Morning

Another breezy day awoke in Iwagakure. The trees barely holding their leaves he Kazako clan clinic was also dead this day. Harichimo had finished his morning chores early and there were no patients that needed his assistance. With little to do he went back to his room to figure out what could be done. He threw off his plain white garments and laid on his bed staring at the ceiling. Harichimo sat up and thought to himself. Maybe I could get away long enough to do some training at the dojo. I haven't been able to peel away for awhile and since there isn't anything that has to be done today, I can actually work on myself. Harichimo sprang up and got himself washed up. 

He wrapped up his forearms with bandages and tied his hair back the way he liked. He grabbed a small bottle of water on his way out of his room. He saw his mother and father out in the garden enjoying the cool morning and didn't want to disturb them so he decided to take a little detour before heading to the dojo. He arrived at the small diner he had spent time cleaning up and popped his head in and saw the old couple. "Hello, I'm back can I grab some breakfast here before I go out?" He asked. The old couple smiled and happily made him a little soup, perfect on a colder day. He quickly ate up the soup and made a bit of conversation with them and when he finished his quick breakfast he left the nice couple a couple ryo for their trouble. "Thanks a lot it was good as always." He waved bye to the old couple as he made his way to the dojo.

Present

Harichimo arrived at the dojo and saw no one else was there this early. "Sweet a little private training never hurts." He picked out a couple of weights in the corner and set himself up. I am definitely a lot faster since I became a member of the squad but speed doesn't matter if I don't have the power to back it up. And with Kurai being missing I really need to pick up my end of the slack. Who knows when Akira is gona call on me for something. And I can't keep being the weakling of the bunch. The only way to keep helping others is to help myself get stronger. Harichimo removed his coat just his bare chest and started doing arm curls hoping to do what he could to increase his strength. 

WC 439

Walking around and doing nothing, was certainly not Yomi's style, especially not when she had been thrown out of her favorite tavern a few days earlier simply because she got into a fight. While walking down the mainstream of Iwagakure, her hands safely placed inside her trouser's pockets, the young woman sighed deeply, snarled a bit and kicked away a pebbled laying on the ground in front of her. Looking around a bit, she could feel the boredom of having nothing to do, wash over her, prompting Yomi to pull a pack of smokes out of her long coat, only to realize she had forgotten her cigarettes and her lighter at the restaurant.

"What a drag," She sighed again, thinking she might as well take detour when returning home and take a peek in the dojo to see if anyone was around. After all, with Kurai being on absence leave, there was not much for her team to do. "Maybe Harinewbie is around."

With a slight chuckle, she got on her way, ending up at the dojo in no time. However, when she entered the dojo and went looking for the weights, she noticed a few of them were missing, which inavertadly alarmed her that someone was already around, but who?

Not even taking of her boots, the Yamada clanmember rushed into the main room of the dojo, where some rather skinny guy was apparently focusing on training his strength by doing some arm curls, a really funny thing to look at in fact, but when taking a closer look, Yomi burst out in laughter, throwing her coat aside, so that she'd be more free to move.

"Look at that, the newbie's training already?" The young woman laughed, while flexing her obviously athlethic arms a bit. "So, what...besides doing some ridiculous curls, brings you here, Harinewbie?"

311

Harichimo finished his last rep of a set when he heard the heavy boot thinking nothing of it and put down the weights. The he heard the explosion of laughter coming from behind him and gave a jolting turn to see Yomi had arrived. He gave a smile and a small wave. At least someone is getting their money's worth.

"Well hey yourself. I have nothing to do at the clinic, I don't really feel like going on a mission, and I don't have any other ways of keeping myself busy so I thought why not burn some daylight here? I need to build up some strength for when Akira calls us next. And my punches need a little more power behind them. So what better way to do that then with some arm exercises and weight training."

Harichimo walked over to a bar with buckets on both ends. He grabbed a couple weighted stones and dropped them into the buckets. He flung the bar over his shoulders and started doing a couple sets of squats. Obviously struggling a little bit but he couldn't let Yomi know. He could power through even if it was to much for him. After the third rep he dropped the buckets down and let the bar far. He out his arms to his sides and caught his breath stretching his back back into shape. Yep she is definitely going to get her money's worth today. He slowly turned and kept his same grin and turned to Yomi.

"So how have you been? And what brings you out on a day like this? Other than to get your fill of a comedy routine and give the scrub a mouth full."

WC 290/729

"Akira?" Yomi said with a sudden frown on her face. "You do know it isn't really good to call the Tsuchikage with his given name like that. Not that I really care, but ya want to show some respect to our sensei, dont'cha think?"

Pressing Harichimo on that tiny error was something Yomi really liked to do. Sure, she was actually right to do so, for the two genin were far from equals to and in the eyes of the man going by the name Kazako Akira, but still. Just the idea to see how Harichimo would react the next time he'd meet the Tsuchikage, made the Yamada woman grin a bit sadistically, after all the team in which they cooperated and worked together was not just a simple team, it was also a competition, in which the Tsuchikage could see who made the most promising progress and who failed to make any at all.

"Building up strength, hmm?" She pondered for a moment, looking at the rather lanky frame of the young man. "I'd say you'll be definately needing some additional muscle if you want to keep up with the rest of the team...which for now simply means keeping up with me."

As the young man proceeded with his own form of training, Yomi went towards a wooden training doll at the opposite end of the dojo, slapping away the wooden extensions with her wrists before making repetitive kicks from bottom to top. Despite the dojo's affluent training materials, they never seemed to fit her personal style and always seemed to hold her back a bit.

"Oh come on, it's just fun to tease the newbie," She laughed after the medic's last comment, leaning against the wooden training doll with her back. "If you want, you could try some kind of sparring with me, but I do tell you now:Sparring with me is like fighting for survival."

328/639

"Yeah you are right. I should only refer to sensei as such. But it is just between you and me here now student to student and I think we can keep it casual between us no? And sure I wouldn't mind that. Since I'm sure there will be many more challenges from sensei that will require us to have to fight hand to hand. And I can tell since you pretty much took on that chunin on your own. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end any time soon. But today is a better time then never for us to actually gauge each other."

He knew it would be a great exercise almost worse then any mission he could ever take on but it would only be a sparring session and hopefully it wouldn't be to much damage dealt between the two of them. Harichimo looked down to his arms and made sure his bandages were tight and looked around the building for an empty spot. Then he remembered there were some open training areas they could use just a few hallways down. He made his way to the door way and motioned back to Yomi.



"Well hey why don't we head to the open rings down the hall so we don't end up breaking everything and run up a bill for sensei. There should be one just around the corner"

And Harichimo started his way down the hall with a grin on his face. He thought Yomi could meet him there. 

260/989

"Between you and me, huh?" Yomi smirked slightly, nodding her head a bit. "I can live with that. Ya know, if you rly want to be prepared for any of Akira-sensei's challenges, we might better be doing a job or two together and get ourselves that chuunin rank, we cant have Kurai be better than us for much longer."

Looking at Harichimo prepare himself for what he thought to be a fair and square one on one, the Yamada woman simply pulled her fingerless gloves a bit tighter, placed her thumbs underneath her suspenders and waited until he'd do or say something, only to be surprised when the young lad suddenly pointed out that they could use one of the dojo's more appropriate training halls. Chuckling a bit, Yomi waved her left hand in the air a bit, showing a sing that he could do and choose whatever he wanted and followed him to the area he decided to use for their little bout.

Arriving at an empty hall, filled with tatami mats, Yomi knew very well with the amount of space they had now, their fun could be more exciting than in the earlier place. This was after all where usually entire groups of academy students practiced the basic taijutsu skills and where the more experienced members honed their various forms and styles of the taijutsu schools from which they hailed.

"So tell me," The young woman suddenly said, while walking a bit closer to Harishimo. "Got anything in mind? I mean ya do know that if we use our jutsu here, this place might get messy, right?"

While saying so, she pointed at the fact that despite everything, this place was still just a training room, which meant they had to consider the fact that when they had their fun, some cleaning was in order. "tell you what, loser gets to clean the mess, deal?"

321/960

Harichimo gave a smile and thought about the little wager. Yomi had all the skills to hang with the best but he felt that he could give her a run for it. "Sure you're on. il just throw my junk over here and il take up my stance." Harichimo dropped his bag and jacket right by the entrance of the training area and took a few steps into a circle painted on the ground and took his spot. He looked around and remembered the days him and his father would come and train here. Where Harichimo got his first taste of fighting. He enjoyed it, he thought he had as much talent as anyone else. He could never turn down the opportunity to test himself being so foolish in his younger years and still now today.

He looked over to Yomi and remembered the raw aggression and power she could pack if she got a hold of him. Being a user of crystal techniques and weapon styles would be a deadly combo for anyone.But he felt if he could be passive then the right opportunities could present themselves for him. He raised up his arms in muay thai stance and glanced at Yomi. "And since you are the older of us and I challenged you, you can have the first move." He was excited for this opportunity to face off against the person who would most likely be his better for a while but she wouldn't be for long without a fight. He felt strong in his own right after proving himself in the group training.Now it was time to put up or shut up and Harichimo was ready to show what he had.

288/1277

Training
Strength E2-D 525/525
Reaction Time E2-D 525/525
Endurance E2-E3 2225/225

Remaining WC: 2

Looking at the kid throw away his stuff and jacket at the entrance of the training area made Yomi smile for a moment, as it gave her the same vibe as she had most likely given Akira-sensei at her first training session with him. Deciding that she could better not go and underestimate her opponent or take him ever to lightly just because he was the newest member of the squad she was a part of.

"Well, if you insist to give me the first move," The young woman laughed, while she started skipping her feet, warming up her self, while keeping her fists up swooping them through the air for a few seconds. "Let's have some fun with this, shall we?"

Holding her breath for a moment, the yamada clan member suddenly started weaving her handseals in an incredibly fast way, after which her lower legs and feet seemed to be covered by a streamlined mud and rock exterior, no doubt to give her legs some extra weight and power on impact, as well as some additional defense.

Rushing towards the young kazako clan member in a straight fashion, she made a quick drop to the ground by bending through her knees, lashing out with a sweeping kick aimed for Harichimo's feet, aiming to unbalance him. Almost simultaniously, she threw both her arms forward in a double palmthrust aimed at the boy's abdomen.

"Let's see what you're made of, shall we?" The young woman laughed, finding pleasure and excitement in this test of strength and skill given to her by the newest member of the Taijutsu squad.

274/1234

chakra: 140/150

jutsu:

Harichimo took note of his older much more experienced opponent working her hand seals with authority. I can't wait to see what she has in store. A user of crystal chakra could bring forth any number of deadly things only limited by the imagination. But it's not crytal. He watched as her legs became encased in mud and earth almost like a piece of armor or two major enhancements to her already deadly physique.

And almost in no time she gave a dead sprint towards him. She easily cleared the small space between then in a couple of seconds. He saw her duck and launch the attack for his legs. All he could do was jump to avoid the attack. But then he felt two flat palms land smack into his stomach. He looked behind him and extended his arms to try and catch himself into a cartwheel and end up crouched on the ground. It felt like a strong strike even though it was only a palm thrust and it was enough to send him back a couple of feet to his knees on the ground. He would have to keep his wits about him since she likes to be a combo fighter and she did feel a bit stronger than him. "Good one there. But if that's just the starter coarse. I'm excited to see what the main coarse will be."

Harichimo got back to his feet and made his run to clear the couple of feet between them and made a leap leading with his left leg. When he wold get right in her face he had to release his right leg to deal a swift blow into her chest.

287/289

Justu:

A grin appeared on Yomi's face when Harichimo managed to avoid her initial kick, baring her teeth in an even wider grin when she could feel her hands touch and bury themselves in the softness of his relaxed and unaware abdomen, sending him backwards until he managed to gracefully refrain himself from falling further by flipping and performing a cartwheel, ending up crouched on the ground. Despite being the senior shinobi and the senior in the taijutsu squad, the Yamade member had to admit that the junior of the squad had just beautifully managed things from getting worse and had displayed his flexibility rather well.

Feeling her blood rise slightly, Yomi's grin began to widen even further. This guy was most likely going to be much fun to have this match with and despite his originally rather weak appearance, she might've underestimated him from the very beginning.

"Let me see what you can do," Yomi laughed, while watching the kazako clanmember leap towards her with quite some vigor and elegance she hadn't expected, though given if he was anything like their sensei, who evidentially was a Kazako as well, he'd better be good after all. "Talking about main courses..."

With just three handseals, Yomi's mud and rock armored legs suddenly seemed to be layered with extra black crystal spikes and keen edges jutting out from everywhere on her lower legs and feet. This she used to Even further emphasize the strength of her legs and to be able to counteract against Harichimo's quick kick. With a swift diagonal upward and kick in the opposite direction of the young man's kick, she aimed to show him the true strength of her legs. Event though she could feel the young man's kick hit her right leg painfully hard, she laughed loudly, finding it amusing to have this kind of fun with a teammate.

"Here's a good hint for when we need to work together again," The young woman said while grinning widely again and pointing towards her feet. "Despite this jutsu being useful, it's sadly not one to last very long."

It would be obvious that she was talking about the first of her activated jutsu, as the rocky and muddy layer seemed to crumble and vanish in thin air, but her layer of black crystal over her feet and lower legs remained in perfect condition and was essentially the pivotal point for her next move, as she stomped the ground very hard with her left leg, sending her into a spinning motion towards Harichimo, with her legs stretched towards him, she had launched herself like a drill aiming to penetrate his entire torso with merely her legs covered in strong and sharp black crystals. "Crystal release~Dread Drill!!"

468/1702

chakra: 115/150

jutsu:

It had worked for the most part. She had parried away his leading leg and let him get a solid strike to her upper thigh. But that obviously wasn't going to be enough to slow her down. She had much more experience then he had but he had to keep the trades in his favor if he wanted to stay ahead as long as he could. Yomi's parry had pushed him away a couple of feet ending in another stand off.

Harichimo listened to his older squad mate keeping an eye for anything out of the ordinary. She seemed to be enjoying herself and having quite the kick out of it. But that doesn't mean she won't want to win badly. As she made her hand seals Harichimo readied his legs to spring into action for what she had planned. He saw her legs get covered in the crystal chakra he had seen before when they first met.

And in the flash of an instant she was air born heading right towards him. There was little he could do. He felt the spike on her leg enter his side the full one and a half inches. It was the worse pain he could imagine. He could feel himself being dragged along for the ride so he had to hold on. When he could hear himself think it was time to act and his only opportunity to bring himself back. Harichimo clenched her leg into his side determined to hang on. In his other hand he prepared his chakra anesthetic. He grabbed for her thigh right near the base of her knee joint trying to take out her main weapons and throw her off her game.

289/578

Techniques and Cooldowns:

With a slightly gleeful grin on her face, the Yamada clanmember watched her crystal layered feet bury themselves into the young man's sides, most likely hurting him like hell. However, her smile vanished rather quickly, when she realized and also remembered the fact that like their sensei, he was fully capable of saving himself by utilizing his medical ninjutsu. Though not closing his wound, he seemed to be able to lessen or even withstand the pain in some way. It didn't take long for Yomi to realize how he had managed to withstand the pain, as the young man had firmly grabbed her right leg and by doing something with his chakra, he had managed to temporarily numb her leg.

Now without the use of her right leg and slightly upset by this setback, Yomi used her left leg to jump backwards, trying to stay out of the young man's range, but the damage had already been done, she was incapable of further using her taijutsu for a while, which was probably what the young man was after. Cursing her ignorance of her squadmate's skills, Yomi tried her best to remain balanced on her left leg, not a hard feet given her fighting style, but annoying nevertheless.

"Damn you, I should've known you could do something like that," The young woman sighed, disspointed in her own mistakes. "Using something like that to take out my taijutsu, not a bad call at all, Harichimo-kun."

It was probably the first time that she had used the young man's name, rather than giving him nicknames, making it obvious she now really did regard him as more than just a newbie. However, just like he had his medical ninjutsu to fall back upon, she still had some tricks up her sleeve as well and in her case, her other skills werent really meant to be taken lightly in what should've been an ordinary spar.

"Come on," She laughed, making a taunting signal with her stretched out arm, waving her hand. "Are you only going to defend yourself?"

351/2053
chakra: 115/150

jutsu+cooldowns:

Finally a dent in her offense the pay off he was after but at the staggering price. Now he had a hole in his side draining blood at a steady pace if he didn't take care of it soon it would most likely be his downfall. With Yomi's quick jump away he could see she wasn't crippled much but enough to where she was thrown off her game but to what degree?. And her moxie wasn't cut short either taunting and egging him on to keep going. So far he had only been on the receiving end of this fight but now was his shot to get the lead in his mind this was his chance to show her exactly what he was capable of. All he could do was smile and give her what she wanted.

"Alright I'll show you what I can do." One shot is all I get so I had better make it good. Harichimo reached and plucked some of his hair from the the back of his head. He held them out and focused making the strands glow purple with his chakra and with a flick of his wrist puff of smoke appeared and dissipated to reveal a clone in the same condition he was in, unfortunate but he would need what he could get to do the job.

This shot would either pay off big or end his day early with how aggravated the injury might get and cost himself more precious time to heal. Harichimo and his clone took off in dead run at his fellow student and with a semi graceful leap as if mirroring the other they launched themselves spinning in the air to deliver a double assault to the hampered target. 

296/874/2149

Techniques and Cooldowns:

(OOC: Calling hit so this thread can close)

In a split second Harichimo and clone found their kicks make contact dead center of Yomi sending her fly back into a wall of the dojo. As they landed Harichimo felt the stinging pain shoot all the way up his side. He knelt down and held his side looking to see Yomi knocked into the wall still. "Well now how about we call it a draw?" Harichimo focused chakra into his palm and put it over the gaping hole in his side starting the healing process. As he healed his wound her heard a bell ringing. It sounded like the bell from the clan house clinic. "Well crap I will have to get going. That is the bell calling for clan members to return home. Maybe one day we can have a better bout." Harichimo grabbed his coat and still holding his side made his way out of the dojo and home.



152/ 1026 Total WC 2301


Exit Thread

Exit thread

Strength D1 to D2: 400/400 words
Strength D2 to D3: 450/450 words
Speed D0 to D1: 325/325 words
Speed D1 to D2: 400/400 words
Speed D2 to D3: 450/450 words

28 wc left