Noguchi gave a soft 'tch' as the offer was made, a bandanna wrapped around his head, accentuating the deep frown on his delinquent features. "So, you 'anna do this then?" he asked, looking around to the other leaders in attendance to this parley. This was a meeting amongst real men, a conflict that was a long time coming! Noguchi could feel the eyes of his posse staring daggers at the other teens there. They were the Cavern Snakes, and they ruled! They were the strongest and manliest bullies amongst the other kids and teens in the neighborhood of eastern Konoha, and they were here to settle conflicts with the other three gangs of schoolyard bullies encroaching on their turf.

"Are you chicken-poyo?" the annoying voice of the youngest leader asked, snickering with his weasle'esq features. That yellow grin looking more well placed on a vermin than a human. They were the Kool Kids, from the northern schoolyards, their leader was Ando 'the Rat' for reasons as previously listed. Noguchi snorted, bristling at the accusation, "Nuh huh! We'll whip you kids any day of the week!" he retorted, earning a 'Yeah boss- you tell 'em boss' from his posse of goons behind him.

"Tommorow then. We'll have our big-time brawl tommorow morning" Omori of the Red Grass chimed in, his large and imposing figure looming over the other three in attendance. "This brawl, will decide who the strongest bullies are in Konoha, and will be recorded in bullying lorebooks by our official record keeper" Omori grunted, gesturing to the grade-schooler who had been press ganged into holding their most sacred text, 'How to by a Shonen Bully character 101'.

"Oi oi! What're the rules?" a sharp, feminine voice asked, Hosoo of the Big Boys, the only female bully. Traditionally, only male bullies were allowed to rule, but Hosoo had changed all that- she complained they needed to be more inclusive and well here they were. Her interruption earned a frown from Omori, who spoke thusly, "No blades, no deadly items, and no maiming or hurting those who have been knocked out". The bully gangs all nodded in unison, they had their sacred codes to uphold after all.

"As for a place... we'll go to central Konoha... here" the bully continued, pointing on the map between them all, "we meet tommorow morning here, at Hatake Park". It was on!

---

Yoshihiro knew that his shinobi developed plan couldn't fail.

He sat there on a stool behind a basic looking collapsable desk in front of him, sitting on a path near the main playground in Hatake park. In front of him, on the desk, was a large pitcher of ice-cold lemonade, with small plastic cups on the side to be poured into. A white paper sign was taped to the front of the desk for pedestrians to see, 'ICE COLD LEMONADE - 5 RYO' it said in large yellow marker, with small drawings of birds and animals. He had put those on, he thought it made the sign look more cute and appealing.

Yes, the young Genin was here to sell lemonade on this sunny day. He needed the money, oh how he needed the money. Being an orphan and a Genin with limited missions, he needed every small ryo he could get, especially now that he had aged out of the orphanage. So, with a hearty amount of entrepeneurism, he had set up shop here in one of the nicer parks in Konoha, there were families here watching their children play on the playground, old people playing Gou, and couples having a picnic. All in all, his business prospects were looking good- except for the fact he had barely sold any lemonade all day.

The first person who had approached him was asking him where his parents were, something that sufficiently irked the teenage Yoshihiro who yelled at the stranger to leave. The second was a gaggle of children who were suckered into buying some lemonade in return for a few air jutsu to ooh and aah at. The third was just a homeless person trying to get a freebie... which the Genin caved in to give out. So, all in all, he was still holding out for the big midday rush, if not, he might be eating microwave meals again...

Oh how he failed to know what was coming his way.

738/738

Yoshi sat there, ever the eternal grump, and waited for business ventures to appear for him. Why wasn't anyone coming up to him to buy lemonade, damn it!? He even had put such dutiful care and attention into the little sign he had made, and yet even then there was almost nothing to speak for him to make money off. The Genin sighed, he reall should've just taken more missions. It wasn't his fault that the Chunin Exams were almost here! With them, the entire village seemed buzzing with activity, everyone eager to catch a glimpse of the top contenders in the competition. People were taking out money to bet on who they thought would win in certain fights, or even see who would win the whole thing! Reagardless, it was a rough time to be an upstart Genin with nothing to his name save for the clothes on his back.

The teen cradled his chin in his hands, thinking about how he wished he could just skip this whole thing and get a place of his own. Maybe he could harangue Xiang for some spare cash that he could use to live off of... No, that wouldn't do, he wasn't that kind of guy. Instead, he'd resolve to making Ryo any way he could that would preserve his integrity. For now, that meant trying to do things the old fashioned way, including selling lemonade to pedestrians. Yoshi gave a tired smile to a father and his son as they walked by him, but the frustrated look the elder male gave the Genin was quick to shut down any thoughts of a potential sale. 'Never talk to me or my son ever again' it stated, carrying enough weight in its gaze for Yoshi to know not to speak up and offer them anything.

"I hate being poor" Yoshi bemoaned to himself, pouring a small cup of lemonade and sipping it down real quick to try and make himself feel better. Spoiler alert, it really didn't do much for him. Instead, his eyes began to glaze over as he looked at the kids playing on the nearby jungle gym. Hatake park was a quiet little place, supposedly it had been comissioned by a fan of the Sixth Hokage prior to his death. Yoshi had never known much about the history of the Hokage line, save that they were all the strongest of the strongest, the best that Konoha could offer. All those thoughts felt distant though, as instead, the warm lull of the midday sun began to relaxing his tired mind, coaxing his eyes to slowly but surely drift just the tiniest smidge shu-

"CHECK IT OUT BOYS, LEMONADE" a loud juvenille voice shouted from nearby.

Yoshi's eyes snapped open as he looked over at the source of the disturbance. A delinquent with red hair and a bandana shuffled at the head of a pack of about five or so young boys, each maybe a few years younger than Yoshi. They held numerous miscellaneous objects. A couple of plastic katana, a giant inflatable hammer, a rfistfull of small rocks, and even someone with what looked like part of a steam engine. They were a bizzare and motley crew who were now headed by someone who walked right out the textbook on bully tropes and into Yoshi's life. "They're 5 ryo per cup" the Genin stated with a small nod, looking to the leader who then promptly grabbed the pitcher and began drinking straight from it. Immediately, this consumed the boy with anger, "Knock it off! You gotta pay for that!" he shouted, standing up and meeting the ey level of the bully leader who stopped to sneer at him. "Oh yeah? Well Noguchi of the Cavern Snakes doesn't have to pay nothin' to nobody, ya hear?" he stated with a shit-eating grin that sent Yoshi through the roof.

Yoshi rolled up his sleeves, reaching into his back pocket for a kunai. He was ready to cut a bish. Noguchi seemed ready to fight too, but at seeing the shinobi headband wrapped around the teen's waist akin to a belt, the bully's courage faded. "W-wait, he's a ninja!" the boy announced, earning a sudden end by the other goons jeering loudly, replaced by a deafening silence. The change of events made the shinobi grin a tad, finally, it seemed like he was at last getting some respect here. "That's right, and I've been training like crazy for the Chunin Exams, so you better all knock if off before I give ya a wallop'ing!" he threatened, shaking his fist angrily to accentuate that point.

Like the Snake which his gang was named after though, Noguchi quickly recovered himself, walking around the lemonade stand to wrap a slack arm around the older teen's shoulder. "T-that's good, we like us some Genin, they keep us all safe, right boys?" Noguchi asked, earning a simultaneous, "Yea boss, yea!" from the lads. Yoshi frowned, something suspicious was going on here it felt like. "We're about to have a little, uh... party. Yeah, a party! And we was thinkin' about invitin' ya, see?" Noguchi explained, the oh so naive Yoshi naturally feeling a tad surprised at such an invitation. "G-go on" he stammered, crossing his arms as the delinquent continued to talk, "Well, we was gonna have our party here, but some other crud licking scum buckets are coming to ruin it for us. Since you're are new number one pal, we was thinkin' you might be able to help us out, ya hear?" he asked, only to be echoed by, "Yeah, help us out! You tell him boss, yea!" from his goons, earning a swift glare from the leader as he looked to the unknowing Yoshi.

"W-well, if someone is trying to be mean to you all, I guess I could ask them to stop it!", Noguchi smiled at that, this was going to be a helluva get together, he could already tell. He patted the teen on his shoulder as the black haired Genin looked over to him, "What kind of people are you thinking wanna hurt you?" he asked, earning a grin from the delinquent, this was going to be too easy.

1050/1788

Noguchi grinned as he watched the naive Genin fall for his intricately planned strategy which he was making up right now. The bully leader wrapped  his arm around the newfound 'friend', slinking it up over his shoulder as he looked around. None of the other bully gangs had come yet, the only disturbance that they had caused seemed to be a couple of mothers taking their children home after a long day of running around. That was good, the less people that were there to ruin their fun, the more they could go all out. First things first though, they had to pull the wool over this teen's eyes so hard that he won't be able to see straight for days.

"Ya see Joe, there are some other groups of upstanding citizens comin' ta try and beat us up just because we wanted to throw a party at this here park. Ain't that nasty?" Noguchi began, causing Yoshi to narrow his eyes a tad. No one called him by his 'clan' name before, largely because it was one that he had made up before joining the Ninja Academy. Still, it felt good to be able to be a part of something, even if it was with a group of strange fellas."That does sound awfully rude, why would they want to ruin a party?" he asked. Noguchi grinned a tad wider at that oh so innocent question, "Our thoughts exactly Joe, my main man. So, ya see, we're going to stand up for ourselves and fight these bullies so that they can't mess with anyone else around here ever again!" the delinquent shouted proudly, earning a fake round of applause from the goons who were standing on the sidelines as events unfolded.

The Genin hummed a tad. Despite being somewhat abraisive, these young lads seemed to be the upstanding type, they had even offered to invite him to a party after all! Yoshi continued to think, holding his chin in his hand as the gears began to slowly turn within the forefront of his mind. "Well... I don't know" he muttered, largely to himself as he felt the delinquent pat him again on the back, "Come on, aren't ya a shinobi? Help your village out!". At that, Yoshi nodded in approval. They were right, he had a duty to help make his village a better place, that included handing out disciplinary measures when there were delinquents running about causing mayhem. He looked to Noguchi, "Alright, I'll help you", shaking the man's hand and sealing the deal. The goons clapped behind their boss, truly he was the penultimate ideal of diplomacy and skullduggery, he was embodying all the nuances and ideals of the bully bible!

"NOBODY CAN HELP ANY OF YA NOW!" a feminine voice shouted from nearby.

Yoshi and the Cavern Snakes turned towards the playground. Standing atop the large slide was a tomboy dressed in ratty jeans and a torn up shirt, she looked like a very unbecoming young lady. The rest of her goons stood on various parts of the jungle gym- when had they climbed up there without being noticed? The fight seemed imminent though, "That's Hosoo, of The Big Boys, one of the baddies" Noguchi stated. Yoshi got down in a fighting position, pulling out a kunai only to be shot a glare from the girl, "Oi! No blades allowed! Those were the rules!" Hosoo shouted down, pointing at the Genin who had been unknowingly roped into all of this. Yoshi frowned in confusion, what rules was she talking about? "It's... uh... code of honor amongst shinobi, yeah" Noguchi made up. Ah, well, fair enough then. Yoshi put the weapons back into his satchel, assuming a fighting stance regardless.

"I'm comin for ya!" Hosoo shouted, sloooooowly sliding down the plastic slide of the jungle gym, shimmying as she tried to scoot herself down a bit faster. Once her feet were securely on the woodchips though, it was on. The girl sprinted forwards, her lackies behind her, spritning at the Cavern Snakes and Yoshi. The woman lashed out with a closed punch at Noguchi whom, despite being a bully, was an atrocious fighter in almost every way possible. One solid strike to the head was followed by another to the gut, causing the delinquent to double over in pain. Yoshi fared much better, naturally. He sidestepped the sloppy attacks of the school students, making the smallest movements necessary to evade their punches and kicks or redirect them. In a swift jab with his leading arm he smacked his knuckles right across the ridge of a goon's nose, feeling a satisfying crunch run through his arm as said nose was promptly broken. Being a Genin, this was child's play so far, were these really the bad guys come to rough them up?

A sudden snap kick to the gut caused a large goon to fall to the ground, clutching at their abdomen as the air was knocked out of them. "Come on you guys" Yoshi said, somewhat in a complaining tone as he watched them come one after the other at him like lemmings, "Guys come on, stop it" he repeated. A small motion of his foot in front of him caused a gust of wind that slammed into a goon at knee level, causing them to fall sideways onto the ground and clutch at their shouder, "Guys stop" he said, his voice progressively getting quieter. Wow, these people just weren't taking the hint were they? He tilted his head, hands on his hips as he watched the Cavern Snakes mop up the rest of Hosoo's posse save for the tomboy herself who was wailing on Noguchi with a flurry of kicks to his prone form. "Bam! Bam! Bam!" she yelled with each strong snap of her leg at the man's side.

Yoshihiro walked up behind the leader, placing his hand on her shoulder. "WHAT?" she yelled, spinning around to see her followers sprawled on the grass clutching at their stomachs. Her face turning red with anger, she turned to give one more kick at Noguchi before shouting at her comrades, "Get up you slackers!". Hosoo shuffled away from the group, pointing at them, "You win this round, but you won't be so lucky next time!" she shouted as she and her goons disappeared out of sight.

"That's one down... two more to go" Noguchi said, slowly getting up to his feet once again.

1095/2883

Yoshihiro looked around at the battlefield and frowned a tad, something wasn't quite adding up here and he wasn't entirely sure what it was. Noguchi seemed like a pretty solid guy. Sure, he might've been just a tad overly abraisive, but he seemed like a real stand up fella to Yoshi all the same. This whole concept of fighting so intensely, and with codes to fight by not less, the whole thing just felt a tad too strange for the boy to not think on more analytically. He watched as Noguchi and the rest of his new party friends celebrated with a little victory screech that, while unpleasant in every regard to the ears, was still rather satisfactory in how it managed to arouse a sense of victory. Yoshi nodded lightly in approval, even if he had to much self restraint to allow himself to be seen doing something as silly as a full on 'victory screech'. He watched as the group began to slowly regain its compsure, huddling around in a circle with Yoshi as it's cornerstone.

"Alright lads, let's think of a good plan to deal with the next guy who tries to mess with us!" Noguchi suggested, earning murmurs of agreement from those in attendance. Yoshi nodded, it was good for them to think up some kind of plan, even if he was woefully unaware of what excatly it was that was going on. "What if we just give everyone some of our cake?" he offered, earning a confused look from the leader of the Cavern Snakes who was having trouble keeping his continuity straight with all the input being made by the other gang members. Still, ever the astute leader, Noguchi gave a smile but shook his head slowly. "Ah, I, uhh, I don't think that'll work I'm afraid. These folks are pretty deadset on ruining our party as you can tell" he stated. Yoshi thought for a moment, Noguchi had a point, it felt like these thugs weren't going to stop at anything to ruin the party that they were planning. There just had to be another way to deal with all of this without resorting to violence though, there just had to!

"What if we invite them all to the party? Do you think that might make everything better? I could make some more lemonade an- I said no Yoshi! Alright?" Noguchi snapped, taking the Genin by surprise and causing him to step back a tad at the way that the redhead raised his voice so suddenly. At realizing his crack in his mask, the leader strained to form his face into a more placid and 'open' appearance than before, chuckling a bit to himself, getting the rest of the goons to chuckle to so as to keep up appearances. "Yoshi, my man, we tried. It's just that these people really want to ruin our party no matter what!" he affirmed, causing the boy to pout slightly in disapproval. "Yeah, well, okay. I just don't like fighting villagers is all" he stated, looking down at his feet as he kicked the dirt he was standing on a tad. Noguchi silently gave himself a pat on the shoulder, things were going well for him and the Cavern Snakes. With Yoshi's help, they'd be the unrivaled bully masters of all of Konoha in no time!

One of the goons spoke up next, his shrill and high pitched voice loud enough to be heard in space. "I got an idea boss, yea yea!" he said, nodding up and down vigorously as he bent over. "What if we just grab a buncha rocks, and just throw 'em at 'em!" he said, as if his brilliant caveman logic had just single-handedly solved global warming. The entire group of goons were launched into an uproar of applause. Yoshi raised an eyebrow, it didn't seem like all that great of a tactic truth be told. Noguchi was fully on board with this little scheme though, "Great idea, everyone grab some rocks!" he shouted, ordering the group to scatter and begin picking rocks up off the ground to be used for their human artillery. "I-I dunno about this guys, using rocks seems really scummy" he said, earning a frustrated sigh by Noguchi but nothing more than that. After some time scrounging about the dirt and underbrush, a new figure finally appeared on the nearby hilltop opposite from the park where the rest of the Cavern Snakes were lounging about.

"Well, well, well, what do we go here, eh?" the nasaly sound of Ando trumpeted, him and his posse leering down at the Cavern Snakes below. Ando himself was wearing a white bandana with the words 'thug lif' written in red ink- though he had forgotten to put the e at the end of life it seemed. Noguchi didn't respond, instead pelting a bunch of rocks up at the gang, something that confused Yoshi even more as he watched the savage barrage unfold. Ando and his goons charged down the hill. Some of the younger bullies fell over, clobbered by the incoming rocks whilst Ando and his personal bodyguards managed to closer the distance between themselves and Noguchi's posse. The two groups brawled about, this time with Yoshi standing on the sidelines as a dramatic revelation began to slowly dawn on him... perhaps this Noguchi fellow wasn't being as honest as the boy originally thought...

The Genin halfheartedly threw a small pebble he had picked up, watching it sail through the air a short distance before unceremoniously landing on the grass between himself and the main cluster of fighters. Yeah, this was lame. Was this party worth it that so many people had to get hurt for it to happen? If that was the case, then was it really that good of a party in the first place? These moral questions circulated through Yoshi's mind as he placed his hands on his hips, his cheeks puffed in disapproval of what he was witnessing. Noguchi landed a strong blow on Ando, laughing as the leader of the gang began sprawling back up the hill, "Y-you no good Cavern Snakes! You'll pay for this one day!" he shouted ove rhis shoulder before giving the order to retreat. With that, him and his goons disappeared over the crest of the grassy green hill, leaving the gang alone once again.

1085/3968

"ENOUGH!" a loud booming voice echoed over the playground, looming nearby.

The celebrating by Noguchi and the boys was cut off prematurely, the arrival of the last party pooper putting a dampener on their winning streak. The sight of Omori of the Red Grass, that Ox of a teenager, scared the Cavern Snakes down to their foundations. Yoshi watched, his head tilting as all of his comrades were falling apart at the mere sight of this behemoth of a human being. Omori picked up the grade schooler that had been dawdling around with them as a captive, picking up the book of bully rules. Omori snapped his fingers, handed a comically small pair of glasses which he placed upon his likely-broken nose. He hummed loudly before tapping a page that had caught his eye, "I thought you lot my try something as unspeakable as this, to bring in an outsider to fight amongst our sacred battles of honor!" the man said, further confusing the Gening rapidly realizing that something was up.

"What sacred battle of honor?" Yoshi asked, squitning his eyes at Noguchi like a housewife suddenly realizing that his husbando had been busy screwing worst girl. The red headed leader of the Cavern Snakes began to panic, "N-n-no honor! These guys are just whackos!" he stated, waving his hands as if they would dissolve him of any suspicion whatsoever. Still, as the gears continued to turn, Yoshi began to put two and two together. "You all were planning to trick me, to use me to win your stupid fights over this dumb playground!" he said, pointing accusingly at Noguchi as the math added up all at once. "I bet you didn't even like my lemonade, you menaie!" Yoshi added, pointing next to the modest enterprise he had taken on by himself. Noguchi's eye twitched, at last yelling in frustration, "Okay, fine, we lied to you! Nobody gives a shit about you or your shitty lemonade!" the Cavern Snake leader said, walking forwards and pointing his finger at the teen's chest.

Yoshi grit his teeth, he was angry as heck.

Making a swift hand seal, he placed a finger on Noguchi's chest mirroring the motion he had done to the teen. Instantly, the bully's body writhed in pain as a shock of electricity rippled through him. The thugs all yelled out in unison, "BOSS!", rushing to his side as the toasty boi fell to the ground in an unconscious heap. Omori reeled back in surprise at seeing the shinobi be in a totally different league as their own. The teen placed his hands on his hips glaring at them all, "Look at ya', your all a bunch of wimps. You come here to fight because you want to hurt people weaker than you. With the village at war, you all fight each other instead of building one another up to be stronger. You all make me sick, you're less than scum" the teen yelled, causing the bullies to open their mouths before bowing down at a 45 degree angle. Wether this was a sincere act or one derived from fear, few could say.

With a single jutsu, the war of Hatake Park had ended, peace was restored to the schools of Konohagakure, and Yoshi?... Well...

"Now to confirm your new appreciation for society, you will all purachase three dozen cups of lemonade!"

-he had made quite the profit that day.

579/4547

[END SOLO THREAD]

Total WC: 4547

• Training Strength D → D3: 1175/1175
  
• Training Speed D → D3: 1175/1175
  
• Training Perception D →D3: 1175/1175
  
• Training Reaction Time D1 → D3: 850/850
  

Left over with 172 WC, letting it be wasted.