Hey dude, wanna train? (open, nk)

As Tank stood up rather slowly he could hear the approach of Kemuri and Ryusie. While they approached he could hear Ryusei speak to him. His voice was slightly muffled, but Tank could make out what he was saying. Waiting to speak until he had stood up all the way to his full height Tank would then say "Yeah I'm okay and don't worry about it, better me than you. Who knows what would have happened if it was you instead of me." Tank then rolled his head around a bit trying to get the fog out of his head. While he did this he could hear Kemuri speak asking if anyone had a plan. Tank still at the moment could not think completely clearly as his body still felt as if it were ready to give out at any moment. Trying his best to hide his pain and fatigue he would stand firmly next to the other two facing Kenshin. Then Ryusie began to speak about how they could stay close together and basically try to fight him three on one in hand to hand combat. "I don't think tha..." At that moment Kenshin began to speak to them telling them to be ready. He almost sounded like he was trying to teach them at this point. Kenshin definitely seemed to be strong enough that he should already be a chuunin if not a jounin by now. Maybe he knew he would bbe getting promoted soon and wanted to start practicing on being a squad leader.

Then in aan instant Kenshin was gone. Tank didn't even notice where Kenshin had gone until he heard the sound of his fist smacking into Kemuri's chest. Tank's eyes now widened in disbelief at how fast Kenshin had just moved. He knew for a fact that Kenshin was not that fast by himself normally. He must have used a technique similar to his own to increase his speed temporarily. Now facing the fact that Kenshin was already within striking range and Tank hadn't even moved yet he knew it was already over for him. Instinct kicked in for Tank and his arms began to raise up toward his head to protect himself. By this time however Kenshin was already in mid air performing some sort of spin kick trying to hit Tank and Ryusie at the same time. Being entirely to fast for Tank, Kenshin would land his spin kick directly into Tanks shoulder. Kenshin had presumably been aiming for his head, but the distance between Ryusie and Tank added with the fact that Tank was a good deal taller than Ryusie made Kensin's kick fall slightly lower than what was intended. Still packing a good amount of power behind his kick even without any leverage he would send Tank off of his feet and away from where he had been standing. As Tank slid across the ground he could feel all of his energy leaving his body. Sliding about three meters away from Kenshin Tank stooped and siply laid on his side for several seconds and listened to what would happen next. Then rolling over onto his back, which seemed to take a tremendous amount of energy for no apparent reason other than he was so beaten up. Tank would just laying on his back starring up at the sky. It was obvious to everyone else there that Tank was finished with this spar whether they continued on without him or not was up to them.

Kemuri approached Ryusei and Tank as they stood there, listening to Ryusei as he spoke back to him. "I sincerely doubt staying together would help at all." He said just before Kenshin spoke, the words letting Kemuri know that something was obviously about to happen that could end the battle. Then, suddenly, Kemuri would see Kenshin in his face, his fist thrusting into Kemuri's chest, the sound of faint cracking being audible to all four of them as they stood near each other and a loud, painful sounding gasp was launched out of his mouth, Kemuri immediately being thrown quite a distance backwards afterwards, just barely glimpsing Kenshin kicking at the other two as he is sent towards the edge of the clearing. -how could he be this fast,- he thought as he was in the air -I've never had an attack I couldn't dodge before this-. As Kemuri were to be traveling through the air, he would quickly come back to his senses, transforming his body into a cloud of smoke to slow his trajectory and falling speed, shortly afterwards changing back to his normal form, except this time quite clearly not in good condition, as instead of standing straight up when he reformed, he was on one knee holding his ribs, the ones that he had assumed had just been either fractured or completely broken.

Still holding his ribs, Kemuri would begin to slowly stand, a grimace upon his face that clearly showed that he was in pain, although his mask covered the majority of the expression. "So much for sticking together." He stated to himself, noting that he was in fact correct that Ryusei's plan did nothing but give Kenshin a chance to strike them all with one attack. Kemuri then noticed Tank go flying off roughly in his direction, sliding on the ground quite a distance before stopping and rolling onto his back, seemingly taking a great amount of effort to do so. -I would have thought a man of his size would be able to take a bit more- he thought as he made his way rather slowly over to Tank, who was clearly not capable of much more at this point. He would lean over Tank and look him in the eyes "I take it you're out then?" He said, seemingly already knowing the answer. At this point, it seemed the battle was just about over with, Ryusei being the only one that could possibly continue fighting, as Kemuri's ribs were busted and Tank was practically unconscious.

Ryusei grinned as his substitution went off without a hitch. Apparently this usage would actually work if it was able to delay a powerful ninja such as Kenshin. It was not as good as having some powerful offensive jutsu but every bit helped of course. Now that he had figured out a way to use it in a real fight (or so he thought) he would make sure to use this jutsu a lot whenever needed. He had heard of an ancient shinobi, Shisui of the Body Flicker, whom he had heard of in the academy as a true master of one of the most basic techniques, a true shinobi everyone should aspire to become like, not least due to playing indirectly a rather major part in one of the great shinobi wars through his rather unique powers. He had to admit though, "Ryusei Of The Substitute" made it sound like he was a second rate teacher, as opposed to a top tier shinobi.

He attempted to attack Kenshin Uchiha from behind but it seemed that Kenshin had already predicted Ryusei's actions. That guy must have a lot of practice fighting, Ryusei thought. He was completely unfazed by Ryusei's feint. Kenshin looked around, suddenly noticing Ryusei as he attempted to punch Kenshin. Unfortunately he did not have time to draw a weapon, as Kenshin kept his eyes on Ryusei, the other two ninja unfortunately out of commission. Ryusei sincerely wished he was faster, as Kenshin's hair grew again, wrapping around first his punching arm, but then all his limbs. He cursed. That was some crazy hair gel Kenshin must have, that let him keep his hairstyle while doing all kinds of funny things with it without adverse affects to his appearance.

He struggled, but it was rather useless at this point. When Kenshin said "I don't believe leaving you unharmed would be very fair for the other two, would it?", Ryusei laughed out loud.

"Indeed not! I am pretty sure Tank took a hit for me earlier." He would accept whatever Kenshin did to him, as the other boy did not seem to be a bad person, and had not significantly hurt Ryusei before during their previous encounter. He really needed to ask Kenshin what he did to his hair after dragging it through everything in the way. He only wished his spiky hair could stay that way.

Suddenly, the hair that Kenshin had waved in front of his face darted downwards, and hit Ryusei in the abdomen. At the same time the hair holding him in the air and immobilizing him abruptly let go, letting Ryusei go flying through the air. Arms and legs flailing around as he tried to find his balance, he hit the ground in a roll, and slowly came to a stop, barely able to hear Kenshin's words.

He would reply "That's what I would like to think about myself, I only wish I was as tough as Tank Akimichi or skilled as Kemuri. 3 times is the charm, the next time we meet, I will land a blow, or something on you Kenshin, I will be much stronger by then.". He would then collapse from exhaustion and his injury, lying on the ground. He would say to himself "Frankly it could be a scratch for all I care. I came a lot closer today though."

*******************************
additional wc over last few posts of 1539, for a total of 6765

Tank would be laying on his back staring up at the sky letting his pain slip away in the bliss of the fluffly white clouds floating above them. Hearing a slight shuffle coming his way from the direction Kemuri had been thrust toward by Kenshin's punch. Soon enough he could see Kemuri standing over him and staring down at him before asking his question. Tank would simply reply by saying "Yeah, I'm done." he would then refocus on the sky above him just trying to relax a bit before he needed to get up and go back to the village. While he was trying to do this he could clearly hear that Ryusei's substitution technique had not worked at all. Tank couldn't really tell what exactly happened but he could hear them talking to each other for a few moments. Then the sound of Ryusei being struck could be heard as he was sent flying across the training grounds and landed on the ground with a loud thud. Apparently Kenshin had not completely unloaded on Ryusei because Tank could then hear Ryusei speak again before going quiet for some time. After all the commosion Tank would continue to lay on his back resting and thinking about absolutely nothing. His mind was a complete blank as he stared blankly into the powder blue sky dotted with small white clouds that hardly moved as the time passed on.

Kemuri lowered himself to where he was back on one knee, still holding his ribs as he did so and listening to Tank clearly state that he did not want to continue with the spar any more. It was about this time that he noticed Ryusei was still continuing with the battle, or at least attempting to before he was quite clearly caught by the tendrils of hair that Kenshin used to attack all of them earlier. While this was rather easy for Kemuri to avoid, it was rather obvious that Ryusei didn't stand a chance against it when he ended up with his arms and legs both trapped in their clutch. Kemuri watched as they exchanged words for a couple seconds before Ryusei was promptly struck rather hard with one of the tendrils that had sprouted from Kenshin's hair. "Quite a strange technique," Kemuri said "I imagine it would be rather difficult to deal with if you didn't have a way of escaping it's range.". Kemuri then listened as Kenshin spoke to them about how they had potential that had yet to be unlocked, Kemuri already being quite aware of this since he was one of the few Iburi that had actually ever left the compound.

Seeing Kenshin make his way away from the three and towards an area of the training grounds that was actually for training, Kemuri would think that he wouldn't allow a small injury to prevent him from gaining the power he so desired, making his way over to a similar area of the training grounds, but not quite in the same spot. This spot in the training grounds was rather barren, very little grass or foliage around, perfect for training in the use of earth style jutsu, which was exactly what he planned to do. He was planning on performing something that he had seen done before by a superior of his. Without hesitating, Kemuri began to perform the seals he had seen the other ninja perform; Rat, horse, dog, snake. On the first attempt, as expected, absolutely nothing happened. Even to Kemuri, he was completely aware that it was very unlikely he would be capable of performing this jutsu on his first attempt, and so was prepared to do this many times over until he had gotten it down. Despite his injuries, he was determined to get this jutsu to work before the end of the day, something he could never do in the Iburi compound.

It took nearly ten minutes of repeating the seals and trying over and over again until he finally got something out of it. The ground would raise slightly in what appeared to be an empty box-like shape, roughly a meter in each direction from the center of it. It was little more than several bumps along the length of the bumps, but it was still progress, and something that Kemuri considered to be the point at which the jutsu would begin to rapidly develop. He then once again performed the seals to the jutsu, about a second afterwards, the ground in the same area raising up very slowly to form a small cage of rock rods. Already technically what the jutsu was meant to do, it was incredibly sloppy, hardly enough to hold an academy student in. The gaps between the rods were enough to be squeezed through, and the rods themselves were flimsy and thin. Kemuri would shake his head, looking at another spot in the area of the training grounds, performing the seals once again, getting a similar result, but with the rods a bit closer together, not far enough apart for someone to just squeeze through anymore, but rather obviously still flimsy, hardly capable enough to hold themselves up, and thus falling apart about ten seconds after the jutsu was performed. In the same spot, Kemuri once again performed the jutsu, the rods regressing in their spacing, but not to the point they were the first time he used the jutsu, the rods themselves being quite a bit thicker than they were before, and thus tiring Kemuri out more than usual. "This can't be a D-rank jutsu, it's much too difficult for that." He said to himself, panting a little as he was tired from the previous battle, the pain in his ribs still rather prominent.

Nearly another half hour after he had finally started to get something out of performing the jutsu, Kemuri was finally beginning to get something that was rather effective, the pillars about a foot thick, and quite tightly packed together. The pillars rose nearly ten meters from the ground and were rather sturdy at this point, capable of withstanding any attacks Kemuri launched at it, which wasn't exactly saying much, but was still enough to hold most of the genin around his level, which was good enough for him. -I hadn't expected to learn a new jutsu today, or to even get into a battle with two others by my side, and lose at that.- He thought to himself whilst he looked over the cage of pillars. While Kemuri was well aware he had not gotten this jutsu to exactly the way he had seen it done by his superior when he was younger, it was quite good enough to hold the kinds of people he was likely to be fighting at his level of skill. Being satisfied with the level that this jutsu were currently at, he would leave the area of the training grounds he was in, making his way towards the exit and beginning to walk towards the village, going down the road that led to the gate, seeing the towering gates not long after departing. While he probably should have made his way to a hospital, he felt it was good enough to simply rest off the fractured ribs. That was reasonable in his mind, and so he made his way through the town, still ignoring the vendors which had tried to acquire his attention for the past several years, and which he frequently stole food from. Upon getting past the vicious vendors unharmed, he would make his way into his small apartment and onto his bed where he would rest for the rest of the day and night, trying to get his ribs to heal as fast as possible. As he lied down, he would note the fact that his progress today had been essentially more than he had ever done before, all in a single day. It was strange to him how fast he had been progressing lately, almost as if he had never even been trying before.

(Exit)

Word count: 3412
Obtained: Earth Release: Rock Pillar Prison, +17 stat points

Ryusei slowly got to his feet, a couple of minutes after both Kenshin and Kemuri had left the training grounds they were in. As Kemuri got up and walked to a different part of the training grounds, Ryusei went and picked up all his equipment. He had a lot of pocket change at the moment but not enough that he would want to waste money wantonly. He picked up the equipment he had used, carefully stashing them back into his weapon pouches. After that, he tried to reset what he could of the training field back to normal. This took a little while. Wincing, he walked over to Tank Akimichi, the part of his body where Kenshin's hair had hit him hurt, there was probably a bruise, though he did not believe that anything was broken.

He looked around, neither of the other two ninjas seemed to be returning to the particular training ground. He would not feel as awkward talking to Tank Akimichi then. He walked over to the fallen ninja. He sat down on the ground next to the muscular guy. "Say, have you been assigned to a genin team? If not, well, Kenshin seemed to be entertaining the idea of grouping up with me, perhaps because of my clan abilities. Needless to say, the feeling is mutual, I think I can hardly be blamed for that..." Ryusei laughed loudly, pausing midway to wince in pain again. "Anyways, he did not know very many people here, and suggested that I look for potential partners. What do you think? Wanna partner with us?" Ryusei gave off a big grin.

If Tank Akimichi attempted to rise, Ryusei would extend a hand to help him up. By this time Kenshin would be coming back, and Ryusei woudl see whether Tank Akimichi needed help getting back. If such, he would try to get Kenshin Uchiha to help Tank Akimichi back, explaining that he himself wanted to practice a jutsu or two before leaving, since he was at the training grounds already.

(ooc: I know Kenshin Uchiha is fairly strong but it would look really funny to have a normal looking guy with a slightly tallish, skinny guy over one shoulder, and a small hulk over the other)

(total wc: 6765, +339 = 7104)

Approving Kenshin and Kemuri's exits and stats/training.

Tank would continue to lay on the ground for a while starring up at the mostly clear sky. While he laid there he could clearly hear Kemuri and Kenshin leave the immediate area to do whatever they were of to do. Soon enough though he could hear what sounded like training going on in the distance. Mostly it sounded like rumbling thunder that was far off in the distance. Tank only assumed that because of the sound someone was performing earth type jutsu over and over. Feeling a bit better after the long rest he has had Tank would begin to sit up. He was still feeling pretty sore, but not nearly as much as before. As he began to sit up he could see Ryusei also getting up slowly and begin to head over toward him. Taking Ryusei's hand as he offered it to help him up Tank would stand all the way up. Listening to Ryusei then speak of wanting to form a squad between himself, Tank, and Kenshin Tank thought for a moment before answering. "Yeah I guess I'm in." Then suddenly the sky would begin to darken and Tank looked up in confusion. "What just happened? It was a perfectly clear day not even a few minutes ago." Feeling tiny drops of rain begin to fall on him Tank sighed a bit and decided it was time to go home for the day. He turned to Ryusei and said "I'm going home for the night. I guess I'll see you around." Tank then began walking his way toward the dirt path that led back to the village and left the training grounds.

[Exit]
[WC 5,209]
[+26 stats]