d

Yukino found herself deep in thought as she walked around in the woods around the village. Really, she was near the training areas, but she was so bad at directions that she found herself there without really trying to be. She ventured out to get away from her father, but to also train a little bit on her own. The whole time though, she found herself thinking about her meeting with the Hokage not even a week ago. Her mind was wrapped in thought by the wisdom he imparted within her. Something told her that she would continue to work with the Hokage, and hopefully, she would be able to learn something about the suplex technique he briefly mentioned. Still, looking up, she was completely surrounded by the woods that she had called her home for the last thirteen years of her life.

“This place is peaceful, so far away from the village that is.” she quietly mused to herself as she continued to make her way the established path. While the day of village dividing Genin into squads upon graduation was over, they were still expected to continuously grow on their own. This would come from both experience from missions, and from independent that they themselves would schedule. The new changes put an emphasis on creating a generation of ninja that were able to be mostly independent, without constant leadership. All this in mind, Yukino knew that it was up to her to continue to better herself. She also inherited the Sarutobi’s rich legacy, therefore establishing herself as a hard worker in her own right was a must.

Yukino made her way to the clearing when the sounds of a nearby dog caught her attention. She quietly made her made up towards the clearing, so to not catch the dog’s attention. Once she made it there, she watched the dog in question barked up a tree. While Yukino couldn’t see what it was barking at, she could see another woman confront it. The dog immediately turned against her and she started to run around. Yukino watched as the girl substituted herself from the danger with a nearby log. Yukino giggled as the dog bit the wood as hard as it could. She turned her attention to the girl as she closed the distance to her with no problem. Yukino knew that her movement would more than likely be recognized, though she wasn’t necessarily trying to be stealthy either. Once she was within a good distance from the girl, Yukino decided to introduce herself.

“I’m Yukino Sarutobi” she said to the girl in a low voice as to not alert the the nearby dog. She made sure it was somewhat obvious that she was approaching, so to not freak the other girl out.  “Nice to meet you.” she finished. Yukino would wait for the girl to reply as she stayed crouched behind the bushes to not attract the dog to their location. While she didn’t know the girl, she figured the incident would be funny to talk about.

WC: 514

d

Despite how Yukino thought she did, she still managed to take the girl by surprise. “That’s interesting.” Yukino thought to herself. She didn’t show this in her face however, listening to the girl introduce herself as Hina. Yukino watched as Hina smiled and looked towards the tree that the dog was barking at. She followed her eyes and saw the creature in question. It was a cat, and looked as though it was pink. “Pink?” Yukino said to herself in a low voice. “Why is it pink?” she mused to herself. Before she got Hina what this situation was with the cat, the girl had already turned to her and responded to her earlier introduction. Hina then continue to proposition to Yukino to help the cat out from it’s own peculiar situation.

“Yea, I don’t think we should leave it stuck there.” Yukino replied before responding to the rest of Hina’s questions. “Oh haha, I wasn’t there for long. I literally just walked up as you executed your substitution jutsu to get away from the dog.” Yukino said as she let out a small giggle.

While she realized the whole situation was somewhat convoluted, she didn’t mind it. It managed to take her mind of the different missions and training she’s gotten involved in recently. While she wasn’t stressed necessarily, it all seemed to happen so fast and soon. One after another, every day, it seemed like Yukino found herself in some new and intense training. She could definitely feel herself improving, she found it somewhat relaxing to deal with small problems such as this.

Breaking herself away from those thoughts, she stood up and watched as Hina made her way to the tree where the cat was. She watched as Hina seemed to pause for a moment before attaching her feet to the tree. “Why is she walking up it like that?” Yukino thought to herself. The girl looked uncomfortable with the technique that everyone in the academy learned early on. As Yukino made her way out of the bushes, Hina turned to her and asked for help as the cat jumped from its original branch, to another.

“Yea sure, no problem.” she replied as she casually walked up to the tree. While seemingly in one and effortless motion, she concentrated some chakra too her feet and began to walk up the tree. She did this without breaking her stride and made her way up to Hina.

“Do you struggle with chakra control?” Yukino casually asked, curious to know why Hina seemed to struggle. Yukino had no trouble with the technique, evident from graduating at the top of her class, though there was no way for Hina to just know that fact. Yukino was well aware as to where the cat, and felt full confidence in her ability to catch it. She figured however that they would probably need some sort of strategy to catch it a bit easier. While humans trained for years to be ninja, cats were natural born killers with ninja skills attached.

WC: 516
Total: 1,030

d

Yukino listened as Hina explained that climbing up the tree for her was something that she just didn’t practice enough to be able to apply. This made sense to Yukino, while Hina looked a little bit older than herself, and she was definitely taller, she still had heard stories of people struggling with chakra control. Even if she had very little to no difficulty herself, she had many classmates who still had trouble with it by the time graduation came. These were less thoughts, and more of facts that was known to her, though she didn’t let this cloud her judgement of the girl in front of her.

This in mind, Hina asked her if she had any tips on chakra control. “Tips?” Yukino said as she placed a hand underneath her chin. She had never thought about how she could give tips to someone who wasn’t as good with chakra control. While she thought about what she could say, Hina turned her attention back to the cat. “Oh, right!” Yukino said as she watched the cat, perched on its branch. From where she was at, Yukino couldn’t see any tags, though that didn’t mean it didn’t have an owner. It might have even belonged to someone wealthy, since a pink cat was such an odd color.

Hina told Yukino her plan and more or less sprinted towards the cat. Or atleast, the best she could do considering that she wasn’t really good at maintaining her control long enough to pick up any real speed. In fact, she kinda looked like her grandmother, a thought at which Yukino giggled at. She did her best to try to conceal it, but it was entirely possible a snort got out. Just as Hina predicted, once she got too close, the cat moved to change its spot. Yukino was prepared however, and once it made its move, so did she. The two met mid way in the air, Yukino catching it within her arms. Yukino proceeded to push off a nearby try with her feet and land onto the ground softly, cat safely within her arms.

“Well aren’t you just the cutest thing.” Yukino said aloud as she rubbed the cat’s face against hers. The cat seemed to enjoy the attention as it let out its soft purr into her face. Cats, Yukino’s one weakness. It was so debilitating that she almost completely forgot about Hina. Looking up into the tree where the cat used to be, she called up it so that her partner could hear her. “The cats safe! I think we’re all good here.” Yukino said as she continued to rub her face against it. She figured Hina would be more than capable of getting down within a matter of moments, so she would simply wait for her. While she waited on her partner, a thought came across her mind. “Whatever happened to that dog?” she said to the cat within her arms. Yukino looked around but didn’t seem to see it right away. “Interesting…” she thought to herself.

WC: 521
TWC: 1,551

d

The cat within Yukino’s arms kept her attention for the most part while her partner made her way down the tree. This would stand to be true all the way up until Hina made her presence clear to the cat and Yukino. Her snapping around, she felt slightly flush and it was sure Hina would’ve watched her activities with the cat. While it was indeed her weakness, she had always tried to not let other people see her this way. She wasn’t even sure that her father had know about her little fascination, though he would have to. Her room was filled with several cat related items, but that was a story for another day. Yukino cleared her throat before talking to her partner. It didn’t seem to her that Hina particularly cared for the actions, so Yukino decided it was best to move on.

“Right!...Well, it was because of our team work that we were able to respond so easily.” Yukino said to her partner, the redness in her face slowly dissipating. She heard as Hina also questioned the whereabouts of their canine friend before she brushed it off. While it was clear that the cat probably to somebody, she wasn’t able to discern the dog’s rightful place. This would have to continue to be the case as the dog was nowhere in the proximity. “Hina must’ve scared him off really good” Yukino thought to herself, cat still comfortable in her arms. Still, Yukino matched Hina’s energy as she laughed at today’s events.

It was only at that moment that Yukino noticed how much Hina had been sweating. Yukino herself didn’t even break a sweat from the days action, so she was almost rightfully confused. She had half a mind to ask her partner if she was alright, but by that time, Hina had already excused herself. Yukino once again matched her energy and told her that she looked forward to seeing her again as well, though she didn’t know when that would be. Ideally it would be sometime soon, and that's when another thought hit her as well. “Oh!...Dang.” Yukino said to herself. While she still hadn’t thought of any tips to help Hina with her chakra control by that point, but she meant to reassure her that she’d would think about some for next time.

“I guess that’ll just have to wait until next as well.” Yukino thought to herself as she turned her attention back to her furry partner. “Now let’s go find your home!” she said in an almost baby talk. She started to make her way out of the woods, already assuming that Hina would’ve been far away by that point. The young Sarutobi would wonder when she’d be able to see the girl again, though something told her that it wouldn’t be too much longer until their next meeting. While Konoha was indeed very big, the number of Shinobi was significantly smaller, thus making it more possible to run into someone you knew. The blue eyed girl pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind until she would make it back the village proper. Right now she'd had to find her little buddy’s home.  

-Exits Thread-

WC: 555
TWC: 2,106

Training Breakdown: