The Development of Two Pillars, Part I: Sprouting in Stone

It had been... how many days?

Katsumi felt the fatigue within his bones, his muscles were strained, and he collapsed backwards after chugging the last remainder of water that he kept within himself. The last few days he'd done nothing but excavate a cavern using his bare hands, and well.. a shovel. On top of that, he'd also done a great amount by perfecting his Blast Taijutsu to create the cavern, rough excavations of extreme heat and damage cleared sections of stone a fist at a time.

Katsumi's will had created as large an explosion as he could, and when the space was large enough to clear out of the way -or- his chakra had given out, he would turn to physical labor in order to shovel out large chunks of stone and dump them over the mountains edge. It had been days, weeks, leading up to this moment when his makeshift training ground would be completed, his body weak and trembling as he lay on his back in the empty cavern while staring up at the ceiling.

The entrance was carved out in the mountain the exact number of degrees away from the rising sun as was the cost of his first drink tab with Masami. A number of little significance but converted to degrees pushed him to the east 27 degrees. The entrance was little more than a cylindrical cut out, just over 7 feet in height and only a few feet in width. This entrance was merely a tunnel, dimly lit by the external sun before some 20 meters in, it would expand greatly, into a 50 meter by 50 meter auditorium that Katsumi had carved out single handedly in the heart of the mountain itself. There were a few torches that lit the edges of the walls, just enough that things were visible and the immediate exterior of the mountain had cool air and a gorgeous view of a forest that had sprung up at the base of the mountain and nearly covered their entrance.

Katsumi figured it was as safe and secluded as possible so that they could... train, in peace. Most things were illegal within the village such as using jutsu or brandishing a weapon except for in the training grounds and even then, it felt in a way... restricted still? Even if it wasn't explicitly listed as such. He wouldn't imagine that bigger and better explosions and perfections of his techniques or skills would go over very well. Pushing himself to his limits within the walls wouldn't do but here he could let loose and push himself to the farthest reaches of his skills.

Still, Masami seemed decently strong otherwise and had an interesting Kekkai Genkai to boot with it or maybe it was just that bald head of his making him look much older. In any case, Katsumi laid on the ground there and felt his eyes begin to fade away, his water depleted and the cavern... mostly excavated, it would be good enough for the time being. His eyes flickered shut and for a moment, he felt the utter soreness throughout his body and the shock to his system. It was like his chakra network had been scarred and his muscles had been pulled around like taffy on a peg. His mind faded for a bit, Masami knew where their new training ground would be, he would just nap and wait for him to get there.

Not really minding that he'd set for him to come see it two days from now and not later that night. It didn't matter though, he'd really perfected out a whole new set of Bakuton jutsu this afternoon finishing the cavern and it felt good to just melt away into the stone for a bit.


[630 words]
[Training Confinement, Mechanism Dismantling, Double Strike, and Pounce. 1 C-rank, 2 D-rank, 1 E-rank customs = 600 words]

This guy sure knows how to pick the most remote spot. I can barely see the walls.

This was Masami's thought as he hiked through the winding mountain trail. His new region appropriate attire helped to cut down on the wind slicing through him like knives. He had become adjusted to living out of a hotel room until he could start to make some actual money for himself. But he was more glad to have made the journey to his actual homeland.

During his stay he had met up with an interesting fellow named Katsumi. They both seemed like lost spirits that were both drawn back to a hurt and recovering homeland. For the past couple of weeks, Katsumi had been talking up that he was making his own secret spot away from the eyes of the village in order to really train. Masami would have just wrote it off as a small shack off somewhere in the back alleys of the village, not some remote forest near the base of a mountain. He was given his instructions to find the location and this promise of a getaway.

Masami would soon find the piles of rock scattered around the trees. The rocks seemingly scorched or blasted by something then piled up wherever it seemed convenient. The further down the path he traveled, the more scattered rocks he would find. Eventually he would reach the hole in the mountain. The entrance was tall enough that he could enter uninhibited but the torches that Katsumi used, all seemed to have burnt out. Either he was not here or forgot to light the entrance up. Masami would look and admire that the work that the boom fist had managed to do.

Masami would enter the tunnel and stop at each of the torches. He would focus his chakra to turn his hands into the hardened steel and with some snaps of a finger he would try to catch a spark to relight the torches. it would take a short bit to light his way through the tunnel. and soon reach the huge inner chamber. He would admire the work and see Katsumi laying on the ground in some sort of stupor or tiredness. Masami would walk closer to him and lay down his pack next to him with a silent approach.

After laying down his pack, Masami would go back to the line of torches that lined the room. He would focus the chakra to both of his hands until they were both coated in the steely coat. "Wakey,Wakey!" With a chuckle, Masami would bring his fists together to try and mimic the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil as he would go from torch to torch, trying to capture sparks in each to light them. He would continue with a methodical couple of heavy steps of his boots followed by the metallic clang until he could hear Katsumi stir from his slumber.

wc:503

ding ... ding ... Ding ... Ding ... DING

The incessant ringing after every clank began to drive like steel wool across his brain, the headache came immediately as Katsumi would slowly tear his eyes open and look at a familiar face standing over him. Parched lips would begin to pull open and a raspy voice would creak out slowly at first before instilling a more irritated tone into his words,

"For the love of all the gods that can be imagined... please stop that racket."

After a brief pause, his head would turn to notice Masami's bag laying on the ground. He would quickly feel the dryness in his throat before licking his lips and letting out a shallow hoarse cough to clear his throat.

"Please tell me that you brought a bunch of water with you too?"

He would finalize before turning his back up towards the image of Masami before lifting his hands slowly to levitate above his chest. A clever idea to save him a bit of effort, he began to weave together his handsigns.

Horse -> Monkey -> Dog -> Snake

The earth around him would begin to bubble briefly and his body would sink, reaching out with his hands to turn himself to go down feet first, the dirt began to swallow him. First his ankles as he rotated slowly to upright, then his knees and soon enough, he would be submitted and do a single crunch to bring himself to a sitting position. Pushing off with his hands and watching his legs submerge to his mid thigh, he would weave another Snake sign and release the jutsu while quickly stepping out of the liquid earth.

After a brief moment, Katsumi would exhale a sigh of relief, glad his new jutsu worked and more importantly, giving him a way to get upright without exacerbating the migraine of fluid built-up in the center of his head.

"Anyways, how long was I out? What time is it?" Katsumi would leave off while beginning to stretch and crack the various bones and joints that had gone stiff in his body while waiting for a reply.


[351 words]
[Training Confinement, and Hiding like a Mole. 1 Custom C-rank and one canon C-rank = 350 words]

Once Masami was at the last of the torches he could hear Katsumi begin to stir with an almost hampered spirit as he complained for the noise to stop. Masami would oblige as he receded his steely chakra from his hands. He would lean against the wall next to the final torch as he let Katsumi have his moment of quiet. The guy seemed to have been either out for a night of revelry without Masami or a long night of work.

He heard Katsumi ask for water from his pack. Masami would nod as he answered. "Sure, I brought enough to keep us going for a day or two." Masami brought his hands together and weaved together the hand seals of the ox and dragon before focusing. As he focused, five small metallic blobs would seep from his skin and take the form of dragonflies. These five dragonflies would swarm their way over to Masami's bag and force the strings holding it closed to open. The metal bugs would converge together and grip at a bottle of water, hovering it up and over to Katsumi to take at his leisure.

The dragonflies would disperse back to Masami's open palm as a landing pad before seemingly being absorbed back into his skin. He watched as Katsumi pulled off his energy saving technique that probably could have been faster to stand himself up under his own power but the same could be said about using dragonflies to pass water. Masami just thought it would be cool. Katsumi seemed to get his bearings as he asked about the day and time.

Masami would walk closer and over to his pack and Katsumi. "I don't know when you went to sleep? But I think its late morning from how the sun looks when I finished the hike over here. Don't tell me you have been just camping out here after a night of drinking for finishing this place days ago." Masami would chuckle as he would kneel down by his pack as Katsumi stretched. He would listen to Katsumi's answers as he took off his jacket and rolled it up to take the space of the missing water.

WC: 880 (Training Dragonfly Swarm (C-Rank) 175) Remaining WC: 705

"Just a day or two, I think we'll have to take a break and find more..." Katsumi spoke through stiff joints and watch as the metallic dragonflies went to work, truly inspiring stuff as Katsumi would pick up the water and uncap it to take a heavy gulp of the water while the dragon flies left to be subsided. Interestingly enough, it was a neat little jutsu and good practice, clearly trying to match Katsumi in showing off a bit though maybe it was also laziness on his part.

Still, Katsumi would join his comrade and place the water back when all was said and done while listening to his reply, disheveled hair being scratched at and pushed out of the way of his eyes. Katsumi's head pulsed for a second as he leaned down to set the water next to Masami's pack, his words coming out a bit dull but clearer now that his throat was hydrated but a little.

"Nah, no drinking, just passed out after expending a bit too much chakra trying to clear out a bit more stone and rubble..." Katsumi would point towards one section of the wall where a half circle had been carved out and the rubble was laying on the ground. "I can't believe I was passed out for a whole night though, I only had a few days break for training before missions would kick back up... on tuesday I think. So two more days I guess." Katsumi would finish off before cracking his neck again and continuing to stretch out, not realizing that tomorrow was tuesday and he had one day left to get any training in before being sent back to run missions for a while.

"Anyways, to why we're here." Katsumi would smirk and turn his attention to Masami before jumping backwards a good ten meters or so, testing how loose he really was in that moment.