The sun was beginning to go down, eclipsing over the horizon and silhouetting the mountains. Snow lightly covered the earth, the crystals of fallen snowflakes crunching underfoot as the recognisable form of the bulk known as Oki walked bare foot. Clad in his training garb, he grinned as he stepped forth, following the pathways of the mountain village as his companion bear, Debu, followed along. He walked up the mountain path, before soon walking down again, taking every twist and turn, his breath misting as it left his mouth. He had a goal today, one that was a follow up to a prior mission. He had intended to see the growth of the village’s genin. He had been told if he lost, he’d lose the mission. But just because he was to aim to win, didn’t mean he couldn’t see and aid those in growing – defeating the enemy, and winning, is not always what is important. If in a spar against a comrade, to Oki at least, self betterment and improvement was far more important than winning.

After entering through some doors, and getting down the stairs into the arena proper, Oki walked through the main doors, watching as the genin were all stood, waiting. A smile of satisfaction came across his face. If nothing else, they were prepared for him to arrive. He stepped forth, putting his weight into each step to emphasise his presence, allowing Debu to simply plod along with him and wait by the door. From there, it was simple. The huge chuunin walked up to the stage, the arena where they were all waiting, and watching, kunai already in hand. Oki let out a deep chuckle that emanated from his belly, feeling truly proud of his village as he nodded and clapped his hands, stepping onto the stage and in front of the genin. Cracking his knuckle, he grinned before bellowing out a roar, shouting in a taunt. “There needs to be no words this time, my comrades! I wish to see how far you have come! I have trained! You have trained! Come! Let me show you defeat once more!”

The instant the words had finished leaving his mouth, the genin rushed forwards, and Oki ran to meet them. Already he could see improvement, for unlike before, where one genin was the first one to start the conflict, instead a total of five of the twenty soldiers attacked him, each running with their kunai in hand from a different direction. The sight of team work and coordination, as well as planning, was pleasing for the bear man – it gave him hope that Iwa was to continue being the mountain village of strength and unity. The children of the earth were here, and Oki had to be prepared to take them on as if they were equals if he wanted to avoid defeat. He swung his arm, attempting to grab a hold of one of the nearby attackers, however the student soon slipped through his grip, leaping up to attempt to stab Oki in the shoulder while the others intended to aim for the chest. He smiled, ducking down and dropping to all fours, before forcefully leaping sideways, barrelling one of the genin over from the sheer bulk at the lower leg, knocking them down and into the way for the other genin to hit and tumble. It wouldn’t keep them down and out, but, it kept the closest down for long enough to let the bear man regain his posture, standing back up once more with a cheeky grin, flexing his arm and fingers in taunting.

The next two rushed forward, swinging their kunai from opposite sides of the chuunin. They had moved while their comrades fell, taking advantage of the momentum to strike at the off balance Oki while he couldn’t dodge. So, he didn’t, instead moving his arms and allowing the kunai to stab into him, tearing through the sleeves and piercing not far into his arms, the sheer toughness of his skin and hair preventing much of the penetration. With an agility that didn’t make any sense from such a large guy, Oki leapt up, spinning around so that one foot connected with a genin’s stomach, and his hands grappled the other, using the gripped genin’s weight to twist himself from the kick, and dropping his weight to the ground and allowing Oki to go where he specialised – groundwork.

The next three came at once, once more with no hesitation, and Oki rolled to meet them, limbs wrapping around the nearest ones legs and dragging her to the ground with a scream. It was surprisingly satisfying, to watch as the rest of the genin didn’t flinch at the take down, and instead responded by attempting to stab the large bear like man. Oki kept moving however, now grappling the victim that he’d dragged to the floor and instead raising her above him, being sure to make sure she didn’t hit any of the kunai as he stood up and threw her onto the pile that were only just beginning to get up, taking all six of them out for the count, too winded to want to continue. Still, deciding to follow the mission objective to a perfect T, and thus wanting to instil fear into the genin, Oki allowed the two kunai to go towards him, before snapping his hands up, and gripping the wrists, stopping them in an instant. Oki was physically stronger than all of the genin here, and wanted to make that known, lifting the two off the ground with no hesitation before flipping them over, allowing gravity to do the damage and just give them a bruised backside. Ten genin remained.

And it seemed they had no intentions of being taken out one at a time, surrounding Oki from all angles. Smiling, he began stroking his goatee like he usually did when thinking, something that could be seen as somewhat of a tell on the chuunin’s actions. But, these were genins, so his patterns were not going to be predicted any time soon. In fact, they predicted nothing, instead rushing forward and, each at different levels and from different angles. Oki was impressed, and if it wasn’t for his straight forward strategy, he’d have been in trouble.

Still bleeding from his arms where he was stabbed prior, as the genin rushed in, Oki rushed forward, using his arms as a guard to snap for the nearest genin and grapple them before getting stabbed, twisting their arms so that two of them fell into each other, taking their unarmed hand, and slapping each in the face with the others arms. He didn’t stop there, spinning to face the rest of them, and blocking the first incoming strike at the wrist, before grappling it and swinging that person around like a weapon, knocking down seven more people, including the one in hand, so that only one more remained. Yet it seemed something surprising was about to happen.

The kunai that the genin held clattered to the floor, and, without saying anything, they turned tail to try and flee. Oki sighed, sad by such a thing, but simply stood there and watched. They got as far as the door out of the building before Oki shook his head, switching places with Debu in an instant, and appearing right behind the fleeing genin. With a ferocity, he gripped the genin from behind, wrapping his arms around, before leaning back and slamming them in a suplex to the ground, being careful to not do so to an extent that would cause intense harm, and simply to daze. He then rolled, picking the genin up and growling, shaking his head slowly as he spoke to the whimpering, dizzy boy. “Listen. I’ll only tell you this once, because it is a serious lesson. If you run on a battle field, then you need to make damn well sure your comrades and friends are running with you, do you understand? Because not only did you just leave your allies to an enemy, but you left your own back open! We in Iwagakure are the mountain! The stone! I do not shun or shame you for running, for you were scared! But use that fear and learn from it! This was an exercise! To see how you would all cope with fighting an enemy you could not defeat! Yet here, you showed exactly why we need these exercises!”

He paused, sighing and shaking his head as he paced back and forth, letting the genin down and pacing back and forth. He could soon hear the sounds of the child crying, and a frown crossed Oki’s face as he turned around, crouching down. “Hey, kid, listen. We all make mistakes. You’re allowed to be scared. This was just an exercise, and you all tried your best. I am proud of you. Really, I am. So, hey, maybe we’ll go at it for round 3 some time, when you’re a higher rank, hm?” And with that, he got up, shaking his head and walking off, Debu plodding along with him.

1522 WC DONE

[EXIT]