All things considered, the Temporary Paralysis Technique wasn't even that bad to learn. After being a victim of Ami's practice usages during her attempts to understand it, she was almost entirely obligated to do the same for him. In the beginning, she hadn't seemed all that worried about his capabilities when it came to genjutsu. Whatever smug confidence she'd held, though, didn't st for long once he started to pick up the proper way to inflict the jutsu on another.
"Goddamnit!" Ami struggled in the imaginary chains that tied her to the ground, while Tobio…felt immeasurably satisfied. Red in the face and angry, the physical bor she suffered under was more mental than real, but in a fight that momentary pse or weakness would have been enough to secure an opening for him to end her. "This isn't fair!"
"Life isn't fair," he shrugged, sitting a few meters away. Just in case she managed to whack him in her struggles.
Clicking her tongue irritably, she gave up, colpsing against the ground bonelessly. There was something of a despondent expression on her face, as she stared straight up at the blue Konoha sky, catching her breath after her huffing and puffing. "You're stronger, faster, and have rger chakra reserves. How am I supposed to contribute if you are some kind of genjutsu prodigy too?"
He scoffed. "I'm not a prodigy."
Tobio didn't even need to see her face to feel her judgement through the resulting damning silence. It made his own face burn a little, even as he gnced away from the prone girl. Protesting that he wasn't a prodigy was a little silly, when he had all of the cssic features of being one. That was such a loaded term in Konoha, though, and Tobio personally didn't want the baggage that it would have brought into his life. The expectations, getting dragged into all of the political maneuvering, being considered a real piece to be moved around a board...
Maybe that was the other side of the coin. He'd wanted to reach the heights of this world, whether through his own efforts, or the system's machinations. No man was an isnd, though, and being part of a community meant being shackled by those responsibilities and expectations. For better or worse, the moment he survived his suicidal move against Suien, he ceased to be a nobody, and became somebody to the movers and shakers in the Hidden Vilge.
His earlier tact against her wouldn't work. So instead, he turned to face her again, dispelling the genjutsu from his system. "Ami, we're ninjas. We're supposed to use every tool in our disposal to take one another down. Fairness has nothing to do with it."
She frowned but couldn't contend with that argument, slowly peeling herself out of the dirt. There were objective winners and losers in the world of Naruto. With Sworn Brotherhood, she'd be one of those winners in time, but Tobio didn't think his teammates would ever fully become empowered to his level.
Which…felt a little lonely, the longer he thought on it. He'd admit it was a little odd to see her rex to some degree over those words, their shared bond smoothing over the harshest of the ruffled feathers from their conversation. "...If that's the case, then it just means I've got to train even harder to stay ahead," she huffed. "How else am I suppose to keep up with my prodigy teammate?"
He winced at her use of the title again, but didn't deny her that much. "Fair enough. Ready for another go?"
"No," she admitted. "But enemy ninja aren't gonna wait for my sore feelings to be fixed. Let's start from the top..."
It wasn't enough to solve Ami's underlying issues with feeling weaker than him, but it'd be a start. Though after all that gooey, emotional stuff, his head swelled with distractions. What was good for clearing his thoughts? More training, and Tekuno-sensei was happy to oblige.
Like most Fire Release jutsu, it came more naturally to Tobio than anything else. He id that at the feet of his Origin, and didn't look the gift horse in the mouth. For his part, he was just happy to learn it, even if he was the only one learning that particur elemental release. His peers chose to focus in on their given affinities or specialties, which was probably for the best.
Hibachi had sprung for picking up Maniputing Windmill Triple Bdes, Maniputed Shuriken Wire Binding, and Hiding Like a Mole to expand his repertoire. He became worryingly proficient in staying eerily still underneath the ground and ambushing Ami and Tobio during their ninjutsu-only spars. Only Tobio's inherent danger sense kept giving him some warning before Hibachi struck, though Ami didn't have any such luck. That being said, if he had to have that on someone's side, it being on theirs was for the best.
Meanwhile, Ami had caught up with them as she learned the Shadow Shuriken technique, while also disappearing for…some of the mysterious water jutsu training that Tekuno had promised. Tobio didn't know what she'd learn or from whom, but he trusted her judgement when picking up something useful.
The Dragon Fire technique was admittedly retively simple in its execution. The user would spit fmes from their mouth, which traveled just in a straight line toward the target. If they were so inclined, someone could use ninja wire as a guideline for the 'current' of fme. He was reasonably sure that it still had hidden depths, and could branch off to different gouts of fme as well, depending on whether or not he pumped more chakra into the initial bsts.
Ultimately, the one that gave him the most trouble was the Water Surface Walking Technique. Unlike the Tree Climbing Technique, it needed a far more variable amount of chakra to be altered and changed on the fly, depending on the surface conditions of the water or other surface in question. That was something of a surprise to him, even if it wasn't an insurmountable one. It just meant that he'd had to push himself to learn something new for the first time in a while.
...Tobio got used to getting wet—a lot. Yet even so, it was well worth the effort, as he precariously banced on the water's surface, throwing up his hands in a cheer. "HELL YEAH!"
With a slow, sardonic cp, Tekuno walked over to him. The difference between their skill was evident by the way Tobio's legs trembled ever so slightly, whereas Tekuno left no waves on the water's surface with his movement. "Congratutions. Now you need to learn how to keep yourself up under stressful conditions."
Tobio frowned, as a slowly growing smirk crept over his sensei's face. "Like what?"
"Think fast."
Almost zily, Tekuno threw a kunai his way, and Tobio's focus crumbled, as the boy fell into the water with a shout. Coming up above once more, he shot the man a nasty look, while his sensei chuckled and walked off, leaving Tobio to start the excercise from the top.
That being said, Tobio felt like he got the st ugh as a familiar interface popped up.
[QUEST COMPLETED: LEARN 10 D-RANK JUTSU.]
[REWARD: 1x MINOR ERUDITION PERK.]
[NEW QUEST: CREATE 10 ORIGINAL JUTSU.]
[REWARD: 1x MODERATE ARTIFICE PERK.]
[NEW QUEST: TEACH TEN PEOPLE YOUR ORIGINAL JUTSU.]
[REWARD: 1x MAJOR ERUDITION PERK.]?
…Tobio would do his best not to cry at the requirements of the new quests, and just focus on the completed quest instead of the mountain of new work dropped onto his p. As he got home that day, he reached into that familiar hollow inside of himself, and let it swell with power, as it reached out for new possibilities. It didn't take long before there was a sense of power flooding into his core, as the new options hovered before him.
As usual, none of them were bad. But they were all different in very strange ways.
Depths of the MindMagic the Gather - IconicsThe path of a Wizard is study, rote memorization and learning. These qualities are innate to those who wish to practice magic. Being infused with the cooling touch of Blue Mana, your intelligence has boosted along with your memory and ability to learn. Put simply, you are quite the savant, easily worth three of your peers when looking towards solving a problem, learning three times faster than normal, and having a perfect memory barring magical interference.Style and SubstanceUltrakillI mean, sure, you could just shoot foes normally, but where's the fun in that? Where's the pizzazz? The style? Why just shoot them when you could fling them into the air, flip a coin before punting it into the poor fool's face? You now gain a 'style' meter, toggleable at will. For the more awesome and silly shit you do, the higher your score becomes. But to what end? Why, you'll get paid, of course. Your 'score' can be spent like money. A couple a fshy kills in a middle of a fight might be enough for a pizza. But if you take it to extremes, big combos, hitting foes in mid-air while bouncing shots off of coins and constantly swapping weapons, you could probably get enough in a fight to purchase something in the three hundred dolr range. Maybe that doesn't sound like much to a dimension hopper, but hey, it's cash for the cost of being cool as hell. It's a fair trade, if you ask me.The Power of KingsFinal Fantasy XV Royal EditionSomehow you have the Power of Kings, maybe you are or was one of the Kingsgives or not, but somehow you are able to draw magical power from Crystal without pledging allegiance to the King, your abilities are simir to the Gives, the most notable are: storing a weapon in subspace; Warp by throwing your weapon; you reforge your weapon by summoning it so even if you break it doesn't matter; Elemancy (see more in notes). These skills can grow to the kings' levels however it will be a slow pace compared to the Lucii; during the jump, this power will depend on the existence of the Crystal and can be interrupted.These…weren't precisely what he was expecting, but he was pretty pleased to have at least something that'd expand his capabilities in substantive ways he could see himself using. Slowly, he took his time to go down the list of options and began his ritual of evaluating each perk by its merits.
It pained Tobio to turn his face away from Style and Substance, but he didn't need it. Not at that moment anyway, though maybe one day he'd get the opportunity to take it for fun. With that in the back of his mind, he turned away from the Ultrakill ability and considered the others on offer.
That wasn't to say he wasn't just as pained to move on from The Power of Kings. It was a bootleg Flying Thunder God, with all of the prestige and capability that would entail for Tobio. But it was also fshy, and it'd get him the type of attention that he wasn't sure he could survive at the moment. Even if it wasn't technically the Fourth Hokage's jutsu-shiki, that wouldn't matter to those who thought it was.
Tobio was already straining at the boundaries of his capabilities in that regard. Being so filled with vital essence and energy let him go hard in a way that most people couldn't, but unfortunately, even he had limits—limits that just couldn't be ignored if he wanted to be functional on a day-to-day basis.
Living for nothing but training was hardly any living at all. Sasuke might have been able to pull that off, but that boy had that demon in him, driving the Uchiha toward revenge. No, Tobio's eyes were cast toward the final perk, which felt like it might have the most actual effect for his purposes.
Depths of the Mind.
Compressing how much learning he could get done while providing crystal clear memory recall? That felt like an easy pick for him, even if it wasn't the most immediate boost in power. Ultimately, though, Tobio had tons of active abilities. Increasing the passives under his belt felt like a more efficient py.
In that moment, he accepted the perk. And then felt his mind expand.
His mind was on fire, as his fading childhood neuropsticity rippled in the expanse of his brain. Blue mana infused into the grey matter of his consciousness, and every single neuron in Tobio's consciousness reinforced with each passing thing. Blood dripped from his nostrils, and he felt his head tremble with the raw, unmitigated potential coursing through him at that moment. Blue mana was the concept of perfection through knowledge, the element of self-improvement, that everyone was a bnk ste with no small amount of limitless potential. And here and now, a little bit of that immense promise seeped into his very being.
It was terrifying and incredible, something great and awful, as with each breath, his memory was turned crystalline. Every exquisite moment of pain, meals cooked with friends, and burning exhaustion from training were etched into who he was. More frightening, though, was how he could see himself changing.
Noting that demarcation in his thoughts was easy, now that he could recollect everything almost impetuously. Seeing that point where his actions changed, his behavior, and there was a nudge here and there from his Origin or the blood in his veins, Frankly, he…didn't know what to do about that, or how to even feel about it.
Ultimately, he was too tired to care, as he cleaned himself up and got to bed. Any further questioning about the profound, personal consequences of tinkering with his psychology and soul could come when he'd at least gotten a full night of sleep to grapple with those questions.
April 8th?The meals that he'd been cooking were doing wonders. Stuffed full with as much chakra and magical energy as he could manage without them combusting on the spot, each little bento box he brought for his teammates and Tekuno-sensei was being devoured with relish. It was immensely, stupidly clear that Beniemiya was quite possibly one of his favorites out of all of the perks he earned.
It didn't grant Tobio the grand powers of creation itself. He wasn't that much stronger or faster for having it. But what impact did it have on his teammates when it came to their energy levels across the board and their capacity to learn and absorb information? That couldn't be overstated enough.
Though he didn't doubt that they were subject to supernaturally potent food, there could be knock-on effects, like Ami and Hibachi growing even taller or denser than usual shinobi. But that sounded like a problem for another day.
Instead, the three of them were focused on the main target of your team combat training: Tekuno-sensei. As was typical for Team Eleven, the purpose of the exercise was to try and beat his ass. At best, a prospect that none of them could have even begun to visualize, before their mission to Takigakure. But after…
If the mission had taught them one thing, it was that Jōnin could be beaten with superior teamwork. That they could be defeated if the three of them did their best to work together, rather than serving as incomparable mountains, they were failing to cw their way up. Tobio hadn't known what the enormity of that realization had done for him, and his confidence, until they were sparring with their sensei again.
So, the impossibility of victory merely became highly improbable, as all of Tekuno's Genin did their level best to try and kill him. He reciprocated with violence nearly at the same level, ughing all the while.
Shinobi bonding was weird.
Each of them had their niche, carefully refined and negotiated, from the remains of the st mission. Ami, for example, jumped back, hands weaving into seals before she used a nearby puddle to create a Water Clone. Compared to the traditional Clone technique that trainees in the Academy were taught, they possessed a significant advantage in being physical, rather than incorporeal. That sort of thing opened up the tactical options that would be good for a stealth specialist like her.
Tobio was more surprised that Ami had managed to pick it up that quickly, personally, but was smart enough not to voice that aloud. Though that wasn't to say that they were perfect, out of the extended family of clone jutsu a shinobi could learn. One of the disadvantages, or just facts of the jutsu, was the reality that Water Clones were physically weaker than their progenitors, only possessing around a tenth of their strength.
But for Ami's role as an assassin and skirmisher, and throwing out the odd debuff here and there? Tobio felt it was good enough for what it was, as she hung back, waiting for a proper opening. There was a very unsettling way in which her clone and she could act in concert, without any real communication, something that their sensei had even commented on when she'd first used it in sparring.
Another sign of how Sworn Brotherhood altered his friends in ways even Tobio couldn't have foreseen. Though, admittedly, not for the worse.
Meanwhile, Hibachi was more of a mid-range threat amongst their group. He opened up with some probing throws of kunai with one hand, before his hands moved into the seals for Hiding Like a Mole. While Ami and Tobio were the obvious, seen threats, Hibachi tended to drift toward the tricky tactics, opening up opportunities for everyone else, and coming at the situation through avenues other people wouldn't consider.
It served them well in their practice bouts against Tekuno-sensei, when he'd have to contend with surreptitiously pced explosive tags under the ground that he couldn't even see. Funneling him into those chokepoints usually required communication between everyone, but…
The fact that they were on the same instinctive wavelength went a long way toward instilling that horrifying capacity for teamwork. Tobio's role, in comparison, was somewhat simple but perhaps the most necessary.
He'd rage and never let up the aggression in their fights, serving as the frontline, terrifying threat for any potential hostiles they'd face moving forward. It wasn't a role that he minded, admittedly, if only because he knew he was strong enough to survive the dangers of it. That, and he liked brawling in the thick of it when he had a choice.
That was helped by the fact that falling into a rage was easier than ever before, with Depths of the Mind on his side. What surprised him was that even amid that psychological trigger, roaring his defiance out to the heavens, a part of him remained coldly rational in the midst of it all. It was like he was in the eye of a vast storm, with the world whirling around him, while he could look out from that inner nucleus with cool logic on his side.
None of the effects of his rage were diminished. But it did make his efforts as a close-quarter combatant all the more terrifying, as he could chain together strikes while shrugging off retaliatory punches, cuts, and kicks from their sensei. And even more impressive was that he rarely made the same mistake twice.
More than anything else, Tobio found that things clicked for him in a way they hadn't before he'd gotten that perk. He wouldn't have said that he was dumb or stupid before. Still, the world felt sharper and more focused, and his ability to make those special leaps of learning logic or ingenuity was heightened as he made great strides in his direct combat capability.
Every lesson and learning opportunity was basically three packed into one, which was a sobering advantage when he realized it.
All of these advantages didn't stop the three Genin from being defeated. But it did make Tekuno-sensei work for it, whereas before it might have been truly effortless for him to overpower them. And that, more than anything else, made the inevitable sensation of being bruised, panting, and trying not to slump to the ground all worth it.
After that bout, even Tekuno-sensei was ever so slightly winded. He looked at them with a gauging eye, even while he was smiling broadly, wiping away a bit of sweat from his temple. "Kami, what the hell are they feeding Genin these days…?"
"Mostly Tobio's lunches," Ami chirped, smirking cheekily.
"It's all got the nutrients that a growing Genin needs," Hibachi added, spping his stomach with a broad grin.
"…Yeah, that checks out," Tekuno nodded in agreement, as he rolled his shoulders. "If nothing else, I'm not worried about the three of you in the teamwork portion of the exams. You fight like a well-oiled machine, more or less."
That was when Tobio did feel like he should ask a question to his sensei. "Shouldn't we train to fight alongside you, though, sensei?"
It gave the man pause, as he nodded slowly with a thoughtful hum, eyes widening. "You're…certainly not wrong. It'll ensure we're all prepared for the next time you three get into a troublesome situation."
"Pfft, you're our sensei, so if we get into trouble, we'll just bme you for not training us enough," Hibachi commented, smirking wryly.
"Poor, poor, Kanden Tekuno, who can't even train his own Genin correctly…" Ami snickered, tittering softly.
"Oi, oi, oi…" The man grumbled, gncing away, even if his lips were twitching with a smile. "What a bunch of brats I've been saddled with!"
All three of the kids ughed at that point, as Tobio shot Tekuno a big grin. "Unfortunately, too te to give any of us back. You're stuck with us now."
Deep in Tobio's heart, he felt that mystical connection of Sworn Brotherhood reach out, and begin to take ahold of Tekuno. Where there was once three in that strange, otherwordly bond, there was now four. Four souls, who in all of the Elemental Nations, were inextricably linked. He knew it in his bones, as inviote as they were, that their sensei was joined to them.
"Stuck as I am, let's figure out where you lot have room for improvement," Tekuno continued, crossing his arms. "Because you three do have pces where you can improve. Listen up…"
The training continued, with all three Genin listening intently. And day by day, improving that tight, interwoven bond of friendship and trust. They might not have been prepared to take on the world yet, but if this rate of growth continued…in a few years, they'd be one of the most terrifying forces on the battlefield.
And Tobio couldn't wait. Though that said, the three of them had also begun their own special project amongst their group in the midst of their teamwork training, and that was replicating the pseudo-Boogie Woogie that Tobio and Ami had performed back in Taki, with no small amount of urging from Tobio. How difficult could making your own jutsu be?
...Pretty fucking hard, apparently.
Making your own jutsu was challenging in a way that was straining the mental enhancement that he'd just received. Tobio had cheated to some degree with Fire Burst and Human Bullet, which somewhat misled him about the difficulty of the actual process. Fire Burst was information dumped straight into his brain, courtesy of Sorcerer, something he was well thankful for, as it immediately expanded his technique library and chakra reserves. Human Bullet was more of a watershed moment of abusing and using his Origin, too.
But making something from scratch? That was a very, very different monster.
Even so, all three of them had gotten it stuck in their heads after Ami and Tobio had managed to pull it off back in Takigakure. Their adaptation of the Repcement Technique was novel, ingenious, and mostly driven by leaning on an irrepcable, out-of-context mystical bond between them. But that didn't mean they were willing to give it up.
The first thing they did was tear apart the mechanics of how the Body Repcement Technique worked normally.
Under the typical conditions of use, the hand seals went Tiger → Boar → Ox → Dog → Snake. It was, ironically, a child jutsu of the Body Flicker Technique. The key difference was that shinobi were effectively moving so fast that it looked like you swapped pces, when in reality, the user merely swapped positions with a nearby object or target. A far cry from the practical teleportation that they'd accomplished before, but with that grounding, the team had a target to aim for.
Their modification effectively split the difference between who needed to perform which seals, effectively 'meeting in the middle', so to speak. All jutsu, at their core, whether that be ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu, was based on some degree of intent from the user in question as they channeled their chakra in select ways.
Not much of the training exercises were dedicated to practical usages, so much as Tekuno lectured them on the actual art of jutsu creation. Having their sensei break down the finer points of what each hand seal did in their chakra system, and present to shoot down any immediately erroneous assumptions, did wonders for their progress. However, one thing did become immediately, painstakingly clear.
…This wasn't going to get done anytime soon. But as always, Team Eleven relished the challenge, even if Ami and Hibachi griped. They'd caught his training bug to some degree, if only because their own efforts were proving far more fruitful than before.
Only time would tell if it was enough for the Chūnin Exams ahead. For now, though? He'd enjoy these peaceful days with his friends for as long as possible.
