It was intimidating in a way, visiting a new land coming into their hidden village, but it was a path that he had decided to take. He wanted to see all that this world had to offer, and while he was particularly keen about standing upon the peaks of Kumo's mountains, his illness had very strongly dissuaded him. He traveled through the night to Suna arriving about an hour before dawn, and before even looking for a place to stay planned on searching the village for a place to begin training. Training could be a bit dull at times, but he would rather do it now then while there were lots of people up and about to watch him embarrass himself with his mediocrity.  He handed two chunin that were monitoring the gate entrance papers detailing who he was and ant his purpose of entry was, and after they had they had decided that he was allowed to pass through he quickly jotted down a few words on a notebook. the ninja showed the Chunin watching the gate the little hand-sized notebook, and inside he had scrawled onto the paper, "Is there a training ground that I can use?" As the ninja talked among themselves for a brief moment, Gō tightened his core as the cold night's breeze lifted up his scarf and blew through his bones. He felt the chills running through his body as he awaited there answer.

After a few minutes of silently arguing with each other the pair watching the gate turned their focus back to the ronin and told him, "Yeah, so, uh you're going to want to head down this street for like a sixtyish feet before you turn left and then..." The chunin continued on illustrate the directions while Gō simply nodded his head occasionally to show he was listening and took notes for things that he though might be a little hard to remember. When they were finished with their exchange, he gave a slight bow to show he was thankful for their time and headed down the streets of Suna. It was strangely more empty than he suspected they would be even though it was the wee hours. He had always imagined that this place would be so full of people, but by the time he had arrived at the designated location he had only seen a handful of people. As he approached the Tsumi Sand Training Grounds, he could feel the sun began to peak over the walls of the hidden village wrapping him in its humid embrace. Further in the training ground he could clearly hear the sound of something thumping hard against wood. It seemed that someone had the same idea as him and tried to begin their training while their weren't many eyes around. Having no intentions to bother them or be bothered by them, he strolled over to a spot decently far from the entrance. The sun had been rising over the wall for just a few moments and already Gō could feel the sand begin to warm to its embrace.

When he found a place that was satisfactory, one where he could move easily and not be distracted by possible onlookers who could watch with prying eyes as he practiced, he would toss his few possessions onto the sand, kick off his footwear and remove his scarf. With a slow inhale he found his center and felt the chi spread throughout his body. He listened to it as it beckoned him to slowly drag his right foot through the sand and and closer to his left. His eyes slowly closed as he felt the cold be drained from his body and into the surrounding environment. He wasn't bothered by it yet, and welcomed it as a comfortable change. Refocusing on his chi he began to visualize the activity he was about to attempt. He imagined himself sliding his foot under a round smooth stone and then launching into the air. He could feel how his chi would move with his imagined self. As the rock came plummeting back down to the sand covered ground, he would punch at it only to just barely graze it with the skin of his knuckles. Slowly he opened his eyes to the newly formed morning and let out a deep exhale. Now that he had visualized what he wished to attempt, all that was left for him to test his body to get it to make the same reactions.

WC = 750/750

He searched the nearby vicinity, never straying too far from his things as he searched for six, suitable, smooth pebbles that he could use to train with. As he searched and picked up sand clods cleverly shaped as rocks, he would sigh and the 'rocks' would fall apart inside of his hand. Eventually he would widen the scope of his search until he found six, smooth pebbles that were each close two inches in radius, almost exactly what he was looking for. Upon collecting the sixth stone he would return to his luggage that he had piled onto the sand filled training grounds, Once again, this time with his six pebbles in hand, he quieted his mind so that he could feel the chi coursing through his body as he went over his mental simulation again. Gō visualized himself kicking the first pebble into the air and then launch each of the subsequent pebbles into the air as he imagined slowly falling one by one to the ground. As slow as he could he imagined his biceps slightly swelling as he filled them with strength and chi, and therefore causing his arms to one at a time to begin making their way forward. He imagined the leathery sound of fingers as his fingers clenched firmly against the inside of his hand. He imagined his fist twisting from being face up to to face down as they punched at two rocks consecutively from in front of him and a third directly to his left as he imagined his back left leg sliding in the sand behind him so that he was now facing it.

As he pulled back his right hand from punching at the third rock, two rocks would fall into his reach one in front of him and one behind him. With his left hand he would punch at the rock that fell before him and simultaneously his right arm would launch backwards, and his elbow would strike at the fifth rock. then for a moment there would be a brief pause before the sixth and final rock came hurtling down in front of him as he caught the last one. All of the rocks that he had grazed faded from his mindscape as he opened his eyes and the one rock in his hand turned to six. What seemed to be mere moments to the Low-ranked ninja had been minutes in the world around him, and he was welcomed back to reality with thick humid air.

Taking the largest of the now warm pebbles in his hand, he tossed it directly above him and counted down mentally, "1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.. 7... 8...." As the rock flew into the air and plummeted back down to the sand it came from, Gō calmly caught it and transferred it back to the other hand that was filled with rocks. Not wishing to kick a rock with out anything on his feet for no reason, he one at a time and in rapid succession tosses the stones up into the air and waits for them to come propelling back down he rapidly visualizes himself going through the motions as the rocks fall, give or take an eighth of an inch, exactly where he wanted them to. He imagined his chi moving in response to each of them as he had planned: punch, punch, punch, elbow, punch, grab. While imagining each of the strikes he made at the rocks his feet shifted in the sand as they would have had to in order to give him the proper reach and force behind each punch. Decently satisfied with his performance he slowly made his way to each of his rocks as the Suna heat began to fill his brow with sweat.

Once more Gō stood in his lonely, isolated area in the sandy training grounds with the pebbles in his hand and ready to toss into the air. This time though there would be no holding back either he was going to succeed, or he was going to bloody his knuckles in the process. He inhaled and then as he released the breath from his chest he once again launched the stones into the air in rapid succession aiming to get them closer to where he wished for them to fall before. Again inhaling deeply has the rocks began to one at a time plummet down he began releasing the breath as his chi and body in synchronization acted as his mind instructed them to. His right arm extended into a punch that stopped just before the first rock, and without hesitation it retracted as his left arm extended into a punch that stopped just before the second stone. His left foot slid in the sand beneath him kicking up a small cloud in the fine powder as he turned 90 degrees left and his right arm extended into another punch that ended just before the third pebble. While the fourth and fifth pebbles fell Gō, threw his left hand forward to strike at the rock in front of him, prompting his chi to move as he wanted it to, and his right foot slid behind his left making him face the same direction he started in as he elbowed at the fifth rock slightly behind him. He exhaled the last of the breath after he caught the sixth and final rock that fell inches in front of him.

For two more hours Gō repeated this kata like he had been every morning for the last few months in an attempt to commit it to memory. By the end of the training session, though his body was wet with sweat or maybe because of it he felt cold begin to creep into his body and his strength creep out of it. This was typically his sign that he needed to stop training and allow his body a moment to rest. No matter how much he trained his body or how far he pushed himself this was always the result. Whenever he used his chi for too long his body began burning through energy at rates it couldn't keep up with and then leaving him cold. Though he had it explained to him a few times by medical ninja that his old master had hired to check on him, he still didn't understand fully how burning through energy like that caused you to feel cold, but this was the condition of his body. Though he would love to see it go away, he wasn't disillusioned by his life. After waiting a few minutes and realizing that his sweat wasn't going to dry off while he waited in the hot desert sun, Gō began to pick up his things. He packed his scarf in his bag and hung his shoes around his neck by the shoe strings because his feet were covered in sweat and sand. He traversed back into the village to hopefully find a room somewhere, preferably one with a shower.

[1170/1920 words]

[Total = 1920 words]

Summoning & Stats Training:

[Exit]