Brick by Brick [training]

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

If the passing of time had taught him anything, it was that it was good to have a place to go to when one had to get some much deserved rest or just some peace and quiet. As a wandering shinobi that undoubtedly had a bounty on his own head as a result of leaving the Hidden Cloud village behind, this was even more true. He needed a place that could act as a home and as a base of sorts. He had heard stories of the clan elders that during their many fights against the Senju clan, the opposition had used their wood release in order to create make-shift homes to provide them with a fair amount of protection and luxury while they had to sleep beneath the stars. Many Uchiha and Senju still could not stand one another even in the current day and age, though Hiruzen was not one of them. As a rather progressive shinobi that had already taken up Kenjutsu under the Samurai and even the Hermit arts under the Ninja Monks, he was not bound by things such as ancient clan feuds. Even though no one knew it other than him, he had become a true master of Ninjutsu and became a bit of a pioneer in the various uses and fields of mastery over Chakra. The fact that he was no longer affiliated to a single village gave him all the time in the world to pursue things other shinobi would simply not be able to do due to a lack of time. They had to do missions and work to make sure their village was safe, something he no longer had to worry about.

Hiruzen had all the freedom in the world to pursue his own goals and work on whatever he felt like working on. Right now, there was a different priority on his list than working on jutsu. Having already considered and accepted that he had to create a home of his own somewhere in the wilderness like the Senju had done in an era that had long since passed, he needed to make sure that the location was nothing but perfect. In the land ruled by the Hidden Cloud, he had to make sure that no one would accidentily stumble into his new home. Trying to figure out ways to ascertain that this would never happen, he came up with the idea to create his home underground. Though this meant that there would not be any natural light, he could always solve that by hanging up torches and creating small vents in the ceiling for fresh air and a means for the smoke to escape. Pulling out a map of the region, there was one place he had in mind that had a nice central position between the Hidden Cloud and would make it easy for him to cross borders without being seen. The only problem with this was the fact that there was a lot of criminal activity in the surrounding area. For the sake of clearing out some threats to the natives of the land of lightning as well as his own, he deemed it best to check the place out and do a bit of scouting. If he was lucky, there might not even be any outlaws in the area, though Hiruzen knew better than to assume that luck was going to be on his side. For someone who had not seen a whole lot of luck in his life, he preferred to keep it out of the equation.

After nearly an hour of wandering from his current location near the eastern border of the country, the Uchiha reached his destination. Finding several indications as to the presence of other people at least having been in the area in the last couple of days, not even Hiruzen's chakra sensory abilities could spot any signs of life other than that of the local fauna. Figuring that the people that had been inhabiting this part of the country had most likely been out to do whatever they had planned, the Uchiha did not want to waste any time waiting around for them to come back. Forming a string of quick seals, he made use of his earth style ninjutsu to lower a ten meters wide part of the ground he was standing on lower to a depth of fifteen meters. Creating a foundation for his new home, he maintained his control over the earth to manipulate the earth that was five meters above him to close up, taking trees, plants, grass and other shrubbery along with it to keep it from standing out. Leaving a single room of ten by ten and five meters from floor to ceiling, the biggest part of his new had been built in a time span ranging from two to five minutes. Though it was all too obvious that he was not a Senju and had no architectural skills, he had at least managed to create a decent room that could hold what little possessions he had. With a ten meters thick roof of solid earth over his head, the chances of people busting into his home by chance were extremely small.

Standing in complete darkness, Hiruzen created small shafts in his ceiling of several centimeters in width that allows minuscule bits of light in, they served to let in oxygen and release unwanted odors. Not feeling like elaborating on what he had built at this point in time, he continued pushing his chakra to create a tunnel that moved roughly twenty meters on before maneuvering up and leaving a gap in the surrounding terrain. Creating a staircase that went down several meters before connecting to the tunnel he had made, he had a way into his home too. Walking towards the place right above his home, he started looking for the vents in the floor, finding that he could barely see them due to the grass and small plants growing around them. Heading back into the tunnel and closing off the entrance, he wandered through the darkness and into the main room where he sat himself down against a wall. Having used a fair amount of his chakra, he was trying to rest up for a moment, though it seemed that circumstances would not allow it. Hearing the footsteps of people above him a lot more clear than he used to, he wondered if the fruits of his training in the temple had bigger results than he initially realized. Listening closely, he could feel several footsteps above him, which was quite weird considering the ten meters of solid rock between them. Wondering about just what the hell was going on with him, he figured that the most urgent thing right now was to figure out who was walking around in the territory he had claimed for himself. Walking down the dark tunnel again, he emerged from the earth, only to see a handful of bandits leaning against the trees and collecting firewood.

If him living here, or at least storing his belongings here was to work out, he did not want a bunch of bandits wandering too close to the place. Taking a moment to just watch them as they were talking to one another and picked branches and twigs, it did not take very long for him to figure out that they were all armed with rather crude weaponry. Ranging from hatchets to shivs, they could be considered quite dangerous to the regular civilian and probably to most Genin, though they did not impress the Uchiha much at all. Having calmed down mostly from learning just how much his perceptive senses had grown since his several months of training in the Iron Temple, he had to leave things for what they were and scare off the interlopers.

"Excuse me gentlemen, but as a shinobi of the Hidden Cloud, I am here to tell you that if you are not taking your business elsewhere, me and my allies are authorized to murder you all. If you would like to try your luck against me, i'll give you two minutes to try and hurt me before I retaliate and make your lifeless bodies disappear. From now on, this area is closed to all unauthorized personal, did I make myself clear?".

Being quite the good liar, Hiruzen let the men know exactly what was going to happen if they were not going to leave and not come back. As soon as he was done talking about his non-existent allies, two of them started looking around to try and locate the people Hiruzen was talking about. Believing that at least two out of the three had been scared enough, one of the men dropped the bundle of wood he was carrying and reached for his Shiv. Attacking the Uchiha, he did exactly as he had promised, he would wait two minutes before he would go on the offensive. Looking on as the shiv moved at him, his ears could hear the sound originating from the weapon cutting through the air, hear the changes in his footwork as his feet made contact with the ground and see what the man was planning with his eyes. Even without the use of his Sharingan, Hiruzen had several ways of knowing exactly what was going on around him, ways he was constantly using due to his inability to shut down his instincts. Effortlessly avoided every single attack that came at him, the expression on his face remained devoid of any emotion as he believed this would inspire more fear than it would if he were to smile. After all, the goal was to make them believe that the Hidden Cloud was making use of this area, not to make them believe that some maniac had kicked them out on their ass as that would most likely just make the rest of the people that worked with them come after him. Though that would not be much of a problem, littering the area with corpses would beat the purpose of a hidden base.

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...".

Counting down the seconds, the man pulled back from swinging at the Uchiha again, realizing that no matter how hard he tried, he would not land a single hit. More important than that was that with every strike he missed, time was slowly ticking down to the point where he would get himself killed for his own stubbornness. When he turned around, it seemed that his two so-called allies had already turned and ran away as soon as he had attacked Hiruzen. In truth, they were the only smart people in this situation. Jumping back, the man dropped his shiv into a make-shift scabbard before forming a string of rather slow yet recognizable hand seals. Even before the jutsu was cast, Hiruzen could already tell that this man was aiming for the shadow clone jutsu. Closing his eyes as he rested his face in the palm of his hand, the man and his clone both charged at Hiruzen from separate directions. While he could not see them for a moment, he could hear and even feel their footsteps resonating in the ground. If his chakra sensory ability had not been enough to accurately keep track of people, it seemed that his body had adapted to what the Shogun had been trying to teach him more than Hiruzen cared to admit or even realize at the time. Lowering his stance, he spun his body around with a low kick, removing the footing of the man and his clone and causing them to fall flat on their face. With a loud smack, they both fell to the ground while Hiruzen rose back to his feet. Opening his eyes again, he looked down on the fallen outlaw as if he were telling him to get back on his feet and run for it while he still had the chance.

Though Hiruzen had no intention of killing him at all, the man had no way of knowing that. Doing the clever thing, the man let his clone distract Hiruzen while he made a run for it, or at least that was what he tried. While the clone pulled his shiv and attacked Hiruzen head on, the man rushed past him at full speed. Keeping his eyes locked on the clone, he could still feel the man running away through the vibrations his movement left within the ground. Capable of sensing him until he was at least a good twenty meters away, Hiruzen quickly dispatched the clone by disarming him and stabbing him in the temple with it's own shiv. With the area cleared out, Hiruzen smiled a bit. With the outlaw filth scared out of their mind and sent running back to their leader, he could continue working on his home. Passing into the tunnel and shutting the entrance behind him, Hiruzen could honestly say that he was starting to get used to the darkness around him. Though a lot of ideas had already formed in his mind, there was one thing he had to be sure of first. Due to the lack of furniture, he bent through his knees and placed a hand to the ground. Focusing on his extrasensory abilities, he used both his chakra sensory as well as his new found ability to sense vibrations within a certain range to make sure there was no one left in the near vicinity. After a minute or so, he was certain that the largest thing around at the moment was a lone deer that was grazing right above him. Now that the coast was clear, he could finally start building the rest of his home, and for that, he was going to go all out. Making sure to check the terrain with his sensory abilities several times an hour, no one would stand in the way of building his new home.

2332/2000 words
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