My Beetle Sense Is Tingling [Training]

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

Training | Special Characteristic | Chakra | Sensor Ninja

Spoiler:

Over the past few weeks, Masquerade had learned a number of things. To start off, he’d learned that the Shichibi was an exceptionally knowledgeably creature, apparently blessed with a wealth of knowledge and understanding about the world. Presumably, she had seen and experienced a mass of events that she had ended up learning something from; and unlike most humans, she actually retained a decidedly maximal amount of that information. With her wisdom, she was actually able to aid her host in situations that might otherwise be beyond their understanding. One such perplexing situation had occurred several weeks - not many days after arriving at Kaminari no Kuni - when Masquerade had made a surprising discovery. Coupled with the Shichibi’s surplus of knowledge, understanding was quickly reached by the Nukenin.

Masquerade had discovered - as inexplicable and random as it seemingly was (t0 him, anyway) - that he could sense the chakra of other beings, in a limited yet wide range. This enhanced sensory skill appeared to be limited not only to sensing chakra, but also determining its nature type, quantity, and quality. What was more, he could also use this ability to somehow sense another’s emotions. All of this, he had learned thanks to the Shichibi, who had told him about all the abilities that a “Sensor Ninja” (as she put it) had. Indeed, it was his Bijuu that had cleared up the initial confusion that the Jinchuuriki had been experiencing upon first sensing another’s chakra.

It had been a day like any other when he first made the discovery. No, that was not correct. To be more precise, Masquerade had been sensing the presence of the surrounding folk for many weeks prior; the ability had just not been that honed or powerful at that time. Initially, it had been a simple awareness of the surrounding environment; that was what the Nukenin had deemed it to be. He had been able to tell when someone was close by, or have an inkling as to what kind of emotional state someone was in when he was directly exposed to them. However, never had any of these events seemed so extraordinary that he had given them a second thought. As far as the Nukenin had been concerned, it was just a combination of intuition and luck that had been allowing him to make these accurate observations. Again, it was just simple awareness. As time went on, this “awareness” strengthened, but again: not enough to arouse any further suspicions.

Only after that one night on that aforementioned day did the boy feel that this was more than mere awareness. The stimulus had been so simple, yet the result was so impactful: a casual bump into a woman’s shoulder as she walked past Masquerade in the opposite direction had left the boy experiencing a sudden change in emotional mindset. For a few moments, his composed self had felt inexplicably gloomy and dejected, and the change was so sudden that he had actually stopped walking in confusion. Since he had been in moving crowd at that time, the result was that more people began to collide with his stationary form. As each person had touched him, a new emotion had flooded into the Nukenin’s mind, until it had eventually been too much for him to take in. Without thought of the implications of his actions, the Nukenin had summoned his wings and flown up into the air in plain view of everyone. As a stunned gathering of civilians had watched, Masquerade had flown off as fast as he could into the darkness. Once finding himself a secluded rooftop, the unnerved blonde had sat in a corner and attempted to calm his mind, which was presently raging with a plethora of unrestrained emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, guilt... It had all been so mind-boggling.

Once he had calmed down and emptied his mind of all emotion aside from puzzlement, the Nukenin was finally aware of another fact: he could feel the presence of the people below him. He could sense them mentally, on what he presumed was a spiritual manner rather than a physical one. To him, the experience had been like having every single one of those people squeezing into him, suffocating him with their numbers. Coupling this with the remnants of the emotional rollercoaster he had just gone through, and the Nukenin felt like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Clutching his head and wide-eyed in a frenzied state, he had instinctually done the only act that his conscious asked for: he had retreated into the realm inside him, where the Shichibi was sealed within his subconscious.

In there, the panicking shinobi had found solace in the fact that he could not sense or feel anything that he had been able to just a few moments ago. With a sigh of relief, he had collapsed onto the floor as he relaxed himself. That had not been so easy, for the Shichibi had chosen to speak to him at that moment. The Bijuu had remarked how she had witnessed the entire event, and she could tell that Masquerade was completely at a loss of understanding. She had informed her host that she could help clear his confusion. Masquerade, while originally planning on ignoring the Bijuu and figuring out the situation by himself, agreed to offer. With that, the Shichibi had begun to explain to the masked blonde about Sensor Ninja and their talents, concluding with the news that Masquerade was apparently one as well. She even pointed out that some of the discoveries were just as sudden and perplexing as Masquerade’s had been; as she had confessed, some of her previous hosts or their comrades had been Sensor Ninja, and had thus experienced a similar series of perplexing events. Being the knowledge-seeker that she was, the Shichibi had stored the interesting events away in her massive collection of knowledge, in case she ever needed it in the future. As it turned out, she did.

While at first skeptical, Masquerade had had no choice other than to accept the Bijuu’s explanation, and it turned out that she was completely correct. Under the insect Bijuu’s guidance and instructions, Masquerade had begun to teach himself how to control his newfound abilities. As mentioned before, the Shichibi had been exposed to other Sensor Ninja training to master this ability, and thanks to her intellect, she was able to formulate an effective and efficient training regime for the developing Sensor Nukenin. Since he had no other option to fall back on, Masquerade had decided to follow the Bijuu’s instructions; and it turned out, her method was indeed effective.

The exercises were simple at first, limited mostly to meditative acts. From meditating in places far from civilization, he was moved to areas where people would frequent a few times a day. He would then attempt to control how he sensed their chakra, based on how hard or little he concentrated. Slowly, he would move to places with more people, repeating the process, practicing until he and the Shichibi were satisfied with the number of training subjects. Through this method, he was slowly but surely able to control the power enough to not be overwhelmed by all those chakra signatures. He was soon able to train his mental functions enough to process all the information he received quickly and efficiently. Once he was able to master his control of this ability whilst stationary, the Shichibi had instructed him to spar with copies of himself, so as to teach him how to sense another’s chakra even in the heat of battle. Not only that, but she had him undergo certain physical and mental tests at other times that aimed to keep his mind and attention focused elsewhere, to help him better his skill at sensing chakra.

The overall result that she was aiming to achieve was for Masquerade to be able to sense chakra without conscious thought, for it to be second nature to him, so that he need not waste time or effort attempting to gather the mental focus he might need otherwise for this feat. With her exercises, she was able to accomplish that very effect: her Jinchuuriki was soon able to sense the chakra of the surrounding folk without any difficulty, or any effect on his mind. He was now as mentally and physically composed as he was prior to unearthing this innate ability, almost as if he did not have it to begin with. He could now distinguish an individual from their chakra alone, among other acts, with minimal effort. To an outsider, it would seem as if Masquerade had had the ability for several months, when in truth, it had been weeks.

Masquerade was now, undoubtedly, a Sensor Ninja; and he could not have done without the Shichibi’s help. As he sincerely told her, he was indebted to her for that.

Word Count: 1485/1200