“Click” sounded the pad lock as Hayato pressed his thumb and middle finger together, each pushing down an opposing side and closing the device. “7 am,” he thought to himself as he let out a light sigh and stretched his neck a bit, tilting his head from side to side, “Perfect time for a swim.” It had been a while since Hayato had gone swimming at the pool, for a multitude of reasons really. The life of a shinobi can be pretty demanding and sometimes even pleasures as small as going for a morning swim had to be put on hold in favor of work.

The morning really was the best time to go for a swim at the pool and it wasn’t even debatable. The only other people who came this early were the elderly and they didn’t even swim, preferring to just sit at the edge of the pool and vegetate. On occasion they would get their feet wet and splash around a bit, maybe even take one of the aquarobics classes as a group, but more often than not if Hayato was here this early he more or less had the entire pool to himself. And most importantly there were no children or academy students lurking about at this hour aiming to destroy the sanctity of the pristine water with their childish pranks. It may have been pumped with chlorine, but this pool was still as clean as it got as far as swimming waters go. For a village in the water country on an island surrounded by water there was a distinct lack of suitable places where one could go and just swim until all of their problems are gone. Sure Kirigakure had beaches, but if the water wasn’t dark and murky, it was home to a less than friendly inhabitant, or it was being roamed by pirates. “I’ll take my chlorine, thank you very much,” Hayato said in a snarky manner as he spun the dial on his lock to a random number, swung his towel over his bare shoulder and proceeded to make his way out of the locker room.

Beside the exit door he came across the old vending machine that had been there as long as he could remember. “It’s a wonder that this thing even still functions,” Hayato mused in his own mind, “Hey, I guess if it works it works. Now that I’m here I should probably get a bottle of water. I love my chlorine, but that doesn’t mean I want to drink it.” Patting down the sides of his swim trunks he realized that his wallet was back in his locker, not that it mattered much as he noticed the machine was powered down. Throwing a glance over to the outlet on the wall beside the machine he saw that it was plugged in, it just wasn’t working… for whatever reason. Slightly annoyed he built up a relatively small raiton charge in the tip of his finger and proceeded to poke the machine, which surprisingly was enough to power it back on. “Lucky break,” he said with a chuckle before banging his fist against the machine and causing a bottle of water to be jarred loose and fall down to the opening, “I think I deserve a reward for fixing their problem free of charge. Got to love out dated machinery.”

As he stepped out of the locker room and into the open air pool area a slight chill was sent up his spine by the cool morning air. He enjoyed the cold, but even he had to pause for a second after leaving the heated locker room into a breezy Kirigakure morning wearing nothing but his black swim trunks. Performing a quick visual scan of the area everything seemed to be just as he expected it would be. No children, senior citizens lazily lounging about on their beach chairs, Keiko sitting at the edge of the pool with her feet in the water... Keiko? What on earth was she doing here? It had been years since she had come swimming with him. What would have prompted the sudden change? No, that couldn’t be it. He hadn’t told anyone he was coming today and even if she had asked for him, with his sporadic attendance lately she couldn’t have known he was going to be there. What’s more she wasn’t even in swimming attire, she was just dressed normally.

“Well, I guess I had better go say hello,” Hayato thought to himself as he sneakily made his way over to Keiko, being careful not to be detected. Upon getting behind her he would casually take a seat at the poolside, right beside her, probably too close for anyone but him. “Good morning Kei-chan~”

---

Training Raiton D>C: 809/1500

Keiko let out a cute yelp as she hastily turned around, ending up face to face with Hayato as they sat beside each other at the edge of the pool. There was a brief pause in which neither of them said a word, simply staring at each other in silence, a strange reaction for Keiko. “Oh, did I catch her off guard?” Hayato thought to himself as he inspected Keiko’s porcelain visage. “Smooth, creamy white skin? Check. Long magenta hair that was just asking for Hayato to run his hands through it? Check. That hat that always prevented him from doing so? Check… The lilac eyes? The cute nose? All there.” Allowing his eyes to wander down for just a moment Hayato continued his inspection, “Pink hoodie, long legs, and those shorts? Same old Keiko.” Considering she had dressed in that manner for years it really was no surprise that in the few days Hayato had not seen her she didn’t decide to switch up her wardrobe, but it put a smirk on his face nonetheless.

Before he could say something clever about it however, that smirk would be removed from his face just as quickly as it arrived as Keiko’s right arm shot out of its resting position and straight at his shoulder. He knew this was coming, one of the hits was ALWAYS coming sooner or later when he was with Keiko for any stretch of time. She just decided to get the first one out of the way early today.  He made no effort to try and avoid the punch which collided into his shoulder with a sting, but less impact than usual. He rarely if ever tried to dodge her hits, for a couple of reasons: 1.) Avoiding them would probably only serve to annoy her further and ensure that more of them were on the way and 2.) At this point the hits have become such a regular occurrence in the interactions between the two of them that Hayato had come to just see them as normal, “love taps” he called them. “She hasn’t changed one but in my absence,” Hayato mused to himself as he rubbed the shoulder she had just struck, “That’s a relief… I wish my shoulder could say the same thing though.”

“What are you doing here? You have time to go to the pool, but not time to –“ Keiko blurted out in a frustrated voice. She was always so adorable when she was upset. There was a brief pause in her statement before continuing, “not time to do missions or anything useful?”

“Nice to see you too, Keiko,” Hayato said playfully, still rubbing his assaulted shoulder, “It’s good to see you are in high spirits today. Come on, you know that I am a swimmer, what else would I be doing here? The real question is why are you here? And sorry I’ve been missing in action lately, been bogged down with work.” Removing his hand from his shoulder Hayato slid even closer to Keiko, their bodies separated by less than an inch of the concrete surrounding the pool. He leaned his upper body over to her, using the height difference between them to lower his head down to hers, close enough for each of them to feel each other’s breath before continuing, “It feels like it’s been forever since we were together last. You know how long my days get when I don’t get to see you…”

Then, almost as suddenly as he had leaned so intimately close to Keiko he straightened himself up and put a wide grin on his face. “By the way, your punches aren’t as hard as they used to be, have you been neglecting your training? Or did you hesitate to hit me as hard as you could because you were secretly afraid to hurt me? I mean it would make sense considering you are in love with me.” Hayato stuck his tongue out slightly after he made that last comment, clearly aiming to tease and annoy Keiko.

---

Training Raiton D>C: 1494/1500

Hayato felt Keiko’s hands begin to press against his bare chest after he finished his last sentence, prompting him to close his eyes and take a deep breath. “I know where this is going,” he thought to himself before her hands violently were violently thrust forward into his body, causing him to fall into the pool. The cold rush that surged through him as his body plunged into the water caused him to hesitate a bit before trying to regain control of his momentum in the water. It was strange, he had been swimming his whole life and yet he never did get used to that initial biting cold upon entering the water as your body acclimated itself to the temperature. Once he got over the shock of the cold water Hayato adjusted himself in the water and allowed himself to sink until his feet touched the bottom of the pool. The moment he felt the pads of his feet touch the pool’s floor he would push off to launch himself up to the surface.

“Secretly afraid to hurt you because I’m in love with you? Let me correct any misunderstandings then,” he heard Keiko say as he came up out of the water. The hair in his face prevented him from seeing exactly what kind of an expression she was wearing on her face, but he was sure it was a mocking smile of some kind. That was just the way their relationship went. Once his head emerged from the water he would adjust himself to face Keiko and begin treading water before intentionally flipping the hair over his right eye in such a way that the excess water dripping from it would be splashed on her. “Love taps Kei-chan, love taps,” he said playfully in regards to her outward acts of violence against him. To the uninitiated it must have looked strange, even like they hated each other at times, but there was never any animosity between them about Keiko’s “love taps”. This is how they always were… well at least since late in their academy years.

“Don’t act like you don’t love my cheesy words,” Hayato mused with a confident smirk as he floated over to the edge of the pool where Keiko was seated, “You can’t fool me. Now, are you just going to sit at the edge of the water and hang out with the senior citizens or are you going to join me in here?” Hayato raised one hand out of the water and began walking his index and middle finger up her bare leg as he locked eyes with Keiko once again. “All you’d have to do is take off your outerwear. I wouldn’t mind seeing what you are wearing underneath,” he said, his fingers having reached up to her lower thigh at this point. “I could give you more incentive if you need it,” he continued, having stopped his hand’s ascent up her leg and instead used it to nudge the leg slightly more towards him as he made a trail of three soft kisses up the side of her exposed limb. “Or… I could just…” he purposefully trailed off at the end as he pulled his arm back and instead used it to brush a nail against the bottom of her foot to tickle her. Knowing someone for this long has its perks. Hayato knew she was ticklish. “Let’s see how long she can keep the tough girl front up.”

---

Training Raiton D>C: 1500/1500
Training Suiton D>C: 584/1500

”Did you get rejected by some lady you chased today? And now you’re crawling to me?” Keiko said haughtily as she retracted her leg a bit to put some distance between it and Hayato’s lips. He wasn’t phased by it in the slightest however, as he simply moved along the edge of the pool to close the distance that she had moved her leg to end up in almost the exact same position. “Oh, come now Kei-chan,” he said in a deceitfully playful voice, purposefully making the inflection in his voice too ambiguous to discern between where the joke may have ended and where the truth may have begun, as he drew closer to her again, “When do I ever get rejected other than by you? And besides, why would I be worried about any other girl when you’re the only real prize to be had?” Hayato had been told before that he has gotten far too comfortable with his relentlessly flirtatious ways, but every time he got reprimanded he tended to just shrug off the warnings of others. He felt people were too strict and uptight and saw no harm being done by his actions, so he also refused to accept the possibility that it was a bad thing. It wasn’t like he was chasing after married women, right? As far as he was concerned his bringing smiles to the faces of the bachelorettes of Kirigakure with his words and sending the feeling of electricity through their bodies with his touch was a good thing. The fact that he got his fun out of making their hearts beat a thousand miles a minute was an added bonus.

”Just so you know, I don’t want your –“ Keiko began before cutting herself off with a yelp in response to Hayato brushing his nail across the sole of her foot to tickle her. Her reaction was predictable, at least to Hayato it was, as the leg of the foot he just tickled retracted a bit before launching forward and landing a kick right in his shoulder. “More love taps,” he thought to himself as he rubbed the area she had kicked. It wasn’t a particularly devastating kick as she had caught him with the sole of her foot rather than her heel, but she was a shinobi… their kicks tend to hurt. Before Hayato had a chance to make one of his witty comments about the kick Keiko had already gotten up and began running off towards the women’s locker room, stopping only to throw a momentary harsh glare his way and declare the sentence, ”I’m going to drown you when I come back.”

“Oh boy, what have I started?” Hayato mused to himself with a smirk as he watched her disappear into the nearby building before casually going into a backstroke and doing a quick lap around the pool. Once he had completed his lap Hayato decided to climb back onto the edge of the pool, opposite where they were sitting before, and take a seat while he awaited her return. When Keiko emerged from the locker room Hayato waved her down from his seat and motioned for her to come over to his location. “Is that new?” He would say in regards to her swimwear as she drew closer.

---

Training Raiton D>C: 1500/1500
Training Suiton D>C: 1143/1500

Keiko did not look amused as she approached the pool where Hayato had already jumped in, folding her arms and scowling at him with a look of irritation painted across her face. “Two weeks isn’t exactly new,” she snapped back angrily as she glared down Hayato from the edge of the water, “But you wouldn’t know.” Her words struck Hayato like a ton of bricks as a wave of disappointment came over him, taking the wind from his sails. He hesitated for the briefest of moments, unsure of how to respond to the sudden outburst, but was unable to get a reply out before Keiko got down to the edge of the pool and dunked herself in the water.

Hayato was a bit surprised as she let out a yelp, exclaiming that the water was cold. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of someone who produces ice complaining that a temperature checked swimming pool being too cold. If anyone had a right to complain about the cold it would be the pool she just plunged herself into… if pools could speak that is. Hayato lowered his entire body back into the pool as he saw Keiko take a dip, submerging everything from his shoulders down. His eyes peered over to the opposite edge of the water where Keiko had entered from, only to see he kick off of the wall and begin swimming herself. It really wasn’t THAT surprising to see her swimming, throughout all of the years they had known each other they had gone swimming before, but it was never something she did without his prodding. It was interesting to say the least, but it was probably nothing. She swam about halfway out into the center of the pool before stopping to tread water and stick her tongue out at Hayato teasingly.

“Oh?” Hayato thought to himself as he raised an eyebrow and smirked at the provocation, “I wonder what she’s getting at. I guess the only way I’ll find out is to go and investigate myself, huh?” Hayato stuck his tongue out back at her playfully before submerging himself in the water entirely, his somewhat long black hair lingering at the surface for just a moment before following him down. He would allow himself to sink all the way to the pool floor before kicking off of the wall, propelling himself forward and in Keiko’s direction. He would swim along to pool’s floor until he reached Keiko’s location and would then push off of the floor to launch himself up to be right next to Keiko, demonstratively splashing around as he came up. “Come on Kei-chan, don’t be mad at me,” Hayato said as he closed the gap between he and Keiko, “It wasn’t like I didn’t want to see you. You’re one of the only things that gets me through my missions when I get called away. I don’t know if I’d be as motivated to finish them if I didn’t have you to look forward to when I returned.” He then stuck his tongue out at her and continued teasingly, “Besides, do you think I would have passed on an invitation to go swimsuit shopping with you and get to have you model in bathing suits for me if I wasn’t away on assignment?”

---

Training Raiton D>C: 1500/1500
Training Suiton D>C: 1500/1500
Training Fuuton D>C: 212/3000

It was nice, being able to actually swim in water - an element she felt entirely at ease with. The water was pure and refreshing, proving that the reputation of Kirigakure's famous pool was nothing but true, with only a hint of chlorine passing through her senses. The pool was otherwise untainted, without the many forms of insanitary pollution seeping through the water and into their bodies. Continuing to tread water in a smooth, unhurried manner, she unconsciously found herself pushing the water forwards as Hayato approached, thus slowly moving her body back and away from him. As she watched him kick off the wall, using the momentum to propel himself forward, she briefly considered created a thin wall of ice in front of him - it would be quite amusing to see what he would do, or if he would even do anything. The temptation was there, only some part of her felt as though that wasn't entirely fair. She might as well wait for a fair training session … which would hopefully begin soon.

His sudden movement to break the surface of the water at an increased rate didn't come as much of a surprise, but she let out a noise of protest when a conspicuous amount of water flew through the air as a result of his messy splashing, narrowing her eyes at him as the water flew back into the pool around them. You’re one of the only things that gets me through my missions when I get called away. I don’t know if I’d be as motivated to finish them if I didn’t have you to look forward to when I returned. At his words, she went quiet for a moment, only doing a visible show of dramatically rolling her eyes at him to disguise any other reaction she had towards his words. It was cheesy, and she had a horrible suspicion that he was saying this simply to tease her and draw out a blush or some other embarrassing reaction, but it was pleasing to hear nonetheless. “Besides, do you think I would have passed on an invitation to go swimsuit shopping with you and get to have you model in bathing suits for me if I wasn’t away on assignment?” Of course there had to be something else he had to say. Instead of responding - as actions always spoke louder than words, even sometimes when her words were loud enough as it was - she did a vertical dolphin kick, imitating the wave movement she had used horizontally to get herself to her current position to propel herself upwards, eventually switching to channel chakra to the bottom of her feet as she stood on the surface of the water.

"How about I model for you now?" She replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest, the glare still apparent in her facial expression, though lighter now, more challenging than anything. It was about time the two of them showed off whatever technique they had learned during their time apart, even if they didn't necessarily use it against each other. During their Academy days, she had watched Hayato struggle, the very blood in him that made him a Misora had seemingly been against the progression of his skills. But now … now she wasn't sure about anything anymore. The water around her feet began to freeze - only slightly at first, the beginnings of white frost showing and slowly solidifying as the edges spread out.

Chakra:130/150:

Training Fuuton B>A
[890/3000]

As soon as Keiko leapt out of the water and onto its surface, the water temperature of the pool dropped considerably, sending an uncomfortable chill down Hayato’s spine. He could never forget this chilling sensation, Keiko’s Aisu blood that flowed like an icy river and gave rise to her freezing abilities that she never seemed opposed to using as punishment for Hayato’s teasing. His body shivered for a moment, taking a moment to collect himself before immediately pushing off of the bottom of the pool with his legs in order to move backwards in the water and away from the thin layer of frost that had begun to form on the pool’s surface.

It would not take long however, for Hayato to realize that once she started using those hyoton jutsu, it wouldn’t matter where in the pool he was standing, he would not be escaping the rapidly dropping temperature. The few random pedestrians that had been dipping their feet into the water on the other side of the pool let out surprised shrieks in response to the sudden freezing water and quickly ran from the poolside. He could not help but smirk at the reactions of the unknowing civilians, however mean it might be. This wasn’t the first time he and Keiko’s mischief had spelled unpleasant situations for innocent bystanders, but they were mostly harmless so it never became anything serious.

Wanting no part of the ice bath he was about to receive as a result of Keiko’s jutsu, Hayato would immediately leap as high as he could out of the shallow water, performing a backwards flip just for show and weaving a sequence of hand signs on the way up. Just as his feet would come back down to touch the water’s surface, moisture from the pool would begin to form a platform of white, puffy cloud just below him which he would land on. His feet would sink ever so slightly into the pillow like cloud, becoming invisible under the white nimbus. “Now, now that was very nice Keiko,” he said teasingly as he swept away the soaked hair that had fallen over his face to the right, “Those people had nothing to do with this and yet you chose to freeze the water with them in it. Pretty bad mannered if I do say so myself.” Of course his words were filled with snark and aimed almost solely towards provoking her rather than standing up for some kind of mock justice. After all, he didn’t know these people. For all he knew they deserved it anyway.

“But since you already made us a stage and you are in the mood to do some modeling anyway, why don’t we put on a show for our little crowd here?” he teased, with a smug smirk he was sure would make her blood boil, “You have already ruined their trip to the pool after all, with your little ice trick. The least we can do is provide a little entertainment to make up for it… unless you want to back out.”

---

Training Fuuton D>C: 735/3000

"Shut up and just come at me.” Miyako replied to Bokuden’s taunt defiantly, challenging him to make the first move, "Let's see whether you've really been training and doing missions, or if you've just busy taking care of that pretty boy image of yours.” As soon as the last word of her challenge left her lips, Keiko charged forward, making a beeline right for Hayato’s location. It was more or less a typical Keiko fighting strategy, which Hayato picked up on immediately. Not that there was all that much to decipher; deception wasn’t really Keiko’s game. She was more likely to simply run up to Hayato and try to brute force a strike than she ever was to attempt tact and strategy to overtake him, not that these little spars ever got that serious. Keiko wasn’t even trained all that extensively in close combat to begin with, but one can afford to take risks and be reckless when your opponent is someone that won’t be fighting back.

Hayato would obviously never use real force against Keiko under any circumstance. He would easily take a thousand hits from her before the thought of even considering striking back in retaliation crossed his mind. These little matches weren’t even really fights. Keiko had been roughing around with Hayato for as long as either of them could remember. Once they got to a certain age however, the play fights became more and more one-sided as Hayato had to consciously limit how much force he actually used when sparring with her. Their graduation from the shinobi academy and the expansion of their jutsu prowess however, did make their matches more flashy as they were now showing off.

“Hmph, you always were a violent one,” Hayato answered mockingly to Keiko as she charged him, “For an ice queen you’re surprisingly hot headed. I guess I’ll have to cool you off.” Immediately he would send his cloud forward in Keiko’s direction, aiming to meet her mid-stride. As he drew in close however, he would pull back on his advance and make a sharp turn with the cloud, purposefully skidding against the water to make it splash up in Keiko’s face. After the sharp turn he would curve his path around to end up directly behind Keiko’s ice platform and begin flying away from her in the opposite direction while sticking out his tongue at her.

Sure, he could have at least made an effort to have it appear as though he was taking her challenge seriously, but what fun would that be? It just wouldn’t be a normal spar between them if Hayato didn’t take some time out to infuriate her. What was the worst thing that could happen anyway? As far as he was concerned, having her get worked up would only make things more interesting. Besides, this ice platform jutsu that she was using that allowed her to travel above ground was new and Hayato wanted to see just how much she had improved since their last run in.

---

Training Fuuton D>C: 1258/3000