Training (Uryu U.; Ukita H.)

Uryu huffed as he slammed his fists into the wooden manikins over and over again. He grunted out "Ha!" and "Hyah!" as he palmed the manikins, right palm then left palm. His face spilled with sweat, it dripping down his back and in his eyes, but he didn't stop. Uryu believed that being a Genin meant he was weak. He new that others opposed that thought, but that was all he could think of when he saw some Genin one day all made Chunin. He was happy for them, but then jealous at the same time. So, leaving the Chunin Exam area where he watched it all, he began to train. He wanted to be like them or even better. Better was his goal.

Stopping, he huffed staring at the manikin, his thoughts on the next Chunin Exams. He wasn't even in a team yet! He feared that if he didn't find a team soon, he wouldn't be allowed to join the Chunin Exams and be held back. He didn't want that!

He growled low, then his growl grew as he hit the manikins, this time, punching them hard, making his knuckles bleed. He frowned immensely, making his own head hurt. He just couldn't stop thinking about how others would make fun of him. His anger took control of all of his movements, making him hit the manikins with such great strength and sending them flying across the training grounds. They landed with loud thuds.

Uryu stood still, huffing, but perfectly still. He looked around expecting to see something, since he heard noise, but ended up not seeing anyone. Sighing, he knelt down, resting for awhile before starting his training once again. He had some other training in mind as well. If he wanted to be better than the others, he thought that training his Sharingan earlier than most and achieving it faster would help him. He smiled at his own idea as he rested, taking deep breathes to slow his heartbeat.

[WC-332]

Ukita had slept in once again. It was a bad habit, but one he allowed himself to indulge in, because his grandfather was gone for the next couple days. Normally Ukita was woken up before the sun by his disciplined grandfather to train and train. Ukita liked training, but not over training. Over training left him dead beat and annoyed. Thus, today felt like a vacation of sorts. And what does one do on vacation when they are a ninja? Train. There was no way around it. Ukita knew he had to train, but he would not over train-merely train and nothing else.

He quickly got out of bed and got dressed. He then made a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon, which he gulped down in fairly short order. Figuring that today would be a good a day as any to work on his mastery over the eight gates Ukita donned his training attire. He wore his armor that his grandfather gave him and over it he wore a brown worn duster that went to his mid shin level. On his left hip was a sheathed sword-he had recently taken a liking to kenjutsu, but still had a long way to go. Also in his ninja puch he had four meters of wire-he had no idea what he would do with it, but he had it nonetheless. And, so Ukita was ready for a bit of light training.

Cleaning up his breakfast mess Ukita ran out the door in such a frenzy that he forgot to lock up the house. He got half way to the training grounds and had to turn back to lock the place up, which was bit embarrassing, because the elderly lady next store sniggered as he ran back and forth. So, at last, Ukita made his way to the training grounds-for real this time. As he walked to them his mind ran wild with thoughts of the borderlands he had crossed to get to the chuunin exams. How he longed to have freedom to go where he please, but alas he was stuck here: in the village cloaked in clouds.

As it turned out Ukita was so lost in thought that he almost walked by the training grounds. Luckily he pulled himself out of his own thoughts and turned abruptly to the training grounds. It seemed that they were deserted, but then Ukita heard something that made him change his mind: some "has" and "Hyahs". It seemed that someone else was here for training as well. Hopefully Ukita would be able to train with them-it had been a long time since he was able to train with anyone else. His grandfather had always insisted on private training, which always struck Ukita as odd. Regardless Ukita moved on until he found a boy kneeling down on the ground who seemed to be the source of the noise. Ukita was coming up from behind the boy and he did not want to alarm him, so he spoke up once he was about five meters behind him: "Good morning, its a great day to be training is it not?" It was, in fact, a wonderful day. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, which was a rarity in Kumogakure. Waiting for a response Ukita would remain five meters away from the boy and wait for a response-Ukita was indeed in a good mood.

{WC: 566}

Uryu, even though the man was five meters behind him, twitched alittle, startled slightly. He stared at the man for quite some time before replying, "Oh, um h-hello! It is a nice day, indeed!" he said, trying not to sound surprised. He hadn't noticed the man before- wait... this man wasn't here earlier! He must have just came by. Uryu nodded to his thoughts, still watching the man closely.

Standing up once again, he looked over to where he hit the manikins and realized they might not be in use for awhile due to needing some fixing. With a belated sigh, Uryu shook his head, angry at himself. Look what you did you fool! Now you can't train unless- A thought struck him dead in between the eyes. Unless I get a training partner!

Looking back towards the man, Uryu looked the man up and down. He looks like he's been training all of his life, plus he is alot older than me, Uryu thought, gathering necessary information that he always did when he met someone. He put his small hand on his thin chin and narrowed his eyes. He liked what he saw about the man, but was it safe to ask the man to train with him even if he didn't know him? All Uryu knew was that he was a stranger and should be dealt with accordingly. Uryu thought and though then came up with a sly idea. "How about I just show him what I can do first and if he can do what I think he can, then I'll contemplate some more."

Kneeling, he then sped towards the man, zig-zagging to mislead the man. Uryu readied himself for what he was about to do. Uryu also thought about what the man would do to him if the man was indeed very strong or to some extent of strength. He shook his head and said, "Well this is training. Whatever happens, happens, and I am ready. I will learn from my possible mistakes later."

[WC=699]

Ukita was rather startled by the fact that he had startled the boy, but did not show it-he must have been really training hard to not have noticed Ukita who was not even trying to be stealthy. At least the boy agreed about the day, because it was a nice one. Alas, nice days like these did not come too often. While the boy seemed to be a moment of brief thought Ukita quickly sized him up. It was an unconscious habit of his to look at a person a size them up-hell he sized up the crazy ramen man. Old habits die hard and this one was probably here to stay. Plus it was not a bad to keep for a shinobi. Especially one of the cloud village.

In sizing up the boy Ukita was able to conclude a few things. The boy was not carrying any overt weaponry, which was important to Ukita, because it mean that he would restrain himself from using weaponry himself if he decided to fight this boy. If anything Ukita loved a nice fight, but not one that is easily won-that got old fast. Another thing he was able to pick up that the boy had tenacity. It took a fair amount of willpower to knock manikins off their blocks like he had done. All in all Ukita saw potential in the boy-it was rare that Ukita could not find potential in people. Often times people sold themselves short on their own potential, but Ukita liked to think he could see it.

What happened next was rather suprising to say the least. The boy started running in a zig zag pattern right towards Ukita-this boy sure knew how to greet people. It was a good thing Ukita was rather fond of people who got right to the point-initiative some would call it. Ukita saw no real reason to move whatsoever. So, he merely raise both his hands up in front of him slightly bent at the elbow-he was ready to defend from what may come. Thus, he would remain rooted in place and ready for whatever the zig zagging boy chose to throw at him-he did not even know the boy's name, but he liked him already.

{TWC: 940}

Uryu, seeing the man's arms move in a defending position, he decided to change his attack. He stepped off to the left and fled into the trees. Uryu changed his plan to an attack from behind. He knew that was, not low, but wasn't right, he still thought it wise. When he got closer, he spotted the weapon that was luckily sheathed in the man's possession and stopped. This man new how to use Kenjutsu? Uryu became startled as he thought that maybe the man might use the weapon against him.

Crouching low, he ran through the bushes a little closer to the man. Uryu froze to his spot, staring the man with intent to strike. When he looked closer to the man, he seemed experienced at what he was doing or about to do. Uryu snarled and began to contemplate. "This man knows Kenjutsu, maybe a little. He looks well brought up and trained. What are my chances of landing a successful hit on him?" With this last thought, Uryu already knew that this man might have too mush strength for Uryu himself to handle. But why not take the chance? Uryu new that to him the only way of becoming stronger was to fight those stronger than you and to successfully beat them and become stronger or die trying. He wasn't up for dying so he closed his eyes and thought, "I will beat him. I will beat him!" He chanted that to himself over and over again to build his confidence. He knew he would need a lot of it to beat this man, whoever he was.

Thinking critically, he began to analyze where to hit first or where would be most affective. The man didn't look too old, so the sides might not be effective. The back might set him off balance or he might know. The front was a no no because he knew that that was what the man was waiting for. Clenching his teeth, he became frustrated. he never had to fight someone like this man before. No one gave him the feeling this man did. The air around the man made it hard for Uryu to breathe. Was it just because the man seemed excelled at everything Uryu wasn't or was it that he just never encountered anything like this? It was basically both in Uryu's mind. His body screamed for him to move but his mind said not yet. This made Uryu even more frustrated. He became more frustrated the more he thought that he lunged at the man from behind, taking the "attack from the back" tactics he thought of earlier. 'Might as well see what this will do.' he said, curiously.

[WC=1170]

Rather confused, Ukita remained where he was while the boy darted off into the woods, but also dropped his left hand to his sword's hilt. Normally he would give chase and end the fight before it even started, but for some reason he decided not to. Maybe this was what some would call being lazy? Whatever it was Ukita chose to pursue the boy, because he wished to see what he would do. Maybe that was it? Curiosity. He also could have very easily flipped on his sharingan and tracked the boy down, but that was no fun. So, he remained waiting for an attack that would no doubt come.

While waiting Ukita's mind flowed with all the possible outcomes of what was about to occur. Were he to be attacking himself what would he do? This may seem like an odd question to ask oneself, but Ukita tended to ask himself this question routinely. It was a way for him to remove himself from the fight and take a mental step back to see the big picture. In fact, this was a technique that had allowed him to win many a fight. He hoped that this one would be no different. Then again this was not really a fight. It was more an introduction than anything else-an odd introduction, but one nonetheless.

Ukita's mind of clockwork ticked on overtime. With each metaphorical turn of a cog a new attack idea popped into his head. He was quickly able to establish that the boy would not be attacking from the front-why else would he have ducked into the woods? He also concluded that an attack from the side was unlikely yet possible. It became rather obvious that the only reasonable attacking point would be from behind. The only thing was timing-timing was always key. Thus, Ukita left his left hand to the hilt of his sword, but he did not plan on drawing it. Although he would still be using it-there was no doubt about that. Plus his reflexes were on a hairpin trigger; he was ready to react at any moment.

Luckily, the attacking boy made it easy by talking while attacking. That in and of itself was rather odd, but no matter. It allowed Ukita to act accordingly. He merely pushed down on his swords hilt and braced for impact. By pushing down on the sword hilt it brought the sheathed sword perpendicular to his body. In effect the sword would jut out back and a bit to Ukita's right. This will, assuming all goes as planned, obstruct any physical attack from behind such as lunges as the lunger would be lunging right into the sword. Naturally the sword was in its sheathe, so if the attacker were to hit the sword it would not cut them. In fact, at worst, it would leave a bit of a bruise and at best just a damaged pride. All that remained to be seen was what exactly would happen. All Ukita hoped was that he could get to know this boy's name who seemed so intent on attacking him.

{TWC: 1462}
( Just a side note I was not sure if you meant to say this in your head or not, but I took it as you wrote it:

'Might as well see what this will do.' he said, curiously.

And figured that you said it aloud considering the 'said' part.)

Uryu wasn't expecting to see the man's sword still in it's sheath and for it to come up at such speed. He tried to dodge but it was too late. He hit the sheath right on the side of his stomach, it making a dent in his side and a deep bruise. He grunted loudly and feel to the ground, crouching and holding his side. He hadn't expected that at all. Uryu thought the man would be surprised or try to dodge but instead he stood still and held his sword in its sheath and aimed it perfectly where Uryu was going to strike. Uryu felt surprised and angry at the same time. How had his attack gone wrong? 'SHIT!' he whispered to himself rather boldly, glaring at the man.

Uryu thought back to his analysis on the man. Had he calculated something about the man wrong? His glare turned into a look of curiosity as he looked the man up and down once again. He backed up so he could get a better view. As he tried to stand up, Uryu grunted in pain as he felt the bruise in his side stretch. He bent back down to crouch and looked at the man again, a mix of curiosity and hostility present in his eyes. Even though Uryu had no training with his Sharingan, he tried anyway. Nothing happened as expected. Uryu sighed, closing his eyes. Suddenly, he opened them wide. How had he heard me in the first place to make such an attack? Uryu thought, staring at the man. Then Uryu realized what he had done wrong. He had spoke his thought aloud though he thought he had said it to himself. he was sure he had said it to himself... but it didn't matter now.

Uryu growled and took out a kunai from his leg pouch, holding it in a protective way. Now that Uryu was on the defensive due to his 'wound' on his side, he was wondering what the man would do next. Uryu thought the man's staring was getting annoying and he wanted him to do something.

[WC=1535]
(Oh and yes it was meant to be said out loud. Sorry about that.)

Ukita was indeed pleased when he had made the right choice. He was able to defend with minimal movement. Granted it may have been luck that the boy had spoken aloud, but he still felt a certain satisfaction when his plan followed through flawlessly. He was also not surprised when he heard a slight profanity uttered. The boy was no doubt understanding his mistake in talking while attacking. In battle word were cheap, but they could ultimately cost one the greatest price. That was a lesson Ukita learned in the academy-he was once a boisterous boy talking during battle, but he quickly learned not to speak while in battle.

As much fun as it had been to analyze the boy's attack Ukita still wanted to get to know the kid. After all, this was a day off of sorts. As such, instead of pressing the attack, Ukita turned around sharply and promptly sat down cross legged. Looking up at the boy Ukita would crack a half smile and speak up in the same cheerful tone he had used before: "Please, take a seat. There is no reason to get too into our fight just yet. I hardly know you. My name is Ukita Hideyasu. Whats yours?" He felt a bit childish as he asked this-it felt like something that the academy teacher had them do on the first day of school, but he did not care. Waiting for a reply Ukita half considered flicking on his sharingan eyes to see what kind of reaction he could get, but thought better of it. Some people were scared of the eyes Ukita had.

{TWC: 1754}

Uryu continued to glare at the man for awhile until he heard the man speak. His voice was calm and gentle- something that Uryu didn't expect. He stared at the one named Ukita and tilted his head slightly. Uryu sighed and grunted, sitting down and replying. "My name is Uryu Uchiha and I plan to become the best with my Sharingan."He looked away from Ukita and added rather ignorantly, "And I don't feel like wasting my time sitting here and wasting time instead of training to become stronger and to better use my Sharingan!" He lifted his head to glare back up at Ukita and sighed. "What are you here for anyway? No one comes around here and surely you haven't come to see me." Uryu felt like saying more, possibly rude, things but stopped when he looked into Ukita's eyes. There was something about them that made Uryu stare so intently at them.'Does this man have what I think he has?' Uryu's thoughts rang in his head. He wasn't sure but felt positive that this man had Sharingan; but he didn't look like an Uchiha, so how was it possible??

Uryu wanted to see if it was true or not. He focused his own chakra and tried his hardest as he always did to try and bring out his Sharingan. It failed, but he did notice that his eye site did get better but hazy for a few short seconds. He sighed, disappointed. Realizing that Ukita was still there, he glared at the man and said, "Your eyes. Let me see them." He hoped that when he said, Ukita wouldn't say no or look confused as if his own eyes weren't that special.

[WC= 1833]

Ukita listened to Uryu with a half smile still on his face. As he mentioned the sharingan Ukita did not even bat an eye. Maybe he would get to see what a real Uchiha was like. He did not consider himself a Uchiha despite the eyes he had that contradicted his thinking. In a sense the eyes were nothing, but a hallmark of his past and thereby a curse. Their advanced state was due to the weathering of many hardships that Ukita would rather not relive. Thus, Ukita tried to avoid using them and hide behind the name of Hideyasu. That was how Ukita had gotten through life this far and how he planned to continue doing so, but it could not hurt to show this boy the three tomed sharingan would it?

Once Uryu finished talking Ukita blinked and upon opening his eyes one would be able to see the three tomes of the sharingan. It was then that Ukita started speaking in an unusually icy tone: "You are perceptive. I do indeed have the cursed eyes of the Uchiha. And believe me the strength these eyes grant does not come without a steep cost-remember that if nothing else." At this point Ukita voice returned to its former more friendly tone and he flipped off his sharingan with a blink of his eye: "As for the reason I came here. I came here for what most people come here to do: train. Now, answer me this. Why do you need the sharingan to be the 'best'? Cannot you not become the best without them?" Waiting for a response Ukita looked up into a nearby tree to see a small songbird perch in its branches. It then started to sing a melody that could make a stone heart crack. Either way Ukita was interested in what Uryu's anwser would be and if he would mention anything about training.

{TWC:2070}