The universe had a list of different rules that it enforced on everyone within it - These lists included things like the laws of motion, gravity, and the law of universal manipulation. It was sometimes claimed by the intelligent sides of society that this was why humans had become so obsessed with law making and the keeping of order. They saw that things had logic and order to them and thus wanted to emulate them with their own actions, causing the obsession with keeping everything nice and normal when they were forming society. However, with the laws of universe, there were things that broke those laws, such as Schrodinger's cat and the very existence of a proton. Just like those things, the laws and regulations that the human race tried to enforce upon itself were broken by a few people.

Those unfortunate people who either found it impossible to live within the law and order of the human realms or simply found it pointless to do that were usually discriminated by the rest of society, either feared or looked down on as if they were some form of rabid animal. However, just like the scientific anomalies, they refused to budge their stance and were only going to change if they were physically forced to. This was true with the people who were currently inside Iwagakure, whether that be because of their loyalty to their organization and to their friends, or whether it was simply because they found themselves unable to continue being loyal to those they were forced to be loyal to. Either way it worked, the town was filled with so many social outcasts that people were almost made into outcasts because they weren't what people would normally call outcasts. The place was filled to the brim with criminals and scum.

One of said outcasts was the person that was currently flying through the airspace just above the city, running down over the casual pedestrians. Gen was used to being the outcast, despite the fact that he had only recently become a criminal he was still being used to being a pariah. He had lost the right to be part of his clan a long time ago, being forced out of the tribe for crimes that he hadn't even committed, saddled with a psychotic alter-ego that had a way of getting him into trouble wherever he went. However, that being said, Set was coming on in leaps and bounds since they had arrived in Iwa. Where he had been little more than a genius psychopath back in the tribe, now he was 90% genius and 10% psychopath.

The proof of said pudding was the meeting with the leader of Blue Rose. They might have argued frequently during the meeting, but he had kept his cool all the way through it and had come out on top simply from using his words. There was something comforting and enigmatic about that, not to mention the fact that they were working as members of Blue Rose now which gave them a certain amount of protection from the underworld of Iwa. Plus, they had basically gotten to keep their little forces so that was a bonus to them. Sure, their forces were working for Blue Rose as well, but they were also curling up like good little puppies for set and he was sure that they were loyal to him first and Aoi Bara first.

Such were his thoughts as they flew through the early morning air of the village. Since they had gotten into the village they'd had to try and work to get themselves stronger and stronger, something they had never been in so much pressure to do before they had arrived in Iwa. Normally they would have simply enjoyed the life of people who were able to travel around the world and have fun, but since they'd gotten here they'd found more and more trouble and that meant they needed to get stronger and stronger or they were going to get in trouble. One thing that they had learned above all other things in the time since they had been forced out of the tribe was that they didn't want trouble. Trouble was awkward, or sometimes life threatening. The one thing it rarely was, however, was good.

With that in mind, they were going to be training the things that they had been lax in recently. They had recently been training the suiton chakra that lay dormant within Gen's body, but now they were going to need to concentrate on training Horus. He was a good bird, a strong bird, and he always tried to do his best even if he was an arrogant tosspot at times, but whilst that was true he was currently one of the weakest pieces in their entire business. Since they were actively working as mercenaries now, they needed to get better. Horus would have, of course, been offended if they'd handled it in those words but since they were able to use some tact they were instead going to be able to be more pleasant than simply yelling at each other how much of a failure they were. It was this very reason that they were flying through the city today rather than walking.Well, that and they loved the feeling of the wind embracing them.

The city might have been pretty large, but it also had some rather tightly packed areas. those areas tended to be residential, and so it was with some care that they used this area to train. See, if they were able to boost his skill in reaction times, then they would be able to make him stronger over all. The best way to do that was an obstacle course. The area around here was only just large enough for Horus to fly through when he was right in the middle, so to do it any other way was dangerous. What was worse was that they were moving at high speeds over the area, getting the eyes of the people who were down beneath them.

Horus' Power (B) Increasing! 1016/2000

A sigh.

Why did I come here.....I could have easily procured some sort of private residence from the Tsuchikage.

It was little more than a nuisance to Hodaka, though. He was not a worldly man. And thus.....

He sat in a park, one of many he was thankful that Iwa had. He was a nature man, or liked to think so. The temperate, cool climate of Iwagakure no Sato was refreshing in comparison--a stark one at that--to the arid locales and high temperatures of the Land of Wind. The bustle of the city was a bit much for him. Reading was nigh impossible, though, but for the high traffic about every corner of the city. It was....unavoidable. Yet, these same circumstances....they made him all the more peculiar. Those around them could be observed at his leisure; yet, he would rather read about them, instead, his book telling him all he needed to know.

That being said, a man in a black coat sitting to the side of the street, with several books floating about him, was not the kind of person one would socialize with anyhow. Not that it mattered. The arts of casual socialization were lost on Hodaka, and he was not one to learn now.

Wondering what he would do with himself that night as he had brought no Ryo with him, the Sannin braced his eyes against a strong wind that blew through his hair and rustled his books. A rare grimace adorned the young man's face, mimicked---by or from?---the surrounding people. A large bird....what was this?

Standing up, the cloaked Gowa-ken put up his hood and proceeded to follow the avian on foot. Well...as much on foot as he could. A very light cushion of chakra allowed the bookmaster to lightly hover over the ground, moving as fast as one might run. His body dictated no physical exertion, which he was sadly prone to in the worst way; part of the reason he developed this nifty trick. That was not the problem, though....he needed to apprehend this bird....if not for anything else but chastisement. He was faster. It was quite simple; not many people could even hope to match his speed. As he gained on the bird, he outstretched his hand. He sped up and turned around, hoping to catch the bird...and...boy?.... in their intended path of travel. Kyomuito!

An aura of darkness formed an orb, as if just outside of Hodaka's grasp; from this, ten tendrils of shades-of-gray chakra reached out to the bird, in the hopes of grasping it; what Threads of Nothingness that did not wrap around it simply would pass through it, still anchoring themselves to the bird even if intangible. The aim was only to make the boy and giant bird drop....he would deal with what happened next on his own.

[489/1500: Acquiring Gowa-Ken Clan empty element slot.]

335/350:

Moving as fast as they were and concentrating on helping Horus rather than what was behind him, Gen did not pay any attention to the strange man who was walking down the streets after them. Maybe if he had he would have had some forewarning, but he didn't so he didn't. That, unfortunately, would come back to bite him in the ass later on, though he didn't know it yet. The time around the course was pretty damn exceptional for something only they had ever done, because isn't everything that's not done very often exceptional? It's merely a matter of opinion, after all. But, even if it had been done more often by other people, this was still pretty damn good. The hawk's agility and dexterity was amazing, and to the boost of that they were able to go around the entire area without ever crashing into the buildings around the place.

That being said, there were some close calls around the self-made track, something that had caused quite a lot of the people below them to start staring at them, some out of amazement at the strange and wonderful animal that was gifting the town with its presence, others with concern that they were going to damage the city more than the criminals already had, and some of the criminals who Set currently held in his sway who were wondering why, exactly, they were following  a man just out of his teenage years who was so flashy he was flying around on the back of a giant hawk. Being a priest, he was rather used to having a lot of people look at him for once, but he didn't seem to notice, his entire concentration being expended on making sure that everything went swimmingly and that they were never in any danger.

This course was made to test Horus, but that didn't mean that Gen wanted to risk the hawk getting hurt by making a mistake turning a corner or in getting too high and running into one of the nigh-on invisible wires that dotted between the buildings. Most of them were weak enough to just snap when they came through, but there was always the risk that someone might have foolishly used a metal one and if that was the case then their good luck could not hold out forever and they were going to get hurt sooner or later.This, however, did not come in the form of wires or in the forms of crashing, rather it came in the form of another ninja who apparently felt like it was a good idea to attack someone in a situation like this. Gen heard people cry out from behind him, and to his surprise when he looked behind him there was a series of 10 chakra wires that were chasing after them. This was not a good thing, Gen thought as he leaned back, his back resting on Horus' lower back before his hands slammed out, shooting a pair of giant water torrents out of his palms, shooting out across the area, going to meet the strange chakra strings.

Although not of the same level, the tech had the bonus that they were currently coming towards it and thus they were just throwing themselves into the cone, bursting apart when they contacted the chakra. Thankfully, that technique worked, and Gen had to be glad that he had learned how to ride with only his legs used to grasp Horus before now, if he hadn't they might have been in some serious trouble. Now, however, they WERE in serious trouble, though not from the chakra strings. The person who had fired them was still on the street level, wearing some sort of black cloak that made it difficult for him to ID who this person was. Whoever he was, he clearly wasn't a friend. He wanted to find out what the man's problem with him was, but he knew that if he stayed still long enough to ask him a question like that they were just going to be risking getting the public involved in this little fiasco. The public had already had water dumped on their head after that jutsu met it's natural conclusion, and now there was a bunch of very annoyed, very wet villagers looking bemused at him and whoever it was that had fired this.

Still, they weren't going to find out who this was by simply standing back and letting them attack again. The fact was obvious that no matter what they did in this situation, they were going to get attacked again if this guy was truly hostile. He had attacked in public before, and it seemed like he had no qualms about doing it where other people could see it or get hurt. Even if they ran away to try and avoid getitng more people embroiled in this little conflict than possible, it was kind of innevitable that they would end up being shot at - The only thing that would change would be whether they were going to take it to the face and to be able to see it coming, or if they were going to be shot in the back.  It wasn't that they didn't want to draw any more attention to themselves than necessary, if they had cared truly about stealth then they would have found somewhere better to do this, but it was more out of morbid curiosity. So, turning on the head of a needle, Gen and Horus looked down on the cloaked person who had launched that attack, and called out to them

"What was that for?" Gen tried to be polite, but there was no real way to BE polite in this scenario. That was called an unwarranted act of aggression, and that was something that the gods frowned upon. He might very well have fought back if they were somewhere else. "We haven't done anything to you, so why did you try and hit us with whatever that thing was?!"

Horus' Power (B) Increased! 2000/2000
Horus' Power (A) Increasing! 0023/3000

Gen's Chakra 240/250:

Horus' Chakra 200/200: