Starring:
Berii, Hitoshi, Kuno
Date: September 11, 2011
Summary:
A group of fresh graduates stumble upon each other, each one with the intent on training in seclusion.
"A Rookie Reunion. Can it be Fate?"
Toshiba Forest - Clearing [Konohagakure]
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A circular opening at where when the moon is full perfectly shines and lights up this clearing. Surrounding this clearing are thick and tall trees with branches extending outwards. Further inside towards the center there are long patches of grass and several flat rocks one can sit on when resting. There is one single rock formations extending towards the west and back into the forest.
Animal life here are snakes slithering in the grass looking for squirrels or birds as prey while spiders can be seen within the tall grass and rocks. In the sky it is often that one or two eagles might be seen circling the area looking for rabbits. Finally, the rare deer comes here to feast on the grass while rumors of a predator lurking in this area is also known.
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Another day without a mission, what is a young shinobi supposed to do on days like this exactly? Probably relaxing, hanging out with friends? Being a normal kid perhaps. Sadly this wasn't the case for Berii, nearly horrified on how weak she was and how useless she was recently, she had been a tad bit too obsessed with strength training. Which led her to being up quite early in the morning in the middle of the clearing, weights strapped to her forearms and ankles as she practiced her form in the basic taijutsu stance taught in the Academy.
With sharp, powerful movements she'd glide through her kata in a robotic sort of way. The girl did not seem to be all there as she goes through the motions through the use of her subconscious. The actual mentality of Berii was wondering whatever happened to that hair pin, and occasionally repeating one line from a catchy song. Repeating that one line because she COULDN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE. It was a tad bit annoying.
In fact the verse comes up again and it causes her to glare at nothing in particular as she performs a snap kick, slowly lowering her foot to the ground to let the mixture of gravity and weights do its thing."
The day had started pretty well, and was going along pretty smoothly. All in all, Hitoshi couldn't complain about today's goings on. He had been to the Academy's reading room, picked up some scrolls, and was on his way into the woods. None of the scrolls were anything dire… no, by no stretch of the imagination. If anthing, they were materials for him to study on. Things he needed to start learning.
One in particular held some interesting new readings… on Genjutsu. Something worth looking into, right?
The Genin training grounds were too crowded. The general practice area was crowded, too, what with the weather being so nice. So, he was heading for a particular clearing he liked to come to when he needed to go somewhere… and 'lo, when he breaches the treeline, he sees the flash of pink hair.
"Oh."
He had walked in mid-snap kick. She seems kinda… huh. "Uhm… hello?"
Berii takes a step forward and strikes the air in front of her with a a powerful fist or well, powerful for her it probably couldn't even bruise a baby. It would appear she was about to move into some other attack though she halts in her turn as someone makes a noise nearby. The voice of another managing to cut her train of thought and saving her from hearing that same verse for the 100th time. Berii almost thanked him but, with a second thought realized how weird that would be to suddenly do.
So, she just stares at him awkwardly, blinking a few times before nodding her head. "Er… Hi." There would be another pause from the girl as she slowly pulls her mentality back to the real word, "Hnn, am I… in yo' way?" She raises an eyebrow and then looks behind her for a moment, a bit confused on why he himself sounded so confused when greeting her.
She'd continue her training anyways, unless for some strange reason she was blocking him!
"Oh! No, no… It's just… there's no one usually -here,- s'all."
There's a slightly nervous laugh from the young boy as he shakes his head, affirming the lack of in-the-wayness. "Sorry… I didn't mean to interrupt your routine," he notes lightly, his free hand going to his neck and rubbing the back of it slightly… However, he does tilt his head a little. Perhaps he's trying to recognize the other young nin?
"I think we were in class together," he remarks lightly, "but I feel like I'd remember the hair." Or the eyes… Such a trademark sign of such a famous clan, and all. "… Anyway." He shuffles the scrolls under his other arm… "What're you working on here?"
Berii continues her forms and gives him a little shake of her head when he believes he interrupted her. "It's fine." Berii had been very careful to avoid words that would heavily display her lisp, though she then realizes that they /were/ in the same class now that he mentioned it. It was only a class of 30, how did they both forget with their 'ninja awareness'? She'd think on why she would forget him really but, it could've been mostly because she was with a swarm of girls, it was hard to really see beyond the crowd.
"Ah, stwength twaining." Berii, apparently did not care about hiding her speech impediment any longer seeing as he most likely already heard it before, after saying this she gives one last kick before flailing her arms and nearly losing balance. "Eh…" Sensing she probably needed a break after all that practice, she drops from her standing position to a neat kneeling position, hands disappearing within her sleeves as they drop on her lap.
"Taniguchi-san? Correct?" Berii's memory apparently jump-started now as she offers him a polite smile and a light bow of her head in greeting.
Yes. A class of thirty or so… that's not far from correct. The last four years he had seen her on and off, and it was coming to him. As was the lisp. With the word 'stwength,' it came back to him.
"Berii-san!" Sudden cheerfulness was never a good sign. "Erm, Uchiha-san," he corrects himself, having realized that may've been a little awkward. "That's right. Please, you can call me Hitoshi." He smiles again, and then he moves along the little clearing, past her, to slump down onto a stump, and deposit the scrolls at his feet.
The two are in a clearing, talking. She's knelt, resting… while he sits, ducking down to grab himself a scroll. Unfurling it, he stretches it out over his legs, looking to it.
"I should be working on strength training, myself," he remarks lightly. "My exam didn't go so well on physical acuity… I -just- got by."
"Hnn, no need." Berii chimes in when Hitoshi adjusts to Uchiha-san. "It is how I, was taught to caw evewyone… Hitoshi-san." The girl seemed to struggle with not using his surname for a moment, though he did request it so she wouldn't object. Berii nods a bit when he mentions his exam, she'd belatedly notice her hair all over the floor and she reaches out to pick it up and rest it on her lap.
"Hnn, I managed to get by wif speed. I'm kinda weak." Which didn't bode well or the dead-aim ninja if she had to actually hit something that was quite far away, it was her only reason for being truly concerned with her strength. The thought of this causes her to sigh before she turns a bit to examine the scroll from a distance, not actually being able to read it."Neh, what's that?" Berii's sleeves part and her hand slides out to send a few jabbing points in the air at the scroll.
The girl squints, though that doesn't, really help in the slightest, it actually just makes it worse.
Two figures ran through the village, jumping and dodging the various obstacles in their path, people complaining in their wake… A growl from the smaller warned the larger figure that they shouldn't be running through the streets like uncivilizd animals. "Oh? You're one to talk! You are an animal… Besides, this is training. Do you think all missions will come without needing to dodg~" *Crash* There was a loud crash as Kuno ran into a large sign, tumbling over it while he was replying to Tsume. "Fine… Lets walk…" In time, they found themselves in the Toshiba area. It was a place they liked to visit often.
Strangely, a he entered the wooded region, one of his favorites, he found two kids talking… One, a girl, and the other a boy… Somehow, they looked familiar, as if he should know them. But, in a village like this, it was likely they'd been at one of the shops at the same point, in the past. Brazenly, with much growling complaint from Tsume, Kuno walked up to the two… "Hello! My name is Moriko Kuno, and this is my brother, Tsume!" The wolf gave a strange dip of it's head, as if a bow, then straightened up again, sniffing the air.
"Something I'm working on," Hitoshi replies lightly, not looking up from the scroll immediately. When he does, he smiles a little bit, tilting his head. "One of those theory scrolls from the library. A new technique theory that they published that's on our level," he points out, "now that we're out of the Academy." He grins, then, and takes a deep breath, rolling his neck… "It's supposed to be a light-level elemental attack," he notes, "that focuses on fire." He rustles the scroll, straightening it out…
And then, another approaches. He had heard the boy coming into the clearing, and it caused him to look up again. "Oh, hi!" The name is sounded off his ears, and he squints a little… at both the boy, and the animal. Huh. Cool. "Hello, Moriko-san."
"Neh?" Berii leans forward to get some momentum rolling before leaning back and going from the kneel to a crouch on the tip of her toes. She siddles back to get a bit closer to the reading boy now that the fire element is mentioned. No surprise on why that would interest someone from the Uchiha clan. A glance goes to Hitoshi and she was about to question his knowledge on fire jutsu just as her former classmate is distracted by another.
It would appear some sort of class reunion was occuring in, quite a random place… This boy, she doesn't remember the name of this boy though, she would remember the wolf's only until Hitoshi jump starts her memory. The berry scented girl gives a smile and a bow of her head to the two like she did Hitoshi, "Hello Mowiko-san, Tsume-san." Her hands slip back into her sleeves as she glances back down to the scroll, sort of skimming through it quickly before looking back to Kuno.
"Came here to twain too, neh?" She would assume as she and Hitoshi assumed this would be the best place to be since 'no one comes here.' The idea of this causes Berii to smile, it seemed a bit silly that they all had the thought at the same time! Well sort of, she was here for a few hours now.
The boy listened intently to each of the the children in turn, the boy reacted first, squinting in what Kuno assumed was the same vague familiarity with the new arrival… As the boy spoke, Kuno took in his appearance, and the scents that went with it with a quiet sniff… The scent of scrolls seemed to pervade the air around him… 'Must like reading…' Kuno thought, moving on to the other, the girl, who was now speaking. Again, he took in the scent of her, getting a vague scent of… Fruit? No, berries! Close enough …and listend to the girl as she began questioning him with a strange way of speaking… It reminded him of how little kids spoke when they lost their teeth.
What interested Kuno most was the strangeness of her appearance… The bright pink hair was very noticible, he just hadn't payed it any attention, as his father had taught him that appearance can rarely be trusted, but scents never lie.
"Twain? …OH! Yes, we're here to train!" The boy had found himself speaking his thoughts aloud at first, then continued… "We're doing some unusual training while we wait to be assigned a team, so we needed an unusual field."
"It's kind of a variation on the Great Fireball Technique," Hitoshi explains lightly, "to put it simply. Just on a less grand level." He shrugs his shoulders toward Berii lightly. "Something on our level." He then looks up again, tilting his head as his own memory kind of jumpstarts. He smiles some, hrming a little.
"Unusual training?" he asks lightly.
Berii was not sure if he was teasing her lacking ability in speech, though she was not insulted she was actually surprised no one makes note of it more often. "Hnn, yes." Berii hesitations for a moment as she perfects her next word, "…train." Berii gives a simple, "Ah." In response to Kuno, her focus seems to drift as she looks a bit thoughtful, if not a little confused for some reason. The girl would be broken out of her trance by a bug zipping past her face.
"Aye!"
She pulls back suddenly, her pale skin easily turning a dark shade of red. "Um…" She looks left and right before clearing her throat, deciding to derail their attention of her bug fright by looking to Hitoshi, "Neh, maybe I can hewp? I know the Gweat Firebaw Technique." She looks down at the scroll once more, the stuff seeming a bit complex despite already knowing how to properly manipulate fire, perhaps a human teacher may be more effective.
"Hnn, can't be too hawd to teach a weaker vewsion." The Uchiha then silently continues to study the scroll, she had never actually had to fully learn a technique from a scroll, she was a good reader but, it just appeared a lot more difficult to her!
Kuno couldn't help himself, he looked over the boy's shoulder, and began reading the scroll… He understood it well enough… "Hm… Like this?" Kuno asked, turning the other direction, away from his companions, and began running his fingers clumsily and slowly through the handseals that formed the jutsu, finally blowing out… Air? "Hm… Guess not." Kuno said, turning back to the scroll again, searching it's contents more thoroughly. "What about you two? Wanna give it a try?"
As he says this, Tsume ducks beneath the seat the boy had been sitting on, the safest place in the Toshiba Area… A whine told Kuno his companion didn't like where this was going and thought he should stop… "Oh, it'll be fine…" he said to his wolf, watching to see if the others would take his masked challenge.
Turning to watch over his shoulder as Kuno goes through the handseals, Hitoshi nods a little bit… but when absolutely nothing comes to be, he sort of makes a light little noise. "Something like that, I think," he remarks lightly. He looks back to Berii then, and tilts his head… As she goes through the string that came out of her mouth.
He needs a lisp filter. Yes.
"Maybe you can. Aren't the Uchiha sort of… naturally atuned to the element of fire anyway?" he asks her lightly. He then looks toward Kuno, tilting his head… and then to the canine companion.
"Sure. Why not?"
Sliding himself off of the stump he had been sitting on, Hitoshi offers Berii the scroll, apparently getting ready to try the technique himself. Slowly, he takes a deep breath, seemingly balancing himself out and bringing his hands up. The handsigns are not as drawn out as the Great Fireball Technique, but still… there's a few not-so-easy transitions. Steady… And as he seems to just -know- he's got the molding occuring inside him, he draws back…
And when his mouth opens, he lets out a huge breath and a 'gack' noise, with a -very- small little swivel of smoke trailing from his mouth.
"… Nope," he replies, falling over anti-climatically.
Berii giggles, shaking her head at Kuno. "It won't woik if you don't know how to make fiya in the fiwst pwace." The pink haired Uchiha gets up, with a bit of a strugle as there seems to be a momentary loss of balance, corrected by stepping forward. Forgetting she had attached weights to her limbs, even bringing her hands up to come together seemed difficult. Though she stops half-way as Hitoshi looks as if he wants to try it next. So she stands back and observes.
Another giggle escapes her, she usually didn't laugh at people's failures but, fire manipulation was something she had simply grown up around. At this point most Uchiha can make at least a small flame! "Neh, maybe howd off untiw you can make fiya." Berii gnaws on her bottom lip a bit and then turns away from the group.
Not remembering the suggested seals for the lesser version she would just go on to practice her only known technique that wasn't from the Academy in case she was a bit rusty wit hit. Her hands come together once more, Snake - Ram - Monkey - Boar - Horse - Tiger. She breathes in deep and brings her right hand up to her lips, punching the air in front of them. She leans forward slightly and delicately blows, at first it seemed like nothing was happening.
Yet, with all the delicate gestures used by an even more delicate girl, the grace of fire manipulation is countered by the harsh gout of flame she spews from her mouth. I controlled version of the fireball technique, it just spreads out in a large ball a good 20 feet in front of her own person as she continues the chakra stream for a few seconds.
The technique is abruptly stopped as she pinched fingers go into a fist to cover her mouth as she starts coughing, "Gack!" Hack hack. "Too much!"
Kuno watched as the overconfident girl flew through the handseals and began blowing flames… And promptly started coughing. "Like this, then?" Kuno said, imitating the seals he'd seen her do, and blowing, again to no avail… "Hm… So, how do you make fire?" he asked the girl, another whine coming from Tsume, the scent of smoke still heavy in the air.
Kuno sighs, and turns his attention to the other two… "There must be some secret. I keep trying to blow fire, but it's not working." A frown showed on his face, causing a canine to slip out on his left side, giving him an almost animal appearance before he spoke again. "I know ninjutsu isn't my best, but I normally manage… Something."
"Shinobi tend to have a natural affinity to a particular element that their chakra is in tune with," Hitoshi explains quite out of the blue, "this is how most ninjutsu is performed - through the elements that the shinobi can control. In the case of Berii-san's demonstration, it's obvious that she has an affinity for fire."
He then nods to Berii, grinning a little bit, despite her apparent loss of breath… "That was a good show there, by the way." He then looks up, nodding to Kuno slightly. "You probably, like me, haven't really… -discovered- what your own affinity is. I'm just trying a little of everything to see what works. My own Chakra, I feel like… it's in tune with -some- of the elements I've tried to manipulate lately. I'm down to Earth, Fire, and Lightning… That last one, though, I can pretty well knock out."
This results in the sagest of nods…
Berii would continue to cough a bit longer, eventually regaining her focus and rubbing a few tears from her eyes. The now, once again red faced, girl watches what Kuno had to offer this time around. The result all in all was no different than before, though Berii doesn't laugh at him this time around. After her little cough fit she's aware fire is difficult to tame, even for someone who had years of experience.
Instead, Kuno would get a look of sympathy this time around before Berii's eyes lock on him in silence, going thoughtful again. "Neh…" She bends her upper body a bit, inspecting Kuno a bit harder as if a solution to whatever she was thinking about was fine printed onto his face.
The compliment is met with a light blush but, she pretends not to hear it and simply begins nodding when Hitoshi clears things up a bit and her sympathetic look rests on poor Kuno once more, "Not meant to be?" She goes on to explain, "Aye, I twied watah once, neh, didn't even move a bit!" Berii nods a sound nod and points to the scroll.
"Neh, even if you do evewyting white, hand seals… focus chakra in gut, exhale, ignite." Berii sort of repeats the steps out loud in case one of them may of for some reasoned skipped over a step.
A snicker comes from the girl when the string of words 'down to earth' line up, keeping that joke to herself as she decides she should actually get back to training but, she couldn't do that with these two around distracting her. So with a polite bow of her head, "Neh… excuse me. I shouwd get back to twaining."
She felt her departure was abrupt but, she was only out here to get better anyway! Not socialize with old classmates.
Kuno frowned at the news… How sad that he would never be able to use Fire… But, if that's true, then he must have an element of some kind… "Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. The Five Elements of Chakra… I remember that lesson. I only recall that you had to use the right kind of chakra for it… Hm? Wait, what would my Chakra be then?" As he spoke, the girl decided to leave, having more training to do… So, as she left, he waved at her. "Then, let's hope we meet again, Soon…"
"That's for you to figure out on your own," Hitoshi replies simply, shrugging his shoulders a little bit and grinning slightly. "S'part of how we grow! Welcome to how the world works… here's your forehead protector, enjoy your climb to the top." He offers Kuno a bit of a wink, before he turns to watch Berii start off. "Later, Berii-san!" He waves as she begins to depart… and then, he looks to his scroll pile.
"… I'd honestly probably better just take some of these back and study them indoors, to be fair." He then looks to Kuno and tilts his head. "Kuno-san. Right? Don't stress about your affinity too much. It'll come to you when the time's right. S'how it goes. That's just life."
And with that, the young shinobi bends over and gathers up his study materials, before turning back toward Kuno one more time. "Good luck. I'll be looking for you to see how your bit of self-discovery turns out!" He winks again, and then waves with his free hand, before starting toward the treeline, where he had come into the clearing..
It wasn't in Kuno's nature to stay depressed and with a yip from Tsume, he waved to the boy who was already walking away. "Oh, I'll find it someday!" he called after the boy before turning back to Tsume. "However, today, you and I have training to do, don't we?" With that, the Inuzuka ran off deeper into the Toshiba Area for his special training, followed closely by the brown furred wolf running beside him. "Remember, we split up when we get there, and go as far as possible in either direction…"
