Don’t be afraid of the monsters he thought silently. Search for them, it’s okay to feel pleasure in drowning. If left alone, the demons could crawl their way behind, underneath, and into one’s very dreams and thoughts. The demons could wrap themselves in one’s mind, driving them mad with horrifying images and feelings. It was best to confront them, embrace them, and be consumed by them. Drown in their hate, their agony, let the hate turn to rage, rage turn to fury, fury into madness. Let madness corrupt thy soul, let it wreak havoc freely, let the humanity sleep to the point where blood and graves were the reason for one’s existence. Bear in mind, he felt the grinding of that primal instinctual sensation in the back of his neck, a seductive whisper urging him to enjoy the sensation of drowning. Burn away all desires and succumb to the beast begging to be let out of its cage. Slaughter everything it said, burn it all away. It’s okay to feel pleasure in agony. The grinning face stared back at him, beckoning him into the darkness. “What was it? Would it be okay to step towards it? Maybe just one step. There. Perhaps another, I won’t go all the way, I just want to see. So close now…Almost there.”The sound of animals rustling in the frigid morning woke Gattsu from his slumber. It was just a dream, it had been a while since he had such dreams. He rubbed his weary eyes and looked at his surroundings. ”Where am I?” he thought for a second, disoriented. The woods, the morning had hardly started. The sun was rising, illuminating the darkened skies with its orange glow, its heat slightly thawing the wintry air. It took him a moment to collect his thoughts, he could hardly remember the reason for his current location. Looking down at his body, blood. It dripped from his body, looking around there was blood, so much of it. A crimson lake? He shook his head confusingly and looked at his body again, no blood. A hallucination? He needed to wake up, his eyes were playing tricks on him in the dreamy state he was currently in. He stood, his clothes covered in frost as he stretched his chilled body attempting to warm it up. An assignment, out here in the woods. The boy spent the night here after receiving the assignment, he must have dozed off against the tree and entered that dark place in his broken mind. He looked down where his gear laid, his sandbag and tent were never set up. Lack of sleep for days at a time had such an affect he supposed. He set the tent up, a nice cold stream of water nearby, he disliked sleeping in the dorms and knowing no one he preferred his solitude alone in the woods. He supposed sleeping near his new training grounds would make more sense, the Academy was within a reasonable walking distance after all.
A large sigh escaped the boy’s lips as he took off his shirt and replaced his clothing with his regular training clothes. A simple black short sleep shirt and white trousers with a buckle strapped across his right shoulder and over his chest and behind. The sword he wielded was far too large to be in a sheath, as such the belt around him had a metal bracket he could safely stow his blade. After gearing himself up, he wrapped his cloak around him, the temperature was still arctic and it would serve him best to be mindful of the weather around here. He began cleaning his blade shortly after, regular maintenance on it was a habitual nature to him at this point. ”They should be arriving soon.” he thought silently to himself. Reaching into his pocket he retrieved a folded paper and opened it.
“You are hereby assigned a training partner to improve your skills with. Mandated by your instructors, we thought it best for students to get to know one another and train your shinobi skills together in order to vastly improve yourselves. The coordinates are written below for your assigned training site.”
He sighed heavily once again, a partner? He wasn’t the most sociable person. He had difficulty speaking with others and was not accustomed in training with others. He felt the Academy may have singled him out for his antisocial behavior he continuously displayed at the Academy. Though he knew that was most likely not true and that it was simple luck of the draw. Wrapping bandages on his arms and hands for better grip he waited patiently for his new “partner” to arrive. It was ridiculous, the assignment didn’t even explain what kind of training to do. Perhaps chakra control he thought? Maybe they are skilled in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, areas he lacked. He had considerable skill in Taijutsu but he was slowly coming to the realization that he needed to branch out his skills. He figured it was best to decide when his partner eventually arrived. It dawned on him that he would have to converse with a stranger. How infuriating for someone with such a lack of social skills. He could only hope that the individual would at least be mature and serious about their training. They should be arriving soon after all.
Word Count: 892
[spoilername="Note To Interested Players That Would Like To Join"]*For any reading this, this is a collaborated training thread dedicated to weekly training posts and roleplays to perhaps include others who are interested in joint training habits. The thread is closed to myself and Natsumi [the originator of the idea via Discord] but if you would like to join in on these sessions, feel free to PM me or Natsumi or reach out via Discord.[/spoilername]
