As Ezra walked into the Tsumi sand grounds he could feel the humidity increase. It was disgusting to say the least. He never bothered to train their but when he made friends with Kaze and asked him to spar with him he figured to give this place a shot. He thought of it as a mistake now seeing as it was so hot and humid, he should have listened to what the others had to say about the conditions there.

Ezra was a little early for his and Kaze's sparring session so he decided to pump himself up for it. He removed his robe as to not get it drenched in sweat from the warm up and the actual sparring season. He started running across the sand grounds which were fairly empty it was pretty late in the day after all. He showed some athleticism and acrobatic skill as he flipped and kicked different ways. He decided to also use the time for some kunai combat training. Realizing he forget to grab some kunai before he left he scratched his head to display his disappointment. Ezra decided not to take it too hard. It's not like he was going to try and stab a friend in a friendly first sparring session. He put that in the back of his mind and kept on with the warm up.

He was bored and decided to take a break after awhile so he sat down cross legged near the middle of the grounds. This was for the best so he wouldn't tire himself out before the fight. He sat and meditated on the stuff that's happened since he became a genin. It was a short time but some monumental stuff has happened. He turned his attention back to his surroundings and looked around to see if Kaze had arrived yet.

Kaze had found his way home in the intense heat only to see the workshop in complete disarray 'Damn rookies' he thought to himself rummaging through the junk and scrapped puppets littering the shop before he found it, looking to his tarp hidden masterpiece and the tag upon it numbered with a nearly insane price, "He sure is an ass." Kaze grumbled to himself referring to the head of the Clan. Strapping the puppet to his back he headed out towards the Tsumi Sand Grounds to meet up with Ezra.

Nearly a half hour later he found his way there immediately noticing the intense heat which lay upon the grounds, though, he didn't mind the heat that much, this was on a different level. Ezra sat there meditating before calling out to his friend, "Ezra! I hope your ready, and I'll do my best not to rip your robe if you plan to wear it during our spar." his tone was slagged by the heat of the grounds, "Guess people aren't kidding when they talk about how hot it is here huh?" Kaze said a while unstrapping the bandage wrapped puppet from his back standing it next to him before he unwrapped it. It looked like a large black wolf with a German Shepherd styled head, but otherwise it seemed menacing to an extent.

Ezra heard a familiar voice and directed his attention accordingly. It was Kaze. “Right on time.” Ezra said softly to himself as he looked at the position of the sun. “Yeah! I’m ready and don’t worry about it. It’s over there.” Ezra responded to Kaze as he pointed to his robe which sat on top of a nearby rock. Kaze got closer to Ezra and said he guessed people weren’t kidding about the conditions of the sand grounds. Ezra nodded to his comment and checked out the wrapped item on Kaze’s back. ‘That must be the puppet.’ He told himself.

Ezra watched as the puppet was being unwrapped. First thing to be unwrapped was the head which already made Ezra fear it a little. It seemed to be a dog. ‘German Shepherd?’ Ezra questioned in his thoughts. After the head the body was unwrapped. The body appeared to be more wolf than dog. ‘Better be ready for speed.’ Ezra told himself looking at the puppet and Kaze. To be honest Ezra was a bit intimidated.

“Hey Kaze. Keep that puppy away from my face.” He said half joking and half serious. He joked when he called the beast a puppy but he was serious about the face. Ezra didn’t like it when people touched his face and especially because he was a handsome guy, he wouldn’t want his face to become ruined. He wiped the smile off his face and backed away from Kaze a bit. “Tell me when your ready.” He said getting into his usual bouncy Tae Kwon Do stance.

Hearing his fear of letting it near his face he could understand knowing just how dangerous this puppet was up close and personal like that, "No worries I'm not aiming to kill or maim with this thing, your aunt would kill me herself if I let that happen." a wide grin crossing his face at the thought of that woman followed by a short chuckle. He performed a simple string of handseals before chakra stings from all ten fingers connected to the puppet before it raised to it's feet, opening and snapping the jaws a few times, the usual chattering tick sound was more of a growl with his puppet, he hated that annoying chatter. Looking up to his Ezra from his puppet noticing his stance, he didn't know any real form of Taijutsu so he had no idea was Ezra was packing behind his stance. The heat beating down seemed to only become more intense, "Ezra, you feel the heat? They say it's the heat of battle, and if you ask me," rotating his shoulder blades limbering himself up a bit "I kinda like it.". A cool breeze passed between the two "I'm ready." that was the only warning he gave Ezra before sending his puppet out at the speed of an average teen with a few flicks of his fingers.

77/80

Kekkei Genkai:

Kaze started to talk of the heat of battle and how the heat in the sand grounds was the heat of battle. Ezra’s face was almost emotionless when he had said that but his mind was thinking that it sounded a bit crazy. Kaze then said he liked the heat of battle which is something Ezra could relate too. He loves fights especially the ones he’s involved in. Ezra had to smile at that.

As Ezra’s expressionless fight face came back a cool breeze passed by the two which gave Ezra chills. It seemed a bit ominous or foreshadowing of something Ezra wasn’t sure of. ‘Possibly one of the hottest places in Suna and to have a breeze like that go by scares me a little.’ He told himself. Kaze called out to Ezra declaring that he was ready and sent his puppet out at Ezra at an average running speed. Ezra wished he had backed up a little further because where he stood now was cutting it close. He took off to the left from his bouncy fighting position. “Your mutt’s not gonna’ catch me.” He said trying to get Kaze’s attention. Ezra’s eyes were changing due to his Kekkai Genkai ability. He blinked and the sparkling cyan eyes appeared. Hopefully Kaze would look into his eyes so the Karisuma Kekkai Genkai ability could take effect. If Kaze was frozen hopefully his puppet would be too. Either way Ezra was going to attempt to dodge the puppet and charge Kaze with a solid side kick to the stomach.

70/80 Chakra Remaining

Kekkai Genkai:

Kaze had to admit seeing the panic in his eyes was amusing, his puppet chasing him a short distance, but those eyes, something was different, off, then nothing but a sea of cyan clouded his vision. His body couldn't move, nor would it, he was too stunned by this sea of beautiful cyan. His puppet stopped the moment he did himself the string disconnecting a mere 10 feet from his target before laying down as a sleeping hound would. He was open and was completely unaware of this fact.

The puppet stopped and the chakra strings detached. Ezra knew it was time to make his move. He hopped over the puppet that seemed to be sleeping like a real dog. He charged toward Kaze with his eyes wide open. The cyan eyes sparkling like sunlight reflecting off of the blue sea. He hoped Kaze was enjoying the view because the action Ezra was about to complete would be unpleasant to say the least. He thrust his right foot into Kaze’s side. Not full force after all it was only a sparring session but he did put enough force for it to hurt. “Sorry Kaze.” he said jumping a few feet away from Kaze’s and landing in his usual fighting stance.

His view of that cyan sea was cut all too short as a sharp pain collided into his gut. Holding his gut he heard Ezra say he's sorry, grumbling to himself, "That's some jutsu Ezra, I gotta give ya that much." performing his jutsu once more reconnecting the strings to his puppet. The puppet raised back up quickly turning to Ezra, "And, I'm sorry about this." Kuroi ookami's jaws opened up firing two cables at Ezra's legs in order to restrain him.

74/80

Kekkei Genkai:

Ezra's face changed from its expressionless state. He became shocked as he saw the strings form once again. He heard the puppet's rattle as it got to its feet. He turned around because he knew Kaze had something interesting up his sleeve. Ezra's face then changed to worry as the dog puppet shot two cables at his legs. He jumped to avoid them but it was too late. They caught him at the ankles and made him hit the ground with a thud.

'Ow! My arm.' Ezra thought after realizing his arm took most of his fall. 'Damn it. If only I had my kunai. Maybe I could cut these cables.' Ezra evaluated the situation to come up with some other solution. He came up with tons of ideas but decided to watch Kaze's next move with the puppet, even if it meant getting a scar or two.

He wasn't sure the cables would be fast enough until this moment had come to pass, 'Gotcha!' Kaze thought as he began curling his fingers, the cables started to pull Ezra to the puppet's jaws that were snapping. He didn't want to use their full capabilities on an ally but this would suffice well enough. "I'd suggest trying to find a way out of those cables, Ezra. My puppet has a pretty nasty bite." luckily for him the cable retraction was slow, but the cables are too strong for most Genin to outright snap them.

"The cables are quite strong and so is the puppet, I'll give you a chance to escape from them, if not you might have a nice new scar." He stopped the curling of his fingers every so often as the puppet stood motionless each time, he grinned, "Like I said I don't aim to maim or kill ya. Just trying to help us get stronger is all." his words were something like an older sibling giving a younger brother a hard time while looking out for him.
(my yoga is super tiring, missed yesterday and had to double it today, so sorry for shoddy writing and what not.)

The cables pulled Ezra in slowly giving him some time to think before he came in contact with the snapping jaws that were sure to leave a mark. ‘This is too slow. Is this as fast as they retract?’ Ezra questioned in his mind as he looked back at Kaze who was obviously taking it easy, heck, he even made it known that he was taking it easy.

“Hey Kaze. If you really want us to get stronger you have got to turn up the heat.” Ezra said as he wiped some sweat from his brow and ran in the puppet’s direction. The puppet was pulling Ezra in slower than he could run so he made sure to get to the puppet before the cables could make him. Ezra came within 5 feet of the puppet with some leeway on the cables to move freely. Ezra jumped up about 3 feet into the air and raised his right leg higher into the air and attempted to bring it down right on the puppet’s head. ‘Hopefully I don’t damage it too much.’ Ezra thought having a little too much confidence in the power and speed of his kicks.

He knew this was too slow and Ezra proved it with his remark wiping the sweat from his brow, seeing him rise to run and jump above his puppet made him realize he truly was being too slow for a real battle, "Fine. You asked for this." Kuroi ookami's head turned up before leaping at Ezra's leg the shuriken saw function activated alongside the cable retraction. Ezra could sustain quite the damage or the puppet itself could be nearly destroyed in the attack, a risky move for a puppet to take on taijutsu fighters but necessary at times. He had to admit though, Ezra was quite faster than he gave the young man credit for smirking 'Damn, this could be the end for my puppet...' is all he thought before what would come next.

“Damn it!” Ezra shouted as he pulled his leg away in midair. He realized he couldn’t go through with the kick. What if he would’ve broken it? Ezra found it to be the equivalent to if Kaze had broken his legs. ‘How would he fight if I break it?’ Ezra thought. He was lucky to have moved his leg out of the way last minute, so he thought. At the same time he became unlucky.

The pooch puppet had slashed through Ezra’s trousers into his thigh. It was nothing major but in the moment it had hurt. Ezra couldn’t catch himself as he landed on the ground. He fell on his side, the side of the stinging wound. “That’s a dangerous puppet.” he said wiping the sign of pain off of his face with a smile. He checked his legs because he couldn’t feel the cables touch on them anymore.

“Can we take a break?” He asked Kaze with a laugh. “This cut is a real bother.” He added after he picked himself up and began to brush the dust off of his bareback.

Dodging the puppet enough to avoid any true damage Ezra landed painfully on the cut in the leg his puppet caused, Ezra was very lucky to have moved out of the way. "Indeed it is a dangerous puppet, though there are far more dangerous puppets out there. There was a reason I was taking it easy, this thing is made for killing mostly, not training." Seeing his wound he agreed it was time for a break, "Sounds good to me. Get that wound fixed up and maybe we can continue if you want.".

(again sorry such a short reply, lot on my mind, personal things and such that I try not thinking about.)

Ezra nodded yes to getting his wound fixed up but he wasn’t so sure about continuing the training. Ezra wiped some of the sweat off of his forehead as he walked to the rock where his robe laid. He sat down on top of the rock over his robe and undid the knot on his Hitai-ate. He used the cloth from it to wipe some of the blood that seeped out of his wound. “I guess ill get some new cloth for the forehead protector. This dark blue color never really suited me anyway.” He smiled at Kaze. “Probably black or green? Yeah, definitely green.” He answered himself. He took the metal plate engraved with the village symbol and put it into his trouser pocket.

He looked at the sky realizing the stars and moon were on their way out and the sun had already departed for the most part. He picked up his robe and said “Hey! Race you back to town! Last one there has to buy tsukemen!” Not waiting for a reply Ezra darted towards the town.

[Exit Thread]

Kaze had been wrapping up his puppet while Ezra went to grab his robe, tying his Hitai-ate cleaning the blood up from his wound, his decision to get a green one made Kaze wish for a new one himself 'Hmm, I should get a black one.' he thought to himself. Finished wrapping his puppet he looked at their surrounding for a moment, 'An expansive sea of sand underneath a red hot sun,' night was approaching fast, he wanted to stay 'a sea of stars and a beautiful moon to light this expanse from an ocean of red and yellow to blue like the sea.' his thoughts trailed off till he heard Ezra call out for a race. "Like you'll make it there first." He grinned strapping the puppet to his back before taking off not too far behind Ezra.

-Exit Thread-