Beginning the Journey (Vretyel,Navi and Ayama ONLY

Navi stood leaning against the tree with his hands in his pockets, and reading his book, a bored look on his face. As always, fire nation squad meetings would be held on the country borders. For efficiency purposes, the squad was divided equally into two basic teams. One ninja from the Leaf and one from the Sand.

As always Navi wore his standard Jounin attire, lazily flipping through the pages of his book and waiting for the recruits as the sun began to rise.

This time he was waiting on Vretyel, a peculiar ninja of lightning nature that specialized in taijutsu with a bowstaff. Navi knew very little about him, but hadn't been particularly impressed (not that he was impressed by any of them). Hopefully he would have more to show off this time.

Vretyel's sand ninja counterpart was Ayama, a girl Navi had begun to know personally in the past. Not that Navi planned on letting anyone know about his secret training sessions with her, but it meant that he already had inside knowledge about her. She specialized in kenjutsu with an impressive control of her lightning nature, making this team seem one sided already.

Navi had one more test to administer before he would declare this team battle/mission ready, and he waited patiently in the shade of a tree for his students to arrive.

Vretyel was ready for his first mission as a member of this new fire nation team. As he trekked to the point where he was tasked to meet him and his other partner Vretyel recalled the past failures he had when he first met the team. He was the first one to attack Navi and he had, in his opinion, the worst technique of the entire group. Now that he had trained some more, having developed his new Bo Staff, Crimson V.2. along with his new lightning gloves, he was determined to prove that he was the best. He was angry with himself for being so foolish. He was not going to be a failure like he was last time and would do anything to prove it.

Vretyel was also curious to find out which one of the other three fire or sand Genin would accompany him and Navi on this mission. He would be fine with either one of them but in secret the one he really wanted partner with was Ayama, the Kenjutsu specialist who charged her sword with lighting chakra similar to Vretyel's own charging of his Bo Staff. He realized that she would be deadly with her sword in hand which was a great asset when on missions, but also wanted to see any other techniques she may wield. If Ayama was to be his partner, he also (in secret) wanted Navi to have two of them spar before the mission, to prove his superiority over Lightning and how much he had grown in comparison to the other lighting genin.

When Vretyel reached the tree, he found at the always uninterested Navi reading that stupid book, and wanted to say something to him, something about the movement of clouds and the rain, but he felt best he should keep it to himself. With his gloves on and Crimson in hand he stood right next to navi, waiting for his partner to arrive, how was it Navi was always here so fast?

Ayama was a ninja of the sand, a killer, a shadow in the night. With one hand behind her back she could easily kill normal fighters with a single kunai. She could channel lightning and summon a demonic looking cat to fight for her. She was a ninja of the sand.

And currently she was running late.

“Damn you idiot, why did you hide the damn thing,” she snarled irritably to the presence that lived in the back of her mind. It only chuckled, enjoying her annoyance with an unusual amount of glee. Releasing a very catlike hiss of frustration she continued her run, speeding over dunes of sand and towards the meeting place. Soon sand mixed with grass and small clumps of trees dotted the landscape. She picked up the pace a bit and arrived in a cloud of dust.

“Sorry,” she gasped , taking deep measured breaths, “a friend, decided a good prank would be to hide my sword.” she placed extra emphasis on the word friend, surreptitiously shooting Navi a look. Hisoka cackled in the back of her mind, the damn shadow cat had taken a liking to hiding her sword when she didn’t let him out every day. It was extremely inconsiderate.

Straightening her shirt and tugging her elbow length black glove up she smiled at her teammates.

“So whats up sensei?” she asked curiously.

Navi closed his book in recognition of both Genin having finally arrived. Slipping the book into his back pocket, Navi looked up lazily, nodding at each of them.

“So whats up sensei?” she asked curiously.

Navi looked over at her and responded: "Not much, thanks for asking.....you" as if pretending to forget her name. The charade was played off flawlessly and not even a flicker of emotion would make his act unconvincing.

Navi moved on without skipping a beat, shifting his gaze to Vretyel. "The two of you will be performing missions together under my command, so I figured it would be best for the two of you to get to know eachother."

Navi smiled as he said the next few words, still not shifting his position from under the tree and instead crossing his arms. "The two of you are to spar against eachother as a final test to determine whether or not you are battle ready. If you are unimpressive, then your headband will immediately be confiscated and you will both be sent back to the academy."

"No pressure though," Navi said with a yawn, "just think of it as a way of getting to see the techniques of the partner you'll be working with. I'm sure you're both just suuuuper talented and you'll each do just fine." Navi said the last part with an intentional amount of doubt and sarcas, in his voice, then took out a book and began reading as if he already lost interest in the two of them.

"You may begin."

“Sorry,” she gasped , taking deep measured breaths, “a friend, decided a good prank would be to hide my sword.” she placed extra emphasis on the word friend, surreptitiously shooting Navi a look. Hisoka cackled in the back of her mind, the damn shadow cat had taken a liking to hiding her sword when she didn’t let him out every day. It was extremely inconsiderate.

Wow, Vretyel thought, I didn't know that Ayama had friends. And why did she emphasize 'friend' in the sentence, who knows, he was excited that Ayama was going to be his partner.

Navi smiled as he said the next few words, still not shifting his position from under the tree and instead crossing his arms. "The two of you are to spar against eachother as a final test to determine whether or not you are battle ready. If you are unimpressive, then your headband will immediately be confiscated and you will both be sent back to the academy."

"No pressure though," Navi said with a yawn, "just think of it as a way of getting to see the techniques of the partner you'll be working with. I'm sure you're both just suuuuper talented and you'll each do just fine." Navi said the last part with an intentional amount of doubt and sarcas, in his voice, then took out a book and began reading as if he already lost interest in the two of them.

This is what Vretyel was hoping Navi would say, at that instant he planted Crimson on the ground directly in front of him, but maintaining direct eye contact towards Ayama the entire time. He was happy and ready to spar with Ayama, the other lightning genin, and see the power of her lighting chakra compared to his. He knew that he had the strength advantage, but what was going to hurt him was his speed, so he knew that he had to be careful. Also Vretyel noticed something :why was Navi being so nice towards Ayama, he doesn't like people, especially girls, girls who were late because of a Friend. Vretyel sighed at the observation, but now he was pumped. As soon as Navi said that Vretyel and Ayama were going to spar he started passively concentrating his lighting chakra to his hands, so ayama would not see the lighting until only a second before he began his attack. The primary goal of this concentration of course was to charge Crimson V.2

"You may begin."

Immediately after Navi said those words, his concentration of his lightning chakra was complete and less than a second later his gloved hands were in contact with Crimson, and the staff ringed with lighting chakra. His staff, his gloves and the conductors were all charged at 100%. Because of the lightning conductors help it didn't take a lot of chakra to infuse his staff and would remain fused for several minutes. and still had plenty for the rest of his spar. He began sprinting towards Ayama taking out one of his Kunai knifes with his left hand, since he infused both of his hands the kunai knife too would be infused with chakra, although if he needed to he would drop the kunai at a moments notice.

As Vretyel closed the small gap between him an ayama Vretyel aimed his Bo Staff to Ayamas right knee, going from its original position above Vretyels head and sweeping down. If this hit it would end the match quick, as Ayama would be on the ground and paralyzed for enough time for Vretyel to do a finishing blow. If Ayama trying to defend the attack, either by miraculously surpassing him in strength, he would take his Kunai in his left hand and aim a stab to Ayamas left thigh. However, if Ayama tried to counter before he got to that point he made sure to have a kunai in hand and his staff in the most optimal postion above the head to deflect any attack behind him or in front of him.

“Well he certainly isn’t wasting any time,” Hisoka noted offhandedly. Ayama had no time to drawl out a captain obvious to him. Icky blood covered lightning infused staff was currently very important. Squeaking slightly she smoothly back flipped backwards, pushing with her arms to give herself a good four feet of room. Righting herself she grasped her ninjato’s handle and unsheathed the blade, lightning sparking in an ark. The lightning infusion method was one of her favorites, and when Hisoka wasn’t fighting beside her, she could use more chakra on it. Currently she was continually charging the blade, making it so that the crackling aura could be intensified and weakened as needed.

Clasping her blade loosely she began to quickly circle Vretyel, trying to determine a weak point. He was stronger than she was, and was also a lightning user. He had plenty of determination and she doubted he was a hopeless case of suck. One had to have some skills to graduate from the academy.

Deciding she wouldn’t win in a close quarters even hand to hand she decided to try a hit and run strategy.

Darting inwards she swung her blade towards his back, attempting a slice across his shoulder blades before darting back into the circle she was using. She continued this, darting inwards, attacking and retreating again, testing the leaf genin’s defenses. Suddenly she amped it up going for a more frontal attack her blade arching in a fluid crescent a move from her Dance of the crescent moon ability. She aimed for the boy’s right arm, hoping to disable it and render one arm useless in the wielding of his weird Bo staff. Once again after the move she leapt back, but instead of resuming her circle she settled into the first stance of her kenjutsu move Dance of the Crescent Moon

Navi turned the page of his book, the book was boring, but these Genin were even more boring. Navi yawned to himself again before finally deciding to glance up.

As expected the fight had broken up into a staff vs. sword fight, with lightning chakra being the similar theme. After a few moves between the two of them Navi would recognize the Dance of the Crescent Moon. The move would be almost impossible to dodge for Vretyel at his level, making this fight most likely an early win for Ayama.

Navi wouldn't grant either of them a sure victory just yet though, as Vretyel had proven himself to be a much stronger opponent then Ayama despite her clear speed advantage.

With the first impressions out of the way Navi looked back down at his book and continued scanning the pages.

Ah, Vretyel thought, she did not waste any time either, looks like this plan went downhill quickly. Vretyel soon realized what she was planning to do, attack him once and then run back into her little circle around vretyel. Finally, Vreteyl was facing somebody who doesn't completely suck like Primrose or Kochou, neither somebody who completely outclassed him like Navi.

Darting inwards she swung her blade towards his back, attempting a slice across his shoulder blades before darting back into the circle she was using. She continued this, darting inwards, attacking and retreating again, testing the leaf genin’s defenses. .... then (using her Ninjato) used a fluid crescent move from her Dance of the crescent moon ability, once again after the move she leapt back, but instead of resuming her circle she settled into the first stance of her kenjutsu move Dance of the Crescent Moon

Vretyel easily blocked the attacks with Crimson, she was fast but not that fast where he couldn't move his Bo Staff to the location of the attack in time. He realized that if he stayed there for too long it would mean disaster, knowing from his previous encounter with Ayama she knew the Dance of the Cresent Moon ability.

When the Sword Movement came towards Vretyel, Vretyel blocked the attack aimed for his right arm with his Kunai in his right hand. It was easy to block the attack without too much strain, as he would be able to see the attack coming for him and since it was not a full Dance of the Crecent Moon attack she was not using shadow clones. As the attack came in he also attempted a sweep with his staff going from left to right aimed for her right side. She would not be fast enough to hit Vretyel, get the attack blocked, and then leap back to her position in time. Just in case she was able to block this attack Vretyel Conentrated some of his remaining chakra to his feet, increasing his speed while still keeping the Bo Staff Charged.

This is definitely going to be fun, Vretyel thought..

A flurry of choice curse words danced around inside her skull. He was fast as well as strong. She was faster but not by much, not nearly as much as she would prefer to be. Hissing in frustration she spun her sword, knocking his kunai to a less immediately threatening position and moving her blade to block the electrified Bo staff.

He was certainly good, a level close to her own. The match was so even she found herself having a hard time gaining the upper hand. In fact currently he had it. She spread her feet digging in to the dirt as the Bo staff and her blade collided in a crescendo of flashing light. The dirt churned as she dug, straining against him. But it was no use, her arms shook and her own blade came perilously close to her own body. Snarling with frustration she leapt back again, hating herself for retreating. Welp, this wasn’t leaning in her favor. Dialing back the lightning infusion to the point where it was merely a thin barrier protecting the steel of her blade from Vretyel’s own lightning chakra she brought her hands up. Her hands danced through the memorized hand signs and with a deep breath she summoned and focused her chakra.

“Shadow clone jutsu!” she cried and with an poof of smoke a single clone appeared next to her. The technique was still being practiced, and it was still in the wings but with the single shadow clone. Well lets just say her Crescent moon dances ability had just doubled. Ayama and her clone smirked at exactly th same time, synchronizing their spinning blades. Then they both moved into the crescent dance motions, smirks still in place. For a long moment they were still, mirror copies of each other. Then they both moved.

While her clone came from the left and aimed low at Vretyel’s legs Ayama once again came in from the right and aimed high, this time for his ribcage. All it would takes was a touch from either blade and the battle would be over. Fairly quickly too.

Snarling with frustration she leapt back again, hating herself for retreating. Welp, this wasn’t leaning in her favor. Dialing back the lightning infusion to the point where it was merely a thin barrier protecting the steel of her blade from Vretyel’s own lightning chakra she brought her hands up. Her hands danced through the memorized hand signs and with a deep breath she summoned and focused her chakra.

“Shadow clone jutsu!” she cried and with an poof of smoke a single clone appeared next to her. The technique was still being practiced, and it was still in the wings but with the single shadow clone

At this point Vretyel had the upper hand, he was stronger and more powerful than Ayama, but he knew he was running out of time. The clashing of his kunai and his his staff with Ayama's sword coupled with concentrating some of his chakra to his feet had drained most of his chakra. Vretyel realized that he needed to end this quickly otherwise he could end up losing this.

As Ayama was leaping back Vretyel ran in the same direction at the same speed due to the his chakra still being directed to his feet. As soon as she leapt out of the clash he threw his Kunai aiming for her abdomen making it almost impossible to dodge as she is in the air. Still running forward Vretyel then did another sweep with Crimson, this time with both hands, aiming for her right side with and insuring that contact would occur moments before she landed, giving her no time to dodge. Ayama would have to try to block the attack, but with Vretyel's superior strength Ayama would have no chance to block it successfully.

I have you now, Vretyel thought.