Starring:
Date: February 25, 2013
Summary:
After receiving an invitation from Miyo, Midori makes her way out to training ground #20 where she meets Miyo. Having initially suspected some sort of ambush by bullies, she is surprised to find that Miyo is only interested in training and working towards their graduation from the Academy. After sparring for a while, the two part ways after Miyo unsuccessfully attempts to break Midori’s shell of anxiety and uncertainty.
"Shell Cracking"
Konoha Training Ground #20
The other day Miyo had noticed a lonely looking Uchiha sitting by herself and struggling with the clone-technique during their lessons, despite getting help from Satomi. Miyo had done slightly better than her relatively unknown comrade, but still struggled, and because of that, she felt it might be a good idea to invite the Uchiha girl out to train with her. It might not be a bad idea to make some good friends too, or at least, make an attempt at it.
It was now the middle of the afternoon, shortly after classes had gotten out, and Miyo had ran off to the training ground right away, after having left a note with Midori's things that she'd be willing to train with her for a while if she wanted to show up. Standing in the shade beneath one of the trees in the Training Area dubbed #26, Miyo was busy stretching while she waited. After she had stretched out, she pulled her ashen-colored hair back and put it up in a ponytail before stepping out into the sun, hopping up and down and swinging her arms around. Hopefully the other girl would show up.
Midori had taken the note hesitantly, and avoided going straight to the training grounds. The young student was always wary of kids that seemed interested in training with, especially since so many of them had been picking on her since they'd found out that she was an Uchiha who couldn't use any Ninjutsu at all. She'd gone off to the shops briefly to grab some food, and as she sat down to eat she read the note again. With a sigh, she got back up, mentally braced herself for arriving to find a whole bunch of kids ready to throw rotten fruit at her, and headed off towards the training areas.
Midori wasn't fond of running - she always seemed to trip and end up face first in the mud - so it took her quite a while to reach her destination. When she does though, she finds only Miyo waiting for her. Midori's head swivels around as she looks for traps, or hiding places, but doesn't find anything suspicious. "Hi Miyo-san," she says as she wanders into the clearing from the nearby path, hands clasped in front of her waist and head bowed a little in respect.
When Midori enters the training ground and speaks to her, Miyo whirls around and claps her hands, placing her fingers against her lips. "Midori-san! I'm so glad you showed up!" She bowed back, returning the courtesy. "I was a little worried you weren't going to come. It was getting late." She lowers her hands and places them on her hips.
I was hoping you'd maybe train with me for a bit. Its always better, and more effective, to train with someone else. What do you think?
"Umm, uhh, alright, I guess," Midori says, umming and ahhing as she tries to work out if this is yet another trick, but when she realizes that the girls seems genuine, she nods and takes a deep breath. "Ok, what did you have in mind?" she asks, putting her hands behind her back, "I'm not very good with Ninjutsu, so if you were after any help with that you might be out of luck." She purses her lips and looks around the area, looking for any other training equipment, or anything she might be able to use for some other kinds of practice. It was best if Midori kept to physical practice in front of other students… the results of anything else were simply too embarrassing.
"That's fine, I'm no good with ninjutsu either, just seals." She giggles and then smiles, holding up her hands. "Well, I figure we could do a little hand to hand stuff to practice." She shrugs. "That is, if that's alright with you." She had noticed that Midori is really a bit shy or even lacking confidence. Perhaps, she could help bring her out of her shell if she got lucky.
Midori bites her lower lip for a moment, feeling very nervous, but nods her head once decisively. "Alright, Miyo-san, but I'm not very good at hand-to-hand either," she says, taking up a fighting pose with her hands up in a boxing guard and one foot forward. As she starts moving she seems quite awkward, almost like the effort of trying to concentrate on fighting with her hands could cause her to fall over at any moment.
"Just relax." Miyo moves closer, obviously no better with her hands than Midori was. "I'm a sword-specialist, not a fist person, so we're even." She throws a sloppy right hook towards Midori. Nothing fancy or flashy, something that would be easy to block in her current position, then follows up with a lower left straight. "You can do it!" Hopefully she could she didn't want to just mercilessly batter the poor girl. That wouldn't be the thing she would want for Midori. Wasn't a real good way to make friends either.
Midori still seems really anxious, but she runs straight at Miyo swinging a fist toward her face. Then she dodges backward and tries for a kick. The kick is a complete failure as Midori manages to kick her stabilizing foot out from underneath her, and both feet swing into the air comically as she plummets to the ground. "Oof!" Midori says, the wind knocked out of her for a moment. But she's quickly rolling over and getting back up to her feet, her new kimono dirtied and the girl looking rather puffed but not really any worse for wear.
As Midori rushes her, Miyo raises her same-side arm, hooking her wrist into Midori's and pushing it wide, making sure that the girl doesn't hit her. It was an okay strike by Miyo's standards, nothing particularly dangerous or threatening, but a solid attempt. "That wa-" She suddenly bursts out giggling as Midori tries to kick her but sends herself to the ground instead. It was a bit comical, and Miyo felt bad about laughing, but couldn't help it."Are you are you okay?" She asks as Midori gets back to her feet.
After Midori got up and puffed herself up, Miyo shrugs and moves forward, punching out with her right fist before following up with a wide kick with her left leg towards Midori's hip.
Midori looks very grumpy with Miyo for laughing, and doesn't bother responding to the girl. She simply raises her arms against the first punch, which hits her guard hard enough to knock her first into her own face, and then lowers both palms and… somehow… successfully stops Miyo's kick from hitting her. In the moment after the kick, Midori throws a backfist towards Miyo's head, then spins and throws another from the other side. Then she tries to spin again, but her legs get tangled up underneath her and the poor girl collapses to the ground. She gets up more quick this time, her face flushed red with irritation and embarassment.
Miyo was about to make a joke about Midori hitting herself in the face, but after her nice block against her kick, and the sudden backhand being deliver against her, which she was forced to block with her arm, she was surprised to find Midori hit her hard enough to make her punch herself in the face too. As Miyo stumbles backwards from the blow, she lets out a giggle. "Well nice job." She then moves in, throwing a nice right hook towards Midori's torso, and following up with a leg-sweep.
Midori tries to take a step back and away from Miyo's counter-attacks, but starts tripping over her own feet again. She manages to stay standing, but takes the hook to the ribs, and is then swept off her feet a moment later. So much for staying upright! She struggles back up, puffing loudly with the exertion. "Your attacks are too quick for me," she says, running forwards again and swinging a wide punch at Miyo, then pivotting badly as she tries to throw another. Her form is pretty terrible, even for a student!
"You just need to focus and relax. I know its battle but relaxing is your best bet to being able to handle my attacks!" Miyo had no idea what she was talking about, it was just something her mother had taught her back when she started training with her. Hopefully Midori would be able to make something of it. "Ah!" She lets out a sound of surprise as Midori comes at her again, ducking around two two punches before turning into her and throwing two quick jabs towards her stomach.
Midori can't even think about relaxing, she's so uptight and worried about this match. As Miyo moves around her attacks and counters, Midori tries to jump backwards and bring her hands down to protect her stomach simultaneously. The first of Miyo's punches is too quick and it hits Midori's stomach, but she manages to block the second one and step back with a groan. Moving forwards again, Midori swings a wide haymaker that almost throws her off balance, but manages to turn it into a spinning kick. Just as her foot reaches the apex of its swing though, her grounded foot slips and Midori begins to fall to the ground.
Midori came at her with a power punch that she was surprised the girl had in her. She had been somewhat timid, but apparently the Uchiha had some fierceness left in her! And then the first part of the sloppy haymaker comes at her, and unable to mount a defense fast enough, she ends up taking the hit, but it glances so badly that it hardly bothered her. The surprising follow-up kick nearly caught her off guard though and she lifts a leg to intercept it. It throws her off balance though, and she falls to the ground like Midori, and giggles.
Midori hits the ground a little harder than Miyo, and is thorougly winded by the impact. She coughs a few times before rolling over on to her back and taking several long, strained breaths. After a while her breathing returns to normal and Midori manages to sit up, her head still spinning a bit. "I… should never try to use Taijutsu again," she mutters, slowly pulling herself back up to a standing position, "I'm more of a danger to myself than anyone else." She shakes her head in disappointment as she looks at the other girl. "You're just too quick for me, Miyo-san. You win," the Uchiha girl admits defeat humbly, and sets to straightening out her hair, which is in a matted mess upon her head.
"Hey, you gave me a couple good pops too, don't count yourself out! You just need more practice." As Midori sits up and begins fussing with her hair, Miyo moves over next to her and bats her hands away. "Here, let me help." She begins working through the Uchiha's hair, helping her get it fixed up. "Ya know, I had fun. I was glad you came out and spent some time with me. Perhaps you'd like to do it again sometime? We can help each other improve."
"Umm, yeah, maybe," Midori says, a pink flush colouring her cheeks as Miyo starts fussing over her hair. The hair is normally immaculately well cared for, and it quickly comes out of its knots and tangles, the conditioned hair having been trained into straight, slightly layered bobs around her head. Midori tilts her head this way and that to make sure its all back in place, and then nods. She stands up and turns to face Miyo, saying, "Thank you too, Miyo-san. I expected this to be some sort of practical joke, but I'm glad you're a trustworthy person." She bows and straightens up again, smiling.
"I'm not really good with jokes. Hehe My jokes are pretty sloppy." She finishes up working on Midori's hair and then gets up with Midori. "Well, I had best be heading home. Perhaps Ill see you again at our next lesson. Bye bye!" She turns, waving over her shoulder and heads back towards Konoha.
