the days had been growing longer by the week, or so it seemed to gauma and he was finding himself with a lot more free time as of late to spend on well...anything. one would think that wouldn't be a problem but boredom is one of those sneaky little annoyances that can creep up on a person and really throw them off their mood. right now he's feeling said boredom and was itching for something to do. [break][break] but what? [break][break] shopping? he broke his wallet just a few days ago. hanging out with the gang? they were pretty busy at the moment last he heard. exercise? well they was always time for that if it was afforded to him. as he crossed off everything else he had lined up in his mental list he nodded along to his decision and made his way to some training ground he used to remember using as a kid. [break][break] once there he found himself face to face with what almost looked like a pond at a glance as a large body of water took up most of the once dry field with the training dummies still standing despite how worn out they looked. as he got closer he noticed that the pond was in fact just a big puddle as his feet suddenly sank into the water but only reached up to his ankles as he walked deeper into it to inspect the dummies. sure enough they were worn out and some of the paint was peeling but they were still standing, so with a smile the ginger took a step back and with a yell kicked one of them in its ribs, his leg bringing up a splash of water as it did.
"Yo!" [break][break] Tsukiya's voice cut through the clearing. The timbre of his tenor voice a pitch higher than the sound of the rather audible thump Gauma's shin made as he smashed his leg against the wooden training dummy. Inwardly, Tsukiya cringed a slight bit. He remembered his younger self doing the exact same thing with his bones. Young shinobi purposefully injured themselves to cause microfractures in their bones. The bones would heal and strengthen. All the better to use for blunt force trauma. Not a great strategy for ninja that wanted to live past the age of 50. But in Tsukiya's experience, getting past 40 as a shinobi was a challenge in itself. It was a profession that didn't have the highest mortality rate; especially for genin like him and his team mate Gauma. [break][break] "You just hitting boards today, or..." the teenage Hyūga began, as he walked closer towards his fellow genin, crossing his arms to stretch out his tendons. [break][break] "Do you want to get a quick spar in?" [break][break] A grin threatened to break his face. What was the record between them lately? He was pretty sure they were just about even. Gauma's taijutsu was a little more practiced than his, although it was a bit of a mish-mash of different styles. Tsukiya had the Byakugan, and while his Jūken was technically sound, given his association with the ginger, had some elements of unpredictability to it. Their styles made for an interesting clash.
"oh hey tsuki-kun!"[break][break] as another kick was delivered to the dummy gauma held up his leg against it he turned towards the sound of a familiar voice while keeping his leg raised and pressed against the neck of his "foe". when the sight of a mop of white hair caught his eyes they light up like stars as he waved over to tsukiya. "hey tsuki-chan!" with one motion he brought his leg around in a sort of sweep in the air before planting it beside the other foot as they drowned in water as the hyuga boy approached with a proposition that only made the ginger's smile widen oh so little more. [break][break] "a spar? you sure? cause if i remember right i think i left ya a little breathless." that smile slowly mutated into a grin full of cockiness. they're record with each other was pretty spotty for sure, despite gauma putting in time to hone his craft with his body it never quite measured up to the skills that a hyuga could bring compared to him. still that's what made their little bouts fun, everyone can learn a little something form them! [break][break] "but for sure, we can go a round. been needed to really let loose a little." in the blink of an eye his stance suddenly went from casually standing to leaning forward and then backward and dropping into a guarded stance with his feet firmly planted onto the mud underneath his soles. "i won the last one so...how about you get the first shot. that fair tsuki-chan~?" gauma cooed as he unfurled one of his fists to make a "come here" gesture inviting the hyuga boy to try and land first blood.
The Hyūga's face twitched very visibly at his companion's behavior, despite the grin on his face. Well, he had expected it, but it still somewhat annoyed him. How was it possible for someone to remain so confidently brash about their last fight when the fight was so down to the wire?! [break][break] A very audible sigh escaped Tsukiya's body. No, that was just Gauma's way of riling him up. Both he and his fellow genin were not-so-different when it came to their personality as fighters. First shot? Gauma really knew how to make a joke. One hit to the right tenketsu point, and the ginger would be down for the count. Now if his team mate would only stop dodging his attacks like the... [break][break] "Cocky idiot..." [break][break] that he was. [break][break] Despite those words, the Hyūga now had a full grin on his face. Going up against a chuunin or jounin in their village was different. Sure, getting stronger was great, but the ass-kicking that preceded it wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world. Going against a peer was different. It was always fun. [break][break] "Guess I'll be going all out from the start then, Gauma-san." [break][break] Tsukiya's gaze sharpened in the split second it took to use the familiar hand signs that activated his dojutsu. [break][break] "Byakugan!" [break][break] His foot, which must have left an impressionable footprint of his sandals, dug deeply into the mud as he took a quick first step towards the ginger's direction. Tsukiya's body twisted in a manner that allowed him to throw the maximum amount of torque into an overhead palm strike headed straight for the ginger's nose. Breaking someone's nose wasn't all that difficult after all. There was cartilage, and there was bone. The Hyūga didn't really care for which one he broke.
as his friend took the offensive the ginger male braced himself as he watched the hyuga dash towards him. they had fought plenty of times to the point that gauma was well aware that if there was one thing tsukiya had above him was precision thanks to his eyes. while gauma could probably knock a guy down with a single punch or two his friend could take down the same man in about half the effort if he hit him in the right spot. it was both annoying and impressive rolled into one and that deserved its own praise, of course there was just one thing... [break][break] "ya gotta try and actually hit me first!" [break][break] a lesson he learned from their last fight as the palm strike was centimeters from his face before gauma managed to catch the hyuga's wrist with his own hand and held it back from even touching his nose. while precision was tsukiya's strong point gauma had slowly improved over the last few days to not only build up his own skills in taijutsu but also how to at least read other people's movements. evident by how close he was to getting a broken nose he was sure he was going to need to work on his reflexes but now at least he could attempt a counter attack. in that moment he balled up his free hand into a fist and shot it forward to drive it hard into an uppercut to tsukiya's gut and try to knock some wind out of him as he threw the boy's hand away to get such a dangerous weapon away from his face.
Catching a Hyūga off-guard in a straight-forward taijutsu fight was like catching lightning in a bottle while simultaneously trying to build a miniature ship inside of it. It just didn't happen. The white-eyed clan wasn't invincible in melee brawls, no no no--far from it. Unless they were against somebody FAR above their skill level, their eyes kept up with every action their opponent committed to. And Gauma, friend or not, was far from being superior to Tsukiya in combat. [break][break] Now whether or not his body was able to do anything about it... well, that was another question in itself. [break][break] Finding his arm suddenly free from the ginger's grasp, Tsukiya tucked his arms close to his body, palms facing outwards in opposite directions. He used the momentum both their actions generated to pivot into his opponent, much like a dancer would. The ginger's fist narrowly missed Tsukiya's stomach as it sailed awkwardly past his abdomen and stopped next to his hips. [break][break] "I know what I'm doing is traditional juken," he began, clearly agitated, "but we don't talk about this moment, EVER." [break][break] Tsukiya threw Gauma off his body with a rather forceful, yet non-damaging, shoulder bump. While going for quick and decisive strikes might have ended the fight then and there, he knew better than to engage Gauma in any form of grappling what-so-ever. If they both ended up on the ground, the Hyūga was done for. Between both of them, Gauma was definitely the better wrestler. Not to mention that the Hyūga martial art was never designed for shinobi that wanted fight off their back. No, it was better for Tsukiya to keep their spar a striking contest. [break][break] As they were still in close quarters, the white-haired youth moved into his traditional stance. While his open palms often gave those that didn't know the Hyūga style an impression of pacificity, Gauma knew the truth about the not-so-gentle-fist. The juken was a powerful offensive tool, but its defensive qualities were a notch above even the most elite martial arts.
the shoulder bump did send gauma stumbling backwards a few steps with his back leaning back far enough that he might actually land into the water. luckily his foot was quicker to move and with a single step backward he was able to keep himself from falling back and keep himself steady as he looked at tsukiya with a toothy grin on his face. "aw c'mon not talk about it at all? even when we're old and grey? you're so heartless tsuki-chan." [break][break] gauma bent his knees and shot forward right at the hyuga. his right leg came up for a kick coming up toward the hyuga's flank and aimed itself to strike right at his rib cage area. it was a dangerous gamble to put his limbs right next to tsukiya as the hyuga had disabled the ginger by just poking at his limbs but gauma just had to bank on his leg being faster than the byakugan's reflexes. yeah it was a pipe dream but you had to work hard to make those dreams come true you know?
[attr="class","bolo-body] "I would rather--" [break][break] Not. Before Tsukiya could even get out a complete sentence, Gauma was on him. His lavender eyes sharpened as he noted Gauma's right leg rise from the mud. [break][break] Tsk. [break][break] Risk for risk? Yeah, screw it, why not? [break][break] The Hyūga drew a sharp breath and twisted his body slightly to his left. He contracted his obliques and brought his left hand down to cushion Gauma's blow. [break][break] THUD. [break][break] An audible grunt escaped from the young Hyūga's lips. There was no doubt that the kick had connected, but his arm had definitely took some of that power away. Regardless, his left side was certainly going to bruise. Perhaps he could find one of those Yuki shinobi from his village for a solid ice pack? [break][break] There was no time to waste however. His left hand which he had used to slightly parry the ginger's blow quickly curled to grab Gauma's leg, holding it parallel to the floor. A wrestling manuever? Not exactly. [break][break] "I learned this part from you, Gauma-san." [break][break] A mischivous smirk emerged from Tsukiya's face as if slowly pushing the pained expression away from his face. He persisted, even if currently hurt to breathe. He raised his right arm, bringing it close to his neck as he drew his shoulder back. The ginger would be able to identify what was coming next. Two fingers were extended and a faint line of chakra appeared at the tips. [break][break] "This part is all me though." [break][break] Tsukiya aimed at the inner part of Gauma's thigh. The tenketsu point the Hyūga was aiming for was the one that controlled the chakra the flowed through the entirety of Gauma's right leg. If the hit landed, then Gauma would probably have a difficult time even wading around the mud for the next hour or so.
[attr="class","mercy-blurb"] Watching the children thus far had been quite entertaining and a little cringe but he was definitely judging them from where he sat. that was one of his favorite past time after all but he had to wonder: why hadn't they noticed him yet? then again, it could perhaps be the fact that he was way beyond in rank when it came to his stealth but he wasn't gonna flex about that, nope. he was, of course, going to point and laugh at them. he had been trying his best not to bust out laughing but would that be rude? yes. did he care about their feelings? he wasn't sure yet but he did put a potato chip in his mouth as he gazed at the two that were supposedly training.
[break][break]
Yun couldn't help but wonder if Tsuki was slacking on his training, especially since he had plenty of advantages with his byakugan or was ginger-boy trying to act like a good senpai and getting the brunt of it. deciding not to just stay as a spectator, he smiled slightly - eyes on the two genin - as he spoke up. "Don't bully the children, Gao-Gao." he jumped down from where he had been sitting and onto the ground as he looked over to Tsuki. "You've been slacking, huh?" yes, Yun was calling him out.
a grin was on his face as he realized that his leg had managed to find its mark yet it quickly faded when he realized it wasn't falling to the ground but was instead held up by the hyuga boy. gauma was caught. you never want to be caught alone with a hyuga, that was just a bad time waiting to happen, evident by the two fingers tsukiya held up and gauma started to sweat bullets as he realized what was about to happen. he was not going to be walking straight for the rest of today that was for sure. so his mind started to race as fast as it could to look for a way out of this and it came to one possible solution that his body took into account almost instantly. the sad part of it was that he was still going to be walking funny the rest of the day. [break][break] "then ya shoulda paid more attention to my teachings!" he yelled out, unaware of mú yunyao watching them probably thinking the ginger shinobi's bravado was as corny as ever. as tsukiya went in for the "gentle" touch to his thigh gauma quickly brought up his other leg to try and kick the hyuga boy's left side as well, using whatever momentum he had to try and throw himself and tsukiya to the side so they would both fall into the water as he tried to trap the hyuga in a sort of half-scissor kick. [break][break] it wasn't without risk though, or in this case sacrifice as he let out a near audible grunt as he fell as he could feel the boy's fingers touch his thighs and a throbbing sensation spread throughout his leg as he fell. tsukiya had gotten him, he only hoped he managed to drag the other boy with him as well.
[attr="class","bolo-body] At the first sign of movement, Tsukiya leaned backwards, snatching his right hand back to guard his head. He tried to establish distance between his skull and what might potentitally be a knock-out head kick. Despite the lack of momentum, the juken practitioner supposed that any strike to his head could conceivably leave anyone unconscious if it hit just right. [break][break] What the Hyūga didn't expect though was a kick to his ribs. Tsukiya was more concerned with parrying a strike to the dome. It connected with a slapping sound. That was definitely not the same as the strike he took on his left; no one couldn't generate enough force from such an awkward position after all. [break][break] As his felow genin tried to take him down with him, Tsukiya couldn't help but feel relieved not to have given Gauma his neck. The Hyūga wasn't a fan of grappling, but he knew enough to be able to avoid getting into that kind of taijutsu fight. So Tsukiya simply did the easiest thing; he let go of his sparring partner's leg. [break][break] Splash. [break][break] The Hyūga watched in mild fascination as his training partner dropped into the shallow water. [break][break] "Yeah, I'm calling it here Gauma-san." said the white-haired boy, "that's enough taijutsu for today." [break][break] Dropping his fighting stance, Tsukiya placed a hand on his midsection, the adrenaline from the fight was draining slowly from his body. He grimaced in pain, as he turned to his squad leader. His face contorted into a frown. [break][break] "I haven't been slacking Yunyao-taichou," he argued, "but if it looks that way, perhaps it's because my jounin-sensei has been neglecting my training..."
[attr="class","mercy-blurb"] Yun was starting to get a little concerned about the children for plenty of reasons. Whether they were slacking on or not; they were lacking in plenty of ways. He wasn't about to deny it himself but perhaps paying some attention to his kids wouldn't be a bad idea but who in the hell has such big babies. UGH, this was going to end up being troublesome but he supposed it wouldn't be bad to make sure they didn't end up dead somewhere. Having to attend a funeral wasn't fun in the least and his tear ducts only produced salty water for animals.
[break][break]
"But you have." he said in a disdained tone, shrugging slightly as he dipped his hand inside the bag of chips, picked one up, and bit into it. "I can't help being a busy body, you could have asked Yukio if I wasn't around." he let his eyes slowly fall on Gao, "Hurry and come here, I'll be teaching you babies something today I suppose." Ah, he was going to have to miss his nap but he did want to keep them alive to a certain extent. "Since you two are done, we can work on areas where the two of you haven't been working on." from what he could tell, they have been working on their taijutsu to some extent but they needed a different approach. "Have you figured out your Chakra Nature yet?" if they hadn't then, they could certainly work on it as a sort of homework. He really needed to start planning training sessions at some point instead of just winging it. "Alright, go dry yourselves up and come over once you two aren't wet and sweaty." with that said he made his way over to one of the trees, sat on the ground, and started to finish his potato chips while enjoying the shade.
as he fell due to the hyuga letting his leg go and his body free from any sort of grip the ginger swallowed up a gulp of muddy water that he coughed up as he splashed around in the water for a second. getting wet via falling in a puddle was not something anyone would probably enjoy really. as his flailing slowed down enough for him to get his bearings and stand up on his own too feet, "fine we'll call that a draw." that was draw number how many now? oh who was really counting between them. [break][break] standing up he looked over to their eavesdropping leader who went into full mother hen mode. "well maybe if ya spent less time-" [break][break] his words cut off as the mention of chakra natures came up that shut up the ginger as he scratched his cheek as it began to glow red. for all his practice in taijutsu ninjutsu in general was something of a sore spot that he never bothered to cover up. even if it seemed to be an uncommon problem with the platoon. [break][break] as he presented himself to his leader he couldn't help but look like a mess still, clothes damp and a bit of mud dripping off of his back and arm as he shook some off. "yeah might have to skip the whole cleaning part. i didn't bring a towel-or well," he then proceeded to take off his shirt to use it as a makeshift towel for him to at least wipe off the mud and dirt on him. didn't stop the dampness even as he slung it over his shoulder and just shrugged it off. [break][break] "good enough right? so what's today's lesson oh great sensei."
[attr="class","bolo-body] ASK SHIMIZU-SENPAI?! [break][break] Tsukiya could feel his retort drop to his stomach. He couldn't do that, could he...? She was always nice, even if she did have a tendency to smother the teen. Probably just a remnant from their younger years? But, if the Hyūga really thought about it... [break][break] A slight tinge of red crept on Tsukiya's face, which mirrored Gauma's own expression. He couldn't help but feel embarrassed at his jounin captain's obvious solution and NOT at all about Yukio Shimizu. [break][break] Well, I could always ask Fēi-san... [break][break] Tsukiya shook his head. He'd sooner ask him for a raise than a training session. [break][break] Before Tsukiya could even attempt to dry himself, Gauma was already limping his way to meet their jounin captain. Sighing, Tsukiya pushed chakra into his feet as he walked towards the jounin. He moved slowly, matching Gauma's stride as the ginger all but dragged his right leg across the field. The chakra he expelled from his feet rid the soles of his sandals of mud. [break][break] As they arrived at their destination, he noted his fellow genin removing his clothing. The Hyūga did the same with his outerwear, as his jacket was the only thing caked in mud. Dressed in his sleeveless black hoodie, the Hyūga couldn't help but feel a little naked. He always had his jacket on, which helped hide his physique. His bare arms weren't all too muscular, as he had the very traditional slender Hyūga aesthetic. Despite all his skill in taijutsu and chakra control, when Tsukiya stood next to Gauma, he felt sorely lacking. [break][break] "I wouldn't know the first thing about my chakra nature," he said with a shrug, "from what I've been told, my clan's quite prideful; they only practice their own jutsu." [break][break] And look at what good that did them...
[attr="class","mercy-blurb"] His brows arched slowly at the sight of the two.
[break][break] They really needed to not show their intentions on their faces, they were so easy to read and all he could do was shake his head. while he would have messed with them a little more any other time, he figured being serious every now and then couldn't hurt.
[break][break] "I just told you what we're going to do." he ignored the great sensei part, even he knew he wasn't the best there was, and at least once every six months he felt a little bad.
[break][break] "That's because the Hyūga are closed-minded. Are you planning to follow suit as well?" he shrugged, stood up and, dusted off his pants before reaching inside his pocket and took several pieces of paper out, and handed a sheet to both Genin.
[break][break] "Even the dumbestNaruto person can learn of their chakra nature, you don't need to be specifically proficient on Ninjust to learn it, plus this is something you were born with." Yunyao took a few steps back as he took hold of one of the pieces of paper and effortlessly channeled some chakra into the paper, as he did, the paper wrinkled immediately. He looked over to the ginger boy and pointed at him.
[break][break] "Do you know what my chakra nature is by how the paper wrinkled?"
