Unlike all the other times, Kensaku did not find himself waking up at his workstation, face down with his head lying atop of some blueprints, and possibly drooling on them. No, this morning, when the sun rays peeked through his curtain, illuminating his bedroom, and gently caressing his face, urging him to get up, his eyes open to stare at the blankness which was his ceiling. Blinking a few times and rubbing away the crust from his eyes, Kensaku just laid in bed for a few minutes, allowing his mind to wander to unimportant topics for the moment as he enjoyed the softness of the bed. It having been some time since he actually laid in bed longer than a few seconds.

Taking a glance at the clock sitting on the dresser to his right the time read ‘6:30am’. Seeing what time it was, Kensaku figured he had laid in bed long enough, and decided to get up. The linen which covered him was tossed to the side, and his feet swung off the bed. A shiver ran down his spine when bare feet touched the cool hardwood floor as he stood up. Stretching and groaning, he looked around his fairly clean room. The only mess being organized chaos in his workstation, but even then, it was not as bad as it could have been.

Speaking of the workstation, Kensaku moved towards the area, looking at the papers scattered about. Shifting through the first few sheets, overlooking old puppet designs, Kensaku began searching for the latest thing that he had been working on. It did not take him long to find the blueprints for a hulking behemoth of a creature. The creature in question having three pairs of hoof-like feet, and an armored body that, according to the notes would be able to block some high powered projectiles. Before he could continue looking at the blueprint, there was a knock at the door, “Come in.”

Watching the door open a smile spread across Kensaku’s face as he saw his mother peeked her head in, “Kensaku, it is almost ready. Why not get dress, and then bring Niala downstairs”, Hanae suggested. There was no reason for she to clarify what it was, everyone in the household, asides from Niala, knew about it.

“Hope she likes the gift.”, Kensaku silently mused to himself, moving to the bathroom to take a quick shower. He emerged fifteen minutes later with a towel wrapped around his waist. Locking his door, he did not want anyone to walk in on him half-nude, Kensaku moved to the closet to find something to wear. He knew that he would be changing later for the other activities planned today, Kensaku went with something simple for now. Grabbing a dark brown novelty T-shirt with the words “Got Rocks?” printed in white italic, he slipped it on. The shirt being followed by dark blue cargo-esque pants. Now dressed, Kensaku took a few seconds to comb his hair before stepping out of his room.

Walking across the hallway, Kensaku knocked on Niala’s door, “Niala, you up?”, He asked, “Breakfast is almost ready.”

---

527

Having knocked on the door, Kensaku waited for Niala to answer. After a few seconds passed without an answer, he leaned against the wall adjacent to the door and waited. During the wait, his thoughts drifted towards what all they had accomplished within the week. Both of them having been getting much-needed training from their parents. Kensaku having been training with his mother more so than his father as of late. The woman in question having a better grasp of the ninjutsu arts than Genki. Training with her was an interesting experience, while she did not have the commanding presence of their father, there was still something dangerous about her whenever she trained him. Maybe it had to do with the way she weaved ninjutsu as if she was some magician within the books of old. How she was capable of manipulating various elements with an unnatural grace that Kensaku wish he could do. Through her teaching, Kensaku got a better grasp of not only ninjutsu, but the concept of chakra. She helped laid the foundation for his future success, something that a Jounin instructor would have done if he was on a squad.

Training was brutal, more so than when he trained with his father. There were many times were he was pushed to near chakra exhaustion from the strenuous chakra exercises she forced him to perform until he could do it without difficulty. To save she was a slave driver would be an understatement. The woman was a perfectionist when it came to the shinobi arts, and it showed during the training sessions. Yet, despite how tough the sessions were, Kensaku did not break from them. He continued to ask for these sessions whenever he could, and completed them to the best of his ability. With a growing desire to make his mother proud, Kensaku pushed himself further and further each day. Going to such extremes did not go without changing him for the young Chikamatsu was developing a perfectionist trait similar to his mother’s. He could no longer settle for ‘good’, he had to be the ‘best’, at least when it comes to chakra related techniques.

During the times were he was not training with his mother, or father, Kensaku did missions along with Niala. The two having to take the words of their parents to heart. They were told to let their presence be known throughout the village, gain the village trust by doing missions, and help around whenever was possible. They were relatively new the Iwagakure no Sato, therefore, there was naturally some distrust with the locals, that is why they had to gain the trusts via helping around whenever was possible. The two did just that, asides from nightly guard duty, helping around at the library, the pair also helped with reinforcing mining shafts leading into Sunagakure no Sato. Speaking of the particular mission, Kensaku decided not to think about it much, after having a conversation with his father after said mission. While his mother had given him some advice, it was his father who explained things further. It was through the man’s explanation that Kensaku stopped thinking about what the mission meant, and instead, focused on other avenues of interests.

Before his musing could continued, the voice of Niala was heard through the door. “Alright, though I doubt mom would freak out. You could not look as bad as you did yesterday when you passed out.”, He spoke, still leaning on the wall. He could have went downstairs and helped with the preparations, but he knew others were already handling it. With that, his mind returned back too what he had been doing as of recently. Thanks to all the missions him and his twin have been doing, he had enough money to get the materials needed for another puppet. Unlike his first puppet who was small, this particular one would be quite large. He had thought long and hard about what the puppet would look like, and he was fairly pleased with the quadrupedal beast. Though the design was done, he did not know what type of weaponry it would have, and that would be something he had to figure out sooner or later.

Kensaku turned his attention to Niala’s bedroom door that was being open. “Someone has been staying up late.”, He spoke, the moment his twin exited the room, pushing off the wall to stand beside Niala. “What you been working on?”, He asked while walking down the stairs with his twin. The delicious aroma of breakfast wafting up to greet them. Finally making it downstairs, Kensaku looked around at the few balloons, with the words “Congrats”, floating about. Leading Niala into the kitchen, she would see a large sign with the words ‘Congratulations’, with both of their parents, along with Kannon and Chiyo, standing there with smiles on their face.

Genki walked towards Niala with a smile on his face, “This came for you yesterday while you were asleep. You deserve it.”, The man spoke, handing a sealed scroll, with the Tsuchikage stamp on it, to her. When she opened it, Niala would find a Chuunin vest and a small note from the Tsuchikage regarding her promotion to said rank. “Congrats sis.”, Kensaku spoke, which was said by the others as well.

“Come let’s eat breakfast. We have a big day plan.”, Hanae spoke, and with the help of Chiyo, the two women set the today with Niala’s favorite breakfast food. Once the table was set, Kensaku moved to sit beside his sister, “How does it feel to be Chuunin?”.

---

937|1464

“You need to take it easy sometimes, sis.”, His voice being laced with concern, “It does no one any good if you push yourself to the point you can’t properly function on a daily basis. “ There is no denying the love Kensaku had for his twin. It was a priority for him to make sure she had everything she needed. To look after her when she is busy doing other things. To help her whenever she needed it. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her, and he knew she knows this. It was because of the love for his twin that he was concern about her health. She having been working herself to the bone as of late. Last night been a perfect example of how much she had put in the day. After the family had to eat, his twin had gone straight to bed and was not seen for the rest of the night. Seeing how tired she was, Kensaku, without being asked, went ahead and did the dishes for her, despite it being her night to do them. He could not bring himself to leave the dishes in the sink for her to do them whenever she woke up.

He was initially surprised at his twin’s forwardness regarding her next puppet project. Considering they both have kept the finer details of their first puppet a secret from one another, wanting it to be a surprise too all, he had thought the same would be applied this time. It becoming apparent that his twin did not share the same sentiment as him. Still though, as he listened to her speaking about her newest creation, mentioning how it would be more human-like than her first one, he was completely okay with the new course of action. He did not mind bouncing ideas off of his twin. He knew, just like she probably did, that any secrets shared with him would be kept, and vice-versa. There being nothing to gain from babbling out his twin’s secrets, even if there was, he would not jeopardize his family for anything. “It is smart to improve on the concept you originally have, instead of just tossing it away for a completely different one. You know what worked, and did not work, with Bei Bei, so you should be able to improve on those areas.”He spoke, “My puppet is going to be different than Fuhyo. It will be less humanoid, and more animal-ish in appearance. I already figure it will be walking on six pairs of legs, and be big enough to ride in or ride on it. It will have some ideas that I wanted to use with Fuhyo, but could not figure out how to make them work with such a small puppet.” Just like the first puppet, this one would be a challenge for him, something that he would need to pass to prove his worth as a Chikamatsu.

Having made it downstair, Kensaku took a glance at Niala, looking to see her reaction to the balloons that were hanging in the living room. He briefly wonders did she have any idea of what was going on, or that she was walking into a party planned for her? Yesterday, after she had passed out, a messenger-nin came by with a scroll from the Tsuchikage, detailing Niala’s promotion. Seeing how she was being promoted, the family decided to quickly plan something special for her. Luckily, it did not take much time to do that with the end result being this.

Kensaku could not help but to smile at Niala. He was extremely happy for her. She got promoted! If anyone deserved the promotion, it was her. “You’re welcome, honey. You deserve this for all the hard work you put in.”, Hanae spoke, before looking at Kensaku, “And I am sure your twin will be getting his own promotion soon.” At the mention of his own promotion, Kensaku just shrugged his shoulders, he knew he would get promoted sooner or later, it was just a matter of time. Furthermore, today was not about him, but about his twin’s promotion to Chuunin.

Sitting beside Niala at the table, Kensaku looked at the array of delicious food all spread out for them to enjoy. Wasting no time, he took some of everything and started eating, making small idle chat with those at the table. When Niala asked about what was planned, it was Genki who spoke up, “We plan on taking you shopping. Hanae mentioned there was a few things you wanted to get. Plus, seeing how you are Chuunin now, it would be a good idea to buy more shinobi related gear and become familiarized with some of the owners who run these stores. It is beneficial to have people you can trust when you need to buy clothing that can protect you on duty along being fashion enough to wear as civilian attire.”, The thought of such a burly man knowing anything about fashion might come to a shock to many. But, the fact of the matter was, Genki understood the need for a shinobi to blend in with civilians when the times call for it. He has seen so many shinobis died, or ousted out as spies for another village because their attired just screamed ‘SHINOBI!’. So, being able to blend in with the civilians was a must in his eyes. “Also, there is two new shops that recently opened, which might be some interest to both of you. Recently, a Chikamatsu opened up a shinobi store that deals exclusively with puppet parts and bases. They even have blueprints of some basic puppets, if people fancy that. Asides from that shop, there is this new cafe that has opened. Kensaku mentioned how you wanted to go there. So, we will be taking you there for lunch. How does that sound?”, Genki asked.

Having already known what all was planned, Kensaku stopped eating long enough to look at Niala to see her reaction to the news.

1016[2480]

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10% increase on Endurance and Strength training due to Clan
Strength D0 ->D1: 2480 - 358 = 2122
Strength D1 ->D2: 2122 - 440 =1682
Strength D1 ->D3: 1682 - 495 = 1187
Endurance D0 -> D1: 1187 - 358 = 829
Endurance D1 -> D2: 829 - 440 = 389

Discard: 389