It was one of those days where he had actually entered the Village Hidden by the Clouds. Most times he explored around the Village in hopes of something interesting to do when he wasn't spending his days training in hopes to 'awaken' his clan's famed Sharingan.

Walking up the side of the mountain, he was on his way to the Battle Plateau. It was one of the places where he was able to actually face off against aspiring Genin and Chunnin. A lot of them were experienced, but not many pushed him to his absolute limit. Truth be told, he couldn't even remember the last time that he had been pushed to his absolute limit, to the point where he couldn't even function anymore. Is that even possible? Wouldn't you die if that were to happen?

He stopped bothering to ask himself questions that he didn't know the answer to, he was only disappointing himself as he began to realize the extent of how limited his knowledge was of the shinobi world outside of the Academy.

Once he had gotten to the platform where the Battle Plateau was, he saw numerous pairs of shinobi battling it out all throughout the plateau. It was always refreshing to see so many people fighting at once, it was sort of like a miniature warground where there were no sides and everyone fought for themselves.

I wonder if the Village has ever done any games and events here, or war exercises. He didn't know the answer, so he didn't pretend he did, and he laughed softly to himself as he ascended the remaining steps and got to the top of the Battle Plateau.

He saw one figure entering though, a small blond, was it a female or a male? He couldn't tell at that distance, and he simply watched as said person began their own training exercises.

Who even comes here alone? He thought with an interest, and then he realized that he came to the Plateau alone all the time in order to find someone to combat. Usually people went with the intent of training with a friend, and Atasuke went there with the intent of practicing against a new person whenever he could. It'd help in the long run, to give you experience against someone at a similar ranking to you who specialized in different techniques and styles of fighting.

WC: 414

(OOC: Sorry for the shortness, fell asleep a bunch of times and forgot what I was going to write at some points.)

The day was not an easy one as the small blonde boy stood as the wind brushed up against his face. It was not very noisy at the top of the battle plateau as he took this spot for himself while the others battled in the lower sections of the plateau. He was not sure what to do as he first began with a warm up exercise. He was not really dressed for battle and was merely in a loose white t-shirt and a white shorts while practicing barefoot, since he did not really want to get his new shoes dirty in his training.

He was doing some stretches as he did the splits slowly before he was completely on the ground, he then first reached to his right touching his toes, then he reached out to the left touching his other toes, he then stretched to the front touching his nose to the bits of grass that were there. He then did a hand stand to test his balance and his arm strength before carefully swinging into a seated position. He took a deep breathe then grabbed some water out of his backpack and began drinking and then showered some of the water over his face as he shook his head letting the water fly out of his wet glossy blonde hair as he noticed someone approaching as he looked back to find a stranger he had not seen before. Where were all these people coming from, were the chuunin exams always this big every year.

~Words 258~

(OOC: Do not worry, sort of had a similar problem today too. Anyways remember to have fun)

Although he didn't know what Elin spoke, it was indeed true that there were plenty of foreigners within the Land of Lightning now, most, if not all of them directed to Kumogakure no Sato. The reason was simple of course, the Chunnin Exams were in play in the Village in the Clouds. But, despite the influx of foreign shinobi and tourists, the bright side to all of that was that the chances of them climbing a mountain to train was highly unlikely. Therefore, it gave those that more or less frequented the Village (or, inhabited obviously) free reign over the Battle Plateau.

For the most part anyway.

Descending the staircase towards the platform that the small blond figure was located on, the Uchiha removed his arms from their intertwined state in front of him, and let them hang at his sides while he descended the steps through the billowing wind, leaving his black cloak flapping against him and over the steps.

In his time as a Ronin, the Uchiha had thought heavily and decided that his fighting styles would blossom through Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Taijutsu techniques were fairly easy to get the basics of, and to him, Atasuke, it was easier to learn the close quarters combat that was Taijutsu rather than learning from the vagua and vast techniques that were Ninjutsu.

Of course as an Uchiha, he preferred Ninjutsu maybe over anything, and his primary element in combat was Katon, or Fire, Taijutsu attacks suited him quite a bit. He didn't expect this training session to show the worth of the Uchiha. After leaving Konohagakure, he was fairly limited in the jutsu that he knew...

Finally, when reaching the bottom he crossed the distance of the warming up... Then it is a boy, and stopped ten metres away from him and let his quiet voice carry towards his hopefully new opponent over the wind.

"A spar?"

Two wards, easily understandable. If he was declined, then he'd find a new one. It wouldn't have been the first time.

It occurred to him however that once you sparred with one person, you learned about them. Atasuke was certain that if one were to analyze how their opponent fought, they could learn as to how they would act in social encounters, whether they were outgoing, withdrawn, etc. The shinobi in Kumogakure no Sato that he had sparred with on numerous occasions, deep within the recesses of his mind, he'd consider them the closest things he had to friends.

Too bad he rarely if ever told anyone his name, allowing them to simply identify him as an Uchiha instead of his [i]actual name...

And so he waited for an answer...

WC: 457

He looked up to the stranger a bit as he nods his head as he says, "sure".

This was an unexpected turn as he wondered why this stranger he never met wanted to spar all of a sudden as he more or less made a loose stance as he took out one kunai and was twirling it around with his finger as he then continued with these few words.

"be careful." as he did not really feel like giving out his name or even asking any questions since it was clear the person only wanted to fight and did not even care about him at all. He was not in the best of moods since a stranger just asks to spar without even introducing themselves. He felt he should give the challenger the first move since he asked for the spar as the boy was not fully equipped for his battle yet, though things were soon going to change.

~Words 258 + 159 = 417~

OOC: Once the spar starts picking up speed I will probably make longer posts so be prepared lols and sorry this is probably my shortest social post ever...

The boy seemed reclusive, as if he were unsure as to whether or not he should interact with him, Atasuke. So he paused and questioned his actions. After he had received the confirmation however, Atasuke moved, and quickly but not in the way of combat. Not yet anyway. Once the blond boy had said everything he had to say, the Uchiha's hand emerging from the black cloak pointed up towards his chest and the faint sound of his voice over the wind whispered, "Atasuke."

He didn't like to make people uneasy, and even though he might not look it, deep down he wanted to be a people's person. The thing was, he lacked the motivation and the concrete reasons to do so, so he didn't. His verbal communication with humanity remained minimal, and he got by day to day like that. Was it time for a change? He sure felt like it, but he wasn't feeling up to changing his ways, not just yet. He'd wait to see how this spar went. After all, if this blond boy did win, then maybe he'd be a lot less fearful looking.

His initial reaction to the careful nature of his newly found opponent was disgust.

Although he bore no ninja headband, it was fairly easy to tell that he was facing a shinobi of Kumogakure. No doubt, a Genin he had rapidly deduced and after all had been said and done, he walked slowly forward so that they were fifteen meters away from each other.

His hand came together as he activated his jutsu.

'Fire Clone Jutsu.' The words were rasped underneath his breath, and a trio of clones formed up around him, considering that he was mostly concealed from the sight of the blond boy in front of him, he placed the palm of his hand against the back of his Fire Clone, and he infused his chakra with it, already preparing a substitution.

A kunai was launched from behind the centre clone, heading for the chest of the boy.

The fight had begun.

WC: 352

Chakra: 85 / 150:

He looked on as if he seemed to not really be paying attention as of yet. He yawned slightly when he noticed three clones form around the person in question. He watched a kunai fly down the center as he simply drew his kunai from his back pocket and struck the kunai down to the ground to show that he was not impressed as he was hoping for the fight to at least be exciting. Why did everyone always throw a kunai at his chest, were they trying to confirm that he was a boy or was it simply the only target they considered big enough to be worthy of an attack from a distance.

His eyes began to look sleepy as he took out a second kunai and stood there with his eyes looking half dazed at the one, two, three as he gave a careful look and sighed. "I hope you can come at me seriously." As the boy kneeled down pulling his backpack closer as he waited for his opponent to try again. He did not want to attack and for the most part could not attack that well yet until his gear had completed going through their screening process.

He was not fighting half-heartedly, he was just a bit upset cause he had not eaten anything yet. He was never going to tell his opponent that though since he had some form of pride.

~Words 417 + 239= 656~

CHAKRA = 150/150

Atasüke didn't usually open up a fight in a way like this. It was the first time he had been using his Fire Clones in a while, and he wasn't prepared to have wasted so much chakra in one shot, and there was a moment of hesitation the moment the kunai had left his hand, but the faint sound of laughing was heard from behind his trio of clones.

The large gap of chakra had hit him like a cyclist blindsiding him. It was a shock, unexpected, it temporarily extricated the breath from his throat as he thought up his next attack. The thing about being blindsided was that, you weren't tense, you were loose enough to bounce back and not take the full impact of whatever it was that was hitting you when you weren't expecting it. Being tense, although Atasüke was no scientist or doctor of any sort, he could only guess that it was easier to recover when you weren't expecting something to come at you.

He could understand why, but in those moments he couldn't completely form up a hypothesis, maybe after the fight if both combatants were in either shape to do so, who knew? Atasüke evidently wasn't the best judge of character, and his trio of clones and himself simply stood there awaiting a response.

When the words came out of the mouth of the blond, Atasüke immediately resumed his natural, more familiar state of mind. That's what he got for attempting to be social, huh? It was awkward enough throwing his name out randomly, and so he smiled inwardly. It felt good to be back home.

When he had metaphysically returned to his 'home,' that being his familiar and natural way of acting, he wasn't the most cooperative person. Sort of like a caretaker who was always surpassing their limit at their job, making sure everyone and everything was clean, no one did anything they weren't supposed to, and it all went smoothly.

Unfortunately for this here spar, what that entailed was that Atasüke wouldn't be forthcoming in any foreseeable future. So he didn't move, but he remained on guard. There was no reason to waste more chakra and energy on attacking this Cloud Ninja.

So he waited.

WC: 392

Chakra: 85/150

He stood there as the wind was blowing around them and through them as he stood patiently waiting when it dawned on him. His opponent stopped moving, all four of them as he was not sure how to go about that since he was expecting to be attacked immediately. He then stood up as he scratched his hair a bit before sighing as he introduced himself by placing the palm of his right hand on his chest. "I am Elin, you do not need to be scared of me."

He mistook the hesitation or highly guarded state as a sign of him some how intimidating or scaring his opponent as he was not sure what to do right now if his opponent would not willing come into range for his attack. He had a bow, but he really did not want to go back and fetch it since it was at home. Also the spar already started so neither of them could leave in the first place. At least not without admitting defeat so he got into a stance before giving a focused look at his opponent who did not seem to be wanting to attack anymore. He then proceeded to start skipping a bit as he prepared to attack soon.

"Get ready for this."

In that moment he stopped skipping after warming up properly as he ran towards his opponents and stopping within three meters of them having made two hand seals as he stood there as fire spread out within four meters of his location as he stood there waiting to see his opponents reaction. He would deflect or evade any kunai or projectiles thrown during the dash towards his opponent.

Chakra = 140/150

D-Rank Jutsu Fire Field:

The Uchiha's face remained impassive at the first words that exited the mouth of Elin. He had introduced himself and seemingly insulted him all in the same breath, but it affected him not. He would not be dissuaded and attack in anger! Simply waiting, he began to form into a low crouch just as Elin started to move closer and Atasüke and his clones leaped backwards when he tried to rapidly close the distance between them.

Elin had reached them though, and he wasn't planning to be overtaken so easily. Especially since he had announced his attack, but not what it was. It was enough for Atasüke to begin employing a tactic.

You won't last long in a world of shinobi when you tell me them to pay attention.

Clone Two, the clone that was situated in front and to the right of Atasüke unlike the others, had never stopped moving, and when Elin had released the fire from his foot, continued to move away as it leapt backwards, throwing two senbon after reaching into it's pouch at Elin's body, aimed to below the knees.

Clone Three, the half a meter from behind had long ago reached forwards the moment Elin had said his warning, and Atasüke's right arm had reached the behind him to grasp Clone Three's hand that was tugging him backwards away from the fire. That wasn't all however. To only have one link between two clones wouldn't work at all for Atasüke's plan, and his left hand had tugged Clone One in front of him away from the fire, pulling him out of it just as it began to lick his feet.

At that point, Clone Two was already going a length's way to circle around Elin, but there wouldn't be time for Elin to be focusing on a single Clone, for in that moment Clone One transformed itself into a Windmill Shuriken, and once Atasüke had been successfully out of range of Elin's fire thanks to Clone Three, his left hand was launched outwards releasing Clone One in the shape of an unfolded Fuma Shuriken right at the blond male.


WC: 376

Chakra Levels:

It seems that the opponent took being told to prepare himself as an insult, but in the face of an unbeatable tactic the best tactic was to announce the attack to allow for a psychological advantage. This however was not the point behind the young Elin's words as his approached triggered some movements which looked really cool as he watched closely. He noticed the one Atasuke tossing kunai rather low as he evaded to the right and then the left in a quick one two motion as he had simply timed them upon watching the release.

However he split his focus somewhat as he finally came into range, to which the three Atasuke's all did some weird grappling whirlwind formation linking one, two as he had a look of awe and wonder at the third link in the chain as they pulled in rotary fashion out of the way of his flames. During this time there was one Atasuke who began running circles around Elin who had seen this tactic often enough not to spend too much of his focus on it, just listening to keep track of location and to dodge carefully if anything happened. The fire prevented any direct attacks at that point so his main focus would still be on the three as he blinked for a moment and noticed that there were now only two Atasuke's and a windmill shuriken as it began to fly through the air towards him. 

He then began to run a few scenario's in his head, the first scenario was that the main Atasuke went into hiding and the clone used one of his available weapons a windmill shuriken which had probably been sealed away at this point while the other clone keeps on guard for potential counter attacks. It seemed basic enough however there were two more scenario's that played out in his head.

The second scenario had it played out that one of the clone's had perhaps taken a hit from the fire and died. So the original Atasuke had chosen to pull out a weapon he had concealed and attacked him in order to make up for the loss and to allow the encircling clone to find an opening if he slipped up.

The third scenario was unlikely, but also possible which was to transform into a weapon and then have a clone toss him towards Elin in order to get up close for an attack as these possibilities rushed into his head there was only one option for him in this situation and that was to counter the weapon and to attack the opponent before him so he would have time to focus on the encircling shark waiting for an opening.

He pulled out a kunai quickly having thought up those possibilities in a brief period of time as they all had one answer, he had to attack to prevent the clones from getting into a position to surround him. His kunai had a strange white glow as he through it at the windmill shuriken, however this kunai did not have the power of a normal kunai as a white trail was left as it was heading straight for the whirling shuriken that was headed for him.

This attack would have enough strength to at least break a transformation if the windmill shuriken was a transformation and do some serious damage, while at the same time being able to damage the windmill shuriken so that it would not be usable anymore as well as allowing his kunai to travel forthwith towards the enemy since the range of this technique was a lot further than the fire field. The radius of this technique was close to a meter as it was aimed as to hit the shuriken and go forth to hit the two behind it, however if this was not a shuriken the damage might be enough to kill a clone hit by this technique and with only fire beneath even if it was a clone who blocked it the damage from the flames might be enough to finish off the clone as well.

His follow through to his attack would be that if it was a clone he would then keep a close watch on the two before him and listen to feel whatever happens around him as the flames begin to burn more intensely then they did initially making direct attacks really dangerous for his opponent while seeming to trap him in his location now.

If it was a clone it would not stop the attack from reaching the other two so depending on whether they countered the jutsu or simply evaded would change things. If they evaded it would give him a chance to focus on the Atasuke who was circling him as he would then throw three shuriken with one at the predicted path to hit the chest area, the other one at the point he would be if he slowed down and the third one at the point at where he would be if he chose to stop. However this was only if the other two atasuke's chose to take time dodging to allow him this amount of breathing space.

The second option was if they attacked he would drop down and prepare a quick counter attack that will account for multiple attacks at his trapped location. While also allowing him to do some planning in order to perform a very large scale technique. Which in this case might bring an end to this fight if done correctly or would simply change the playing field greatly. There was a third option, but he was not putting too much thought into it since he did have a trump card which had not been tested yet that would prove useful later in the exams.

~Words 656 + 283(previous post) + 977 = 1916~

TRAINING KATON S-SS 1915/9000

Chakra = 125/150

White Edge Attack C-Rank:

Being told to warn himself wasn't so much an insult, as more of taking what may have taken you by surprise or which would've put you at more of a disadvantage, and making it into an advantage. The senbon that had been thrown by an airborne clone had happened to have been watched, all in the while a Windmill Shuriken was being thrown at the user, only a handful of metres out of the range of Elin's own attack.

While the shuriken had been thrown, Atasüke had made sure to pull the clone that was behind him, Clone Three, to the front of him as he leapt backwards two meters to prepare his longer ranged swap. Unfortunately, whatever thought process his opponent was going through had already determined that the best course of action was destroying the Shuriken. He paused himself, he had been certain that the attack wouldn't worked, but instead it exploded into a puff of smoke and Clone One had dispersed in front of his opponent. In that time, Clone Two wasted none of it, he had thrown the three remaining senbon to the back and side of Elin, directly into his blind spots. One at the top of his spinal cord, another underneath his ribs, and the final one in the lower half of his right shoulder blade. All of them thrown at the moment the fire started to burn with more intensity which would no doubt allow the burning to become louder and most likely conceal the sound of Clone Two's movement, and since they were thrown on such an angle there was no reason for him to even expect them coming.

Further more, Atasüke's Clone One had already been dispersed by the white chakra encased kunai, so when it had struck Clone Three, it had no doubt lost some of it's potency, and instead of dispersing Clone Three as well, it slipped pushed him backwards, and he slowly came to a stop.

The moment the kunai had penetrated it's torso, it was pulled out. It had severely weakened the clone, but it didn't stop it from tossing it back towards the real Atasüke in order to give him another weapon in the event that it became close ranged.

This battle was becoming a bore, and the being that Atasüke had become, one that harboured it's feelings and desires in itself was starting to show as he began to make the fewest amount of movements as possible, and held the kunai with a loose, but firm hold, but nevertheless appeared lazy. Soon, it'd be safe to say Atasüke would leave.

He had learned quite a bit on this day, all he needed was a few more moments. He had some place to be later anyway, he was always someone who at least tried to stay on time, it was something that was no doubt ideal for a shinobi, especially when it came down to missions. The few seconds that your partner was late could be the seconds in which you died, and Atasüke was not in the business of letting people he could call team mates die. Not that he had found anyone like that yet...

WC: 548