Starring:
Date: December 10, 2012
Summary:
Goh and Midori meet for the first time.
"Meeting Midori"
Kirigakure beach
It's about midday in Kirigakure. For a refreshing change of pace, the mists aren't as strong today. This is largely because of a front which has caused most of the heavy clouds to blow northward, temporarily leaving the Hidden Village bathed in direct sunlight. It left the whole place quite humid more than anything, as there was still plenty of moisture around, both on the ground and in the very air.
Today Goh stands on the rock-strewn beach, on the very edge of the water. He appears to stand on his lonesome, the black cloak he wears billowing out as a swift gust of sea breeze makes itself known.
To his side is a bucket of simple rocks. They aren't anything special, save for the fact that there are quite a few of them sitting in the bucket. Picking one rock up from the collection, the blonde pickler throws it up and down in his hand, as if pondering what to do next. Thinking.
"Hm."
Shy as shy can be, Midori slowly picks her way along the rocks down to the waterfront. The girl spies the older man not too far away and stops temporarily. Normally she didn't like training near other people… it was a sure-fire way for the young girl to get picked on in the Academy. Nevertheless she lets out a loud sigh and wills herself forwards. She hadn't trained in days and she could already feel herself falling behind the rest of her class. With her long kimono blowing out behind her, Midori walks down to the edge of the water and concentrates for a moment, forming the handseal of the ram in front of her. After a few seconds of focusing her chakra, the student forms a few other handseals slowly and carefully, as if practicing them before the real run through. After a few dry runs, she tries them a little faster, messing up a few of the connections, and then blows outwards. The resulting fireball is more like a little cough of fire, a belch of heat and flames licking in uncontrollably in every direction before quickly subsiding.
Goh doesn't appear to take notice of Midori at all, at least not right away. He still throws the rock up and down in his palm, waiting… looking out at the ocean. In a sudden motion, he throws the piece of earth up into the sky! An amazing throw, the rock arcs high up into the air and over the ocean.
As it reaches the pinacle of its height, the surface of the water breaks, revealing a HUGE salamander! The gigantic thing, at least twenty meters high, is fully exposed as it leaps out of the water and catches the small stone in its teeth. The stone, small by even human standards, is practically minature against the mighty beast that just caught it with great finesse.
Wanryo then falls back into the ocean with a thundering crash, waves flowing out from the point of impact. The whole thing is over only in seconds. Yet even though it happened so fast, the sheer size and gigantic scale of it all would make it hard to miss.
Goh, seeming quite pleased given the smile on his face, turns around to now look at Midori, tilting his head in curiosity. Just looking at her, perhaps puzzled.
When did she get here? "Hello." He greets in a friendly tone.
As the enormous salamander leaps out of the water and lands back in it, Midori's mouth drops open in amazement. For a second she looks like she's about to run away in sheer terror. "I, uhh… wow," she stutters, the words forming nearly as badly as her fireball. The little girl looks over to Goh, her eyes wide. "Do I… umm… need to run away?" she asks, blinking a few times as she tries to process what's going on. Her hands are still clasped in the tiger handseal from her previous ninjutsu - it appears that in her surprise she's forgotten to lower her hands. A strong gust of winds blows her long green hair out behind her, the low whistling sound making the scene feel like some sort of crazy old western movie.
"Interesting question." Goh asks simply, a smile coming across his face, before he crouches to get more at the young ones height. "If you ran, do you think you could get away?" They were at a reasonable distance away still, despite the pickler now crouching down. He waves a bit of a hand, before standing up straight with a laugh.
"Worry not, lass." He says in a hearty tone. "My name is Goh. I'm a travelling pickler. Despite my appearance, you can rest assured. I mean you no harm." He gestures for Midori to come closer.
"What you just saw was my good friend, Wanryo. He's a salamander. We're practicing his finesse at the moment. Did you want to try?" The pickler asks, gesturing down to the bucket. "All you need to do is throw the rock high up into the air, over the ocean. My friend will then try and catch it in his teeth. It's a game, I guess you could call it."
Goh will give the young girl a further appraisal if she does get closer. "You look very well dressed to be out on the beach. What's your name?"
Midori looks hesitant, a small nervous look passing across her face before she nods and approaches the pickler. "I'm Midori," she introduces herself, skipping her surname because of its notorious implications. As she gets near she looks at Goh, checking that he's serious, then reaches into the bucket and pulls out a small stone. With a big wind up and a small running start, Midori throws the stone out over the water. The throw isn't very good, making it about a quarter of the distance that Goh's did, and not really reaching anywhere near the salamander's previous position. As the stone arcs short, dismay covers Midori's face and she immediately starts apologising. "Oh I'm sorry, I'm not very good with my hands," she murmurs, looking ashamed of herself.
"It's alright. Watch." Goh replies simply, not taking his eyes off the lesser thrown stone. Despite not reaching the same heights of lengths, Wanryo bounds out of the water once again! In a similar fashion he will catch the thing in its teeth. However, when it lands this time, it lands in much shallower water. Given that Midori's throw wasn't as deep as Goh's, this isn't too surprising.
Regardless, Wanryo can now be seen standing half out of the water now, slimey skin refelcting against the direct sunlight. Dropping the stone, the salamander then swims back out to the deep ocean.
"It's all part of the game." The pickler muses. "Throw the rocks to unexpected positions. Make Wanryo's reaction time faster, without sacrificing the finesse." Lifting a hand to rub his hair, Goh lets out a long sigh. "Phew. I'm beat." He rotates his shoulder around. Who knows how long he's been at this?
"Thanks for your help. I appreciate it." He grins, lifting a hand to pat her head. Not exactly hard, but she would certainly know he's patting it! "Midori, huh? Are you from this Village?" He can only guess so. She looked far too young and inexperienced to be part of the travelling troupe of ninja that reside elsewhere.
With a slow fall, Goh falls onto his butt — opting to sit down in a heap.
Midori's head bobs under the pressure of Goh patting, the girl feeling a little intimidated but determined to make friends with this man. Then she shakes her head in response to his question, answering, "No, I'm from Konohagakure. I'm just a ninja student though, and not a very good one." She lets her hands fall out of the handsign, and clasps them nervously in front of her waist. "What about you, Goh-san? Which village are you from?" she asks, trying not to sound too obtrusive.
"Konoha?" Goh asks, sounding surprised. "But you're just a student. Why did you travel here?" Obviously he was a bit out of loop with who got to travel to Kirigakure and who didn't! "I mean, not that I'm complaining. I got to meet a new friendly new kid." He's still grinning in a goofy way.
"What Village am I from?" He asks, gesturing to himself. "I'm not from any Village, actually. Not anymore. When Konoha first formed, I helped out your Hokage, Hashiramako, by being one of the founding Jounin. But I left after the foundation was all setup and the Village was on its feet. That was years ago now, and haven't been part of any Village since." He lifts a hand to rub his head.
"I'm just a neutral wanderer now, able to go wherever I please. Recently I helped setup a guild for similar neutral wanderers, but it's not anything like a Hidden Village or anything."
Midori answers, "I'm here with my father. He has friends participating in the exams, and thought it would be good for me to come and watch the matches." A little shrug graces her shoulders and the little girl adds, "I haven't learnt much yet though. Most of the fights are too fast, and I can't even tell what's going on."
Midori blinks a few times and tilts her head to one side. "Wow, you know Hokage-sama? You must've been a really great ninja to have helped set-up Konohagakure," she says, bowing again as if she hadn't already shown enough Goh enough respect, "But then why did you leave? Didn't you like the village any more?" A moment later the student looks shocked at her own question, and adds, "Oh, you don't have to answer that if you don't want."
Midori answers, "I'm here with my father. He has friends participating in the exams, and thought it would be good for me to come and watch the matches." A little shrug graces her shoulders and the little girl adds, "I haven't learnt much yet though. Most of the fights are too fast, and I can't even tell what's going on."
Midori blinks a few times and tilts her head to one side. "Wow, you know Hokage-sama? You must've been a really great ninja to have helped set-up Konohagakure," she says, bowing again as if she hadn't already shown enough Goh enough respect, "But then why did you leave? Didn't you like the village any more?" A moment later the student looks shocked at her own question, and adds, "Oh, you don't have to answer that if you don't want."
"Oh, right. That makes sense." Goh nods at that, before frowning a little. "Hmm. Me, too." He agrees. "To be honest, the fights… They get a little boring. You aren't missing a whole lot. Not too sure how much you would learn even if you could understand what was going on. Certainly, not a whole lot when it comes to originality. Some exceptions, of course. Mind you, I'm not exactly a well known fighter or anything, so asking me about combat isn't going to get you the best answer."
A smirk escapes his lips. "Eh, no need for all the head bowing, lass. I'm not really the type to really like that sort of stuff." He pauses at the question, before narrowing his eyes out at the ocean. "It's alright." He replies. "To be honest, no, I did not like the Village anymore. I don't like the system. That combined with a whole bunch of other complicated reasons made me want out. That's not to say I don't like your Hokage. In fact, I still keep in regular contact with Hashi. Due to meet up with her soon, actually." He rubs his chin at that.
"Anyway. I saw you were having some trouble with a technique? Still learning the proper handseals?"
Midori nods to Goh slowly. "I just can't make the handsigns fast enough," she explains, "Whenever I try to speed them up I do something wrong, but if I try to slow them down I lose control of my chakra." The girl lets out a loud sigh, another gust of wind blowing through her hair before she says, "And my clan's supposed to be really good with fire ninjutsu. I just can't get the hang of it." She returns to practising the technique, forming the handsigns as quickly as she can without messing them up, and breathes outwards. Only a few sparks puff out, as if she lost air pressure halfway through.
Goh watches Midori go through the hand signs as quick as she can, with a less than impressive result. "Even those of the Uchiha clan struggle when first learning their signature techniques, Midori. Don't let it worry you too much. I can't tell you any special tips about how to learn things quicker. I can tell you the key to better utilizing techniques of all sorts though, and that's to relax. If you're thinking about other things or focussing too hard, then it won't work properly. Let it flow, calm down and just be natural. It's a natural process, after all."
It seems that he worked out where she was form! Only one clan that he knew of had fire techniques as their signature. That, and it was very much in line with Uchiha customs to get their younglings exposed to high quality combat ASAP. "Just gotta keep practicing, lass." He pauses then. "So. How are you finding Kirigakure? It's pretty different from Konoha, huh?"
Midori looks at Goh, a very analytical expression on your face, then looks a bit dispaired. "I guess its normal that an old Konoha-nin would recognize an Uchiha, but don't tell anyone, ok? Father doesn't want me telling people what clan I belong to, to help protect me," she says, a little annoyed that she gave it away so easily. Apparently she had a long way to go. When Goh gives his advice on the techniques, Midori simply nods. "Everyone's been saying that, but I think I'm just not very good with them," she says with a sigh, "I've been practicing for ages and ages and got nowhere! My sister learnt the Great Fireball Technique by the time she was eight, and I'm ten and not even close!" Midori slumps dejectedly, then shakes her head and gives the technique another shot. The handsigns are a bit slower this time, but it seems slowing them down causes her chakra to become unstable, and the technique flops again.
Goh watches carefully, the seals indeed going a bit too slowly for her body. "What about other areas?" He asks simply. "Some people just aren't adept with ninjutsu. I'm not saying you should give up, but how are you with illusions and actual hand-to-hand fighting?" As the technique flops again, he just shakes his head a bit.
"Your execution and timing are off. Think of the seals as a gateway for the technique. Like a key. When you finish off the seals, that's when your chakra formation in your lungs should be at its peak." He taps his chest as if to indicate it. "As soon as the key unlocks it, or your seals are finished, that's when the technique erupts. Does that make sense?" He scratches his head. He'd never taught anyone so young before. He didn't even know if he was explaining it correctly!
Midori takes a long breath, calming herself after her latest failure. Shaking her head she answers, "Well, I'm quicker than most of the kids in my class, but not by much. And I don't seem to be able to get the techniques for hand-to-hand combat either. I've never even tried to use illusions before, but I'm probably no good at them either. It'd help so much if I had a sharingan, so I could just copy people's moves and stuff. Then I wouldn't need to worry about trying to get all these handseals right." She tries the technique again, speeding up the handseals so that her chakra builds up right, but the handseals are off again. She doesn't interlock her fingers properly when forming snake and horse, her hands are out of alignment on boar and she loses it altogether when she forms tiger. When she breathes out, plenty of fire pours forth, but it has no real shape or heat to it.
"I hope you're not serious." Goh replies sternly. "The Sharingan eye isn't a shortcut like that. And from what I understand of the Uchiha, they have to work their butt off to at least get it in the first place. If you work hard without it, just imagine how awesome you'll be when you finally get it to work, huh?" He grins.
"That one was better. All you really need to do is practice the seals. Over and over and over. Try and do it blindfolded even. That's how I used to practice them, so I would get the feel right. I found that watching my hands go through them, I'd get distracted. But if you just think and feel, it works out better. Or such was in my case, anyway." Standing up, he dusts himself off — getting rid of the sand.
"I need to get going. It was great meeting you, Midori. You be careful, huh? This can be a dangerous place."
Midori bows to Goh in farewell, then looks embarassed. "Sorry, its a habit," she explains, then simply waves to the older ninja. "Thank you for the advice as well, I'll make sure I try it."
