Name: Aburame Konosuke

Rewards Requested:

LP

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Konosuke approached his friend Soun’s house slowly. But he wasn’t thinking of stopping by for an idle chat, like he sometimes did. No, he had a technique in mind that he had been dying to learn for a while now. One that could give him a very serious edge against his opponents.

Kagebuyou: Shadow of the Dancing Leaf. A combination of offensive attack and trapping the opponent in a situation that is nearly impossible to escape from. First, the practitioner of Kagebuyou would wait for his opponent to attack him. Using his agility, the ninja would then drop to the ground, and kick his opponent in the face, high into the air. But the barrage of damage wouldn’t stop there. The Kagebuyou-user would then leap into the air, hovering behind his opponent, who is then completely helpless to the next attack.

Konosuke’s more powerful attacks would depend on this move, because they cost a lot of chakra and it would be a waste to miss. Kagebuyou would ensure that in dire situations, he always hit his mark.

He stopped at the front door, rapping gently on the wood. There was a moment of silence, then a loud clattering noise as the sound of footsteps rapidly approached the door. The door opened quickly, revealing a red-faced, sweating ninja in Taijutsu training clothes. Then Konosuke noticed something different about his attire. There were straps attached to his wrists and ankles, and they looked like they were weighing him down.

Soun saw him looking at the strange new accessories, and said, “They are part of my new training. They are weights, which I now wear all the time. Once I get used to the weight, it’ll be like it was without them on. But when I take them off, I’ll be stronger, and faster!” Konosuke considered the weights. They were pretty simple to look at, but he saw Soun’s reasoning, and it was true. Soun would be faster than lightning if he ever took them off in a fight.

Soun ushered him into the apartment, and sat him down on a small chair, that seemed a bit beaten. Konosuke briefly wondered if Soun had at one point broken his punching bag, and used the chair as a substitute. He dismissed the thought when he realized that if that was the case, there would be no chair. Just a pile of firewood for the Konoha blacksmith to use in the furnaces.

“So, Konosuke, what is it you came to see me about? You usually have a lighter aura around you when you come over, but you seem pretty serious and determined right now.” Konosuke cleared his throat and said, “I have come to request for you to train me in another Taijutsu technique, one that could be crucial to my fighting style. Kagebuyou, the Shadow of the Dancing Leaf.” Soun was fairly surprised about this request.

“That is a fairly hard one to master. It is in the Lotus series of moves, and mostly pure Taijutsu users are the only ones who use it. Kagebuyou requires lots of extra training and endurance, along with pure, raw strength. Are you sure you want to do this? Knowing you, you could probably get the basics down in three days, but that still won’t amount to you mastering Kagebuyou.”

Konosuke shook his head. “I am determined to do it. It is something that I believe I need, and therefore I will train as long as it takes to achieve it.” Soun nodded, smiling. He knew that Konosuke would say something like that.

“Well, then, we had better get started then, huh? When I meant three days, I meant a full 72-hour period. Only a few short breaks in between.” Konosuke nodded.

“Yeah, better get started.”


Training


Konosuke and Soun once again stood at the Genin training field, which was filled with dummies and wooden posts to knock into oblivion. Soun turned to Konosuke, and tossed him something small. Konosuke caught it one-handed and stared at it. It was a pill. A Hyourougan pill, made with special proteins and chemicals that allowed a ninja to continue fighting for three days and three nights straight.

Konosuke swallowed it, and immediately felt the effects. His muscles bulged a bit, he felt a sudden rush of energy and adrenaline, and he could actually feel his chakra flowing through him at high speed. Holding in the desire to do something extremely difficult and laborious, he turned to Soun, and said, “So, what sort of training have you got for me?”

Soun walked over to a large wooden post, and picked it up with one hand. “I am going to throw these at you. You will kick them into the air, then follow up with a jump up and hover underneath it. You will then perform whatever attack you see fit, which will knock it back to the ground. Ready?” Konosuke quickly got into a fighting stance, nodded, and Soun threw the post that he was holding.

When the post was near, Konosuke dropped to the ground, and kicked up at the post. He was sorely disappointed. Emphasis on the “sorely”. Instead of the post being flung up into the air like a rag doll, it was pushed up slightly with his foot, and fell back on top of him. He had never been so humiliated in his life.

Soun quickly ran over to him, and picked the post off of him, flinging it aside. “Konosuke, are you hurt? I told you it was difficult, we should quit. Your body isn’t prepared for this technique yet…” Konosuke pushed Soun away from him, and picked himself off the ground, brushing the dirt off of him.

“I will not give up, no matter whether or not the training hurts. Please, continue the training. With the abilities given to me by the soldier pill, I actually didn’t feel much, just a quick twinge of pain. Trivial stuff.” Soun still looked concerned, but he finally agreed to continue the training.

He threw another post, and this time, Konosuke infused chakra into the kick. He managed to send the post about five feet up this time, and got out from under it before it fell on him. He looked over at Soun and said, “Keep them coming, Soun.”

They kept it up for a while, and Konosuke was getting better and better at it. On his thirty-something try, he managed to get the post twenty feet in the air. However, at this point, he was beginning to get a little fatigued and dehydrated, and could just barely get out from under the falling hazard before he was crushed once again.

Soun held up his hand, and said, “We are taking a break for food and water. Even with the soldier pill, you need water and nutrition to continue this. Any more without nourishment and you could be in danger of dying.” Konosuke had no choice but to agree, because he knew that Soun wouldn’t continue the training it Konosuke didn’t eat and drink and rest.

Soun had brought along four gallons of water, along with bread and some fruit, such as apples and pears. As they ate, they stared at the sky, watching the clouds go by. Soun’s mind was pretty much empty; he was happy just to look at the cloud’s. Konosuke, however, had an extremely active mind. He was trying to figure out a way to get the wooden post to go even higher, and then jump that high, then follow up with a crushing technique.

It really was much harder than he had expected; he was covered in sweat, dirt, and numerous small scratches and bruises from the posts hitting him on the way down. Not to mention his muscles were aching, and he had a headache from one of the training posts clipping his head as it landed. He was bleeding from a spot just above his hair line, and from his lower lip, along with smaller spots all along his arms and legs. He couldn’t remember a time in his life that he had looked as thoroughly beaten as he did now.

After about a half hour of rest, they went back to work. Konosuke had developed his own stance for the technique, with his legs very bent at the knees and his arms hanging loosely at his sides. Soun launched a training post at Konosuke, who braced himself for the pain he was sure was about to come to him. The post got within range, and he dropped low to the ground, kicking the post with all his might. To his surprise, the wooden post sailed thirty or so feet into the air.

Quickly overcoming his surprise, he squatted on all fours, and pushed off the ground, sending himself high into the air, and hovered beneath the log. He thought for a moment about what he would do, then it came to him. He had just made up a new combo.

“Senpuu Rendan!” he yelled. He spun sideways in the air, doing a sort of barrel roll, and struck the post with a spinning kick, making it fly up even higher. Once it had fallen back below him, he unleashed a flurry of spinning kicks, increasing the speed of its fall by many times. When the post was near the ground, he performed a single front flip, and stabbed the post with the tip of his foot into the ground, effectively splitting it in half.

Konosuke was just about to celebrate, when he suddenly felt extremely weak and dizzy. “Hey, Soun? What’s going on, I feel really dizzy…” He fell to his knees, holding his hand over his eyes, to help stop the spinning of the world around him. Soun came rushing over to him and said, “You were perfect on the first kick, it was amazing, sending it that high. But you overdid the second attack. I wanted it to be a strong attack, but since you are better at Ninjutsu than Taijutsu, I would have hoped that you would use a chakra-based attack instead of one that exhausts your muscles even more. The dizziness was probably caused by all the spins and flips you did. It was a flashy maneuver, and effective, just look what you did to the post. But that would have to be classified as a finishing technique. If it won’t be the last attack that ensures that you win the fight, I wouldn’t use it. You’ll be an easy target if you get dizzy and disoriented during a real fight. Lucky for you, pieces of wood don’t have chakra, and they don’t wield sharp, pointy weapons.”

Konosuke groaned in response. He had only heard the last parts of it, which told him not to use it unless it would guarantee him an instant win. ‘Great,’ he thought silently. ‘Now I have to come up with some other great technique to use after the part where I hover in midair. I could use Kamaitachi, I suppose, or some other good technique that’ll cause a lot of damage.’

Konosuke stood up slowly, groaning once again. His muscles ached like hell, and there was no reprieve in sight. “Soun, another post, please.” Soun was quick to protest, but Konosuke stopped him before he could get a word in. “Soun, please just do as I say. I’ll take it a bit easier on these next few tries, now that I know that I’m actually capable of pulling it off. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have another soldier pill, would you?”

Soun was stunned. “WHAT?!!! You can’t possibly have worn its effects out already! It’s supposed to make you able to fight for 72 hours straight!”

“Well, either it was past the expiration date on the bottle, or I am using too much energy too fast. I don’t really need the pill, but they do help a lot. I don’t feel the pain in my muscles and joints as much, either.”

Soun sighed. “Sorry, friend. I don’t have any more. The one I gave you was the last. And thinking back, I think the pills were past the expiration date, so they weren’t as effective.” It was Konosuke’s turn to sigh. This could be painful.

Soun launched another training post at Konosuke, which he kicked up with his foot, followed with a jump. He hovered underneath the wooden post, which was suspended in the air above him, and he unstrapped the Kyodai Sensu on his back. He decided instantly on his plan of action. “Senpuu!” He performed a weaker spinning kick to the post, sending it plummeting back down to the ground. But he wasn’t done.

“Fuuton-Kamaitachi!” He swung the fan with his full force, and it created a tornado which sucked in the wooden training post, and sliced it to wood shavings fit for a playground. Konosuke dropped heavily to the ground, panting, and Soun came over and clapped him hard on the back.

“OW!” Konosuke fell over from the pain that Soun’s touch had sent through his body. He realized that he had probably bruised multiple muscles, and that was why he hurt all over. Soun helped him up, and propped him against a tree.

“Hey, Konosuke. Guess what?” Konosuke would’ve strangled him if he wasn’t in so much pain, but he played along for now, reluctantly. “What?”

Soun smiled. “You did it. You actually mastered Kagebuyou in a day.” Konosuke’s head snapped up and looked him straight in the eye. “You better not be kidding me. I really did it?” Soun nodded, and patted him lightly on the shoulder. It still hurt, but it was a tiny pain that came nowhere close to what he had felt before.

“Good work, Konosuke. Now, get some rest until tomorrow morning, then meet me back here. We will be trying your new trick out on a target that has brains and survival instincts.” The Aburame Genin nodded, understanding his meaning, and strapped his fan onto his back. Taking a couple steps back, he got a running start towards the trees, and jumped up onto a branch. Or, at least, he tried to. He didn’t manage to get high enough, and he hit his stomach on the side of the branch, groaning in pain as he fell to the ground.

“Maybe I’d be better off taking it easy and walking.” He started off along the path that led back to the center of Konoha, where his apartment was. Soun was left shaking his head at Konosuke’s failed attempt to do what he usually did so flawlessly. Soun just said, “I bet that’s gonna sting for a while.” And then, he pushed off the ground, and disappeared into the woods, going on his own for some more training.

Konosuke reached his apartment, opened the door with his Kikaichuu, and flopped down on his bed, sighing and groaning at the same time as he sank into the soft mattress. “Oh, jeez. I’m going to have to do some more tomorrow, as well, to prove that I’ve got the technique down, and can use it on a real opponent.” He drifted off to one of the most sound sleeps he’d ever had, without any dreams to disturb the peace.

The Next Day…

Konosuke bolted out the door in a rush, leaving behind one of his insects to lock the door for him. He was amazed that he was able to move so much and so quickly after all the hell he’d been through the day before. He decided to try the tree-hopping maneuver that he was so fond of once again, and this time he made it onto the branch, where he jumped to another branch, and another, quickly making his way towards the training grounds.

He made it at about five minutes till ten, and Soun was already there, tapping his foot to some unknown tune patiently. When Konosuke made one last leap from a tree and landed in front of Soun, Soun jumped in surprise. “Oh, it’s just you, Konosuke. How are you able to move so quickly so soon? You should have been pretty much out of it for about a week!”

Konosuke shrugged. “I guess I have a better healing system in my body than most people. It might have something to do with the Kikaichuu. I know that they can resist any poison in my bloodstream, so maybe they also repair damaged muscle tissue and stuff as well. Anyway, let’s start testing the technique. I’m still a little slow, and I still hurt quite a bit, so don’t go all out, or I might get injured permanently.”

Soun nodded, and he ran at Konosuke head-on, drawing back his fist for a simple, yet powerful punch. Konosuke dropped to the ground, placing one hand on the ground, the other in the air for balance. One leg was on the ground, and the other was cocked back, ready to kick Soun into the air.

When Soun was within range, Konosuke let loose a strong kick upwards, catching Soun in the chin, and pushing him high into the air. Soun grunted at the force of the blow, and flew up about thirty five feet into the air. He gasped, realizing that he had been sent even higher than the log had the previous day. Konosuke had improved somehow overnight, without any additional training.

The Aburame pushed off the ground, jumping all the way to Soun’s altitude, before stopping and hovering right below him. “Strange, Soun. I honestly expected you to be able to block me when I kicked upwards.” Then he grabbed Soun around the stomach, and they started to descend downwards, and Konosuke started spinning as they plummeted towards the Earth below. Soun was stunned. “How did you…?!” He wasn’t able to say any more before he crashed into the ground, and Konosuke leaped out of the way. As Soun stood up slowly, he said, “That is the finishing move of the Lotus series of maneuvers. Where in sin did you learn that?!”

Konosuke grinned. “I was watching you fight, and I just copied what you did. I have a very good memory. I can’t use the series of Lotus techniques to their full potential, because I don’t have the ability to unlock the Celestial Gates within the body. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t copy the very basics of the techniques.”

Soun was still amazed. Then he realized exactly what strain Konosuke had put on his own body by performing the technique. Konosuke collapsed, laying on his back and huffing. “Konosuke, you should not have been so reckless! You were worried about me injuring you, but if you keep doing advanced things like that when you aren’t skilled enough to handle them, you will hurt your body to the point where you will lose the abilities needed to be a Shinobi!”

“Ugh, I know that, Soun. I just sort of felt like I had to, you know, to prove that I could manage it. You can rest easy though, because I won’t be doing that again.” Soun sighed. “What am I going to do with you, Konosuke?”

Konosuke smirked at him, and said, “I dunno. I’m sure you can eventually think of a way to keep me out of trouble.”

bump. sorry, but it's been about 4 days

Nice work, Konosuke. The main glaring issues regarding the technical aspects of your writing revolve around switching from past to present tense, but those are permissable. Just don't do it again. Otherwise, you've got a great foundation, and you're clearly a talented writer. Not much more I can see here; you clearly know where you're going.

Rewards:
1.) Kage Buyou
2.) 15LP