Title of the topic [Open]

Daiko decides to follow the more calm of the twins, to the academy. He doesn't know how a ninja academy would be in a village where ninjas aren't allowed, but he doesn't ask questions. He walks down the path, kicking small stones and pebbles around in boredom.

"So, what is at the academy, anyway?"

They came across the building fairly quickly, plot convenience putting them only a short walk away from the sanctuary for ninja. Sure enough, the streets would open up towards the back of the spiraling village, specifically on the left side and there ninja housing and an academy would sit. "Alright. So um. Big thing about this village is they didn't allow ninja of any sort for a long long time. Even with us being allowed in the village hidden in the stars the locals.... they just dont take too kindly to our style. We can never do ninja like things in the main area of the village. It's reserved for outside the village and here." AND THE HIDDEN oh, why do i even try readers why do i even try. It is with despair that I inform you all there is of course a second spot in the village that is safe for ninja. Unfortunately it's hidden and to date the girls have not found it. "I brought you here so we could talk freely without freaking anyone out."


Meanwhile..


The rhythmic tink tack of the hammer against orange hot Steel filled the air around them, Proof that Ash could work for things if she wanted to. odly enough she'd learned the finer points of blacksmithing from two simple sources. The first was of course a book explaining the basics that she'd read in the library that one time her sister forced her to spend the entire afternoon bored out of her mind while she studied up on ninja techniques. Couldn't pay me enough to narrate that one again readers. never. The second was, and it pains me to say this... But that one episode of game of thrones where they're tempering steel. Photographic memory. its disgusting. The edge of her masterpiece looked like it was getting close to finished, not quite sharp of course but tapered down to hold and edge. With each loud whack of her hammer the metal came one step closer to the important part.... the blade formation. She had to think back almost a year to the one time she'd seen the queen of cosplay perform a large skit in the center of amekagure. Her photographic memory could tell you the particular hue of the girls eyes, but she'd focus her attention on more important endeavors. The blade in Aios' puppet's hand had shone extra brgithly that day, the far too long for the small girl to actually wield weapon was a masterpiece. A masterpiece she wanted to emulate.

She was certain that even after the steel cooled and held edge there was still work to do. thankfully she'd skimmed that book on fuinjutsu that one time in third grade. I cant even make this stuff up. She understood the basics, which would be enough to emulate the seals she'd seen flow across the blades edge. the first was of course something to make it lighter. this was neccessity considering both her own and the cosplay queen of Amekagure's size. After that was the strange ability the weapon possessed. That would take some time to decipher. By time i literally mean probably twenty seconds. I hate this girl.

(1484)

Daiko follows the sane girl all the way up the path, revealing both the ninja academy and where he presumed he was to be training. The village hidden in the stars. It looked more like a forest than anything. Looking at the academy, he noticed a simple training ground, as well as what appeared to be a building where jutsu was taught. The building looked pretty basic, being made out of what looked like brick. The doors looked unlocked, but Daiko decided not to go inside. Instead, he turned to the girl next to him and begain his barrage of questions toward her. 

"This village seems very strange... We are ninja, yet we are not allowed to show it in the main square of the village? I don't understand..." He looks at the ground, kicking a small rock. "Of course, It doesn't matter much to me. It's not like I'm going to be shooting fireballs off in the main village" He smiles, looking at the girl. "I would, but I have yet to learn how to work with fire."

After saying that, he attempts to rub his hands together, creating friction. This heats up his hand, and he tries to make a little fire on his hand. Nothing happens. Sighing, he shakes his hand a bit more, trying to get it to heat up. Once again, nothing happens. Frowning, Daiko gives up for the moment. Looking over at the training fields, he points. "I kinda want to see what training we can get done over there. Think you could help me out with some of it?"

[266]
[[1079]]

"well yes. It comes from the culture of Hoshikagure. Ninja have only actually been in and around this village within the last year or so I believe. I was sent here with quite a few refugees of the village destructions going on. My home was destroyed. With the entrance of ninja things got kind of tense. Hoshi from my understanding of history has always been kind of this peaceful trading village. They accept the protection with the terrors going on lately but.... They're kinda biased to ninja ways because to them ninja equal danger. " She'd nod to his second statement taking up a spot a short distance away to begin wahtever he needed to do.

Daiko nods, walking over to what looked like logs jutting out of the ground. Upon seeing this, he would stand about 10 meters away, holding a kunai in his right hand. "I think I'm going to start by practicing my aim.." the ninja then focuses on the log, and gets into position. Attempting to hit the log's center, he throws, but his balance is off. The kunai ends up scraping the side of the log slightly and landing on the ground next to it. Slightly embarrassed, he takes a shuriken out of his weapon pouch and attempts a similar endeavor. 

Daiko takes the shuriken between his fingers, and attempts to throw it spinning into a log. The shuriken goes flying through the air, and fails to make it's mark similarly to the kunai. He closes his eyes and rubs his temples. "As you can probably tell, I'm not the best at this..." He sighs. Rather than continue failing at what he was doing, he goes to retrieve the two projectiles he had failed at throwing. Consumed by rage, he punches the log with anger, feeling a strange heat when his fist connects to the base of the log. Afterward, he notices a small bit of ash on his knuckle, along with a black marking where he had hit the log. Putting two and two together, he had figured that fire was like anger? or maybe had just got lucky. Either way, the man behind the screen was having trouble deciding how he would end up training fire for Daiko. 

Daiko then walks back over to the young lady, and blinks at her once. "So.. Do you have any tips on throwing stuff? I could definitely use some help, I doubt i'll be able to figure it out on my own."

[300]
[[1379]]

"Hm? Oh um. sure." It was wierd for rei to find someone who actively wanted to improve his ninja skill, even if it was at a base level. It was refreshing and brought a smile to her pale pink lips. She simply watched for a few minutes, studying his technique. She watched as he pulled back, a slight shift in the weapons position causing them to wobble slightly in the air. It was an easy fix.

"Hey. Um actually " The girl felt awkward trying to give him pointers. Who was she to tell another ninja how to do something. She clammed up almost immediately, simply watching once more in silence as he retrieved the two projectiles, allowing his anger to overtake him. When he finally actually asked the girl would look up, her awkward stance shifting to excitement. "Yea. It looks like you're allowing them to slide in your palm before release. See you have to hold tightly until about eighty one degrees. Then you allow the weapon to move and it slides the direction it's needed to go. That should give you less waiver in the throw and allow you to hit your target more effectively. "

Meanwhile...

Sweat poured down the blonde haired girl's face as she brought the hammer crashing down into near molten steel. Sparks flew from every strike, her body now blackened from soot. She didn't notice the door opening as the kind card store owner walked out with two cold glass bottled cokes hooked between his knuckles. "H...where the hell did you learn....... Ash. "

She looked up, smiling at the man and putting down her hammer. In a few bounding steps she crossed the distance to her friend, beaming a smile behind soot plastered eyes. "Hey. Oh my goddess thank you. Forging weapons of terrifying power is so hard on the skin yanno?" She took the cold botle from his hands, reveling in the change from boiling hot to freezing cold. It tasted like heaven.

"Um. Kid where exactly did you learn to do this?!" The surprise on his face made her realize that this probably wasn't a normal thing. She would often forget that her ability to in a moments glance memorize nearly anything was a rare talent considering the only reminder she normally received was glares and quips from her sister.

"Oh yanno. Light reading a few years ago, that one episode of game of thrones. it really isn't as dificult as you'd think." He'd follow as she walked back towards the forge area, setting her drink on a table to her right. "You used to make weapons right? Like before the move. I think I remember you saying you were an expert black smith back in the day." Steel slid back into the burning forge she'd wait, making small talk until the weapon was once more glowing orange. Another ten minutes passed before she finished the craft, dipping the beautiful silver into cold water to temper the steel.

"Um. Yea. I suppose I was pretty good. That is impressive though. The shaping alone is near masterwork..."

(2114)

Daiko looks over at Rei, listening the advice that she was giving him. What she was saying made sense, and he took out another kunai, holding it more firmly in his hand. He moved his arm how he was going to throw it, seeing at what point he was going to release it in order for it to be as effective as possible. Reeling his arm back, he swung the kunai forward, releasing it when he thought he was supposed to. This time, the kunai actually hit the stump, though not perfectly. Lucky for him, the kunai stuck in the log. "Oh! I see what you mean. I'm going to try the shuriken now!" He said, smiling. Pulling out the shuriken, he made sure to grip it tightly between his thumb and forefinger, lining up the shot much like he did with the kunai. He reeled back once more, and threw it. The shuriken spun and stuck into the log, but he felt the shuriken scratch his finger slightly when he had thrown it. Shrugging, he was happy that it went flying at all.

"Ah, I see. I'm going to keep practicing, and hopefully i'll get better." he scratches his head. "I also have senbon with me, but I feel like they'd be much too hard to throw by hand. I'd probably want some kind of device to shoot them for me." He shrugs, wondering if there even is such a thing. If there was, he would be sure to buy one, and if not, sure to make one. Stretching, he looks over to his training companion. "So, do you have any other tips for me?"

[[1665]]

"well yea. Half of weaponry is ensuring that you throw it at the correct angle. See back when I was in the academy I actually spent about a week and a half studying advanced weapon throwing. The strategy is fairly simple if you understand trigonometry but You need to take the important factors into account. " She was showing off her nerdy side, and for once proudly. It was nice to be able to be the focus of convorsation for once.

"They aren't too bad actually, it just takes a bit more concentration on positioning in the hand. See senbon you cant hold like a kunai because they're tipped on both end but they roll off the hand much easier. You just have to use your thumb to hold them in place and then tada. "

meanwhile...


"It's pretty good I suppose. I think my edge work could have been beter. It's horribly misshapen. I would have thrown it out were I not able to fix that in the sharpening. " two steps brought her to where a large sharpening stone and oil set. The can of sword oil was rusted at the top, making it clear years had passed since the last time the old balding man had done work out here. she'd noticed immediately the shop facing, how it didn't seem to invite the crowd he was looking for. The building itself looked more like a run down boutique then a card show, a few posers in the barred windows being the only thing that would hint as to the purpose of the place. It was clear this had been his shop longer then she'd been alive, but with the walls were split from where racks once holding items of all shapes and sizes had been drilled into the posts.

"It's excelent. Theres a minor waiver in the edge near the tip but it's not far enough up to weaken the blade. I'm really really impressed ashareial." He offered assistance, taking the stone from her small hands and running the blade against the rough surface slowly, ensuring the primary formation was perfect. "So what do you do next with this thing?"

"Well. once the edge is sharpened I'll need to start on the dificult part. I need to figure out how to form the seals to give it it's signature ability. Thankfully I got to look at the weapon for aproximately fourty three seconds before the origional wielder was out of sight. "

(2525)

Daiko nods, once again heeding the advice of the girl telling him what to do. Though he was getting tired of throwing things, he decided to throw one of the senbon just for the hell of it. Upon deciding this, he placed one between his thumb and palm, one of the edges going through the space between his pointer finger and his middle finger. Flicking his wrist as he swung his arm, the senbon went flying into the tree stump exactly where he had wanted it. Smiling, he gave himself a mental pat on the back. "Senbon seem to be a bit easier, actually. I bet I could throw more from one hand if I tried." Not like he was going to try, though. 

Stretching out his back slightly, he decides to start experimenting with learning how to use fire. Putting his hands close together, he attempts to channel his chakra into what felt like water. In that instant, his hands became slightly wet, and a small ball of water formed between his hands. He had water down, now he had to try with fire. He put his hands together, focusing his chakra to his hands. Rather than water, he focused what felt like pent up aggression and other emotions, and a small flame appeared between his hands. The flame was barely noticeable, but it was there. He was only able to hold it for about half a minute before the fire went out. But still, he was very happy. He had learned how to use basic fire. Now all he had to do was go through the hell of learning jutsu.

Looking over at Rei, he stretches. "Thank you for showing me this academy. I'm sure that I'll be coming back here to train often." He smiles. "All this training has me pretty hungry though.. Do you know any affordable places around Hoshigakure?" He raises an eyebrow questioningly. He really hoped that there was a place around that would be able to serve up a lot of food for cheap. He was really hungry. That could also be due to the fact that he had not eaten in a few days.

[[2017]]

She made quite the show of taking a few long steps back as he suggesting throwing more Senbon. She'd taken time out of her standard training regimine to work with the different ninja tools she'd be exposed to. Senbon were definitely one of the most useful, though she'd lost the few she'd been able to acquire quite a wile ago. She had horrific memory of the terror attempting to learn to throw multiple senbon. She still had scars. "Maybe... You don't. That's one of those things you want to work on alone so that you dont make your sparring partner into a pin cushion. "

Taking one of her kunai from the pouch at her side she'd turn her back to the wooden target, spinning quickly with her eyes closed to realease the weapon. Due to positioning it'd whiz past Daiko's shoulder, only inches from cutting his shirt. The surprise attack would inevitably send a surge of adrenaline through her partners body, the peak of the energy boost followed immediately by the sound of metal cutting deep into wood. If he turned he'd see the ninja tool burried half way into the log, followed by a Rei beaming with excitement. "Sure. I know a place. " Without waiting she'd head off again, the puppet motioning for daiko to follow.

back into the main village they'd travel, down the large central stree for several blocks before finally Ash would duck into a large building with a sign that read "grilled meats" It was a bar b que diner, the kind where you order your entree raw and cook it on the fire in the center of the table but the prices weren't listed on the doorway. She'd pick a table and sit down, motioning for the waiter to bring her a sampler to start the two off. "This place is delicious and doesn't actually cost that much" She'd say. Of course not that much for Reial was aproximately..... seven grand or so?


Meanwhile.


"Seals. That ninja magic..." HIs lip curled up at the suggestion before he could realize, the man taking great care to shift his sour expression only seconds after. He, like most of the village didn't trust ninja, though this girl was quite different. She seemed to care very little about the dangers of the shinobi world, prefering to relax and enjoy more normal crafts like sewing and rolling small polyhedral dice in order to make a fictional creature in her mind stop breathing so she cuold take money from it. With that in mind he was always careful to calm the snarl he naturally got when speaking of ninja affairs.

"Sorry. I know you don't like it. Just think of it like one of our games." She studied the blade intently, thinking back to the day she'd seen Aios wield the magnificent work of art. her finger tip traced the points where fuinjutsu seals would be placed, following the patern as she remembered it before ever drawing chakra to attempt.

(3025)