3. Week 1: Hokage Training Part 1
Hinata met Shino and Kiba by the western gate of her family compound before the sun had done more than comb the tip of the Hokage monument. While ornate by the standards of any other clan, it was simple by hers. The Main Gate, graced by a Tori said to be older than the Village itself, was the very embodiment of traditional elegance, the western gate was merely a very big door, modeled after the great Fire Nation temples.
"What do you think the Hokage will ask us to do?" Kiba asked, as they took the usual rooftop route to the Tower, Akamaru hanging out of his jacket, enjoying the brisk breeze with a look of doggy contentment.
This early, the only fellow travelers on the 'air road' they saw were official-looking ANBU.
"He has not taken any students on since the Sannin," volunteered Shino. "It is a singular honor."
"Huh, wonder why he hasn't?"
Hinata had wondered about that herself. The Hyuuga, while loyal to the Village, rarely held back when it came to matters of political import and the presumably ailing Hokage was something that came up more and more often during family gatherings. A lot could be learned by a quiet, unobtrusive girl who was too easily forgotten and whose clever eyes had learned to read lips by the time she was four.
Now of course, Hiashi should not become the next Hokage, no, they wouldn't even entertain the thought of him lowering himself to mere politics (though if he were requested, obviously he would have to accept for the good of the village) but even if the next Hokage were not to be Hiashi, it should be someone and the Hokage should clearly be training them.
It was taken as fact among the Hyuuga, that the Third should be more revered for his title of 'Professor' than 'God of Shinobi.'
When it came to gods, shinobi had many. The first two hokage were, in fact, 'god of shinobi' as well. When it came to teachers, however, there was but one who was acknowledged to reign supreme. Who else could have overcome the handicap of his ancestry, taught two students without any pedigree whatsoever, as well as a failure of the great mokuton bloodline and turned them into shinobi of a stature equal to any in the world?
Only the Professor.
As a teacher there was none better, and as a teacher, they had hoped he would take on more students. Instead, he did paperwork and played politics. Oh, to be sure these were important papers and important politics, but when the world was at peace, the Hokage was a man who needed to produce more elites and refine the geniuses.
The tragedy of the Uchiha, it was whispered, might have been averted if the Hokage had - but then, somehow, Hinata was always spotted and the topic of conversation would veer away to more pleasant matters.
Hinata was always obscurely grateful: for months, Sasuke had resembled a chakra puppet, inert and unresponsive until it came time to do battle.
"He probably has his… reasons."
"Well, we'll learn soon enough!" said Kiba cheerfully.
----
"Of course he's not going to be personally training you," said Kurenai-sensei, amused when they met her by the entrance of the Hokage's tower. "Heaven and Earth, do you know how much work setting up the chuunin exams is?"
"A lot?" Kiba hazarded.
"A great deal?"
"Try: that man knows a jutsu to stave off sleep and I haven't seen him stop using it."
Kiba's eyes alighted. "That sounds-"
"It requires chakra control so precise that if you were to try it you would probably make your brains come out of your ears."
Hinata and Shino shared a look of mild amusement as Kiba wrinkled his nose. Kurenai had been subtly and not-so-subtly riding on him to improve his chakra control and now it was practically a reflex for him to resist any attempt to improve. "Ugh."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, 'ugh.' Now, let's move. The Hokage won't be training you personally, but it'll be his tutelage."
Kiba's nose wrinkles migrated to his brow. "How would that even-"
"That'd be spoiling the surprise."
The mission office where the Hokage normally resided was emptier than usual. With the on-going chuunin exams, most of the mission intake had quietly been dropped as shinobi were called back to provide extra muscle while foreign ninja were invited into Konoha to display their strength.
Still, day-to-day operations had to be done, and even running lean, a Village still needed to put on a show of force and competence, so the Mission office couldn't simply be shut down.
Two ANBU operatives guarded the entrance, and a chuunin looked to be busy stamping and initialing reports, but save for those three, the Hokage was alone at the center of the mission desk, frowning deeply at the report he was reading. Some part of Hinata thought, uncharacteristically, that it'd be the perfect opportunity to attempt to assassinate him.
When Kurenai coughed, the Hokage lifted his head from the papers he was reading, his frown creasing into a wrinkly welcome. He stood. "Ah, excellent. Kurenai, I will need your help with this. These old bones aren't what they used to be."
"Of course," she said, moving forwards.
From the top of one of the great stacks of paper that lay atop the mission desk, the Hokage selected and took out three pages. Then, alarmingly, the Hokage bit into the meat of his thumb and pressed his bloody thumbprint firmly into each one.
The three genin watched him do so.
"Errr, what are we going to be doing?" said Kiba nervously.
The Hokage paused. Looked at Kurenai, raising a brow. "You didn't explain…?"
She nodded. "Two of them are going to be in the finals. Frankly, they need all the experience they can get reacting to new situations."
"Fair point. Here, then, Hinata."
Hinata blinked in surprise as the Hokage threw the piece of paper at her, the complex seal flashing hazily in her vision before the paper seemed to balloon open in mid-air, a festoon of rough, papery hands reaching out from the sheet, wrapping around her legs and arms and then covering her body before starting to pull.
She vanished into the paper with a pop.
----
It was very dark, wherever she was. Hinata's Byakugan, still in its developmental phase, couldn't pierce the gloom. While she could make out the humming chakra that slumbered beneath her skin, and the silver structures that vibrated madly in place, she could make out nothing else. The Byakugan's prowess, while well known, was not completely even. She needed some light in order to see.
Here, there was none.
She could hear the distant fall of a torrential amount water, and the faint smell of ash, dirt and moss.
Then, she heard a pop, a stumble and an: "--uuuuuuuuck!"
Hinata winced as her brain filled in the missing consonant to Kiba's yell.
"It's okay," she reassured him.
"Hinata?" She heard him sniff before he padded towards her, his chakra radiating anxiety. "Where are we?"
"We are underground," said Shino. Hinata started. Focused as she was on her chakra and Kiba's, she hadn't sensed his approach at all: he'd been using his kikai bugs to muffle his chakra again. Not a trick that would fool Neji, but she, on the other hand... "This cavern complex is quite large."
"I knew that," scoffed Kiba. "I mean where geographically. Cuz' the air here don't smell like Konoha or anywhere I've been."
Oh dear.
"Let me try something," Hinata said. Focusing inwards, she kindled her silver chakra. Faint light began to rise from her skin growing brighter and brighter until it was as bright as a lit torch. What was revealed was an immense cavern, mossy boulders piled as high as some hills, wreathed in mist, the upper ends of the cavern so far from the edges of her Byakugan that she doubted she'd ever see them.
On the largest of the boulders, split cleanly in half, was a monkey. It was a very big monkey, heads taller than any of them and heavier than all three combined. Long white fur extended from his head and tail, providing a clear contrast to the darker fur of its face, hands and feet. It wore a Konoha forehead protector and a strangely appropriate tiger fur vest, armored mesh and kimono.
Carried in the crook of his arm was a rather long staff, carved out of rock, looking more like it should support a building than be wielded as a weapon. Hinata eyed it uneasily.
"My name is Enma," in the witchlight of her burning chakra, his features took on a graveyard gauntness, "The old man said he'd be sending in some fresh meat."
The monkey smiled.
"Welcome to Hell."
----
Perception Excellency?
From what I can tell, the vote asking for a perception excellency won. Unfortunately, you already have a perception excellency. Normally I'd just ask you to vote for something else, but I think this is a good opportunity for me to slow down when it comes to the tempo of this quest. We'll probably do the rest of the week like this as well.
Reminder: Appearance and Stamina are now favored.
What will you train instead of the perception excellency?
[ ] Stamina Excellency
[ ] Appearance Excellency.
[ ] write-in
How will Enma teach you?
[ ] Through overwhelming force.
-[ ] Stunt?
[ ] Through crushing conditioning.
-[ ] Stunt?
[ ] Through blind fighting.
-[ ] Stunt?
Training Stunts
"What do you think the Hokage will ask us to do?" Kiba asked, as they took the usual rooftop route to the Tower, Akamaru hanging out of his jacket, enjoying the brisk breeze with a look of doggy contentment.
This early, the only fellow travelers on the 'air road' they saw were official-looking ANBU.
"He has not taken any students on since the Sannin," volunteered Shino. "It is a singular honor."
"Huh, wonder why he hasn't?"
Hinata had wondered about that herself. The Hyuuga, while loyal to the Village, rarely held back when it came to matters of political import and the presumably ailing Hokage was something that came up more and more often during family gatherings. A lot could be learned by a quiet, unobtrusive girl who was too easily forgotten and whose clever eyes had learned to read lips by the time she was four.
Now of course, Hiashi should not become the next Hokage, no, they wouldn't even entertain the thought of him lowering himself to mere politics (though if he were requested, obviously he would have to accept for the good of the village) but even if the next Hokage were not to be Hiashi, it should be someone and the Hokage should clearly be training them.
It was taken as fact among the Hyuuga, that the Third should be more revered for his title of 'Professor' than 'God of Shinobi.'
When it came to gods, shinobi had many. The first two hokage were, in fact, 'god of shinobi' as well. When it came to teachers, however, there was but one who was acknowledged to reign supreme. Who else could have overcome the handicap of his ancestry, taught two students without any pedigree whatsoever, as well as a failure of the great mokuton bloodline and turned them into shinobi of a stature equal to any in the world?
Only the Professor.
As a teacher there was none better, and as a teacher, they had hoped he would take on more students. Instead, he did paperwork and played politics. Oh, to be sure these were important papers and important politics, but when the world was at peace, the Hokage was a man who needed to produce more elites and refine the geniuses.
The tragedy of the Uchiha, it was whispered, might have been averted if the Hokage had - but then, somehow, Hinata was always spotted and the topic of conversation would veer away to more pleasant matters.
Hinata was always obscurely grateful: for months, Sasuke had resembled a chakra puppet, inert and unresponsive until it came time to do battle.
"He probably has his… reasons."
"Well, we'll learn soon enough!" said Kiba cheerfully.
----
"Of course he's not going to be personally training you," said Kurenai-sensei, amused when they met her by the entrance of the Hokage's tower. "Heaven and Earth, do you know how much work setting up the chuunin exams is?"
"A lot?" Kiba hazarded.
"A great deal?"
"Try: that man knows a jutsu to stave off sleep and I haven't seen him stop using it."
Kiba's eyes alighted. "That sounds-"
"It requires chakra control so precise that if you were to try it you would probably make your brains come out of your ears."
Hinata and Shino shared a look of mild amusement as Kiba wrinkled his nose. Kurenai had been subtly and not-so-subtly riding on him to improve his chakra control and now it was practically a reflex for him to resist any attempt to improve. "Ugh."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, 'ugh.' Now, let's move. The Hokage won't be training you personally, but it'll be his tutelage."
Kiba's nose wrinkles migrated to his brow. "How would that even-"
"That'd be spoiling the surprise."
The mission office where the Hokage normally resided was emptier than usual. With the on-going chuunin exams, most of the mission intake had quietly been dropped as shinobi were called back to provide extra muscle while foreign ninja were invited into Konoha to display their strength.
Still, day-to-day operations had to be done, and even running lean, a Village still needed to put on a show of force and competence, so the Mission office couldn't simply be shut down.
Two ANBU operatives guarded the entrance, and a chuunin looked to be busy stamping and initialing reports, but save for those three, the Hokage was alone at the center of the mission desk, frowning deeply at the report he was reading. Some part of Hinata thought, uncharacteristically, that it'd be the perfect opportunity to attempt to assassinate him.
When Kurenai coughed, the Hokage lifted his head from the papers he was reading, his frown creasing into a wrinkly welcome. He stood. "Ah, excellent. Kurenai, I will need your help with this. These old bones aren't what they used to be."
"Of course," she said, moving forwards.
From the top of one of the great stacks of paper that lay atop the mission desk, the Hokage selected and took out three pages. Then, alarmingly, the Hokage bit into the meat of his thumb and pressed his bloody thumbprint firmly into each one.
The three genin watched him do so.
"Errr, what are we going to be doing?" said Kiba nervously.
The Hokage paused. Looked at Kurenai, raising a brow. "You didn't explain…?"
She nodded. "Two of them are going to be in the finals. Frankly, they need all the experience they can get reacting to new situations."
"Fair point. Here, then, Hinata."
Hinata blinked in surprise as the Hokage threw the piece of paper at her, the complex seal flashing hazily in her vision before the paper seemed to balloon open in mid-air, a festoon of rough, papery hands reaching out from the sheet, wrapping around her legs and arms and then covering her body before starting to pull.
She vanished into the paper with a pop.
----
It was very dark, wherever she was. Hinata's Byakugan, still in its developmental phase, couldn't pierce the gloom. While she could make out the humming chakra that slumbered beneath her skin, and the silver structures that vibrated madly in place, she could make out nothing else. The Byakugan's prowess, while well known, was not completely even. She needed some light in order to see.
Here, there was none.
She could hear the distant fall of a torrential amount water, and the faint smell of ash, dirt and moss.
Then, she heard a pop, a stumble and an: "--uuuuuuuuck!"
Hinata winced as her brain filled in the missing consonant to Kiba's yell.
"It's okay," she reassured him.
"Hinata?" She heard him sniff before he padded towards her, his chakra radiating anxiety. "Where are we?"
"We are underground," said Shino. Hinata started. Focused as she was on her chakra and Kiba's, she hadn't sensed his approach at all: he'd been using his kikai bugs to muffle his chakra again. Not a trick that would fool Neji, but she, on the other hand... "This cavern complex is quite large."
"I knew that," scoffed Kiba. "I mean where geographically. Cuz' the air here don't smell like Konoha or anywhere I've been."
Oh dear.
"Let me try something," Hinata said. Focusing inwards, she kindled her silver chakra. Faint light began to rise from her skin growing brighter and brighter until it was as bright as a lit torch. What was revealed was an immense cavern, mossy boulders piled as high as some hills, wreathed in mist, the upper ends of the cavern so far from the edges of her Byakugan that she doubted she'd ever see them.
On the largest of the boulders, split cleanly in half, was a monkey. It was a very big monkey, heads taller than any of them and heavier than all three combined. Long white fur extended from his head and tail, providing a clear contrast to the darker fur of its face, hands and feet. It wore a Konoha forehead protector and a strangely appropriate tiger fur vest, armored mesh and kimono.
Carried in the crook of his arm was a rather long staff, carved out of rock, looking more like it should support a building than be wielded as a weapon. Hinata eyed it uneasily.
"My name is Enma," in the witchlight of her burning chakra, his features took on a graveyard gauntness, "The old man said he'd be sending in some fresh meat."
The monkey smiled.
"Welcome to Hell."
----
Perception Excellency?
From what I can tell, the vote asking for a perception excellency won. Unfortunately, you already have a perception excellency. Normally I'd just ask you to vote for something else, but I think this is a good opportunity for me to slow down when it comes to the tempo of this quest. We'll probably do the rest of the week like this as well.
Reminder: Appearance and Stamina are now favored.
What will you train instead of the perception excellency?
[ ] Stamina Excellency
[ ] Appearance Excellency.
[ ] write-in
How will Enma teach you?
[ ] Through overwhelming force.
-[ ] Stunt?
[ ] Through crushing conditioning.
-[ ] Stunt?
[ ] Through blind fighting.
-[ ] Stunt?
Training Stunts
In combat, stunts will work a little differently than they do in standard exalted, but for the purposes of training, you can try to write a stunt as well. Valid stunts (defined by 'the author found it appropriate to include in the update') will confer a +1 or +2 xp bonus, usually towards an attribute or skill. If I'm particularly impressed, it'll apply a second time towards physique or chakra rating. I'm not looking for 'coolness' factor alone: the more out of character it is, the less I'll be able to include it in the quest and the less it'll be worth. If I can't use it all, no xp is gained.
To help you craft your stunts, here's the context. If Enma teaches you through:
overwhelming force, he'll simply fight you with basic taijutsu while lecturing you.
crushing conditioning, he'll activate the seal array on the mountain and increase the local gravity and make you drill physically.
blind fighting, he'll ask Hinata to turn off her inner lightbulb and fight in the dark.
Your stunt should give the bare bones of how Hinata would react proactively, in a paragraph or less. Because this is less about Hinata acting cool and stunts just making it easier for me to pump out an update, I'd also accept a stunt for Shino or Kiba in its place though they're worth inherently less than a Hinata stunt because this is, after all, Hinata's quest.
What I do like about Exalted is that stunts allow you to add details. Perhaps there's a small memorial stone here that Hinata noticed. Perhaps there's a strip of ragged paper on the cracked boulder. So long as it's reasonable, or reasonably mythological, I'll allow it. ;V
Only one stunt will be accepted per update.
To help you craft your stunts, here's the context. If Enma teaches you through:
overwhelming force, he'll simply fight you with basic taijutsu while lecturing you.
crushing conditioning, he'll activate the seal array on the mountain and increase the local gravity and make you drill physically.
blind fighting, he'll ask Hinata to turn off her inner lightbulb and fight in the dark.
Your stunt should give the bare bones of how Hinata would react proactively, in a paragraph or less. Because this is less about Hinata acting cool and stunts just making it easier for me to pump out an update, I'd also accept a stunt for Shino or Kiba in its place though they're worth inherently less than a Hinata stunt because this is, after all, Hinata's quest.
What I do like about Exalted is that stunts allow you to add details. Perhaps there's a small memorial stone here that Hinata noticed. Perhaps there's a strip of ragged paper on the cracked boulder. So long as it's reasonable, or reasonably mythological, I'll allow it. ;V
Only one stunt will be accepted per update.
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