Starring:
Date: August 1, 2015
Summary:
Atsuro holds his first training session since Hige's promotion to help train the younger Inuzuka. As per normal, the jabs fly in both directions while the training progresses.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Inuzuka Training Day!"
Konoha
Hige is out in the nice rocky area, destroying a few rocks with various techniques while he waits for Atsuro. He had left a message in the office of the older Inuzuka, basically berating him for being mean and not having helped train Hige and Konsho lately. Sure they'd figured out some stuff on their own with time, and Atsuro isn't their team leader anymore, but at this point he's willing to lay on the guilt trip to get a little help.
"Hiiii~" comes a sing-songy voice from off in the trees. Then Atsuro steps into the area, followed shortly by Taizen. "I'm here because some whiny baby left me a bunch of rude messages. You know anything about that?" As Atsuro comes to a stop a short distance from Hige and Konsho, Taizen sits down on his haunches and woofs in greeting to the two younger Inuzuka. Atsuro folds his arms. "So," he says, "The student finally returns to the master. And what would he like?"
"Whiny?" Hige calls back, reaching a claw into the closest boulder and charging it with lightning before carving out a small piece to throw at Atsuro. "You're the one who said he was going to help me learn Inuzuka techniques ojii. I can only do so much by myself you know. We already learned fang rotating fang by ourselves, now it's time for you to be useful." Hige gives a bit of a smug grin at that, arms crossing over his chest as well as he stares right back at the much taller Inuzuka.
Smiling pleasantly, Atsuro bows to Hige and lets the rock sail over him. "They were pretty whiny," he says, "You could have just said you'd like some help. I would have come out anyway, even without the irritation. Of course, I'd like to just take this opportunity to point out that you're not my student anymore, or so they tell me." He walks over to Hige, attempting to stand so close that he has to look way up just to see anything other than his neck. "Okay," he says, "So what is it you'd like to learn?"
"Something useful, preferably," Hige says a tad dryly as he stares up and up at Atsuro. Poor Hige, he really only comes about to Atsuro's chest if even that. So his neck cranes back even as his arms remain folded and his feet remain in position. "Man, you stink." Hige says after a moment of the Inuzuka being so close. "Take a bath some day. Taizen can't you get him to bathe regularly?"
Konsho trots on over to Taizen who he hasn't had much free time with since he'd…grow. Now he's only a tad shorter than the other. His tongue is lolled out to the side while he tilts his head slightly, then gives Taizen a lick on the snout in greeting before sitting next to him to watch the other two.
"Okay," says Atsuro, "Thanks for being so specific. Would you like an attack or a defense? Obviously you don't need a sharper nose, since you've managed to smell through my delicately-applied yet unmissable bergamot and lime aftershave to your own underpants." Taizen politely declines to get involved in this pissing match and instead simply wags his tail in greeting to Konsho. "What level are you even at lately?" Atsuro asks, "You're a jounin, so perhaps you're interested in the A-ranks? Oooh, Hige, you've come of age!"
Hige unfolds one arm to poke Atsuro in the stomach a few times as he speaks. "Listen her ojii, I happen to know that I swell quite fantastic. It wasn't until you walked in that this foul stench started." When Atsuro asks what level he's at the boy tilts his head slightly to the side even as it's tilted back. "Don't read reports, huh? I can understand. Getting old, eyesights going. And maybe your ear too. I /said/ we taught ourselves fang rotatig fang. Now teach me something useful, perhaps a defense so I can avoid the smell next time."
"I recall," says Atsuro drily, remembering his last meeting with Hige (and his armpits). "I was hoping to hear it in your words, but since you're not quite so obstinate as to tell me nothing… I can teach you to defend at an A-rank level." He raises a finger, "It's based on clan techniques. Using your senses, which are better than most people's, to dodge, better than most people can." He raises a finger, "That requires knowing what to look for when someone's attacking. Twitches of the muscle, watching where they're looking… that sort of thing. You should know where they're planning to attack before even they do."
Hige nods slowly as he listens, finally stepping back away from the smelly old man. "That doesn't sound too difficult," he says with another small nod. Then a small smile appears as he says, "How about you show me while I attack you, hmm?" He asks, innocenly. Farrrr too innocently.
Atsuro rubs his chin in mock contemplation. "Why," he says, "It's almost as if you have some move you've learned and now you want to try it out on dear old Ojii." He lowers the hand and grins. "But you see, this is a pretty good defense, Hige. One of the best there is. Perhaps even you can touch me when I use it, but I remain confident that won't happen." He takes a step back. "So, let's see."
"Gladly…" he says, taking a few steps back before crouching and launching into the air. Hige starts spinning in that move he was just talking about although it may not be as effective without Konsho. He doesn't want to kill Atsuro or anything. He stays midair for a few moments before starting to come down at Atsuro, zig zagging a bit to try and throw him off as he comes slicing down!
Settling into a proper combat posewhen Hige's using a move like this one, he deserves a /little/ respectAtsuro watches the blurring attack carefully, waiting for the tell that will let him know when to dodge and how. It's not something anyone with normal human senses could detect, but it's possible for an Inuzuka. As Hige moves in for his final attack, Atsuro does a backflip, neatly carrying him out of harm's way. "Ta-da!" he proclaims. Naturally, he's primed himself to avoid a second attack, because he knows Hige.
Aww, would Hige do something as dirty as that? Yes, yes he would. After hitting the ground in a crouch he uses the burst of energy as he pushes off to try and ram his shoulder into the older Inuzuka. But the real trick is coming from behind as Konsho also runs to pounce on Atsuro. Fast, but in a generally harmless way. They just want to see how well this defense might really be.
Of course he would. But since he's more interested in showing the power of sense-based predictions than of course-based ones, he waits until he's genuinely aware of where the attacks are coming from before he jumps back to avoid Hige, then twists out of the way of Konsho's pounce. "You done?" he asks, "I mean, even if you weren't planning to, I think you're well aware of how good this move is by now. I predict you might never hit me." He grins cheekily.
Hige stands, giving a fang toothed smile to Atsuro before he nods, "Almost done." He looks to Taizen. "Taizen, care to give us a hand to see how good this defense really is?" Yep, that's right, he wants to see Atsuro avoid a three pronged attack. That's not evil, is it?
Atsuro snorts. "Because I haven't proven the effectiveness of this technique yet? You're very bold to ask my comrade to turn against me, but okay. Tai, you help them out. And I won't even give him the secret signal to sabotage you." He waves to Taizen, who goes over to join Hige and Konsho. Atsuro puts his hands on his hips. "Okay then!" he says, "The ultimate test. Let's have it!"
Hige reaches out to scratch Taizen behind the ears when he comes over. "Taizen is much nicer than you ojii. He wouldn't do that anyways." He turns with the two ninken and whispers the plan, softly enough that only they can hear it. With that done they surround Atsuro. "Let's go!" With that Konsho would go first, in a flash doing a tsuga at Atsuro, Taizen next taking any opening that he thinks Atsuro might take while Hige does the same in the final, taking even another spot to move with a tsuga. Three well placed tsugas. A true test!
"He might," says Atsuro, "I mean, you're not the one who cooks for him." Still, he can't deny that all three of them could present a serious challenge, especially with one of them being at exactly his skill level and knowing the way he thinks. But in the end, it's just a matter of trusting his own senses. He jumps up to avoid Konsho's attack. Then in midair, he twists, avoiding Taizen by centimeters. Finally, just one more to deal with. With Hige coming in at just about the upper half of his body, he aims to flatten himself out, snapping himself into a lying position in the air. Hige might even look down and see Atsuro grinning up at him as he passes over. As they land though, Atsuro grabs his side. "Hooh," he says, "Drill. You made me hurt myself on that last bit. But I'd like to point out that I still technically made it."
Hige lands and goes over to give Taizen some more scratches. "Alright, I'm convinced." He says, smiling sweetly up at Atsuro, "What was that ojii, feeling a bit old there are we? Don't tell me you need a break. I might have to talk to Daisuke about your age, might be time for a replacement." The smile widens a bit, "But first, you have to teach me that."
"And you would have pulled it off perfectly, of course," Atsuro speaks through half-pursed lips. He rubs his side, "Nothing a quarter hour in the hotsprings won't solve. The same can't be said for your mouth." He clears his throat and says demurely, "Now of course, you know the essence of this technique. Use your enhanced senses to get an early warning of what the enemy is attemptin to do. You'll develop a sense for exactly what these are if you train, but first a few pointers. First, you'll want to become familiar with the tells for both ninjutsu and taijutsu. Second, you're probably already familiar with some of those tells and you just need to learn how to sense them earlier on. Third…"
