Young Swords Meet (P. Jai)

A girl could be seen standing near the training grounds of the Kirigakure. Unlike most days where she usually kept to herself, she decided that she would have to hold up some sort of appearance and make occasional trips to the actual training grounds so that she could somehow get recognized by other shinobi and possibly become a part of a genin team lead by a higher ranking shinobi. That was the second step in her circumstances, right? Momo was sort of confused by the whole shinobi system implemented in the village, but a t least she was learning, or so she thought. Momo’s intentions were still clear in her head, however she needed to continue to make other perceive her how she planner or else her future plans wouldn’t be able to fall through. No one in the village had taken the chance to know her yet, maybe it was her fault. She never really was good at making new friends or acquaintances for that matter. Momo winced in pain, not physical pain, but emotional, as she thought of the events that had occurred in her past. They really had changed her. She had been so innocent up until then. To go from a girl with the slightest clue of how to really live in the real world by herself to a wanted murdered who was responsible for taking the lives of a famous crime clan some ways away from the New Kirigakure. Lucky for Momo, the most valuable asset she has is the fact that she has the appearance of an innocent girl, although there was nothing really that innocent about her. Her innocence was left where he parents were killed and it still remains there as a bad memory.
 
Momo was able to evade her fate by simply recoloring her hair from white to black. Giving her an entirely new identity. Also, by acting in certain ways she is able to deceive others. However, what was her overlying mission? For now, it was simply to gain as much knowledge and strength as possible and continue to work on wielding her sword. After all, Momo was still a blank slate waiting to be seriously influenced, all that was left was her underlying obsession with swords, other than that she was free to walk down any path she choose.
 
The reality of it all was weither or not Momo would become a true beacon of hope for the Kirigakure, or would the village repute her like the last and cause her to choose a dirrent path to walk down? For now, Momo would lean towards the path of a righteous shinobi looking only to gather strength so she could rise through the ranks, proving to herself that she was capable of such a thing. Her main goal: to become the best swordsman that ever lived. How exactly would it all play out? Momo was still unsure.
 
In Momo’s possession was a rather heavy book, her jutsu encyclopedia. She would need to master its contents before even thinking of moving onwards to more difficult tasks. Coming from a line of hard workers, Momo understood how important it was to actually start from the bottom up, understanding every little thing was necessary. It helped avoid conflict in the future by making small mistakes that could have otherwise been avoidable.
 
Momo was beginning to enter the training grounds. It was around 11AM on a Sunday. This time of the week, no one was around so it made Momo feel a bit more comfortable. She didn’t like being in large crowds. Momo took a deep breath as she entered the training grounds. In her sight she could see a large open area next to a large body of water. A perfect place to train all sorts of thigns. Logs littered the training area, most likely used by others for training purposes. Momo walked over to a tree stump and sat down, crossing her legs. Momo’s jet black hair which was tied in a ponytail moved slightly in the breeze. There was a small forecast which dropped occasional drops of water, but it never transpired into a full on down fall of rain. The sun was being blocked by clouds which made her attitude kind of bleak, however she was still finding motivation within herself to begin todays training.
 

Momo pulled out the jutsu and encyclopedia and began flipping through it. She was wearing the bottom of a robe and a black shirt. The robe bottom was dark blue. She was wearing two ninja weapon pouches as well. Tucked in the belt that was holding her robe bottom up was a scroll as well. Momo continued to flip through till she came to a page with the words. “Mark Seal” written on it. “What’s this?” Momo would ask herself as she continued to read. She figured out that it was a way of tracking people. Momo figured such a technique could definitely be useful in the future. She continued to read intently, however he concentration would be broken if someone new entered the scene.
TWC: 850

Momo’s attention was broken when she heard the voice of a boy. She could have sworn she was alone, however what came out of his mouth didn’t do anything but annoy her. “I hope that wasn’t directed at me” Momo thought as she continued to stare intently at her book. Momo didn’t know whether to feel insulted or not, but for some reason it had gotten on her nerves. The boy then said he was kinda trying to sleep. “That’s odd. Sleeping at the training grounds.” Momo said aloud to the boy which turning to acknowledge him. She knew that the voice was most likely of a ninja of the same ranking because of the fact that he was actually trying to nap in plain sight near the training grounds. Momo decided to mess with him a little bit. She then began reading the book out loud, louder than she had pronounced the word before. She did this directly to annoy him.
                                                                                          
The reason why Momo did not pay him any attention was because she knew that she now had friends in the shadows. If the boy of whatever rank he was, were to try to do something, Momo had some belief that Yazu would appear and protect her, not that she needed saving, especially if was just a Genin as well.
 
Momo had a change of heart and postponed trying to annoy him only momentarily. She then called out to the boy once more, “Are you going to sleep all day and fall behind or are you going to come down here and learn something new?” Momo poked at the boy hoping that he would join her. She had to admit, she was becoming lonesome now that she had started her quest here in Kirigakure and could use some company. She waited for him to join her patiently.
TWC: 1166

Momo heard the boy fall off of the roof. She immediately turned to witness the ending. It made her giggle. The boy quickly got up and tried to play it off, but it was too late. He had already humiliated himself.
 
“What do you know?” Asked the boy.
 
Momo replied with a smirk, “That you are lazy….and clumsy.” Momo would joke at him. The boy then stated that Momo appeared to be a Genin. He was correct. He also went on to saying that he was one as well. “Interesting” Momo thought to her self-eyeing the boy to see what he was made of. Momo couldn’t quiet tell what his true intentions were. She would have to get to know him more. He then inquired of her what kind of jutsu and techniques she knew. Momo stopped and thought. “Well, most of everything I know is in this book.” Momo showed the boy, offering him it to look at, however she did not move from her position on the tree stump. If he wanted to see it, he would have to go to her.
 
“Well, for starters I know mostly low tier jutsu, how about yourself?” Momo asked. The boy also asked what her specialty was and what kind of shinobi she wanted to be.
 
“What’s with all the questions?” Momo thought to herself. She figured she was just as intrigued to meet her as she was to meet him. Momo didn’t normally get along with someone this easy, they were a perfect match.
 
“I’m going to be the best swordsman the shinobi world has ever seen. That is what I want to be. Silly huh?” Momo would ask halfheartedly trying not to sound too ridiculous, but as crazy as it sounded, it was exactly what she wanted to be.
 
Following her words, the boy would disappear before her eyes. “The shunshin no jutsu” Momo thought to herself, thinking back to when Yazu had taught her such a technique. He then reappeared right next to her and spilled his guts. He introduced himself as “Jai Huangjinjia” and that he wanted to be a part of a new generation of legendary swordsmen of the mist. He also stated that he was going to go out on a quest in search of a lost sword and return it to the hidden mist. “Legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist? Kubikiribocho?” Momo thought to herself. She was totally lost. Did such thing exist?
 
“Who are these swordsmen you speak of? And what is this kubikiribocho?” Momo asked the boy who surprisingly had a similar goal. The two had instantly clicked, sharing the goal of becoming powerful swordsmen. The two did not know it yet, but they would become great friends pursuing a similar goal.
 
“Well Jai, looks like we have the same goal.” Momo smiled and held out her right hand in order to make a handshake. “Looks like we are going to be friends and rivals from here on out.” Momo would say smiling at him. Momo had just gained her first friend. She knew without a doubt the two of them would achieve great things in the future.
 

“So what do you say? Should we do some training?” Momo asked the boy awaiting his symbol of friendship in the form of a handshake.

TWC: 1717

The boy reached out to her and grabbed her hand. The boy then asked her for her name. She had forgotten to mention it. “Oh, uh. My name is O-Ren Ishii Momochi, but you can just call me Momo.” She took a breath. “It’s nice to meet you Jai.” Their hands parted ways and then the boy sat down, crossing his legs and placing his elbows to his knees. He seemed to be pondering something. The boy then began to speak for what seemed a long time. Momo was almost lost in a trance while she listened to his tail of the seven great ninja swordsman of Kirigakure.
 
Momo sat down next to him in a similar fashion. The more he spoke, the closer she got, her eyes wide and eager to learn more. She immediately noticed that the man he spoke of had the same name as her. Weird, they must be in some sort of distant relation. That must be why Momo was so inclined to using swords. Momo then went on to listen about how Zabuza was one of the swordsmen and his sword possessed special powers that allowed for it to regenerate if ever damaged or broken. Interested. Momo wanted to know more about the other swords now.
 
Now that he was finished, Momo had the chance to to ask questions. “That’s weird we have the same last name. Do you think there is any coincidence?” Momo asked. She wondered about the man named Zabuza. “Was Zabuza a great warrior?” Momo would ask, leaning forward even more.
 
Once he answered her questions, the boy then went on to admitting that they did indeed have the same goals and that they should train together. He also said that they should revive the Seven Swordsmen in the new Kirigakure. Momo liked that idea. It made her jump to her feet and held a thumbs up out to him clearly enthusiastic about the whole ordeal.
 
“Well Jai, now that were going to be the new generation of the Seven Swordsmen of Kirigakure, it looks like we have a lot of training ahead of us.” Momo joked. “If we are going to be great swordsmen, we have to have swords so we can practice until we journey to find the ones you speak of, if they’re even still around.” Momo stopped her thought abruptly. “Do you have a sword Jai?” Momo blinked as she inquired.
 
Whether he did or not, Momo would remove a small scroll from her ninja weapon pouch positioned behind her back. She would open the scroll and perform the hand seal which produced her katana. The sword was beautiful. It was a black glossy color and had cherry blossoms engraved into the hilt and sheath. Momo would catch the sword with both hands as it spawned in a puff of smoke.
 

“This is my sword. My dad gave it to me before he died. Isn’t it beautiful?” Momo took great pride in her sword and it was all that was left of her past life, before training to become a shinobi of the Kirigakure.

TWC: 2235

Jai still sat, folding his arms thinking over this short conversation. Little Momo took out a nice sword, erasing every other thought that was on Jai's mind. It was quite nice with a classic scabbard and pommel of a primped and proper samurai's daughter. A beautiful weapon for a superficially average girl. He didn't think he'd meet someone so much like himself out of nowhere. Especially since she messed up his nap earlier. Thinking about the nap, Jai lets out a big yawn, stretching his arms as he slowly rose to his feet. Bending side to side, getting in a good stretching after his great nap. 




She posed the question to Jai about if he had a sword. "I was taking a good Sunday nap, but since you woke me. I wanted to get in 5 hours but I guess 3 is enough. Now is a good as a time as ever to start smithing my blade then", said Jai as a let out a grin, as he was sure that little Momo never heard of the Huángjīnjiǎ family and their blacksmithing skill, being that they migrated from a far away land 4 short years ago, back then the village was still Shimagakure. Jai walked over to a tree that was back closer to the building that he was resting on earlier, grabbing his huge backpack, coming back to where Momo was standing. Jai snatched out lots of materials, laying them out carefully. A big hammer, metal grip prongs, very thick leather gloves and many other rather peculiar items were being pulled from this bag by the bronze-skinned shinobi. Jai finally pulled some sort of tall, heavy metal pot out of his pack, running it over to a nearby pond to fill it with water. He slowly totted it back to the spot all his things were laid out. And he sat back in the same place he was originally at, all his supplies placed properly, looking up to his friend. "I don't know why you share a last name with the "Demon of the Mist" but he was truly a great swordsman. I don't know what to say about his integrity, as he defected from his village all those centuries ago."




With a few small long, thin blocks of cast iron and a hammer laying in front of him, Jai laid the long blocks in a stack of three, picking up the hammer & ramming them with a loud Ding, as Jai begin blowing fire out of his mouth, little by little, heating up the iron, trying to fuse the metal and refine them, creating steel. 




Sweat slowly began to run down Jai's face as the heat around him smoldered, the metal on the sheets becoming a glowing orange as Jai continuing to bang on the metal with his hammer, picking up the pace of his assault, sparks blasting off the molten metal as he slapped his hammer on its surface, molding the sheets into one solid form. One consistent construct. Jai continued blasting his hammer as the sheets slowly began to become one. As the process started to become redundant, Jai placed the hammer to the side, slipping on the thick gloves and picking up the molten metal with both of his hand, exerting great pressure on it on opposite ends, in opposite directions, with each hand, twisting the glowing materials in a flowing, twisted pattern, afterwards, grabbing the twisted metal sheet with the metal prongs and dipping it into the cool water as stream rose, transforming the glowing, twisted sheet to a black mass of twist black material. 




Jai placed the cooled metal on the ground, restarting the process. He slammed the hammer down on the metal, creating a loud Ding once again as he shot some more flames from his mouth so that he could finish smithing this cast. The new twisted sheet, glowing in a fiercer red as Jai banged on its essence with his hammer even more, melding it all together. 


A burning heat caressed his brown skin, scorching it in a manner most comforting, the discomfort of the flames protruding from his mouth, blasted warm air against his lazy body. Sweat dribbled across his cheek as the hammer fell. The weapon in front of him was taking shape beautifully. It should, as smithing refine masterpieces flowed through his veins, literally. The banging continued as a razor sharp  began to be honed to perfection, Jai dunking the weapon in the cool water of the iron barrel, once again as he wiped his forehead.
 
Smiling at the kind girl beside him as he turned, he dipped his head and grabbed a cup he had on his belt. "Thank you, Momo-chan", said Jai enjoying his craft. If it wasn’t for her, he would still be sleeping. She wasn’t a normal girl. Odd one, that lady was. Then again, she'd suffered her fair share in the pain, Jai presumed. Most people in the ninja world do. It was a wonder many still kept their life in running order after losing family and friends to the shinobi life. Or maybe that was why she still on this path. To move on. To find a better life. A new family. Jai was the newest apprentice and worker there, in his parent’s profession, his surname granting him all the prestige he could desire so long as he was within this trade. The well-known bunch, known around the world it seemed, as brilliant weapon-smiths.
He continued to bang out the shape of his weapon, blowing more flames on it before pulling out a patch of leather to sharpen the heated mass, pulling the unsightly, outside crust off of the surface of the blade before dipping it again. He then pulled it out and continues to sharpen it out, rubbing excessively hard in the middle and the edge of the blade. “Ah, this will be a wonderous blade, sharp and true”, said Jai in excitement. “The answer to your question is no, I didn’t have a sword. I’ve been training by myself and in a dojo for the past few months honing my skills as a swordsman and I never really got aroung to making myself a good weapon. I’ve just been using those wooden practice katana a little too long”, finished Jai with a chuckle, speeding up his consistent sharpening. Flipping the creation around the flatten out the dull edge as well. An hour had passed without a  sign of change as Jai stayed focused on the task at hand, picking up an ivory wood piece and placing the new form blade into it new pommel,  polishing it with oils so it could shine & harden, placing into a scabbard created from the same fine, ivory wood, polishing it as well. Once with of the wooden compartments were finished, Jai sheathed his new weapon into its rightful place to make sure it fits.
Perfect
Jai then unsheathed the weapon once more to carefully polish on its finish, as he makes the last checks on his new weapon, wrapping up his crafting of a sword right before Momo’s eyes. The young swordsmen finally packs all of his items back into the huge pack, getting up on his feet, smiling at Momo to show her his new blade.


[word count  2526]

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