Rokurou's training thread (IN)

The night was dark and full of terrors, well that's what they'd tell you when you were younger but as Rokurou got older he found himself enjoying the night more than the day, the biggest appeal was of course that the sun was no longer out to shine down those oppressive rays of heat. That and there were less people around during the night, Rokurou both liked and disliked people which sounds strange but it's really not you just have to think about all the times you ran into someone stupid and just wanted to punch them in the mouth. It was also a little easier to move about because you didn't have people asking where you were going or if you wanted to buy something, Rokurou walked down the streets quietly taking in his surroundings. There were a few people out but nothing like the hustle and bustle of the day, now people kept to themselves especially when they saw someone that looked like Rokurou and his unsettling gaze that made him continuously look to be in a bad mood. The cool air caressed his skin as he managed to get further and further away from the main city, he wanted to be by himself that way he could go about solving things his way which was talking it out with well himself.

You can say what you want but everyone does it and if you say you don't you're a liar, Rokurou soon found himself at the bottom of the mountains, the ground rocky dirt that seemed like it wouldn't give way to anything. A few larger rocks spread out randomly, the largest of which was just a tad taller than Rokurou who stood at five eleven and probably twice as thick. This would be his training grounds for the evening and hopefully result in some progress, the first thing he needed to master was the body flicker, he knew of the technique of course but a mix of stubbornness and distrust helped hold him back from truly learning it. Easily activated and he was moving at speeds that he had yet to achieve thanks to chakra, the all encompassing chakra was like a miracle to those that wished to get stronger. Rokurou was thinking too much and before he knew it one of those boulders was right in front of him, he had to leap over narrowly avoiding slamming his toes into the boulder before screeching to a halt while thinking that the boulder must have moved into his way rather than him making a mistake even though logically he knew he had.

"Note to self don't starting thinking about things in the middle of moving at super speed or else you're bound to hit something" he nodded his head as if he had just given himself some sagely advice, this time as he moved at high speed he went straight towards a boulder rather than avoiding it. He landed with crushing force yet little sound before springing from the boulder, completely unharmed in the process, to the top of another boulder enjoying that he adapted quick enough. The technique was fairly simple but it had a number of uses for attacking or for defending, Rokurou was trying to think outside of the box with every technique that he learned because it would become something that could save his life in the long run. For now he'd call it a night as he was feeling pretty lazy and happy at the same time because he could always think of alternative uses on the way home or while eating later.

(Exit)

Word count = 602 (fluffy)

A terrible ear piercing sound could be heard all around, the sound of cats fighting, dogs howling, and those dying could not compare to the sound that could be heard right now, "my punch is dynomite!" Rokurou sang as though he had no idea what singing truly was. "Ain't nothing left after my dynomite punch lands!", one could even compare his singing to a torturous jutsu of some sort, "king of the dynomite punch all shall know!". If his singing wasn't bad enough his voice cracked at the last part, the blessing in disguise was that he stopped singing to clear his throat so the ears of those on the streets were saved from the unsettling youth's atrocious vocal chords. Rokurou had been told on more than one occasion that he wouldn't know singing if someone hit him in the face with a singing sensation to which he responded with it would only hurt the singing sensation with a crooked grin. The people of Kiri probably rejoiced when Rokurou left the main part of the village heading towards the mountains for some more training, after a purchase of some tools he could train his specialty which was weapon techniques and jutsu though he was still just doing the basics.

The craggy earth beneath his feet hardly changed since the last time he was here but that was to be expected, he reached into a pouch strapped to the back of his waist pulling out two shuriken and a five meter length of ninja wire. Seeing as Rokurou was a bit lazy he didn't want to have to retrieve his shuriken from the tree every time he threw them at it, so instead he wrapped a little bit of wire through the center so he could just pull them back when he was done. Now he faced a tree, old and weathered it seemed perhaps as if saddened by what was about to happen, Rokurou gave that little thought as he threw the two shuriken at nearly the same time, the second lagging behind only slightly in order to hide in the shadow of the other. Or perhaps that was a mistake as the second didn't seem to hide very well in fact from where Rokurou was standing it looked fairly obvious, two thuds one after the other could be heard as the shuriken bit into the tree bark harshly. Rokurou looked a bit thoughtful, trying to figure out why that hadn't worked, as he pulled the ninja wire towards him ripping the shuriken from the tree bark sending the shuriken flying back towards himself though the speed far less.

His sun colored eyes easily tracking the sharp pieces of metal and catching them, "oh that's right they were meant to be thrown at the same time not separately" he said to himself with a sage like nod. "Alright then let's go again" his tone rather calm as he threw them together, in his head he had already imagined the best possible flight path for the two of them and the only thing left to do was to match them up. His aim was true the second time, the two shuriken appeared as one even to him who knew there were two of them, another set of thuds and a quick flick of the wrist had them tearing through the air to get back to him. Rokurou continued doing this not just satisfied with one good throw, he would ingrain the technique into his body so it became a habit to throw them perfectly every time even without thinking about it. By the time he was done the tree that had already looked sad now looked down right pitiful as it's barky flesh had been ripped apart from the numerous throws "maybe I should get a log to throw at for next time", he felt just a little bad beating the tree up like this.

With his current goal achieved it was time to move onto the second one, he pulled the shuriken back once more and prepared to throw him, his objective now wasn't to hide one in the shadow of the other it was to manipulate them. He threw them towards the tree, one from each hand, he could hear them tearing through the air as they shot by the tree rather than hitting it, once behind the tree Rokurou used the ninja wire to pull them back towards himself. An expert he could not claim to be with his level of skill, the one on the left merely grazed the tree while the one on the right completely missed and instead circled around the tree tangling up his wires. With a sigh Rokurou made his way over to the tree untangling the string and then moving back to his position, "fine tune it, it's not wrenching them over it's nudging them" he spoke under his breath just before his second throw. They shot by the tree once more, Rokurou's movements a little softer now as he attempted to manipulate the blades again, this time it was more successful though not a complete success as the one on the right smacked right into the center of the tree's back with a rather satisfying thunk.

The one on the left however was just a graze, though deeper than before a graze was nothing to be happy about, so he retrieved his weapons and began the tedious process of multiple throws and trips to get his weapons back. Each time he got a little better as he fine tuned himself just as he had muttered under his breath to do, after a bit he got bored with even the fine tuning as he had plenty of time to fine tune his technique later, after all no one became good at something in just a day he thought. For now he'd return home and get some rest before continuing to train up, he'd bringing a log at some point until the the sad tree with so many wounds would have to just take the punishment that it had done nothing to deserve.

(Exit)

Word count = 1020

Another night of training to come, Rokurou's steps light as he jumped from roof to roof feeling a bit unmotivated, his thoughts had been turning towards the point of all this training, for example even as he thought about it in his head he didn't see a realistic way of him becoming the best. In the back of his mind there was the thought that there was always someone better out there, true there was the better chance of survival but if he never became a shinobi he had less chance of being attacked by other shinobi. Though that would mean he would be putting his fate in the hands of others, he couldn't really trust someone else with his protection when he could hardly trust them with anything else, to him he guessed it was just because he had nothing else better to do at the moment. What if he did become the best though, how would one even know if they had become the best, would he have to kill everyone else in order to claim to be the best and what would he be the best at killing, surviving, techniques?, Rokurou was overthinking things at this point.

He leaped from the roof of a building to land near the outskirts of the mountain that he had been training at often, the heavy thoughts weighing in on his mind, currently even thinking about this seemed foolish but Rokurou thought about things that were far beyond his reach quite often. While still thinking to himself he reached into the back pouch strapped to his waist pulling out five kunai in total, though he would only be starting with one he would try to reach at least three before he decided to call it quits for the night. He felt a little silly extending his hand towards the empty air but he did allow his chakra to flow, he tossed a single kunai towards the area he was focusing his chakra on. He half expected it just to fall to the ground but it only fell a little ways before wobbling to a stop in mid air, "not bad" he said softly before throwing his hand towards a tree in an exaggerated motion. The kunai shot forward like an arrow and it's aim was true, the only problem was that while Rokurou made it fly straight it twisted ion mid air because of his lack of control.

Instead of burying the sharp point into the tree bark it bounced off the tree as the ringed side thunked into it, Rokurou was not pleased but neither was he truly upset for he knew that he was not a genius by any stretch of the imagination so practice would be needed. Rokurou always wondered if geniuses or prodigies got bored with what they were doing when it was so easy, he wondered if they got any satisfaction out of achieving a new goal. While he thought he also tossed another kunai into the chakra laced air watching as this one stopped dead in it's tracks right away. His mind sharpening as he thought about his control over the kunai a little more in depth this time, another motion of his hand and the kunai shot out like a bat from hell, this time his focus did not wander and his aim was truly true. This time it was a satisfying thud as the sharpened point slammed deep into the bark, a success but that was with only one so now it was time to use two and then three and so on.

Rokurou was in no rush taking his time to learn exactly how to aim the kunai, even with him taking his time he messed up more than a few times but he got the hang of it, by the time he was done he could accurately control five kunai at once with little problem. He'd have to do more testing to see exactly how many he could handle at once but for now he was satisfied so he retrieved his kunai before heading off into the night for his home with less heavy thoughts upon his mind now luckily.

(Exit)

Word count = 699

If one was aiming to see a peculiar sight on this day they'd just have to look down one of the streets of Kirigakure's village, there they would find a young man walking down the street with a log that was nearly as large as he was with a little pep to his step one could say. Rokurou was on his way to his usual training spot with the log in tow for some specialized training, today he would be practicing his own personal techniques rather than learning techniques that others knew. These would be techniques only he would know unless he one day decided to teach them to others, the craggy ground was reached soon enough and Rokurou took a bit of time setting the log straight up as it would be simulating a standing opponent. Rokurou stood roughly ten meters from the standing log, his eyes locked onto the small indentations he made in the wood so he could grab the log, his head moved left and then right as he began to weave as if approaching a real opponent with the intent to dodge any attack that came towards him. His body moved wildly as he attempted to dodge almost every attack you could think of while closing in the distance, though there were some attacks that just couldn't be predicted he estimated it would pretty difficult to surprise him.

The distance closed within a second and Rokurou's hands shot out as quickly as he could make them go, his erratic movement threw off his aim though and his fingers slammed into solid wood rather than the indentations. He backed up and began to move swiftly once again, he crossed the distance in a flash and this time his fingers struck home landing directly in the indents that had been made for this. He curled his fingers upwards getting his grip set before lifting up, his teeth clenched as he exerted his strength to lift the large log up over his head suddenly. At the same time he began to lean backwards while driving the log towards the ground, alas his grip was not strong enough as he found his fingers slipping out and the log was sent tumbling a few feet away from him as he fell onto the ground. He was completely unharmed physically but he did feel a bit of pain towards his ego after failing on such an easy task, with a soft sigh he picked himself up and dusted himself off before retrieving the log and placing it back down in it's spot.

Again he closed the distance and again he slammed his fingers into the indentations, he lifted with all his strength while gripping the wood so tightly one might think he was holding onto it for dear life. With a grunt of effort he slammed the log into the ground forcefully as he fell backwards with it, he lay there on the ground enjoying his success for a moment before standing. As per usual he practiced the same move more than a few times in order to get it down properly, even if he was dodging enemy attacks Rokurou was confident that he could still land his attack successfully. His body had a slight gleam to it thanks to the sun and the light sheen of sweat but he still had more to do, he took a little bit of time to dig a hole so he could secure the log because his next couple of techniques would involve hitting the log and he didn't feel like picking it up every time he knocked it over. Once in the right place Rokurou got right in front of it, it was the kind of range where normal punches and kicks would do next to nothing but elbows would be quite useful.

He struck with the left elbow first only to find himself hitting the wood solidly instead of grazing it, he struck with the right only to find he missed the log completely. A tsking sound escaped as he found himself annoyed with his miscalculations, he drew in a deep breath before continuing to strike at the log, unlike most elbow strikes this one was intended to cause minimal damage. He needed precision rather than brute force as his intent was to slice open flesh, it would hardly hurt but that was not the point as he would target just above the opponent's eyes in order to distract them. He was methodical and slow working out the precise spot where he would cut into the log just barely, with each person being a different height it would need to be readjusted in the actual combat situation but that was easy enough to do in the real deal. It seemed like the day was only getting hotter and hotter with each passing moment or maybe that was just because he was working so hard, the time came when he felt satisfied with the degree of his technique so he stopped with this particular one for now.

The next technique was going to involve weapon usage so he reached towards his back reaching into the pack which held the majority of his weapons and tools. He pulled out a kunai because that would be the easiest thing to practice with at the moment, he swung with his left hand as it was his non-dominant hand, the blade cut through the air heading straight towards the log. But as it reached the log nothing struck the wooden surface, his hand simply passed by the wood as it no longer held the kunai within it anymore, he had let the kunai go in mid air and reached for it with his right hand. The intent was to grab the kunai out of mid air and thrust it into the wood rather than following through with the original slash, it was meant to fool the opponent into believing there was one attack only to get hit by another. The problem was he hit the handle of his kunai but didn't manage to grab onto it, the bladed weapon was sent flying away from the impact hitting the wood harmlessly before hitting the ground. A disappointing start to his own technique he thought to himself as he walked over to grab up his kunai before preparing to try again, once again he feinted with his weaker arm and this time he grabbed the handle easily thrusting forward burying the sharpened blade into the log with a solid thunk, he grinned perhaps a bit viciously as he imagined this landing on an opponent.

A bit more practice and he had the move down like it was nothing, not a single one of these techniques was overly spectacular but all combined together he figured he could do some damage or at the very least he could be quite the annoying opponent. With his kunai put back into it's back Rokurou began to whistle a soft tune as he walked away from his training ground in search of food.

(Exit)