These sounds and any other iterations of the noise associated with a place where warriors, or shinobi, trained metal against wooden dummies and sparred with fellow shinobi. The training grounds were a lovely location this time of day, and as Hanza sat to the side, staring out at the busy field of people, he wondered if he’d be able to choke back the anxiety in order to participate. So many thoughts swarmed around in his mind.

Will I look weak in front of these people? Will I find some way to embarrass myself doing the one thing I was trained to do up to this point. I’m not even the best physical fighter...I didn’t specialize in this. How could they ever witness my strength...wood cannot be healed..


They kept on, throwing shuriken, at the dummies, seeing how many they could hit in one toss. Everyone here seemed a step up, and Hanza was entering the chunin exams very soon. How the hell would he even begin to match up at this rate? Should he have resigned from them when he had the chance? It would be far too socially awkward to drop out at this juncture, so many people were working on the promotion, rosters, paperwork’s. He could completely ruin someone’s day by simply dropping out. There was no way he was going to do that.

He clenched an empty fist and stood up, his slate black genin flak jacket and Kirigakure headband were enough to make him stick out already, only partly matching with the black pants and long sleeved shirt beneath the jacket. His pale skin and white hair didn’t help much either. He lifted himself from the bench at the southern end of the training grounds, and made a stride over to a less populated area with a row of five wooden training dummies, shaped vaguely like humans. They had a large square torso, often a cloth sack of hay, and a wooden sphere plopped on top to represent a head. At the base and up through the center of the entire thing was a wooden post about two meters.

To date, Hanza had never had much luck with the three shuriken he did own. He began to dread the moment he pulled them from his weapons pouch and held one between his index, middle, and ring fingers. As he stood around ten meters from his intended target, being the third dummy from the leftmost one.


All three of his basic ninja tools had missed at only ten meters of distance. Things were not optimistic. It would not have required extensive medical training to notice the young Kōri’s hand trembling just before the attempted throw. Or to see his visible distress as he felt he had made a fool of himself. The Hidden mist genin was already getting discouraged as he walked over to retrieve his shuriken.

WC: 501

At least in the first few minutes, it was mostly unknown to Hanza that just a little ways away from his current training spot had ventured a special Jounin who could be regarded as one of the best medical experts to ever walk the shinobi world. She was brilliant in her art. A member of the guanyin, a clan known all around as absolute experts in medical Ninjutsu. A master of the senbon. Whether she revealed that information to Hanza remained to be seen. Unless she did, there would be know telling sign that she belonged to such a lineage.

There was a certain part of the young man that would have wished he never discovered her presence. As nerves had an unsavory effect on his performance, which was already horrendous. It would not come to his attention that she was present until a booming crack seemed to strike down a dummy just over a little ways in the field, to his right. He had only looked just in time to catch the flash. It was only a hasty conclusion that the only person walking away from the site with a smug confidence had to be the perpetrator.

Though she was now positioned even more prime for laying down judgment on the poor young medical ninja. As he fetched his weapone and proceeded to try and act natural, a voice arrived from near him. Calling out from across the field that same skillful shinobi who had been impressing the genin nearby was now giving Hanbei a bit of personal coaching and advice. Although his nerves continued to tense and his stomach was now lightly sore, nauseous with anxiety, he took that advice and threw one of his shuriken as an intentional miss. It would quickly fly, just missing the practice dummy. Hanza took a deep breath and once again, tossed a shuriken the exact same way but aimed to hit the dummy. It curved initially as if to miss the target, but then came back in and...


Just where the dummies “neck” would have been. Such a toss very well could have been fatal to a human target. Hanza smiled with happiness, letting fly his last shuriken which also found its mark, settling gently right beside what would have been a set of nerve clusters within a human target. It was intentional but Hanza had no knowledge that his instructions had come from a medical expert. Whether she noticed or not might have changed quite a bit about the upcoming conversation.

Hanza approaches, giving a gentle bow of respect as he had assumed at this point that this was either a higher ranking shinobi or someone worthy of respect if they were his rank. The figure before him was much shorter than Hanza, though aside from that had similar hair, a shade of white not unlike Hanza’s snow shade. In terms of body form, the young woman had a similar muscle build to Hanza, despite the height difference this was easy to see.

Her eyes reminded Hanza of a dojustu of extreme power he had once read about, but he couldn’t remember and decided to dismiss the thought that those violet, ringed eyes were anything more than aesthetic. Otherwise this would have been alarming.

“Thank you so much for your advice. Shuriken have been giving me quite a problem since graduation. As a medical shinobi I don’t often get asked to practice in these arts. My offensive capabilities are supposed to be weak, are they not?”

Hanza was serious in his question as he stood facing the young woman in front of him, awaiting a response. His eyes scanning across the floral kimono she wore.

WC: 619
TWC: 1120

Had Hanza been any wiser, or rather, any more familiar with the identity of the individual he was currently being assisted by, he would have never said such a thing. To look toward a guanyin clansmen and question the application of offensive medical techniques was probably one of the poorest decisions a person could make. Fortunately, this practitioner was not the sort to make a bloody porcupine out of a misinformed genin. The pride and joy which had just filled Hanza fizzled away gently as the unnamed shinobi nodded to him and proceeded to work with two senbon.

Two colors radiated, one from each needle. A sharp, antagonistic red glow from one and an inviting shade of blue from the other. Being in the proximity of these radiant senbon filled Hanza with a very peculiar feeling. It was neutral, but yet not neutral at all as what felt like two conflicting forces resting at ease. A speech delivered by the young woman left Hanza feeling very mistaken, and as though he knew very little. Why was it that he was so inefficient at crafting offensive medical maneuvers?

There was hardly any need for offense back in Kirigakure. Not for the young ice user, anyhow. He’d always lived in the more gentle regions, upper class communities. Though, it was something Hanza became aware of more and more, the life of a ninja was not the life of a young boy at home meddling with plant life and preserving the bodies of small animals with Hyōton.

Before he could get a word in, the red needle had been launched faster than his eyes could follow, and it was almost a magical effect, as the needle reached a certain distance from them suddenly the strange neutral feeling subsided and an invigorating sensation seeemd to wash over the inexperienced medical ninja.  

“Oh...I see now.” Hanza spoke, a bit broken up with surprise and a bit of shame perhaps. I could only imagine what would be suffered by a biological organism on the other end of the needle which pulsates red. You are well beyond me in skill. It’s my fortune to be in your presence. I am Hanza of the Kōri, or perhaps you’ve heard of the primary branch as the Aisu or Yūki. We are a notorious lot, or so I’ve been told.”

He thought carefully over his words, wanting to ensure a good impression in all of them.

“With the chunin exams just on the horizon, it would seem I’ve put far too much emphasis in the wrong areas. And I’m essentially out of time. Preparing and learning techniques on ones own is not a task for only a day or so. Perhaps I’ll be wiped clean in my first fight.” Hanza joked, giving a chuckle at the end. He wasn’t being dishonest though. He sincerely believed at this point that he had made a critical error and set himself irreparably behind.

With this, he would give the more experienced shinobi another chance to speak before thanking them earnestly for the assistance they had provided him. He would keep in mind everything he had learned that day and carry it with him into the future.

[Exit Thread]

WC: 545
TWC: 1665

Endurance: D-0 ~> D-3 (1175 + 150 Ryo)
Strength: D-2 ~> D-3 (450 + 75 Ryo)

40 Discarded