Lining a shelf are the many journals of the shinobi as he grew up in order from youngest to oldest; lowest shelf to the highest. Within each there's no doubt much if the more exciting events of the ninja's life.
“Hige’s B-de”
I found out that I didn’t know about Hige’s birthday. The horrible thing was that I found out on the day he chose to celebrate my own which, while late, had already been celebrated enough in my opinion. We went out for a picnic and he showed me some beautiful sights before revealing that he’d had my shack rebuilt after a incident that left it full of holes. I’ll have to make sure I find some sort of way to repay him.. Maybe he’d like a giant ball…
“The Kraken.”
With Tatsuo’s help I’ve managed to master this new formation of chakra and while it takes a large amount of chakra to manifest, the amount of territory that I can claim makes it an amazingly profitable exchange. The only problem in using it is that I can’t move very far from it so I have to rely on my manipulation of shadows in order to avoid being hit too hard.
“The Mission”
Hige snatched me up so fast I didn’t know what was going on until we were halfway to the village. There had been reports of an attack on a village near the edge of the land of Fire. Hige was more serious about this than I’d ever seen and when we got there I found out why that was. The village was completely flooded, being under siege by an endless storm pouring down torrents of rain onto the people. Almost as soon as we got there the fighting started. Pillars of water were pouring down onto those who charged ahead, lightning scattering to electrify everyone in sight. Just one hit from that lightning nearly made me want to pass out from the pain. Zankuro got it the worst of all at first but Isura was there to help him while I focused on evacuating the civilians. Hige and Konsho took on the big boss while ordering us all to retreat.. After the fighting the result was unclear. The enemies were gone… but Hige wasn’t moving..
“Hige’s Medical Emergency”
I thought we ran fast getting to the mission site but Konsho was moving even faster with Hige on his back despite his own injuries. I had basic medical knowledge thanks to Tatuso’s training but there was no way I could learn to deal with so much blood. The best I could do was bandage his wounds to try keeping the bleeding to a minimum and stitch closed Hige where I could. He was barely breathing though. When we got into the village I tried telling someone to contact the staff but Konsho wasn’t about to stop while I talked. He made it to the hospital before the messengers and if not for my shadows, I’d have fallen behind. Kenta was there, thankfully, and he was quickly commanding everyone into action while getting ready for the surgery.
Konsho and I were shown out and a vet called to tend to Konsho while I talked with Atsuro about what had happened. This was nothing like the other missions I’d been on. And Hige was able to get close to dying. Feeling the surges of chakra pouring out from behind the doors of the operation room, I knew I had to become more than just someone that could use a few shadows and tricks if I was going to keep going on missions with Hige… I remember Atsuro telling me the impossible-training I’d need to do to get stronger quickly. 16 hours a day every day. But it will be worth it.
"Special Delivery!"
So a mission was delivered today, a giant scroll dumped in my lap with the warning that I’d die if I something happened to it before it was delivered. I screamed like a little girl until Hige came and inspected the situation. It wasn’t long before he dragged me along with him to find the person who delivered it. It was satisfying seeing Hige rip into the Chuunin as well as to find out I wasn’t actually going to die if the scroll got a scratch. The only danger that we came across were some stupid bandits or ninja that decided they could show up and try picking a fight with an annoyed Hige. There was a lot of blood. A LOT… but we finished the mission and went home to wash the fingers and gore out of Hige’s hair.
"Missing Persons."
We received a quiet summons to the briefing room, a report having been brought to our attention that a Aburame was missing. I never expected to be sent on a search and rescue mission as I wasn’t the best at it, but for it to be a kidnapping in the village was a surprise all its own. Hige was calm and collected during the briefing as well as the investigation at the house, though the surprising part was how quickly that changed. Even before catching up, he had Konsho - I know it was Hige’s idea - trip and catch me to carry me at a higher speed into a section of forest I’d never seen before. Inside the forest was a world far different from the one outside its restrictive fencing. The air itself was strange and… creepy. Still, Hige seemed unfazed as he lead the way deeper into the forest and to a stop just a ways away from a group of strangers. While Hige played a distraction, I took the child back from them and then engaged one of the people there while Hige dealt with the other two. Kiozku saved my skin when I needed it.. I think I’ll fix him something nice for dinner tonight.
"What Lies Beneath."
I’ve been doing a lot of diving since meeting with Tatsuo and his partner not long ago. It’s helped clear my mind and let me think more deeply on some problems that I’ve come across in my own techniques. That was when I thought of it. How Tatsuo’s partner had swam, using the water as though it were simply gliding through it rather than swimming. He’d shown me a secret that I’d not thought of down in the depths where the lake turned black…. Water and shadow, aren’t that different after all. That was when I formed the first of eight, and when I knew I’d found my secret.
"Droughts resolved."
I actually did the big fighting today. Tatsuo and I were sent out to discover the reason for disappearances and droughts at the village toward the edge of the village. That made today twofold since I usually learn something new when Tatsuo’s around and was eager to learn what it was. The village, when we got there, was a ghost town though.. Tatsuo resolved to head toward the river and that’s where we met him. A water user like Tatsuo, but no where near as accomplished. Comparing the two would be like comparing a garden pond’s Koi to a shark. Tatsuo however, resolved to save the villagers and entrusted me with the big bad guy. I was a little more than excited but couldn’t lose my head the first time I was trusted to handle something important… combatwise anyway. I’m not sure if it’s because I was being trusted with it, or because I tried harder than normal, but the fight was coming to a close by the time Tatsuo returned. With the cause of the problems out of the way and the villagers stabilized, Tatsuo and I went back to help out where we could before we’d head back home.
"Walking without legs"
So I started getting bored while Hige was still out visiting in Kumo and started playing with my shadows more now that I can make tangible shadows… And I kind of stumbled across something a little… new. It's sitting beside me and I'd swear it's staring but I know it's not. It's a mass of shadow that I've been maintaining for the past three days and finally gotten to be something I can make useful! I bet Hige's going to hate this but I just took being lazy from a hobby to a mode of transportation. Time for experimentation!
"Motoring around town!"
Sitting with my legs crossed seems to be the easiest manner of mounting this mass of shadow I've taken to calling Doc. It's a fair sized shadow, somewhere between my own, and where I usually stretch it to when I begin to get a little serious. If I had to guess I'd say it was around two meters across and a semi-circular I can't lighten the shadow but I can darken it which has given it a pair of eyes that are 'darker than black'.. It somehow makes Doc less creepy and more creepy at the same time. I've found I can still use my shadows as weapons without causing him to dissipate as well which is a definite plus; I can even stay seated while I'm in combat now! Still, the best part is that I can ride Doc around the village quiet easily as he silences my movements and lets me move far more swiftly through the forested and otherwise shaded areas.
"Branching out"
As much good as I might be able to do with my shadows, I cannot deny the fact that they are a limited ability when it comes to the variety of uses that could be made possible. While I can attack, it is through great effort and while I can defend it is not easy nor very effective against many forms of attacks. It was while I was thinking over this shortcoming that the answer came to me in a rather embarrassingly obvious way. I was setting up the protective seals over a section of forest that I've chosen to guard for my herd when I considered the idea of using them for actual combat.. I know I should have thought of it sooner but I didn't.
"Mixing and matching.."
With the idea of using seals for combat as well as my shadows, I've thought of methods to mix and merge the use of my shadows with the application of these seal tags. So far I've attempted merging my shadows with seals to minimal success. It can be done, but the shadows can only bind and not damage at the moment. I'll be doing more testing and research but if they can't do something that I can't already do far more easily, I think this may be a dead end for the experimentation.
Shadow Clones
I wanted to try developing a clone of shadows so I could trade places with my shadow whenever I wanted but as it turns out, it's not as simple as one would think. I For one, making the shadows tangible seems to counter the clone's nature and making them intangible seemed to make the clone try to flatten so it was useless… The only good thing that came from it was that Hige came and teased me. That's good because he seems to know some people who can help me make a Shadow clone that isn't of the Nara's clan. It's a technique that I thought was a myth and one I'm a little wary of learning but… if it helps I'll take it.
Medic 101
Today I had to get nice and dressed up before going out. My clothes weren't shabby and I even combed my hair… a little. I wanted to be presentable when I went into the hospital so the nurses didn't try kicking out someone that looked as much like a freeloading bum as I am. Still, the nurses weren't what I went for. I went to find Tatsuo and when I did, I decided to ask him if he could teach me a bit of what it means to be a medical ninja. He seemed reluctant at first but after a few minutes of convincing, he did start teaching me about how to wrap a bandage and to clean a wound. It was a new kind of experience if not overly simple but I was amazed with how much there was to wrapping a wound. It's a little more complicated than just strapping the bandage on tightly and making sure the bleeding stops.
Medical Experimentation
My second training session with Tatsuo and he's showing me how to revive bugs.. kind of. The beetles were hibernating and my goal was to get their systems pumping again to wake them up. The first bug nearly blew up from an overload though so Tatsuo probably was cracking up inside. He wanted me to try again but before I did I tried testing things on myself; slowing down and speeding up my heartrate through chakra controlling pulses through myself. It was strange but I managed to grasp it well enough to safely wake a bug up and have it active enough that it began crawling about on my fingers. It tickled quite a bit; I'm not sure how the Aburame clan can be so calm with such a tickling feeling all the time.
Mugging Merchants
Today's mission was one I didn't think much of at first. We were going out to look and see why a merchant caravan had not arrived at its destination on time. It wasn't something big or grand in any way but it was something to get everyone together and go out of the village. All in all it was a fairly relaxed mission, at first. When we found the tracks of the cart however, things changed. The tracks lead us off into the woods where the wagon sat, seemingly abandoned. After a few tense moments, Hige gave the all clear for Tsuna and I to move in and we found the merchants bound inside. Nothing that can't be resolved with a few cuts of the ropes. The problem was the matter of who had robbed the merchants. It was the village that they had passed through not much further back along the road.
Why had they robbed the merchants? The merchants didn't know and were too pissed to even wonder why they had been robbed. The fact that their supplies were taken was all that we could really get out of them and with only that to go on, we went to inspect the village. The village that we found was one with almost no signs of happiness.. There was a shortage of supplies, a water in the area, along with a shortage of information. It was an elderly couple that told me what I needed to know about the situation while other merchants weren't even interested in selling to someone that wasn't a member of their village. The famine was because of a water shortage and the shortage was because of tainted waters up stream.. I wanted to check things out but thought better of it when they explained that there were some terrible bugs infesting the area which would cause people to collapse. Perhaps they're wild kikaichu..? Hige called off the search in favor of bringing in the leader of the rouge villagers and the supplies.
04-11-13 A.F., "The wall…"
I don't understand how my parents expect me to do this… I consider myself fairly intelligent even if I try acting dumb and lazy, but this last scroll isn't making any sense. They say to make a shadow solid I need to make the imagination a reality. That's like saying I should believe in pixies and magic. Even the chakra is something that can be broken down into a logical manner of its formation and manipulation. But making a shadow, something being cast on the ground due to variations in light, stand up and move independently? I watched my mother use them for cleaning with such precision when I was a child but she seemed to be doing it as though it were an afterthought… Even when I focus on it as hard as I can, I just can't get the shadow to be a solid, flexible thing… something unreal made real.
07-11-13 A.F., "The way through…"
Something unreal made real. That's the answer to my question. I keep trying to look at these shadows as something unreal but I've neglected the simplest part of the equation. The human mind is not something beyond the rules of the world being bent in its imagination. Genjutsu. An ability to send falsehoods into the mind of another and use them to control that person.. There must be some similarity between the two.
11-30-13 A.F., "Further Research."
Tsuchiri makes use of a strange form of Ninjutsu that involves shaping her chakra into feathers and firing attacks from these feathers. After having sparred with her and thinking on how she can do it, I finally found the chance to speak with her about it. While it seems she makes use of it through long periods of intense training that are just to build up the control over the feathers themselves. I don't have that kind of time, I need to get better and to get better quickly though I may try practicing shaping the chakra itself rather than just the shadow.. Perhaps I've just been looking at things wrong. Tsuchiri also said I could always try more or less Chakra as well, something else to think on.
05-12-13 A.F., "The Results."
I spent some time studying Genjutsu and attempting the manipulations of chakra on my own. I see why people say it's hard to practice alone; without someone to put the illusion into effect on, how am I supposed to be able to accurately understand them? There's no way I'm attempting self-induced Genjutsu either. There might be no way out… For now, I have access to my solid shadows, but only in darkness where the shadow is literally everywhere… For now this will have to do. Though Tatsuo's water Manipulation is helping the more I see it.. It's very similar in its own way. I'll need to talk with him about how he uses water the next time I see him.
Stealth Date: 26-08-13 A.F., "A Puppy in Training."
Stealth Date: 28-08-13 A.F., "Walking Trees and Uchiha leaves."
Stealth Date: 03-09-13 A.F., "Bad Dog, Mad Dog."
Stealth Date: 25-09-13 A.F., "Fallen family."