CRACK
All eyes were wide now, a cacophony of beating hearts sounding like dozens of drummers playing the same loud and migraine inducing routine. Just four centimeters off its mark, the Shuriken Gene had thrown bit deep into a sign post behind the other Chunin and Jounin who both stood with mouths wide open. "Don't worry, you'll be able to rest plenty when you're dead." Even though well over a year had passed since Konoha had been met with intruders strong enough to fell a Bannin the memory did not fade from Gene's consciousness and during training he had a tendency to not allow his partners to forget it either. "Things might seem peaceful but we don't know when the next threat will reel its head. Allow your skills to dull even a little bit and you won't live long enough to regret it," a sigh escaped him. One thing was for sure...this would be the LAST time he agreed to supervise regular training regimens.
"Again."
"Well...there's no easy way to say this..." Asano, a frail looking young woman spoke with a worried expression. Gene could tell that she'd been nervous due to how she kept spinning the ends of her pony-tail between her fingers but never questioned it and listened solemnly to the Jounin's report. In addition to being completely flooded the whole area for miles is just fallen trees....whoever was here definitely had no qualms about tearing up the place. Right then and there Gene wanted to say how he knew who'd been responsible and that part of the blame fell upon his shoulders; if nothing else the landscape served as a reminder of what monstrous strength the Hokage wielded, even with restrictions the man still managed to leave a pretty hefty mark on the world. Of course....the problem with his "markings" was that someone always had to clean up the mess. "Terrific.. " Gene groaned, "cleaning this will take more than just a few days. Lets do what we can about the main routes and focus on out sourcing manpower later on. " Asano nodded, flickering out of sight presumably passing along the message down to the others of a sixteen person clean up crew.
Meanwhile, Gene had other plans. Beyond the white scarf covering over his face the wheels were already turning in his head. Moving the trees was a cumbersome and arduous task but using the fallen material to create a foundation for new security posts....That another matter. "Baby steps first I suppose," focusing chakra into his fists Gene struck hard at a tree obstructing his path and send the damned thing veering away from him in pieces. Sure, he wasn't strong enough to completely throw the thing but a well placed strike easily could shattered it at the base and that was good enough for him. Now...to deal with the other countless "blocks of wood."
"Wow you sure are strong, Sensei! Freakishly strong actually...How did you ever manage?" So caught up in what he'd been doing Gene hardly noticed the three Genin behind him observing; three Jounin, three groups of Genin and a small platoon comprised of Chunin all for the sake of cleaning up the mess that Takeo and his brute of a summon had made. "If I'm being honest I never would have come this far without a helpful push from my friends," his conversation long ago as a Genin with Aina came to mind. "Having someone who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself went a long way I guess." Though he could hardly say the same now. Gene was pretty sure that Aina viewed him in the light of some sort of kill monger these days - like most of his peers now. He'd gained and lost their support in the blink of an eye...the only thing he could fall back on WAS his usefulness as a Shinobi. Of course, he'd never say that to three upstarts looking for a reason to improve themselves. "At any rate we have a lot of work to do. Less chit-chat and more clearing paths. There will be hell to pay if we can't get these roads paved for traders."
All three Genin nodded in unison and began working diligently. Somehow, Gene's words must've moved them because each had been working especially hard now. Meanwhile, Gene could only think about the price he'd paid to get where he was today. Losing out on friends, distancing himself from his peers and worse still - knowing that at some point he'd be forced to cross blades with his own mentor. Yeah, power definitely had a hefty price to obtain.
And that wasn't the worst part. Even after his battle with Takeo and the conversation (really more of a probing) the two had Gene still found that he hated them. He hated what Konoha's fighting force had become and worse still, he hated that so many Shinobi were allowed to go rogue without consequence. Hearing Fanho beg and plead on behalf of Zakuro to Gene, may as well have been the tipping point. However, had he stuck around for the rest of that interesting conversation it may have been all too real a possibility that he'd have ran Fanho through with his Raikiri. Thankfully, only the Hokage was privy to the Awai's unreasonably grim proposal of Taiga to ANBU. Still, that didn't mean Taiga HADN'T crossed Gene's mind; granted he still didn't care for the guy, Gene's budding relationship - if it could be called that, with Masami had thawed his heart somewhat to the nature of spirit holders, Genma in particular.
He didn't know the entire story but from what few whispers(and there were VERY FEW) he'd caught in the wind Minoru's seal broke because of a indescribable trauma. Of all the Shinobi that Gene came to know and respect, Minoru had been the most level headed whereas Taiga...a current host, was anything but. If his emotions were to flare up then it could spell disaster for the village...the entire continent even. But what of Masami? Gene had never stopped to think about what he would do in the event that she couldn't control her spirit and it was now, as he launched yet another tree forcefully out of a dirt path that he realized.....he may have not been able to do anything at all. Each time he tried to imagine taking her on Gene always reached the same conclusion that not taking her on in the first place would have been the better option.
When he was certain that no one had been watching him the Silver-haired Jounin found a tree that luckily hadn't been toppled over and leaned up against it, sinking slowly to the ground until he'd been sitting with his hands kissing the dirt. "They should be good without me for a while," he reasoned. Gene needed to clear his head and the only way that he knew of to accomplish that now soared high above his head; shades of blue were like blankets wrapping him up to be carried off by grey nimbus clouds. He never questioned the destination but was content with being as far away from what was going on below as possible. At least until the sound of what he thought was shouting. "Yeah, right." With a low grunt he stood quickly to his feet, pivoted around the tree he'd been resting on and headed toward the noise. " Hey, hey, hey! What's all the fuss about?"
Turning the corner, Gene saw a Genin and Chunin arguing with each other. "You gotta listen to me I'm your superior!" "I'm not gonna listen to some freak with no eyebrows!" The Chunin lunged at the Genin, throwing all his weight at the unprepared young boy sending them both to the ground with a loud thud. Gene stepped forward to intervene but rushed at the sound of Shuriken whisking through the air remembering only a blinding light before completely blacking out - painless.
"Rrgh...nnggh." It'd been a struggle tossing the heavy log that had just narrowly missed smashing him completely under neath it. By some miracle, only the ends of his shirt had been pinched. His face on the other hand was beginning to bleed from an open cut at the brim of his nose. "Shit the others!" Gene tried to move but found that his body wouldn't listen to him. Worse now, he could hear the others but he could not pull them into his sights; his vision only seemed to blur and shift leaving his focus a jumbled mess and worse still, his head pounded like some kind of drum. He'd been so out of it that he hadn't felt the tree being raised nor did he feel hands reaching and grabbing at him, hoisting him up and later dropping him down on a soft patch of grass. "T-the others...are they alright?" He spat, weakly. "Yeah, don't worry. Everyone managed to get away just before the blast. There were still traps left in the area that hadn't gone off yet and one of them activated in close proximity to you. Frankly, I'm surprised you weren't crushed by that tree." Gene managed to turn his head and almost instantly, a smile played across his lips as he studied with a somber sense of humor, the large tree that had almost claimed his life. Due to the nature of the flash tag he hadn't been able to see it coming and the explosion itself disoriented him severely; like the man had said, his survival in and of itself was nothing short of a miracle. "Ha...talk about...lame."
Allowing his eyes to close Gene drifted off to a deep slumber, realizing that in that instant it didn't matter how strong he believed himself to be or how capable he wanted to think that he was. Without attentiveness, something as simple as a shuriken and a paper bomb could easily snatch his life or the life of his comrades, right out from under them. For his negligence he'd gained yet another injury and with it, wisdom.
How ironic was it that pain, failure and in his case - a certain sense of embarrassment, was the price he'd paid for power.
[Short ended]