Make a man, out of you (Shouhei)

"Hey kid," Shina called out, dodging the Genin's latest attack as easily as side-stepping it. She knew she had more speed than he did but that was not why he was losing. It wasn't even because she was making him work to land even one hit - much. No, the weaver's boy was losing because he was only focused on himself and her. A target took up all his attention to the extent where he wasn't utilizing his surroundings, an error that could cost him his life out on the field.

"Here's a clue, you're a ninja," she half teased, half taught, her tone light but the gravity in it unmistakable. "Stop trying to tackle me with Taijutsu moves and come at me with a ninjutsu, those have better ranges and affect an entire area rather than a singular target." The brunette waited for the ryo to drop, but if it did not she added. "It means you have a better chance of hitting me."

With that, the brunette flash stepped away from him, not giving him a chance to process the information and form a line of attack. The way she saw it, she was already being plenty helpful. After disrupting his training session with Princess Tehniyat's little boyfriend, Shina had jokingly offered to train the kid. Little did she know someone had decided to hold her accountable. That someone was going to pay when Shina found out who they were.

Still, she had a job to do, two hours of training with newly minted Genin Shouhei Sato and well, two hours of breaking down a kid were not the worse two hours of her life. They were only forty minutes in and the kid had worked up a decent sweat, all without Shina having to do little more than dodge. Either his head was just not in the game or he just wasn't very skilled. The Jounin wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and think he was distracted, which simply meant she had to hit him harder to make him focus.

Pain built character anyway.

"Once again, with feeling," she smirked, waiting for Shouhei to try a different means of attack.

Well this wasn’t the kind of training he was expecting from this very beautiful and delicate looking (or her face at least), woman he had requested for training. Not out of nowhere of course, but by taking up her offer from not so long ago. Maybe a few days ago. Also, while his first impression was like that of a loves truck looking teenager who acted embarrassed, that quickly went away when they took up the training. Having overcome his original reactions to her beauty, he was stern and serious about what they were doing exchanging few words even as she taunted him.

Now before he would forget, the kind of training he had expected was the old age tradition of teaching a student how to dodge. However, she had reversed his expectation and instead made it so he had to catch her. It was troublesome indeed, as she did not give him an opening. Not one. To add to that, he thought they weren’t about to destroy the area around them, so he had intentionally not used any ninjutsu. In addition, because she hadn’t really said what they were training hence he had just used taijusu as the default. Admittedly, that also had to do with him being an unskilled genin who couldn’t do much beyond taijutsu. “Such a demanding mistress. No wonder Atem listens to what you say like a newly hatched private out of bootcamp.” He shot back at her concerning her remarks about using ninjutsu.

Shouhei had some fortune with the place they were training though. For there was a pond of water, so he could use a certain technique to start his chain of events. Doing the tiger seal at a speed of 12, mist thick enough to not allow any light to come through appeared. While the mist was forming, Shouhei changed his position at a speed of six, so he wouldn’t be caught out in the here and now with an attack. Repositioned, he did another technique with the hand seals of Rat - Dog – Ox at a speed of 12 making a water whip he lunched at her previously known location at a speed of 20 and power of 20. He of course kept quiet as to not reveal his position.

Notes wrote:Word Count: 380.

Shina let out a genuine laugh at the mention of the green chunin. Though Shouhei should know better, on the food chain, he was even lower than Atem, lower and extremely lucky Shina liked playing with her food before eating it. "There's your first mistake," she pointed out before moving away from him. "You were learning from Atem. Really boy? Was there no five year old girl and her dollies free to teach you?" Just as she finished, mist covered the area. It seemed the weaver's boy was finally getting the gist of this training. Better late than never she supposed.

Unable to shunshin, Shina nonetheless had speed to her advantage, speed and chakra sensory, neither of which she needed because no matter how quiet an opponent and how misty the area, a jet of water cutting through was an anvil sized hint, especially one as weak and unrefined as this particular whip. Standing her ground, the fuin user calculated the trajectory before jumping, and then jumping again. As the Genin tried to get her, Shina treated the water whip like a jump rope, resisting the urge to sing children's rhymes along with the action. She wanted to push the boy to his limits, not antagonize him into killing her.

"Cute," she finally finished, skipping the whip one last time before reaching out and, using her own chakra, taking hold of the whip. As the mist cleared, the brunette appeared standing still, the water whip raised in one hand and spinning over her head like an Olympian's ribbon. "Now lets try for sexy."

Dispelling the whip, the water landed directly on both of them, drenching them from head to feet. The jounin had cranked up the training a notch, now he had to attack her while wet and shivering because shinobi barely fought comfortably from their beds.

With how his current mood was, her taunting did not really get Shouhei. Had he been less alert and battle ready he would have been dumbstruck with how much it reminded him of the playground taunting between the kids. He would have wondered if that were how she was, or if she did it because he was a youngling himself. However, he did know about his position in the food chain. That was not to say that there was nothing wrong with dreaming big and then fighting tooth and nail for your dream, which was what he was doing now.

In any event, he kept attack her and about the time when he was about to come up with another plan, he heard her say something about sexy and he felt his whip being pulled. While he did disband it as soon as he felt the pull, it was too late and he got wet. Probably not as much as she had planned, but his pants were drenched and heavy. It was annoying. Although, his thought quickly went back to her saying “sexy” and was wondering if she had made a dick joke. The phallic symbolism was there definitely in a wet whip made of water, so it could have been.

Looking around as the mist dispersed he smiled to himself. “They say bad weather on your birthday is a sign that you have been naughty and don’t deserve gifts. Makes me wonder if it counts to when you do it yourself.” Looking to where ever she stood now he followed up. “Well it cannot be that bad when the weather allows the first thing your eyes to see is a pretty woman.” He smiles not sure himself where he was going with this other than to be nice towards Shina. Although, the worry that she already were in a relationship and that she would take offense did cross his mind, but sometimes you had to live your life like you were going to die the next day.

Notes wrote:Word Count: 338

The brunette moved backed up a step, falling into her usual battle stance assuming the weaver's boy would come at her with another attack. Her rich brown hair clung to her face, not bothering her beyond an annoyed expression. Maybe she hadn't thought the impromptu shower through, but still, her grey eyes looked at him half curiously as he mentioned it was his birthday.

"Really? And you're out here training with me when you should be out doing what good little boys do on their birthdays?" Whatever it was. Shina herself didn't have a birthday, nor had she bothered giving one to herself. Her roommates had taken it as an invitation to surprise her once a year on a random day with disgustingly sweet cake and entirely too loud a party for just three people. Really, the kunoichi could not be faulted for just getting up in the middle of the night one day and committing half conscious manslaughter.

"Or do you not have any friends? Is that why you were training with Atem?" once again, the contempt was clear in her voice, contempt and pity if all he had to hang out with was Princess Tehniyat's little bitch.

The fuin user relaxed her battle stance somewhat when it looked like Shouhei was no longer in the mood to attack, however he certainly seemed to be in the mood to get beat up, on his birthday too, what a shame. But then again, boys were never all that smart. As he called her "a pretty women," the kunoichi stepped closer, her lush full lips curled in a sneer. The young woman stopped so close to him, he could probably feel her breath on his skin as she spoke.

"Call me that again, and there won't be enough left of you for your parents to cry over, kid."

Moving away to let him digest the full effect of the threat, she knelt down, siting cross legged on the drenched grass. They were wet and no longer training so she might as well sit. The jounin did not invite him to sit beside her but the patch of grass was empty anyway, and it was a free country, or she'd been told. "How old are you anyway. Going to the bar with your old man for a pint later?"

”You really got too much time on your hands.” Was his go to respond to her taunting Shouhei about being weak. Whether it was the taunt of him about not having any friends or whichever she came up with.

He was about to respond him not having had a birthday celebration (I guess he wasn’t completely immune to her taunting), but then she zoomed in on him with a very unwomanly snarl on her lips. He of course jumped on a startled motion backwards before changing his stance as if she was going to attack. Well, she did, but not in the way, he had expected her to do. Rather, she was one big stick away from being a mafia enforcer or mafia princess with the thread she threw out. Shouhei wasn’t quite afraid, but he wasn’t in the mood to shoot something back at her either.

However, as a fun fact, one of the things that came into his mind was that she sounded like she belonged to one of the more murderous villages that Shouhei couldn’t for the life of him remember the name of. Alternatively, maybe it was just blockaded and nothing came out – he couldn’t really know being a lowly genin when all he knew was from travelling merchants who had a rumor here and there.

In any event, all he said after she had sat down – his hands in his pockets and still standing the same place – were the following. “That’s already taken care of. Well we didn’t go out and drink, but I meant if you had really been so tough and mean as you suggested.” He took his hands out of his pockets in case he gave her any ideas. “You would have seen the content of the celebration. The ox roast was great by the way.” He walked to her side, but did not sit down. “As for your question, I turned fourteen.”

Notes wrote:Word Count: 324.

One thing she had to give the kid, he was no quitter. Where most people simply melted under Shina's unrelenting gaze and cold sarcasm, Shouhei was - bless his prepubescent heart - actually trying to keep up. It was as cute as watching a baby bird try to fly with malformed wings, watching it fall face first into the ground that is. Despite herself, the jounin let out a laugh.

"You know what kid, I'll do you a solid right now," she spoke, her eyes dancing mischievously at the teen's direction. "This is the most important lesson you'll ever learn so listen up. There is no party without alcohol. Repeat after me. No party, without alcohol." The fuin user paused, waiting for hmi to repeat the words. It was a crucial lesson, alcohol was the happy juice that made Shina functional around other people.

"And because I believe in teaching by example, the next part of your training will take place in a suitably equipped environment." Sliding up off the grass in a smooth, fluid motion, Shina was on her feet, beckoning the genin towards her.

"We're going to The Turning Point, the inn keeper's not nosy and their brews should be weak enough for a lightweight like you." With another smile, Shina moved to the flashstep position indicating for the weaver's boy to follow.

Perhaps this training session wouldn't be as terrible as she'd initially thought it would.

So he was solid now? Yeah Shouhei didn’t buy that one either with how she laughed as he thought that could only mean one of two things. Either she was very amused and something was to come up, or she wasn’t done playing yet. Shouhei had his money on the latter, but it seemed like he had to hand over the cash unless something happened later and he could argue on a technicality. “Ehh… there is no party without alcohol.” He said somewhat sheepishly. “Yeah I don’t think you are going to get more gusto out of me no matter how many times I say that.” He also admitted aloud.

As for the cash he had to hand over, she had decided to invite him out to drink to a place he had heard about; it was where he went to get merchant rumors although he never drank there. All to give him what she called a lesson in a well-equipped environment. Well he believed that from what he had seen – from the one or two times, he had prettied up his resume and served at the place so he could get his ear on those rumors to begin with – that was a correct assessment. However, he had never really drunk at the place before and just served there some times after he had started to attend the academy, but before he graduated.

“Heh, sure lead the way, Lady.” He responded playfully as he followed along. He did not seem to have a choice whether he wanted to go unless he felt like doing 500 pushups so why not just follow along? Then in a similar tone he asked her the following somewhere on their way to their destination. “Speaking of, which village did they pick you up from? The one from somewhere beyond the sea where they pit ninjas against each other for fun like the merchant at the Flagon like to tell stories about?”

Notes wrote:Word Count: 328.

He lacked enthusiasm, that was for certain, but maybe with a few drinks in him, the kid would loosen up. the way Shina saw it, she was doing him the biggest favor of his life so he might as well start acting grateful. At his instance of leading the way, the kunoichi turned her head. "Try and keep up, kid," she called out before disappearing on the spot in the swift motion of the Body Flicker technique. Whether he really could keep up or simply knew the place they were headed to, the jounin didn't care. What was of interest to her was that when she stopped about twenty meters away from The Turning Point, he was right there, only a few seconds behind her.

Shina would have congratulated him, but she wasn't the congratulating type.

It was while they were entering the inn that he asked her if she was from one of those barbarian villages. Perhaps he meant to offend her, even instigate some kind of aggressive reaction. Too bad for him, all he got was a cryptic smile as she ushered him in. "Who knows, if you play your cards right, I might tell you some day." Walking in, the duo was greeted by a loud cheer from a nearby table.

'Shina, darlin, come loose a few rounds of card?"

"Hey, look what the bitch dragged in."

"New boyfriend, lass, what happened to the tall hairy fellow?"

The kunoichi couldn't help but let out a genuine laugh at the group of men calling out various forms of greetings to her. "Sure Jed," the brunette called out with a wave of her own. "This one jumps when I whistle." To prove her point, the teenager would let out a long low whistle, some of the joining her in good spirit.

"And I can't play tonight boys, I'm teaching." With that, Shina would make her way towards the bar where the inn keeper greeted her with a huge smile.

"Saw a half a moon and told my cat, told her Shina would be coming in the next few days and here you are," he grinned. "The usual, love?"

"Nah," the jounin declined, much to his surprise. "I'm babysitting today, can't get blacked out drunk. Bring over some of that horse piss you call beer, Don. It might be the only thing this kid can handle."

As for how Shouhei had gotten there so fast? Well he knew the way and all he had to do was put one foot in front of the other and he would get here eventually. That it wasn’t that far away from where they were before also helped. In any event, he meet up with her on the corner and when she responded to his comment – that he made neutrally but neither of them were mind readers – he would respond with the following. “I’ll try to get a royal flush if we ever play poker in there then.” Then he followed her inside.

Shouhei wasn’t surprised by such sights the place had to show him, but how the people reacted to Shina presence. To say that she was well-known would be an understatement. She was the center of the party which was surprising considering how sour and commandeering the personality she had shown him so far. For a moment, he thought she might be redeemable, but then she followed up on the dog joke, and Shouhei couldn’t help but frown. Though to quickly hide it he said the following when they got up to the bar. “I was just joking when I mentioned a royal flush. I didn’t know you actually played cards.” Where after the bartender put the order in front of them. However, Shouhei had gotten the smallest glass, and he wasn’t sure if that was a joke or to spare him the punishment.

Picking up the glass Shouhei took a sip which caused his expression to light up. This was way more bitter than he had expected, but he swallowed it anyhow, then coughed once or twice.

Notes wrote:Word Count: 280.