true goal of first being a full member of the swordsman. Then he could continue to cultivate himself in secret hiding his true power until he was strong enough to face off against the leader of the Seven, his ultimate goal was to be the leader of the Mist Seven. His slender tongue ran over his fangs, before he spit out a bit of dried blood from his mouth now and slowly shifted his gaze off to the multicolored horizon while the last rays of sunlight graced the sky and darkness began to slowly overtake the sky. A blade from the shadows, unseen or unheard, would always be much more dangerous than a strike from the light...he would become that blade in the darkness and slaughter all who barred him from the path he had chose to walk.

Word Count = 4039 - Speed Training

[Zao]

It took a few days for the young fox man to recover enough from the spar with his old man in order to feel at least fully fighting capable, though there was still a knot on the back of his head and bruising on his face and back. The genin's clawed left hand reached up and gently rubbed his slightly black and blue jawline on the left side of his face gritting his teeth at once more being beaten by his father in that spar, he had finally felt that he was making progress in becoming at least equal to the man's capabilities only to be show just what a frog in a well that he truly was. But this would never happen again, he needed to continue to sharpen his sword until the day that he was ready to truly deliver the strike from the darkness in order to claim the life of his target...he needed to become the darkness. Shaking his head, the man slowly walked out after sheathing the crystalline blade upon his back, turning onto the dark street that were only dimly lit by scattered streetlamps, but the layer of thin mist truly gave it a rather eerie feeling as he walked casually with both of his hands in his pants pockets at the moment. Though he was paying attention to his surrounding the man's thoughts were also off in his mind as he was thinking of ways to improve his swordsmanship and assassin skills. Hisato felt that his true strength did lay with his sword arts, but his strength wasn't like those who wanted to openly use brute force to smash through opponents.

Instead, the young man wished to be able to kill with a single stroke. He had already begun to learn about the different weak points and targets within the body through his tutorage of Hitachi who used his thin and sharp rapiers to strike at pinpoint targets on a target's body to rapidly disable and quickly kill opponents, but unlike him Hisato didn't wish to be so open about it yet he couldn't help but admire the way that Hitachi used a multitude of blades through conditioning his tails to act in accordance to his thoughts just like his other limbs. It gave him the advantage of being able to effectively use up to seven blades simultaneously against his foes. Even if one was a dual blade user like his father, it was difficult to fight back against multiple foes and it was like that when one became the target of the muscular Tsukino as it could be compared to fighting against three or four people at the same time with his five tails and two arms strikes out simultaneously when one could normally only defend with two weapons at a time. It was something he wished to work into his own fighting style, but he also wished to find a way for him to make himself even more lethal than even his current swordsman master, Tsukino Hitachi, the third blade in the current Swordsman line up. Sadly, it would probably be some time before he was able to improve to that man's level, but he had other dagger's and the weaker Seventh blade to aim for in the meantime. Yes, he needed to carefully calculate out the pathway ahead of him as one miss step could truly lead him astray and end up with him losing his life, this was even more true within the confines of the Hidden Mist village were true strength reigned over all other things.

'This way...' Lifting his head from the foggy cobble stone street below his feet he glanced in a direction that led out of the second ring of the village and off into the distance as he quickly past through the decent streets of the merchant caste section of the village after having left his own home within the military sector. After another short while he had already moved past the merchants and through another series of archway gates into the true garbage area of the village were all the untouchables were forced to leave on the village outskirts. As he walked a beggar looking man stumbled from one of the dumpsters like taverns located in this region and seemed to be too intoxicated to even know where he was as Hiasto quietly moved like a ghost in the mist that was thicker outside the inner rings of the village appearing behind the figure. In his eyes he could mentally see where each and every organ and major artery was positioned and with a simple thrust the blade that was nearly as thin as a traditional razor blade slipped through the ribs on the man's back and straight up into the beating heart of the beggar. The thrust so fast that the man hadn't even felt the blow but instead clutched at his chest as if clawing for his own heart with both dirty hands. The fox shinobi's blow actually came at such an angle that the wide blade cleaved the stranger's very heart in two halves causing for him to bleed out in a matter of seconds as the ninja himself disappeared into the mist without a sound before the old man had even fallen first onto his knees and then face first into the wet dirt path he had been stumbling along upon, blood beginning to seep from his mouth and the wound upon his back. His precision and practice in the kenjutsu style of Yoshin that was the main style of Hitachi was increasing as he'd been able to precisely strike the heart of the drunkard but of course doing so in the heat of battle or against an opponent that was on guard from you was tens of times more difficult. Though he had just taken the life of this man the raven-haired fox felt nothing more than as if he had stepped upon a bug, the lives of these people in the eyes of the village were truly meaningless with the exception of the very few who managed to overcome an academy student during their combat trials and only then would that single individual be shown any interest.

'Hmp!' Without sparing another moment of his time to glance back at the dead body of the member of the untouchable caste he utilized the shadows and the thicker mist that was outside the main area of the village to slip through a number of trash covered alleyways in order to link up outside the actual perimeter of the main village as he encountered a large bodied man who stood nearly seven feet in height with a set of broad shoulders. As one drew closer to him the most outstanding features of this man had to be without a doubt the five elegant silver tails that were curled up causing them to appear shorter than they actually were. This man was none other than the third sword of the Seven Swordsman, Hitachi, and the current swordsman assigned to train Hisato as his dagger. 'There he is...' The young man, despite his arrogant and prideful nature about himself and his own skills as a swordsman couldn't help but find himself becoming extremely respectful around the man due to the sheer amount of strength that the fellow Tsukino clansman wielded and the amount of influence, he had within both the Swordsmen and the Tsukino due to his high status and feats. In his current level of strength, of course the young fox man was willing to serve faithfully under the charge of his older family member but that didn't deter from the fact that one day he would be able to stand on equal foot with an equal status and then after that he would be the one leading men of Hitachi's strength. Everything before him, any obstacle that reared its head during his journey could only be seen as a steppingstone for the ambitious swordsman as he gave a silent bow of his head towards the third blade of the Mist Swordsman.

"Let's go." The man's words had a soft tone to them, almost gentle, as he gave a smirk to his new dagger and nodded in approval to his more reserved attitude after he had sparred with the boy a while back after the meeting of the Swordsmen when their leader laid down the new ground rules for the organization as a whole. Even he needed to be on the constant training grind as he could feel that the fourth and fifth ranked blades were closing in on his own level but the sense of pressure that gave was actually exciting for the older Tsukino member as he welcomed the challenge, anything that would allow for him to increase his own strength and potientially push towards the famed nine tail level of strength. Currently only the newest Kiri bannin and genma host Nishiki had managed to obtain this level of strength and it was only as of recent too. Shaking his head, the man felt like he had been stronger than that boy but over the course of the war and recent events with Aimi and Katsu the experiences had managed to allow his fellow clansman to pull ahead of him through some means, Hitachi having assumed he would be the first Tsukino to obtain the title of bannin for his House. Exhaling the man led the young boy away from the main village and back through the limited number of ways to exit the protection that surrounded the village itself as they moved towards the outskirts of the Water Country, as the pair borded a vessel and sailed to one of the neighboring islands that were also part of the Water country empire. The journey itself took around three days of travel time before they arrived on the morning of the fourth day just before the rays of sunlight prepared to illuminate the edges of the eastern horizon. During which time the man had brought different books and scrolls for the younger family member to study during the trip, this was a continuation of the medical studies that he had been slowly absorbing as he continued to refine his knowledge of the body and what its truly weak area of, moving past just the basic organs and major arteries and only even where the nerves clustered together and how to strike them to gain the most impactful effect which each stroke of ones blade. These were the building blocks of the true foundation of Yoshin, while just one pathway of the sword it was Hitachi's preferred manner of executing his sword arts and in turn would obviously train his young apprentice in them as well but in the end the boy would need to find his own pathway in the art of the sword that he could call his own.

The training hadn't really been physical, but it was still mentally exhausting for the boy was he stepped off the ship side-by-side with the much large Hitachi and the two ventured into the thick morning mist with the third blade leading the way to wherever they were actually heading for their destination. A short while later they arrived at a rather ghostly looking area with a number of run down builds, the area itself looked like it had been swept up in conflict and then left to the passage of time but in the distance was the opening to a large cavern system that was nearly twenty meters tall and inside not even the sharp eyesight of the young man could peer too far into the dark abyss but one could faintly make out what looked like torch light there at the very end of the tunnel. A short while later the pair had entered into the cavern as the light of touches began to grow in size until finally one could see a large cavern opening up at the end of the tunnel that was several hundred meters in size as the sounds of a large number of people could be heard inter-mingling with one another like some sort of crowd watching an event. As they entered finally the youth was able to see probably a hundred or so people surrounding a giant cage that was at least fifty meters in diameter and nearly the same in height as the sounds of weapons crashing into one another echoed almost over the words of the spectators. 'This is...' Hitachi looked at the boy beside him and laughed at the look on his face, "Yes, this is one of the underground fight arenas that are run by the families of Kiri. " The large, framed figure explained briefly causing the young fox man to nod lightly, he had indeed heard of these places that were controlled by one of the large families that were in Kiri but he hadn't ever been to one in person. Was he brought here because...? "My little dagger, today you will test yourself against the fighters who come here to fight for their lives and for a chance at fame and fortune."

Some who were brought here were simply slaves that were ordered to fight or die by their masters in order to earn money and prestige for their owners while others came to test themselves and others simply came in an attempt to utilize their fighting skills to earn quick money. After all, winning a fight was able to garner quite a bit of Ryo and one was even able to place bets on other fights too. One could either come out on top or end up becoming a slave to another for their massive debts, potentially even ending up in the arena themselves. "Test me?" Even though he was just an experienced genin, one who felt they were nearly at the level of other chuunin in the village he was caught a bit off guard by his sensei's words, but before he could say anything more the large man produced a series of four fuuin tags and seemed to almost casually toss them towards the youth. Applying his chakra to them each flew towards a separate limb as two attached themselves to his forearms and two attached themselves to his ankles but at first, he didn't feel anything and was about to further question the motives of the older Tsukino before he mumbled something under his breath. "Kai..." As the seals on each tag activated, he suddenly felt each limb become heavier, while not by much it would most certainly have an effect on his speed and strength long with the precision and efficiency that he would be able to perform his pinpoint strikes with his single sword. "You're quite strong already, most of the fighters here are only around the chuunin level with very few appearing that are stronger that than, so I needed to restrict a bit of your strength. Consider it a training opportunity..." From across the arena a large man around the same size as the third blade approached at that moment, "Oi! Is this the kiddo you've brought? Looks a bit scrawny to be bringing him in here, doesn't he?" The older Tsukino just laughed lightly aloud and shook his head, "Take him and put him in the next round and we'll find out." Hisato had a bit of a confused and blank look on his face, just what the hell was going on here?

He honestly couldn't resist as the large man's bear like palm landed on the back of his neck and he was easily lifted as though he was the same weight as a piece of paper when compared to the crazy strength that this oversized bearded figure had. It only took a few short moments before he was tossed like some stray dog into the arena and the cage door shut behind him causing the crowd to grow louder at the impending fight that was about to occur as he lifted himself from the ground and casually dusted himself off now before shifting his gaze around him seeing the numerous foreign faces who just wanted to see blood spilled within the arena, not truly caring who's it was but others were looking to place bets on the pair and in turn were carefully examining the young man as another figure entered from the opposing side of the arena who had a scarred face who carried a large spiked club in one hand, appearing to come from some sort of barbarian heritage. "That son of a bitch...." Hisato couldn't help but curse out loud at this particular situation that the older Tsukino had just thrown him into to...his dull grey eyes narrowed at the man across him at about thirty or so meters from him as the boy simply reached up with his left hand pulling out the crystalline blade from its sheath that was hard to see when it was in motion for most of those in the audience as they began to converse with one another while others yelled out at the nearby betting vendors to place their best for the fight. For fights within this underground arena there was no true rules, only that one had to knock out or kill the opponent, either way worked and the shinobi around the area who were dressed like simple civilians didn't care either way as long as the house took a cut of the money which helped to increase the funds of the major family and in turn strength the grip of power they had within the village.

There was no starting gong or referee, as soon as the two opponents entered the ring everything was on and there were no rules on what could and could not be used in the area. To put it as bluntly as one could, it was a death match where the sparing of your opponent's life was up to the whim of the foe who defeated them. Most of the time the loser didn't have a very favorable ending as the brute like large man rushed forward gripping the large club tightly within both of the large bear like hands that were covered in bandaging. He swung it with incredible force as Hisato was forced to dodge backwards but even so he felt the wind generated from the horizontal smash of the weapon which actually lifted him off the ground causing him to fly several meters backwards as he then slid backwards until his right foot touched the edge of the prison like cage that was holding both of the fighters. 'Such power...I can't get hit by that or it will shatter my bones!' There was no doubt that even a single blow to his torso would cause potentially fatal wounds, normally he would have been able to easily dodge around such a clumsy blow but the fuuin tags were making his body feel heavier than normal and it was obviously impacting his normal agility that he prided himself upon. Was his Swordsman really trying to get him killed off like this? Hisato was infuriated at the moment as the man before him continued to push forward with an aggressive charge as he swung the club back around from right to left now in the same bone crushing manner as before. With his legs bend down in a squat like manner the young foxlike figure pushed chakra into his leg muscles and leaped upwards as the blur of the wooden club with iron spikes on it passed just below the fur of his single black fox tail while the chuunin strength shinobi twisted back his left arm and then sent it plunging down with a series of two precise strikes. Each of the strikes came down, one to a nerve cluster on the top of each of unclothed shoulders of the muscle-bound figure causing for him to scream out in pain even though the blows themselves weren't that deep.

Thud! This was the sound of the massive weapon that was wielded by the brawler of a man as his arms went limp at each side and the pain from the blows to each should sent waves throughout his body having him fall to his knees, Hisato twisted and flipped over landing behind the now kneeling man. The figure turned his pleading gaze back towards the slender foxlike figure that had landed without a sound behind him and had already drawn the blade in his left hand back preparing to strike. "Pleas...ugh!" Before the man could even begin for the youth who stared down at him as though he was a simple ant beneath his feet the blade almost invisible to the naked eye flashed forward and penetrated directly between the large man's eyebrows just when he had turned to see the dull grey eyes of Hisato looking at him with such murderous intent in them. This was his 'Blood Drop' thrust and it was meant to be a killing blow if landed. His razor thin blade slipped right through the thick forehead bone portion of the man's skull and all the way to the very back of the skull where the spin connected to the base of the skull nigh instantly killing the foe as he only felt a twinge of pain before the life faded from his eyes and a single faint exhale before the heavy body fell to the side. Hisato pulled out his blade and swept it to the side in a blur of motion causing for the blood and body matter that had clung onto the sword to be dislodged across the ground to the left side of his foot causing several scattered droplets of crimson life essence to mingle with the dark colored earth beneath the swordsman's feet. 'These stupid seals...' Even though he'd been able to cleanly kill the overbearing brute, he was still incredibly irritated at his blade tutor who had placed these strangely heavy seals upon his body making it very difficult to precisely deliver those two blows from earlier.

If this man had any skill at all it would have been several times harder, luckily the man had just been a brute who had an abundance of physical strength but not any real fight capacity. A few large men entered and scooped up the body by the armpits and legs as they removed the figure before leaving the gate open for the single fox tailed youth to follow behind them as they removed the trash from the arena and another pair of fighters would quickly enter as the gates closed and the next death fight began, and the crowd once more grew loud. It only took a few minutes after mingling through the crowd that Hisato was able to discover his larger family member standing a head above the crowd as a man was handing him several paper bills with a rather unpleasant look upon his face. 'Did her really bet month on me?!' His eyes narrowed with pure anger, but what could he do at this point as he was too weak to openly challenge the man and his assassination skills were also not enough to even be able to surprise attack the man. Grinding his fangs together the man then spat upon the deck looking to at least release a bit of his pent-up rage at this point and as he looked up from the deck, he found that the five tailed fox man was standing directly in front of him causing for the dagger to stagger back a few steps out of sheer surprise. "What the hell was that!" He couldn't help but spit out from his mouth towards the much larger Tsukino that stood before him who only laughed a bit and then tossed a small bag towards him. "Not bad, you didn't die. Here's half of what I won. Continue to where the weight enchantments that I put on you till we return back to Kiri." Not even giving him the time of day or words to vent the young man could only jerk his head away in anger before sighing to himself and following in trace of the older family member and third blade.


Word Count = 4055/4000 - Strength Training

[Zao]

Adventure on the Mainland!

The duo of swordsman and dagger had departed from the main port of water country about three days ago as the ship that they were sailed up across mostly calm seas this time landing both Hitachi and Hisato on the shores of the mainland extension of Water country that was formerly the Tea country of old. After claiming it during the war and managing to hold on to it through the peace talks that brought the Great War to an end the Hidden Mist village had turned it into a major financial hub as the port served as a link between many different countries along the coastline and made trading goods between the island nation of Water and the rest of the mainland countries much easier. After three slow days the two fox tailed men stepped onto the docks and then proceeded to move north, skirting the edge of Fire country as they moved towards the northwest just touching the edge of Aroma country before finally arriving at the mountain forest of Star country. This was a place of legends that he'd been told about by different member of his family as a young child and even the normally arrogant and uninterested attitude that he had for most things outside of his true goals of gaining strength and prestige he found himself almost giddy to be standing on the southern mountain range that looked deep into the countryside. "I've only heard others whisper about this strange place..." The muscular man beside the young dagger just smirked as he looked over at his young and inexperienced dagger whom he had brought here to train and broaden the boy's horizons just a bit just to how dangerous the world outside of the village truly could be. "It is...a rather interesting area. You'll find out soon enough." The words from his mentor were a bit vague and to a point somewhat mysterious because the older Tsukino had not actually told him about the reasoning for them to travel to this distance country except that he had come here on direct orders from leader of the swordsman organization and that in the next few weeks others would also be coming here. Hitachi had insisted on bringing the young dagger with him early to scout out the terrain and deal with the local administrative issues that revolved around entering the Ancient's Rest where the strange 'dinosaur' like creatures still roamed the area but never seemed to leave the confines of the giant crafter that these strange beasts lived within.

But while part of his mission was to speak to locals about entering the area that seemed lost in time, the other was to train his young apprentice, but he wanted to train him his own way without the interference of the others. Hitachi wished to train a truly lethal replacement for himself in the future and the man would never admit it, but he looked forward to watching the boy beside him grow stronger and slowly take his place amongst the other swordsman and perhaps one day find enough strength to eventually challenge himself and the other powerful shinobi swordsman and swordswomen who ranked above him. But that was far in the future for as far as the five tailed man was concerned and a short while later the pair had arrived at the largest crafter that was like a bowl surrounded by a range of huge mountains. Hitachi looked down to his left at the shorter fox clansman with a smirk and then produced a folded map of the crater which he then proceeded to hand to Hisato no who gave him a questioning look. "Your task is to make it to the center of the crater as marked on this map." Lifting a questioning eyebrow towards the muscular swordsman the boy unfolded the map and looked at the information recorded down on it, including a number of overlapping danger areas that were placed on the map, as well. "Hmp! You mean survive; I think." Hisato wasn't stupid, just trying to navigate such a massive area that he was unfamiliar with, even with the rather detailed map, by himself would take at least two-to-three days as he was calculating the distance and terrain in his head. This didn't even include if he encountered any of the more dangerous prehistorical creatures that lived within this massive crater. "Heh..." The older Tsukino just chuckled to himself faintly before giving an approving nod down to his new dagger, the boy was on the right track with his thoughts. This would indeed be a survival test for him much like the previous death battle test he had given him a few weeks ago with the underground fighting area. Hisato had quickly picked up on the fact that he hadn't mentioned them traveling together and had almost explicitly said for 'him' to reach the center area meaning that the third blade was not planning to travel with or help him along the path to the given destination. These tests that the older fox man was making up for him were really beginning to irritate the now chuunin level dagger, but he had no other option but to go along with them for now as his mentor was still far too strong and he had much to learn before he would even be able to keep up with the man in terms of physical strength or speed, let along be on his level of sword arts.

"I will see you, if you make it there in one piece..." The larger man's voice was like a whisper in the wind as Hisato turned to see there was nothing there beside him. 'He's too fast!' Shaking his head lightly, the younger Tsukino couldn't help but sigh, though he'd improved quite a bit, even enough to force his father to use his full force, he was still far from being at the strength or speed of his uncle. His movement speed was so fast that there wasn't even a blur in the young one's vision as the swordsman darted off directly into the thick jungle like forest environment before them down in the crater. 'One day...' he could only think to himself about how he would one day be able to rival this very man, the third blade of the Mist Swordsman, but that was still a bit in the future as he narrowed his dull grey eyes onto the task ahead of him and glanced back at the map in his hands. It didn't take him long to do some terrain association and figure out where his current starting position was as he started to mentally map out a few different routes that he could take but no matter which one he came up with he still needed to pass through at least two or three of the marked dangerous areas within the labeled map, it was going to be quite troublesome to move through this foreign environment and that wasn't even including these supposed prehistoric reptilian creatures that roamed about here. "Perhaps those stories really are just over exaggerations. Really, how big could they be?" Though he was quite confident in the skills that he'd managed to hone both his movement and swordsmanship, he went ahead and tried to calm himself with thoughts about how the legends of this place had to be exaggerated. Folding the map back into a smaller, perfect squad he placed it into his left hip pouch and out of caution reached up quietly removing the razor thin crystalline blade from the sheath across his left shoulder. 'But I can't be too careful in case some of those rumors really have some validity to them.' With a sharp exhale he steadied his mind and calmed his heart rate. "Let's begin." He didn't rush off at full speed but also wasn't walking as he jumped down from the edge of the mountain range, moving from ledge to ledge in a rather controlled manner unlike his mentor who had moved using his full speed and strength to rapidly advance into the potential dangers that lay in wait for them here. After a few minutes he had descended down to the forest floor from the surrounding mountains the ran along the edge of the enormous crater and bracing himself he moved into the jungle, knowing that it would take at least a couple days to navigate through the thick forest while needing to keep on guard for the dangers that was the local wildlife here within the Ancient Rest area of Star country. Even with the sun at the mid-day point above him it was almost dark within the triple canopy forest that he was within as the trees twisted around one another and in places the undergrowth was so thick that you needed a machete in order to cut a path through its. In the trees above the sounds of various birds and small animals moving about could be heard and a multitude of vines seemed to string themselves along throughout the higher level of the trees above. "So thick!"

Hisato couldn't help but curse a little out loud as he had wanted to be able to move as fast and quietly at possible to avoid any unnecessary contact with other shinobi or the famed animals of this region, but he would be able to move for a bit before the growth on and above the ground forced him to cleave away at the foliage in order to continue moving forward which greatly suppressed his progress that he had originally planned in his mind. 'This is going to be harder and slower than I thought, it might take three days to reach the central area where Hitachi-san will be waiting....' Switching hands after the blade had struck one more, shifting it to his right hand, the boy cleaved through a series of low hanging vines before ducking under them as he found a break in the foliage which he used to take a quick break, his arms were already growing tired from the constant cutting needed to carve a pathway through this thick jungle environment. Sweat covered his body, his lightweight robe sticking to his body as he leaned back against the base of a massive tree that had to stretch at least sixty or seventy meters into the air above, not able to truly disconcert the full height of the tree as it exceeded the thick canopy of leaves and branches that meshed with the tightly growing trees that surrounded Hisato on all sides. "I wonder how far that silver fox got off...fuck! " He had just been taking a moment to think about how far his mentor Hitachi must have made it with his explosive speed and strength to find that he had become the targeted prey of a massive serpent that was nearly twenty meters in length and thicker than his own body. Its stealth skills were impressive to have infiltrated from above to within about ten meters of the fox kid but at that range he'd entered into a range at which the special membranes within the Tsukino's ears detected even the slightest of sounds created by the massive creature's slithering both. He instinctively dove to the side as the serpent struck down from its high perch with a mouth full of curved teeth as large as kunai blades which only managed to latch onto his afterimage as its smashed heavily into the larger tree's trunk causing the entire tree to tremble from the power of the attack. A human sized portion of the tree was smashed off as the serpent quickly flicked its long purple, forked tongue out tasting the air before turning to look directly at the small, framed Kiri shinobi how had found his foot and was in a defensive stance with his crystal blade out in front of himself at this moment pointed towards the snake of unrealistic proportions. Usually, creatures of this size most certainly had to be some form of spirit, but here within the crater the prehistoric species that thrives here all grew to crazy sizes that defied reason. Really, what reason could there possibly be for there to be a twenty-meter snake just prowling the jungle?! It curled its head back, preparing to strike as the boy leaped back a few more meters just as the snake lashed out again stretching out its thick body with a wide jawed mouth as if he wanted to swallow the fox whole as the swordsman side stepped the obvious attack and slashed out with his blade at full force letting the edge of the blade drag across the scale covered body, but only a shallow wound was left due to the thickness and durability of the snake's scales. 'Not good!'

Hisato was able to tell, that even with his razor-sharp weapon he truly didn't have the needed physical strength to do more than create a few minor wounds through the tough scales of the massive serpent beast as it slithered past him and once more curled up, obviously angry from the pain of the small wound its prey had caused it. But that small pain was not enough for the large snake to abandon its prey, seeing no way of being able to fully fight this powerful serpent Hisato did the only reasonable thing that anyone else would have done in the very same situation, he immediately turned and flew through the thick brush behind him. Fighting with something so powerful would only require him to mess up a single time and he'd end up in the belly of that monstrous beast for sure, at least fleeing he would be able to hopefully escape. From behind him he heard the crashing sound of something massive moving through the forest, slipping between brushes and even smashing down some of the smaller trees that were having a hard time growing in the darkness of the triple canopy above that didn't allow much sunlight to reach all the way to the jungle floor. Glancing over his left shoulder as he leaped up and off the trunk of a tree to abruptly change directions, he could see that the serpent was still chasing but its large body made it so it wasn't able to easily navigate the tight terrain and was forced to brute force its way through obstacles that appeared while the slenderer fox shinobi could weave in and around the foliage without losing any speed in the process. Slowly pulling away from it until he ceased hearing the pursuit of the larger reptile, even still he didn't stop running and even started to move faster through the forest area as he ran for nearly an hour, barely even stopping to catch his breath and try to gauge his bearing within the barely lite jungle. Finally, after that hour had passed did, he finally gain some semblance of feeling safe, but he still refused to put away his blade and quietly checked his surrounds for signs that anyone else or anything that may have passed through here in the recent days but to his relieve he didn't see any marks, tracks, or signs that there were any large creatures living in the nearby area. Shaking his head, the man reached into his backpack and pulled out a bamboo bottle that was about six inches in length and about two inches with a small cork was in the top end as he removed it to gulp down some water as he wiped his chin with his dirty left arm sleeve and attempted to catch his breath and allow for his burning legs to rest for a short while. He honestly wasn't for sure how far that he had ran, having been attempting to maintain close to his full running speed during that time and having been fleeing for his life, but now he tried to regain his baring's, but he would probably need to ascend through the thick canopy above to really figure out just where he was within this massive death trap of a crater. Even now though the young shinobi was able to tell that even in the dimly lit interior of the thick forest that it was beginning to become darker, it was already approaching late evening and soon the sun would drop down below the edge of the western lip of the crater and the entire jungle area would truly be bathed in the complete void of darkness.

Hisato had placed himself nearly twenty meters off the deck, finding a position high in the massive prehistoric trees that grew hundreds of meters into the air within this strange region of star country, this was because of the larger beasts that prowled along the ground level. Aside from the massive Titanoboa like serpent that had tried to devour him earlier in the day he had ran into another strange reptile that walked on two strong back legs and had claws on both its short arms and wide feet, not to mention the shark like teeth within its mouth. Though it wasn't overly strong on its own it had only been a scout, it would turn out that there was a group of five total, hunting together like a pack of wolves only they were a bit smarter in their methods as they probed with a single member while the other four slowly and silently cut off their prey's exit routes. He had just barely managed to escape being encircled by the group only to find out that they were able to track like a canine with exceptional senses of smell and hearing, he could also only assume that their eyesight was just as good as his own. It had taken the young man three or four hours to throw the stalking predators off his own trail and in the end, he had been forced to ascend into the tangled overhead growth to feel safe enough to take a break. Drenched in sweat from his own physical excretion and the hot, humid jungle like environment created by the triple canopy trees around him the young man leaned back against the trunk the tree where the massive one-meter-wide branch connected to the main part of the tree, silently sipping on some water that he had brought out from one of his storages scrolls a few minutes earlier. "This place, it really is nothing more than a death trap...." He mumbled to himself closing his eyes briefly and simply allowing for himself to calm down and truly catch his breath at the moment, thinking back to when he was a young academy student hearing tales of the joint chuunin exams that use to take place in Konoha where they used their so called 'Forest of Death' to week out the numerous genin teams to a more manageable number before the final rounds. He couldn't help but let out a light laughter under his breath and take another sip of water at the thought of comparing that simple place to the one that he was currently within right now as the night fully set in within the crater at this point. Yes, it had some arduous terrain to navigate, and a few dangerous beasts locked up in there, but it was also designed for the senior genin who had honed some of their skills and were close to the chuunin level. This place on the other hand, he felt like chuunin and some jounin would be at risk of dying within this dense mess of jungle and beast like creatures, from what his sensei had told him about this place was that the further they move inward towards the center of the crafter like environment the larger and more dangerous the animals become. Though it was hard for the young Tsukino boy to truly comprehend how much more dangerous the animals here could be after encountering massive, spirit sized serpent and the pack hunting smaller human sized dinosaurs that had pursued him for several hours just a short while earlier. He could feel himself dozing off slightly before the sound of a faint humming or buzzing sound, almost like that of a small bug began to drift into his foxlike ears causing for each of them to twist and turn gently attempting to home in on the source direction of the sound itself.

'What a loud sounding bug. It almost sounds like a mosquito.' With his eyes still closed the young shinobi continued to quietly sip his water, but in his left hand remained the crystalline blade that was laid carefully across his lap at the moment as he frowned with his narrow lips, even to the point that his brow furred slightly at this point. 'This...!' Because of the unique membranes within the Tsukino's ears, he was able to do more than just hear really well, the vibrations of the air itself, even in the absence of audible sound, was enough to allow a type of echolocation that the clan member could use to identify general shapes and sizes at a distance with the clarity being enhanced the closer the target comes to the ninja or through the use of his mist to enhance the range of his natural gift. What was causing him to frown at this moment was the very insect that he had hear earlier, normally mosquitos were nothing more than a nuisance as water country and Kiri in general had numerous types of pests of the like due to the constant standing pools of water which was the perfect breeding ground for them. But this...this was something different as the clawed fingers of the left hand clenched ever so tightly around the circular hilt now as the buzzing sound got more audible to even the normal level of human hearing as a set of dull grey eyes with a certain sharpness within them open to zero in on a one-meter-long mosquito like flying bug that was rapidly approaching him. Its rapier-like mouth protruded from its hairy body as it the sword-like mouth was over a foot long; he could only imagine how lethal getting 'bitten' by something like that would be. As it neared almost striking distance the youth moved, a blue in the darkness as he used his own special senses to navigates as he dodged to his left as the massive insect stabbed down at the very branch, he had been seated upon causing for its sword like mouth protrusion to actually push a few inches into the tough wood of the tree. Two flashes of light would have been seen if there was any light to reflect off the translucent blade as it slashed upwards and then back downwards in a fluid motion before the blurred body of the fox shinobi came back into focus and the large mosquito like creature fell into three parts. Its head remained in placed where it had stabbed into the branch Hisato had been seated upon while the other two pieces were like to bloody masses that fell to either side hitting the branch, then falling down the several meters to the forest floor below causing two more soft thuds as blood began to seep from all three pieces. "What a foul smell..." The Kiri-nin used his right hand, bringing it up over his mouth and nose and he unconsciously took a step back from the dead creature because of the rotten smell that now seeped from its corpse. 'I need to flee...' The sound of a fight in the forest would without a doubt draw in other predators, but the smell of blood and death would probably bring even more vicious beasts into the area and so the man leaped away sighing to himself. Hisato had wanted to be able to rest for a bit and recover but now he knew that wasn't an option as he used some of the massive leaves, he passed to wipe the blade free of the dark black blood of the insect before jumping to an adjacent tree and starting to move further away from this location. 'Fuck...' He could only curse under his breath as he heard loud footsteps, ones that made the entire area seem to tremble under the weight of them approaching the area he had just left...he had no idea what it was, but he was thankful that it wasn't chasing him, whatever the massive animal was back there.


Word Count = 4100/4000 - Endurance Training

[Zao]

Two days later

From within the dense jungle the foxlike shinobi broke through the thick undergrowth before him as he seemed to have finally given way to a clearing, though one was able to almost immediate that this clearing was not some natural formation within the center of the harsh jungle environment. 'Finally...' Hisato couldn't help but to unconsciously let out a relief as the last two days and nights had been nothing be a truly hellish experience within the deep jungles of Star country as everything within them seemed to fall above him on the food chain as he'd been pursued by giant snakes that size of large spirit summons, huge insects that were the same size or larger than himself, very intelligent pack hunting dinosaurs that had tracked him a hand full of times and on two occasions nearly led him into an ambush that could have taken his life. But all those aside his heart was still bounding as there was a faint rumble that rolled through the very ground, he was standing upon causing for him to look over his shoulder back into the darkness created within the triple canopy jungle of the Ancient Rest area. This was because he could feel the minor earthquake like shaking that passed through the ground to him with each step the massive creature took as he could faintly make out its shadowy outline within the jungle a few hundred meters behind him, the boy wasn't sure on the exact size but he'd crossed paths briefly twice and in one account it managed to snap up one of those human sized dinosaurs with one bite that had been chasing him. Hisato felt that it was sheer luck that instead of him it had been the Dino chasing him down for lunch that day, but if he had to guess it stood well over fifteen meters tall and seemed to be the apex predator of the region he found himself in but for now it had halted and seemed to be gazing out from within the jungle towards the youth who took a few steps back leading him a little bit further from the edge of the treeline he had just exited a few moment ago. His back was toward a massive fort like creation that had been placed here by a coordinated effort of many different countries in order to establish at least a semblance of a safe spot to rest within once one managed to pass to the central area of the crater. 'Hitachi-san must be in there...' Anyone would have been a bit sour at the fact that their master had just left them to fend for themselves in such a dangerous maze of death filled with out those prehistoric create that each had the strength to kill a normal human. This place really wasn't one that normal people should venture into. He had thought that the older Tsukino would at least come out to greet him after managing to survive and make it to this point, shaking his head as he gazed back at the dark jungle that surrounded this safe haven area, he quickly advanced towards one of the shut gates which opened slowly to reveal a tall, muscular fellow with five silver tails who looked down with a smirk on his face. "Look at that, this is the second time that you haven't died. What luck you have." The large man had a deep voice as he spoke out and laughed lightly before waving with one of his hands to hurry up before turning around and starting to walk away, though he had a look of approval for his young dagger being able to survive and make it to the central area safe point. The massive iron gates were sealed behind the single tailed fox ninja as he looked around seeing the powerful looking walls that stretched thirty or forty meters into the air and had a number of watch towers that were manned with a security detail. He hadn't been able to tell from the outside, but this really was a well-constructed fortress area that spanned about six hundred meters across with a number of gated off layers that could be used to fall back from layer to layer if one of the outer sections was breached. He sighed in amazement as he quickened his pace to keep up with the long-legged Tsukino ahead of him.

A short while later after passing through two different checkpoint areas with large gates just like the first one on the exterior wall had, a number of samurai looking figures were paired with more muscular looking barbarians at each gate in groups numbering as high as eight who guarded the area. As they had been walking the third blade had pointed out to the young dagger that within the confines of the fortress all acts of violence were forbidden. As everything outside the gates was trying to kill them there was an ironclad law within that made this area a true safe space, if someone wished to break that law they would be punished with the sentence of death. Thus, very few had ever tried to get away with injuring or killing another within the confines of the war fort. Finally, the duo passed into the fourth layer of the fortress area and retired too appeared to be a standalone building but as Hitachi led the youth into their new home for the time being he discovered that there was another Kiri shinobi already there, but he didn't recognize them as being from the Swordsmen nor had he seen this older man who had a mixture of salt and pepper hair with a long beard that was braided together stretching down to his chest. "Greeting, old man." The old man smirked at the younger shinobi's greeting and simply nodded before traversing his dark eyes to the young man next to the tall swordsman, "So this is your dagger now?" Hitachi to at this point looked over to see Hisato and then back to the old man who was still seated on a small sitting pillow in a position which was similar to a lotus position that monks might use to meditate on the Buddha. "Not bad. He should rest before we start." The old man, known as Juu, spoke again and then seemed to relax and close his eyes as if he was about to fall asleep as Hisato blurted out, "Start what?" Hitachi only smiled but didn't speak directly about what the two older Kiri-nin had in mind, but it was obvious that it had something to do with him and it was already starting to irritate him with just the brief interaction. Huffing a bit, he left the room and found an empty bedroom to rest in as he locked the door behind him, not wanting to be awakened by any of those two's plans and almost immediately passed out with his crystalline blade in his hand as he slept. It felt like a short nap, but the young man had already slept long enough for the sun that had been rising when he had arrived to no have already set behind the tall canopy of the gigantic trees which hid the truly terrifying beasts within its dark void. Without warning the young man instantly set up from his slumber, the nigh invisible blade slashed out in an arch as it swished past a shadow in the unlit room but the figure it had attacked easily dodged the blade. "So, you've finally decided to get up? You've been asleep over ten hours at this point." The voice was truly unfamiliar as the black robed Tsukino pointed the razor thin exotic blade towards whoever it was speaking to him, just then the shadow lit a small candle revealing the old beard covered face of the man who had introduced himself as Juu and was a companion of his master, the third blade Hitachi. "What do you want old man, I could have killed you there." This response from the apprehensive young man only made the older Kiri-nin laugh out loud before shaking his head, "With what skill would you have killed me? Even though that blade is unique everything you could use against me would still be unable to shake my foundation. " Shaking his head lightly from side to side he then took a step back and turned around walking over to unlock the still locked door before walking out leaving the door open allowing for the light from the main room to flood into his bedroom now.

"Who the fuck is this dude?" Though he spoke the question aloud it was more so to himself than directed at any one person now as he gathered himself and after sheathing the razor then blade the youth exited his room and joined the two older Kiri-nin at the small table, seating himself on the opposing side of Juu and to the left of Hitachi now. There weren't to many words spoke as the group of shinobi sat quietly and ate some ramen which had an odd dark meat in it that he'd never tasted before. It actually wasn't too bad and had a big game like taste similar to venison as he could only conclude that it must be local meat from the beasts that prowled the jungle outside the strong city walls. Finally, after the meal was finished the older Tsukino was the first to speak now as he glanced first at his old friend and then back towards his young dagger. "I have invited my old teammate Juu to help train your mind just as I have been training your body." Hisato looked over and gave both the old men a questioning look but didn't interrupt as Hitachi gestured with his hand towards the aged man across from them. "Indeed, my friend say that you actually have some talent in the illusionary arts. Only a handful of shinobi have truly been able to learn the subtle arts and then intertwin them into a true fighting style. The mass of muscle beside you is a powerful fighter but has no talent in genjutsu." Juu didn't mind taking a quick stab at his old friend who simply shook his head back in return to the jesting now before the old man continued. "We will train your mind and your ability to resist genjutsu to allow your own path to be broadened in the future. Let's go ahead and get started then shall we." Without beating around the bush, the man's wrinkled fingers twisted into a series of seals before he pointed out towards the young man's forehead. "Stay put." Just as Hisato was about to rise and say something in rebuttal to the old man chains burst from the floor of the around him and started to wrap around his lower body. Instinctively he drew his thin bladed sword and slashed down planning to slice through these strange chains as he struggled against them with all his strength, but his strike seemed to simply bounce off the blades without affecting them in the slightest. 'These aren't real?!' It was in that moment that he realized that he'd been entrapped within an illusion from the old man with just the point of his finger. "These chains..." Finally, he managed to shift the focus of his dull grey eyes onto the old man across from him who simply smiled back at him letting him know that his thoughts were indeed correct. Hisato quickly formed a hand seal and used the 'KAI' technique to send a pulse of his chakra throughout his entire body in order to attempt to break the technique, the end result was the chains instantly disappeared and the youth no longer found himself restrained as he rose with a frowning face. But that face quickly turned into a smirk as he sheathed his sword in one fluid motion now and returned to the previous seat he was setting at. "I'm intrigued, I've never really met anyone who was talented in illusions..." This could be just the thing that he was looking for as he needed to improve his own personal strength alongside his genjutsu, he needed to establish a firm foundation in the latter and that was something that this old man might actually be able to help him with.

This was indeed a wonderous occasion for the youth as he couldn't help but smile from ear to ear as he took a deeper look at the old, bearded man who set across from him. "Well, I do know a few tricks. But..." He paused to stroke his rough beard in thought as he glanced over to the third blade who just nodded and got up, only needing a few steps to move across the room with his long stride before exiting the room out onto the dirty streets leaving the two alone for a while. "Hah, little Hitachi has always been a unique one. Anyways..." The older man refocused his attention on the black furred Tsukino setting across from him once more as he began to speak to him once more, "...I'll need to test your will power to see just what level I can push you too." As he spoke an inky glow started to form around his outline as it spread out into the air around him almost like it was smoke twisting and twirling around itself. "Let's chat somewhere else." The words triggered a unique type of genjutsu that warped the reality around them as the environment seemed to blur and when it came back into focus the two shinobi appeared to be outside. But Hisato was able to quickly realize that this wasn't the dark jungles outside the fortress that they had previously been in, no he was very familiar with this type of foliage and environment, that was because it was a training area he'd used before inside the Mist village "What?!" Of course, he was able to rationalize that he had been pulled into some strange form of illusion by just the old man's words but as he looked upwards just above the mist about ten meters off the ground were hundreds of swords that seemed to just be hanging there in space, almost as if they were frozen in time. The sheer number of them caused for the ninja's heart to clench with fear, if all those blades were to descend at once he'd have no chance at all to survive and would be turned into a human pin cushion. Across from him in the misty environment standing about ten or so meters from the youth appeared the unarmed old man who shook his head seeing the kid in a state of shock. "This is better, no?" He laughed lightly to himself as he raised a single hand and with his index finger made a come here motion, the jester held a bit of mockery at the youth as if saying that he wouldn't even need to draw a weapon to defend against the boy and his low level of insight. "Alright old man, try not to die in one strike." Though his heart still held a hint of fear due to the uncertainty of things he would not shy away or back down from this old guy as his left hand reached up and drew his sword now settling down into aggressive stance before launching himself forward with great speed that his body seemed to blur from sight, wishing to show off the large gains from his relentless training schedule. And yet, it was like his speed didn't matter and as he took only his third step a shooting pain entered the left thigh that he was about to use to explode forth causing him to studder as he fell with his next step.

All his opponent had done was point downward a second before and now as Hisato looked down to see what had happened to his leg his eyes nearly came out of their sockets as he found that a sword had plunged all the way through his leg from the inside of the thigh punching out the outer thigh, sinking all the way up to the hand guard before it had stopped. When?! How?! Was this part of the illusion? Before he could speak another blade slammed down into his hand and pinned the right hand into the ground sending another wave of pain recking through the youth's body. A strange, evil sounding laughter leaked from the old man's body that seemed to be almost cloaked in black smoke at the moment to the point that one could only see the whites of his eyes and his white teeth as he laughed and pointed two fingers towards the earth and two additional swords disappeared and stabbed down from above one pinning the right leg to the ground straight through the right calf and the other pinned the left hand to the ground as Hisato lost his grip upon the crystalline blade that he prided himself in. He couldn't move his arms or legs as the old man just shook his head, an eerie smirk on his lips as he started to casually take one step at a time forward before flicking his hand causing a sword to appear out of nowhere in front of Hisato and plunge into his left shoulder and then another casual wave of his hand the strange foe sent another stabbing through the right shoulder. The pain from being stabbed constantly couldn't be held in anymore as he let out a blood curdling scream before his head fell forwards as the youth couldn't hold it up as the pain racked his body from head to toe. "Welcome to my world, but you can call it hell if you wish." The stranger's words seemed to calm, almost as though they were being spoken warmly to the bleeding genin as he could bearly move his finger, Jun formed his right hand as though he was gripping a sword causing one to appear within the fingers of his right hand before he stabbed the child before him in the stomach until the blade pushed just barely out of the lower back causing another shriek of pain to leap from the swordsman's lips, especially as the old man turned the blade one hundred and eighty degrees allowing for the cutting edge to face upwards as he readjusted his grip before slowly starting to drag it upwards. Blood spilled from the abdominal wound and Hisato himself choaked up a mouthful of blood that he spat out upon the muddy ground that was starting to become stained with the Kiri-nin's crimson life essence now. He felt weaker and weaker, to the point that it was all that he was able to accomplish just to hold his eyes open and keep himself from blacking out at this point as the old man just smiled softly again and let go of the blade that remained stuck in the boy's stomach and reached out to gently pat him on the head between his sagging black furred fox ears. "Not bad kid, I'm surprised you haven't passed out yet. Let me go ahead and end this pain for you." With a wave of his left hand now another blade appeared from out of thin air and with a precision stab the blade was plunged right into Hisato's left upper chest and directly into the center of his heart, nearly cleaving the heart in two halves as the boy passed out from the pain.

His eyes snapped open, and he was back int the dimly lit room seated across from the old man who was still warmly smiling at him, 'What kind of fucked up guy is he to be smiling at me like that after what he just did?!' Even though it had only been a genjutsu the mental trauma he suffered caused for him to reach out needing both hands to keep from falling flat on his face as he coughed up a handful of blood onto the thatch floor mat, he was seated upon. "It was only an illusion...but..." The youth's breathing was labored, and his mind was splitting while his body was still registering the faint phantom pains from where his body had been stabbed in that illusionary world that the fellow Kiri shinobi had pulled his mind into. This was his first time truly being on the receiving end of a genjutsu of such power that its effects continued to linger on after the illusion itself had ended. If this had been a real encounter then Hisato wouldn't have even been able to raise his sword to defend or fight back making him an easy kill for the opponent, luckily that wasn't the case, but he still needed a few moments to recover, finally drawing his breathing under control as he managed to lean back and choak back a hint of the metallic taste of blood that was still in the back of his mouth. "Jeeze, that was a bit much, asshole." A hint of a smirk managed to form on the boy's lips as he shot out a set of rather unpleasant words shaking his head. It honestly took all he could muster in terms of sheer will power to not collapse onto the floor next to him and become an embarrassment to himself and his teacher the third blade of the Swordsmen. "Not too bad kid, most people pass out after having suffered such arduous torture, it would seem that not only do you have some gumption about yourself, but you've been the target of some rather harsh physical training, too."

The old man one more stroked his pointed beard, his dull eyes scanning over the youth before him as the hint of a smile cracked on the corners of his lips causing for the wrinkles that came with his age to appear slightly upon his face. He couldn't help but let out a light praise for this kid that his young friend Hitachi had brought to him, at first he had simple offered to help train the youth out of a debt that he owed the swordsman who had saved his life on a handful of different occasions that occurred during the conflict driven great war as he traveled alongside Hitachi and other Mist shinobi who pushed deep into fire country and even entered the gates of their most revered enemy, Konoha! He was able to see that even though the youth before him held a great deal of talent in the arts of swordsmanship, otherwise Hitachi would not have bothered to train this kid, that perhaps he held an equal level of skill in the illusionary arts which in itself was something rare and unique. Very few more so than casually dabbled in the art as it was very difficult to master and progress in plus if one failed to entrap a target in their illusions then most were not that physically strong and would need to resort back to either long range physical or ninjtusu combat to keep them from closing the gap. But for the boy in front of him who was also skilled in close combat and sword arts it would make him a rather dangerous foe to be placed up against who was able to use illusions to supplement his already impressive taijutsu and kenjutsu, judging from what the older Tsukino had told him when he'd brought up the conversation of having this old man help out a bit. Instead of helping out, he too wished to bring this boy under his wing as a type of apprenticeship so that he could begin to finally pass down some of his self-developed illusion techniques so that he could truly begin to test the aptitude that Hisato possess, in hopes that he possessed the ability to learn the most complex of illusions that very few had ever touched upon the level of Warp genjutsu. But he could tell that Tsukino youth had only trained on his own with no guidance into the art field, without any real guiding posts to follow it was difficult to have to stumble one's way through the dark and make advancements. Yet, if he had the old genjutsu expert to guide and help answer the questions that he had then his road of progression would not only be much smoother but also allow for him to advance much more quickly than his current pace.



Word count = 4116/4000 - Will Power