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Taking in Slade's words with a grain of salt the genin was forced to let out a deep sigh that showed his disappointment. On his end of things Slade was in no danger of being reprimanded seeing as how Sen would die before he let the scroll fall into the wrong hands while he was responsible for it. He couldn't blame him for not wanting to take the risk though. But with Slade unwilling to let him leave with the scroll it was apparent and clearer and before that this was his window and it was closing fast. "Fair enough, I can't ask you to jeopardize your standing with the elders as a favor to me. I won't be much longer with the scroll then."

---

"...ram, ox, monkey, boar, dog, rat, ox..." Without him much noticing his mental repetition of the headseals had become audible as inwards thoughts took on a different path. That path was the one where he went about finding the right amount of chakra to fuel the jutsu and the right moment to release that chakra so that the jutsu was fueled efficiently and without waste.

Taking a moment to get a breather and let his mind wrap around the situation he was in the genin's head slumped toward the ground for a moment. Onlookers might have guessed he looked worn out or fatigued but he was actually far from it. His shoulders rose and fell as he let out a great sigh of relief, forcing away a lot of building anxiety. Although, with the stakes this high he knew that anxious and stressing feeling wouldn't stay gone for too long.

As the wind blew south Sen could feel the breeze on his forehead. The wind felt cooler blowing on his head than anywhere else on his body which told him he was starting to break a sweat. The black-haired young man wiped away at his forehead with the back on his right wrist. The shiny patch said wiping made on the back of his skin confirmed it; he was crossing the threshold from the fundemental and elementary stuff that had to be mastered for each jutsu into the tougher parts of the training that was unique for each jutsu.

Really sweating was a conditioned reaction in anticipation to this stage of jutsu training rather than physical exhaustion or any of the other things that went hand and hand with sweating. His body had become accustomed to being made to sweat shortly after this part of jutsu training so now his body did it without even having a reason to once that part of the training came near. After learning the headseals, reading all materials on the jutsu he had available at the time and working on getting a proper 'feel' for how much chakra a jutsu would need to be executed, the genin's next step in learning that jutsu would be to actually begin attempting to cast it.

His ears, sensitive to sound after being deprived of any in that cave took hold of a voice he was sure he recognized. His eyes scanned the distances to seek out any forms or faces he found familiar and with the lack of moving objects in the vicinity it didn't take long for his eyes to spot a man of orange hair fleeing from gorillas doing that weird running-on-their-knuckles thing. He couldn't readily tell if the man was in any danger until he was near enough to make out facial expressions but by that point Sen was already en-route to intercept as making out facial expressions meant he was able to make out facial features as well. The man being chased was someone he knew.

In truth the two of them had not clearly defined their status' in the eyes of the other since they had been boys. Though to be fair at that time Sen was the boy and Ryu was a teenager and much had changed since then. Namely the fact that they were both men and the latter had risen to become the leader of his people a Hokage whose lasted long enough for his name to be etched in the history and lore of his people and all of the ninja world forever. Meanwhile Sen had become the right-hand of a man hopeful to become the Nidaime Tsuchikage. After a failed alliance with Sunagakure no Sato the Tsuchikage-elect at that time abandoned the village and Sen disappeared into obscurity for seven years.

It had been a trying time, but now he older and wiser. He didn't readily know where exactly the Nidaime fit in his life but at best Ryu was a dear and old friend and at worst he was a valued business partner. Both of which, were bonds well worth protecting. Once his distance from the Uchiha and his pursuers closed to within fifty meters the young genin of stone twisted his fingers to form a single seal and slammed his palms of the ground.¹

The gorillas were hot on the heels of their konoha catch and try as he might to come up with a pun for "hot heels" in tandem with the jutsu he was putting into play, Sen found with annoyance that he had nothing. He really hated it when he only came up with good one-liners when nobody else was around. His index finger tilted to the sky and a hulking ten meter wide geyser of lava burst from the ground the moment Ryu stepped past it, effectively springing up to stop the chasing primates. Even at its inflated size it wasn't impossible to dodge but it would give the animals a second thought about pursuing the former Hokage, or so he hoped.

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