A Sapling in the Forest (Private, Seth & Taro)

Taro’s first night back in the leaf village had been a little less than satisfactory. After leaving the noodle bar he had wandered around the entertainment district, but only as a spectator of others happiness and glee as he did not have the ryo to pay for anything. After getting some weird looks from the people he was watching Taro wandered onward keeping a keen eye out for any place to sleep for the night, but each and every inn he walked by had a “no vacancy” sign hanging on its door. Under the midnight moon Taro gave up his search. Asking for directions to the training grounds Taro made his way to the training grounds. Upon getting there he spied a tree that would support his weight. The tree branch would serve as his bed for the night. Closing his eyes he quickly slipped into the netherworld of dreams nestled in the arms of a tree.

A light breeze blew over the training ground as the early morning sun lit the scene. Taro still remained cradled in a tree that lined the small circular clearing of about thirty meters in diameter. On the side of the circle opposite of Taro ran a small river that bubbled along with a slow current. The tree Taro had been sleeping in had held his weight over night and held him high enough off the ground so as to avoid the morning dew. The singing of a small bird finally awakened Taro his eyes were half open as he waited for Seth. Taro planned to assess Seth’s skills though not push him too far; after all he still wanted Seth to learn something. All that remained now was for Seth to arrive. Taro did not really know when Seth would show up as he had been fairly vague when he left Ichiraku on when to meet. So to pass the time he whistled along with the birds.

Seth woke in his bed looking at the clock it was morning, he smiled he knew where he needed to go and was ready to start he training as a true Senju. He rolled out of bed and began walking down the stairs he saw his fathers old room along with his headband and ninja armor. Seth smiled thinking to himself "One day I will wear that armor." He continued on seeing what was in his fridge, Grabbing a quick banana and leaving. His mother and brother were still asleep. Seth walked through the streets towards the training fields, after several minutes Seth arrived he waited a moment before hearing birds whistling with someone Seth saw no one in the area but when he realized the whistle was coming from above he looked up and waited to see who the mysterious whistler was.

Taro had noticed Seth's arrival, but did not feel inclined to come down just yet instead he finished his tune with the birds. A couple minutes later he jumped down from the tree. His landing was a little less than perfect as he fell a little harder on his right leg than he would have liked, but he felt that he had been fairly graceful. Now standing in front of Seth Taro racked his brains for how to begin. He had been through the Jounin exams and scored rather well on instruction part, but in the moment all that knowledge drained out of him. “Good morning, I guess we will start out with an obvious question: do you know any of the three basic jutsu needed to pass the genin exams?” Taro figured this was probably the best place to start seeing as he did not know the extent of Seth’s skill as a shinobi.

Seth waited a while for the man whistling who he had discovered was Taro after a few moments to finish his duet with the birds, When he was done Taro landed in front of Seth. Seth listened to the questions from the Taro and responded accordingly "Yes, Taro Sensei I know about all three just I haven't perfected them all yet because, what I mean by that is for example the body flicker I can move 4 inches thats it." Seth then waited for the man he was now calling his sensei, Seth had barely known him but could tell that he was going to be a great sensei.

Taro merely nodded. He remained silent for a second as he thought of a way to teach Seth all these jutsu quickly and creatively. “Ok, how about this? Come at me with everything you have. I will not attack you. I will only dodge and use the three most basic jutsu: transformation, clone and substitution. That way you will be able to see the use of the jutsus in action and get some fighting experience. Sound good? I am ready whenever you are.” Taro then placed his hands in his pockets and waited for Seth. He in no way wanted or planned to hurt Seth though it would be interesting to see how the young student came at him.

Seth listened to his sensei closely and when the words ended and Taro sensei's hands entered his pockets Seth jumped back to give them a little space between them, Seth lifted his right hand in front of him making a fist then extending his index and middle finger keeping them together. He then raised his left hand balling it into a fist and moving it behind him, With this he crouched and slid his left foot back. Seth had now evoked in the Senju fighting style, He reached up with his left hand grabbing the blade he kept on his back and then watched as his sensei stood there. He didn't want to disappoint Taro so Seth began sprinting at Tar his sword drawn in his left hand, Seth slid his right hand down grabbing 4 shuriken in between his fingers. As he was running he jumped and spun upside down facing what would be Taro's back unless he turned around in time, He would then flick his wrist sending two of the shuriken at Taro's neck and left kidney. Seth would then land against the tree slide down the side nice and slow his next move already planned out.

Taro remained under the tree he had jumped down from earlier. He was curious to see what Seth would do. He watched as Seth jumped back putting a space a little over two meters between them. At the same time Seth took what looked like a fighting stance Taro bent his legs slightly and tensed his muscles in preparation for a dive: his evasion technique would be simple yet hopefully effective. Once Seth started sprinting towards him Taro was as ready as he would ever be. Watching each and every movement Seth made Taro would take his chance to jump to the right just as Seth left the ground for his jump. Taro’s jump brought him into the clearing of the training ground with his back facing the tree that he had slept in and just out of range of the Shuriken , that unbeknownst to Taro, had been thrown at him. Using the momentum from the jump Taro ran at full speed out into the middle of the field, as he ran he wove three hand seals. The sequence of hand seals was done by the time he was a quarter of the way to the center of the clearing, which caused one illusionary clone to appear on either side of Taro.

Once the clones had been created Taro and his clones took a zig zagging route to the center of the clearing continuing to move at Taro’s maximum speed in hopes of Seth’s eyes not being able to follow, which image was an illusion and which was real. While running Taro took a mental note of three human sized training logs that lay near the river-they would be of use later. Once Taro made it to the center, assuming Seth had not tried any other attacks, he would turn around in one quick graceful movement and square off against Seth. Now three images of Taro would be standing in opposition to Seth spread out in a horizontal line with about half a meter between each with the real Taro in the middle flanked by the two clones. Taro had not made it very hard for Seth to figure out, which two were clones and which one was real as the morning sun had just peaked over the trees and shone down on the illusionary clones and Taro. All that remained to be seen was if Seth would catch onto the subtle hint Taro had given him and how he would act on it.

Seth watched Taro as he formed the clones and tried to confuse Seth, Seth pushed off the tree's trunk his sword following behind him. Seth then slid to a stop as Taro stop, He watched all the clones and Taro standing there. Seth whipped his last two shuriken at the Taros standing on the outside and charged the Taro standing in the middle with his sword at a perfect angle to drag up Taros stomach.

Taro was pleased that he had been able to execute all his moves perfectly. Once he had turned around to face Seth he saw that he had slid down from a tree and was now running, sword in hand, at the real Taro. Taro did not pay the shurikens, that Seth angled at the two clones, any mind, as they would simply go straight through the two illusionary clones and would disperse them (the clones) like ghosts in the wind. Meanwhile the real Taro had formulated an interesting plan to evade Seth for the second time and showcase another academy level jutsu. He recalled the three logs he had seen by the riverside upon running to the center of the field-the perfect size for the substitution technique. Completing the needed hand signs as Seth neared striking distance Taro was able to make it a safe distance away with his raw speed so he stood by the river. In his place where he used to be, where Seth was aiming with his sword, would be a nice human sized log though through the power of the substitution jutsu it would still look like Taro until Seth’s attack landed at which point the image of Taro would disappear and in its place would be a log. The real Taro watched to see the reaction of the young student to the possibility of scoring a hit on his sensei.

Seth watched as he realized his prediction was right, He had pin pointed the location of his real teacher. Seth saw as his blade sliced Taro sensei in half at the stomach, before the parts exploded and returned to logs Seth knew it was to easy and spun around seeing the real Taro waiting, That's when he charged at his Sensei his eyes had a piercing look in them as he moved quickly at Taro his blade drawn in his hand gripped tightly.