Walking in Shadows

Multiple days ago, Murakami had been on a mission, one which relied on stealth. He thought he could depend on his puppet skills, however the fact that the enemy squad had a sensor and the fact that his chakra threads were clearly visible to the naked eye made the mission much more difficult than it had to be. In order to remedy this he had heard of “chakra suppression” a skill which allowed one to control their chakra so it appeared that it could appear as if he had no chakra whatsoever. He had also heard that this skill would allow him to make his chakra threads invisible, a very handy trick for stealth missions and also just for battles in general. After all, if people could see the threads they could attack them or follow them back to its user to assault them directly and god knows Murakami was no expert at Taijutsu.
Thus, Murakami embarked on his training to learn this new skill. However, learning it was a very difficult process. Namely the fact that naturally people had chakra coursing through their body and this subconscious chakra generated was more than enough for most sensors to accurately detect the location of its owner. The fact that emitting chakra was such a natural process made suppressing it and controlling it much harder than a typical training session where one just had to learn how to force through a set of boundaries.
The first thing that Murakami did was acclimate himself to the surroundings. After all, being truly undetected isn’t being a spot of nothingness in an environment filled with other things. However, in the desert there weren’t a whole lot of other creatures around with which he could tune up with. The next best thing available was the pet marketplace in Sunagakure. It was an area rarely visited by people making it a zone where the bustle of human activity wouldn’t distract him. In addition, there were plenty of plants and animals present there.
Leaving his home after deciding on this course of action Murakami walked briskly down the street towards the pet market. He was dressed appropriately for the occasion wearing all Sunagakure garb to blend into the environment as he didn’t want to be disturbed. The clothing was comfortable with enough bagginess to not be constricting yet not too liberal so that it fit his form nicely. In addition he wore a visor of his eyes so as to diver the sun’s rays, after all even though it was in the village it was still pretty hot and sunny. Who knows how long he would be training in the hot sun, last thing he needed was to pass out in the middle of a bustling area of town.
Murakami quickly arrived at his destination, however the pet shop owners actively glanced around making sure there were no thieves or suspicious activity. In order to avoid suspicion Murakami decided to climb on top of the central area of the pet market, the greenhouse. Inside the exotic animals and plants were held in a controlled environment and on the top there was glass to see the animals and plants below. In a couple of leaps lightly landing on shopkeeper stalls to provide extra height, Murakami found himself on the top of the building. Lying down on top of the cool glass Murakami got down to business.
Closing his eyes, he breathed in and out slowly until the rhythm of his breath seemed to match that of the animals and plants. He could feel the pulse of their life despite the glass that separated them. As he came closer and closer to the exact rhythm that he wanted, he also lowered his energy level. Chakra was life energy so if he lowered his energy level, surely it would follow. He could feel his heart rate decrease and his limbs slackened a bit. The fire, the electricity that coursed through him seemed to be dying down a bit.
To him it felt like he was actually legit dying inside. After all the energy that he felt at all times in his life seemed to be leaving him. It was like not feeling the Sun’s warmth or not tasting the daily food he ate. He felt like a dead man, one that didn’t really exist among the living. After considering it a bit, that was pretty much exactly what he was training to do, to be able to suppress an essential function of life. However, for now he could only lie down while using this technique. If he tried to move around at all he could feel the ripple that went through the animals as if there was an unwelcome predator in their midst. It was frustrating only being able to lie down while using this technique but with experience comes the ability.
He lay there for a long time, the Sun in its early course across the moved across the sky like the hands of the clock. Bit by bit it got higher and higher until it was noon. By this time, Murakami was really feeling the heat. He never enjoyed staying out in the harsh sun of the desert, but after a couple hours of roasting and burning he had enough. He went to stand up but something was different this time. The animals didn’t react at all. “What the hell?” thought Murakami, “what did I do differently?” he thought. And then it dawned on him, he was suppressing his chakra.
Lying there for so long had acclimated him to the state that he was in. He no longer felt it as a strange feeling, in fact when he got up he expected the chakra suppression to wear off, however he had maintained it. This thought dawned on Murakami and he grinned “Yes! I’ve done it” he shouted excitedly, however this outburst loosened his control over the technique. Immediately the animals began moving restlessly again. “Whoops” he thought “I guess I haven’t truly mastered it yet!” He quickly reclaimed control and lowered his chakra levels to 0 and the animals once again settled down.
For starters, it would be best to walk about a bit, a basic function. Luckily he was in the best place to test it out a greenhouse. Taking out one of his kunai and using it as a makeshift crowbar he used it to gently pry open the roof access panel on top of the greenhouse. Nimbly he leapt down among the foliage with barely a sound. As he recovered from the leap he glanced around him to see the impact. However, none of the animals reacted to his presence. Clearly his chakra suppression was working fairly well. And as he walked among the humid and exotic plants he found that it was a similar reaction everywhere. No animals made any indication towards the fact that he was present, right in front of them.
It was a new world to Murakami, after all even at a petting zoo the animals still notice you and react to you. However, this was much different. He could do what he wanted and nothing reacted. He ran through the jungle recklessly grabbing fruit from unsuspecting animals. As he bit into a pear that he had stolen from a monkey the juice burst into his mouth with a sharp sweetness. “Damn… this trick is handy!” thought Murakami as he tore into the fruit with his teeth. After a few minutes of eating he had finished, his hands covered in sticky juice.
However, after a bit more mischief with the animals he found that he had had enough. It was all very well to mess around with some dumb animals, but he wanted something more indicative of his skills and growth. Leaping up out of the wet canopy into the dry desert air he turned around to fasten the window he had come in through before turning towards a better target, the central market area of Sunagakure. It was a busy place there where people pushed and shoved each other to move an inch. There if people didn’t detect his presence he could easily weave through the crowd and reach his destinations much quicker.
After making his way through the quiet animal market he arrived at the central marketplace. It was a grand area, the central fixture of Sunagakure’s economy. Here, someone could buy anything, sell anything, and best of all experience the delicacies from more bountiful lands. Here there was Yukigakure Snow Melon, Konohagakure Peppers, and Iwagakure Rock Candy. Just the thought of these things made his mouth water, however he shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was here for training not to satisfy his appetite.
Once again putting himself into that almost dead state, Murakami took a deep breath and took the plunge into the crowds. Amazingly enough his suppression of chakra made a markedly different experience. People seemed to walk around him as if he were a wall or other inanimate obstacle. He stared in wonder at the people around him, the merchants, prominent diplomats, and dirty street urchins were all on exhibit for him as they hustled by on their way to do something important.
Murakami however was invisible to the people around him. It was an interesting feeling knowing how much chakra perception had an influence on people. Even if they weren’t shinobi, they still relied on chakra sensing in their daily lives, an unconscious sense, but one that still existed.
After a little while Murakami had enough of simply sitting in the middle of the street and watching people go by. It was time again for something new. This time, he would do something that was sort of illegal, but not really. It would definitely be a fun thing to mess around with the shopkeepers. Creeping over to a nearby action figure shop he hid under the view of the shopkeeper by ducking under the counter. Once there he reached up and grabbed an action figure off of the man’s stall and hid it inside the cash register when a customer came over to buy something.
The shopkeeper didn’t notice at first, but then he noticed there was an obvious gap in his shelf of merchandise. It was a regular occurrence in a busy place like this, but it wasn’t any less frustrating for him, but at that moment Murakami opened the cash register which the shopkeeper noticed. Puzzled the shopkeeper put it back where it came from and sat back down as usual. It was an interesting experiment, even if Murakami did something normally obvious like move an action figure his presence was still somewhat ignored by others.
Murakami continued on his rampage in the market doing mischievous things like tying people’s shoes together or dumping glasses of water on their pants. It was an interesting experience to be invisible, with nobody stopping you and nobody caring about what you were doing. It was truly freedom in the sense of the word. However, simply doing cheap mischief was getting rather unsatisfying. It was all very well to see people get a little angry, but it seemed very cheap after a little while like he was some sort of cheap swindler. A fake, a cheat, nothing more than a nuisance to commonplace people. Murakami didn’t know why, but he felt an anger rise up within him.
Blind with rage he turned to do something that he would never have thought of doing, something which he knew inside of himself was wrong, but he felt like doing anyways. Noticing a small fountain he leapt over and believing himself to be invisible formed the hand seals for a justu, water dragon jutsu to wipe out all the people standing in the plaza. However, as he summoned up the chakra and the dragon slowly rose out of the depths everybody noticed and turned to face him with horror in their faces and began screaming. Shocked, Murakami released the jutsu before it activated and turned to run, hiding his chakra using his newly learned skill.
He had learned something that day. Sure he had learned a new technique that would no doubt be useful in the future, but this training session had also shown a darker side to him. He was greedy, but not just in the sense of money or some cheap trinkets as he had before. He wanted recognition. He wanted to be known, feared, and respected. It was a scary thought that this was who he truly was.
Troubled, he headed towards his house again. “No, that’s not who I am” thought Murakami hopefully “surely I’m a better person than that!” On the way home he stopped at a vending machine to pick up an ice-cream after an exhausting day. The machine was broken though and in his frustration Murakami poured a bucket of water into it breaking it and using his Hydration hew reached into the vending machine and took an ice-cream. After deliberately eating it enjoying the seemingly newfound taste that he had found. He lifted the vending machine, grunting and struggling over towards the nearest well he threw it in, watching it sink towards the bottom. “No” he reflected grimly “I’m not a good person”.
[WC=2213]

Approved