The first good day [P]

Itami smiled again and half nodded, his head still resting on the grass.
Mezurashii stood up again but Itami was too comfortable in the sun, to follow her example. Only when she offered him a hand, he took it and stood up.
"Sure, we can do some exercises. Let me just put the clothes on the tree branch to dry."

He walked over to his tangled shirt and jacket and picked them up, spreading them and shaking them in the air. Then he hung them on the lowest tree branch.
"Lucky the sun is so bright, otherwise I'd be cold." he commented. He ran a hand through his still wet hair and messed them up a bit, the water droplets jumping in every direction.

Then he went back to where Mez was and looked at her curiously. "What kind of training should we do?"

Mezurashii nodded as he gathered his clothes and hung them on a tree branch near by, she thought about what they could do. Well, they couldn't really spar anymore since they were both low an chakra and one had stitches.

"I have a combo move I can show you" she offered, this was something ninja often did. Show their moves to other ninja, this was a sign of trust for any and all shinobi. To show whats in their arsenal, that's not something most ninja do.

"It pretty much goes like this" she said as she created an clone, granted it was an illusion but that's all that was really needed. She ran at the clone, flipping back once she was close enough and using the momentum to kick the clone. Pretending to be hit the clone became airborne, Mezurashii landed on her feet and jumped at the clone. 'Kicking' it three times before twisting in the air and slamming her heel in its back.

It disappeared upon hitting the ground and the redhead landed softly on the ground, smiling.

"That's pretty much it, of course there's a lot more force and when the victim hits the ground it's usually enough to break bones. Not something I would want to get caught in" she chuckled a little as she looked at Itami. "Best part about it is that you can perform it even if your injured" she added.

That combo move was the first one she learned, even before the academy. Her papa had drilled it into her for days, making sure she knew it off by heart and could perform it even if she was blind. She rubbed her shoulder upon the memory of that particularly painful training session.

"Great!" Itami exclaimed and leaned against the trunk of the tree, observing Mezurashii. Her combo seemed great and Itami though it would prove useful in battle if he practiced it enough. However Mezurashii couldn't properly present the combo due to the clone being an illusion. It wasn't solid and she couldn't really demonstrate the use of force and Itami was still a bit puzzled at how exactly you perform the trick.

He thought for a moment and checked his chakra reserves, closing his eyes. The fact that he had a bit of rest, and a lunch, helped restore some of his chakra and so he did some hand signs and created a solid shadow clone.

"Sounds deadly." he said and grinned at Mezurashii. He then faced the clone and added: "Okay, let me see if I got it right."

He ran at his clone, gaining momentum and kicked the clone who flew into the air. Then he delivered three kicks and ended with his heel slamming the clone to the ground. The clone dispersed in a puff of smoke and Itami crouched to the ground, one knee resting on the grass. He was still a bit tired from before and he breathed a little faster than usual.

Mezurashii clapped at Itami as she walked to him. "Good, but you were kicking to quickly so you don't get as much damage as you could. But otherwise you did very well, good air, good strength and you didn't try to ad more kicks. I've discovered if you try to add more kicks it gives you opponent time to counter" she said, feeling a bit like a teacher. She smiled encouragingly at him.

"Hey, don't feel bad about not getting it right the first time, papa drilled this into me for roughly a month, but your doing better than I was when first tried it" she said. She grabbed a leaf and absently focused her wind chakra, it shredded it tiny pieces in seconds.

Itami's eyes shone with the encouragment. He rarely had people to help him and tell him he's doing something right. He smiled brightly at Mezurashii, but also kept in mind the advice she gave him.

"I don't think I have the energy to do anything else, training wise, for a few hours." he commented. "I hope you don't mind." he added apologetically and sat back down in the grass. He was really exhausted. It seemed he had to work on his stamina a bit more because it was used up quite quickly.

Mezurashii nodded at him as he sat down. It was strange, he seemed to have little confidence in his strength yet he was strong. It's true he had his faults but he had his strengths, just in different area's.

"Good idea, don't want to agitate your wound, nor wound up in the hospital again" she shuddered at the thought of winding up in that white hell again. Pulling out her ponytail she let her mid-back length hair loose, letting the water drip from the ends.

Sitting down she sighed as she flopped back, sighing happily as the grass brushed against her exposed skin and the sun warmed her to the core.

"Sorry." he mumbled, feeling slightly guilty that she had to stop her training because of him.

Hoping Mez wouldn't be bored, he started chatting.

"Hey have you heard from Nakara lately? I rarely see him. Only on team meetings and such."
He thought for a moment, his face contemplative. "I don't really know much about him, isn't that strange ... It noticed he doesn't talk a lot. At least to me."

He thought of Nakara because Itami's birthday was comming up, and he was thinking of maybe inviting some of his friends over, including his teammates. But the more he thought about it, the more trouble he had on deciding who to invite. He didn't know which people considered him friends, and he also wasn't sure about Nakara. Itami rarely enjoyed his birthdays so he wasn't used to inviting friends over, except for his cousin. He didn't know what the protocol was. He wondered about asking Mezurashii what she thought about the matter but then changed his mind. Maybe later.

Mezurashii thought over his question, truth be told she didn't know much about him either.

"I've bumped into him a few times, though those are mostly spars. But yeah, besides that I don't really see him much. But everyone is different, plus he probably has other friends and he also has clan matters. Besides you can tell a lot about someone by their fighting style, though I haven't had time to actually look at his style, I've either been dodging or focusing on something else" she laughed a bit.

Hearing a rustling sound Mezurashii turned to see what it was, a few seconds later a small brown bundle rolled out.

"Boken" she gave an exasperated sigh "I told you to stay home" she scolded, flicking the bear cub on the nose before picking him up and setting him on her lap. The cub whined a bit but quickly set about to snuggling against his mistress's stomach. The redhead could only sigh.

"What will I do with you?" she petted him gently, after a second she turned to Itami.

"Meet Boken, my cub. Found him tangled in some ninja wire, I cut him loose and now he thinks I'm his mother" she smiled down at her cub. The cub crawled off her lap and sniffed the boy, after a few seconds the cub lightly headbutted his arm before scrambling back up to his mothers lap.

"That means he likes you, or at least he won't bite you" she informed, scratching Boken behind the ear.

Itami nodded in response: "Yeah, you're probably right."

At her last sentence he was suprised however. "Really? That's an interesting theory. I bet you're correct here as well. Though I couldn't possibly tell what someone is like even if I knew their fighting style. I'm not that good with people ..."

All of a sudden, something moved behind the leaves and Itami was alert in an instant. He pulled out his kunai and waited. But a few moments later, a small bear appeared and eyes wide, Itami stored his kunai in the pouch again. His mouth hung open as Mezurashii adressed the cub, and then his face lit up at the cuteness of the tiny bear.

"He's adorable!" Itami cooed and observed Boken. He giggled lightly at Mez's words and then watched happily as Boken stumbled over to him and lightly headbutted his arm.

"I love bears!" he added, keeping his eyes on the bundle of cuteness. "You're so lucky Mezurashii!"

Mezurashii laughed happily, it seems Itami had a love for cute things like she herself did.

"Are you kidding me? You have no idea how much this guy eats, and he's only a few weeks old!" she smiled as she set him down between them, the bear whined and she hushed him.

"You lay on my lap all the time" she scolded lightly and the bear cub whined a little more. Mezurashii looked on as the bear cub looked up at her with those big eyes, she stubbornly looked away. She broke when the cub rubbed up against her leg.

"Your too cute!" she called out as she cuddled Boken, making sure not to strangle her cub. Placing him back on the grass she smiled at Itami, it was nice to see his more expressive side once in a while.

Sighing happily she watched her cu run off and try to catch a butterfly, she smiled as he jumped but couldn't quiet get high enough to catch it. Snorting in frustration he ran to a tree and jumped off the surface and caught the colorful insect between his paws.

"He's getting smarter every day" she commented as she propped up her leg and placed her elbow on it, resting her cheek against her palm she watched her cub play himself. Running around and skidding in different directions, rolling around and jumping.