[Maboroshi Masao]

In the early hours of yet another rainy day within Amegakure no Sato, the previous lord of the village found himself sitting on the canopied balcony that was part of the tower the Maboroshi clan resided within; or at least where the publicly known segment of the clan resided. Looking out through the soft, but steady downpour the old man could see the many other towers and metallic structures which made up the Shinobi District of Amegakure. Further out still he could see the vague outline of the mixture of buildings that made up the Civilian District on the shore line, with the series of gatehouses and bridges that separated the two in between.

It was a cold day and the moisture in the air was already making his joints ache. Still, the pain was useful to a degree. It at least was something wrong with him that he could understand. Parts of his memory missing on the other hand was something without an easily understood explanation and honestly had caused a sliver of fear to settle in his heart and weigh on his mind.

There was a point in time where he had known so many more genjutsu, but in the past few weeks since his awakening he had quickly discovered that many techniques did not work at all or at the very least that he had to slightly alter the flow of his chakra to make them work as intended. He was not sure if there had been some change to his chakra pathways, to his brain or if his memories had deteriorated in some manner.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

Taking a deep breath, Masao laid his hands on the wheels of his wheelchair and turned himself to head inside and off of the balcony. The sounds of the lazy rainfall were muted as the door was shut behind him by an attendent that had been just inside the door, waiting for him to retreat back into the interior.

As the soft pelting of rain drops against the walls faded away with the door closed, his eyes slowly scanned over the interior of the room. Much had been left the way it was when he first collapsed, but it was quite obvious to his experienced eye that people had been within his chambers and home in general. It made sense that the JITE would be ordered to comb his residence for any documents that were restricted, but somehow it still mildly irked him that they would dare to come into his home. Additionally, he had also spent more time than he liked pondering on exactly how long they had waited before doing such a sweep.

"Sit."

He had finally spoken, but the command was a short one and delivered in a tone that encouraged no arguement. The attendent quickly moved to follow his command. Really he should have been nicer to the boy, but his mere presence put Masao into a rather bad mood due to the implication it made; specifically that the boy's father had died in the time that Masao was comatose.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

Osamu had been his attendant for the majority of his years, growing up alongside Masao since the time he had become an adult and stepped out from his parents sheltering hand and officially began his own life. The man had kept his secrets and dutifully served him far better than many who had sworn deeper allegiances than Osamu ever had.

Now here before him stood Takumi, Osamu's youngest son. Masao had never gotten to know any of Osamu's children to a great extent, but from little he remembered the boy had followed in Osamu's footsteps of learning to be an attendant to nobility rather than taking the path of a shinobi as his other siblings had done.

So while it made sense for Takumi to take over Osamu's job, the fact that Osamu was dead filled his old body with a certain level of emotional pain and general resentment towards the boy that was difficult to shake. Not only would it be difficult to shake, but quite honestly he had no desire to. He did however have an obligation to do so. He had never truly been able to convey his thanks to Osamu. . . the least he could do was give the man's son a chance.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

"Listen closely, because I will only be saying this once. I had great respect for your father. He not only displayed competence in his actions, but his actions showed he respected the confidence I placed in him. You will either live up to his example or you will be returning to your previous job. Is that understood?"

His words were as malice free as Masao could bring himself to act without outright faking a friendly demeanor. While he very much could have put on such an act, in a weird way he felt it would poison their relationship going forward if he started it off with a lie to the boy.

Although, thinking of him as a boy was nearly a lie in itself. In truth the man before him was likely pushing fifty years of age and to what he had heard also had two children of his own as well. He was an old man by the standards of most individuals, but Masao could not help but to to think of him as a boy.

"This will be one of those times where you must keep my confidence. Do not repeat any of what is about to occur here, no matter who asks."

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[Maboroshi Masao]

As soon as Takumi gave a sign of acknowledgement, Masao casually raised his wrinkled and sunspotted hand towards Takumi and began to ever so slowly close his fingers towards his thumb much like one would do to grip something tightly. As he did so the former Ame Lord molded chakra within his own body and then attempted to slip his chakra into Takumi's system.

Quickly the chakra moved towards the man's brain in an attempt to subtly alter the signals within which were telling Takumi what his neck was physically feeling in that specific moment. Masao was attempting to shift the signals in such a way as to trick the mind into believing there was pressure relative in severity to the proximity of his fingers to his thumb. Unfortunately while his chakra found its way there, it simply failed to take root and was quickly swept away by the minuscule amount of chakra flowing through Takumi's body.

Turning, Masao flipped a nearby end table with his hand, knocking over the potted plant that had been atop it in the process of doing so. While he had understood that there were gaps in his memory, he had been hoping that it would come back to him in the moment. It was difficulty to be unable to do something he knew he had done in the past.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

Staring down at the now shattered earthenware on the floor, the elderly man could see the thin hair like white roots among the dark soil that was spread across the floor where it had dropped. He understood that from a logical point of view, what he had done was pointless. The only changes was now the floor needed cleaned, the small plant placed into a new vessel and the shards discarded in the nearest trash can. In some ways the plant was a perfect representation of shinobi in general. Destroyed by stupid decisions, and very rarely having any lasting effects.

Even if he had not been able to tell that it had been pointless, a glance towards Takumi's face and the concern that was plainly visible upon it would have showed him the lack of meaning in his violent outburst. Wiping a hand down his face, Masao would take a slow and steady breath to try and calm himself. While it had been pointless for the most part, there had at least been some benefit to it. Had this been out in public he would have been worried about restraining himself as allowing emotions to control you was a weakness. Hopefully Takumi would understand later that it was not emotions controlling Masao, but rather Masao taking advantage of emotions to quickly relieve his frustration. Now that he had vented his frustration, the former Ame Lord was ready to proceed with another attempt.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

With a more relaxed sigh, Masao made slowly began to shuffle his way across the room and up to Takumi. Looking the man up and down, Masao debated the merits of an idea that would help him with performing the technique due to its similarity. After several moments, Masao moved his arms to a crossed position in front of himself as he began to speak:

"Understand that for the moment, you are my testing partner. No actual harm will come to you, but even still you must prepare yourself. You're going to feel as if you're suffocating. Understand it is not real and try your best not to panic. I will release you from it in a few seconds."

Masao simply waited a moment to check for protest. Upon seeing that there was no visible sign of protest or outright fear from Takumi, Masao reached out his right hand and with a simple tap against Takumi's body the Suffocating Strike technique was employed. The technique was quite similar to the one he was trying to remember, Masao could sense the flow of his chakra from his body and entering Takumi's mind where it quickly took root.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

Masao watched attentively as Takumi's dark brown eyes widened in surprise and to his credit, the man did his best to remain calm in a situation that was worthy of panic. Masao however could still see the subtle twitches in the other man's hands and the frequent gulping; both of which showed a strong primal desire to clear the airway.

Closing his own eyes in contrast to Takumi's wide-eyed stare, Masao tried to focus how his own chakra had flowed to Takumi, the points it had targeted within Takumi's mind. While this only went on for a handful of moments, Masao did his best to envision the sensation over and over again. Once he was satisfied he had a full and clear recollection of everything targeted, Masao extended a hand back out to Takumi and used the Kai technique to break the genjutsu the man was under.

Immediately Takumi took a deep breath followed by a short fit of coughing. Masao did not chastise the man in any manner, given that Takumi had felt as if he could not breath for the last minute or so it was only a natural response to try and draw air in far too quickly.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

Stepping away from Takumi as the larger man collected himself, Masao shuffled back over to where he had first attempted the Kōsatsu Haaku [Strangling Grasp] technique. Turning to face Takumi once again Masao spoke:

"You have done well so far. Remaining calm against such techniques minimizes any risk of accidentally injuring yourself due to rash action. Just remember that it is not real and rest assured that I will not take it to a point that I do not believe you can not handle."

Raising his right hand once more the elderly man ever so slowly closed his fingers towards his thumb in a renewed attempted to use the Kōsatsu Haaku [Strangling Grasp] technique. He could feel the flow of his chakra as it left his body and understood where it was targeting Takumi. While not a perfect parallel, it was indeed very similar to the suffocating strike technique he had made use of earlier.

With a slight frown Masao would turn his head in a moment of slight confusion. Once more it did not feel as if the technique was properly catching his target. As the seconds ticked by Masao repeatedly shifted the flow of his chakra, tweaking it ever so slightly in each iteration. The only indication to the other man in the room as to each new iteration however, was that Masao's wrinkled hand would open anew before slowly starting to squeeze its way back together.

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[Maboroshi Masao]

Opening his eyes as his fingers slowly closed the distance towards his thumb, Masao could visibly see the discomfort coming over Takumi. Much like during his encounter with the suffocating strike, Takumi's throat could be seen shifting slightly as he swallowed repeatedly and his hands twitched slightly as he fought his instinct to reach up towards his throat.

As Masao continued to move his hand as if tightening his grip and in doing so, increasing the illusionary pressure that Takumi felt upon his throat; the other man's hand finally moved up to his throat and he bent forward a bit as he began to cough. With the faintest smile, Masao would release his upkeep of the technique and released Takumi from the pain he was feeling.

Not only had he been successful in remembering the technique, but more importantly he it seemed that Takumi would be a suitable replacement for Osamu. He definitely was curious why Osamu had not had Takumi come to work for him earlier, but then again perhaps Osamu had never considered that he would die before Masao. Granted Osamu had been about a decade younger than Masao, but it would have been so much easier had he been under his employ sooner.

It was around then that it clicked in Masao's mind. While it was entirely possible he was giving Osamu too much credit or otherwise reading far too into it; there was the possibility that Osamu had trained Takumi in the proper skills, but kept him out of Masao's service so that no one would have reason to approach Takumi to betray him. And now Takumi was and old man who's children were grown, so he had very little to lose aside from his pride. He would never be able to verify if this was the case, but Masao chose to believe that Osamu had just performed his last and potentially greatest service to him.

"You will keep this time free of appointments each week unless I tell you otherwise. Understood?"

Takumi gave a dutiful nod in return and Masao felt a mixture of relief and eagerness. It was relieving that he would have a discreet manner of training techniques that had been lost in his coma. No one would see his weaknesses more than they had already. While Masao was not limited to his pride like Takumi, he still had no desire of encouraging any individual within the village to see him as an easy target to remove. He imagined there were at least a few that had not been pleased to hear he had awoken. As far as the eagerness, he could not even understand himself why he felt eager. When had the last time he felt eager even been?

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