Some people say that dreams are not better than reality. Some people say that once you have something in your life that you devote yourself too and focus on, that reality is so much better than shutting your eyes and drifting into the dream world. Some people... Ginza would have to agree with, though in a literal sense and not a 'dreamer' sense. He definitely did have dreams that he was striving towards, but in Ginza’s sense, literally, what some people said, was almost certainly true. He had settled into a routine in his waking hours these past few years of being back in Konoha, and it was a routine that he had come to enjoy, meaning he enjoyed being up and about much more than lying in his bed fast asleep.


That's not to say that he didn't have his bad moments during the day-to-day haul, but to him nothing could be worse to what had already happened in his past, losing the people that he held dear to his heart. Which was partially why the dreams that plagued him in his sleep were a bad thing. It was very often that his dreams found themselves dwelling on those people that were now missing from his side, and even more often that the dreams of these people would turn into horrific nightmares as he relived certain events. At this point, slept simply because he needed to so that his body would stave off the mental breakdown he would likely have if he didn’t sleep.  He hated it. The memories. The slaughter. The time he'd spent captured by them. He felt helpless about the whole situation.  

And they were still out there.

One day... one day those barbarians would get what was coming to them for what they had done to the temple that had become his home after his family had been killed. Ginza just needed to get a little stronger and he would make those brutes pay for what they had done to the people that had replaced his family. And one day, he would even find out who had killed his family that he had been born into and bound to by blood. He would find out and they would pay for what they had done as well. He just needed some more training first. He wasn’t ready yet.

Closing his eyes and giving a deep even breath, Ginza slammed his hand down on the training dummy for the last time of the day.  It was more than time for him to stop training and wander home. Glancing at the clock he could see that it was nearing seven in the evening. There hadn't been much else to do during the day than train, and he'd probably been training now for a full ten hours as he'd started at around ten in the morning. He'd only taken a few breaks in between too, usually when he'd wanted to travel to a different area for a change of scenery. Currently he was in one of the training fields that the village provided to their shinobi ranks, and he’d been there for nearly three hours of the ten hour day.

With a sigh, he stepped away from the training dummy and opened his eyes to look down at his hands. The bandages that he’d wrapped his hands with for training his body in taijutsu had once been pure and white, but now they were scuffed, dull and dirty. If that said anything it, it was probably that the condition of his hands under them was not great and would be sporting bruises from how hard he had been hitting the training materials. Not that he minded. It wasn’t as if he could feel it because of the nerve damage that left his body numb. Bruising was simply evidence of how hard he worked. It would heal. Slowly, he unwound the bandages, revealing the skin that was indeed bruised, and there were even some scrapes showing on his knuckles.

A soft chuckle escaped him at seeing the red puffy skin. If he were anyone else, they would have probably stopped training hours ago instead of letting their hands get into this state. And as vain as he was, his hands were for working. He didn’t care about the calluses that marred them. He smiled. Stretching his body up and cracking his knuckles with his arms reaching to the sky, then leaned forward to press his palms flat against the floor, with his legs straight. No bending of the knee at all. A moment like this and Ginza was straightening and moving to gather his things.

It was time to call it a day and have some dinner. Perhaps some ramen or sushi?

[ WC: 809 / 2000 for jutsu Magnet Release: Sensory Range ]

Belongings packed up, Ginza slung his pack over his back and began to walk in the direction of his home. He did have the things to make himself dinner at his home, but after a long day of training, he simply did not feel like making dinner for himself, so getting to-go of some sort was going to be his best option, and sushi or ramen? Well, both were great options to his taste, and when correctly done ramen could be just as intricate as sushi. And luckily, there was an amazing ramen place in Konoha that was positioned easily on his walk to his home. The village was practically known for it. Though, the restaurant did very well catering to the usuals in Konoha and not simply the tourists.

It was settled then. He would get ramen for dinner. Ichiraku ramen to be precise. He smiled as he wandered down the streets, observing those who walked passed him like he always did before finally coming across the familiar building and ducking under the fabric that hung draped from the roof. It was run by a father daughter pair of Teuchi and Ayami. Teuchi and his daughter were wonderful people who always tried to get him to speak up more than he did normally, and he liked them. But he still held his distance to them. He’d had enough of losing people. Still, he gave them a polite nod and one of his rare smiles that graced his normally impassive face.

“Hey, look who it is! You want your usual, Ginza?” Teuchi Ichiraku’s voice rang over the counter when he saw the familiar blond. Ginza normally came a few times each month and normally always ordered the same thing, though sometimes he changed it up. This time though, was not one of those times, and he would be having his usual sukiyaki ramen. The seasoned beef, onions, kikuna, tofu, mushrooms coupled with the itokonnyaku always agreed with him and he loved the soy and sugar flavoring in the broth that happened to be spiked with a little bit of sake, even if it were cooked out by the time it got into his mouth.

“Yes, please, Teuchi.” Ginza nodded as he sat down on one of the stools at the counter before adding. “Could I get it to go?”

“‘Course you can! One sukiyaki ramen coming right up.” Teuchi called brightly before going back to working on his ramen, calling back and fourth to his customers every now and again. It looked like Ayami had the night off tonight. It wasn’t very surprising. The last time they’d had a talked it seemed like she had had a lot on her plate. He hummed, gaze drifting from watching Teuchi work to the other customers. There were many people that came to Ichiraku’s from all walks of life and it was interesting to observe for the most part for the impassive shinobi.

Soon enough there was a large to-go bowl being set down in front of him with a pair of chopsticks placed neatly on the lid. “There you go, Ginza. You have a nice night, you hear?” Teuchi grinned one of those wide grins at him, and Ginza handed him the money with a nod. He stood up and as he moved to leave, he politely spoke. “You have a nice night too, Teuchi.”

And with that, Ginza pushed under the red fabric again and was out in the night air. The sun had gone down while he was sitting in Ichiraku waiting for his ramen, and there was a slight chill in the air, but he didn’t mind it. There was heat radiating off of the ramen, and the steam that slipped past the lid hit his face as he moved through the village that was beginning to quiet down for a bit before starting up the night life in the main areas, and let the residential areas be as quiet as they would like. He didn’t look at the time, but he knew that it had to at least be nearing eight thirty or nine in the evening.

Ginza neared his apartment, glad to see it. The smell of the ramen in his hands was making him hungry, and his stomach had started to growl at him during the walk. With a sigh he unlocked his door and entered after jogging up the stairs to the fourth level where his place was, slipping inside and closing the door with his foot. He was glad that he’d installed that automatic lock in the door, hearing it click closed behind him without having to fumble with his keys again.

Content to be home, Ginza let his bag slump down against his door, ready for the next time he’d need to go out before moving into his living space. With one hand he turned on the radio so that he could listen to some music while he wound down and ate.  Once that was settled and the tunes of traditional Japanese music began to play he settled down on his couch and began to eat his ramen. Delicious as always. Teuchi definitely knew what he was doing, and Ginza would savor every bite of it.


[ WC: 809 + 884 = 1693 / 2000 for jutsu Magnet Release: Sensory Range]

Ginza finished off the sukiyaki ramen quickly. He’d only had a very light breakfast lunch and a snack bar during his day of training. He didn’t like being too full during training, as it had a tendency to make him feel sluggish and slow. So here he was practically inhaling the ramen as he sat on his sofa in his tiny apartment living space. He stared down into the bowl for a moment, almost wishing that he hadn’t eaten so fast before taking the bowl and lifting his lips, draining what was left of the delicious broth.

“Mmm…” He hummed softly, setting the bowl back down onto his coffee table and leaning back, closing his eyes and just relaxing, letting his body melt into the seat cushions. He remained like that, relaxed for a few moments before opening his eyes again and turning his head to glance over at the clock to read what time it was. Nine forty five at night. Long day. With a grunt he pushed himself up and into moving again, tossing the to-go bowl and chopsticks into the bin with a yawn before moving over to his bathroom. It was time for a shower, and then he’d lay down and read himself to sleep.

Ginza stripped himself down and stepped into the shower, closing his eyes against the spray of water that bombarded his body. Back when he could still feel things and was without the nerve damage, he’d savored the feeling of water on his skin, but here and now, just knowing and remembering was good enough to be relaxing. A few moments later he stepped back to survey his body, wanting to make sure that there was nothing too serious, and was content to find that there were just a few new nicks and bruises that would heal in their own time.  Sure his body would be fine, he began to wash himself until he stepped out and dried off, pristine as ever. He hummed, slipping on a pair of pajama bottoms and brushing his teeth before moving over to his bed and laying down.

He wasn’t ready to close his eyes just yet, so he leaned over and reached for the book that was on the bedside table. One of his many theory books that he kept around. Studying was good for the mind, just as training was good for the body. And one needed to keep both sharp in order to be a good shinobi. This book happened to be on sensory techniques and what they could be used for and he was nearly finished with it. Leaning back against his pillow he thumbed through the book until he reached the page that had been marked with a simple strip of leather as a bookmark and began to read from the pages:

‘...As mentioned before within these pages, sensory techniques allow shinobi to detect and track down certain targets. The most common form of this is a common sensory jutsu, used for simply tracking a target’s chakra signature. However, not all sensory techniques are quite that simply. There are quite a wide range of sensory techniques that can be developed with the same goal in mind depending on how a sensor shinobi works with their elements and specializations….’

And the book continued on like that, even going on to varieties of the techniques. One of the mentioned techniques happened to catch his eye. There was one that mentioned the usage of medical ninjutsu to track others. But he wasn’t sure if he was ready to try to make his own just yet. Perhaps he could use his affinity for magnetism? Yes. At some point he’d attempt to make a magnetism sensory jutsu, first before the medical one. Ginza kept his mind alert like this as he read, making mental notes on certain things for quite some time. But he eventually began to feel drowsy, not even aware of when he fell asleep, simply that he did, hands that were closing the book slipping down, leaving the book to fall closed, losing his place in the book.

He’d likely be mad at himself for falling asleep without setting the book to the side the morning, but it was fine. It had been quite a long day and he did really need the rest. And so here he was drifting into the dream world that he hated so very much compared to the living day. Some people say that dreams are not better than reality. Some people say that once you have something in your life that you devote yourself too and focus on, that reality is so much better than shutting your eyes and drifting into the dream world…. And for Ginza the dream world was a hell that trapped him in it’s needed cycle. Sleep was such a hindrance...If only he didn’t really need it...


-Exit thread-
[ Total WC: 1693 + 828 = 2521 ]

2000/2000 for jutsu Magnet Release: Sensory Range
500/500 for jutsu Magnet Release:Compass

[ Spare WC: 21 ]