Lying in the middle of the field a few miles from Konoha, Aethir was lying on the ground, resting on his back as he looked up at the clear blue skies. The wind was near dead, not even a breeze being present as Aethir opened his mouth to yawn. "The big one eight..." he smiled, closing his eyes. They felt heavy, thus forcing him to rest them for a bit. But unfortunately, what was meant to be a session of resting the eyes, Aethir was slowly drifting to sleep. "I guess I'm an adult now, huh...?" he spoke tiredly, head slowly leaning to the side. As he rested, it didn't occur to him that the sun felt nice on his skin. Not until he was halfway asleep at least. The sun's rays felt like a blanket resting on top of him, keeping him warm from the cooling temperatures the afternoon and evening was sure to bring. With a light groaning sigh, the man slowly began to lose consciousness, dreaming of a mixed and blended reality of different places and faces he's seen. Just as the brain is meant to do when one sleeps...

It wasn't until Aethir felt something hard poke his forehead with a bit of force that he woke up from his little 'eye resting' session. "Ah...What...?" the ronin looked around, soon looking up at the dark blue cloudy skies. Judging by the sky's brightness level, he could assume it was early evening, rain on the way. "Ugh...What was- OW!" Aethir cried in pain as something hard smacked the back of his head, causing the boy to turn around. "What the...?" Now in front of him was an old man, staring down at him with an angry glare. "Boy," he began, Aethir blinked at the man before standing up on his feet, "I pick you as my deposit." Aethir stared at the man for a moment before speaking. "Your wha- OW! Hey, what was that for- OW!! DO YOU MIND?!" It seemed every time Aethir spoke, this old man smacked him on the skull area with his steel cane. "My deposit." the old man repeated as Aethir stared for a bit before raising an eyebrow. He was afraid to ask what he meant, afraid of the oncoming cane, but the silence present for the amount of time it was lead him to not have much of a choice. "Your depo- ..." The ronin went silent as the older man smacked him with the cane again. "Come with me..." he simply said, Aethir blinking with a tired look on his face before looking up. "But the rain is about to-"  "COME!"  "Fine. Fine. Okay. Sure." He sighed, following the old man as rain drops began to fall from the sky.

Through the thickness of the forest, the two wandered out to what looked like a lake. The brightness has dropped significantly since the last time Aethir spoke or was smacked with the elder's cane. The darkness around them was thicker than usual, trees over head accompanied by clouds blocking out the moon. Aethir watched silently as the elder stood where he was, becoming increasingly hard to see as the last bit of the sun began to set. Finally, black had filled the area, Aethir being unable to see anything. "Hey...What... What are we doing here?" Suddenly, a light source was produced, flames appearing above of what appeared to be a paper tag of some sort. "Whoa!! Put that out!!" Aethir began to freak out, seeing a flame stand above the flammable material, the paper tag. It took a long while for Aethir to realize that the fire wasn't moving or anything. The fire was still in the same spot, as if being trapped inside of some container lamp invisible to the naked eye. "Do you fear the dark?" Aethir heard the man speak, the ronin looking up to the elder. "The dark? No... No I don't. Because anything in the dark is the same thing that'd be there in the light. Obvious, isn't it?" Aethir couldn't help but sound a bit arrogant, which resulted in him receiving a smack with the cane. "Did you see that in the dark, asshole?"  "N-No I didn't..."  "But you just said anything in the dark is the same as it would be in the light. So that tells me if it were bright, you'd still get hit, boy." the ninja sighed, rubbing his eyes as he was being lectured by this TOTAL stranger. He finally had to ask this old man what he brought him here for. "Sir, what are we doing here...?" Aethir asked, expecting for a cane to hit him...but was relieves to see that a cane had NOT hit him for once!

"I wish for you to be my deposit..." Aethir stared, tilting his head as he was still confused. "But why me? You don't know me, pardon me saying. Maybe I'm a murderer on the run." the younger man lied, staring at the old man as the flame flickered, "And what do you mean deposit...?" The old man eyed Aethir, a smile appearing on his face. "You're not the type. At my age, I'm capable of knowing who stands for justice...and who are slaves to evil's grip." Aethir blinked, still staring with full curiosity present in his eyes, "You..." Aethir continued to stare as the old man began to speak once more, "You are an odd ball." The ronin nearly fell over hearing this, expecting something deep and sensual from the elderly man. "Can't tell if you're good. Can't tell if you're evil. You're an odd ball." Regaining his composure, Aethir smiled. "If I'm such an odd ball, then that means I'm unreliable, yes...?" "No...Not quite." The boy watched as the man began to turn away. He tossed the tag into the water, the flame appearing to levitate above it. Surprisingly, the tag wasn't getting soaked or ruined! Suddenly, the flame flashed quickly before expanding larger and larger, smaller flames rising from the prime flame to simply hang and levitate in the air. Small 'cords' began to stretch from the flames, connecting from one to another. The area around them soon was illuminated in an orange glow. Around them... It didn't occur to Aethir that he was now trapped with the old man inside what looked to be a dome made of fire and orange strings spanning from the fire.

"The people who are neutral, hesitant to branch out to forge one's paths...Are ultimate weapons of good and evil..." Aethir looking shocked and surprised, staring in complete awe at the fire around him. "Therefore, you shall stand for justice as long as I am alive."  "Well that's great, but who the heck are you?!" Aethir looked down to the...now missing elderly man. "As you are now, you are too weak and too easy to defeat. Therefore..." Aethir looked around himself, searching for the old man before noticing one of the flames in the sky were flickering uncontrollably, "We must change that... Suns of Vadon!" The flickering fire in the sky ceased it's movement as a smaller orb was launched from the flame. Seeing this, the ronin sprinted off in a direction, hopefully dodging the flame orb. However, the orb appeared to be homed in on him. Thus, no matter how quickly he moved or how intricate and elusive his movements were, he couldn't lose this orb, soon to be orbs as more joined the party. 'There's no way I can-' Aethir spotted the lake then quickly used his water clone technique to summon four clones. He commanded two of the clones to create move clones to jump in the way of the fire orbs, the two other prime clones following Aethir. However, the boy lost his footing as some sort of force pushed him forward suddenly. A large explosion came from the fire orbs, noticing a LARGE wall of flames easily towering over the already giant trees of Konoha. It was just now that Aethir had noticed the rain was pouring, and yet the flames had yet to be extinguish.

"Maybe the water jutsus I know can-"  "Don't even try." Aethir gasped as he was the old man casually walk through the flames, staring with a dull face. "This jutsu is impossible to stop with the amount of power you have now..." The ronin didn't listen however, shooting water balls at the oncoming flame orbs, the water evaporating easily as it continued on it's path to the boy. He gasped, too shocked to move, then was even more surprised as his clone jumped in the way of the oncoming orb. The explosion however sent Aethir and his last clone farther away, small traces of flames burning parts of his clothes. "Ah, damn it..." Aethir groaned, getting to his feet, looking at the still large and in effect web of fire above him, appearing to be ready to fire more orbs. "Do you understand now? Your power does not compare to even one of my jutsus. And I'm afraid to inform you," Aethir eyed the old man as he walked closer to him, "But this is just an B-Ranked Jutsu."  "B-Ranked...?" the ronin appeared to be surprised, the old man smiling smugly.

"You know of ranked jutsus, yes? From E rank to S rank." Aethir stared blankly for a moment before spending time to gain comfortable ground. "What you used was a C-Rank jutsu. It obviously cannot stand up against a jutsu one ranked higher." Aethir stared, glancing to his water clone, then back to the man. "That clone there is a C-Rank. And I imagine most jutsus you know are C-ranked or below, no?"  "Ranked doesn't matter that much! If I can just shoot something enough... Everything gives way eventually!"

The boy formed a hand seal, forming six more clones of water, the clone from the first set adding to the group, making seven. "Quantity over Quality, huh? ...You are such a fool." A flame in the sky flickered, sending an orb towards the group of Aethirs, the prime Aethir shooting water balls from his mouth to the orb. It took four shots until the orb exploded where it was in midair. "You see?!"  "I see... But..." Aethir glanced at the old man, then gasped as almost all the flames in the sky began to flicker, each developing about three orbs per flame. A total of fifteen orbs formed, swirling around the air, ready to home in on the crowd of clones. "What if I were to use the jutsu as it should be used?" Aethir's eyes widened, then narrowed, glancing at all of his clones, informing them to use the water ball technique.

There was a dramatic, suspenseful pause as the flames flickered, sending the orbs hurling towards the boys. As a retort, the Aethirs shot countered with a stream of water bullets, splashing and evaporating upon contact, some orbs exploding while other orbs were durable enough to bypass the bullets. The clones that were too low on chakra didn't bother to try and form another bullet and simply dissolve, but instead flung themselves at an orb to make it explode. This went on until the final orb was destroyed, the three remaining clones' chakra near gone, Aethir himself exhausted. "Good...Good..." Aethir heard the man speak, glancing at the old man, soon gasping as the flames in the sky flickered, forming another wave of orbs. "Now how about round two? Maybe you can go on for round three? Four? Maybe all the way to round five, huh? The final round..." Aethir stared with wide, helpless eyes, reality hitting him. There was no way he could keep this up for five rounds. Seventy-five orbs of fire, one capable of setting the trees of Konoha on fire with ease. "Did it hit you now, boy? You can't win as you are against those who are slaves to evil." Aethir gasped, noticing the fire web in the sky began to dissolve, the orbs fading as well. "This is why you shall be my deposit." Aethir looked over to the old man, the clones looking as well, confused. "My deposit...for these techniques I have. And you will use them for good as long as I am alive. Understand, boy?" Aethir blinked, gulped, then turned his body towards the man. "My name is Aethir."  "Aethir...?" Aethir nodded, the old man staring for a moment. "That name is stupid. From now on, I shall call you..." Aethir blinked, staring at the old man, "Josephine." There was no reaction from the boy as the clones looked up at Aethir with a blank stare. "I'm sorry, what name was that...?"  "Josephine." Aethir slowly nodded. "I thought that's what you said. Now I've got to calmly respond with an innocent question...of why?" The old man chuckled, looking out to the pond. "To be fair, you could have destroyed that jutsu, Josephine."  "You're not going to answer me, are you...?" "No. No I'm not. But pay attention now, Josephine."

Aethir stared with a sarcastic look on his face, soon noticing the old man was pointing out to the pond. With a sigh, Aethir turned to the pond to see a black floating piece of trash in the pond. "...Konoha residents shouldn't litter..."  "Josephine, I was the one who tossed that tag out into the pond." Aethir glanced at the elderly man, soon looking at the ash in the pond in shock. 'Wait...Then that means...' The old man laughed, raising another tag which looked identical to the one he used to use the fire jutsu. "Allow me to explain Fuuinjutsu to you, girl."  "...Girl...?" Aethir blinked, covering his blushing face. 'Come on, this is the second person who's mistaken me for a girl...Though, the first person was drunk...' Aethir eventually figured he must be doing this on purpose... "This tag is my own invention. I call it a Fuuin-Tag. What this tag does is..." The old man began to explain what the tag did, and how the ash in the lake canceled the jutsu.

"So Fuuinjutsu deal with seals and tags, huh?" Aethir spoke, scratching his head. "But I know Ninjutsu. Why don't I just use that instead of paper...tags?" The old man pointed behind Aethir to his exhausted looking clones. "Using that many jutsus in such a short time can exhaust a person. Why be exhausted when you can-"  "Ah...I get you. I get you..." Aethir quickly caught on from the old man's explanation of his invention with his own common sense. "So where can I buy those- OW!!" Aethir was his with the cane again. "WHAT PART OF 'MY OWN INVENTION' DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?! YOU CAN'T BUY THEM, YOU MAKE THEM, JOSEPHINE!!"  "S-Sorry! Sorry!! How do you make them?"

The old man sighed, whipping out what looked like regular rectangular paper. "First, you buy the sealing tags."  "But you said I couldn't buy-" Aethir shut his mouth as the man glared at him. "N-Nothing..."  "Then, focus your chakra into the tag and..." Aethir watched as the once rectangular paper molded itself into an even slimmer paper tag, becoming a shade of green. "Hey! It's green!"  "Very good Josephine, you know your colors. Now watch carefully." Aethir stared at the green tag, listening to the old man. "You now have one of the custom tags. Now to use it, you simply toss it and disrupt it's chakra flow."  "What?" Aethir blinked, then quickly followed the tossed tag to the pond, noticing a huge explosion of wind spiraling the pond water up into the air. Aethir then noticed that the once lightening right grew incredibly heavy as the pond water fell back down. "I see..." Aethir said, now beyond soaked.

"Now you try. You can't make the tags because you don't know fuuinjutsu."  "Well maybe I can-"  "No, you don't know fuuinjutsu."  "Well how do you-"  "Because you didn't know what fuuinjutsu WAS Josephine."  "Okay, well what do I do...?" The old man nodded, handing Aethir a tag. The boy took the tag, following the old man's instructions as he heard. The tag took a shade of ...white...Aethir throwing the tag to the pond with a huge smile. "...Girl," Aethir smiled over to the old man, raising an eyebrow, "You don't focus your RAW chakra in..."  "...Oh...S-So the tag is..."  "There goes about 50 ryo."  "...I'm sorry..." Aethir sighed, blushing from being embarrassed as he watched the tag become soaked and fall into the water.

Aethir tried again and again, no result from the many failed tags. He soon gasped with a large smile as he had a tag with a shade of blue, tossing it eagerly into the pond. Suddenly, a clone of Aethir shot up from the tag, screaming as he fell back down into the pond. "I see...So these tag can..." Aethir went on, explaining what he thought the tags could do and how they worked. "Yes, I suppose you could say that. Think of the as backpacks..."  "Hmm...I see..."

The two conversed more of fuuinjutsu, Aethir getting the gist of the difference between fuuinjutsu and Ninjutsu. Finally, the old man began to speak of elements. "So you only know of Suiton and Raiton... Yes, as you are now, you won't stand a ghost of a chance against evil." Aethir didn't respond and simply stared, "Which is why I will talk to you about Katon."  "Ka...ton?" Aethir blinked, tilting his head as the old man forced his middle and index finger together. Suddenly, a flame appeared on the tips, dancing about with the now present wind. "Fire. Raiton may create fire from it's destruction, create burns equal to fire in destruction...But fire is the ultimate instrument of destruction." Aethir stared at the flame, getting flashbacks to his burning childhood home. "The ultimate instrument for destruct- OW!!"  "OF destruction! If you're going to quote me, quote me right!!"  "Ugh, that smarts..." Aethir sighed, rubbing his forehead. As the ronin stared at the flame, he nodded, listening to the man speak of Katon. How Katon was alive, and had to be treated with care. "Katon...Fire...is like giving birth."  "But I can't give birth...I'm a guy."  "You are a beautiful girl, Josephine."  "I'm not even surprised anymore..." Aethir commented as he rubbed his head again after being hit. The old man went on as Aethir nodded to the elder, further training with the man.

As the sun rose, Aethir stared tiredly at it, limping over to the town of Konoha. His body ached and had burns, his clothes nearly turned to ash. 'Now listen, Josephine...' Aethir heard the voice of the old man in his head as he limped, 'Seek me out when you are sure you've mastered Fuuinjutsu and Katon. You'll know where when the time comes.' Aethir nearly passed out as he continued his way into town, past the gates. "Now why the heck would I know where an old man would be...?" He didn't question anything as he continued further, deeper into Konoha, the final words of the elderly man sounding in his head. "Practice using these seals? ...Suns of Vadon..." Aethir mumbled his words as his tried to figure out how to handle this. "Suns of Vadon. That's what he called that fire net...thing." he nodded, sitting down on the ground of Konoha. "I'll learn and see where it takes me. But for now, Suiton and Raiton are my key specialties..." he trailed off, thinking about this and that...