Growing in strength

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In the deep misty ravine of the Grass Country there is a cave. It is surrounded by sharp rocks and is only accessible to a ninja, who’s skills would allow them to walk down the face of a cliff. The cave itself is only five or so meters deep and two high. However it is the source of fresh, running water on forty centimeters or so deep. Its width, half of the entire cave. A perfect spot for meditation and relaxation. With the constant sound of running water and the smell of fresh bamboo. It was one of the many little streams that fed the great river that was down in the deep. As it left the cave the water would gently cascade down in a small waterfall. This was nothing like the great beast that sourced the majority of the water at the heart of the ravine.

Two swords flanked the stream, they would be used later. Right now it was time for a physical workout. Tenshi had recently read that in order to increase your chakra capacity and flow, one must do two things. Extensive physical training and meditation. Now being the sought of person that he was this had been interpreted somewhat wrongly. He saw it as, one must be on the verge of complete and utter exhaustion then meditation must take place. So this is what he would do. In order to complete this he had decided to come into ‘The Mouth’. He had called it this ever since its discovery. It was like the mouth of the western face of the ravine, so the nickname had taken shape. Often had he come here when in need of meditation. But today was different, today it was to be used for a work out.

He had started out with stretching, then multiple static workouts. The Mouth did not provide one with much room, so he would have to exercise with all the space given. It was not until his arms burned, his breath ragged and sweat poured that he sat down in the water. Grabbing Purity and placing it on his knees, just out of the waters reach, he began. Steadying his breathing the missing nin closed his eyes. He let the crystal clear water flow around him and the gushing sounds wash over him. Breath ebbed and flowed out of him like waves. It was at this point he felt completely at one with nature. Allowing his chakra to flow all around his body Tenshi unsheathed Purity. Placing his right palm on the hilt and his left index finger on the tip he let it flow through the weapon. All the while, he steadied his heart rate and breathing.

After what felt like a lifetime of this Tenshi awoke from his trance like state. He felt revitalized, full of life. Chakra pulsed through his body like electricity through a wire. At first he did not open his eyes, this would only harm the irises due to the light. Sensing where the water met rock he placed Purity on the side opposite to his other sword, Ten no Hoshi. Outstretching one leg into the water, then the other he allowed himself to fall backwards into the water. After five or so seconds he emerged. Eyes wide open with shallow breathing he clambered out of the water. Taking up both of his swords the young man headed towards the exit. Summoning chakra into the soles of his feet he grasped the nearest rock and hoisted himself up. From there he simply walked up the cliff, and then when he reached the top, the boy set off in the direction of his lair.

OOC:614

Posts : 1187

After five or so minutes of walking Tenshi finally arrived back home. The clearing outside his living area was a luscious sea of green grass. He had left the entrance slightly ajar so he was able to quickly get in and out. After squeezing through the gap he wandered over to the fridge. Orange juice, beer and energy drinks lined the walls, and meat was stored further back. He grabbed a twist top bottle and flicked it open. Further along the wall had been hollowed out and that was where he kept all of his other food. As well as this there was another hollow place where he had books. Most of these had already read but four had been recently stolen. One was a fantasy story and the other three were books on non-verbal reasoning and mathematics. As well as this he had been able to find some old complex looking puzzles. He sat down on an old wooden chair and sipped his bear. Flicking off his sandals the young man placed his bare feet on the stolen wooden table that he often read at.

Once he had drained the last of his beer Tenshi placed it on the table and got up. Wondering over to the book shelves he selected three of the new books. He had gotten these as he knew that it was important to give your mind something to do. He knew that he had to get smarter, it would be important in later life. He already had a relatively high IQ but if he could help it he hoped that he would gain some points. He knew that non verbal reasoning was supposed to increase your analytic ability. The puzzles would hopefully be able to increase the rate at which his brain could process information. After stacking them all one on top of the other he walked back over to the fridge, grabbed an orange juice bottle and headed to the exit.

It was hard to see inside his makeshift house, with no electricity and limited running water he was unable to do much reading. That was why he would often read outside. A hammock with side table hung suspended a few yards away. It was strung up between two of the only trees in the clearing. To his relief a pen and diary were set on table. He snatched it up and clambered into the hammock. At first he set about reading the book on mathematics. Each chapter was on a different theorem or hypothesis. He read until his mind felt numb and his head swam. He could comprehend the majority of it but some were too hard to understand. But he knew that if he was to become cleverer he would have to work at it.

Fifty minutes had past until he felt confident enough to move on to the non verbal reasoning. He hoped that this would be easier, it was. The nineteen year old nuke nin breezed through the first thirty question in under five minutes. But that was when he hit the hard ones. Both books contained fifty questions, one of which was meant to test your overall IQ. They both started off incredibly easily and increased in difficulty the further you got. It took him half an hour to complete both papers, for some reason he felt smarted already. He broke out one of the puzzles and finished it in almost no time. Then another and another. It was weird, it was as if just from doing these activities he had actually become smarter but that could not be right could it?

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When he woke up that morning there was no doubt that this day would be difficult. And with his mind and soul feeling stronger the only thing left to train, his body. There was one thing that he knew that must improve. It was the most important part of his fighting. It could be used to get passed people while on missions, and could be useful while stealing supplies. Speed, this was his best friend, his most important asset. A man with great speed and great intellect could conquer all. So that was what he must gain. He was already somewhat faster than your average shinobi but this was not enough. It was his aim to become faster than all others. That way he would be able to take on any adversary. There are many ways to train yourself in speed. By using weapon or your hands, by practicing sprints and running or by moving you body and dodging. All of these would help build up to his overall goal. So he would train in each one of these in order. The first would be with weapons. He had some training posts set up in his clearing so he would first go in and get his swords.

Infinity blade, Purity and Ten no Hoshi. Each one a deadly blade, in the right hands. For training this part of his speed he would work on slashes and lunges with each weapon. And the first, his broad sword. He decided to do each one in short bursts. Ten minute slots for an hour. That would make a total of twenty minutes with each sword. However each five he would step up the pace. After completing a series of moves with his first weapon of choice he moved onto the next ,then the next. His arms ached from the urgency and the speed of his movements. It was important in battle to be able to feint and parry. So he visualized a weapon in his mind and went about parrying its every move with increasing speed. As well as this it is vital to be able to accelerate your movements and change your direction. So this was exactly what he worked on for the following thirty minutes. His current battle style is rather fluid and with speed, this would become even more effective. By the time he had finished his allotted time he found his movements had a significant difference in speed than before. It was incredible, now hopefully he would be able to increase his sprint speed as well.

After a rather long time of living in this area Tenshi felt that he knew the place like the back of his hand. He would use this to his advantage in this training. As he lived in a somewhat densely wooded are he would first make his way to the edge of this. Then time himself how long it would take to get from there to his home. He would to this until he managed to decrease his time by a significant number. He took off his shirt and trousers and changed into some shorts. He decided to keep his torso bare, this would help him cool down and there would be little to slow him. Stretching out his hamstrings, ankles, shoulder, thigh muscles he set off. Jogging through the dense green shoots the boy hardly tired until he reached the end. That was the great thing about not being loyal to a village. He did not have to do their stupid, mundane tasks. He could fill his days with training, relaxation and fitness. Tenshi could almost guarantee that he was fitter than most people his age. Simply due to the sheer amount that he did.

One, two, three. Tenshi went haring off through the trees. Sharp twigs dragged across his bare arms. But he had to block this out. Nothing would distract him from reaching his goal. And anyway he had experienced a lot more than a simple scratch. Sprinting at full pelt the young man felt he gained speed. Breath, he must remember to breath. There was an ancient trick named dragon breathing that was said to give you speed... unfortunately he did not know it. But it would be cool to learn it sometime. Maybe on his travels he would be able to teach him the tricks. He let his chakra flow through his body and muscles. He reached his hideout after several minutes of solid sprinting. But one ‘lap’ was not enough to increase his pace. He must go again, and again until he felt satisfied. After the fourth time his muscles felt like they were on fire and sweat dripped from his brow, covered his body like oil. His breathing was ragged and heavy. He had been timing it for the past two times and already he had improved his time by three seconds. But this was no where near enough.

It took the boy six more runs to increase his time by ten seconds. However as soon as he had gotten back on this time, the young man was sick. Vomiting a horrible sludgy mix of orange juice and beer. Smiling to himself softly the black haired Tenei put his head on the ground and closed his eyes. Overjoyed by his performance on this day. But it still was not over. Already had he trained his speed with weaponry and sprinting, the only one left was his body. This was arguably the most important. Because it was this that may one day save his life. Though now, there was time for a half an hour or so break. Firstly it would probably be good to clear up his mouth excrements. There was a pile of equipment for many different purposes. He really needed to stop stealing things. Tenshi would highly describe himself as a kleptomaniac, It was just an easy way to live and he was good at it. Picking up a shovel he dug up a small patch of earth and buried the orange juice-bear mixture. Problem solved.

Another major problem about being a missing nin. When you needed to train there was no one there to help you. He certainly could have done with that now. As his last piece of training was about working on his speed while fighting and dodging he had no way of practicing this. So he would have to use his initiative. Standing stock still Tenshi exploded into dodging a right hook to the face. He would have to imagine that an invisible adversary was attacking. He took different steps in order to avoid the attacks. Dodging from side to side, ducking and weaving he was keeping well out of harms reach from the ‘onslaught’. Then all of a sudden an imaginary sword came out of nowhere. He felt like this was best as he often fought people who wielded short ranged weapons, much like himself. The nineteen year old knew that he had done enough when he was left huffing and puffing in the middle of his clearing. It had been a solid day of training and he already felt like every area possible had improved. For the first time in his life, he felt like he had done enough.