The Lost days of Theodin

[Valbjorn]

Just a thread where I’ll do a bunch of solo posting, mostly through flashbacks to fill out Theo’s history and train up his career and crafting stuff.  

[Valbjorn]

flashback to ~15 years ago*
Having recently been inducted into the ANBU corps of Suna, Theo was training in the academy,making sure his skills were staying strong, when his old teacher Sanshi approached him. “Hey San, what’s up?” Theo would ask cheerfully. Even if he and San didn’t have much of a student and teacher relationship anymore, he still considered the older man a good friend. Walking closer to him, the Satetsu would say in a low whisper by Theo’s ear “We got a mission, undercover, top secret.get your mask and gear.” Theo’s face would harden and he would nod as his old friend turned and left the academy.Theo ran to his house and changed into his anbu armor and grabbed his polar bear mask. He would throw a cloak on over the armor to not reveal it and stash his mask within a pocket as he ran back out to meet San by the village gate.when he arrived,he was slightly confused to find San sitting in a covered wagon full of weapons and armor and wearing civilian style clothing. “Here. Put these on and stash your other threads.” San would bark at him, throwing him a simple pair of black pants, a tan shirt and a brown long sleeve kimono. Theo would hop into the back of the wagon as start changing clothes, hiding his armor and gear among the contents of the cart. As he was changing, he felt the cart start to roll forward. Once he was dressed, Theo would climb through the front opening to the passenger seat beside San. “So... what’s the mission?” He’d say slightly confused. He had never gone on an anbu mission where he left not wearing his mask, let alone his armor. “Ayame wants to investigate the supply lines within UHV territory and see if we can find their headquarters. If we can, she wants us to infiltrate and take out their leader. Barring that we’re at least to interrupt their supply lines and cause as much mayhem as possible.” Theo would nod along, thinking through what San said. He would also note that he, as usual didn’t call his mom by her title, having been her teacher as well years ago. “Ok... so that’s what you meant by undercover... so what are we? Arms dealers?” San nodded “Sorta, I’m a master blacksmith and weapons dealer. You’re my apprentice. Once we’re out of Wind country you’re to refer to me by either Sir or Master. I’ll call you ... either just boy, or ...” San would look at him suggesting he should come up with a fake name. “Hmmm... Hotaru could work.” Sanshi would nod in agreement then stay quiet for the majority of the rest of the trip.some time later, they would roll into a somewhat large city and San would take a deep breath “Ah... Sasagi City, also known as Gimangakure.... intel says a lot of uhv supplies seem to be coming from somewhere near here... let’s go grab a drink and see what we can find out.”The latter part of it he would mutter quietly while looking back into the cart as a cover for leaning closer to Theo.

Finding a small hole in the wall bar, Theo amd San would walk in and look around. It seemed like kind of a rough place, but that was the best way to find the kinds of people they were looking for.grabbing a drink each, they sat in a dark corner and nursed their drinks as they listened to the conversations happening around the room.one table of about a half a dozen men seemed to be having interesting conversations, one guy drunkenly bragging about a deal he had set up for later that night. “How bout you join our friends over there and see what you can learn?” San would suggest in a tone that said it was more of an order. Theo nodded and went over to the men “Hey guys, how bout I get the next round?” The men all cheered at the free drinks and Theo was invited to have a seat. After a while of laughing and joking around, and several more rounds of drinks, Theo would nudge the man that had mentioned the deal he had that night.when he realized he had messed up, the drunk man panicked slightly slurring through how there was no way he could do his job, that his boss was gonna kill him if he didn’t show for the deal and so on. Seeing an opportunity, Theo would lean over to the guy, “Hey buddy, how bout you give me the time and where you gotta be,and I’ll meet your contact for ya. That way you can sleep off the booze,and your boss still gets what he needs.” The man, alcohol very much impairing his judgement,happily agreed and scribbled it down on a napkin before handing it to Theo. When the other men finally got up and stumbled their way out,Theo went back to San, “the drop time is only a hour away... we should probably get going, Sir” he’d say, adding the title at the last minute to maintain his cover. San would nod and they’d leave the bar.

Arriving at the location of the deal, Theo would spot a suspicious looking figure and approach him. “You got the merchandise?” The man would say as Theo pulled a small package from a pocket. He didn’t know what it was, but it seemed like kind of a big deal. The man would demand that Theo should him that it worked, which he would demonstrate before slipping a kunai out of his sleeve and cutting a small part to disable it.a moment later, San would appear out of a shadow behind the man, slicing his throat open with a kunai of his own. Performing a handsigns, Theo would put his hand on the newly dead man’s head, extracting his memories before destroying the body.  

[Valbjorn]

had been a week since Theodin had been captured, half blinded,covered in chakra and stamina seals and thrown into a heavily sealed cage to rot. It had also been a week since one of his best friends had been brutally killed, her corpse tossed in front of his cage as a reminder of his failure to protect the ones he cared for. He had learned that among his captors were several former Sunagakure ninja, the rest of this organization being made up of remnants of the former UHVthat had decided to stay rather than return to their homes in the smaller hidden villages after finishing their raid and sacking of Suna.the more Theo sat there, the more angry he would be come. He used to be a fairly devout follower of Ninshuu, doing his best to help others. He rarely really wanted anyone to suffer, even when he had to kill them, he tried to make it quick.this was changing as he suffered through his ordeal at the hands of the new SIF as he had overheard some of them referring to themselves. Traitors was all they were to him.traitors to him and his family. Traitors to his village. He had been fighting hard against his guards every time he was taken to the torture chambers for his daily torment. Often, however, it just ended in more broken ribs for him, or another broken and poorly healed leg. As he sat in the corner of his cell, trying hard to not look at the now slowly decaying corpses of Hakanai and Shukenja, Theo would remember something he’d read about briefly years ago. The philosophy talked about how all things found their balance and that things would always occur as they were meant to. Therefore, there was no point in struggling if what you were attempting was beyond your capabilities at the moment. Theo shrugged it off at the time, but now it was making sense. So Theo started to meditate. He had to take stock of what he was capable of in the moment, then he could work on gradually pushing limits within himself as he waited for an opportunity to strike. “Ok... my chakra is so heavily sealed away that I might as well be an untrained civilian at this point, so my ninjutsu is well beyond my reach right now. I’m not as physically drained as far as my stamina goes. Maybe I can build up what i have available to me. And slowly loosen these chakra seals.” Theo would slowly get back to his feet and begin moving through the forms of some of his taijutsu. He could feel his legs shake slightly in the stances. His arms would get heavy and tired just maintaining positions for a few seconds. As the days turned into weeks, Theo had managed to steady his limbs again, even started doing strength exercises when the guards weren’t looking. He would jump up and grab the bars at the top of his cage, thankfully they weren’t electrified, and do pull ups. If he had to be sneakier, like if guards were nearby, he would just do some squats or push ups quickly whenever he could catch a few seconds. As he felt his strength building back up, he would start working on the seals on him during meditation sessions. First he would break down most of the stamina seals, gradually getting more and more of his strength and stamina back. After another couple months he was as close to his full physical strength as the trauma he had endured would allow him to reach without proper healing.he would then start working on chakra seals. His meditations would start delving deeper and deeper into himself as he tried to grasp some tiny scrap of his chakra. Finally he managed to get ahold of a little bit and regained control over it to some degree. Feeling like he did when he was a newly minted genin all those years ago, Theo would try to surge and circulate his chakra. Each time he would make the energy surge, he would chip away at one of the myriad chakra seals placed on him. It really didn’t help that some of the seals placed on his cell were design to drain his chakra too. This would make it even harder as he would have to chip away at the seals slowly enough that the chakra signature didn’t register with the external seals. Thankfully the seals weren’t designed to repair themselves when damaged. And that the guards were dumb enough to never really check the seals, Theo figured they didn’t expect him to be able to fight to break them. After a week of slowly chipping away, Theo suddenly felt the surge of energy as the first chakra seal broken and released the power locked away within.when he would be taken for his daily torture, he had long since quit fighting the guards. They often didn’t even bother restraining him along the walk anymore. And he had gotten to where he just took the torture stoically, simply refusing calmly to give any information on how to access the VOID or ANBU records. He didn’t have the ability to really fight them. He really didn’t have the power yet to be able to carry out the wholesale slaughter of the base that he wanted to do. But the one thing he could do was prevent them from getting access to the records of the other top secret operatives, or the caches of the most powerful tech the village had. Over the course of the next several years, Theo would continue to chip at the chakra seals. They had put a lot more of those on him than they did stamina ones . But, over time he started to feel like his old self again. He wasn’t anywhere near full power yet, but when he could get a few seconds in the recreation yard where guards weren’t watching him, he would get the momentary joy of being able to use a small wind or water jutsu, something that would leave little or no recognizable evidence. Finally, he felt like he was at least capable of using enough chakra to fight at the level of a genin, and that the chakra output needed to break the rest of his seals would draw too much attention from guards. At least he had his taijutsu skills and the majority of his physical strength and speed to help him deal with the idiotic guards. Most of them, he’d remember, were wearing versions of the old UHV armor. So, he would have to either wear their battery packs down first, or hit them harder and faster with ninjutsu. He figured the physical route would be easier, trusting his ability to physically overpower the guards more than for him to summon up enough chakra control to blow them to pieces. Then finally, one day during exercise time, something happened. Some people had stormed the wall and destroyed the great rail gun.that had been Theo’s last real worry when planning his escape as it was capable of demolishing basically anything it was pointed at faster than the target could react.now was his opening. This was his moment to strike and get free. He would be able to return another day, returned to his full power and with an army at his back as the true Kazekage of the Hidden Sand.  

[Valbjorn]

The Odin had begun studying smithing with his old mentor San, helping out at his weapons shop at the forge. Sadly, he didn’t have much of a clue what he was doing. This meant all he really got assigned to do at first was keeping the forge lit.Theo would pile the wood and coal into the underside of the forge furnace, breathing a small amount of fire into it to get it burning.he would then grab the bellows and begin the arduous task of maintaining a constant temperature. As he sat there, he would watch as San and his other apprentice worked, heating the metal to red hot before the rhythmic sounds of metal striking metal began as they started to hammer the raw iron into a bar. They would then begin slowly drawing the thick bar out into the rough shape of a blade. Apparently this one was going to be a shorter sword. Slowly the small bar of iron would thin and lengthen as San explained to Theo how they were directing their strikes to both continue out the draw, and to make sure the blade doesn’t become too thin or warped. Theo understood why he needed to learn this, but he still found it boring. He just wanted to learn to make things. He especially wanted to be able to somewhat easily create his own powerful weapons. But he knew if he voiced his frustration with being made to sit there just maintaining the fire, San would likely toss him out of the shop all together.in between pumps of the bellows, Theo would take his hammer and tap at a piece of cold metal. He was trying to figure out if he could copy the techniques of San and the other apprentice just from the explanation. After a few tries, he noticed San was looking at him and what he was doing. Giving him a slight nod, San would hand him another small piece of iron and tell him to heat it up and try to make a knife blade to start. Creating a shadow clone to work the bellows and maintain forge temperature, Theo would get to work. Holding the bar with a pair of tongs, he would hold it inside the fire until it was glowing red hot. He had learned before that too hot and the metal might either melt off or become too easy to shape, warping before it had time to cool into its new shape. Once it was hot, he would place it on an anvil and grab his hammer. Starting off with harder hits, Theo would flatten the bar out slightly. Now it looked like something that had a chance at becoming a blade. Taking a lighter hammer, Theo would tap at the blade to slowly draw the length out. He would also monitor the thickness of the metal. He didn’t want it to be too thin, which would make the blade more likely to bend or snap under stress. Didn’t want to leave it too thick either, making it harder to put a good edge on the blade later.Theo would need to reheat the metal periodically as he worked, the metal cooling too much to be shaped. When the blade reached about six inches long, Theo checked the thickness and it seemed about right to make a decent knife blade. He would then begin tapping along the end, hammering it into an angle toward a point. Once he had that done, he’d show it to San. Nodding, Theo would hear San tell him to go ahead and begin grinding down the edge of the blade to prepare for tempering before polishing and sharpening it. Heading over to the grindstone, Theo would put the long edge to it, sliding it up and down as the stone spun. He’d periodically flip the blade and grind the other side too, trying to get a nice symmetrical, even edge. As he watched the edge grind down, Theo would make small adjustments to the angle of the blank blade. He wanted to get this thing as sharp as he could without it becoming brittle .once he thought it looked to have a decent starting edge, Theo would run it by San again before sticking it back into the fire for heat treatment. Getting the rough blade back to a dull red, Theo would pull it from the fire and quickly move to the trough full of water. Taking a deep breath, knowing this could make or break the project even at this last second, Theo would plunge the blade quickly into the water. Steam would rise as there was a sizzling sound. Theo didn’t hear any clinking noises tho. Thankfully that meant the blade was solid enough to not break during the quench.removing it from the water and drying the blade quickly, Theo would take it over to a finer grindstone for sharpening and polish. Grinding at the edge, Theo would watch the bur forming along the edge as it grew sharper, occassionally brushing the excess off. Once he felt it might be sharp enough, Theo would pluck a hair from his head and hold it above the blade.bringing it up to nose level so he could get a good look at it, Theo would release the hair above the edge.watching as it split the hair smoothly, Theo would smile satisfied in his first creation.  

[Valbjorn]

Having learned a good deal about smithing in the context of weapons, Theo decided to begin dabbling in making armor. He would start off with simple basic research on armor types, fits, weights, etc. he would read through the pros and cons of using different kinds of materials from cloth to ceramic and metal plates. Cloth armors were of course the lightest, but offered very little, if any, actual protection. Then you had some tougher fabrics that could protect a bit better. Farther along you could use leathers and other hides that could be hardened or reinforced with small amoints of ceramic or metal to increase resistance to impacts or whatever.the most protective, but most cumbersome, was solid metal plating for armor. These armors would make you seem stronger, but could majorly slow you down if you weren’t extensively trained in it to get used to the weight and how it moved. Not seeing much use in the lightest armors, himself generally wearing medium to heavy armor, Theo started off with leather as his material to practice with. This was mostly because it was cheap and could be somewhat reused if some stitching didn’t fit quite right, whereas metal was so slow to work with that melting down and reforming a messed up metal plate would set him back days of work. Setting his metalworking tools aside, Theo would lay out a large hide, measuring a mannequin before scoring out the rough shape of a chest piece on the hide. He would then grab a pair of tough scissors and carefully cut the shape out of the skin. This would be the back of a leather armor vest once he was done.he would repeat the same process on another slab of leather next, making sure to cut this one down the middle too so there would be a way to put it on and take it off. Folding the edges over on themselves as he smoothed out the edges that wouldn’t be hidden by the sewing, Theo would make sure the openings for the neck and arms were cut well and evenly as he laid everything out for the final assembly of the vest. Lining up the front and back pieces, he would sew up the sides until he reached where the armpit would be, then along the top of the shoulders. He would then flip the assembled vest so that the seams would be hidden when it was worn. Looking at the front, he would take a knife and cut slits in one side every couple inches to make openings for buttons. On the other side he would make small scratches just to mark the spots where the buttons should go for everything to line up properly. Once that was done, he’d grab a handful of buttons and begin sewing them into place one at a time until it was all finished.his mannequin being sized for his own armor, Theo would then take the vest and try it on. Feeling the softness of the material and how it bent as he moved, he would nod satisfied with his first attempt. “Not my usual kind of armor, but it’s comfortable... maybe down the line it could make a good inner layer for heavier stuff to be more comfortable.” He would say to himself .

After a bit more reading and some searching, Theo got ahold of multiple large spools of metallic thread. He had learned about materials like Kevlar that used tight stitching with metallic threads to make light, but really strong armors. These were often made stronger by adding metal or ceramic plates to the piece. That would increase the durability against piercing and blunt force impact along with the slashing resistance of the metal fiber weave.using a loom he’d seen used to make cloth before, Theo would repeat the same kind of process using the metal threads to create cloths made of woven metal. Thankfully the metal was still thin enough to be able to be cut with a more heavy duty pair of scissors he’d found in the shop. Though, if he hadn’t found them, he guessed he could still use his chidori to basically plasma cut whatever he needed. Chuckling to himself as he thought through that idea, he would lay out four layers of metallic cloth for cutting. This time he would be able to have space between layers of the armor so that he could place metal plates for added protection later. Cutting out the shape of a long sleeve shirt through the four layers, Theo would set the first two layers aside to be the back of the metal shirt before cutting the holes to attach fasteners to the sides of them. This time the shirt would just be able to be pulled on over his head before using the fasteners on the sides to tighten it to fit securely. He would then go around the edges of each side of the future garment with a hot iron bar, melting the layers of the front and back to each other . Once that was done, he would lay the front over top of the back of the piece and begin sewing them together along the sleeves and shoulders. Once that was done, he would attach metal hook and lever kind of fasteners to each side, about three per side, to hold it shut when worn.pulling the finished metal shirt on, Theo would fumble a bit with the buckles, but within a couple minutes get them all closed and locked on. Moving around with the metal shirt on was easier than he had expected, but he felt like the tight weave of the steel thread would protect him from most things, though he would want to eventually add plates for better piercing protection. Heating the shirt slightly, Theo would break apart the layers of the front and back separately, allowing him to access the space between them. Having already gotten ahold of some metal plates that he thought could fit for armor, he would begin placing them in spots across the chest and abdomen of the shirt. He’d also place a few along sleeves, especially covering the outsides of the upper arms. Once he had the plates laid out, he would go around each of them with the metallic thread, sewing them into pockets before welding the outer edges of the layers back together. Once that was finished, he would flip the garment and do the same with the back using slightly larger plates, but not so large as to make movement difficult. Onc those were placed,sewn in, and the edges welded back, Theo would take one of his kunai and stab at the area of a plate. He would feel the metallic weave stretch slightly, but hold as the tip of the kunai clinked against the plate sewn inside.smiling in satisfaction, Theo would put his tools up for now and rest for the day.  

[Valbjorn]

After getting a solid grasp of making armor and weapons, Theo decided he would learn how to do enchanting. It seemed like something useful to either make random tools, or to add to the abilities he was able to make into his weapons and armor. He would start off reading up on the different herbs required and how they worked. It seemed kind of weird to make basically seals with herbal extracts. But hey, if it made him a more effective warrior. He was also thinking through what he could do to help his village improve its defenses apart from himself just getting stronger over time. Starting off with something super basic, which he really could do just with his own bloodline elements, Theo found a random box that hadnt been filled with junk around the workshop yet and pulled it over to the workstation he was using. Mixing some herbs he had gathered with some ink, Theo would flip the box over and pick up a brush. Drawing a formula on the bottom of the box, Theo would watch as it activated, but only really cooled the outside of the box. Slapping himself on the forehead for his stupidity, he flipped the box right side up again and drew the same formula in the bottom of the box on the inside. As it activated,he could feel the cold radiating from the box’s bottom. “Hmm, this would probably work fine as a cooler for food or something minor like that on a mission or something... but might wanna put multiple enchantments on the walls of it to get really cold for long term food preservation...”
with the extreme basics figured out, Theo would move on to the more practical applications for what he needed, empowering weapons, armor, and the like for combat. Flipping through his books, he would figure out what he needed to be able to increase a person’s physical attributes and run around his workshop gathering them up. Mixing up something that should boost strength, Theo would remove his glove and place it aside on the table. “Hmm, if I can further boost my strength ...” he would mutter to himself as he mixed the herbs amd some ink to draw the formula. He wasn’t sure how much he believed this stuff would work, but if it did, it would allow him to further improve his taijutsu Amd bukijutsu skills, as well as boost his fellow Suna shinobi against those damn UHV soldiers. Dipping his brush in the ink, he would draw a design on the back of his glove. Slowly it would start to glow momentarily as the enchantment sank in and activated.pulling the glove back on his right hand, Theo would feel weirdly different. Stepping out of the workshop for a bit, he would find his strength training equipment and grab a rock that had always been a bit too large for him to lift. Tightening his grip on it, he would set his core and back and attempt the lift. Slowly the rock would rise off the floor under his power as he muscled it up to his shoulder before dropping it back to the floor with a thud.  

[Valbjorn]

As Theo had walked through the halls of the Suna academy, he noticed some of the technique scrolls were becoming rather tattered from overuse. This made him decide to learn to create scrolls himself to be able to replace them as they wore out. Starting off by reading up on the process of softening and aligning the wood fibers to create the paper along with how to get it to roll up into the neat little scroll cases ,Theo would think through how he could get this done as easily as possible.getting ahold of materials, he would slowly figure out the creation of basic paper scrolls by trial and error until he had a few good quality ones that would be worthy of sitting in his academy book shelves as jutsu scrolls. From there, he had to figure out how to treat the paper to make it useful for fuuin jutsu scrolls. This was good to have since he didn’t always want to carry all his weapons hanging off himself or stashed in pockets. Being able to carry a single large scroll, or several smaller hidden ones would be much more convenient .

As he dabbled and adjusted how he treated the paper, he would pull out one of his store bought fuuin scrolls to compare.when he thought he had it, he would pull a kunai from his pocket and place it on the created scroll. Drawing the sealing formula on it around the kunai, he would send chakra into it, but the paper would suddenly catch fire. It wasn’t ready to handle the energy. Making another scroll, he would adjust the mixture of the paper treatment slightly, checking the texture alongside his purchased scroll. They felt a bit closer than before, so he tried to seal the kunai again. This time there was a small puff of smoke and when it cleared, the kunai was gone. Sending chakra back into the drawn formula on his self made scroll, Theo would smile and nod to himself as the kunai appeared again in another small puff of smoke. The next thing he would try was scrolls too expand knowledge.now that he had the mixture right for fuuin useable scrolls, he would draw a larger formula on the next scroll he made, thinking it should boost his understanding of ninjutsu.. when he sent a bit of chakra into it,his eyes widened as he felt his mind expand. He already was the village ninjutsu master, but now he felt like he might be able to take his training farther than he had gone before.  

[Valbjorn]

As Theo had risen through the ranks of the Suna black ops, he had slowly been introduced to the sheer amount and level of technology the village had hidden away in case of emergencies. The level of destruction they were capable of was kind of insane he thought as he was told he should learn to build and repair the equipment since he was likely to lead the black ops, if not the village entirely one day. He sat with a box of switch’s,levers and springs tinkering with the basics like building mouse traps to start off. Applying his medic training he gradually figured out how to build stuff that worked similar to the human body. He wasn’t a puppet user, but the inner workings of them were kind of interesting. After a bit of work, he had built a mechanical torso and arms where all the joints moved basically as they should in a real person. There just wasn’t the energy either of life or a puppeteer pulling strings, to make it move. Trying his hand with smaller tech, Theo would use a little fire chakra to soften and mold some metal into the size and shape of an ear piece before slowly fitting together the bits and pieces of a transmitter and receiver. Fitting in a small battery, he would mold another piece of metal over the top to close it up. Fitting it into his ear, he would tune in a nearby radio as he talked until he could hear his own voice over it. He had made a working radio earpiece. Having another idea, Theo would take a spring and latch and set it up so that he could ratchet the spring down quickly. When the spring was fully loaded, it could be caught by the latch which was tied to a button on the outside of the casing he had built around it which would release the spring.pulling the spring back, Theo would lift the top part of the casing to access the chamber, placing a small metal plate blocking the chamber from the spring. This would allow for different kinds of projectiles to have the same effect on them by the release of the spring. Placing a kunai into the chamber in front of the plate and closing the casing , Theo would point the contraption towards an old wooden post in the workshop, holding the mechanism with one hand, Theo would press the button to release the spring. Chuckling softly,he would watch the kunai shoot out of the metal casing with a thwack and fly across the room to lodge in the post. Theo would then think about how he could rig something like this up with an expansion storage scroll to make reloading and rapid fire easier, as well as how to strap it to people’s armor for easy use in combat .