Jutsu Trained:

Ezra was enjoying some much needed rest after another one of his afternoon walks when it became time for Ezra to stop hanging around and get to his taijutsu training. He always found that training in solitude was most effective for him; boring but effective. He hopped off of the wall onto the old Karisuma clan land. "Ow! My legs." Ezra said exaggerating as he walked to the main house. The only one who was there today was his grandfather Arus Karisuma. He watched Ezra walk over to the front door of the main house. He shook his fist still spry for a man of ninety. "Why can't you just rest in a bed like a normal person!" Arus yelled despite Ezra being not more than five feet away from him. Ezra shrugged and gave his grandfather a smile. "Hey Arus. I'm going to the library to study some techniques from the books." Ezra said casually to his great grandfather. The Karisuma's called it a library but it was much more unofficial. It was actually just a big room with a lot of unfinished books and scrolls by the Karisuma clansmen and women of the past. "Oh alright. Knock yourself out. Tell me if you need anything." Arus said with a smile "like a beating." he added under his breath. "What was that Gramps?" Ezra heard Arus mutter something. "Oh. Nothing." he replied.

Ezra walked down the main hall to the library. The house was quiet not even so much as a creek. That helped with the solitude part of his training. Once in the library he marveled at the amount of scrolls there were. He had been here many times before and knew where the Taijutsu scrolls were kept. He picked up a scroll from a pile of fallen ones on the floor. "Wow this is pretty simple but at the same time smart." He said to himself upon studying the content. "I guess I'll give this a try." He said leaving the library to head out to the training grounds which was basically the main houses courtyard. The courtyard was sandy as expected of a place in Sunagakure. There were some stands on the side mostly likely for spectators.

Ezra rolled out the scroll in the middle of the training grounds. He studied it for a quick minute before he took off his robe to begin his training. He began his training with imitation; he imitated the moves to the best of his ability. "Sweep and Backflip. Sweep and Backflip." He shouted out the moves as he practiced them. It was too bad Ezra trained in Solitude otherwise he could have actually added the kick into the back flip. Kicks came natural to him though so he didn’t sweat it. He drilled the technique in his mind in front of the scroll for five minutes; before he stopped he had built up a little bit of a sweat. He figured he wasn't far off because the scroll had text and pictures to display how the technique worked and was done. How could one mess up the technique with all that? He stepped away from the scroll and tried to recall the moves by memory. Ezra was a pretty smart kid so of course he could remember a simple technique like this.


He started to practice the sweep back flip combo but didn't feel quite right about it. He drilled it for about twenty five minutes before giving in to his discomfort. He didn’t give in to the discomfort of all the sweat his body’s skin had accumulated but the discomfort in the training of the move. "I know!" he said with a snap. He had come up with a possible solution to this feeling. He had only trained this technique with his right leg which is actually his dominant leg. "Let's try this the other way." He said getting into his usual bouncy Tae Kwon Do stance. 'Ok... Sweep and... Back flip.' he thought as he performed the technique using his left leg for the sweep. "This feels so awkward." he said expressing his disappointment with his performance. He knew this was natural when using the leg that was not so dominant so he didn't get too bent out of shape. "Alright. Let's try this again." He whispered to himself displaying his persistence. He figured he would need more training with this side than the right side so he could feel more comfortable. He already felt that the technique was good enough with his right side so he decided to finish up with the left and be done.

The sweat dripped down his face like rain, after thirty minutes of non stop sweeps and back flips. He was a bit angry at this point as he hated training but he knew it had to be done so he saved his complaints and channeled them into his training. He sat down to the side on the first set of three stands to take a break. He toweled off with his robe seeing as that was the only dry thing in the room besides the sand he hadn't gotten his sweat on. He would have to wash his robe when he got home. "What a hassle." he thought. "Training first and then gotta' do the wash?" he questioned himself sounding annoyed. "Whatever." he said calming down. He got up from his seat, laid his robe over his arm and left the room still not feeling satisfied with the techniques improvement. He was walking through the main hall toward the exit when he ran into Grandpa Arus again.

“How is the training going Ezra?” Arus asked with a smug look seeing the dismay on Ezra’s face. “It’s going good but I couldn’t practice it full force because I don’t have a partner.” He said trying to get the old man on board. “I’ll be your sparring partner.” Arus said walking and motioning to Ezra to go back to the courtyard. Ezra wasn’t worried about Arus and Arus wasn’t worried about himself. He was in amazing shape for ninety; he was a former shinobi after all. He could still keep up with most of the younger shinobi. Ezra followed without a word.

Now in the training room with a real partner Ezra got serious. “You ready for this Grandpa?” Arus got into his stance signaling to Ezra his readiness. Ezra came it him full force because he knew Arus could match him. He threw a kick to get Arus off balance from the start. It didn’t faze him so Ezra abandoned that idea and went straight for the Under and Over technique. ‘Sweep… back flip kick?’ he thought as Arus had aired above the sweep leaving Ezra unable to pull off the back flip kick. Ezra backed away after the failed sweep ready for Arus to counter but he didn’t. He was only there to help and didn’t want to put Ezra into a fight he couldn’t win. Ezra laughed in his mind. ‘Cocky bastard.’ He thought taking it as a sign that Arus felt he was too good to hit Ezra. Ezra made his way to a head to head stance with Arus slowly. He sweeped full speed and just barely knocked Arus off of his feet. Arus now in midair Ezra flipped and attempted to kick Arus straight into the ground. Arus shielded with his forearms but was still pushed into the ground experiencing some pain. Ezra using Arus' body as a springboard hopped away. Arus rolled away from Ezra and picked himself up. “That was good, good enough.” He said with a laugh. “I see you found one of my scrolls.” He added. Ezra stood there shocked but at least now he was done his training and the feeling of discomfort in the technique was gone. “Wanna’ have a real spar?” Arus asked Ezra.

(1306/1000)

[Exit Thread]