Training was never truly a fun past time for Lamya, yet training someone else might've been something else entirely. It was after all her first time to truly take it upon herself to become the master for someone else, to actually have a student and thus become a sensei. Back in the old days in Konoha, she had never become a squad leader, she had never taken up the mantle of being a sensei, as right after she had gotten into the upper echelons of Konohagakure no Sato's shinobi, she had already been fully emersed in the life of being a shadow, of being an ANBU and the ANBU simply had nor the time nor the need to become someone's teacher, devoting themselves only to their own progress and that of their village.

Yet now, she had found someone who looked promising, someone who could potentially be an asset as wall as a strong pawn for her to use, should the need ever arise to have such pieces to play a game.

A young man going by the name Shujin had caught her eye, not because of his strength or innate power, but because he seemed to possess a certain determination, a will to gain power and to progress through the ranks of the shinobi world. However, the most important thing, was the fact that this Shujin did not seem to care much for being a law abiding citizen of Sunagakure and in fact seemed to hold a certain degree of contempt towards his own native village, which after all was perfect for a rogue shinobi like Lamya, as she herself knew what it meaned to hate one's own village.

For now though, her goal was simple: she had to see what he was made of. Not physically or in regards to his chakra, but his mental state and fortitude. A shinobi, no matter how strong and no matter how gifted, was only worth as much as their own mental state allowed them to be, something Lamya knew all too well due to her own background of having been mentally unstable and psychically seen as a liability, but she had managed to get out of that spiral of ill-fated mental instability, she had found her own mental equillibrium and in finding her own path, she managed to clear her mind and rid herself of any confusion that had weakened her.

So now, she was going to test her student and see how his psyche worked, how durable his mental state was and how strongwilled her truly was.

A few days earlier, Lamya had managed to break into a small house near the edges of the slums, which had been inhabited by a family of four, with two children and their parents. She had opted not to kill them, but simply keep this family alive, yet detained as part of her first training with her new student, Shujin.

Having sent her snake Uraeus to relay the message and address to the young man, Lamya calmly awaited the arrival of Shujin, dressed in rather plain clothes, with a pair of blue shorts, a purple haori and a white t-shirt underneath, while wearing standard issue shinobi boots with the open tip. The only tools she had with her, were her two signature scalpels which had been put sheathed onto two straps around her thighs.

As she sat down on a simple wooden chair near a plain wooden dining table, she placed a piece of cloth on the table with two regular scalpels on it. With a content look on her face, she now simply had to wait for her student to arrive in the meantime listening to the mumbling and movement behind a door on the other side of the room. "Oh, this really is going to be fun, wether or not he succeeds...I'll be having my share of enjoyment no matter what."

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Shujin had been settled in his apartment with a scented stick lit in the center of a red bowl. The tip of it burning red hot as he focused his chakra into a piece of paper. Forcing it to hover just above the stick with his chakra control without touching it with either hand. Carefully in the dimly lit room he focused his fingers as thin tendrils would shift from the finger tips. Slowly turning the paper as one corner would fold into the center. Slowly another corner would fold in until all four corners had shifted to the center. Now for the difficult part. He would shift his concentration from control to barrier. Forcing the paper to flatten and crease while maintaining it above the flames. Returning to control he would unfold the corners so the four corners stood up like a box. He was doing rather well in his practice of chakra manipulation when he failed to notice his window shifting open. The sudden shift next to him of a large white snake startled Shujin a moment as the paper dropped onto the scented stick. Lighting a blaze in a second as the burning remnants fell into the bowl.

Shujin would glance to the snake a moment as he prepared to launch a jutsu at it only to recognize it. Even in the dimly lit room as the tiny little flame danced he would shift onto one foot as the large white snake seemed to regard him and the flames with equal interest. Dying things. Not to eat. Instead to Shujins surprise it would speak to him in a slurred tone to match itself. Speaking of a home within the slums. A place where the lady awaited him. For his first lessons. It was within the slums so anything really could happen. A part of him considered just not going. Considered a lists of excuses. Easiest being he was expected for duty soon. That likely would be fair for him to miss out if the village would be looking for him. Appearances were important anyway. However that was an easy enough lie to discover. Besides he wanted power. Hesitating just because it came from the devil didn't do him any good. Besides if he denied her, she would likely be searching for him. A shadow he could not avoid waiting to catch him alone. Why he would garner such attention was beyond him but in his mind she wouldn't just let things be.

So he got dressed and prepared in the time it took the scented stick to finish burning into the bowl. Slipping into forest green cargo pants with black combat boots tucked under them. Only the toe and heel showing. His button up yellow shirt hung loosely over him with the sleeves rolled up while his blue hoody remained open. The hood up. His white hair sticking out of the front as his cold eyes took in the departing snake. With the snake no longer watching he slipped a kunai up his sleeve while slipping his six senbon into his front lower pants pocket on his right leg. He glanced at his headband a moment before leaving it on the table. It mattered little here. Still it took him only a little while to make it to the slums as his apartment wasn't far off. Audibly he would land in front of the building in question from his path on the roof tops before he straightened out. His tall form slowly turning as he looked around before moving up to the door itself. Knocking with a short and single rap of his knuckles rolling along the wood. If something devious was about to happen his mind was mentally shifting to be prepared.

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The snake had managed to arrive before even Shujin did, showing how skilled and sneaky Uraeus could truly be compared to the average shinobi around. He slowly slithered onto the chair upon which Lamya was sitting, using her Kirinketsu scalpel to clean the filth of her earlier escapades from underneath her fingernails. "You wouldn't believe how lucky you are not to have nails, Uraeus. Either I break a few when I don't want to or this dirt gets underneath it just from taking down a few insignificant targets...it's a hassle." However, it seemed that the snake hardly listened to her rant, simply slithering upwards onto her, so he could sliss something into her ear. "The child has been informed and is on his way, mistress."

With a rather wicked smile, Lamya allowed the snake to lower himself again, before standing up calmly and put her Kirinketsu back into its sheath, only to hear someone wrapping their knuckles onto the door of the 'claimed' house in which Lamya was staying for now. Within an instant the kunoichi walked over to the door and opened it, looking at Shujin wearing at first sight rather casual clothes. With a slightly amused expression on her face, the kunoichi stepped aside, motioning the genin to come inside. "I reckon you're curious about what this would be about. If you're not, you'd be one cold kid."

She pointed at the chair where she had been sitting moment's earlier, all the while looking rather instructive towards Uraeus. This was going to be interesting, a first peak at how strong her promising student and potential asset really was. It would be a borderline torture, one that could even end up being rather detrimental for his own mental health, yet who knew, maybe he had something of a snake in him as well.

"Now than, before we begin...I want you to desbribe how your relation was with your parents," It was probably the weirdest start of any possible training the genin could've probably imagined, but Lamya really had to know all of those little things.

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(sorry for the short post, doing this while babysitting on my kid's entire class.)

Shujin would look at the door before him. Considering it as the first gateway for him. How many he had to cross he was unsure but he would cross them as they came. Of course that was up to the gate master. Or in this case the gate mistress. He heard no movement within and yet all the same the door would open at his call. Standing before him was the snake demon that had locked its fangs into him. A dangerous woman by any means and even now he could feel the dark pressure coming off of her. Like a venom sinking into his veins. He wasn't certain he could withstand it long but he wanted to try. He wanted to let it sink in only to grow stronger from it. His blue eyes met hers cold as ice. He wasn't going to let the fear overtake him. It was obvious it was there but he stood strong still. She was just overwhelming. Yet for all that power her mentality was still one of an amused individual. For all that darkness she was just enjoying herself. He had been thrown into a den of snakes and he had remained by choice. Her words ringing in his ears.

She suggested he should be curious. Mentioning how cold he would be not to be. He would scoff slightly at the words. Of course he was. Who wouldn't step into this pit without having done so with a sense of wonder towards the abyss? He was but a child to her but she was but one of his demons to him. The foremost of them but not the first. He was used to dealing with his demons and he would grow used to dealing with her in time. Still he would simply watch her and not reply. It was rhetorical to him. Still as she indicated the chair he would look passed her to the snake towards the lone chair in the room. A glance back to her with a narrowed gaze was all he could manage before his legs began to move. He would cross the room before his hand would reach out to grab the chair. Spinning it around before sitting in it backwards. Resting his arms on the backrest as he looked her in the eye. Her next question drawing a frozen gaze from him. A tense subject that had drawn out a sense of anger within him.

"I have no such relations. I was born a killer to my mother. Left as trash on an orphanages door by my own clan."

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The kunoichi looked at Shujin, an expression of interest and amusement on her face as his own expression seemed to change with every word spoken, going from a scoff to a frozen gaze, his expressions only seemed to make the entire rendez vous more amusing to the nukenin."Well, I reckon with that attitude and such a vision of the past, you'd be in the perfect position to show how cruel, cold and uncaring a human can possibly be. Show me that you're worth to be called a monster."

After saying those words, Lamya grinned, her lips curling into a wicked, eerie smile as she walked over towards the only other closed door in the room they were standing, opening it to reveal a family bound and gagged, terified by her appearance and crying in agony and despair. "The weak all gather together, hoping unity would overcome absolute power. There is no need for the weak to unite, to multiply and to grant this world another generation of weaklings. Power begets power,
weaknesss begets weakness, always remember that it is those who wield power that steer the world into their desired direction."

Grabbing the youngest, smallest child of the family by his hair, Lamya threw the boy, who couldn't be any older than seven years old onto the floor in front of Shujin. The muffled screams of the family betrayed their horror, their despair at the sight of what was transpiring. "You've suffered the life of an orphan, so we'll start with the kids first to spare them such a fate. I'm not at all as cruel as you might think." Again that mocking, wicked smile appeared on her face. It showed that she knew exactly how cruel she truly was and that she knew exactly how much the rest of the family would be hurt at the sight of their child being so helpless. "I want you to make a choice: one of these poor, weak pests will be allowed to live, the rest has to die...take your pick."

She walked over to the two parents, pressing her hands on their shoulders, forcing them to kneel onto the wooden floor. "The loving parents, the little boy, the young girl...who will live and who will die. Get yourself a taste for power,
the strength to dominate, the will to change the fate of others,
the desire to have control...here it is, here it starts and here it ends. Show me, kid. Show me how far your cruelty and your darkness goes."

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He would watch her with cold eyes as she mentioned a test of cruelty. It wasn't something he cared for one way or another. It was a bother to have to extend ones hand out to the point of cruelty. Quick death when needed was fine enough. Nor was taking his time killing someone or something a good tactic. If he just poked and prodded it provided opportunity for resistance. The quicker he landed an effective blow the better off the battle would go. Still he only stood in the dark room watching her and the snake as she crossed it. Moving to a door in the back where he heard rustling from. She tossed the door open and he frowned as she revealed a whole family within. What was the point of this? Murder with no gain? Was she so keen on just chaotic acts that murdering a whole family was just common training to her? It was flawed. If she had something to gain from this he didn't see it. They looked like a half starved family from the slums. Likely they held nothing of worth at least to someone as potent as Lamya. They certainly held nothing of worth to Shujin.

When a young boy of about seven years of age was tossed at his feet he stepped back slightly to avoid any of the kids tears or snot getting onto him. She continued to explain how they would all be dying here. Or rather that most of them would. It was preposterous. What good came from murdering the unimportant? Hardly worthy of his time. Or his blades for that matter. Still it would suddenly hit him as he glanced back to her dark visage. It was between them and him most likely. If he failed here to do as she asked he wondered if he would be leaving here. Was that his only gain from this? To kill children in front of their parents for his own survival? His life certainly meant more to him than theirs. Besides all that he didn't care for them to begin with. A flash of metal appeared as he let a kunai slip into his hand. He didn't mind he supposed. Senseless slaughter as it was he could murder this whole family if she demanded it. His eyes glanced to the boy with scorn within them. A frown that was unforgiving.

However his hand would only rise slightly when it hesitated as she spoke. His eyes snapped to her and narrowed before glancing to the family staring at him. Had she notified him to wear a mask that might not have been a problem. However she wanted to have him select a survivor. For what reason? They had seen his face now. She hadn't spoken his name but his features were easily defined. He looked the family over a moment longer before holding his kunai up to look at it. It was a killing tool after all. It was just a blade to do his whim. Still it could only move at the pace he moved it at. His eyes looked to Lamya as he considered her. He wasn't a match for either her or the snake. He couldn't even escape if he tried and if he did, the family would still die and he would be hunted down before he found anyone capable of helping him. No normal village nin could. If he found that Uchiha from the other day maybe....however it was a gamble he couldn't afford. Instead he would spin it into a downwards grip as he spoke in return.

"I don't mind doing this. Statistically someone would kill them soon anyway. However I don't wish to leave one alive. A parent in a rage can find support for a plotted vengeance, and a child can grow into someone that intends me harm. Besides that they have seen my face. I can't allow it to be associated with this yet."

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"Tsk, tsk, such fear for being caught," The woman simply nodded her head with closed eyes and walked over to the kid laying on the ground, motioning her pet Uraeus to constrict the father and force him to watch what would be happening. As she bent through her legs, slowly hunching over the little boy, she licked her lips like only a predator would do at the sight of prey, her eyes widening and her pupils turning to slits with but a hair's width. The kid could only let out muffled screams, cries of terror and pure fear, as the kunoichi's hand reached for the kid's face and lifted him up, right in front of the constricted father who's eyes were nearly at the verge of popping out of his skull, as his veins were swollen and a deep, agonizing cry could be heard, muffled by the gag in and over his mouth. "Fear, despair, hatred, cruelty, loathing and death... all part of gaining power, of showing power and of maintaining control."

A shock of chakra came from the hand holding the kid by the head, glowing lines of chakra cracking through the kid's skin from head to toe, until in a flash of dust and risidual chakra, the body of the poor child vanished into thin air after letting out a final scream of pain and agony, followed by a possibly even louder and actually slightly intimidating cry coming from the father, who let out such a loud and haunting wail that even Uraeus for a moment lost control of his own strength and squeezed a bit too hard, leaving the man unconscious. "One less to let live, kid. Next up will be the daughter, kill her in any way you so desire, but in the end, you will have to leave either of the parents alive," Lamya waved her hand at the unconscious man and the woman staring at Shujin with a begging expression in her eyes. the kunoichi in the meantime grabbed the girl by the hairs, dragging the child of arguably any older than twelve to right in front of the young man with the kunai. "Life is cruel...it forces us to make choices, choices which we might end up regretting, choices that may come to haunt us and bite us in the back, but for those who create the choices, cruelty is a necessity, for we control life and thus decide upon its very own nature, to be merciful and aspire for nothing or be cruel and desire everything."

Hunching down next to the unconscious man, the Kunoichi slapped the man against the side of his face, waking him up and bringing him back to his painfull reality. Lamya's lips curled into a smile as she watched Shujin, motioning him to start manning up and finally act as he was told to do. "Do not make this a waste of my time, boy. Otherwise you might find out just how delightful your past was compared to the horrors I can bestow upon you."

515/1959

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