[Hōzuki Keneō]

As he awoke, Ken's stomach was still full from the day before. Since he had his grandpa as a guest following up on a training session, he had offered to cook dinner, thus rounding up the day with a healthy meal for growing shinobi. Following up on that one dinner, he had been cooking the dishes again more frequently, making the mistake of having both at the same time without it following up on a day of training. Putting on his figurative apron and chef's hat, he had put down two of the dishes he had mastered the furthest up until now: Gyudon Donburi and Black Bass filet with lentils and tomato. Perhaps it would have been wiser to stick to one of the two as opposed to doing both at the same time, though at least now he knew that it would likely have been the better idea for the future.

Whenever he ate a lot as a result of a long day of training, he could usually eat a lot more. But when the day had been spent doing police activities or, in this particular case, him delivering the mail throughout a portion of the village, his body wasn't nearly as fast when it came to digesting the food he shoveled in. But as it were, he didn't think he'd be having any guests over any time soon. It was after all a bit of a somber time in the village, as it wasn't every day that a Genin died within the confines of their own country, a place they had all come to consider as being quite safe. And while Ken had slowly been getting over the fact that he was the only person on Team 3 now that yet existed, he still wasn't in the best of moods.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

In spite of, or perhaps due to the fact that he had a gut full of food, the boy had a lot of energy he needed to blow through that he wouldn't be able to get rid of if he just sat at home reading a book. And while he had managed to get his hands on a very good book regarding a bunch of adventurers having to fight a dark lord and destroy his cursed armaments inside of a volcano, reading was simply not on the menu these days. With his body having too much energy and his brain rushing through too many potential outcomes due to the upcoming Chuunin exams, Ken could not find it within himself to just sit down and settle down for more than a few minutes at a time.

His talk with Homare had taught him a few things about the dealings of a previous exam that had apparently taken place around the same time as the upcoming one, albeit a year prior. In it, they had been tasked with one on one combat sparring sessions, a race that had them climbing up a mountain and reaching their destination before the others could, as well as some kind of free for all scroll collecting game in a forest. While he was feeling rather confident when it came to things such as sparring sessions, he wasn't feeling as confident when it came to racing. After all, he wasn't the fastest shinobi in the world and there were likely those that were focused on their mobility a lot more than Ken was.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

In that sense, he would be in a bit of a predicament, as coming up with speed that simply did not exist was rather difficult. Sure, he had a technique that allowed him to get out of the starting blocks extremely quickly, pushing his body to his maximum speed in an instance. But once his body was moving at its maximum, that was more or less it. He did not have the means by which to increase his speed, aside from the body flicker technique which he could only use a few times before the strain on his limbs would effectively render him entirely useless in a fight. That, and it was a technique that just about every single Genin was taught in regards to its functions during their time in the academy.

As such, the fact that every single one of the participants had access to it meant that it wouldn't be the thing that put him ahead of the curve. Honestly, the only kind of thing he could really train himself for properly was the sparring, as the other part regarding the scrolls really just felt like a game of hide and seek mixed with capture the flag aesthetics. And for that, the same principles came to the surface regarding how he wasn't incredibly fast and wouldn't be winning any sprinting competitions the fair way. Then again, they were shinobi, they didn't get to where they were by being fair, they got to where they were by being better than those that were put up against them. That was a simple enough truth.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

So rather than focusing on that which was out of his control, the best idea seemed to focus on the things he 'could' control. Things such as whether or not he would be able to protect himself when it came down to a case of hand to hand combat should someone try to steal a scroll he'd manage to nick, or the other way around. Being a shinobi wasn't about being fair, so he had decided to turn his attention towards a bunch of skills that had been used by practitioners of both hand to hand and weaponry-based combat. While it wasn't all that easy to come by due to the fact that it was a young form of combat compared to things such as the river fang and the heavenly blade, the new shadow style seemed like it would provide.

Though there was something else that had also managed to catch his eye, two things actually. One of them was called the evil fist, which rather than actually being evil seemed to instead focus more heavily on the kind of attacks you wouldn't be using in a friendly spar with people you'd rather not hurt. When Ken had first looked into it, it all seemed to be rather straight forward and simple, attacks aimed at places that should be saved for actual enemies or people you'd need to either take down swiftly or outright kill. While dangerous to some, the methodology behind it seemed to be a lot more simple than what he had been able to pick up from reading into the new shadow style, which revolved mostly around proper footwork.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

The 'evil fist' however functioned around striking locations such as the head, kidneys and joints in an attempt at stunning a target and hitting those places that were known to be able to take a lot less damage than others. For instance, Ken knew that a solid blow to the chin could cause a pretty severe concussion that could take an opponent out of the fight completely, if not just laying them down on the ground right that instant. It was a rather interesting style solely because of the philosophy behind it, which was a whole lot different than the average fighting style. So many of them had some kind of flavorful history with themes of empowerment or hope or a mixture of those aspects, but not Maken.

There was no mindful or spiritual angle to it at all, it had been made for the purpose of helping its wielder survive in a fight without restraining oneself with things such as honor and fairness. In a sense, it was everything Ken felt he needed if he was to add some more depth to his capabilities, especially the melee centric ones. His skills with a wakizashi and a katana were growing to a level where he could keep up with a Jounin that held back their full strength and speed without getting hit too much or too hard. And Kirigakure had some of the best sword wielders in the world, so the fact that he wasn't beaten up in a fight against them too severely was something he felt proud of at least, but was not content with just yet.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

With the Ittoryu being based around the use of a single weapon, the heavenly sword switching between the use of one and two handed strikes and the river fang being one that worked best with a single weapon wielded in one hand as well, there would be a lot of moments in a fight where he had one free hand. It was for that reason that knowing how to use that free hand in order to deliver a staggering blow after parrying or deflecting an attack with Kagewani would be a very stellar idea. It was also one of the reasons why he had been quietly practicing with the use of one handed seals as opposed to the regular hand seals he and many others had learned in the academy.

But actually getting around to that while in the middle of learning martial arts and sword-based styles of combat was too much for even his brain to get around. After all, there was a reason why not everyone would just be able to go around flinging ninjutsu through the use of one handed seals. It was more difficult to mold chakra with a single hand, as there was more to it than just learning a new set of seals, because that would in and of itself have been an incredibly simple trick for the boy. Studying and grasping new concepts was, after all, perhaps the one thing he was better and quicker at than anyone else in all of the land of water. It was why he had already managed to learn a technique like the chidori.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

But there was more to it, as he felt like he was on the verge of unlocking the use of a third element. For during the period in which he had been spending whole weeks to learn how to get better at lightning release, the manner of his training had inadvertently put him closer to the idea of earth release as well. Being able to feel inconsistencies within rock and soil through his own chakra, primarily the lightning chakra that moved through it in order to crack and shatter rock itself. This act had granted him a manner of insight that, once the lightning technique faded, still left him with a strange feel of the rock itself. Almost comparable to what he imagined phantom limbs to feel like, as the rock in question had already shattered.

Still, he knew that if he were to keep building off of that particular vibe and managed to mold his chakra properly, that he'd be able to get the gist of what earth release was about, as well as the controlling of its affiliated chakra type and the resulting techniques they wrought. And the molding of chakra was fairly difficult when it had to be switched from regular chakra into a specific elemental nature, made even 'more' difficult when one had only a single arm to dedicate to the molding process itself. With two hands, there were more allocated points of contact and a greater level of focus. When using a single hand while dedicating the other hand to the holding of a weapon and having to also mold chakra, well, that had far greater requirements.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

So while he would practice such things in the comfort of his own home, he would not outright be dedicating any actual training time to it when he could in fact get himself through physical exercise instead. It was for that reason that he once again found himself upon the Hozuki training yard, a place where recent developments would end up bothering him the least. For as far as he could, he would need to be putting that stuff behind him, or at least far enough behind him that it wouldn't end up bogging him down but could still propel him onward. But that was easier said than done, as Ken wasn't the type that really made friends easily, and even the ones he had made him wonder whether they were his friends of just 'friendly'.

But with Taiso, there was something other than that going on. The fact that he almost felt like his sensei in a way, in spite of being the younger of the two after he had done his best to help the guy learn how to spread his chakra out properly in order to walk on water. There was the fact that he had picked him up out of the water after he nearly drowned himself in one of the most dramatic ways imaginable, offered to have him over as a guest in his home and prepared dinner for the both of them before heading back out there to get the technique down right. The fact that he had frequently called him "Kensei", which was short for Ken Sensei just added into that feeling. And since their squad had never had a legitimate sensei, it was a role he was willing to take upon himself if needed.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Through a bit of shared training, a bit of bonding over home-made food and a shared mission in which Ken had ended up being the one having to save the guy from getting pummeled by an enforcer-type ruffian, the type of bond they had was one of combined misfortune and one that almost had a master and student type vibe. And it was for that reason that when he went missing, he had insisted on being the one that got to undertake the mission to go and find him rather than handing it off to a more seasoned veteran ninja that might have found him sooner. It had been a part ego mixed with a part that wanted him to be the one that got to save the day again, so being the one that had to find the body instead was earth-shattering.

While he had been told after the fact that by the time Ken had found him, he had already been dead for a while, he could still not bring himself to shake the idea that he could and should have been able to do more, to do better. He could have taken the key from the woman and let the consequences of his decision cause a good deal of dear and dismay within the street where the supposed killer had lived. Instead, he had waited for the woman to hand it over to him once he had established a modicum of trust and talked her out of the idea that there was something truly wrong with her former neighbor and that he might come back to dispense violence and death. He had approached that situation as a police officer of the village, rather than as one of its aspiring shinobi.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Which was exactly why he had decided to let go of the idea that he had to save everyone and that he needed to be involved in everything that hit even remotely close to home. While he would have wanted nothing more than to be the one that got to bring in Taiso's killer, the fact that this guy had been able to handily take out another Genin meant that he would never be considered for the task of bringing him down. And for good reason, as there was no telling whether or not Ken would end up the same way as the former Genin, though the struggle he'd be able to put up by comparison would likely be a good deal greater. But the size of the struggle wouldn't matter much if the outcome was death in either situation presented, or so he believed.

For that reason, this whole thing had been a very unfortunate learning moment as well, one that taught him that he could not be a hero in a world of that was filled to the brim with killers, one being even more capable at it than the other. And unless he could become a Chuunin, he would never be able to contend with the stronger and more potent killers, which he very much wanted to. But the lesson that he had learned had nothing to do with strength or power. The lesson he had learned was that the closer you let someone get, the more it would hurt when they inevitably died, which in a shinobi-governed world was about as much a given as how not breathing would get you killed. And as the saying went, few shinobi died in their beds of old age.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

In that way at least, his grandma had been fortunate to be able to do so, even though she had switched to becoming a medical ninja very early in her life and hadn't been on the frontlines a whole lot. But for people like Ken, as well as his parents and uncle whom had died during the Sanbi's rampage, it seemed like a given that they would end up being killed at some point while doing their job. And he was okay with that, though he would not be making it easy and would certainly try his damnest to bring down every single enemy that was even remotely close with him. And that was why he had been studying ninjutsu for as much as he had needed to in order to create a whole slew of new techniques that would end up working perfectly with his chosen style of combat.

It would also end up being perfect for a plethora of situations when out in the field or during the Chuunin exams, as there was bound to be a good deal of water where they were going. But for those situations where the outright smashing of powerful ninjutsu was not optimal, the use of weaponry and hand to hand combat became the next best thing. As such, scrolls had been brought with him that he had been studying for some time at home, just like how he had been studying Ittoryu, heavenly sword and the river fang. But those were all revolving around the use of bladed weaponry, while the Subakage, Maken, Jujitsu and something odd as the Neko style focused on the entire body and what it could be capable of without the use of weapons. And for something as important as this exam, both were vital.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

While he had struggled to figure out which of these he would end up starting with today, and would likely spend the entire training session on just to get it down properly, was the Subakage ryu: the new shadow style. This was for no reason other than the fact that it incorporated a stance technique that allowed for accurate use of both taijutsu and kenjutsu. And since the latter was something he was already fairly capable of, it would pose the perfect segway to move from one into the other in a more understandable, simple to grasp manner. For once he got the basics of something down, the rest followed quickly, as that was the way in which his brain was wired. So the first thing he would have to start himself off with was, for obvious reasons, the stance that progenited the rest of the style.

When it had come to the foundational work of some of the other styles he had slowly begun to familiarize himself with, the step method was very much not that. It wasn't just about holding a weapon in a specific way that might have felt odd or out of place, it wasn't about posture or anything simple like that. It was about the entire body moving in a specific way that, when mastered, made all of the other affiliated techniques supposedly pop on out like a well oiled machine. And while he had assumed that it would become a difficult thing to pin down properly, he hadn't imagined that it would become quite 'this' difficult. Moving around like a fawn that had just been born and was getting to take its first steps, Ken felt utterly ridiculous doing so. Luckily, he was the only one here.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Simply walking around while trying to maintain the odd means of maneuvering felt exactly like that, odd. It went against what he had learned, though only by a certain margin. The whole new shadow style business just had him maintain a far greater level of focus over his every move, as well as increasing the way in which he had to exert himself. It felt strange when one would normally move about in a specific way, only for them to have to move in a different manner entirely due to their old way not being the ideal one for a specific style he was trying to learn. It was ludicrous how some of these styles had such methods incorporated into them, and it only served as a foundation for quite literally everything else.

Being able to walk the walk by using the 'step method' was after all only the start of it, as the techniques that were directly related to it were a whole lot more useful. Still looking at it from his earlier perspective of 'doing what he could' rather than focusing on what he could not, he knew that this Subakage-ryu possessed a technique that should have been relatively easy to learn for someone with his knack for study and adaptation. The technique was said to be derived directly from the body flicker technique, which as he had stated before, was a technique that would end up costing him the entire Chuunin exam if he used it too frequently. Hell, even using it as much as twice in a day could end up really damaging his muscles.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

It was for that same reason that this 'flash step' seemed like a valuable alternative to possess, as it could speed him up considerable at the exchange of his chakra pool. While the exchange varied in terms of just how much it drained him, the drain was based off of the distance traveled, which in turn made a lot of sense. In his mind, if he could keep the distances traveled through flash steps to a minimum and only use it to bridge the gap whenever he really needed to, there would be no point in expending more chakra than he needed to or putting a greater amount of strain on his body than was absolutely required. There was no telling whether the exam he was going to be participating was anything like what Homare had seen.

This exam was held in another village and country altogether, so it made sense to factor in the idea that the new host would do things their way. And since the host was Amegakure, the one thing Ken would likely be able to count on was the fact that there would be a lot of rain, and therefore a lot of water naturally present in wherever it was that they were supposed to be doing the exam. And that would by itself present him with a bit of an edge even above other water style ninjutsu users due to the fact that it blended perfectly with his Hijutsu. In that sense, he could likely get away with hiding until other contestants took one another out before making his appearance and picking off weakened opponents. He was a shinobi after all, not some honorable knight.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Continuing to just dash around like a baby deer, the strain he experienced in his legs became more and more notable the longer he wandered about. Though perhaps that was also in part due to the fact that he kept combining it with a Neko style technique in order to violent shake back and forth so fast from one that it allowed him to rapidly evade some straight forward attacks from opponents that did not exist. This was because he was mentally picturing enemies in his head, making them exists in his eyes only through visualization. Even though he was the only one that could see them, and they were clearly not real, as long as he attributed a point based system to improper moves, they might as well be.

Because if the image in his mind performed a frontal jab and his own block wasn't solid enough, or his block was aimed at a frontal strike when the attack performed was a swipe, he would attribute himself negative points while proper blocks and dodges would award a positive point. That way, by the end of it all, he would be able to come out of a training session while knowing exactly how many times he had failed and how many times he had succeeded. All it took was some personal honesty, which wasn't all that hard when the determining factor was how badly someone wanted to get better and stronger. And Ken wanted to get stronger, badly.