Might is Right and with that G'nite

Life Release Specialist (Perfect)
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Her mother's words resonated with her, she was indeed finally ready but for what she honestly didn't expect nor understand. Initially she had assumed that they would get into sparring again or even she would bring scrolls for her to learn of the Dance of the Kaguya from them and then try and learn that way. Or perhaps even a combination of the two where she would be able to study and then use the knowledge she gained in a practical application of her skills. Instead it was not the case. Her mother told her to sit down and she placed her palms on her own and merely said she should close her eyes and concentrate. She would be learning about the Dead Bone Pulse in a different way than what was usually taught to the members of the Kurogane Clan. It wasn't that her mother thought they were wrong or wasn't allowed to teach her it was merely that she had devised a different method that she felt that her only child should learn. It was a part of her that she didn't want to die especially since her mother almost exclusively focused on utilizing Life Release in combat. It was odd but she had said that she really didn't have a talent for other nature transformations when she was younger and because of that had settled for assimilating Life Release into her core rather than try something different. It granted her an understanding of the element that wasn't available to most and while certain people in her clan tended to look down on her she knew that she was one of the most skilled in generations when it came to absolute mastery of the Dance of the Kaguya.

Praise respected her mother, as for all of her lack of drive she knew that her mother was strong enough to become a full jonin she just didn't want to be. It wasn't in her nature to teach other than the responsibility she felt as a mother to instruct her child how to survive, but she didn't have empathy for other people outside of her family thus being a jonin wasn't in the cards for her. So she remained in the Torture & Interrogation department with Praise's father and had years to refine and eventually nearly perfect the use of her Dead Bone Pulse. Thus it was a truly honored thing that she had decided to pass on her knowledge of Bone to Praise and she felt sad that she had nearly missed out on this opportunity because of her foolishness. Still she knew she was forgiven as her mother was no longer closed off to her emotionally and she latched onto the re-connection with everything she had. "Focus Prai, I've already forgen you for being so stupid don't worry about it anymore. Instead focus on the feel of the chakra I'm circulating into my palms." Her mothers voice would cause her to do exactly that and she felt the stability of the Life Release chakra her mother was cycling into her hands noting the quality of it in comparison to her own. Wordlessly she tried to see how she could refine her own chakra just like that and whether or not it was possible to refine her chakra to be so connected to the nature transformation. and she struggled to do so.

Her mother would chuckle as she hadn't intended for Praise to really mimic her, no she wanted her daughter to merely grow accustomed to the feel of the chakra so that her body reflexively associated this feeling with each time she tried to call it up inside of her. That her chakra was something to strive for and knowing her daughter, Praise was just the type to never give up until she reached the quality that she learned that someone else had and she was capable of. It was important to know the difference between a dabbler of Life Release and those who had an affinity for the nature transformation that exceeded others. Praise knew on some level that what she was experiencing was the power of a high affinity and before she could contemplate what a very high affinity of Life Release could feel like, her mother's chakra changed and she quickly understood as the quality only improved. This was the difference between her and her mother's chakra, she was lacking true understanding of what Life Release was and what it could do and she was getting a glimpse of that merely by resonating with her mother's chakra signature. Slowly her mother began to guide her bones into escaping her flesh and Praise felt how each bone was saturated in her chakra not to mention how potent each one was in regards to her own expression of the nature transformation. It was awe inspiring and on some level her own chakra was changed because of it, it wasn't quite that she had assimilated the element or anything like that no it was more akin to an understanding of some sort.

Understanding came from meditation and that was something she knew thanks to her Mushin, but this was an understanding of a different type it was something that she knew was closely tied to nature something she wouldn't of grasped if she hadn't experienced what she did currently. Her mother would slowly ramp down the quality of her chakra and Praise felt her own chakra try to fill in the gap and felt it lacking and when her mother completely cut off the flow of her chakra she felt a hunger in her coils that she knew wouldn't be satiated until her own elemental chakra was just as potent as what it had experienced. She would open her eye and see her mother smiling at her once more before removing her hands and then standing up and stretching before fishing out a scroll from her sparring robes. She would note the faded Kurogane Symbol on the scrolls before it was tossed at her prompting her to catch them and nod as she understood that she was to study them. Once she did she would be able to use all of the training that she had done up until this point to learn the Dance of the Kaguya to it's fullest level.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1051
Words Req: 1000
+5 A-rank Slots.
(Breaking Down 1 A-rank into 2 B, and 1 of those B into 2 C of which have been filled from my Team Training as was mentioned previously. Remaining = 3 A, 1 B & 1 C to be trained)

Mushin (+Final Training)
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It was weird snapping back into the usual routine after so long of her meditation being solo, but it would seem that after she managed to enhance her skeleton to it's peak amount her mother had told her father that her punishment was over. This was why when she arrived in the basement she saw that her father was waiting for her with that small smile of his and she would immediately run over and hug him. She did cry a little bit, but she wasn't ashamed of that she didn't realize how much she craved their attention and approval and how dependent on them she was at this venture of her life. Not until they were gone and yet weren't seeing as she constantly saw them yet they would not express any interest in her life it was a different feeling that was for sure and it was something that she didn't like even though she could now cope with it. Perhaps it was something that she needed to experience to show that she wasn't as damaged as she thought she was, perhaps she wasn't actually a sociopath or a psychopath she understood empathy and craved companionship she just had no morality. Maybe that's why even she was at her most enlightened she could see the flaws in everything around her and wasn't hindered by the fact that this was the only home that she knew.

He had hugged her back letting her get her fill before releasing her when she put space between them again, he didn't need to say anything more than a single nod and she would understand to calm her breathing in preparation. Her breaths would come longer and deeper until she found herself in that tranquil mental state that she had come to learn was Mushin and she would look up only to see a fist coming at her face. She would lean out of the way not out of surprise but merely because something was coming for her and she needed to not be where it would end up, his follow up would be to lean into it and take into the air to use his momentum to deliver a roundhouse kick. This would cause her to drop to the ground her legs bent in a way that left them looking like a "M" with her upper torso neatly running parallel to her calves. When his kick flew over head she would spring back up using her leg and core to push and maintain stability before using that movement to strike like a whip. He unfortunately for her was able to block the attack and skid back with the same smile he wore to show his approval and with a single adjustment to regain his balance the sparring renewed in intensity.

She quickly lost herself in it, it was quite easy to do after all, fighting while in this mental state had actually come a bit easier to her over time and so long as she didn't get truly hurt she could maintain it with ease. When she did get hurt she had learned how to calm her spiking heart rate and slip into it once more while maintaining distance from her father's assault as he always got more vicious when he noticed she was no longer utilizing Mushin. she felt it was important for her to learn how to make such a change especially if she wanted to learn how to harness this unique oddity of her body for something more advanced in the future. She had already thought about learning how to use this in order to gain control of her Berserk Mode in some form as the natural calm would probably serve to mitigate the loss of sanity she would otherwise experience while she went berserk. If it did then it would allow her to learn how to use her Berserk Mode for something other than it's normal use and perhaps that could be the very edge she needed to compete against those physically stronger than her.

Her thoughts were broken when she had to lean back out of the way of an incoming rising knee, and she would turn to the side grabbing onto her father's outstretched leg and trying to drag him down to the ground. This wouldn't actually work considering he could fly where she couldn't at the moment and would only succeed in causing her to leave the ground and then as he spun get launched into the air. She would return to her normal state when she realized how helpless she was in the air and would promptly be beaten and battered while airborne only to experience relief when her body finally hit the ground. She would lay there for a moment trying to process the pain she was in and regain her bearings before she was forced to roll to the side to avoid a stomp. She would keep rolling before pushing off the ground and almost falling over again due to her dizziness though her father's right hook was left to sink into her unprotected side causing her to let out a grunt of pain. She had lost her rhythm and he was just escalating so it was difficult to slow herself and try to achieve Mushin once more so she decided to not try and began to fight back rather than run away. Initially this would actually surprise him but when he frowned and promptly started to thrash her all over again she began to rethink her strategy.

At least until she found herself slip back into that calm despite the circumstances, it would seem she had learned how to trigger it regardless of her current emotional or physical state and that was what was ultimately important. So important that despite getting beaten up it didn't affect her mental state and it would seem after a while her father would notice and thus back off. He would wait for her to slip out of it and when she didn't he would nod before clapping his hands signalling the end of the spar causing her to look up with glazed eyes which then would come back into focus. He once more didn't have to say anything no she knew what was on his mind since it was something her mother had said to her earlier this week. She knew it, he knew it and now Praise herself knew it.

She was ready.

Training Complete.
Word Count: 1078
Word Count Needed: 1000

Approved

Life Release Specialist (Perfect)

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The Dance of the Kaguya could be likened to a type of art form as it was as beautiful as it was deadly, perhaps that was why she had been instructed to wait until she absolutely mastered her control over her body before trying to learn any aspect of it. She understood why it was necessary to do that as many reckless Kurogane over the years had fallen prey to their own hubris not having enough regeneration to offset their use of the more taxing techniques of the dance and thus dying as a result. It was sad but there was nothing one could do about it other than keep a watchful eye over the young and restrict their access to the more dangerous of the techniques. In Praise's case she was completely restricted until she had perfected her inner bone manipulation and now she had access to whatever she wanted to learn. Still it was slow going as she needed to start at the basics and was placing priority on learning the first five dances before committing to learning anything else of the Dance of the Kaguya.

She had broken each of them down as she saw why her mother said that with those five one could be a very strong opponent simply because they all covered something different. The Dance of the Kaguya on it's own was known for fluid movements in arcs or spins like a nimble dancer allowing for a high degree of balance and flexibility and each of the five dances served to isolate a particular aspect of it it which from there the successive Dances were built. Dance of the Willow being the first and emphasizing the creation of bones which are able to be used for weaponry purposes. No other technique of it's rank is able to produce so many at once and yet one might just dismiss it merely because it seemed like a weak technique. Yet those within the Kurogane clan knew how useful it could be when utilized by a true master of the Dead Bone Pulse, not to mention the aspect of being able to extend and retract the bones protruding from the user's body allowing a modicum of free control and the technique was much more than what initially met the eye. The third dance is known as the Dance of the Larch which allows for a defensive version of ones bone growth, this results in the user being able to entrap other physical objects and deal counters to those who tried to engage the user in close range. It was interesting in that it used to the sudden emergence of bones as a means to counter while providing a sort of omni-directional defense so long as the user kept rotating and moving to keep their close combat opponents at bay.

The second dance is actually higher in rank than the third dance which leads most to think it was in fact the third and not actually the second one. It was a common misconception not to mention it is completely different from the first two in the method at which it harnesses the bones. The Dance of the Camellia involves the creation of a single bone blade which is then thrust at an opponent at high speeds making use of successful attacks to misdirect an opponent through overwhelming speed. It has similarities more to kenjutsu than taijutsu but that was just the point since the Dance of the Kaguya is flexible enough that ones body could be on par with weapons used by others. As such it shows that even a dance can be taxing and fast paced not merely graceful and subtle in it's ways as sometimes one needs to display a certain amount of fierceness to be taken seriously. The fourth Dance is actually split into two distinct parts which showcases the fact that a dance might not have just a singular movement which is what differentiates it in comparison to all of those which came before it. The first part of the fourth dance is known as the Dance of Clematis: Vine and involves the extraction of the user's spinal cord for use as a weapon, such a drastic measure comes with the added bonus of creating a flexible weapon unlike all the other bones used by the user previously. Likewise it has it's uses as more utility than so much an offensive or defensive sort of technique since it could be used to bind an opponent to restrict their movements. This leads into the second part of the Dance which is known as the Dance of the Clematis: Flower which involves the sprouting and coiling of bone around one of the arms which is then made super dense by constant reinforcement with the ultimate goal of being used to pierce through even the most stalwart of defenses. Such a brute force approach is what separates it from the other five dances as their is an absence of grace and nimbleness in exchange for shock and awe which sometimes is what is necessary for a dance to standout from the crowd and draw attention to itself. As a result the two parts are often used simultaneously the first part to bind and the latter to finish the victim off showcasing the fact that even though they might be different techniques each dance is part of a greater whole and in order to use them at their true strength they should be utilized in tandem with one another.

Finally the fifth dance is an oddity all on it's own as contrary to those which came before it, it is known as the Dance of the Seedling Fern, not only is it differentiated due to it's application being to affect something outside of the body but also the scope of the technique in comparison to all the other dances is something to be feared. It is this technique which showcases that sometimes a dance does not involve just two individuals but can be a grand spectacle which can involve a great crowd or even something that leaves a permanent imprint in the mind. This dance fills the land around the user with numerous bone spikes essentially creating a forest which completely renders the ground moot if one doesn't possess the defensive might to resist being impaled. But more than that this is actually the type of technique which alters the terrain and provides as sort of ultimate positioning as the user is able to jump between bones and emerge from them while being almost unnoticed by their opponents. It is a very powerful A-rank technique and in comparison to the other first five dances it is the only ninjutsu among all of them.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1126
Word Count Needed: 1000

Break-Down:

Approved

Sealing Specialist - Perfect
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While it had been quite illuminating to finally be able to train her Dead Bone Pulse, at her core Praise was enamored with something that would be able to give her access to potent ninjutsu. Sure she was capable of harnessing her chakra and that was all well and good but what use was making hand seals when one wasn't capable of nature manipulation. Clearly if she wished to be able to do such a thing she would have to become either highly skilled at medicine in order to implant what she needed or she could learn seals and bend the metaphysical to her will. It was why she had taken to seals like a fish took to water and by extension that had likewise covered curses, the two of them being quite linked despite one being viewed as the harmful version of the other. This wasn't true to be completely honest as seals were just as dangerous as curses the difference between them was something more fundamental as while they were both viewed as the language of the Deities one had to realize exactly which deities spoke those languages. It was to her understanding the Fuinjutsu stemmed from the spiritual realm and thus it could be said that The Shinigami was the originator of the language in a bid to formulate the universe itself. But then what was Juinjutsu, if not a bastardization, and that all came down to what it was tied to which could clue individuals into exactly what it was. Juinjutsu was tied to the natural realm, however based on the barest scraps of information from her access to her family library particularly powerful juinjutsu known as curse marks had the potential to counteract natural energy. The only deity known for butting heads with Gaia was Susano'o and therein lay the answer to the progenitor of juinjutsu.

It was interesting as she viewed those two deities as the ones she held the most respect for, Kami she felt was self righteous and bound those under his sole worship to unreasonable vows, Cthulhu was too chaotic for her likes, however he was also known as the deity of drunks and madmen as she was neither of those, yet. Datara was responsible for chakra as well as the Bijuu who were destructive monstrosities akin to sentient natural disasters and she could never feel all that comfortable with that sort of thing. She actually had no problems with Gaia as she was the world and nature in all of it's forms and ultimately her Kurogane roots had her empathize with such a thing but still she knew her inner beast was a predator at heart and she felt maintaining balance was the sort of thing for a protector. The Shinigami however spoke to her in a way that Gaia would never be able to as she held herself as a Fantom and ever Fantom had at least one limb in the grave. Her family was intertwined with the afterlife to the point that they could harness capabilities unknown to mortals who had never felt the kiss of death. Yet she could likewise appreciate what Susano'o brought to the world as conflict was the identity of any shinobi and she was a kunoichi through and through. They were bred for war, and it was only when hurting their fellow shinobi that their life-force sang in their veins, what else was a shinobi if not a harbinger of change and conflict.

Still it did make her think, and with those thoughts came the urge to master seals and everything that pertained to them in order to give rise to her true ambition. Sure she was born without the ability to naturally use nature transformation a sign that even though she was born of a clan of Gaia she herself had been rejected by her. Thankfully not so fully rejected that she couldn't even mold the chakra in her body as those who were in the religious know, knew that Gaia and Datara had an alliance of sorts and that was their explanation for the natural phenomena of damaged chakra coils. No she had hope, and if she had to utilize the language of other the other Principle Deities to get what she wanted then she would do so with no hesitation to the best of her ability because that was just what she did. As such she had started practicing her calligraphy since she was 5, and only now was it at a level that she was proud of and with her newfound mastery of her Dead Bone Pulse she had learned how to morph her bones to have sealing script occur as natural grooves on her skeleton. That above all else would be what separated her from those within her family that delved into seals and would make her standout in such a way that she would be known far and wide. She had plans very big plans and seals were just the first step to realizing them, curses were merely a means to an end as she knew that she could utilize curses in such a way to give her a shortcut to power but curses always came with drawbacks and she would prefer a mildly safe long path than a shortcut which would get her killed.

No the curses would be fore her enemies and maybe occasionally her disposable allies who would seek methods to improve themselves, after all sealing specialists were always in high demand, they would actually be in a higher demand than medics if the common person realized how useful they were. Still shinobi knew of the benefits of having an in with a seal user as they could bolster ones scrolls and seal away equipment with ease. Not to mention deal with pesky summons and the various eldritch abominations in the world much less pretentiously than one of those members of The Church. No her teammates might not like her but they would value her talents for what they were and she could use all the money she could get since sealing materials were annoyingly expensive.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1020
Word Count Req. 1000

Breaking Down:

Sealing Specialist - Perfect
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She was excited for once, everything was going according to plan and she felt on top for some reason, she had mastered her Dead Bone Pulse and a select few individuals had replied to her invitation for cross-team training exercises. That was ultimately a pretty interesting occasion but it ultimately solidified the fact that she needed to get better at utilizing seals so that she could gain the ability to utilize elemental ninjutsu. Her sparring partners were capable of it and ultimately it made her feel somewhat lacking in comparison to them and she didn't like that sort of feeling. No she wanted to become capable of feats just like that and ultimately make a name for herself as someone capable of doing things that no one had ever done before. She saw the potential for the Eight Gates in comparison to other things and truly she wished to explore what such a thing could do for her ninjutsu techniques. After all merely opening the Eight Gates was able to empower her capabilities on the physical side through chakra then what would it be capable of doing when she got her chakra involved in the mix. Could she perhaps manage to empower her technique past the norm by enhancing them with the influx of chakra from the gates? She couldn't know for sure until she tried it and such a thing only made her that much more desperate to learn how to utilize fuinjutsu to make such a thing possible.

She had already plotted out a course of action and the way it looked she would be able to get what she wanted by B-rank but she would be capable of preforming low level elemental ninjutsu in a couple of months so long as she stayed dedicated to perfecting her seals. Personally she didn't care for it, it was too soon and she would rather a perfected product but some part of her yearned to be able to utilized ninjutsu like her peers. It made her loathe that childish side of her because while ninjutsu was super bad-ass and epic she didn't want to showcase her ability to do it at the detriment of her other skills. No she would need to be able to conserve her chakra reserves for the time being lest she regret it in the future. No right now her best bet was to rely on her Dead Bone Pulse as her main form of combat and supplement it with seals and curses that she prepared in advance, ultimately her chakra would be left alone as a safety net. It was important to have enough just in case she needed to utilize a seal or curse in a tight situation or if she had already exhausted her pre-prepared seals. Furthermore she was banking on relying on her chakra in case she ran into someone who also relied on seals in order to unseal their techniques. Besides most of her body was a weapon after all so she felt that this would be the best approach to combat, if she needed extra power she could rely on her Geist Mode and she knew that in life or death battles if she managed to unlock the Kurogane side of her heritage she would be even more formidable. Finally she had the Eight Gates, though she felt that she probably would have to be in a rather desperate situation to use them or use them to soundly defeat someone quickly so she didn't suffer too much from the drawbacks.

Truthfully she was actually looking into other methods of power as she knew that she was rather reliant on her opponents not being a direct counter against her. She was a Ronin-Dakar and even though she was going to be learning certain things which wouldn't type cast her as one of those two she couldn't escape the fact that as a genin she would be pretty basic. Certain things she wouldn't be able to escape from especially when it came to things which she merely wouldn't be able to overcome through bones and brute force alone. Not to mention the things which she wouldn't be able to weather out simply because her bones just couldn't stack up to them. No. She refused to be placed in the same box as Ronin were; physical savants with a knack for genjutsu and various odd abilities, she was going to be better than that. She also didn't want to be viewed as just another Dakar; utilizing Life Release and Fabrication with their Core acting to mix other elements in with their Life Release for more unique techniques and Berserk Mode to amplify their brute strength when things got too tough. No she was more than that, through the power of seals she would be much more than either of the things she was born as. She likewise wouldn't be a normal Kurogane confident in their bones and transformations but reliant on Blood to do their true damage. No she was going to be something completely different than even those of her Family she was going to be her own unique person. Sure she might have some similarities but in the end she would be known as Praise not Fantom, Kurogane, Ronin or Dakar.  

She would look down at her hands as she realized she had blanked out again and gotten too into her head that she had started aimlessly rambling to herself. It was a habit which wasn't exactly telling of mental stability but Praise knew she was quite sane, it was just her ambition that was driving her to such lengths and she knew that she had the urge to prove herself. It was weird but she knew that so long as she committed to her goals her ambition would not lead her astray, sure she might in the end hurt people and many might suffer but she knew she would be content. Even if she ended up all by herself friendless and alone she would be content with her choices so long as she saw them all the way through. It was hesitation that would leave her with regrets because then she would be doing things in half measures, making sacrifices and betrayals all for nothing, no she couldn't flinch from what might happen in the future so long as her goal was reached. She would be known throughout the world or she would die trying, no such a thing was a cop out, she wouldn't die trying she would succeed and that was that.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1093
Words Req: 1000

Breakdown:

Both are approved

Sealing Specialist (Perfect)
-----------------------------------------------------------

Today was a bit different in comparison to what she usually did when brushing up on her sealing knowledge merely because she wasn't exactly studying seals at the moment well not in the strictest sense. No she was studying curses which were short for curse seals and it was unfortunate that there wasn't too much information on curse marks since they also fell under Juinjutsu albeit being more advanced. It was interesting to see the difference between the two as while both were comparable to fuinjutsu in regards to complexity their focus was something completely different. Both revolved around the concept of all juinjutsu namely; "techniques used to bring someone under the control of the user". But how they went about doing it was what made them different there wasn't much on Curse Marks but all that she knew about them was that they were able to bring ones abilities and actions under another individuals control under most circumstances and were considered forbidden within the republic due to the negative connotations they brought and the fact that it warped one's body drastically when they were used. On the other hand curse seals were the type that when activated they could inflict some sort of effect on a marked target ranging from pain to various statuses and as such while they weren't exactly forbidden they were frowned on if used on allies. Truthfully seals in general had that stigma simply because they were not very understood and suspicion not to mention their inherent danger made other shinobi distrustful of those who delved into what was considered to be the darker aspects of sealing. Still her parents were part of the Torture and Interrogation department and she was a member of the Fantom Family who besides being known for their unique abilities were generally quite familiar with seals.

No she had been exposed to juinjutsu as a child, usually if she was to be punished rather than strike her they would apply a pain inflicting juinjutsu to her body to be triggered when she acted up. It was one of the primary motivators to spark her interest and eventually when she learned that in order to remove it she needed to flare her chakra to break it through brute force she had been congratulated rather than reprimanded. It seemed like everything in her family was a lesson for the future, subtle training in order to prepare her for the outside world and she actually thought that was probably the closest thing she could tell to be the difference between shinobi and civilians. Civilian children lived in blissful ignorance for most of their lives whereas shinobi children while ignorant were being prepared for the harsh reality by their parents and guardians so that they could easily acclimate to what they would be taught in the academy. It was always said that those children who came from shinobi parents that joined the academy had an edge against the rest, and clan children were often the tops of their class or at least middle of the pack. She understood that keenly as she knew if she wasn't the product of her parents and say was a child of a civilian her life would be much, much different than it was now. Still it was everything that had happened to her as a child that lead her to be what she was now and she didn't regret it, after all it just motivated her to be able to make her own choices and decisions to affect her life and those around her.

One such step was learning all she could about juinjutsu so that she could effectively use it in battle and against her enemies in the future. Seals were all well and good but they were a long term investment outside of some niche situations, as they required a lot of preparation and often times were too costly to be used in battle if one didn't have large chakra reserves. Curses on the other hand were easier to use in combat and she realized that while they too were more effective with preparation it was more feasible to decide to focus on using them when fighting and saving the seals for when she had no other option or ran into a situation which using a seal would deal with the threat easily. It was obvious that the counter for those who relied too much on outside sources for combat such as ninja tools, summons and pets were able to be countered by those who delved in seals but anyone could fall prey to a nicely timed curse seal. It was one of the reasons why she didn't mind being stained by ink and constantly studying because she knew in the end it would only pay off for her when she runs into opponents that she can't handle on her own.

In such situations most people would say that was what she had teammates for but she knew that until they proved their worth they could not be relied on. So in order to ensure her survival she would have to look for methods which she could preform on her own, even if it took a lot of time to set up. Curses were a nice catch all for that and using them in combination with her seals and eventually when she was confident in her knowledge of the first two, barriers. She was actually itching to get into those techniques as she always felt that barriers were the type of technique that were quite underestimated. Most people didn't realize just how useful a properly placed barrier could be and as a Fantom she didn't underestimate their power especially since her family rose into prominence due to their ability to bypass most of the weaker ones. Barriers for the most part were very effective at keeping things out and even defensive ninjutsu paled in comparison to the defensive might of a barrier. The sheer destruction one was capable of halting was enough to make anyone pause and techniques which destroyed them were so specific that it was uncommon to see them out in the field. Yet when up against one often times it was enough to make someone reconsider their stance on them, it only got more interesting when one began to mix them with seals or curses as some of the strongest barriers in the world were a result of the fusion between those types of techniques.

Training Complete.
Word Count: 1081
Word Count Req: 1000

Breakdown:

Sealing Specialist (Perfect)
-----------------------------------------------------------

She was still on her juinjutsu kick as the topic was much too broad for her to merely spend a week or two covering it to the point of mastery, no while fuinjutsu had given her the ability to delve into it with some level of understanding in comparison to a straight novice there was still much to learn. Truthfully while the two technique types were similar in structure they were as different as night and day when it came to their core principles, sealing involved the storing or removal of something from something else. What those somethings could be were pretty much anything depending how diligent and skilled one was and there were rumors that with enough understanding of the laws that govern the universe with fuinjutsu anything was possible. But Juinjutsu was different, with juinjutsu everything had a price, it was very cause and effect related and while it can be summed up towards inflicting your will upon another individual it was a very simplistic explanation which didn't truly explain the limitations of juinjutsu.

Curse seals were known for various things such as inflicting status and granting power which came at the price of either ones well being be it mentally or otherwise. All curse seals had a price usually the most common types requiring the victim to undergo something specific for their effect to manifest and they remained in such a state until they were either unsealed, forcibly overpowered or the effect didn't take place and thus they could not trigger. However the more complex ones dealt with something beyong just statuses but rather used ones natural limits as their price, eroding one's sanity, emotions, basic instincts or even stamina in order to bring forth their effects. These were still categorized as curse seals even to the degree that it was possible to use juinjutsu to grant an individual physical power or bolstering the strength of a specific technique type similar to an affinity boost however the reason why such things were never quite done was simply because the price for such a thing were always worse off than the power it gave. While seals were capable of doing anything as long as one had enough preparation and materials, curse seals were capable of doing anything so long as the price could make the exchange feasible. It was as if fuinjutsu was the long complicated way of doing things whereas juinjutsu were short-cuts however while both were dangerous if preformed correctly a seal would never endanger your life whereas even if done perfectly there was always some harm done to something when a curse seal came about.

It got truly interesting when juinjutsu was taken to it's absolute peak which most knew as Curse Marks, which were essentially the ultimate expression of a juinjutsu user's skill. It was said that those capable of creating them were even rarer than a seal master capable of sealing away powerful creatures. The reasoning for it was quite simple truthfully as if everything in juinjutsu had a price then the powerful curse marks had to have something truly obscene and like fuinjutsu those who properly delved into juinjutsu were so few that it was shrouded in mystery to begin with. There wasn't much on curse marks that she found in the book other than the fact that they existed and some obscure references to the fact that they were evil and forbidden within the Republic. Still she was fascinated by the fact that such powerful things actually existed in the first place and being the type of person she was she did want to see if she could discover them and maybe even find a way to use them to make a name for herself. Still there were as many sub-divisions of juinjutsu use as there were with fuinjutsu.

Usually the case was that fuinjutsu was broadly classified into storage seals, element seals, inkan seals, inscription seals, unsealing seals and other seals, the only commonality between all six types was that there was an informal seventh division known as modification seals whose primary purpose was to modify the other six types in order to bring out their true power. She was familiar four of the the seven types; storage seals being the most basic and thus easiest for her to learn about, modification seals being the second thing any novice seal master would learn about, element seals purely because that was what she was the most interested in due to it's ability to grant elemental chakra and finally she knew of only one other seal namely the Evil Sealing Method as her mother told her that some members of her clan were branded with them when they lost themselves to their inner beast. However just like normal seals, cursed seals were also split into their sub-divisions namely; status curses, tier curses, modification curses, effect curses, curse marks, layered curses & curse techniques. However in this case she only personally knew two out of the six showing how much more obscure juinjutsu was in comparison to it's fuinjutsu counterpart. Then again she was still a genin but she felt like she knew quite a lot about the sealing arts in comparison to any other genin who wasn't fortunate enough to be born an inkan. The two she knew about were status curses which were the most common type of juinjutsu and modification curses which just like modification seals were used to modify existing curses to bring out their full potential. Truthfully modification seals and curses were very similar as with the right combination of modifications any base curse or seal could be twisted to suit any given situation. It was why the sealing arts were known to be preparation types, namely the type of technique which it takes time to prepare them ahead of time before they are used in battle. Truthfully she really wanted to delve into barrier ninjutsu which was another one of those preparation types as even though most of the time they could be used in the middle of battle they truly shined when they were prepared ahead of time and allowed to grow into power. Those types of barriers were always extremely powerful, and she knew that it was quite likely that all of the five hidden villages in the republic had some of them to aid in their defenses whether to protect or conceal certain areas away from those who wished to bring their populace harm.

All of this reading made her really consider joining the Logistics & Support Division as she knew that they were the types that were most heavily involved with the sealing arts and it would further her mastery of them more than the Torture & Interrogation Department but if she could become an ANBU then she would have the best of both worlds since the ANBU Corps was the most elite division and thus must have the highest mastery of the shinobi arts hands down.

Training Complete
Word Count: 1163
Words Req: 1000

Breakdown:

Le 'proved

Sealing Specialist (Perfect)
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A rather interesting point had been brought up concerning how she spent her time and what not, it had been brought up by her aunt as she was curious whether or not Praise had bonds within the village outside of their family. Unfortunately Praise found early on in life that it was impossible to lie to that woman not that she enjoyed lying in the first place and she began to explain exactly what she did on a day to day basis. She had just began getting research into barriers finding that barriers was the general name for a series of related technique types. The original type is known as Barrier Ninjutsu, however Barriers referred to all of the following; Barrier Ninjutsu, Barrier Genjutsu, Barrier Nintaijutsu, Barrier Fuinjutsu, Barrier Juinjutsu, Barrier Kinjutsu, Barrier Senjutsu & Barrier Nuinjutsu. To those well versed in barriers these different types made up most of what would be called the different styles of barriers. This is because barriers in general were split between 8 basic styles namely; protection, deflection, sensory, restriction, personal, mental, sealed & Inkan. Just like the closely related seals and curses barriers would differ greatly over which type they were and true master of this technique art would showcase just how many types one knew.

In her case she only knew of 5 styles which in comparison to her seals and curses she actually had a firmer grasp on barriers, however when it came to the various types she wasn't that well versed in anything but Barrier Ninjutsu, Barrier Fuinjutsu & Barrier Juinjutsu. This is because while the former is the most basic type of barrier, the second and third that she knew of were closely related. In fact once one knew about Barrier Fuinjutsu it was very easy to learn about Barrier Juinjutsu since they follow the same organization and set up seeing as both required one to place the barrier tags around a location to set up points of the barrier.  Because of that she knew about sealed style barriers pretty early on as that was essentially the point about them however despite their strength which was due to their ability to be set up in advance they had the most weaknesses out of all the barrier types. This is because, in addition to the standard barrier weaknesses which include barrier destruction techniques, space-time techniques & intangibility, they have a weakness to unsealing techniques and the removal of the placed barrier tags which disrupts the barrier.

Another two styles of barriers that Praise was familiar with were protection & restriction as both were fairly similar, enough to have those not in the know to consider them the same thing. This was false as while they seemed to do the same thing they had different functions. Restriction barriers revolve around the most basic concept of a barrier the prevention of entry by something outside of the barrier, however it can also include the restriction of exit by something within the barrier as well as both at the same time. Restriction barriers accomplish that in various ways with the most common merely encasing a location with something that can't be passed through though other methods are fair game such as preventing targets from getting close to it at all or even immobilizing those within it's confines. Protection barriers on the other hand take that prevention and apply it towards threats with these barriers being geared at resisting damage from outside sources, within the barrier itself or even in some cases from both sides of the barrier with the inside  being less resistant than the outside. This is what is commonly referred as a barrier ninjutsu as protection barriers are the most common style of barrier and often aspects of this style are implemented in the others.  This is made apparent when it comes to reflection barriers which share a similarity with them albeit rather than resisting damage it serves to redirect it often causing opposing techniques to be knocked off course or even back at the original sender. These are more counter=offensive in nature as a result and a sign that a Barrier specialist is advancing in their studies as most require pinpoint timing or knowledge of an opponent's power in order to effectively use them in battle.

Sensory Barriers were actually taught to her by her father as he was well versed in illusions and thus when he was younger the third teammate in his squad made use of them to all both him and her mother to fight effectively under any condition. Her father primarily set up illusions and used family techniques while her mother relied on her senses to navigate and her mastery of the Dance of Kaguya to dispatch enemies, thus the third teammates possessed sensory barriers and heavy use of concealment. They were an interesting team for sure but while her mother didn't really pick up new stuff from either of her teammates, instead learning more from their sensei, Praise's father did share technique knowledge with their teammate before his death. She didn't really remember him all that much but when she was three years old she attended his funeral  and her parents were very distraught so he must of been a close friend. Still it brought her father joy to pass on things from him and thus she learned that some of the most powerful barriers weren't actually used for offense or defense but rather for sensory use. This is because barriers were able to encase large areas allowing one to detect things within them and categorize them often times using the barrier as an extension or compliment to their natural sensory abilities. She always felt that she was too inexperienced to be able to rely on her Kurogane senses like her mother so learning such techniques would be valuable for her to not be caught off guard.

It was unfortunate for her that in her haste to explain what she had been doing she had completely missed the point that her aunt was trying to make, and would be interrupted before she could continue her detailed explanation of barriers. Her aunt had told her that it was important to have friends and people that she could rely on besides the members of her family as without it she wouldn't be able to go far in life. Praise recognized the meaning behind her aunt's words but she disagreed sure no person can be an island but she didn't trust a lot of people and didn't intend on giving her trust to everyone she met. Heck she still didn't trust anyone on her squad even after receiving a letter in the mail asking if she wished to go on a mission with one of them.

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Training Complete
Word Count: 1129
Words Req: 1000

Breakdown:

Approved