The nights had been long and painful as of late. With the hiring of his new secretary and maid who happened to be the same person, he now had much more free time than before. Suddenly a whole two hours at night had become almost six and he was glad he now had the additional time. Anyone else in the world would have used this extra time to relax from a schedule like his; after all he was the ANBU Captain and the second seat of the Seven Swordsman, both of which took the majority of his time. With great power comes great responsibility or at least lack of a decent sleep schedule. He would walk through the front door to his rather large house in the city. The house itself given to him by the Mizukage as a reward for everything he had done to help the village in the war and also to give him a respectable appearance in the village to go along with his prestigious titles. The house itself set toward the dead center of the village was just a hop and a skip away from the administration building. The large house itself was also almost an entire block large complete with its own front gate and garden before one would reach the front door. In all honesty he had wanted to protest his new living quarters because it was too big for him alone but it was the smallest one of the ones he had been offered.

Once he entered the house he had a look around as he slid his boots off at the door just after he closes the door ad locked it. The house seemed as empty as usual at this time of the night. His maid Miu would still probably be at the club taking care of the work he would have had to do normally. With a sigh of relief he would ascended the cherry wood staircase to the top of the three story house and into his grand master bedroom. His master bedroom roughly the size of most people’s houses in terms of square footage. It had his large king sized memory foam mattress on top of his four post cherry wood bed frame. The rest of the furniture including his couch and pool table were all designed to match the color coordination of the room. His whole room was dark and in shades of deep red except for the floor. Feeling completely exhausted he would decide not to take a shower before going to bed but instead opt to just pass out and not have to worry about another thing for the rest of the night. He turned the light off in his bedroom and put up all of his ninja equipment including his sword before he slid under the sheets and comforter of his hard bed and rested his head against the soft pillow. He would lay there staring at the ceiling deep in thought until he fell asleep.

When he woke up he couldn’t help but feel stressed out already knowing he didn’t want to be getting up at all. If he could he would have told the Mizukage he was too sick to do any of his major duties around the village. She probably would have killed him on the spot if he ever even considered doing something crazy like that, and in all honesty he wouldn’t ever try to do something like that. It was written in his blood at this point that he would serve to be the best for Kiri and any less was dishonorable and worthy of death. He wanted to serve and be needed and with the power he now contained from the adversity he had faced he knew he could achieve even greater things. He reluctantly rose to his feet and stood up out of the bed and headed to the bathroom to clean up. Upon walking into his large master bathroom he stripped down and entered the large soap stone shower and cranked the heat all the way up. He would stand there using his arms to lean against the wall as the water poured down on top of him. His mind had begun to race with all sorts of different things. Most notably as of late was his reoccurring dreams. He never knew what to take away from them. It was the same thing he had envisioned while he had been in a coma for almost a week following the war.

He would imagine waking up within the desolate temple god knows where. The temple was old and well hidden within a cave of some kind because it was dark everywhere else but the actual temple itself that had various torches lit everywhere. He would walk inside and see the Shikyo symbol in gold printed on the wall just above an old altar. Dameon would proceed slowly avoiding various kinds of traps that would surely end his life should he miss a single step. It would seem like the long large room with the altar would last forever to reach the end. Finally though he would make it and climb the stairs behind the altar getting closer to the mark of his clan that had a large chest sitting under the symbol. As Dameon would go to open the large chest he would wake up completely unaware and unsure of what was in the beautifully crafted chest that had been lined in gold. Dameon would always think about this dream wondering where it was and if it even existed. He also contemplated the idea that his brain had been somewhat damaged during the war and during his time in the coma. The hot water would continue to pour on him as he finally grabbed the soap and shampoo and began to clean himself from the night of rest and the day before it where he had started up a new training regimen that had started kicking his ass as of late. It was a nice change of pace and he could already feel himself benefitting from it.

After preparing himself in the bathroom he walked out completely naked and tossed on his usual clothes with the brown jacket and his pants and boots. He didn’t have to pull any ANBU guard duty today since they were finally starting to get new recruits in. It was at that point when he finished getting dressed and had stopped to listen that he realized things were unusually quiet in the house. He stuck his head through the door frame and looked left and right down the hall before running from one bedroom to the next. He made sure to stop in all the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the living rooms. He scratched back of his neck wondering where his new secretary had run off too so early in the morning. All he really did know was that she was not in the house. He ran through his house again making sure everything was where it should have been and it was more than that everything in the house was also spotless. To him it was like waking up in a completely different home, granted he never really did anything to make the house a mess it was still a little bizarre to him.  He made sure to grab all of his equipment before he headed to the door and opened it slowly the light from outside nearly blinding his eyes. He disliked daytime a lot more night time and now he could already feel a headache begin.

He would sigh in discomfort but proceed onward to where his new training grounds were. His old training grounds, the one that used to be the secret training grounds of the prior seven swordsmen. That training field was now known to some of his few and carefully picked students. He was happy for them to use his training field, the very one he used to train himself alone at and eventually became one of the strongest shinobi in the village, and while it put a halfhearted grin on his face he knew that he needed to find a completely different place even harder to find than the last. Especially since the new techniques he would be training would be much more devastating and deadly, and over all should not be witnessed by the public. It was because of this he was heading for the mountain, more specifically under the mountains. There was a deep dark cave that was fairly well hidden and he planned on using this cave to train himself in much more rigorous ways than he had in the past. He had already set the cave up, so now it was just a matter of finding the facility he had created. As he reached the village walls he dashed over them making sure he wasn’t followed. The last thing he needed was to lose another training ground to some pesky students.

He would quickly dash through the trees using both his legs and arms to swing and launch himself through the dense forest in an almost unrealistic manner. His speed and reflexes bending him through the trees with ease as he finally reached the large opening of the cave he had set up. To anyone uncurious it would look like the face of a mountain but in reality it was like the face of a mountain…with a hole. The hole itself was small hidden behind some bushes laid against the rock. Dameon would reach it and slide down the dark slide a few hundred feet before finally reaching the bottom he would crawl through and stand up revealing a very very large cavern. To anyone that saw the amazing sight one would think that the mountain itself was hollow. There was a large lake of water that went down hundreds of feet into the ocean. The cavern floor that surrounded the large body of water was smooth like fresh asphalt and the cavern ceilings a good hundred feet high dripped damp water on the drown from the rock formations that came down in spikes. If it was nothing else, it was peaceful. Against the closer wall was a mattress on a metal spring bed that looked ancient and completely uncomfortable. Next to it alone the wall were various instruments of working out; a salmon ladder, weapon rack, weighted training clothes, and other various things. Dameon would walk past them not needing any equipment for the type of training he was going to be doing today. Today he was going to learn new jutsu and he wasn’t going to leave the cave until he learned at least three new ones. Having already told Miu and the Mizukage of his plan they would be prepared no matter how long it took him to accomplish his goal.

Dameon lined himself up in the middle of the large cavern the lake on the opposite end. He needed to be on solid ground and preferably not water to create better raiton element jutsu. He would start by bring his fingers together and forming a couple of careful hand seals and make a raiton clone. His goal for the jutsu would be to maximize the explosive potential of the clone. Everyone knew when a raiton clone is struck it disperses into its original state. The same could be said for all clones, water clones became water, mud clones became mud, and so forth; but only raiton clones truly became more dangerous in their original state than as a clone, or at least potentially. His idea was simple, release all of this raw and destructive damage at once and create something of a bomb the downsides were tremendous. Learning this jutsu he would have its own consequences, he had to learn the entire jutsu by having the clones perform it in all of the phases of the jutsu and trial it out. If he didn’t he himself would explode into a bunch of itty bitty pieces. At that point he wouldn’t be able to use the jutsu again anyways.

Something else had to happen with this jutsu as well that made it psychologically more difficult. The clones were him. They had his looks and personality and they could even transfer all the pain they felt and experience right back into him. To become suicidal enough to create a bomb out of a version of yourself would be mentally torturous. It was worth the risk though, at least to himself it was. After fighting with the Mizukage he realized just how powerful a technique like this could be, and performing it in a fight could change the battle of everything and then some. Dameon would send the clone out far away on the opposite end of the cavern on top of the lake of water. His hope was that if the jutsu performed as he thought that the water would help reduce some of the explosion so he didn’t die under a literal mountain of rubble. The clone would leap forward with the knowledge of Dameon and what he was supposed to do to perform this jutsu. The clone would focus its raiton chakra and condense it in his chest building it up more and more and more. He would build it up so that it was like he was channeling a jutsu from his hands, but this time it was coming from his chest. The clone sat there focused on top of the water with its legs crossed focusing and harnessing the chakra to a dangerous point.

Dameon would get back further and further away making sure that he was nowhere close to the clone if and when the clone decided to go off. He was essentially asking himself to commit suicide for greater knowledge and power. He wondered if the clone would be able to go through with it. Dameon stood there thinking deeply in himself whether or not he would be able to do such a thing if the time called for it. In the right situation he would but the more and more he thought about his misery that he lived with he would nod in approval. He could commit suicide if he wanted and he knew this now as a tear ran down his right cheek. Perhaps the clone was debating the same thing right now. As that last thought occurred to him the clone would erupt. The raiton chakra that was built up in his chest would expand outward at an extremely larger rate covering almost the entire lake in an instant. Dirt and stone would fly around as the areas of land hit around the lake were touched. As the smoke cleared Dameon opened his mouth in both excitement and fear as he stared at the scene that had been created. What few areas that were affected by the clones explosion were completely missing living a spherical shape as a whole. It was as if whatever it touched became nothing at all, completely and utterly disintegrated.

2,525wc
2,500 for white raiton explosion S
25wc remaining

Hours would pass but they would seem like an eternity within the cave. Without light from the outside and just string electric lights lit up around the cavern one could lose sense of time dramatically. It was a miserable way to live and the living conditions themselves were nothing but subpar. It was humbling though the cave took the best people, the ones who were the sanest in the world and flipped them and drove them crazy. The lack of oxygen in conjunction with the dampness of the cave could make people sick the moment they let their guard down. The only two exits a narrow crawl space upwards a few hundred feet without the ability to raise your head or the disastrous water in the lake that lead into the ocean with no clear escape in a pitch black environment thousands of feet under the island itself. One was unpleasant the other was a challenge. The only way he had gotten the equipment and one bed into the cave was from the water and that look days to accomplish using only the small outlets of oxygen available along the rocks on the way. What had drove him to discover its exit was even more worrisome. He had zero knowledge on where it would lead or if it lead anywhere he had went exploring into the cave only because he planned on never going back out until he had found an alternate exit or made one, if he died along the way it was worth it. His inability to fear was put to the test in the only way he logically could think of.

The hours of making his clones commit suicide were beginning to screw with his mind, twisting and creating thought and feelings of agony and thoughts of suicide poured into his mind like the water that dripped from the cave. It wasn’t overwhelming or all at once, instead it was a thought every half an hour or so that kept eating away and pestering at his very soul and being. He would scream and hold his head as if in pain but in reality he wanted the visions and strong urges to stop. He had a goal and no matter what happened he would reach that goal even if his own mind and body were telling him to end it all. Finally twelve hours later of practicing he would collapse on the stone floor in a puddle his own sweat and tears. He would wake up only four hours later the cavern controlling his sleep schedule in a grueling way by depriving him of oxygen as the wind hit the side of the mountain creating a suction that prevented air from entering. This would happen often and more so on windy days making him light headed and produce strong headaches with euphoria. He had spent almost a week down here before and the harsh conditions is why he trained here because anything easy in this life was not worth having.

With his head splitting he worked his way over to the cavern wall that housed all of his training and living supplies. Opening the old cupboard he had lying against the wall he took out a large jug of water and began to drink it till the gallon was gone. He would then set the jug under a stalactite that was ever so slowly dripping water. He decided that today he would train until the gallon jug filled up with water. Having done this same process before he planned ahead knowing that he would be in for a very, very long day. His mind filled with more and more jutsu ideas as well as his thoughts of suicide made it harder and harder for him to focus on any one idea so instead he decided he would fight himself till he had a reasonable answer. He would create a clone like he had yesterday and walk over to the weapon rack each of them would grab a Jo staff from the rack and separate themselves on the open floor and prepare to fight one another. Dameon wasn’t in any way shape or form a specialist in staff weapons but he was willing to learn anything new that could benefit him. Though his clone was also as poorly skilled in staff weaponry as he was obviously. Dameon knew the bare basics and with that he needed to become better. Dameon would prepare his stance in the standard open stance used in aikido and his clone would perform the closed stance, their footing creating a box of sorts.

Dameon would start the attack vertically and the clone would parry from the top spinning the staff to strike Dameon in the side of the head. Much like using a sword Dameon would rotate the staff back in a crescent motion deflecting the clones counter attack. Using this same momentum he would choke up his grip to the center of the staff and rotate the staff around quickly to strike the clone in the side of its neck to which the clone would deflect as well. With each block and deflect that occurred a loud snap could be heard from the wood striking one another in rapid succession Dameon would stop by moving the staff back to his sides and swearing a bit under his breath. This was useless without someone who could break the chain of deflecting and counter attacking he would need someone more skilled in various weaponry to learn to use such a graceful weapon. Dameon would drop the staff as would the clone as he prepared the same stance he had earlier but with no weapons. He was skilled in taijutsu at least, Aikido and Aikijutsu both of which involved using the opponent’s momentum against them and performing various move, locks, or strikes based on the advantage given. The clone would follow suit preparing itself in the exact mirrored version of Dameon’s stance. Dameon would strike first and be more on guard to try and re-counter the clone’s inevitable counter attack.

Dameon would prepare to strike first but as he did the clone move forward enough to send a high kick at him. Dameon would bring up his arm to cover the right side of his head and block the attack. He would then move in as the clone regrouped from his attack. Dameon launched a left hook at the clone that was knocked away by the clones hand before it sent a right jab of its own aiming toward Dameon’s chin. Dameon would step to the side of the jab just enough to give a strong sideways chop to the clone’s kidney area. The clone would back off knowing that a few hits would cause him to revert back to his electrical state. Dameon of course also knew this fact and would do his best to keep the clone intact so he could continue the physical training before he moved into jutsu creation. The clone charged at him again with the same kick as before but with the opposite leg, Anticipating this from reading the clones hips Dameon would step outside the kick moving quickly in the direction that the kick had travelled from and stepped caught the clones foot with his right hand. Dameon would follow this up with another chop to the back of the clone’s calf causing the leg to buckle giving up all of the clones balance. Dameon would follow this up by pushing the clone to send it to the ground but in an act of desperation he clone would leap off of its free leg and perform a back flip landing perfectly roughly three meters away. Dameon had forgotten just how nimble he could be but would once again realize this after seeing his clone in action.

The sparring and fighting with the clone would last a good five hours till both he and the clone were drenched with sweat causing them to abandon their soaked shirt and jacket. Light red marks were on the clone’s body from attacks but there were a few good bruises on Dameon along with a small cut above his eye that was already beginning to scab up. The clone had full reign to do damage to him but he had to be careful as to not to damage the clone or he risked spending another half of his chakra to create another one. The time had come for the two of them to grab the weapon they specialized in the most. Dameon would walk over to the weapon rack and pull out two katanas. One he would keep for himself and the other he tossed to his clone. Dameon wiped the sweat away from his mouth as he readied his stance. The faint light reflecting off the sweat of his muscular frame. The clone would do the same. Most people and shinobi would consider clones to be weaker than the usual, brittle and incapable of thinking or dealing as much damage as the original. Whether or not this was a true statement or not was ultimately irrelevant. The cave that they trained in had uniqueness to it. The environment was so harsh it crippled those that were stronger than average. The cold wet atmosphere gave birth to different kinds of mold and fungus that circled the cavern walls while he assumed these were not deadly he knew for a fact they restricted power. Considering the number of days he put in working within the cave he would have been dead long ago if that was the case. Instead it had a way of equalizing power, somehow Genin were more of a suitable match for Jounin because the Jounin were handicapped to their level. At that point physical dominance meant nothing it was all about skill.

They would continue fighting for roughly another five hours without a scratch on either one of them. Their skill so equal it made it feel like one was fighting a mirrored image of themselves. None of them were able to prove the more dominant foe and it was times like this Dameon contemplated jutsu. When he was pushed to a breaking point or needed a way to beat his opponent quickly and decisively he came up with a way to do it. Dameon would continue fighting with his clone whilst he slowly built up chakra. More sounds of the clashing of metal rang out, Dameon was curious if the blades would break and shatter before they themselves got tired enough to call it a draw. The thought of it put a smile on his face as he extended his finger to prepare his disarming jutsu on the clone. The clone already knowing this jutsu would easily avoid b hopping out of range the moment Dameon’s finger extended outward. Swearing under his breath slightly he ran forward trying to cut the clone down only to be met with the clones sword again deflecting his attack off to the side. Perhaps it was time he rethought about his old prior jutsu that involved disarming an enemy. Dameon began to think on this as he deflected the clone’s barrage curious as to how he could create a jutsu powerful enough to guarantee an enemy to want to drop their primary weapon out of fear or reaction to a jutsu. As Dameon contemplated the idea and possibilities a sly grin appeared on his face. Dameon would extend his hand outward as the clones blade came down. Raiton would fire off from his hands and into the clone’s sword travelling through the blade into the clone’s hands. The clone would stand there stunned and scream in agony before dispersing into its natural state of raiton. Luckily Dameon had been just outside of the range necessary that his own clone hadn’t hurt him. Dameon would hold the blade down to his side and give a small nod of approval to himself as he realized the jutsu he had created was exactly like the one he had envisioned in his mind.

[2,030 WC]
[2,000 WC for 16 pillar bind A rank jutsu]
[55wc remaining]

It was pitch black outside. it was about 3:00 in the morning and Miah woke up with cold sweat running down her. she sat up immediately as the panic in her body started to fade. what had she been dreaming about? she didn't know but she didn't dare go back to sleep again, so she got out of bed and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower before going about her daily things. she got out of the shower about 30 minutes later, and quickly got dressed before she head out the door.

it was a decent day with alright weather for kirigakure, but it was still early enough in the morning that not alot of people were up and around the village. Miah herself had just gotten up and was already wondering around the village with her cat, Smokey, close her heels. Miah was planning on going out into the wilderness today and so she had packed a backpack full of food and was headed towards the front gate of the village. Today she figured she would go explore just a little bit before she would train, she walked down the path leading away from the village for a little while longer until she reached her usual entrance into the forest. To everyone else this just looked like a few tall bushes in between two tall trees and one of them with a kunai slash mark on it that had been there even before Miah had found the place. Miah walked up and parted to the bushes to reveal a small trail that lead into the deep dark forest she walked along it until she passed her favorite training grounds, and a flood of memories of her training there came rushing to her, but this wasn't getting any exploring done. so she turned the opposite direction and started to walk that way. Smokey gave her a confused look thinking we must just be going to train, but continued to follow her master anyways. Miah walked through the dense forest trying to familiarize herself with and unfamiliar area, but to no such success all of the area she walked acrossed just looked the same. She wasn't lost its just none of it looked any different to her and so she couldn't be confident in her abilities to come back to this exact location at a later point in the future, but regardless she continued on in hopes of finding something worth while.

About an hour into there trek (making it roughly 4:45 A.M.) Smokey meowed once to let her master know that she was hungry. which Miah reacted correctly to instantly because the only time Smokey meows is when she wants food other than that she is a pretty quiet cat, and so Miah sat down and leaned up against a log and pulled out a small cup filled with dry cat food. Then she set the cup in front of the cats face and watch her eat the food happily. after she finished her meal Miah put the empty cup back her bag and continued walking around. 

After another 15 minutes Miah looked up through an opening in the trees and noticed a mountain and she figured she would go check it and so her and smokey started heading that direction. walking through the dense forest she noticed that the it was kind of wet around... it had probably rained the night before. Miah made it to the mountain in no time flat and began wondering around it looking for a place to climb up it, finally she found a place and parted the bushes in order to get close to the mountain, but what she found was much less than a mountain she acctaully found a hole the was so deep that she couldn't even see it down it. Miah shrugged and figured eh what could go wrong? so she slid down the hole... It seemed like forever before she reached the bottom and her cat not long after her. thats when she saw him... this man was battling, well himself. miah sat quietly and watched the show until one of the pair's blade light up with blue, and he dropped the blade with his hands burning and then exploded into a ball of raiton. Miah had to assume the other one was the orignal seeing as how he did not poof into the air after the first one died, so she sat up and walked over to him... "Hi my name is Miah and this is my cat smokey" Miah said gesturing towards her cat as she slowly approached the man until she was right up next to him, the only reason she was so calm about approaching him was that she did not want to give off the wrong vibe and then die to his hand, so once she got to her position, she bowed to signify that he was the elder and he had complete control over the situation. 


Word count:846
Perception training E -> D 846 / 750
96 left over

He would resume his training wanting to master his skills and new jutsu both of them until he felt the need to create another. There was no point in learning a ton of jutsu if you couldn’t completely master all of them. It was because of this line of thinking that Dameon often spent longer than most when training new jutsu. It was the same reason he had set aside a whole week dedicated to his cave within the depths of Kiri. Those of higher rank such as the Sannin and the Mizukage knew of the cave and its humbling powers to force a shinobi to perform at their absolute best or risk dying a slow agonizing death of starvation or lack of oxygen. It was highly unlikely that young shinobi in terms of experience as opposed to age were able to handle the harsh environment and it as because of this that the cave remained a secret and loosely guarded so wandering genin would not discover the cave or enter it accidentally. It was also the reason why the cave was so out of the way of the actual village itself. It had already been three days since he learned his last jutsu and sweat still dripped from Dameon’s body even as he slept and as he worked out seeming to never clear from his body. The lack of oxygen to his brain causing his body to work overtime and struggle to use more oxygen to power the rest of his body which made him weaker than usual. Still the daily routine would continue.

He awoke from his restless sleep on the old beaten up damp mattress he used to use as a child growing up on the streets. The mattress looked like it could of housed more deadly toxins than the actual cavern itself and his gallon jug of water was still filling up from the dripping stalactites from the night before last. He would keep no record of how long he had been down in the cave only using what knowledge he could think of with his own mind to stimulate his brain. Waking up he would swing his feet over and attempt to stand up. His legs would falter enough that he would fall forward catching himself with his hands as he forced himself to stand up his body protesting in agony as he slowly inched his way to the large body of water. Ever so slowly he would drag himself to the water hungry from having not eaten in the last three days. On the way to the water he would grab a kunai and stick it in the holster on the side of his pant leg. He would jump into the water feeling instantly refreshed as he surfaced to suck in more oxygen. His muscles struggled to keep him afloat but at least now he was awake and ready to try and hunt for the first bit of food that he would desperately need if he wanted to continue training.

Dameon would take a deep breath and dive under the water keeping his eyes open and pushing himself forward through the cold water. His left hand would reach for his pant leg on the left side and pull out a small chem light. He cracked it against his leg and the lake of water lit up brightly in faint green. He would continue swimming straight down a good hundred feet before he reached the entrance to a small tunnel. It was just big enough to fit a single person and he would slide through expertly. The small tunnel lead directly out to the ocean but in a winding twisting fashion that would make most people panic and fearful especially if one was claustrophobic. Alone the way however were very small inlets of air one could use to regain their breath assuming they didn’t become lost and risk exhausting all their energy forcing them to use more oxygen and panic before they began to suck in water and drown. Dameon however had been to the cave plenty of times, as of late he was at least going once a month to keep on top of his game, more than anyone else ever had in the past. Most high level shinobi would go once as a trial and never want to return again because of the amount of stress one had to endure to survive. Dameon saw it as a challenge knowing that one had to overcome their fears and push themselves to the absolute breaking point to be able to improve themselves. On the other hand Dameon was also a special case he did it to try and feel a sense of fear and thrill. To him the cave was a chance to feel something he never had felt before, emotion. His brain would go haywire and he would feel stressed and at points suicidal but he also looked at those moments as feeling something as opposed to feeling like he was going crazy.

Dameon would continue on ward stopping only once to take a breath along the way. The benefit he had was experience knowing and marking each air pocket with his kunai and leaving small arrows cut into the tunnel to correct his course both in and out of the cave. After all, all the equipment he had in the cave had to come in from the water so it was sort of trail by fire. What he needed now was food without leaving the tunnel. Around the entrance he knew fish liked to gather because of the abundance of algae. There were also other various creatures like crabs that were around the entrance as well. He was hunting for pretty much anything he could find at the entrance but what was there kind of surprised him. As he approached the entrance he spotted a very large fish. His chem light would shine across the skin of a large shark that had been using the cave or exploring it as well. To Dameon this was both a challenge and his best chance at eating very well. Though he also didn’t need to kill it considering he didn’t plan on eating that much, however he couldn’t resist the thought of collecting multiple shark teeth if nothing but for decoration for the seven swordsman who respected the shark as their sort of icon.

Dameon would reach down to his right side holster and slide the kunai back out making sure to use the air pocked one last time before he dove back down to face the mammoth. As he descended back into the underwater tunnel the shark would turn around sensing its enemy and charge at Dameon. Fighting sharks weren’t all that difficult to someone who knew the ways to harm a shark. Their skin was notoriously hard but their noses were extremely soft and sensitive because it contained all of the senses for the shark in one spot. It was no different than say hitting someone very hard in the brain stem, though many times more sensitive. With his kunai ready the shark sped up faster and faster. Dameon prepared the kunai as he remained still his legs extended outward. Sharks tended to always attack center mass of a target seeing as their common prey were almost always appendage free fish. Humans had arms and legs and the only times sharks would attack arms and legs are when they got in the way of the torso and neck. He prepared as the shark attacked. Dameon stabbed the kunai into the sharks nose and the shark carried him toward the wall of the tunnel as blood poured into the water. He would remove the kunai and stab into the stop of the skull piercing the shark’s skull and into its brain. However the momentum was still there as Dameon slammed his back into the wall the sharp corner cutting his side deep. He would exhale in pain as bubbles flew from his mouth. Still though he had his kill.

After a good half an hour Dameon would finally surface from the lake with the shark carcass and he would throw it to the surface before pulling himself out of the water and heading for the cupboard. Blood poured from his skin and onto the ground leaving a trail as he walked. He was planning on suturing the cut before he lost too much blood. The cut ran just above his hip on his left side. Opening the cupboard he would grab an old needle and thread along with a bottle of alcohol that was left for sterilizing anything that needed to be sterilized. He would sit down against the cavern wall and pour the alcohol along his cut. His teeth would grit in pain slightly but with almost a grin on his face as he poured some on the needle and thread and began to suture himself up by piercing his own flesh with the needle and tying it all together.

After finally taking care of that he would grab supplied needed to start a fire so he could kick his kill. Grabbing his kunai and the shark carcass he began to cut into it and gut it and prepare it making sure to collect the shark teeth and cooking any part of the dead shark that would be edible. He would end up spending another seven days in the cave after this point completely losing track of time and warranting people to come look for him including the Mizukage herself should she deem it prudent. Over the course of the seven days he would completely use the shark’s flesh up from cooking it and toss the remains back into the water. He would also continue to train pushing himself harder and harder now that he was risking his life with a possible infection from his cut from hunting the shark. He would master the jutsu he had learned when he first had gotten there but he would still be left craving more. Days blended together now as he slept only when he got tired to the point where he couldn’t stand anymore and he would pass out wherever he was that his muscles locked. The Mizukage had wanted him to improve so he would do so in the best way he knew how; dedication and constant practice. He cared very little for his own safety and well-being but he wanted to be strong enough to help the Mizukage and anyone else in the village. He was a loyal soldier through and through and he would sacrifice everything on a moment’s notice to serve his village.

A new sound would ring across his ears on day eleven, a sound of grinding that only seemed to speed up faster and faster. Waking up to make sure nothing serious was happening he turned his head to the caves long narrow entrance from the surface. The entrance itself was much easier going down than it was going up as it proved difficult for about anyone to get completely to the bottom from its narrowness and often steep drops. What surprised him even more was the person that had appeared from where the cavern tunnel met the actual cavern itself. A young woman had appeared and behind it was a cat. Dameon would slowly rise to his feet from the bed and rub his eyes not believing what he was seeing as he checked his suture to make sure it wasn’t obviously infected and that he wasn’t hallucinating. When everything checked out he looked at the woman with a raised eye brow wondering how she had managed to find the place and also curious as to how she had managed to get past his own ANBU that was guarding the mountain. Obviously he needed to increase their training schedule if they kept screwing up like this. The woman would speak but Dameon would pretty much ignore every syllable from her mouth as it exited her body. It was only then he started to question what day it was and how long he had been down there for. His bare chest as tight as it ever was from the lack of food and still shiny from the sweat that constantly poured out of him.

“You shouldn’t be down here. It isn’t safe. On top of that this area is very very toxic to those without experience in harsh conditions your cat or yourself are at grave risk of dying,” he said stating in a bold and serious tone of voice. It would not be noticeable at first he was sure but he was well recognized in the village now as one of the swordsman, a sannin, and the ANBU Captain for now until they found a Captain suitable enough to take over his command. She would undoubtedly recognize him once she got past the fact he looked like a beaten up mess.

“What day is it?” he asked in the same tone of voice.


[2,194 WC]
[2,000 WC for white raiton disarm, A rank jutsu]
[249 WC total remaining]

Speed training E -> D 1037/750
287 left over this post
287 + 96 = 383 total left over

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The Cave of Trials: Training within the cave has certain factors that alter the environment and the characters within that environment. All physical stats are reduced by two rank levels (S-B). Those Special Jounin and lower are unable to perform jutsu of all kinds. Those lower than Chuunin will undergo a nasty sickness that lasts for 2,000WC before the character is able to recover. While sick the user will have blurred vision and have loss of balance as well as be extremely dehydrated. Once the cave is entered each character must post at least 2,000WC to leave unharmed (though extremely exhausted and mentally drained).
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Dameon would almost ignore the girl as she responded to his last statement by going to climb back up the tunnel through which she had come from. Dameon knew the tunnel very well and with how narrow and steep it was it would take her some time to get to the top if she even planned on coming back. He had hoped that he had scared her off and he could be alone in his training now. Besides he really didn’t need to be taking care of a sick little kid while he had more valuable things to do with his time. Since he had woken up he knew now was the time to train himself. Walking over to the salmon ladder he had set up to go almost fifty feet into the air he would grab onto the metal bar that was wrapped in tape. Memories began to pour into his head unexpectedly as he remembered the past. He remembered when he used to spar with Keiko who now had not been seen for quite some time. He had recalled her reaction the first time she had seen his salmon ladder set up in the old warehouse that had been destroyed during the final days of the war. It was something else that bothered Dameon as well, he had really loved that warehouse despite how beaten up it was. He would give a soft sigh as he reflected on how he had become what he was today, a weapon.

Dameon would pull himself up and launch his hands with the bar up and over the next rung. He would repeat this process over and over till he eventually made it to the top nearly ten minutes later. Giving a soft exhale he pushed himself up again with the bar and used his feet to kick off of the cavern wall so that he could land gracefully where he had started. He would place the bar back in its original space and walk over to the weapon rack. He however would not grab any weapons instead next to it were weights for his arms and ankles. He would strap them in and tighten them, locking the seals into place so that they could not slide off so easily. He would throw on a tank top as well as he adjusted himself to the weight of a few hundred pounds on each appendage. He had training with weights plenty before and to anyone that was not used to seeing a close range specialist they would be surprised with just how heavy each weight actually was. His speed was incredible and it was one of things he was extremely proud of but it was also because of his clan that he would have an easier time with it than most. This day was a little different though. Today he wanted to train just about everything but speed and that was why he had the weights around his arms as well, which was something he typically never did.

Dameon would go one step further as he grabbed a fresh pair of clothes that sat against the cavern wall. The clothes themselves had a special seal on them that when worn applied weight to the overall body as well. He would slide the clothes on carefully before pressing the seal which activated the weight. His knees would bend slightly as he braced himself against the weight. Rather than resist the couple hundred extra pounds he was no under the pressure of he fell to his knees. Placing his hands on the ground and extending his feet out he began to do pushups as his body adjust to the weight. It would be another good ten minutes before he would stand up with sweat pouring from his forehead. He would walk over to the cavern wall and to a bar he had installed on the wall that extended out for one to do pull ups on or midair crunches. He planned on doing both however as he jumped up against the weight and grabbed the bar with both hands and began to pull himself and the extra weight up. It seemed like an average person doing it however. He had done this kind of training before and he had gotten used to the extra weight now for the most part. In reality it added to much more than one thought. It would make him faster and lighter when the time came to take off the weights and perform.

He would do quite a few pull ups and would alternate between one handed and two handed over and under grip. Finally he would pull himself up and swing his legs over the top of the bar and let his upper body fall. He would stop halfway with his body completely straight at a ninety degree angle before he would pull himself up performing a crunch. Each time he pulled himself up he would exhale air to keep oxygen and his body pumping as he performed crunch after crunch. It was about another ten minutes later he heard the similar noise from before. He would stop himself at the ninety degree mark again and look over to the tunnel entrance as the young girl appeared again. He would lift himself back up and continued like he had never noticed her to begin with. If she wanted to die that was her choice but once she started breathing in the toxic air of the cave she would have to stay down there for a while. He would sigh again at the thought of sharing the cave for the moment and have to make sure she didn’t die from the toxins. The cave was interesting in that sense. Once you were down there for a good ten minutes the toxins would enter your body and unless your body became able to resist it going to the surface only made things worse. He had recalled another shinobi who had spent some time in the cave and left only to have his lungs explode so to speak. Dameon would listen as the girl answered his previous questions. He would stop after hearing them and drop to the ground below.

“I seem to have missed a few days again. This place will do that to you. I don’t reject to you being here other than I don’t want to have to haul your corpse out of here. I have more important things to do. My name is unimportant and if I told you, you would recognize it and things would just get more awkward from there. Besides the only reason you don’t recognize me by my face is because you probably don’t spend a lot of time around the Mizukage, the administration building, ANBU HQ, or the strip club that’s run by the Swordsman of the Mist. Essentially I am saying you don’t know my name because you have either been under a rock or you would prefer that I was a nice person willing to train any random genin with a bit of hope,” he stated as he never actually looked at her as he grabbed his gallon jug of water that was barely halfway full and drank the rest of it before placing it back under the dripping stalactites. He didn’t care that he was more frustrated and irritable than usual because of the cave and its effect that it had on the mind. Though he wondered if it was the caves fault or the amount of times he had committed suicide with the clones since he had been down here.

1,271 WC+249WC=1,520WC Total
[Reaction Time B-2 ~> B-3] 1,125WC
Remaining Total: 395WC

Miah stared the the magnificent cave before her, she could help but let out a small "wow" even though this is the second time he had seen it in her own eyes. she took in every ounce of it as she had done before with wondering eyes. she looked over everything! even the old bed which she hadn't noticed before. The man was doing crunches on a small bar that had been attached to a wall, while he had weights attached to his body. Maih figured he must be doing some kind of training, which must of been why he was down here in the first place. then the tall and very muscular man hopped down from his bar and began talking in his cold and serious voice “I seem to have missed a few days again. This place will do that to you. I don’t reject to you being here other than I don’t want to have to haul your corpse out of here. I have more important things to do. My name is unimportant and if I told you, you would recognize it and things would just get more awkward from there. Besides the only reason you don’t recognize me by my face is because you probably don’t spend a lot of time around the Mizukage, the administration building, ANBU HQ, or the strip club that’s run by the Swordsman of the Mist. Essentially I am saying you don’t know my name because you have either been under a rock or you would prefer that I was a nice person willing to train any random genin with a bit of hope,”  it was true that miah didn't spend a lot of times around any of those things and so she was probably right that that's why Miah didn't recognize him at all, well at least not by his face, but that doesn't mean that his last two statements were true. Miah did not live under a rock... in fact she was quite busy and was doing missions day in and day out and also with training. she also lived in an apartment, not a rock. secondly she did not expect him to be nice, or accepting. nor did she expect him to train her at all, she was simply here because she wanted to be here and that was that, but he was being an asshole and so miah didn't need to tell him anything and so she decided to just blow him off. 

Miah walked over near the lake and began to do push ups on the ground... she was to much a weakling and so she need to build up a little bit more muscle than she had already and so this was her plan, to do some training and work up a little bit more muscle. Miah kept at it steady for about 5 minutes more before the effects of the cave began to hit her slowly increasing to its maximum potential. at first she thought it was a result of her training and so she just pushed on. Of course this only made the effects worse for her, and soon the light headedness was to much for her and she collapsed on the ground, after a few seconds she tried to stand up. when she was on to legs she looked around but couldn't see much dew to her vision being blurred. Miah began to panic a little. she started to breathe heavily, but the lack of oxygen and the toxic fumes where to much for her once more and she collapsed again. she fell forward and down onto the ground now felling the dehydration kicking in. she felt miserable, weak, sick, tired, thirsty. all of these things ran through her mind as she slowly tried to pick herself up once more, but collapsed one the ground again before she could even get her legs to move. Miah's mind raced thinking of all of the possible ending outcomes for this situation she was in. she felt as if she were going to die her on the spot. this was it.... this was the end for her... no she wouldn't let that happen she was not going to die here, but how? how does she get out of this mess. she attempted to think of multiple ways to get her out of her mess, but only one would possibly work. The man a crossed the room that had been so cruel in his speech to her, and the one she had rudely walked away from. he was her only shot... (well at least that's what she thought) But she couldn't she just couldn't he was mean and cruel and probably didn't even care if she died in here or not, and so he was no help. Miah's headache was lowly growing, more and more pain accumulating with every single second that past, her vision worsened being able to see less and less. and finally she gave in. she looked up and reached a hand out towards the air the stood between her and her possible savior and even then all she could muster was "please hel-" her vision went black and her now migraine was screaming inside of her head. her arm fell down to the ground as well as her head... Miah had lost consciousness, she wasn't dead, just unconscious.


WC: 917
Strength Training E -> D 917/750
167 + 383 = 550 word total left over

Dameon would ignore the girl that seemed to brush of his words and warnings. Would go back to his training leaving her to do her thing. So long as she didn’t get in his way he wouldn’t worry about her being there, besides he also knew that eventually the cave would start to affect her and he would be alone again anyways. He walked away to the larger side of the cavern and created another clone and tossed it a sword. He needed to continue where he had picked off from the night before especially if he hoped at seeing any actual improvement to his abilities. The thing about the cave was that if one training and gained strength and improved physically or mentally whilst in the cave, once they left the cave they were improved sevenfold. It was odd and strange but having done it before he knew it was true. In the cave you learned to use all of your strength and brain to train without passing out or worse. Once you left the cave you didn’t need to exert as much energy as you did in the cave an you ended up getting the same result but if you pushed passed that point you gained more strength and ability than you would have otherwise. He would raise his sword to his clone who would mirror his actions. The clone would rush forward and Dameon would deflect the blade and attempt to counter the attack with one of his own but it too would be deflected. Equal skill in the blade meant much longer fights when one didn’t resort to jutsu.

Swords would clash back and forth, the blades swinging so hard that small sparks would fly off the metal as they clashed. Their speed while fighting was so fast that to untrained eyes it would seem that they were moving at impossible speeds. One moment they would be apart the next their blades would be locked. Following that they would be moving quickly around one another, spinning, sidestepping, and deflecting their blades with sparks seemingly flying every second like a constant stream of pyrotechnics. Sweat would pour from his bow with each swing of the blade that was met with the other; his movements were quick and fast but the force behind the sword strong enough to shatter bone even if the blade was not capable of cutting. Dameon would hear a small thud as he turned to look, the clone doing the same. Apparently the young genin had learned that the cave and the sickness it induced was not just a fairytale he had made up. It didn’t matter if he helped her now, her body would either resist and fight off the toxins that were in her body or she would die while she laid there unconscious. Though those that stayed inside the cave were a lot less likely to die than those that left the cave prematurely. It reminded him of his first trip to the cave.

When he was just a genin he had stumbled into the cave accidentally during a bad rainstorm. The water and the darkness of night had washed him down the tunnel and into the abyss that was the cave. It wasn’t long after that the cave began to affect him making him sicker and sicker. He had gotten so sick suddenly that he had practically thrown up everywhere and couldn’t walk straight to save his life. Eventually after a day or so of resisting he had collapsed onto the cold hard ground. He would wake up three days later in a pool of his own sweat and vomit. He was only glad that he collapsed onto his side to that he did not drown in his own fluid. Once had had woken up he had spent a whole day recuperating so that he could crawl out of the tunnel of the cave back to the surface. His strength was gone and his mind was cracked in ways he had never experienced before. Eventually he would be able to walk again despite his body constantly wanting to resist and give up. The secret to fighting the cave was to resist all urge to give in to weakness and push through the pain. Through your own suffering you would become stronger and your mind and body would become stronger, able to handle and take more with the ability to not give up or give in. It was something he noticed almost immediately once he left the cave. Once he had left the cave it felt like everything around him had changed.

Dameon would stop and hold his blade at the side angling the tip of the weapon down to the ground. He looked at her and despite his cold heart and wanting to leave her to fend off the toxins by herself like he had done. He knew what had happened to him was simply luck and that he could have very well died. The Mizukage probably would have been furious if she found out that he had let a genin die in an area that was off limits to genin for a reason. He would groan in annoyance as he released his clone and walked over to the collapsed girl and scooped her up in his arms. He would carry her over to the mattress and place her down on the bed making sure that she was on her side in case she had to throw up. Walking over to the cabinet he would pull out another gallon jug of water and place it by the bed side. He was almost positive she found go in and out of consciousness but she would not be able to recover for at least two days. He would continue training at this point but he would also check in on her every now and then to make sure she wasn’t dead and if needed he would put a wet cloth across her forehead should she develop a fever. It was bothersome to do such things but it was better than killing someone from the same village.

[1,024WC]
[1,419WC Total]
[1,250WC for Reaction Time B3-A]
[169WC Remaining]

The days seemed to be getting longer and longer, that or he was just staying awake longer than he should have been. He had already gone a week over the time frame he had given the Mizukage and the others. Though he was surprised when they didn’t come looking for him or to receive orders. Perhaps it was because they knew he was in the cave still and they didn’t want to risk their own lives. It was also entirely possible that they just knew he would come out when he felt ready to.  He pondered these ideas as he sat there on the cavern floor with his back up against the rocky wall. He kept a wandering eye on the half dead genin who was waking up periodically to vomit in cold sweat before passing out again. It was actually a good sign despite the horrid smell that was beginning to gather in that part of the cavern, and his bed was practically ruined. Still the fact she was vomiting meant her body was fighting the toxins and pushing it out of hey system. It had only been a few hours though and he knew she would need much longer than that to completely recover and become anything but dead weight. He had been a few years younger than her when he had stumbled down into the cave and his life had changed ever since. He was better and stronger for it but he would never forget the first time he had come down here and nearly died.

He would ponder this as he looked over her, resting briefly from his intense training. She was tough, fearless, and borderline stupid. Pretty much everything you would expect from a promising genin, still he hadn’t had a student in a while and for good reason. The students he had trained could never handle his training and often dropped out or decided to give up on their shinobi career. He didn’t think he was that harsh of a sensei but if it came down to numbers not one student had passed his expectations and were currently ninja. Granted he was very selective and had only trained a few. He felt like something was wrong with the latest batch of genin. When he had graduated everyone was ready to fight and die in the war without a moment of hesitation. After the war it seemed like the new genin couldn’t appreciate the weight of their role and title in the village. Dameon would often exploit this weakness and make them realize that being a shinobi was more than being able to do cool things. It was the willingness to die for the person beside you, your village, and your leader. It wasn’t pretty but it was the honest truth and truth he felt the new generation should know. There was blood on his hands, gallons upon gallons of spilled enemy blood from young genin to seasoned jounin. None of it he regretted because he had done it for his country.

Dameon would slide a kunai out from the holster on his leg and twirl the end of it in his finger. He would often do things like this with his kunai’s when he was bored. He had been training for two weeks now and he was honestly running out of ideas that could be better suited for training someone of his skill level. He tossed the kunai straight up into the air and would catch it on the way down between his fingers to where he would twirl it around in his hand before he stuck his finger back in the loop to spin it around again. He wanted a way to train his reaction time and hand eye coordination better, without using his sensory jutsu. Relying on his sensory jutsu to accurately pinpoint an enemy’s location was great but because it was only able to be activated for song lone he deemed it almost necessary to be able to perform well without it, just in case. The problem was coming up with a way to do it. Nothing new or different came to mind and instead he would stand up and create four clones. The strain of using his chakra to make so many clones became apparent as his brow sweat trailed down his face. Each of the clones also had a kunai in their hand like him. Dameon would stand up and grip the kunai in his hand, the clones would mirror the same action.

Rather than having the clones attack all at once which would resort him to taking a completely different action, he would have them attack one at a time with a small delay. This would force him to respond quickly and accurately to block the incoming blade to prevent being stabbed and injured by the replicated kunai’s. The clones would move at his pace but would randomize their stabbing and slashing to keep Dameon guessing. The clang of metal was apparent and could be heard in continuous repetition as he moved to keep deflecting the attacks. Overtime the delay would become shorter and shorter forcing him to become quicker with his eyes and ears and respond even faster. It was proving to be more and more difficult. Every minute or so he would miss one and be cut along his arm or torso depending on where he was when he had finally spotted the incoming attack. To anyone else the clones were moving quickly enough that the delay was almost non-existent unless seen by a well trained eye. Blood drops fell to the ground as he continued to train, not wanting to stop because of a few shallow cuts into his skin. The clones all knew what they were doing; if Dameon got struck they would maintain the same pace until Dameon could accurately react at that interval. Once Dameon showed to them that he could indeed react they would decrease the interval even more making the practice more hazardous.

Dameon would continue this practice for over twelve hours a day before sleeping only to restart the process again the very next day. He didn’t just want to be the fastest because of his clan. Sure his legs and physical speed were enough to outmatch just about anyone, but he wanted his mind to be just as fast so he could prove superior on multiple fronts. After the second day of doing the training he would recognize the need to gather more food. Sighing, he jumped into the water like he had a few days ago. The shark meat he had taken was either eaten or had gone bad at this point. Now he also needed to kill someone for the genin that had decided to show up. He didn’t expect her to be able to navigate the water of the cave that lead out into the ocean via a series of incredibly small tunnels. The initial set of tunnels only about the size of a person to begin with before it slowly expanded into a bigger underwater cave like opening. Putting a sick genin in conditions like that would get her killed since she was already disoriented just trying to walk on land. He would dive under, hunting for anything really and not exactly caring what he found. Eventually he would find a couple tuna and kill them before he tied them to his arms and swam back into the cave and reappeared to find the genin girl already awake.

“You’re stupid. Alive but stupid. You need to eat,” he said briefly as he grabbed the tuna and threw them onto the cavern floor to be gutted, cleaned, cooked, and eaten. He would not make eye contact with the genin as he walked out of the water and threw his jacket back over his bare torso and proceeded to create a fire in the same place he had before.

[1,323WC]
[1,492WC Total]
[Reaction Time: A to A-1= 1,250WC]
[242WC Remaining]

Miah looked around a little bit more trying to find the man in the cave before giving up and figuring that he was gone... well at least for a little bit anyways. then she decided that she needed to train in a way that wasn't so physically exhausting, and she could think of only one way to train her reaction time. she pulled a kunai out of her pocket and then throw it up into the her as high as she could. then she shut her eyes, and then counted for roughly 5 seconds before she opened them to see the kunai above her head, she reached out and caught it by the handle and then tried once more. one... two... three... four... five... she could hear the kunai heading towards the ground at this point, but she still needed to count before it would be in the perfect position for this type of training. SIX! she opened her eyes  to find the kunai right in front of her face. she tried to use her reflexs but missed the kunai and it fell on the gournd with a loud CHINK... she picked it up and then tried again. Miah was curious as to how people with sensory abilities would train there reaction time... she supposed they could do it with clones, but then again what if they didn't have any clones? then what would they do? Miah just figured that they would probably need a sparring partner at that point to be able to increase their reaction time and hand eye coordination. miah had been counting just a little too slow as she had thought about how other people had trained this. and when she opened her eyes at si she found that the Kunai was already down to about the height of her knees and at that point she couldn't catch it. so she picked up the kunai once more and threw it one... two... three... four... five... she could hear it now, and thats how she knew she was on time SIX! she openned her eyes again to find it in the same spot as the time before last and she reached out and caught the kunai! Miah was so excited by her victory that she jumped up and down with joy for a little bit before she decided to get another drink from the water jug that she had now moved away from the bed. once she had taken her drink of what she set the jug back down and turned around then she headed back over to the spot once more and threw the kunai up again. she counted to six, opened her eyes and caught the Kunai in time. she smiled at her success, but then figured she needed to be faster and so she thought she should increase the time she counted. she threw the kunai up in the air once more, then counted to seven slightly faster than she had counted the time before. she opened her eyes to find the kunai just at chest level, she tried to catch it but just wasn't quick enough for it. she did this several more times before she finally caught the kunai. then she was finally satisfied with her reaction time.. well for now anyways and so she looked down to put the kunai in its pouch. then she looked up to find the man from earlier emerging out of the water carrying dead fish she assumed he had caught. then he threw them net to a fire pit where Miah saw a shark corpse that she had never seen before. and he began to start gutting the fish. the gutting of the fish didn't really bother miah and so she began to walk over there. she wanted some shark Teeth. thats then the man began to talk to her “You’re stupid. Alive but stupid. You need to eat,” miah ignored him for a little bit as she pulled the biggest tooth out of the sharks mouth and then walked over and sat down next to him. "hey do you need some help?" miah asked wanting to be somewhat useful. as she pulled one of the many tuna in front of her and then awaited his awnser. "also you still never told me your name... and i would like to thank you for helping me when i passed out... i think i owe you a little bit." she said looking at him and smiling.


WC 755

Dameon would ignore the genin for the moment. Sliding out his kunai he would slide it expertly along the dead fish cutting the meat from its bones and tossing away the guts and intestines. Using the nearby water he would clean the fresh cut meat and toss the garbage parts into the water letting them sink to the bottom for other animals to feast on. He would continue flipping the fish over to cut the other side and clean it. Turning back to pile of wood where he had set up a fire before he would extend his hand and focus raiton into his hand and fire it in a continuous stream into the mile of wood. A moment or so later the wood would catch fire and a spread creating a bonfire. He would stop focusing the raiton chakra and lower his hand again. Taking a wire he would wrap the tuna steak around a separate stick and lean it over the fire just far enough that it would cook on its own. He would contemplate the genin’s words unsure exactly what he should say and a part of him didn’t want to say anything. Simply by entering the cave and deciding to stay down in the cave she was endangering her own life and making him have to worry about the both of them. Though in all honesty he didn’t care about himself but having to look after someone so unused to surviving in harsh conditions and fending for themselves was troublesome.

“No I really don’t need any help. You should focus on your own survival. I won’t be preparing your food or helping you survive any further,” he said as he kept his eye on the tuna steak that was cooking over the fire. It was going to take a little longer than he expected. He poked it softly to see how warm it was before standing up and walking over to the shark carcass. He would grab the shark and toss it the good thirty or so meters into the lake letting it sink to the bottom with all the other trash and organic remains that he threw away. He would wipe his hands against his pants and walk back over to the fire and sit down over by his cooking pieces of tuna. He would sit down and cross his legs over top of one another indian style and close his eyes. The fire felt great but it was something he couldn’t keep going on forever as the fire itself would eat up all the oxygen in the cave, and there was already a scarce amount of it. It was because of this that the fire wasn’t its natural sight; instead the fire remained within the wood not shooting up higher like it normally would. Her other statement he felt even more reluctant to answer. He had purposefully not given his name the first time because it was a known name. Even if she hadn’t recognized his face she would easily recognize his name as it was being taught even now in the shinobi academy as he held a high ranking position.

“My name is Dameon. Dameon Shikyo. You don’t owe me anything except maybe a new mattress. I honestly didn’t do anything make sure you didn’t sleep on your back to prevent you from dying from choking on your own vomit. The Mizukage would be upset if I just let another genin die for some silly reason,” he stated making sure to pick his words carefully. He had never actually killed or let any genin die from their own village but she wouldn’t know that. He wanted to instill a little bit of fear, doubt, or at the very least a false fact about him into her head. He also wanted to see if she caught what he had said and how she would respond to it. It was true that Dameon still preferred the ‘Bloody Mist’ training method that the village has used centuries ago that pitted Genin against one another in a fight to the death to separate the weak from the strong. Though today that was obviously not the case he still saw benefit in that way of thinking. At the very least he believed genin should be put near death and forced to survive through less than favorable odds. Every genin he had trained had ended up quitting the path of the shinobi because of his training methods. It was actually a stat he sort of liked having.

“My question to you is. If you have such a death wish why would you thank someone for saving your life? That seems counterproductive, shouldn’t you just give up and let yourself go and die rather than continue to fight? I am not judging you…harshly, I am simply making an observation. You were more worried about your cat than you were yourself. You still have to survive a few more days down here before you can leave without risk of dying. Do you want to continue living or just let the cave take you? You wouldn’t be the first genin. A few hundred used to die down here every year it is why it is forbidden now,” he said asking and explaining to her the situation. He would grab the stick that held the tuna steak and take a bite out of it. Truth be told he hated the taste of seafood immensely but it was something he had gotten over. Dameon knew he didn’t want to live but he would refuse to go out by any means other than an honorable death. That was the difference between him and everyone else. He fought for a good death rather than fighting to survive. Doing so allowed him to fight with a different set of advantages that others would never contemplate. A weight of burden never to be placed on his chest because he feared nobody, nothing, and did not fear the void of death.

Other shinobi often talked about having trouble with death. Able to see and relive the moments the killed someone and feel regret and remorse. It would drive them insane and crack at the very fabrics of their mind. Dameon didn’t experience in any way, shape, or form. Post-traumatic stress was something he never had a problem with. Living a long and meaningless life on the other hand was. He would remain devoted to his cause and oath to protect the village and all of its inhabitants. That oath he had taken would never falter but it would never change how he felt emotionally. He often wondered what would happen if he was made the Mizukage. Should the current Mizukage fall in battle or decide to leave he was a possible successor to the title. While he respected the position and the Mizukages decision to give him such an esteemed role, he often questioned if he would be a good leader with his set characteristics. Sure when it came down to protecting the village or acting dispassionately and making rational decisions he would excel. Most kage’s however shared some sort of connection to the people of their village and were beloved. Dameon however was always the outcast until recently and now everyone seemed to love him. He however found it hard to love the people back that had all but given up on him. He would protect them and fight for them and continue to give them the life he never had but he could never truly love them, or anyone.

He would finish the tuna steak and toss the stick aside before he stood up and walked away from the bonfire. He would have to get rid of it in a few minutes but he would allow the genin to finish preparing her meal before he did so. In the future he would not be so kind. He would make his way slowly over to the weapons rack and take one of the katanas and leave it in its sheath. He would rest it on his side. He pulled out five kunai and held them all in his right hand. He would raise his hand and toss them at the cavern wall and good thirty meters away. As he released the kunai from his grip he would sprint and run ahead of them and draw the blade from its sheathe and begin to deflect the kunai’s he had thrown one bye one. Each time he deflected them he would angle the edge of the blade downward so that the kunai would fly up into the air. He would then sprint ahead of them again, running up the wall to deflect them, this time sending them back toward the ground. He would leap off of the ceiling toward the ground and put the katana back in its sheath as he grabbed each kunai out of the air with his right hand only, attempting to catch them all before they and he hit the ground. He would catch them all and rotate his body so that he would land on the ground gracefully and slide the kuani back into his holsters and pouch.

[1,533WC]
[1,775WC Total]
[Reaction Time: A-1 to A-2= 1,438WC]
[337WC Remaining]

Miah sitting next to the older man, watched as he expertly cut, clean and gutted the fish and then made a fire and began to cook it slowly... she felt her belly rumble at the site of such tasty looking food, but she didn't dare try and take it and eat it without permission, so she would simply wait it out. “No I really don’t need any help. You should focus on your own survival. I won’t be preparing your food or helping you survive any further,” Miah was a bit shocked that she would be having to prepare her own food, but no matter. she was glad she came prepared for something like this. she got up and walked over to the terrible smelling bed, and looked around it for a good few minutes before she finally found it and then walked back to the campsite just in time to find the man speaking again, now with the shark and all of the intestines simply gone. hmm that seemed odd to Miah, but since he wasn't worried she wouldn't be either.


“My name is Dameon. Dameon Shikyo. You don’t owe me anything except maybe a new mattress. I honestly didn’t do anything make sure you didn’t sleep on your back to prevent you from dying from choking on your own vomit. The Mizukage would be upset if I just let another genin die for some silly reason,” he said not even looking up at her to speak.... WAIT DAMEON! DAMEON SHIKYO?!?! THEE DAMEON SHIKYO? Miah's jaw dropped in awee, she was standing in the presence of a legendary ninja.... miah was in such shock that she just stood their speechless for a little bit... she didn't even know where to begin. what would she ask? what could she ask? Miah thought about his words for a minute and then recoiled back into reality... ANOTHER GENIN? other genin have died because he chose not to help? or was it something else? miah shook her head then sat down and dug through her bag and pulled out some crackers and began to eat them.

“So, if you don’t care whether or not you live or die why bother doing either? Your cat would move on and find a new owner; it’s capable of living on its own. There is another reason you are deciding not to give up life yet. It’s fine if you don’t want to share it with me I don’t really care anyways. There is a difference bigger than you realize between living and dying. I sincerely feel little to no emotions, ever. Therefore I cannot choose to fear death or embrace living. Emotionally I do not care if I live or if I die as it means no difference as a consequence to myself. In some aspects living is dying and dying is living. Living a life of servitude, loneliness and making a life by butchering those who oppose the happiness of the village is in some ways to me a dead form of existence. Whereas living in the peace and calmness of death can in some ways be seen as lively. Either way I am bound to walk alone so I simply choose to help the masses, so that my meager life not be as much in vain. I use my life and my inability to care between life or death to give others a life that I could not have and to try to bring them a sense of living that they should be honored to live. If my death comes as a price for such a goal than I am happy to oblige. We all have one mitigating factor that prevents us from choosing death. Yours is not your cat, it may be something you care for but it is not what tips the scale between life and death,” he said after he had finished his more recent training with his kunai and his very quick speed.

He had used the time while he was training to think about her sentence that she had replied back to him with. The only other person in the village that knew what he thought about his life was the Mizukage. Not even Strafe knew though he had probably calculated as much anyways. He slide the kunai away back into his holster and into his pouch on the back of his waist. He had seen the look on her face when he had finally mentioned his name, it was the same response with nearly everyone in the village but it was even funnier seeing it from someone who was fresh out of the academy. Considering the academy had recently started to teach everyone about what had happened during the Seven Bells attack they would know about Dameon and his story or at least his part in the war. The genin that had become a Jounin in a week of training so hard to protect his village and the girl he had loved. The quickest to ever ascend the ranks in such a short amount of time. Not only doing that but becoming a Seven Swordsman and ANBU Captain while he was at it. He had constantly put himself on the line risking death and doing whatever the Mizukage had requested no matter how suicidal and fruitless it had seemed he had always come back victorious even if he had come back bloody and on the verge of death.

Things were different back then though. He also had someone he felt strongly for and now that she was gone from him entirely he felt no shred of emotion anymore. It was as if his entire world had shut around him and his meaning in life had come to an end. It wasn’t until his recent fight with the Mizukage herself that he had discovered a new meaning to live and he had spoken it to this genin who allegedly cared for nothing but her cat. He knew it wasn’t true but it almost felt insulting. Genin these days were as whole weaker and less eager than when he had graduated. Sure he had surpassed them all but it was different. Back then you knew that the moment you graduated you would be tossed head first into an all-out war where you would immediately be asked to kill other people no different than yourself. It was different than today where you graduated and now you were expected to just simply train and do a few missions here and there to make sure that the village had a decent revenue stream. Trial by fire often bred the best warriors. You either fought to stay alive by killing all those that opposed you or you died trying. In a single week Dameon had killed more genin than he could count and that was only of one rank of the enemy forces. He knew that he had killed plenty of chuunin, and various Jounin as well. He didn’t regret any of it but he didn’t expect for the genin of today to be able to match up the expectations that were needed back then. It was because of this line of thought that he believed that the genin of today would be a weaker breed of genin.

[861WC]
[1,198WC Total]
[Reaction Time: A-2 -> A-3 = 1,625]
[Using 427WC from Here]
[0WC Remaining]

Miah  look at Damian after his long speech, and then simply said "Look believe what ever you wish but what i said is the truth... now i miss my kitty and so i think im going to get out of this cave now... i hope to see you around some where after this." Miah said ignoring most of what he had said as she gathered up all f her stuff from around the cave, well what was salvageable anyways and then headed for the opening of the cave, making extra sure she kept the shark tooth in her hand, she climbed the hole all the way up and to the outside, the air felt heavy on her lungs up and here and made her feel light and dizzy, but she stuck it out and walked home...

WC: 136
136 + 555 = 600+
training for Lightning Rod Complete

[OOC: im sorry my motivation for this thread was slowly deminishing into nothing, but i would love to do another thread with you at sometime. now i have completed the 2000 WC to leave the cave and so i have done such, i thank you and good bye]


Exit Thread...