Pov: Kenzo
I jump up and dodge a few rock shots while attempting to- *Smack!* the fast Jonin kicks my chest as I rise from the ground and I get smmed down back into the rock shot taking both blows to my ribs.
They are definitely already broken... I get up and use my yang energy to form- *BOOM!* my chest explodes and I am sent back- he applied an explosive seal when he kicked me... *SINK* I practically give up when the earth rumbles below me and spikes through my chest.
I failed...
I look around the destroyed Konoha as rocks impale my back and most my limbs broken- there are two bodies near me... I at least took the two Jonin out with me.
I close my eyes and open them to see that I am back in my office.
------
Successfully defended against TEN waves!
Rewards: C-rank instant scroll!
------
...
Haaa.
I did that challenge for fun and I feel like crap after coming out of it- I did not set up well and I failed to even fight those two Jonin... not because I am weak, but because they were the perfect counter to my strengths.
Being faster than me basically rules out the use of my lightning mana and attacking from afar means I cant use my Kenzo kit, I tried setting up Genjutsu but that failed due to me losing focus and control over his corruption.
It felt- unsatisfactory.
Like I could win if I had a rematch but its over and I cant anymore- that challenge scroll is gone.
And Ten waves was obviously low considering I got a C-rank instant scroll.
I was hoping to level up my other skills before learning others, or maybe getting more yang energy/Lightning mana to fight for longer periods of time.
...
C-rank scroll... lets get another spell for my lightning mana, I have enough to spend and I need to make sure that Ryū is stronger than Kenzo as a special Jonin.
I'm cking in transportation type jutsu and effective ranged combat that isn't my genjutsu, that genjutsu would have worked wonders if battle didn't overwhelm the sounds I was making.
Fast wasn't necessarily a weakness, that fully optimized Jonin was simply better than me- and the ranged combatant only had a chance if he had someone to tank for him.
I need either a way to get around people and traverse a battlefield with ease or I need an attack that can do the same thing.
I will go with a new ranged attack- something very long ranged and I will continue to upgrade my Yang energy to better use ter.
A Kenzo manoeuvrability update would be amazing while Ryu needs longer distance attacks.
Should I go with something like 'Lightning palm/point' and wish it to be long ranged? So I learn a simple motion that becomes a better attack?
Hmmm... there are many ideas for a ranged attack that I cant really decide on one... I want something simple, so a single skill unlike the skill tree of the wire skill I have.
Dragon theme seems to be what I am going for if I ignore my burst breathing and wire skills... dragons breath is currently very close ranged.
Hmmm- I think trying to theme the spell after a dragons manoeuvre would only complicate it, I should just pick something simple and ranged to stop thinking about it.
Lets go with Lightning dart- just a dart made of lightning, throw it and hit something its that simple.
I will use the scroll ter tonight when Naruto goes to sleep, I believe his friends go home soon anyway.
---
Pov: ???
Unfortunate.
My entertainment is growing increasingly stale, growing attached and staying in one pce- he has moments of... determination to thrive but tely those moments had started to dim, only sparks here and there.
It annoys me that if I try to make him more... into what I would like- the less he becomes what I wish.
The more I help- the less he himself learns.
Challenges push him, but he voluntarily uses those and when he fails his emotions plummet into useless feelings of failure.
No matter what I do now I will only spoil him- leave him rotten and rooted into nothing but my deepest annoyances, I want to him to struggle, and I want him to win.
But he struggles so little in Konoha, and what he does inside the vilge is boring and without grander purpose, growing stronger without reason is becoming his poison.
He will succumb to it if he does not find a reason to thrive- he will die if he cannot find the cure to this particur poison.
A passionless man.
Tch- what useless entertainment.
...?
...!
Kehehe! The greedy mortal seems to have solved my problems for now... a temporary moment of fun.
Kenzo will thrive... but now he will have a goal to thrive to.
Oh how I love domino effects.
---
Pov: Danzo
Damnit! I trash my desk as I read the test letter from my old 'friend' Hiruzen Sarutobi.
This on top of the loss of seven of my root bases- what will happen to Konoha if he keeps cutting down the roots to this level!?
I take a breath and pce the letter on my desk... I have been instructed to either send two root agents to work for this 'Ryū'who I cannot find any information on and have there curse marks removed... or I lose my benefits as a Konohagakure elder- how far is Hiruzen willing to go? Over a child!
I have to send two of my root agents... just for the tax reasons alone I cannot afford to lose my benefits, on top of- haaa... which agents would be best to send.
I am almost certain that Hiruzen will try to have them undone of their brainwashing... so who could I send to thwart those ideas, only my best agents would succeed in convincing the old fool of being 'free' but with so many losses recently... how could I give them up?
No, I am thinking about this the wrong way, I need to send him the most unusable agents I have, a duo so talentless and stupid I have them holding doors in Root.
...
I wont lose anything by sending the dimwits for rehabilitation... if they even understand that they are being rehabilitated or if they could comprehend that they are apart of root.
Haaa- I walk through the halls as I think about the two stones among diamonds, root agents who technically passed the test and became agents... during war that is, a time when restrictions on who could enter root were down so low that anyone belled 'ninja' could enter.
During the third war they were stationed at a border root base where they did nothing but check who entered the base or not.
I walk outside this base and start walking to my next destination... I reach a sewer entrance and start walking through the disgusting area.
When they returned... I realised they could do nothing but watch a door and maybe gamble away any amount of money they got.
It would cost me nothing to kill them and rid myself of these useless ninja, but a root agent needs to be at watch for every base and after the war and especially now I can not waste my talented agents on guard duty.
...
I arrive at the entrance to one of the most secure bases... so secure that having guards is only an emergency feature.
I sm my cane onto the ground before a sewage pipe, I hear nothing in return... the idiots should be watching the entrance every minute, I suppose they are pying cards again.
I sm my cane down once again.
*Sm!*
A loud echo enters into the pipe.
*Slip* *Smack*
"(Hushed) Shut up! Check who it is!" A man yells.
"(Hushed) You shut up! They can hear idiot! And its your turn this year" The other dy replies.
"(Hushed) Year!? We went by a weekly system didn't we?" The man says shocked.
"Didn't we abolish that stupid system st Sunday? Anyway its your turn because you owed me five thousand ryo" The dy says pinly and... haaa, loudly.
I should have killed them.
"You owe me seventy eight thousand!!!" The other yells loudly.
*Smack* *Sm!* *Scuffle!*
"Stop fighting you idiots" I procim and they stop to both walk down the tunnel, tumbling around and unlocking the gate that leads into the sewer pipe.
...
"Shorry shir" The dy replies with bck eye and a very heavily bruised lip.
"What she said... sir" The man replies with a patch of hair missing from the side of his head and a broken nose.
Deep breaths Danzo, they are his problems now.
"Go report to the Hokage, you are being reassigned" I command.
"What!? But the pay- I mean the work- I mean the atmosphere in the Anbu is amazing!" The dy questions.
"We are... never mind, go to the Hokage now!" I rub my brow in frustration.
"Got it sir! Race you idiot!" The man starts sprinting down the sewer.
"Oi!" The dy chases.
...
They seem to lose intelligence every time I meet them, and not by a small margin either.
---
Pov: Kenzo
I leave my work ter than I thought, the rain still goes on even at this time of night.
I open my apartment door and peek through... oh, it was a sleepover, I suppose it was an impromptu sleepover as Naruto didn't tell me it was one.
I hear the Inuzuka wake up as his puppy starts to shake him awake fearing my presence.
...
Haaa- I wanted to test if I could have an animal see me differently if I acted differently while using my new title... guess it doesn't matter how a monster acts, they will always be one no matter what.
"Sorry for waking you both, did you guys need any extra bnkets? Do you want to use my bed?" I whisper to Kiba as I turn my title off... just around him for now, it will come back online tomorrow.
"No thanks man... its like twelve, are you just coming back from work?" Kiba pets to sleep his puppy who shakes his head and tries to sleep again.
"Pretty much, wanted to make my week easier, and my bosses I suppose- didn't expect to see you guys here when I got back" I pce some stuff in my safe as I tiptoe around Shikamaru... who seems to slowly be sleep rolling closer and closer to my bed.
I decide to pick him up and pce him on my bed, as a ninja he most definitely woke up from that- as a Nara he most definitely fell asleep immediately after that.
"Oh, our parents are out of town- *Yawn* mine are at least and we decided to just hang out this weekend, we just felt like sleeping over tonight" He informs me as he yawns.
"I see, fair enough- ill leave you to sleep then" I reply and step over them to get to the kitchen, Kiba yawns one more time as I sit down on the floor and reveal my C-rank scroll.
...
'Lightning- never mind.
Lets simplify it, and add the lightning part ter... lets go with 'Dart throw'
I crack my knuckles and stand as the orange box forms around me, I take off my blindfold to reveal that the box has turned into a bar... a dart board across from me and many, many other people bumping into me and dancing.
*Scratch* *Scrawl*
'Py darts... py good, hit the people and they die horrifically' the message next to the dart board says.
A dart is within my hand, I grip it and aim a shot up as multiple dancers migrate from one side of the room to the other.
*Woosh* *Stab*
Woops...
"ARRRGRGRHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! WHY WOILD YOU DO THIS!? I HAVE CHILDREN!? I HAVE A FAMILY!?!!?!?" The man starts screeching loudly and slowly burns up as fires start in his veins.
Holy shit- I need to try a lot harder and not hit these people- after a few agonizing minutes of that man burning alive through the veins he enters through the front of the pub and starts dancing again.
...
I chuck another dart- "Sorry!" I yell as i bounces off the dart board and hits a dy.
I am going to be here for a while aren't I?
-One hour ter-
Using my Shurikenjutsu skills that I am definitely cking skill in, probably because I am blind- I manage to beat a few games... but not perfectly at all..
And so I keep trying.
-two hours ter-
And trying.
-four hours ter-
And trying.
-two days ter-
And perfecting.
-three days ter-
And perfecting.
-Four days ter-
Until it was ingrained in my move sets, until I could hit this same target perfectly no matter how hard the obstacles... until I heard no screams from those around me.
Those screams... at first didn't bother me as much, I am used to pain but subjecting others to that same pain is a different feeling- I grew attached to these people the more I listened to them dance and talk, sitting in this room I heard about their loves and what they want to do once they left...
I suppose I could never care if I was the one being hurt, but other people? I am less crazy and more human in that regard.
Haaa-
*Thunk*
The dart hits triple twenty and I watch as the room slowly folds back into the orange box, the people fade as if never existing.
...
*Scratch* *Scrawl*
'E-rank portion complete'
A singur target rises from the floor and starts flying around.
Doesn't seem as difficult as the st one, what's the trick here? What's the difference... I aim a shot at the moving target and throw the dart that returned to my hand- *Woosh!* the target suddenly speeds up and dodges the dart before slowing down again.
...
The target then doubles into two of them- great, I am going to have to hit them all perfectly to succeed wont I? And let me guess, they will both double if I miss only one target.
*Woosh!*
Two more targets appear to make four... the target dodged differently this time around, I have to somehow predict that? How can anyone predict something like that before throwing the dart?
Well, I believe I will get another side effect from this, that's the reason I chose to make it only dart throwing rather than a lightning dart.
I would have learned how to coat the dart perfectly or shape a dart perfectly instead of getting a new lightning mana skill of sorts.
This way my aim gets better and I learn more than just a lightning technique with one simple skill.
Now- this test pushes one to the mortal limit, my mortal limit until I eventually find the test that cant push me any further.
So that means one of my mortal abilities can help me- meaning that my staring or hearing wont help me here... I need to rely on something else.
*WOOSH!*
Hours fly by as I throw my darts, I hit one of them but hundreds more duplicate and become thousands more when I miss.
They all act the same- they all change their dodging techniques based on how I throw something, what I am doing is basically reverse predicting, they predict me and dodge accordingly so I need to to throw one way and somehow have the dart go another way.
Basically its training both my body nguage, proper use of my entire body to throw a dart and most importantly, the use of misdirection by perfecting my wrist throw.
By using my arm to reverse predict and then flicking my wrist at the st moment- *Thunk* I manage to hit a target.
Now I only need to reduce these down to zero and if I miss even once... hours of work go down the drain alongside my mental health.
Okay... lets take our time like before, I managed to keep it down below the millions with careful consideration and minimal throws... I just need to keep taking my time.
-Five days ter-
*Thunk*
And with that st target I am the winner!
"The crowd goes wild!!" I yell into the orange box and hear absolutely no crowd.
*Scratch* *Scrawl*
'D-rank portion complete'
Nice~ I wonder what the next test is, is it the mortal limit? What else can you learn when throwing darts that doesnt leave the confines of throwing a dart perfectly well within mortal limits?
*Scratch!* *Scrawl!*
'Mortal limit reached, suggested lightning dart understood... skill evolution test started'
*Crackle* *BOOM!* *WOOOSH!*
Suddenly a storm erupts and I wince as I get covered in rain, I stand on a rocky mountain and I overlook a valley covered in lighting and rain.
*BOOM!*
Suddenly I am struck by lightning and gasp as I awake standing in the same spot... I look above to see lightning forming again.
Its... attacking me? Do I have to stay in motion? *BOOM!* I start running and watch more lightning form above me.
Oh, I have to keep on moving because why not? Now... how do I complete this test? What do I do? And how does this environment somehow make lightning darts?
I spot a target down at the base of this mountain and I rush down to it... no darts, I suppose I have to make my own right? Well I dive straight into my lightning mana that thrives in this environment.
Very, very well actually- I could be breathing out dragons breath for ages out here.
I shake my head and dodge another bolt of lightning as it strikes where I was... I start to use my shaping skills to mimic a dart made if lightning... and then I throw that away.
The mana is too chaotic to keep such a shape, lightning needs to be thrown as quick as possible, but if I dont use that shape then why did I train to throw that shape at all? I might as well have said card throwing or kunai throwing if I were to throw something so simple and easy to shape.
Haaa- darts... pointy end... thicker other end, the basic shape is there I just need to make the thick end into four distinct thinner shapes... the lightning will cackle so much that you will only see the shape up close, but that's fine by me.
I chuck the dart and... it bursts a few meters from me- I struggle with keeping shapes from afar... I actually cant shape things without being connected to it or close enough to still feel it...
*Slip!* *BOOM!*
The rain makes me slip and I meet my end, I start sprinting down to the target again and try to form a better shape.
Come on... what's the secret to this? How do I manage to do this? How does one keep a shape from afar? Maybe I should of read up on nature chakra first... and why it takes so much control.
*SLIP* *THUNK*
I slip again and hit the back of my skull... I watch the clouds form above me... are these rocks extra slippery or something?
Thanks for reading :)
