Training in the Shadows (IO) (Practice) (NK)

The Lycan sat on top of one of the rooftops, just thinking. Ryou looked up at the sky also for a brief moment before sighing and jumping off. He lands safely on the ground. He had a plan to train a bit, after all, if he wanted to face against Kumo then he was going to need all the training he could get. 

It first started off with Ryou normal training, just some simple kicks and punches at the air. Next, like normal, he would train the jutsu he was working on. One of which was bone armour but he would save that for later. The one he was going to try to get was was Dance of Seedling Fern. He weaves the hand sign for the jutsu. Then the D-ranked ninja began to infuse the chakra into the ground. This made 20 bone spikes pop up from the ground. "Damn, not there yet." Ryou would comment looking at the 30-meter beauty. 

WC:162

Ezra was walking through the social zone of the black market, idly picking things up that interested him before throwing them away back onto wherever they had come from. He felt a need to train, seeing as he had recently taken an interest in weaponry. Perhaps the blood of the samurai from the land of iron called to him. He shared no true relation, but he it felt close enough to home thanks to his father.

Soon enough Ezra came across a large clearing, and a myriad of white, solid structures put the boy on slight alert. Without a true weapon of his own yet, the boy would grab a loose blade by the side of an abandoned building. Some drunkard must have left their weapon unattended while they took a nap. A stroke of luck for the young Terumi. Holding the sheathed blade in his left hand, the boy would hold his right to his face and call out.

"You know, this place is typically used for quiet meetings and hushed discussion. Not entirely sure why you're making these... what even are these?"

The young Nara girl was idly making her way through the Black Market area, the home for most missing-nin like herself. After the meeting she had just had with her new cohorts, Alice decided she would try and size a few of them up for herself while also getting in some much needed training. So, following stealthily behind Ryou, she had made her way to a small clearing and watched from the shadows at the edge of the clearing. It was somewhat calming to see that this one was also practicing before their task. 

Now when I say Alice was watching from the shadows, I mean she was quite literally watching from inside of a shadow cast by the setting sun on one of the many trees. As she was completely hidden within the shadow, her chakra signature and all other signs of her existence were also hidden. It was quickly becoming one of her favorite techniques. That definitely had nothing to do with the fact that she had invented it herself. The intricacies of this technique were truly incredible. Alice was very much impressed with herself. Of course, that wasn't anything unusual for her being a basic condescending and arrogant narcissist. 

She was still very much hidden when Ezra had also found his way into the clearing, picking up a discarded blade as he walked. After listening to his opening words, Alice decided to show herself as well. Perhaps the three of them could train together; this time together may even be used to form some sort of cohesiveness among them. 


"Ezra. Ryou. I see I'm not the only one who thought of getting in some last minute training before this ordeal." she said as her body emerged out of the shadow in which she was hiding. A mischievous grin would be seen on her face, her arms folded across her chest. "Why don't the three of us train together? I could use some practice, and to be honest, I'd rather we have some type of cohesiveness and trust going into this. No offense to you two, but dying because of poor teamwork or lack of trust isn't really on my agenda."

WC: 363

(OCC: Just read the last paragraph, that is all that maters:) Faith Made her way through the small town they were in, the grass flowing through the grown as as a soft breeze could be felt through the girl's pink hair. She had been thinking about cutting it for quite some time... or at least letting it go back to it's normal brown... but something.... seeing that color in the mirror made her feel more comfortable. She didn't know why, perhaps it made her feel more of happier times... times when she lived in the village, the sand village that is. Where everything was peaceful and quite.

But now, they were no longer at their home, the sand had been taken away from them.... all by that damned little girl with her fucking girl scout cookies. She had caught his name.... what was it again? Maku... right? Yeah, the little shit Maku was the one that took over the village.

Also that damned leader... Koroshi.... That damn fool made the village soft, made the village depend on him to much... The common people worshiped him, they praised him, they adored him, but when they needed him most .... he vanished....

That being said, The Akari had to wonder what happened to the Blonde Uchiha... How did the man disapear? Faith new space time Jutsu were a thing... but that didn't seem like what was happening in this situation... no, after all, the Kazekage seemed to have no idea how to use advanced jutsu like that.....

Either way.... It didn't mater. Faith knew there that it was time to do some last minute training. She was a Jounin... no... she was a 'b' rank missing ninja now... but she really only had the skills of a chunin at best, if not Genin. She had been ranked up probably to quickly, and she needed to fix that. Now.

Faith would arrive at a small group, seeing Ryou Kenshin, a young Genin that wasn't that was still new to the shinobi world. He was surrounded by bones, a Kenkei Genki Ability that he possessed.

Also around him there were two other people, Missing Ninja's that they had met up with recently, both of which had dark hair. One was a taller man with longer dark hair, the other was a much smaller girl with an eye patch over one of her eyes. With all honesty, the Akari thought it looked cute, but right now needed to try to stay strong while the two of them trained.


Faith would give a cough to let her presence be known, that way, she wasn't sneaking up on anyone.
"Hello Ryou.... it is nice to see you are out here training... It is also nice to see you getting acquinted with... I'm sorry, what are your names? I believe I missed them at our meeting earlier."

Word count: 481
Total Word Count: 481

One by one people came from his group that also had the same idea, train. First Ezra came up to him to ask him what he was making and why. "Training is important, especially if you're going against a village." He then looked at the pillar of bone as he explained what it was, "This is solid bone, it's my kekki genki, the jutsus name is Dance of Seedling Fern." 

Then Alice came up to them both to comment that they should train together. The Lycan was total not against training with them. Also, Ryou agreed with Alice when she said that she'd rather not die from lack of teamwork. "I'm fine with that, Ezra?" He asked the other shinobi next to him. Before Ezra could say anything, Faith came up. Now that was a face that Ryou recognised. The D-rank missing ninja waited for Ezra and Alice to introduce themselves before Ryou would say, "It's nice to see you talk to me, Commander Faith." He knew that it kinda sounded rude but it was true. 

After Faith would explain herself, Ryou thought of a training idea. "Say, why don't we spar first? Maybe a 2 v 2 can get us to see each other's weaknesses so we know what to watch for when in battle." Ryou liked the idea and he hoped that the others would agree to spar. This was mostly curious to see what other shinobi from other lands were capable of. 
WC:245
TWC: 407

"Solid bone. Strange kekkai genkai, but it seems very useful. No offense meant, of course."

The young Terumi would leave it at that, turning to face the new third in the conversation. Alice, a girl that seemed to love living in shadows. Ezra had heard of a clan that possessed that ability before. What the hell was the name of it again? Nire? Neru? Na... Nara. That seemed right. The girl noted that training together may be a good idea, to form cohesiveness as a unit. While the boy was skeptical that they'd be fighting together, he couldn't exactly disagree that it was a bad idea to at least train it in the rare event. The last thing anyone would want is someone else getting in their way during a large scale battle.

He was about to reply in the affirmative, when yet another person joined the conversation. It was, again, a girl. This one seemed to be on rather familiar terms with Ryou, however. Someone named Faith. A commander of some sort, as well. That could prove to be an interesting story. "Name's Ezra. Wasabi. Descendant from the Land of Tea." the boy would say, figuring it could do well to keep his Terumi heritage a secret for a while longer. He was still hazy about these people, and they didn't need to know exactly who he was to work with him. They'd be just fine without that knowledge.

"Sure, two versus two sounds good. There's the right number of us. How do we team, though? I'm not sure how any of you fight, or how good you are in combat. I'd prefer the teams be evenly matched." the Terumi would say, shrugging slightly. Without knowledge, it really didn't matter who he ended up with. If worse came to worst, he could wing it pretty hard. That was a plus, he supposed.

And then there were four. The newcomer to this bunch was the girl, Faith, whom Ren had introduced earlier. She was apparently either a complete airhead or too dumb to remember Alice and Ezra's names from the meeting earlier. Ryou seemed to be on familiar terms with the girl, calling her 'commander Faith'. Honestly Alice couldn't see how this nitwit was ever a commander of anything if she couldn't even remember two names. At the girl's remark, Alice would simply roll her eyes(though only one was visible) as she thought to herself 'Great. I hope this one doesn't get me killed because of her stupidity. Hopefully she'll prove me wrong during this little training exercise.' before answering. Ezra beat her to it though. He was some descendant from the Land of Tea. Last name of Wasabi? Yea, right. Who has a name after a food these days? Not like it really mattered.

"Alice. Try to remember it this time because I won't introduce myself to you again." she stated coldly. For someone so cute, Alice really had a terrible bedside manner. Her personality didn't really match her appearance at all. That was probably a good thing though, since she tended to play the shy girl or a bubbly airhead when going after a mark. She had abandoned that facade now that these idiots were her teammates. It wouldn't make any sense to keep up the charade at this point.

"Alright. A two on two mock battle sounds good to me. Ezra does have a point though; evenly matched teams would be ideal. However, since none of us really know how each other fights, we're going to have to wing it a little. I'm a mid-range fighter that specializes in disabling my opponents. So I can probably team up with anyone and be ok. That being said, I'll take ryou as my partner. Ezra and Faith, you guys will be the opposing team. Does that work for everyone?" 

Sure, it was a bit arrogant and commanding, but that's just how Alice was. She couldn't care less if these bozos liked her. All she wanted was to make sure they wouldn't get her killed. Either way, if there weren't any objections she would motion for Ryou to join her at one end of the clearing and wait for the other two to take up their own positions. Hopefully this wouldn't bore her to death.

WC: 402

Faith would nod at The woman's suggestion. "Yes, My mistake I appologize, As for your plan about a 2v2, that seems fine. Ryou knows that I am mostly a short range Sword user. Actually.

The pink haired woman would point at the sword that was on her hip, "This is a new sword I have... Its called Darkness bane. It is a famous sword passed down from Generation to Generation of my household family. It is said to be one of the sharpest swords in the world. I haven't had the opportunity to practice with it yet... and this would be a good opportunity to... not that I plan to be actually cutting any of you with it. But yes, this is a good idea, No one get the thought of playing it cool, we are just here to train and not to hurt each other. Remember that."


With that, the Akari would pull out her new sword and back away from the two sparring partners, Faith would back away, until she was about 20 meters away from her opponents, and draw her sword, getting ready for whenever the other team gave some sort of a signal to start the spar.

Word count: 205

Ryou smiles as it seemed to be working out well. Alice picked him as her teammate, he nods in response to this, "Yeah, I'm down to working with you." The Lycan would also follow her after her heads away from the rest of the group. "Ok, I have ranged combat attacks and close, I'm fine with going either." He would tell her just to give a brief summary of himself. Ryou then looked at Faith briefly, "She hasn't shown me much of her abilities but she is a jonin at Suna, so she won't be easy." Ryou guessed that this would be a good time to force Faith and Ezra to use their abilities. "Alright, I have a plan." The Kayuga would whisper so that their sparring opponents wouldn't hear. "What is your range on your disabling ability?" If Alice would respond to the question honestly Ryou would nod and go deeper into explaining. "I could get behind them with body flicker and fire by dust cloud jutsu, hopefully blinding them, at that time, you get both with your disabling jutsu... or if you can only get one, try for Faith." He hoped that she would understand. "Please, if you have and comments, questions, or alterations tell me now." 

WC:209
TWC: 616

The boy would silently agree with the teams, casting a look at Faith and tagging along, taking paces until they stood mirroring the other team of two, finalizing their stances as Faith explained her new weapon. One of the sharpest swords in the world? Darkness' Bane? Sounded like a familial tall tale, if it was truly one of the sharpest blades in the world, Ezra surely would have heard of it before. While the girl talked, Ezra would set the blade he had found to rest by his side, rolling a hair tie down from his right elbow, hidden underneath his clothing. The boy would, of course, use the tie to wrangle his hair back into a long ponytail, finishing this action at about the same time Faith had finished her speech, retrieving the blade.

Ezra's stance in the rectangle formation was simple, feet spread slightly less than shoulder width apart, right foot forward. He held the sheathed blade he had picked up in his left hand, the hilt at a slight downward tilt, his right hand sitting idly by his side. Before long, the Terumi would notice the fight was taking a while to commence. The boy would look at Faith quickly and shrug, deciding that if they weren't going to start the fight, then he would. It'd be a pain for both teams to wait on the other to give a signal, and it's be a bad idea to let the enemy converse about possible strategy. So, after the short pause, Ezra would begin running forward in a light jog, keeping his posture slightly lower than what would be considered normal. If nothing changed, the boy would continue his path straight ahead towards Ryou, and if he managed to get within striking range, the Terumi would grab the hilt of the katana with his right hand and unsheathe it in one swift motion, aiming a shallow cut for his legs, about thigh level. The fight wasn't meant to seriously harm anyone, that would only serve impede their mission. But they couldn't feel TOO safe.

Of course, these events would pan out only if no one else were to make a move, which would be ridiculous. But better safe than sorry. If anything changed, his actions would change accordingly.