The Art (Training Thread)

[Kaibutsu Gakidou]

Twas a beautiful day in the Land of Water, or more specifically, in the Village Hidden in the Mist. Well, at least to the youngling known as Kaibutsu Gakidou. There was a thick film of clouds across the sky, blocking most light from reaching the ground. A thin mist had settled over the village, making it a perfect vision of its name.

Needless to say, Kaibutsu would much rather be somewhere else than in the middle of a training field with his mother, Ai. She told him she was going to teach him a new jutsu today, and that it would be absolutely needed in his future as an assassination specialist. She was currently explaining something or other, and he sat straight up, staring at her and pretending to listen.

"The greatest strength behind the Silent Killing technique is quite simple. To kill one opponent silently is to kill another without having a fight. The less you have to fight, the less likely you are to die. And you will die quite quickly if you keep pretending to listen to me, Kai-chan." The last bit, said quite sternly, knocked Kaibutsu out of his daze. His mother never used that tone unless she was completely serious. Seeing that her son was finally paying attention, Ai continued on.

"Now, Silent Killing takes time and practice. Very few just pick it up like that. I doubt even many of the Swordsmen just picked it up like nothing. It may be simple, but in no way is it easy." Ai pulled out a small scroll from her pocket, throwing it to Kaibutsu. "That has some of the basics of the Silent Killing technique in it. Mainly about the meditation aspect of it. You don't need me for that. I'm going to run some errands. You better be finished before I get back."

With that, Ai disappeared in a swirl of mist. Opening the scroll, Kaibutsu started to read.

'Silent Killing for Dummies, Volume 6'

His eyebrow raised at that. What the hell kind of name was that for a technique. Regardless, he read on.

'Silent Killing is a little used technique, mainly used by Kirigakure. Its basis is simple. To kill silently. Obviously. To actually use this technique, one must go through rigorous training and meditation, some of which this scroll will teach you.

To start, one must meditate. Unlike normal meditation, which requires the mind to become silent and to ignore the world, this meditation requires one to meditate and focus ONLY on the world. Once one can do this, they can start actual training.'

Well...That seemed simple enough. Putting the scroll to the side, Kaibutsu got into his usual meditative stage. Clearing his mind came easy enough, but the world seemed to disappear along with it. Before he knew it, his mind was clear. He sat like this for a few minutes, before his thoughts came racing back.

"Dammit..." The young red-head said to himself. This was going to be harder than expected.

He continued on like this, until eventually the world around him stayed. He could hear the birds chirping, the wind swaying, and even a snake moving in the grass about twenty feet to his left. This was good. He had done it. And again, like that, his thoughts came back to him. Jumping to his feet, Kaibutsu pumped his fist. Picking up the scroll once again, he read a little more.

'Now that you've completed that stage of meditation, you must manage to keep that clearing of your mind and the hearing of the world around you WHILE you move. It is said this is one of the hardest steps to master.'

Kaibutsu's eyebrow ticked. This wasn't good. He had no idea if he could meditate and move. That seemed to destroy the purpose of it. But...he guessed he might as well try. Instead of sitting in his normal position, Kaibutsu stood, his hands hanging loosely to his side, his head lolled back.

His mind started to clear, and soon, all he heard were the sounds around him. He tried to move, but the thoughts rushed back to him. It was hard to move and not think about it...Really hard.

Continuing this process, Kaibutsu stood there for a good twenty to thirty minutes, trying to move and focus only on the world around him. Needless to say, his mom returned about that time.

"So...did you finish the scroll I gave you." He sensed her before she spoke, hearing her feet touch the ground. He knew that if she were trying, she could of slit his throat before, but likely she already knew what he was doing and that it would somewhat help to hear what a human sounded like in this state.

"Uhhhh...no?" He said, a little scared at what his mom would do. She was fair and loving, but could be quite scary when she wanted to be.

"Good. If you had been done with that scroll, I would of had to call you a prodigy." Why that was bad, Kaibutsu didn't know. He was just glad she wasn't angry at him. Looking at the scroll now, he saw that there was quite a bit left in there. He was on step two, and there was about seven in the scroll.

"Anyway, Kai-chan, you can work on that more later. For now," Ai pulled a small black blindfold from her kunai pouch, "We'll work on this."

"Huh?" Was Kai's only intelligible response. How would a blindfold help? Then he remembered that silent killing focused on no one being able to see...not even himself.

"Put this on. Before we have you doing anything else, I'm going to teach you how to dodge weapons without being able to see. Silent killing is worthless if you end up getting hit by a lucky shuriken thrown by the enemy." With that, she handed the blindfold to her son.

"What? No way mom! You're gonna kill me!" Kaibutsu shouted with indignation.

And like that, his moms hands went onto her hips, and her face turned deadly serious. "Put the blindfold on, Kaibutsu."

"Alright, alright, yeesh." Slipping the blindfold on, Kaibutsu's world went black. He stood there for a few seconds, waiting for his mom to speak. "Now wha- OH GOD!" His question was cut short when he felt the wind of a shuriken pass right by his air, the usual whizzing sound sounding more like a tornado.

"Come on Kai-chan. You should be able to hear them coming at you. I know you got that far, at least."

That was right. Clear the mind. Hear the world. As he relaxed, he heard another shuriken scream by. He ignored it. Soon, his mind was clear. He could hear the wind. He could hear his mother breathing. He could hear the clinking of shuriken as she pulled another from her pouch. He heard the rustling of her clothes as she prepared her throw. And he heard the shuriken as it came towards him. He could FEEL it, even. This one...this one would hit him! He moved.

Shuriken after shuriken flew at him. He dodged without thought. He moved towards his mother, dodging along the way. Suddenly, he felt something grab his hand. Confused, he removed the blindfold. His tanto was out, at his moms throat. She had grabbed him to stop him from killing her. A smile was on her face though.

"Good job, Kai-chan. Now...steps four threw seven."

(Desired Technique: Silent Killing

Of course, Kaibutsu knows most of the rest of the steps, which yes, I have made up. If you want, I can add the rest of the steps into here if you want?)

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