A few years ago, Katsumi had started talking about ninja. His mother knew his birth family would not approve, but his father was a staunch advocate of following your really short sighted, but right in front of you dreams. You know, the ones where you spend a limited time trying to achieve a goal, but not long enough that you miss a big fat shiny thing out of the corner of your eye.
A bright eyed Katsumi would often ask his father about what ninjas were like. Being an awful influence, he would always oblige. He loved teaching the boy anything and everything, and Jin had a lot of friends who were ninja, so could offer the basics. Well, the basic of basics.
"So how do ninja's hit stuff so hard? I've heard of them punching through boulders and other crazy stuff like that."
"Oh, you mean taijutsu?"
"Well, taijutsu is just hitting stuff right?"
"No, no, there's much more to it than that." The man explained. "See, ninja's have the power to manipulate this thing called chakra. Everything has chakra, but ninjas push and pull their chakra to do special techniques. Taijutsu often involves moving a lot of chakra to your hands and feet, or arms and legs sometimes."
Boring, Katsumi mused. This isn't explosions.
"Can you do it? Punch the tree for me daddy!"
Petulance was certainly an art Katsumi was intent to abuse while he was little. Do it big person. Destroy things for my entertainment.
"Hahaha, I don't think so little one. I wouldn't want to destroy any public property." A hearty rejection, but from the look on Katsumi's face, perhaps a compromise can be made. "I can do something else cool with chakra though."
Jin slowly lowered himself onto all fours in a pushup position. His arms stiffened. "Now we focus the chakra to the hands."
Jin went straight into a handstand, unheard of for his level of fitness. Dad had a dad bod, he doesn't have any business doing handstands! Let alone jumping into the air, as he proceeded to do! I mean it was only a couple of feet in the air, but it was certainly impressive.
"Daaad! That was wicked!" What a cool dude, doing handstand jumps like that.
"You should give it a try, it runs in the family! A trick to pushing chakra somewhere is to try really hard to make that part stronger, and it'll naturally flow there. There are better ways of doing it I'm sure, but I don't think it's wrong to start out that way." They both knew Jin was a busy man, so after watching Katsumi's initial attempt, they exchanged goodbyes and hugs, and Jin went back to doing, you know, whatever he normally did anyway.
Katsumi managed it fairly simply, it wasn't very grueling to get into a handstand. He was healthy and athletic already, it was the jumping that would cause some problems. After a couple of tries getting it to work, he found himself jumping, and then after a few more he was starting to get lift. One of the jumps he started tilting, on of his hands had started to give as he leapt.
Landing on a 70 degree angle after doing a flip certainly scared him a little, but as to not risk falling back on his head, he desperately pushed his body off the ground with his feet, propelling himself way into the air. His body had begun to adapt to the concept of chakra, certainly very young.
Unfortunately he ended up on his back anyway, after another half rotation in the air. After the initial winding, he broke into a chuckle. What an adrenaline rush, going from the right way up to upside down in mid air, and then back onto the floor. It sounds lame when you write it down, but you totally had to be there man.
"That. was. AWESOME!"
*****
Backflips were fun.
A slightly more mature, 10 year old Katsumi had finally been admitted into the academy, which meant he had access to the ground to use as he pleased, though loafing about would likely get you in trouble with the teachers, or at least that was the assumption.
There was a wide green area to train on, and as it turned out, pushing off it quickly was much easier than say, asphalt or probably even grass.
Katsumi threw the rock wide behind him into the air, and started to judge where it would land, and pushed his feet off behind him.
Backflips were very different from frontflips, especially with a goal in mind. You had to see where you were going from only an upside down glimpse of what was behind you. Behind us is where we were going after all.
After 2 and a half rotations, he would extend a hand to the air as the rock crashed toward the ground, and snatch it out of the air. It's hard to get the next hand movement after that, so he collapsed onto his side, satisfied he had caught it.
A breath exhalation, followed by a "hehehe" exuded from the mouth of the young boy. He still found joy in this hobby, even after years of practice.
[WC: 873, MFT]
A bright eyed Katsumi would often ask his father about what ninjas were like. Being an awful influence, he would always oblige. He loved teaching the boy anything and everything, and Jin had a lot of friends who were ninja, so could offer the basics. Well, the basic of basics.
"So how do ninja's hit stuff so hard? I've heard of them punching through boulders and other crazy stuff like that."
"Oh, you mean taijutsu?"
"Well, taijutsu is just hitting stuff right?"
"No, no, there's much more to it than that." The man explained. "See, ninja's have the power to manipulate this thing called chakra. Everything has chakra, but ninjas push and pull their chakra to do special techniques. Taijutsu often involves moving a lot of chakra to your hands and feet, or arms and legs sometimes."
Boring, Katsumi mused. This isn't explosions.
"Can you do it? Punch the tree for me daddy!"
Petulance was certainly an art Katsumi was intent to abuse while he was little. Do it big person. Destroy things for my entertainment.
"Hahaha, I don't think so little one. I wouldn't want to destroy any public property." A hearty rejection, but from the look on Katsumi's face, perhaps a compromise can be made. "I can do something else cool with chakra though."
Jin slowly lowered himself onto all fours in a pushup position. His arms stiffened. "Now we focus the chakra to the hands."
Jin went straight into a handstand, unheard of for his level of fitness. Dad had a dad bod, he doesn't have any business doing handstands! Let alone jumping into the air, as he proceeded to do! I mean it was only a couple of feet in the air, but it was certainly impressive.
"Daaad! That was wicked!" What a cool dude, doing handstand jumps like that.
"You should give it a try, it runs in the family! A trick to pushing chakra somewhere is to try really hard to make that part stronger, and it'll naturally flow there. There are better ways of doing it I'm sure, but I don't think it's wrong to start out that way." They both knew Jin was a busy man, so after watching Katsumi's initial attempt, they exchanged goodbyes and hugs, and Jin went back to doing, you know, whatever he normally did anyway.
Katsumi managed it fairly simply, it wasn't very grueling to get into a handstand. He was healthy and athletic already, it was the jumping that would cause some problems. After a couple of tries getting it to work, he found himself jumping, and then after a few more he was starting to get lift. One of the jumps he started tilting, on of his hands had started to give as he leapt.
Landing on a 70 degree angle after doing a flip certainly scared him a little, but as to not risk falling back on his head, he desperately pushed his body off the ground with his feet, propelling himself way into the air. His body had begun to adapt to the concept of chakra, certainly very young.
Unfortunately he ended up on his back anyway, after another half rotation in the air. After the initial winding, he broke into a chuckle. What an adrenaline rush, going from the right way up to upside down in mid air, and then back onto the floor. It sounds lame when you write it down, but you totally had to be there man.
"That. was. AWESOME!"
*****
Backflips were fun.
A slightly more mature, 10 year old Katsumi had finally been admitted into the academy, which meant he had access to the ground to use as he pleased, though loafing about would likely get you in trouble with the teachers, or at least that was the assumption.
There was a wide green area to train on, and as it turned out, pushing off it quickly was much easier than say, asphalt or probably even grass.
Katsumi threw the rock wide behind him into the air, and started to judge where it would land, and pushed his feet off behind him.
Backflips were very different from frontflips, especially with a goal in mind. You had to see where you were going from only an upside down glimpse of what was behind you. Behind us is where we were going after all.
After 2 and a half rotations, he would extend a hand to the air as the rock crashed toward the ground, and snatch it out of the air. It's hard to get the next hand movement after that, so he collapsed onto his side, satisfied he had caught it.
A breath exhalation, followed by a "hehehe" exuded from the mouth of the young boy. He still found joy in this hobby, even after years of practice.
[WC: 873, MFT]