Might is Right and with that G'nite

Dead Bone Pulse Weekly Training (Healing +1)
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The Fantom Family, it had come a long way since it's establishment some two hundred years ago from the union of three individuals who were originally all on the same team. The patriarch of their clan was an individual named Omito Fantom and he along with his squad members the future Abisukage who would then rise up to become the Koikage Summer Osuna and the blackest mark on the Dokusei Clan who in their words scorned her clan of birth Cherish, had joined together as a triad. It was a weird union in those days as most of the time while a man might have two wives the two women weren't usually into one another unless one was a Nova. In this situation it was exactly like that, they each possessed strong feelings for both of their partners and a bond which was greater than what most even knew. But realistically it was from that bond that the Fantom Family grew, first becoming reality when both Summer and Cherish gave birth to sons by the name Wynter and Scorn. It set up the pattern for the family's naming scheme so as to distinguish between who's lines they originated from, while overall males would have names with negative connotations and females would have names with positive connotations those who descended from Cherish would all have abstract names while those descendant from Summer would have names pertaining to hot and cold temperatures. Occasionally mixes between the two occurred with the clan and they would have names which referenced absence in some form similar to the patriarch in that sense. Despite that they were no clan and all members of the family were treated equally, there was no head or branch everyone had an equal opinion on what should be done within the family but the common consensus was that while members were free to be with anyone they chose if they didn't breed true then they had the option of either getting with one of their extended family or relinquishing their rights to a vote. It was through that method that they managed to become a prominent family with ties to many individuals and a diversity distinct from one of the clans, sure they might not have been as powerful or as numerous as one of them but they had each other and that was all that mattered.

Curiously Praise was the product of a dalliance between her mother a Fantom and her father a Kurogane the two having the most mismatched personalities in relation to where they belonged. Her mother was aggressive and prone to reacting with emotion whereas her father was passive and mild mannered. It was seen as a blessing that she inherited her mothers personality from her Kurogane side and yet she had never quite identified strongly with the clan. She was a Fantom through and through and she knew it in her bones despite how Kurogane she might seem on the surface. To her being from a clan was something most took for granted and she felt that if she bought into that she would stifle her growth and she was the type of person to not settle for anything but being the very best. Sure the circumstances of her birth were weird she knew that she was unable to use her core to assimilate an object but fortunately she knew enough that even a handicap such as that could be overcome. After all the patriarch was a Ronin capable of utilizing elemental manipulations thanks to fuinjutsu and she shared her lineage from the matriarch who created powerful fuinjutsu which could amplify her chakra affinities. No that wasn't something that would hold her back not really she merely needed to work at it and she would become better for it. It made her think of what else she could do in the future, she already had plans to try and see if she could obtain Nature Release in some form she respected it's power all of those within the Fantom Family did if only because until that well of genetics dried up they had counted some powerful nature release users as kinfolk. It constantly put them at odds with the Dokusei Clan but they had no legs to stand on seeing as they had pushed the most talented member of their clan in two centuries to exile, disowning her for creating a new style of Nature Release ninjutsu and teaching it to an outsider instead of hoarding it within the clan.

She remembered learning about that as a girl and giggling at the ovaries it took to willingly spite one of the most powerful clans in the world and from then on Cherish had been her idol. she wanted to be that strong one day, no she wanted to be stronger and do things that the world would remember for many years. She didn't care about how she would do it only that eventually she would so long as she didn't surround herself with people that would hold her back in the end. She would be a force to be reckoned with when she grew up and planned on creating techniques that would elevate her so high up that her family would mention her name and shiver in equal mixtures of fear and admiration. She felt that was the only way to truly become great, sure people remembered what the ancestors did but while they sung their praises more individuals knew of the great enemies of that time. It spoke to her that while you could become a great protector you would truly be world renown as a great destroyer. As she thought about this her flesh would be punctured by one of her bones jutting upward and she unconsciously pulled it out only for the flesh to knit up and become whole once more. She noticed how those within the Kurogane clan always seemed to choose durability as the first thing to improve from an early age and she never understood why didn't they trust in their skill or did they simply think power was the one thing they could always rely on first? She wouldn't make that mistake as her body was naturally durable and her bones could be strengthened at anytime, no what she needed was a method to heal the damage her body would undergo through constantly utilizing Dead Bone Pulse.

Word Count: 1072
Word Count Needed: 1000
Training Complete.

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse Weekly Training (Healing +1)
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She would be meeting up with her squad today but she wasn't all that thrilled for the most part as she didn't know how serious about becoming stronger they were and she didn't want to get held back. No she was more likely going to have to either avoid getting close to them until they got her approval by showing dedication to being serious shinobi or she would have to set an example for them to strive for after she kicked their asses. It was why she was working on her body yet again, she knew that her personality wasn't as kind and accepting as her idol but she didn't feel like she should improve on it. What was the point in pretending to be someone she wasn't she was hot headed and blunt and she saw no reason to change because she liked who she was. She could be conniving when the situation called for it since she was a kunoichi after all and even though kunoichi classes were a pain she didn't take that added knowledge for granted. She didn't want to end up in a situation where she felt like she was unclear or reserved and her squad members took advantage of that to slack off and because of them she wouldn't progress enough to progress in the ranks of the village. That would be the ultimate failure and she didn't respond well to failure that could be avoided, especially if it wasn't her fault in the first place.

But thinking about things like that was hampering her concentration so she would exhale and then begin to refocus instead choosing to think about things which would bring her calm so that it would be easier to allow her skeleton to regenerate properly. She would once again begin to think about the other side of her heritage, the Kurogane Clan and while she didn't have much love for that side of her family she acknowledged that at the very least it would give her the tools she needed to become a powerful shinobi. She actually hadn't had any interaction with other Kurogane Clan members she was raised a Fantom for the most part of her life and while her mother did still visit her family and things like that she didn't feel like it was necessary to bring her to the rest of the clan because her Fantom side seemed to dominate her heritage. All she knew was that if at some point she was able to activate her first transformation then she would get brought to the clan to learn more about it and how to control it so that her or those she goes on missions with would not be at risk. Still what she was grateful for was that her mother could teach her about how to utilize Dead Bone Pulse and the proper forms for the Dance of the Kaguya as according to those within the Kurogane form despite it's widespread use most Dakar had bastardized versions of it which didn't have the power to contend with the Kurogane version. While she didn't believe that for a second she did however think that the only reason why the Kurogane version was superior was because of their Kekkei Genkai, being able to increase the tensile strength of ones skeletal structure and also hone the style so that it merely caused recoil to the body which could be mitigated through the natural healing capabilities of Dead Bone Pulse was a masterstroke of genius. Whoever came up with it truly knew what they were doing and that was the only reason why a typical Dakar couldn't compare to a Kurogane ninja much less a Kurogane Dakar who could do all the tricks a normal Dakar could in addition to those which were Kurogane exclusive. She was lucky that she had a dual heritage as she knew that her potential for greatness was higher than what she would of had as a normal member of her family and of course more than what she would of had if she was a normal Kurogane. She had done research on that side despite not being exposed to it and found that for the most part they didn't exactly deviate from what was taught, there was no innovation or improvement just stagnation and reuse of what was already created. She didn't feel like that was the way to go and would strive to become better than those that came before her.

She felt that because they had some modicum of strength they focused on doing that and didn't bother to figure out what else their kekkei genkai could do, it was why their versatility was non-existent when it came to anything but the first five dances and the bare minimum of blood and flesh release with the vast majority focusing on transformations and learning ninjutsu that was non clan based to suit their needs. It seemed like this clan had the opposite problem of most clans as usually the problem was that those within clans didn't bother to try and learn anything outside of what was available to them, becoming stereotypical versions of what their clan represented but for the Kurogane other than the bare bones of what previous outliers of the clan had accomplished it would seem none of them had the creativity or foresight to add more techniques to their clan library. Or maybe since she didn't have all the information at her disposal that the techniques were in fact there but they were out of date or missing information and no one had managed to figure out how to recreate them from the scraps of information left around. The Kurogane were an old clan after all and she couldn't believe that one of those clans which existed since the age of warring states would not have a robust amount of techniques archived away since then, maybe it was just not properly stored and as a result had fallen into disarray and chunks of techniques were missing or incomplete. On one hand it motivated her as by merely being her she would be discovering or rediscovering techniques that were formerly unavailable or lost to the clan and thus would be remembered within the clan for her achievements. She wanted recognition and what better way to earn it by starting with the clan that she had barely interacted with, after all with her additions to their technique library she might even inspire them to become better out of shame. The type of thinking that motivated most people was that if someone they thought was inferior to them could do a certain amount, then why wouldn't they be able to do even more.

Word Count: 1120
Word Count Needed: 1000
Training Complete.

Week has passed, approved.

Dead Bone Pulse Weekly Training (Healing +1)
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Another day, another training such was the life of a one Praise K. Fantom She had stuck to her original plan of training her body in regards to her Dead Bone Pulse's natural ability to regenerate the wounds caused by it's utilization on her flesh and honestly she was beginning to really see the fruits of her labor that was for sure. sure she had passed up on the ability to increase the tensile strength of her bones but that was something that she could do at any point in time. What most didn't realize was that for those individuals within the clan who really wanted to use Dance of the Kaguya to it's full capabilities one needed to increase their regeneration otherwise it would restrict them from unleashing the full caliber of the Dances, in fact there was a simple way of checking whether or not one was ready by simply seeing if you could preform the first five dances of the Kaguya. If while preforming them you are unable to do them in succession without risk to your health then you can correctly gauge your limits and go and train until you are able to do so. The reason why the first five dances were so well known was because mastering them allowed one to truly master the style as they were both a measuring stick as well as a subtle requirement to truly grasp the key points of the fighting style. There was no point trying to pick and choose what you wished to learn until you had those five down otherwise eventually you'd run into problems later down the line when you wished to use a technique that your body wasn't ready for. At least that was what her mother told her seeing as she was one of those within the clan that focused almost exclusively on the Dance of the Kaguya.

Truthfully her sister had surpassed both of her parents before Praise even graduated from the academy, she was a pure Fantom unlike her, the product of her father being the surrogate to his older brother in exchange for being able to live in his older brothers house. Her mother and father in comparison were T. Jonin both of them being in the Hunter Corps as part of the Torture & Interrogation Department her father was more of the interrogator while her mother was a torturer. They were good at their jobs but not exceptional but they made enough money for them to be happy at what they did and there wasn't and as a result they stayed at that rank, Her mother actually frequently muttered how she could of been a Division Jonin but they got more work and she didn't actually want all of that responsibility while her father knew that if he ever did become a Division jonin then they would have to move out of his older brothers house which was something he didn't want to do since her aunt could cook really well. She felt like she was getting distracted by thinking about her odd family dynamics but at the same time they were calming enough for her to be able to multi-task as the process of training her Dead Bone Pulse's regeneration wasn't exactly painless.

No in actuality it was pretty painful which was why when she did it she liked to try and think about other things so that she could try and dull the pain associated with it, she knew that was probably why most people within the clan her age focused on tensile strength instead as in addition to the noticeable gains in regards to combat strength all it took was time out of the day and a calcium heavy diet. But she was the type of person who preferred to do things the hard way so that she could do easier things later, in her opinion by getting the hard stuff out of the way first she'd be able to have fun doing other tasks at her leisure. It was the sort of mindset that she got from her uncle, who she saw rather often considering she lived with him and his wife along with her own father and her older sister, Adore. Sure her mother was still her mother but her aunt was something like a second mom to her since she was the one who usually cooked since her mother wasn't exactly housewife material. Her aunt and uncle were a Division Jonin and Elite Medic-Nin respectively and it was from her uncle that she got the tutoring she needed to become a Genin (Medic) in the first place. Eventually she hoped that she would be able to work with him at the hospital when she joined the Medic Corps but if she didn't she would understand since it was very likely that they'd have different specializations.

She was more interested in surgery and it's applications with seals and figured eventually she would end up going into a more skill intensive division of the Medical Department whereas he was in a division which catered towards creating poisons and antidotes to those poisons. So in the end unless they had a case which required both of their skills it was looking more than likely that it wouldn't come to pass. Her aunt was actually in the military police department, fairly low ranking but she liked it as it gave her an excuse to be around the rest of their family since she was usually out patrolling in the residential district. It was really interesting as she knew that for some people they were steered to specific departments within the village by their kin, especially when it came to clans where there were positions within the village which were fiercely contested by the various clans. For instance she knew that those in the Erlang Clan tended to join the military police department while those in the Taki Clan tended to join the medical department. Even those who didn't have a prestigious family like she did had their family members try to steer them towards the places that they themselves were in since they had already made footholds within that particular department. She would exhale and open her eyes feeling like she had once more broken through her previous ceiling in regards to her regeneration speed, she knew if she kept practicing she would soon master it and was truly looking forward to that.

Training Complete
Word Count Required: 1000
Word Count: 1077

Mushin (1st Training)

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Praise was born eerily calm at least for a Dakar baby, she didn't cry not even when they gave her a hard slap on the butt merely scrunching up her face in pain and letting out a sound of discomfort before slipping back into whatever zen state she was in. This had worried her parents her mother in particular as Kurogane children were particularly loud and boisterous most of the time, and yet her she had birthed a baby girl who was determined to break stereotypes. It was only after they got home that she actually acted normal as one moment she had just snapped out of whatever mood she was in and proceeded to scream at the top of her lungs until she eventually was fed and fell asleep. Her father worried about her development as maybe her pain receptors were damaged or her brain was wired differently but no she was fine developmentally when they finished running all the tests. No it wasn't until she was a young child that they discovered that their daughter was rather connected to serenity especially when they had stumbled upon her meditating one day in her room when they went to wake her up for breakfast.

She didn't remember much of her young childhood but she did know that even though she could be really blunt and direct she always had this sense of inner calm inside her. It sharply contrasted what she was apparently supposed to feel from her lineage she was a Dakar and she had Kurogane Blood such a combination was supposed to have a temper capable of rivaling a Bishamon especially in the off chance that one of their infamous Berserk Modes ended up triggering their Transformation. Yet Praise was different, she felt at peace with herself and it was for that reason that she ended up developing the personality that she had throughout the academy and even now. She didn't understand why people were so prone to falsehood and not speaking how they truly felt whether it was for fear of rejection or even their own insecurity. She never had that problem and while she knew that as a kunoichi she should learn how to be more cunning and appreciate deception she always found that those were things she couldn't agree with. She felt somehow that maybe this unnatural calm that she had at her core, this sense of peace that transcended her genetics or even what would normally be deemed correct responses was something she could learn how to harness.

Thus she tried her best to understand it in the way that she tried to understand everything, through research and practice. She had tried her best to research on Temples and what they offered but the majority of the temples were secretive and those that weren't were based in religion something that she didn't have much stock in at least any religion that didn't cater to the Shinigami. She only truly respected that Deity above the others as everything else inconsequential to her except death, she didn't know about what else there was in the world but death was something even someone as young as her knew about. Either way the best she could get was on meditation and she resolved herself to learn how to use her meditation constructively. Initially it started off pretty useless as it didn't improve her mental state as it was something she was capable of doing since she was born however when she tried to focus it into transferring over to other things she truly became aware of how much of a boon, this particular feature of her mind, was.

It was as if she could resist going Berserk, at least that was her understanding over it, despite feeling the call of her nova heritage and the urge to rage with the lingering resentment of her ancestors she felt at peace. Sure she knew somehow that this was affecting some part of her in relation to sanity but without further investigation towards depleting her sanity she was unsure of how to proceed. Perhaps she would eventually learn how exactly it affected her but she figured for now she would focus on using this meditation to calm herself in the middle of battle and enter a tranquil state so as to offset the untapped aggression which currently lays dormant within her body. She was thinking of giving it a name though, and had settled on Mushin which according to the books about temples that she had read had something to go with enlightenment and things of that nature. She had skimmed a bit since she didn't get much of what they were talking about but maybe now that she was an official kunoichi of Kohaigakure she'd be able to check out more informative scrolls.

It was definitely on the list of things she should do, she felt sometimes that if not for being able to calm herself down the amount of work she was taking on probably would eventually cause her to have a mental break. But she had big goals and lots of work to do and maybe, just maybe this was also helping her to refine her Mushin. It made sense when she thought about it as piling work and stress would only have her mind adjust to it and thus mitigate the strain through tranquility perhaps one day when she understood her Mushin more thoroughly she would be able to apply it to other things as possessing a clear mind was always a useful trait to possess. There were so many things in this world that targeted the mind even though as part Dakar she was resistant to genjutsu to a certain degree she had heard horror stories, mainly from her father as he liked to tell her scary things as a form of amusement, about the things one skilled in mental techniques could do to someone. They might not have any physical wounds and yet they would be worse off than those who were physically tortured, often ending up as broken shells of a person either deteriorating into vegetables or worse becoming thralls to the will of another. She knew that such a fate was something she never wished to happen to her and to that degree she would work tirelessly to develop her Mushin to protect her from such a fate.

Word Count: 1061
Word Count Req: 1000
Training Complete.

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse Weekly Training (Healing +1)
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It seemed like it was that time yet again, how many weeks had she spent honing her body in preparation for the use of her Dance of the Kaguya. She was beginning to think that her mother's way of doing things was no only cumbersome but showed very little results but she had not doubted her so far sure she was the type of kunoichi to not reach great heights but that wasn't because the skill wasn't there her mother merely lacked the ambition. She saw that her daughter wasn't like either of her parents and tried to push her limits constantly thus she decided to help her with everything she had learned during her career as a kunoichi of Kohaigakure. So while doubts had begun to settle in her mind she would quickly quash them as she knew that it would all work out in the end, she unlike many was already ready for the higher rank techniques within the Dance of the Kaguya. Sure she wasn't as sturdy as the majority of her kin, but when she eventually began training for the Dance of the Kaguya she would be able to utilize more complex techniques than they could even if the power of the Dances they could use would be greater.

Still that was actually dependent on if they had the drive to succeed that she did, she didn't know any other individual her age who dedicated time like she did to train themselves as often as she did. No she didn't think anyone had her determination to succeed the ones who were her level only had their natural advantages that put them ahead of her. She didn't fault them for that but she knew that eventually she would catch up to them and surpass them as the genius of hard work always ended up surpassing the natural genius. At least that was what her uncle had told her once, and it was something that she believed wholeheartedly. It was such a belief that made her constantly subject her body to intense pain and afflictions while she tried to increase the regenerative capabilities of her Dead Bone Pulse, no one had forced her to do this, and yet she did it every week giving her body enough time to recover before going back again and pushing past her former limit. Heck, she knew of chunin who were at her current level at least through second hand comments from her mother at how her cousins weren't nearly as driven as she was. Meatheads her mother called them focused on one thing and one thing only the flashiest techniques and the most durable bones capable of going berserk at will and chaining that with their transformations to use brute power to overwhelm their enemies. She wasn't jealous of them as it was an effective strategy and she understood that sometimes brute force was important. but if that was all that got them to become chunin then perhaps the standards of the Republic of Five weren't as high as she thought.

She had thoughts about where she stood in relation to the genin of the other villages and some part of her actually hoped that when it came time to show her stuff that she would be the strongest of her generation. Not because she was arrogant or anything like that but actually because there was a chance that those other genin might let their innate power and skill get to their head and thus not train as hard as she did. Then again she also had something else that they didn't have, namely the drive to become stronger it was no question as to her knowing that she wasn't the best and often times those genius's had a misconception about their skill simply because they were brilliant. No she would have to bring them down to her level and beat them with experience and cunning to often their natural intelligence and potential. One of those things was her bones and she fully intended on exploiting her bones to her advantage, why buy metal weapons and things of that nature when she could create her own weaponry and armor merely through eating enough calcium rich foods and willing it so. She knew those of certain clans did the same at least in the civilian sector but she didn't see why she couldn't harness her abilities to give her an edge against the competition. Not to mention she was a Fantom and her ancestors had made great strides in weapons manufacturing besides the fact that their natural skill-sets made them valuable in both the Hunter and the Medic Corps due to their unique insights and capabilities. No she was going to be the best kunoichi she could be and some how she even felt that soon she would no longer have to do such painful exercises which seemed to have no purpose, soon she would reach the pinnacle of her Dead Bone Pulse's regenerative capabilities without resorting to medical modifications.

She was a kid after all and even though she had a lot of self discipline, even if it wasn't apparent by how she talked and interacted, she liked to do cool things and what was cooler than having super strong bones. No she was patient and that was the only reason she kept doing this but she yearned for her training to be complete so that she could move on to something else instead. She would heard movement coming from outside of her room door as most likely someone else had finally arrived home from work and with a grumble of her stomach she realized she was honestly quite famished. Training her Dead Bone Pulse made her hungry like one wouldn't believe and she would reluctantly get off of the floor and stumble to her door to try and get something to eat. Stumble being an apt term since one of her legs had fallen asleep since she had been cross legged for the most part of her training since it helped her focus more. Hoped her aunt or uncle were home instead of her parents as neither of the latter knew their way around a kitchen and she was really not looking forward to eating a sandwich she wanted something with more substance.

Word Count: 1051
Word Count Req: 1000
Training Complete

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse (Healing +1)

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It was here she could feel it, her Dead Bone Pulse manipulation had grown by leaps and bounds since she first started these weekly exercises and she could tell that this would be the last time that she had to train her regenerative capabilities. What that meant was simple, she could now start to work on hardening her bones thus increasing not only their tensile strength but also the lethality of her Dance of the Kaguya Techniques. Being a Dakar this would imbue her Genetic Structure with more versatility than any other Dakar at least those which weren't from the Kyojin Clan. Truthfully she was interested in meeting one of them someday just to see how they would match up against her as she heard that they were superior in the genetic structure manipulation branch of things. Still just because it was the last time she would have to do this didn't mean she could afford to slack off, no she would give it the exact amount of effort that she had given the other training. The reasoning was simple, if she didn't then she wouldn't truly be done with this part of her Dead Bone Pulse and she would suffer for it in the long run, sure as a genin like herself she truly didn't need to do all of this training but she knew that if she were to become powerful things like this needed to be out of the way as soon as possible.

She already had a plan for how she wanted to proceed with strengthening her body, after her regeneration speed was pushed to the max she would work on her bone density not stopping until it too was at it's maximum. From there she could then work in refinement of her Mushin until she was fortunate enough to unlock her Transformation. If she wasn't capable of that she wouldn't dismay and would instead focus on honing her genetic structure to drastically increase her hardiness in battle. If she was then she would alternate between the refinement of her Mushin and increasing the duration of her Transformation. She knew the latter was likely to be a lifelong thing as most Kurogane never quite managed to increase the duration of their transformation to the absolute maximum but she planned on being the first to do it before she reached S-rank. It was important to her more than anything to be able to dedicate herself towards training her body constantly as it was a powerful inborn weapon that she would be stupid to forsake. Not many shinobi could say that if they ran out of chakra, blood or whatever energy source they required that they would be perfectly fine. Praise could say, without a doubt, that she was one of those who didn't need an energy source to fight effectively. With the right about of conditioning she would be able to fight for long periods of time directly contrasting the stigma that most Pseudo and True All Taijutsu shinobi had about being nothing more than blitz fighters.

Once her conditioning was complete she hoped to be able to learn how to use her natural capabilities in conjunction with her heritage to effectively mitigate the strain she had from pushing her body to the limit. She knew it was possible as her Gates worked her body over in it's own way and judging on what she heard from her mother so did the Kurogane Transformation. That coupled with her regeneration to offset the recoil price to use her Dance of the Kaguya and she was well on her way to becoming a sustainable physical combatant. So long as she diligently worked on her seals she would be fine and as a Kurogane she had plenty of blood to spare to power her seals so they wouldn't be detectable by chakra sensory unlike normal ones. She was even interested in seeing what she could do in regards to her juinjutsu. which was already a dangerous line of techniques. when she began to empower them with blood. Still it was much too early to be thinking about potential things she'll be able to do in the future, she shouldn't let her excitement cloud her thoughts and ruin her focus.

She would exhale with a shuddering breath as she was in pain and if not for her ability to find peace within herself she would most likely not have been able to pull this off as easily as she made it seem. She finally understood why most Kurogane didn't bother to train her bodies to the extremes that she did while they were young. In addition to being cumbersome it was extremely tiring and excruciatingly painful. Yet Praise continued to press on, and so engrossed in her training she hadn't even noticed someone come in and leave her some calcium rich food to eat whenever she began to felt peckish. She only really noticed because she had decided to take a short break to regain her composure and found the food deciding to take a nice long drink of cold milk before going back to her training. It was truly amazing that she was capable of this was from a medical standpoint Dakar were already a genetic anomaly in comparison to the other Nova. The fact that those of the Kurogane clan were capable of altering their own body to such a degree due to their various Kekkei Genkai only made it more outstanding when Dakar were introduced into the clan. It was like a match made in the Pure Lands as the two complimented each other and she could see how both of the unique genetics seemed to fill the gaps left by each other. She was determined to showcase just how far she could take such a thing especially when it came to defensive capabilities.

With another exhale she would move her body, several of her joints popping and a relieved sigh escaping from her lips, as she finished off the remaining parts of her training. She now knew that she was ready to move on and she was rather hungry and would inelegantly scarf down all the food that was placed aside for her. Whoever it was probably knew she would be finishing up soon as it was still at the correct temperature for consumption and she even had extra drinks just in case she was thirsty enough to finish a cup before eating. She wordlessly thanked whomever it was that decided to feed her and worked on filling her stomach, she knew that was had finally taken the first step towards greatness.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1105
Word Count Req: 1000

Approved

Mushin (+1 Level)

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Praise was sitting in a meditative position wondering how she could utilize her Mushin for more than just bolstering her concentration and refining her ability to remain calm and for the most part she was unsure of what to do. She had talked to her father about it as her mother was no help in that area and he had decided to begin sparring with her with the condition that she tried to enter that calm state to see whether it was possible to retain it's effects during high tension situations. To prepare for this she had actually begun trying to see whether or not such an example had been utilized in the past and had headed to the village library to research about such phenomena. She had stumbled upon an excerpt from a particular book which essentially explained what she was capable of harnessing but other than that she didn't see much referring to what she wanted to accomplish. Still as she meditated she could visualize the passage that spoke the most to her in her minds eye.

"The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death.
When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that strikes."

The other passages detailed that Mushin was not merely a method of fighting but something that would be applied to every part of an individuals life when one has mastered it, something capable of distinguishing them from those who went about their lives without truly being enlightened. She would reflect on those thoughts before suddenly leaning out of the way of a blunt kunai thrown at her returning back to where she was sitting as subconsciously she knew that her father had decided to begin the spar. She would find herself quickly jumping upward to avoid the barrage of projectiles with her arms crossing over her chest to block the axe kick that came from him after he had essentially goaded her into leaping into the air. Her reprisal would end with her getting a chop to the neck and she would momentarily come into consciousness with her father using that opportunity to back off and wait for her to once again enter her calm mental state without a word. She would briefly take up loose stance before closing her eyes and relaxing once more, not realizing that as she did so she would actually fall out of her stance just as her father approached her once more.

This time around she would weave out of her way of several strikes to the face, neck and upper torso before spinning out of the way of a front kick and throwing out an elbow which was blocked and then redirected. The redirection of her momentum would be met with ease and she would spin with the motion to deliver butterfly kicks which were unfortunately parried by her father's swift hand movements leaving her to land on her feet a couple of meters away from him. The spar would continue with earnest with her father obviously taking it easy on her and making obvious his intentions with flares of killing intent so that her sixth sense could pick it up even if she wasn't consciously relying on actual techniques to combat him nor was giving the spar any thought other than losing herself in her calm meditative state. Her focus was broken yet again however when he delivered a feint causing her to not react only for his feint to turn out to be a method for him to release a smoke bomb at her face. The detonation would cause her to cough and she would come back to consciousness just in time to get a side kick to her torso which would knock her off her feet and tumbling into the training ground wall. He would wait yet again for her to regain her bearings and become calm before continuing once more and such went their sparring throughout the rest of the hour. By the end she was exhausted through a combination of the bruises that riddled her body and the mental fatigue from having to use Mushin in such a way. Her father would tell her bluntly that it wasn't the sort of thing she was capable of and it was unlikely that such a thing could be attained through sparring but if she did manage to learn how to utilize such an ability in combat it was quite possible that it would be her ace in the hole against anyone she ran into in the future.

Thus she would reluctantly put away such plans for it's utilization in such a manner for the future but it wasn't a complete waste as now she had gained a more through understanding of what she could apply Mushin to. For now she would have to focus on the purely mental aspects of her unique trait and once she had managed to refine it to it's utmost then she would be able to go back to this sort of thing, also known as utilizing Mushin for combat. Perhaps she wouldn't really call that Mushin seeing as it was a different method of utilizing it, Wuxin would fit it more, and while she couldn't do it now eventually she would be capable of such a feat no matter how long and how much blood, sweat and tears she would have to put in her training to reach such a state.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1004
Word Count Needed: 1000

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse (+1 Durability)

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Now that Praise was finally done with the boring aspect of her Dead Bone Pulse training she could now have fun, traiing something that almost all Kurogane tended to bolster first. The tensile strength of her bones would take a bit more of an active approach in combination with good eating there was quite a lot that she could do with it. When she had told her mother that she had finished her regeneration training she had nodded and mentioned that she would talk to her aunt to switch up her meals as certain things would have to be changed if she were to effectively bolster the tensile strength of her bones. Meanwhile she had told her that she would start sparring with her as it was important to toughen up the whole skeleton and now that her regeneration was as high as it could be it would be child's play to bolster the durability of her skeleton. She still wasn't allowed to learn any of the Dance of the Kaguya however as she was restricted from learning those techniques until she was completely done with refining her body according to her mother's rules. She didn't mind it only because for now she was much more focused on learning seals than anything else at the moment and she knew that trying to pick up that fighting style before she truly understood what she was doing in the sealing arts would probably overwhelm her.

It was bad enough that she had to do training on her own but practicing Kata in addition to studying seals was a bit much. Either way she would work as hard as she could since that was the only way that she would succeed at her ambitions and she wouldn't fall into that trap that most strong individuals had and grow soft and weak due to not constantly trying to better themselves. It was one of the reasons why she realized that she probably would not end up bonding with her squad unless they decided to change their attitudes. One of them was intelligent yet let it go to his head like he couldn't die just like anyone else, and the other seemed like he wasn't serious about anything just going with the flow. Their sensei was a lazy individual who didn't seem all that interested in teaching them anything of use and thus she realized that she would just have to work on her own to get where and what she wanted in life. It wasn't a big shift or anything like that she always knew that the only person she could rely on besides her immediate family was herself so her outlook on being a kunoichi hadn't changed. Everything that she wanted she would have to obtain by herself and until someone proved her otherwise she would simply view them as individuals to practice her techniques on. Some part of her didn't want it to be the case but she didn't have time to be wasting when it came to disputes or things like that she was going to try her best to progress as fast and as thorough as possible so that she could have the strength and freedom to do what she wanted as soon as possible.

She had thought on it overtime and she realized her only dream in life was not to have to worry about other people, she wanted to be strong enough that no one could give her pause that she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted regardless what anyone said or tried to do to stop her. She wanted to make a name for herself not because of her family or clan but because she, Praise, did something. It was why she put herself through these paces and why she was so interested in seals. WIth seals she could one day unmake the world, and honestly if that was what it took to have the freedom she wanted then unmake the world she shall. No one would get in her way, mortal or immortal, man or deity and those that did they'd learn what big of a mistake that was when she dealt with them. Still she knew right now that she was weak, utterly weak in every way so in order to fix that she'll just have to become strong building block by building block until she was what she envisioned herself to be. That was why she didn't care for those within clans, or her teammates, their ambitions seemed small, their eyes were turned only to things that they wanted, things that people had to give them. No she didn't want that, she didn't give any fucks about anyone other than herself when it really came down to it, and as a result everything that she wanted no one could give to her but herself. She would exhale and come back from her musings as she hated to delve that deep into her inner thoughts as she knew some part of her was ugly and horrid and for the life of her she didn't understand why she was like this, perhaps in the future her views would change but at the moment that was all she really wanted. Thankfully her mother would call to her giving her something to focus on beyond her plans for the future, it was time to spar and break bones so that they could become stronger. After all, one of her aunts favorite sayings was that "Iron sharpens Iron" and one could only progress through conflict. She would meet with her mother only to have to duck as a throwing axe had been lobbed at her head causing her to smile as unlike her father, her mother never really understood the concept of holding back. She would dash forward and they would begin their brutal dash, muffled thumps and cries of pain echoing out through their home.

Hours later Praise lay on the ground her body broken and utterly spent, this would be her life until her constant spars with her mother developed her skeleton into something harder than diamonds and honestly she couldn't wait. She did however see why those of her mothers clan enjoyed this so much, there was nothing like the threat of death and physical violence to get ones blood pumping it really spoke to the more primal side of herself as she could feel whatever manner of creature within her soul stir briefly during her spar.

Training Complete
Word Count 1081
Word Count Req. 1000

Dead Bone Pulse (+1 Durability)

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Another week, another training and truthfully at this point Praise felt like it should really be her mantra or something. She was once more training her body or more exactly a specific part of her body also known as her skeletal system. She wanted to become very skilled and the only way she would even be allowed to train in the Dance of the Kaguya was if she mastered the basic aspects of her Dead Bone Pulse. Who made such a stipulation, well none other than her own mother and for the first time Praise was a bit miffed at the situation. She wanted to learn techniques already not just refine the basics and while she did learn about seals they weren't the sort of thing that she could just use on the fly. No they took preparation and she had finite amounts of them and honestly she really just wanted to well, go crazy with her use of the weaponry she could produce from her own body. But she couldn't because she was stuck training once again and though her bones were harder than they were a week ago they weren't nearly strong enough to turn any one of her techniques into something capable of protecting her from or clashing against a high level technique. Her mother had repeatedly reminded her of this fact and that she would benefit greatly from choosing to learn how to use the Dance of the Kaguya after mastering her Dead Bone Pulse.

Still it didn't make her excited or anything when the majority of it was just monotonous practice, and while one might think learning seals was just like that, at the very least ones progress could be seen somewhat regularly. With doing something like this in addition to needing to practice she had to wait a week for her body to adjust to the strength of her bones each time thus it became something of a chore overtime since she could not advance as quick as she would like to until the allotted time came to pass. Truthfully she wasn't usually the type to get bored but she was beginning to feel it as the repeated training was starting to wear on her patience. If not for the spars between her and her mother she knew she would eventually throw a fit or something and take it out on one of the poor training dummies that they had in their basement. Well, not that it would help as ever since she had started training her body her mother had the bright idea to replace the wooden training dummies with training dummies made out of bone to make absolutely sure she kept up her training. After all if she wasn't strong enough she would just end up hurting herself more than anything instead of getting some form of training done.

At her current level the only way she could even vent her frustrations was by using the Eight Gates otherwise she would have to train very lightly so as not to hurt herself. On one hand it was showing her restraint and she had yet another thing to motivate her to grow stronger otherwise her fighting skills would be lacking but she just wanted to break stuff like the other kids of her age. It was one of the reasons why she was looking forward to training with her squad, she'd have the opportunity to actually fight people who were around her level. Sparring with her parents just left her in pain at the end of it, even if her father was actually nice to her during their spars. The difference between their respective levels were just too wide and such gaps of experience could not be bridged in such a short amount of time. Either way, one day perhaps she would be able to spar with her parents and trade blows with them without feeling insecure about her strength, just like one day she was sure that she'll be able to make them feel insecure about their power. She didn't expect to remain this way forever after all, no so long as she continued to work hard and practice she'll have to get stronger. "If only it wasn't so boring, she knew it was needed but she was bored of doing this already!" Praise said not realizing that she was thinking out loud until the presence of another person in the room would alert her to such a thing.

The snicker would ring out causing her to stiffen as she recognized that feminine voice, it was her mother and she paled as she was afraid at the consequences. She didn't immediately realize that she had actually expressed her inner thoughts out in the open but when she saw her mother she knew she must of heard her and now would repay her for daring to call her "Super Awesome Training Method" boring. Still Praise would quell her fear after a moment as she went through the stages of grief in an instant knowing that no amount of begging would get her out of this. She accepted her fate even as she saw her mother smirk at her with her eyes promising nothing but pain. She only hoped that she would be able to put up even a modicum of fight before she was curb-stomped because otherwise it would be disgraceful and she probably would get punished more for simply rolling over without any type of struggle.

Twenty minutes later her whole body was a bruise, she had lasted a mere five minutes and only because her mother hadn't really been taking her that seriously but would up her seriousness every minute mark. She had however shown that she wasn't a punk and thus had gotten beaten up while kicking and screaming even if her attacks were ineffectual without the empowerment of her Eight Gates. She had only made such a mistake once before during one of her punishments and her mother had begun to beat her so bad that her father physically had to stop her before she inadvertently triggered Praise's Kekkei Genkai. No that wouldn't of been a good thing not at all, especially when triggered in such a way since it wouldn't be safe for anyone especially her...

Training Complete
Word Count: 1047
Word Count Needed: 1000

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse (+1 Durability)

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Things had happened that she couldn't control, it was unfortunate but her weekly training had been interrupted due to a mistake of hers resulting in her being bedridden for an entire week. She had been a bit too eager to do something practical and had been experimenting with some new fuinjutsu using her bones instead of sealing paper as a result when she formed the seal something went wrong and it blew up. She was truly fortunate that the bone was already jutting out of her body otherwise she probably could of died from her irresponsibility and it had been something that disrupted her plans of getting stronger. Her family had visited her in the hospital with her aunt crying while her uncle gave her a look of extreme disappointment. Her mother was more angry than anything once she knew that Praise would recover that is, whereas her father was the only one trying to cheer her up explaining that what she did was very reckless and if she had died everyone would have been devastated. However what made her the most upset was that her sister wasn't there, apparently according to her father Adore had slept in the hospital for days worried about her younger sister but the moment Praise began to stir she had left to resume her duties once more. He told her that from now on she would have to be monitored during her fuinjutsu practice if it involved modifying her skeletal structure to incorporate them and what happened was likely a result of her bones not yet being fully developed thus still having slight imperfections which probably affected how the seal came out.

It was something that really did affect Praise as her previous autonomy was now gone for the most part and she was being more carefully monitored by her family in the event that she did something so dangerous once more. She hated it, it wasn't her fault well maybe it was she should of been more careful and not tried to multi-task especially when one involved seals. She just got so impatient and wanted to practice her seals at the same time as she strengthened her bones durability. Now she knew that such a thing was beyond her and that certain things should not be rushed especially when it had to do with her own body and the creation of seals. So she was now behind her schedule and it would take even longer for her to learn the Dance of Kaguya due to her own irresponsibility. She was ashamed of herself but more importantly her family was disappointed in her her impatience could of crippled or worse even killed her. She resoled herself to never make such a mistake again and to follow the instructions her mother gave to the letter rather than just following them in spirit. It was why after the doctors had said she was free to resume training again that she ignored everything to refocus herself on improving her Dead Bone Pulse once more. The usual exercises were back on and her mother had said that she would not be sparring with her again until she was satisfied that she had truly learned her lesson thus that method of training was out for the time being. Instead she was back on her diet plan and forced to do the more painful and cumbersome training method. Luckily there were posts that she could hit and practice against to test the durability of her bones and induce stress fractures so that she could fix the breaks and harden her skeleton so that they would be incapable of being broken by such force ever again.

It was slow but she didn't have the resentment for the training as she had before, she now understood why her mother had said she should focus on her healing first for instance as it had sped up her recovery considerably. If she had been stupid and focused on her durability first then the explosion would have sent razor sharp bone fragments capable of penetrating her body at her and she would of had no hope of survival since each fragment could pierce through several walls. As it was it would have scarred her grievously but thankfully Orama Care took care of all of her medical expenses and she was scar free. She would refocus her thoughts and continue her routine striking the posts and trying to mute the pain she felt as it was necessary to strengthen her bones and to learn the proper arrangement of osteoblasts and osteoclasts to generate a more durable skeleton. Once that was learned she would then mimic such an arrangement with her other bones thus resulting in a more durable bone structure. She would repeat that over several days having to take breaks in between which she used to study and brush up on other things if she wasn't sleeping or meditating to recover her energy for more practice the next day. Eventually she managed to fully strengthen her body to the point that she was capable of breaking the posts rather than her bones and the next day she walked into her training ground all of the posts had been replaced with new ones. They were different due to the wrappings that covered them being a different color than the last ones essentially informing her that her bones were on par with a B-rank weapon thus she would need posts capable of sustaining damage from them without breaking to further improve her bone durability to A-rank Levels. She would wordlessly thank her mother before cracking her knuckles and preforming the stretches to make sure her body was ready to take it to the next level. She would ensure that she didn't worry her family like that ever again, all she wanted was to make a name for herself but if it came at the expense of her personal freedom and caused her family anguish then what was the point. No the whole reason she wanted to make a name for herself was to make them proud of her and to standout from the others within her family but she couldn't do that if she was dead. At least not in any way that she would be okay with that is, so once she was done with her stretches she would take a deep breath assume her ready stance and begin her exercises once more, sure she was behind the goal she had set for herself but so long as she didn't quit she would eventually get there...

Training Complete
Word Count: 1099
Word Count Req.: 1000

Approved

Mushin 3rd Training

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It's odd at one point she was content with the republic after all it was all she had ever known and everyone had told her even as a little girl that the world outside of the Republic was harsh and unforgiving. Yet she didn't feel the attachement to this place that others seemed to have, honestly some part of her actually detested the Republic perhaps it was because she felt that she was just one of many another nameless kunoichi in the multitude of others each working to be a part of a greater whole. She had heard of the tales of a distant past of other places outside of the Republic, something about the military of the Shogun and the abominations which littered the western half of the continent and yet she felt that compared to them the republic was lackluster. Boring, Weak. How it had managed to stand the test of time whereas they were lost to history was actually slightly infuriating or maybe it was because they had the advantage of numbers and of people who were loyal to the ideals of the past. Yet she felt somehow that perhaps the age of the hidden villages should come to an end and that it should return to the eras of long past where families and clans roamed the land battling against their contemporaries and the fauna of the Origin Continent. Sometimes these thoughts plagued her mind while she meditated if only because she was sure that in that sort of time period she would be able to standout and prove her worth seeing as to not do so would result in her death.

Survival of the fittest, be it strength, wit or cunning that was something she respected, not whatever this was where anyone could learn how to defend themselves and were protected by the strong instead of being subjugated under them. It was why she was so reluctant to rely on her squad members, she didn't care for bonds of friendship or anything like that all that mattered truly to her was her own strength and the strength of those she claimed as family. She didn't want to die for the sake of those weaker than her, nor did she care for the lives of her "comrades" yet she refused to be weak and thus she had become a kunoichi. It was only natural that she would choose such an option after all for someone as young and as weak as she was there was no other choice, she couldn't survive outside of the republic until she gained enough strength to protect her and her own. Till then she would just have to dedicate herself to becoming stronger refining her skills and biding her time until she could escape from the shackles of the norm. Sometimes she dreamed of ascending to the position of Itamikage, only to declare war on the other members of the Republic and plunge it into a such a war that it would be crippled and then promptly make her escape then leaving nothing but shambles and destruction in her wake. It would weaken the republic to the point that it would actually be able to be destroyed after all the only thing that held the republic together was a combination of fear of the unknown and the status quo, such things were plain to see. An internal war would shatter the illusion of trust that the other hidden villages had with each other, after all if one could turn against the others then what was stopping one of the others from doing the same, and with such conflict the Republic would fracture and that would give outside forces the opportunity to capitalize on the individual villages no longer united against the world. She was under no illusions that it was possible to destroy the republic as it was, but destroying four individual hidden villages, now that was something worth attempting.

These were thoughts that lingered in her mind when she was most at peace, there was nothing malicious in them it was merely just a statement of fact. Her name would be remembered forevermore if she was able to succeed in doing what others had attempted to and failed to do in the past. If she managed to destroy the Hidden Villages and scatter shinobi back into the clans and families of ancient times. Who could have such a claim to infamy such as that, no she would be whispered to misbehaving children to get them to quickly shape up out of fear that she would swoop down on them and snatch them from their mothers. It was the sort of thoughts that would label her as a traitor and a madwoman by those she knew and yet even though they might hate her they would still have some modicum of respect for her, whether that was because of fear or anger. It was something that she could not share with anyone, especially not those teammates of hers, sure Qeynan might be open to the idea but she felt that he would adhere to the status quo in the end, and Seran might just follow along with her but the ambition to break the world that she had would be absent. No until she was strong enough to do what she want the only company she had in this endeavor was her own, whether she played the loyal shinobi and rose to a position of such power and prestige that she could wage a war with hundreds and thousands of loyal shinobi to do her bidding or if she left the Republic and bid her time to strike until they all faced a threat large enough to swallow everything whole. She would wake out of her meditation with self loathing, she knew that something was wrong with her why else would she think of things like this when her life was anything but hard. Why did she want to inflict misery on her fellows, break down the peace that had existed for centuries was she truly an evil person at her core? Or was it because in her most peaceful state, when she had grasped at enlightenment somehow she knew that it didn't matter whether she was good or evil all that truly mattered was that she could. Someone would try eventually so why shouldn't it be her, why should she act like everyone else be one of the many when she could stand out and be known as an individual. Why should she strive to become one of the many peerless Kage or ANBU when she could be known as the as the very individual whose actions lead to the destruction of the shinobi world?


Training Complete
Word Count: 1124
Word Count Req: 1000

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse (+1 Durability)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Praise was still behind, perhaps it was because her teammates seemed disinterested in pushing their limits or was it because their sensei was rather lazy and didn't care all that much about them. Perhaps it was because she had messed around and gotten hurt rather than keeping to what she knew and saving the experimentation for when she was being supervised by her uncle. Yeah she felt that it was the latter rather than the former, she couldn't blame her teammates for her own mistakes that just left a bitter taste in her mouth even contemplating something like that. She had to own up to her own shortcomings otherwise she would forever be blind to her faults and it would only end up being to her detriment in the future. Many individuals were the type to ignore any sort of problems they had until it eventually bit them in the ass and if she was going to truly make a name for herself she had to be aware when she made mistaken so that she could eliminate them or at the very least find a way to mitigate them. With that said it was once again that part of the week where she focused on increasing her the durability of her skeleton through the Dead Bone Pulse, and just like before her mother was nowhere to be found just like she had told her previously. It did make her sad that she had disappointed her parents especially her mother to the point that she withheld their spars until she completely strengthened her skeleton as she knew she would of enjoyed learning that way instead of the way she was forced to learn now. She frowned before walking over to one of the training posts and tapping it, sure enough it was even more durable than it was before just like she knew it would be the last time.

Still she had come this far she couldn't falter now and thus she would begin striking the posts alternating between them and shifting her body so that she had an even distribution of the impacts across her frame. It was painful, and boring but when she got into the swing of things she found that it was easy to lose herself in the constant repetition of strikes. Maybe it was because pain was comforting in a way as she had gotten used to being bruised and battered to all hell after her weekly Dead Bone Pulse training or perhaps it was because she knew on some level that doing it would make her stronger in the long run. It allowed her to push past the pain, not ignore it as she wasn't blessed with the ability to tolerate pain like some Zireh could, or even to ignore it outright like those individuals who lacked a sense of touch. No she felt everything, every contact with one of the training posts made out of her mothers bones, every time she hit one of them just right with enough force to cause a micro fracture. She felt every bruise as it formed and every cut and every gnash she opened up on her skin. Every time she did too much and was forced to wait in agony as her body pieced itself back together as her body's natural regeneration sealed her skin and repaired her bones stronger than before. She felt the crushing weight of a failure that could of been prevented if she merely had been more careful and didn't rush her progression in the more esoteric of the shinobi arts. Still at the same time she felt her bones becoming more durable and with every break that she was one step closer to being done with all of this.

Soon she wouldn't have to break her body soon she would work on shaping her bones to her whim to create weapons and other tools to aid her in combat. She was already at such a level that her bones were hard enough to break standard weaponry with ease and rival elite weaponry in durability and she was sure after she completed this training her bones would rival veteran weaponry while being hard enough to snap any manner or weapon below that. She knew her mother had bones even harder than that, the true pinnacle of durability like the most skilled Kurogane possessed so hard that normal weapons couldn't match against them. She was so close to such a level she could almost taste it and on some level she knew she had already started preparing for it. She could envision using weapons and tools comprised of her bone to fight her enemies though at the same time she knew that doing so was dangerous if she didn't take the proper precautions just in case her bones fell into the wrong hands. It was for that reason that she'd have to make sure her bones were properly protected just in case any situation like that came up. Whether that meant she would have to etch seals into them to allow for easy recall or more insidious things like causing them to detonate if tampered with. Maybe a combination of things that way she had multiple measures set in place for different situations after all one could never predict the types of situations they'd be in the future but a good fuinjutsu user did at least try to.

Still she couldn't get ahead of herself just yet lest she end up doing what she did last time and further ruin her training schedule. S No for now it was best to focus on strengthening her bones especially since she could see that her blows were finally making the training post start to chip and crack. She would spare a glance at the training ground floor and would grimace as she would have to scrub the ground yet again since her blood was starting to stain the floor red. It was one of her punishments for being over enthusiastic though she knew she deserved it so she didn't complain. It still sucked though as she would much rather be doing something more fun rather than scrubbing down the training ground. She would stop thinking about menial chores when she heard a sharp crack as one of the training posts that she had struck had the top portion break off and she would smile even as she shook out her arm from the impact. It seemed like it was time to move to the final level of training, and just to make sure she would strike the other training posts with her other limbs with the final one being broken with a powerful headbutt that left a cut down on her brow. Still that was the price of hard work and the blood dripping down her nose would soon cease as her skin knitted itself back together.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1150
Words Req: 1000

Approved

Mushin 4th Training
---------------------------------

It was difficult to reach enlightenment, for most individuals it took many years and others it occurred over many lifetimes, at least that was a statement that she had read in one of the scriptures of a Monk of a forgotten era. After reading it she was made to understand that the cycle of life and death was just that, and individuals in this world were linked together by Samsara, there was something utterly simple and yet complex about a school of thought such as that though she could see how it made sense in a way. Life was a form of energy and like all energy it couldn't be created or destroyed instead shifting through different forms, so what if that even applied to the Soul. What if instead of creating new souls The Shinigami was in fact recycling them overtime as they entered the Pure Lands. Of course they'd have an imprint of their previous lives as a Soul was eternal but that would only give some credence to such a belief system as if this was the case then that would mean that when someone is born anew those echoes of their previous lives were their stripped away and left in the Pure Lands or suppressed somehow. According to the monk reaching enlightenment is essentially what it means to understand, and true understanding is the ability to not just know of oneself but of others. It was something known as Ninshū. It for some reason resonated with her for some reason perhaps it was because as a Fantom she felt a connection to the afterlife due to her Fantom Gene.

Yet when she tried to get more information on the subject she couldn't find much, it seemed unlike the well documented religion of Kami or the widely spread teachings of Gaia and Datara the other religions didn't tend to have such thorough documentation. At least not available to her in the parts of the village library that she could access. Sure she wasn't interested in being a follower of Cthulhu but she did admit that she had some interest into what a religion of the Shinigami or Susano'o would look like. Most seemed to associate the former with the Ibwa even though they actually did not worship the Principle Deity but instead one of those deities that were aligned to him known as Jashin. The two were not the same which is something that people tended to misunderstand as why would the Shinigami need to be violent when death itself came in many forms. But truly the ultimate form of death was that of age, as no matter what it was the one death that could not be avoided by a mortal. Sickness & Injury could be prevented even fixed but age was the great equalizer and those who were able to conquer it were no longer bound by mortality and became something...else. She didn't aspire to become something like that, no she respected death even embraced the fact that she had a time limit to make a name for herself since that only made her more determined to make herself known for something so amazing that others would talk about her long after her time had passed. Being another immortal in a long line of fellow immortality pioneers was not something she was interested in, not at all.

Still when she meditated she could understand how inner reflection could cause something to ponder the meaning of their existence only to come to the conclusion that life and death were two sides of the same coin. They couldn't exist without one another as if something wasn't alive, it would not be able to be dead and vice versa. At least in the strictest definition of the term, this was because something inanimate was not alive though it could be life-like but the true defining characteristic she felt of true life was that it had a soul of some sort. Perhaps she was tapping into that eternity that was her soul when she harnessed her mushin after all if something is everlasting unable to be destroyed why else wouldn't they be calm. It would be the same as knowing that something is constant and while it might change ultimately at it's core whatever it is that currently comprises it is only adding to a greater whole. Such musing helped she felt with understanding the depth of seals, as truly they were the language of the world itself. It was strange how symbols on a canvas of some sort were able to do such wondrous things but when one thought about everything in life being connected in some way it just made sense. Seals were merely one messing with the connections that bound everything together and by doing so one could enact change in whatever way they saw fit. In order to be a truly skilled seal user one must have the ability to invent, and the will to experiment but likewise the dedication to try and improve when failure inevitably occurred.

That was why her utilizing Mushin was important beyond just what it granted her mentally or physically. Mushin allowed her to refine her mind which in turn would allow her do the same to her body and continue that cycle to levels that would be impossible for those without the understanding that she had naturally been born with. Perhaps it was presumptuous for her to think that she was born with enlightenment but she felt at least compared to most she at least had a glimpse of what it meant to understand. That was the only explanation for the feeling she felt when everything just clicked into place it was so natural and effortless that she didn't think anything else could replicate something like that. No she knew she was no genius but there was a difference between a genius and a prodigy just like there was a difference between a prodigy and a savant. While she felt she was more of a prodigy than a savant perhaps when it came to inner reflection the latter was what she truly was. It wasn't that bad, so long as she wasn't an idiot savant which she was much assuredly not.

Training Complete.
Word Count: 1043
Word Count Req. 1000

Approved

Dead Bone Pulse (Durability +1)
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What was life to a Kurogane she found herself asking, was it a collection of whatever beastial urges lurked beneath their subconscious? Was it the flesh that they had clinging to their bodies the very thing that made up an essential part of all sapient life? Or was it the blood that flowed within their bodies, ones life-life, something that philosophers once believed to be the soul in liquid form? No it was none of these, to a Kurogane to her understanding life was at it's core all about Bone. It was odd how one could place such an emphasis one something that lurked beneath ones skin, flesh and blood but bone was important to her mother's clan in a way that all other things weren't. It was not blood that they were bone with the ability to manipulate but bone, it was not flesh that they could call upon when all other energy ciculating in their body were near depletion, no it was once again bone. Finally it was not the water that made up most of the meat sac that was their body nor the fire that breathed life into their soul nectar, no it was the one thing that linked everything together that made up the most important thing to the identity of her clan. Bone nothing else even came close to the perfection that it was and would forever be in her eyes, and by virtue of it things that stemmed from it were able to broadcast it's perfection in their own forms.

It was time, time for her to move past this mundane sort of training and actually learn the fighting style of her mother's clan. At least it was almost time, since after today her bones would be strengthened to their absolute limit and she would no longer have to worry about having her bone broken unless she fought against something which she had no business fighting against in the first place. She would have to delve into the intricate nature of her bloodline and learn how to morph the structure of her bones after this in order to create additional Dances and honestly she really couldn't wait. Still she was behind an entire week, she would of been done a whole week ago if not for her forwardness and today was about making up for lost time but making sure that she did such a thing correctly. She would not stifle her growth once more, she had already done such a thing one time too many and she had suffered for it. Both in the physical and mental sense, not to mention the social repercussions of her actions.

Trust was a rather had thing to gain and it was far too easy to lose, it was unfortunate that she had to dedicate herself to rebuilding the trust between her and her family regarding her training as a kunoichi of the Screams. She had broken that trust when she foolishly delved into something she wasn't ready for even though she personally felt like if she had just been more careful everything would of been fine. Still her former freedoms were now gone and the lack of restrictions she had taken for granted were now woefully absent. Her spars were gone as such a thing was considered a gift not a necessity when she had her squad mates and jonin instructor and no amount of pleading or telling the truth about how her sensei was almost completely disinterested in their growth would sway her parents. Sure she knew her father was a softy at heart and thus wouldn't have restricted her for so long but her mother was a hard woman especially when she was angry or frightened. It seemed like her accident had left her mother in a perpetual state of both and the one thing that Kurogane women did in those sorts of situations was lash out.

She was the same way even though it was tempered by her father's personality but she knew she had a temper when sufficiently pushed and the rage that burned inside of her was one that could wreck havoc especially since she was a Dakar. Sometimes though it was useful and now she channeled that anger to mute the pain of her flesh striking the newest edition of her training posts. She knew her mother had used the second hardest type of bone she could make naturally and this bone was what would break and shape her skeleton into becoming as tough as possible. She was thankful that she had enough rage to spare as she knew if not she would have to take breaks more often than not and this was a good method for her to get out her frustrations at how she felt like she was falling behind the goals she had set for herself. But still it didn't matter, she was here now and she would keep pushing and pushing because at the end of the day she knew that she would not break from the pressure.

A harsh crack echoed as she punched off the top half of the training post her knuckles bloody and her face pained even as her flesh began to knit back together from the impact no she wouldn't falter here she just couldn't. A battle cry would leave her lips as she spun into a roundhouse kick and broke another one lances of pain causing her to cry out in a mixture of agony and rage and her blood staining the training ground as it was now almost a permanent tinge of pinkish red. No she managed to emerge from her crucible hardened and thus much stronger because of it. She would fly into a fury and when the red haze cleared from her vision all that was around her was bone fragments and a pool of her own blood. She would exhale as she felt her bones shifting back into place and her wounds closing only to jerk up as she heard clapping coming from behind her. She would slowly turn around to see her mother waiting at the doorway and for the first time since her accident she was smiling at her.

"Now, you are ready."

Word Count: 1037
Word Count Req: 1000
Training Complete.