Toshiko had absolutely no recollection of what occurred. It was all dark for what seemed to be an eternity. Nothing else but that. Regardless of what he tried to think or say or do. Nothing that he could come up with would equate to a solution to his unconsciousness. All that was possible for him to do would be for him to wait to regain consciousness. Time while in a state of unknowing is seemingly void. There was no way of distinguishing it. Sometimes, minutes within it would be hours in the real world. Other times, moments would be complete days. Toshiko's state was rather strange. While he was not conscious whatsoever, He could still feel things. he felt the air of the environment, the hands that presumably carried his body. And heard the voices. The unspecified voices of the individuals around him. He had no idea who the voices belonged to.

The next thing he felt was his body  being placed down on a soft platform, similar to that of a cloud. He was regaining consciousness. He grunted underneath his breath, keeping his eyes closed for a few more moments. He then felt the temperature of the room, allowing him to fully open his eyes. He was a bit disgruntled upon awakening. He sat up with his eyes half open, trying to realize his surroundings. he remembered what had happened before. He was inside a cave alongside Yosuke, and there were some individuals following them. What had happened? He couldn't remember. Something had hit him in the back of the neck, knocking him out. Yosuke had knocked him unconscious. Most likely for his own protection. Toshiko looked down to see what the light surface was that he was standing upon. It was a cloud. Where was he? Was this the area that Yosuke wanted his help in reaching? Toshiko looked over to his right. There he was. Yosuke sitting there, tears streaming down his face. several hawks surrounded the immediate area. This was it.

When Toshiko saw Yosuke crying, he first wondered why, feeling concern for his friend and teacher. But then, he realized something. Yosuke dark chakra and mercilessness when it came to murder, he was able to shed tears. That showed signs of emotion. Signs of life. No matter how he acted, he was still in possession of a heart. And Toshiko knew and respected that. He knew well of not to interrupt Yosuke in what he was doing, but placed his hand on his back while remaining silent. Allowing Yosuke to realize that Toshiko was there to assist him no matter what.

Toshikos act of kindness as he consoled Yosuke was met with a warm, positive response. Yosuke nodded to Toshiko giving him a heartfelt smile. The two's relationships had greatly improved in such a short amount of time. It was safe to say that they were friends, and Toshiko was glad to call his fellow Uzumaki his sensei. The english speaking hawk then came in, leading Yosuke and Toshiko to a large open spaced area. Yosuke would then begin to meditate, clouds forming around him and a light shining down upon the sky directly unto him. Toshiko hadn't seen anything like this before, but knew what it's purpose was. He was learning senjutsu. This was completely different from Toshiko's way of realizing the power of senjutsu, and he wondered why. Were there really different ways of realizing the power? He had no clue, but it sure as hell seemed to be the case. Toshiko could tell form Yosuke's meditation. He could see the chakra around him, and knew that it wasn't normal. This was senjutsu chakra. Toshiko smiled as he observed his friend. He was on his way to realizing the new plane of power. He began to levitate in the air. Toshiko watched in awe as his friend levitated upon a cloud due to his focusing the senjutsu chakra. At around 20 meters within the air, he lost concentration, and it dispersed, sending him flying down to the ground. Toshiko stepped up to go assist his fallen ally, but was silently reprimanded by the hawk. He hesitated, but stopped. Toshiko knew that Yosuke would have to complete this task on his own, just as he did.

“Hey Toshiko how the hell did you do that thing.... I can't seem to concentrate”

His friend spoke out to him asking for assistance while trying to catch his breath after failling multiple times. Toshiko frowned. He knew it'd be difficult, but hated to see Yosuke going through such a physical strain. He'd have to help him through it even if he hadn't managed to master it himself.

"Well, i don't know how it'll work for you. When i learned, i simply overloaded by body with the chakra of the Doragon Seji's realms. It merged itself with my own chakra, and allowed me access to senjutsu. The only advice i can give you is to allow the Senjutsu natural chakra to overflow your body. We're Uzumaki. I think that means our chakra is larger than usual. We can handle senjutsu chakra easier than normal people can. It should be a breeze."

Yosuke would get back unto the cloud, taking in Toshiko's advice. It worked, allowed him to ascend up into the sky, heading up in the cloud out of his plain of sight. The hawk would then shapeshift, taking on the appearance of a boy. Was it the normal transformation technique that Toshiko had trouble learning in the academy? Most likely.

“My boy, you too are a sage, but you're not a master sage now are you? should you seek training then follow me”

Toshiko had no reason to refuse. He nodded, following the hawk into another room. Weights aligned the floors, some of normal size, others of such a great proportion that Even Toshiko would have trouble with them. Toshiko then shrugged, heading over the the 100 pound weight.

"This is no problem. I can do this easy."

Toshiko attempted to lift the large weight, but it didn't budge. Being somewhat embarrassed by what would look like to whoever witnessed to be a sign of his own weakness, he nervously laughed and then put both of his hands upon the grip of the weight, putting all of his strength and force into it. He kept trying, but it simply wouldn't budge. He panted, sweat beginning to drip from his nose. What was going on? He could lift weights up to twice his own size. Why couldn't he lift this measly 100 pounds? There had to be a trick to it.

"You fail to realize the trick behind it child. You aren't thinking rationally. You can't use sheer force to life these weights. You have to concentrate. Use your senjutsu chakra. Focus it, and then channel it in one exerting burst from your body. Then and only then can you lift said weight."

Toshiko figured that. He'd known there was a trick. Toshiko Would listen to the words the hawk spoke, channeling his senjutsu chakra into an outer aura around his body, and then gripped the handle of the weight, focusing all of the natural chakra he could. He put force into it, attempting to lift it up. He succeeded, getting it up off the ground. he held it up for half a minute, and then dropped it to the ground in a pool of sweat. He still had much more senjutsu training to do. He wondered how Yosuke was doing. He sure hoped that he was okay.

Toshiko wondered how Yosuke was doing. He was learning senjutsu, and that was the farthest from an easy task. Toshiko spent hours and hours upon end in a large underground pathway going through multiple trials that all very much could have cost him his life. Over sized sea creatures that strangled and electrocuted him while underneath a body of water. Several traps that aligned the ground, rooms with spike walls attempting to cave in on him. All the crazy things that could be thought of, he experienced. He knew the hardships did not come with the tasks required to learn senjutsu, but with the actual learning process itself. Attempting to connect your existence with the spiritual plane while trapped within the physical plane was not something easy to do. For Toshiko to do it, he had to be surrounded by nature and immeasurable amounts of it's chakra. The only way to become one with nature is to learn nature itself, and then channel it into yourself to the fullest extent. If he hadn't done that and allowed the natural energy to intake his body, he wouldn't have been capable of learning senjutsu. He hoped that the advice he gave his friend would have been enough to allow him to achieve the same goal that he had. Though Toshiko still hadn't completely acquired it himself, he still knew enough to be able to assist his sensei. He knew that his time of helping was over. The rest Yosuke would have to do on his own. And while he did so, Toshiko would train to his fullest extent, channeling his energy into receiving all the strength possible and learning the techniques that Yosuke intended him to.

He stood up from his position of rest as his body came back to. He looked at the senjutsu weights that lay upon the ground. He firmly stared at them, getting ready to improve his strength. he channeled his chakra into his palms, and followed up with his senjutsu chakra which took the same color as his original baby blue chakra aura, but added a strange fading effect to it and made it more pure. he then went towards the largest weight, about 500 pounds. Half a ton was 50 percent more than Toshiko had ever lifted. Could he handle it? It was worth a shot. He placed both of his hands on the weight, one upon each side. He then focused his senjutsu chakra abruptly into his hands and grasped the weight, applying force and attempting to pull it from the ground. at the first few moments of struggle, nothing. But then, with all of his force the weight came a whole foot off the ground. He couldn't move it up any higher than that, grunting and panting heavily as sweat smothered his face. He then quickly dropped it back down unto the ground, incapable of handling the weight for that long of a time. He fell down completely exhausted once more, panting and trying to retain his spent energy. He hoped that he'd at least have something to show off to Yosuke whenever he came back from the large cloud he found himself floating upon. The falcon boy looked upon at Toshiko observing his training silently. Toshiko was paying him no attention. His complete focus was on his training.  

"TOSHIKO"

He could heard the voice of his sensei As he stood back up to his feet and turned his head towards the direction of the loud call of his name. Yosuke would stop in front of him smiling as he did so, and then did something.... unexpected.

He made a tiger claw with his hand, and then struck Toshiko in the palm with it. Once he did so, Toshiko felt something strange happen to him. A new surge of chakra went flowing throughout his body, and focusing solely into the chakra nerves within his palm. What had Yosuke done? It didn't feel difficult, actually there was no struggle at all. The majority of the chakra that was originally spread from all around his body was within the inside of his palm. He originally could focus his chakra there, but was incapable of following through. He couldn't elevate his chakra anywhere above an aura around his actual hand. That was the results of his training back when Yosuke and him were traveling there. What was Yosuke's angle here? He was silent when he did it, but was his intention simply to better Toshiko's chances of mastering the technique? He wasn't going to lie. He knew he had a vast amount of trouble controlling his own chakra, and was just now getting a bit of control over it. Would be capable of doing it? He didn't learn how to use the supernatural walking technique until he was 6, and it took him weeks of practice before he actually could. Most likely due to his abnormally large chakra pool. Being an Uzumaki made his chakra larger than normal individuals, and his new found senjutsu made it even larger. It would be even harder for him to master controlling his own chakra with all of the new amounts of it he'd acquired.

The rasengan. From what Toshiko saw from it, it was an incredibly strong technique and what he had seen had only been the beginning stages of it. There was something about it that fascinated him to the point where he'd felt like he knew it from somewhere before. Seeing it in action was nothing more than a somewhat nostalgia trip for him, one that he wanted to experience hands on. It was way easier said than done. How would he go about doing this? The only thing that he could do was try at that point in time. He stared at his hand of which he felt at least a fraction of all of his bodily chakra. He remembered back to what Yosuke had showed him of the technique as they were on their way to this temple. He displayed his own usage of the rasengan, holding out his own hand and allowing a ball of chakra to rise up from the center of his palm. After not even a few seconds, moderate sized ball of bitch black dark chakra rose up on top of his palm, forming a ball of his pure, raw, chakra in a rotating manner. The destructive power behind the rasengan was enough to completely obliterate an entire tree. Toshiko had seen many jutsu in his short time as a certified ninja, but this one was one of the only ones that managed to fully catch his entire attention. It was a jutsu that was immensely powerful. If what Yosuke had told him was true, this jutsu was used by one of the hokage, one that saved the world hundreds of years ago. If it was used by someone that powerful, it was a technique Toshiko would have to master.

He looked directly into his palm, feeling the chakra that was coursing through his nerves within is right hand he grimaced, his facial expressions showing the focus that he put into the channeling of his chakra. It was all there. Now it was time to build it up, and then exert it. He moved all of the chakra in his right hand up into one single point directly underneath his palm, and then attempted to push it up beyond the nerves underneath his skin and then exhumed it up from the pit of his hand. It reached the surface of his hand, and formed into an aura of chakra that flowed from within his hand. He hardened himself and his grip upon the control of his chakra, and then got an idea. His problem was not with him exerting the chakra, but with him controlling it. He was fully capable of placing the chakra into any given part of his body, but he simply couldn't form it in the way he wanted to. He was trying to channel nothing but his own raw chakra. There was no direction,no guide to it. With nature oriented jutsu, he could simply follow the prospect of nature aligned with it. With this? it was all him. The only part of this jutsu that he would be able to utilize was his own chakra, and the fact that he didn't have well control over it didn't help at all. But maybe if... Maybe if he had something else guide his chakra along with him, he'd be able to formulate it easier.

He smiled, quickly placing his left hand above his right hand of which he was attempting to channel his chakra into, and then quickly struck the outer rims of his palm to focus the chakra there while keeping his left hand cupped around his right. the chakra that had been swirling around in his palm at a slow but steady rate was now forming itself into a moderate sized ball of blue chakra, and began rotating to the right. The ball was nowhere near the size of yosuke's about twice as small, around the size of a tennis ball. He swung his right hand back,  moving his left hound out of the way as more chakra swirled into the rotating ball of blue chakra in his hand, and then smacked it into the half a ton weight that he'd attempted to lift just a few moments ago. It collided with it, and instead of causing damage sent Toshiko flying backwards abruptly. He went flying back at a great speed, skidding into the ground and leaving marks in the dirt as he skid across it, landing hard into the wall behind him.  Toshiko stood still upon the ground for a few moments more in sheer silence and stillness, but then seemingly out of nowhere hoping up to his feet, he threw his right hand up into the air, and  began jumping up in the air with a smile upon his face.

"I did it! Did you see that Yosuke Sensei! I finally did it!"

His excitement made him incapable of hiding his somewhat childish mannerisms and personality any longer, but he didn't care. He'd finally done it. Not only had he finally made a breakthrough with controlling his own chakra, he finally managed to create and use the rasengan. It was weak, and not even half the size that Yosuke's was, but he'd done it. It'd definitely need some work though. In the moment of his joy, he knew that he couldn't spend all his time congratulating himself. He'd need to perfect it as soon as he possibly could. He stopped cheering and jumping up into the air, and then stopped, focusing himself and getting serious again. he'd need to perfect it if he wanted to be able to utilize it against targets. From what he'd been shown from the sheer force of it already, it was extremely powerful at even a quarter of it's entire strength. If he could master it? There was no telling what he'd be able to do. He stared over to see where his sensei was. Him and the falcon's presence were both missing from the area. Where had they gone?

"Yosuke Sensei? Mr. Falcon? Heloooooooo?"

Toshiko could still sense both of them. Toshiko most likely got lost in a train of his own thoughts as they transferred areas, and lost them. It wasn't that big of a deal. He could still feel them nearby. This was even better actually. This way, he could even have something to surprise His sensei with next time he saw him. he stared back over to the large steel weights that he'd been utilizing the senjutsu chakra to lift up. That was his target. If he could damage it, that would most likely mean the rasengan had managed it's full power. he stared out, holding out his right hand and then clamping his left hand over it. He began striking his right hand with his left palm, allowing his chakra to flow in his palm as he did so. The spar eventually began to rotate, and then formed while within the clamped hands, forming the same ball that he'd done last time. It was slightly bigger than last time, and seemed to be in taking more chakra than Toshiko had originally managed to. He let it flow a little bit more, allowing the chakra to flow even more increasing the size of the ball and the rate of speed of which the ball of chakra rotated at. His left hand struck parts of his hand even more than it originally had done at a faster rate, and the ball was now about half the size that Yosuke's had been. Toshiko moved his left hand, preparing to allow the attack to go through as he cocked his right arm back, and then thrust it forward into the half a ton weight. The large ball of chakra was enough to send the went moving back a few inches slowly as toshiko forced it into the side of it. After a few moments of struggle, the same effect as last time occurred. Toshiko lost control of the chakra, but due to the extensive power behind it, the effect was greater than it had been before. He was sent back in a literal shockwave from the rasengan. He went back with a boom, flying through the air. His back hit the stone wall hard, causing him to skid down from it unto the floor in pain and agony. His entire back side was red and sore with pain from the impact.    He grimaced, grunting from the pain and slowly sitting up a bit and turned his head around towards the large weight.

the weight itself was somewhat unaffected by the blast other than scorches and burns from the raw chakra on the surface of it. He'd at least managed to move it back a bit more, and scorch the surface of it. While it wasn't anything to brag about, at least it was something that showed that he'd been making at least some form of progress. It sitll wasn't enough for Toshiko. What had he been doing wrong/ He knew that he was getting the right idea by handling his chakra in such a fashion and allowing his left hand to strike the points necessary for him to formulate his chakra. what was he doing wrong?

As the pain left his back, he slowly stood up to his feet and then stared at his hand. the left hand tactic obviously wasn't going to work the way that it was. He'd need to use another strategy if he expected it to work. He'd been getting the idea and the hang of forming his chakra into the ball by allowing his left hand to strike the points he needed to. Maybe it was time for him to get rid of his crutches. How he'd go about doing this he had absolutely no clue. All that he knew was that he'd have to try something else. He held his left hand over his right, this time directly above it so it wasn't making contact with his right. This time he'd simply use it to capture his chakra in a given shape rather than forcing it there. He focused his chakra, allowing it into his palm. The very second that it entered his palm it began to rotate, and formed the ball of chakra within his palm. it rotated abruptly and fast. The size was the same if not bigger than the size of the one Yosuke had shown him, a large blue ball of raw chakra took up all of the space within Toshiko's palm. He  then cocked his hand back, and then threw it into the weight with full force while screaming in unison of his actions.

"RASENGAN!!!"

It collided, crashing into the large weight. The very force from the powerful jutsu sent the weight caving in, utterly smashing through the large weight and forcing a big crater into it. It sent the weight flying back into the wall, crashing through it completely and into the next room. the force sent Toshiko in the other direction. allowing him to fall back into the wall, causing him to instantly black out from the impact.  

“Amazing, simply amazing, I knew you could do it”

Toshiko slowly came to as he heard the words, grunting as he opened his eyes and moved his back up in a slump. He was awake. Who did the voice belong to? in his brief state of confusion and inability to use his memory, he hadn't a single clue. after he slowly came back completely, he was able to figure that it was none other than Yosuke. Toshiko stared at him with a smile upon his face, and then noticed a strange amount of pain centered within his right hand. he grimaced, and then stared down to it to see a large burn scar that began at the center of his palm and expanded out towards the outer regions of his hand. the leftover skin that hand't been damaged was roughened, and the wound marks itself were still raw. The feeling was strange, but it meant something. He'd concentrated so much power into the rasengan within his right palm that it damaged his hand when he'd done it. If there was one thing that was true about the technique, was that it was immensely powerful. The mark was a sign of great pain, but it also meant great progress.

He was doing it. He wasn't able to realize sooner but he finally did. He was learning. With every experience he had, every move he made, every action he took. All of it was forcing him to become stronger and he loved every second of it. He'd mastered the technique that was utilized by that of the very hokage that managed to saved the world centuries ago. If he could do that, what was stopping him from achieving even more? He couldn't stop for a second. He always had to keep going. Keep growing. As long as he did so, he would never have to worry about falling behind.

“Toshiko, now that you preformed the ”Rasengan, I need to tell you of its true power,  and that is its potential, while the Rasengan is powerful, its true power lies in its potential, reshape it, fuse it with an element or an effect, customize it however you see fit, and that's all. Would you like to remain here to train with me? I will not force you to stay”

What was it that Yosuke was trying to tell him? he'd acknowledged that he had mastered the rasengan itself, and was now telling him the true power within it lied in it's potential? Adding your own unique twist to the rasengan technique sounded weird, but interesting. If it had immense destructive power on it's own, what could it be if it was impacted with different techniques and such to only enhance it's power? collaborating it with Toshiko's own jutsu, adding natural affinities. The possibilities were endless. The power behind it could be unbeatable. Toshiko would take Yosuke's advice to heart and keep i in his head for the foreseeable future. as long as he did that, he would be able to keep expanding his ninja capabilities. After Yosuke was done speaking, Toshiko slowly stood back up to his feet with a smile upon his face, and then stared up at Yosuke. He was the reason behind his sudden growth. His encouragement and teachings were the reason that Toshiko was getting stronger.

"You don't have to force me to stay. I will stay here by your side for however long you'll take me. Thanks for the awesome move! You're the best sensei ever!"

Toshiko closed his eyes and smiled after speaking the words. He felt comfortable enough to allow his childish nature to Yosuke. Though he wasn't from the village of konoha, Yosuke was an amazing ninja, and Toshiko was proud to refer to him as his sensei. He'd taught him more in their time together than anybody had taught him in konoha. Almost as much as sousetsu. If he stuck with Yosuke, he'd keep getting stronger and stronger and he saw absolutely nothing wrong with that. As long as Yosuke wanted him there, he'd stay by him. He couldn't wait to see what else was in store for the two.

There was something a bit off about Yosuke though. Something different. His chakra was a bit different than normal. his previous chakra aura was now masked with one a bit off. One similar to the senjutsu chakra that Toshiko possessed. That could only mean one thing. He'd done it. His return meant his learning of the senjutsu specialty. Toshiko began smiling even wider than he had before. He felt a sense of pride in his master for being able to learn it.

"Wow Yosuke Sensei! You've done it! You learned Senjutsu! I can sense it in you now. You're even more awesome than i thought!"

Toshiko watched as Yosuke seemed to stern himself, cracking his index finger with his thumb and glaring towards the falcon. Was something about to go on between the two? Toshiko could tell. They were training. Toshiko didn't want to interfere at all whatsoever. He moved back, stared towards the two, and waited to see what would occur between them next. What was the next step to be took? The next move to be made?