Double

Naruto: Bastion Of The Granite Guard

The Funeral

Yep, this day was pretty crappy alright. Hiroto, at the beginning of the ceremony, had stood alongside his teacher and mentor, Master Satsuma. For a ninja, Satsuma was awfully brutish in appearance, being a man of fairly large size and arms like pythons. The man stood there in stoic silence, arms crossed and eyes closed tight. No one knew why he was seemingly refusing to open his eyes, but Hiroto had a theory. The boy was convinced that the reason his mentor wouldn't open his eyes was because if he did, Master Satsuma would reveal the tears in his eyes, and for a man who is supposed to represent the sheer strength of Iwagakure, showing his tears might lower morale or something. Of course, that was just a theory, and one Hiroto dared not suggest aloud, not when he knew his master would likely beat the snot out of him for it. As the funeral progressed, and the Tsuchikage spoke his words, Hiroto began rubbing the muscles in his arms. They were pretty sore from the morning's training session. Yes, even on the day of the funeral, Master Satsuma made him train. In fact, Hiroto had to wear his bandages to the funeral, to hide the cuts and bruises that commonly formed when routinely punching training dummies made of wood, straw or (in Hiroto's case) stone. So yeah, this day sucked. The funeral was somber and depressing, and Hiroto's body felt like it was made of jelly.

Early Morning

"Hmph, at last some improvement. Again!" barked Satsuma at Hiroto at their morning training. For this session, Hiroto was practicing against hanging dummies that were swinging at him from all directions at random intervals. Generally, the boy would last a few precious moments before one of the dummies caught him off guard and knocked him square on the ground, but he was managing to last a little bit longer with each attempt.

"Geez, only you would keep training even on the funeral day." complained Hiroto. It was true. Most, if not all, the other ninja in the village, had been given the day off for the sake of the funeral that would take place later. Not Hiroto. Nooooo, Master Satsuma basically dragged him out of bed before sunrise as usual and out onto the training ground. They were literally the only ninja using it that morning, or likely for the whole day for that matter. When Satsuma only raised an eyebrow and glared as a response, Hiroto immediately shut up and resumed his exercises.

"Hmm, recite the creed." said Satsuma bluntly, having had enough experience with Hiroto to not let the boy's behavior get under his skin too much.

Hiroto sighed, "Everything it takes, everything's a thre-" Satsuma's sudden kick into Hiroto's side caught him off guard, the man's strength literally sent him flying a few feet before hitting the ground. Hiroto, seemingly unfazed by this, staggered to his feet and glared at Satsuma, "What the hell was that for?"

"A reminder that the second half of the creed is just as important as the first. Anything overlooked can turn out to be your undoing. Comrades, too, can become a threat given the right circumstances, and you have to be prepared to deal with that, unless dying happens to be on your to-do list. Now, start again!"

The Funeral

Hiroto felt his side and winced. Sure, Master Satsuma needed to make his point, but did he have to do it so damn hard? Everything's a threat, huh? Thought Hiroto to himself as he saw the caskets pass by. Seeing Masters Rei and Hirorama like they were, it hit him harder than he expected. He'd only known their names and the stories of a few of their exploits, and yet it still somehow felt like losing a family member. Was this what he meant by "Everything"? That even something like pain and sorrow could threaten to be one's undoing in the end? If so, Hiroto now knew the real reason why Satsuma wouldn't look at the caskets, and Hiroto now tried to do the same. He crossed his arms, closing his eyes in an attempt to be as stoic as his teacher, to not cry.

...He failed.

Naruto: Bastion Of The Granite Guard

World Traveler said
After being stolen a ancient relic is about to be sold and must be recovered.

Is it a statue of a silver monkey taken from a shrine?

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Alright, I could have read the post a bit better, and I apologize. As for how to proceed? Well, you've got a couple options. One, Serene could be focusing on guarding Ana, hence you could protect her from stray attacks that head that way, or (and this is to make it up to you more than anything) you can go ahead and post Serene making into the castle to fight alongside Jared and Elsa. Or you could, should you dare, enter the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. The choices are yours and yours alone. Good luck.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

^ Yes, well that was back when I thought Thundercat was still around and was waiting for him to post. When that week passed I decided to go ahead without him. Your post mentions nothing about approaching the castle, only that Serene was looking at it. And when you spent those 3 or so weeks either not being online or simply not participating I assumed you lost interest and dropped out.

And of course Ren and Card are now mysteriously no where to be found. Look, if you guys are losing interest then just tell me so I don't have to keep making an ass of myself when I try to breath more life into this thing.

Naruto: Bastion Of The Granite Guard

Chaotic Combo now has a (hopefully) better weakness than before. Meteor Kick was modified into Earth Release: Meteor Kick which essentially makes it a flying kick version of Earth Release: Fist Rock Technique.

Naruto: Bastion Of The Granite Guard

Huh... that's gotta be the first time I've had someone say my character was too weak. lol

To be fair it's a bit more difficult to describe the strength of what amounts to a punch in the face, but I'll see what I can do.

Naruto: Bastion Of The Granite Guard

Eh, semantics. But point taken, regardless.

Naruto: Bastion Of The Granite Guard

"When in doubt, aim for the crotch!" -Hiroto Narumi, Taijutusu for Dummies

Basics

Name: Hiroto Narumi

Age: 14

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Iwagakure

---

Known history and secrets

Personality: Hiroto is a hot head and a bit of a smartass, but to his credit he usually makes a fair point in regards to the latter, as proven by the above motto about aiming for the crotch. Sure, it sounds harsh and totally unfair, but when was fighting ever supposed to be about fairness in the first place? Hiroto was was raised and trained in the infamous Nine-Point Discipline, explaining where his "kicking below the belt" philosophy stems from. Though when it's not about fighting, Hiroto tends to lean more toward being a joke-cracking clown than anything else. So while he is admittedly insufferable to be around, he's still a good fighter and, hey, sometimes his humor makes a surprisingly valid point, ergo it becomes genuinely funny.

History: Originally born to a family of sushi vendors, Hiroto abandoned that lifestyle at the first opportunity to become a ninja. It wasn't that he hated sushi or his family, quite the opposite, in actuality he was tired of his family being complete nobodies and wanted to put the name Narumi on the map, and becoming a ninja was the best way to do that. Of course, once he was actually in the academy, he found becoming a ninja to be harder than he expected. Despite the fact that Ninja's were supposed to be great spies and tough fighters, becoming one apparently required an obnoxious amount of reading and written tests. What, Hiroto often wondered, did writing this monotonous crap down on paper have to do with being a kick-ass ninja? Still, he persisted and earned himself a headband soon enough.

Some of the teachers could tell that Hiroto was far more suited to combat over all that cloak-and-dagger spy stuff. One of them in particular was part of the Nine-Points Discipline, and apparently felt that Hiroto would fit right in, and so he invited the newly christened ninja to start training with him. While Hiroto is still a fairly new disciple of the Nine-Point style, his new teachers are confident that he's got the right stuff to go all the way with it.

Clan: Narumi, and sadly they are not ninjas, but Hiroto is part of the Nine-Point Discipline.

Dreams and aspirations: To master his Discipline, put his family's name on the map, and to kick the collective asses of anyone who tries to stop him from achieving those goals.

General strengths: He can generally hit pretty hard and take quite a bit of punishment from opponents before finally going down. He's also tenacious, having once been compared to a bulldog, stubbornly refusing to let go of any challenge presented to him.

General weaknesses: His focus on Taijutsu obviously gives him a disadvantage against opponents who like to stand back and spam ranged attacks. His hot-headedness isn't exactly a flattering trait and therefore others might find it difficult to work with him.

---

Combat intel

Known chakra natures: Earth

Kekkei Genkei: None

Skill Specialization: Taijutsu. Hiroto practices the Nine-Point Discipline, a style of Taijutsu that is infamous for it's lack of subtlety. Basically it boils down to making damn well sure you are the one who walks away from the fight, no matter what kind of cheap shots or dirty fighting you have to resort to. Most Taijutsu styles emphasize the use of only four striking points, the hands and feet. This discipline, on the other hand, entails the use of nine points, the aforementioned hands and feet as well as one's elbows, kneecaps, and head if necessary. This makes the ninja in question a far more versatile fighter and, as a result, much more difficult for opponents to read or predict. It's not without its problems though. For one thing, it's a very difficult discipline to practice, easily requiring twice as much rigorous training as the average Taijutsu specialist to accommodate for the toughening of extra body parts beyond the fists and feet. It's also a controversial discipline, with detractors often scorning it for its use of what they believe are "dishonorable techniques", and for the teachers' tendency to employ tough-love training on their students, thus being believed to be the most cruel of Taijutsu masters.

Jutsu's that (s)he has shown capable of using:

Canon: Basic Academy Techniques, Rock Fist Technique

Custom

Name: Chaotic Combo
Kind Of Jutsu: Taijutsu
Range: Short
Rank: D
Nature: None
Handseals: None
Description: A straight-forward 8-hit beat down. It's name reflects the random nature of the strikes, as they come from random directions and from random striking points. Ergo, no two uses of this technique are ever a hundred percent identical, but each are equally effective.
Weakness: The opening strike of the combo is generally straight-forward, and thus easy enough to block or dodge. It's the follow-up attacks that are more difficult to deal with, as they are usually swifter and almost always being of a much more unorthodox nature (ie a headbutt or a knee into the groin) meant specifically to catch opponents off guard.

Name: Giant Step
Kind Of Jutsu: Taijutsu
Range: N/A
Rank: D
Nature: None
Handseals: None
Description: Despite its name, it is not a "step", rather a strong leap into the air, through which a user can reach an aerial opponent or, more often than not, put themselves in a prime position to follow up with an aerial technique of their own.

Name: Earth Release: Meteor Kick Technique
Kind Of Jutsu: Ninjutsu, Taijutsu
Range: Short/Mid
Rank: C
Nature: Earth
Handseals: Snake -> Ram -> Dog -> Rat -> Snake -> Tiger
Description: From an aerial position, the user comes crashing down on his opponent, their legs transformed into stone by Earth nature chakra.
Weakness: Being an attack from above, it's almost impossible to not see coming, unless the attack just so happens to be coming from a place of cover. Due to this, the technique is generally used as a means to open a fight with a surprise kick from above, though it does make for an interestingly poetic finisher against opponents too stunned or fatigued to defend themselves from it.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

I apologize for the belated post. Was busy for a couple days and there were a couple more days where my internet was down for a double dose of life sucking sometimes.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Simo and Elim's impromptu strategy seemed to work. The more Elim hacked at the creature, the less attention he paid to Simo. When the second Gravity spell came, the giant froze again, and while it was in no danger of falling to its doom as it was on the bridge, it struggled to maintain the snow and ice that made up its body. Indeed, the red ice was revealed once more, giving Elim a precious opportunity to finally deal some direct damage to the monster. He'd need to be quick, though, since Simo's Gravity spell wouldn't last too much longer, and given the creature's size and properties, it was pretty clear it could easily outlast them in a drawn out battle if they didn't strike now.

Back in the palace, Jared and Elsa were proving to be a surprisingly effective team. Elsa's near constant barrage of ice magic combined with Jared's power of Thunder proved a potent combination against the flying Air Soldiers. Even the one commanding them had to step in and join the fray once it was clear that it was the last man standing. Jared was relieved that there didn't appear to be any more Heartless spawning, but was cautious anyway. This Air Pirate Heartless was calling the shots for a good reason, as it was it much tougher than the others. Stronger, faster, but most importantly, this one was more intelligent. It had to be to be able to lead an attack as it had done.