Prepping for Combat [Open]

It was still very early in the morning, just past sunrise, and Reizo found himself instinctively getting ready to head to the training grounds to train only minutes after waking up. He had an off day in the exams, but instead of using the time to relax, he wanted to be sure he was fully prepared for the second exam. Surely the next exam or the following would be a combat related test, and Reizo felt he was still too weak and unprepared for it. He had made a lot of progress since graduating the Academy, but he was falling behind Senshi, whom he felt was likely the ideal candidate for Chuunin. He seemed extremely loyal to the village, had a solid head upon his shoulders, and had become very strong, even amongst the stronger shinobi of the village. Reizo didn't want to be second to anyone, much less someone who was his peer. Despite his new goal of wanting to protect those closest to him and the village, he still held out that he would have to become the strongest shinobi of all time in order to achieve those goals. The journey and reasoning was much less selfish than before, but the predicate remained unchanged. He finished the first exam and was now one step closer to achieving his dreams. It was a close call, but he had managed to advance.

Reizo had never been so fiercely disappointed with himself. Sure, he had passed the first Chuunin Exam, but it was only because the Raikage had given him a pity pass. The amount of disappointment and worry that was evident in the letter made it clear to Reizo that he would never want to repeat the results again. He wanted to make certain that in the next exam, he was ready and able to pass with no hesitation at all. Reizo decided that he would spend his free day between exams training the absolute hardest he could. He wanted to make sure he never disappointed the village, the Raikage, or himself ever again. Reizo made his way to the Training Grounds after getting dressed in his purple cotton training gi and blue shinobi sandals. He wore his headband proudly on his head, as always, and carried his still relatively unused tanto in a sheath on his back, just lying horizontally just above his waist. Other assorted equipment and books were carried in a rather unaesthetic beige backpack that he slung over both shoulders, above his tanto so that it wouldn't be uncomfortable.

Although the content of the exams were a closely guarded secret, Reizo had already outlined in his head that one of the two remaining exams would be combat oriented. There just had to be an all out combat exam, it would make too little sense to be able to advance to Chuunin while only being tested on morals, stealth, and hand to hand combat. Sure, there was a jutsu demonstration segment, but that didn't allow him to show off how he would fare in actual life or death combat. He had already made it this far in the exams, he wouldn't let what he felt was his best asset, combat, be the one thing to hold him back from becoming a Chuunin. He wanted to prove with no doubt at all to the village and the Raikage that he was the best and most qualified Genin for promotion, moreso than Senshi whom he presumed had also made it through the first exam and had surpassed himself in speed and strength. He didn't want to be in Senshi's shadow any longer- it was clear to him that the Raikage had deemed Senshi as more of a threat in their combined examination, despite the fact that Reizo was supposed to be the Taijutsu specialist. It infuriated Reizo and motivated him more than any other goal or failure had before. He used to be stronger and more capable than Senshi, yet now he couldn't even argue that Senshi was stronger. He would have some catching up to do, and that's exactly what Reizo planned on doing at the Training Grounds today. Reizo walked into the seemingly empty training grounds and started to stretch as he outlined his whole procedure for his training session.

Since Reizo had purchased a tanto not that long ago, he wanted to learn some jutsu to pair with it. He wasn't a weapons specialist by any means, but he was pretty confident in his ability to wield a small basic weapon like the standard issue tanto. Since buying it, he hadn't really gotten the chance to use it all that much aside from a few training exercises, so he wanted to break it in, so to speak. Reizo had found a couple of Kumogakure's "secret" style kenjutsu that he wanted to learn. They were certainly more widespread nowadays, as he had found the jutsu in a massively published jutsu encyclopedia, so the jutsu were hardly still a secret.

The first he wanted to practice was a quick draw jutsu, known as Battojutsu: Quickdraw. Not a terribly creative name, but Reizo thought it would make a fairly effective "first-strike" jutsu. Reizo imagined sneaking up behind an enemy and quickly drawing his blade and striking them down before they could even react with this jutsu. It was only a C-rank, meaning it would be very straightforward and easy to learn, and Reizo felt that if he was going to have a weapon he should at least know some basic jutsu to make its use as potent as possible.

Having read up a bit on the jutsu, it seemed like it wouldn't require hand seals, which was always a great positive. It was simply a concentration of chakra to dictate and enhance his movements. Reizo was already familiar with jutsu like this. All of his Taijutsu worked around similar principles and this one would be no different. Reizo put his backpack on the ground beside him, having worn it throughout his stretches, and prepared to draw his tanto. It was strange, he still wasn't completely used to having the weapon on his back, so it took him a second of blindly grabbing at air to find the hilt of the sword. Reizo immediately tried to draw the weapon as fast as he could and strike in front of himself with an outward swing with the sword pointing down and out like he ordinarily would with a kunai. The larger weapon wasn't really as easy to do so with, and Reizo found that the weapon would get caught in his sheath if he didn't fully extend his arm away from his body. Perhaps instead of learning the jutsu right away, Reizo should've been learning how to draw the weapon in a basic manner first.

After a few failed attempts of trying the defensive type swing, Reizo resigned into thinking that it would be easiest to draw the tanto with his palm facing his back instead of his front, so that he had the more typical sword swinging stance when he removed it. It wasn't very comfortable for Reizo to do this at all with his sheath around his waist. It wouldn't take long at all for Reizo to conclude that such a positioning for his sheath was suboptimal, and he understood that it would be best to shift his sheath so that it slung diagonally across his back from his right shoulder, as he was right hand dominant, to allow a fast removal of the weapon from its scabbard. It was still somewhat difficult because of Reizo's short arms, but eventually Reizo adjusted his motions so that the basic drawing of the sword was much quicker and completely feasible without straining his arm and shoulder too much. Reizo would repeat the simple action of withdrawing his sword from its sheath and putting it back in without looking. He would repeat this stupidly basic movement for at least 20 minutes, trying to get acquainted with the new position of the sheath so that he could remove and reinsert the weapon without looking or fumbling.

Reizo got really good at the basic drawing of his weapon to the point he was able to slide it in perfectly on the first try every time. He figured now he could start adding in the actual strike of the weapon. He did it slowly at first, making sure the weapon was completely out of the scabbard first before committing to a large arcing swing across his body. This action he would do repetitively for 10 minutes until he could speed it up, but he realized whenever he would do it faster, the scabbard would angle oddly and make his life difficult. Reizo had to think for a bit about his dilemma. He didn't think it was just because he had short arms, he just needed to make sure the scabbard didn't move at all when he pulled out his sword. It would be kind of unfortunate, but Reizo resolved that the only way to make it work would be to use his off hand to hold the scabbard while he did it. It would suck to have to use both hands for the jutsu, but it seemed like that was the only way to really ensure it would work in the first place. All other jutsus needed handseals, so it was an okay trade off as Reizo saw it.

He would now try to perform the motions for the jutsu while holding the scabbard with his left hand, gripping the bottom of it behind his back. The sword was drawn substantially easier than before. The whole motion became a smooth fluid attack. Reizo picked up the pace to do the swing faster and faster, and found that really it was the movement of the scabbard that was making the jutsu so difficult in the first place. Now that he had held onto the sheath, the sword came out very quickly, and he could slash with ease. Reizo finally felt ready to introduce chakra into the mix. He figured that touching the scabbard would be the easiest way to condition his body to release the chakra, much like the jutsu intended. Reizo picked one of the nearby training dummies to target and closed his eyes to help him focus his chakra. After a single deep inhale, Reizo snapped his eyes open and gripped the sheath behind his back with his left hand, dashing forward in one swift motion. He felt the chakra rush through him and his full speed came forward and then some. Reizo yanked his sword from its sheath, sliding it easily and smoothly from its protective covering. Extending his arm out fully, he successfully pulled the sword out and swung a clean horizontal arc in front of him, striking cleanly through the wood enforced dummy, passing through it to end behind it. It was almost solid wood, yet the dummy didn't even fracture or splinter, it was the cleanest cut Reizo had ever seen. He was pretty satisfied with that attempt, and figured after only a few more tries he would be able to advance onto the next jutsu.

Reizo would line up with a different dummy and prepare to use his jutsu again. Now that he had worked out the quirks, it was actually pretty easy to perform. To be honest, Reizo wasn't sure he had even planned his day of training out well anymore. He had figured his first kenjutsu would require a lot more time to figure out, and even the second one would take time. It seemed, however, that he'd be able to do both expertly before he even needed to break for brunch. Reizo thought about learning some other jutsu in addition to the two kenjutsu and the Taijutsu he wanted to learn, but figured he'd need to do more research. Still, maybe he could learn something else after all. He wanted to spend the whole day training. Reizo sighed and shrugged at the idea of being too good at learning new things. Was he actually considering this a dilemma? He focused his chakra and would soon cut cleanly through the wooden dummy in much the same way as he had the first one. This time, he had jumped and used a more diagonal strike, putting more of his weight into the swing for additional strength. It didn't seem like it made all that much of a difference how he performed the jutsu, so long as he performed it while drawing his sword from the sheath. The sheath acted as the medium for him to focus his chakra- it was almost like he had just trained a habit. Doing action A, in this case touching his sheath, instinctively prompted action B, in this case the focusing of chakra to slash in a single motion in front of him. He had essentially conditioned himself into a stimulus response.

Reizo would freely swing his sword from this point onward, getting more accustomed with the sword's length and weight. Maybe he'd get lucky and someone would show up that he could train with. It would make the day far less tedious, and he was always looking for new partners.

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2208 words

Jutsu Learned:
Battojutsu: Quickdraw 2000/2000 words

Sora sighed as he jumped out of his bed, he had still ached from the training he had done for the past week at the same time. He went downstairs and made breakfast once again; this time he hadn't waited for the horde to smell the waft of breakfast and rush down the stairs. He had just walked out and breathed in the fresh, crisp air of the morning. 

Sora always loved waking up in the morning to a beautiful day. The sun would be shining in the air, the morning dew would run over his feet, and the fresh air would fill his nostrils. Taking one more big breath of air Sora started to run towards the training grounds. He knew that he needed to train for all the skills he was going to learn. The boy laughed as he ran into an alleyway and bounced from wall-to-wall in the form of a wall jump until he reached the roof.

The Genin rolled as he bounced off the balls of his feet to the other roof. He repeated that until he was out of the village and heading to the training grounds. Sora smiled as he reached one of the various training grounds. He'd do some training with his fire, as there was this one skill that he wanted to learn. It was a survival trick that used your Fire Element, and if he ever wanted to he could use this. Even if he just wanted to warm up on a cold day he could use it.

The boy breathed in and then out as he used his chakra and started to access his fire element. He used it all around his body, not physically but mentally. The skill wasn't to actually convert chakra throughout your body, it was too warm up your chakra with your fire element. He suddenly felt a delightful warm aura surround his body and warm his blood. 

For the final step, Sora would have to use the Tiger seal so that his chakra could flow properly. He was wondering if he could upgrade this skill, and then master it for more uses. It would be great to have an aura surrounding him that would burn anyone that even got remotely close; he would demolish in Taijutsu matches. Sora stopped letting his mind wander as he finally performed the hand seal. He was about to yell the skill name but then realized how stupid it would be. When he was younger Sora was training with his orphanage father; as soon as he said the skill name he was on the floor.

'Sora, you should never say the name of the skill. What if someone didn't know if you were making a Shadow Clone or using the Clone Technique? They'd be confused so you could trump them with that mistake. I don't ever want to hear you yell the skill name again, got it?' He had said with a stern face. Sora had nodded before they had started sparring once again.

Without saying the name - Sora felt slightly weird as it was foreign to not declare the name of the skill - but when he did the boy smiled as the warm chakra heated up his skin and blood. The other feeling vanished as he was concentrated on this new - not to mention more pleasant- one. It felt as if he was at a campfire with his orphanage family, roasting marshmallows on the smoking coal. It brought back good times and honestly made him feel nostalgic; it was a nice feeling that gave him goosebumps, as much as the skill Inner Flame had.

Sora suddenly stopped the technique as fast as it had started. There was no need to waste his chakra for no reason when he had already finished learning the skill. All of a sudden an influx of chakra from the neighboring training grounds caught his attention. The boy ignored it once again until it hit him once again. The chocolate-brown haired boy jumped into the trees before hopping through them to the location.

Why was Sora doing this? Well, the fact that he had never met another familiar ninja before had surprised him. The only other ninja he had met was Kobayashi Senshi, who had taught them the Shadow Shuriken technique at the academy once for a mission. Anyways, Sora wanted to find where this was coming from and meet a new friend, or maybe even a teammate. 

Sora soon found the boy as he cut through the dummy like a hot knife through butter. The Genin - or so he assumes was a Genin - had bright blonde hair that was way different from his little brother's light blonde hair. He was fairly muscular signaling that he was at least proficient in Taijutsu. It was obvious that he was good with chakra from the sudden influx he had felt.

The boy had just watched for a while, not wanting to mess with him as he finished. It seemed as if the boy had just learned the skill as it seemed as if he was still testing the waters. Sora felt the last influx of chakra as the boy closed his tanto in its sheath. Sora had just realized that he was pretty sensitive for chakra, but it seemed as if every time he was getting more used to it. He tried to signal the chakra now, finding the boy's potent as his. It felt as if he could feel his chakra if he focused on a single point.

He remembered learning about this in the academy, about how there were certain types of ninja that could sense chakra. There was a certain skill for it that was established as Chakra Sensory, and maybe he was learning it without even trying? What if the boy had been testing him, and brought him here on purpose?

Whatever he was here for Sora still felt a little weird just sitting in the tree watching him. Sora jumped down and rolled as he hit the floor before he bounced up flipping and landing on his feet.

"Uh... hello," Sora said as he hadn't known how to say something without frightening or getting his head impaled with a kunai. "My name is Sora Uzumaki and I was wondering who you were. I'm a new Genin, and you're the first one I met. I'd be honored to train with you or exchange some information."

Sora's voice cracked a little - from puberty and the awkward situation he was in - but he felt his beliefs firm. He just wanted to meet the boy and earn an acquaintance. The chocolate-brown haired boy smiled with closed eyes and bringing out his hand. He unintentionally turned his head slightly in a welcome way.

"What's up?" He finished. Sora hoped that the boy wouldn't act negatively towards him.

Requests: Inner Flame

WC: 1162

TWC: 1162

Morning would feel as though it had come late, though maybe it had really just been that Max was up fairly early. He would be out around the village, gathering what he could from various locations. He knew where to go to get pretty decent “free-stuff” since many things that were perfectly fine were thrown out by various restaurants and people that had been on the wealthier side of things, mostly high-profile shinobi families and such. Max would pick up several items, wipe them off the best he could and carry them around with him, various things in his pockets. Napa wouldn’t be far behind, keeping an eye out for anybody that might… cause issues for the boy.
 
Once Max had gathered up a bunch of stuff, and had gotten his belly full from the unwanted food of the restaurants, he made his way over to his home. He would have to pass by the training grounds from where he was. In reality, he knew that he needed to get some training in. His team had all been much stronger than he was, and while that didn’t bother him in some ways he also didn’t want to be a burden on them.
 
“What do you mean that you don’t mind that they have surpassed you?” Napa would inquire, a clear tone of disgust in his voice, “How can you protect the village from all threats if you are so weak? What would happen to you if one of the shinobi in the village had been a double agent, and actually wanted to be the downfall of Kumo, hmm? Do you think that you would actually be able to stop them? No, you wouldn’t be able to. You really need to become stronger. How else are you going to best Mortarion?” The puppet seemed to want to taunt the boy. Napa had felt that Max was becoming… soft. He wouldn’t be able to do what was needed when the time came. And how far was that time from now? Nobody could be sure, but Max would need to grow a great deal stronger to be able to contend on that level.
 
“Akihana said that we should give Mortarion a chance. She said he isn’t the monster that we see him as, and that he is changing for the better. Part of this can already be seen. He signed off on a mission to help the shelters of Kumogakure. A monster that cared nothing for his people wouldn’t do that!” Max would counter, thinking that he had the upper hand in this exchange now.
 
“Was it that Mortarion cared about his people, or was it that he was… tempted by the lovely Akihana to do so?  Max, don’t you find it funny that she comes around, and suddenly his whole demeanor changes? Would he have made such a mission if not for his wife and her ideals whispering in his ear?” Napa gets really close to Max, his face next to the head of the boy. If he had breath, Max would be able to feel it how close he was. “No, Max, he wouldn’t care about us. He didn’t before and now that she is leaving, he won’t again. His heart was softening to the fair Lady. Who did he really put first, Akihana or his people?” Max was unable to answer his friend, and the puppet was successfully planting the seeds of doubt within the boy. “I’m sure that one day you will see that he cares little for us villagers, and that his concerns lie elsewhere. Hopefully that day is sooner rather than later, else I fear that you will end up unable to complete what is needed…” Napa would clearly convey a sense of disappointment upon uttering such things.

“But Akihana sees the good in him! She is changing him for the better, showing him how to care for the people. She is changing the monster that he was into a hero of the people, much like herself!” Max would say, voice raised. Some of the villagers who were close would see him arguing with himself, hearing a strange, one sided verbal conflict.
 
Napa would just shake his head, “But is Akihana truly someone you want him to emulate?  Yes she is kind, but is that kindness truly strength as she said? Can one just hope to stop invaders with kind words and a ‘please’ and a ‘thank you’? The answer is no, and if you don’t believe me- and I KNOW deep down you do- you should really think back on to how effective asking the invaders to leave nicely had been the last time. Kind words and niceties are great and wonderful things for people, but it Mortarion really a person or is he a monster, Max?” Napa was digging in, rooting his way through Max and working him like a puppet, the boy barely able to form a rebuttal.
 
“Akihana is a hero, willing to sacrifice her very life for the good of the people!” Max yelled, each word of his coming out sounding crazier and crazier to the passersby. To onlookers the boy would appear to be having a mental breakdown.
 
“And her sacrifices did, what exactly? The village was still taken with little effort. You know why that is? It is simple really. It is because such heroics are only effective in stories. There are no heroes… in life, the monsters win.” Napa would say, driving his point in. He could tell that he was getting to Max, and with that said he would say no more, letting the damage he had already done truly sink in.
 
Max would slink past the training area, his mood in a weird place. He wasn’t upset, but he wasn’t particularly chipper either. Looking on towards the grounds, thinking on what Napa said and how he needed to get stronger, he considered going and doing some training. No, considering it wasn’t enough. He would have to grow in strength, no matter what fate had in store for him. Looking around for an adequate partner, it wasn’t long before he found a familiar face. Fellow teammate Reizo had already been here, training with some sort of weapon. Max couldn’t tell exactly what weapon it had been from a distance, but he would approach anyhow.
 
Just then a second boy leaped from a tree down to Reizo. Max hadn’t know the boy, but that wouldn’t stop him from heading over. Reizo wouldn’t mind his company, and if the new kid had issue Max wouldn’t really care. Napa had soured his mood far too much for that.
 

“Hi, Reizo!” Max would yell as he approached with a wave, signaling to his teammate that he had been approaching. Napa would be surprisingly quiet since their talk, which was almost a little bit odd. Still, the boy and his skeleton approached. Realizing that it would probably be best to introduce himself to Reizo’s friend, Max would give a slight bow. The boy still reeked of death, but his innocent face, and bright blue eyes had almost been disarming. It was a strange combination to anybody meeting him for the first time. “Hi. I am Maximillian of the Yamaguchi clan. Might I ask your name, friend of Reizo?”

Reizo continued to swing his blade, somewhat absentmindedly when he heard someone fall out of a tree behind him. Reizo's gut instinctual response was an assassin, but he realized that didn't make any sense given the context of him training in his village. Reizo pivoted to face whoever had dropped out of the tree and pointed his tanto at him. He was taken aback at the small Genin that confronted him, and he immediately withdrew his weapon and sheathed it. He recognized the face, and Reizo mouthed the Genin's name, saying it under his breath as soon as he saw him. "Sora..." Reizo said, his whisper just barely audible. He knew the Genin from his Genjutsu exam just yesterday. It was weird to see his potential replacement in person. It seemed like reality did indeed have a tendency to be weirder than make-believe

Should Sora have heard Reizo mumble his name, Reizo would vehemently deny ever saying anything. He decided it would be best to keep such secret information to himself. It was apart of his own personal exam journey, anyway. No one had to know what he had gone through. The Genin recalled the fun Sora had seemed to have with his team, and immediately assumed that the Genjutsu reflected on Sora in real life too. Reizo felt a bit awkward, coming face to face with Sora for the first time, but he tried to push that aside and introduce himself. The kid was clearly being very brave to just come forward to a complete stranger, even if it was a little creepy that he had been watching Reizo train. Reizo smiled and was about to happily introduce himself to the other Genin when he noticed another familiar face make its way into the training grounds.

Max would walk in and interrupt Reizo right as he was about to greet Sora. Reizo would then turn away from Sora to wave at Max. "What's up Max? You came to train too?" Reizo would ask, once Max had closed the distance a little. "Friend? Oh, I only just met Sora. He seems like a nice guy. We were just about to train together, right Sora?" Reizo would tell Max and then nod at Sora to see if he would agree to train together. "I was just learning some kenjutsu, but I do want to get around to a Taijutsu or two," Reizo would say, redrawing his tanto. Reizo would turn so that he faced away from the other two Genin and swing his sword in a large crescent in front of him. "That's the one I'm currently working on, it's called the Crescent Moon Beheading. I just finished my work on my Quickdraw jutsu. Ya'll are welcome to join. And sure, Sora, I can teach you a little bit. But you'll have to learn fast, I only have today to cram before my next exam tomorrow," Reizo would say. "By the way, Max. Did you enter the Chuunin Exams too? I met up with Senshi during one of the trials, he seemed pretty well on his way to making Chuunin. I guess it's really on your own time in this village, so there's no need to rush into them," Reizo would ask Max. He suspected Max withheld from the exams for the time being, but wanted confirmation to be sure. Sora looked fresh out of the Academy judging by his crisp apparel, so Reizo didn't even feel the need to ask him about it. Reizo hadn't trained with Max before either, so this would be a new experience for everyone.

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599 + 2208 = 2807 words

Jutsu Learned:
Cloud Style: Crescent Moon Beheading 807/2000 words

The boy whispered his name causing Sora to slightly raise his eyebrow. He didn't comment on it, he felt as if this was something he was not involved in. Sora absolutely knew that he hadn't known the other Genin standing in front of him. 

Sora turned as someone else greeted the boy he had just met. He was small and- holy crap he had a freaking skeleton puppet! The boy wasn't that familiar with puppetry, but this demonstration of a puppet looked awesome as hell.

"Woah! That skeleton puppet you have is cool!" Sora said as he ran over to Napa admiring him. Sora stopped looking at the puppet and now looked at the boy. His blue eyes were as warm as Sora's, but for some reason, Sora felt kind of unsettled when the atmosphere and his emotions mixed.

Sora snapped out of it when the boy introduced himself, "Hey, my name is Sora Uzumaki. I'm an orphan, but my caregivers take care of me like their own child." 

As the two friends - or at least they seemed like they knew each other - talked he waited for them to be done. He didn't want to intrude, he was still basically a stranger to both of them.

When his name was announced he focused back on the conversation. "Sure, Sora, I can teach you a little bit. But you'll have to learn fast, I only have today to cram before my next exam tomorrow," Reizo had said.

Sora grinned as he brought out one of his sealing scrolls and took out his notebook. He handed it to Reizo before explaining to him what it actually was, "I wrote down all of the skills I wanted to learn this week. I can learn them all today if you know them, of course, Reizo." (Reizo already has the list in Skype)

"If you want to learn anything I'd be glad to help. I know..." Sora brought his hand to his chin in a thinking position, "I have learned sixteen E-Rank Techniques, the original ones to pass the academy, simple Fuinjutsu E-Rank, discipline techniques, a simple E-Rank Katon technique, you know what, there's too much to tell."

When Sora finished he took in a breath of air and chuckled awkwardly. He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as blood slightly rushed to his cheeks.

"I did learn something before I came here; it's called Inner Flame and warms me up. It is used for survival missions really." Sora then finished and waited for them to continue.

"Sorry for being so awkward, I'm not used to having friends." Sora would claim so they didn't think badly of him.

WC: 462

TWC: 1625

Max would smile as Reizo waved back. He mentioned that the boy with him was named Sora and that he had been here training a few kenjutsu and taijutsu moves. Max had been here to train as well, though he recalls just how “great” his attempts at using Taijutsu had been before with Senshi. Still, while he might not be able to practice the same techniques so that they can learn together, he could still watch and enjoy their company while simultaneously working on his own techniques. He had one in particular in mind, but it wasn’t something that he would be able to practice easily.
 
Then Reizo asked about the Chuunin Exams. In reality, Max probably should be working towards a rank-up. Hearing that both Senshi and Reizo had been working on them and have made significant progress meant that Napa might not have been entirely wrong. The people around him were growing significantly stronger than he had been, and if he didn’t change what he had been doing he would remain a Genin while those around him advanced to the next rank and moved on with bigger and better missions. Itami saying that they had been given permission should signify that they have a chance, but Max wasn’t entirely sure he wanted the responsibility of a new rank. Chuunin meant that he could be assigned a team, and he hadn’t exactly been the kind of person to lead others. Still, he would accept the fact that if he wanted to reach his goals, he would have to grow as a shinobi. What exactly would the exams have in store for the child though. He couldn’t be sure, but he would soon find out.
 
“I didn’t expect to qualify for such a promotion, to be completely honest with you. With Itami’s blessing though, I might as well try out. Who knows, maybe I will be able to do it. I do need to advance, for my current capabilities just won’t cut it.” Max would say, his tone easily signifying his own self-doubt on the subject. He would need to grow stronger as Napa had said, and so he is now worried about whether or not his capabilities are enough.
 
Sora excitedly reacts to Napa, which is rather different than what most of the civilians had done. In fact, almost every shinobi that he encountered seemed to be intrigued with his puppets. Sora would mention that he was an orphan, and Max would immediately change how he saw the boy. “Do you have a home, or do you live at the orphanage?” he would ask, trying to make sure that this boy had truly been taken care of. Max wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen any orphan of Kumo. It was a personal oath of sorts.
 

“I’m up for some training though. I’ll start by just watching you guys at first. I have to read over the scrolls with the techniques so that I can perform this correctly.” Max would say, reaching in his jackets inside pocket and pulling out a rather tattered looking scroll. “This was something I found when I was scavenging through the ruins of my family home. It should prove… useful to learn.” He would say this as he delicately unrolled the scroll and began to read.

"16? That's a lot. But you know, E-ranks aren't very helpful when you're in combat. Only a few are actually useful. I can help you balance that out so you're not completely defenseless in a fight," Reizo would say, about to ask what types of jutsu Sora wanted to learn first. He didn't have to do that, however, as Sora pulled out a list of D-rank jutsu he was looking into learning. Reizo was rather surprised when Sora presented him with a notebook. Geez, I didn't know people actually made written lists of what to train. This kid must be really... organized, Reizo thought to himself. He raised an eyebrow as he accepted the book and flipped through a couple of pages. He recognized all the jutsu, but only knew about half of them. Some, like the Temporary Paralysis Technique and Iron Claw he felt weren't really that useful because they were so weak, but others Reizo had taken the time to learn for their unique utility, like Aerial Strip.

Max wanted to train on his own in their company, which was fine with Reizo. He knew he wouldn't really understand anything of what Max was doing with his puppets anyway, and would probably only serve to be a distraction for the child. Reizo nodded in affirmation of Max's wishes, and let him get set up with his scroll. He would direct Sora to move with him as to get out of Max's way while he unsealed his puppets, or whatever was in the scroll.

"Sure, I can teach you some of these," Reizo would say, reading off the jutsu he knew as he saw them. "Aerial Strip, Dynamic Entry, Leaf Gale, Shadow Shuriken, Flicker Movement, Body Flicker... those are all the ones I know. I can give you a quick rundown of each of them along with a short demonstration, but I'll leave the learning up to you. There are too many to explain in the most intricate details, but you seem like a smart kid, I'm sure you can figure it out. You're nerdy enough to write everything down in a book, anyway," Reizo would say, subtly taking a jab at the Uzumaki's note taking. He didn't want to come off rude, but it was such low hanging fruit Reizo felt like it'd be almost disrespectful to not call Sora out for his nerdiness.

"Since there are 6, I'll break it down into pairs for you to work on, and when you think you've figured them out or you get stuck, just give me a call, I'll be working on my own jutsu. I'm a Taijutsu specialist, so I suppose I'll start with two Taijutsu to show you. It'll help me warm up a little more too," Reizo would say. "Aerial Strip is pretty simple. You focus chakra in your hand, but not too much, and then you punch your target in the face. The tricky part is getting the angle just right to send them up and out of their clothes. I learned it by using this type of straw training dummy," Reizo would explain, walking a couple of meters and picking a straw dummy that was held together with burlap sack and rope in the shape of a human upper body. Reizo would then focus chakra in his fist and then punch the dummy at its head, the sack and rope coming clean off the dummy, while the straw disassembled and was left in a pile behind. "When you can separate the straw from the rope and burlap, you'll know you succeeded. The other jutsu I'll start you off with is the Leaf Gale. That one is just a fairly standard sweeping low kick. You do have to control your chakra well enough to not injure yourself while still giving a somewhat decent boost to your speed and strength. I don't think this really warrants a demonstration, as the difference between the sweep and the Leaf Gale isn't really something that is all that noticeable except on a human target, or after repeated attempts on a dummy. I'll let you work that one out. I'd start with those two, and when you're done come back for more. I'll just be over there, practicing my swing and my punches," Reizo would say, pointing to an open area with a line of 4 training dummies already set up, each made of straw.

Explaining those jutsu had taken more time than he had hoped it would. He could tell he had already fallen out of his training routine groove, and would have to pick it back up again. Reizo would walk over to the training area with the 4 dummies and would rearrange them so that they formed a semicircle, each about 1 meter from the adjacent one. Reizo stood at the center of them. He would take a deep breath and square himself to one of the targets and unsheath his tanto. He would then freely swing his sword in a series of arcs in front of him. He didn't try to cut any of the dummies just yet, he had to get back into his feel. After about 5 minutes of free form swordplay, Reizo felt ready to try out his jutsu. Reizo would focus his chakra into his right arm, which he used to wield his tanto, and held his sword out, parallel to his body. He dug his heel into the ground, pulling his sword arm close to and across his body, now holding the sword parallel to the ground, and did a near 180 degree spin, flinging his arm with great force outward. It seemed like the additional chakra that he sent down his arm and into his blade, combined with the whirling motion extended the range of his reach significantly, as he cut all 4 dummies down in one stroke, despite them all being previously out of range. This jutsu seemed much easier to learn than the first one, but Reizo chalked that up to the fact that he was now more familiar with his tanto and its range than when he had started, simply because of his various exercises that he used to prep himself before performing Battojutsu: Quickdraw.

Reizo wanted to make sure he knew the jutsu from both sides, so that he would be ready to perform it no matter how he was currently positioned. To even things out, Reizo now held his sword away from his body instead of bringing his arm across to begin with. He would do the same exact motion, although he did change one element of it. He realized that digging his heel into the ground wasn't necessary as it wasn't the pivot that really gave him the power, but rather the momentum given from letting his arm carry his weight. Instead, he just let his body give in to the full rotational kinetics of the swing, swinging his arm and rotating 180 degrees counterclockwise this time, finishing with his arm across his body. He cut down any part of the dummies still left on their wooden stand, leaving the wooden stakes bare and protruding from the ground.

Only about 30 minutes had elapsed, but he turned around to check on Max and Sora anyway to see how they were getting along with their training. He had figured out his second jutsu and was ready to move forward with learning the Sucker Punch, and maybe even the Leaf Strong Wind should he have the time. Now that Sora and Max were here though, maybe he wanted to help them out a little more instead, and save the latter jutsu for some other time. Sucker Punch was a B-rank jutsu, so Reizo figured it would take a little more time and effort to get the logistics down, especially without a person to train it on to see if he could get the desired effects.

-----------------------------------------
1318 + 2807 = 4125 words

Jutsu Learned:
Cloud Style: Crescent Moon Beheading 2000/2000 words
Battojutsu: Quickdraw 2000/2000 words

The tattered scroll would feel ancient in the young genin’s hands. Whatever was on here was old, much older than Max had even originally thought. It had to be a family relic, or maybe and heirloom passed down from generation to generation. Sadly, Max wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have it passed down to him as his clan had been destroyed before he was even out of the Academy. Every time he thinks back to such things it nearly brings tears to his eyes, so he avoids any more of such thoughts and looks the scroll over.
 
“Wait a second. This scroll doesn’t look like it has any hidden family jutsu’s on it or techniques. It just has a strange marking on the center of the page. Maybe it is a Seal on the scroll? Let’s see if I can manage to open it up.” Max would mutter under his breath as he sits down, laying the scroll across the ground as gently as possible and places his palm on the center of the seal, it breaking upon contact. Before him another scroll, this one in much better condition than the first one had been appears, and he can see writing under where the chakra seal had been. It was almost as if it was placed there to emphasize that it should be read prior to the writings on the ancient scroll. Maybe it was a cypher or something needed to understand the Technique. Max would crack open the scroll case and pull out the parchment, unravelling it and beginning to read.
 
The scroll would have only a simple letter written on it.
 


 
Several spots on the paper were smudged and discolored, likely the result of tears as it was being written. Max would silently begin sobbing. He tried not to, but there was no helping it right now. This letter was clearly meant to be given to him upon him reaching the rank of Genin, but circumstances didn’t allow that to happen. These thoughts alone had been saddening, but then it hit him the truth of the situation. He had clearly failed his father’s last request. His mother had been dead, and Kumogakure as it was now would likely feel like a foreign place to his father, the man that had sacrificed EVERYTHING for the village. Max never had the chance to protect his home… Max’s father would never blame him for such things, but Max still hurt inside at the thoughts that came to his mind. His own tears now stained the letter next to his fathers.
 
Max wouldn’t even want to train anymore, but Napa would walk over and kneel beside him and pick up the old scroll placing in in the lap of Max. “You know what you must do. Fear is to be conquered, Max. And we both know the biggest source of fear in Kumo, don’t we? Why don’t you do as your father had asked? You must protect the village he loved, and you know exactly what that entails, Max. Now, let us see just what it buried away in that scroll. Whatever it is should prove incredibly useful.” Max would remain silent, his mind torn in several directions. The simple act of thinking would only cause the boy pain, and so he would try to empty the thoughts from his mind. Picking up the letter he folded it up and stuffed it in a pocket of his jacket. This was now going to prove to be one of his most prized possessions.
 
The scroll had a bunch of writing on it on various things. Formula’s for various chakra infused mechanisms, the beginning workings on various other puppetry related research and findings. Most of the various writings had been penned in different handwriting and the ink was faded in differing amounts.  This scroll didn’t directly have any techniques written upon it to learn, or any advanced puppets sealed within. No, this had been MUCH more valuable. This scroll had all of the writings and teachings of the Yamaguchi puppet masters, passed down each generation so that the new master can add and expand on what the others before him had done. With such a resource, his own techniques will likely advance far beyond what he could have done all by himself.
 

To think that such a wonderful thing had managed to survive despite all of the chaos of Kumogakure. It gave Max hope that not all was lost, and that maybe his family legacy could still live on. This Heirloom warmed his heart, it was just too bad that it had to be found out about on such terms. 


TWC so far: 2641

Upon looking at his two training partners, Reizo saw about what he had expected: Sora was still working on his first two jutsu, while Max was working on his own thing. He was curious about what Max was up to, but it seemed the boy was very engrossed in his scroll, so Reizo didn't want to disturb him. It didn't seem like a puppet, which intrigued Reizo as he had expected one to be contained within the scroll. Instead of encroaching on the others' studies uninvited, Reizo would go back to his own training. He supposed he shouldn't have expected Sora to have finished so quickly as he was just fresh out of the Academy and hadn't learned any jutsu above E-rank just yet. Sora still had a long way to go before becoming a shinobi.

Reizo focused on the training regiment he had prepared for the day. He planned to learn a new B-rank jutsu, Sucker Punch. It reminded Reizo of how he had trained for Aerial Strip, as it was just a simple punch at its core; however, Reizo knew that because it was a B-rank in this case, it would be a much more complicated jutsu to learn. With the former jutsu, he had only needed to figure out the angle to strike his target in order get the desired effect of stripping the target of its clothing and armor. With this new jutsu, Reizo would have to precisely strike a small area near the target's diaphragm at a strange angle in order to stun them. He would also need to put a lot more force into the attack than he had for many previous Taijutsu. Reizo felt that this technique would be extremely useful at subduing enemies who were weak in close quarter combat, or even for catching strong fighters unaware. It is a rather strong technique in terms of the amount of chakra it uses too, making it threatening to any opponents regardless of their strength because of just how strong its user would be. Reizo had already become quite strong, and with this next jutsu he aimed to push his body even further. With his level of strength, Reizo surmised that practically no human would be able to take the punch uninjured while in their base form with no armor. He still wanted that to go from "practically no one" to "absolutely no one".

The blonde haired Genin turned back around toward his training circle and walked over to a fairly thick tree stump. It wasn't much of a stump, more like a tree that had either mostly worn away or was deliberately cut down to use as a training target. The "stump" was still a few feet taller than Reizo himself, and measured about a meter in diameter. The boy decided that he would use this as a training target to first figure out how much force to put into his attack before graduating onto some other target, possibly even his summon, Futachimaru, to learn where and how to strike to get the desired effects. Reizo recognized that he was now stronger than Fu, so he'd definitely be able to tell when he got the jutsu correct, but that would still require him intentionally fighting Fu once more, which he was hesitant to do. He didn't like harming anyone, especially his friends, even if it was for training. He knew he was more than capable of taking others in a fight, so he didn't feel like he ever needed to prove anything.

Reizo would stand only a couple of feet from the stump, well within striking distance. He figured that his punch would need to be a quick explosive muscle contraction using his entire body, rather than one that required a strict form and full extension of his arm. The attack would have to be instant and forceful, in order to create the devastating impact to stun his opponent. There weren't any diagrams or useful blurbs written for the jutsu, but Reizo's own Taijutsu experience acted as somewhat of a guide to learning it. He knew that fast twitch muscle fibers would have to be used to create the blow, so Reizo focused on creating a powerful punch from the core of his body.

The Genin would mentally brace his right hand and wrist for impact, as he struck the tree full force with his right fist, starting out without chakra. He was close enough that he didn't fully extend his arm, but rather snapped his forearm forward at the elbow in a quick thrust, aiming it at about the gut level for a target of his height. It was a harsh impact; bark and wood splintered everywhere. Birds that Reizo hadn't even noticed sprung from their makeshift homes in the tree, dispersing in a cacophony of chirping and wing fluttering. The tree shook from the force, but remained firmly in the ground. A circle of the tree about the size of his palm where his fist had landed was now stripped of all bark, leaving it smooth and bare. Reizo's hand actually hurt a bit from the impact, but there was no external damage to his hand sustained. He rubbed his right knuckles with his left hand to soothe the points of impact, and noticed his skin had chaffed just a little. There was no blood, but it did leave Reizo a little worried about the health of his hands as he got stronger and stronger. He was already quite strong, but if he got any stronger, he'd probably need to protect his hands from hard hits that he'd be throwing out. It worried the boy somewhat that when he put chakra into his hand to make his punch even stronger that he could potentially even damage his hand during training. He didn't want that to happen with his next exam coming up, so he deliberated how he should proceed.

On the one hand, he really did want to learn this jutsu because of how potent it would be at felling even the toughest opponents, but on the other he really didn't want to sustain damage every time he used it. This was only a B-rank jutsu, what was gonna happen if he used an A-rank? Would he break his hand? He could focus chakra around his hand to lessen the impact to his own body, but wouldn't that be an obvious visual cue to his opponents? Reizo figured he might have to buy some gloves to solve his dilemma. They didn't have to be anything particularly flashy or weighted, just something durable and comfortable. Come to think of it, maybe he should just get a new wardrobe altogether... he would hopefully be a Chuunin soon after all. He concluded that he'd deal with whenever he crossed that bridge. For now, Reizo simply broke out the bandages and wrapped both hands delicately. He wrapped each finger on each hand individually at first, and then overlapped the knuckles all the way down to about 2 inches past his wrist. He had used quite a lot of his bandages recently, and would probably need to restock. These "gloves" were only temporary so that he could train uninhibited, but Reizo was still proud of his handiwork and kind of hoped they would last a while longer than he expected.

Reizo prepared to attack the tree once more. It had only taken him about 15 minutes to bandage himself up, and he was eager to get right back into the thick of training. This time, Reizo would focus his chakra into his right hand, and throughout his arm in order to get his attack up to the necessary speed and power. The Genin took a deep breath, exhaling sharply to focus himself. He punched the tree stump with even greater force than he had before, now aided by his chakra, creating an extremely loud cracking sound to resonate through the air upon impact. The actual circle hadn't widened, but Reizo had in fact split the tree vertically almost all the way through the trunk. The force seemed to have distribute itself in a peculiar manner, and although the tree trunk remained largely intact, there was a half inch crevice spanning the entire length of the tree. Reizo was actually pretty impressed he had managed to do that to such a large tree, an thanks to his thick application of bandages he didn't even feel the hit. He wasn't too certain that the distribution of the force was exactly what he wanted for his Sucker Punch, but the overall power was there. Now it was just a matter of controlling and containing that force so that it could knock the wind out of a particularly powerful opponent.

He practiced similar punches against the air to try to better direct the flow of chakra for about 45 minutes. Many of the punches he would do without chakra, just to get a sense of how the jutsu all came together as one action. He didn't want to over complicate his motions, nor did he want to tunnel vision on just the jutsu itself. He still wanted to make certain his form and his explosiveness were present in every punch, not to mention that using chakra in every punch was a sure way to exhaust himself very quickly. It was a rather expensive jutsu in terms of chakra usage, after all. The Genin would wipe the sweat from his brow with his off hand, and glanced back at the other two boys. He figured they would still be off doing their own thing, but he still felt somewhat obligated to check on them. Even though Max was his teammate, Reizo almost felt like he was babysitting the two due to his age and stature. He was on his way to becoming both their seniors as a Chuunin it felt. He smiled at them, but wouldn't say a word unless they had something to say to him first, if they even noticed that he'd briefly paused to look their way. Should Sora still be working on the first couple of jutsu and Max continued his own training, Reizo would return to training without a second thought.

--------------------------------------
1705 + 4125 = 5830 total words

Jutsu Learned:
Cloud Style: Crescent Moon Beheading 2000/2000 words
Battojutsu: Quickdraw 2000/2000 words
Sucker Punch 1830/3000 words