The sun was starting to rise over the mostly sleeping village of Konohagakure no Kato, a few shop keepers stirring and the odd individual out and about trying to get an early start on their training, but otherwise it was still quiet enough to be able to hear the sound of birds chirping. The song of the birds would seem lovely to some, but when you were trying to sleep in on the only day that you had designated as a day off from training in weeks, they were like having a marching band outside of your window with the loudest symbol crash you had ever heard. Yuki attempted to pull the pillow over her ears to stop them from having to deal with this all out assault on her senses, but it was to no avail as she simply couldn’t tune out the song of the morning birds, and her eyes crept opened as she looked out towards her window. She wanted to yell at the world and tell it to shut up because she was trying to sleep, but words just wouldn’t come right now. She was too tired and sore from her endless days of training, and she instead just rolled over and tried to get out of bed.


Akai was there on her bed with her and he nudged her as she tried to get up, barking slightly as she began to stir. If there was one thing that would make her feel better, after all, it was barking. The thought was seeped in sarcasm and she knew that Akai could hear it as well, her canine companion stopping his barking fairly quickly and instead walking up and laying on her chest as he licked her face. Her eyes were snapped opened as she got up out of her bed and walked over towards her spear, which was mounted on her wall. She was going to destroy the sun, it was the only possible way. In a fit of rage she brought her arm back, wound up, and hurled the spear right through the window like a javelin. This would surely work as her strength would propel the spear directly into the sun where it would then stop being so bright and the birds would go back to sleep. The only issue with this plan, however, was that the window was closed, which caused an unexpected hitch in the fact that the resistance of the breaking glass slowed the spear so that it wouldn’t have the power to make it into the sun, and unfortunately the sound of the shattering window only managed to aggravate the birds outside, causing them to be louder and for Yuki to say fuck nature today, I’m done.


She had her regular morning shower and as she soaked in the warm relaxing water she could feel her tense muscles pulsing in agony from not having rested nearly enough over the past little while. The issue with it being your goal to eventually be stronger than your father was that when your father was the Hokage he was probably an extremely powerful individual and in order to train to surpass him, you were probably going to be sore like all the time. Her body felt as though she had been beaten by a master of the staff everywhere on her body, which to be perfectly fair was fairly accurate as she had been working on her spear techniques with one of the masters in the village with a staff. She would have to remember to get him back, even though the spear didn’t make it to the sun she was pretty sure it could make it to him, though he would likely just catch it and throw it back...Maybe he would be able to get it to the heights it needed to reach!


She hadn’t particularly been paying attention as she showered and she didn’t realise that the soap wasn’t where it should have been, and that when she went to reach for it, it seemed to have vanished. She Went to look for it, taking a step back and stepping directly on top of the slippery bar of soap, causing her to fall crashing to the floor of her shower. Every single iota of her being screamed bloody murder in a mixture of extreme pain and bat shit crazy amounts of anger. Why was this stupid soap on the floor and why was it trying to cause her to break her neck? It had to know she was sore, so why the hell would it want to make her worse? She decided that the answers to these questions likely weren’t going to be answered by the rebellious bar of soap and instead she sent it out the window to find her spear. It was going to be one of those days.


On her way out to the kitchen she managed to avoid causing herself any further injury, but she certainly wasn’t feeling in the greatest shape of her life, Akai clearly sensing this as he came over to comfort her. She had tried not to bother him with the insane amounts of pain she was in right now, but dogs had a fascinating way of knowing when humans were in pain, and the Inuzuka ninken were far more in tune with their  partners. Yuki went to reach down to give him a pat on the head, but couldn’t bend down at the moment and decided instead she would wait until she was sitting. She made herself some toast, which was only slightly burnt, as well as some eggs, also only slightly burnt, and a cup of green tea. The green tea would have been fantastic, except for the fact that for some reason it had an odd flavor to it. Had she managed to burn tea? Was that even possible? She sat down and took another sip of the unfortunately odd tasting tea and just sighed. What a great way to start her day off of training. At least it probably couldn’t get any worse...

1027

Mornings were not an okay thing. Were Temaki to become Hokage at any point in time her first decree would likely be to make it a crime to wake up before ten o’clock in the morning. Yes, that was the perfect thing to do: this decree would be for all village members, down to the very animals that roamed the streets and the annoying birds currently causing her sister Yuki to throw her spear - probably again - through her bedroom window. Oh yes, this would totally be a thing! However, for now though it wasn’t, and so while grumbling to herself she turned over in bed and shoved her pillow over top of her head.

Her alarm, which had been set for somewhere between eleven o’clock and noon hadn’t yet gone off so she assumed it was safe to sleep in. Her dream had been a good one and she wanted to get back to it. Just as sleep was beginning to claim her though she heard a crash coming from the other side of her wall: her sister slipping in the shower. With a sigh and a groan Temaki turned over again with some more grumbling beneath her breath. It sounded like her sister was alright - she could still hear movement and hadn’t received any kind of cry for help - so she wasn’t about to go barging into the sister and end up seeing her in all of her naked glory. Instead, she simply threw her pillow down to the edge of her bed where it suddenly hit the still sleeping Blast.

Blast, every bit as grumpy as Temaki this early in the morning, picked up her head and growled viciously at the pillow before biting it. Temaki lifted her head watching as Blast went savage on the pillow. ”Hnn… Blast. Stop. I kind of like that pillow… It’s the most comfortable one I got.” Blast paused in what she doing and looked at Temaki before yawning widely, standing up, and making her way up to Temaki where she began to lick her face in her usual way of saying good morning. Temaki groaned and lightly pushed Blast off who wouldn’t be stopped so easily and just kept coming back for more licks. ”Okay, okay! I’m up… Why don’t you go pester Akai while I get dressed eh? I’m pretty sure my sister’s up… I heard her break a window and what sounded like falling in the tub.” Blast barked happily and then darted off out of the bedroom to go find Yuki and Akai and act like the loving puppy she was toward both of them.

Meanwhile, Temaki got up and off of the bed, ignoring the fact that the fitted sheet was halfway off of her bed and the blankets and sheets in what looked like some kind of pretzel of a knot. She scratched at her head for a moment with her right hand and then after grabbing her towel off of the desk chair where she had flung it the other day she wandered into the shower to get cleaned up. She worked quick despite still feeling tired and groggy; her hair was washed and then conditioner left to soak in it while she washed her body up. Both body and hair were then rinsed thoroughly before she - carefully so that she didn’t end up like her sister - stepped out of the tub and dried off and got dressed.

Once back in her room she deposited the damp towel over her desk chair again and focused her attention on her bed. ”I need to learn how to not sleep like a wild animal.” she muttered as she went over and threw the pretzel knot of blankets and sheets onto the ground and instead focused on straightening up her fitted sheet which was half off of her mattress. Once that was done she looked back to her blankets and sheets and pulled them free from each other one at a time - with quite a bit of struggling between them. Once they were all free she did her best to put them on her bed in a somewhat decent fashion; sheets first and then the blankets.

With her room straightened up - kind of at least - she wandered out into the kitchen to find her sister eating toast and eggs and looking a bit sore. ”Mm… toast seems like a good choice this morning. Toast… and some leftover steak.” Temaki wandered over to the fridge, digging around until she found the leftover steak she had been looking for from the night before. She cut off a large chunk and then popped it into the microwave before starting her toast. Just as the beeping started she pressed the open button to silence it and pulled the plate out. Her toast was then buttered and added to the plate before she wandered over to the table and sat down too. Before she started to eat however she paused and looked at her sister. In a very good impression of Da’ she stared at Yuki and spoke, ”You need to stop trying to kill yourself, Yuki. You break yourself during training you’ll never be as strong as Da’ is.” And with her fatherly impersonation done she picked her steak up with her hands and tore a large chunk off of it with her mouth which she chewed with haste as her stomach began to grumble and growl.

Wordcount: 931

The headache and bodyache and just kind of everything in general ache was real. She was hurting all over, but at least she knew that she wasn’t the only one who absolutely hated mornings, and when she smelled Temaki approaching she chuckled. ”Mm… toast seems like a good choice this morning. Toast… and some leftover steak.” Yuki’s eyes rolled as she mentioned toast. Steak would have been a good idea, but with the luck she had been having so far this morning that probably would have been burned too. She looked up at her sister, who was rummaging through the fridge and spoke briefly as she was preparing to make her breakfast. “The toaster seems to be broken. It burnt my toast...and my eggs...and even my tea. I think the everything is broken, maybe we should get them fixed...Also I need a new window.” She watched her sister walk over towards the table, her food looking much less burnt. It seemed that the toaster had fixed itself, which was good news as Yuki was considering sending it the way of her spear and the soap…


”You need to stop trying to kill yourself, Yuki. You break yourself during training you’ll never be as strong as Da’ is.” Her impression of Kenta made Yuki chuckle, the smile on her face being her first of the morning as she took another bite of her burnt toast. She remembered that she was sitting down, which she wasn’t quite sure how she had forgotten as even that hurt her muscles, the wood of the chair pressing against several of them being quite uncomfortable, and then reached down to pat Akai, who nudged her hand with his head as she scratched him between the ears. She knew that she needed to take a break and relax, but the impression of  Kenta couldn’t help but get her thinking of the fact that she still wasn’t even close to being in the same league as her father in terms of power. Her training regime wasn’t nearly tough enough, and she would have to work far harder if she wished to achieve any measure of success. She wondered if training with a sensei would help, as it seemed to be doing something for Hiroyuki since he had started training with that attractive Hyuga man.


She thought of all the days that she had spent in the courtyard with Dad and Da’ training with her spear, Kenta teaching her proper form and stances while Michi taught her how to wield the spear in a way that would not only be effective, but would also keep her from harming herself. He had given her several spears to train with, which was good because she had a bad habit of throwing them at interesting points of time, and had lost one or two of them in such a fashion. She was told that it was fine, as it was easy enough to get more spears fashioned and that they could be sealed away for her to retrieve easily enough as well, but she still hated not being good at something, and that was why she spent countless hours working towards perfecting the art of the spear. She had learned many different forms and attacks and spins that were useful for both a staff and a spear, and she had learned to channel her elemental chakra down her blade as well, a lot of it while Kenta was away, which made her a little sad considering she would have liked him to be there to see her learn them.


She sighed softly as she looked back down at her tea and her toast. “I’m not trying to kill myself, everything else seems to be trying to kill me...Also the sun needs to go die in a hole, but that’s an entirely different issue...There’s nothing worse than being woken up too early on your planned day off of training, just because the stupid sun couldn’t keep the lighting down for a few extra hours...and don’t get me started on the stupid birds, or the evil soap that was trying to break my neck!” She was fuming as she thought of all of the horrible things that had happened to her already this morning. It felt like one of the longest mornings she had ever experienced, but when she looked towards the clock she realised that it had only been about a half an hour since she had woken up. What the hell was wrong with time this morning? She realised that she was simply irrationally angry, and that it wasn’t really the clock’s fault, or the soap, or the birds or even the sun, though she still believed that it could at least try to be less bright when people were trying to sleep. She was missing her father, like she had while he was gone for so long. It hadn’t been very long at all since he had left for Iwagakure, but it felt like forever to her.


“Hey Temaki...When do you think Dad is going to be home? I want to...ask him a few things…” She was feeling a little bit down, which honestly was quite unlike her. Maybe it was just because she was having such a shitty morning, and maybe it was because she was in some ridiculously ungodly amount of the most severe pain she had ever experienced, but she couldn’t help but feel like it was something else. “I mean, I want to fight him and show him I can beat him now, but it’s hard to do that when he’s not in the village. I want to show him how much stronger I’ve gotten, how much stronger we’ve gotten.” She motioned towards Akai and it would be obvious to her sister that she was also talking about her and Blast and Hiroyuki as well. They were all doing so much, and she was really excited for them, but it just didn’t seem the same without their father around. Maybe she was just overthinking it...

2064

“I’m not trying to kill myself, everything else seems to be trying to kill me...Also the sun needs to go die in a hole, but that’s an entirely different issue...There’s nothing worse than being woken up too early on your planned day off of training, just because the stupid sun couldn’t keep the lighting down for a few extra hours...and don’t get me started on the stupid birds, or the evil soap that was trying to break my neck!” Temaki blinked; not so much shocked as just thrown off a little. Her sister really was having a bad day; or morning that is. God, if the pattern continued then she was going to end up having a bad day, too, and Temaki didn’t want to see Yuki going through that. The sun, birds, soap… yeah, definitely wasn’t a good way to start what was supposed to be a peaceful day, a break from training.

“Hey Temaki...When do you think Dad is going to be home? I want to...ask him a few things…” Ah, that helped explain things, too. Missing dad. They were all missing dad, even if they didn’t exactly verbalize it properly. This wasn’t like Yuki: bubbly and happy was how Temaki was used to seeing her. Oh sure, they all got a little grumpy in the morning, but there was more to it than that.

“I mean, I want to fight him and show him I can beat him now, but it’s hard to do that when he’s not in the village. I want to show him how much stronger I’ve gotten, how much stronger we’ve gotten.” Temaki grinned a bit, taking the time to tear off a chunk of steak, chew it really well, and then swallow it as she listened to her sister go on. While she was making it seem like the whole reason she was wondering when he would be home was because she wanted a chance to fight him and to prove how strong she had gotten Temaki couldn’t help but feel like she knew better: they missed him. He had been gone so long, years in fact, and then suddenly reappeared and got his hat back. Now he was gone again - though this time it was because of diplomatic reasons… it still didn’t make it easy.

”I miss dad… But, I hate to say it: I don’t think he’ll be back for another few weeks. With everything Auntie Amaya told me kept happening between Konohagakure and Iwagakure in the past… well he’s got a lot to get through. I think he’s aiming for peace, and that always seems to take more time to get then war does.” Or so she assumed. It always seemed like it was an easier thing to pick a fight rather than prevent one: especially when everyone had to come to an agreement on things to make peace a thing. ”I mean, if you’re really anxious about proving yourself to him, and you want to go show him right now what you can do… we could always go ourselves to Iwagakure. Show up and surprise him. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind…” There, the offer was out there and presented. Temaki had no problem with the idea of suddenly taking off to Iwagakure if that was what her sister needed or wanted. Whether it was because Yuki wanted to prove herself to their father, or because she missed him terribly (like Temaki thought she did, and like Temaki herself did), Temaki was more than willing to make the journey to go. She was sure that their father Michi, nor Aunt Amaya would stop them from doing so: if anything they could even play it off as a learning experience.

”So, what do you say? We sticking around here for the day, or are we taking a sudden road trip to Iwagakure?” She quieted down again, giving her sister a chance to decide while she continued on tearing chunks off of her steak and eating them with some serious gusto: her toast all but forgotten about for the moment. Meat was a priority with her breakfast - the rest could wait until she was done with it. Though, chances were she wouldn’t end up eating the toast at all because she’d fill up on her thick and juicy cut of steak. It wasn’t a loss in her eyes in the slightest.

Temaki played with the idea of going to Iwagakure in her head, ripping yet another chunk off of her steak. Unknown to her though Blast had already climbed her way onto the nearby chair and was making her way onto the table top. Temaki, who wasn’t paying all that much attention since she was still looking at her sister, went to lift the next piece of steak to her mouth only to find it was suddenly gone: she bit down on air. Blinking suddenly, and wondering if she dropped it, Temaki glanced down to find the steak gone and in its place Blast sitting on the table looking as innocently as possible up at Temaki with half a piece of steak hanging out the left side of her mouth. Instead of getting angry though like most people with dogs might have Temaki just burst out laughing at the comical sight in front of her. ”You could have asked silly butt, I would have shared. Didn’t have to snitch it like that…” She reached over, ruffling Blast’s orange and red fur as the dog made quick work on devouring the last bit of steak hanging out of her mouth: all before looking around for more. Temaki simply shook her head, ripped another piece off of the much larger on, and stuck it down in front of Blast - yup, she didn’t care that Blast was eating her foot, or on the table for that matter.

Wordcount: 1,014 | 1,945

”I miss dad… But, I hate to say it: I don’t think he’ll be back for another few weeks. With everything Auntie Amaya told me kept happening between Konohagakure and Iwagakure in the past… well he’s got a lot to get through. I think he’s aiming for peace, and that always seems to take more time to get then war does.” She had known this, of course, and it was probably one of the things that had been bothering her. She didn't like the idea that he was gone again, but she knew why he had left this time and it was for a pretty good reason. It seemed like it was much more difficult for villages to come to terms of peace as opposed to war, which was often pushed for too quickly and easily. Even though the triplets were fairly young, they had lived through conflict and had seen the effects of war on their village. Yuki sighed softly at the thought.

”I mean, if you’re really anxious about proving yourself to him, and you want to go show him right now what you can do… we could always go ourselves to Iwagakure. Show up and surprise him. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind…” Her sister's suggestion was an interesting one to say the least. Yuki got more excited at the thought of going out to surprise their dad by visiting him. She was sure that their auntie Amaya and of course their da' would allow the two of them to go, and the thought of being able to see dad again made her pretty happy. She considered it, but at the same time she knew that she had a lot of training she still wanted to do, and she really wanted to be able to impress her father. Sometimes it was difficult to do the right thing, but if that meant simply waiting for a couple more weeks for her father to return home so that she could show him what she had learned, and how hard she had worked, and of course, so she could jump into his arms and hold him close to her again, she would do that. It was tough on all of them having him leave again so soon after his disappearance, but she knew that he was coming back this time, and her family was here to keep her strong for the time being. ”So, what do you say? We sticking around here for the day, or are we taking a sudden road trip to Iwagakure?”

"Nah, I think dad would be really happy to see us, but I think he'll be happier when he gets home and we're here waiting for him with the rest of the family. I know that I'm having a rough time right now...but it'll get better. I'll get through it and when he gets back it'll be so much better." She looked down at Blast, chuckling as she had eaten Temaki's steak, reaching her hand down to Akai and giving him some of her breakfast as well, the small golden dog happily eating it up as it was presented to him. "Plus how excited do you think he will be when he gets home and we're here to show him all the awesome stuff we've learned since he was gone? I'm sure he will be really happy that Blast is all cleared for training as well, and that we've gotten a lot of work with our ninken." She stood up and rinsed her plate, running the water over it and washing it up quickly so that she wouldn't leave a mess for someone else to clean up.

"I don't plan on sticking around here all day though. I was going to take the day off, but I don't know if I really want too anymore. I've spent so much time training recently that I think it might be weird to take the day off. Maybe instead of going right to training though, I'll go for a little walk around the village. I think Akai would like that, too." She looked down at him again and ran her fingers through his soft gold fur, smiling as she felt him nibble on her finger. He was still fairly small and had sharp little needle teeth, which certainly weren't the nicest feeling thing, but she really didn't mind. He was still young, and so was she, they would mature together.

"How about you two? Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the day? Do you want to join us on our walk? I'm sure it'll be a good one, it's pretty nice outside, and the sun is certainly obnoxiously bright today..." She thought back to the shattered window in her room and her spear, which was somewhere out in the yard. She should probably retrieve that at some point, hopefully it would still be there when she left the house and went to find it. This one was her favourite, and although her da' had given her a scroll full of them she had done a pretty good job of not losing or breaking this one. It was exciting because she had used her own money to pay for it, and she certainly didn't want to lose it because of a silly thing like trying to kill the sun...which still deserved to die a slow and painful death at the tip of her spear. She planned her revenge against the sun silently in her head, waiting for her sister's answer before grabbing Akai and making her way out the door towards where her spear should ideally be. She found it lodged pretty deep into the ground, the throw having had quite a bit of force behind it, and she pulled it out, cleaned the dirt off of the tip and shaft, and latched it to her back. Assuming that Temaki and Blast were coming with them, she would make her way into the village where she would stop at her favorite dumpling shop before going on a little adventure...

{Exit Thread}
3111
Endurance E1-D3 1850
Reaction Time D1-D3 850
Speed E-E2 225
Strength E-E1 75
3000/3111 words