A whole day he had been out of commission or at least out of the fighting. One they realized Dameon was a really good sensor ninja they took advantage of it he had been scouting all day and relaying enemy movements. Though he assumed it was because they decided he needed a sort of rest day to recoup after all the nonstop fighting he had been doing. Though he didn’t see it as necessary, sure there was the risk of being burnt out and killed because of it but how many lives had been lost because he hadn’t been fighting? That was the question that was haunting his mind at this point. He would rather fight, protect, and die to save someone than sit back and watch someone get slaughtered. He knew the enemy was only getting stronger and stronger with each passing day and eventually because of his new title he would be sent to fight in a battle that other shinobi would have prayed to stay away from. At the moment though he needed to train, after seeing what the enemy could do and what even some of his allies could do he felt underpowered and in desperate need of improvement. He had sent word to Keiko asking if she had wanted to train, he hadn’t yet received a reply so he was there to possibly be training by himself. His usual training spot had been compromised in the fighting since it was outside the walls of the village.

He had found another place though a while ago within the walls. It was his home, or rather part of it. He only used a room in it but the rest of the building was a huge abandoned warehouse. It had once been used to store lumber and steel when the village was being created. Now it was just a huge training ground set on concrete. It was relatively dark to, the only light coming in through the holes in the ceiling. Everything he needed to train was there though; an array of training weapons, dummies, and the warehouse itself was one big indoor arena. The warehouse itself is huge but the reason why it is so difficult to find is that it’s on the other side of the large mountain and through the thick dense forest of trees that were hidden by the mist. This was his sort of, home away from home. He only lived in the market district during war time but this place was his training grounds of solitude that he would use to get stronger in secret. The letter he had sent to Keiko revealed the location of the warehouse, of course now he was hoping the enemy hadn’t gotten a hold of the letter. Along the walls of the warehouse were various workout machines and contraptions he had handmade, one of which was a salmon ladder that went all the way up to the ceiling of the warehouse. Dameon looked at it as he placed his hands on the bar.

507/1500 wc

With his hands on the bars now he let himself hang using his upper body to hold him in place. Rocking lightly he thrust himself upward holding onto the bar and making it to the next level of the salmon ladder. He kept repeating the process feeling the muscles in his upper body and arms getting a complete workout as he ascended toward the top of the ladder that reached nearly to the ceiling. As he reached the top he could hear the door opposite of him open and close no doubt Keiko a little later than he had anticipated. It was odd to him, less than a week ago he hadn’t even known Keiko and now he would go as far as to call them friends. It had started with just training and now since the war broke out they have had plenty of battles together where their relationship and bond had tightened. He knew she would have his back in the fighting and he would undoubtedly have hers. A week and they had both become Jounin level from the fighting and the mizukage realizing their worth. He himself had become a seven swordsman which he had not expected to acquire at such a young age, if ever. It made him feel proud as he recalled the ceremony and remembered when the Mizukage herself had called him a prodigy, he just hoped he could live up to her expectations and prove to be an asset to the village.

As he hit the top of the ladder he dropped down to the ground bringing the bar down with him and placing it back on the lowest level for the next time he would use it. It had been a couple days since he had seen her and he actually felt a smile appear on his face as he looked at her even in the dim lighting. Her face was different if only slightly, it was stronger than he remembered shaped from the battles she had been in. He imagined his was the same way, than again he had never been such an emotional person, and even didn’t know what his face was like beforehand. He felt different though, he was used to people now unlike before. He had led other shinobi in battles and was beginning to be recognized whereas before he had been ignored by those people. He couldn’t let himself get complacent though and that’s why he trained between missions to make sure he progressed and became a force stronger than before. He didn’t just want to make a statement; he wanted to live up the reputation that was beginning to form around him. Heroes are created in war and those heroes give the soldiers motivation to fight, and that’s why the Seven Swordsman had been resurrected. That was a hell of a responsibility to live up to, to know that any mission you arrived in that people would be proud, motivated, and thankful for having such a powerful shinobi to lead them to victory. He couldn’t let the image that was preceding him be anything less than expected.

Dameon walked over to Keiko In his usual attire his jacket open like he usually wore it in casual circumstances and training. His new sword strapped to his back with the handle coming up over his right shoulder. He had given his other katana away to Rinao, another shinobi he had spent countless hours fighting with. He could personally train Rinao if he wanted to and he even considered doing just that, but right at the moment he needed to train with someone he considered an equal skill level to his own if not an opposite to him in fighting styles. The enemy was using a lot of ranged attacks and he needed to get better at fighting ranged enemies, and he couldn’t think of anyone better at range than Keiko, at least that he knew well enough to train with. He continued showing his smile to her as he stopped moving forward toward her roughly a couple meters away.

“Hey there, I see you got my letter, and yeah, you know me and my training places. I like secrecy.”

1,208/1,500

“Well you came regardless so apparently you like me enough to not care what others think,” he teased back at her. He felt a little tempted to take out the sword and show her but he also felt like it would be too soon to do something like that, he would also rather have her curiosity peaked. He ran his hand over the back of his neck as he scratched it thinking about how exactly they could train. If she was anywhere on the same wavelength as him than she was thinking that it would be very risky to have a full blown conflict out of risk of injury, but then again she was also a medical ninja. Perhaps if they did things exactly like they did last time than that would reduce the chance of being injured severely. He walked slowly further and further away from him as he thought with his hand on his chin. He decided to strap his jacket up so his chest was no longer visible. It was silly but he knew she was an ice user and things would get colder than normal if she had progressed just as much as he had in the small time frame.

Penpen his pet penguin had been hiding out at the warehouse. Dameon had insisted on it not wanting to see the little guy get hurt. He hobbled out of the room Dameon had set up for him in an ice freezer and with a small towel wrapped around his neck, obviously tired he raised his head and yawned letting out a little squeak as he stopped realizing Dameon wasn’t the only one there. Finding it interesting in what was going to happen he climbed on top of the large ice cooler and sat down in the foldable chair he had found and took out the copy of today’s paper and began to read it. Dameon himself remembered the last time Keiko had met Penepen, she had gone into a completely different state of mind than he normally saw her as. He actually kind of chuckled a bit as he remembered himself bleeding in front of her but being ignored in favor of the penguin. His mind was made up now; there really wasn’t anything he could say against having at least a small spar. He needed a realistic scenario to close in on a ranged user.

“I wasn’t planning on showing off my sword too much. I was hoping we could spar like before, first person to get hit loses. I personally need to get better at fighting long range opponents and to be fair you are the most skilled ranged shinobi I know. Besides if you beat me like last time that bad you can always heal me again,” he stated and teased her a little bit at the end. He recalled the last fight where things had gotten more interesting when they were in an outdoor environment with a forest so close by, it had limited his movement enough to make it more difficult to catch her, especially since she was such a mobile ice user. He stepped back a good twenty or so meters and turned back to face her. He had his mind made up for the most part on doing this as he brushed the hair away from his eye slightly. He wouldn’t make the first move though, if she was deciding not to spar than he would feel bad trying to engage on someone in a training scenario if they weren’t expecting to fight after all. He simply looked at her with the same stare he had done last time awaiting her response.

1,500/1,500 Raiton Bunshin [complete]
321 wc left

“That may be true but would you want to risk being spotted by enemy forces and have them engage us?” Dameon asked rhetorically already knowing the answer. As Keiko performed her technique Dameon couldn’t help but consistently wonder about it, every time he had seen her or sparred with her or even in battle with her she had used it. He wondered if she had become so reliant on it that she wouldn’t know how to go without it. He wouldn’t make a big deal out of it but kept it in mind that he would need to talk to her about it later to make sure this wasn’t the case. As a friend he cared about her and didn’t want to have anyone exploit any potential weaknesses of hers. Dameon already knew that close range was her relative weakness and based off their last encounter she knew it as well and if anything the building they were in would be better suited to train the both of them. She couldn’t get too far out of range and yet Dameon would still be forced to close large gaps.  He watched Keiko get further away from him and he knew they were about to begin.

“So, who is going to start this time? Actually since you started last time I will do the honors,” Dameon stated loud enough that his voice echoed off the walls of the warehouse. He had told her earlier that he wouldn’t show off his sword and he indeed didn’t intend to show it off per say, but he did intend to use it. He drew the midnight child’s blade from its sheathe and held the old dull blade in front of him horizontally showing Keiko what it actually looked like. He then channeled his chakra into it and the blade turned blue as the color of chakra and extended out to the full length of one and a half meters. The blue hue lit the room faintly and reflected off of Dameon’s skin and close. It looked like it was a solid blade made of condensed chakra in a way it was. The weightlessness of the blade making it extremely dangerous. He held his right arm out away from his body as he walked ever so slowly toward Keiko keeping an eye on her. He wouldn’t go full speed yet just to see how much stronger she had become. His full speed would be at Jounin level though he knew he could go faster.

“Are you ready?” He asked loudly but knowing what her answer would be he drew a kunai out with his left hand and tossed it at Keiko aiming for her center mass leaving her to move more to dodge it. As he tossed it he raced forward trying to close the distance at Jounin ranked speed and keeping his eyes trained on her as he ran with his sword in front of him now lighting up his face in the dimly lit warehouse.

================================
285/300 chakra

-15 chakra for sword.

822 wc banked.