[Ryuuko Compound] Visiting Unkie Vic

[Hitoshura]

It has been quite some time since Kai had been here. His blood was mixed, and Ryuuko wasn't the dominant one, so his place was with the Kudo in Hyouga instead of here. All for the better, though, as the cold suited him nicely. However, today this boy was in need of someone he could trust to be reliable. Someone family. Someone.....Victor.

The boy moved towards Victor's residence, but not in a straight line. Oh no. That would be far too deadly for the young Shinobi, Instead he took the long route, completely bypassing any traps so as not to have to reset them later. Maybe it would have been easier to disable them. Then again, Kai didn't come here enough to know how to do that properly.

Once there, Kai knocked upon the door a few times in quick succession. "Uncle Viiiiicki~ Come out and plaaaaa-ay~"

[Kennyrules]

Victor cocked an eyebrow. He knew the voice... vaguely. Still, he figured he would remember as soon as he opened the door. So open the door he did, and to his surprise - Kai! A lad he had not seen in a good while.

"How many times must I tell you? It's Victor. Not Vicki."

In spite of himself, a smile spread across the Sannin's face as he stepped out of the doorway. He needed a break from paperwork anyway, and a bit of play sounded nice. But he had a hunch Kai was here for more than a game or two. But Victor would let the hunch slide away. Such things tended to reveal themselves in time anyway.

[Hitoshura]

The instant the door opened, Kai quickly hopped up and attached himself to his uncle's chest, giving him a crushing bear hug with both arms and legs. Though it probably wasn't so crushing to a shinobi of Victor's caliber, it might just be surprising enough to illicit some sort of reaction that wasn't a roundhouse kick to the face.

"I need your help, actually." Kai loosened his grip and slid off his elder. "May I come in?" The facade couldn't hold as he became more serious and solemn. No matter how he tried, Kai just couldn't get back to his old playful self, even around family. The world had changed much about Kai's personality since he and Victor last saw each other.

[Kennyrules]

Kai's glomp elicited a single raised eyebrow from Victor. The man could sense a fake hug when he saw one. Or rather, the hug was not fake or insincere, but Kai's heart wasn't really in it. There was something different about the boy, to be sure. He was certainly more solemn.

"Yes, come in. Would you like to discuss matters over some tea?"

Victor's typical bout of hospitality always involved offering a cup of tea. Why? Because tea calmed the nerves and soothed the body of it's stress. It was a great way to bring a stressful situation into a bit more control. Victor wondered why his nephew was here, and so he waited patiently for the boy to continue on.

[Hitoshura]

At Victor's request, Kai moved inside, quickly picking out a seat with the least sunlight through windows. Of course, if there was no sunlight entering, he'd just take the nearest one. Kai hadn't exactly been keeping a good hold on his nature lately, but Victor was different. He couldn't know the truth.

"Yes. Ginseng would be nice if you had it. With a small bit of honey." but that was selfish of him. "Or just....whatever you have available."

"Something weird is going on with Hyouga....with me. I've yet to be assigned a sensei and keep getting assigned solo missions. So far I've been able to hold my own and teach myself some of the basics that I should have learned from a teacher. There is, however, something that I can find no defense against: Illusions," The tea was quite calming. Without it, the boy probably would have been up pacing around, his mind trying to find answers that it could not have. Now, it still did that, but Kai wasn't up wandering around pulling his hair out. "There must be a reason I've been left alone and I severely doubt that it is due to a trust that I can handle myself. True or not, that's not how our system works, right? I'm just...I'm not sure who I can trust right now. That's why I came to you, Vic. I need to better myself and at the moment, I don't trust the officials of Hyouga."

[Kennyrules]

Victor nearly laughed. With all the trouble in Hyouga, with the recent turmoil, he was unsurprised. The village had been tossed into chaos, and only recently had Miyuki ascended to the position of Kage and quelled the chaos, controlling matters to a certain degree. Still, stories of still-learning shinobi falling through the cracks were common enough. The village had lost many files, and gathering everything together again would take time. Kai was yet another victim of the unfortunate tragedy of the demon attack and the ensuing chaotic state that was Hyouga.

"You wish to learn about illusions? I can certainly arrange for you to be taught how to escape them, at least. Though I warn you, the experience will surely not be pleasant."

The tea, as it happened, was already on. Victor had been flavoring his own tea with mint, giving it a flare that was atypical of his standard fare. Kai requested honey, though, and honey he received. Victor was certain he had ginseng somewhere, though he himself was no large fan of the spice. He found it at the back of a cupboard, buried between a few other rarely-used spices. A self-congratulatory nod accompanied Victor's removal of the spice, as he mixed the tea slowly and calmly. Gwen was about today, and her elderly body seemed oddly full of life that morning. Victor was certain she would have no qualms about teaching another clansmen the art of genjutsu kai.

As he handed the boy his tea, Victor held a two-finger cup of his own, a thin stream of steam wafting up from the liquid. The mint smell was noticeable the moment Victor handed Kai his own cup.

"Do not blame Hyouga. They have been in a poor state lately. Miyuki is no doubt doing her best to repair things, but a village was devastated. Recovery from such events comes slowly, with much strain involved. Sit with me a while, Gwen is out doing more of her gardening. My grandmother will be along shortly, and she can teach you whatever you like."

As if on cue, the elderly woman would open the sliding door, a dull thwack accompanying the wood hinges hitting one another. She looked at Kai, and then at Victor.

"Well here's a lad we haven't seen in a while. What's he about?"

A chuckle left Victor's lips as he noted his grandmother, now wrinkled with age, pondering the presence of the rarely-seen relative.

"Ah. Young Kai here needs to learn how to escape from illusions. Seems he has fallen through the cracks of Hyouga's reconstruction process. Are you in high enough spirits to teach him?"

"Of course, of course, let me get cleaned up and I'll be along shortly."

Gwen seemed a bit overeager to use her now-waning genjutsu skills for a practical purpose again. Like every unused ability, her once-daunting mastery of illusions was beginning to lose its edge, as she replaced her shinobi abilities with the more tame ones of gardening and housekeeping in her retirement. Soon, she was back, looking much less dusty and dirt-covered, as she beckoned for Kai to follow her to whatever training area she had in mind.

[Hitoshura]

It made sense. Partial sense, at least. If Kai had slipped through the cracks, however, why was he still being given missions? There was just no way that when missions of this kind were almost always given to a team of three or four that he had done a grand total of zero missions with an assigned teammate. The reasoning Victor gave, however, was probably the worst thing to instill in Kai's mind at the moment. So they don't notice me? Hyouga is just ignoring me? Instead of working with someone who has true potential, they waste forces teaching those who probably won't live another two years? Well then, I'll have to correct that. But now, there is something else to do.

A farfetched conclusion, to be sure, but the Beast inside of Kai dulled his logical reasoning skills. In his head, it all made perfect sense. While thinking like this, he used sipping the tea as a means to hide his thoughts from his uncle. It would likely be in vain, though. The boy had never been good at concealing his nature.

Upon Gwen's reappearance, Kai put on his best long-lost-great-grand-nephew smile and rushed over to her. "It's good to see you again. Shall we be off?" While he had hoped it would be Victor that trained him, Kai knew that it wouldn't be. Gwen was the genjutsu expert among the clan, after all.

[Kennyrules]

"Certainly. Follow me."

Gwen would head off into the next room. And, should Kai try to follow her, he would find that his way was blocked by something unseen. In fact, as he moved towards the door, he would trip over a small coffee table that he wouldn't be able to see.

Of course, he might avoid it, in which case he would find that upon opening the door, only a brick wall would be present. It seemed this was his first test.

[Hitoshura]

Of course Kai followed, and he actually followed closely behind. However, he ran straight into something and tripped forward. Upon colliding with the object, Kai actually jumped forward into a roll, hurling one of his kunai through where the object he hit would have been mid roll. Hopefully, it would hit and damage whatever had tried to harm Kai in the first place. If not, well, the Ryuuko could probably change a floor panel quite easily. The roll would end with him getting back up fluidly and pulling another kunai out of his jacket.

Nothing was around, but he also had bumped into nothing. Thus, something existed that he couldn't see. In a defensive stance, scanning the room he was in, Kai backed towards the door that Gwen had gone through, only to back into a wall. Of course. I can't actually be with Gwen if I want to combat illusions. Most illusionists fought from out of sight, making their victims unable to counterattack without seeing through the genjutsu. Now this boy didn't have any knowledge of Genjutsu Kai, so "fighting illusions" meant something entirely different to him. His back against the door, Kai pulled out another kunai with his left hand, keeping them both close in a defensive posture. He was ready for the next 'wave'.

[Kennyrules]

"Lesson one - genjutsu affect certain senses, in this case, sight."

Gwen's voice echoed through the doorway. She was clearly in the other room, behind the brick wall. Her voice did not seem muffled in the slightest.

"Part of escaping genjutsu is knowing which parts of your body are affected. Does the illusion affect your hearing as well? But I am starting you off easy. Focus chakra into your eyes, and flood them for a moment with your own chakra. That will loosen the illusion enough that you will manage a glimpse beyond it."

It was the beginning of the training. Kai was in the False Surrounding jutsu, and by focusing chakra into his eyes as instructed, he would gain a glimpse of a now overturned coffee table, and the brick wall would seem less solid to him as well.

[Hitoshura]

That's what it meant? He had come here looking for a way to fight illusionists and their illusions, but learning how to dispel them was good too, he supposed. He was, however, surprised at the simplicity with which Gwen described this technique. Simply focus chakra into the eyes? It sounded too simple. Still, the old woman had to know what she was talking about, so the boy gave it a shot.

Closing his eyes, Kai began to send chakra out into his eyes and coated them with a chakra film. Perhaps it was this chakra lens that would allow him to see reality. Alas, that was not so. The table remained invisible and the brick wall still as solid as ever. She must have meant something different. Focus chakra into your eyes to see the world as it truly is. Into.... Yes, she had said into, hadn't she? Not out of. And so Kai let loose that chakra and tried again. This time he mapped the chakra as it was released from his stomach into his eyes. With his eyes shut, the boy could 'see' the pathways he was following. Looking at it like this, some of these pathways appeared...wrong. Some were broken and some seemed to take more effort to get through, while most appeared to be dealt with naturally.

There few spots, Kai paid close attention to. While sending chakra through, he attempted to use said chakra to repair it. However, having no knowledge of how to do this, the boy was at a loss, and instead continued to focus on his primary task. Once the chakra pathways were completely mapped, he opened his eyes back up to see the world warble around him. The table phased in and the wall phased out.

Taking this opportunity, Kai placed his hand upon the wall after putting away his blades. Should it go through, he himself would pass through in an attempt to find Gwen. Should it not, he would pound his fist into said wall in frustration at his own failure.

[Kennyrules]

Kai would indeed pass through the wall, easily enough. He had seen through the illusion, sort of. He had discovered an important aspect to it, however. He noted the physical effects the genjutsu had on his own chakra system. That was an important step. And Gwen was aware that he had taken it all in. After all... Gwen was a veteran illusionist, and she knew when someone found her illusions.

"Well done. You found out what makes the illusions seem real. Genjutsu is caused by foreign chakra sending false signals to the brain while blocking out your own chakra's signals. There are two common ways to combat this. You have found the start of one. By focusing your own chakra into your eyes, you can nudge the foreign chakra loose, much like enough pressure in a blocked pump will dislodge whatever is blocking the pump. Because it is your own chakra, and it is staying inside your own charka system, you can pump a large amount of chakra towards the foreign chakra, and lose very little. This is why the technique is doable for even a genin like yourself."

Gwen then walked up to Kai, and placed her hands on the sides of his head. Her thumbs would find his eyelids, and she would speak again.

"I will show you how it is done. I want you to repeat what you have just done. Close your eyes, and focus on the foreign chakra blocking your normal chakra flow. And observe..."

Once Kai was ready, Gwen would use Genjutsu Kai on him, using her own chakra to show how an explosive force of chakra on the illusion could dislodge it completely. Kai would be able to sense physically how Gwen did it, and would know how it felt to have the illusion become dislodged. It was like watching an expert fighter throw a skilled kick - it looked easy, though it was not so, but the mere act of observing could sometimes teach a great deal.

When Kai opened his eyes, he would note that the wall was gone, and the coffee table was now visible. Gwen would then snap her fingers right in his ear, and the exact same illusion would occur again.

"Now you try."

[Hitoshura]

This is....chakra plumbing? A strange concept, and one that seems a bit overkill. Is this really the best that shinobi have come up with? It seemed so inefficient. As well, one other thing confused him. How can you dislodge and remove foreign chakra like this without pushing your own out as well? It seems like to expel someone else's chakra, you would have to expel your own at the same time. Kai would save his questions, though. Perhaps the answers would reveal themselves during training. If they did, he was not about to be made a fool by asking such things without trying to figure out the answers himself, first.

As Gwen came close and touched his head, Kai took a quick step back on reflex. His trust in people was still lacking, though this was probably a good trait for someone such as him. After that initial jump, he relaxed and allowed the elder to take hold on his head. The boy did as told, and focused chakra all along the pathways, making sure to pay close attention to those areas that seemed just off. Once he had done that, Kai gave a short slow nod to Gwen, signalling that he was ready for the next step.

It was like a bright light far in the distance that got closer with the speed of a hummingbird's wings. It washed over him and flooded everything. It took out the afflicted areas, his own chakra, and even washed all the way back so it covered every pathway in his entire brain with a sea of white light. What was preceived as an attack caused Kai's eyes to shoot open and him to jump back out of her grip. His breath was heavy and there was even a bit of sweat forming on the his brow. "What was-. What did you do to me?" As he was not facing the correct direction, Kai did not notice the brick wall disappear not the coffee table reappear.

[Kennyrules]

Gwen could not conceal a chuckle at the boy's shock. He had been exposed to the effects of his first genjutsu kai, and a strong one at that. Gwen's skill was nigh unparalleled, and she had shown it all to Kai.

"That, dear boy, was Genjutsu Kai. Look. My illusions bother you no longer."

The elderly woman pointed a bent finger towards the now-open doorway. Once Kai took the time to notice, she would nod and continue.

"There are multiple ways of using that technique. I showed you the path that involves the most chakra and the least technique. The way that uses less chakra but requires greater control is more difficult. You must focus on using no chakra at all in the designated area. This is impossible, of course, for deprived of chakra, the body would die. But by siphoning as much chakra away from an area, the illusion loses it's fuel, so to speak. It is difficult, and it is a method that I cannot use for you. This one, you must try for yourself."

Upon saying this, Kai would feel a sharp pain in his left forearm. It wasn't grossly horrible, but it did grab his attention, and throbbed like crazy.

"Give it a try. Your arm is fine, I promise. The pain is false - remove it, if you can."

Gwen had intentionally done this technique slightly off. Done correctly, the pain would have been much more sharp and unpleasant. But this was training. Kai would find that dislodging this genjutsu illusion would be much easier than normal, but would force him to at least get the technique half-right in the process. Gwen did not expect perfection every time, after all. But she did demand progress.

[Hitoshura]

A purge. A pulse. Genjutsu Kai was a brute force technique meant to wipe the mind clean and start anew. How wasteful. Kai would have to fix this later. First, he just needed to master the basics, and that meant mapping out everything he came in contact with during these exercises Gwen was throwing at him. Right now that exercise was a sharp pain stabbing in his left arm, like a thousand senbon piercing it from every angle. Kai just knelt down and clutched his arm tightly, as if that would somehow dull the pain.

Just like last time. Map the arm. Just as he did with his eyes, Kai sent chakra down his arm on every conceivable pathway. He knew what to look for this time, so nothing could escape his sight. Or so the boy thought. What is this? There were no obstructions. Nothing was out of place. Nothing felt dense. It did appear that nothing was wrong with it. However, that too could be part of the illusion. No choice but to push forward. "KAI!" Kai threw his chakra down his arm, never letting up on the great force necessary to make sure nothing would escape the purge.

Well that was fruitless. All he succeeded in was wasting chakra and getting a weird tingling feeling like someone had had just smacked him in the elbow. There was no mistake in his mind, though. That technique was done perfectly. He felt every bit of chakra leave his arm for that short time. Did the problem not lie there? If not in his arm, then where? It's an illusion, dumbass. Where do you think it lies? The brain, of course. But where? The brain was a giant mass of chakra vessels. Finding the right area would be near impossible. But that was the point, right?

Such a pain. Now he saw why it wasn't a precise jutsu. There were just too many possibilities. In a battle where your mind is being altered, you can't take the time to figure out exactly what is wrong and cure it. You had to take a broad approach and end things quickly. And so once again, Kai pushed chakra into his brain, not particularly caring to map out everything perfectly this time. "KAI-GAH!"

His control slipped. The purge failed. Or rather, it worked too well. The pain in his arm was gone, but a new pain in his eyes took its place. Quickly he fell to his knees, clutching them with both hands. He could feel it. That touch of precious vitae spilling out. Kai had broken something. Hopefully not anything important.

[Kennyrules]

Tch.

Gwen shook her head. Kai was being foolish.

"Victor!"

Her shrill voice pierced teh quiet abode. Victor was there, seemingly in the blink of an eye, with an odd demeanor of respect. He was a Sannin, yet he was just as afraid and respectful of this woman as anybody else. Gwen had that effect on people.

"Seems your nephew went and overdid it."

That was all she needed to say, as Victor gently activated Healing Hands on either side of Kai's head. There was a lot of internal damage, but Healing Hands was good at fixing small, focused-area problems. It would help the pain, though any permanent damage to the eyes would remain. Victor wasn't going to be sure how badly Kai had harmed himself until the healing had completed.

"Now just what did you do to yourself?"

Victor's question was truly curious, as he had never heard of someone harming themselves with a jutsu before. Or rather, he had not heard of anyone doing that through a natural manner. If something was wrong with Kai, he would have to be focused.

Somewhere in the back of his seal, a soul's voice echoed that Victor was missing an important fact, a tidbit of information he filed away beneath the mounds of information in the Hollow Soul Seal he bore. Victor figured it could wait, though. He was busy healing his nephew.

[Hitoshura]

The image of what happened replayed in Kai's mind. Obviously he couldn't just flush everything out without looking. It still required some kind of precision. In his haste, Kai had let some chakra escape where it shouldn't have, and it acted as a knife that cut through a few blood vessels. He had given himself an aneurysm and had it not been for his uncles quick intervention, the boy may very well have died from the blood flooding his brain.

"It's nothing. I know what I did wrong." Did he? Yes and no. He knew what happened. He knew why it happened. However, he didn't know how it could have happened. Victor's tone suggested that this was so rare he hadn't seen it before. Most people didn't have chakra systems that were so close in tune with their circulatory systems, but that didn't make much sense. Being Tremere didn't alter your chakra system enough to do this, Kai thought. For now he'd chalk it up to horrible luck.

Control and precision for the first step, then brute force for the second. Eventually I'll get to the point where the mapping step is almost instant. Kai stood up and wiped away the remaining bit of blood with his sleeve. "Let's continue."

[Kennyrules]

Victor nodded. Kai seemed to be doing ok. He had done something to himself, but Victor wasn't quite sure what. Gwen rested a hand on his shoulder, pushing him gently to the side, as she rested a hand on Kai's forehead. Contented, somewhat, that her newest student at least wasn't running a fever, she nodded and moved away.

"As you wish."

As Gwen's statement completed itself, a vast army of clones appeared between herself an Kai, enough to fill the entire room, and two rooms on either side. There were over a hundred of Gwen now, crowding around Kai, but none having any substance at all.

"This is a perfect illusion. You will not be able to dispel it at your level, not completely. The best you will be able to hope for is to break enough of the illusion to dispel some of the clones. Dispel half, and I will count it a success. Find me among them, and you'll really impress me."

So there it was. Gwen was challenging Kai to find the real her. And as soon as she finished her statement, each of the clones began shuffling slowly, aimlessly around the room, and from one room to another. In an instant, no one body would be where it started. Finding Gwen by luck would be difficult. Unless Kai were to try attacking. But that wasn't the point of the exercise, and Gwen felt relatively sure he wouldn't do something aggressive.

[Hitoshura]

"Challenge accepted." Nobody told Kai he couldn't do something. The boy centered himself and brought all of his mind to solace. He could find her. He would dispel every clone here. There was no doubt in his mind. However, in order to do that he needed every tiny bit of himself committed to this endeavor. First, he needed some way to mark which ones he knew were fake. He could use a wire to scratch the floor under each Gwen he knew was not solid, but Victor might scold him for that. The other option was to tag each one with a chakra string. Each string didn't take much since they wouldn't control anything, but that was his only option at this point, since each was moving around.

Kai started with those he had seen appear. A good ten percent to be sure. Each of them would have a single chakra string attached to them. Now, while Kai was keeping hold of that jutsu, he began focusing once more, forcing chakra through his eyes. This time he was careful, like the first time. Each pathway was marked, and any spot that was dense or blocked would be noted. "KAI!" A chakra pulse ran forward through his eyes and shot out all foreign chakra. However, that wasn't enough. Some clones disappeared, while some just flickered. Those that flickered, Kai attached more chakra strings to.

Eyes are not enough. Kai had to go deeper. There must be other pathways blocked in other parts of his brain. This would be a challenge, but Kai was up to it. He would not lose track of any known clone while slowly tracing his chakra all through his brain. For every irregularity, he again tried to keep a map. However, it became too much after a while. Instead he opted to just know his own neural chakra pathways, and not care about where the actual problem lie. In would get forced out along with everything else. "KAI!

More were gone. A lot more. And again, some were just destabilized, and those were tagged. Likely he was at the fifty percent mark by now, he thought But that wasn't enough. Not by a long shot. During the previous Kai, the boy knew something was wrong. He could feel it not go quite as smoothly as before. A reexamination of his neural net showed some pieces of foreign chakra still around. "KAI! The same as before. Something was left behind, but the illusion was more dispelled. "KAI!"

That was it. That was his limit. The number of strings he had keeping track of intangible beings that they couldn't be attached to combined with the mental strain of purging so much chakra in such a short amount of time had taken its toll, and Kai collapsed on the ground, exhausted.

[Kennyrules]

Gwen smiled. Kai had given an excellent effort. But he was done for the day. If any further training was needed, more could be given later. But for now, Kai needed rest. Victor moved without needing urging, as he set up Kai in a bed, and let him rest to recover his strength. When he awoke, he was free to stay or leave at his leisure. Victor was used to clansmen vanishing without a whisper, it was part of clan life. Kai could take care of himself, now that he was stable.