Twin Towers (Training, Shinji, NK, ask of invite)

The day was bright and warm, not a single cloud in the sky. The ground was slightly shaking as shinobi academy's doors blew open and unstoppable stream of students came rushing out. Today's lessons were over and different thoughts about that could be collected from all the minds now released. So would instantly forget about the troubles and suffering behind them, other would remember it with despair knowing they would have to come back here tomorrow, some would just scream in their minds "NO MORE!!" and other's just thing about their own business they could do now that they're free. Yozora probably could be included in the last group, the rest of the day was free but she would no go picking flowers with her friend (which she did not have), go play with other kids, go help her parents (didn't have those either), or something like that. No she would go train, train as hard as she could before the next session of time-waste. That's right, she officially decided to call academy a "time-waste". Today they had three lessons and only one of them wasn't a complete waste of time, although she could have done it just as easily back home and much more efficiently, it was shuriken training. The other two lessons were something about recognizing herbs and shinobi etiquette, whatever that means. One by one the kids went their own ways and eventually Yozora was walking alone. First she would come home, grab something to eat and her training stuff like bokkens. She'd also take her tanto and her katana this time, there was a sword drawing technique she got interested in and would like to practice more.

The girl was now walking to the training towers. There were other places she could train, like academy grounds, plains etc. But only in the towers were the equipment and also nobody would bother her on purpose like in the academy grounds, and there were people close by in case something was to happen, unlike the plains. Yozora entered one of the towers and made her way to the room she would always train in. It has pretty much become her personal training room, as people would rarely enter it, she'd always train there alone. Hopefully this was not such a day...

384 w.

Today was a rare day indeed: Shinji had actually slept the previous night-normally he spent the nights wide awake and the days sleeping, but today was different. As a consequence of this he had spent the majority of the morning helping Gorro, his surrogate father since he was adopted from a orphanage at the age of seven, in the forge. It had not been an overly busy day at forge so Gorro let Shinji go at lunch time. Rather bored and not really knowing what to do with himself Shinji stopped by the a local ramen shop and slurped down a quick lunch. Afterwards Shinji wandered home only to find himself faced with more boredom-so much for the life of a shinobi being exciting. There had been a severe shortage in the mission quota of Tengakure and as such Shinji had not been called on to perform any menial tasks for a while. However as he thought on it these supposedly menial tasks had kept his mind occupied at least for a while. Now he was left to sit at his desk for another half an hour simply staring at the blueprints of discarded projects he had been working on and forgotten about or lost interest in.

Finally getting fed up with his situation Shinji decided that it would be a good time to go train-after all it was not like he had anything better to do. Before leaving his house Shinji grabbed Makaze, a few shuriken, and pulled on what looked like a white lab coat. Stepping out into the streets he doubled back into the house as he had forgotten a piece of vital equipment: his grieve edges. Affixing them to his feet Shinji made his way through the bustling streets of Tengakure. On the way to the training tower he did get a few odd looks from people eyeing the short yet sharp black blade of Makaze that hung at his waist and the shining blades adorning his feet that clinked every so often on the uneven ground, but Shinji disregarded them-they clearly did not see many shinobi fully equipped for battle or in this case a rigorous training regime. Making it to the training tower at last, Shinji checked in with the jounin supervisor and walked to the main elevator that led to the upper levels of the tower.

While in the steam powered elevator Shinji could hear the clang of swords and the flinging of jutsu. It was an odd sound to Shinji and seemed out of place like a disjointed dream. To any normal person the noise of people training while in the designated training tower would sound normal, if not mundane, but Shinji never came to train in broad daylight like today. In fact this was the first time he had had a training session during the day in a good half a year or so-normally he trained at night when there was a very small amount of people present if any at all. His reasons for training at night was simple: it was more peaceful and a lot harder to get distracted by the constant rabble that pervaded the tower in daylight. Even now Shinji longed for the peace and quiet of the night, but it seemed that he would have to compromise today and find a relatively secluded room where he could train.

Arriving on the third floor Shinji stepped out of the elevator and walked down the long hall that was spread before him. Poking his head in each room Shinji found each occupied by an irksome amount of trainees and babbling bafoons. Starting to lose hope he arrived at the last room in the hall way and poked his head in only to see one lone, what looked like to him, academy student. One phrase floated through his head: meh good enough. Stepping into the room Shinji figured he would announce himself with a rather jovial yet mature tone to the student who looked to be about eight or so years his junior: "Hey kid, I hope you dont mind if I train in here as well. If you have any questions or complaints the name is Shinji Uzumaki." Throwing his glance over the student again Shinji noticed, or rather re-noticed, the blue hue of the girl's hair who now stood in front of him by about four meters or so-it was an odd hair color, but then again Shinji knew he could be no real judge of hair seeing as his hair sat like a unruly mane upon his head. Luckily this room was on the larger size, which would allow for plenty of room for the two train or if it just so happened to spar. The only thing Shinji knew for sure was that he would not be the one to ask the young student to spar him; he would feel like somewhat of a bully asking a academy student to spar a chuunin, but if the student asked he would be more than willing. Waiting for a response from the student Shinji stood in the door way with a rather half cocked smile on his face that almost befit amusement.

{WC: 865}

{Ah, I guess this won't be much of a challenge to you, after all I entered with everything at 5, except speed of 20... can't even do substitution in this topic}

Yozora left her katana on the ground in a corner, together with her ninjato. First things first - warm up. After doing a sequence of various physical exercises she would take the wooden bokken and stand in front of a training dummy. Readying herself for her barrage the girl closed her eyes. This time she would destroy the dummy completely, not just stop half way through. When she opened her eyes again she felt something different. Her crimson eyes turned right where she saw a young man standing at the doorway. He wore a white coat and had bright brown, close to blonde hair. From the looks of it he was at least Chuunin ranked. The man would speak. "Hey kid, I hope you dont mind if I train in here as well. If you have any questions or complaints the name is Shinji Uzumaki." Yozora made a nod. "Sure thing. I'm Yozora Shinkou, pleased to meet you..." She would look back at her dummy. An idea appeared in her head. It was a strange one, never had happened before. Maybe it was worth a shot. She would turn at him again, still holding her wooden training sword. "Acutally... would you mind if I suggested we train together? I mean spar each other." This was a big opportunity. Training alone is good, but having a chance to fight someone who was obviously superior is even better, especially if they would not kill you. Yozora smiled awaiting his answer.

248 (632) w.

[Don't worry I will have Shinji limit his speed and strength a bit so that it allows us both time to rack up a nice word count and have a spar more dependent on skill than stats.]

Shinji was rather shocked though his face did not show it-the kid definitely had spirit and some guts to match. The only noticeable thing that change on Shinji's face was that the smile that had graced it before was now gone and replaced with a more serious look as he responded to the girl: "Nice to meet you as well....And yeah, sure a spar sounds good. Why not? However, lets lay down some ground rules. For one neither you nor I can use chakra based jutsu as I do not feel too keen on destroying this nice room. And second, naturally, there will be no fatal wounding. If you have any objections or additions speak up now while I get ready."

Shinji walked into the room and took a seat on a one of the benches that lined the room. Reaching down to his feet he pulled off his grieve edges-he did not have a full mastery over them just yet and did not want to harm Yozora by accident. Furthermore he made the moral decision to not simply out speed the young student as it would be pointless to end the spar quickly. After all a spar was a time to safely practice one's skills, so as such he chose to merely match the girls speed. With the grieve edges now removed from his feet Shinji placed them under the bench and slowly walked to the center of the room.

Squaring off against Yozora from a healthy distance of about five meters Shinji took notice of the girl's blade. It seemed that this would be a battle of blades. Luckily Shinji had just the blade for the job. Reaching down for the blade that hung on his waist. He wrapped his right hand around the perfectly made handle of Makaze and quickly drew it up close to his body in a backhanded grip such that the "butt" of the blade was about a foot from the center of his chest while the blade of the blade pointed out at the girl. To complete his stance Shinji bent his legs a bit to give himself a lower center of gravity from which he could either attack or defend with ease. He could feel the adrenaline as he spoke out again in rather icy voice: "Now, if you are ready. Let us begin." Shinji felt that he was ready for just about anything now. All that remained was for the girl to make the first move: he never liked making the first move-it was a lot easier to wait for an opponent to mess up.

{Total WC: 1300}

After hearing her suggestion Shinji's smile changed into a more serious look. "Nice to meet you as well....And yeah, sure a spar sounds good. Why not? However, lets lay down some ground rules. For one neither you nor I can use chakra based jutsu as I do not feel too keen on destroying this nice room. And second, naturally, there will be no fatal wounding. If you have any objections or additions speak up now while I get ready." Yozora thought about that for a moment. Surely, agreeing to the second condition was obvious, while the first one seamed fair too. After all, she probably could not even pull off a ninjutsu technique in a middle of the fight and having him from destroying the whole room was not that bad either. She made a nod acknowledging his stipulations. Then she would walk up to her stuff and take her katana with the ninjato, while leaving the wooden bokken. With this as real as it is going to get she would need a real weapon.

Yozora returned to the middle of her side of the room. She observed the man named Shinji as he was removing some sort of dangerously looking equipment. The girl herself was wearing light, she had put her katana on her back with the hilt on her right side and her ninjato around the back of her waist with hilt on the left side. When her opponent was done, he came same distance in front of her. After noticing her equip her blades he probably assumed it would not be a hand to hand match and drew out his own blade, which looked like a combat knife of a sort. He took his stance, which was quite unique, bending his knees slightly and putting the dagger on his chest, holding it backwards and pointing it at the girl. Yozora decided to approach him carefully instead of a sudden burst of attacks. Her right hand rose up grabbing katana's hilt. She would observe him and learn from him. She wished the fight would not be a short one. While assuming her stance the girl put her blade above her head, holding it with both hands. It was a standard position in sword fighting, it was also a very effective one as no matter what kind of attack the opponent makes her blade would always come straight for their head. There were but a few tricks that could counter it and she wanted to see how Shinji would deal with it, especially with a knife. After a moment she understood how. He would not attack first. Feeling a little dumb, which was indicated by a faint blush by the way, she would think of another tactic. How would she approach him? Analyzing his stance she decided to force him use his weapon to make an opening for her own attack. Suddenly she would launch herself at him while lowering her blade and wielding it only in right hand. While on the move she would quickly reach into her ninja pouch and immediately throw a single kunai aimed at his right shoulder. If he was to block it there would be just right amount of time for her to attack him from the other side swinging her katana.

548 (1180) w.
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1x Kunai thrown.
Using regular Katana at 20 speed.

Despite Shinji making his own moral vow to not physically out speed the girl he could not hold back his mind as it raced on looking to the spar ahead. He took in each action and ran it through his head with startling efficiency. However both him and the girl seemed to have already reached a deadlock owing to the fact that neither of them made a move for a while. In this short while Shinji sized Yozora up real quick. He would need to find a way to avoid that sword as it would be a pain having to clash with it directly even if Yozora was only a academy student-anyone could be dangerous so it was better to be cautious. Then after another second it all clicked: he had concocted a perfect plan-all that remained was to execute it and of course improvise on it.

Finally after a rather awkward amount of time the girl blushed a bit and it seemed the fight had truly begun as she started running at Shinji. A wry smile appeared on Shinji's face as Yozora drew a kunai knife and threw it. Had she thrown more than one he would have no doubt been obliged to to use his weapon to block one or two kunai, thus leaving him vulnerable, but as it were all Shinji did was sidestep to the left a short way, which played perfectly with his plan and left the kunai to fly harmlessly through the space he once occupied. In the same step to the left that would have thwarted the kunai knife attempt Shinji held his guard up as Yozora would have no doubt already crossed the short distance between them. The step to the left would also have placed Shinji squarely in front of Yozora; the perfect spot to hold especially for his current plan.

Assuming Yozora continued with her attack Shinji would step into her slash with Makaze (the combat knife) with the intent to block Yozora's blade with the flat of Makaze's blade. However this would not be a normal block as Shinji would attempt to block Yozora's blade such that Makaze hit Yozora's sword a few inches up from the hilt. This type of blocking, aside from defending Shinji from a nasty gash, would allow him to fight on his own terms-in a close combat situation, which would no doubt make it harder for Yozora to swing her much longer sword without getting caught off guard by Shinji's swift knife attacks. Furthermore this type of blocking would permit Shinji to exert himself a little less as he would not have to fight against all the leverage that Yozora would no doubt had he blocked further up her blade. To complete his attack, assuming the two blades met, Shinji would, at the same instant utilizing his relatively longer arm length, swing his free left hand in a tightly balled fist for Yozora's left shoulder-seeing as her blade, at that moment, was probably locked with Shinji's she would, in all likelihood, be unable to ward off the incoming fist with her sword, thus precluding any foreseeable damage to Shinji should he somehow botch his attack. This punch was not moving at Shinji's full speed (for the sake of reason lets say a speed of 17) nor was it thrown with his full strength so Yozora would have no problem dodging or striking back. However, assuming all went as planned and the punch were to land then it would at most hurt a bit and maybe throw Yozora off balance, but otherwise that was about it-this was an attack to test Yozora. This attack would test Yozora's reaction to adversity and like any good scientist Shinji wanted to gather data before he made any hasty moves.

{WC: 1931}

( Can I join. )

{Not really, sorry. Your character is in Hidden Sand - Sunagakure. You need to travel here first. And then ask to join via PM instead of posting here.}

Yozora made a mistake. The kunai and the attack were not timed correctly, which allowed Shinji to simply step aside from the kunai and then block her blade, when the intention was to make both attacks happen at the same time. It was a minor error and the girl did not have any time to be depressed about it. She was in the middle of her attack. No time to think strategies either, I'm afraid. Her crimson eyes set on his movements would watch as her opponent avoided the throw and simply put his knife in her blade's way. And even that 'simple' act was done remarkably, the knife hitting lower part of the blade, closer to the hilt pretty much prevented any possible use of the weapon. On top of that if she actually tried to make another swing he'd probably stab her before she could even raise her blade. All this being very nicely done Shinji was not finished, nor was she. This was merely the initial strike and she awaited his counter attack to respond accordingly. The counter attack was not all the impressive - it was a simple punch from his left hand aimed to her left upper body, probably her shoulder. She did not really expect him to aim there, seeing as she was holding her blade with her right hand it would be more natural to attack the arm that was holding the blade. And that's what she shall do. The punch was quite easily avoidable. The girl slightly leaned to the right letting her left hand on her Ninjato's hilt. The weapon was handing on the left side around her waist. It would be a bit of a wide swing, couldn't help it. But the speed would probably be higher than that of her katana swing. Right after letting her hand touch the hilt she would grab it backwards and pull from the sheath swinging her counter attack at the same time. The attack was obviously aimed at his right wrist - the hand that was holding his weapon. At such a close range nothing was certain, but ware it go unavoided she would probably stop her blade before it cut him.

369 (1549) w.
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Used Iai: [Ichigeki] with Heaven's Sorrow Ninjato at speed (20)*1.25+2=27

[Sorry if this post seems kind of off. I'm running on like an hour or so of sleep and my brain is dead. If anything needs clarifying or flat out makes no sense just PM me -_-]

Shinji was not surprised in the least when Yozora was able to dodge his punch with a slight leaning of the body-his attack had not been the fastest nor the strongest. In time with Yozora's leaning Shinji instinctively took advantage of the brief change in momentum with a movement of his own, which he was able to excute due to the low movement speed and overall force that his punch had-if it had been faster or stronger then Shinji would without a doubt be forced to move with his momentum, but as it were he was able move from one attack to another rather quickly. He swiftly pivoted on his right foot and swung his body mass to the right such that he now stood to the left of Yozora and were he to look straight ahead he would see the wall of the room that Yozora probably saw were she to look straight ahead. Of course in this turning the blade of Makaze would no doubt become unlocked from Yozora's blade in the simple nature of the turn, thus, in all likelihood, sending Yozora's blade forward due to the fact that there was now no force opposing her blade as there once was only mere seconds ago. Furthermore this movement would probably preclude or at the very least interrupt or hinder an attack from Yozora's left hand as she was bound to jolt forward to some extent, which may very well may throw her off balance and send an attack made on SHinji with her left hand into the open space that he once occupied.

It was at this juncture that Shinji made a split second decision: he now stood next to an opponent who was probably in the most vulnerable position possible should everything work perfectly, so should he take advantage of it and press the attack or continue on with the spar by allowing Yozora to simply fall forward with nothing, but maybe a hurt pride. He had a very strong longing to push the attack and finish this spar then and there, but on the other hand he recalled that this was only a spar and he was facing a academy student. Having taken too long to decide Shinji was forced to chose the latter option of not attacking, but he remaining in an alert and ready state.

Assuming all went as planned SHinji allowed Yozora time to recover herself while he started talking in a meandering and effortless tone that bordered on patronizing: "Your rushing into attacks too quickly. Give yourself time to think of a strategy. Otherwise you are battling blind." Shinji assumed that the girl would know that he very well could have pressed the attack were this a real fight and probably done some real damage, so he did not bother to mention it, thus leaving it as a given fact. While he talked he still held Makaze firmly should Yozora try any other kind of attack, because now the two combatants would have some space in between them, which would, ironically, give Yozora and her longer blades an edge should she chose to press her attack again.

{WC: 2455}

{Brain dead = no good. Better rest, I can wait. The post was clear more or less - you stepped aside to my left, though if you were to do that you would probably by in the way of my Ninjato slash as it came from your right, but I'll let it slide since I've already wrote this reply anyway...}

It was a clever move. Her eyes followed him like in slow motion, as he stepped aside, to her left and there was nothing much she could do about it as he inertia pulled her forward when the force of resistance against her katana disappeared and her ninjato strike did not reach anything. She was extremely vulnerable at that moment, having both of her hands in front of her she was wide open to any attack from the rear. Still having her eyes locked on her opponent Yozora lunged forward following her inertia and making a roll on the ground. During this movement she'd swiftly sheathe her Ninjato again and reach of her second kunai. As the world was spinning vertically around her, but her eyes still locked on him she noticed Shinji not making any attacks, when he easily could. This made her cancel her intended throw which should have prevented him from attacking her while she was rolling.

Then after she got up on her feet again, now standing a fair distance from each other, she did not rush an attack, as Shinji began to speak. "You're rushing into attacks too quickly. Give yourself time to think of a strategy. Otherwise you are battling blind." It was clear he had her in a disadvantageous position back there and chose not to attack. In her mind Yozora gave him some points. With a bit relaxed expression she made a nod to his notice and spoke. "I understand. May we try this again?" The girl realized she needed to learn to use her brain on a fly, during combat even as close quarters as this. She was used to beating the crap out of people using her instincts and reflexes alone - whatever she her in her so called muscle memory would manifest in the combat with a slight improvisation on the finishers. But this was different, standard attack and approaches no longer work. Hopefully she can learn to think in a fight and then maybe even bring it to near reflex level. Yozora assumed her stance again, wielding her katana with both hands, its hilt next to her face tip pointed up. The girl was fairly ready to continue. "How about you attack this time?..."

376 (1925) w.