A Fortuitous Meeting

Senshi stood in the middle of the training grounds, his breaths creating small fogs of air due to the cold. He was in his preferred training ground, the one on the farther reaches of the village that took a lot more effort to get to than normal. It was located on the top of a mildly large hill that could borderline be called a mountain. The main area of it was a clearing in the middle of a grove of trees, a clearing about twenty five meters by fifteen meters wide. A small trek through the wooded area would leader shinobi to lake that had several cliffs and even a small waterfall by it.
 
The area was blanketed in several inches of snow and the weather called for the snow storm to increase in intensity, but for now there was just a light amount of the terrible white stuff falling from the sky. The Genin, who was on the verge of his promotion to Chuunin, was wearing his typical black, teal, and orange vest with the sturdy black pants he always had. His weapons and weapons pouches were situated in their normal spots, however in lieu of Bastuodosodo he had what the most charitable would be hesitant to call a slab of steel.
 
Bestuodosodo was busy getting her upgrades complete, so he had been forced to leave her to his fathers not so tender loving care. Instead he had brought a practice version of his beloved blade in order to continue to keep himself in shape. As he exhaled another breath a small twang could be heard and suddenly several dozen shuriken were flying at the boy. At the same time sharpened spears of logs were coming from the other three directions at varying heights in order to crush him. He kept his eyes closed as he listened for the approaching weapons moving finally, his hand flashed up so fast it left vague after images behind.
 
The training blade came off his back in a smooth motion a wave of chakra launching off the blade, enhanced by his wind nature. The majority of the shuriken were blow backwards by the powerful blow and as his hands were bringing the blade around he forced his legs to buckle underneath him dropping into a low crouch and allowing the momentum and strength behind the force of his swing to spin his body. The first sharpened log swung smoothly over his head rustling his hair from the speed it was moving at. His legs tensed and he jumped turning smoothing in a backflip twisting sideways as he did so he used the strength he had applied to his legs to swing his blade around and as the second sharpened log moved underneath him he smashed it to pieces sending it flying off to the edge of the clearing with the force of his strike.
 
His eyes still closed he felt his body succumbing to gravity and falling back towards the earth. Unfortunately the sound of the remaining swinging sharpened log hid the noise of the second quiet twang that echoed throughout the training area. As Senshi moved the blade around re-sheathing it on his back only to pull it forth quickly again o perform the Iai Beheading technique and crush the third and final log, he felt the blade smashing into the log crushing it to the ground and then smashing into the ground with just as much force.
 
His body was momentarily suspended in the air, he was holding himself up and balancing himself in the air by the tip of his blade by pure strength alone. Suddenly he grunted as the three shuriken that had been in the final trap effortlessly sliced into his skin embedding themselves several inches deep before coming to a halt. His breathing had not changed from the slow and steady pace he had started with, and as he exhaled and slowly opened his eyes, he looked dispassionately down at his left arm.
 
Two shuriken stuck out of his skin, bright red droplets of blood running down his fore arm and dripping into the pure white snow, marring it with its vulgar color. His eyes traveled over towards his ribs were a single shuriken was now stuck in his side a small pool of blood beginning to stain his jacket. The teal color slowly darkening with his blood. He released another breath the air puffing out of his chest as he mentally chastised himself for his failure to dodge the simple trap. This training he was conducting in order to learn to fight with his other senses and no eye sight was far more difficult than he had anticipated.
 
He finally allowed his balance to shift dropping towards the ground as gravity took its hold. He landed in a crouch before standing up fully and laying the training blade on the ground. He noted that he had a few minutes before his Max and Reizo were going to show up for their training session. They needed to work on their team work after all, especially after that last C rank mission. He quickly pulled out the three shuriken wiping them off on his pants and pocketing them before stripping off his vest baring his severely scarred chest to the world, the lightning damage on his left shoulder seeming to have grown as well.
 

He reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out a roll of bandages, knowing that he did not yet have enough skill with the basic medical technique to heal himself of these wounds yet. He began to use the bandages to wrap up his wounds, his eyes up and scouring the visible area of the training grounds, keeping an eye out for his teammates. His chakra pulsing out as he searched for any approaching chakra levels, he turned to face and approaching chakra signature that had pinged off his senses. It was not one that he recognized, just yet and that rather surprised him.

TWC: 1000

Komon was currently moving at an alarming rate, he had begun to make it a daily routine to run through the forest branches, he wanted to ensure that he stayed in top shape, especially throughout the chuunin exams. The soothing sound of the soles of his sandals slapping against the wooden texture of the tree branches fueling his rhythm as he did so. At the speed’s he was traveling the branches almost appeared to be a blur. A bluish blackish blur that is, considering Komon had activated his byakugan to ensure he could reroute or slow down upon seeing civilians as to not alarm them with his training.

While Komon was primarily running to keep in shape he was also on his way to make it to the training ground to meet his brother Komori, the two had planned to do some rather basic training today, nothing new or special but rather to keep themselves in practice. He was surprised however when his byakugan caught sight of a chakra nature completely foreign to him standing in the training field, this field was rather far from town and Komon had picked it for that reason.

What surprised him even more however was that the chakra signature turned and faced directly at him from a rather long range, the man had sensed him it seemed. Komon was now relatively close to the man and decided that he better introduce himself, the man was obviously aware of his presence and there was no need to be rude about the situation. Jumping from the tree branch he had been stationed in he appeared in the clearing.

“So I guess you found me, How’d you do that? I’m Komon by the way”

He would say before reaching out to shake the man’s hand as a gesture of kindness.

WC: 303

Komori had been using the body flicker technique all the way to the out of the way training grounds that Komon had suggested they were to meet at. It was rather far away from the hustle and bustle of the streets of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, so he had been planning to surprise Komon by causing it to pour mid battle using his beloved Rain Tiger at Will technique. This would also allow him to be able to sense Komon's chakra which would aid him greatly in the fight, as Komon was currently stronger than he was at this particular time. Although Komori was aware of this, it did not make it any less annoying. His brother seemed to inherit the talent while he himself inherited the incredible good looks. His narcissistic self eventually grew bored of the body flicker technique as he neared the training grounds, and instead opted to show off his natural prowess by deciding to use the Water Release: Snake's Mouth jutsu, which typically traveled up to 20 meters. He used hthe kekkei genkei which he had inherited from his father, hydrification, in order to merge with the water and travel along with it. While doing so, he stopped once he realized that nobody had particularly been paying him any attention, so instead he sighed and walked up to his twin brother in a boring manner. It was then that his self absorbed yet charming self noticed that Komon was talking to a shirtless genin, which he recognized as Senshi Kobayashi, the boy who had taught him several techniques not that long ago. He walked up to the two in time to hear Komon's question.

WC: 281

Reizo was merrily hopping from tree branch to tree branch, occasionally performing little tricks along the way. One jump he would grab the following branch with both arms and flip over onto it, the next he would perform multiple front flips. Reaching the last branch before arriving at the training grounds, performing yet another fun trick, he would perform a series of hand springs before settling into a crouched position, perched atop the tree branch. He could clearly see 3 meters below him and about 5 meters out that Senshi was already present at the training grounds along with two unfamiliar faces. They didn't look hostile, but Reizo couldn't be too sure. Taking in the scene before him, he clearly saw Senshi was cleaning up two puncture wounds likely caused by either a shuriken or kunai. It was too hard to conclude who had caused the damage; the two identical boys were not apparently armed, yet why else would Senshi be wounded? Was it just a weird training accident? He noted that Senshi's scars had grown more numerous and some, like the very defined lightning scar across his shoulder, had even grown larger. Just what had he been up to since just the other day? He recalled his mother mentioning that her scar burned occasionally with the weather or her anxiety, perhaps they grew in size from emotional distress as well? It didn't seem to likely, but Reizo was at a loss for an explanation, so he was tempted to just ride with that conclusion. He hadn't arrived in time to listen to any of the banter that had just transpired between the group, so he wasn't given any context for the meeting.

The Genin leapt from his perch and easily covered the distance to land less than a foot to Senshi's left, crouching to weaken the impact of the landing, and then quickly recovering. Before he got up, he would turn to face Senshi, ignoring the twins in front of him, to offer assistance. "Here Senshi, let me help you with that," he would demand. Reizo wasn't about to take no for an answer, as he took the bandages from Senshi's hand and helped wrap it around his wounds. He knew from experience that wrapping bandages around oneself could prove cumbersome and tended to be done shoddily without assistance. As he stood to his feet after helping Senshi, Reizo glared at Komon, who was clearly the stronger of the two. He maintained eye contact for a few seconds and then shifted his glance to Komori, but only for a very brief moment. He would almost immediately return his eyes to the Hyuuga and sized him up, deeming him the possibly greater threat in this situation. He wasn't sure what to make of them, but he noted their Kumogakure apparel. He considered that perhaps the stronger of the two was a Chuunin, but something about the air he carried indicated that he lacked such authority, despite donning the clothing of a higher ranking. Although Reizo was still a little skeptical, the fact that Senshi seemed to be at ease lowered his suspicions of the two twins. Reizo's stern countenance melted into a warm grin from ear to ear as his worries were put to rest. "Hiya! You two know Senshi-kun?" Reizo would say in a chipper voice, folding his hands behind his head to cradle his cranium and leaning back ever so slightly.

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573 words

Max walked over to the training grounds to begin some training, his back carrying his wrapped puppets. He would need to get much stronger, and hopefully sooner rather than later. Maybe Reizo or Senshi would be up for some training. The last time that Max had been to a training session with Reizo, he mostly sat and read. While it was incredibly valuable information, he barely got any real training in. This time would have to prove different. Napa had been harping on the boy a great deal, telling him that he would need to grow much stronger if he was to ever fulfill his destiny.
 
Utilizing the Chakra Sensory technique that Senshi had taught him, Max would search the grounds in hopes to find one of his teammates. It wouldn’t be long before he noticed the ping of not one, but two of his fellow team members. He also noticed the chakra signatures of two others as well. One of them even had chakra that felt on par with that of Senshi, maybe even higher by a bit.
 
Napa had been surprisingly quiet so far on this trip. Every once in a while he does that, keeping his thoughts to himself and not verbally assaulting those around him. Still, it was an odd occurrence. Max would get into range to see the four standing around the training grounds. They looked to be friendly, or at least this was the calmest combat he has ever seen. Senshi seems to be hurt again it seems, and Max wonders about him since most of Senshi’s injuries tend to be gathered while training it seems. Why would the boy put himself through such torturous training? The goal in combat was to not get hit, wasn’t it? One is likely to get hit regardless, but still. Maybe it was different for Reizo and Senshi as well. Max didn’t really need to get up close and into the fray of combat, while they both (for the most part) did.
 

Max walks up to the others, waving and saying hello. “Hi, I’m Maximillian of the Yamaguchi clan. Are you two friends with Reizo and Senshi?” The boy would ask, his blue eyes locked onto the newcomers. Senshi really did know everybody in Kumo, didn’t he? Anyone close to the boy would note that he always smelled of death, though Senshi and Reizo had likely grown at least a bit accustomed to it.

Senshi’s hazel eyes narrowed on the boy as he entered the training grounds at an accelerated rate. He wasn’t sure if the boy had been using some kind of technique  to speed himself up, but if he hadn’t been then his speed was incredible. As the boy approached him, introducing himself Senshi’s eyes shifted away as Komori landed in the clearing as well. He hadn’t realized that the boy could meld with water that was an interesting technique. As the Genin was about to finish the knot for the bandage for his wrist and the shake the proffered hand Reizo showed up on the scene.
 
Senshi’s eyebrow rose slightly as the other boy immediately set into assisting him with the bandaging. He was initially wary of the contact with another person and his muscles twitch, the incredibly defined six pack and pectoral muscles that he had developed visibly shaking for several seconds before he stilled his nerves. As he and Reizo were finishing the bandage around his torso, it was Max’s turn to enter the training ground. Senshi was starting to feel a small sense of panic at the amount of people that were showing up and so close to each other. It was almost as if it had been a planned meeting.
 
Shaking off the feelings of being closed in, with so many people around him he finally reached out with a bloodied hand and shook Komon’s firmly. He quickly let the boy’s hand go as he spoke hazel eyes assessing them. He could see a clear resemblance to Komori, but the clear white eyes were sparking some memory in him. He believed he had read something about a clan of people with those eyes, they had a blood line but he wasn’t entirely sure as blood line research had never been one of the things he was really interested in learning. “Genin Kobayashi Senshi, these are my teammates Genin’s Shoyu Reizo and Yamaguchi Maximillian. We serve under Jounin Teirumi Itami.”
 
Senshi’s tone was exceedingly formal but from the look of the boy before him and the feel of his chakra Senshi wasn’t sure if the other boy was a Genin or a Chuunin, especially with his attire. He turned his eyes towards Komori and gave a slight nod to him before giving far deeper nods of greeting to both of his teammates. “Good morning Reizo-Sempai, Max-sempai. Komori-san it’s a pleasure to meet again.” Senshi greeted the other three boys before finally changing his gaze back to the light eyed Genin and deciding to answer the question he had asked. He had yet to put hi vst back on and the snow that was falling was causing his muscles to quiver slightly.
 
He considered briefly redressing himself but decided to wait a moment to properly speak to the other Genin, he didn’t want to come off as rude after all. “Komon-sempai, I was using a skill know as Chakra Sensory that allows a user of it to detect chakra signatures around them. It pairs with a skill know as Chakra Suppression that allows someone to hide their chakra signature from those who know Chakra Sensory.” Senshi gave a slight shrug with his left shoulder when he finished speaking, as though to indicate his confusion on why someone as skilled as this boy seemed didn’t already know this.
 
Bending down, his eyes never leaving the two strange Genin, he picked his vest up and slid it back on over his body. Once it was properly situated he ran a hand over the bloodied spot, fingering the tear there. With a sigh he figured he would have to scrap the vest soon enough, as this tear wouldn’t be an easy repair. The bandages he now had on underneath the vest were clearly visible. He knelt down again hefting the training blade up and with a small twirl he sheathed the blade on his back. He made it seem effortless but anyone with less then sixty strength would not have been able to lift her. His eyes moved over to Max and he spoke again. “Max-sempai during my last Chuunin Exam mission I encountered a field that didn’t allow the external use of chakra.”
 

He paused his eyes shifting to look at the two unknown boys again, they were Kumo shinobi yet they weren’t people he was familiar with and he felt uncomfortable speaking around them. Pushing that off he continued on, “I was wondering if you knew anything about traps like that…” He trailed off not wanting to give away that he knew Max could build traps into his weapons and put his capabilities out there for the unknown shinobi to know. Before the boy could respond he quickly spoke to Reizo as well, “Speaking of my Chuunin exam mission, Reizo-sempai did you conduct the second mission yet? I’d like to go over scenarios as part of our training today if you did to better improve my combat capabilities.” Though he still spoke formally with his teammates it was clear that he was far more relaxed in addressing them then he was with the new comers.


 TWC: 1855

Komon had just finished his question to the unknown shinobi in front of him and he could tell upon closer inspection that the man was obviously well trained, he carried a sort of warrior like feel to him, and that feeling was only amplified by the blood that surrounded the snow around him. As senshi was about to answer however Komon’s slightly younger twin brother made his appearance known as well. And as that happened his byakugan caught a glimpse of two more kumogakure shinobi coming in from the right. “What an odd amount of people to show up all at once” He thought to himself as once more focused on senshi, with his hand still extended.

The boy didn’t really seem like a people person upon first inspection, he was more than reluctant to shake Komon’s hand and he felt he had made the boy uncomfortable. However the ninja eventually extended and shook accepting Komon’s greeting when the other gennin got closer. Komon noted that he seemed to be more comfortable around them, before the man finally spoke and explained that the two other gennin where his teammates, and that they served under a jounin named Itami. Komon was impressed upon hearing this, he and his brother Komori had not yet been assigned to a combat unit and he felt kind of embarrassed by this so he simply introduced himself without giving that information away, he knew senshi had already gotten his name but the other two still did not know him.

“My names Komon, I’m a gennin of the hidden cloud as well, although I only have two chuunin exam’s left before I achieve chuunin ranking”

he would say before senshi answered his earlier question of how he had spotted him. It appeared he had been using some kind of technique that could sense chakra just like his byakugan. Komon was unaware such a technique had even existed up until this point so he his facial expressions let slip a hint of surprise before began to think to himself if he could ever come up with a way to counter such a technique. His train of thought however was cut off when senshi mentioned a technique that could do just that, before also mentioning that he had just taken a chuunin exam as well to his teammate. This new information surprised him as well.

Senshi described that he had encountered a field that didn’t allow the use of chakra outside of the body in his last exam, and asked Komon and Komori knew about such a trap. Komon had already taken the majority of the exam’s and had never encountered any such device, so he responded to the man’s question as well. “No, I’ve never heard of anything like that, which exam was that in, if it’s in any of my future two exam’s I’ll have to look out for it, I rely heavily on ninjutsu so that could prove a problem for me”

After answering the question Komon realized his brother had yet to be introduced and decided to help him out, “Oh this is my brother by the way I’ll let him introduce himself”

WC: 895

Komori noted how Senshi seemed to particularly focus on his twin brother. The boy who had walked up and immediately began to apply bandages to Senshi’s wounds had looked at both of the boys, however, he had only glanced in his direction for a mere moment before turning to face Komon again. The small child with what appeared to be humanoid shaped bodies seemed to be the only one who did not dismiss Komori. He smiled at this observation, before his face turned to slight disgust when he caught a whiff of what Komori imagined rotting flesh to smell like. Actually, in hindsight, he knew very well what rotting flesh smelled like due to the fact that he resided in the Village Hidden in the Clouds. Komori took a moment to look over the edge of the mountain towards the lower regions of the village, where he distantly saw human bodies impaled on spikes. He quickly shuddered before turning his attention back towards the completely and totally unscheduled group meeting of several genin who coincidentally all happened to appear at the same training grounds at around the exact same time.


Komori was rather abruptly put on the spot by his twin brother, which was rather welcome as attention shifted more towards himself. The formerly shirtless boy he recognized as Senshi Kobayashi, who he met not that long ago. He remembered noticing the boy had paid increased attention to what Komori was doing, almost as if he was studying how Komori was reacting to the given situation. He looked over towards Max, who had walked up to their makeshift group before glancing towards Reizo and held his hand up in a greeting, like a stationary wave. “I will answer to ‘the better looking twin’ but for the most part, just call me Komori.” He lowered his hand before waiting for a moment, as he was not sure what else he was supposed to say. “I’m a Hozuki. Hydrification and all that. Uhh.” He lifted his arm up like he was doing curls and pointed his thumb at Komon before stating, “Our dad was a Hozuki like me, while our mom was a Hyuuga.” His voice faltered for a second at the mention of his mother, but he hoped it was discreet enough that the others had not noticed, as he was not particularly keen on talking about her murder. He forced a smile as he continued briefly, “I got the looks and brains as well as the hydrification technique while my brother here got the brawn and visual prowess of our mom.” This time he made sure for his voice to not even slightly quiver. He closed his eyes and put his fists against his waist as he posed like a superhero. “But I’ll catch up to him pretty soon,” he said confidently. He then waited for somebody else to speak up, as he felt as though he had exhausted what Komon had set him up for.

WC: 777

Reizo listened as Senshi introduced the the team and explained Chakra Sensory and Chakra Suppression. Reizo always had a sneaking suspicion that such skills existed, especially from their previous mission, but he was still somewhat surprised that Senshi knew how to use them. He would wait for Senshi to finish speaking before chiming in. "That... explains so much. I've always suspected Itami-sensei had such an ability, but I didn't realize you knew too, Senshi-kun. You'll have to teach me how to sense and suppress chakra sometime," Reizo would say to his teammate. He would then continue, "As for the Chuunin Exam... are we allowed to discuss the contents of the exam? I would love to tell you what happened in the second exam, there were a lot of interesting traps and enemies I encountered. I'd be happy to run through some simulations with you nonetheless." Reizo was trying to buy some time and draw attention away from the exam itself; he didn't want to have to explain the circumstances of his exams. Perhaps he'd get lucky and the topic would change soon while everyone was introducing themselves.

Reizo recounted the twins' introductions, and mouthed their names as he looked at them, trying to associate their names with their faces. He would likely get them confused for quite a while as they not only looked the same, but had similar sounding names. Instead, Reizo tried to build the association of their bloodline with their names, so that should he ever meet them in combat or ally with them, he'd remember. Hyuuga for Komon, with the white-eyed Byakugan. Komori was the Hozuki, with the ability to meld with water, as Reizo had seen not too long ago. Reizo would take the opportunity to introduce himself to the twins as soon as Komori finished. "Well, as Senshi-kun and Max-kun already mentioned, I'm Reizo of the Shoyu clan. I'm a Taijutsu specialist, but I'm looking to branch out soon. I don't have any particularly special skills or jutsu, I just hit things fast and hard. Kinda like Senshi, here, but I don't hide behind weapons and armor," he would tease, looking toward Senshi and smirking as he said it. Max had already introduced himself, so Reizo, not wanting to end up in silence, tried to start some type of conversation. "Well, we're here because we were gonna work on some team oriented exercises, what brings you two here on this cold, snowy day? I would expect it to be somewhat difficult to train normally in this weather. I don't want mean to distract you guys from your training, but uhh, you're welcome to join us, I suppose. If that's alright with you guys," Reizo would look at Senshi and Max for confirmation. Senshi was the one that organized this, so Reizo figured he should deserve the final say as to what this training session entailed. Reizo didn't want to admit it because it could distract from the team building exercises Senshi had planned, but he really wanted to learn chakra suppression and sensory while the topic was still fresh in his mind. It could prove to be a nice learning session for everyone, as it seemed the twins didn't know how to do them either. Reizo would leave the decision to Senshi, ultimately.

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549 + 573 = 1122 words

So this Komori had been of the Hozuki bloodline, while the other brother had been of the Hyuuga bloodline. An interesting pair those two had made. Max, not having any interesting bloodline abilities to speak of wasn’t entirely sure how that came to be. Were they of both clans, with only certain traits coming out as dominant? Or was it that only the strong bloodline remained in their system, effectively destroying any trace of the other? It would be something he would have to look into in the future. Varying bloodlines tend to behave in many different ways and that intrigued the boy. Another question popped into the boys head as well. While it might be an odd things to ask, Max never really considered the oddness of his words or actions before doing something.
 
“So… what is you guys surname, or family name?” he would ask to the twins, completely baffled at such remarkable specimens of shinobi genealogy.
 
Senshi had been so far along with his Chuunin Exams. It wouldn’t be long before he had achieved the next rank and became a chuunin not only in the eyes of his peers, but also in the eyes of the village. Reizo had been getting through them as well, and he had also been well on his way to a promotion. “Congratulations on doing so well on your testing, guys! You’ll be chuunin before you know it.” Max would say. He thought about what Senshi had said about that area that somehow managed to prevent chakra from being properly utilized. His studies hadn’t revealed to him anything that could do that. Maybe it had been a combination of effects? Who knows, but such isn’t something that Max’s familiar with. “Sorry Senshi. I dunno anything that can do all that. Whatever that was, it was quite a powerful effect.” The boy would say, almost in awe of something so strong. Something like that would prove incredibly useful. Maybe he would have to research further into this subject…
 
On the subject of some type of group training exercise, Max quickly nods and agrees. After all, he came here today to get some training under his belt, and it would be a waste to not utilize all of these capable training partners. What would they do? Reizo wants to learn how to detect and hide his chakra it seems. In fact, that would be a useful trick for all of these folks to know. Luckily, Senshi had already showed Max how to do it. That would mean that he could help Senshi teach if it came down to it.
 

“How about we mix some fun in with our training? Play a game or something as well as train?” Max would toss out there. He wasn’t sure that they would go for it, but at the end of the day Max was a little kid and prone to occasional “childish” ideas despite his rank and status as a shinobi.