A Sight To Behold (Training)

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

For someone so devoid of the aesthetic pleasures of an artistic scenery, it would be odd to visit a place like this. Known for its' exceptional diving spots and spectacular view, Undersea was the place to go for tourists and and connoisseurs of visible pleasure alike. For a blind person however, this place is more like an echoing, windless dome, filled with noisy people.

For Kurokawa, this was another place to get to know. A large body of clean water, perfect for training if one could find a deserted spot to avoid injuring various bystanders. For the occasion Kurokawa had brought along some swimwear and a breathing apparatus, to make it possible to explore the sunken landscape. At least vibration sense has a wider range under water so she would know where everything was. She also knew that the water would be nice and warm, due to the geothermic conditions.

For now she would acquire a primitive raft to make it possible to keep parts of her clothing, and equipment dry while she would be diving. Paddling out into the lake she would stay still for a moment to listen for people nearby. When she were sure that no one were close enough, she changed into her swimwear, and tied a rope around her waist. The other end, she atttached to the raft so that she could find it again. That would also mean that she needed to be mindful of the route she took while down there. Even the longest rope was not infinite.

Well, time for a long bath, and hopefully some water and air jutsu practice.

Getting ready and equiping the breathing aparatus she would dive head first into the lukewarm water. She had a specially made blindfold on that would cling to her skin as it got wet. Constantly adjusting it while swimming would be too much of a drag but, since it wasn't very comfortable it was not a viable alternative when above water. She would use a jutsu to make a local current in the water, to aid her swim speed, along side a low level wind jutsu to help level out the pressure building up in her ears. As she descented she realized that even though her senses had increased range they had a vastly reduced accuracy.

[MFT]
[WC: 384]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Getting under more and more pressure, diving deeper and deeper into the lake, Kurokawa had trouble navigating. The ripples from small animals around her initially felt the same as the waves that would normally come off rocks so for now she would swim slowly and feel in front of her with her hands to make sure she didn't swim into anything. It would take several minutes for her to be able to sense the difference between moving creatures and stationary objects well enough to start swimming freely around the bottom of this lukewarm watery grave of a tourist attraction. Coming here would prove useful as it put her in an unfamiliar situation.

Now more or less able to move around she would find an old sunken ship and attach her feet to it using chakra. It was rather big so it could be used as a training grounds or a running track. She didn't know how well the planks would take to her running across it with what was essentially suction cup feet so she would refrain from trying that out right away. The water resistance would not make that a viable strategy anyway. For now she would start of with simple punch and kick exercises. The huge pressure and water resistance would make even the most basic punches require a lot of energy. Kicks would end up becoming slow and strenuous on top of offsetting the balance due to the large amount of water one would move through while only having one anchor point. Fighting underwater with Taijutsu would never be applicable for Kurokawa but it would prove to be the perfect workout both for adding power to grounded attacks and eventually for practising body movement for mid air combat.

After a few rounds of shadow boxing and water aerobatic exercises it was time for a break. Being this deep down meant that even though she was using a breathing apparatus the pressure on her chest was still increased by a vast amount and it had left her somewhat starved for oxygen. Now used to the movements she would be using under water it was time to pratice some more ninjutsu based techniques, but she figured getting a bit away from the sunken ship was a good idea as others might want to dive there. She would also need to be mindful of her ascend later as air bubles could form if she rose too quickly. Kurokawa would swim to a nearby rockface before getting on the next part.

[MFT]
[WC: 420]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Now a safe distance away from the tourist attraction, she could start some ninjutsu practice. after forming seals she would slam her hands together has hard as the water would let her and send out a shock wave made up of sound waves. She would repeat this process and target a nearby rock until it would crack. The problem with sound waves, is that they spread out to all sides so before long every rock in a 20 meter radius would have cracked open and the fish swimming too close and getting hit by more than one shock wave would have gone belly up. The noise would also be noticeable from very far away as sound moves at a higher speed in more solid mediums and would therefore be able to spread wider before losing its' energy.

Now with several dead fish around Kurokawa could train one of her newly acquired elements. By forming complex seals she would infuse the floating corpses with her chakra and turn then into projectiles she could then launch towards a point closer to her. Pulling in all the the fish she would target an area right n front of her with nothing but water and in that way make a ball of fish she could then collect. To collect them Kurokawa would summon her sword and skewer all the fish to make a very long shish kebab. then instead of simply swimming to the surface, with the weapon in hand she would let go of the weapon and form some more seals to take remote control of the sword with chakra. With the sword flowing freely besides her and moving at her command, she had the hands and legs free to slowly swim to the surface while the sword would follow suit. She did have to reapply the control every once in a while but the amount the sword would drop each time would be mitigated by the the fact that the sword didn't need to ascend slowly to avoid build-ups of oxygen in the blood stream, and thus she could will it to move faster than she did.

Finally returning to her raft she would fasten the sword to the side and let the fish stay in water for as long as possible whilst sailing to the nearest dry spot. She found what had once been a cliff spike sticking up like a stalagmite, but now was a plain platform, undoubtedly due to someone cleaving trough it while practising their swordplay. Kurokawa would pull the raft ashore and use a dehydration jutsu so dry the wood so it could be used for firewood. She would also break off parts of the plants to make tiny wooden spears to roast the fish on. Those she would let soak a bit in clean water to make sure they would not burn before the fish were cooked. drying he firewood before use would reduce the amount of steam based smoke coming from the campfire.

After eating her fill of fish she would lie back on the rock and slowly drift into a deep slumber while the last of the campfire burned out. There were no nearby flammables as she was on a rock in the middle of water to worrying about anything catching fire was not a problem. Her clothes, equipment and body was a safe distance away whilst still within the heat radius. As she dosed off she would listen to the light waves from the water, hitting the rocks in the area.

[MFT]
[WC: 588]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Blissful sleep. Kurokawa had no idea how long she would sleep for. Undisturbed in a warm area with miles of quiet and a full belly. The only alarm clock would be a full bladder sending a message to the brain about needing an emptying.

Whilst lying there peaceful as can be Kurokawas would start to have a dream. In it she was taking a written exam. She was of course hampered by not being able to read the paper but she would use her ability to sense the ink to read it out slowly. No matter how long she took, it seemed that the exam was just not reaching its' conclusion. Every page done would just reveal another one with new problems to solve. No variation in the difficulty, in fact they all seemed way too easy, almost as if they were designed to overwhelm with numbers more than anything else. She could for the life of her not remember the questions on the previous page as soon as she turned to a new one so for all she knew she would be doing the same page over and over. After doing this routine for what felt like hours, finally a bell rang to signal that the test was done. As she checked how many pages she had completed she noticed that the assignment was only four pages long and was all filled out. Not having time to ponder upon the matter she found herself in a practice yard throwing shurikens at a target dummy. This was exactly how it was back at the academy. The only variation back then was what her caretakers would have in store for her when she got home. The school was always catering to the weakest so the amount of new stuff for each day was very low. The smarter kids had to spice up their day with games to make the training more interesting. Stuff like trying to hit targets while others would try to shoot your shuriken out of the sky. Kurokawa threw a shuriken and heard the large clank from it being shot out of the sky by someone else. As she searched for the one who had shot it she wound that he had additional arms. Sunaku Shikai. Another student in her class. He had already gotten his first set of extra arms so besting him in a One on one taijutsu match had become the past time of choice for many of the better students. It gave him a considerable amount of combat experience and almost no one was able to take him on any more. They didn't know how little a threat the extra arms actually were. He was better at blocking and faster at attacking sure but mostly the many options for attack angles flustered those who could see him clearly. Kurokawa remembered taking him down a few times as she had to wait for the intented attack to be launched before she could react anyway and thus the many variation of attack pattern were common to her. She was by no means the strongest in the class but for now at least she could pretend to be by fighting Shikai. Maybe he just let her win for some reason.

As she stood there a stray Shuriken founds it way towards her head. Another loud clank would sound off right next to her from Shikai deflecting the attack. That woke her up.

Kurokawa was back on the rock in the cave surrounded by water. For a moment there her mind had drifted back to a less complicated time when her whole future was ahead of her. Much had happened since then. Learning the truth about her father, and how her mother died. Taking revenge. Being attacked at the beach and left hospitalized. The breakdown of stone and almost being forced to move to Leaf if not for a last minute escape. Coming to Sand and being welcomed by the Kazekage. Helping out at the Hospital but otherwise wasting her life in some sense. All she did was train. Maybe she should go enjoy the sights some time. Get something to eat and just relax.

With that in mind Kurokawa got up from her prone position and jumped into the water. Partly to wake herself up fully but also to relieve herself after sleeping for so long.

[MFT]
[WC: 729]

 

[Hashigaki Kurokawa]

Not being an aquatic race meant that staying under water was an energy consuming process in at of itself, and not something one could do for an unlimited amount of time. This dream Kurokawa had meant that she had something to meditate on. Why did she have this dream now of all times. Her past had stayed that way for so long while here in Suna and suddenly one nap reminds her of the old times.

As Kurokawa returned to the rock she had just slept on she would assume the usual cross legged position with her back supported by a formation in the rock. Her arms would rest on her with the hands connected fingertip to finger tip forming something resembling an old arrowhead. As she would take a deep breath her mind would slowly clear out excess noise and she would attempt to return to her roots. Unlike in the dream, she was now able to navigate the area she was send to but the downside was that everything was hazy compared to the clear though ever-changing visions from before. It would shake and flicker wherever she chose to go and random images would pop up. One of the reoccurring ones would be the visage of a male with four extra arms dropping down from up high landing with a strong light shining behind him. On his face he would wear a mask well known to Kurokawa although it would be cracked and damaged near the eyes giving away the Heterochromia iridum of the wearer.

Kurokawa was not used to actually have to worry about light but as this was a mental projection rather than actual sight, the light was able to gain the blinding radiant effect that she would normally have to kinda imagine was there based on stuff like heat and the reaction of others. She never had too much time to think about the scenery as the flashes would happen fast and often but not in a continuant stream and so in order to keep focus and stay in the vision she needed to concentrate. Something was wrong with the whole scenery. Perhaps a back to her old home would prove valuable here. She decided break the meditation and pack up her stuff. While heading back home she would go over what she needed in order to travel to Stone. Other than her equipment she would need to stop by the passport office to let Suna know she was travelling.

[MFT]
[WC: 415]
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