Kuchinawa Clan Compound

Paks breathed shallowly, her chest moving up and down almost imperceptibly as she savored the scent of dry sand and searing air. Even this early in the morning the heat from the great landscape of desert rose up in waves. The soles of her shoes growing uncomfortably warm in her passing. If she looked up, Paks would almost be able to see the sun rising up from behind the sheer walls surrounding Sunagakure. Shimmering rays of sunlight casting the masonry into brilliant relief. As it was, Paks noticed the approaching morning when the shadows thickened. Slim umbral stalks reaching out towards her from underneath the stems of what foliage managed to eke out a life here.

She took one last cleansing breath, before glancing assessingly towards the sun. Nearly morning by anyone’s standards, which meant that she had better hurry and return to the compound before anyone noticed that she had been missing. If she was lucky, she might just be able to sneak back into her room before anyone else had ascended their beds.

Hurrying down a rocky path, Paks tried to beat the rising sun. She would have to have luck on her side if she did not want to get caught, and she had caused enough of a disturbance in the last few days. She did not want to give her Father another reason to look at her with that frozen disdain again. Bad enough that she had returned home yesterday still without an assigned Genin team. She was not quite sure what that meant, but it seemed an ill omen. Even with her grades, was there another reason she was not yet assigned? Had she pulled off some gaff? Shown badly at some point? If so, she could not imagine that word would not have gotten back to her Father, and his recent frostiness lacked the purposefulness of such a situation. But still, she could not imagine what else could be delaying her assignment. Perhaps there was a shortage of available Jounin? But would not she be informed of such a thing? Technically, as a tactical gesture it was smarter to keep information of that sort quiet...

Paks withheld a sigh, her fingers clenching into fists. Luckily the show of emotion was well hidden within the long sleeves of her shirt. As soon as Paks noticed her lapse she forcefully relaxed her hands, eyes narrowing. There was no excuse for being lax after all. Ch. She sped up.

Paks slowed as she came to the tall clay walls that surrounded the Clan compound. They were nondescript really, old and covered in grit the walls glowed a pale pink color when sunlight touched on them. A small gate was set within the adobe but Paks avoided it, there was no doubt a set of guards there. Instead she circled around to the back, which in and of itself took a few quiet minutes. Holding still, she closed her eyes and focused on her hearing. The soft sound of sand being blown about and the slither of lizards and other little creatures was the only noises apparent to her. Satisfied that there was no one on the other side of the wall, Paks jumped up and vaulted over the obstruction with an ease of long practice.

She landed quietly, springing to her feet and quickly darting across the open expanse until she could press her body against the side of a building. From an intruders point of view, the wide open area between the wall and the cluster of stone houses was a dangerous point. There was nothing out there but sand, no where to hide or duck and your only option was to move forward or back towards the wall. But Paks had gone through this enough times to know that there was a small blind spot in the guard’s range of vision, enough so that she could cross the flat area with a smaller chance of being spotted.

Still, her task wasn’t over yet, and Paks was realistic enough not to congratulate herself on getting this far. The plain buildings that made up the Kuchinawa Clan’s compound were just that. Plain. They stood harshly against the backdrop, strong angles and jutting stone attempting to be as unwelcoming as possible. Which they achieved readily.

Slipping around the side of the building she was currently hiding behind, Paks stepped towards a purposefully open window. Taking the precaution of peering into the room first, Paks swiftly clambered through the window and dropped to the floor catlike.

This room was dark, with a futon still laid out on the floor. A desk was set against the front wall, and an extra door hinted at an adjoining room. Sparse of any sort of decoration, it was a room made for functionality more than anything else. The tension in her shoulders slowly ebbed away, and Paks padded towards the lone mirror to check her appearance and ensure that there was no sign of her earlier foray. Loosening her hair, Paks quickly pulled the strands back into two neat pigtails and secured them with a thin bit of cording.

Almost as soon as she was done smoothing the wrinkles from her clothes there was a knock at her door. Stepping away from the mirror, Paks hastened to slide the shoji screen open, her eyes immediately falling to the floor as she recognized her Father. Inclining into a deep bow Paks greeted him softly, “Otousama.” Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw him gesture for her to rise, and she did so slowly. Straightening to her full height, which admittedly was not all that much, she still kept her eyes downcast as was polite.

“I have been informed that you were finally assigned to a Genin Squad,” there was a careful emphasis on finally, and Paks dipped her head in acknowledgement of the rebuke. “Subeta Wazima is the name of your Jounin Sensei. You should receive orders within the near future as to your standing directives. For the time being, there is something you will need to learn.”

Without another word he turned smoothly and began to walk down the hall. Paks quickly fell into place behind him, keeping silent as they headed towards an empty room. While the sun was rising outside, there were only a few windows in the building and it remained dimly lit. Her Father soon turned into an even darker room, gesturing her to the center.

“While your knowledge of the Clan jutsu that are at your current level is adequate it is hardly acceptable and I expect you to ensure that this does not last very long. I need not explain the reasons why, correct?” Paks quickly nodded, it was a rhetorical question but there was no need to take the chance after all. He gestured towards a scroll that had been placed on the wall a long time ago, the writing so old it had faded to a spindly brown. The instruction was obvious, and after that he quickly left the room for there was nothing left to say.

Paks wasted a moment standing still, staring at the place where her Father had stood moments before. Struggling to tamp down on the errant emotions that bubbled up, she snarled silently and used the well-trained reaction of blatantly ignoring said emotions. Stalking towards the scroll, Paks hungrily skimmed through the explanations and listed jutsu. She knew most of them already, but there were a few that stuck out. Fine then, she would work on those.

Choosing one at random, she quickly memorized the explanation and eyed the carefully drawn pictures that went along with it. Stepping back, so as to be a safe distance away from the frail scroll, Paks closed her eyes and focused. She should already have mastered this jutsu, so there was no excuse for not knowing it now. No excuse at all. Which meant that she would have no reason to have trouble learning it at such a late date.

Her fingers folded into the seals, and Paks reached within herself for the chakra. This jutsu didn’t need much, and the seals were simple enough. Technically they were a variation on the standard ones, changed so that one could still make them even if they were bound. Running through the seals a few times to familiarize herself with the motions, Paks exhaled softly.

Chakra filled her, and she ordered it to flow throughout her limbs, coating her skin in a carefully controlled mix. Visualizing the effect of her jutsu, and a perfect end result, Paks released her control on the chakra and let it achieve its purpose. Her skin tingled, and slowly it began to itch, an odd rubbery feeling spreading across her epidermis. Opening her eyes, Paks stared down at her outstretched arms. The surface of her skin had gone white, a frail casing that was easily brushed off.

She attempted the jutsu again, chakra filling her limbs and coating her skin. As the feeling peaked, Paks instinctively stepped to the side, the touch of something thin and soft brushing against her senses. And then she was staring at what appeared to be a copy of herself, which quickly lost color and turned into a pale transparent skin like exoskeleton. Reaching out she delicately tapped the sheath, only to watch as it collapsed into tiny particles which lazily floated to the ground.

Spoiler:

Paks walked back towards her home after training. A random Jounin had popped up, watched her for a moment, and then told her to go take a break. It wasn't like she needed on, she had been fine to go on training, but one didn't just ignore a Jounin's order. Paks hated breaks. She always wanted to train, more and more and more. She shook her head, it didn’t matter what she wanted. Desires were weaknesses after all.

Paks crossed the street and stood at the gate to her house. Paks watched the wind stir up some sand and send it swirling, miniature maelstroms in her yard. She opened the gate and moved forward the few steps to the door of her house. Paks entered quietly, taking her shoes off. She spotted her Fathers shoes in the getabako. He was home then. Paks hadn’t heard his voice when she came in, but that was hardly ever any true indication.

She strode down the main hallway, at the end of the hall was the kitchen. When Paks got to the doorway she saw that he was sitting and drinking tea. He looked up when she paused in the doorway. Paks bowed deeply, taking a small step forward.

“Paksennarion, good. I was looking for you,” he motioned for her to stop bowing, “Since you are now a Genin, even if your Sensei has yet to start your training, I believe that it is time for you to learn one of our great Clan jutsu.”

Paks eyed the ground. A Clan jutsu? His wording implied that this in particular was a staple jutsu. This was good, knowledge of the fundamental Clan jutsu was a mark of how highly you were held in the Clan hierarchy. So far she knew the very basic Clan bloodline jutsu, but everyone knew those ones. “Thank you Father. I would be honored,” she intoned.

He nodded sharply. “Of course. Now, we should do this inside. Follow me.” He set down his tea cup and stalked off, Paks following behind him. He went down one of the side hallways until they reached a medium sized room with wooden floors. It was empty of all furniture, another dusty practice room. Her Father stepped inside the room and gestured for her to follow. Once she was inside he closed the door with a small ‘click’. It was dim inside, with only one window but there was more than enough light to see by as her eyes quickly adjusted.

Her Father looked at her evaluating. Waiting for her to situate herself. She looked over at him before glancing down. “The jutsu I will teach you is called Doku Men’eki,” Paks wordlessly mouthed the name, tasting the way it felt, committing it to memory, “It is one of the great achievements of our Clan. It allows the user to cure any poison that they have been exposed to before,” he paused as if waiting to see if she wanted to ask something. Paks didn’t.

“Now, I will show you how it is done.” His nin-snake, a big black adder, lifted its heavy head from where he had been lying curled around her Father’s neck. He slithered forward at a deceptively lethargic pace, and then quick as lightening struck. Paks watched as he sunk his fangs into her fathers upper arm, injecting him with his venom. Her Father calmly went through four hand seals, even as the area around the bite was turning black as the venom ate away at his skin. He tapped his nin-snake after having preformed the hand seals and his nin-snake bit him again. Close to the first bite. The black stopped spreading. Paks realized that her heart was pounding. This jutsu… depended highly on the amount of time between the injection of the venom/poison and the use of it. Her Father’s skin was still injured, but the poison was gone. The nin-snake curled back up around her Father’s neck.

He shook out his arm, and then moved to grab a kunai. “At the moment the only poison you have been exposed to is your own blood, but this jutsu does not work in that regard,” he brought the kunai to his wrist, cutting swiftly. Before Paks could really react, he grabbed her left arm and splashed some of his blood on her. Paks hissed, his blood was much, much more potent than hers. He watched her as he quickly bound up his wrist. “It is your turn,” he turned and started to walk out of the room. When the door shut behind him Paks sunk to her knees. It hurt. A lot. More than anything she could remember. Paks angrily shook her head, pain was not supposed to matter. She was a shinobi. Paks held her arm out in front of her, unable to quell the quiet hiss of pain, the blood was already eating away at her skin at a steady pace.

Paks recalled the hand signs her Father had used, relieved that they had been so few in number. She preformed them and molded her chakra trying to imagine the end result, a healing result. Then Paks called her nin-snake forward. She slithered down her arm, and bit as deeply as she could into Paks’ arm, near where the blood was. Paks winced, the pain didn’t stop. Angrily Paks looked down at her arm. The blood was still working, she had failed. Obviously. She hissed again, this time more from anger than anything else.

Paks ran through the hand seals again, molding her chakra with an iron hand. She would succeed. Paks’ nin-snake bit her again. Nothing happened. Paks shook, at this rate her arm would be seriously maimed. Blood slipped down her pale limb to pool on the wooden floor. She ran through the signs again and again. The fifth try, she felt something change. Looking down she saw that the blood on her arm had stopped sizzling. It still hurt, a lot, but Paks was pretty sure that that was just the injury it had left behind not because it was still eating away at her.

Paks ripped off part of her sleeve from her other arm are carefully wiped the blood off. She winced as she touched the open wound it left behind. She couldn’t get the blood off, her blood just kept pouring out. Paks started to feel lightheaded. Deftly, she gripped her wound tightly with her free hand, disregarding the searing pain as blood loss was really rather more important at the moment.

Paks got to her feet, swaying slightly, and walked to her room in a daze. She got there quietly and pulled out some gauze. Paks wrapped the wound tightly, flinching at the pain. The first few layers of gauze bled through so she wrapped layer after layer tying it off snugly. Rummaging around at her desk, she numbly pulled out a small pouch. Tugging at that cord that kept it closed, she managed to open it and retract a small reddish pill. The blood pill tasted bitter, but she swallowed the whole thing, hoping to regenerate at least a little of her plasma. At the moment the world was hazing in and out and she was pretty sure her body was swaying, although she couldn't feel the movement really. There were things to do though, and she couldn't pause for something so little as blood loss, besides, this was her own fault to begin with. She wouldn't have lost as much blood if she had been quicker.

Paks looked down at her clothes and noticed that they were covered in blood on the left side. She quickly changed clothing, throwing the old clothing away. She went back to the room and cleaned up the blood on the floor. Paks wasn’t sure if she felt accomplished or not. She had learned this jutsu, but not as quickly as she should have. So had she made progress, was she stronger, or was her attempt too pitiful to be called progress? She returned to her room and lay down, thinking about which one it was.