The Flash of a Blade, and The Meeting of a Friend

Hikari Namikaze was alone in her room, reading up on a new book on fuinjutsu, she had just finished her report the night before and was just waiting for the letter that would tell her wether or not she had done an acceptable job to the point that she would be allowed to rank up and become a chunin. She was still very nervous about this, would she get her rank up? It was a nerve-racking experience to say the least. It was so bad, that the chunin hopeful was unable to get even a wink of sleep the night before. After a couple of hours (About 3 A.M.) The sixteen year old girl gave up trying to sleep and instead decided to pull out a book and start reading. The book she was reading was on a totally new style of using ones chakra, Fuinjutsu. To summarize what it is, it is basically the use of jutsu to make seals, and through that, being able to do various things through them. It uses chakra, just like Ninjutsu does, and as Hikari has a lot of that, this should be easy for her. She had been working for some time, a couple of hours in fact, slowly taking notes, and drawing pictures of the seals in order to memorize them. For most (Sane) people, after taking an extended period of time of writing and making notes on a certain subjet, they wouldn’t want to do more writing, but after everything the young girl had to research on…. She needed something else to read about so that she wouldn’t be mentally scared from reading and writing any more.

Anyways, after a couple of hours, the sun started to come up and light started to fall into the young woman’s room, lighting it up. The young girl would close the book and get ready for the day. She would clean up, put her basic makeup on, go and make her breakfast, and would sit down to eat it. She made her favorate breakfast to try to calm herself down, Bacon (Because Bacon) and Pancakes (Because Pancakes). The young woman would sit down and eat, continuing to read as she did. When she wrapped up her meal, she would start to pack up to head out somewhere. She had been couped up reading all day yesterday, the woman would want to go outside and do some reading, the best place for that would most likely be the traning ground, it was usualy not that populated. The chest nut haired girl would go back to her room and grab her sword, the one winged angel, and put it on her left hip. This way, it would be easy to draw it with her right hand, her nondominant hand, so she could use it to block incoming attacks if needed, leaving her left dominant arm free to have the ability to form hand signs as she is able to do that with a single hand. The would put that on, and procced to head out towards the training field, it was quite and no one would bother her while she was out there. As she went to leave the house, she recalled that she might still not be known as a shinobi, and she shouldn’t go out in her shinobi attire, so she went back to her room and would change out of her attire, dropping her sword, and weapons, and replace her outfit with a simple white sundress and sandels. With that, she would smile, but just to be safe would grab a kunai holder and a kunai, and put it on under her skirt, that way, it would be easy to get to quickly if she needed it.

As Hikari made her way through the village, she would look around at all of the religious people and monks and priest, glad that most of them didn’t know she was a shinobi. She never wore her headband on a place where people could see it, that way, random people wouldn’t come up to her and harass her about being a shinobi. In the village hidden amoung the stars, there was a church that was basicly the center of the government here. In the churches religion, Shinobi are basicly demons that should be crucified and executed. However, due to their lack of a proper army or defensive force, and their location, the village was a prime target for bandits and missing ninja’s to come in and rob the civilains blind. That being said, the village higherups were forced to basicly accept shinobi aid when it came to them, however, that wasn’t a choice that the majority of the population agreed with, and many of them wanted to rebel against this, at the same time though, they knew that if they kicked the shinobi out, that it would mean the death of them. As such, the majority of the civilians were forced to accept shinobi, but that by no means meant that they enjoyed it, or worst, wouldn’t like to make fun of them, give them a hard time, or just generaly harass them when they had the opportunity. However, Hikari had gone out of her way to hide the fact that she was a shinobi from most people…. So only a few people knew that she was one, as such, most people didn’t bother her. Ontop of that, she grew outside of the shinobi system, so she knew how to react and talk to common folk. Just to be safe though, Hikari kept her chakra surpresed pretty much all of the time when she wasn’t using her jutsu.

After some time, the woman would make it to the training ground. When she arrived, she would find young man, about her age, training and practicing with a sword. Coming a bit closer to it, the sword looked more like a Katana, was about 3 feet long, with a long hilt, a dark black blade, and various rose petals etched in the blade, and a hilt that looks more like a star then anything. The man appeared to be practicing drawing his blade in a quick single motion. The young chunin hopeful would take a moment to focus her chakra sensory ability to read the man’s chakra, sure enough, he had more of a developed chakra network then the average person, this man was a shinobi. Judging by his chakra level, it was likely that this man still a genin. She didn’t want to startle the man, as such, she would call out to him, “Hello there!” She would say, a smile on her face, “I see you are practicing here. Would you be annoyed if I sat under that tree over their and read? Sorry, I would like to get some vitamin D while doing research, and the training grounds is the best place to do that! If not, then I can leave and come back another time, I know it can be bothersome to focus while other people are around.”

If the man wished his privacy, she would leave the man alone and continue to somewhere else, most likely the library. However, if he said it was ok, Hikari would go and sit down in front of the tree and continue to read once more.

Word count: 1226

Valen had let his mind become too peaceful. He had let the quiet become too much of a part of himself and allowed himself to forget the one rule of being a shinobi. The single most important rule that he allowed himself to fail to follow...He had failed to be constantly aware of his surroundings. He had become so engrossed in his meditative stance before he next attempt at quick drawing his sword, become so absolutely absorbed in calming himself. That he had failed to notice when someone else arrived. As such when the voice of a young woman around his age called out to say hello and ask if she could read there, she would scare the shit out of him. Not simply because it wasn’t expected. But because of the very idea that he had allowed his guard down in a village where the civilians hated them. It was also a frightening moment because if he continued to let it happen he would screw up on a mission because of it. This could lead to his or a comrade’s death. As such he was a bit more out of it than normal when she called out. Someone interesting did happen as a result though.


As her voice startled him at the exact moment he was about to draw his sword for his attempt at the technique his body seized up due to the fear reflex. When this occurred however he had already dedicated his body to moving in a the movement to draw. So he drew, and with the added fear enhancing the draw, drew the sword faster than he had done so all day. He blinked stupidly for a moment before schooling his emotions and fighting to return his heart rate down to normal levels before turning to the girl and examining her. She had chestnut brown hair that went midway down her back, fair skin, and stood about a half foot shorter than himself. She had on a simple white sundress and sandals and seemed to simply want to read in the sun. He thought about it for a moment as he examined her and realized she must be a civilian from the church. After all she didn’t have on any shinobi armour, no weapons, and no headband. He shrugged his shoulders and nodded to her request, granting her permission to do so. At least she asked, most civilians wouldn’t. He was also devastatingly lucky that she seemed to be a kind civilian or he might just be dead. After all he was still a fresh genin, it wouldn’t be impossible to say a normal person with no shinobi training could kill him.


After accepting her request he would sheath his sword again and return to the stance. He had performed the technique had wanted to before, but it had been a fluke at best. After all he couldn’t have the girl follow him around and scare the shit out of him every time he needed to use the technique, as amusing as that would be. He brought his hand to the sheath as before, holding onto the neck of the item, allowing himself to hold it steady so he could draw the blade and pull the sheath away from the sword as he drew the sword out of the sheath. He placed his other hand on the hilt of the katana and allowed focused heavily on the task at hand. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to let his guard down again, especially not with her there. So rather than allow himself into a meditative state he allowed himself into a highly focused one instead. He focused on his imaginary target, focused on drawing the sword as fast as he could. He focused on being akin to lightning when he drew and then suddenly tore the blade from its sheath at a disgustingly quick draw that easily had him satisfied at the speed in which he did so. He sheathed his sword once more and nodded his head in satisfaction. He had finally gotten drawing the thing out down now. But he had a much longer way to go if he was to get stronger.


He turned his attention back to the girl with the white sundress. He had a bit apprehensive about approaching as she might have been being kind to try to be inviting. There was also the issue that he didn’t want to disturb her reading. So he settled for sitting where he was for a few minutes to allow himself a small respite before starting the next technique. The sun had risen enough in the sky that the sea of colours that had decorated the sky earlier had since dissipated and now only bright blue remained. There were a few clouds here and there but no fear of rain seeing as they were in a desert. He stood up after a few minutes and began to contemplate his next technique. He could learn how to draw his sword faster, and truly become a master in that aspect before moving on. As a matter of fact he highly considered it. It would make things easier later on if people thought he was a novice with his blade right before he lopped off their head at a much higher speed than they were anticipating. He kept this idea going in the back of mind, slowly turning it over in his head before deciding that it was definitely what he wanted to do.

To that end he dropped back down into his stance and held it for a minutes, allowing a few moments again so his body would memorize the stance in the future. It was part of the reason he waited so long to draw after all. He would then draw the blade at an insanely high speed. A little faster than he was pulling off before granted, but not enough for his liking. He would simply have to keep practicing. After that attempt however he noticed that it was getting extremely hot and he looked up, shielding his eyes in the process to see the sun getting higher in the sky, to the point where only it’s light and heat would bear down on him at this point. He was glad he decided to forgo his upper body clothing today for training, lest he pass out from heat exhaustion. He slowly moved over to the small oasis to get a drink of water. He briefly wondered if the girl was still there reading and after consuming some of the water would briefly look around for her.


WC: 2383

Hikari would approach and ask the man if he was ok if she was reading. As she started talking, the man suddenly drew his blade even quicker then before. At first, Hikari had noticed that the first couple of time he had been drawing his blade he had done so at a speed of somewhere between 20-25, but this time, he yanked it out at a speed of about 40. This made Hikari jump back at his sudden increase of speed, it still wasn’t incredibly fast, but when someone suddenly more then double’s there drawing speed, it gave Hikari a reason to jump. He would however nod at the girl and continue to practice his quick drawing technique.

As, he did, Hikari would go and sit down by the tree, reading more about the book on fuinjutsu and trying to understand the new form a ninjutsu more then she already did, however, she would find herself every once and a while looking back up to the man as he trained. This was more due to lack of intrest in reading then in the man, but Hikari did take note that the man was picking up speed with his strikes, slowly but surely. Perhaps he was a little bit newer and was able to pick up on the technique quickly. She continued to read, every once and a while looking up at the man, until eventually the man would sit down, take a drink, and start to look around until he eventualy was looking at her for a little bit of time. As he appeared to be on a break, Hikari figured that she should probably talk to him.

“Well, if you are taking a break.” She would ask. “I’m curious, judging by your head band, you’re probably a shinobi? How long have you been practicing?”

WC: 309

“Only a few days actually, I ended up on a single A rank mission and a D rank thus far, but the A rank wasn’t really difficult” Hikari would sit and listen to the boy as he spoke, An A rank mission? Besides her writing assignment she did, she hasn’t had an actual A rank mission yet. He would then take a second to look over to Hikari’s lap, where there was a book, seeing that she was working on her fuinjutsu. The man would then respond with, “you’re studying Fuinjutsu, A fellow shinobi? I apologize, the entire time I thought you might a civilian with doubtful intentions. I’m not exactly very powerful yet.”

Hikari would wonder why he thought she was a Civilain, especially at their location… however, she would then look down and realize she was currently wearing civilian clothing, didn’t have her headband on, and was surprising her chakra. As such, she could see why, but at the same time, Hikari still wondered why a civilian would be at the training ground?

“Oh,” the young girl would say, “I’m sorry, yes, I’m a shinobi, A …. Well… I’m at a weird point between genin and Chunin right now, I have done everything, I just need to get conformation that I have ranked up at this point.”

After a bit of time, the man would ask Hikari if she knew of any weapon techniques and Hikari would sigh and just say, “No, I’m sorry, but I Don’t, the only thing I really know is that I can use the shadow clone jutsu on a thrown weapon, to make 100’s of clones of that weapon. Bu that is kind of hard to learn, so maybe not….. However… you said you learned firestyle on one of those missions, I know a few firestyle jutu’s that might be of use to you, if you want?

WC: 314

“I’m sorry, yes, I’m a shinobi, A …. Well… I’m at a weird point between genin and Chunin right now, I have done everything, I just need to get conformation that I have ranked up at this point.”  This would cause Valen to widen in eyes in response before nodding his head, a chunin level shinobi huh? He wouldn’t have thought so by looking at her but he wasn’t exactly experienced in pointing it out yet. After all he was still fairly new to this whole thing. He began trying to really try and look for the clues and he began to see the experience in her eyes, the  look of well defined muscles that any shinobi required to perform even the basic duties of their job. He slowly began mentally pointing out these things and more to view her as an experienced assassin and not just a random girl in the training ground. “I do apologize again..” He would begin as he glanced over at the church  that wasn’t too far off. He knew she’d see the look, what shinobi wouldn’t. He’d look back to her, making eye contact instantly before saying “Shinobi haters..I don’t know if they’re the type to leave us alone if they’d try something quite yet..” He would explain, hoping she would understand why he had gotten paranoid over her being there. He’d lean back on the sand at this point, feeling the course, rough substance fall around his fingers as he thought about her offer.


“You’d be willing to help train me?..” He’d ask with a mildly incredulous look on his face. No one had ever really offered to train him before, in anything. On the last mission Nano had just silently given him a small tip and that was it. But here was an experienced kunoichi who was willing to help teach him more of the shinobi arts. Hell to his memory no one had ever offered him help before either. At least not vocally. He’d halfway assumed Nano had done it merely to show off that he could do something Valen couldn’t. Of course he’d never say that out loud, he was far too quiet for the kind of confrontation that might invoke.  He’d think about it for a few minutes, he could only really devote his time to a certain number of techniques before he’d need to start focusing on ranking up, lest he stunt his career. He supposed one fire style technique couldn’t hurt as he needed a solid ranged technique  but he didn’t think he’d be able to learn any technique she might be able to teach. His chakra levels weren’t exactly up to par after all. He began to consider if he could really learn it before deciding that if she taught him how he might be able to strengthen his chakras power to the point where he could use the technique.


Having made up his mind he turned back to his chestnut haired companion and nodded. “If it isn’t too much trouble, or getting in the way of your studies. I would very much like to learn a fire technique from you Miss?..” He would leave the end of the sentence hanging in question, hoping to convince her to introduce herself. It’s not like he’d be able to tell if she lied yet. He wasn’t anywhere near experienced enough for such a thing but it would certainly be pointless for her to lie to him about her name. They were comrades after all. He pushed such thoughts out of his head and decided to trust the woman either way. She did after all , ask permission to read here earlier when she could have easily  MADE him accept. It isn’t like he could stop her if he wanted to. She had also been forthcoming about her status as a shinobi and even disclosed her rank. If that didn’t tell him that he could trust her then he didn’t know what did.

At this point he would stand up, dusting his hands and clothes off to rid them of the excess sand that loved to hold onto smaller crevices in skin and clothing. He then turn and offer his hand to help her up. It was polite after all, and Valen had always stressed being quiet and polite. If she accepted his hand he would help her up and perform the usual ‘After you milady’ motion for her to begin. If not he would either listen to her words or await for her to stand up on her own and doing as she wished. Who knows maybe she’d rather change her mind and go home. It certainly wouldn’t  be an impossible scenario. In  which he would simply shrug and go back to practicing his sword drawing techniques. He knew one thing however, he certainly hoped she showed him a technique. He’d never really learned from someone else like this before, and he was actually excited. As if anyone could tell by his outward expression. He tended to have an absurdly good poker face.


WC: 845
TWC: 3676


2000 words so far for Quickdraw
1676 words as of now not allocated

The dark-haired man would look at Hikari, and in a little bit of shock would ask “You would be willing to help train me?” And Hikari would know what this was like.
The man was a shinobi who didn’t have anyone to teach him how to use basic techniques, he was basicly learning from what little bits he could watch what other people did. She had been in a similar situation, where she hadn’t been able to be given proper training or guidance from a higher-ranking shinobi. Namikaze learned techniques remarkably quick for any shinobi, and if she had a teacher…. Who knows what she could of accomplished in such a short time span.

As such, the chestnut haired girl would jump on the oppritunity to teach the boy how to use fire style jutsu. He would request it of her and she would respond with “Yes, I would love to, and I have been doing to much reading anyways, so it isn’t much of a problem, And I’m Miss Namikaze, but please don’t call me that. Call me by my first name, Hikari, we are about the same age, and even though I am about to rank up, I am still a genin, so you don’t have to call me Miss” She would close her eyes and smile as she said this last part. Even if she was teaching him, she still considered this person to be her friend and comrade, not a student beneath her.

Hikari would reach into her memory banks, trying to think of a good technique that she could teach him. The basic fireball technique, would probably be a good one.

The teenage girl would look at the boy and would start explaining “Well, the first thing I am going to teach you is the basic fireball technique. To do such, all one must do is form the proper hand signs, in this case, it is just the horse” [/color] Hikari would form said handsign. “Followed by the Tiger handsign.” With that, HIkari would take a deep breath, condensing air into her lungs, and transforming it into the fire element, before facing away from the boy and shooting a fireball that was about two meters into the air. The fireball would come out at speed of 65 and a power of 50, going about 20 meters into the air before giving a slight explosion.

The Chesnut haired girl would look back at the boy and try to explain. As she did, her dress and hair would sway slightly, moving in response to the explosion that happened a few meters away from the two, “So the thought behind this fireball is to take a deep breath and to transform the air your lungs into fire, Once it comes out of your mouth, transform it into a ball by controlling your chakra and shoot it out at top speeds.”

WC: 485

Hikari would watch as the boy used a perfectly mastered fire ball in the first attempt. While It might of not been as fast and powerful as hers, it was still quite a site for someone who was doing it for the first time. She would clap until she heard, “So, how was that, Hikari-sensei?”
….

“Well, Hikari Sensei….” She would say, thinking back to her genin exams with Kyousuke Snow. “Thinks that you should probably run 3 laps around the village in order to build your stamina. Good thing that she isn’t hear.” Hikari would say, with a smile on her face.

“So, I don’t know if there is anything else I can really teach you…. After all, that is the basic fire technique…. I don’t know if there is something else I can really teach you...." Hikari would think for a second and then realize something, "So... you said that you completeded an A rank mission, correct? Wow! That is phenominal! How did you do it? What was it? You said it wasn't difficult, but any A rank mission could be dangeous! What happend?