Guardians of Graves

Xena Taki would eventually lead Gado to a large temple of sorts which had a gate with the same symbol as the Daimyo of the land of Graves. "We have arrived." she said touching the gate and radiating a specific type of chakra which would cause it to open. She would motion for him to follow him and they would enter into a courtyard of sorts where eight other individuals seemed to be waiting for them. They were arranged in two rows each with four members standing side by side, and Xena would tell him to stop following her before she walked past the others and stood at the further position away from him revealing that she was the current leader of the Guardians of Graves.

"This is our base of operations, as you can see it is quite opulent having everything we would wish for in a second home. But don't worry if you prefer a more spartan set up your room doesn't have any decorations and you can feel free to not use the hot springs and stick to the training grounds and throwing range." she said with a smile clearly joking with him before gesturing to the others all of which were looking at him while she spoke.

"These are the remaining members of the Guardian Shinobi, I'm the longest tenured member, followed by Kiba and Ayaka. After which Raul, Beatrice and Clyde who all joined at the same time and finally Terri who joined a few months before you were noticed by our Daimyo-sama. Typically we do a thing where we introduce ourselves and briefly state what we can do just so we can get a passing knowledge of our comrades skill sets. I'll start my name is Xena Taki, I'm a Ronin and a member of the Ai Branch of my clan. I specialize in Medical Ninjutsu, Medical Kinjutsu, Taijutsu, Nintaijutsu, Shurikenjutsu and my Ronin Ability." she said with a smile prompting a chuckle from another one of the Guardian Shinobi.

"So if you haven't realized it by now, you can be vague on purpose as the best way for us to know what you can do is going to happen via sparring. Anyways I'm Kiba Kyojin, you probably haven't heard of my clan before but suffice to say that's why I'm this huge. Anyways I specialize in Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, Shurikenjutsu, Fabrication & Kinjutsu, pretty much if you need someone to break something I'm your guy heh heh." Kiba said being at the top left and actually was sitting down on the ground as otherwise he would tower over everyone else. He was wearing an oversized sash but all in all he seemed to have a relatively simple outfit comprised of a loincloth and bandaged foot wraps. He had long shaggy hair and an unkempt beard in addition to a snaggle tooth which was revealed when he chuckled.

"Ayaka Suisho. Barrier Ninjutsu, Ninjutsu, Shurikenjutsu, Genjutsu & Taijutsu." The woman opposite Kiba had her hair in a high ponytail and was clad in an elaborate kimono with extra long sleeves which hid her hands. Her eyes likewise seemed to be closed but judging how she turned to talk to him perhaps she just had rather squinty eyes. After her a young looking boy would raise his hand before speaking up. "I'm Raul Hokkai. It's nice to meet you Gado-kun I hope you stick around for a long time. I'm a user of Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Kinjutsu & Nintaijutsu. Oh and I have a summoning contract isn't that cool." Raul said with a thumbs up, he looked pretty normal as he was wearing a beige tracksuit with a large scroll affixed to his back.

"We're Beatrice & Clyde, we're twins so we typically work together. Oh and we are from the Shinto Clan. We use Kinjutsu, Shurikenjutsu, Genjutsu, Juinjutsu, Barrier Ninjutsu, Taijutsu & Fuinjutsu. But we won't tell you who uses what." Beatrice and Clyde looked and even sounded identical even though they were of different genders, they dressed completely different though with Beatrice wearing a long trench coat which covered her entire body apart from her legs which were clad in knee high boots. Clyde on the other hand wore a Hakagakure Flak Jacket and grey three-quarter baggy shorts with shinobi sandals and bandages which obscured the bottom half of his face.

"And that leaves just me, I'm Terri Jiko. I have to say it's good no longer being the rookie. Now maybe Raul and Kiba will actually start calling me by my name now." she said causing Kiba to laugh while Raul smiled a bit wider especially when the twins started snickering. "Oh I use Genjutsu, Nen Tech, Kenjutsu, Taijutsu & Nentaijutsu.  I heard you also have Psionic Release so we probably might spar so they can see how your use of it differs from mine." she said grabbing one of her large pig-tails with her hands and twirling her hair somewhat shyly. Her outfit consisted of a corset with was complemented by a fur lined jacket and a ruffled skirt plated with metal which completely obscured her feet.

"Now it's your turn Gado feel free to be as vague or in-depth as you wish no pressure."

With Gado walking over to the large temple, he maintained a sort of starry look in his eyes as if he was a tourist. The place was pretty huge, and it had somewhat of a wholesome design to it. From what he thought, the person who employed him must have a sense of nostalgia for places like this. As the newest member of the guardian of graves, he had a bit of shyness with a mixture of excitement as he was getting ready to meet the rest of his coworkers. It was probably the reason why he ate to his limit so much before the trip as a form of stress eating. It never really ate anywhere, so at the very least, it was fun to see him eat a buffet in such a fashion.

When he entered the courtyard, Gado saw eight other individuals. They were more than likely the ones who stood as his seniors, so he did get a bit quiet when he approached them. Gado wanted to make sure that he didn't say anything stupid and embarrass himself in front of them. They had everything they could need, which could make Gado feel like he was at home. A hot springs as well, Gado never went inside of a hot spring before. He also took a good whiff of everyone to get a hold of their scent for future meetings.


"I hope I can make some friends here, I only really had one or two. "

It was maybe the first time Gado spoke so honestly since coming here with the group starting to introduce themselves. For starters, the woman that was accompanying Gado the most was Xena Taki. She was the longest member under this daimyo. She had a lot of medical knowledge and even had a special ronin ability, that was interesting.

Kiba was also interesting, which made Gado want to say something initially.

"You might not be famous around here but the aura of mystery suits you. You're strong, like me. I mean, assuming you mean physically. We have that in common, right?"

Then there was Ayaka Suisho. They were the individuals that used crystal release. He never saw one in action, but he figured that the crystal could be made incredibly hard. "A suisho, I think I saw one at least once. Wow, well, I only heard of how strong one was but I never met one in person."

As for Raul, Gado actually walked over to him and looked around him. After seemingly giving up, he scratched his head.

"Where's your partner? I kind of heard that the Hokkai always had a companion with them. It must be nice to have a best friend, I'd like to meet them sometime. Also, a summoning contract is pretty awesome, don't sell yourself short. I mean, I don't have one. And thank's for the welcome."

After realizing he moved instinctively after that bout, Gado walked back over to stand next to Xena, only because they spent some time with each other.

The twins' way of talking kind of made Gado whistle. He wondered how they could do that.

"How did you learn to speak like that? So no matter what are you guys going to say the same thing? Do you like the same kind of food too? My great ancestor was Liara Shinto, so you don't need to be shy around me...I mean... even if I am. " He knew about the Shinto and how strong they could be, Gado wasn't too surprised and had a smile on his face.

The last one was the most memorable, but not for the reason that you would think. All it took was hearing the name Jiko to remind him of Kozzen and how their friendship faltered. Gado seemed to be absent in his face as he was thinking about something, but he wasn't upset. He said he would work on it and forget about that stuff, that was his own self promise.

"Terri Jiko, Nice to meet you. You can do something I never heard about, nen. I have no idea what that is honestly, but you are right, we both have psionic release. "

Finally, it was about time that Gado introduces himself and explain what he can do.

"My name is Gado Kurogane, I can use ninjutsu, soul tech, and taijutsu. That's about all I can do. I'm immune to genjutsu, but I can't use it either. I'm very strong but my diet is crazy, and I have great pride in becoming a shield that can be used to protect myself and others from harm. I have a dojutsu, and..... umm... it's called the nature eye. Like Terri said, I also have the psionic release, but it's actually also embedded in my skeletal system. My bones are a different color because of it. And, if I work really hard, taijutsu and stuff like that become very easy for me to learn. Umm...... sometimes I get angry but it allowed me to tap into something that's connected to my spirit animal recently, the Deviljo. I guess i'll call it rage arts. Oh, and I summon shadow clones. I'm actually quite fond of them, I do that a lot. I can also link mental consciousness so that we can talk privately."

"It is likely that you'll make more than friends here depending on how long you stay after all a Guardian Shinobi is the type of post you can remain in until retirement. As far as I'm concerned so long as you keep up your strength you don't ever have to leave." Xena said with some of the others nodding while those who hadn't been guardians for as long either looking wistful or shrugging as it wasn't something they had thought about as of yet.

"Ha, yes kid I'm plenty strong though I'll bet your the only one here who will eventually outstrip me in sheer durability. It'll be nice to have another wall on the team." Kiba said taking Gado's comments in stride as he felt the young shinobi was someone he could probably get along with.

"Hmph do not judge me based the Suisho you might of seen in your exams. I am nothing like the rest of my clan." Ayaka said before walking off as now that she had introduced herself she wasn't interested in sticking around any longer. After her a young looking boy would raise his hand before speaking up. "Ah don't take it personally, rookie. She's a bit touchy when it comes to her clan. As for my partners well they are in the summoning realm, I'm part of the Hokkai Branch who use summons rather than pets. Raul said with a thumbs down at first when talking about Ayaka before he changed it back to a thumbs up when talking about himself.

"Liara Shinto? Interesting then we share something in common. It was nice to meet you but we will be going now." The twins wouldn't answer his first question due to honing in on what he said about being related to Liara Shinto someone of whom both twins had respect for due to their own reasons. However they weren't the type to linger around and chat as such like Ayaka they would head out as they had no interest in sticking around to continue talking.

"You have no idea what Nen is? Well I'll have to fix that then for sure because Nen is awesome!" Terri said with a fist pump glad that she could immediately score some senpai points with Gado since Nen was something she was well acquainted with, she didn't know if he would be able to grasp more advanced concepts like Nuinjutsu but she probably could help him unlock his Nen Nodes and from there he'd at least have more to work with than what he had already.

"Interesting skill set, I was observing you in the exams so some of that I was aware of, but it's good that you still had some things that you weren't as obvious with. Terri has volunteered to teach you Nen, but before that we shall have to educate you in what it means to be a Guardian Shinobi and all that entails. Unlike back in the Republic you'll be in charge of your own training, while fellow Guardians will help you if they choose to as such are there any goals you wish to work towards with enough merit anything can be obtained by Daimyo-sama." she said essentially informing him of the main perks of being a Guardian Shinobi as due to their direct line to the Daimyo they likewise received special attention that those in the Republic would never get.

For better or worse, Gado was received rather moderately. Some individuals treated it as a sort of duty and left as soon as introductions were over. Others showed some sort of friendly companionship and were a little reserved. But most of all, Gado had a good vibe from those people and had a good scent imprint from them. He didn't think that he would stay in the guardians for the remainder of his shinobi career, but it would probably be a good gig since it's hard to get in the first place.

"hm.."

Gado did want to test his strength when he gets stronger to see if he could be the current heir of the Kurogane clan. It was probably shrouded in mystery as to whose names were being thrown into the mix, but Gado would have wanted his name to be up there too.

"I would definitely want to learn some nen after I learn the basics here. I don't have too many ideas as to how to improve myself, but I do have a few. I won't bother the person we are protecting too much, unless it's really important. Even then, I might be a bit apprehensive of asking unless I felt as if I deserved to at least ask. But I would appreciate the help of my new comrades if you guys are willing."

Besides that, he got to work.

"So we can begin now, I'm ready to learn."

"If you are ready to begin first you must meditate with us, this is key. While you do so repeat this name in your mind. Amitābha. Repeat it constantly until you can reach enlightenment." Xena said taking up a meditative pose while the others would do the same though Terri would actually run off for a bit before returning with a cup of water with a leaf placed on top of it placing it down before slipping into a meditative pose as well. "Do not think of anything but that and sure enough it will eventually become clear." she said and sure enough if he did what they said and didn't question the logic after about an hour of meditation he would notice a qualitive change with his chakra.

Spoiler:

Gado did what he was told and meditated, figuring that it would be best to listen to what they had to say and follow their lead instead of asking any more questions. So that's what he did, he sat down and mediated with them until something started to happen. Much to his surprise, something did start to happen

"Amitābha...."

---

"Amitābha...."

---

"Amitābha...."

It was around the end of the hour where Gado managed to reach enlightenment, even though he didn't fully understand what he achieved. All he felt was that something happened, with things being a lot more clear to him.


"I think i did it...."

Gado said as he opened his eyes.

"what was that? I never felt like that before..."

"That is the Gift of the Hermit Group, a type of chakra meditation which alters how your chakra functions in a profound manner. We all possess it, and even after you leave the Guardians you will retain it, you can say it is how the Daimyo ensures our loyalty in a sense. It's nothing insidious but you'll find you are more connected to your fellow Guardians and will be incapable of doing harm to the Daimyo and those who share his lineage." Xena said after Gado opened his eyes, and he could see that other than her only Terri was still meditating with the rest having left sometime within the hour.

"The long explanation is something that you will discover in time, you must meditate on this concept on your own time to truly refine this chakra within your body after you do so some of it's higher concepts and expression will make themselves available to you." she said with a soft smile before turning to Terri and nodding. "You'll be in the care of Terri for the time being, she'll show you to your personal quarters and after that a tour around our grounds. Remember your self-improvement is largely up to you while you are here and while there are various resources available to you, you have to take the initiative and grasp them." she would finish speaking and stand up to begin walking away with Terri coming out of meditation once she left the courtyard.

"Phew, meditation always makes me a little tired. Oh I'm supposed to show you around right follow me. Feel free to ask questions about places if you want I'll try my best to explain. Oh and maybe after your tour we can start working on getting you Nen." Terri said after she got up and stretched for a bit.

Guardian Shinobi Dwelling:

"The gift of the hermit group, huh, this is the first time that I had about this. I guess that meditation really works wonders, I would have done this a long time ago if I knew that I could achieve this. Maybe it would have helped me calm down in my most stressful situations or something. "

The whole loyalty thing over the royal family kind of went over his head. Perhaps it ensured that he would never betray his fellow guardians or the Daimyo. Which is fair, it might suck for people to get in for the sake of wanting to hurt the people that they were assigned to protect. Such a failsafe like this would make the job much harder if that is the case.

"Ok, self-improvement is my responsibility and Terri is in charge for now. Got it. "

Gado said this with a small salute as Xena left and he turned to terri as she became his tour guide.

"I do have a few questions. For starters, have you ever met the Daimyo in person? What are they like? Maybe after getting a feel for their personality, i would know why they picked me? In places, would the most important place here be where the Daimyo is? Also, do the hot springs are mixed bath? I'm a little shy, so if i can go later when everyone is asleep i would. Especially if it has some healing powers..oh...and food. I'm sorry but, some changes with my body has made me a bit of a glutton. Is there a chef or a good amount of food?"

Terri would nod along as Gado seemed to be thinking out loud though she would turn when he asked her a question. "Yeah, I've met Daimyo-sama. You'll meet him soon enough but we do not share living quarters with him as the palace is in the capital, usually we have couple of us stationed with him and we rotate as he has his own guards. We protect him primarily when he is visiting other lands or is outside of republic territory for whatever reason." Terri said while showing him where they ate their meals, she would then move from there to show where they bathed as there were private showers in addition to a mixed bath. "Yep we have pretty good cooks, and it's part of our budget that we get every month. If you want to eat more you just need to ask and it'll be adjusted for you but you'll likewise get more missions to compensate for that." She would also show him where the various dwellings were and point out which hut belonged to which member of the guardians as well as their training grounds and ended her tour in front of the hut which would belong to him. nk]"Right now it's pretty bare but we had the things in your possession sent over from your home in your former village. Feel free to customize it as you like, just know if you don't plan on staying here permanently when you leave you'll have to pay to put it back how you found it heh." she said with a small laugh as she knew she had shown him a bunch of places and he might be a bit overwhelmed. "Do you want to settle in, should we start up trying to unlock your Nen or would you like to bang?" she said rather casually her facial expression being difficult for him to discern whether or not she was being serious or not.

"Oh, it's a guy, huh. I kind of wondered what it would be like. Is he like eight feet tall with muscles and tattoos or something? Does he have a booming voice and maybe floats or something? But in all honesty, I'm looking forward to meeting my employer. "

He also wondered if there was a place in his room where he could hide all of his makeout paradise books. If there was one thing that he didn't want people to discover, it was the fact that he was secretly taking advice on dealing with the opposite sex from a fictional character.

"More missions for more food, well... I'll do whatever it is that you would want me to so I have no problem with that. I usually just go along with what is going on, I'm not a difficult guy. "

She was talking about the rooms and how to customize them, so Gado was already thinking in regards to hide the secret bookshelf in his actual bookshelf. Maybe if he covers it with complicated books or his old medical books, no one would take an interest? Or maybe comics? Not a lot of people like those as much as he would.

"One of these days I am trying to be the heir of the Kurogane. Or, I actually don't know. The bravest thing I can do is.....take up a scary responsibility or leadership position. That's what I can think of, so if I can do that and be here that'll be fine with me. But there are still some things I don't get. "

Scratching his head, Gado was left with an ultimatum. Settling in, studying nen, or banging Terri.

"Bang ......bang......hold on a second, I think I heard that term before. " Sneaking off to a corner as he pulled up a book and rapidly flipping through the pages and stopped at it.



"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!! This scene!!! Huh, but how did I set off the flags?"

Putting the book away, Gado laughed nervously as he decided to test Terri a bit as he heightened his sense of smell while lowering his sense of taste. He was trying to make sure that calm

"Ok Gado, do it just like the hero in "Make-Out Paradise - Diary Of The Handsome Devil."

He then swung his coat around his shoulder and looked at Terri deep in her eyes.


"We can do it as many times as you want, it doesn't count unless I satisfy you."

Meanwhile, In Gado's mind.

"Nailed it, that's exactly how he did it!"

Terri was rather pleased that Gado had taken the hint and she would immediately jump him after closing the door behind her as she entered his hut. An hour later both of them were naked under his covers and she would turn to him and would tap him on the head as the whole reason why she had offered to sleep with him was to help him unlock Nen as she had a specific knack for unlocking the mind through a powerful orgasm. "Do you feel anything different, in your mind I mean I'm pretty sure you mananage to open your Nen Nodes when you came." she said waiting for his response before turning and then handing him a glass of water with a leaf floating in it before getting out from the covers and getting dressed. "You should try to channel your Nen into that just focus on doing it like how you would your chakra except it's originating from your mind." she asked knowing fully well that depending on his Nen it would reveal to her what his Nuinjutsu type was. This didn't mean he would be able to immediately utilize Nuinjutsu no she would have to teach him Shingen-Ryu Kung-Fu to get him in the proper mindset to do so but it would be nice to see what his type was before they got that started. Besides she also got something out of this beyond sex, so in her mind she figured helping him with this was a fair trade.

Spoiler:

"Huh?"

And before you know it, an hour later.



Even though Gado managed to figure out the lines word for word, and even tried to capture the persona of the hero of the story, there was nothing that prepared him for what happened next. It was his first time with a woman, it wasn't as if he was optimistic about whether it was going to be a super-duper special moment with him setting the move. It was like a bit of a surprise that came out of nowhere, a pleasant surprise if anything. Did it mean anything to her? He wondered, but he wouldn't say anything about it. Maybe it did, due to the tap on his head and Gado somehow feeling a lot different than before. Was that the reason? Was he able to use Nen because of it?

It was quite unorthodox, but it did work. Admittedly, Gado was a little distracted from looking at Terri's body, but he quickly looked back to the glass and started channeling the energy he was feeling in a similar fashion to him channeling Nen. The volume of the water definitely changed.

"Oh, it's spilling!"

"That's not the only thing...be right back!" Terri said quickly rushing to the bathroom and after about five minutes she would come back seemingly having freshened up a bit. "Right, so that means you are an Enhancer, that's pretty good as it's the most balanced Nuinjutsu type it'll help you if you want to delve into that later on. But do you feel something different? That new energy you feel is called Nen, it's a mental energy source and is really powerful when used correctly even if it isn't as versatile as chakra. I can't tell you how to use it exactly as everyone utilizes Nen for various things, but I can say that it's best when used to combat other mental sources such as genjutsu and fabrication as well as when it's used as a substitute for chakra when using Psionic Release. I personally prefer to use mine for augmenting my taijutsu and kenjutsu." she said smirking when she saw he was still kind of shocked from what just happened, it probably was his first time.

"So cute." she thought to herself as she loved corrupting virgins but she would refrain from toying with him since he was a fellow comrade. "If you have any questions, you can ask me and I'll try to help you out. Oh and if you ever wanna mess around again feel free to drop by my place so long as you know this is strictly casual I'm not looking for a boyfriend wouldn't work well with my seduction missions I'm the primary information gatherer for Daimyo-sama after all."

"An enhancer? That's what it's called?"

Gado was thinking about what was being said about the nuinjutsu and nen energy. In a way, Gado already had an ability to stop mental techniques, and his bones can actually attack and defend against fabrications as well. The energy was definitely different, Gado couldn't describe it in words but it was like having a separate faucet in the bathroom to access another form of energy. Learning the little things of what it can argue was also good to know, like their physical techniques or using it with their Psionic release. He had a few ideas, and he hoped that it would work out for him.

"The primary informant for the Daimyo, that's pretty good that you have such a hard job. I know that there are some times when you might have to do things you don't want to do, i'll try not to be too much of a bother about this. Don't worry, and about the nuinjutsu and stuff about nen, I'm glad I can still ask you for help. I definitely want to enhance a few things, maybe this was a good choice for me.

"I'm glad you understand, and I'm always happy to help a fellow Psionic user reach their true potential, it's a shame that Nen isn't as widespread as it could be though that's probably because most Nen user's aren't shinobi. Oh speaking of stuff to do, if you are interested in helping me out there have been reports of criminals starting to do business at the capital. I've already gathered intel on their usual haunts but I don't have the stopping power to really do anything about them, while I would ask one of the others you are new thus they won't know what'll hit them and it'll be a nice way to get you some renown as the newest Guardian. Of course you don't have to accept now, it's not a rush job and I'm sure some of the others have things they want you to do." she said summoning a scroll which she would twirl in her hand holding it out for him but if he didn't take it she would nod before giving him a goodbye wave and walking out of his quarters to leave him to his own devices. From there he had various options; whether to find some other Guardians to talk to, head to the mission board to find some general missions issued by the Daimyo's family members, the training ground to brush up on some new skills or maybe spar with one of the Guardians who were currently there, the armory to put in weapon orders or add blueprints or raw materials to the armory for general use.

"Sure, i'll tag along."

Gado said simply as he decided to follow about and probably give her some support.

"Since you helped me, I'll help you. It's best if we continue that trend instead of me wandering about. However, a little more detail in regards to it? So I'm the muscle in this situation right? Just make sure that they aren't able to operate again under any circumstances?"

Taking the scroll, Gado would read closely.

"I don't really need anything, I'm ready to go whenever."

"Oh? You're willing to go right away? Alright, let me get you the scroll which has the mission details. What I've gathered is that they mainly operate out of whore houses, taverns and gambling dens. They blend in pretty well with the general populace but it's obvious that they have some sort of training. They aren't shinobi that's for sure, and it's best if we try to nip them in the bud if possible, otherwise we'll have to find out a way to deal with them." she said walking over to her own hut and going inside for a moment before emerging with a scroll. "Like I said before they know me in the capital so I won't be able to go with you immediately, pretty much just want you to head there, check out some of the places and see if you can get an idea what we are messing with. But if they attack you feel free to knock them around, but don't kill them they are worth more to us captive because we can get more information that way." she said before pulling out a map and handing it to him. "In case you get lost, though you really can't miss the Capital it's not that far from here just head to the North-East."

Decision Time:

After taking the map and briefly looking over it, Gado decided that it was time to head out. In a way, he was suited for something like this, and he was already well-fed. This was probably a good chance to show his comrades what he was made of and handle his first major mission. So with that being said, Gado was looking forward to going out into the field and get some of his stuff done, with the hopes that it all worked out well.

"I'll get a move on then, i'll let you know how it goes if you have to stay far back due to them being able to recognize you."

-exit