The night in Iwagakure was a bit brisk - the sounds of the various nightlife scurrying and scuttering about could be heard as night slowly transitioned into dawn. The sky was ablaze with various golds and oranges as the violet dusk slowly began to ebb away to the power of the sun. Hitomi enjoyed watching the sun rise as much as she watched the sunset. It was a comfort, the time between dusk and dawn, light and darkness as interchangeable as it was, was beautiful. Quiet and peaceful she was given this moment in time to relax and think. Sure it was quite odd for a Genin to be up this late - but the dual haired woman was no stranger to long, arduous nights.
And so it goes...
As the morning came and the world slowly came to life, so did Hitomi herself. No longer a statue sitting still amongst the scenery she instead made her way to the nearest training grounds - intent on on practicing her chakra tread manipulation with her very first proper battle puppet. After uncovering the mannequin like figure she attached her threads to it's limbs. Watching as it twitched a tiny bit before remaining lifeless. And with another flick of her fingers the puppet suddenly lurched forward a few feet before falling uselessly to the ground. She was mainly trying to get a feel for how to get the puppet to act more "natural" like a human, but was failing considerably.
Yet again no visible progress...
She let out a tiny sigh - one that did not properly express her growing frustration. And so, without any clue of those who may be watching she once again went back to her training.
[attr="class","arubody"] Rather than up late, Higa was up early. Kishi strapped to his back as he went on his early jog. Sound body, sound mind. Even now, he couldn't break those routines drilled into him, not that he lost out because of it. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, a cloud of dust and sand and debris being kicked up as he trod down the dry path. It was his roundabout way of getting to the training center early in the morning, working up a sweat with the weight of his puppet.
He placed the clothed puppet down beside him, panting lightly, dripping sweat in his uniform. The usual black outfit and brown flak jacket did well to hide it, besides his glistening forehead, purple hair tied up behind him. He leaned back against the wall beside the entrance of the training center, taking a breather, the pounding slowly fading away. A sort of clacking sound came through. It was unusual to find someone else here this early.
With a sigh, he picked himself back up, muscles lightly sore and aching, lifting his puppet behind his back, and walking in. He was careful not to make too much noise. Finding a comfortable spot somewhere behind the Genin, watching her try and fail. He kept up his practice for the time being. She wasn't at the stage where her chakra threads were hidden to his eye. He began idly controlling a couple of his kunai, spinning them in small circles above him as though they were levitating.
There would be a dull thud near Ishikawa, one of the two kunai embedded in the dirt, the other continuing with its path. "Try controlling that." He hummed, leaning forward and resting his chin against his fist. He recognized the Iwa nin from his roster but hadn't had the chance to meet her, puppeteers were few and far between to his knowledge. A bit of guidance never hurt.
He kept watch of her regardless of whether she listened or ignored him, just analyzing what she was doing. His bundle of cloth sitting on the ground next to him.
So intensely focused on her task she did not notice the presence of another person. So when a kunai came whizzing by and imbedding itself into the ground at her feet that she nearly jumped out of her skin. Whipping around eyes wide and frantic as her puppet clattered lifelessly to the hard earth.
Luckily she managed to calm down after a few moments her mind no longer registering a threat as her heart beat began to slow it's deafening pace. Tilting her head quietly to the side she did as she was told. The simple thread attached itself to the kunai and hung somewhat lazily in the air. Though occasionally it would dip a bit before returning to it's original position. Something she realized with a frown. What was she doing wrong? Was it too much chakra? Or too little?
"Hmm..."
Testing it a bit she attempted to add a little more chakra into her strings as it became a bit more visible however the kunai now hovered evenly. Her eyes lit up in what looked like the slightest bit of joy. Giving the man a nod she spoke softly a simple "Thank you..." She paused a look of hesitance as she realized she wasn't sure how to address him. Not knowing his name or rank.
"Sir...?"
With that said she attempted to do the same actions with her puppet - adding a more chakra to her strings. And watching as it jolted and writhed a bit before moving to her ministrations with a bit more fluid grace. Even if it was only the slightest bit of a difference - it was progress at least.
They hadn't seen through it yet - my technique most secret, even if it was taught in the elementary class in the academy. A veil was held in place in front of my body as I sat adjacent their confrontation, doing well to hold it as taught as possible. It was impeccable really, I could have taught the class myself: elementary ninja arts 101. To them this bench was empty, but I had been here a while - perhaps a little too long. Of course if they approached me about it when I eventually revealed myself I would note it mere coincidence. What time was it anyway? What was wrong with these little lambs and how did I have the misfortune of being their handler? I mused over it in my head with a nod, peeking outside of the veil once to make sure its translucence didn't hide the reality of the situation. What they needed was not some late night training montage, but proper rest, breakfast, and some nice morning coffee.
Coffee? That's right I'm banned from that tea (coffee) shop. Being a Jounin is tough.
[attr="class","arubody"] "Higa Toshio. I'm your Chunin. Just call me Toshio."
He gave her a nod as he watched her attempt to apply the techniques to her mannequin. It was definitely better than it just crashing down. His eyes wandered away for a moment taking in the training grounds.
He noticed some sort of.. distortion in the back. Almost a light flicker. As his eyes focused on it, whatever it was, didn't look right. Sort of wavy compared to everything else around it. Mayhap he was just tired.
He brought the last levitating kunai from its spot back into his hand before withdrawing another. Now two in his hand, he then waited for a moment staring at it. His curiosity got the better of him as he attached his chakra strings to a nearby twig, landing it in front of the weird blur. Kicking up some dust that would catch onto whatever it was. Chances were it wasn't friendly.
"Ishikawa was it. You might want to get away from that." He said while tearing off the Kishi's cloth, stepping back behind it.
The moment was fleeting and infinitesimal, but I couldn't help be surprised. Bold. My mask fell as so too did the veil the moment the twig was dropped, before even dust came into the picture. An explosion of energy emanated from the bench as it crunched under foot, my lean forward into kicking off of it into my stride leaving the seat in splinters. The wind had already picked up by then my hand raising and thrusting a hand forward as I closed the miniscule gap - I was adjacent, really he needed only initially touch the veil with his hand, speak to me, or do any other normal thing. And so too was I equally close. Unfortunately, I drew the line at dirt. The wind beckoned at my call easily, expanding forth from my palm in a near microburst though aimed not to injure, but to push. There was no need for handseals, the raw intensity of the gale was enough to guide its purpose. I didn't wait to see results.
A turn cast my body in a different direction immediately thereafter, and I arrived nearby the youngest lamb - the girl referred to as Hitomi. A little celebration in the face of humiliation was in order. "A rare talent! Nobody usually gets even close on the first try." My enthusiastic claps drowned out the morning rooster's crows. "You know I knew it, I said it to the Kage let me take that girl under my wing and she'll be something great. It was unfortunate you have to be under this guy but, he'll do to get you at least to his level I suppose."
My smile beamed. I didn't know a thing about puppets, not really.
"...Toshio-Sensei, understood." She reaffirmed only for things to suddenly take a turn for the... weird. The next thing she knew the purpled haired Chunin was on high alert - only for the events to unfold to reveal a hidden Jonin. And not only any Jonin, but their platoon leader. And what an interesting character he was. He seemed honest enough - if a bit eccentric.
Though a niggling feeling gnawed at her gut - making her feel uncomfortable of Soichi, however she wasn't sure exactly why. Unsure what to make of everything she opted to tilt her head in confusion her purple and grey eyes clear with hesitant confusion. "Uhm... T-Thank you, sensei?" She stammered uncertain trying to make sense at the conundrum which was the Jonin-sensei as well as curious of how the Chunin, Toshio-sensei would react. With one failure after another.
[attr="class","arubody"] There really wasn't much Higa could do. The veil fell. Before a word could come out, Azuma had essentially broken the perfectly good bench and flung Higa onto his back in the dirt. Instead of helping train his Chunin and Genin, Azuma seemed to opt for being a creep and attacking them, or Higa at least.
He kind of just laid there looking up at the sky Of course it's Azuma. Why wouldn't it be Azuma? Who else would do something like that? Obedience or loyalty didn't seem to matter to him. Higa really couldn't get a read on what the guy wanted.
Higa learned an invaluable lesson if he's going to check something, he might as well stab it. At least he wouldn't be flat on his ass for doing something as harmless as tossing a twig on the ground.
He stood back up, dusting himself off, making sure he wasn't missing anything loose because of the gust. He wasn't ready to take on Azuma yet. It wasn't worth testing Azuma's patience or essentially wrecking his puppet.
Once he was all set, he turned back towards them."Don't mind him. He is always like that.” He sighed. ”This is the platoon leader Shoichi Azuma. You’ll be under his care from now on.”
[attr="class","cbody2"]For a moment my eyes narrowed at Hitomi's apparent confusion as if to be confused itself on the matter wasn't an option. It wasn't, but she was new. I wasn't that unreasonable. My eyes relaxed before I shifted positions, giving an all but proper bow to Higa's introduction even if it was late. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite take a punch yet - or in this case a wall of wind. The reliance on his action figures to do the heavy lifting had made him soft. Eventually, it'd be beaten out of him one way or another. I figure the force of the wind had to have at least brought us incrementally closer to him being little more than dough.
"No, no, truthfully you're in his care. I'll come by sometimes and see where you're at - correct bad habits. For example. . " I placed myself in front of her puppet, coming to a knee to meet its heigh, and again narrowing my eyes as I took in its featureless appearance. It was a standard entry-level puppet of course, nothing special there. But it didn't have to be. Higa's puppets always had just a certain something missing. Something important. They were pragmatic, functional, and useful sure, but what about personality?
I produced a marker from my pocket before I drew on the puppets surface, completing the puppet with two circles and a half-moon, all drawn with the utmost precision. I didn't move but appeared next to Higa's own puppet, producing a similar work of art.
"There, now they are a pair. You two need to train together even more now. I want your puppets to strike fear into the enemy, when they see these, they should know we're coming for them."
"I see..." She replied to chunin superior's words calculating eyes watching her jonin-sensei with a bit of skepticism.
His attitude was... rather unfitting for someone of his rank. Or, that's how Hitomi felt. He was too spontaneous, too eccentric, for her liking. But she kept those thoughts to herself - being mindful of her place in the hierarchy. Knowledge that quickly flew out the window the moment she saw her sensei defile her puppet so vulgarly!
She was not one for needless bloodshed however her puppet was her pride and joy - one she spent countless nights creating and putting together. And to have someone whom she should respect so brazenly besmirch it was - was -! "Sensei... What did you do?" She questioned her tone filled with barely held back rage - her fingers close to reaching for her kunai case. But she refrained... just barely.
[attr="class","arubody"] The second, Higa watched him take out the marker. Instincts screamed no. His hand jolted down to cover Kishi's face. He watched in horror as the Jounin scribbled over Ishikawa's puppet. He'd sooner break his puppet than let Azuma draw all over it. When he moved near Kishi, Higa's hand would block it.
It was.. unfortunate that Ishikawa's puppet was a casualty of their Azuma's eccentricity, but there was no way in hell he would standby as his was defaced. "We can train together without our puppets being altered." There was malice in those words. While he really couldn't care less how Azuma acted around him, the puppet was very much off limits.
How far would Azuma push? Ishikawa already seemed to be ready to attack, this would probably end up as a one-sided massacre, but it was a hill he was willing to die on.
[attr="class","cbody2"]It would have been simple to push, to simply overpower the young chuunin. There were other avenues though. The force within my digits was released, as they retracted and held themselves in surrender above my head. "Ok, ok. I suppose you're going to let the poor Genin Hitomi suffe--- enjoy her new puppet alone then? That's too bad."
A notebook was produced from a breast pocket and unfolded, the simple label 'notes' printed onto its cover. I spoke out loud as I wrote with the market, "Higa displays an inability to be a team player. . and a lack of foresight on the ramifications of his actions beyond self-interest. These are not qualities needed in upper level shinobi - namely Jounin." With a sigh I nodded at the writing before closing the book and placing it back into my breast pocket.
"Hitomi? I hope you don't take after your chuunin-commander too much. It'd be a shame if you got stuck at that level with so much promise. But enough with pointing out Higa's inadequacies - even if there are oh so many. Lets find out about you." I motioned at a bench that wasn't broken, then simply sat. "The synopsis of your background only goes into so much detail. Though Ishikawa, I recognized that surname as I've dealt with other Ishikawa's before. A bit strange actually, you don't seem like them at all. Your disposition seems much more timid, which is honestly refreshing. Every one of you I've dealt with before were. . well. . assholes. Even the ones who weren't even the same level as myself. I suppose they didn't really like a no-name non-legacy ninja and all that being above them. My parents are just ordinary people here in the village in fact, barely shinobi at all, they've taken to simply being citizens."
My tongue metaphorically flicked as I spoke, spitting the game I'd decided to go with before I met the girl. It wasn't quite the truth nor was it a lie that I didn't know much about her. I didn't know everything, but I knew more than enough. While in the academy most ninja are psychologically evaluated in addition to their simple background checks whether they knew it or not, and most of that is simple documentation one could pull up with the right rank. I didn't know anything about being using puppets, but I was still a puppet-master.
"I hope you don't mind that I'm your leader, no? They shouldn't give you much trouble about it - your family, as I should have just enough pull to make sure they can't quite do so boldly if they do give you any."
Her assertion about him being a fool was incredibly incorrect. No, Azuma-Sensei was far from an idiot. However, he was definitely insufferable. Hitomi remained quiet as her anger began to fade away into annoyance, and the jonin rambled on about her family and before that put in a callous jab about his own subordinate. What he said was incredibly blunt, and very rude, but it proved he paid attention.
The fact he could read about someone's personality quirks the way he did was telling. But something she couldn't dwell on at the moment. Instead she focused on what he said about her family and silently agreed. They were assholes, arrogant sorts who couldn't see the forest from the trees.
And while Hitomi didn't exactly care what her family wanted from her - she did know that crossing them would end up bad for her. The brown haired man's words were many - but they expressed a truth. Since he didn't come from any known clan his family wouldn't have their envious eyes on him. And she could continue with her training and progress in peace.
"Though I didn't care about clans and the like, you are correct that your non-clan status makes you less of a target in their eyes. They should have no reason to interfere with anything you or this platoon does." A mental 'hopefully' was tacked on sardonically in her mind before she focused her attention to back to the situation at hand.
Hitomi felt less and less comfortable in the presence of Soichi but did not let it get to her, not visibly at least. Instead she focused her attention of Toshio, hoping the purpled haired chunin could get them out of this situation as he seemed far more used to the jonin's mannerisms than she. She also desperately wanted to speak up on behalf of her chunin superior - even if the timing wasn't the best.
And so she did.
"Also-, I don't know Toshio-sensei very well. As I just met him, however - I think that he is far more capable of being a jonin than you might think." She spoke softly but her tone was strong as steel. She believed in her words, regardless of what her superior believed.
"I- also think... nevermind, forgive me for my impudence, Azuma-Sensei." She would hold her tongue, feeling she was speaking past her station. And if there was one thing her parents taught her - was to keep your peace in the presence of your betters.
[attr="class","arubody"] Higa stretched out, his arms letting out a crack noise from his joints. He was chewed out, but honestly that notebook was probably entirely blank. He couldn't tell if Azuma just enjoyed fucking with his subordinates or if he was serious about the comments, but he'd find out in due time. Right now, he'd probably chalk it up to.. whatever mood Azuma was in.
The disposition of Ishikawa's background was oddly detailed, maybe some weird history there? While most people would consider his words considerate, Higa quickly learned to doubt the authenticity of anything Azuma said. The narrative itself had little meaning to Higa: clan names, titles, and history weren't very interesting. It was the person that mattered, although he cared very little for people as well.
While he was sure Ishikawa was trying to defend him with good intention, it might be her downfall long-term. Standing up to Azuma has had... very varied results. She certainly seemed to realize as much as her apology followed quickly after.
"Now now. I came here to train, so unless you two have some urgent business to discuss outside the training arena...?" With a quick flick, his puppet came to life, aiming its arm at a nearby wooden target, after a short moment, there was a resounding crack, its chain firing off to slam the Kishi's fist into it. The force cracking and splitting it.
[attr="class","cbody2"]"You see, Hitomi? You defended that. That man's disinterested in anything but training. Mental stimulus is beyond his reach and your words are nothing to him. The idea that training might also include understanding one another isn't something he can even fathom. I'm glad you realized your error though, good girl." I chuckled, a callous chuckle that was almost a giggle - complete with hand over mouth. It really was a shame that this was the first time he had met his own Genin and wasn't even slightly aware of her background. In the heat of battle motivations were important as to figure what might drive someone to do one thing over another, or to do nothing at all. Perhaps, the lingering notion that Hitomi has to measure up one day caused her to make a rash decision over a smart one, would he know it was coming? Could he prepare and adapt? Really, he just wasn't ready.
I sighed and nodded, "Alright then. This is a training arena. Lets train. Two versus one is probably still to unfair, so I will utilize. . .one hand? Yeah that seems a little more fair." With one hand behind my back I walked to bring the distance between myself and Higa to a nominal twenty-five meters, something I couldn't cross in one bound and something they couldn't immediately play the numbers game with. I motioned Hitomi over to Higa's side, nodding as I did. "I suggest you run support, and if at any point you feel overwhelmed, you can sideline yourself. But, you must at least try."
With a sudden exclamation, finger raised skyward for a moment in realization I added, "Oh, this is non-negotiable too. If you refuse I actually will demerit you. When you're in position go ahead."
The night in Iwagakure was a bit brisk - the sounds of the various nightlife scurrying and scuttering about could be heard as night slowly transitioned into dawn. The sky was ablaze with various golds and oranges as the violet dusk slowly began to ebb away to the power of the sun. Hitomi enjoyed watching the sun rise as much as she watched the sunset. It was a comfort, the time between dusk and dawn, light and darkness as interchangeable as it was, was beautiful. Quiet and peaceful she was given this moment in time to relax and think. Sure it was quite odd for a Genin to be up this late - but the dual haired woman was no stranger to long, arduous nights.
