Thud Thump Thump

  Hibiki sullenly walks down the dirt path that leads deeper into the village. He slowly makes his way forward step by step, his staff reaching out in front of him clacking on all it hit. Each tap of his staff telling Hibiki where he was and what lie ahead. He focused on these sounds, it helped to focus on them in order to drown out the ringing cacophony that awaited him.

 The village meant people, and people meant pain. Each person that came to close to Hibiki added another high pitched note to a discordant sea of noise. Hibiki might not be able to see, but he could hear the frequency of each individual he encountered, and what's worse was that he could feel then now too. Hibiki could not yet discern people's frequencies from others so he was constantly assailed by white noise the attacked him to the core.

  All in all it was another normal day heading toward the Bloody Academy.

Thud Thump Clack

  The simple sound of his staff hitting a rock or patch of earth drew Hibiki's attention away from the pain that lay at the end of his path. Instead he made a song with his strikes. He hummed along enjoying the soft bass of the waterfalls in the distance. The sounds of his harmony would bring comfort Hibiki would desperately need later in the day.

CLUNK!

  Stone. This meant the song was over and the climb to the academy had begun. It was time to count the steps again. Each one bringing him closer to the room full of his superiors and "peers". He swore he could already hear the ringing.

One Two Three...

  Taking each step slowly, Hibiki began his cautious ascent into the large cylindrical building. Even though he wasn't able to see it, Hibiki was quite fond of the towering structure. Its rounded open top layout gave the building great acoustics which is one of many reasons he always arrived first.

 He would sit within singing or practicing his hichiriki that his father had given him last year. It would give Hibiki time to himself until the growing sounds of others would begin trickling in. It was better to encounter them one at a time, adjusting, rather than being assaulted by the room blaring at him with each person's harsh notes blending into chaos.

Eight Nine...

  The others. His classmates were few but powerful. The old days of the students killing each other to graduate were over, but the fierce competition instilled in them was not.

Academically Hibiki was a star pupil. The abstract get finite systems of science and arithmetic came easily to him, but the physical, and more important, training that he was put through was near torture.

Not being able to see the processes and outcomes of jutsu was a serious handicap in hibiki's learning. Luckily his teacher, Ms.Katsuyo, was a friend of his mother's. The two had become genin together when they were young, and when Katsuyo found out Hibiki was to be her student she agreed to be his private tutor to aid in his shinobi training. Hibiki was certain he would already be dead if not for her support. Yet there was one aspect of his training where she could not help him and only experience would guide him, combat.

Thirteen Fourteen..

Taijutsu was the name for "Hell". Being too close to someone caused Hibiki pain. So when someone actually touched him, let alone struck him, the agony was internal and felt eternal. The frequencies of his foes, emanating off of their pummeling limbs, would reverberate through Hibiki's very being. It took months before Hibiki was able to stay conscious after the slightest of attacks. Now he could endure for a short time, but only with the greatest of effort.

It had been a blessing when his class moved on to weapons. The short wooden swords used in kenjutsu training still hurt, but nowhere near as bad as contact with a n enemy. Still Hibiki struggled with his form. He constantly confused his kata or wasn't in time with the rest of the class. Finally he was switched to what he knew best, his walking stick. So began his training in Bojutsu.

Twenty.

WC 733