Kashiki sat in the library, the genin had spent weeks practicing and strengthening his physical body and his techniques, but he had completely forgotten about sharpening a shinobi's greatest tool, the mind. Kashiki grabbed a book from the stack of books he'd picked out and opened it. The book he had chosen was titled: Reign of Winter, and it seemed to be a historical non-fiction about a shinobi who had fought in the war, now trapped behind enemy lines after the war ended. The book was intreging to say the least, and Kashiki especially enjoyed the ingenius ways that the shinobi defended himself without direct confrontation, something Kashiki could learn from.

Kashiki red through the book a bit more, reading about the shinobi's usage of snow to create a covering for a deadly pit trap lined with explosive tags, later on he used senbon dipped in poison to kill a bear by securing them point up in the snow.

"The things you can learn in a book." Kashiki said to his self in amazement, being sure to remember all the lessons he'd learned in this book, and also to purchase some wire before the exams.

Kashiki sat the book down as he reached for the next, A book on combat tactics labled Chain the Storm. The book listed techniques for large forces combat and military formations. Not directly useful to Kashiki at the moment, but some of the various formations looked like they could be modified to work for one person.

Just as Kashiki went to reach for another book, he noticed another shinobi nearby. He seemed to be browsing the shelves, and Kashiki waited for him to look in his direction before he waved at the shinobi.


WC: 288

Yoshi looked along the shelves of books in the local Konohagakure library. There were some instructual novels, some fiction, a bit of non-fiction here and there, but for the most part the shelves weren't all too interesting to him. He had come here hoping to find an old tome that might aid him in creating new ninjutsu, but with how benign most of the material was, the Genin wasn't having much luck. The Chunin Exams were almost here, and with all the stress that they entailed he could feel himself slowly losing his mind to the daily training regiment that he had been performing for the past few weeks.

He frowned as he grabbed at a book about the lives of the Hokage. It was so small and thin, how could anyone ever be able to learn from something like this? Judging very much by appearances, Yoshi put the book back and up onto the shelf before moving on deeper into the rows of the library. For someone like him who enjoyed staying up into the late hours of the night studying 'lost' jutsus with a desire to recreate them, he sure thought most of the stuff here was insufferable.

Reaching the other end of the row of shelves, Yoshi poked and prodded amongst the books present. He had come all this way, so he might as well have picked out something to check out and bring home with him. Maybe something entertaining like the mythology of Konohagakure or the like, he always enjoyed hearing those tales as a young lad, and he enjoyed them twice as much as a young man now. As he looked around for something of that nature, he spotted a stranger his own age waving him down. Confused, Yoshi waves back slowly, walking over to where they were sitting. "Hello" he introduced himself, looking down at the book the other boy was reading.

321/321

Kashiki smiled as the boy waved back, normally training was boring enough as is, and now he was "training" in a library. Put two and two together people. Also it never hurts to chat it up with someone and maybe make a new friend, especially when you're bored out of your mind. Kashiki stopped waving after the boy began making his way over.

As the boy approached the table Kashiki had been sitting at Kashiki stood up, his hand out stretched to shake the other boy's hand. "I'm Kashiki Hattori, are you gonna be in the chunin exams too?" the genin asked, hoping to convey friendliness and curiosity, but really hoping to have a chance at sizing up the opposition as he does. "If so I hope you do well out there, we konoha genin gotta stick together no matter what eh?" Kashiki said to the other boy as he retracted his hand and put it in his pocket.

"Pick up anything useful while you were here? Some of these historical war accouts have some good battle tactics, this one is especially a good source at guerilla warfare." Kashiki said with a grin as he motioned towards the book titled Reign of Winter. "I'd hate to be in his shoes, but the story is good and the lessons within could be useful to all shinobi." Kashiki said, waiting for the other boy's reply.

WC: 521

Yoshi shook the strangers hand as some introductions were made. He looked like a fellow Genin, someone whom the teen would certainly find out on the trianing fields scattered across Konoha. A library isn't exactly the kind of place that Yoshi would've expected to find someone like them, but, just like jutsu, knowledge was power. The only difference between the two was that the former was far more accessable and could last a lifetime. Even if Yoshi hadn't found the kind of book that he wanted to read, he was still glad to have found someone whom he could talk to.

"I'm Yoshihiro Joe" he introduced softly so as not to be too loud nor disrupt any of the other guests ofthe library who might take offense with the noise. Yoshi nodded as he spoke, he was going to be participating in the exams, he didn't know how far he'd go or if he'd even do too well in such a competitive atmosphere, but he was still planning to give it everything he had nonetheless. They'd be competing against all sorts of shinobi from across the ninja world, they would be in the middle of the spotlight as Genin being watched by dignitaries from all over. Yoshi gave a small smile at the display of camraderie, even if the books that Kashiki showed him didn't exactly thrill him too much.

"I haven't found anything yet, I might just leave empty-handed and go train for a while" the Genin admitted. He just wasn't in the mood currently to be reading in a library, not when every part of him wanted to be out fighting and getting ready to fight! Still, he could certainly respect Kashiki staying in to read up on tactics and the like, it was an important aspect of fighting. Yoshi looked down at the book, squinting a tad as he picked out some words from the opened page. "What from the story do you think you'll use in the Exams?" Yoshi asked, curious to see what the other Genin was thinking ahead of the omnipresent event.

361/682

Kashiki glanced back at the other boy, a fellow genin, as he sized him up. The thoughts probably running through his head was that Kashiki should be out training or fighting, and he wasn't wrong to think that. Kashiki was physically built like he did nothing but train and work out, which wasn't entirely untrue, the other boy probably thought he was a jock or a muscle man or something, but Kashiki hid a deep love of history and especially of war history.

After the other boy introduced himself and shook his hand, Kashik pulled it back and put in his pocket. He smiled softly as his saw the other boy grin at his statement of good will about the exams. He noticed the boy glance down at the book after he mentioned it, an uninterested look on his face. At the Yoshihiro's mention of training Kashiki perked up, it wasn't every day someone else he knew or just met wanted to train, and this library was getting pretty boring to hang around in. Kasiki held his tongue though, it might of come off as weird if he offered to tag along to train with Yoshihiro or offered to train with him in general, they had just met after all.

At the other boy's mention of Kashiki's book, Kashiki's eyes lowered to it, completely forgetting about the fact that he had been reading a moment ago. "Yeah, This book could  be useful to anyone who was a shinobi, especially those that plan on spending a while behind enemy lines." Kashiki said motioning the book titled Reign of Winter. "This one might have a bit more direct use in the exams. A few of these tactics and formations could probably be changed to work with only one person." Kashiki motioned to a page in the book titled Chain the Storm, about a tactic called swinging gate which appeared to be about moving diagonally past your enemy an flanking by yourself. "There's also a couple pointers on fighting certain types of opponents and dealing with certain types of attacks and tactics that shinobi use." Kashiki caught his breath before asking about training with the other boy. "If you're interested I'll be at the south training fields at sun rise tomorrow, hope I see you there." Kashiki finished before picking up a few books and waving to Yoshihiro before signing the books out and heading home.

WC: +403, 924

{EXIT THREAD}

Yoshi looked at the boy as the talked a bit about the book that he was reading. Military tactics, eh? Some of them seemed fairly practical in a fight as a shinobi, whilst the others may have had varying usefulness in a one-on-one fight. Overall though, it seemed that the stranger was fairly well read when it came to being knowledgeable about the tactics of the ancients. It would be good to invest a bit of time to brushing up on the stuff, even if some of them were things that one did passively without realizing it. Yoshi nodded to the boy, liking his answer. The invitation to train though was somewhat surprising, even if they were both Genin working to win the upcoming exams. The other boy looked like a proper athlete with his musculature, seeming more than able to overpower the average person physically. It wasn't a bad offer, and Yoshi would consider it! "I'm Yoshihiro Joe" he introduced with a small nod, watching as th eother boy picked up his books and began to head home. Hopefully they'd meet again in the future, instead of only on the battlefield...

197/879

[Exit Thread]

Total WC: 879

• I'll save this for a rainy day