Ever since his interest in martial arts had grown stronger, Shihouin could not contain himself to stay within his office. His information had led him around the entire world, where rare forms of martial arts were being kept alive by a few individuals. Studies had attracted his greedy eyes to a low quality video of two fighters within a circus. One of them had reined supremacy inside of the circus for a lengthily term and was despised by the crowd and everyone he had defeated. However, this time, the battle was not going his way. The footage showed the agility of a monkey like man, whose jumps and leaps were no short of a martial acrobatic gem. His style and his fighting methods were insane, and Shihouin wanted them.
The sound of junebugs cricked across the forest as the humidity bore down on Shihouin. Ambient sounds of animals and the thick wind raced across the forest as he trudged through the soft soil of the land. Of course, Shi was not cut out for this type of travel; it was unlike him to travel alone. Except this time, he was not complaining. In nothing but black shorts and a white old tan T shirt and flip flops Shihouin continued through the Forest of Death, as if it were nothing but a cake walk.
Branch after branch, tree after tree, step after step, he continued on until he got within range of a small clearing of the far eastern part of the country. A steep tree rose high in the sky, covered by small vegetation here and there, and looming clouds which sat lazily on the face of the canopy. Shihouin sighed as he continued through the forest, pushing his sweat from his forehead as he walked on. Wiping his face with his shirt, he sighed. For a Hokage, this was too much physical walking. After having finally drug himself to his destination in the forest, he waited.
There was someone here, a guest escorted by ANBU that was goign to help him with his taijutsu training. He was told to come as simple as possible and to discard everything like Konoha. The instructions were specific and everything had been followed accordingly, but Shihouin didn't sense anyone ye-
“Young child, what do you know about the martial arts?” Shihouin turned around sharp and smiled as the corner of his lip rose into a smirk. This question was easy. He responded as if he knew the master was there the entire time.. “Martial arts are methods used to defend ones self from danger or any other life threatening causes. There are several forms of martial arts, and in the shinobi world today, they are practically nonexistent do the popularity of ninjutsu.” The old man smiled and responded. “You are as smart as you look young boy! But you are wrong!” Shihouin looked at the old man in frustration as he led them to walk. How could he be wrong? He was the Hokage! If anyone would have known that they would all be kissing his feet right now. There was no way that he was wrong. He was dead right. “How, old man?” “Martial arts are peaceful. Martial arts are the combination of Yin and Yang, the embodiment of everlasting peace between two entities, those entities being your body and your mind.” The old man's answer was mind-blowing and perfect, Shihouin had never thought of it like that. The answer struck a hollow tone in his mind which echoed throughout his thoughts.
The walk continued on at the base of the tree as the old man spoke again. “Boy, you seem different from most of the people that pass through here. Did you think me for a fool?” Shihouin tightened his eyelids at the old man in suspicion and confusion. “What do you mean?” The old man's tone jumped to a more friendly height. “Look at you boy! You’ve got muscles rippling over your entire body. Your legs look like they have been trained by the titans of the earth itself. Your chest is as broad as my bed; your arms are like the shoulders of my bulls. You are not a normal person boy!” "Well, I just work out a lot.” Shihouin answered, slightly laughing. “A liar you be! You are no one weak boy. Your body reminds me of my great, great, great, great grandfather.” “I told you old man, I just like to work out. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to be strong. I must stay in shape, eat right, and drink right, all that important stuff that makes you healthy. I want to live as long as you!” The old man continued to walk as Shihouin continued to talk. Shihouin kept blabbering on, but didn't realize that the old man had stopped. “What are you stopping for?” “I'm at the training field, I don't know about you.”
Shihouin looked around in complete surprise. Their conversation must have
been longer than he thought. From the beginning of the forest behind, Shihouin
and the old man had traveled up the path of the forest trail, all the
way through the blinding forest and to the top of a hill-clearing in
the range. A sea of clouds loomed over him as they stood at the clearing, looking out over the forest that they were still in. A slight patting on the ground was heard as a female voice
spoke.
"Grandfather!"
Shihouin looked back at the old man as the young girl game rushing up to
him. She was dressed a generic kimono, a deep read cloak to cover her
entire body from head to ankle, and a navy blue cloth that ran around
her entire stomach, starting from the bottom of her bosom all the way to
bottom of her belly button. She was a beautiful brunette with big brown
eyes and brown hair to match it. Her hair was nicely put up in a loose
bun, tied around a couple plastic chopsticks. White socks and thong
sandals graced her feet as a smile met her grandfather. She leaned over
and hugged him gently with one arm while kicking her leg back in
excitement. It was like she hadn't seen the old man in a while. Her gaze
drifted towards Shihouin, with the smile form her grandfather still
lingering on her face. As they met gazes, Shihouin smiled politely and
gave her a high bow. He was left to greet her alone as her beautiful
face turned into disgust. She chose not to speak to him and in doing so;
she turned around and headed back to the training grounds.
Outside in the courtyard were the old man, Yan and one eccentric looking
item. It was a large bowl, big enough for a man of Shihouin’s size to
bathe in. If he were to sit in it, the water would easily come up to
just below his chest. Shihouin looked at the bowl and then at the old man.
The old man's dark colored Sengfu clothing made him look like a wise
sage and Yan's flowered Duangua gave the appearance that both of them
were comfortable in the clothes. They seemed to be more than just
relatives, but training partners. Shihouin took the initiative to speak. “What is that bowl for?” He
asked, curious as to how it would help him learn the taijutsu. The old man walked close to the bowl and grabbed
the edge of it, moving the bowl a bit. “The bottom
of it is completely worn out and it's not really stable, but you should
be able to do it with the water inside. Today's lesson will be
balance.” “Balance?” “Yes,
you will have to stand on the lip of the bowl and balance yourself on
it without toppling the bowl over. Day by day we will reduce the water
until you can stand on it with no water within the bowl.” Shi
couldn't help but smirk and laugh a bit. The old man must have been
really senile to think that sort of ancient training was just possible.
Of course the people of ancient times trained like this, but those were
from ancient tables that no one could properly understand. What Shihouin
did understand was that something like this was completely impossible. “You're joking right?” The old man turned his head around towards Yan, who took the floor.
Her small, light body would still play a difference, Shihouin knew she
would fail. Crossing his arms in skepticism, Shihouin waited. As she
approached the gigantic bowl, she looked over at its contents. Within
the second, her feet instantly ‘flapped’ against the ground as she grew
airborne, directly over the lip of the bowl. The bowls lip couldn't be
any wider than an inch, which didn't allow enough room for the girl to
land on securely, but as she came down, Shihouin was utterly surprised.
With a slight smile on her face, the young girl balanced on the lip of
the bowl perfectly, with her feet positioned in a way so she could
attain the perfect balance. Showing some skill, she leaned in forward
and raised her left leg up high in the air. Her legs were now completely
split, in a perfect line up and down, with her body protruding forward
in a “T” position. She re-arraigned her balance and placed her right
heel on the small lip of the bowl and extended her other leg across to
the lip on the fair side, dividing the bowl symmetrically in an
acrobatic split. With pure muscle control, she brought both of her legs
perfectly together while maintain balance on the bowls delicate edge.
When she had brought her legs back together again, she lightly leaped
off the lip of the bowl, back down on the ground. The old man smiled in
approval as he looked over to the contents of the bowl. “Not a single ripple Yan, perfect again.” The beautiful woman smiled in favoritism as her granddad spoke. “Lets see if you can do this boy” Shihouin smirked, with his confidence level going straight to his head. “If she can do it, so can I.” “I see you're still talking …” Yan said.
Shihouin approached the bowl in silence as he looked at his wooden opponent. ‘I got this’.
With a hop of his feet, his vertical jump was high enough to land. He
landed perfectly on the lip of the bowl, in the same position that Yan
had done. A smile of superiority came over him as he thought he had
mastered it. Underneath him, the bowl ground up against the concrete,
leaning towards his side under his weight. Trying to maintain his
balance, he flailed his arms out to the side struggling to maintain his
balance. The bowl continued to lean as its edge clanked up against the
ground, leaving a disappointed Shihouin soaked in water. The old man
laughed.
After failure, he changed the training adding three large bowls next to each other, creating a total of four
large bowls. They all carried the same amount of water in them, but less
than the amount he had last time. It was obvious what Shihouin was doing.
The Shadow Clone Technique would give him an edge that they would have
no idea about. Shihouin was secretive with the technique making sure that
he didn't get caught with it. He had removed his shirt from his body,
stripped down in nothing but the same pair of shorts that he had came
in.
He spent every moment he could training on the balancing technique. Shihouin had realized that his previous form of balance was horribly weak.
He had figured out that the only reason he could stand was because the
ground was flat. His balance before was horrible to say the least, and
with the help of the Kage Bunshin, he was turning that around with every
splash of water. Shihouin tried effortlessly
and was progressing farther than he could manage. He could stand a top
of the bowl with a slim amount of water in it, but the time frame he had
when he was a top it was very small. He could balance for about four
seconds until his leg muscles tensed in fear of falling, causing him to
try to compensate by flexing the opposite muscles. Once the wobbling
began he would take a dive, splashed in the water from the bowl.
Even though his four seconds was increasing each time he tried to
balance, he couldn't give up then. The taijutsu required
supreme balance, balance long enough for him to maintain fighting on his
toes for hours on end. Four clouds of white smoke popped in front of
each of the training bowls. Taking their time to focus on the last time
they failed, each Shihouin took a moment out to review the goals of the
technique, to try and stray away from failing again. In unison, all of
them hopped on the bowl with a slight ‘tak’ of their feet against the
ground. With their left feet extended along the length of the bowl, they
counterbalanced their weight by letting the right foot hang over the
inside of the bowl. Not a single ripple, not a movement or shift from
the bowl. Four seconds turned in to five, which turned into eight, which
turned in to ten. The bunshin on furthest left end faltered, the same
happened for the second one after that. As the bunshin landed and
popped, Shihouin put the information together as the remaining bunshin
began to compute it as well. Shihouin smiled as he had realized his
fundamental problem. They were trying with too much force to balance
their weight. When he jumped up, the bunshin tightened their leg muscles
to decrease weight for a softer landing. Obviously the problem with
that would be holding the tense muscle. By relaxing at the apex of the
jump, Shihouin's only obstacle was to get over the fear of the dead weight
landing on the lip. If he could overcome that he would master the
technique. The last remaining bunshin had figured it out as well,
popping into smoke by simple self will. He would have to show
the old man his new trick.
The old man and Yan looked at the set of four large bowls with little to
no water in them. Shihouin took deep breaths in and out as he began to
focus on the massive amount of experience he had gained from training
during the night. The old man's expression was the same, the closed eyes
with his hands behind his back, snug in his large sleeves. Yan's face
was full of skepticism, Shihouin could tell that she didn't think he would
succeed at all. After his few moments of meditation, Shihouin focused
himself, and jumped, lightly hopping up onto the edge of the first bowl.
With his feet in the correct stance for balance, he simply stood there
with his hands at his side, showing that he no longer needed his arms
for balance. “I found out why you guys were able
to do this. It's simply because you're not scared of the bowl toppling
over. I don't mean that a fearless heart will be able to balance easily,
but it takes the combination of a calm mind and a calm body to do this.
I was fighting myself last night during training, trying to force the
bowl to balance and accommodate to my weight. Once I let go of that
aggressive thinking, I was able to master the technique.” Shihouin
hopped off of the edge on the first bowl, jumping clear across the edge
of the second bowl. Instead of his first stance, Shihouin balanced
perfectly with his left foot dangling behind him. “I'm going to learn fast old man, so you're going to have to throw some harder training than this.” Shihouin looked over to Yan who bore a look of agitated defeat. “I told you I would be able to do this…Admit Yan, I'm catching up to you.” With that, the young woman stormed off, back to the house from which she came. The old man laughed and rubbed his hairy chin.
“Ho ho, boy! If you're ready for your next thing in training, meet me at the closest river. And put some clothes on why don't
you?”
The rocky surface down at the river sloshed water back and
forth on its shores, causing the rocks to gleam as pure water graced their
presence. The river in front of Shihouin and the old man was purely massive. Small fish swam up close to the
shore of the water, eating tiny microscopic bugs that neither of them could
see. Shihouin was dressed in his uniform once more, which
was dried out from the water from this very lake. Next to the old man lay two
bamboo sticks and a long skinny boat with two paddles.
Shihouin looked over towards the boat as the old man took a deep breath,
enjoying his morning. ”“Are you anxious to start on training boy? “Yeah, let's do
this” The old man coughed a bit in his laugh, obviously hiding something
about today's training. “We can do this one of two ways, the hard way or the easy way. Which method do you prefer?” Shihouin tightened his left eye as he was confused by the question. Now he was given
options? What type of training would this be? It probably was a trick question,
something Shihouin did not want to fall for. “The hard way…” The old man stepped in the skinny boat as he pushed it in the water. Sitting down on one end, he gestured for Shihouin to sit in the boat as well.
Taking his place in the boat, Shihouin felt uneasy as they went out so deep in
the water. The old man rowed the small boat out from the shore, further and
further out into the massive lake. The bamboo sticks that he had clanked up
against the boat as Shihouin's uneasiness grew more suspicious. This lake was
not shallow, anyone could tell that. Of course he could swim or walk on water,
but it was what the old man wanted to teach him which was scaring him. “You seem uneasy boy, what troubles you?” “N-Nothing, I'm fine.” “You lie again! Sinner!” The old man took a handful of water and splashed it into Shihouin’s face, causing him to bring a small guard up. “Tell me the truth or I'll drown us both!” Shihouin’s conscious forced him to look down at the dark waters that they were lightly hovering over. “This water is kind of deep old man, you sure you're supposed to be out this far? Doesn't Yan worry about you?” “Ahahaha! That little girl isn't worried about me so much in the water. I'm more dangerous trying to make a meal than I am in the water. Why do you fear the depth of the water? Why not the shallow end?” “Well, if we flip over we could drown; it’s a long way down. In the shallow end you can't drown.” “Hmmm, I guess you're afraid of the unknown.” “Yeah, I guess.” “It was you who chose the
hard way, now stand up. I have no time to give you a therapy lesson, grab a
bamboo stick and watch me.”
Shihouin and the old man both stood up in the shallow boat over the deep
waters. Reaching down carefully, he grabbed a bamboo stick and handed it to the
old man. The old man grasped the stick, which was easily taller than the both
of them. He examined it, and then threw it out into the water where it floated.
What happened next amazed Shihouin. The old man stepped out onto the water,
placing his foot near the middle of the bamboo stick. With the same foot
positioning from the bowl balancing, he had placed his feet the exact way on
the bamboo stick. The result was simply amazing. Over the vast deep waters, the
old man was actually standing on top of the bamboo stick, only centimeters away
from drowning himself. While perfectly balancing on the bamboo stick he walked
upon it, closer to the boat. The stick dipped forward because of the changing
weight, but by that time, he was already standing in the boat again. “Even for me and my talent it is impossible to walk on water without some sort of energy aid. But with balance alone, we humans can accomplish things that seem near impossible. You mastered the bowl balancing fast boy, let's see how you do this.” Shihouin was now up to bat. It was his turn to prove his worth.
Standing on the edge of the boat, Shihouin waited for the bamboo stick to turn
from its perpendicular position to a parallel position near the boat. Mentally,
the only thing keeping him from doing this technique was fear of falling into
the unknown. He could swim, but of course the quick option was to use his chakra
to save from drowning. Pushing those fears into the back of his mind, Shihouin
took a step out onto the middle of the bamboo stick. Instantly as his weight
pressed down against the stick, it moved from its position rolling and throwing
Shihouin’s balance off. With a small ‘guh’, Shihouin fell face first into the
deep water, pissed off at the fact that he'd failed. The technique couldn’t be
that hard, what was so challenging about it? “The water is constantly moving, so balance will be harder than that of standing on the bowl… Get out of the water and try again!” As Shihouin treaded the deep waters, he reached up for the boat again, standing in it as he focused on the bamboo stick. Mastering it was nothing like the bowl balancing. This was easily a hundred times harder.
This time, Shihouin jumped, hopping for the bamboo stick in one fluid motion.
His footing was improving this time, now positioned perfectly on the bamboo
stick, but as his weight came down on his right heel, the same result happened
once more. The bamboo stick rolled, throwing his balance off as it sent him
dashing into the river. His wet jet black hair covered his head and eyes in
disappointment from failure. The old man could do nothing but laugh. “Have you forgotten my teachings boy?” Shihouin grew frustrated quickly, this training was doing nothing! He wanted to move and jump around like the acrobatic fighter in the video.
“Old man this shit is not working. Teach me techniques!” “Don't tell me you've gotten dumb. Do you honestly think that you could fight with the balance of a baby?
Again!” Shihouin spat water out of his mouth, grinning in disappointment.
The next two times were a complete failure, Shihouin could not grasp how this
was possible. His footing was perfect, and for a few times he actually landed
on the bamboo stick with both feet, but before a second could pass, he was
dashed into the water again. Of course the old man had decades of training
under his belt, but how had he made it look so easy and effortless? Shihouin
drug himself into the boat, sitting on his bottom as he brought his knees up
into his face, resting his arms on them. “I fucking give up, the shit is impossible.” “You
easily forget my teachings.” “Yeah yeah, you have to be focused and-“ A loud knock echoed off the side of Shihouin’s head. The old man had grabbed the bamboo stick and properly hit him, throwing Shihouin into a pissed off silence. “Get rid of your uneven
heart! These martial arts are about the combination of body and soul. In order
to do this you must clear your mind and become as light as a feather! Once
more!”
Before jumping off the boat, Shihouin focused himself, despite the lump on his
head. Even though he thought it would be near impossible for him to do, the old
man had done it. His desires to learn the acrobatics that lived in these rural
mountains were strong, stronger than his inability and will to give up. Would
he really come this far only to stop after learning a simple technique? Shihouin
couldn't let that happen to himself. He had come too far to fail.
For the final time, Shihouin jumped off the boat and on to the bamboo stick.
His footing on the bamboo was perfect; the right foot touched down without the
stick wobbling, and as his left heel came swiftly down on the stick. In his
mind, he was picturing a light feather landing on the stick, mentally freeing
himself from the weight of his own body. With his eyes closed and his body
focused, Shihouin held his hands down to his side as he hoped he would not fall
over. He slowly opened his eyes in surprise, looking at the bamboo stick that
he was perfectly balanced on. Now confident in his success, Shihouin edged
forward with his foot, with no faltering. He smiled as he looked towards the
old man. “Hahaha! I got it!” The old man smiled at him, as Shihouin played around with his new balancing technique.
For a few hours the old man and Shihouin sat together along
with Yan, eating the sickening, but healthy herbal soup that she had prepared. Shihouin
was now opening up with Yan, getting a smile out of her beautiful face every
now and then. He couldn’t stop there though, he wanted more do to with her, and
she was too beautiful to pass up. Holding back his true desires, he swallowed
his sexual greed and pressed on with his training, knowing that the time would
come for both of them to satisfy each other's urges.
Instead of normal training, Shihouin and the old man focused on something
different. A gang of text books and information was on a table in front of him,
stacks higher than he could imagine. The old man smiled as he placed book after
book down, laughing as the reading count increased. “Since
you did well with mastering your balancing, we can go into another training aspect
this time. Even though your muscles are ready to train again, you should take
this time to focus on your studies. Tell me when you're done!” The old
man walked away, laughing. He was positively sure that it would take him
several days to complete the reading but he was dead wrong. As soon as the cost
was clear, Shihouin divided up into about seven clones, each of them taking a
stack of books to read.
Several hours passed by as Shihouin and the clones studied behind locked doors.
The ancient writing was hard to decipher, which was making the reading time
decrease drastically. Even though he would be ahead of the game due to the
shadow clones, the amount of ancient text was astounding. The information was
in its raw form, all of the secret listed techniques from ages ago. His mental
battle experience was not that great, but by reading the old artifacts it was
increasing by every moment. Pictures, text, instructions, journals, diaries,
all of it was there for him to absorb. Page after page, technique after
technique, all of it was truly amazing.
Within hours, Shihouin had down every ounce of information recorded in the
textbooks. After sitting so long in one place, his stubble had grown back, a
grizzly mess of short hair under his chin. His eyes had gotten baggy, running
low gray rings under his eyes. Every muscle in his body had become stagnant, cricks
and cracks were heard as his bones. The fatigue from the clones was mental, so
he had to spend the next hours resting from the overload. While resting, he
chugged down raw plants and fuel for his body to recover, computing all the
learned information in his sleep.
__
A day later, the old man and Shihouin were back outside, getting ready to train
once more. Yan sat out on this exercise, knowing that it would probably be too
violent for her taste. Instead of wasting her time watching them fight, she
took a trip down from the market. The old man looked at Shihouin as they were
alone. “So, out of all that reading
you did, what exactly did you find interesting?” “Well, the information was all great, I found several techniques that
I like, but what I liked the most was the fist training and the acrobatic exercises.
I think if I could learn that I will be done training.” “All right then,
let's get started. Fist training it is!”
Shihouin knew that the fist training involved pain, but he figured he could
bear it. After a few minutes of waiting, the old man came outside with a few
supplies. One was a weighted pole with a rope tied around it, the other was a
hammer. He went back in and came out with a set of bricks and hard tiles, all
things for Shihouin to train his fist on. “You sure
you ready for this?” “Yes sir!” “The first method starts with hitting the makiwara, the
rope around this weighted stick. If you train this for a couple thousand times
we can move on to the hammer. You start and I'll be back when you're done.”
This time, Shihouin didn't question him. Turning around to the makiwara, Shihouin
got into a stance. Both his knees were shoulder level; his legs were bent at a
good obtuse angle, with all his muscles prepped. He held his fists near his
waist line, curled up as his chest and abs flexed from pulling them back. As he
threw his first punch, he turned it so palm was pointed down, then returned it
to the side of his waist as he did another one. Shihouin continued the punches,
one after another, keeping record of his time as he slammed his fist with power
into the wood. He already knew his strength was amazing, greater than that of
most people on the face of the earth. Even so, Shihouin had to admit it. This
training was kicking his butt, kicking it good. The materials here seem to be
made out of diamond. At first his punches were not full power, he was scared to
break the makiwara. As evening fell and Shihouin’s body grew weaker, he
continued to add more power with each smack of his fist. Even at full power,
the wood, nor the rope were showing any real signs of damage. However, he
pressed on, knowing that time would tell.
Evening turned into night as Shihouin had reached some odd 1000 punches. With
several more to go, he bore his teeth in pain as the punches grew more painful
by the second. Some of the fibers rope was snapping under the hits, but only
the small insignificant ones. His full power punches caused the ‘dock’ of the
makiwara to be heard around the plateau, a metronome of his strength. Without
letting up at his pace, he continued to hammer his fist into the makiwara. Shihouin
would not give up or quit. He would become stronger no matter what it took.
The dark of the night was the worst time for Shihouin. His fists had become
slightly swollen and his knuckle bones hurt more than ever. With each punch, a
‘squish’ sound was heard as tiny amounts of blood and sweat rolled down from
his tired hands. Determination filled his body, just as much as the pain did.
He had comes so far, he could not fail to stop now. Stopping would mean that he
was only backing out because of the pain that he obviously could not handle.
Even the kara-te yells helped. Breathing out before each hit focused his body,
relaxing it as oxygen filled his lungs. With each painful hit, Shihoun focused
on training his speed and his power, combining them into one force that would
be reckoned with. Each hit was still as powerful as the last despite the pain,
despite the fact that he was not close to being halfway done.
The morning sun beat across his back, causing sweat to barrel down behind him
as he still continued on with the punches. Second after minute after hour he
continued on, from early morning to early morning. The smell of sweat was
heavily caked on his body; each punch was still hurting with more pain after
the next. Surely he wanted to give up but he could not. Each pound after pound
grew larger, more powerful in mind than the last. Mentally he felt himself
growing stronger, but he knew it would be a long way until he was recovered at
the same state his mind was. Shihouin’s determination to get strong was proving
itself. The fact that he had not quit was amazing.
After a two long days of constant punching, Shihouin’s body could not handle
the lack of water and rest. Near his last few hits, he forced himself to remain
awake so he could land them, all down to the last one. He stood there, staring
at the makiwara he'd grown so familiar with. The rope had entirely burst into
fibers, some which were caught in Shihouin’s bloody fist. The hard petrified
wood showed some evidence as a slight bend in the straight pole revealed itself
to the close eye. After trying to put his fist towards the makiwara for one
last extra hit, his body gave out, slumping over towards the ground. His fists
burned with a hellfire passion, screaming out for relaxation and cold water.
The last thing Shihouin felt was a sharp stinging in his hands, and the feeling
of that hay bed beneath his body.
Instead of training, the old man and Shihouin used the
hammer every five days out of the week, giving time for his hand to recover on
the down time. For each day they trained, they started from sun up to sun up,
hammering away at his bones in his fist to make them stronger. Each time they
did so, Shihouin pictured a blacksmith, hammering away at a piece of unshaped
metal, banging the red hot strip of metal into another hammer. Hit after hit,
he kept his mind focused on the image, ignoring the pain that he was going
through. A few times, he actually cried to himself, weeping silently as if he
were being punished. During his down time, he would wrap his fists in bandages,
bandages that were soaked in herbal mixtures, covered in green aloe vera gel to
speed up the healing. His fists were bright red, pulsing in heat every time he
had taken them to see the old man. For a while they continued on with the harsh
training, smashing his metacarpals and his knuckles. With every blow, the
envisioning of the blacksmith working the metal became more and more
believable; Shihouin could tell that his fists were harder than ever.
Shihouin and the old man went at it, hand to hand. He
desperately tried to reach his chest, but was blocked by his old hand every
time he did so. For an old man, he was extremely quick. They continued for
about a few minutes, which Shihouin had time enough to read his opponents style
of attacking. With that information he was able to find a small opening between
his complex handiworks. A buff to the chest happened several times, only
leaving the old man coughing and grasping for his chest
The old man Shihouin tried for days on end, and each time Shihouin
grew stronger and stronger with the technique. However, he didn't realize the
strain that he was putting on the old mans body. He didn't notice when he
started coughing up blood, he didn't notice when his temperature started to heat
up and he didn't notice when blood started to leak from his eyes due to the
pressure exerted on his body. He had mastered the technique, yes, but Shihouin didn't
realize that he had killed the old man. During one of their last days of
training Shihouin realized that the old man would not awake from his slumber,
and was dead. The last techniques that he had taught him didn't require much
training; the book would help him learn them, and the training that they had
already accumulated were the basis of the techniques. After a couple of days of
mourning the death of the old man, Shihouin set out to return home saddened by
the old man's death. Even though he had learned the secret techniques of the
“Black Monkeys” he was surely going to remember the old man for what he had
done, strengthening his body to better protect his citizens.
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Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:06 pm by 
