Team Seven Decide on a Mission! (Sakaiza, NK)

Nobu had not expected his opponent to rush in and go on the aggressive like he had. Nothing had pointed to such a move in his prior style, so Nobu couldn’t have predicted such and didn’t feel too bad for this miscalculation. A mistake like that could spell doom on a true battlefield though, and Nobu would keep this in mind for future references.
 
Sakaiza moved so incredibly quickly that it was very difficult to keep track of him as he rushed in for an attack. Nobu still had little hope for besting him with standard techniques, so he would still try to strike him with the Evening Elephant, hoping to stop the Hyuuga’s assault. Just as Nobu would launch the attack Sakaiza would launch one of his own to counter, their moves each colliding with a fierce impact. This had sent them both flying backwards several feet. Nobu, whose strength had started to fail him landed face first in the sand again. His breathing was heavy as he slowly began to rise.
 
“How… can it be….?” Nobu would barely manage to get out, “How is he…. Able to dodge or counter… all of my strikes?” Then it dawned on Nobu, and the thought had crushed him from the inside out. Sakaiza wasn’t even going at him maximum, that much could be seen from the many times he had not pressed his advantage and from the speed at which he had approached just a moment ago. Sakaiza had been toying with him, like what an older sibling might do with a younger one. If he had been going all out on Nobu, this would have likely been over from the beginning. Despite all of his training and hard work, it still wasn’t enough to compare. He had thought that he was a true shinobi, but maybe he was still a kid playing at being a ninja. His smile from the spar had vanished, a cold look on his face.
 
Dark thoughts and feelings began to flood into Nobu’s mind.
 
The first feelings that came were disappointment in himself. He was unable to best Sakaiza in this spar, and they had only been using Taijutsu. How could he protect himself or those he cares about? How was he destined to be the best Taijutsu master ever if his skills weren’t able to compare to that of those around him? If he couldn’t best Sakaiza at the only thing he was skilled at, what did he really bring to the team?
 
….You’re power is insignificant….
….You are pathetic, lying there on the ground….
….You are too weak to best him. How could you ever best your inner demons?....
 
The Seven Tailed Beast trapped within would use this opportunity. Using these negative feelings, those of anger and misery, Nanabi would begin trying to force its chakra into Nobu in order to release itself from its containment.  A strange hissing sound would emerge from within Nobu, easily heard by Sakaiza.

Almost in an instant Nobu’s face went from the cold, emotionless state it was in to a scowl. Anger replaced many of his thoughts now. Rage was slowly beginning to consume him. Each of his heavy breaths now would release large clouds of silvery mist, this chakra swirling about him rapidly and violently. The most frightening this was his eyes, though. There was a strange look in them now, almost a fierce savagery that Sakaiza had never seen before. They were no longer his own eyes, but those of Nanabi within.  A silvery aura could now almost be seen around Nobu as the chakra began to try and take over. What looked almost like a horn would begin to form….
 
Nobu is starting to lose it, but an image of Koroshi forms in his mind appearing before him. “You are in control of it, not the other way around” he would say to the young Jinchuuriki. “Remember, Nanabi’s power can level an entire city. You wouldn’t want SUna to be destroyed would you?” The image asks this with a sincere look of worry on his face, “The people of Suna are like one big family, and I don’t want anything bad to happen to them. That includes you, Nobu.” This caused Nobu to change his thoughts, from the dark thoughts of before to happier thoughts. Thoughts of those he had learned to care about. People like Koroshi, Giichi, even his sparring partner Sakaiza. Nobu didn’t want to see anything bad happen to them, and so he would try his hardest to control the beast.
 

Clutching his head, Nobu screams loudly. He drops to his knees and buckles over as he attempts to force Nanabi from pushing itself out any farther. The powder chakra stops pouring from his mouth and the aura rapidly begins to fade into nothing. His whole body hurt, a burning sensation felt everywhere. Looking up to meet Sakaiza’s gaze, Nobu would stand and turn his head to break eye contact. “You go ahead and decide on the mission. I need some time….alone. Let me know when Giichi has completed his training and we’re ready to do this mission. Hopefully I’ll feel a bit better by then…..” With this said Nobu begins to walk off towards the village, ending their encounter with a few words, “And Sakaiza…. It would be best to keep what you just saw to yourself. Please.” 




(WC:898)
(Listening to anything Sakaiza says and exiting thread)
Total WC: 4638
Claiming:
Evening Elephant 4250/4250

Remaining 388 WC towards Evening Elephant "Mastery" 388/4250
23 Stats

(Nobu, claim your stats too! @staff, if Nobu doesn't see this message and fails to claim them, I'd like to claim his stats for him. His total word count was 4636 thus he deserves 23 stat points. Thank you!)

Sakaiza, having successfully maneuvered around Nobu's strategy, Sakaiza had finally led his first offensive strike of the spar. Nearing Nobu with his ferocious speed, he lifted his palm up and released the mountain crusher jutsu. The projectile wasn't nearly as strong as what it could have been, or else the results could have been critical to his teammate, and that was the last thing Sakaiza had wanted for Nobu. All he wanted to do was to push Nobu hard to spar to the best of his abilities with him, and it seemed like that's exactly what was happening between the two men. Nobu seemed to release a technique, that may have been relatively new to him, just as Sakaiza did. And when both of the genin had met each other with their new techniques, the results would be staggering. Upon contact, Sakaiza's mountain crusher sent Nobu flying towards the ground. Combined with the recoil from this projectile blast and the powerful kick Nobu dealt to him, Sakaiza too was hurled towards the ground. As the momentum carried Sakaiza to the ground, he bounced off it once, and then once more before finally sliding a meter back. 

It was the first real damage Sakaiza had taken from the fight, thoroughly humbling him. It seemed as if he had slightly underestimated the true power behind Nobu, for he did not expect a kick of that caliber from his comrade. He smiled a large smile upon taking the impact and leaned out and began to call out to Nobu who was also lying on the ground, "Damn I'm going to feel that tomorrow!" he let out with a laugh until his eyes fell upon his teammate, whose face seemed to house nothing but despair at the time. His Byakugan still active, Sakaiza would notice an imbalance in the flow of chakra from what it was before. It seemed as if it had been increasing as Nobu sat there, reflecting to himself. 

"Hey Nobu, are you alright man? Sorry about that hit, I didn't thi-" he stopped while he began walking over to his comrade. Sakaiza paused because he could see the eyes of Nobu, they were not his, they were those of a demon. His face grew angry and relentless, his head began to sprout a horn. Sakaiza, seeing this knew exactly what it was, "It's as the tales have it huh? When the demon's body is damaged or pushed to its limits, without full control of the demon inside, it can take over." he began to think to himself as he readied his body for what was about to happen. He quickly assumed the defensive Gentle Fist stance, anticipating the demon to fight Sakaiza, not Nobu. Perhaps the intensity of this demon was the reason Nobu refrained from telling Sakaiza and Giichi, but still, something like this was a ticking time bomb that would need to be under control if they were to ever go out on more advanced missions. Otherwise, there would be no telling of the level of destruction to occur. "It must be...one of the tailed beasts...but which one..." he continued to ponder to himself as he braced for what might be attack.

But it wasn't.

Instead, Nobu let out a loud scream, almost as if he was taming the beast yet it was a burden to his body. Maybe Sakaiza shouldn't have pushed Nobu so far, but he didn't think that at this point in the fight the true power would be released just yet. Maybe Sakaiza had pushed Nobu further than what he planned. When Nobu seemed to gain control, he would not seem himself, only a shell of his former self evident in his speech and closedness. But Sakaiza could understand why Nobu might not want to speak to him, perhaps he felt wronged by Sakaiza.

"I'm sorry..." Sakaiza sincerely let out realizing that he likely overstepped his boundaries. "Your secret is safe with me Nobu, I'll see you tomorrow, eh?" he let out to let Nobu know that Sakaiza really didn't have bad intentions and still cared for his teammate. However Nobu would only continue to walk away from his teammate, leaving him hanging.

Sakaiza brushed himself off and walked over to the mission board and found the academy training mission that he had initially suggested to Nobu. He read over it again, then grabbed the flyer along with another one and started on his way home.

[Exit]

(Total WC: 4,831 = 24 Stat points; Also claiming Eight Trigrams: Mountain Crusher )

Edited. Sorry Aki!