Oberon awoke as the faint glow of the sun pierced his window through the thin layer of the rain clouds that covered the village. "What a beautiful day" he said to himself as be stretched out his body popping his back in the process, having grown up most of his life in the village a dreary day such as this was a more favorable day. It did not take him long before he was up and ready to start his day off, there was only one thing on his mind today and that was getting some training done. He grabbed his pack from his chair throwing it over his shoulder, before putting on his headband and then grabbing his Dao quickly tying it to his belt and heading out the door. The streets were empty and it was almost silent in village save for the footsteps of the young shinobi and the light raindrops as they hit the ground. It seemed that he woke before the rest of the village, and as he arrived at his destination it seemed he was the only one around. "Perfect" he said aloud to himself he was hoping that there wouldn't want too many people at the training grounds as he hated crowds, the fact that it was empty was even better, no one around to get in his way. He walked over to the targets taking a few steps back to where he was about 6m away from the targets.

Sitting his pack down next to him, he began stretching each and every muscle before he began his actual training. The slight drizzle would cause a good obstacle for his target practice, bending down to his pack he grab a few Shuriken. "This will be a good start" he said to himself as he shifted the Shuriken to his right hand and just holding one in his left. He lined himself up and took in a deep breath as he readied himself to throw, as he released the Shuriken from his hand he watched it closely to see how its trajectory would react to the slight drizzle of the rain. The Shuriken sailed through the air almost perfectly, but fell short of its mark just barely hitting the bottom of the target. "Damn it" he cursed himself, he was hoping his aim would of been better than that. However he did not let that detour him, quickly passing another Shuriken to his left hand and readying himself for his second shot. This time the Shuriken sailed through the air hitting off to the right side of the target, missing the bulls-eye by about seven centimeters. "Almost" he said as he grabbed another Shuriken from his right hand and prepared himself yet again.

---

461

The light drizzle pattered down on the ground, falling around Nozomi as she watched the few people who came out spar. She had always enjoyed the rain, the comfortable familiarity of it as it rolled down her face. It was something everyone in Kirigakure had experienced. A light drizzle like this wasn't uncommon, and Nozomi had spent so much time outside Kiri that it was a welcome thing to have once again. Kumogakure had much less rain, although there were areas where thunder storms were almost constant. Still, Nozomi had to admit, it was the light drizzle that meant the most.

She'd been observing the few for a while, not noting anything of any interest. She could tell with some sort of obvious deductions that most of the people around here were about genin level. The gear they carried and their abilities seemed to suggest that much. Nothing was out of the ordinary until she spotted a newcomer. Judging by his gear, he seemed to be someone of higher ability. The thing she knew though was that you couldn't judge the skill of a fighter by the merit of their weapons. His skills weren't all that impressive, as he seemed to be unable to hit the target in the center. She smiled to herself, as she realized that this was just a genin who had more than just the standard weaponry.

That's when she took note of his sword. Like her, he appeared to be a Bukijutsu practitioner, with at least some skill in kenjutsu. She only carried a few weapons on her at the moment, one of her better tanto's, and Kaekio's old blades, Nue and Raiju. She missed her girlfriend, and wanted to have something close to her that reminded her of the girl. Other than that, she carried with her only her Senbon, thinking it best to be minimalistic. Taking out 3 senbon, Nozomi launched them at the target before the boy could throw his shuriken, nailing all 3 into the center of the target. It hadn't taken much for her to do so, even from a sitting position. This was something that became easy to do even around the Chuunin level, and Nozomi happened to be one of the most skilled Kirigakuran ninja, behind only one or two individuals.

Of course, most wouldn't know her skill by her face alone, as her abilities since becoming a Jounin had been honed as a Hunter-nin, hidden behind her mask. She wasn't completely unknown though, having been a regular instructor around the Training Grounds for years, having taken up the mantle of Sensei since becoming a Chuunin when she was 16. It had been a while since she'd trained anyone, but she didn't particularly mind throwing some pointers out, and this guy seemed like he was more than willing to learn, as one didn't just have advanced weaponry without any interest in acquiring the skills to properly utilize them.

If her action succeeded in catching his attention, Oberon would notice a young, long haired, blonde girl sitting cross legged behind him about 10 meters away. Her attire was quite simple, a plain grey jumpsuit with her flak jacket over top, grey open toed sandals on her feet, and the Kiri headband around her neck. In her hand was another senbon, which she twirled around casually. Assuming he'd notice her, she'd throw a causal smile at him and nod her head in his direction. "Care to show me some more of your skills? I might be able to teach you a thing or two if you'd like." she offered.

WC: 600

Just as Oberon was about to release his Shuriken did he notice three senbons flying through the air hitting the bulls-eye perfectly. "What the hell?" he said under his breath as he looked around to see where they had originated from. Behind him sat a girl cross legged, with long blonde hair, she looked around his age however judging by the senbons she had thrown she was more skilled than Oberon by a lot. 'She did that sitting down' he thought to himself as he cursed himself under his breath considering he was much closer to the target than the girl was. Oberon notice that the girl had on a Kiri headband around her neck, 'well at least she is a friendly' he thought to himself. Considering the girls skill with the senbon Oberon assumed she was probably a special Jonin or at least a Chuunin. Although it was also possible that she was a Genin like himself, considering the main reason he had no aim was due to him having spent most of his life training in the art of the sword dealing with close combat. Ranged attacks were not part of his training growing up like most of the Kiri ninja, instead his father insisted on solely training in close combat as ranged attacks were a cowards tactic. Since Oberon's time in the academy he has learned that his father was wrong and he would need to add ranged attacks to his repertory if he was going to survive in this world.

Whether this girl was of a higher rank than him or not did not matter to Oberon the mere fact that the girl possessed the very skill he needed to improve was more than enough to make him want to learn from her, and when she said she might be able to teach him a thing or two he almost jumped up off the ground in excitement. However he was able to maintain his composer and thought carefully about his words before he responded. "Well I don't know how much of this embarrassment you have been watching, but if you have been watching long you would see that I don't have much in the way of skills when it comes to ranged attacks." Oberon paused briefly debating on whether he should tell the girl about his father's dislike of ranged weaponry before deciding it would not hurt if she knew although she probably did not care. "I did not get much practice with them growing up, my father trained me personally in the way of the blade and said that ranged fighting was for cowards. Although he did teach me how to defend against them, it was not until I was in the academy that I learned the true importance of ranged weaponry." Oberon stopped talking as he began getting the feeling he was just rambling by this point, he extended his hand out to the girl before he added. "My name is Oberon it is a pleasure to meet you, and i would be honored to have you show me a thing or two." he said with a smile on his face.

---

993

Nozomi listened to the boy as he spoke, impressed that he seemed to be taking kindly to the fact that she had skills greater than his. Often enough it was true that people got mad when someone made light of their skills and completely outclassed them, especially when they were around the same age, but this boy seemed to be happy with Nozomi offering to teach him a little bit. "So doing ranged attacks is your weak point then, huh? But blocking them you're fine with. Well, at least you have some level of talent and a willingness to learn. It's better than starting with nothing."

Standing up, Nozomi stretched and tried to think on the best way to teach him. She really didn't know the guy, so she didn't know what style would be the best to teach him with, and in her experience, everyone learned differently. Some needed a hands on approach to do things, and would only really be able to learn the best by having practice with that skill. Others needed a more text book example and would figure it out from there, taking the mathematical and theoretical approach, doing calculations in their minds, things Nozomi really didn't understand. Still, others needed to see it done to them in order to get it, by replicating what they saw, and figuring out how an opponent was able to do something. Nozomi was a mixture of the practice and fighting, but she was able to explain the textbook examples well enough.

Still, she didn't know exactly how to deal with it, so her first point was to ask him. "Well, Oberon, looks like today's your lucky day. My name is Nozomi Himitsu, part time elite Jounin, full time teacher! First off, I'll need to know, how do you learn the best? I can assume it's probably not a mental thing when it comes to reading, because to be honest, there aren't many who can apply physics based on purely reading and understanding them. So, do you need to learn by doing, or by seeing? Beyond that,
I'd like to know how well your other skills are already developed, so I'll need to see a display of them as well."

As she awaited his response, she took a moment to give him a quick look closer up. He was actually quite a deal taller than she was, which wasn't hard to do, but he was bordering on the taller side of most people. Still, looks weren't everything of course, as she herself could attest to. Even still, with a natural height advantage, with the right training, his physical prowess could easily surpass that of any of his peers. That said, she knew he had a while to go before he was on her own level. But if she could help, she would. It would provide her a challenge later on down the line, and she always liked fighting new people.

WC: 493
TWC: 1093

As the girl stood Oberon was shocked to find that she looked to be almost a foot shorter than himself, although clearly size was not what was important here it was skill and this girl possessed skills that he did not so he would follow her instruction and listen to any criticism the girl had. 'She's a Jounin' he thought to himself as he listened to what the girl said introducing herself as Nozomi, 'today must be my lucky day' he thought as he began to consider the girls skill. She was around his age and yet she was already a Jounin, that in itself was an astounding but adding in the fact that she was willing to teach him was what made it his lucky day. He would have to take e tra care to listen to all that she was willing to offer considering she was an experienced teacher, and the fact she already proved her own aim he would be foolish not to adhere to her.

"Well to be honest with you I guess you could say I am a little bit of both, I can learn by doing it myself however if you could not tell it takes a while." he said pointing at his two shuriken that he had thrown at the target which ended up no where near the target. "I learn much easier by watching someone doing it and then myself repeating the process in which I just witnessed until I get it right." Oberon paused for a second taking in a deep breath before continuing, "As far as my other skills I guess it would be my blade as that is what I have spent most of my life training with my father." With that said Oberon walked over a few feet giving himself some space to make sure that he did not accidentally hit the girl or anyone else that was there training before drawing his Dao out of the sheath. He took in a deep breath and exhaling as he got himself into stance and began his basic ability with the blade. He started with simple strokes moving through his set that he had learned from his father, the blade was just an extension of himself, his motions smooth and fluid. He continued the different strikes he began picking up speed striking at the air with more veracity with each strike, as he did he began thinking about his first time training with a blade with his father, his father was not an easy teacher he expected excellence and perfect from his son and anything less than perfection was quickly dealt with by a quick and painful slap from his father's teaching whip. Not to say his father was a mean man or that Oberon resented him in any way, in truth he loved his father and he had the utmost respect for his father. If it were not for his father's training he would not be here today, Oberon snapped himself back to reality as he finished his display with his blade before taking in another deep breath and putting his blade back into it sheath and looking over to the girl. He knew his form could probably use some improvement so he was curious as to what the girl would say about it, as he walked back over towards her, he reached his hands behind his head and interlacing his fingers. "I am not that great but I am interested to know what you thought, before we move on"

---

1587

Watching his movements carefully, she had to admit. His form was rather decent. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but for the level he was at, it didn't need to be. He certainly wasn't above the level of a Genin, but he was still well versed in bukijutsu. She smiled and continued to watch his form. How was it her tutor had trained her? She had also been a primarily close quarters combatant when she was still a genin, and even still was one. But she had quickly learned the strengths of mid range fighting as well, learning how to use and deal with long range attacks. The art of learning how to deal with them was actually a large help when it came to learning how to use them.

"My first thoughts? Your technical skill is superb. You need a little bit of work, but as far as the moves themselves, you got it down with the sword. Your biggest asset there is honestly going to be training your body to deal more precise hits at faster speeds without sacrificing the strength of your attacks, so that's going to come with practice as a shinobi. I can only really teach you how to do that by pushing you to your limits in combat, but that's not training that only I'm capable of. Fighting people who are stronger than you is going to be your key in advancing your body's abilities." she replied, pulling out a senbon and flipping it around for a moment. "As far as actually learning how to throw ranged weapons? That'll actually come more once you work on your perception a bit. Broadening your mind, the better you can perceive your surroundings, the more naturally the moment feels. When I'm throwing, I don't think about what I'm trying to hit. My senbon are already there in my mind, and I release when it's the point that they'll be able to reach their destination. That's the reason I can hit moving targets without any issue, and why I can easily from a sitting position hit a target. It doesn't matter if the target is moving or not, it doesn't matter how big or small."

Picking up a rock, Nozomi tossed it in the air, and launched the senbon at it while it began its downward descent. The senbon pierced it, but Nozomi hadn't even had her eye on the rock when throwing it, rather watching the rock's path and aiming where it would be. "I know that doesn't necessarily help, because right now you don't really have the skills to do that, your mind hasn't learned. Trial by experience is the best thing. That target... it'll never move. You can practice all day at it, and learn how to hit the center of it, and still be utter garbage when it comes to actual ranged combat. When I was a genin, I had an instructor who taught me how to widen my range of perception by throwing Kunai at me with increasing speeds, letting me get used to the speeds they came to me at, and when I got used to the speed increase and could dodge by judging the path, he'd increase it even further. Eventually, my perceptive capabilities were heightened, and my ability to react in time increased as well. And learning that way, learning to judge the path he was throwing before they'd left his fingers, helped because then when I threw my own, I could tell where it would end up."

She threw out a chakra string to one of the Kunai stuck on the target and pulled it towards her, leaving it connected so that she could retrieve it without any effort. "I'm gunna do the same thing to you. I want you to dodge it. I've seen about the speed you can go, so I'm just going to start out slow and let you get used to it. Once you seem comfortable, I'll pick up speed. We rinse and repeat the process til you can't keep up, cause I know there's going to be a point where that happens. Do try your best, I won't stop it from hitting you unless it's a vital spot. You won't die, but it won't be pleasant."

Once he was ready, she'd begin the training, starting out with speeds that anyone could dodge with some small effort. She'd keep that speed for a little bit, and then do as she had said. She wouldn't stop the throwing until he was either out of breath completely, had gotten hit, or had seemed to grow comfortable enough to dodge kunai at least up to where she'd expect seasoned genin to be able to. Her chakra string would allow her to quickly retract the shuriken once it had moved past him, and so she didn't need to move. Once he'd dodged, the blade would come towards him again with little time to actually recover his footing properly.

WC: 831
TWC: 1924

Born-ill: 1/8

-5 Puppet Strings
Chakra: 285/290

The girl was honest with him about his skill with the blade, and she understood that he would improve over time. She would be a lot different to train under than his father that much Oberon was certain of. Nozomi amazed him yet again with a brief display of her skill, when she was able to hit the rock she had thrown without even looking at it. With her as my teacher I will be able to do that one day, Oberon thought to himself as he watched the rock hit the ground with the senbon she had thrown sticking out of it. The girl then grabbed one of his shuriken from the target with a chakra string and explained what they were going to do, dodging seemed easy enough he thought as he got himself into position and nodded to the girl that he was ready. The girls first throw was easy enough to side step and he was about to return to his starting position when he noticed that the shuriken was still attached to the chakra string and looked behind him just in time to be able to see the shuriken returning towards him, causing him to duck under it. The girl caught the shuriken and released it again, this time a little faster than the first, but still easy enough for Oberon to dodge and now that he knew the shuriken would be returning he was prepared to dodge it as well. Each time the girl caught the shuriken and threw it at him, it came a little faster than before until it got to the point that it was moving so fast that he was just barely able to dodge it. The girl must of noticed that because it seemed to Oberon that the increase had stopped and the shuriken was now coming at the same speed with him just barely able to move before getting hit. They continued this for a good couple of minutes and Oberon could feel the sweat starting to form, this brought a smile to his face it had been a long time since he had trained with another person and he was glad it was this girl. As the girl continued to throw the shuriken and then bring it back to her like a yo-yo, Oberon found it started to become easier and easier to dodge the girls latest assault. Nozomi never threw the shuriken in the same location on him, but he began to notice a pattern to it. Or at least he thought he did, as soon as he thought he was getting the hang of dodging the shuriken Nozomi changed the game. She threw the shuriken even faster and in at a different spot, Oberon dodged it but it still managed to nip him in the shoulder not enough to actually hurt him but it did draw a little blood and cause Oberon to curse under his breath. He readied himself for the next attack however it did not come, he looked to Nozomi and nodded that he was ok to continue causing her to release the shuriken again. This time it was at the same speed as the one that nicked him, but he was able to dodge it and he heard the sound of the shuriken as it past just inches from his head. This continued for another couple of minutes, he did not get hit again however he did realize he was running out of breath he was not sure how much longer he would be able to keep up with the shuriken at this rate, but he was not going to give up and kept pushing himself with each throw of the shuriken that Nozomi threw at him.

---

2214

Her throws persisted for a while, until eventually a small cut had formed near his shoulder. She continued on at his prodding, content with that as a response. It hadn't been a nasty cut, and he was taking well to the training, but she was only able to do so much with the training to help him, and she hoped he'd been actually learning something throughout the entirety of their training. She continued on, but was starting to see him slow down some as his breath was starting to falter slightly. His body would be wearing out soon, and she wasn't quite done with it, so upon the Kunai returning to her hand, she stopped with clap.

"Nice, good! I can already tell you're starting to improve a bit. The gradual increase is one of those things that people tend to underestimate. Like, if something's only marginally faster than you, you can still push yourself to catch up. People's upper limits are actually higher than most would think, we actually tend to go through life with our senses lowered slightly. Like, take your average Genin, for instance. Most of them fight like Academy students, until they realllly need to push themselves. Except for in extreme circumstances, our bodies don't want to output a lot of energy and we conserve our stamina by doing our functions lower than we need to. That's why you'll see when pushed, a Genin can take out a seasoned Chuunin. The Chuunin, taking the threat level as nothing impressive, will often fight at a lower ability than he needs to. When the Genin pulls out his utmost reserves, catching the Chuunin off guard, he can even the playing field." Taking the Kunai and flipping it around, Nozomi underhand tossed it to Oberon, making it easy for him to catch.

"Now it's your turn. You've seen my movements, adjusted yourself accordingly to dodge mine. Now mirror them back to me. Use what you learned by watching me, and see if your body has caught on. Aim at me, center mass, and don't worry, I'll deflect. I won't be moving fast, but I will not be stationary. Watch me and throw. Don't think about it. Do it." With that, Nozomi started to jump from side to side, circling around Oberon at a pace most genin would be able to deal with. She held a single senbon in her hand, ready to deflect the incoming projectile, but should it be going anywhere other than center mass, she'd simply dodge it instead. She knew he had plenty kunai on him, so she would keep going until he was comfortably hitting where she'd be. In a way, she was teaching him without any training wheels on, at a higher difficulty so that things like hitting a still target would be nothing.

These were all skills he needed to hone with time, but for the moment, he'd have it down. It would still need practice even if he got it here, in order to keep it in his muscle memory, but as long as he was here, he'd retain the information he learned. If he kept up with practicing her method, either with a partner or with a clone or something, then he wouldn't forget it, but if he left here and never did it again, the training would be effective, but not perfect. It was up to him what he did with it afterwards, but hopefully her method would stick, and he'd continue training it, because some day, she could see Oberon being a truly gifted shinobi. But right now, he just needed to hit his target.

WC: 608
TWC: 2532

Born-ill: 2/8

When Nozomi called for him to stop Oberon bent over putting his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath as he listened to what Nozomi said before catching the kunai in his left hand, and he tried his best to hide the doubt he had in himself from Nozomi. He could not even hit the stationary target, and she wanted him to try and hit her. There was no question about her deflecting it should he actually be able to get it to her, the question on his mind was whether or not he would even come close to her for her to be require to block it. Oberon closed his eyes briefly taking a couple of slow deep breaths, both to slow his breathing and to clear his mind. He knew he was over thinking everything, so he took a second to compose himself before opening his eyes and watching Nozomi as she moved around him for a few seconds. As he watched her he slowly twirled the kunai in his hand and tried to look for a pattern, however he could not see one she seemed to be moving at random intervals in both directions around him. So if she did have a pattern then it was something that he just could not pick up on. Still he would give it his best and try not to over think it, as Nozomi suggested. He stopped twirling the kunai and grasped it firmly in his hand as he began to picture where he wanted the kunai to go in his mind, and then he released the kunai at the girl. To his dismay however the kunai did not reach the destination he had intended and instead struck the ground to the girls right. He had tried to determine where she was going, he over estimated her movement and while she did move in that direction she did not move as far as he thought she would.

Oberon briefly cursed himself under his breath, but he did not want the girl to see his frustration. He grabbed another kunai for the pouch on his belt behind his back, and readied himself for another throw. He cleared his mind and pictured the kunai reaching the girl, as he watched her move all around him and then released the kunai. The second one like the first missed its target, however this time it was due to the girl dodging it as if she had not it might of gotten her in the lower leg. There was a small improvement however he was aiming much higher than her lower leg, which was something he was not happy about. Oberon took another kunai from his pouch, he was letting his frustration get the better of him. He knew that if his father could see him now he would be ashamed, not just because he was doing the very thing that his father detested but also because he sucked at it. If there was one thing Oberon's father hated more than ranged fighting was his failing to do something right, even with his father dead he could still feel the glaring eyes of scorn from his father as he yet again missed his target with his third kunai. Nozomi never stopped moving and did not comment on his failures like his father would have, and although it was a slight relief to not be yelled at he could not help but wonder what she was thinking or if she was beginning to regret offering to help him yet. Oberon composed himself trying to clear his mind of all the hundreds of thoughts that were racing through his mind, it was harder than he thought it would be but he finally managed to get his mind clear as he reached for his fourth kunai. As he opened his eyes he looked at the girl who he had been trying to hit once again picturing the kunai hitting her in the chest, but then something caught his eye a glint of light coming from Nozomi's hand. It was the senbon she was holding, it was small but the metal was still able to reflect the sun light off of it. Maybe I am looking at this the wrong way, he thought to himself as he quickly began to change his approach on throwing his kunai at the girl. Rather than focusing on trying to hit her, he pictured the kunai flying towards the senbon instead, it was a much smaller target than the girl himself but maybe if he tried to hit that he would actually get close to hitting the girl.

Oberon pictured striking the senbon in the girl's hand and released the kunai from his own hand, to his surprise his plan actually worked and it sailed through the air right towards the girl's shoulder. Of course Nozomi was able to easily deflect the kunai knocking it away with her senbon and sending it to the ground in front of her as she continued to move around him. The throw had boosted his confidence in himself and it continued to be boosted as he continued to throw kunai's at the girl each one sailing at the girl perfectly and causing her to deflect them. As he pulled out his twelfth kunai he did not feel frustrated as he had before and he did not have to focus in order to clear his mind. In his mind the kunai had already knocked the senbon from Nozomi's hand before he had pulled it from his pouch, it was exactly as Nozomi had said if he could just keep it up and not faultier than the time she had taken with him would not be wasted. He released the kunai from his hand and as with the last couple of kunai it sailed towards the girl and she had to deflect it as she did the last. Oberon was glad to see that the girl's training was paying off, however it was not over yet, he grabbed another kunai and continued.

---

3237

Her body's movements were followed by Oberon, and the first few Kunai thrown were terribly off mark. She considered the thought that maybe he wasn't able to keep up with her movements, but still continued her normal speed, giving him time to adjust. It wouldn't happen from the get go, he needed time to adjust. It didn't take long for him to prove her correct, and soon she was deflecting a new kunai no matter where she was going. A small smile formed on her lips. He improved markedly fast, and seemed to take a shine to the training. After she was certain he was continuously aiming on par with her speed, she decided now would be the time to throw in a little mix to the program. Still dodging, Nozomi reached her hand into her pouch and pulled out a few senbon, sliding to a halt.

"Final part of today's training, now that you've caught your breathe and are still in the middle of your prime. Now it's battle application. You're going to be both throwing with accuracy towards me, and I'm going to be throwing my senbon back at you. I'm going to be timing my throwing speed to the higher end of what you've shown to be able to dodge, and I'm going to be mixing up my dodging speed. I'm still expecting to have to deflect your attacks, so keep up your good work. Go ahead and gather up your kunai though, we'll begin the second you pick up the last one, and continue until you can no longer move, or you call it off yourself." she said, waiting for him to do so. She hadn't lied either.

The second his hand made contact with the last kunai on the ground, a senbon was thrown directly towards him. She had no interest in stopping them from hitting him, none of them would be hitting anything vital, and the lethality of Senbon was much less than that of a kunai. If he was hit, it would hurt him a lot, but he would live. And so would begin their little game of cat and mouse, him now applying the lessons in a more threatening situation. Not only would he have to aim accurately, but he would have to dodge her attacks as well. He wouldn't have time to think, and would have to rely on his muscle memory and instinct to get him through the situation. In honesty, she expected him to fail at some point and get caught by her senbon's, but she wouldn't stop throwing them until he was no longer capable of dodging them. However, he had already surprised her, so it's possible that he might last a while and call it off himself. In this fight, it was impossible for her to lose, she was running down his stamina, and at this pace could keep going indefinitely. He was his own timer. In reality, Oberon had already passed her tests, and she knew he'd eventually be someone of importance, so she was for now keeping her eye on him.

WC: 517
TWC: 3049

Born-ill: 3/8

Oberon looked around him, his kunai were scattered across the training grounds. He did not want to waste time so he quickly began picking up all the kunai and putting them into his pouch. As he was picking up the different kunai scattered on the ground around them, Oberon tried to come up with a strategy. It was not going to be easy for him but he could not give up, he had never attempted to use a kunai or a shuriken in combat before. Not that he had seen a lot of combat, this was going to be a new experience for Oberon one that he wanted to go good. He knew he would have to stay on his toes and not only dodge the girl's attacks but also attack her simultaneously and hit his mark as he had been, it was definitely not going to be easy for the young genin. Just as he grabbed the last kunai from the ground he saw a Glint of light from the corner of his eye, turning just in time to see the senbon heading for his hand and moving out of the way before it hit. She was not bluffing about starting once all the kunai were picked up Oberon thought to himself, he had to move fast there was no real time to think the girl was already on the move and another senbon was already heading for him. Oberon went to move but he was not fast enough, he hesitated and it cost him as the senbon hit him in his right shoulder. He let out a muffled yelp of pain, it was not much but it caught him off guard and stung. Enough stalling he thought and took off circling counter to the girl trying to keep up with her movements as well as get the chance to throw his kunai. Oberon knew had this been more than a training session the girl would of already had him beat, but she was giving him a chance that he could not waste. He had no time to picture his throws this time he had to rely on his sheer determination not to look like a fool. He released his kunai at the girl but had no time to see if it got close to her or not as he was quickly having to dodge another senbon from the girl. He grabbed two kunai from his pouch as he moved, and released them at the girl the first one he heard a ting of metal on metal but he did not take the time to see if it was because she had blocked it with a senbon in her had or if it had hit one she had thrown before he threw the second in the same direction hoping to reach his target.

They continued for what felt like hours to Oberon, he had been hit by a senbon more time than he cared to count. He was running out of stamina and he was down to his last kunai, he stopped and called out to the girl, "Nozomi as much as I hate to say this I have to stop I am both out of kunai and out of breath" He smiled as he walked up to her, "thank you for taking the time to train me some, it was harder than I thought it would be but I think if I keep working at it i will be closer to your level one day." He did not know if he hit the girl or not but he looked to the target off to the side of where they stood throwing his last kunai at it watching it hit the bulls-eye, "a lot bigger improvement than when we started" he added with a chuckle.

Oberon picked up his scattered kunai again as they spoke, once all of them were picked up and back in his pouch he turned to the girl again. "Nozomi thank you again with helping me" he said with a brief bow, "I would be honored should we be able to train together again." Oberon would wait for Nozomi's answer before he would say goodbye and head away from the training grounds and out to grab a bite to eat after his hard training.

(Exit Thread)

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3959
Perception trained from E-Rank to D-3: -1925 words
Reaction Time trained from E-Rank to D-3: -1925 words
Total words used: 3850
Total cost: 300 Ryo

She had to admit, he certainly was impressive for a genin. His tenacity and drive forward was to be applauded, but even that could only get him so far. Still, he made it to the end of his kunai before he finally had to call it quits, even after taking multiple senbon hits. His dodging ability and reaction had improved enough that he didn't need to think about it anymore, and that's what she had wanted. This would be something he'd have to explore with his training in the future, and unless he came back to her, his training would be complete.

As he was packing up to leave, a medic came up to them and tended to the minor wounds, and Oberon spoke to her, offering thanks for her teachings. Not only that, but he said it would be an honor to learn from her again. A thought crossed her mind, and she grinned. "Well, in that case, meet me back here in 5 days, noon. Give your body a rest, but keep up on your practices. I'm going to teach you some more. You seem to be proficient in Bukijutsu, so I'm going to help you learn some more. I want you to get strong so I can have a good sparring partner in the future. The average riff raff around here is kinda boring to me in terms of a proper spar." she winked.

With that though, she waved him off, and went back to her people watching. Anyone who had stopped to watch her training had by now realized that it was over, and had gone back to their own devices, so she began rewatching. Somebody else would spark her attention sooner or later, so she'd learned.

WC: 292
TWC: 3341

EXIT Thread

Training:
Yang Release: Ward of Dawn [2000/2000]
Battousai [1000/1000]

TWC Remaining: 341