Yes... Maybe. that's not going to happen anytime soon though. That's the sort of high-level BS mastery that usually comes associated with a form of mastery.
Nope, to get his summons he will have to draw their attentions through deed and action.
Hmmm.... magpies snatching Kunai out of the air and doing a demonic version of the Seagulls from Finding Nemo.
(OMAKE?)
Toru stands still and a massive magpie lands on his shoulders, Eyeing the Suna Nin across from him."Mine?"
It tilts its head and locks eyes with Toru, before cocking its head as it asks a simple question.
"Mine?"
"Go for it. [Summoning Jutsu- The black Sky]"
The sky filled with smoke, and then the trees surrounding the two ninjas were colored black and white by the press of feathered beasts.
As one, a single battle cry filled the air.
"MINE!"
Nope. Don't play LOL.
...Damnit, I had this Misdirection set up and had everyone else convinced to drop the subject until I could spring it on them, and then YOU. YOU just had to come and pull the Rug out from under me, huh.
(Also, You found one of my many misdirections I've been playing, Well done. Have a cookie. relax. Thank you for being so attentive, it warms the cockles of my heart.)
In order of these comments:
Mayyybbeee.....
STOP READING MY NOTES.
Not going to use the Hiraishin for a long ass time, if ever. Not worth the payout for the effort/consequences in my eyes.
"Yes, I do have a deck planned labeled 'ACME Inc'. Why do you ask?"
"HA, my style of combat is unmatched, you could never hope to get close to me, not alone!
"Summoning Jutsu: Hitchcock's Masterpiece."
"OH GOD THE BIRDS! THE BIRDS!"
Snake style is offensive, quick flexible strikes.
Octopus Style is Grabbling oriented. (Tentacle Suction cup Jutsu, AKA: OH GOD WHY WON'T YOU LET GO!)
True, Octopus would be a very... Situation Specific Summon. the benefits would be specialized techniques, and while no "sage mode" they wouldn't have nothing to offer with regards to Nature Chakra.
Shhh.... For Every Ninja Octopus, you can;t find, there's another two that found you.
Hmm... Salamanders would be interesting, yes... And he shall have probably an entire chapter or two dedicated to his fist contact with his summons.
With that out of the way, and thank you all for commenting and discussing, lets continue!
Here we finally have an outsider's perspective of how Toru appears. First off, I want to note that the Anbu here is highly observant, and thus picks up on some more information then most of the average rank and file would.
'Tsuru' paused once more as he reached the Training ground, sliding unseen through the trees to a new perch.Today would mark the fourth day he looked in on the kid.
And there the kid was once again, for the fourth day in a row, training. The ANBU had to admit he was somewhat impressed the first day, while the young boy had been dancing across the cliff face, he had quietly searched for his camp. He had actually needed a few seconds to find the lean-to. What caught his attention when he returned to watch the kid, however, was the kids fighting motion. Unlike most academy students, his step and movements had a flow. A smooth conservation of motion. Oh, there was hang up, some shifts had a distinctive jerk or small pause, but some of his movement flowed together. A step into a duck and stab, for instance, all in one short straight push. Simple, but perfectly executed. There were a few moments when he would get flashy, but it wasn't hard to see that the flashy movement was intentional.
What really caught the Anbu's eye was the third day he had checked the kid. He had been practicing on close quarters combat on the dummy. What caught his eye is that he would do one motion over, and over, and over. A dozen motions repeated constantly, and then, he performed them all, in dozens of various sequences.
Kuan slash for the throat, hand coming forward for what looks like to correct his balance, and then flash, senbon in his off hand for the leg, while the kunai keeps going, push up and off the ground, keep coming up to knee the groin, aim for sternum, kunai released for another palmed senbon, which goes through the eye.
Variations of it were tried and discarded, never the same one twice in a row, never the base form repeated in any real pattern. But once he had weeded out the unwanted sets of motions, he swapped to practicing what looked to be the best combos he had formed.
Sometimes, the kunai dropped early, others the senbon was shoved up in the gut, or at where the kidneys would be. Sometimes, the stab shifted to slash, and vice versa. Sometimes it was a duo of kunai that shifted to a feint.
They were all variations on a close range combo. To deal with someone reaching or getting in close.
The kids sneak attack were smart too, he would shift his stances and relax, putting himself flat-footed, before beginning a new set. What looked like a panicked and easily avoided slash, hiding a trio of senbon to the stomach. A jolt of surprise that was actually a draw for a knife. A stumble that turned into a kick, or a turn that led into a flickering fast jab.
The movements weren't perfect, not by a long shot. For every ten moves, he tried, six wouldn;t work, no in combat anyway. But the seeds of something interesting were there.
Since then he had requested permission to keep an eye on the kid, and after relaying what he saw, his captain gave approval
Tsuru looked down to see what the kid's plan was today.
----
The kid stood in the center of the clearing and seemed to be meditating before he was sitting a log that he had placed. In his hands were a deck of cards, and he was slowly sending the cards in long arcs from one hand to the other. Tsuru settled in on a new perch on a tree nearby, blending in with the forest behind him.
Below the kid did one more long arc, but this one was different. Dancing between the cards were thin swirls of chakra. Not a lot, but enough to grab the Anbu's attention.
Then there was a blur, the cards seeming to hover as the kid brought his hands together, The fingers formed Boar-Ox-Snake, and the space between the cards and the log seemed to shift, and Tsuru blinked. Now there was a log, with a line of playing cards embedded in it, sitting just in front of the kid, who was on a knee and breathing heavy. Across the dirt where the log was was the rest of the cards, embedded in the dirt and sticking by the edges out of the ground nearby.
What the hell just happened?
Tsuru thought back and thought through the blur he had seen.
The cards and the log had been engulfed in chakra., and then the switch had happened, both being pulled together and past each other at high speed.
Was that… was that a kawarimi?
What. The. Hell.
The kid, Toru Shusho, was experimenting with the Jutsu. More importantly, he had the control and mindset to successfully experiment with Jutsu. Evry kid, clan, civilian, genius, or dead last, they all made 'Custom variations' of jutsu. A little faster here, a different visual there, but most of them were simple changes. this... Whatever Shusho was working on trying to do, it was still a mystery. That technique was.. Interesting, so far. If it was what he though, a remote substitution, then it could evolve to an assassin jutsu with little effort. Swap an exploding tag with someone's weapon.
The thing is, the kawarimi doesn't work like that.
The baseline of the jutsu sends out what is commonly referred to as the 'anchor' of chakra, marks its endpoint, and then rips both things in a tight arc, sending them past each other with a puff of chakra smoke for concealment, and then stopping them at each other's origin. There are variants where you can use a physical clone as a target or leaving an illusion of yourself over the log, usually just a modded bushin.
But using something as third party proxy to channel the anchor… it's not possible using the basic karawmi. There are a dozen variables most ninja need years to automatically do. Distance, weight, chakra suppression and focus, keeping from ramming a tree or rock in the process. An inanimate object can't do that.
So how did he get the cards to act like that?
Tsuru settled once more to mull over his thoughts and think about the report he would be handing in later, in as Toru stood up and collected the cards, the paper sliding cleanly from the groove they had cut showing that instead of acting like paper, they were acting like they were made of metal, every card was flat and unyielding.
Finally with the deck once again assembled, Toru placed the log back in place and resumed his experiments, taking the time to pull a field journal out and make a few notations before sliding it back into his kunai pouch.
The cards began to shuffle and flow around him once more, chakra flowing through the paper.
----
The Anbu stood before his captain once more, the man in the bear mask looking through the file with interest.
"So he stayed working on that for another three hours, averaging an attempt every five minutes or so, correct?"
"Yes, Sir."
"And his results were positive but unfinished?"
"Yes sir, by the end of the three hours he was running low on chakra, but the last half hour the final three attempts made were under a dozen cards each, and there wasn't a repeat of the early results. He seemed to get the hang of marking only a few cards for each try, and lessening his output."
"Interesting. I'll pass this on to recruiting, I expect they will take an interest in the boy, I know Torture and Interrogation have already marked him for possible recruitment."
That was news to Tsuru, and he stiffened slightly. "T&I Sir? May I ask why?"
"His teacher was one of their best field interrogators outside of the Yamanaka clan. He asked to teach at the academy years ago, he uses it as a cover for keeping an eye on the kids. Apparently, Toru here has been conning almost his entire class, and he almost got the sensei under the same misconception. Anyway, dismissed Tsuru, go have a drink and relax. I'll have you check on the kid for his last day, but I have someone else who wants to watch the kid tomorrow."
Tsuru nodded and left, leaving his captain behind to look over the file.
"'Old man Kosuke's grandson huh? I wonder what path you will travel."
He folded the file and set it down, reaching for two other files, and looking them over.
Transfer and recruitment forms for two children, the same age as the young Toru.
"Hmmm…." The captain murmured as he looked over the lists of skills and assets the two had, before pausing and looking back at Torus file. "I may have three files to send to recruitment."
