Better Days thru Better Ways (Rank Training)

Disani Xenoharu · Better Days thru Better Ways (Rank Training)

It had been almost a month or maybe two since the Leaf Village was untouched by the blind beauty and her presence. She had left notice that she’d be away training, and it was very vital that she had done so. Because Disani was a ninja now, and god knows how with little luck on her side, she had to strengthen her traits to make up for her ailment. Lately, almost every day, she felt like whatever she had done wasn’t enough. The little skill she did gain seemed to be near to little since she had faltered confidence in herself.

When it came down to it: missions, battles, and any small task, what good was major skill without confidence. What had pushed her before? That bear attack in the woods on that one mission, was it courage that drove her? No, it wasn’t, it was the thought of a friend being hurt. She couldn’t stand it. She couldn’t move her own limbs unless it was for someone else’s strength. She would in time become someone’s puppet this way, or even some desperate hook into someone’s skin that needed to be watched like a child. She wasn’t a child any more, she was a ninja. It was time for her to face it.

As she arose that morning, all those thoughts seemed like a distant dream. She had stood from her knapsack as she stared at the dying embers from last night’s fire. They were still warm, because only maybe four hours ago, she they were burning to a really thin flame to help keep her warm. She had gotten little sleep as between hours she’d take naps from going straight sessions of rigorous training. They consisted of targret practice, push ups, and strength training of striking with her hands, feet, and even using her staff every now and again. Sure this sounded easy, but one had to consider the fact that she was blind. She had to use mind over matter and picture the world around her.

It had been a month in where she made little progress: she had to guide herself with her blows, jabs, and aim, and seeing every time she moved, she’d be off because she couldn’t keep her focus. She had thought of a technique though after those first few days. She cut her beautiful long black hair to a shorter length at the time. It went as far as the center of her back, but now as the cut had went to her neck and shoulders, she had trimmed around until at the side of her head dangled a strand of hair that should’ve went behind her ear, and there was a single braid and along it tied a slender blue string with two bells along it.

This was the key: Disani was one who was accustomed to sound, and using the bells with a high pitch sent out a melody through out the area so she could hear anyone that was nearby. It was her savior for whenever she trained, and because of that, she knew that using the bells in battle if it came to it would be perhaps a good idea since it given her an advantage. This morning, she had tattered the bells back along that single braid and prepared for the morning rise. She stretched her arms and not long before that had sat by the river cleaning her face and giving her hair a chime to hear her lovely bells.

“Hmm…that should do it!” she said with a smile before taking a deep breath and taking off her sandals. It was breakfast time, and even catching breakfast could be a fun way to train one’s strength. Stepping onto the waters by giving her chakra focus, she walked onto the surface and stood there as she had let her feet feel the motion of the waves beneath her bare feet. It was pretty clear that she was expecting her breakfast to just come to her, but it was more to this.

Being blind, Disani would feel motion, and even a small change in motion or a wave to her meant something disturbed the flow, just like it would in this small river. It was one of her many methods of training that special sixth sense her use to be sensai-Renima had taught her since he tested the limits of her hearing.

“Hmm…Renima sensai…” it was like a taboo to hear his name for her. She frowned as she had lowered her head swearing she could feel his presence like it was yesterday. Because of his death, she was impacted as hard as anyone else since he was an inspiration to her and believed in her ability to become a blind konouchi. She often tried to not drift back into the past when he had met her and told her he would’ve been considered beautiful…

Tried…tried…trying again…failed. Her frown stretched to such a length, it was apparent on her face and threw off her focus for a split second.

”Splash!!!”

Her palm had thrust striking the surface of the river. From under it slipped the small squirming body of a live fish as he tossed helplessly into the air and Disani had mere seconds to bring herself up to speed. Her reaction time, nearly flawless as she ad taken her left hand and made it straight and swiped it throwing a karate chop towards the fish as it flew through the air and hit the edge of the shore. It had flopped around helplessly since Disani had knocked it far enough on shore so that it would escape back into the depths of the river. From the impact of her striking it, she knew it was pretty big for her to eat, but being out in the wilderness can make any fragile girl like her who didn’t eat little to nothing perhaps feel like she need to eat a cow, she had gathered her breath and sat patiently.

Resuming the recent thought, she knew even for her to miss someone, she had left something to her. It was the summoning scroll, but it wasn’t exactly the item that count, it was the thought that even in death or before hand, he was thinking about her, and that made her feel special just like anyone else for him not to exclude her. She knew when growing up as a ninja in the academy, because of her sight, everyone but her was included, and in someone’s death, very few excluding her had the honor to be the last thought in someone’s mind. Why did he think of her though? Was she nothing but a student? Was there more unsaid as Renima’s other pupil had tried to explain? She let the thoughts be as she could simply think to herself at best that he had confidence in her, and because of that, she had confidence in his decision and she wouldn’t under estimate herself ever again.

”Splash!!! Swoop!!! Thunk!!!”

With a quick whip of her actions, that time, her timing was flawless. She stood in a decisive pose as a second fish had flopped helplessly be the dying embers, her legs separate as she had a serious glare in her eyes from her sudden action. With little to no effort, she was carrying her staff that was hoisted onto her back in her hands as it was at best her seeing walking stick. It had started to fade and get old, she really decided that it was maybe time to get a new one after a while. It was her favored weapon, and it was the most modern for her, but still, if she was going to be strong as she said she was, she’d have to make changes.

No more doubt, no more pitty, she believed in herself. Leaping from the top surface of the water, she had picked up the fish near the shore as well as walking shortly over to the circle of stones that closed in the burned remains of last night’s fire wood. She wasted no time as she had used her sunshin to zip about the area in order to collect some wood. Her speed had increased quite a bit as she had used it like she was a single ant trying to take on the duties of a colony. She went from tree to tree nearby breaking off some of the most delicate limbs of oak she could find for a flavorful fire for the fish. There was nothing like camping ninja style. The thought of it made her let out a little giggle.

“I wonder…I wonder how Allie-chan is…” she had said with a smile as she had peered into the sky. She had remembered days like this Renima-sensai would see the sun, and Allie would be there to carry out a mission with her because of how close they were. She loved the thought of being close to others. If friends and comrades were something a ninja needed other than skill, then so be it, she’d make a lot of friends like the ones she had now. She knew she couldn’t be her eyes, and she knew she couldn’t depend on her ears all the time like others said, but at least she could depend on others when she needed to.

As the sun had reached it’s fullest over the sky, skeletons of the two recent fish catches had laid left over by the circle of stones. The supplies near the bank were hoisted into a simple carrying back and the sounds of Disani’s panting was heard along with her bell chiming into a sway from her packing the load of luggage. She had taken a good look at the sky even though she couldn’t see a thing, she could feel everything, a beam of a sun’s ray hitting her face, and the clouds that shadowed it so that she can shade herself in a shadow for a second. She didn’t need anyone to tell her what was in they sky, and because of that, she felt stronger. It was time to go home where she belonged.

AJ Gray

+4

Sench: wtf man. this is more than you wrote when you got an 8 >_> +5/5

Disani Xenoharu

(Eek! Sorry! I had posted this without refreshing. I had went out and then came back and resume typing. You can read if you want since It doesn't really matter. ^_^)

Moving about the trees, she had proceeded leaping from branch to branch. It had only been a maximum of two days as she advanced from the border of the Wind Country seeing it was a great place to train at to test her hearing. She had wanted to take the knowledge she had learned and apply it to her skills in future missions, but still she wasn’t sure if these methods were fully reliable. No matter how her feelings would advance, they would hit a U-Turn and she found herself in an infinite loop of denial.

She had gasped, her breath cut short as she had turned her next skip to the tree branch into nothing more than a reach for the branch and a small swing as she had propelled herself to the ground with a sling of her body as she landed gracefully in a small groove. Her head move about as the small bell tied to it had chimed, and that’s when she noticed the area around her, it was perfect for last minute training as she could hear another reservoir nearby. When it came to any element, even though she had an affinity for the wind type, it was most often water that had given her the edge because it was constantly in motion just like wind itself, but the wind had fallen silent on some days.

When she thought of places like this, it was just not an area filled with danger to test a ninja, but it was her playground, and right now, it was time for her to play. She had nodded confidently to herself as she had leapt from the groove’s orchard of trees and landed with her chakra forcing against the water surface of the river she landed on. She had started to run up the direction of the stream as she had smiled, her hand reaching behind her back and revealing her wooden pole as she held it firmly in her grip. She had taken the initiative as she began to concentrate her chakra and started to hop along the waters surface beautifully and gracefully. Sure it looked easy to an experience shinobi but the amount of concentration for Disani was different seeing she had to use some of her focus on her ears for her sight, so she was continuously balancing chakra and dispensing it for each jutsu and ability like she had a plentiful supply, but knowing her little body didn’t.

As she had started to advance further up the river, she had started to notice that she was arriving near the Forest of Death as she was familiar with the surroundings, but still it was only a small branch near the forest, not the actual testing ground seeing that it would be too dangerous even for her. She had quickly leapt from the top of the surface readjusting her chakra at last minute, the bell looped around her hair chimed as she had used her sharp hearing senses to determine the size of the tree she was about to land her feet upon. It was so frustrating, seeing she had no sight she had to continuously predict with an estimation and good arithmetic in her head so she wouldn’t guarantee her own undoing.

Taking that time and seeing the tree’s size, she closed her eyes tightly focusing her chakra to the soles of her feet as they made contact with the tree’s surface. Her calculations were right on, or pretty much near it as her feet only slightly slipped on the surface like it was wet, but it was only gravity biting at the pant’s leg just considering how close she was at perfection of that tree climbing concentration. Nearly perfect was enough to the optimistic blind beauty though, not everyone was perfect, and that was her motto seeing she was proof enough.

She had quickly kicked off the tree going from one to another repeating that concentration and method. Her bell chimed each time as if she was like a bird making a melody as she went perching from tree to tree. Finally stopping at one tree in particular, she had smiled as she stood amongst the top of it’s branches. This was one of the trees she had trained under, that night where she had been tied up by the young Academy Students after agreeing to be nice enough to play “ninja” with them because of her nature. She had only found it embarrassing since that fiasco made her miss Renima’s Hokage crowning ceremony. Looking back on that memory made her blush as she rubbed at her right cheek.

She sighed. Realizing she had drift back off into her memories was a bother. She still found it hard not to reach back into the past and snatch out a photo album from the book of memories, and waver it around and laugh. It only made her stronger since this one was different: she laughed happily, without a dark gloom of sadness to come to mind. She had continued to the village as she had realized that her task was done.

That was it…that’s what she wanted all along: to look back with a smile.

AJ Gray

(OOC It's fine.

+1. Congrats on the Rank Up.)

Sench

OOC: damn it AJ, quit stealing my thunder xD