Training, Open, No Killing

Zakary awoke with a smile. Today was a big day for the world. That is, if Zakary could live up to his ambitions. He would learn Clone Jutsu today, in one day. He had stayed up later than he should've, planning, thinking, and generally doing things to keep him up. Today he'd learn clone jutsu and maybe substitution as well. Even without Jack, he knew he could. Today was big for other reasons. Today, he'd learn enough jutsu to become a Genin. He'd move from Genin to Chuunin, and then he was a hop a skip and a jump away from becoming a Jounin. Zakary leapt out of bed, grabbed a small rubber ball from his drawer, and started out the door ready to train. 

As he reached the training field, he already decided he'd do well. He had quite a large amount of chakra for just clones. Zakary's main problem would be controlling the chakra. As he signed for a clone, he decided his plan. On his first clone, he leaked only a small amount of chakra into its formation. It appeared unusable, sickly, and disappeared very quickly. On his second try, he put in a much larger amount of chakra. The clone now supported itself, and was capable of movement. Still, however, it was flawed. This clone was very rigid, and it's movements were slow and jerky. That made it useful, but for fewer purposes than he'd intended. Frustrated by his failure to complete his task and overtaken by a lack of patience he kicked the clone to dispose of it and made another one. As he did, he collapsed, losing his breath and a large sum of chakra. "Too much," He gasped, laying on the ground. He released the clone again, but still laid there for a minute after. 
Word Count: 302

Ari was out to train and keep in shape, not so much with a goal in mind for what she wanted to learn, just remaining physically active to keep the pounds at bay. She'd been running circles around Konoha village since daybreak; after ten sets she was on her way to the training grounds to grind out more exercises before stumbling upon a ground-dwelling Academy Student. She wasn't aware of the boy's rank at first glance and could only assume his gender. Ari kept running on the spot as she made some basic inquiries. "What are you doing on the ground? It's only going to make you more tired resting against a hot surface like that in the sun you know." 
 
Serious in tone out of concern for his wellbeing; Ari had trained herself to the point of unconsciousness numerous times in these grounds, so she was in fact being hypocritical. Either way, the boy didn't know her; most people in the village still didn't know Ari despite her involvement with Kurisu. Ari threw her right hand forward, open to accept the boy's so she could lift him to his feet. If accepted, she would tug on his arm in what could only be described as a brutish fashion before dusting his back off with a few slaps. Even meeting strangers, Ari's motherly nature consistently remained prevalent. From her figure it was obvious to most people that she used Taijutsu, simply due to her body's muscle mass and lack of excess fat. "My name's Ari, I'll be doing some work here soon, don't suppose you are too?" She inquired, with a sincere smile; yet, accompanied by a serious and focused gaze.
 
Ari remained vigilant, not knowing who this boy was. She couldn't afford to take any chances on strangers with her position in mind. She remained untransformed, with blonde hair and red eyes, wearing a rough burgundy shirt with short sleeves, accompanied by baggy cargo pants of the same colour and texture. Thick black leather boots with leather laces finished her ensemble of clothing clearly intended to be worn for combat or intense training.

WC: 354

Zakary decided not to mention his failure at a simple jutsu, and go with the assumption that he was resting. "Yeah, but I like the view. Sky's nice." He took her hand, observing the nature behind her actions and her eyes. It didn't mingle well with her smile, but he'd seen the look before. Tensions weren't always low in his house. "My name's Zakary, nice to meet you, Ari. And yes, I did intend on exercising. Though I was also going to work on a jutsu, but I haven't just ran for the heck of it in a while. Just don't leave me behind?" His tone was still childish and sincere in nature, meshing with her motherly being. Zakary was also confident that she'd be able to outrun him easily, given her apparent build compared to his. It was possible to stick in for a longer time, though. He stretched out his legs a bit. This was probably going to be pretty unpleasant for him, but it paid off to get faster.
Word Count: 174

As Jack walked to his usual training spot, he prepared a mental list of what he planned to do. First he would spend some time training his speed, then he would move on to training his chakra. In Jacks mind, these were the most important things to a ninja.  If you had an chakra you could do no jutsu, and if you are slow, you would die before you made your first move in a fight. As he arrived at the training area, he noticed two people were already there. He recognized the one on the ground as Zakary, but didn't know the one helping him up.  Maybe we could train as a group, after all, she seemed to be a genin at least, no way was she an academy student.  As he got closer, he greeted them, and introduced himself, " Hello Zakary, and person I have yet to meet. My names Jack, whats yours?" As he looked who over, he could tell she was mainly taijutsu, and good at it.  Maybe she could help him train a little.


WC 179

Ari nodded at Zakary's comment of the sky, it was easy to appreciate the beauty of something so vast and consistent. "Ahh don't worry, I'm finished with my running for the day.. Zakary, you said? Interesting name, I haven't met anybody with a Z in their initials..." Losing track of her thoughts for a moment, Ari stood bewildered for a moment. "Ah, if you're here to train Jutsu, I might be able to help you. Thing is, I really focus on Taijutsu, so I might not know it unless it's fairly basic." Ari would simply have to wait for the answer, however, a new arrival required some pleasantries. After Jack introduced himself Ari would follow suit.

"Hello to you too, my name is Ari. I'm just waiting on confirmation of what Zakary wants to learn to see if I can offer any assistance." She turned to face the other boy again after introducing herself to the newer arrival.

WC: 156

"I've not met anyone with a name as succinct as yours with as few letters. I'm an Academy student, and I was looking to learn substitution and clone. When you found me, I had gotten mad and used way too much chakra on a clone." Zakary turned to Jack next. "Hey, Jack. Glad you could make it." He made another clone attempt, this time landing much closer to the mark. It was supposed to be something to measure his progress, but instead turned into a reason to practice his substitution. The quality of the clone lead him to believe that he wouldn't need too much more practice with them. Seeing the results made him want to try harder. He poured more chakra into making one more clone. The two moved in a normal fashion, so he decided to move on to his next jutsu. The clones were released, and he smiled brightly. "On to substitution, I guess. Any starter tips, Ari?" Zakary looked up at her almost expectantly, still a kid regardless of lingual intellect. Though his clones weren't plentiful in numbers, he could deal with that over time by increasing his chakra levels. Looking past their lack of quantity, they were perfect from trial and error. 
Word Count: 208

Jack decided to leave them to their conversation, starting his speed training.  He started off fast, getting himself into running, before slowing to a steady jog.  As he ran, he thought about those two.  She was definitely either genin or chuunin, most likely genin, and very strong.  She was definitely taijutsu oriented, and could easily beat himself in a fight.  Zakary on the other hand, was fairly weak, someone who Jack could beat easily.  They would both be useful allies however, even if Zakary was a little weak.  Maybe they could all end up on a team, if Zakary would pass his exams soon.  A taijutsu, a ninjutsu, and a mix of the two.  That would make a nice team indeed.  By now he had finished a few laps and decided to head back over to Zakary and Ari to see what they were doing.  A nice team indeed.

WC 149

Ari listened to Zakary's explanation of his circumstances, nodding to each crucial detail such as his goal and rank. Observing his following attempt at a clone, she was impressed by his quick study of Chakra based techniques. Having never been a natural herself, it was interesting to see someone on the opposite spectrum. Since Zakary already figured out clones, Ari had some confidence they could make progress today. The mere mention of wanting to learn substitution created a nostalgic chill that ran down her spine.
 
An even wider smile spread across Ari's face while she walked over to a dummy. Observing Zakary and the dummy, they were of a similar size. "Right, this'll do." She muttered, grabbing it with both hands and tearing it out of the ground. A cloud of dust followed it, quickly dispersed as she spun the dummy onto its side and snapped it in half. "Catch this!" Ari yelled, throwing the top half of the dummy towards Zakary. She didn't put more force than necessary behind it, and it was fairly light wood, kept in place by planting it deep in the ground. Ari kept the bottom half to herself for a specific reason.
 
Once Zakary figured out to catch or pick up the half she threw to him, she would speak again. "You're going to substitute with that half when I throw this at you, focus your Chakra; you've got twenty seconds while I wind up." Ari cracked her neck side to side and wound her right arm with the dummy's lower half in hand. Taking the stance of a pitcher she waited for the time to run out. Brute Force, the name of this method; many applied it to their training rituals when meeting a wall they couldn't get over. She took a moment to notice the other boy's running speed; it was what she'd expect from an Academy Student, and no higher.
 
Being slow lead to the death of many ninja, something you couldn't afford to have attributed to you if you intended to survive; at least, this was Ari's opinion. "Ah!" She exclaimed, focusing on Zakary's position and preparing to throw. She would take three steps forward before launching the dummy's lower end at him, leaving a gap of twenty meters between them. Ari's regular throwing speed was considerably fast, but she held back and threw the dummy at a speed of fifty. Surely within the boy's reaction time, he just had to substitute himself with the half he'd been given, or suffer a day on the bench.
 

It wouldn't kill him in any scenario, as it was a light wood. However, the force upon impact could knock him out, hence the only concern she had was whether or not he'd have to be carried somewhere afterwards. Ari watched intently to see if this method would be successful, she had complete faith in his ability to control Chakra; especially after seeing him figure out the clone Jutsu in such a short span of time. The other boy would hopefully not interfere, as that would only delay Zakary's progress, and it was his choice to start his own activity instead of spending time with them training.

WC: 533

[size=39]Zakary made a strangled noise of surprise. He caught it, moved it around, got used to the shape and weight. "Substitute with it..." He murmured, thinking about the rubber ball he had. It would have been much better, at least, for a longer practice. Though, he had to admit that this was a good impromptu idea. She now had a standard to live up to. Plus, he'd actually have to succeed this time. If he didn't, there was a little pain involved. It was an incentive, and one that would make him work. His twenty seconds were almost up. Zakary started to manipulate his chakra. Three. He spread it evenly through him. Two. A quick thought back to what he knew about the jutsu. One. He followed the dummy turned projectile on its path, prepared to substitute, and used the chakra he'd gathered just as easily as he'd done with the clone. Prepared to fail as he had with the clones, he braced for impact only to hear a dull thud from the dummy's reunion with its other half. Both pieces promptly fell on him, but inflicting no harm. Zakary pushed them off with a triumphant look. It was only his first go, but he'd done it. Admittedly, he'd barely went two feet back, but still he couldn't help but think that this was easier than he'd thought. After standing, he brushed himself off and said, "I want to try a couple more times. That was way too close to comfort, if it were anything harmful I'd be toast." This thought didn't erase his smile. Maybe he could accomplish those goals sooner than he'd thought.[/size]
[size=39]Word Count: 275 [/size]

As Jack watched them train, he couldn't help but be a little impressed.  This kid is learning just as fast as I did, he thought to himself.  He gave a short applause for the first time performance, getting ready to speak. "Nicely done, considering it was your first try.  You too with the whole idea to use the dummy for everything.  Maybe you could teach him to surface walk too, since he seems able to finish this soon." As Jack finished his sentence, he focused his chakra into his feet and started walking up a tree nearby, to give an example.  "I don't suppose you're much for ninjutsu? I could teach him a few things afterwards, and you can show him how to pull off triple backflips and such. Sound good to you two?". As he finished, he began running up the tree, up till the top, and stood there, holding himself up by his feet.
WC 156