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The Tale of the Sage
Power
Power
“Not again,” said Kashiriku as he fell to the ground, grasping his left arm in pain. The other students watched in awe as the battle between the new kid and the best began. Kashiriku left arm has been rendered useless, leaving him unable to throw a punch.
“I will not tolerate your weakness, Kashiriku. You still have yet to figure it out.”
“Shut up with your almightiness Enkei. It’s unnecessary,” retorted Kashi.
The crimson teenager sprouts from the ground, preparing for another round. Enkei took his usual stance, his brain as prepared as his body.Kashiriku advances with another flurry of punches, and Enkei calmly thrusts him back; taking out Kashi’s left side. The anger in Kashi’s face clearly shows, as he is being bested by his brother disciple yet again.
Enkei teases, “Oh, so you’re going to get all angry now? I’m sure that will greatly increase your chances at winning…”
Kashiriku rises from the floor again, face completely red from a mix of emotions. He lunges at Enkei, his fist whizzing next to the brown belts unemotional face. Enkei dodges the punch, jabbing his hand towards Kashiriku’s stomach, trying to win his 50th consecutive fight against the new student with a single blow. Kashiriku twists around abruptly, blocking the jab with his forearm. He takes the chance to prepare a powerful cross* with his right arm. The punch connects with Enkei’s face, blasting him into the wall as if he was hit with a small explosion. Gankona watches in awe as his most talented student is finally taken out by his newest disciple, with an attack unseen by such a young martial artist. Enkei stands, his eyes uncovered from the headband. Kashiriku looks in surprise, Enkei’s eyes are almost blank; his iris’s gray and pupil’s barely visible.
Kashiriku struggled speaking; only muttering a few words, “Wh-what happened?”
Enkei closes his eyes, saying, “This is what I hide behind my headband, these unseeing, unresponsive organs that curse every day I live. The things I cannot know, not even what my own body and face look like. It’s a shame really, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Enkei walks to the meditation room, relaxing himself after the outburst. Gankona approaches Kashiriku, placing his hand on the teens shoulder.
He said in a deep, vibrating voice, “Look Kashiriku, don’t lose any sleep over it. Everyone has their own problems, and that they should solve. On the other hand, we need to talk about that last attack.”
The sensei’s voice was almost sullen as he spoke the last sentence, hinting at something special. The two walk into another room, as self-training and sparring time begins. The other students head out into the main room, all ready for some exciting sparring matches. Gankona sits in a crossed legged position, and motions for Kashi to follow suit.
Gankona starts to speak, his voice quiet, “Do you know what chi is?”
Kashiriku asks Gankona, “What? Chi, what is that?”
“Chi is the life force of the world, an energy that can be manipulated by only the most talented humans of the Earth.”
Kashiriku look at Gankona quizzically. This idea was new to him, leading to his next question.
“What does this have to do with me?”
Gankona sighed, stating his answer, “That last punch you threw. It was infused with chi, even though you don’t know how to use it yet, and you never meditated, that’s my question: how you used it.”
Kashiriku stared blankly, contemplating the situation. Gankona sit’s there, deducing the possibilities behind the outbreak in chi.
After what seemed like hours, Kashiriku’s legs begin to fall asleep, much like the rest of his weary body. The teen stands, starting for the door as Gonkona has a revelation.
“Kashiriku, before you go, have you ever heard of chakra?”
Kashiriku draws another blank, responding very calmly, “No, does it have to do with the chi thing?”
“Kind of, it’s more to do with the inner workings of the body rather than the outside world. I haven’t really kept up with my Hindu friends since I started the dojo, but it seems to me like you have a combination or sorts. You may leave now; I can tell there is someone you want to talk to.”
Kashiriku glanced down in contemplation, thinking about the earlier revelation.
“I need to talk to Enkei. I haven’t really thought about the reason behind the eye coverage; I just thought it was for fighting. I was horribly mistaken.”
Gankona responds, “Then you are dismissed. Be wary, he may try to beat you up if you get too close.”
Kashiriku turns himself towards the door, his back now facing Gankona. He speaks calmly, “that’s just something I’ll have to take.”
Kashiriku exits the empty dwelling of Gankona-sensei’s back room. Enkei is sitting cross-legged, as is customary, meditating peacefully. The silhouette of another appeared in the doorway, which Enkei immediately heard.
“What do you want?”
Kashiriku replied, “I want to talk. Since we’ve been fighting, I haven’t gotten much of chance to learn who you are.
Enkei turned around abruptly, glaring at him with the blank eyes, almost scaring Kashiriku.
“Stay out of it. There isn’t much you could possibly understand. I was born like this, a curse placed upon me the moment I left the comfort of my mother’s womb. This imperfection is unnecessary.”
Kashiriku contemplated what he had just heard, noticing the amount of anger out of such a small-spoken sentence. He stood there as Enkei left, grabbing a pair of sunglasses as he heads out. Kashi went back to Gankona, asking him a simple question upon entering the back room once more:
“How long does it take a person to learn how to utilize chi? What is it used for?”
Gankona looked surprised at Kashi’s sudden change in interest. His answer only came after a couple minutes of thinking, “A standard black belt takes years, maybe even decades to even grasp the concept of handling chi. A master can handle it within a couple of years. It is predominately used for fighting and healing, but I’ve seen many others’ use
it for various things. The greatest masters of chi were almost divine in the art, able to perform almost magical feats. Why do you ask? Did something talking with Enkei spark your interest?”
Kashiriku glanced down once more, this time in sorrow. His reply came within five minutes.
“Yes. You say I am special at this chi business, I want to learn how to use it!”
Gankona smiled, knowing that this time would have eventually came. He knew from the start that this kid was special, after beating some of his students without a scratch. Never before had a lower ranking martial artist ever been able to use chi to such a degree. Gankona opened a secret compartment from under the floor boards, revealing a stairway to an underground facility. Gankona approached a torch on the wall, grabbing it with his left hand. He placed his right hand next to the wick part of the wooden fixture, focusing on it until it suddenly enflamed. Kashiriku stepped back, taken by surprise of the flame.
“H-how d-di-did you do that?”
Gankona smiled again, “This is another perk to chi; us “masters” are able to manipulate some elements.”
Kashiriku is intrigued with the ancient power, but commented on the flame, “that wasn’t very big.”
“That was the biggest flame I’ve ever made. It’s not like we can shoot fireballs,” replied Gankona.
“Why not,” asked Kashi?
“The amount of time it takes to focus a small amount of chi is unruly. It would be nice to be able to focus it within a matter of seconds. Not only that, but some of us can only focus a small amount, giving us less power than the rest. I myself can concentrate it at a medium level, surpassing some of my comrades while my ability is smaller in comparison to others. Your ability is different however. You managed to focus the chi at a moment’s notice into your fist. It would normally take years to complete focusing it at first, but the moment’s notice is what got me intrigued.
Kashiriku acknowledged his mentors words, and continued to follow him down the dark pathway. The two finally stopped at a rather large, ancient wooden door. Gankona placed his hand into a socket, focusing chi into the opening. The door opened reluctantly, as if it had been sleeping the many years before finally awakening. Gankona keeps walking, stopping after about seventy steps. He focused his chi into another flame, lighting a small torch within the middle of a stone circle. The torch then lights another flame, which in turn, continuously lights more flames, brightening the room. As visibility reaches its maximum, the view is astounding. Around the stone walls are hundreds to thousands of various scrolls and books, with half-scratched out signs above each section labeled MYTHOLOGY, FIGHTING, or the occasional MEDICINE. Gankona led Kashi to a portion labeled CHI/ENERGY and pulled a couple scrolls from the bottom shelf. He blew the dust off of the top, showing the amount of usage the scrolls have gotten the past couple of years. He handed them to Kashi immediately, pride shown on his face.
“In these scrolls are the basics through advanced uses of chi; you may use and study these to your heart’s content, but no one else may be able to glance upon their power.”
Kashiriku held the scrolls in his hands for a while, commenting on the subject, “Has Enkei been able to learn this?”
Gankona looked at the ground, speaking immediately after, “No. His inability to see has caused a large problem in his learning process.”
“I see.”
“Now go home. Think about what I have just revealed to you. Solve the dilemma of the human mind on the energy outside the body.”
“Yes Sensei.”
Kashiriku ran up the stairs in haste, exiting through the hidden passageway. He appears in Gankona’s room once again, and calmly walks the rest of the way to his car. Kashi drives home, excited to learn more about this new power. Not only that, but he has finally beaten Enkei.
. . .
“Oh Kashi, you’re home so soon!”
“Hey Mom! I’m going to study in my room for a bit now.”
Kashiriku’s mother smiled at him as he rushed past her. Kashi plopped down on the floor of his messy room, shifting piles of clothes and clutter to the side of him. He opened the scrolls, reading upon its powerful words. Even though the original text is in Japanese, it seems as someone has translated each Kanji underneath, greatly helping the eighteen year-old teenager. Kashiriku struggled for days trying to recreate what he had done before versus Enkei. Kashi went as far as creating equations, trying to gain the answer from mathematics. As if on cue, Sumāto opens the room’s white wooden door. Staring at the clutter of papers and scrolls that surrounded his older brother, he walked in with an ice water and plate of vegetables, plopping down next to his older brother.
“What’s up,” asked Sumāto?
“Trying to figure something out. I know I’m not supposed to show this to you, but you’re good at math, so you may be able to help me.”
“Let me see.”
There was rarely any infighting between these two siblings, and when it did happen, it was only over Sumāto’s interest in the military. The younger teenager carefully looked over the numerous amounts of unfinished equations for fifteen minutes, before deducing the problem.
“You have a couple things missing,” he finally said.
Kashiriku glanced surprisingly at him, “You sure?”
Sumāto replied, “I’m positive. This equation cannot be complete without another variable. What it is, I have no idea, but you have figured out the rest, so I’ll come back when you have figured it out. I’m off to bed.”
“What time is it?”
“Twelve. You’ve been up here since six. I thought that I would bring you something healthier to chew on while you studied.”
“Thanks man, I appreciate it.”
“No problem, if you have come up with an equation like that, I’m sure that you have been working hard.”
Kashiriku laughed, “It only took me five hours for an uncompleted equation. I haven’t even figured out how to use it yet.”
His brother exited the room, with a simple, “good luck” as his goodbye. Kashiriku continued his work, delving into the old scrolls once again for the missing link. Kashiriku attends school the next day, learning about the body system and it’s relation to “social” terms such as stamina, adrenaline, and various other vocabulary. Kashiriku took an interest in this subject, which is strange to him, because anatomy isn’t his favorite. Kashi sat there, actively listening to the talk of the cardiovascular system and blood flow. After the last class finished, he left for another day at the dojo to train, eager to learn more about his newfound power.
The days go by. Six months have passed; the summertime looks promising to the young Uzumaki. He trains diligently, only stopping on Sundays for family time. His interest in anatomy has drastically increased, so much so that he plans on taking a course in college. He’s been accepted to various lower-ranking colleges, and he plans on studying medicine and mathematics. Before he enters his college career, Kashiriku tries once more to complete the equation, he tries to focus chi from meditation for the first time. The first time is a failure, as his attacks are the same as before. He thinks hard about, and after a week of studying, he has accomplished his goal....
Next Chapter: Jutsu
