Moonlight Children - Stigma [RENJI]

Jutsu: Inside to Outside Block
Rank: E-Rank
Requirement: 500 Words

Saya resisted the urge to slam the door behind her. Of all the people that had to be assigned to her current accommodation it had to be that one chick from back in her academy days. Kaho. She sighed and shook her head. It still baffled the young genin as to why the girl disliked her so much. Okay, sure, Saya showed her up on a few things back then (correction - pretty much everything) and their dialogue had never been cordial, but the young genin didn’t think that their relationship would be so unpleasant.

As she walked down the dim streets of the Hoshigakure slums (their lighting wasn’t great), Saya was going through the whole event in her head. What had started their argument and why was she so incensed about it? Of course, their first night wasn’t as horrible but this night. After whatever adventures and duties she had done, Saya had returned only an hour or less prior to the present to clean up and rest for the day. However, Kaho had it in her mind that Saya wronged her in some way and continued to hassle the girl until she snapped at her.

Kaho, of course, hadn’t taken that all too well. Their other flatmates seemed to have sided with the brown haired girl as evident of their scowls and snide comments toward Saya. Unable to keep control of her emotions and actions the usually apathetic girl had stormed out with as much dignity as she could. Saya heaved a heavy sigh, ashamed that she allowed herself to get pulled into their petty fights.

And while her brain was clearly telling her to calm down, her body was shaking. Her muscles were screaming at her to throw a punch or kick something in frustration. ”Damnit, I can’t believe I let her get to me,” Saya hissed under her breathe, eyes narrowing at a cleared area just a couple of meters away. ”Or those other girls...” She added as an afterthought before standing in the middle of a five by five meter area. Logs, boxes, and some cutting machines were stacked around its perimeter.

She raised a brow at this sudden convenience. This was a pretty good place to de-stress and work her body. Saya, feeling slightly more at home outside rather than in a cramped apartment with fellow kunoichi, let a half-smile. Her body began to go through the motions of a kata taught by the academy. It was nothing flashy or complicated - just a series of movements that focused on blocking strikes. There was another term for it: the inside to outside block. Her hands swept in front of her in a familiar arc, loose and gentle. Then in a flash Saya took a step forward, knees bent but her hands were now sturdy and immovable in front of her.

At this point she closed her eyes and envisioned the small fight just moments before. Kaho had been sitting down, glowering and jeering at her before Saya had made an offhanded comment about her. In a mere second the fellow genin was on her feet and throwing a punch in her direction. Saya fought the instinct to take a step back or avoid it, and instead brought her arms up with open palms to block and catch the offending limb. Her fingers circled around Kaho’s wrist and immediately pulled down whilst taking a step to the side, hoping to trip her.

Outside her mind Saya was quietly going through the motions, moving and sweeping her arms over and over as she imagined the multiple scenarios where anyone would be attacking her; Kaho being her chosen opponent with every battle. The other girl would always aim above her waist, making it predictable for Saya to execute her blocking technique. It was becoming quite dull, really, but her body had aptly warmed up for a more strenuous exercise. Saya inhaled and snapped open her eyes, tensing as she saw a silhouette a couple of meters away.

WORD COUNT: 672

Since coming to Hoshi, Renji had not been able to get any sleep at night. Having to change his sleep schedule because of all the noise that came through the thin shack walls during the nights. Because of this, Renji was awake most nights, spending them just walking around the village and taking in the sights. Under the night sky, the village looked so much different from what it looked like during the day.

Renji had been asleep for some time and probably would have slept longer had it not been for the fighting Tom cats outside of his window. Rolling over Renji would reach down and throws a shoe out the window. Hoping to shut the cats up so that he could try and rest up some more before his midnight stroll.

A second later as Renji is about to rollover in his bed, the shoe would come flying back into the window(as if returned by the cats bellow.) smacking Renji upside the back of his head.

Surprised by this Renji would fall/roll from his bed hitting the ground still wrapped up in his blankets. Jumping to his feet, he would quickly run to the window to see what had just happened.

Nearly tripping over his blanket a few times, Renji would finally make it to the open window. Looking out he would see a long stretched out laundry line a few feet under and out from his window seal. No doubt the shoe had bounced off the line “hmph , didn’t see that coming.” Renji would think to himself as he breaths a sigh of relief that it wasn’t the cat who threw

Knowing  that he was not going to be able to get back to sleep, Renji would decide that he was up for the night. He would quickly get changed in the dark(lighting was really hard to come by in the slums) and heads out the window. Using his tree climbing jutsu, Renji would climb up to the top of his shacks roof.

As he begins running roof top to roof top, The night air would feel cool and crisp against his face. Activating his byakugan Renji would start scanning his surrounding area, looking for any type of fun he could get into for the night.

Renji would stop atop a small two story building. Walking about the roof he would focus in on his byakugan and scans the area. It would not be long before, down on the streets a few blocks away Renji would see his teammate Saya!

Just as Renji is noticing Saya, a group of belligerent half drunken men would walk up onto the roof Renji had been standing atop. One of the men, the least drunk presumably, would begin to speak “hey..Hey did we tell you *hiccup* stop running our roof. *hiccup hiccup* he going to kick your asses this time.”

For the past few nights Renji had been using this bars roof to scout out the area, and apparently they picked tonight to do something about it. Once the drunken one was done speaking,  him and two of his friends would begin to chase after Renji.

Looking up at the full moon above, Renji would smile as he starts off, giving these drunken fools the chase of there lives through the roof tops and eventually down onto the streets below. It wouldn’t be as eventful though for Renji as he would easily loose the three rather easily and with little effort.

Seeing as he had taken care of that for now at least, Renji would once again scan the area for his teammate, she had looked pretty pissed when he last saw her through his byakugan.

As luck would have it, the chase had ended up leaving Renji only a block away from Saya’s location. Who appeared to now be practicing her technique.

Turning the corner,  Renji would see his teammate for the first time tonight without the use of his byakugan. The streets where pretty dark and had it not been for the full moon high above, Renji probably would not be able to see the girl at all, being that she was dressed in pretty much all black.

She was clearly working on her block technique. A technique Renji had learned some time back “hmm not bad, I wonder how she’d far against a living target” Renji would think to himself as a small smirk appears on the side of his face. Being that it was so spooky looking out , Renji was going to try to scare Saya and test her inner outer block that she had been working on. Probably a bad idea considering how pissed she was, but yolo.

As he gets closer to Saya, Renji would notice the most peculiar thing “her hair!...it’s its.. black?” having never seen her under the moonlight, Renji would be completely shocked by this fact nearly tripping over his feet.

At that same moment Saya would snap her head towards Renji. Assuming that he had lost the element of surprise, Renji would immediately run over towards Saya as fast as he can, pulling back his arm and  fist as he does so. Renji had been studying the way Saya was practicing the block, and would  throw his fist in the most super telegraphed way so that Saya could easily block the attack with the move she had been working on. He more so was doing it so that she could practice her block against a live tsrget, and not in an attempt to hurt the girl.
Even if she did not manage to stop the attack or what not, Renji’s fist would stop a few inches away from the girls forehead before opening his hand and flicking her lightly on the forehead.

WC
964

Jutsu: Mark Seal
Rank: E-Rank
Requirement: 500 Words

With the moon’s light acting as her only source of illumination, Saya wasn’t aware that the figure running towards her was Renji, her teammate. Her body jerked slightly in surprise before it started a familiar motion. Her legs pumped forward, allowing the girl to close in the distance and meeting the boy halfway through so that their point of collision was almost exactly at the center of the makeshift practice ground. By the time they were both within arms reach of each other, Saya’s eyes widened to see Renji’s visage grinning at her. Her eyes then flickered to his shoulders and side, sensing that he was still moving but in a way that the girl immediately knew what he was trying to do.

Stopping abruptly to meet his attack, Saya’s arms shot up like a snake and swiped at his arm. Enough to simply stop his fist from connecting, though the young girl was quite sure that he would have paused a few inches before actually hitting her. The action irked her but that was mostly because Saya was used to her mother going through with her attacks. It was a lesson to be learned from. Renji, however, was her teammate and while that was so, she didn’t really know him as closely as she wanted to. And vice versa in his case. Clearing that up in her own mind, Saya let out a cautious grin. ”Renji. You surprised me.”

The girl didn’t have to ask him why he was out and about in the middle of the night. She could take a wild guess and end up right. They were shinobi and sometimes they were just restless creatures. And for Saya, when such a time comes, the only way she could let out her energy was to train and learn whatever techniques she ended up obsessing over. One such jutsu was the “mark seal.” Saya had been researching and learning about its in and outs for some time now, but hardly had anyone to practice it on. Luckily for the petite girl her teammate came in at the right time. Her grin grew wider as she took a step back from him.

”So, what are you doing out here, Renji?” A question she already told herself not to ask, but did so anyways. It was a distraction so that she may try and practice placing the seal on him. How was she going to do it? Saya wondered to herself. The genin knew that she had to make contact with him, but the poor girl couldn’t quite remember if it had to be skin on skin, or it could be placed through a barrier like clothes and other such things. And so, Saya decided to go ahead and simply try it out the skin to skin method first. ”Huh? Did you do something to your neck and shoulder, Renji?”

Saya blinked and made a show of concern. While the girl had an ulterior motive, the Kirihara did think she saw something on his person. It was probably a bruise that he had gained during training, or most likely it was a trick of light - a shadow that she had mistaken as an injury to his person. Either way, the girl stepped back into his personal space and made a move to yank at his collar to expose the flesh at the juncture between his neck and shoulder. Placing a hand on the spot Saya tried to superstitiously place the mark seal on him. It didn’t work right away, seeing as she was a bit flustered for trying something underhanded, but another two seconds and the girl managed to place it on him successfully.

Just before Saya could tell Renji that it was actually nothing, a sudden shout caught her attention. ”HEY! What you kids doing here?!” A lantern was suddenly held up by a burly man, almost as tall and muscular as their sensei. Saya squinted and noticed that the person was dressed like a civilian, and her chakra sensory technique told her that he was just a regular human. ”Don’t you know that this place is off limits? We’re doing some construction work here!” He kept yelling at the duo, and Saya could only send Renji a nod and stare before bolting it out of the area. Hopefully, the guy didn’t get a good look at their face. Not even with the dim lighting of his lantern.


WORD COUNT: 745
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 672 + 745 = 1417

STAT POINTS: 7

CLAIMING: 7 SP + Mark Seal + Inside to Outside Block

Approved.

Startled by the sudden appearance of the man, Renji would quickly make a run for it. “I’ll catch you later” Renji would mumble inaudibly under his breath as he turns to make a get away back in to the night. It was still early and he wanted to see what he could get into. Activating his byakugan Renji would make his exit.

Exit.

Approved