[nue masahiko]

FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER

There was something deeply, emotionally satisfying about the fact that, after all these years, Isao was still coming to Masahiko for help. It wasn’t like Isao had ever been shy about requesting his assistance; he’d always been remarkably emotionally mature in that regard, especially considering that he’d been willing to learn from a bratty teenager at the ripe old age of twenty, when he had first joined team two as a genin himself. But it was as vindicating to Hiko then as it was now to know that there was something that he was better than somebody at. Especially Isao, who was as physically and combatively superior to Masahiko as ever. Hiko needed to catch up, clearly. To his chagrin, Isao’s request was on the topic of fuinjutsu, which was not exactly Hiko’s area of expertise. But the theory behind it was far more academic than the bukijutsu and ninjutsu that Isao favored, more in line with the teachings of Hiko’s mednin techniques and genjutsu proficiency, so he was as good a person to go to as any, he supposed. And there were a handful of fuin techniques that he was interested in learning himself, so it seemed a fair opportunity for them both to learn something. Hiko brought a stack of old tomes and several bundles of sealing tags with him to the training grounds, where—for once—he had arrived not just on time, but early, specifically to avoid Isao saying anything snarky about his tardiness. He noted, to his satisfaction, that it seemed he was the first to arrive this time.

hirata isao. -- 270

LAIKA OF THQ

[hirata isao]

Isao spent the days leading up to this training session studying. Normally it was as easy as showing up, sword in hand, and beating the crap out of some dummies but today was different. He and his former teammate were going to work on ~intellectual pursuits~, that being the study of fuinjutsu. It was never one of Isao's strong points but if he was going to be a good teacher he needed to be well-versed in all pursuits.

Reading was... also never one of Isao's strongest skills and he quickly gave up. He gathered a load of reference materials, blank scrolls and inkwells and made his way to the indoor training grounds Masahiko had designated. He quickly caught sight of the green-haired shinobi, sitting leaning to one side all demure and delicate. Isao had the sudden urge to crush him, like when you see cute animals and have the urge to erase them from existence.

The scene looked like an arts and crafts day in preschool, papers and inks scattered all over the place. Isao sat down some distance away from Masahiko, well within talking distance but not so close as to interrupt whatever it is his comrade had going on. He shuffled in his pocket for a bit and pulled out a ratty leather notepad. "I have notes." He said to no one but hoped Masahiko heard. It was said with a joking tone, conveying Isao had little to no idea what he was doing. The notes weren't so much on technique or tricks but were more just ideas Isao had.

For a moment he considered his own reading material but soon noticed the tome by Masahiko's leg on custom seals. He stood for a moment and extended a hand down to grab it. "I'm gonna borrow this real quick Hiko..." He asked without asking. He cracked the spine and began to scan the table of contents for something of relevance to him. Before long he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of thick-rimmed reading glasses and put them on. Truly playing the role of grandpa.

Naturally, they fell ever so slightly along the bridge of his nose as he found the section on sealing chakra into paper tags and flipped to it, his eyes raising over the rim of his glasses to glance at Masahiko.

390 words | nue masahiko

[nue masahiko]

FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER

What Isao’s comrade had going on, not even the comrade knew. He had thoroughly prepared, armed with tomes and inks and tags and scrolls, but—what he was prepared for, he wasn’t really sure, beyond the general brush of studying fuinjutsu. Isao had a more targeted goal, presumably. He did sense a vague wave of… it wasn’t malice, exactly, he knew that Isao meant him no ill will, but when the older man entered Masahiko had a sense of foreboding. Like he was about to be pulverized. Looking at him, however, he seemed completely normal. A little overdue for a shave, perhaps, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. "I’m sure your notes are excellent,” Masahiko said, dry as bleached bone. Isao took a moment to look over his own materials, but also thieved one of Hiko’s books, which he tried to get a look at as Isao pulled it away. He tilted his head to get a look at the cover as Isao cracked the spine—On Personalized Seals, the title read. Interesting. Hiko glanced up, his lips parting to ask a question—and was stopped short by catching Isao’s gaze over the rim of the glasses he was newly sporting. It should have been terrible, an atrocious look. It should have made him look like a grandfather indulging in some light reading of history before having a cup of herbal tea and turning in at eight pm. Instead Masahiko found his traitorous heart skipping a beat in his chest, his words dying in his mouth. Naturally he paused just long enough to make it awkward. He cleared his throat, tossing his hair over his shoulder. "You look like an octogenarian,” he said, wrinkling his nose. You doth protest too much, Masahiko. Change the subject. "Custom seals? What is that you want to work on?”

hirata isao . -- 309

LAIKA OF THQ

[hirata isao]

It took Isao far too long to understand what his comrade was referring to. In all truth, he had no clue what an ‘octogenarian’ was but he didn’t dwell on that fact. He figured, given context, it meant he looked really silly in these glasses. They weren’t something he’d worn before in front of Hiko so it made sense he’d comment on them anyway.

He glanced away, a bit embarrassed, but softened the awkwardness with his trademark chuckle. "Yeah, I’m getting worse at reading stuff up close lately.” And reading in general. Prior to coming to Yuki no Kuni, Isao had only a rudimentary understanding of written language, something Masahiko would surely remember and never failed to bully him about.

He leafed through the book he’d grabbed, after having found something that piqued his interest in the table of contents, and began to run the tip of his index finger down lines of text like aisles in a convenience store. He settled on a paragraph about infusing chakra into seals. It assumed a lot of pre-existing knowledge but Isao wasn’t completely ignorant on this topic so he was able to follow along decently.

It took a moment of silence for him to properly respond to Masahiko’s inquiry, the taller man’s attention fixed more on not losing his place in the book before him than continuing a conversation. Though, he’d need Hiko’s help for this so a dialogue was ideal. "I want to try doing more with fuinjutsu.”

His genin, Jun, was his primary inspiration with her profound understanding and creativity when it came to the subject. She kept her little notebook, full of unique seal designs and ideas just brimming with potential. He wanted to give the same a shot. "I figure I could do something pretty cool with my chakra.”

He was, of course, referring to his ranton release. It was something that made him stand out not only in the Land of Snow, but in the greater shinobi nations. The Ryujin clan, given its instability and location, would go extinct sooner or later if they didn’t get their shit together. Though, all of that was behind Isao.

His attention returned to his companion and he took a moment to push his reading glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "How about you? Did you have anything in mind or did you just want to get some practice in?” He assumed it was the latter, given this little training excursion was Isao’s idea, but he never put it past Hiko to have something up his sleeve.

--- words | nue masahiko

[nue masahiko]

FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER

There was low-hanging fruit in Isao’s words—he’d barely been literate before they met—but Masahiko for once swallowed back the barb that rose to his lips. He’d mocked Isao for his educational failings mercilessly back when they trained together on team two, but… they were working together again, more or less. Masahiko wasn’t a shitty teenager anymore; they were adults, colleagues. Maybe it was time to leave the mockery behind. "It’s because you’re getting old,” Hiko said, sniffing. "Your eyes are withering away.” Well. Not all of it. "Ranton is frightening enough when you can see it coming,” Masahiko went on, leaning back in his chair. "If you were able to take someone by surprise with it—that would be a significant advantage.” He tapped the end of his brush against his little bundle of sealing tags, his gaze sliding away as he thought. "I had just thought to get some practice in, since I’m not especially talented with fuinjutsu beyond the basic seals, but… I did read about this movement sealing trap, which seems effective at controlling a battlefield. Here—” After a moment of digging through his pile of books, Masahiko produced one with a flourish, and flipped through its pages until he found the small scrap of fabric he’d used as a bookmark. "This one, shintai wanain. Good for locking people down or re-directing their movements, I think.”

hirata isao  -- 234

LAIKA OF THQ

[hirata isao]

Even with the short notice, Isao couldn’t act like he was surprised Masahiko had come with a few techniques in mind. The guy was always the one for planning ahead and big brain schemes. At least, compared to Isao anyway. Though, compared to Isao, most people looked like geniuses.

He reached over and plucked the book from Masahiko’s hands after the young man read off the technique’s name. Just hearing what it was called wasn’t going to ring any bells for Isao; he wasn’t that knowledgeable. But, he figured, it would at least help him find where to start reading. 'Shintai Wanain' was a pretty impressive crowd control technique that boasted no small area of effect.

Isao nodded approvingly as he read the technique’s synopsis. "This could really turn the tide of a battle if you pull it off.” He scanned the rest of the page absent-mindedly; more a thing to do than to actually absorb any more information, before handing the book back to his study partner.

He considered the application of such a jutsu. What it could do to affect a fight or lock down an area and prevent assault. It made him consider what exactly he could do with his own chakra and how he could implement it. Sealing a ton of ranton chakra into a sealing tag could be effective but it might also end up being just as dangerous to the wielder. No, if he wanted to create something of use he’d need to refine more than the fundamental function.

In sealing there were a myriad of ways one could affect the result of the unsealing process; how the seal reacted and with what characteristics that whatever was being unsealed had upon release. For example, an explosive tag was just a large amount of combustibles and chakra flying out of the tag in one great bombastic display. The technique Hiko was looking at practicing, however, had much more finesse.

Ranton, in its essence, was a release of precision and finesse. The lightning that shot out in beams of impossibly smooth plasma demanded that much. Simply allowing the chakra to explode outward like a mine wouldn’t suit its nature at all. Isao shook his head. There was so much to consider and he’d only just begun to scratch the surface. He looked at Masahiko, eager to begin a more practical implementation of their concepts.

"You wanna try cooking up yours first?”

405 words | nue masahiko

[nue masahiko]

FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER

Isao unceremoniously took the book from Masahiko’s hands. Hiko made a small noise of protest, but Isao was already flipping to the requisite page, searching for the description of the technique within the book. "I thought it might be useful for training purposes as well,” Masahiko said, taking the book back. "Attempting to maneuver around or through it could be helpful for training reflexes, speed, things of that nature. I think—if I understand it correctly, it leaves the user quite vulnerable as well, but in theory I personally wouldn’t have to worry about something like that if I use the seal, and then… position myself elsewhere.” Merge felt like a dirty word, but Isao would get the gist. He would have been content to just continue his reading, but it seemed that Isao wanted to get straight to attempts at implementation, which wasn’t entirely surprising. "Are you sure?” he asked faintly, cracking the book back open to the page he’d bookmarked. "I can try, I suppose, but you haven’t said a word about whatever it is that you want to do. You don’t want to workshop anything? Practice writing anything out?” Isao had always been more of a hands-on learner, anathema to Masahiko’s more esoteric preferences, but ultimately Hiko supposed he had the right of it when it came to training jutsu: you wouldn’t get anywhere unless you tried. And failed. Repeatedly. Frankly, Hiko was rather sick of failing in front of Isao, but this was just their way of things.

hirata isao . -- 251

LAIKA OF THQ

[hirata isao]

It’s true, Isao had never been much of a book learnin’ type of shinobi. He didn’t have much desire to become one either. Damn his pride but he was well aware that most genin had him beat as far as smarts went; there was no point in trying to change that now.

He stood, stretching out as he did and twisting his abdomen in a futile effort to crack his spine. "The practical training is the workshop, Hiko.” His toothy grin sealed his intent to get straight into the live exercise. Masahiko had always been a bit… slower than the typical shinobi. Not as far as mental acuity; in that field he was a particularly talented individual, but more so in the whole doing things category.

In all the time he’d known him, Isao had been witness to an ever truant young man, who despised action like it would bring him physical harm (though to be perfectly fair, it often did). Meanwhile, Isao was a fully revved engine, waiting to be released upon the world at top speed. He had his quiet moments like anyone else, but training was never a quiet moment.

He stepped back and gestured for Masahiko to begin. The man wanted to see not only whether his friend could muster up something with his limited acumen, but also whether or not Isao could hold up against that something. He stood at the ready and nodded along with Hiko’s complaint-filled startup.

244 words | nue masahiko

[nue masahiko]

FEAR IS THE MIND-KILLER

Ah, exactly what he didn’t want to hear. Some half-hearted protests rose to his lips—fuinjutsu is a preparatory branch of jutsu, you can’t just start molding chakra to see what happens, studying is going to make up at least half of your success—but Isao made that expectant gesture, and Masahiko could only issue a sigh of defeat. "I—ugh. Fine,” he said, getting up from his seat. "I’m really not familiar with fuinjutsu and this is a relatively advanced technique far outside of my area of expertise, it’s almost certainly going to fail and I’m not sure what you’re hoping to gain from this demonstration, but fine.” While he complained, Masahiko searched the area around him until he found a suitably long and sturdy stick; and with that stick, he began drawing in the dirt. It was a large drawing, a circle about twenty-five meters in diameter; once he finished the circle, he drew five evenly-spaced lines that met roughly in the center. His replica of the diagram in the book complete, Masahiko tossed his stick aside. "It’s not going to work,” he said firmly, "but stay close by. It’s supposed to affect anyone within five meters of the trap.” Eight handseals. What were they again? Ox, ram, dog—he glanced down at his feet, where he’d placed the book. Okay. Carefully, meticulously, he formed each handseal in sequence, then crouched to slap his hands against the ground, visualizing the flow of his chakra from his palms into the shape of the diagram he’d sketched out against the dirt. Nothing happened. Failure to launch. He leveled a look at Isao, as if to say: see?

hirata isao . -- 273

LAIKA OF THQ