Starring:
Usagi, Yamamoto
Date: April 22, 2013
Summary:
Usagi and Yamamoto meet and share their favorite games.
"Usagi and Yamamoto Meet"
Konohagakure Training Area #26 - Chuunin Training
Training Area #26 - Chuunin Training [Konohagakure]
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This Chuunin area looks a little more unfriendly compared to the Genin training ground. A path leads to a small pond up ahead from the entrance. On both sides of the path looks to be an endless stretch of forest life. The trees themselve looks to be scrapped up alot and worn down from a lot of sharp objects and blunt attacks. There was no telling what kind of dangerous animals lurk about in the forest, but it isn't uncommon to hear a few threatening noises.
Getting closer to the pond that seems to be placed perfectly in the middle of the area, there are wooden posts lining all around the small body of water. Every now and then a few animals would come out to get a drink of the pond's water.
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Usagi
Nothing too extraordinary can be said of this woman, she's standing just around five foot four, with blonde hair that goes down to her waist. It's generally left to flow down her back, but some care is definitely put into it. Her dress tends to consist of the sleeveless under armor/fishnet that seems to be prevalent, covered by the Chuunin's flak jacket, dark green in color. The jacket leaves her arms mostly bare, containing most of her useful items in the pouches and pockets that it has on it. All else that remains is fingerless gloves that are the same color as her vest. Her pants are skintight shorts, also jungle green, that go to her midthinh. Her shoes are useful for ninja, and come up to protect the ankles and lower parts of the shins, and aside from newly added shin guards of the same dark green color she wears, that's about it. Her complexion can be called slightly tanned, with blue eyes that seem to take everything in around her casually. She wears a band on her right arm, which currently holds two feathers. A smaller white one, and a larger green one.
Yamamoto
A young man in his late teens with ochre coloured skin. He is tall and muscular. His eyes are opal. He wears a dark red vest open in the front and dark red pants which are baggy, but brown wrappings cover the shins and calfs of the pants and keep them tight to the skin. Brown tabi cover the feet. Around his waist a thick bright yellow sash is tied to leave a pair of foot long tails hanging, and a matching yellow bandana tied in a skull cap covers his hair and bears an Iwagakure forehead protector. From the edges of his bandana spills thick shoulder-length black hair.
It is a fine summer morning in the village of Konohagakure. A layer of clouds keep the sun from shining too brightly, making the morning pleasantly warm just before the dew dries from the grass and trees. Yamamoto, a Chuunin of Iwagakure, is visiting, and he seems to have found the best place to enjoy himself. He is currently standing in the middle of the pond at the Chuunin training grounds. A half-inflated leather ball is in his hands.
Yamamoto looks at the poles arrayed around the pond for a few seconds, studying them, then tosses his leather ball into the air. As the ball comes down beside him he kicks it into a pole and it bounces back to him, at which point he kicks it again towards a different pole and repeats the process. A white-toothed grin is on his face.
There's apparently another person nearby in the morning times, someone who is apparently watching with a tad bit of interest. A darkly dressed shinobi, save for her arms and head which are both bare, walks over, with a vest that chuunin and jounin tend to wear when around. Usagi doesn't seem to really be coming to interfere, just to watch for the time being. Perhaps one of the more notable things about her is she has a scythe that is almost as big as she is on her back, the blade covered with what appears to be a black sheathe. As she approaches, she stays out of the ring, arms clasped behind her back. "What do you have there?"
Yamamoto looks over at Usagi, the look of surprise on his face making it apparent he just noticed her. "What? Oh… its a kemari ball. Sort of," Yamamoto says, smiling again. He kicks the ball again and it bounces back to him from another post. The ball is kicked with quite a bit of force and a decent amount of forward spin in order to make it pop up into the air back to Yamamoto. "I, uh, play nin-kemari, I guess you would say." He kicks the ball again. "I'm Katen Yamamoto, from Iwagakure."
"Nara Usagi, Konohagakure" She nods as she notices the ball spinning. "I'm interested in how you get it to forward spin like that. Most times when you hit something, especially with a kick, you'll usually put 'back'spin on it" She walks around the poles as she speaks, looking back to him. "And I've never played nin-kerami….tell me of it, please?"
"Well, you play nin kemari mostly the same way you play kemari," Yamamoto says, kicking the ball again. "Only you use your ninja training some, and you really try to test your limits." He kicks the ball to go behind him this time and it bounces off of a pole and comes back towards his shoulders. "And to get the ball to forward spin…" The ball comes back to him and a sudden pulse of chakra over his skin sends it bouncing from his shoulders over his head and to his front, where he kicks it again into a pole. "…you just kick the top of the ball. Because its flat, if you hit it hard enough and in the right way, it will still go the direction you want it to go instead of going down."
He looks over to Usagi and adds, "Ah… you, uh, play Kemari by keeping the ball from touching the ground. Its… cooperative, rather than competitive." As the ball comes back to him again he kicks the ball into a gentle arc towards Usagi.
Usagi hmms softly and kicks the ball straight upwards, standing on one leg and doing so a few times. She takes a slow breath before she kicks it back, catching it under the ball and giving it a little lift instead of shooting it at the poles. It's heading straight for him. "Really now. I can't see us firing off any ninjutsu at the thing, we'd probably kill it relatively quickly" She takes a deep breath as she watches it go for him. "And I'll have to practice the spin like that"
Yamamoto laughs a bit as it comes back. "You're already getting the hang of it. Don't worry about ninjutsu too much… this one is made from some tough stuff, and their cheap in any case." Yamamoto receives the ball and kicks it gently up over his head to his backside, then kicks it back over his head to his frontside with his heel. "I guess since the goal is to keep it floating around you have to use some precision in what you do to it," he says, then kicks the ball somewhat hard and square so that it flies high up into the air. High enough that it might take a few seconds for it to come back down. "See, its kind of tough."
Usagi nods slowly and tracks the ball with her eyes, furrowing her brow as she seems to be thinking on it. It takes a second, but she flips backwards as it comes down, connecting with her foot on the arch on the top, launching the ball a good distance upwards as she comes down and lands in a crouch, flipping her head up to get her hair out of her face. She doesn't look at him, but it's going to come down in his vicinity. "So I see. And you can make it look fancy, too"
"And the fancy is the difference between grandpa Kemari and nin-kemari," Yamamoto says. He makes a hand sign and flickers up into the air so that he is standing on the ball. He then backwards somersaults, keeping the ball attached to the bottom of his feet (presumably with tree walking skills) as he does so. As he faces downwards and is diving into the water he kicks the ball back up gently into the air, but not by much. Just before the ball hits the water he bursts back out of the water, knocking the ball of his head towards Usagi again. He lands back on the surface of the water. "See, its easy."
Usagi watches the spectacular display with naught but a raised eyebrow, and the beginnings of a smile. She watches as the ball as it comes towards her, and catches it on her toes, on top of them. She holds the ball there, apparently without using chakra for the time being as she pops it into the air, and jumps, spinning in a full 360 as she connects much as he spoke of earlier, catching the top of the ball in a spinning hook kick, putting a wicked spin on the ball as it flies towards him in almost a straight line.
Yamamoto's smile is temporarily replaced by a look of seriousness as the ball comes towards him. He takes what some may recognize as an Iron Body stance, placing his feet slightly wider apart than his shoulders and pulling his eblows in and his hands into fists at his sides. The ball connects with Yamamoto's chest just as chakra coats Yamamoto's body, sealing it from harm and repelling the ball. The spin on the ball isn't abated much by this and flies into the air due to its forward spin.
Yamamoto's smile returns almost instantly. "Nice spin," he says, chuckling a little. He then jumps into the air and kicks the ball. It flies quickly into one of the posts opposite the pond to Usagi, then bounces off the top of the post and goes back towards her. "I've been thinking if I could coat the ball in chakra, I might not need the spin. What do you think?"
Usagi smirks softly as it rebounds off the man. She looks a bit impressed as not only does it manage to stay airborne, but he angled it to bounce towards her as well once it rebounded off a pole. "Have to admit, Wasn't expecting you to be able to bounce that back like you did. But, it works" She takes a stance that is actually rather general, and she side kicks the ball back at him, though it's arc is 'up', though the spin off the ball has pretty much dissipated at this point, at least from her kick.
Yamamoto lands and catches the ball, then juggles it a bit with one foot by himself as he says, "Yeah, I'm trained to… um… stand like a mountain, so to speak," he says. "I also play Kemari a lot," he says, emphasizing 'a lot'. "Its my favorite game. Whats yours?" He kicks the ball back towards her.
Usagi grins slowly at that. "I….can be a bit of a prankster, but that's not something well known. I like a particularly good shot at something, that will be remembered. Not like painting the mountain red or something, but either scaring the loving daylights out of someone, or catching them with their pants down, so to speak" She pops it up on a knee and keeps bouncing it there for a few moments. "so I'm not sure that's so much a game as it is a hobby"
"It could be a game," Yamamoto says. "It… doesn't sound like something I could get away with back in Iwagakure, though." He begins to walk off of the pond and towards the edge where Usagi is. "Maybe we could take turns pranking people? I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with grading based on level of target, since I don't know people's tolerance around here. Maybe we could just see who does the best prank and meet back here later."
"Oh, it's a game, especially if the target knows you're after them" She grins wickedly at that. "Taking turns pranking people… the same targets so we can properly grade reaction, or various targets depending on what we can pull?" She pops the ball high enough and bops it up with her head, then kicks it at him again, a small arc.
Yamamoto kicks the ball up into the air, then tips his head backwards and steps forward to balance it on his forehead. He has to keep moving to keep it there, not seeming to have the same balanced grace as other Chuunin might. "I say we could do it where the more elaborate it is and the more funny it is. Where it would be more elaborate if we involved more unsuspecting people, or where you involve things that are somehow either connected to one another or connected to the targets." Yamamoto bounces his body up a bit to get the ball off of his forehead, then hits the ball with his knee to knock it back towards Usagi.
Usagi smirks at him and catches it… well, somewhere he couldn't hope to imitate. She leans back and looks at him smiling, before she leans forward and kicks it back to him. "True. though we should probably leave out high rank people."
Yamamoto lingers for a half-second, then quickly looks away towards the horizon when Usagi 'catches' the ball. It is hard to tell through his ochre skin, but he blushes slightly. When she kicks it back to him he catches the ball on his foot held out in front of him. "Many thanks for that," he says. "The game ruling, I mean." He switches the ball to the other foot. "I think we should keep it pretty free, though. And I want to get started. Lets have a week to do what we can… I've got to roll out of Konohagakure at some point, after all." He kicks the ball up and catches it in one hand. "Bet I'll win," he says with a wink and jumps back into the forest to go pursue the game.
Usagi smirks softly and shakes her head. "Mmmm… Since I got a blush, does that count as a head start?" A grin comes this time, and she watches him go. "Probably. But we'll see." She heads off in her own direction.
