Midnight awoke with a start. His body was hot. Sweat exiting from nearly every pore of his body. Breathing short and erratic. He sat up in his bed and looked to the door. It was closed. Good. He shut his eyes and slowed his breathing to heavy pants. He rose a hand to feel his heart racing still. It seemed that his time asleep was plagued by nightmares, though he could not recall them in the least. Perhaps it was better that way. He opened his eyes and shifted his attention to the outside, still dark for the time being. I guess today is starting a bit earlier than usual, he concluded. The sun probably wouldn’t rise for another few hours. Time to rise, all the same.

Midnight pushed the sheets off of him and moved his legs to hang above the ground, not yet getting out of his bed. He checked his heart rate again to find it had slowed down. Whatever had made Midnight uneasy in his dream state was no longer in mind, as he could not remember them and his attention was drawn to the schedule for the day. He looked up at the ceiling and pondered the day’s activities. Let’s see... I can probably get some training done before more reports come into the office. Then once I finish those, I can sneak off to train some more...

He then hopped off his bed and walked to a nearby nightstand. There, he opened the top drawer and grabbed the eye patch that sat atop some parchment he had left there. He made his way to a mirror and examined himself. White hair. Mismatched eyes. Gold chain wrapped around the neck. His eyes continued to scan his body, drifting downward. Scars all over the body. Contract-ring of chakra. Otherwise nude. Oh right, I better get some clothes on, he realized suddenly. He raised his eyes to be even with the eyes in the mirror. Then he lifted the eye patch to the foreign white eye and pressed it against it. With his other hand he wrapped the fastenings around his ears so that the eye patch would stay in place. He lowered his hands and stared ahead. His vision was only half that of what it was before. Even still, it was enough to get by.

Midnight turned and walked to his closet. He deftly opened it up, beginning his morning routine. Grabbing a single hanger, he then closed the door and threw the outfit onto his bed. He moved to a dresser adjacent to him next and opened the bottommost drawer. He seized a pair of pants and slipped them on, finally changing out of his birthday suit into something more presentable. He was still topless, however. He closed the bottom drawer and opened the middle drawer, revealing another part of his typical outfit. He reached in and took out a large golden sash. Throwing it too onto the bed, he closed the drawer and walked to the bed. Taking the undershirt and top off the hanger, he slipped on the top half of his outfit. With a flourish he wrapped the golden sash around his waist, completing his attire for the day. Ignoring the still messy bed and hanger lying about, he walked to the dresser again.

On two separate display stands on top of the dresser were his katana and dagger, both still in their sheaths. He picked up the katana first and fastened it to his side. With this complete, he took the sheathed dagger into his hands. He drew it from the black sheath that contained it and examined it. It was quite the diabolical thing, having such a violent looking appearance. He hoped that he would get to use it some time today. Replacing it into its sheath, he attached it to the side of his top, just above the golden sash and katana. He was all ready for the day at hand. However, since he was going to be training today, it would help to bring some learning material.

Midnight opened the top drawer of the dresser and retrieved a scroll. It was an entirely black scroll, but didn’t seem to be all that large. It appeared that the technique he would be learning today wouldn’t be too difficult to master. He put the scroll on the inside of his sash. Hopefully that would be all he needed for today. After all, it didn’t seem like he would be getting too much training in for the day.

Well, no, that wasn’t right. He wasn’t quite ready for the day just yet. Midnight walked barefoot to the door of his room and unlocked it. He twisted the doorknob and pulled it open before him, stepping back to allow it room. The hallway appeared to be clear. Without a second thought over the state of his bed or room as a whole, he stepped out into the hallway. It was still dark. He ignored that particular fact and acted on the knowledge he already had about the house he lived in. After so many years of inhabiting the place, his body was fully adjusted to the environment. What this meant for Midnight was that through his body-kinesthetic knowledge, he would be perfectly capable of navigating his house without seeing what was around him. Similar to the way that ‘practice makes perfect’ repeatedly going about a daily life in a single place leads to being quite used to it. Midnight strolled down the hallway into the dining room. There was but a table with four chairs in the room’s entirety. Continuing his body’s memory of the house, he walked on to the door leading outside. He stopped there and sat down on the ground.

This is where he would officially complete his outfit for the day. Now sitting on the ground, Midnight grabbed his sandals and placed them on his feet. They were rather simple footwear, consisting mainly of just a sole and a multitude of straps. He pulled the things until they were snug and strapped them to his respective ankles. Now he was truly ready to go out into the world. Grumble, roar his stomach growled. Denied yet again. It seemed that his stomach had other plans for the day.

Ugh, just forget it stomach, I’m going right now. I’ll eat something later. Slightly irritated at himself Midnight jumped up from his sitting position and unlocked the door in front of him. Beyond ready for the day to finally start, Midnight threw open the door and stepped outside. It was going to be a clear, but warm day. The dew had settled and the cold night air was already starting to be replaced by the weather for the daytime. As the mountaintops stayed particularly cold throughout the day, there was no mists or fog forming in the valleys today, although Midnight guessed that there probably would be in the next coming day. The sun had still yet to rise, but the area was beginning to turn a dark blue. Midnight locked and closed the door behind him before starting off a casual walk to his destination.

With all the places Midnight could choose to train at, he was having a hard time making up his mind on where exactly to go for the day. It seemed that this so called destination was yet to be decided on. After his pre-work training, he would have to be at the Administration Building quickly, otherwise he might cause a stir. Though amusing as that could be Midnight rather enjoyed his job, so any unnecessary lateness would only cause him to feel annoyed. Or would it? His job was a rather easy one, at least to him, so being late wouldn’t actually be that much of a problem. If the training called for it, he could stand to be late to getting to the office before eight o’clock. If training gets to a point where it’s incredibly fun, then there is no need to rush off to work just yet, Midnight concluded. While having such deep thoughts about his plans, Midnight didn’t realize where exactly he was going, it was much more like an aimless walk to nowhere in particular. His knowledge of the area prevented anything hazardous from happening to him, but he was rather off course from where he needed to be... though where exactly he wanted to be was still yet to be decided.

“I’ll go with the Tower of Heaven!” he exclaimed wholeheartedly. No one was around to criticise him for speaking to himself at the time, but Midnight wouldn’t have cared anyway; he had finally decided on where he wanted to go to train this morning. Looking around, he took in his surroundings to figure out just where he had wandered off to. It seemed he wasn’t very far off from his target, unconsciously having been walking there the entire time. Apparently his mind knew just where he was going to be going for training. Now even more excited, Midnight took off in a sprint towards the mammoth building with a grin on his face.

He arrived there in a matter of moments, his speed and short distance away from the tower allowing him to do so. His stomach had seemingly obeyed his command from earlier, bothering him no longer about how he hadn’t eaten anything yet. This was good, as it was going to be a rather long training session. At least, Midnight hoped so.

The tower looked to be even larger once a person was standing beneath it. It was quite apparent that it was still under construction though, as the sound of stonework, construction machines, people yelling and working men (and probably women as well) filled the air. Midnight had no specific plans for the tower, but simply by requesting its creation he insured that there would be jobs for both ninja and civilians alike. Beyond that, ninja would have to maintain its higher heights, as no normal building could possibly stand at such great stature without some kind of reinforcement. Midnight continued his sprint into the tower, but stopped once inside. The tower was hollow on the inside, a ceiling not properly made yet, as he had never told them how high he wanted it to be made. As such, they continued to build aimlessly, never asking him when they should stop, but waiting patiently for it. It would reach into the very heavens themselves someday. Bemused by his scheme, he made sure to hide his presence from the workers and began to scale the tower by jumping from scaffolding to scaffolding, quickly rising in altitude.

The workers were used to ninja training or battling, making them rather numb to any kind of noise he could have been making while concealing his presence. As he rose up the levels of the tower, he noticed that the number of sealing tags on the walls were beginning to increase at a rapid pace. That would be where the extra support came in. Since high heights tended to have extremely strong gusts of wind and other weather disturbances, enhancement tags had to be placed all over the tower to prevent its collapse. He slowed his ascent a bit so that he could actually discern between the various levels of tags, mentally noting them. Though complex seals in themselves, their effects were meant to be rather simple. For example, there was a seal with a symbol signifying strength, which would obviously make the structure stronger so that anything built upon it would not crush it. The idea was a simple one, but intricately making a seal that allowed other seals as well was complex. While civilians could help build the tower, ninja were entirely necessary to support them. There was a myriad of seals that he could look at, but for the time being he had a specific seal had needed to be practicing.

Midnight made it to the top of the unfinished tower, perching himself on one of the blocks that made up part of the wall. This was actually a rather dangerous act, as the altitude was such that there was a jetstream going straight through the area. It made sense that the workers weren’t building more on this area just yet; they would have to wait on more ninja to get up and help with the project. It was of no difference to Midnight. He sent chakra from his ring down to his feet, gripping the stone through his shoes. A particularly strong gust of wind blew into him, challenging the traction he had with the stone. His clothing flapped loudly with the wind, but he did not move from his position. What kind of Raikage would he be if he couldn’t deal with a little high wind? The view that the tower gave was an incredible one, showing one who had climbed so high the entirety of his village, masked only very rarely by low hanging clouds. In the time that it had taken for Midnight to get him from his house to the tower and up it, the sun had risen from the horizon, now a large ball in the sky. However, this could have been simply an illusion caused by the sheer height of the tower he was perched on. It made no difference to him, really.

Midnight turned away from the spectacular view outside of the tower and jumped down onto some scaffolding that created a temporary floor for him. He continued to maintain focus onto his feet, not wanting to make the slip up of removing the traction and flying off of the tower. Now was the true time for training. But where to start? He had a scroll tucked away in his waistband, but didn’t want to use it unless he was particularly lost at what to do. Well, he needed a starting point somehow. Midnight reached into his shirt and pulled out the scroll, reading the name that was on it. Yuuan [Dark and Secluded] What a lovely name. With the coming sun, it would certainly be a rather easy jutsu to test. Satisfied at having a starting point, Midnight replaced the scroll in his waistband. Now was the time to begin the use of the jutsu.

Midnight sat down and crossed his legs, shifting the concentration of chakra from solely his feet to all that was touching the floor. He then closed his eyes and focused on his memory. Much of his life was dedicated to training the sword, and then later sealing techniques. Other parts of his life were left to study the elements within his body. This particular justu needed no elements and needed no use of a sword. The intricacies of this jutsu needed the full span of Midnight’s attention with the exception of the focus he needed to maintain on his lower half so that he wouldn’t be blown away. What a good way to train multitasking. However, at this point the focus he needed to keep for grip was second nature to him, allowing his mind to be concentrated entirely on the task at hand.

Midnight opened his eyes and placed a hand on the dagger’s handle that was sheathed on his side. This would be the medium for his jutsu. He then put his hands together and did the necessary handseals for the jutsu. It was a swift procedure; one that would hardly delay him in a fight. His right hand rose to the dagger’s handle again, this time grabbing it and pulling it out of the sheath and launching it across the expanse of the tower. He then lowered his hand to his lap. The movement was swift, his skill in iaido befitting the action. He had thrown the dagger to the wall opposite him, a seal sent off with the dagger. The true dagger itself was still safe inside the sheath, a phantom blade having been sent out as it should have. The fuuinjutsu Midnight had prepared would be released once the dagger struck its target, as per the blade’s ability. Another ability of the dagger was its speed, ensuring that Midnight wouldn’t have to wait for it to hit the target after some time. To an untrained observer, Midnight would have only grabbed his dagger and then lowered his hand immediately afterwards, the movement of his throw far too fast for them to notice. Even those who were trained ninja would have trouble keeping up with his attack, the swift nature of the dagger making its speed exceedingly faster than most eyes could keep up with. However, the dagger wasn’t what Midnight was training for today. Midnight wanted to train his fuuinjutsu; the dagger was simply the means to his ends.

The phantom dagger stuck itself into the block opposite him, the seal being released into the stone. There, the seal released itself. A small black sphere erupted from where the point of the blade had struck the stone, expanding quickly. The sphere only appeared to be black because that was the nature of the jutsu; blocking out all light from the outside. The sphere reached its max size of a meter, enveloping the entire stone block in darkness. To ensure that the jutsu was successful, Midnight would need to see inside the sphere. Rather than moving himself to be inside the sphere, he decided to use his newly acquired eye. ”Byakugan!” he exclaimed in a hushed breath, activating the hyuuga eye. Nearly everything within twenty five meters of him could be seen in minute detail with the eye activated, perfect for checking the sphere that he had created. Through the eye patch, Midnight saw with his Byakugan the space within the black sphere. Inside was the phantom dagger and small writing where it had made contact with the block, denoting the seal. The phantom dagger soon faded away, leaving only the seal that Midnight had just practiced. It seemed he had it down on the first try. What an easy jutsu. Midnight blinked and released the activated eye. He was done here.

Midnight stood up and walked to the edge of the scaffolding. He glanced back over to the sphere of darkness and watched as it disappeared, leaving only a small hole where the dagger had damaged the block. Other than that small bit of evidence, it was like Midnight was never here. With his training finished, Midnight bounded down the levels of the tower, satisfied that he had no need for further study the jutsu he had just utilized perfectly. Though it was a short training session, it was still fun. Now it was time for work, the next fun activity for the day. And while other people are typically sarcastic in saying that, Midnight is not. His day of fun just had a great start. Reaching the bottom of the tower, Midnight whisked himself away from the area, intent on making it to work early so that he could handle every job that came in personally after finishing the paperwork. What a lovely day it was.


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