Each and every person of the earth would be likely to experience a moment in time which seemed to change everything. Some would experience several of these, but it was a strange phenomenon. An event which seems to inform the mind that something dramatic must change, or that something had fallen out of place. One particular young woman of the Hidden Leaf Village has been subject to a number of these, two of which come to the forefront of the mind.

Rivalry is not always borne of malice. Ting knew this so as she worked her way through the academy. She was always competing with her best friend and number one adversary, Yuna. Both of these young ladies were incredibly talented young medics and within their classroom they were often the most annoying due to the fact that they never seemed to give anyone else the opportunity to shine.

“Ting, you know you’re supposed to be controlling your chakra very finely, right? Not like some sort of brute.” The beautiful pink haired girl who stood just a few inches shorter than Ting would mock with a playful giggle as she observed the taller blue-haired girl attempting to focus her chakra scalpel technique to operate on a toad for a classroom project. The look of rage Ting would flash in Yuna’s direction would be enough to send her into a goofy spring across the classroom.

“Maybe there’s a better way for me to practice my chakra control, Sensei. I think Yuna just volunteered herself as a test subject for the Chakra Enhanced Strength technique!” Ting would playfully chase her friend around the room, not realizing the toad she had been trying to practice the scalpel on had long fled the scene. It would seem the chakra anesthetic technique had worn off early.

The rest of the class would choke back laughter and giggle as the sensei looked upon the two stars of the class simply unable to truly punish them, as they were the cream of the crop despite their silliness. She would grin and send them to their seats before continuing the lesson on the uses and applications of the chakra scalpel technique.

When class released, Yuna and Ting would rush off together to tuck away in the corners of the library and chat about boys, show off techniques they had taught themselves ahead of the class (which was against the rules) and daydream about the future. As they rushed in, they’d both give a polite bow toward the librarian who always seemed to welcome their presence. What older adult wouldn’t enjoy the sight of the younger generation getting lost in a place like the library?

When they made it to the furthest corner in the leftmost side of the library, they’d slump down onto the beanbags they had snuck in ages ago and pop immediately into discussion about very important subject of boys in their class.

“What was Kin even doing today? He looked like some sort of trash golem and that is SO not like him!” Yuna would burst into this with such displeasure and urgency. Her face was twisted into a sort of pout as she crossed her arms and glanced at Ting.

The two of them were only 14 years old, at this time. Nothing much in the world could have mattered to them beyond making it to the academy each day and trying to take in the lessons they were offered while romanticizing the little things that truly wouldn’t matter in a number of years.

“What about Yin?” Ting would ask her friend very forthright, not realizing she had inadvertently just called into question the appearance of a female classmate whom she found attractive. Her cheeks would quickly blossom into a bright red. She would hide her gaze and try to look anywhere but into Yuna’s eyes.

“Yin is a gir......” Yuna would pause and blink a few times to understand the math behind this ever so strange equation. Her mind would wander to the possibility of it being a genuine mistake, but it was quickly shaken away by the bright red on her friends cheeks. Within only a few moments, Yuna would blossom a beautiful grin, pushing her long pink hair to the side.

---

719

The differences between the home life of Yuna and that of Ting were extreme. Each of the two lived in conditions the other would not have been able to understand, facing down entirely opposite obstacles and challenges while somehow finding the most comfort and understanding in one another. It may very well have been those differences themselves that brought the two together, but it would ultimately be what drove them apart as well. In this segment we explore a typical day in the life of Ting whilst she made her way through the academy.

---

The usual, familiar, and suffocating stench of lower class living would draw open Ting’s eyes to greet the morning sun through her curtains. The waking moments of her mornings were almost always assailed by the smell of cigarette smoke and dust. Her parental units were never much concerned about keeping the home tidy, and it really did show. Ting, in the other hand, did everything in her power to mask who she was at home and prevent anyone from knowing of her living conditions. As she sat up from her old twin mattress, she’d immediately stumble off toward the shower. It was ritualistic for her. The hot waters of the shower would always do the most in terms of waking her up and getting her motivated for the day to come. As she lathered her body with a nice little lavendar body wash, she would feel for that moment a thousand times more clean than she did when she initially opened her eyes. The last part of her shower routine was to shampoo and condition her unique blue hair, recently brought out once again from beneath the last remnants of the black dye she had used a few months earlier.

As she pulled her towel from the place she usually left it hanging - directly over the shower curtain rod - she would begin to dry herself with some haste, realizing she had showered for far too long. This was not uncommon, though. She would dress herself quickly, pulling on the scrubs she was required to wear when her class made its way to the hospital to learn practical skills. She was a medic, and she loved it. Unfortunately for her, she was the only one concerned with her own education within the household.

“Ting! You know we don’t have the money to pay for your hour long showers, girl. You plannin to make some money to help this family or are you still dreamin’ of being some big shot in the military?” Her drunken father’s voice would rip through the peaceful state she was in after her shower. At only 7:00 am in the morning, he had somehow managed to get drunk. Sometimes Ting believed he simply never stopped being drunk. Neither of these options were acceptable to a civilized family, but it was the reality every day for Ting and many others.

“And when exactly do you plan to work again, father?” Ting would retort, grabbing her sweater and putting it on, just ready to walk out of her home. One would have wondered when her mother would have spoken up or whether anyone in this circumstance was going to be kind or anything similar to a caregiver. The closest thing to kind was her mother, who never seemed to leave her bedroom. Even so, Ting would peak inside and wish her mother a good day before she rushed out as her father rounded the corner. Narrowly avoiding a good beating, Ting would rush quickly down down the street toward the hospital with a smile on her face.

She would link up with Yuna at this point, meeting just a few blocks from the academy. The shorter, pink haired girl seemed exhausted as she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Ting, allowing herself to be comically dragged across the dirt path below them.

“Why must we wake up before our bodies are ready, Ting? This needs to be abolished immediately. Time is only a construct.” She would groan lowly. Ting agreed, to a certain extent. One of the worst feelings one could experience was being pryed away from sleep. Did you study for the test today, friend?”

In that single moment, it was as though the sky itself had opened up and vomitted the essential mass of all that exists directly onto the blue-haired girl. It was one of those things that skips the mind in such a way that one doesn’t even realize they had forgotten anything. What in the name of all that was holy would she be tested on today?

---

After a somewhat fulfilling day at the academy, Ting would find herself walking home with Yuna in tow as well. Somehow, by the skin of her teeth, Ting had managed to pass a test she had never studied for. That was enough of a success in her eyes that she could call it a successful day altogether. Although she knew when she returned to her home, nothing would have changed. She would still be judged by her father, she would still be disappointed in her life at home, and she would continue to look for a way out of it all.

---

876 | 1595

Three years would pass by with such a brevity, Ting would never begin to understand what she had done to land herself where she was. Laying on the couch in a small, shoddy looking room that stunk of body odor and yet somehow like cleaning chemicals at the same time, she would rise to her feet, sniffling and feeling a great pain in her nose as she did. Following that, a sneeze that brought forth a small bloodmist into her hand. Another night had gone by living a life unspeakable to anyone. She may have been one of the few people waking up in this room full of regret, or perhaps each and every one of them felt it too. Poverty had set upon her, her ribcage nearly visible beneath her breasts. Her skin was incredibly pale and one could have traced the veins upon it easily. She stumbled and tripped over people on her way to the door, shoving it open, exposing her form to the intensity of a bright sun. She wore a floral patterned spaghetti string dress with lightly ripped jeans. The people who passed by were probably aware of her condition, but the nosebleed she was suffering was still unsettling to most sensible people.

Ting would make her way to the local mini-mart and ask for the bathroom, with that granted she would lock the door behind her and begin to clean up, washing her face and the necessary areas of her body to remain fresh, even without a proper relaxing shower or bath. She hadn’t had either of those in an embarrassing amount of time. It was as though the young medic was very much alive but just barely living. Her mind was tainted, she was ill. The tyranny of an unhealthy addiction would ultimately lend itself to an untimely end if she never escaped. Smelling of gentle lavendar hand soap, Ting would take back to the streets, sort of wandering her day away. The number of times she would pass by her parents’ house and try her best not to look upon it at all, they were without a true number value.

Oh how she longed to be able to walk into that hell pit and run into the faces of her doubters how she had graduated the academy and made a phenomenal career for herself as a shinobi. She wanted more than anything in the world to show them she had evaded falling closely to the proverbial tree. But she had failed. She hadn’t made anything much of herself and her father of all people would prove to be correct about her. It was deeply saddening, and she made sure to keep away from that reminder of just how disappointed she was in her own personal progression.

Somewhere in the market district, Ting would slump over on a bench, and this would make the first night she would spend sleeping outside. She was officially out of money and entirely homeless. The life of trash she had created for herself was nobodies fault but her own. She could never have known all those years later she would be saved by Takao. In this place, she only knew hopelessness.

---

537 | 2132

Waking up in a nice apartment with a clear head and the promise of a hot shower was not something Ting would have ever expected possible all of those years ago. The Kimura complex was nicer than her childhood home and the landlord was generous and compassionate. The young woman had never much experienced charity, her lazy parents not willing to accept it despite the impoverished state they existed in. She had even saved up the money from doing small, seemingly insignificant tasks for the village as what a genin might expect to do. Fortunately she was a medic so the things she was qualified to do were still somewhat interesting to her. She had decorated her apartment and made it her own, careful to stay within the terms of her lease. Takao had paid for her rent for two months only before Ting took the matter into her own hands, pushing for independence and self sufficiency.

By no means was her life perfect, but things were so lovely at the moment that she could not think of a meaningful complaint. As she looked around her room, she would smile at the design choices. She had snagged so many neat artifacts from thrift stores along with some rather upscale looking navy blue curtains, a large vanity for makeup and basic routine facial grooming such as facemasks, eyebrow plucking and other such activities. She had never been so fortunate as to have one in her youth, so it was an extreme privilege and quite possibly more exciting for her than it should have been. Her apartment was still in need of more decor but Ting was working her hardest on a genin level to make the money necessary to do so.

The day demanded yet another episode of intensive training, Ting would need to really expand upon her jutsu knowledge before tackling the exams head on. Another good thing about the Kimura compound was that they had a training area. Two training areas to be exact. The one Ting would be seeking out today was a large dusty expanse that looked to have gone through hell. The Kimura, from what Ting had been able to gleam up this point, we’re katon users, and the large blackened scorch marks across the training grounds indicated it well.

Though dummies and targets were useful, Ting wasn’t too sure they would stand up to some of the things she had planned, and did not want to take on the expense of paying for any damage they might have sustained while she was trying to tune her chakra control. Aside from that, she had grown tired of the feeling of her fists slamming into that strange sack fabric so often used on the dummies. It was a texture thing. She would take a deep breath and mentally order the chakra within her body to accelerate the division of cells intensely. At this point she would look all around, realizing there wasn’t anyone to hurt her in order to test the usefulness of the jutsu.

She stood in the center of the fenced clearing, her green genin jacket and khaki shorts a nice looking outfit for a Konoha ninja. They were worn over a black bodysuit that stopped just at the neck. Her headband was tightened around her head, gleaming in the early morning sun.

---

561 | 2693

As if answering her mental quandary directly, Takao would make his appearance, announcing himself and walking over to where she stood within the rather expansive training area of the Kimura compound. As she smiled and nodded toward him, she wondered to herself just how much time Takao had spent here in his youth, could some of the markings here have been his doing? The thought of a young Takao was off to her. Seeing such a tall, strong man with his intense and masculine features did not translate well into a smaller image. She would have to ask if he had any childhood photos at a later date. Taking that into her mind as a note for another time, she would take to replying to the man she had begun to see as a mentor.

“You should know you don’t have to worry about keeping up with me, Mr. Kimura. I hope you weren’t put off when you discovered I had taken over the rent so soon. I just like to make sure I’m self-sufficient.” She relaxed her chakra, realizing if Takao could sense it at all he would have likely wondered why she was focusing so much of hers across her body. It was a good feeling to clear the air, as she had wondered for some time what Takao might have thought about the sudden independence she had sought.

“I have been training tirelessly, you know I haven’t exactly been keeping with my physicality the last few years. I had such a deficit to make up for and...I’m not very certain of myself if I’m honest.” Ting wanted to level with Takao, seeking any sort of direction he could give her, being that he had lived a life in service to Konoha as a skilled shinobi. Anything would have been useful at this point, as the young woman had nearly burnt herself out on training. She was beginning to understand what her white haired Hyūga friend, Xiang, must have been feeling for many years.

It was at that moment Ting was reminded that she had indeed agreed to join the ROOT organization. It was only then that she began to wonder why she hadn’t been given any tasks just yet? Perhaps Takao was well aware of her weakened state. If that were the case, she may have hope yet of getting some quality training from him. There was still a pit in her heart that did not believe she deserved the help. A sort of festering worthlessness that had taken up residence in her heart since the events of that night, and in regard to the waste of years she had partaken in.

It was as though she had just walked out of the blizzard and could feel the effects of her body fighting against the cold.

---

479 | 3172

The warm words of encouragement provided by Takao brought comfort to Ting. She had been overworking herself to a high degree over the last few weeks, her body was telling her that a break would do her a large amount of good. It was always difficult to remind oneself of the messages Takao was putting out when she had to muddle through an already low self-esteem. All she wanted was to ensure that she was able and ready to compete in such a grandiose event. With the exams not far away at all, she had limited time. The only thing holding her back from pushing even harder was the experience she had been exposed to regarding Xiang of the Hyūga. Pushed so hard to train and better herself, the young woman had fallen into an outright coma only weeks before the big event. There was still no way of knowing whether she’d make enough of a resurgence to compete.

No matter how she framed it, the invitation Takao offered her in regards to diplomatic excursions into the minor villages was almost too good to be true. She may have been a very hands on combatant and someone willing to get their hands dirty in pursuit of a victory, but she was also a sucker for political conversation. Nothing would have felt better right now than tea and banter with some overly wealthy ruler in a land with unique traditions and customs. She was entirely on board. Whether she was on board with the idea in her head or with the true intentions of Takao remained to be seen. She had scarcely had time to consider the relevant details of having joined up with the highly secretive ROOT organization. As far as she could tell, nothing yet had been needed of her.

“That sounds like a breath of fresh air. I would love to come along. When can we leave?” She was eager, and it would surely show. The way her life had changed in just a few months was inspirational. It was not common for people recovering from the horrors Ting had been part of would go on to live out any sort of successful lives.  She was taking matters into her own hands with the help of healthy supporters and acquaintances like Takao, Xiang, and even silly Yoshihiro. One way or another, the young woman would find her place in the world.

[Exit Thread]

---

406 | 3578

Jutsu Trained

• Tight Knit (1000 WC + 150 Ryo)
  
• Chakra Reverse Pulse (1000 WC + 150 Ryo)
  
• Making Ends Meet (1000 WC + 150 Ryo)
  
• Means (1000 WC + 150 Ryo)
  
• Expose (750 WC + 80 Ryo)
  

Total Costs for Jutsu: 4750 WC + 680 Ryo

Reductions Applied

• Takao Present - 20% (S-Rank Teacher)
  
• Scroll of Seals - 10%
  

4750 - 30% = 3325 / 3578

253 WC Discarded

Training Earth into Air || 2,000wc - 20%(genius) - 30%(a the scroll of seals) = 1,000wc
309wc discarded.