As the sun rose high above the village at the late hour of sometime after eleven in the morning, Yuki's eyes would begin to creak opened, the invasive sun never seeming to want to let her sleep in. She considered attempting to murder it once again, though this had never proven to be very successful in the past and she didn't particularly want to explain another broken window with an explination starting with the phraze "Well I was trying to kill the sun because it's an asshole..." She decided to keep her rage in check this time, her spear not leaving its spot on the wall until after she had showered and dressed and before she went out to the kitchen for breakfast. She ate quickly, shoveling down a plate of ham and eggs, and then she patted Akai, grabbed her spear, and the two of them made their way out the door.

The day was pretty ideal conditions for training as there was no rain or clouds in the sky and it wasn't too hot, which was good because Yuki hated the hot weather. It made her not want to do anything, and she was quite happy that it was staying away today. She wandered out of the village, Akai trailing along beside her with his tail wagging as the two of them tried to figure out where they wanted to train for the day. It was a long wander as they tried to find the perfect spot that was a little bit different from what they had dealt with before, as they had trained mostly everywhere in the village. Yuki was trying to think of a place that she hadn't been and it dawned upon her fairly quickly that there were always things to hit over at the village docks. She and Akai made their way there, running and dragging her spear behind her as she went to find the docks. There was a man there who stopped her as she was wandering up.

"Hey you there! What's with the spear kiddo? Isn't that a bit dangerous for a little girl like you?" Yuki was not amused with the man's words. She was fifteen first off, so not a little girl at all, and secondly she was the Hokage's daughter, so she wasn't worried about some punk who didn't think she should be training wherever she wanted too.

"I'm no kid, I'm fifteen. And Kenta is my dad, so I know how to take care of myself." Her voice was stern and Akai growled at him, which he laughed at. "I wouldn't laugh if I were you mister, I don't know what you're doing here, but it doesn't look like you should be here." He had a couple of other men walking towards him, carrying various tools that it looked like they could potentially be used as weapons. Yuki's mind was racing and Akai was standing in front of her to guard her.

"Girl, you shouldn't talk to your elders like that," the first man had pulled out a knife now, something that clearly wouldn't have much effect against her spear. She wondered if he simply thought she wasn't capable of using it or not. She bit her lower lip as she took the spear into her hands, her right hand on the bottom of the spear and her left near the center, holding it with the point centered at his heart. He looked towards his friends and as soon as he did this she would strike, throwing a thrust to his face, which he would weave but not before she snapped her back hand towards the tip of the spear and snap the bottom into the side of his head, causing him to scream out. She would then bring it doen and sweep his legs, knocking him onto the ground before smashing the butt end of the spear into his nose and knocking him unconscious. The other two seemed like they were a tad bit stunned, but they wouldn't be for long and Yuki was getting ready to have to attack them again if needed...

710

Shippo smiled as he ate the meal that was offered for breakfast. He like his mother and father were usually up early in the morning. The reason being was that it was far cooler in the early morning so it made training and doing chores. Just then Tsume jumped up on the table and began to share in Shippo’s breakfast with him. This only made his parents roll his eyes as they thought he was spoiling Tsume, and that wasn’t a good thing. Of course, Shippo didn’t see it that way. He saw it as bonding which he wouldn’t give up no matter what.

When they were done, the pair rushed from the house and the table as fast as they could, heading out to play, train, or whatever would come to them that day. Of course, no sooner had he walked outside than he recalled the fact that he forgot most of his ninja gear. Having only recently graduated from the ninja Academy he wasn’t used to carrying these things around with him so he quickly rushed back inside the sudden change of direction causing Tsume to stumble over himself running after his human partner. They went up to Shippo’s bedroom collecting his weapons and his headband which he was all too happy to put on before they left the house again. As they went out this time they rushed through the village looking for something, or anything that would make the day fun.

They played throughout most of the morning hunting each other, chasing birds, and the like. As they walked around the village Shippo couldn’t help but wonder how good or how bad of a shinobi he would make. There wasn’t much he could do yet, despite that he worked his best at many things. He and Tsume walked the length of the village before they arrived at the docks. They hadn’t meant to wander there, but as they did Tsume’s nose caught something besides the salt air. He gave a soft yip to relay the information to Shippo who sniffed as well and looked around trying to see what Tsume was smelling. It was then he saw a girl with a spear facing three men. She had managed to bring one of them down, and that was impressive enough.

Shippo wasn’t sure what was going on and he didn’t feel the need to interfere. That was until he saw the Canine partner that was with her. She was a member of his clan or so he assumed, and that meant he had to help her. He growled as he readied his claws looking to Tsume “Come on boy! We have to help our pack!” he said before charging in. As he ran up behind Yuki he overtook her charging one of the two who were standing in front of her stunned. One of the men had a gaff hook in hand and as soon as Shippo passed Yuki he managed to bring it up only to have Tsume leap up into the air and latch onto the shaft of the improvised weapon snarling loudly. The man gave a cry and tried to shake the pup loose giving Shippo the opening he needed. He closed into the man’s reach sending his right fist in a low curling strike into the larger man’s stomach. This caused him to stumble back dropping his improvised weapon. Still, he wasn’t free to go as Shippo pressed his attack now landing his left fist in a similar strike to the same location driving more air from him along with slowly moving him back down the docks and away from Yuki.

This wasn’t the end however as the strikes had given Shippo room to work so he slammed his fists into the man’s chest right then left, before he delivered finger strikes using his claws to deal wounds to the man. With another pair of strikes the man was down bleeding from the puncture wounds created by Shippo’s claws and now Shippo in partnership with Tsume in front of him; turned to face the only one still standing. Shippo held his right hand out with his palm facing the sky, while his left hand was over his fore arm flat as it could be while he waited for the man to make up his mind on what he was going to do now.


751/751

After the first man had fallen, Yuki saw a blur of fur jump at another one of the goons as another person had entered the fray. It seems like he was helping her out, so she was more than happy to take the assistance against these thugs. She thought it was interesting that he seemed to be travelling with a canine companion, and afterwards would have to ask if he was a member of the Inuzuka clan. The Konoha pack was fairly large and close to one another, so to have another Inuzuka around the village who she didn't know was an interesting prospect. She was quite curious, but her curiosity would have to wait until after this second thug was taken care of.

She brought the spear to bare once more, pointing it towards the man's face. This individual was brandishing a large chain, and she knew that there was a chance that it could be trouble for her spear if he were able to wrap it around the shaft. She communicated to Akai to be ready, a handy part of being a part of her odd family. Telepathic communication was extremely handy in situations such as these, where she needed to let her companions no something, but not have it be audible so that her enemies could hear her plans. She told Akai to get behind the man, which he did as soon as she told him too, the man's chain being swung to wrap around her spear. He wrapped it up, and she had already decided that she would use this to her advantage, as the chain being tied to her spear was something that she could use to her advantage anyway. Once she had been "trapped" by the spear, she stepped into him, putting the butt end of the spear between the man's legs as Akai laid down behind him. It was a silly trick, but one that was quite effective as she would drive her shoulder into his chest, catching him off balance and causing him to tumble over Akai, who would get out of the way once he started to fall.

Akai would move to bite the hand that the man was holding the chain in, causing him to drop it as Yuki would snap the chain covered spear head down into the mans chest, the extra weight from the chain causing him to grunt in pain. She would then swing the spear back around and point the tip of it at his throat, holding it there as he looked up at her. "Please don't kill me! I'll leave and not come back, I'll quit the gang, anything!" She hadn't been aware that there was a gang until that point in time, though it did make sense as the three of them had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and she knew that often docks could be a dangerous place. She took a look around to see if there were any other gang members around, but it was impossible to tell as the docks were always busy with different workers and people who were coming in and out of the village. She let him up and told him "Leave and don't come back. If I see you again, you'll be in a lot more trouble." She wouldn't kill the man, but he didn't have to know that. Part of being a shinobi was accepting the fact that sometimes you had to take a life, and it simply wasn't something Yuki wanted to think of unless the situation was extremely dire.

She watched as he ran away, looking over towards the other shinobi who was near her. She quickly noticed the Inuzuka clan marks on his cheeks, and walking over to him when she was satisfied that the man likely wasn't coming back. "Oi, you there!" Her voice was friendly and inviting. Akai would walk up to smell his ninken and she chuckled softly at this. "I haven't seen you around here, always interesting to meet an Inuzuka who isn't from my Da's pack. I'm Yuki! Who are you?"

1411

Shippo made sure that he kept an eye on the other two who were on the docks however as he wouldn’t want them to get up and Tsume was of a like mind. He snarled softly at the one who was unconscious when they arrived keeping his eyes on him making sure he didn’t get up. If he did move to get up, then Tsume would be at his throat because like his partner Shippo he didn’t believe in sparing anyone who would dare to challenge him or his partner.

While Tsume did that Shippo adjusted his stance facing the one he had just taken out. His right hand went forward being perpendicular to the ground while his left hand came up short of it in the same position to keep his hands ready to receive any attack. His feet were the easy part as he shifted his weight from the balls of his feet to his heels so he could step back quickly if he needed to from any quick or jerky movements that the man might’ve made at Shippo. Of course, while keeping an eye on this man he watched the very talented movements between Yuki and her partner. He was fairly impressed with how in sync they were. He wondered if he and Tsume looked that synchronized.

Reality called back to him as he heard the man make his desperate plea. His mind had wandered so far he hadn’t noticed her knock the man down. He listened to the plea for life and shook his head in annoyance. Of course, there was a gang, of course at the first sign of trouble they would tuck their tails like mongrels and run. He supposed that he shouldn’t judge them too harshly, they weren’t ninja and they had chosen targets poorly because of that simple inescapable fact.

So, when she let him go running away as fast as he could there was nothing to say on the matter. The fight seemed to be over so Shippo gave a glance at the unconscious men and made sure to take several steps back so that he wouldn’t be caught up in any kind of surprise attacks if they should try to make one such attack. By this time Yuki and her partner Akai had approached them and Shippo only caught the last of what she was saying. He could’ve sworn she had said more to him than just asking for his name. As he thought for a moment he recalled she said her name was Yuki, although he couldn’t be sure of that.

Instead of being awkward about the whole thing he smiled nodding his head “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Shippo, and that pup there is Tsume.” He said gesturing to the grey/blue pup who was sniffing Akai in turn the bright colors contrasting very sharply with Tsume’s own. The darker pup didn’t seem to mind being investigated, but after a moment he moved back to stand closer to Shippo clearly having lost interest in the meeting after he knew who Akai was. Shippo smirked as he looked down at Tsume shaking his head “Shy, are we?” Tsume gave a huff before he moved to nuzzle against Akai in a deliberate defiance of Shippo’s accusation.

With a soft chuckle, he looked back to Yuki “Well, I am glad to see another Inuzuka. I’m newly graduated from the academy. It seems I did okay for my first fight as a Genin.” Turning he gestured to the unconscious men laying on the dock beaten down “Uh, not that I don’t mind helping you, but why did these guys try to jump you?” he asked unsure why anyone would attack a shinobi or an Inuzuka for that matter. Just then something clicked in his brain and he suddenly jumped back an inch causing Tsume to jump looking at him in concern while he blurted out "W-wait who is your da!?"

681/1,432

He introduced himself and his ninken, making Yuki smile as she watched his canime companion seem to try to ignore Akai and then go back over to him as if in defiance of his friend. Yuki couldn't help but to laugh as the other Inuzuka seemed to stumble briefly over his words as he seemed to figure out who she was. She smiled to him and spun her spear, putting it back on her back as she crouched down to scratch Akai between the ears and holding him in her arms. "I'm Kenta's daughter, Kenta and Michi. My dad is the Hokage, and Da' runs the village when he's away." Her smile didn't leave her face as she thought of all of the training she had done with her family over the years, keeping extremely close with all of them. She mostly recently trained with her sister Temaki and occasionally her brother Hiroyuki, as the three of them tried to work on becoming as strong as they could. Yuki herself was determined to be more powerful than her father, and she was working as hard as she could to get there.

"How about you? I've never seen you around before, you must be from a different pack or are you from another village?" She sniffed the air to see if he smelled different, but he smelled like trees, leaves, and fresh air. Basically he smelled like Konoha and that was very curious to her. She was pretty excited at the prospect of meeting another Inuzuka, bouncing up and down slightly as though she was ready to play, which was very possible. She tried to contain her excitement, watching as Akai started jumping excitedly as well. She giggles softly and watched him nuzzle against the other puppy as well making Yuki smile as she was happy to see Akai getting along with someone other than Blast, her sister's Ninken. She had been a little bit worried about him being somewhat antisocial.

As she would speak to the other young Inuzuka she would keep her eyes and ears pealed for any other unwelcome and potentially unsavory individuals who might try to sneak up on the two of them and get some payback for their friends, though she seemed to be fairly lucky as it didn't seem like anyone else was around, or at least nobody too close to be an issue. There were several people milling about the docks going about their daily lives working, loading and unloading cargo, some of them preparing ships to take sale across the seas to Kiri once more, and others tying up the sails and preparing the ship to dock for supplies for the week. She found it all fascinating, as she had never personally left the village, and she often wondered what it was like being out at sea, though not enough to actually do so, or at least not yet. She had heard stories from her father about how he would go on diplimatic trips to the other villages, like the one he was on now to the land of rocks, which sounded boring to Yuki. She liked the idea of the different smells and sights that she could take in, and imagined Iwagakure would be a very boring place to visit if that was what you liked.

She would speak once more, "And hey, you're pretty useful in a fight! Thanks for helping me out with those thugs by the way. Also, I didn't introduce him yet, but this," she pointed to Akai who was still sniffing around his ninken. "is Akai. He just likes the air out here, so we like to walk here fairly often." She would smile again as she spoke, looking back out to the sea briefly before giving Shippo her full attention.

2055

Shippo’s eyes widened ever so slightly as he heard that she was the daughter of the Hokage. Of course, he knew well the Hokage was from his clan, and it was widely considered that his pack was the main body and main pack in the clan, more commonly considered the “Alpha” pack. Still, he had his own name and place to worry about so instead he just bowed halfway down his body with a smile “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you cousin Yuki.” He said in his cheerful kind of smile. As he talked to his cousin he looked down to make sure that Tsume was playing nice with the other Ninken, and indeed he was.

As he was nuzzled and investigated by his cousin he in turned investigated and nuzzled the other dog showing they were companions in some aspects at least. As the two got to know each other better Shippo shook his head lightly “Oh no, I am a Konoha native born and bred. My mother and father are both natives here as well. I suppose my mother is a cousin to your father through some line. I’m sorry I’m not too familiar with the specifics of the relations. All I know and care about is that we are all one clan and that means I’m at your side and you’re at mine. That’s all.” He said rather simply as if such a philosophy was easy to adhere to in today’s society.

He glanced down at their Ninken partners smiling at how well they were starting to get along. Hopefully it meant that Tsume had a friend. Hearing the compliment Shippo raised his hands folding them behind his head in his typical pose giving a passive shrug with his slightly embarrassed face “Oh, well it was nothing. I was happy to help. Besides we can’t allow thugs like that to wander around in our great village. They are a stain on everyone’s honor, and that’s not acceptable.” He said smiling and trying to play off his bashful nature. Hearing the name of the Ninken he looked to the pup nodding his head once “A pleasure to meet you.” Was all he said.

Thinking about the docks and what they had to offer he looked around and saw much of what she did fishermen coming in with nets full of fish, or going out to fish. The ships with cargo and crews in the process of unloading or loading up more cargo. This was a very interesting place to be, but Shippo being who he was wasn’t the biggest fan of the ocean. There was far too much that was better than him in the water, and this made him a liability so instead he looked at Yuki with his friendly smile giving a shrug “Well, if neither of us has any important business to handle then why don’t we do something together? Me and Tsume were just going around doing nothing at all really. So, we can afford to spend a day doing something else. We are waiting until the Hokage finds a team to put us on so we can go out and do missions with them.” He gave himself another shrug “I suppose we could do missions just the two of us, but that would be lonely.”

At this point Tsume gave a bark of agreement distracted from his playing with Akai to join in the topic of the two humans that were on the dock. He then looked away barking softly to get Shippo's attention.

In the distance was his mother's Ninken partner. He looked to Yuki with a blushing face and smiled "Well, it seems I have to make haste and be off. I am terribly sorry, but perhaps next time we meet!" with that he waved and was away.

[Exit Thread]

WC: 670/2,100

The other Inuzuka boy was curious to Yuki, watching as he seemed a little bit surprised about the fact that she was directly related to the Hokage. She would giggle at this, returning his small bow with one of her own as he spoke with her. He seemed rather kind and cheerful, which was something that he and Yuki shared. It was important to be likable, as if you weren't it caused issues eventually. The Inuzuka clan were known to be a little bit quirky, so Yuki tried her best to be approachable and likable, and it seemed that Shippo here was good for that as well. His ninken and Akai had their chance to become acquainted and play as Shippo began to tell Yuki about where he was from, which confirmed her suspicion that he was indeed a Konoha born shinobi. She knew that most Inuzuka lived here, but she had heard of some out as far as Sunagakure and so she thought she would ask.

When he told her there was no problem helping her out, as he believed that defeating the thugs of the village was important anyway, to which he agreed. He nodded to Akai and she smiled once more. He would talk about how if the two of them were no longer busy they should perhaps do something, to which Yuki nodded happily. "Of course I'd like to do something maybe. I was just planning on training anyway, gotta work hard if I want to surpass the Hokage!" At that point she could smell another ninken making its way towards the two of them, hearing Tsume bark as though to get his partners attention, to which Shippo looked off into the distance and blushed, explaining to Yuki that he was sorry but he had to leave. She simply nodded in understanding, waving as she spoke briefly. "It was nice to meet you two! I'm sure we will see each other around the village." And with that she watched as he left.

She and Akai would make their way towards their favorite training spot, which was just a little ways outside of the village. It was here that she and her sister would generally come to spar when they weren't busy, and so she and Akai would spend the rest of the day training before she eventually found herself too tired to continue and made her way back home, excited to tell her family about the Inuzuka boy whom she had met today...

{Exit Thread]

2475
Akai Pet Rank E -> C - 2000
Strength E1 -> E3 - 375
100 words discarded