The day began fine for me. A trip to gym to add to the potency of my physical prowess was always a pleasure. Once I arrived my muscles involuntarily began churning, yearning to be set ablaze, yearning for the burn. They were truly spoiled as they always got their way. I set a path for the bag that hung steadfast from its bolted stand. It was not often that I benched my normal leather attire, but today, on an abnormally hot occasion, I came to the decision to exercise in an alternative suit. Relatively baggy shorts with a plain white trim contrasting the black above. My arms strongly extended through the sleeveless white shirt.













875 Words from this thread... here

A tiny girl stood in the doorway, staring into the training facility. Not many were within, so she went unnoticed. Suteki was a small and very young girl, and was every bit as fragile as she looked. Taijutsu and the arts of physical combat were outside of her realm of personal liking. Given her young body, small size and frail condition, she looked way out of place to be near this location. Though, that begged the question of why she was there. Why was this little girl standing by the gyms doorway, peaking within.

Well, their were two reasons. The first was she was a trained kunoichi. Even though she wasn't skilled in the arts of physical combat, she still needed to practice it in some form. Her chosen preference was movement. If you were to enter hand to hand combat, you either needed to be good at it, or good at avoiding it. She was the ladder.

The second reason was, well she was young, female, and human; so she had interests that could be squashed or inflamed here. The little girl made it inside, and was now looking around, though trying not to make eye contact with anyone. She walked over to a jump rope that was on the ground. She looked around and picked it up, throwing it over her shoulder.

She saw someone training on the far side and slowly made her way over. She was to far and out of position to get a good look at them from where she had been. But as she got closer, she recognized the guy. He was someone that was about to graduate the academy when she first started her training to become a ninja. She knew of him for a few reasons. He was close to or was the top of his class, so he was noticed by most people for that reason. The academy teachers always spoke about him as well, something about his parents though that she took no heed to. All the girls at the academy knew of him because of his physique, good looks, especially his white hair; attitude and his clothing. And he also had well known and supposedly rich father she heard, though that didn't matter to her to much. She also knew of him because he had done a few missions, after graduating, involving her class. So he was well known by her, even if not the other way around.

She got closer to where he was training, trying to be inconspicuous. Though it would have been difficult. She may have been small, but she lugged around a huge gourd behind her almost all the time and was about as big as she was. It was surprising to think that she wasn't strong, given her need to carry around such a heavy object. She barely noticed it, actually forgot she had it on, but had to keep it on her in any case. A few days ago she had been ordered by Kazu, the Kage of Iwagakure, to be ready for summoning soon. At this time though, she was free to do as she pleased.

She watched as Kurai exercised, striking the sand bag. He really was pretty to watch.

The boy waved to her and she blushed. To make matter worse he started to head towards her. She closed her eyes trying to control herself as best she could, and reduce the blood flow to her face.

Inside, she was thrilled that he remembered her, even so much as to remember her name. On the outside, she seemed calm. Than the worst question he could ask was thrown out there. "Why am I here?" She squeaked out that part, her voice raising in sound. A brief period of silence as she rushed through several explanations. 'Should I lie or tell the truth? To practice? No. To exerciser? No. To see pretty boys moving around.' That thought again caused blushing though ever slight. 'NO! I can't say that. Um, um, um...' She had to say something soon. "To...too....Train?" She held out the jump rope as she said the word Train. She hoped he would accept that as an explanation. She lied, slightly hoping he would see this as a positive thing rather than a negative that telling the truth might cause.

Hidden behind the shroud of white hair was a arching eyebrow. Is she blushing? That fact that she was almost made him blush. After he spoke she appeared even more flustered. There were many possible reasons for her shyness. Kurai didn't let his mind venture this time as to speculate on why. Usually his mind would jump at the opportunity at deducing some detail about another person. But at this very moment he didn't care to, he just wanted to greet Suteki. And, at some point, wanted her to greet him back, but it was taking her quite some time. Until finally, "To... too... Train?" A jump rope came into his view. Kurai tilted his head back slightly and gave her a meek grin. "I see. I'm glad you're taking your training seriously and trying to become well-rounded. Contrary to popular belief I don’t like training alone. Would you like to join me? I use Taijutsu, so I could show some basic blocking and striking moves.” Kurai paused for a bit, “Or perhaps, you would prefer an actual spar on the training grounds outside. It should be a nice workout don’t you think.” The words flowed so genuinely. He really did have a way with people. Kurai was actually… just maybe… more nervous than Suteki. Kurai had never faced anyone he knew so little about in terms of fighting. This stirred internally, but he silenced the commotion as it was just a spar between two comrades. This was to help them. With that thought a smile came to his face as he awaited Suteki’s response.


Training Taijutsu [B>A]: 2073/3000

Kurai invited her to join him in perhaps learning taijutsu based skills. That thought was rather unpleasant. If she attempted to learn taijutsu from him, she would only end up embarrassing herself in front of him. "No, I think that wouldn't go so well." Kurai paused for a moment. Than asked if she would prefer an actual spar on the training grounds. She thought for a moment, thinking about her wounds she received recently from her last spar session, than responded, "Um, I am not really in the mood to spar so much today. Though..if you want to train out on the grounds, I do need to practice a few ninjutsu." That thought seemed pleasant enough. She had no intention to practice at all today, but perhaps something would come of this?

Learning Earth Shore Return: 137

"Alright. Just in case your Ninjutsu requires accuracy there are some targets out on the grounds too." Kurai felt obligated to give her a summary of the facilities' features since he had never seen or ever expected to see her here before. Out on the training grounds were also dummies. So while Suteki worked on her Ninjutsu, Kurai would likely continue practicing his Taijutsu, unlesssss (looks around for Nakashima), someone came along for him to spar with.They walked out of the gym and off to their right were the vast and beautiful training grounds. It was no secret that Iwagakure has been a little drowsy as of late, and seeing the training grounds were proof of that. He remembered all the work he had to go through last time just to get someone to spar with him. The silvered hair Genin hoped he wouldn't have to work so hard this time just to get in a good workout.

"Suteki, if there's anything I can do to help you with your Ninjutsu training just let me know." If there was something, he would hear what she needed and based on the request decide if he could be of any assistance. If there was nothing he could do to facilitate her training, he would make his way to the far left of the training grounds where the dummies were.


Training Taijutsu [B>A]: 2303/3000

OOC: sorry about the long wait. Had research that needed to be done.

She followed Kurai to the outside portion of the gym's facilities and examined the area. As she followed closely behind him, she started to think about what she needed to train. Her original purpose for coming here had slightly hit the fan, but she could still fulfill her original mission.

It was a little smaller than the grounds she normally trained on, but kept much cleaner. She had an idea of what she could train, and after her attempts could go back to what she originally meant to do here.

Suteki looked around for some form of water to train on but after looking around didn't find any lake. As she looked, it seems that idea fell through as well. Kurai spoke to her, asking if she needed any help with her training. She thought for a moment, thinking back to any last attempts she made at training for a jutsu. She looked around the area and saw a giant slab of earth that looked to be in the shape of an arena. It than hit her, the slab reminded her of a jutsu she had attempted to master a while back, about a month before her birthday. It had been two months since than now that she thought about it, 'why had I not gone back to that training?'

She looked up at Kurai after a moment of silence passed, and she looked up at him. Kurai was quite skilled in the academy, and he has had plenty of experience in the field by now. 'Perhaps Kurai knows how to use Earth Release or has more knowledge of utilizing elemental chakra!' A smile appeared on the little girls face as she spoke to the boy,"Actually, maybe you could help me perhaps." She looked him in the face, her expression as if she was looking at a teacher for guidance. "I have been working on using Earth Release chakra for a ninjutsu and have...for some reason been unable. Do you know any Earth Released based techniques?"

Training: Earth Shore Return
485/1200

Suteki smiled as Kurai made his joke, even if it was a little, cliche. She might have been one of the few people to have ever seen him do such a thing. She enjoyed that he was placing a little transparency on his personality in front of her. He seemed to enjoy the joke, joining in with her smile. He cleared his throat and got back to business. Kurai explained that he knew a earth based jutsu, which shouldn't have come as a surprise, he was skilled at plenty of arts, why not earth release.

He stepped back, creating a little room between the two of them. Though what he said next seemed odd. He didn't manipulate the earth chakra away from himself? 'What did that mean?' His hand started to glow and than it turned to the color of mud. 'He was creating earth?' The thought seemed a little pointless. 'Earth was all around us', so why create it?

After a moment a large rock appeared was created next to Kurai. He explained that he was able to create earth from his chakra, rather than use what was around him. That did seem skillful, but perhaps a little bit of a waste of chakra? Perhaps it wasn't if you were skilled enough. He than asked to see her skill and she got right to it. With a quick motion, Suteki kicked the ground and a large rectangle was cut into the earth. She pushed her foot down and the chunk of earth rose a foot than crumbled upon it's weight. A distorted look appeared on her face, "Well, it is a little better than last time, at least it rose."

292

777/1200

With a forceful stomp, Suteki caused a portion of earth to rise, only to crumble soon after. A smirk came onto Kurai's face as she explained the progress she had made. Kurai knew immediately what was she was struggling with. "Suteki, you're not using enough chakra... the earth is crumbling or not rising at all because there isn't enough chakra to sustain the earth. Think of it like trying to lift a boulder without not putting any force into it. You need to flex ;)" Kurai's attention to detail was sometimes uncanny. His ability to just absorb details, some trivial, others vital. He hoped with that bit of information Suteki would be able to put forward a better show. Kurai's former teacher taught him that particular lesson. Kurai had always been conservative when it came to his chakra when he was in the academy, and most times he just didn't put enough chakra into his Genjutsus for them to be effective. It had worked for Kurai, he was sure it would work for her too. "Try forming a single doton seal just to help you with the making and controlling of the extra chakra, and then try again. Once you get the hang of the technique, you won't need the hand seal anymore."

Kurai took a few steps back as he prepared himself for a much emphatic display of earth use from Suteki. Kurai often wished he could do the little that Suteki could do. He was unable to manipulate earth, he had to create his own. Despite all his talents, he had yet to master the art of Ninjutsu, which prohibited him from garnering the control necessary to manipulate elements away from his body. Maybe one day he could learn more about the art from Suteki. For now though, he was still working on improving his Taijutsu and Genjutsu. He had made many strides to furthering his skill level in both. His dormant ocular powers also helped him a great deal in exercising all specialties, but taijutsu and genjutsu in particular.

He was now a good five meters from Suteki. It might take her a few times to get the hang of using more chakra, they would see soon enough.


Trained Taijutsu [B>A]: 3000+/3000

Suteki listened to what Kurai had for a suggestion.  'Was I holding to much chakra back?' The idea, as simple as it sounded, was plausible.  Maybe doton jutsu required a concentrated amount of chakra?  Or perhaps, this being a defensive jutsu, it was different since it needed to take punishment from other jutsu, even of stronger power.  The idea was simple to employ and could be the right answer to her problem with the Earth Shore Return jutsu.  

Kurai also suggested she should use some form of a symbol when using Doton techniques, at least until she got a handle on it.  A way to concentrate and control the excesses chakra needed for the technique.  Kurai took a step back and Suteki took her stance, moving her chakra to become localized within her hands.  She stood with her side slightly at an angle with Kurai.  It only took a moment to gather the needed chakra, but she paused, thinking to herself, was it enough?  She failed to gather enough chakra to utilize the move last time, and the time before, and time before that.  She looked over at Kurai, thinking, 'I don't want to fail at this move again.  I might look like a failure in his eyes.'  The idea of using to much chakra for a jutsu, wasting that chakra didn't sit right with her.  Though, if the jutsu fails, it was wasteful in any respect.  

Suteki gathered more chakra, more than was needed.  She could iron out the wasteful use later on, for now, she wanted to perhaps impress him, and make him feel good about the given advice.  All to make her look like a competent and strong shinobi, and perhaps get on his.. good side.  More chakra gathered in her hands, as she held the Ram hand seal for a moment.  Only four seconds had passed since she started gathering her chakra and she went onto one knee and released the seal, slamming her hands into the ground.  A large chunk of rock broke apart from the ground before her, and quickly rose up in the blink of an eye.  The chunk of rock was 9 feet 7 inches tall, 5 feet 9 inches long, and 1 foot 6 inches thick.  

The wall of earth stood as a monolith before her.  It slightly blocked the view of her from where Kurai was standing, perhaps even hiding the true size of the jutsu from him.  Suteki pushed off the ground with her hands, and got back to her feet.  The wall was a little more than a foot from her face.  She inspected her accomplishment.  She was slightly in awe of the giant rock, "Fantastic!"


450 words
Earth Shore Return : Learned

Kurai looked pleased. He walked around the giant earthen structure to get a look at the small kunoichi who had been eclipsed by her own jutsu. The Genin put his hands together repeatedly, applauding Suteki's wonderful effort. "Nicely done, your potential in doton is clearly of great magnitude. Keep up the good work Suteki. I must be off now, my time that I allot for Taijutsu training has ended and is now time for the next phase, but hopefully we get to train again together soon." Kurai left the training grounds outside the gym, he was off for his routine meal after training to optimize his training results.