Tracing Blood [Open]

[Murakami Reizo]

Reizo sat quietly at a table in The Accolade’s University, his gaze drifting between several scrolls unrolled around him and different books, occasionally writing down a scrap of information on a clean sheet of paper in front of him. While scrolls were nice for more formal documents, Reizo prefered using plain sheets. He wasn’t as likely to smear the ink on another piece of the information he was copying down if he had to pick up in a hurry. Which was a very real possibility, if either of his sisters were sent to find him and find out what he was doing with the “formal” copies of the clan trees.

What exactly was he doing? Well. Tracing back his family lineage. Most of the time you wouldn’t expect an eight year old kid to be interested in such things. But when you see others beginning to awaken their own more… unique abilities… well, you started to become curious. Reizo had heard of kekkei genkai previously, they had been mentioned in passing in his classes, but hadn’t really been interested enough to go looking into whether either side of his own family possessed such things until recently.

Reizo had been sparring with another student, someone who he had been on par with only a short time beforehand. When suddenly his opponent activated what he would learn was called a “byakugan.” Between that, and the “gentle fist” style that his opponent had been working on learning, Reizo found himself eating the mats, much to his frustration and embarrassment. To be beaten so handily by someone who he had been able to keep up with only a little while ago? It was… well. sad, in his eyes. It upset his mother, which only made it worse.

That was what had caused him to go to the library. He figured the more he knew about the byakugan, the more likely it was he could find a way to beat it. Of course, in the books he had easy access to there wasn’t much flat out information about the byakugan or the Hyuuga clan (which was apparently where the kekkei genkai originated). There was some general information, of course, about how it worked and what the “gentle fist” style was suppose to do. But very little in terms of specifics, and a lot of stories that made the Hyuugas sound unbeatable.

So, he had decided the next day to bring his own family tree into the library and see what information he could find about his ancestors in the public records for the village. It would have probably been more effective to go Nature’s Clinic and asked a shaman about the Murakami clan, he was a little shy about doing so. He didn’t know any shaman, or med-nin… and they certainly had more important tasks than helping an academy student find out about his family’s history.

That would be why he was now sitting surrounded by books and cross-referencing and… well. Doing things you really wouldn’t expect out of an eight year old. As far as he could tell, however, there were no explicit records of his family members having any unique blood traits. At least not on his father’s side, and if there were any on his mother’s side, it was unlikely that they ever would have manifested fully due to their lives as civilians.

Reizo let out a sigh and closed his eyes, letting his head fall forward and his head hit the table with an audible thump. He was immediately ssssssssssssshhhh’d by someone else around in the library, but the little student ignored it for the most part.

How do I beat someone with a kekkei genkai without one of my own…?

 

[Ryu Hime]

{Enter by puppet Tsubaki Ai. She's looks very realistic and has a back story written up by her creator]​

A woman walked about the library collecting literature on demonic ancestries and exorcisms. Her foot steps had an audible sound as they struck the floor. This woman walks strong and proud and wore a very strict expression on her face. People would likely have confused he to be the librarian if it was not for the robes she wore. However these were not the robes worn by the shamans, but those of a shrine priestess. Her name was Tsubaki AI and the Tsubaki clan was a noble one that was strictly made up of samurai and priestesses. Each male born into the clan was trained in the art of the sword, while each female was trained in the art of the priestess. Ai became a priestesses not because she chose to, but because to deny such a fate would mean being kicked out of the family. Ai did not approve of this and held resentment towards her clan, however as a dutiful daughter of the Tsubaki clan she will train to the best of her abilities. The sound of someone's head falling to a table cause Ai to drop all the scrolls she had collected. One even rolls over to Reizo's foot. Ai looks at the boy with a glare, but then her face quickly softens as she recognizes his pain. Ah, the misery of research hitting a dead end she knew it well. She begins collecting her scrolls which of coarse lead her towards Reizo. As she picks up the scroll by his foot she would ask, "Dead end huh? Need any help with your research?" It is unlikely she could help him find anything with his heritage or answers about the Hyuuga clan. However she may be able to give him hope. True she is a part of a clan and they did had some interesting bloodlines flowing through them, but she did not inherit any of them. She did not inherit the natural swordsmanship of the Nanjirou or the ability to see spirits like the Tsuchimikado. No her talents came from constant training and perhaps that is the answer he is looking for.

[MFT]

 

[Murakami Reizo]

Reizo felt the scroll roll over and hit his foot lightly, but wasn’t too terribly concerned by it. For the moment, the tall, slim student would keep his head resting on the table. Well. on a book, on the table. There weren’t even full records of the Nishida Clan in Stone’s libraries, and Hitomi hadn’t had a full family tree either… the Murakami Clan was much easier to follow, though a small clan that never had many branches or flowers. It was rare for them to have many children, and even more rare for those children to be sons who would keep the name going… He supposed he could start checking the other clans tangentially related to Murakami… As the woman collected the scroll that fell near his foot, Reizo lifted his head and turned to look at her, tilting his head a little to the side.

”...Yes. Sort of. Many dead ends, and a handful of questions…” he decided that was an acceptable enough answer. He had hit a dead end with looking up the Hyuuga Clan and (more rarely) individual cases of the Byakugan, and another involving his family. He rolled up the Clan lineage scroll he had been referencing, letting out another little sigh and running a finger over the page that held the little research he had managed to do. Some of the other books that might help him were written in an older language, that he would need to learn at some point or another. Bohemian, he had already learned it was called. But that was a project for another day.

”I do not think it is something that you can really help with. I was looking into the kekkei genkai called the byakugan, because another student has started using it in sparring sessions at the academy. Which led me to looking into more about my family’s history and seeing if any of my ancestors were known for any blood traits in particular that might have been passed down. Most of them seem to have derived their strength from other sources though, that are not inherited.” Reizo explained, his voice staying soft and quiet as usual. But how tired he was of looking already was evident in his tone.

 

[Ryu Hime]

The Hyuuga clan which inherits the powers of the byakugan are indeed quite powerful, but they do have their obvious weaknesses. The strange ability to see chakra is not only their strength but there weakness as well. People in the bloodline tend to rely on the Byakugan to the point of dependency. Many of the Hyuuga signature techniques rely on there ability to see chakra. The flaw in this is that they are for too dependent on a single sense. If one were to take that sense away. blind them, they would be severely weaken. The fact that he was looking into such a bloodline after fighting one suggests he lost and is looking for a way to defeat it. "Even if you find something in your family tree there is no guarantee you will inherit it. Take me for instance. I have both Nanjirou and Tsuchimikado blood flowing through my veins and yet I possess neither talents." AI pulls out a chair and takes a seat next to the young student. She places the scrolls on the table and looks at him with a small smile. "Strength from other sources can be quite strong and sometime stronger than bloodlines." Ai takes one of her scrolls add unrolls it out on top the table in front of them. The creature looked quite humanoid but it pale complexion, pointy ears, sharp fang and claws made it clear that it was a demon of some sort. "This is a species of vampire that feed on chakra and like the hyuuga they possess the ability to see chakra with in the human body. People see them as dangerous monsters with there all seeing eye, but sometimes our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. When dealing with such a demon we priestesses use a genjutsu in order to take away its sight."

 

[Murakami Reizo]

Reizo offered a slight shrug, "I know it is not sure if you will inherit a bloodline ability like that or not, but even knowing if it is possible is good enough sometimes..." he said. He didn't know much, which was to say anything, about the Nanjirou or Tsuchimikado, and Ai would see the boy scribble down the names of both clans, mostly to find out about them more later. He slides a couple of his books out of the way, so Ai would have more room for her own scroll. He hadn't taken a good enough look at the woman yet to figure out that she was a puppet, a little too distracted by his own frustrations.

He looked over the humanoid creature, tilting his head to the side, "Do genjutsu of that nature work on people with the byakugan though?" he asked, "If they can see chakra, is it not possible they could see the chakra that makes up the genjutsu itself...?'

He knew that not all of a shinobi's power was derived from their blood. A lot came from training and practice. But, if he had the chance to inherit a kekkei genkai, it would make sense (to him) to begin training in a way that would later be aided by the addition of the bloodline, rather than starting to work on a particular style he enjoyed, only to learn later that whatever his bloodline might be, wouldn't serve to increase those capabilities. Of course, to some degree, he thought that kekkei genkai were unfair... but a lot of things were, he supposed. He folded up the page that he had been scribbling on.

 

[Ryu Hime]

But what was there for him to even notice? As she breathed her chested moved slightly with every inhale and exhale. As she talk her speech did not soon artificial. No, like a human air flowed through a box filled with cords to control the pitch while it was the movement of the lips and tongue the shaped the words. Her movements were not mechanical; no the movement of her limbs were fluid as muscles of ninja wire controlled their movement. Her hair was real hair and skin looked quite lifelike. Her eyes blinked at random intervals and if one were to place a hand on her chest they would feel the beating of her synthetic heart and the warmth of her body. Much went into the process of creating her.

As she sits near to the boy he might notice a light hint of lavender. Even as a priestess she is still a woman and wore a little perfume. The boy asks her about the effectiveness of such a genjutsu against a person with such abilities. Her head tilts upward as she stared at the ceiling in deep thought. How could she explain this to him. After a minute she looks back at him. "I don't think it works like that. It is my understanding that genjutsu techniques manipulate the flow of chakra in the victim's brain, thus causing a disruption in their senses. If the jutsu disrupts the messages sent from the eyes to the point of blindness, the byakugan should be rendered useless." Before the boy folds up the paper and puts it away, she notices it was the names of the bloodlines she mentioned earlier. Quite a curious lad isn't he? she thought to herself. "If you want to know more about my heritage all you have to do is ask."

 

[Murakami Reizo]

He blinked, tilting his head to the side as he tucks the notes (and the scroll he had brought with him) into one of the pouches at his waist. ”Is that how it works?” he asked. ”I am not exactly good at genjutsu. So my understanding of it is probably off by a bit…” If I am going to be a well rounded shinobi, though, I should probably at least understand the theory behind genjutsu… another thing to remember to learn more about… He hung his head a little bit briefly, the scent of lavender tickling his nose. Reizo shook his head a little bit, looking up to the woman once more.

”Ah. Sorry. It is not interest in your heritage in particular, but Nanjirou and Tsuchimikado were two clans I had not looked into yet, and know nothing about. So I was going to look up more general information about them at some point in the near future,” he explained, ”But, if you would rather just tell me about one or the other, or even both, I would be more than willing to listen… and take notes.”

 

[Ryu Hime]

"Well lets just say the Tsubaki clan is nick named the clan of steel for a reason." Ai gets up from her seat and collects her things. He would likely never heard of the clan mainly because it is not a clan found in Stone. Such a clan only exist in the hidden village of Cloud. "My name is Tsubaki Ai and it was a pleasure meeting you." Ai then gives a respectful bow. "I leave you in hopes you'll find something special in your own heritage." She then walks off to the front desk to check out the scrolls. Ai could teach Reizo allot about the Tsubaki clan despite only being a puppet. The technique of the process of her creation was actually developed by a Tsubaki priestess. In fact this priestess even created one of these puppets and sealed a soul into it; this puppet was later sold to a person in Stone. The name given to this puppet was Gen Ryu.
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[Murakami Reizo]

Reizo listened to and watched Ai, mentally recording the name of the clan for later, as well as its nickname. It wasn't one he knew of from Stone, but that didn't make it any less important to his overall knowledge. Sometimes members of various clans ended up spread out a bit from their homes, and there was no safe bet that he wouldn't end up fighting a shinobi from another country that might be from the Tsubaki clan that Ai had mentioned.

"My name is Murakami Reizo," he replied, inclining his head as he wasn't really in a position to return her bow, Thank you."

While she hadn't explicitly told him anything that might help him find anything interesting in his bloodline directly, it didn't mean she hadn't helped in other ways. Maybe a kekkei genkai isn't the end all be all... it just happens to be a quick way to gain power based on what you are naturally inclined to do... he considered the thought, watching as Ai checked out her scrolls. He wasn't about to stop her.

He shifted his gaze to the books in front of him still. He had found others that might refer to his ancestors, but many of them were in an old language that Reizo didn't understand. He made a mental note to learn the language, as the information might be important later. Not to mention he was still curious, and it might be important to communicate with another Stone shinobi without others understanding him. But that was something for another day. He let out a little soft sigh. Nothing had come up...

He stood and stretched, wincing a little at the stiffness caused by sitting in one position for so long, then gathered up the books and scrolls he had pulled from the shelves, setting about putting them all away before wandering out of the library himself.
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