Spoiler:

Tomohiro rose out of his bed before sunrise. He wasn’t sure what had caused him to get up this early, but he wouldn’t waste the time going back to sleep. The young shinobi showered and put on his standard attire having replaced his poncho with his trench coat. Bacon and steak sizzled in the same pan as he prepared his own version of miso soup. After he finished, he ate to his content taking in all of the flavors. Each bites was filled with rice and bits of potatoes. There was plenty of time until it was time to go on his assigned mission. This mission was requested by a sensei that was looking for someone to spar with his student. Tomohiro wouldn’t give up the chance to test his mettle against another kenjutsu user. He figured that the mission would probably benefit him as well.

He finished his food and placed his dishes in the sink before cleaning. It didn’t take him long, but it did make him realize how lonely he started to feel. He shook his head trying to remove the thought. Tomohiro exited his would be empty apartment and made his way to the village gate. It was still early and he had plenty of time to get there, but he made a decisive decision to get their early. The dojo would have other students and he figured that he would probably watch the others practice. He wasn’t sure how long it would take. It didn’t matter much to him how much time it would take to complete the mission. There wasn’t anything else he had to do today as far as he knew.

Once he exited the gate, headed down a winding road that led to the dojo. There weren’t many travelers out on the road today. This morning seemed very dead.The sun had just started to peak over the mountain range. As he continued walking, a team of genin were jogging with their sensei and seemed to be worn out. The feeling was somewhat nostalgic. He remembered when his brother would take him on runs around the village to help build his stamina. Tomohiro didn’t give a physical hint of interest in the team, but he sort of wondered how their training was going. He really never got to experience being in a genin team. It was mostly him and Zeref for a brief moment before they were promoted to the rank of chuunin. His genin life had mostly been alone. Training that was provided was mostly done by higher rank shinobi within his clan. Though, using teamwork wasn’t pressed as much.

The dojo came into view as he noticed what he assumed to be students that had gathered in front of the dojo. The students began stretching and doing warm ups. The students were of various ages and even included those he could make out as Akako clan members. He felt a bit pressured to be in a place that was and is very prestigious dojos in the country if not the world. Tomohiro sighed before walking up to one of the sensei that seemed to wear different kamino than the others.. He bowed slightly before speaking out of respect.

“Sensei, Nakir Tomohiro here for Hitoshi-sensei.”

“Oh, you’re the shinobi he requested. Welcome to Akako Dojo. You can head inside he should be in the last room on the left with Kin.”

“Thanks.”

Tomohiro bowed toward the sensei as he removed his boots and walked into the dojo. He knocked before entering the room. His eyes instantly met a young boys whose age seemed to be a few years younger than him. He looked over the two men that stood across the room to him. He bowed toward the two of them. Kin already showed signs of disgust at the idea of him being there. Tomohiro didn’t really care for his attitude. The mission was the what he was concerned about the most. He would need to put his differences aside for this to be successful.

“Hitoshi-sensei, I have come here as requested by Lord Hastur,” Tomohiro started as he side eyed Kin.

“Why would the Raikage send someone who looks weak like you?” Kin criticized.

“Kin! We don’t antagonize our guest. He’s here to spar with you. You should be privileged to fight someone I willingly went out the way to request. Anyway, thank you Tomohiro for coming. How is your father these days.” Hitoshi-sensei antagonized before changing his tone.

“Don’t mention it. Father is doing well thanks for asking. I think it would be for the best if we get started. At your own leisure, of course,” Tomohiro responded to the question asked.

Hitoshi nodded toward Tomohiro as the sensei turned back toward his student who seemed to get quite impatient. Tomohiro removed his blades and his trench coat having placed both of his blades on top of his coat. Hitoshi looked over toward Tomohiro and motioned to grab a boken. Tomohiro picked one up. The quality was decent for a training weapon. Though, he was used to using real swords. He still didn’t get a chance to perform a blood wetting with Kenmei. It looked like today wouldn’t be the day we would get to do it. The kid seemed to erk his nerves with his constant complaining. The way Kin acted was that of a spoiled brat and Tomohiro wouldn’t definitely mind putting the young man in his place.

“Alright. So we are to have a respectable duel. Basically, it’s last man standing, but you are not to mortally wound your opponent hence why we’re using boken. You can start once I give you the signal,” stated Hitoshi-sensei

“Let’s get this over with already. This is taking too long. I’ll end this in an instant,” Kin stated with a smug grin.

“Don’t be so smug,” Tomohiro countered.

Hitoshi sighed as he raised his hand up and dropped it down for them to begin. Before Tomohiro could even get into a stance. Kin had already thrusted his boken toward Tomohiro. The thrust seemed weak, but it was fast. Tomohiro was able to redirect the blow to the side before lifting knee into Kin’s stomach. Kin bent over at the wind getting knocked out of him. Tomohiro then backed up after landing the first blow. The young Ayako was too impatient for his own good. Kin started to remind him of himself as a young shinobi, but not as rash. Tomohiro looked with great disdain as Kin started to fall to the ground, but caught himself.

His opponent stood straight holding his boken upward as Tomohiro sent a series of swings in Kin’s direction. Kin was able to take on the strikes without much struggle. His defense was pretty good, but Tomohiro wouldn’t let up on him. He continued to press his onslaught of sword strikes. This kid had some talent at least, but it wasn’t anything that was truly impressing. Another thing he had to admit, was that Kin’s blade strokes lacked killing intent. It was something he grew up having to deal with. This kid could be something special if it wasn’t for his rash.

Tomohiro wasn’t enjoying this at all. Duels seemed to be more fun when people actually posed a threat. He figured that it was the price of being a shinobi. Seeing real combat change him. He enjoyed fighting and killing his enemies. It was almost felt second nature to lethally take down his enemies, but unfortunate for him this was a mission. Tomohiro was quite ready for this to end. The duel started to become quite a bore. If it wasn’t for the money, he would definitely be doing something else with his time. Tomohiro was at least able to get another lick in on him barely breaking through his opponent’s defense.

To say that Kin was on par with him offensively was an understatement, but defense was another story. Kin would probably give quite a few swordsman a run for their money or would if he proceeded in the way he was going. Tomohiro wasn’t sure how he would end it. Kin’s defense was quite nice. Tomohiro was quite aware of his Kin’s physical abilities as the match went on. There was definitely an opening in Kin’s defense that Tomohiro was ready to exploit. Kin tended to leave his left side open to an attack. Tomohiro had spent most of the match with his boken in a traditional sword stance. He hadn’t switched to anything extreme.

Tomohiro backed off and allowed Kin to go on the offensive. It was a simple trick that swordsman would do to build false confidence in their opponent. Kin started to come at Tomohiro with a determined glare. Tomohiro then went on the offensive. As Kin swung his weapon horizontally across Tomohiro’s chest, he ducked down while lunging his weapon toward his opponent’s waist. Kin took the blow causing him to gasp for air as he hit the ground. Tomohiro felt an urge plunge his foot into his opponent’s throat, but he resisted. There was no need in disrespecting this dojo. The young Nakir took the boken and began to sheathe it in his waistband. He stopped and remembered that the boken wasn’t his weapon.

“I give up,” Kin stated.

“Oh?” Tomohiro responded.

“Alright, that’s enough. You are quite impressive to go toe to toe with Kin,” Hitoshi-sensei acknowledged.

“Thanks, Hitoshi-sensei. I’ll take my leave,” Tomohiro quitely responded while bowing to both his opponent and the sensei.

Tomohiro quickly picked up his blades and placed them on his hip. He threw his trench coat over his shoulders and put on his boots. He exited the dojo with a relieved feeling. Fighting in dojo’s wasn’t really his thing. He didn’t mind learning different things from there, but he didn’t have that excitement within himself. The excitement he had was having come out learning something new. He knew it was just a mission, but he figured that he may have learn something that he could take out to the field. He took a sigh as he began his stroll back to the Raikage’s office to turn in his mission.

A lot of things went through Tomohiro’s mind as he walked. He played through different scenarios as on how he could have finished the match. There were different ways he could have handled it. Each move he did was met with mental criticism to himself. There were a lot of ways he saw himself ending the match earlier. Though, he didn’t mind dragging out his fights. Tomohiro saw himself losing himself to his rage during the match. Though, he didn’t have the urge of having a lust for blood like he used to.

Today was productive and there was no denying that. He would just need to find other things to do with his time. There was plenty of time for training and he would probably do that or help his family working in the mines. It had been awhile since he had done anything worthwhile. Tomohiro couldn’t really consider the mission training. One would get to a point where if you didn’t sweat, it shouldn’t be considered training. That’s what he believed anyway. There was a quite a few things he could train in. He really needed to work on his speed. Tomohiro felt that he was pretty balanced overall. He did remember what his father said about being balanced. You could never be a master of all. It was primarily the reason why they spent most of their time honing their swordsmanship and chakra manipulation. There clan was quite proficient in what they did and purposed not to venture out from what they new. It could be considered sort of a handicap, but who was he to override clan traditionalism.


[Thread Exit/Mission Complete]

WC: 2031
1500/1500 [Mission]
500/500 [Extra Ryo=+125]
32 unused words