Midnight awoke groggily from a peaceful slumber. He’d been asleep for a good twelve hours now. The blankets that laid over him seemed to be arresting. The cool mountain air that had settled into his room by an open window was a stark contrast to the warmth of his bed, forcing him awake, but also made him appreciate how warm it was beneath his covers. Considering that he slept in the nude, the chilly weather was just another reason to stay in bed... not that it was ever not chilly in Kumogakure. Midnight argued with himself in his head, debating on whether or not to even slip out from under the blankets and get going for the day. Looking out of the window, Midnight could see that his internal clock was still working correctly, unlike that of his now faded swift abilities, as he could see the sky was a deep orange and red. The sun would be rising soon enough. With its rising would come proper warmth for the day, but never one as comfortable as the bed he was currently resting in.

Midnight glanced around the room that was slowly being lit up by the sun’s rays. His night vision was still useable enough for him to discern objects, but sooner rather than later the sun would be the only useful way to see. Midnight stared at the eyepatch resting on the nightstand with his white and green eyes. The eyepatch would probably be one of the first things he put on for the day. Feeling conscious of what he even had on him at the moment, Midnight threw off the blankets that were covering him. The only thing Midnight wore now was a ring that he had been wearing for as long as he could remember. It reminded him of when he had to meditate on it when he was learning Fuuinjutsu, but that was unimportant. What was most important at this very time was the fact that he was sitting nude in his bed and there was a gust of wind blowing his open window even wider, letting in even more cold air. Experiencing a full body chill run down him, Midnight jumped up out of bed and closed the window before he got even colder. He sighed in relief. The chilly mountain air was perfect to wake up to, as well as sleep to while bundled up in silky blankets that kept him warm, but it was certainly not something he wanted to walk around nude in. With that out of the way, Midnight decided to clothe himself for the day.

Midnight’s clothes were in a drawer opposite his nightdesk. On top of the drawer was his katana and dagger. He also had a suit of armor he could wear, but today was not the day for such a thing, so he opted to leave it in the wardrobe where he left it. Midnight dragged himself over to where his things were. He opened a few of the drawers, looking aimlessly for a pair of underwear. His clothes were thrown inside each drawer, leaving them disheveled for anyone looking through them. If he thought about it for just a moment he would know exactly where all his clothes were, but even that was an effort he was not particularly up for at the moment. Midnight squatted down to be level with the lower drawers and thoroughly checked them as well. To his delight, in one of those drawers he found a pair of underwear. He stood up properly and one leg at a time, briskly slipped them on. Satisfied that he wasn’t as cold anymore in the most important area he sat down on the hardwood floor and laid his body down. His legs were crossed while the rest of him lied flat on the ground. His arms went up towards his head, where he clasped his hands together and settled his head on top of them. He sighed. “What am I even going to do today?” He asked himself aloud.

He stared at the ceiling above him. It was an off-white with little else marking it. The cool wood beneath him was beginning to leech the heat from his already chilled body, so he shifted uneasily to prevent the wood from sticking to him and drawing the heat from his body out and into the wood. He frowned. “All I really know is that I don’t want to stay here all day,” he answered. Removing one of his hands from behind his head he closed his eyes and rubbed his eyelids with his index finger and thumb. Blinking away the feeling, he moved his arms back behind him and pushed himself back up to sitting position, the skin that had still attached itself to the wood peeling away awkwardly. As if on cue to his laziness, Midnight heard a consistent slight tapping noise. He turned his body to the right to find the source of the noise and saw a blue butterfly flying into the window trying to get in. Midnight smiled as he instantly recognized the insect and vaulted himself from his sitting position back to standing. He walked over to the window and opened it, letting in a fresh breeze of frore air flow into his room. The butterfly kept its altitude and position, seemingly unaffected by the opening of his window.

“Nadot shafaer itrewicir svern sjerit?” a voice boomed at Midnight. The only living things around were Midnight and the butterfly, meaning that the harsh archaic voice had to have come from the butterfly. Midnight looked up and thought for a moment and translated. While he had been taught the draconic language, he was certainly no expert. Looking back at the butterfly, he replied back in draconic. “Si geou, si geou,” he complained. He turned away from the open window and walked back to his drawers. From the higher thinking required to translate and use draconic his brain was awake and ready to go. His drowsiness had mostly gone away as well, but that wouldn’t be an issue anyway. Thinking clearly now, he pulled out his outfit from various drawers and adorned himself in the flowing white clothes he always wore. He closed the drawers back and grabbed his katana and dagger. Strapping each of them onto him, he walked over to the nightstand where the last part of his outfit was. The butterfly outside grew impatient on waiting for him, so it had decided to sit on the windowsill and watch. Midnight removed the white medical eyepatch from the stand and placed it over his right eye. He followed the strings around the sides of his head and tied them at the back. He was now dressed and ready for the day. Not feeling like going downstairs, Midnight turned around  and bent over to look under his bed. He plucked out a pair of shoes and put them on. Ignoring the fact that his bed was a mess and a few of the drawers he had previously gone through weren’t closed all the way due to his messy throwing of clothes into them, he jumped onto the windowsill, surprising the butterfly. Shenlong fluttered backward at his sudden movement and waited. Midnight closed the window behind him and jumped off the building towards the butterfly. “Origato udoka gethrisj!” he exclaimed.

The butterfly suddenly glowed a bright blue and like a crack of lightning, exploded into a long serpentine form. Midnight used his keen reflexes to grab onto one of its horns, mounting himself onto the dragon. The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, causing Shenlong’s scales to sparkle in the light. Not wanting to make a scene, especially one so early in the morning, Shenlong took off into the sky above the clouds. The air currents were strong so high into the air, but nothing Midnight couldn’t handle already. Thankfully it wasn’t late enough into the day that the sun’s rays would be beating down directly onto the two of them. Now safely away from the public eye, Shenlong spoke again. “Svaklar re yth gethrisjir?” The dragon’s voice was deeper than it was before, but it was still the same being that was speaking earlier. “Ekess wer akuech,” Midnight replied matter-of-factly. Shenlong changed direction only ever so slightly and darted towards the ground. Midnight was used to this mode of travel by now, so he wasn’t surprised in the slightest. The Skyforge’s eagle was clearly visible the moment they dropped lower than the clouds, making their destination even easier to find. Approaching the discernable field of vision by people, Midnight jumped off of Shenlong as it changed back into its condensed form. The butterfly followed him in his descent as he landed on top of the stone eagle, chakra padding his feet so that he wouldn’t be injured and so that he didn’t damage the statue.

Midnight hopped off of the eagle and grounded himself next to the forge. The blacksmith was hard at work as usual and paid no mind to his strange arrival. The area smelt of metal and coal, which only made sense considering the work being done there. Despite the crisp morning and overall chill of the climate, the atmosphere was warm from the heat of the forge.“Smithy, I need the crossbow and quiver that I asked for,” Midnight announced.

"Sure you can handle it? Ha! Of course you can,” the blacksmith replied, stopping the work he was already doing and walking over to a nearby chest. He threw it open and yanked out a crossbow and quiver. He closed the chest and meandered over to where Midnight was, holding the two of them out to him. Midnight took them and immediately attached the quiver to his belt. Midnight lifted the crossbow closer to his face and examined it. It certainly looked simple enough. It looked like a bow was attached to a metal and wood stock. Upon further inspection Midnight could see that the drawstring was meant to be pulled back by a metal crank. There was a thin groove for the ammunition that led to the vampire face ornament in the front. Midnight suddenly felt slightly embarrassed. Though it really seemed simple enough, he’d never received formal training for anything like it before. For Midnight, all there was was his swords and daggers, which were nothing like this long range device. He laughed a bit nervously and looked to the blacksmith.

“Could you, uh, tell me how to use this thing?” He asked cautiously. He didn’t want to seem like an idiot, but what else could he do? The blacksmith simply grunted and seized the crossbow from Midnight. Instead of getting angry over the blacksmith’s brusque personality, Midnight got angry himself for not figuring it out on his own. The blacksmith tapped Midnight’s quiver and said “blunt.” A small puff of smoke came from the quiver and five blunt capped arrows appeared. He hastily snatched one from the container, cranked back the drawstring, set the arrow in the groove, aimed the crossbow at the forge and pulled the release trigger for the drawstring. The arrow shot out and pierced deep into the forge, causing flames and ash to fly up into the air. The metal that made up the arrow would melt down, so it was no issue, and there wasn’t the danger of hitting someone by shooting it into the air. Overall, it looked to be a very simple process. Crank, load, aim, fire. It reminded him of how easy it was to swing a sword, but even then there were the intricacies of style and maneuvering. It seemed that that would be the end of the lesson today as the blacksmith shoved the crossbow back into Midnight’s hands and went back to work. “Thanks, I guess,” Midnight told the man before turning around and attaching the crossbow to his belt as well. Midnight then decided that he should probably practice shooting the thing so that he doesn’t come off as a novice when he uses it in battle. That would just be embarrassing. He looked around to find Shenlong fluttering quietly next to him. He nodded to the insect and trekked down the stairs that led back to the village from the Skyforge.

He was reminded of the last time he’d done a hard training session atop the administration building. Since he was no longer Kage, he felt that it would no longer be appropriate that he train there. He supposed that he would need to find another place to train. Remembering that he didn’t eat anything since he had gotten up, he decided to go to The Durian Tree of Demonic Knowledge. Just thinking about it made his mouth water. He improved his walking speed into a run so that he could get there faster, suddenly excited at the idea of eating some durian. Well, that and because he was beginning to experience hunger pangs. His intestines forced gas through themselves to show just how empty he was, which is the scientific way of saying that his stomach was rumbling. Shenlong fluttered along behind him, keeping pace with ease. He passed by many buildings, but he barely paid any attention at all as his mind was set on getting some food. Luckily for him there still wasn’t very many people out and about for the day just yet, so food stalls hadn’t been set up yet to distract him from his journey.

Upon arrival to the tree, Midnight was struck with more memories. One of the times he was here in the past was when he met Daisuke. It was a better time then, where he had little to no worries and Daisuke was raring to go. The time that he had met Daisuke, he had the Jounin go visit another village to stir up trouble. He’d never actually seen the result of that, mission, if you will. However, not long after he received these instructions and returned from doing whatever he did, Midnight had gotten word that Daisuke had murdered all of his clan and defected from the village. Of course, Midnight was quite angry about this... very angry, but he was never given a chance to do anything about it. Daisuke had disappeared. Midnight sighed. “That bastard,” he muttered under his breath as he got a whiff of the fruit from the tree. It was as awful as it always was.

Midnight sat down cross legged several meters away from the tree. He figured that he could use his hunger to force train himself on how to use the crossbow. Shenlong hovered over a nearby flower and then settled atop it nonchalantly, he was of no use for the moment. Midnight unhooked the crossbow from his belt and held it in front of him. It really was a simple device. He held it like the blacksmith had earlier and looked down the groove’s path. Having a keen eye, Midnight could hazard a guess at where the arrow would land. He aimed it towards one of the durians that were still attached to the tree and grinned. This shouldn’t be too difficult, he thought as he lowered the crossbow into his lap. He then cranked back the drawstring and grabbed a blunt arrow from his quiver. Setting it into the groove of the crossbow, he returned his sights back to the durian. He held the weapon steady, carefully trying to read its trajectory from where he was sitting now. The wind wasn’t particularly strong, but that didn’t much matter considering the force the crossbow could use as well as the short distance he was firing it from. Placing his right index finger on the release trigger, he made sure to steady his grasp on the crossbow. His left arm was held out straight, holding the stock of the crossbow. He held his breath as he tried his best not to move and pulled the trigger.

The piece of metal that held back the drawstring was moved out of the way with the pulling of the trigger.The drawstring shot forward after being released from its extended state. With it, the arrow followed the groove in the crossbow and was shot out from it, following the path that was directly ahead of the crossbow. The drawstring stopped as it slapped against the metal bracers that were on the sides of the bow. Midnight’s eyes carefully followed the arrow as it left the groove of the crossbow went into the air and shot towards his target. Being a blunt headed arrow, it wouldn’t have an easy time cutting through anything, but at the speed it was going and the short distance it was traveling, nothing was going to get in its way. The arrow flew through the air towards a durian on the tree, propelled at 110 meters per second. It wasn’t even a second before the arrow flew right through the leaves and missed the durian that Midnight had aimed for. It tore through the leaves and made only a glancing blow to the durian that it was meant for. Midnight watched as the arrow kept right on going far past the hole left in the leaves by its passing to land somewhere off into the mountain range. It probably wouldn’t hit someone. Well, it was possible, but it probably wouldn’t. Midnight frowned. He missed his target when they weren’t even that far away. Well that sucked. He sighed.

Guess I’ll have to keep trying. His stomach rumbled again. A bit more frustrated with himself and a little bit frantic to get something to eat, he cranked back the drawstring for the next shot. He had three more arrows to try before he had to make more. He snatched up another blunt arrow and placed it carefully on the groove of the crossbow. This time though, he activated the byakugan hidden under his eyepatch. He figured that if he see minute details and follow the trajectory of the crossbow he could probably make it hit his target as he intended. He took in a deep breath and held it, being more careful to hold his arm steady and visualize where the arrow would go. Placing his finger on the trigger yet again he focused his byakugan on the crossbow. He could see the minute carvings and etchings in the crossbow. The mechanism for the crank, the solid matter each part was made out of, and the tiny grooves that were in the larger groove of the crossbow were no longer hidden to him. He then used his mind’s eye to visualize the path that the arrow would take and followed it with the telescopic vision the byakugan he had granted him. He then adjusted his aim accordingly. Satisfied now, he pulled the trigger and let the arrow fly.

Whoosh. This time, the arrow hit its mark. The durian split apart violently and chunks of it flew everywhere. The horrid smell that accompanied the fruit grew even stronger. Midnight never did care for the smell, but his food was ready to be eaten and that was all that mattered anyway. Feeling excited, Midnight quickly replaced the metal piece to be in front of the drawstring and cranked it back up. The metal on metal of the gears of the crank was noticeable to him, but only because he was still paying a large amount of attention to the crossbow itself. Just because he had shot one arrow and had it hit its target didn’t make him an expert right off the bat. If it were that easy, then he would be learning all of the other weapons he never bothered to pay attention to. Things like bo staves and hammers and swords and shields were of no interest to him. Well, maybe not no interest at all, but of lesser concern for the time being. He had never really considered what it would be like to learn how to use all weapons and become an overall weapons expert. Thinking about it now intrigued him. If he learned how to use every type of weapon, then he could make almost anything into a lethal object. Simple objects could better be used as bludgeons, sharp objects could better be use to stab people, it seemed to be an overall good idea. Plus, if he ever fought someone who used a different weapon he wouldn’t have to worry about strange techniques that they use. By now Midnight was externally smiling and nodding at his idea. Realizing how silly he was looking, he shook his head to clear his mind. He needed to be focused on the task at hand. And that happened to be learning this archery stuff. Midnight was usually good with things that involved muscle memory, so learning how to aim the crossbow quickly and easily would probably come more quickly than it would to others.

The crank wouldn’t turn anymore, making Midnight realize that it was time for him to load it up. He plopped an arrow into the groove and made sure it was fit snug against the drawstring of the crossbow. He lifted the stock up next to his face and lined up the arrow with his eye and the crossbow itself with another durian fruit. After this shot there would only be one other chance with the blunts he had in his quiver. It seemed that Midnight would have to be careful with the amount of shots he had, as replacement could become a problem. At least for now at any rate. He just just as easily make a jutsu specifically for his crossbow that uses chakra to make arrows. If he could help it though, he’d rather not waste chakra on such a thing when it was better used for more powerful techniques. He was getting off track again. Midnight cleared his mind and concentrated his focus to the crossbow he held. It was aimed now at a durian on the opposite side of the tree, with the trunk of it being the median.

Giving his full attention to the weapon yet again, he made himself comfortable with his stance and fired the arrow. Just as before it struck a durian fruit. However, this time it merely made the fruit shake around on its stem as the arrow continued its path past the tree and into the mountain range behind. He hoped he didn’t hit any of the villagers if they happened to be near there. If it was some stranger he could not care less, but if it was a villager, he would be much more worried. Well practice makes perfect, I suppose, Midnight told himself as he cranked the drawstring back again.

Midnight snatched the last arrow from his quiver and placed it carefully onto the groove in the stock of the crossbow. He then stood up and brought the crossbow up to his face. Thinking of it now, it didn’t make much sense for him to practice while sitting, as he likely wouldn’t be doing so while using it. If anything, he would be shooting at moving targets while he was moving around as well. Training has to start off somewhere, though. Midnight did the same as before and tried to remember just how he had his body positioned when he had hit his mark. Going now with simply the feeling, he pulled the trigger of the crossbow, aiming for some other random durian on the tree.

Clunk. The durian hit the ground. Midnight didn’t exactly hit his mark. This time he had struck the stem of the durian that held the fruit on the tree. He smiled at his success, but couldn’t decide if it was good or bad that he had struck a smaller target when he had aimed for a larger one. Out of arrows now, Midnight pulled out Shakuzen from its sheath just above the quiver. As he had been using the crossbow, a copy of the dagger was made while he tried to pull it out and it was transformed into an arrow. He put it into the quiver while he cranked the drawstring back again. Midnight picked up the arrow that was in the quiver and examined it. It was a steel arrow and had a broadhead. He really hoped that this wouldn’t hit a villager once he shoots it. Already getting used to the routine he placed it into the grooved and brought the crossbow to his face. He chose another durian and compensated for the misses he had already dealt with, adjusting where he pointed the crossbow ever so slightly. Satisfied with where he was pointing the weapon in correlation to his target he fired it again.

This time, the arrow had struck its mark just where he wanted it. Feeling jubilant, he threw his arms into the air and got onto his knees. While it wasn’t too much work to pull the crank back and aim and everything, it was still not something he was used to. Whipping his sword around and throwing daggers was one thing, but paying careful attention to his aim and firing a crossbow was entirely different. Normally such concentration was never needed by him.  Happy with what he had accomplished he let out a sigh of relief and lowered his arms.

He attached the crossbow to his belt and stood up. He deactivated his byakugan and surveyed the area. The durian had not split evenly. There were bits of it everywhere. Midnight searched for a piece that had some flesh still inside that had been unmarred by the dirt. There was a fine one right at the trunk of the tree. Midnight walked over to it and plopped himself onto the ground to lean against the trunk. He picked up the hard shell that sheltered the fruit and fished out the piece of flesh that was still inside. He then threw it up into the air, and caught it with his mouse. A satisfying reward for his hard work today. Though it wasn’t really all that much hard work to some, recently any kind of activity was a feat for Midnight. Since he lost his Swift abilities and handed over the Kageship to someone else, he’s been in a bit of a slump.

Shenlong rose from the flower that it was resting on and began to glow. Midnight’s eyebrow rose inquisitively while he watched Shenlong change forms again. The butterfly again burst with energy to form a dragon, coiled ever so carefully around the mountain so as to not draw too much attention. “What’s up, Shenlong?” Midnight asked, throwing away the husk of the durian. Durian always littered the area as people would never eat the fruit, causing the fruit to become overripe and simply fall to the ground. Being that it was a demonic tree, seeds from the durian would never grow, making the demonic tree the only of its kind. Shenlong looked at the tree and then at Midnight.”Re nomenes bensvelk?” the dragon asked him. Midnight smirked. He could be mean and tell him only half of the truth, but he didn’t feel particularly inclined to do so.

“They taste great, but you shouldn’t eat them, they typically cause stomach problems. Even animals around here avoid them,” Midnight explained.
Shenlong rose its head in acknowledgement of what he said. “Keh, si ocuir.”

Midnight inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled out of his mouth. He closed his eyes and did it again. With all the pent up anger from before and his first failure from just now, Midnight felt it was a good time to relax. He could smell the stench of the durian around him while at the same time feel comfortable with it. The typical breeze that comes from such a high altitude picked up off and on as he sat there. The chilly air nipped at his uncovered bits and reminded him how used to the climate he was in comparison to a stranger. The sun had begun to rise to its pinnacle zenith above the village by now as Midnight sat in concentration. He sat like this for a while, collecting his thoughts and paying attention to only his breathing. He had done these breathing exercises before. The main object was to extend breathing by breathing out as slowly as possible. Being in a high altitude area, there was little oxygen as it was. This meant that if Midnight ever left the village he would probably be able to hold his breath for longer than a local of that area. Well, unless they’re suiton oriented and have done similar exercises. Midnight mostly just used it to calm himself down so that he doesn’t try to cut someone’s head off.

Shenlong stared at Midnight for a while before beginning to speak again. “Si tepoha ocuirtor batobot ghoros.” Midnight opened his eyes and directed his attention to Shenlong. He had no idea what the dragon was talking about. “What do you mean?”

“Wux re agmasaon claxir persvek indelstan,” it explained. Trying to think of a word in the language of the dragons, Shenlong paused. There was no word for it. Begrudgingly, it spoke in clear English, “Like a Sage.”

Midnight was stunned by the realization. He had read about such a thing before, but never had he thought that it was possible for him to do it. In the past there were a few people that had used the sage arts, but it certainly wasn’t a thing anyone could do. Maybe Midnight could actually do it if he tried. “Do you think I could do it?” Midnight didn’t want to get cocky all of the sudden and just start trying to do it. He remembered reading that those who failed to properly equalize the parts of their chakra were transformed into the animal they were contracted with and turned to stone.

Shenlong cleared his throat of the inferior language and spoke again.“Si siofme wux re yscik.” Midnight didn’t particularly see why Shenlong thought so, but he wasn’t about to argue with an ancient dragon.

“Well I suppose I can at least try. If worse comes to worst I’ll just turn into stone is all,” Midnight explained, chuckling nervously afterward. Shenlong’s mouth widened in what appeared to be a smile. Well, it could have been an evil smirk, but who can tell on an animal anyway? Midnight sighed and closed his eyes again. His breathing shallowed to the routine he had practiced many times before. He focused on his internal energy to come together and form chakra. This was nothing out of the ordinary, but from someone with his clan it tended to be a bit different. His mental energy coursed from the ring on his finger to his belly, where a normal person’s chakra would be made. The physical energy was already present in his body, so it simply redirected its flow to go to his belly to form chakra. Now in a meditative state, Midnight could feel the nature around him give him energy. It helped that he was sitting next to the Durian Tree of Demonic Knowledge, as it was probably the most energy-filled bit of nature around. The only other thing that might be close would be chakra trees, but he didn’t know where those were at, and this training was improvised anyway.

His stationary state allowed the natural energy around him to be absorbed by his boy. Midnight felt uneasy, but concentrated deeply on making an equal amount of physical and mental energy to make chakra. He was already really good at chakra control due to his specialization in fuuinjutsu and the fact that his clan had a messed up system. This sort of thing certainly wasn’t anything extraordinarily strange to him. Still an alien feeling, Midnight tried to stay calm and let it enter his system. Equal parts mental, physical and nature were necessary to create sage chakra. He felt the energies converge inside his belly, slowly adjusting themselves into equilibrium. Midnight opened his eyes and stopped his meditating. He could feel that his chakra had successfully melded together to make sage chakra. It was a success. That is, for now anyway. The amount he had was very little, but it was progress nonetheless. Midnight jumped up excitedly and exclaimed to Shenlong, “I did it! Now let’s go home to celebrate!”

Shenlong opened its eyes from its apparent nap and nodded. Midnight hopped onto its back and grabbed onto its horns. The time in which Midnight had been meditating had apparently been for quite a while, as the sun not only finished rising, but was already going onto its descent. A productive day, Midnight was happier. There was a lingering memory of how it felt to have Swift coursing through his veins, but Midnight could feel the sage chakra within him now, so he figured it might be a good substitute. Still though, a part of him that was with him for many years was gone now... Shenlong ascended into the sky, the sun’s rays reflecting off its scales like a disco ball. Midnight was happy for the time being, but the recovery process had only just begun.

Word Count: 5625/5200