Air Drill Practice (Privite, Invite only)

Mezurashii sighed as she rested on a shady branch, she was supposed to be waiting for Itami. She hoped he got the letter, perhaps she should have visited. But she didn't know where he lived, actually... she didn't know anything about his personal life.

Mezurashii sighed, it wasn't her business. If Itami didn't want to tell her then she wouldn't pry, she stretched to relax her muscles as she closed her eyes in a calm manner as she sung quietly.

"Don't lose you way, with each passing day. You've come so far, don't throw it away. Live believing dreams are weaving, wonders are waiting to start. Live you story, faith, hope and glory..." she continued to sing while she waited. This was something her papa sang, sure it was hard to believe a Chuunin would sing a lullaby but he did, and he was good at it.

A small smile played on her lips as she continued to quietly sing, the wind blew gently as though it was dancing to her song. She stayed like this while waiting for her friend and teammate.

Upon receiving a letter from Mezurashii, Itami smiled as he held the note in his hand. He remembered that day in the academy, when he met the girl, already working hard on a new jutsu she has created. He remembered being impressed by how smart she was.
And now he was being invited to train with her, and test one of her new jutsu. He was flattered and happy because he genuinely felt like he had a friend.

He skipped down the stairs in a light manner, only to bump into his father halfway down.
Immediately sobering up from his thinking, Itami's eyes widened as he stuttered: "My apologies sir." He never knew how his father was going to react. But at least there was no sign of the smell of alcohol, so things weren't as worrisome.
His father looked down at him, his lips a thin line. "Where are you heading, boy?"
Itami swallowed and replied: "I'm heading to the forest to train." He prepared for the worst and was suprised as his father merely nodded. "Good. Nothing is more important then getting stronger. Carry on." He moved to the right and progresses up the stairs without a second glance.
Itami slowly moved down, suprise clearly evident on his face. It was rare his father acted so civil around him. He expected at least some scolding or perhaps a bit of anger.

He opened the door and sighed as fresh air hit his lungs. His mind was filled with jumbled thoughts and mostly confusion as he headed towards the forest, tightening the knot on his headband that hung loosely around his neck.

Arriving into the beginnings of the wooded area, Itami listened carefully, hearing soft tunes emanating from the left. He went off course, not caring about the carved path, but walking among the thicker forest floor, until he reached the tree on which Mezurashii sat, singing softly as the wind carried her tune. Itami raised his arm in a greeting and smiled at her.
He liked people who sang. And he loved singing himself. Mezurashii had a nice voice and the song she was singing calmed down his mind a bit.

Mezurashii opened her eyes and smiled brightly at Itami, she was glad he could come. She waved at him and jumped down, she noticed he seemed a bit tense but she supposed it was the excitement of learning knew jutsu, she remembered how much he loved learning the leaf cutting technique so he must love learning in general.

"Glad you could make it" the redhead said as she pulled out sheets of papaer with the finalized jutsu on it. Mezurashii told him about the jutsu and pointed things out, granted that meant geting within his personal bubble so she didn't get to close and she used a calm voice in hopes he didn't seem uncomfortable.

Though she did wish he wouldn't be so reserved around her, but that was just the way he was, and hopefully he would grow used to her presence.

"Okay, so at the moment we need to focus on pressurising the air into our fists, until we get that right we can't do the rotation" she said finally, stepping out of his personal space and gestured him to follow. They two walked until they came to a secluded clearing.

It was wide but the canopy still covered the sky, there was a clear stream to the side with an assortment of boulders on the other side. She smiled at the area.

"We can train here without anyone interrupting our training" she said as she stepped into the middle of clearing, she turned and smiled at the white haired boy. "Shall we begin?"

Itami moved a bit back as Mez jumped down. He smiled at her and said: "It's nice to see you Mezurashii." He was genuinely happy to see his friend. He was ready to stop thinking about his father and the issues he faced at home. He thought training with his teammate would be fun and he'd be able to focuse on the good points in his life. Mezurashii also talked quite a lot more than him and he was glad for that as she would distract him.

He listened to her explanations and directions and nodded as she spoke. He noticed she perfected the jutsu quite well and he was certain it was going to work. He hoped he'd be able to learn it well.
They moved to a clearing to get more space to practice. Itami was in awe of how beautiful it was here. The drops from last night's rain stil hung loosely on the leaves and it gave the whole clearing a kind of glistening effect. He stretched his arms a little and in a sudden burst of otherwise hidden excitement, ran forward and did a cartwheel, feeling the leftover rain moisture on his hands. Raising up again, he laughed a little and turned to Mezurashii, his cheeks a little red. "This place is great!" And yeah, sure, let's get started.

Mezurashii giggled a little as Itami did a cartwheel, it was good that he was relaxing. Joining him she cartwheel over and stood next to him, smiling brightly she turned her attention to her fist.

Taking a deep breath Mezurashii began focusing her wind chakra, a small breeze forming as a result. When the pressure began to get out of control Mezurashii tried to spin the wind chakra around.

It lasted only a few seconds before her concentration wavered and the pressure burst out in a spinning mass of wind. Mezurashii yelped as she was blown off her feet, she landed on her back with a loud 'thud' and just stayed there for a few seconds.

"Well that was productive" she giggled to herself "this is harder than I thought" she added before flipping up onto her feet, she grinned at Itami.

"Now I know this takes a lot of concentration" she offered, rubbing her hand that had tried the jutsu. Maybe they should visit the hospital to see if this jutsu has any negative effects of the body.

"Your hand might get a bit sore, storing all that chakra in them will probably do that" she added in a quieter tone. She smiled at Itami, waiting for his try.

Itami laughed again as Mezurashii followed, making a cartwheel as well. Today was a really great day and he was so glad they came here to train. More often than not, he prefered being alone in the forest but today it felt right to share the beautifulness of it with someone else.

He focused his attention on Mezurashii's arm as she tried the jutsu. It looked quite awesome, however as the pressure around her arm got too big the wind shot forward in blast. Mezurashii was blown backwards into the grass, landing on her back.

With a look of concern, Itami ran over to her but seeing her grin, he sighed, relieved she was okay.
With a mischievous glint in his eyes he said: "You didn't expect it to be easy did you?", and then giggled, clearly joking. He realized he was becoming more and more relaxed around people, since meeting his new friends. It was a good improvement and could serve him well in the future, especially on missions.

He nodded at Mezurashii's words, his face becoming serious as he focused. He moved his left arm in front of him, a small frown forming on his face because he was concentrating so hard. He felt the elemental chakra form around his arm, and he concentrated harder to not let it out of control. It seemed weeker than Mezurashii's so he amplified the power and pressure. He felt it get too strong too quickly and in a burst of panic, he let it die out instantaneously.
He continued to stare at his arm, breathing a bit hard and trying to calm down.
He turned his head at Mezurashii then and mumbled "Whoops"
He let his arm fall to his side and he scratched the back of his head with the other, adding: "I guess I got a little scared there." He laughed awkwardly at the red head.

Mezurashii laughed happily "That's okay, it's better than getting blown off your feet" she said before flexing her chakra a bit.

"Okay... so it need a lot of concentration but the longer it takes for you to produce the harder it is, so you need to do it quickly. But if you don't regulate the power and add in the rotation properly it just blows up, so that means we need to figure out when to add the rotation" Mezurashii summarized, looking to Itami with a thoughtful look.

"Okay, I think that's it for now" she said. Looking to her fist she tried again, the pressure formed quickly. She tried to rotate it again after waiting a few seconds, sooner than her first try, and it lasted a few more seconds before exploding.

She landed on her back, again, but this time she had a victorious grin "I think I figured it out!" she exclaimed excitedly, flipping up onto her feet and grinning at Itami.

"Okay, add the pressure as quickly as you can, remember to use you imagination, and don't worry it wont hurt. Then add the rotation as soon as you can, as soon as it's stabilized" she said, slowly enough so he could understand. She smiled at him encouragingly, waiting for him to try.

Itami was thinking intently about what Mezurashii said, even as she was already performing the jutsu again. He was watching her, but his mind was far away, trying to form an ideal solution for the jutsu to work. When Mezurashii was once more blown backwards by the sheer power of her chakra, he didn't even flinch but merely walked after her and stopped a meter short of her when she stood up again.

It was his turn again so he blinked rapidly to return to reality and breathed in, mentally preparing himself and promising himself he wasn't going to get scared this time. He extended his arm and watched it intently as he directed the wind chakra in it. He did exatly as Mezurashii told him, adding the rotation soon after he added the pressure.
His hand felt tingly and he had to focuse real hard to keep it steady.
A second later he heard a loud whoosh and he swayed on his feet, stunned.
He took a step backwards to steady himself.

It worked better then before and he saw that Mezurashii was right in her adjustments. He wasn't fully blown back as she has been, twice. But the ratio still didn't seem right or maybe it was just the fact that he wasn't nearly enough skilled at this yet.
He bit his lip in concentration and waited a bit to form his thoughts into coherent sentences. Then he spoke, hoping he was right: "I think maybe we should already start with the rotation and not add it soon after the pressure."

He though it was best to try it this way as well, however his perfectionists nature was afraid that he got it wrong. He was deeply afraid of mistakes and if his idea wasn't correct he might as well just sink into the ground, dissapearing. It was one of the many mental problems he faced everyday.

Mezurashii looked at Itami for a long time, she took a step forward as he stumbled but relaxed as he steadied himself. It definitely worked better.

The redhead smiled at the white haired boy brightly at his suggestion "that's brilliant!" she said excitedly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and giving him an excited hug. Realizing her actions she immediately retracted with her hands up at head-level.

"Sorry! Got excited" she said quickly, smiling apologetically at him before lowering her hands and looking up into the canopy.

"Rotating the wind chakra before pressurizing it will be notably harder, and we may lose more chakra than expected, so we should be more careful" she said before smiling at him.

Turning her attention to her fist she closed her eyes and imagined something akin to a mini typhoon spinning around her palm. She felt the wind and smiled slightly, she then began to focus on adding the pressure as quickly as she could.

She felt her chakra drain rapidly but it stopped once the wind stabilized. She opened her eyes slowly to see a whirlwind of highly pressurized wind swirling around her fist, she glanced at Itami before turning to the boulder nearby.

Taking a deep breath Mezurashii reared back her fist and slammed it against the boulder. She yelled out in surprise as she was thrown back by the force, she hit the ground hard and rolled a few times.

Mezurashii pushed herself up slowly, her hair acting like a curtain to her face as a single tear fell from her face. She prayed Itami didn't see this show of weakness, but it hurt. To give everything you have into something and have it thrown back in you face at full force.

She pushed back those thoughts and rubbed her tears and dirt away from her face and smiled sheepishly.

"Whoops..." she said. Sitting on her knees as she rubbed her head, keeping her eyes towards the ground.

Itami tensed the second Mezurashii hugged him, but relaxed at the next moment, awkwardly patting her on the back. When she let go, he was grinning like crazy, excited as well that she thought his idea was good. His cheeks were tinted a slight red again but he payed no mind to that and said: "It's okay, I'm excited too. I really hope it works though."

He got a bit nervous when Mezurashii started to try out the jutsu again. He saw how focused her face got and how steady her hands were. He hoped to reach this kind of mental peace as well, in the future. It would certainly help his lacking concentration.

Itami's eyes got wide as he saw the wind chakra pleasantly swirling around Mez's arm and his mouth opened in surprise. Maybe this really is going to work. Nothing exploded yet and Mezurashii was still standing so the beginning was promising. He watched in awe as she gained power and slammed her fist into the boulder.

The sheer shock of the punch was so powerful it threw her backwards, farther away then ever before. Itami gasped and watched, helpless, as she rolled until she stopped and shakily stood up. Her hands were shaking and her hair was released from her usual hair-do. It was now hanging loosely in front of her face, covering it almost completely. She looked like someone who has just survived a bomb attack, standing there and swaying, about to fall back down at any time. She mumbled something Itami couldn't quite catch as he ran towards her and crouched down at the ground, as she sat on her knees, breathing hard. He pushed the hair away from her face and grabbed her face with both hands, looking for any kind of damage, noticing her eyes were luckily clear and focused again, but a bit teary.
In a burst of concern he almost shouted: "Ohmygosh Mez are you okay, please tell me you're fine!" His eyes were still incredibly wide as he let go of her face and slouched down. He whispered: "It was my fault, oh no what have I done. My stupid idea did this." He wondered if Mezurashii would now hate him and he moved away from her to give her some space. He hid his face in his hands and though of his unbelievable luck with people. He always managed to sever bonds he made.