Ayumi's Training

approved

Ayumi walked down the corridor of her huge house, with nothing in mind. It was early in the morning, nearly six, and no one was awake. She took a deep breathe. Hmmm....what should I do today?... she thought to herself. She kept on walking, not paying even the slightest of her attention towards where she was going. Maybeee...I should go and do a mission....oooorrrr....train...? she thought to herself and sighed once again. or maybe- Ayumi crashed down towards the floor, sprawled. "Owww...", she said and moaned. She slowly got up in a sitting position, bent her knees and rotated her legs so that they were facing away for her body, her legs now forming a "W". She slowly looked around to see whatever or whoever made her crashed. "Oh Ayako!", she said, surprised to see her nearly two years old sister sprawled on the floor. She crawled towards her and picked her up, placing Ayako on her lap. Ayumi stroked her hair, "Are you okay sweetie?", she asked. Ayako blinked at her and laughed. Ayumi smiled, "Well, I guess you are then." What is she doing out here? Is mom or dad or Takeshi awake?" she thought to herself watching as the little toddler starts playing with the bear that she had in her arms, which was nearly her size. Ayumi shrugged, "Whatever.", she said. She picked Ayako up and went back to her room. "Come here, Luna.", she said to her dog.

Ayumi quickly took her weapons, grabbed a shoulder bag, and write a note, saying that both Ayako and Luna are with her and that she is out training. She sneaked into her parents room and left the note on her mom's dressing table. She saw a few tiny little pieces of paper on her table. Hey...aren't those...chakra paper? she thought, staring a the paper. Ayumi took three of the chakra  papers and quickly scribbled a few words on the note for her parents. She quickly went down the stairs, quickly made a lunchbox and stuffed some fruits and a bottle of water and milk for Ayako. She picked her little sister up, slipped on her sandals and quickly walked down the road. While she was walking, she remembered what her father told her about chakra papers. In general, every person has chakra that has an affinity towards one of the elements or elements, a characteristic that seems to be genetic, since whole clans sometimes share the same affinity. To find out what affinity someone has, pieces of paper made from a special type of tree, that was made to absorb chakra, are used that react to even the slightest hint of chakra in any of a number of ways, depending on the nature latent in the chakra. If one has wind nature, it would split in two. If one has fire nature, it would ignite and turn to ash. If one has lightning nature, it would wrinkle. If one has earth nature ,it would turn to dirt and go away with the wind, and if one has water nature, it would become wet. This all makes it easier to learn how to create and control the nature, although even with an affinity this process will usually take any number of years. Shinobi are not limited to the nature they have an affinity to though, because by the time they reach the rank of Jōnin, most shinobi have mastered two natures. Because of the difficulty of mastering a nature and the time required to learn it, it is almost impossible for any one person to master all five natures through natural methods. Hmm...I could try use these pieces of paper and see if I have another affinity...I hope I do have another one... she thought and quickened her pace towards the training grounds.

After she arrived at the training grounds, she walked towards a willowy old tree. She put Ayako down and sat beside her. She put her bag beside her and took out one of the chakra papers. Okay...lets do this! Ayumi took a deep breath and held it between her palms. She concentrated her chakra on it. A few moments later, the paper ignited and turned to ashes. Ayumi stared at the ashes in her hand. "Well...that was my first try...Its okay...I can try again..", she said to herself. She brought her hand up close to her mouth and blew the ashes from her hand. It disappeared in the matter of second, gone with the wind. Ayumi took out another piece of chakra paper, her second last one. Okay! So now is the time to be serious! C'mon you can do this!...it's just basic ninja stuff....channelling chakra into something. she thought to herself and took a deep breath. Just as she was about to channel some chakra into the paper, a breeze lifted up her skirt. Ayumi gasped, taking one of her hand away from the paper, and pushed the front part of her skirt down. Then, out of a sudden, a gust of wind blew out of nowhere. This made her skirt flew again. Ayumi tried to keep her skirt down and plopped to the ground. Her right hand was gripping the chakra paper and her left hand holding the front of her skirt down. Woah...what was that? she thought and looked around. After a while of craning her neck here and there, she found the source of the wind: a shinobi, practicing a jutsu. Then, a strong gust of wind, even stronger than the last one, blew in her way again. Ayumi shut her eyes until the wind stop. She then opened one of her eyes, watching the shinobi. I guess I better move then if I don't want to get blown away.... she thought as a pout appeared on her lips. She stood up, still clenching the chakra paper and walked towards Ayako and Luna. "C'mon Luna, we are going somewhere else.", she said as she picked Ayako up. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked a few meters away from the tree.

She looked around for a shady tree. After she found one, she put Ayako and her bag down, leaving Luna there. She then walked a meter away from them, and concentrate on channeling her chakra into the paper. Again, a breeze blew. Ayumi lifted her face and looked around, "Seriously...", she muttered, somewhat annoyed. Then, another breeze flew. Ayumi took a deep breath and plopped to the ground, enjoying the breeze as it blew her hair. The wind...calm and relaxing... she thought as her eyes slowly close.... Ayumi gasped, hey eyes were wide opened. She quickly got up onto her feet. "Geez...I can't believe that the wind distracted me...", she muttered to herself. She shook her head. Okay, c'mon Ayumi! Concentrate! she told  herself. She looked at the chakra paper and channeled some of her chakra into it. The paper then suddenly ignited and turned into ashes. She clenched her hand and plopped down to the ground and sighed. I can't believe it! she thought and opened her clenched hand. She then blew the ashes away and wiped the leftover off of her hand. She stood up and walked towards Ayako and sat beside her. She leaned against the tree and looked up. She couldn't see much of the sky, just a mass of leaves. She stood up, reached for a few, and sat down again. Ayumi held it at the tip between her index and middle finger and channeled her chakra into it. The leaves ignited a few second later. Ayumi stared at the burned leaf and grinned. Lets get rid of most of my chakra first shall we? she thought to herself, still grinning. She stood up and started to create as much clones as she could. Nah...something else that will use up even more chakra. She pondered for a few seconds. Hmm...what can I do?.... She then dispersed all of her clones, causing a lot of smoke to appear. Then, she decided to work on her elemental jutsu. She walk away from the tree, as not to harm her sister and dog. Ayumi took a deep breath and concentrated her chakra in her stomach. She started to mould her chakra inside her stomach, making it superheated. Then she looked up at the sky and released it out of her mouth. She watch as the flames went higher and higher and dispersed. Ayumi grinned nod started to do the exact same thing over and over again. Mould chakra, making it superheated and shoot it out in the air, making sure that she wouldn't hurt anyone that may be passing by with the fire.

After about thirty times of repeating the jutsu, she stopped, walked towards a tree, and grabbed a handful of leaves. She sat down and leaned against the trunk, glancing at her sister to make sure that she is still there and not gone. She then picked a leaf out of the bunch on front of her and channeled her chakra into it. After a few seconds, it started to burn and turned into ashes. She sighed and picked up another leaf. She shoved the bunch of leaves aside and concentrated to the one she had in her hand. Quickly, she channeled her chakra into it and and again, it burned and turned into ashes. I need to get rid more chakra! she thought to herself and stood up. Again, she performed her fire elemental jutsu for about twelve times. She was breathing heavily by then. Just one more... she thought, breathing heavily, her chest rising up and down. Ayumi took a deep breath and started to concentrate her chakra in her stomach. Moulded it, making it superheated, channeled it through her lungs, faced the sky, and forced it out of her mouth. She watched as the flames went higher and disappeared within minutes. It should work now. she thought to herself.

Ayumi walked towards the tree she was leaning against a few minutes ago, glancing at her sister and dog playing together. She sat down, leaned against the trunk and looked up at the sky. She was panting slightly by then. Ayumi shook her head and grabbed a leaf out of the pile. She held it between her palms and took a deep breath. She slowly channeled some of her chakra into it. The paper, again ignited and turned into ashes. Ayumi stared at it. Again! Just one more time. she thought and took out her last chakra paper. If this one doesn't  ignites, then she will stop with this elemental thing. She put it between her palms, taking a deep breath, she concentrated her chakra to the palms of her hands and channelled it into the chakra paper. She closed her eyes tightly as the paper started to shift and move a bit between her palms. Please work, please work, please work, please work. she begged as she open her eyes slowly, opening her palms, lifting her right hand away from her left hand. There was the paper, wrinkled, then caught on fire and burned.

Ayumi sighed in relief, a smile forming on her face. She stared at her hands, her smile turning into a grin, as she giggled. This is sooooo cool! she thought as she blew the ashes from her palm. She took out a kunai and started to channel some chakra into it. After ten minutes of waiting, nothing happened. She lightly bit her bottom lip and stared at the kunai. Do I even have chakra in my body right now? she asked herself as she glanced at her sister and dog. Well... I wouldn't even be alive if I don't have chakra right now. Ayumi chuckled and stood up, jumping on a tree branch and took a few fruits from the tree. She then walked towards her dog and sister, dropping the fruits down to the ground, and began to cut it up to feed both her sister and dog. After twenty minutes, she walked back to the tree where she was sitting and plopped down to ground.

Ayumi would start to channel chakra into her kunai and watched it. After twenty minutes of staring at it, she sighed as nothing happened to it. It's okay... I wasted a lot of chakra in the beginning anyways. She tried again, this time concentrating even harder. After half an hour of staring at the kunai, a spark appeared. This, of course, shocked her, thus causing her to throw the kunai away. Wow... That was cool.she thought staring at the kunai. Ayumi got to her knees and grabbed the kunai, still looking at it. She sat down and started to channel chakra into the kunai. After half an hour, a spark appeared again. She smiled as she watched the spark move uncontrollably around the blade of the kunai. A few seconds later, more and more sparks appeared, dancing around on the blade of the kunai.

Ayumi smiled and stopped channeling chakra into the kunai. "I think that's enough for today..."

[TWC= 2200, Lightning as a second element, 22 JP, 11 stats.]

[And I realized that Chuunins can only have 1 specialty... So, Taijutsu on hold till I reach Jounin. Also claiming 12 Stats and 25 JP from the Taijutsu training post - but I'm not gonna use the stats and JP from the training post until I reach Jounin... If this all makes sense]

Approved of this training post.

You can take the 12 Stats and JP from the previous post if you want just saying, you can keep the taijutsu spec on hold till jounin but you can take the stats and jp now

Ayumi woke up and stared at the ceiling. Her huge, black eyes we wide open. Her breathing was somewhat shallow, but steady, so she wasn't hyperventilating or something of that kind. Beads of cold sweats were dripping from her face. Mentally, she was telling herself to calm down. She sit up and pulled the blankets up close and wrapped it tightly around her body. She took a deep breath, shivering slightly. “That… was… just…a … nightmare.” She whispered to herself, word by word. It was barely audible to anyone but herself. She stared into space as she remembered the nightmare, only to shake her head furiously. She took another deep breath and tried to unwrap the blanket from her body, only to get tangled within it. After a few seconds of struggling with the blanket, she threw it on the other side of her bed once she got it untangled from her body. She jumped off the bed, being careful not to step on Luna who was trotting around excitedly, and saw a glimpse of her reflection: long, black, ever so slightly messy hair, huge, black eyes, and a slender body. From the looks of her body, she doesn’t seem to have any muscles, not that she was flabby or anything of that sort, but she just didn't have a built body. In a way, you could describe her as finely or slightly built really.

Ayumi quickly grabbed her towel and ran into the bathroom, quickly taking a shower and brushing her teeth. After ten full minutes, she was out of the bathroom, running towards her closet. She opened the door and cocked her head to the right, looking for something to wear - something GOOD to wear. She ended up wearing red shorts and a white top, which was a size too big. She tucked some of the cloth on the bottom front of the shirt into her shorts and grabbed her pouches. She ran down the stairs, slipped into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. She ran towards the door, slipped into her sandals and walked out of the door, speed walking towards the training grounds while eating her apple. Once she arrived at the training grounds, she threw the rest of her apple up in the air as high as she could. Sure, it looked like as if she was littering, but it wasn't what she was planning to do. Once she threw the apple, she quickly starts to mold superheated chakra in her stomach. She then channels it up her windpipe and looked at apple that was still up in the air. She then channeled the chakra out of her mouth, aiming the flames towards the apple. The flames spread out and disappeared after a few seconds.

She then put the pouches where they were supposed to be and began running. After twenty laps, she stopped and started to stretch to warm her muscles up. She then started to do some back and front flips; her slender body slightly twisted while in the process of doing so. After a minute, she stopped and drew a target board on each side of a tree bark. After doing so, she took out a few of her kunais and started to run around the tree, throwing them at her carved out target boards, aiming at the center. Ayumi stopped and looked at the tree bark, walking around it to look at where each of her kunais ended up. She smiled satisfactorily as she pulled each kunai from the bark – they all ended up right in the middle of the target board she has created. She looked around and quickly carved a bunch other target boards on different tree barks, but this time at different positions; one could be one of the branches and the other one could be on one of the roots that were sticking out of the ground.

After five minutes of sprinting from trees to trees around the training grounds and carving target boards all over the tree, she stopped and took a deep breath. She focused and stood there for a second before disappearing. While running as fast as she could, Ayumi took out her kunais, throwing them at target boards, one after the other. After she ran out of kunais, she took out her shurikens and started to throw them at the target boards, one by one. She was, of course, aiming towards the middle of the targets boards. Although she could barely see where she was throwing the kunais and shurikens at, as everything was pretty much blurry and her long hair sometimes got in her face, covering her view, she decided to throw them anyways, hoping that the kunais and shurikens wouldn't stab or hurt other ninjas that were training at the training grounds.

Ayumi stopped running and stood there in the middle of the training grounds, “I must have totally looked like psycho.” She muttered under her breath, making sure that it was barely audible to anyone’s ears except for herself. She took out a hair tie out of her pouch and tied her hair in a bun; it was messy, a few strands of her hair were sticking out, but she couldn't care less. She looked at the trees, slightly squinting as they were a little far away from her. Her big, somewhat dolly eyes, lingered from trees to trees, looking at each target boards she carved out and where her kunai or shuriken ended up – whether it was off board and stuff like that. After looking at all of the trees, she wasted no time and pulled out her kunais and shuriken from the barks and also those that ended up stuck on the ground. She walked towards a tree and quickly put her weapons into her pouches. She turned to look at the tree and started to channel her chakra towards her right fist and in a second, she punched the bark with all of her strength. Channeling her other fist, she slammed it into the bark, pulling back her right fist back to her body before slamming it again into the tree bark. She began alternating between her right and left fists. First right than left, then right again and back to left again and again. This went on for about two minutes bore she decided to bring it up by a level, or two really, and channeled chakra to her feet and kicked the side of the tree. First left, then right. It was like a routine; right hand, left hand, left leg, and right leg. She repeated it again and again alternating between the four.

She then reminded herself of the bad memories, bringing it up into her mind and somehow that was able to produce anger. With that anger in her head (and possibly even her body), she ended up slamming her fist even harder towards the tree and, of course, this also caused her feet to kick even harder towards the side of the trees. If someone were to watch her at that moment, they would have probably thought that she had rage problems or something of that kind. She kept on doing this for half an hour as the pain shot up her arms and legs. She was just hoping and was also praying that she wouldn't get any rashes or splinters. After half an hour of doing the routine, as she decided to call it now, Ayumi stopped and plopped down to the ground.

She looked at her hands and feet; they were bright red, like a tomato or like someone just slapped her hands and feet as hard as they could. She took a closer look at them, inspecting each hand carefully for any splinters. She heaved a sigh of relief, as fortunately, she didn't get any splinters. She turned her focus towards the tree and looked at the dent she made after an hour of punching and kicking it with chakra channeled to her hands and feet. Oh and plus anger. Ayumi took a deep breath, calming herself down, letting all of her anger disappear. The four dents on the tree were each about 4 inches deep. She look at it and sighed since it wasn’t as deep as she hoped it would be, but to be honest, deep inside of her heart, she was satisfied with the 4 inches deep dent on the tree. At least it was dented and not flat like it was at the beginning. Easy to say, she was just optimistic at that time.

She stood up started to jog around the training grounds and ended up running instead after a few minutes of jogging. After all, after all that training, she needed to cool down. She looked up at the blue sky, which was slowly turning red due to the sun that was beginning to slowly set. Taking a deep breath of the fresh air, she sprinted another 200 meters before stopping to a jog, which gradually slowed down to a walking pace. Ayumi quickly walked away from her training spot, checking her pouches, making sure that all of her weapons are there. After she was sure that everything was there, she ran home. She badly needed sleep and rest as she was just tired after kicking and punching the tree and running around like some kind of a psycho or crazy girl. Ayumi chuckled, thinking about that and shrugged her shoulder. She had to admit that it was actually fun. Well, it can't be helped, right?

WC= 1597

Ayumi woke up in a sudden and looked around. She yawned and lifted her upper body so that she was sitting on her bed. Slowly, she inched her legs out of the covers and let them dropped so that they were hanging off the bed. Slowly but surely, she pushed herself to the edge off the bed and slid off it. What’s wrong with me today? she asked herself as she sat on the edge of the bed, breathing as heavily as she could as if trying to suck in all of the oxygen that was available. Her legs felt like jelly, and her arms were weak and … let’s say lifeless if that even made sense. This was all probably due to the training she has been through, only giving herself a day to rest before training again or going on a mission or God knows what she has been up to lately. Ayumi took little baby steps towards the bathroom, grabbing her towel on the way and took a shower straight away after she took off her clothes. Once she was done, she quickly walked put of the bathroom now feeling a bit more energetic. As she was wearing her clothes, she realized that there were bruises on her arms and legs. She ignored the fact that she had bruises on them and quickly grabbed her equipment including her ninjato, which she never uses, and ran out of her room, down the stairs, and out of the house.

Once she was out of the house, she gulped down as much fresh air as she could and ran towards the training grounds, going through her so called “obstacle course”. It isn’t exactly an obstacle course, but she herself sees it as an obstacle course due to her having to go through a huge crowd at the market place on the way to the training grounds. Personally she was already used to it as she pretty much had to go through it nearly every single day, but well, its not like she has a choice. Once she arrived at the center of Konoha, she was surprised that today, there seemed to be more people there than usual. She took a deep breath and tried to go through the crowds, pushing through people, shouting the word sorry every fifty seconds. She slipped and squeezed into small gaps, hoping that her slender and slightly built body could fit through them. As she passed through the crowd, she jumped on top of a roof and from that, started to jump from roof to roof and towards the training grounds.

Once she arrived at the training grounds, she stopped and scanned the scene, looking for a good place to train along with enough trees and rocks for her to use during her training. Once she spotted the perfect place she walked towards it. It was surrounded with trees and bunch of rocks were scattered everywhere. She leaned her ninjato against the trunk of a tree and began stretching to warm her muscles up, which are barely there, to avoid any injury during her training. Ayumi smiled satisfactorily and started to jog around the area. After two round of jogging, she sprinted for a hundred meters and slowed her pace down and ran normally for about a hundred round before stopping. After half an hour of running, she stopped and jumped on a tree branch and started to jump from a tree branch to another and ended up jumping towards a rock and on to another rock. Once she was sure that she has step on every branch of tree and rock available there, she stopped and looked around, wondering what she should do next.

After a few seconds, she took out a kunai and channeled it with as much lightning chakra as she could channel in it as possible, making sure that she didn’t use all of her chakra as not she will need it for the rest of her training. After she was done, she threw the kunai as hard and as fast as possible towards a random tree to her right, turning her body to the side, her eyes trained towards the kunai which had sparks dancing wildly on its blade, following it every move, and wondering what will happen to the tree. Will the lightning chakra somehow spread out as the lightning infused kunai hit the tree or will it burn the tree? Or will it just disappear?  

She watched intently as the kunai stabbed the tree right in the middle of its trunk, the sparks dancing on the blade suddenly disappeared as it stuck itself into the trunk.  A sight escaped from her lips as she saw this and quickly walked towards the tree to pull the kunai out of it. Once she got closer, she extended her left arm to reach for the kunai only to realize that there was something on her blade, moving wildly. She leaned forward towards the blade and squinted her eyes to get a closer look at it. Once she was close enough, she realized that they were some sparks left on the blade, still moving and dancing wildly as ever. A slight, tiny smile creep up on her lips as she saw this and pulled out the kunai. Sure, the sparks were so tiny that only by getting closer to the blade is the only way to see it, but she was still somehow proud for no apparent reason. Who knows what or why she was proud. Only God knows. Jeez… she must be going crazy or something of that kind, which thinking about it is creepy and totally unexpected really to be honest.

Ayumi started to channel her kunai with fire a huge amount of fire chakra, again trying not to deplete her chakra. Once she was done, she randomly threw it as fast and as hard as she could straight ahead at a tree that was standing about ten meters way from her. She watched as the kunai flew towards the middle of the tree trunk, hitting it and bore a little dent with just enough space for it to stick itself in the trunk without falling out of it. Now she waited for the effect of the kunai on the tree trunk. Will it catch on fire and burn slightly or will the fire just extinguish itself and nothing will happen at all? She crouched down and squinted her eyes and waited when the fire spread out from the kunai, which is stuck right in the middle of the trunk, and on to the area around it. It didn't, however burn the whole tree down. Ayumi pushed herself up and ran towards the tree, watching as it burns the area around the kunai and then just stopped burning out of a sudden. The part of the tree where the kunai was was a bit blackened. It didn't, however, burn the other side of the trunk probably due to the fact that the kunai didn't bore its ways through the whole trunk or even half way through the trunk; it only made a dent, which is only about two inches long.

She pulled out the kunai out of the tree trunk and put it back into one of her pouches. She then looked at the rocks scattered around the area and walked towards one of them. She then started to channel her chakra towards her legs and arms and slowly put her arms around the rock, which was a size bigger than her. By channeling chakra towards her arms, she would be able to enhance her chakra depending on the amount of chakra channeled into her arms and on how precise she was able to use it in order to use it properly. The same goes for her legs, but this time, it wouldn't be used to kick things but more of like supporting the weight of the rock that she was going to lift and of course her own weight.

She took a deep breath and slowly but surely, she lifted the rock up and started to slowly walk, taking little baby steps like she did in the morning when she woke up. After walking for about half a meter, she stopped and twisted her body to the left and threw the stone as hard and as fast as she could towards the clearing, hoping that it wouldn't hit another stone that may be nearby or so. Ayumi plopped down to the ground as she threw the rock, breathing in as much air as she could as the rock was heavy, watching it flew and hit the ground, making such a loud sound that it scared the birds that were perching on tree branches as they all flew away from the area.

She stood up and channeled her chakra towards her right hand. She then curled her right hand into a fist and lifted it up before running towards the rock that she threw at her full speed, aiming a punch right at the middle of its smooth surface. Once she was just half a foot away from the rock, she thrust her arms towards the middle of it. Once it hit the surface, she pulled it back to see the damage caused by her punch – if there were any. I’m getting there… no worries… this is a no biggie. she assured herself as she saw that she didn't do much damage – there was just a dent on the rock, about four inches deep. Although there was barely any damage made by the punch, she was sure that she was improving since as far as she could remember, the last time she actually channeled chakra into her fist to enhance her own strength and punched a rock with it, the damage was even less. It was probably only one or two inches deep or so.  To be able to make a dent that was four inches deep was an improvement if compared to the last one.

Ayumi started to jog as she pondered her next activity. Maybe she should polish up on her aiming… or maybe she should just create some kind of an obstacle course. Or maybe she should do both of them. Yeah that's right. She stopped abruptly and walked towards a random tree, taking out a kunai out of her holster, and started to carve an aiming board on it. After she was done with it, she started to carve the same exact aiming boards on different tree trunks at different parts of it; it could be on the root that was sticking out or it can be up on the branch that either fully or partly covered by leaves – basically just everywhere. After she was done, she stopped and took out a hair tie and tied her hair in a high ponytail as she didn't want her hair to cover her face in the process of aiming her kunais and shurikens towards the board thus making it harder and also if it covers her face, she might cut it by accident with either a kunai or shuriken or she might get strangled by her own hair. She then took out ten of her kunais and somehow made herself be able to hold all of them at once. The sun was high up in the air, reflecting the blade of one of her kunais and reflecting off another thus, blinding her. In her head, she made a mental note to ask her father if he has some aiming boards that she could use. Hopefully, she would be able to remember it by the end of the day.

She glanced at each one of the boards and within a second, she disappeared, running at full speed at one of the board and threw a kunai, aiming the center of the board. After she was done with that, she went on to the nest board nearby and did the same thing. When she ran out of kunai, she used her shurikens instead to aim at the boards. And on and on it went until there were no boards left to aim at. She stopped running and glanced at each and one board, wanting to know if her kunai hit the middle of it or not. Her eyes lingered from board to board, checking each and every one of it. She was able to hit eighteen out of twenty boards that she carved. Well, nearly there. With just a bit more practice, she would probably be able to hit all of them.

Ayumi quickly pulled out all of he kunais and shurikens and put them all back in her pouch. She then looked around, scanning the training grounds for any logs. Once she found a few of them, pretty much scattered around the training grounds, she lifted them, one by one, and put them on the specific place at her training area. She then shifted some of the rocks and available there and went to grab her ninjato in order to cut some of the branches of the trees to use them for the obstacle course. She then set up numerous of traps that will trigger when you go past them, whether or not you know that's its there. This was actually taught to her by her brother who somehow was able to find a way to set up traps that will trigger automatically. Once she was done with rearranging everything – the branches, the logs, the rocks, traps, and what not – she stood up and looked at it. She walked towards a tree and leaned against it before plopping down to the ground, setting her ninjato to the side. This obstacle course will test whether you’re strong enough to go past the logs and rocks that were randomly placed, whether you’re fast enough to dodge the kunais and shurikens that were set up as part of the trap, and whether you’re smart enough to find a way to escape the traps – so basically a test of strength, agility, and smartness.

Although, Ayumi was the one who set up this obstacle course, she herself doesn't know how to even pass through it or whether she will even be able to pass through it or not. She sighed and stood up and looked through the obstacle course for the very last time, taking a deep breath before starting to jog and disappeared in a sudden. Concentrating on what was in front of her, she went pass the logs, jumping over them. Some of the logs were put so close to each other that they actually created a double log affect as she called it. Then came the rocks on which she had somehow jump over them; they were all about a foot or so bigger than her. She stretched out her arm and dove for the ground. Once the palm of her hand felt the ground, she straightened her body so that she was doing a handstand and pushed herself up as hard as she could, using all of the strength that she had left. Once she pushed herself up, she arched her back so that she could go over the rock. Henceforth, she was just flying in the air when kunais shoot in her direction and looked as if it just came out of nowhere.

She panicked as she caught a glimpse of this and thousands of questions formed in her head, trying to find a way to avoid them. Without thinking, She twisted her body and landed on the ground like a cat and quickly tried to dodge the kunais that were heading in her direction. In her head, she was mentally asking herself why she was stupid enough to set this obstacle and why she was even crazy enough to actually try it out. Ayumi shook her head and concentrated on what was in front of her: three logs, all at once, and all three were set beside each other. Great. She jumped over all three at once, hoping that her jump was long enough to go pass the three logs. In her head, she was hoping that she won’t stumble after the logs and get stabbed by the next wave of shuriken that she knew was coming since she was the one who set this course up.

She kept her eyes wide open as she landed on the ground and pushed herself off into a sprint when the sun began to set and she suddenly lost her balance and nearly tripped when the expected wave of shurikens came. She squealed and nearly stumbled face first towards the ground when she thrust her left hand towards the ground to hold herself steady for a second before sprinting away, dodging the shurikens. From the looks of the situation and her progress so far, she would be lucky to go pass through the obstacle course alive or even slightly hurt. Or worse, she might end up getting killed by the kunais and shurikens when she is only halfway through it. Ayumi concentrated even harder and went through the course, repeating the same thing over and over again.

Once she reached the end of it, she stumbled and literally crawled towards a nearby tree. “God… that.. was… scary.” She muttered under her breath, panting heavily, and gasping for air. She looked at her arms and legs; they were lightly covered of, fortunately not a lot, cuts she got from waves after waves of kunai and shurikens. She performed the Mystical Palm Technique, hoping that she has enough chakra to at least heal some of the cuts on her arms and legs. Once she was sure, that she was going to run out of chakra, she stopped and pushed herself off the ground. She walked towards the obstacle course and pulled out all of her kunais and shurikens that were stuck to the ground, slipping each and every one of it back into her pouch or holster. Then, she went to take the wires used for the traps and coiled them all back together and put them back in her pouch. With that, she went to get her ninjato and walked home. Once she was back home, she took a hot shower and asked her mother to treat her cuts and such, and went straight to bed. Her body was sore and she was just tired out of her mind. It was probably the harshest training that she has ever had so far. Ayumi laid herself in bed and winced as she laid on it. A minute after, her mother came in to check if she was okay, checking her temperature. Apparently she had high fever. Her mom went out of the room and quickly cam back with a wet cloth and laid it on her forehead. She then went out of the room without saying a word and turned off the lights. Ayumi looked at the door and closed her eyes; fatigue taking over her body and her mind shutting off for the night.

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A loud thudding sound could be heard as her eyes slowly popped open. At one point, it looked like the usual.. let say camel-style blinking its eyes. Nice and slow. Ayumi stared at the ceiling with her sleepy eyes, which are now half the size they usually are. She looked as if she was squinting although she wasn’t. This is of course a usual thing to happen first of all in the morning. She yawned and sat on the bed. As she isn’t a morning person, she looked around her room and stared into space. A sleepyhead she is, her eyes started getting heavier and heavier every second and they ended up closed shut. Ayumi automatically lay back down in her bed, pulled the blankets up to her chin and took a nap. If you could call it a nap really since couldn’t sleep at all due to the thudding sound, which could still be heard softly. Generally, one would be bothered by a sound that soft, but to her, it was distracting and she just couldn’t sleep. What a good hearing she has – something that she should be proud of. She lazily drag herself out of bed, waddling towards the door and opened it, only to find no one else other than her own younger sister playing with her toys right in front of the door.
 
Ayumi stared at her, her eyes huge and round, and turned around and closed the door halfway – just in case her sister wanted to come into her room - and walked towards the bed only to stop about halfway there. She then turned towards the bathroom, grabbing her towel before going on. There is no use in sleeping now that she is wide awake and its not like she could go to sleep anyways with that thudding sound, which is louder now due to the fact that she didn’t close the door. She quickly brushed her teeth and showered and was out of the toilet ten minutes later. Quickly putting something on and grabbing her equipment, she stepped out of the room, nearly toppling over her own sister. Ayumi grabbed hold of the door to hold herself up and picked her sister and left her in the room with her dog. She then ran down the stairs, drank some water and grabbed an apple. She slipped into her sandals and literally ran out of the house, speeding down the road, eating her apple, being extra careful not to crash into the villagers that were passing by the street. As careful as she was, she did ended up crashing into a women. Being clumsy, she of course couldn't help it… in a way. She quickly muttered a sorry and sped away. A few minutes later, she arrived at the training grounds and looked for a suitable place to train for the day. She started fidgeting lightly - slightly lifting her left foot and setting it down again at a quick pace, tapping it quickly as she looked around the training grounds. Once a perfect training place was found, she quickly threw the apple above her head, molded the chakra in her stomach, making it superheated and dispersed it in the form of a steady fire stream towards the apple which was falling down. She then ran around the area to warm up to prevent any muscle injuries.
 
She started off at a slow pace, letting the wind blow into her hair and face. She took a deep breath and quickened her pace. Her hair, which was let loose, was waving and flying behind her head. It was like a kite dragged through the wind really quickly. While running, Ayumi slips her left hand into her pouch and rummaged around it and pulled out a hair tie. She quickly gathered all of her hair together, fighting with the fact that it was being blown all over the place now that she touched. After a bit of struggle, she successfully tied her hair and quickened her pace. Despite the fact that she was literally fighting and struggling with her hair – It was literally going to strangle her - due to the wind and also because of the air around her while she was running. After ten minutes of running, she started to slow down little by little to cool off. Once she was done, she stopped under a shady tree and took a deep breath, looking up at the sky. The sun was up high today; a surprisingly hot day so to say. Ayumi looked bleakly into space as it was getting hotter and she knew she still has a long day. She took a deep breath and stretched both of her arms up and jumped as high as she could, holding on the branch above her. She swung a little automatically once she was hanging but came to a sudden stop. Ayumi started to swing her body back and forth, keeping her body aligned, her legs stuck together, her torso bending back and forth, showing her flexibility.
 
Once her body swung until it was aligned with the branch, she waited until she was at a 45 degrees angle from the branch above before letting go of the branch thus sending her flying towards the next tree branch, landing gracefully on it. By the time she landed, she could feel her tummy burning; her ‘abs muscles’ – she doesn’t have any- was burning. She hoped off the branch and head looked around. She was starting to get bored by then, as she had nothing to do. Her eyes lingered around the area for a second and stopped once she saw a huge rock. Its been a while since she has done any weight training, so why not now since there a huge rocks that are all pretty much way bigger than her and she had nothing else to do anyways.
 
Ayumi walked towards a rock nearby and out her arms around it. She tried to lift it up, but it wont budge; not even an inch. She laughed out loud sarcastically like a maniac and stopped after a few seconds. In her head, questions like “are you okay?”, “do you need to go to the hospital?” and such started to form. Thinking about it, she might as well not be okay at all. Probably from the effect of slacking off, she might as well have some kind of an imaginary brain damage. Right now, the people around at the training grounds might as well think that she has gone nuts. But, why should she care? Her face then turned into a poker face as she started to channel chakra to the soles of her feet and also to the palm of her hands. Once she was done, she placed her hand around the rock and started to lift it. Now that she has channeled her chakra to the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet, she has enhanced her own strength. She lifted the rock until her arms are horizontal. Ayumi then twisted her upper body to the right and threw the rock as far away as she could as she twisted back to the front.
 
The rock flew just a foot above the ground. She then ran over towards the rock and started to channel her chakra towards her arms and her legs. With her arms outstretched, she lifted the rock. She then started walking around the training grounds while holding the rock. After ten minutes of walking, she could slightly feel the heaviness of the rock, but she ignored it and kept on going. After another fifteen minutes went by, she felt as if the rock got heavier. By then, her legs were already tired. Her arms were getting red ever so slightly and if you looked close enough, her veins were popping out due to… well pretty much everything. Ayumi closed her eyes, and walked a bit faster, hoping that she wouldn’t bump into someone especially now that she was carrying that huge rock, she might accidently crush whomever she might bump into.
 
Ten minutes later, the position of the rock was a bit lower than it was before. Ayumi, however, still had her eyes closed. A little tune could now be heard from her. Although she was walking around blindly, she was trying to ease the pain by humming to herself. Another ten minutes passed and she could now really feel the pain in her arms and legs. They were red and burning. She squinted her eyes as she felt the intense pain in her arms and legs as they burn. She felt as if she was losing all of her muscles and she took another couple steps. At this point, she was taking little baby steps while trying to hold the rock up instead of dropping it to the ground. Her veins are literally popping out as she took another couple of steps and finally dropped the rock. Thank god she didn't drop it on her feet or she would have probably break her feet and cried her eyes out. She bent down and propped herself up on her knees with the help of her arms. Unfortunately, she could only hold on to that position for a few seconds and ended up collapsing on that spot. She fell to the ground, sprawled and breathing heavily. Right then, she felt like screaming her head off as the pain in her limbs slowly fade away.
 
Ayumi pulled herself up and crawled towards the nearest tree. She lay against the trunk and stared into space. She was red all over and sweat beads are dripping from her face. What a beautiful sight. She shook her head and stand up. Time to focus on her training if she wasted to get stronger. She won’t get any stronger by sitting there and do nothing at all other than stare into space.
 
She climbed up the nearest tree she could find and started carving a dartboard on the tree trunk as she forgot to bring her own today. She then carved another one just a few feet above the one she just carved. She then jumped towards another tree and carved the exact same dartboard, just at another spot and at a different position. She does the exact same thing on most of the trees in the training grounds, making sure they are all positioned at different parts of the tree. By doing this, she was actually planning to target the middle of these dartboards while running and jumping around at a great speed with occasional boost of her own speed by using her own chakra.
 
She looked around for a tall tree. Once she found a perfect one, she climbed up by focusing chakra in the soles of her feet and got on top of a relatively thin branch, making sure she held her balance. She then looked at the next tree, which was about a meter away from her. She took a deep breath and carefully walked towards the trunk of the tree. She turned and focused on the next tree and started running towards it, making sure she hold her balance and jumped off the branch once she reached the tip of it. Ayumi flew off the branch and barely landed on her target branch. She nearly slipped, but held on the branch before falling from it. She pulled herself up and looked for the next branch. It seems as if the trees in the area she was at on that day were far away from each other. Great. She then turned her attention towards the next tree and attempted to jump to it. Same luck that she had with the last tree, she slipped and nearly fell off the tree, but somehow she was able to pull herself up with the help of some chakra. She took a deep breath as she start channeling chakra to the palm of her hands a d soles of her feet so that she would get a better grip of the branch and branches to come. She just hope that the gravity wouldn't love her too much that it would pull her straight towards the ground. She sighed and focused towards the next branch and jumped towards it. She did this again and again, going around the training grounds for a few times, getting faster and faster little by little. This would train her speed as she learns to balance herself on the branches.
 
While she was jumping from tree to tree, she grabbed a handful of kunais out of her pouch, gripping them tightly as if she would never let go of them. Her eyes would linger around the trees ahead of her as she tries to look for the dartboards that she carved into the trees. Since the dartboards were in no particular order as she just carved then randomly, it was a bit harder to aim as one would never know where it was placed – even the one who carved the dartboards wouldn’t know where they are. Her eyes lingered wildly as she tried looking for one. Although not being ably to find any at the moment, she didn't stop and kept on jumping from tree to tree at a constant speed, boosting it with a little bit of her own chakra once in a while. Due to the speed she was going at, everything she saw was pretty much a blur. At the most she could make out was the shape of the object. Ayumi closed her eyes for a split second and tried to make her head empty. No questions, no feelings, nothing at all. Once she opened her eyes, she saw a dartboard in front her, just a few feet away, Quickly, she threw a kunai towards it, aiming for the middle of the dartboard.
 
This, however, is harder than it may sound. Before throwing, she had to think about the wind and her speed as it effects the direction of the kunai. All of this would force her to think as quick as she could within a time limit. The time limit would be the speed that she was going at. The longer it takes her to think, the more likely she would miss her chance to aim at the dartboard, or if it were in a real battle, she would miss her chance to attack. This training of hers would train the brain, reaction time and… pretty much everything else that's included in this training. This ‘training’ system was created by Ayumi herself – or at least as far as she knows, it was. All rights reserved.
 
She gave her best and concentrated hard towards the end. Doing the same thing over and over again, she would throw her kunai, aiming towards the middle of every dartboard that she sees. Once in a while, she would increase her speed with the help of a bit of her own chakra. Ayumi jumped down the last tree as she finished a lap of the whole training grounds. By then, she was already breathing heavily, trying to gulp down as much air as she could. Her usual baby face seems to have aged ten years as she walked towards the nearest tree and collapsed beside the trunk. Leaning against it, she closed her eyes for a few second before opening then again. Taking a look from the amount of kunais she had in her hand, she could tell that she didn’t throw it as much as she hoped she would. And beside, she could see a kunai lying just a few feet away from her. She sighed and stared into space as she tried to take a little break from all this training. It would also give her time to regain her chakra back as she already wasted over half of it due to her using it to constantly increase her speed and also to add some extra speed when she was throwing the kunai. Great. Now all that training has made her became unaware of her own chakra.
 
Ayumi, being a medical nin usually spares her chakra instead of wasting it, but today, after the training, she accidently wasted over half of it without knowing it herself. She was somewhat disappointed in herself for not doing as good as she thought she would, but this was probably the side effects of not training for a long time. She admits that she had been slacking off. She could tell herself that she has gotten slower and weaker. Well guess she has to start training on a frequent basis again and also start doing missions again as she needed money. She looked at her legs. She was slightly built, though no muscles are visible. You could say that her body was athletic, but curvy at the same time. Surprisingly, she was still the same weigh as she was months ago and she didn’t seem as if she grew fatter.
 
Ayumi got on her feet and walked towards the kunai that as lying on the ground and picked it up. She then climbed up the nearest tree. She looked around for any dartboards in order to get her kunais back. It will also help her know how many dartboards she was able to hit and also see the position of her kunai on the dartboard itself. Once she was done looking around the area and gathering her kunais altogether, she stopped on a tree branch. So far from what she has seen herself, she was only able to hit about six dartboards and only one of her kunais hit the middle of a dartboard. The rest either hit the tree trunk, or fell on the ground or hit somewhere else on the dartboard. She thought that it was pretty ok for the very first try.
 
She gripped her kunais tightly in both hands and concentrated. She then started jumping fro branches to branches as fast as she could, making sure to look out for any dartboards. She would boost her speed little by little with the help of a bit of her own chakra as she jumped from tree to tree. When it comes to throwing the kunai, she would do the exact same thing that she did before; calculating and shoot with a bit of chakra if needed. Again, everything was a blur and she finished a lap around the training grounds quickly. She decoded not to stop and went around again doing the exact same thing. Once she ran out of kunais to shoot, she switched over to using shurikens instead. She did this training for a few more laps until to the very last of her shurikens. After she ran out of shurikens to throw – or any weapons to throw really - she decided to jump from tree to tree for another lap before jumping off the tree and ending everything in a sprint as a cool down.
 
Once she was done, she stopped by a tree and collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. She starred into space, her eyes narrowing into slits as she tries to gulp down as much as she could. After a few minutes, she jumped up a tree and gathered all of her kunais and shurikens together. Once she gathered all of them, she jumped off the tree and picked up the ones that fell on the ground. Once she had all of her things, she started to stretch for a few minutes and broke off into a sprint, which turned into a jog around the training grounds. Once she was done, she quickly ran off home so that she could quickly shower and get out of her sweaty clothes. Oh and also get something to eat as she was starving and go straight to her warm bed and sleep.
 

TWC:3,315

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The orb of light glimmered against the huge mirror, as a pair of eyes opened and stared into space. Long, straight lashes fluttering as the her big, slanted eyes with irises as dark as the night tried to adjust to the amount of light present in the room. Ayumi sat up and yawned, looking all around her room for something that was missing: her dog, which is probably somewhere around the house. She yawned once again and stared into space. “Come on, sleepyhead. Time to wake up.” She muttered under her breath. She pushed aside the covers that covered half of her body, sat up and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. Her closed her droopy eyes, an exaggerated sighed escaped from her lips and she lazily dragged herself out of bed, waddling pass the mirror. She pushed her slightly messy, long, straight, black hair out of her face as she grabbed her towel and walked into the bathroom, as her pace started to quickened once she realizes that she had something important to do that day - something which she hasn’t been doing for quite a long time. She quickly took a shower and brushed her teeth like always. Once she was done, she quickly jumped out of the shower, immediately drying her body, and slipped in some random clothes without much thought. Quickly grabbing her weapons, she head down the stairs, grabbed an apple, slipped into her sandals, and ran out of the house. The sun was shining brightly as if trying it was trying to blind the people who dare to look at it, as Ayumi ran down the streets, eating her apple. She arrived at the marketplace only to find it packed with the villagers like always. Well what did she expect it be like anyways? Empty? Please, this is Konoha; this place is never empty. There is people everywhere.

She smirked and made her way through the crowd, her lean and slender body weaving through the crowd, finishing her apple upon arriving at her destination: the training grounds. She looked around as she walked towards an empty spot. She has got to admit that she missed this place. How long has it been since she has been here? Four months. Four months wasted doing nothing but slacking off. Good job, Ayumi. That is totally something that you should feel proud of~ She sarcastically thought to herself as she threw what was left of her apple in the air, performed some hand signs and expelling fire from her mouth, burning the apple, turning it into ashes. She watched as the wind blew the ashes away, coming up with what she should do for the day. She needed something to get her heart beat beating rapidly, something that will get her muscles working again, something that isn’t too boring. Something that will make her stronger. If only she would work harder and put some extra effort and care when it comes to training and such, she was pretty sure she could become even stronger soon. If only she could get the laziness that was trying to take over her body in the early morning, her mind telling her to go back home and sleep on her big, comfy bed, back into the dream world when she could be anyone and anything and … Ayumi snapped out of her thoughts, muttering under her breath as she tied her hair up, fixing her bangs, which covers the purple rhombus-shaped mark on her forehead and break into a light jog. While jogging, she looked at the shinobi scattered all over the training grounds, training their butt off. She kept on jogging, slowly speeding up to her maximum speed she could reach without any help of chakra. After a few minutes of jogging, she stopped beside a tree, slightly out of breath, but somehow was still able to keep her usual poker face.

She stepped out of the shade. She could feel a familiar burn on her back due to the sun which seemed to be brighter than it was in the morning and hotter than ever. She squinted as she stretched here and there before standing still, looking bleakly for any rocks that is about half her height. Scanning the vast field before she found one just a few meters away from her. She ran towards the rock and started to channel her chakra towards her hands and the soles of her feet. She then wrapped her arms around the rock, placing them securely around it, griping the rock. She took a deep breath and clenched her teeth as she lifted the rock with the help of the chakra channelled to her hands. As she lift the rock just a centimetre off the ground, her arms and legs started to burn due to the weight of the rock. She started to channel even more chakra, now covering the whole of her arms instead of just her hands. She also channel some chakra to both of her legs as she lift the rock even higher off the ground and tried to walk. Slowly taking baby steps at a time to avoid injuring herself, she slowly advanced in whatever direction she was heading, hoping that she wouldn’t bump into anybody. Her little baby steps gradually turned into bigger, more confident steps as she continued carrying the rock around the area. Though her steps were slow, they were more stable compared to when she first carried it. After a few minutes, her grip around the rock started to loosened as she was sweating profusely due to the hot weather. Her legs were also trembling due to them having to support the rock and also her own weight. Ayumi twisted her upper body and released the rock, being careful so that she wouldn’t hurt any innocent bystanders and also herself. The rock landed a meter away from her as she wiped her sweat away. Wow… since when was weight training this hard for her…

Her arms and legs were aching by then, as she walked towards a tree and carved her usual dartboard on it. She then proceeded by drawing other dartboards on another tree, muttering that she should have stole err… borrowed Takeshi’s dartboards. Once she was done, she plopped herself down on the ground, closing her eyes, her legs crossed. Concentrate, let go of all your stress - that was her main objective as she sat there in silent, meditating, training her mind to concentrate, not letting anything distract her. Taking deep breaths very few seconds, she took out a handful of her kunai and started to run around the two trees. She probably looked as of she was crazy, running as fast as she could around the trees as if she was chased by some wild animal that was about to eat her. But, who cares really? They have better things to do other than judge and watch her train…right? Bit by bit, the trees started to blur. Once Ayumi reached her top speed she gripped her kunai that she has been holding ever since she started running and concentrated in the dartboards that she carved herself on the trees which by then looked like blurry, glob… thing. Concentrating toward the middle of the blurry dartboards, she quickly threw the kunai as accurate as she could get. She then took out some shuriken and do the exact same thing with them; concentrate, aim, and throw as accurately as possible. Once she was done with throwing most of her kunai and shuriken, she stopped and looked at the dartboards she carved on both trees. Most of her kunai and shuriken ended up on the dartboards. There were a few which ended up somewhere else other that the boards. Overall, she was satisfied with what she achieved; some bulls eyes, some that ended up at random places on the boards, and a few that ended up somewhere else other than the boards themselves. She walked towards the tree and picked up her kunai and shuriken one by one, putting them back into her pouch.

Once she was done, she started running around the training grounds again, her body warming up again. This time, she decided to set a goal for herself; her goal was to run at least fifty laps. That should get her muscles working again and burn whatever she needed to burn in her body. It will be arduous, but if this is what it takes to get her body all geared up again, she will do it. She will run at least fifty laps even if it costs her life. Yeah, if she dies running laps at the training ground in the hot weather then go ahead… But on the second thought, that might not be such a good idea; dying due to running around the training grounds. That is not a good enough reason to die. A futile reason actually. If she was going to die, she should die - why exactly is she thinking about death at a time like this? It’s just running for goodness sake - no one is going to die. Ayumi shook her head and kept on running, speeding up little by little. For her, when it comes to running, the only hard part is starting to run; once she has built enough momentum, all she had to do was keep it. Not that hard really. Once she was at her maximum speed, she channeled a bit of her own chakra to a bit more speed. This would also improve her chakra control as well. It could also be a little practice of keeping her chakra flow steady when she is in the move which would be helpful especially when she is on a mission or spar. Speaking of missions, she should really start taking up missions again; she needed money to buy new equipment and weapons that caught her eye that other day when she was at the ninja shop. By the end of her 20th lap, her speed decreased by a little, her legs were beginning to tremble slightly, a sign meaning that she could collapse and fall flat on her face any time from now. Despite the fact that her legs were about to collapse, she kept on running without much care; instead, she channeled a bit more chakra to her legs to maintain her top speed.

After another ten laps, she lost her balance, half running and half stumbling along the way before heading towards the ground face first. She stretched out her right arm, placing it on the ground and pushed her lower body, thus lifting it in the air to prevent herself from falling splat down to the ground on her face. She brought back her lower body to the ground, performing a front flip, ending in a slightly crouching position instead of her usual standing position. She plopped herself down on the ground and stretched out her legs, placing both of her palms half a foot away on each sides of her body to support her upper body, gulping down as much air as she could. By then she was drenched with sweat - she could feel the saltiness of her sweat that formed above her lips which then trailed down to her lips. Gross. Ayumi wiped the sweat that formed around her face as she seemed to be sweating profusely. She stood up, thirsty, and started to run, again speeding up little by little until she reaches her maximum speed. She pushed herself towards her limits as she ran another thirty laps, gritting her teeth, biting her tongue or the insides of her cheeks, imagining that some furious beast is after her - anything that would make her keep on running around the training grounds. After the last lap, she slowed down before collapsing beside a tree, her body sprawled under the shade, breathing heavily as ever. How ladylike. She pushed herself up and leaned against the tree trunk as she stared bleakly into space, trying to stabilize her breathing pattern. She pulled her knees towards her chest, hugging them tight before releasing them. She does some stretching sitting down before standing up, wobbling along the way before toppling down to the ground. Her legs were like jelly; it was as if she didn’t have any strength to walk. Or maybe she just tripped over herself or some random pebble that was on the ground. She stood up and take little baby steps out of the shade and looked around, wondering what she should do next. Her leafs were aching as she wondered around, squinting as she faced the sun. A slight, tiny smile creep up on her lips as she pulled out a kunai and walked towards a tree.

While she was walking, she start to channel some of her fire chakra into the kunai and threw it towards the tree trunk. As the kunai hit the trunk of the tree, the trunk started to catch the fire on the blade and burned a hole - or more like a dent actually, just a little deeper - on the trunk thus turning the area around the blade black. Ayumi grabbed another kunai out of her pouch and channeled it with fire chakra again, but this time with even more chakra compared to the last one. Once she was done, she channeled a bit more chakra on the fire chakra before throwing it towards the tree trunk. This time it bore more into the tree compared to the last one. The one before only bore two inches into the tree; this one, however, bore four inches into the tree. Well good enough - it may only be two more inches but it was better than nothing. She took out another one of her kunai and start to channel some lightning chakra into it. Once she was done, she aimed and threw it towards the tree resulting in a dent in the tree. She walked towards the tree and pulled out all three of her kunai and put them back into her pouch. To be honest, she was starting to get a little bored, failing to come up with something to do while she was at the training grounds. She wishes that her brother, Takeshi was there or just someone to spar with. Everybody just seemed so busy at the training grounds that she didn’t dare to disturb them. On the other hand, she should actually be learning some new jutsu as she has little to zero offensive jutsu up her sleeve. She decided to do it at a later training session with Takeshi.

Ayumi walked towards the nearest tree - what’s with her and trees anyways? - and stood in front of the tree bark for a second before punching with all of her strength. It hurt - that was for sure. She pulled back her fist and channeled a bit of chakra into it before slamming it into the tree bark creating a two inches deep dent. She pulled back her other fist, channeled some chakra into it and punched the bark, again creating a two inches deep dent. After a few more punches, she was able to bore thought the bark with the help of some chakra. Well it wasn’t really fun. She moved to another tree and decided to punch it with her raw strength instead. She would punch the tree trunk with her right fist then with her left fist. She would then bring up her right leg and kick the side of the right side of the trunk followed by her left leg to kick the left side of the trunk of the tree. She began repeating the steps - right first followed by left. It was like a routine she did a while back: right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg. She repeated it again and again, alternating between her limbs. After half an hour of hitting the trunk, her arms and legs started to ache, slowly turning red. She decided to do the exact same thing she did the last time she did this which was reminding herself the bad things that has happened to her. Thing that made her cry. Things that made her mad and frustrated. Somehow she was able to convert all those bad memories into anger as she start to smash her fists and feet into the bark harder than ever. It was even more painful now that she is hitting the bark with much more force. but somehow it was satisfying. It was her way of letting out her anger. She should definitely come and train when she feels upset or angry about something - it would be a really good way of releasing her anger and also strengthen her muscles as a bonus. Double win!

She continued doing this for another half an hour, keeping in mind to increase her strength each time she hit the tree. Her arms and legs were about to fall off as the time drags on, but she kept on going. She could feel the pain shoot up her arms and legs each time she hits at the tree when she decided to bit her tongue as the urge of screaming her head off came up. After a few more minutes, she stopped hitting the tree and sat down on the ground, leaning against the tree. She inspected her arm and legs; they were bright red as if she just slapped and kicked someone really hard. Around her knuckles small spots of purplish bruises started to appear. Ugh great, she will have purple fists tomorrow. She got up and turned towards the tree to look at the size of damage she has done to the tree. The dents were about three to four inches each. Not too bad considering that she use her raw strength to do it. start to focus her chakra into her right hand. She then bring her fist down towards the ground with as much strength and force as she could, releasing the chakra she has focused in her hand as her knuckles hit the ground resulting in fissures in the earth. She repeated the exact same move numerous times in order to perfect the technique even more, creating fissures and craters in the earth. She then decide to focus chakra to her feet and hand at the same time before heading towards a medium sized rock nearby and slamming her fist into it, again releasing her chakra right when her knuckles hit the rock thus enhancing her strength which resulted in the rock breaking into bits and pieces which flew all over the place, just like a bomb. Due to her focusing her chakra into her hand as well as her feet, she was able to increase the strength in her legs as well as her overall speed therefore resulting in a more powerful blow. So far, she was pretty satisfied with what she has done today. Today’s training has been quite decent for someone like her anyways.

Ayumi looked around training grounds for something to do that doesn’t require chakra or at least something that doesn’t require as much chakra as her chakra level was depleting. After a minute of blankly staring into space, she could sense the presence of a person heading towards her. The presence was familiar.. it must be.. she turned around when an arm suddenly slipped under her chin. She could see from the corner of her eyes as another arm appear and was placed behind her neck. The hand of the arm that was below her chin grabbed the bicep of the arm tightly before she could feel a pressure from behind her neck; the arm behind her neck was slightly pushing her head down against the arm under her chin, thus slightly choking her. “Takeshi! Stop it!” She gasped as her brother released both of his arms that were around her neck. She turned around, half staring, half glaring at him. “Why are you here?” She asked, as Takeshi slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “Why to meet you of course… Princess,” He said, saying the word ‘Princess’ in a slight mocking manner. “And since when wasn’t I allowed to come here?” He asked, smiling at her. “Shut up.” She muttered under her breath. "What do you want from me?” She asked glancing at a shinobi nearby who suddenly made a loud noise. “Nothing really. Care for a spar or something of that sort? Like an obstacle course for example.. or even a mixture of a spar and an obstacle course.” He asked her, raising his left eyebrow. Ayumi glanced at him, “Yeah sure. Why not… I have nothing to do right now anyways.” With that, she walked a few meters away from him mentally preparing herself for whatever he was planning up his sleeve.

She glanced at him as he signalled her to start. A second after she got his signal, she disappeared, blurring out of his sight and appeared behind him. Quickly pulling back her right fist, she aimed towards the back of his head and threw a punch as fast as she could. A second before her fist could hit his head, Takeshi disappeared out of her sight, thus causing her to punch the air in front of her like an idiot instead of her original target, Takeshi, or the back of his head to be more precise. A loud laugh could be heard as her arm dropped beside her. Ayumi glanced to the left, looking at the tree, where her brother was squatting on a branch still laughing. “You have to be faster than that to hit me, Sweetheart~~” And with that, he jumped off the tree and landed in front of her. He brought his face closer towards her, “Hmm… what exactly have you been doing in the past four months? Sleeping? Slacking off? because Honey, you haven’t improved at all since the last time we sparred~” Ayumi puffed up her cheeks as she started to feel her face heating up. She will definitely beat the living crap out of this jerk.. face! The slight pink color creeped from her ears towards her full cheeks as she scoffed, “I was just testing you~” She smirked as he distanced himself away and landed two meters away from her. She signalled him to go first, narrowing her eyes into slits as he sped towards here, forming quite a number a seal, which can only mean one thing - a high level jutsu. She took a step back and flames burst out of his mouth, spreading quickly, covering at least 5 meters in radius. She took another step back before turning around and started running before jumping towards the nearest tree, squatting on a branch. Hmm… this tree thing must be in the family. Seems like the whole family must really love trees!

She jumped off the tree as Takeshi started to speed towards her again, this time even faster, as she positioned herself in stance that is narrow hence decreasing stability. She believes that by decreasing her stability, it will increase her agility since she would be able to get out of whatever position she was in faster compared to if she was in a stable stance; she thinks that the tradeoff of decreased stability is worth the equivalent increase in agility. Once her brother was only an inch away from her, she stepped aside and crouched down before sweeping her right leg towards his feet. Takes stopped and tripped on her leg as he stop forward resulting in him crashing towards the ground, as he quickly straightened out his arms to support his body weight and flip himself up and forwards. Ayumi dashed towards him, aiming consecutive strikes, kicks, and punches nonstop, relaxing her body in between but tensing her muscles while performing the strikes. Her brother, however, being way more experienced than she was, was able to block most of it, only taking a few of her strikes. Ayumi jumped backwards twice and looked at her brother as he brought his arms down that was covering his face. He flashed a grin at her, “Not bad, but still not good enough, Honey.” She let put an exasperated sigh. To be honest, she was slightly tired from all the crazy training she did in the morning plus the sun is freaking burning her back. So in conclusion, she just wanted to take a short rest and regain her energy back. Oh and she was kind of hungry since she only had an apple in the morning and already training her butt off. And just as she was about to take a short rest, Takeshi decided to appear and now he is here to kick her butt off the ground and possibly even kill her with his selection of jutsu he planned to use on her. What is life even. Before she knew it, the air was knocked out of her as her bother slammed his fist with such force into her stomach. “Pay attention during any kind of fight if you don’t want to die… even if the opponent is your family,” He said pulling back his fist and stared at her with cold eyes. Ayumi winced in pain as she clutched her stomach, looking bewildered at Takeshi. “Now get your ass back in this spar!” He said with a nagging voice and walked away from her, unsheathing his katana. He stopped after he was about two meters away and turned around to face her. She rolled her eyes and looked at him, her arms dropped to the side of her body. Game on.

She quickly performed some hand signs: Katon: Great Fireball. She then exhaled the fire out of her mouth in the shape of a fireball. She then quickly turned around, channeling some chakra into the soles of her feet, and disappeared in an instance appearing a second later behind a bush nearby, hiding herself behind the quite large bush. Fortunately, she was quite small herself so she didn't have any trouble hiding behind it. She watched her brother as he appeared from behind a tree and stood there with his hands in his pocket. He must have sheathed his katana when he jumped out of the way of the fireball. He probably changed his mind about whether or not he should use that stupid katana. Ayumi tightened both of her fists as she start to channel chakra towards all far of her limbs. Once she was done, she jumped out of the bush and charged towards Takeshi, pulling back her right fist as she aimed towards his head. Followed by that punch was a kick from her left leg. She kept in mind to rotate her hip as well as her leg during the kick to give a bit more power to the kick using her hip’s additional mass. Once she gave him another kick, she rushed off and stooped a few meters away from him. Takeshi was able to block both of her attacks but seemed surprised about something. “Hey… your kick seemed harder than it was before. You must have been practicing hard, huh?” A smirk appeared on his face as he continued, “I think its time I teach you a new element… or at least introduce you to a new one. And find out what your next element is.”

Shut up. She narrowed her eyes, ignoring everything he said and sped towards him and performed a series of kicks: Leaf Great Whirlwind. She started from a low kick, slowly starting to gain buoyancy, and continued to a middle kick which lifted Takeshi’s body midair. This was then followed by a high kick, sending him up in the air and she finished off a with a heel drop sending him straight to the ground. As he landed on the ground, the fine dust and dirt lying around rose, clouding up his spot before covering up the area where he landed. Ayumi landed on the ground and backed away from the spot and crouched down, her dark orbs, blank, her face expressionless. Takeshi hauled himself up and clutched the side of his head as Ayumi sped towards him again, channelling her chakra into her fists and lowering her body as she neared him, sticking her leg out and performed a spinning back kick, causing him to stumble. She then threw a punch straight at his face before jumping to the side and sped off towards a tree. She jumped up and sat leisurely on one of the branches. She didn't like the fact that Takeshi was obviously holding back and taking all of the hits she threw at him. She would have appreciated if he was good at faking it, but he definitely could not act to save his life. She rolled her eyes as he pretended to fall on his face, his body limp, almost lifeless… now really. “Stop acting.” She said loudly and Takeshi stood up and brushed himself and grinned, “I wasn’t that bad wasn’t I? It was pretty decent, right?” He asked, looking at her with excited eyes. Although he was 2 years older than she was, he still appears like a 5 years old child. Very childish. “No, you sucked! You should take acting classes because you can’t even act to save your life.” Ayumi shouted back, swinging her legs back and forth. Takeshi shook his head, “I’m hurt.” He brought his right hand up to his heart, making a sad face. A second passed and he dropped his arm to his side, the fake, sad expression on his face was now then replaced with an expressionless one. “Now come here. Let's see if have an affinity for wind or water… or whatever.” He said, shrugging his shoulders and waved his hand at her, ushering her to quickly come to him. “Oh and don’t forget to grab some leaves too!” He added and slipped his hands into his pocket. She puts her expressionless face on, grabbed a handful of leaves, pushed herself off the branch, landing softly on the ground, and walked towards him. Wow… the poker face must be in the family too! What an interesting family.

“In general, every person has chakra that has an affinity towards one of the elements or elements, a characteristic that seems to be genetic, since whole clans sometimes share the same affinity. To find out what affinity someone has, pieces of paper made from a special type of tree, that was made to absorb chakra, are used that react to even the slightest hint of chakra in any of a number of ways, depending on the nature latent in the chakra. If one has wind nature, it would split in two. If one has fire nature, it would ignite and turn to ash. If one has lightning nature, it would wrinkle. If one has earth nature, it would turn to dirt and go away with the wind, and if one has water nature, it would become wet. This all makes it easier to learn how to create and control the nature, although even with an affinity this process will usually take any number of years. Shinobi are not limited to the nature they have an affinity to though, because by the time they reach the rank of Jōnin, most shinobi have mastered two natures. Because of the difficulty of mastering a nature and the time required to learn it, it is almost impossible for any one person to master all five natures through natural methods.” Takeshi ended his long speech and took out a few pieces chakra papers. She has used them before this. She sto- ehem ‘borrowed’ them from her father when she first discovered her second element. “I’m guessing you’re out of chakra since you’ve been using Taijutsu moves on me ever since I got here. So this should be easy..” His voice trailed off as he handed her the papers and told her channel her chakra through them. She grabbed her one of the papers and placed them in-between her palms and started to channel her chakra through them. This should work quickly than the last time she used them since her chakra level is currently low.. right? She thought to herself.

She could feel the paper turning into ashes as she quickly separated her palms from each other. She brushed the ashes from her palms and grabbed another piece of chakra paper and tried again. This time, however, the paper wrinkled instead. She stared blankly at the paper and threw it aside. “Um.. wait, let me get rid of some of my chakra first..” She mumbled and turned away. She performed a few hand signs and dispersed a huge fireball out of her mouth. Once she dispersed another one, she turned around and faced Takeshi again, grabbing another piece of chakra paper from his hand and placed it in-between her palms. This time, she concentrated extra hard and channeled some chakra into the paper. She then removed one of her palms and stared at the corner of the paper where a little cut, about 2 centimeters in length, has showed up. Wind. She grinned and showed it to her brother. “Look~~ There is a little cut~” She singsonged as Takeshi shook his head. “Well, on the second thought, I don’t think I’ll be teaching you anything about the Wind element… partly because I don’t feel like it. But anyways, now that you’ve found out what your next element is, you should start training your butt off because we are going to spar again one day. And by spar, I mean a real one, mind you. And I’m definitely not letting you beat the crap out of me again,” He said before stashing the rest of the chakra papers in his hand into his pocket and walked away from her, “Make sure to come home early or mom will kill you~” And with that, he disappeared.

Ayumi shook her head and plopped down to the ground. To be completely honest, she was exhausted; her chakra level was depleted and her body felt limp and sore to her bones. She stood up and looked around. She needed to keep on training no matter what. She needed to get stronger and the only way to get stronger is by training. Right now is the time to make up for the time she wasted back then, sitting around doing pretty much nothing at all. Plus she needed to check this Wind element thing. She took out her kunai and started to channel her chakra through it. She sat down on the ground and stared at the kunai as nothing seemed to be happening at all. She gripped it harder and tried channelling what was left of her chakra again, resulting in her having just a tiny bit of chakra left, enough to keep her alive. 20 seconds passed and nothing happened. Ayumi looked up from her kunai and stabbed the ground with it. She heaved herself up and started running. She needed to regain her chakra if she was going to continue training. After 3 laps around the training grounds, she stumbled and plopped herself down beside a tree. She was physically and mentally exhausted as she looked at the pond beside her before staring off into space. She yawned as her half lidded eyes gazed lazily at the sun before she squinted and closes her eyes. Just for a few minutes… Need to regain enough energy to train… She thought to herself as she feel asleep, her body slumped against the tree.

The heavy pink lids reluctantly opened and revealed a pair of dark orbs. Ayumi blinked a few times, her mind slightly hazy as she take into account of her surroundings. A few seconds later, her eyes flew open and she scrambled onto her feet, nearly cursing herself for sleeping longer than she should have had. The light from the sun was dying as she walked towards the kunai that she stabbed into the ground just an hour ago. She plopped down on the ground and pulled it out of the ground and started to channel some chakra into it, hoping something would happen. Little by little, a layer of… something started to appear on the blade of her kunai. She could see something around it, something bluish - It wasn’t completely blue nor was it invisible. She wasn’t sure herself what exactly it was; could it be chakra? or could it be something else that she couldn’t identify. She made a mental note to ask Takeshi or either one of her parents about this layer thing. She stared at the blade and started to channel more chakra into it, watching intently for any changes. As she put more chakra through the blade, the layer on top of the blade started to thicken, the blue color starting to be come a bit more visible than before. As she put more chakra into it, the blade of the kunai suddenly ignited into flames causing her to drop it.

She put out the fire, picked up the kunai, and started to channel chakra into it again. This time, however, sparks started to appear instead of the weird layer thing. She stopped channelling chakra into it and concentrate hard before starting again, closing her eyes. Once she has fused it with chakra, she opened her eyes and looked at it to find that the weird layers are back. She brought the blade closer to her face, examining it. Now that she took a closer look of it, the layer seemed to be flowing, following the shape of the blade. She turned around and aimed the kunai for the nearest tree, throwing it straight towards the bark. She stood up and sped towards the tree, wondering what effect could it have on the blade. She ran towards the tree only to find that it only bore through the tree bark. She pulled the kunai, seemingly unimpressed, as she started to fuse it with chakra once again. Once she was done, she scratched the tree bark with her now wind chakra enhanced kunai. She realised that the blade was longer that it was before and cut deeper into the bark than if she were to use a normal blade. She tried to think back when Takeshi used to bla- teach her about elements and chakra or whatever. “Wind… extend the blades with chakra to injure an enemy several feet out of the blade's physical range blah blah blah… increase the cutting power of the blades to the point of easily slicing through trees, rocks, iron… blah blah blah. Wind chakra must be sharpened like a blade. Something something splitting the chakra into two and… bring the parts together to form a tight edge-” And her head went blank. She could only remember snippets of it, but somehow it still made enough sense to her. “I need to listen to his lecture more next time.” She muttered to herself.

She gripped the handle of her kunai and channeled some chakra into it. She recalled her father saying something about making the chakra as thin as possible.. or something like that anyways. This time, she gave the kunai her full concentration. The more chakra she channeled into it, the harder her grip became. Sharpened like a blade. Split chakra into 2 then bring the part together to form a tight edge. Make it as thin as possible. Those lines ran through her head, almost like a chant. She tried to follow it. She first channeled her chakra through her blade, split it into 2, the chakra she channeled into going to each side of the blade, and brought them back together at the edge of the blade. She made sure that chakra was as thin as possible, sharpening it like a blade. Once she was done, she looked at the kunai, which now seemed to be extended by 2 centimetres. Not bad, she thought to herself, staring intently at the blade. Oh I can also use my ninjato for this too! My long forgotten, abandoned, ninjato. Ayumi smiled in satisfaction and walked a few meters away from the tree beside her before throwing the kunai towards it. To her surprise, the blade of the kunai bore deep into the tree trunk, nearly piercing through it.

She ran straight towards the tree and pulled the blade out, her face lit up with glee. Finally, something exciting has happened in her life; the last time when she felt delighted over something was probably when she discovered her second element. Ayumi blew her bangs out of her eyes and turned around as she senses a familiar chakra. “Let’s go home!” A familiar voice barked at her. She glared at Takeshi as he appeared out of nowhere. “No. Let’s spar again, shall we?” She said, before turning to face him. Now that she has regained most of her energy, she felt that its a waste to just go home. Her brother stopped in his tracks and smirked, “Fine, but let’s make it quick, shall we? And this time, I won’t hold back.” And with that, he disappeared. She narrowed her eyes as she concentrated on her surroundings for any signs of his chakra when out of a sudden, a wave of shuriken came flying from her left. She was quick enough to dodge most of it, only getting a few scratches here and there… And okay, one tiny little cut but whatever. “Too slow~” Takeshi shouted at her, followed by a snicker.

She knew he was running around the area, jumping from tree to tree, and occasionally using the body flicker technique to quickly get to another tree probably to confuse her. After the sudden attack, she made sure to keep her eyes wide open because there is no way she wou- Crap! she thought as she ducked, almost doing a big bow really as a wave of kunai narrowly flew over her head. This time, Takeshi himself, came out, unsheathing his (stupid) katana which he happen to bring with him all the time, it could be considered as a part of him. It was probably surgically stitched to him.. or maybe it is cursed and he couldn’t get rid of it. She ducked as he jabbed the katana right above her head. He then used the body flicker technique and appeared behind her, jabbing the blade of his katana right though her lower back. She brought both of her hand towards her mouth and clasped her mouth shut, suppressing a scream, as the blade drove further into her body, nearly piercing out of through her stomach. The urge to scream, to cry, to beat Takeshi to death ran through her body as she shivered. She could feel the blade of the katana being drawn out of her body as he heard him mumble, “Well, that is probably gonna leave a scar if not healed immediately..”

As the katana left her body, she fell down to her knees, clutching her wound as she closed her eyes shut. She could hear him sheathing his katana back. I’ll kill you! She though to herself as she concentrated her chakra towards the wound, healing it immediately. There was only one thing on her mind and it was to get away from his as quickly as she could. She stood up while the wound was still healing and channeled some chakra to the soles of her feet before running away as fast as she could; the wound was slowing her down and she couldn’t run as fast as she could, but she still ran to the best of her abilities. A few seconds later, she appeared on a tree branch, her wound still healing. Once her wound finished healing, she made a few hand signs as fire started to appear around her body, spiralling as she hurled them towards Takeshi. Her brother blinked as a huge, spiralling, ball of fire - or at least something that looked like that - came towards him. He looked aside before jumping out of the way, avoiding the clump of fire as it hit the ground burning the grass. “Hey, if you’re gonna use fire, do me a favor and try not to burn this whole place down.” He looked at the tree she was hiding in. Ayumi scowled as she jumps out of the tree, and sped towards him.

Takeshi took a step back before speeding towards his sister, preparing kick straight towards her stomach. Ayumi stopped abruptly in her tracks as she saw him running towards her. As he neared, he brought his left leg up, aiming a kick towards her stomach, where he wounded her just a few minutes ago. As his leg neared, she brought her knees up and hammer her elbow down towards his ankle at the same time. Takeshi, on the other hand, must have recognized the taijutsu technique as he tried to pull his leg out of the way, resulting in his foot getting hammered down instead of his ankle. Ayumi, however, must have brought her elbow down with such force as Takeshi let out a ‘manly’, squeaky yelp and pulled his leg out of the way. “Are you trying to break my bones?!” Takeshi yelled at her, his voice still slightly squeaky. “Were you trying to kill me when you jabbed me with that katana of yours?” She shot back as she glanced at him before walking away from the spot and stopping after she was just a few meters away from him. She watched as Takeshi clutched his left foot before heaving himself up on his feet, slightly wincing from the pain radiating from his foot. Ayumi shrugged her shoulders, mumbling to herself, “Well, too bad..? Not my fault..?… I’ll buy you ice cream… or something…”

Her eyes darted towards his katana. I need to get my hands on that katana of his… She thought to herself as she ran towards him at full speed. Raiton: Hiraishin! Once she came in contact with him, she raised her left arm up, producing electricity, which roamed through her body. Since she was in contact with Takeshi, the electricity flowing through her body transferred into his, hence shocking him. Her brother flinches as the electricity shocked him, leaving him with slight tingle. He performed a few hand signs before drawing out his katana, positioning it parallel to his body as Ayumi backed away to avoid getting prodded by it. She watched Takeshi closely before jumping a few meters back to a safe spot. She knew that manipulating weapons is his specialty; so a smart move would be to stay away from him. She took out some of the kunai she had in her pouch and threw it at him; he, of course, easily blocked all of them with his katana. How can I attack him? She thought to herself for a few seconds. Of course! She sped towards him as her mind clicked together: Raiton: Jibashi! She started to form a few hand signs along the way. Once she was just a few centimetres away from him (and made sure to stay out of his katana’s reach), she stuck both of her arms out towards him, creating a wave of electricity from her hands, making sure to put enough chakra to at least stun him for a few seconds. She kept in mind not to put too much chakra into it as not to kill him; she definitely doesn’t want to be responsible for his death.

Takeshi’s body went still as the electricity hits his body, stunning him, resulting in him dropping his katana. She could tell that he was trying his best to resist the electric charge running through his body, but failed to do so. Ayumi, using this chance to confiscate his katana, pulled her arms back, grabbed the hilt of the katana which he dropped, and sped away from him, dragging it along, a smirk forming on her lips. Once she was was a few meters away from him, she stuck the tip of his katana into the ground, tightening her grip around the hit, her eyes narrowing as he performed a few handseals. Once he was done, he started shaping the water nearby into a large shark. He thrusted his arms towards her, sending the shark straight in her direction. Due to the large size of the shark, it didn’t take long until it reaches her, shoving her backwards with such force. She didn't let go of of the hilt as her body was sent flying backwards a few meters away from her spot, her vision blurring.

Her back hit the ground, the katana in her hand landed right above here, nearly splitting her head in half. She opened her eyes, staring at the darkening sky, slightly out of breath. She sat up and pulled the katana out of the ground, infusing it with lightning chakra. Lightning Release: Chakra Blade. Lightning started to surround the blade of the katana, extending it by 3 centimetres, increasing the sharpness of the blade itself. She started to run towards him, dragging the katana along. He has to recover from that jutsu first. She thought to herself as she neared him, stabbing the blade into his right bicep, numbing it in the process due to the lightning chakra. From the corner of her eye, she could see Takeshi wincing, inhaling in sharply, as she pulled the blade out as quickly as she could. Once the blade was out, she jumped back, distancing herself away from him, abruptly stopping channeling chakra into the katana. She watched his next move before channelling wind chakra into the clade of the katana, doing it exactly as she has thought herself, hoping that this time, it would work. A few seconds passed and she glanced at the katana, her face lit up with joy as the familiar light blue glow appeared around the blade of the katana. she gripped the hilt tightly before heading towards him, dragging the katana along with her, and aimed the left side of his stomach. Once she neared him, she swung the katana forward, jabbing the left side of his stomach, but he must have foreseen the attack as he dodged it, distancing himself away from her.

Takeshi started to perform a row of handseals, and sped towards her, lowered his body as he neared her, swept his leg across hers, causing her to lose her balance. He then spurt out a stream of water from his mouth. The water formed a sphere, surrounding her thus trapping her in it. Takeshi stuck his arm at the side of sphere and glanced at her before looking off into a distance, “Now, why don’t you stay in here, while you wait for me to regain my energy back. Then we will continue our fight.” He then plopped down to the ground. Ayumi widened her eyes, as she held her breath. She could feel the weight of the water on her body, pulling her down, stopping her from moving. She started to struggle, trying to break free from the water; she started kicking and punching around aimlessly, putting as much strength as she could into her wild punches and kicks - she was basically fighting against the water. But it was no use… Her grip around the katana loosened and she eventually let go of it, closing her eyes as she brought her hands towards her mouth, clasping it with much difficulty due to the fact that she had to resist the weight of the water. The grip around her mouth tightened as she opened her eyes and gaze at her surroundings.. calm and blue~ her mind was calm.. all of her problems cease to exist and.. everything is fine~ And all I need to do is to hol- And her eyes closed shut.

A few minutes passed and Takeshi glanced at his younger sister, his half-lidded eyes flew open, as he pulled his arm out, resulting in the sphere of water to collapse. “Hey! hey! hey, are you okay?!” He started to shout. When no answer came, he panicked, his voice getting a little squeaky, as he shakes Ayumi’s body awake, “Hey, hey wake up! Please don’t die or mom and dad will kill me!” Such love. He was literally pleading as Ayumi started to cough out the water she accidentally drank when the sphere encloses around her. Her eyes flew open as she threw a punch straight into his chest before scrambling to her feet and ran away. Once she was a good 5 meters away from him, she dropped to her knees and turned around to look at him, slightly out of breath. Takeshi heaved a sigh of relief and chuckled, grabbing his katana and sheathing it, before standing up. A few meters away, Ayumi stood up, her hands forming a few handseals before taking out a few shuriken and kunai, Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu. She brought her free hand up to her mouth and start to dispel a fireball towards Takeshi. As the first fireball travels towards him, she threw in a few of her shuriken into the next fireball and spat it out towards him. She them move to the side, threw in a few kunai into the next fireball and dispersed it out of her mouth towards him. She them move again to the right, spat another fireball out and moved to her left before dispersing another 2 in a row.

Takeshi dodged most of it. He looked at the end of his coat which was got burned when he tried to dodge the fourth fireball. He didn’t seem to be fooled by the kunai and shuriken hidden in 2 of the fireballs. Well experience above all, people say. Takeshi formed 2 handseals before swinging his arm in the direction of the pond nearby. He then directed his arm towards her and the water shaped themselves into needles and sped towards her. They were only a meter away from her so it won’t be long before they reach her if she doesn’t start running. Just as she was about to run, she could feel something sharp pierce through the skin of her right bicep and before she knew it, a few more of the needles pierced through her skin. She could feel her blood slowly trickle down her skin, tinting her white shirt with a rich and bright red color. She fell down to her knees as the pain travels throughout her upper body where most of the needles are. She turned around as she heard the sound of water and her eyes dilated with horror as another wave of the water needles swarmed towards her again, piercing her delicate skin, doubling the amount of pain. She was on all fours as she started to concentrate her chakra straight towards the wound on her back. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself up despite the pain getting more acute every time she moves, and made a dash for her life.

Ayumi ran across the terrain stretched in front of her, as wave after wave of needles came rushing towards her, itching to pierce through that delicate skin of hers. She stumbled to her feet as a number of needles grazed her skin. She couldn’t bear the pain anymore. She was basically turning into a porcupine considering the number of needles that were stuck on her back and not just any porcupine, more like a red porcupine to be more precise, taking into account the amount of blood she lost just by looking at her red-tainted shirt. Once again, she concentrated her chakra towards the new wound on her back and scanned the terrain stretched in front of her. She made sure to keep on concentrating chakra towards her wound although it was fully healed just in case Takeshi send another wave of those (stupid) needles towards her. There must be a way. I need to fi- Her pupils dilated as the same (damned) needles pierce through her skin followed by a surge of pain that traveled down her body, sending shivers down her spine. Her body slumped forward, hitting the ground underneath her. Her half-lidded eyes was bleak, absent from any kind of emotions and warmth. I don’t feel anything… No happiness, no sadness.. no regret.. no.. nothing… She chuckled and looked at her blood-smeared hand. She continues to channel her chakra towards her back, hoping the wound will close up. Am I dying? Am I really dying?! She turned around and faced the sky. She could see Takeshi watching her from the corner of her eyes. She couldn’t see his expression very well but who cares. She smiled towards the sky. Dying… should I feel happy or should I feel sad..? She took a deep breath and closes her eyes.

A few seconds later, she could hear someone yelling right beside her right left. She couldn’t make out the words, but it was getting on her nerves as the owner of the voice shook her body wildly, still screeching. Ayumi abruptly opened her eyes, revealing a pair of cold, dark orbs. She pulled her right arm back and punched his chest, shoving him aside. She grunted and sat up, scowling before shoving him aside again. She hauled herself up and dragged herself away from him, but fell on her knees instead after taking a few steps. She mumbled to herself and decided to crawl instead of walking. “Let’s go home!” Takeshi shouted at her. No. She hauled herself up and turned around, her eyes bleak and distant. Her breathing was shallow as she performed a few handseals; Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu. She brought her left hand up to her mouth and dispel 2 fireballs towards Takeshi, one after another and ran off to her right side, dispelling another 2 towards her brother.  She then jumped up in the air and dispel another 2, concentrating on the top of his head. After dispelling the last 2 fireballs, she landed on the ground softly.

Takeshi sighed, clumsily avoiding all of the fireballs, burning the end of his coat again, cursing quite loudly. “Let’s go home!” He shouted at her, looking a bit worn out. “I’m tired and it’s already late. Let’s just go home, okay?” His tone a bit leading. Ayumi looked at him from a distance. No. If you’re tired, I’m even more tired. Actually no, I’m exhausted, you idiot. But I’m not going home. “Why don’t you go home first… I’ll come home later.” She shouted back and walked towards a nearby tree. Just as she neared the tree, she suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned around as she heard a thump only to find that Takeshi has landed his butt on the ground. It was dark, but she could still make out his still silhouette. She took a deep breath and look at the tree in front of her, starting to channel what was left of her chakra into her limbs.

She took a deep breath and slammed her right fist into the bark of the tree. She then pulled it back and slammed her left fist at the exact same spot. This was then followed by a kick from her left leg towards the left side of the tree. To finish it off, her right leg would then come up and kick the right side of the tree. She continued doing this routine, punching and kicking harder and harder as time goes on. This routine seem to have become part of her training regime. She would always start off and end her training sessions with routine. After ten minutes of hitting the tree, she stopped, breathing heavily. Honestly, she was tired. No, actually she was worn out to her bones. Her head hurt and her hands are numb, especially her knuckles, which were a bit swollen. Her shirt was smeared with blood and her legs felt like jelly. Her right fist clenched as she punched the tree back again, her breathing shallow. But.. I need to get going. I need to get stronger. I recently got promoted to Jounin… I am happy.. but that also mean I have to get stronger.. She took a deep breath and punched the tree again with her left fist, wincing at the pain that traveled up her arm. Her half-lidded eyes turned to look at her brother, who was still sitting a few meters away from; sitting so still, it was as if it was a human-shaped stone or a puppet instead of.. an actual human. “Takes-“ And the world turned black and she was falling.

A few minutes later, she opened her eyes and grunted, only to find that she was being piggybacked by Takeshi. “Let’s go home.” He muttered as he neared their house. As he put her down, Ayumi ran up the stairs and burst into her room, setting the door, slumping against the door. Phew.. she didn't see me, right? She glanced at the mirror beside her and her eyes flew open, “Jesus god! I look terrible. Why do I look so horrible today?” She muttered to herself as a familiar voice rang in her ears, telling her to head towards the kitchen immediately. Dammit.

TWC: 10253
- Will of Fire (2000/2000)
- Yin Healing Wound Destruction (4000/4000)
- Wind element (4000/4000)