[Hōzuki Keneō]

The life of a shinobi could be a rather hectic thing, one that could easily burn a person out if they weren't careful. Putting one's life on the line, having to deal with the ungrateful nature of the public at large, going through rigorous training in order to stay ahead of the curve and increase the chances one might have at coming back alive from a mission, all of these things seemed to be expected and were no more than normal for most ninja. When considering his own case, he had quite recently got into it a bit with the Mizukage due to the two of them having incredibly different views on the inclusion of civilians.

He for one did not believe that when there were shinobi willing to join the police force, that those positions should be going to untrained civilians instead. Even though those civilians would be going through a training regiment that was meant to be quite hard, it would by no means compare to the conditioning and training a shinobi had gone through during their time in the academy moving onward. Ken's aim had always been for the protection of civilians, of doing the things he did so they would not need to put themselves in harm's way needlessly. So for a civilian to be chosen for the police force instead of him seemed like it was a bad decision.

And honestly, no matter of debating back and forth with Toru was going to change his mind that he was right in this, and that Toru was wrong. Because at no point had the young Hozuki implied that civilians were useless or inferior, as he knew that they were responsible for keeping the economy going that people like him were in turn protecting from threats both within and without. It was what he had become a shinobi for. And because of the fact that he wished to protect both the interior of the village as well as the country at large, it seemed that becoming a member of the police force just made a whole lot of sense to him.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Whether or not he would be able to join or not was currently still in the air, though he knew that Toru had been writing a few things down about him in his records. If it were to be something that would be used against him or otherwise serve as a detriment, than that was an outcome he was going to need to live with. The young Hozuki outright refused to change his mind on the matter, as a shinobi would always be superior when it came to handling internal threats such as terrorists and fires through the use of ninjutsu. But regardless of that fact, there were other issues that were on his mind as of late, things that either motivated him, weighed him down or a combination of the two.

Something he found himself pondering on more and more frequently was the fact that his Genin team had been lacking a Jounin or Special Jounin sensei ever since he had been put on it, while another member of his team seemed to be dealing with severe feelings of inadequacy and the idea that he did not belong. And then there was the third member which he had yet to meet, making them about as MIA as their sensei. It made him feel as though he had been put on a squad where he had to step up a lot just to make ends meet, as he did want to do the best he could to try and help Taiso out in becoming a more capable shinobi.

Whether it was to help him figure out how to better control his chakra, to walk on water or to remove some of the self doubt, they were all subjects that he was willing to aid with if he could. But the ashen haired boy was far from a pro when it came to psychological help when dealing with emotions and such. Half of the time he couldn't even really give his own their proper place, so having to deal with those of someone else was quite a hassle. Still, it was something he was willing to deal with to the best of his abilities. Then there were the upcoming Chuunin exams he imagined both he and his team mate were going to be signing up for, as well as people such as Homare.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

The more he thought about that, the more he believed that they actually stood a pretty decent chance at passing with flying colors. Like Homare had said, someone like himself could pose a significant threat to the vast majority of the contenders unless they were incredibly well versed in the used of lightning style ninjutsu. While being something he too possessed, it would have become rather difficult for him to deal with someone with his Hozuki clan hijutsu if they could just deep fry him the moment he tried it. It had made him a lot more aware of the fact that, aside from his watery shenanigans and trickery, he really did not have much of anything.

And that right there was a problem of potentially epic proportions. All it really took was a single person who possessed the lightning element and the vast majority of everything he was capable of would go right out the window, unless his goal was to lose within the first five minutes of a round. They were all reasons why he would need to branch out his set of skills, which was why he had been looking into further developing both his taijutsu and his own lightning style ninjutsu. Believing that by furthering his own understanding, he would be better equipped at fighting against them, they would also serve the purpose of aiding him offensively.

The technique he had seen Eiko use was a very useful taijutsu technique that would allow him to blast right out of a stationary position and reach his maximum speed without any build-up whatsoever. To be able to move so quickly in such a way seemed almost like witchcraft as it completely went against the laws of physics, as a lot of taijutsu often did in that way. After he had seen that technique in use a few times, he had more or less tried to memorize exactly how the woman had applied it and how she activated it before training and practicing it for several days. Honestly, if his brain didn't work as well as it did, it would have taken him considerably longer.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

That said, he was still struggling with figuring out the counterpart to the attack, one that he considered to be perhaps even more useful than the technique that allowed someone to rush at full speed without having to build it up. This being the technique that, through the application of chakra to the muscles, allowed someone to hit the breaks and instantly kill any and all momentum they had built up in order to evade certain attacks that might otherwise get someone killed on the spot. In fact, a lot of his own tactics in combat revolved around using someone else's forward momentum against them.

Letting an opponent trap themselves against one of his techniques was incredibly useful, not to mention funny at times, as they set themselves up for failure. It was often difficult to pull off properly, though it was also the sort of thing he wanted to get better at as he increased his overall knowledge and skill as a shinobi. As such, being capable of evading the same techniques and plots he wanted to use against people was a must. Just because he knew how to pull it off and what to look for did not mean that others were not better at it than he was, and might be able to utilize it to a much higher degree using skills he had never seen or heard of before.

He was after all only a Genin, which meant much of the world of ninjutsu and shinobi warfare were still very much unknown to him. For the time being, it was a technique that eluded him still, though he was going to have to master it soon, especially if he was to ever properly weaponize the Chidori technique he had learned. That one also posed a considerable risk to him if he were to use it in a fight without properly mastering the movements of his body as well as the way in which his mind worked. This was due to the tunnel vision he experienced when moving at the speed provided by the one thousand birds technique making him essentially blind to outside threats.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

But that was honestly something he would need to figure out later, as there were undoubtedly ways in which he would be able to utilize it, albeit in a different way. The way in which his chakra was built up needed an outlet so as to not fry himself out through improper use, though there was more to it. As mentioned, the tunnel vision was the real problem, and that could not be circumvented without considerable amount of specialized training that would likely be extremely taxing on his body. One way would be to release it outward after building it up, believing the tendrils of electricity that formed whenever he performed his technique to verify this idea.

So far, what he had seen from them was that they could do a considerable amount of damage to their surroundings, even when it was not so much the goal. So when it 'became' the goal, Ken wondered if such a surge of power might be enough to take out any foes that found themselves in his direct vicinity. But all of that was purely theoretical at this point, and he honestly did not feel like he had the energy to put himself through this sort of training after having so recently learned to utilize the Teza and Chidori techniques, to no small detriment to his own extremities. Even now, his hip and should were still sore while his fist was still bandaged up to allow his knuckles to heal up properly.

No, today his reason for coming out of the house was considerably more simple than that, as he was hungry - but not for food, but to try out for something he hadn't quite been able to do a whole lot of yet. He had been cooking plenty throughout his life, though he hadn't often gone out into the world in order to catch fish and prepare them with very little ingredients aside from what he could scrounge up together. It was an important part of being a ninja, especially one that was allowed to leave the country or had to go to one of the water country's many islands on stakeouts or other long term missions that took him away from civilization, knowing how to cook with what nature provided was a must.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

In a country that was as naturally damp as the land of water, there was a lot of vegetation growing out there that was perfect for consumption. More than that, there were also a lot of animals that thrived within the boundaries of this land, as well as the seas that surrounded it. With only a small pack filled with essentials with him, as well as his packs of shinobi tools, Ken had left the village behind in order to brush up on the 'essentials' of surviving out in the wilds. He hadn't brought along a fishing pole, yet brought a length of wire and rope. He didn't have anything fancy like a frying pan, but he had his kunai with him, as well as Kagewani, his wakizashi.

The only thing he had brought with him that could be considered luxury was an outdoor sleeping bag stored away in a small roll. It only took about thirty minutes of walking at a stellar pace for the sounds of the village, or rather the city to be drowned out almost completely by the sound of nothing. Or rather, it wasn't nothing, it was the sound of wind moving past the leaves in the trees, pushing through the grass as it moved into the distance. It was the sound of birds flying overhead and sitting on the branches, signalling for trouble at the sight of the young man moving his way through small paths that had likely been created by deer. "Desire paths" they were called.

Paths made by animals who moved through it repeatedly because it provided a convenient and quick route, their constant trodding back and forth eventually eroding it to the point where no grass or other vegetation still grew there. Because they provided convenient shortcuts from one place to the next, it seemed like a prime direction for him to follow as it both took him further and further away from the village, and at the very least provided him with some level of vision as to where he put his feet down. Rat snakes, striped snakes, keelbacks, these were all snakes one could run into quite frequently, and step on by accident when pushing too far from the beaten path.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

As logic would have it, when someone stepped on these animals, it was only normal for them to retaliate through biting as a means of protecting themselves from a perceived threat. But in the general sense, these were not all that dangerous to humans, that role belonged to two other snakes known as the tiger keelback and the pit viper. Unlike their similarly named cousin, the tiger keelback was actually venomous, with the pit viper being venomous to the point where it could kill an adult quite easily. While he did not hear a whole lot about snakes causing deaths around the Hidden Mist, he was certain the smaller towns and islands might still suffer some from time to time.

Truth be told, Ken wasn't entirely bothered by them as he knew that as long as one watched where they were walking, respected nature and didn't do anything stupid, he would more than likely be just fine. Besides, snakes were generally afraid of people, so if they sensed one of them coming their way, they would more than likely choose to scurry away rather than going for the offensive. The bigger threat would come from the bigger animals that generally had either a curious or a hostile disposition towards humanity as a whole such as bears. While they too wouldn't often come looking for people in general, if they sensed someone like Ken cooking, they would certainly come and have a look.

They were the kind of creatures that could hunt well, fish well, and honestly move a lot better than their large sizes would suggest. Making them fast enough to outrun most people and climb a tree with the best of them, escaping an angry bear was a difficult fear for the vast majority of those that hadn't gone through shinobi training. But even for them, Ken wasn't exacty worried as he had the tools on him with which to scare away a bear or two, even a pack of wolves if it came down to it. Again, it all really came down to just how careful he was going to be and exactly how much of a risk he was willing to take when preparing dinner. Only time could tell.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

By the time he was several hours removed from the village, it was honestly as though civilization itself did not exist, the signs of them not stretching into this direction at all. While he had passed some small settlements along the way and even a small town, where he was now, the young Hozuki was as alone as he would ever be. But only in terms of human interaction, as nature seemed to thrive out here. Hearing the shriek of an eagle overhead, the boy could tell from its black and white feathers that it was a sea eagle that likely nested somewhere around here. As it flew overhead, he suddenly noticed how all of the wildlife, primarily the birds, all fell completely silent.

It was odd, to be this far removed from society, only to feel like one was surrounded by nothing. Pressing on, following a stream that branched off of one of the rivers running through the country, his eye fell on a basin underneath him. For as the stream went downward into a small waterfall, there seemed to be an abundance of life within the region, especially now that the eagle had moved along towards the cliffs by the sea. The hammering of a woodpecker against the side of a tree, critters moving in the underbrush and the singing of birds made him feel significantly less alone. In fact, this was perfect, perhaps even more so than being at home by himself.

There was something about being surrounded by nature such as this that made him happy. Sure, when he was around his own home, he was also quite happy since there were his carps in the pond, as well as his plants and hedges that needed tending to every once in a while. But being in a mostly serene household did not make for a serene village, as there was always noise coming from somewhere and there were always people talking really loudly. And to be fair, this was never something Ken had really had any issues or problems with at all, though it took him coming out this far from society to realize that there were time where he honestly just needed to leave humanity behind from time to time.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

One might imagine the fact that he had no parents and lived by himself for a while now as 'being away from humanity', and to some extent they would be correct in that assumption. Because when he was not out doing a mission or training, he actually prefered to be by himself as much and as often as possible. It was just the way in which he was wired, he needed time to fill up his social batteries before going out to deal with people again. The fact that he had brought Taiso back along with him in order to get something to eat, or that he had gone with Eiko to a restaurant after sparring was quite out of the ordinary for someone such as himself.

Making his way down the side of the waterfall's cliffs, Ken made sure to stay as far away from the slippery section as possible as he did not want to mess up and get himself injured, nor did he intend to disturb the local wildlife. Reaching the bottom, he looked around the basin, noticing that the cliff walls around it were quite high, and what little space that existed next to the water was quite small. Still, there were several meters of soil before one were to either reach the water or the cliffs heading either up or down, though it made for a great spot for fishing, as well as a potential base of operations. It was high enough up for bears and other predators to not come up unannounced, yet low enough for him to be able to move either up or down to go explore and scavenge.

All things considered, this place made for the perfect perch. Walking over to the edge, he could barely look out across the trees of the forest, spotting a variety of colorful birds - or maybe they were in fact the same species, but the males and females looked quite differently. Which was often the case, leading the male birds to look exotic and colorful while the females appeared as bland and honestly like an almost completely different species. His grandfather however had taught him that this was the case with a lot of animals, as it allowed the men to act as a distraction whenever a predator approached the site of their nest, allowing the female that had a more camouflaged color to just sit tight.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Nature was awesome like that, which was truly a sentiment he held deeply inside of himself. Between the harsh lessons he had to learn as a kid during his academy days, few things did him as much good as going out into the regions surrounding the village that were green with leaves, rather than than being brick and stone. Even as a kid, he had a knack for learning the names of animals, though primarily for birds and mammals as he was still quite afraid of snakes, frogs and salamanders at the time. As he got older, he grew to appreciate them, primarily the salamanders and the frogs as he still respected the fact that snakes were predators that did not wish to come across humans at all.

Not being one for crossing boundaries without good reasons, the ashen haired shinobi would leave well enough alone, not looking forward to getting bitten - let alone poisoned. Turning away from the cliff and looking towards the basin, Ken honestly couldn't tell just how deep it went, though he could imagine that it went down several meters. And by a quick estimation, it seemed to be roughly ten meters in diameter, even though it wasn't circular. It was, after all, an estimation. But from the looks of it, the fact that the water came down rather fiercely from above, it made sense that fish had likely been swept into it over the years, and had likely started procreating and feeding inside of it - thus creating a biome of their own.

This got him thinking that it would be a prime location for fishing, as well as one that wouldn't have him moving too far from here unless he actually wanted to do so. Which made the logical next step for him to start looking for a place where he might be able to set up some sort of encampment. Not wanting to bother nature too much by creating something that required a lot of work and would end up destroying the surroundings, he had already decided that he would not be cutting down trees for wood or anything drastic of the sort. Walking along the cliff wall that was heading up, he went on to look for a place that seemed like it would end up getting hit the least by drops of water from the waterfall.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

After a couple of minutes of meandering and mulling things over in his head, he figured out what was most likely going to be the best spot for his bed, which meant he was now going to need to start fetching the materials. And since wood was off limits, he knew exactly what to do next. Running up the cliff and heading back up before going back into the direction he had come, he went to a place he had passed by on the way here. A place where lots of bamboo grew in tall and thick stalks, as well as smaller more flexible stalks. And as things were, both would make for excellent building materials as bamboo was known to grow at exponential rates, especially when compared to trees.

As he looked out across the long stalks that effectively formed a wall that could almost not be penetrated by the naked eye, he remained mindful of the fact that there could be dangerous animals lurking nearby. While he wasn't overly worried about bears as they were too large and bulky to move without making any notable sounds and noises, he was worried about encountering venomous snakes that might have made them their home. Taking out his wakizashi and taking his scabbard into the other hand, he began poking around at the base of the bamboo, as well as tapping quite roughly against the side of them somewhere at the height of his own waist. Hoping that the noise would serve to scare off any would-be threats, he continued with his goal.

Channeling lightning chakra into Kagewani, he essentially followed the fundamentals behind his Chidori technique, effectively turning the blade itself into a buzz saw with which he took one of the bamboo stalks clean off in a single and light stroke. Performing the same trick a bunch more times, Ken returned to his position several times, leaving behind a fair stack of them. Though he was not going to be wasteful with it, making use of every single one of them for a variety of goals. The first one was rather simple, and would take about three top-ends of bamboo as they were the thinnest and the most flexible. Digging them into the ground a bit and using some stones to weigh them down, he attached a decent length of wire to each.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

There existed plenty of bamboo fishing rods in the world, as they were cheap and easy to make. So easy to make in fact that someone who had never done so before could do it by himself it seemed. Testing their strength by repeatedly stretching them back and forth, he could tell that they were good picks as they didn't just snap under the weight he applied to it. And judging by the size and weight of most fresh water fish, if he couldn't just snap them with the force he had put on it, neither would they. Having placed them by the water, he hadn't yet put the wires down, as there was nothing to attach to it along the lines of bait. Though he had an idea for that.

There were plenty of berries around, berries he had seen at the grocery store plenty of times but had never bothered to buy as the only fruits he ate could more or less be condensed down to mandarins, strawberry, peaches and watermelon. But when out and about like this, it only made sense for him to eat whatever the land provided, as he was going to have to survive here through foraging and scavenging, as he hadn't brought more than just a bit of bread and a mandarin in order to make sure that he could keep himself alive for the first day. Ensuring that if he could not provide himself with any food, he would be able to make it home after the first two days based off of that food alone, the berries were going to have to do.

But honestly, he was nowhere near ready to begin foraging for berries or other kinds of food just yet, as he still had several runs to do up and down the cliff in order to bring down more of the thick bamboo stalks he was going to use to build himself a shelter for the night and from the cold. Because for as beautiful a country as the land of water was, the mist that covered the land was particularly cold in the mornings as the temperature of the droplets went down considerably due to the lack of natural warmth from sunlight. And since a sleeping bag would eventually get soggy with moisture in time, he needed to make sure to keep that from happening - even if it was going to be quite a difficult task.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Had he not left as early as he did, he would have never managed to get enough time to scrounge together and carry over as much of the bamboo as he did, yet manage it he did. After the first three batches were delivered, he began putting his brain, as well as his body to work in the most effective manner possible. Digging a few holes by stabbing into the soil with a kunai to get it all loosened before using his hands to dig the rest of the way, he then used his shinobi skills after placing the first pole upright into the ground to jump on top of it in an attempt at using his own body weight to push it deeper into the ground. Successfully, one might add.

With the pole in the ground standing at a height of roughly one and a half meters, give or take a few centimeters on account of not having the tools with which to perfectly hammer something in, he would then begin measuring a decent enough distance before he would need to start knocking the next pole in. Figuring a space roughly two by two would be more than enough for a single person to sleep in, the second pole got rammed into the ground before eventually being followed up by the third and fourth that rounded up this part of the process. With a square formation now established, he took his wakizashi and performed the lightning chakra channeling trick again to make incissions into the top and bottom of some of the poles, after cutting them down to size.

Shoving them into place between the poles, he made sure the three 'walls' were established along the two sides and what would effectively serve as the back wall that would be pushed right up against the side of the cliff wall. Facing some difficulty pushing the back wall against the cliff's sturdy rock foundation, Ken realized rather quickly that it would be an extremely tiring undertaking if he focused entirely on putting the back wall in. As such, he made sure the first three rows of bamboo were installed before tending to the walls along the side. Once the sides were all three layers high, aside from the front, he began laying out one pole after the next before putting Kagewani along the center and running it down far enough down the length of it to where he could easily snap it in half.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Creating two equal halves, he would lay them out across the ground, pinning them between the wall poles with the hollow side down. From his estimations, he had to perform this task roughly fourteen times before he would have a functional floor upon which he could roll out his sleeping bag without it actually touching the ground. It was a rather simply yet effective way to build a shelter, and since Ken wasn't the tallest or the widest shinobi around, he had more than enough room in this manner. Still, having to run his blade down the length of all of these poles before he could forcefully push them into place was actually quite the undertaking that was quite taxing on his body.

In every sense of the word, this whole 'survival' thing was perhaps some of the best physical training and exercise he had done in a very long time. But he was pulling through, pushing and fitting the floor in nicely before continuing to prepare more poles to be fit across the sides to function as walls. In truth, the part he was dreading was the ceiling, as he was quite confident that just using the poles would not be enough to keep out any water, either from rain, mist or rogue drops from the nearby waterfall. It was something he would need to figure out soon too, as he imagined he'd only have roughly six hours left before any and all forms of natural light would have been snuffed out by the sun setting.

Managing to 'hammer' in the two sides walls within the next two hours, it dawned upon him that he had yet to really locate a source of food outside of the basin. With there being plenty of flammable objects around like fallen leaves and branches, as well as the remnant bits and pieces of unused bamboo. Even though the latter burned terribly, he would be able to use it to line out a fire pit and make sure the flames he would need to create with which to cook wouldn't outstretch their boundaries. Again however, the fact that he was fairly high above the ground and near a basin meant that he would more than likely not need to worry about causing a wildfire as he had more than enough water nearby to snuff it out with ninjutsu if need be.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

With less than four hours on the clock, he had to make sure that what light remained would be used to prepare a roof. But the way he saw it, creating a roof that was attached to the shelter would be.... problematic. Due to the heat differences inside and out, as well as the fact that there might be times where his cooking fire might need protection from the rain, he had to devise a plan that would allow him to make one that was somehow capable of being moved. Aside from needing to protect his sleeping roll and his cooking fire, he imagined he would also need to be able to air the shelter out after every night in order to get rid of the musky scent and the damp caused by him simply sleeping in it.

And that was when he got the idea. Looking up, he thought about something he had learned that was supposed to keep bears from getting to your food. When out on missions in the great outdoors, it was common practice to put food into a backpack and tie it from a branch in the air so hungry scavengers wouldn't be able to get to it. But that gave him the idea of creating a suspended roof that, like a backpack filled with food, could be lowered and raised by pulling at or lowering a rope. And it just so happened that, aside from having a decent length of wire on him, he had also brought a coil of rope along in his bag of required items for outdoor survival. Feeling as though the walls were currently high enough for him to

Channeling lightning chakra into his weapon, he stabbed the same spot repeatedly, wrenching out bits and pieces of solid rock until he reached a point where he could fit his entire weapon, as well as his arm up to his elbow into the hole. Believing it to be more than deep enough, he began walking down before picking up a long pole and fixing it into the hole as deep as possible. Tossing down the rope on one side, he would scale down the side of the cliff with the other end of the rope still in his hand, finding a place to attach it to at a later point. For now, the rope was placed in a way that would allow it to serve as a lever system with which he could lower and raise the roof as needed... a roof that yet needed to be made.