Rei Hyuga [Training]

Rei Hyuga sat up from her bed, it was still early morning and the sun had yet to break upon the village of Konohagakure and bathe it in warm arrays of a new day. Rei's bed lay on the floor, a comfortable sleeping mat. She preferred to sleep in a traditional sense instead of modern mattresses. To her, tradition was more comfortable and healthy for the body, especially the back. After all, health was the number one focus for a Hyuga. A weak body meant inferior jyuken. The Hyuga clan prided itself in its secrets and even had instilled the Branch famity system to uphold and guard the clan's secrets. Being lazy or weak would be rude and offensive to all of the sacrifices her family had made. As the heir to the Hyuga clan, she was keenly aware of the sacrifices and difficult choices the generations passed had to make.

She yawned and stretched to fully awaken her body. She sat on her bed with her legs bent at the knees. All she wore was a loose white t-shirt and a black pair of panties. Her hair was unbranded and was still somewhat messy from her slumber. She brought an arm up over her head and stretched one last time before standing up and putting on a white robe her servants had left for her. With her robe on, she left her room and passed the living quarters of her personal attendants and greeted them a good morning. She followed her usual routine, which made it quite easy for her attendants. They were used them her methods, so they had already prepared her bath water in their built-in hot spring.
She made her way there and closed the door behind her as she disrobe and hung the robe up. A fresh towel and cloth was set out for her. She undressed and sank deeply into the hot spring as she relaxed her body and felt the warm water revitalizing her muscles. Today, she would be training with her father. She needed to be in peak condition for maximum effort, her father expected no less- neither did she.

Rei had purposefully awoken extra early this morning. Her favorite time of day, was the peaceful and relaxing solitude of her hit springs soak. As such, she stayed in the hot springs, washing herself with the cloth and then remained in the warm water to allow her skin to absorb the mineral water. This was to help her muscles, but also retain smooth skin. Finally, when her head began to get a little hazy, she knew it was time to get out of the bath. She walked out of the hot spring and over to the basket which contained her fresh set of clothing. Her typical black hair and white waist sash. Her black shinobi sandals we there too, however her white overcoat was not. The purpose for this was her training. The white overcoat with her clan insignia was a thing of pride: not a common piece of garment to be worn when training.
She dressed quickly, realizing that it was nearly time to meet her father in the training building of their clan compound. After being fully dressed, she exited the hot springs and left her house. Rei's father always left early due to clan stuff, so the only times she really saw him was when they trained together. Her two servants followed closely behind her, female members of the Branch family. She arrived at the training building and entered. A large single room building with polished wooden floors and murals painted onto the walls to depict their clan's mighty history. The room was empty of everything else, save the single individual standing patient in the center. Rei's father. She approached and bowed politely, Goodmorning father. I am ready to begin training today. she said formally.

This was a ceremony between Main family: as such, Rei's servants excused themselves from the room. Branch family were not allowed to be taught some of the techniques passed down. Rei's father addressed her then as she stood. "Today we will review all you have learned. If I find your skills adequate, we will move on to teaching you more." He watched his daughter as she nodded and prepared herself mentally. She found her stance and raised her hands while activating the byakugan. The veins around her eyes bulged and granted her great clarity. She was beautiful. She reminded her father of Rei's mother when she was young. She too had been somewhat short but not as short as Rei. Despite her height, Rei's skills were marvelous. She had honed her own techniques and was an honest and hard-working young woman.
There was only one thing to do, one way to reply to his daughter's earnest desire to become stronger. The veins around his eyes bulged as well as he activated the byakugan. He lowered his stance and raised his hands in a jyuken pose. Without warning, he rushed at Rei and performed several had strikes while releasing a burst of chakra with each one. Rei had seen it coming of course: the byakugan giving away even small details. As such, to any onlooker, this would appear to be a serious and deadly battle.

She responded with force and speed. As his hands sought after her, she smacked his hands away wit her own burst of chakra, canceling each other out. This exchange went on her several minutes. Skill aside, Rei was nearly as fast as her father. Strength meant very little to the elegant style of jyuken: as such, the young heiress was capable of matching her father's movements. A feat in itself, yet she lacked the refinement that he had learned over the years. As she smacked his hands away again and turned to offense- her father took two steps back and lead her in his direction. Just as she attacked, his hands met hers and reversed his palms and smacked outwards. The strike caused Rei to stagger with her lost momentum and her father seized that opportunity. With her arms out-stretched wide and staggered, her father brought the heel of his palms forward and slammed her in the stomach.

She coughed and fell to her knees, holding her stomach and reflected upon the technique her father had used to halt her advance. "Your form is perfect. Your speed is almost as quick as mine. In time, you will make a fine clan leader, but you still lack proper control over your mind. Now pay attention as I teach you and I want you to be ale to perform the techniques I show you." said her father. It was his way of complementing her, to continue teaching her. She stood up and paid close attention with the byakugan.

Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing method. Rei had come to realize just how valuable this skill was by watching another shinobi perform various simple tasks. Her interest and desire to learn Fuinjutsu was kindled and now she had set out to learn this for herself. Of course Fuinjutsu was no stranger to the Hyuga clan: in fact, the Juuinjutsu seal upon the Branch family was derived from Fuinjutsu. The seal was an integral part of the clan's heritage and safeguard to protect the clan's secrets. While she wasn't too fond of that seal, she understood the importance of it. Today, she had found herself in the training grounds, prepared to learn how to perform Fuinjutsu. Luckily for her, she had previously bought some scrolls to practice with.

She found herself a comfortable seat on the grass in the training grounds. It was a hot and bright day as the sun shown down gloriously on the village. It was too bright in her opinion. Not wanting to dry out her moist skin, her seated position was in the shade below a tree. As usual, she wore her standard outfit. A black haori, a white waist sash and her traditional white overcoat with the hyuga's proud clan symbol. As she sat down and focused her mind, she closed her eyes for several long moments and focused on breathing in the fresh air. Recently, she had been cooped up inside the clan compound with jyuken training. The fresh air was nice and invigorating to her senses.

Finally, she opened her eyes and began to reach behind her back underneath her overcoat. She procured a small scroll. She possessed more like it, even in bigger sizes: yet this one would do well for her goal. She opened the seal on the scroll and began to unwind the long length of paper as she set it out before her on her lap and stared at the blank page. Fuinjutsu operated on seals and she had asked that shinobi about sealing methods once her interest had been sparked. Fuinjutsu was somewhat complicated and different than regular taijutsu or ninjutsu. Taijutsu came naturally to Rei due to her lifestyle and early childhood training. Ninjutsu was simple enough, using chakra molding and handseals for specific effects. Fuinjutsu on the other hand, required intricate symbols. Perplexed, she looked at the blank page- her idea of how to start, equally blank.

She recalled in her mind as to how the shinobi had done it previously. He was an expert at Fuinjutsu and required little to no effort to perform menial tasks. Still, everyone possessed a starting point. Then she had an idea, there was one good way to test out her capabilities. Again she reached behind her and into her ninja pouch as she procured a single shuriken. It was simple, she would copy how she saw the other shinobi do the seals and then see if her own weapon disappeared. She placed the metal weapon on the grass beside her lap as she focused on molding her chakra and then placing her fingers upon the blank paper.

Upon contact with the paper, a simple black seal appeared on the scroll. Excited, Rei grabbed the shuriken and placed it atop the seal. A small frown appeared over her brow as she didn't understand. Then- she recalled another thing that the man had done, a tiger seal to seal and unseal objects from seals. Up she brought her hands and performed the seal. A small poof of smoke enveloped the weapon and when the smoke cleared, the shuirken was gone. Skeptical, Rei performed the seal again just to be sure it had worked properly. A small puff of smoke appeared and produced the shuriken in the spot it had previously been. A feeling of satisfaction overtook her stoic features and she managed a small victorious smile.

Hachimon, that was the proper title of the technique she had learned. Simply a beginner and learning it from one of the elders in her clan indirectly, she came to understand that Hachimon possessed a more simplistic terminology. The Gates. Eight gates to be specific, each one adding an accumulative buff on top of the other for immense power. Of course that power came at a steep price. The higher the buff, the worse it tore your body. The elder had taught her despite her father's counsel against the matter. Rei had insisted on learning it and her logic had been quite persuasive. Reluctantly, the elder had taught her the first Gate and Rei found herself quite attuned to the style: albeit it was quite different from Jyuken. The style associated with the gates was called "Strong Fist" which she hadn't learned. Ideally, she wished to incorporate Hachimon into Jyuken and derive a style independent of the Strong Fist. "So Elder. Hachimon's other name is the Eight Gates. You have only taught me the first gate. Please teach me the second gate now."

A long drawn out reluctant sigh escaped the old bald man who stood not too far away from the heir to the Hyuga clan. He had his back turned to her, but his head swiveled on his neck after sighing in exasperation at her request. He looked at her in a defeated manner. Despite what her father had warned him against, she had tricked him into teaching her the first gate... and now she was after more of them. She sat on a barrel in the training dojo, it was an odd place to sit, but they were the only two presently training at the time. They both positioned themselves at the far end of the hall to directly avoid anyone else who entered from the doors. "Young miss, i will teach you... But I want you to understand just how dangerous this technique is." he said, wagging a finger at her to emphasize his warning. Rei nodded eagerly, focusing on sitting and molding her chakra in preparation for some intense chakra flow.

Mastering the first gate was no problem at all. My mind and body have been honed for this kind of thing ever since my young age. Elder knows it as well and likely expects me to master several of the gates quickly. That is why he is reluctant, for fear of me hurting myself. she told herself as the bald elder ranted on about safety. She understood the dangers. After all, the elder had elaborated thoroughly for almost half a day on the drawbacks to the gates before he had finally taught her the first gate. "Please elder. Teach me while we still have time. I understand that the gates are not to be used lightly due to the strain it places on the body." she said, mostly to appease the old man's sense of duty to protect her.

Finally, her last statement stopped his rambling and he grumbled quietly for a few more moments. He had already taught her how to start the gates and he was certain that she was smart enough to learn the rest without his supervision. That in itself, was more dangerous than teaching her himself. "Fine fine. But you must do as exactly as I say." Rei nodded and stood up, eager to begin. Though standing on top of the barely, she was still barely taller than the elder before her. That reminded her of how short she was. She jumped down to the floor and looked up at the elder as he began to talk again. This time with more decisive information worth hearing.

"As you know well from your training in Jyuken, that many things in regards to both ninjutsu and even taijutsu, revolve around the flow and using of the tenketsu points located all over the body. Do you recall how many tenketsu points there are on the body?" he would ask suddenly, attempting to catch Rei off guard as she listened to his explanation.

She soaked in his words, envisioning what he said in her mind and applied it to her knowledge of the human anatomy. Though she was no medic, her martial arts requires a very strong understanding of anatomy and the chakra circulatory system. His question caught her off guard though and she paused as her brain processed and counted every individual tenketsu point on the body. "There are three hundred sixty one tenketsu points on the human body." she said after a long couple of seconds, feeling pleased that she remembered what her father had taught her.

The elder grunted his approval. "Good good. I see that you take your lessons seriously then. You are correct, but did you know that eight of those specific tenketsu are associated with the gates? These tenketsu differ slightly in utilization. Simply striking them does not activate them, but requires willful change in the chakra flow through the tenketsu to activate. You have experienced ths already with the first of the gates. I am sure you understand what I mean." Rei did understand. She nodded her head. Activating the first gate had been a willful trigger and not an actual physical action. In that sense, it was a harder skill to learn than just repetitive motions.

Just to re-verify what he said and that feeling she recalled the first time she performed the first Gate, she did it again just then. She willfully activated the tenketsu flow to the first gate. Immediately she felt her chakra surge and her body became as though it felt lighter. She did this casually as her elder began to speak again. This action caused him to pause in speech as he looked at her with apprehension. "Ahem... As I was beginning to say. The gates operate in order. To achieve the second gate, you must first... open the first gate." he said, pausing and looking at her to make his point. She was eager, but also very nonchalant about what he considered to be the most powerful and deadly to the user, not just their opponents. "The gates can be opened quickly, jumping to whichever gate you feel is necessary, but all previous gates must be opened to add up to your desired gate level.... In your case, the second gate. he proceeded to poke Rei on the side of her head as he continued to explain. "The second gate is called the Gate of Healing. The tenketsu associated with it is connected to the brain... Something you hardly seem to use at all when using dangerous jutsu.

She chuckled softly, trying not to smile. The elder was serious, but he was also very right. In fact, even as he explained the second gate and she laughed: she was already exploring her inner chakra circulatory system and her knowledge of the tenketsu. She wanted to learn this quickly so she could move on to the next gates. "Look at you, young master... Already dabbling with the second gate just after your first explanation of it." the elder said, shaking his head in both amazement and knowing-reluctance.

There, she found it. The chakra flowed normally through her tenketsu. She had located it and mentally monitored the chakra flow through her chakra molding. As the elder began to talk some more, she willfully sent a surge of chakra through the tenketsu gate and activated it. She felt a small loss to her chakra pool and her body felt extremely light. Not only that, but she also felt invigorated one the second gate was opened. I'm beginning to understand just how complex this technique is... she reflected inward as she focused on sensing her chakra circulatory system.

The elder grunted reluctantly again. "Well, that is the second gate. I see you've learned it and likely understand the reason why it is called the Gate of Healing. It technically does not heal, but it revitalizes your stamina and prepares your body for further gates usage. Try to keep that gate open as long as possible." he would instruct and of course, Rei complied.

This had turned into training of stamina. She had learned how to activate the second gate.. but maintaining that flow of extraordinary chakra was no small task. The chakra circulatory system was overflowing with chakra that was boosting her physique, molding elemental chakra for ninjutsu and other such skills was currently impossible with her limited use and understanding of the technique. Her brow furled slightly at understanding this. "Elder. It is difficult to utilize chakra molding while my body is overflowing with the enormous flow from my gates. Is this why most who use the gates only practice taijutsu?" her question sprouted from curiosity, but also concern.

The elder, sensing her apprehension and also understanding the deeper intellectual value of her question- knew the answer she sought. "Yes. Most gate users and few indeed they are.. focus on brute taijutsu such as the Strong Fist style due to the complicated chakra flow of their chakra circulatory system. Fortunately for us Hyuga, those who learn Hachimon are capable of greater feats." He paused for a moment to allow the information to sink in and for the young heiress to formulate her own answer as to why this was so.

She thought about how her chakra circulatory system felt and then compared that irregular flow to her own physiological factors of being a Hyuga. As she felt herself inside and thought about this, she began to test just how well her physique had been boosted. What as meant to be a small hop, turned into a full room distance leap. She turned around now at the opposite en of the building and spoke loudly so her elder could hear her answer. "Is it because of our inherent ability to expel chakra from our tenketsu points? she asked, essentially understanding what the elder meant to teach her.

The elder nodded his head, then realized that from her distance... a nod seemed impractical. He motioned with his hand for her to return to him. She did so in the blink of an eye and stood before him once more, even as his hand was still being lowered. Such marvelous speed from my young master... He cleared his throat before speaking once more. Yes young master. Our clan's Jyuken style compliments the Hachimon quite well. Arguably even more so than the Strong Fist. Our tenketsu work in tandem with the overflowing chakra from the releasing of our gates. Upon hgher gate activation, your own Jyuken will evolve into a unique fighting style."

A unique Jyuken fighting style... I wonder what it is like? she began to wonder, her face revealing the secret of her heart. As evident on her face, the bald elder became somewhat concerned and knew what she would ask next. "Will you teach me the next gate, elder?" she asked, more hopeful than expectant.

To her question, the elder allowed her to finish asking before he brought up his crippled right hand to halt her fool-hearty curiosity. "Young master, practice makes perfect. You do not want to injure yourself beyond repair." he purposefully used his crippled hand. He had been foolish to rush through his own training and while he did master the technique, he had injured himself severely. So terribly that even the medical shinobi hadn't been capable of repairing his arm.

Normally the elder kept his crippled hand hidden beneath his long robe sleeves. The sight of it was humbling to Rei. This elder had been quite the accomplished shinobi back in his prime. Until now, she hadn't known what had stopped his shinobi career. The realization and the gruesome image of his crippled hand was enough to sate her curiosity for now. She bowed politely and released the flow of chakra through the gate. "you have taught me a valuable lesson today Elder. I think you for teaching me." she would show her gratitude. It was not every day that one could learn from the older generations mistakes.

Her body felt heavier, far heaver than usual. At first, she figured it was due to returning to her normal physique, but it soon became apparent to her that it was far more than that. As she focused on that feeling, the elder patted her on the head like he used to do when she was but a child. "Now you see. Even with the first few gates, the drawback will hurt you. You will suffer a decrease to your physical capacity for a short time. Go and rest for the day and reflect upon what you have learned today." They bowed to each other and Rei excused herself, though the elder had one last piece of advice before she left. "This is but the draawback of the second gate. Just imagine how severe the drawbacks will be to the higher gates. Sometimes, the result is not worth the benefit. Choose wisely when using the Gates."

Something more... that was the thought. Body and mind are two separate things, yet they co-exist to create an innumerable variety of possibilities. Rei knew that there was something missing in her skills, yet she was still uncertain as to what this missing link could be.

She sat in a field near Konoha, a handful of assorted items before her. She knee that the older generaton of shinobi possessed valuable insight and so she had asked them for better understanding. This suggestion and that, she had taKen them all into consideration and now sat in the field as she contemplated where her skills would take her. Her eye glimpsed an old bow, a curious thing that she picked up and twirled in her hands as she inspected it's structure.
Bukijutsu 1/3

She pulled the taunt string back slowly and let it loose. A resounding twang could be heard as the bowstring launched forward. Bows were a weapon of mid to long range, quitell the opposite of the typical Hyuga's capabilities. Thinking back on it now, most all of Rei's offensive ability was short to mid range. Coming into contact with an opponent with long range could potentially slow her down and defeat her when she was wxhausted. Compared to the other instruments before her, the bow was by far the best choice.

She stood up suddenly, fully taking the bow in her grip and activated the chakra in her eyes. Used countless times and taken for granted: now holding a bow, she came to a new realization. The byakugan was capable of so much more... like this bow for example.
Bukijutsu 2/3

She reached down and picked up a single slender arrow. It was made of old wood and the fins were ragged... it would serve it's purpose here today though. Rei knocked the arrow into the bow string's resting position with her slender delicate fingers. She was not accustomed to the bow, so it felt awkward to hold the weapon up. However her eyes made it easier to adjust and get a good sense of direction. She needed to know how fast and how far a simple arrow could travel from an old bow like this. She pulled the bowstring all the way back and let lpose the arrow as she exhaled her breathing. The arrow flew straight as a fast speed. With her eyes, she scoped in on the arrow and monitored it's fast movements as it sailed through the air a good ways in only the blink of an eye. Finally, the arrow landed, hitting a tree and sinking partially into the tree's thick girth. A modest smile crept over her face as she realized just how useful Bukijutsu could be.
Bukijutsu 3/3