Jutsu being trained:

Flip...

Flip...

Flip...

Yawn.

His red gaze stared down at the pages; the words written upon them having blurred into some sort of sick sadistic twisted dance long ago. He'd been at this studying thing for how long now? Oh right; it was about four in the morning. So, make that a good sixteen hours now; of doing nothing more than leaning over the desk, eyes locked onto countless words on even more countless pages of text. The stack of books next to him paid tribute to all that he had read. There was a good stack of about eight of them there; some new, some older than probably dirt itself. Each one had been paid extra special attention to, each one had failed him.

The knowledge he was seeking wasn't found in those books, it was found within the pages of the one in front of him. The one whose words were blurring together into a sea of nothingness. He had read it once, twice even, but the third time just was not about to happen. He reached a pale hand up, rubbing at his eyelids in an attempt to force his eye balls and brain to focus. He squinted a bit, moved his head towards the book and then away from it; any thing at all that would make the words form into actual letters: characters even. It didn't work. Alas, it was utterly hopeless.

He straightened up, leaning his own back against that of the chairs as he stretched his arms skyward with another drawn out yawn. Finished with that he reached forward and with a light flick of his wrist he closed the book with a soft thud. There would be no more reading for a good while; not until he either got some sleep, or took a long walk to wake himself up. Given that it was about four in the morning, so he would get about two hours of sleep before the usual noise of the hotel he was staying in would start up and wake him up anyway, he settled for the walk.

Tap...

Tap...

Tap...

Came his soft foot steps across the wooden floor of his room as he moved to the bed where he had laid his weapons. He would bring at least one of them with him; his usual, favorite pick: Satsujin no Ito. The sword looked like an over-sized elegant cleaver than a normal katana. It has no tsuba and no proper hilt; but a cloth wrapped tang, with the cloth itself extending down over the black blade with a silver edge, to form a sheath of sorts. Of course, he was always capable of manipulating the cloth at a moments notice, extending it or otherwise as he needed. In fact, the blade itself formed an rather nice shield... But, that wasn't what he was going to need it for.

He picked up the blade, holstering it upon his back. With another glance around the room with his red gaze he then proceeded to the door, his feet continuing to make the same, soft noise as he walked:

Tap...

Tap...

Tap...

Reaching the door he exited the hotel room, pausing only long enough to close the door behind him. He looked up and down the hall once before turning to the left, heading in the direction of the exit to the building. As he walked, undisturbed because of the lack of awake people at this hour of the morning - even the desk attendant was passed out on top of a small stack of paper -, he went over the idea for the jutsu that he had in his mind. It was supposed to be done in two steps, a feint attack; or so that was how it would look, as the first part. Then the second part; the actual attack itself. A whirlwind of sorts that would not only lift the opponent into the air - thus leaving them open for more attacks - but that would attack them itself by the actual slicing power of the whirlwind.

Before he knew it his nearly silent steps had taken him out into the streets of Konoha and down them. They, too, were rather empty. Only the random stranger that was busy opening and setting up some of the shops. They paid little attention to him; too busy in their tasks at hand, and possibly going over the amount of profit they would bring in that day. His own stomach growled as he passed by some of the closed food stalls, and he chuckled to himself. "Maybe I'll treat myself to a nice cupcake if I can learn this jutsu before the sun finishes rising." Yes, that was what he would do, he would set himself a goal such as this, something to strive towards. It would be perfect.

He reached the forests quickly and entered them without hesitation; his goal was deeper in, a private place he could train without being disturbed; red gaze piercing through the darkness.

He walked for several long minutes until he stumbled across an empty clearing. It would work; especially as it held a single straw dummy that had been left behind from someone else who had obviously used the place before him to train. He placed himself across from it, facing it casually. He went over the steps in his head again, the fake-looking attack and the actual attack itself. 'This shouldn't be hard...', he though to himself, taking his blade in hand.

He lifted his sword, swinging it in the general direction of the dummy; unleashing a whirlwind. The whirlwind raced towards the dummy, dissipating right before striking it. He waited for it; knowing it was soon to come. Just as he expected the whirlwind picked up once more, taking the shape of a human being as it continued to turn with a sword turned inward around the target, surrounding the target, and lifting the straw dummy up into the air. The air began to make slices into the straw, cutting entire sections away after several seconds; otherwise destroying the entire dummy in the end once slash of the wind at a time.

Returning his blade back to his back he turned and began to walk away, moving through the forest and back into the village itself without even a second look back. He was awake now, and he had the jutsu learned; it was all and all the beginning of a perfect day. Now, if only that cup cake stall he passed was open.. then he'd be in Heaven.

Word Count: 1,099 / 1,000

Dimensional Cut:

Sweet, delicious, nearly undefined, goodness... So rich and creamy as it nearly melted in his mouth.

Chew...

Chew...

Chew...

Swallow. A whine proceeded the last finishing of the last bite of the cupcake goodness he had awarded himself with. That had been a rather fine, delicious treat for a goal well done, if he did say so himself; and he did. It had been a very lovely cup cake with just the right amount of frosting; chocolate for the cake itself, and lovely butter scotch frosting on top of that. It even had little white and black sprinkles to boot. It. Was. Excellent. And it was gone. Utterly. Completely. Gone.

He sighed and shook his head. "Well, I should get back to work, then, I guess." He walked his way back up the street, moving himself around the now bustling street. It was funny how only an hour earlier the streets were all but empty, but now? It was almost hard to walk with all the pushing and shoving that was going on. People stepping on others, bumping into them. It was almost like a riot; but it was nothing more than people rushing to and from work; grabbing groceries, or breakfast. Or perhaps they were just bored. He didn't know. He didn't care. They weren't his problem. So long as none of them bumped into him, or knocked him over, he could honestly care less.

Soon he was out of the surrounding masses and back to the hotel he had called home since arriving to Konoha, how long ago? Hell, he didn't care by this point; he'd be leaving soon enough. He walked up the halls of the hotel, going over the jutsu he knew he would need to study on before the physical practice of it; he had already grabbed the books earlier; having left the entire stack on the night stand of the overly large bed he had been given.

He stopped outside of his room, inserted the key into the lock, and gave the door handle a turn. Upon hearing the click he pushed the door opened, stepping into the darkness. He shut the door behind him, drowning the room in the blackness. But, he knew it well enough by now to know that five steps forward, and one to the right would leave him to the desk with the lamp. He reached out his hand after taking the required steps and found the coldness of the lamp; and more importantly the switch. He flicked it on, dousing the room in a pale but slightly bright light. Enough to read by at least.

Tap...

Tap...

Tap...

It was the only sound that indicated he was moving across the room; in the general direction of the night stand that held the several books he would need to read. He sat himself down on the bed, shoving a pillow up against the wooden headboard of his bed. He unattached his sword from his back, placing it on the bed, before he plopped down and rested his back against the pillow. He reached over, grabbing one of the many books he had wanted to read in an attempt to make learning this jutsu far easier.

Flip...

He would pause, red eyes skimming the page, absorbing the knowledge he was reading. Each page being memorized without trouble. When he was finished with that page he would turn to another...

Flip...

More reading, more knowledge. 'This jutsu won't be so hard, after all...', he thought to himself as he turned another page.

He followed this same process through each book. Flipping from one page to another, reading a bit to see if the page contained the valuable information he needed; if it did he would stop and read more in depth, sometimes reading it several times to make sure it was saved perfectly to memory.

From one book to another, until all five were finished, and with them a good six hours had passed. But, he had more than enough knowledge now stored to memory. The only question that remained was where he was going to go to learn this jutsu. He could go back to the place he had gone earlier that morning to practice; but he didn't feel like navigating his way through all of those people in the market again. In truth, he could keep to the roofs and avoid them...but meh. Somewhere new was preferred.

He stood up with a stretch and a yawn, glancing at the clock. It was almost noon. Joy. He strapped Satsujin no Ito back onto his back, the cloth wrapping once more down the blade to act as a sheath of sorts. He walked across the room, the same tap, tap, tap, as before echoing in the otherwise silent room.

After exiting the room he walked down the hotel's hallway and back outside; this time into the bright noon sun. He headed off in another direction; towards a training area he had passed a few days prior. It took him several minutes to reach there; and he was glad to find that it was completely empty. Sweet, it was always nice when people were gone for lunch; he wouldn't need long. He just had to make sure that he had this down; one shot was all he needed.

He moved his form to one of the nearby training dummies, unstrapping his blade from his back; the cloth falling away to reveal the black and silver edged blade. He gave a swing of his sword; letting forth of Fuuton chakra. It burst forth in a ball of sorts; a sphere of destructive wind blades that locked onto the target - the dummy - and began to rip it to shreds.

This was good, but he also needed to see what this was going to do at a much farther distance. With the slash, the spacial rend is mobile; cutting up and through everything in its path to the intended target - another dummy much farther away. Even as it approaches the target, the sphere grows larger, swallowing all that is in its path, including a smaller dummy that had just happened to be in its way. Anything caught in this attack will be carried with it, being repeatedly cut until the the other target was hit.

That.. had worked quite well. A lot better in fact than he had originally planned. The cloth stretched down, wrapping around the blade again before he replaced it on his back. With a yawn he walked out of the training area, fully satisfied with his training's success. His footfalls were all that could be heard as he headed for that cup cake stand he had visited earlier...

Tap...

Tap...

Tap....

Word Count: 1,125 / 1,000

[Summoned Swords]

Knock...

Knock...

Knock...

A single eyelid opened, the red gaze moving in the direction of the hotel door; glaring. Whoever was on the other side of that door was likely to be attacked of they didn't stop the continuous knocking. They should know better...

Knock...

Knock...

Knock...

'That's it.', he thought to himself as he stood up from the bed where he'd been lying; quite comfortably, too. Without bothering to stretch, or even yawn, the male moved his form one step at a time to the door. Reaching it he extended his right arm, grasped the door knob, turned it, and shoved the door open. Glaring. Yup, he was definitely glaring. Probably good enough to scare the hell out of anyone; but the poor man on the other side of the door wasn't just anyone; he was the hotel attendant whom he had asked to come wake him up at well... now.

"I'm sorry, sir. But... you asked to have a five in the morning wake up call?", the old man stammered over his words, obviously terrified.

Luca's expression softened a degree; he hadn't meant to scare the old man. "Yeah, sorry... bit of a grouch when I wake up is all. Thanks, thanks a lot for the wake up call."

"You're quite welcome, sir. If you don't need anything else I'll be on my way; have several other people who wanted to be woken up at this ungodly hour."

Luca gave a nod, stepped back into his room, and shut the door with far less anger than he had originally opened it. He turned, resting his back against the door for a moment as he folded his arms across his chest. He looked around with his reddened gaze, for a moment completely at a loss as to why he wanted woken up so damned early. 'Oh, right. I wanted to study and train for that new jutsu today.'

He pushed himself lightly away from the door, arms falling down at his sides as he walked across the room to the bags he had brought with him. He paused in front of them, digging around for a moment to retrieve some new clothing for the day. Having accomplished that goal he walked into the bathroom, not bothering to close the door. A quick turn on of the water, a fast check of the temperature, and an undressing later and he was in the shower. He washed quickly, not wanting to waste time, using the unscented soap he had brought compared to the scented crap that the hotel had provided; it smelled like a mixture of flowers and coconuts. Not so appealing mixed together like that. When he was finished with his shower he shut the water off, stepped out, and dried off, before getting dressed.

The shower had done wonders to wake him up more than the annoying knocking had, and he was far less agitated than what he was previously. All in all a good thing; he was going to the library to study after he grabbed a bite for breakfast.

He wandered over to the small table the room had; complete with a small wicker basket of fresh fruit. He plucked an apple from the assorted fruits and turned it over in his long pale fingers. After a close inspection he rubbed it against his shirt, giving it a nice little gleam in the dull lighting that was caused by the sun beginning to rise and peek through the windows. Satisfied that the fruit was ready to be consumed he took his first of many bites into the luscious, red, delicious apple.

Chew...

Chew...

Chew...

'Mmm, that's rather good.', he thought to himself as he took another and chewed this bite as slowly and carefully as the rest; savoring the entire thing until it was completely gone. He paused with just the core in his hand; saddened slightly by the ending of something so ripe and good tasting. But, alas, it wasn't like it was going to grow back in his hand no matter how long he stared, almost depressed like, at it.

Finished with the apple he strapped in his sword; Satsujin no Ito, and headed to the door. Stepping out into the hallway he locked the door behind him and began to walk, exiting the hotel itself. He wandered through the just barely busy streets, headed towards the Konoha library. It wasn't a long trip, the hotel being rather nearby, and he entered in silence. Without even having to look around - since he had already spent a rather good amount of time in the library as it was - he went to the preferred section and pulled down a single book. He had read it before, but wanted to give it a quick proof reading. In fact, he wasn't even going to take it back to a desk to actually sit down. Opening the book he began to search for the page he needed:

Flip...

Flip...

Flip...

'Ah, there you are...', he thought to himself, chuckling a bit as he skimmed over the words. It was a simple get complex technique all at the same time. Each part was simple enough, but combined together they were a very lethal combination. The jutsu had three parts to it, three different methods of being used; Spiral, Array, and Crown. He proof read each one before closing the book with a soft snap and sliding it back onto its designated shelf.

He turned on his heel and walked out in the same silence in which he had entered. He kept walking as soon as he hit Konoha's streets, heading straight for the forests to be able to train in silence and privacy. It would be needed, after all.

As he walked he went over the jutsu again and again in his mind. He walked for a good while, even after he had reached the forest itself. He needed to go in deeper, into areas that no civilian or genin would dare venture. He didn't want to risk harming some random innocent in the process; too much of a headache if someone found out, anyway.

Finally coming across a large enough clearing with plenty of decently sized trees to practice on he stopped. He walked along the perimter, going over, one last time, the jutsu in his head; breaking down each and every part:

Spiral: The swords manifest in a circle, horizontally surrounding the user with the tips pointed outward at at abdomen level. The swords spin around the user, slashing and cutting anything that comes too close. The user can raise and lower the level of the swords, but must do them all at once.

Array: The swords manifest in a circle once more, this time arching over the user's head, with the tips pointed at the target. The user can then either fire the swords individually or all at once with a mental command. As the user moves, the swords move with him. When fired, the swords have fairly strong homing, but cannot turn a sharp corner. They can, however, curve to hit a target.

Crown: The summoned swords position themselves above the target's head, with the tips pointing down at the target. At the user's mental command, they will rain down upon the target's body, These swords move at user's running speed, and will move with the target to remain above them. When fired, all the sword will fall at once.

He started this with nothing more than a mental command as he stood in the middle of the clearing. First the swords manifested around him in a circle, tips pointed outward at abdomen level. He paused for a moment, moving them up near his head and then down the whole way to his feet; moving all of the swords at the same time. Spiral: completed, perfected. Next up..

The swords manifested in a circle once more, this time arching over Luca's head with tips pointed towards the target; which happened to be a lonely small tree. He fired first one sword, than another, followed by another, at the tree; hitting it so hard and cutting it so deep, that it only took three hits for the tree to come crashing down to the forest floor. "Uh... timber? Or, maybe it's too late for that." He chuckled at his own joke. But, he needed a bit more practice with this one. He needed a target that would move; ah there, in the tree, a bird. With the last remaining swords his launched them at the bird, which took off startled. The swords followed the bird, even as it curved to attempt to avoid being killed. It was sliced to pieces before it hit the ground. Array: completed, perfected.

He summoned the swords one more time, with a small chipmunk as the target now. They swords hovered over the small creatures head, following as the chipmunk, startled, began to take off through the forest. After a moment of this game of chase he fired the swords, each and every one of them falling at once to impale the small creature and successfully cut it to shreds. Crown: completed, perfected.

All in all those three parts of the jutsu had come rather easily to him. Which was nice... because now he was prepared to use them on a real target, a real threat. He turned and began to walk back the way he came; thinking as he did so of visiting the new cup cake stand to treat himself for an excellent job well done. Yes.. he more than deserved it now. 'Maybe they'll have one of those strawberry cupcakes with the cream filling and the little sprinkles that I've come to like so much...', he thought to himself as he made his way back towards the busy village of Konoha and out of the forest.

Word Count: 1,653 / 1,500