Sparring, Kari Vs Love [NK, P, ask for invite]

It was just another day in Hoshigakure. Kotetsu was doing his rounds, making sure the village was secure. He was wearing his normal attire for patrol. A pair of blue robed pants with silver trim, as well as a black and silver vest of small leaf-shaped scales. The silver scales formed a snowflake design exactly like the necklace he wore on the chain around his neck. To better protect it, the pendant was tucked under the vest for now.  He wore his Jounin flak vest over top, and his Hoshi hitai-ate would be hung around his neck like a loose gorget. Instead of his backpack, his normal equipment went into his weapon pouches and the pouches on his flak jacket. He had already patrolled the different areas of the village, with the exception of the water gardens and the training grounds. The young Jounin was on his way to check out the area when he was intercepted by one of the mission office’s staff. “Kotetsu sir.” The young Genin said as he approached. “Yes? What is it?” Kotetsu said to the youngster. “I have a request for you from one of the civilians, if you have time sir.” ‘A request eh?..’ Kotetsu thought to himself as he accepted the note from the younger shinobi, who then bowed and left. One of the local inn owners had requested an instructor for his daughter, who was a recently graduated Genin. ‘A relatively simple mission…’ Kotetsu thought to himself as he continued reading. She was to be found in the training grounds, and a basic description of what she looked like. The girl, one Kari Tsukami, was roughly four and a half feet tall and fairly lean. She had red hair and pale skin. Normally wears a cloak that will vary in colour with her Headband used as a clasp for the cloak. ‘Shouldn’t be too hard to find…’ He thought to himself. ‘And I can kill two birds with one stone, since I need to patrol the training grounds anyways…’ With that, the black-haired Jounin made his way to the Training Grounds. So as to not attract any undue attention, his chakra would be actively suppressed for the time being. As he entered the Water Gardens, he would take an alternative path to the training grounds, leaping into the trees and making his way through the branches. He wanted to observe his potential student at a distance first before introducing himself. He arrived at a spot in the trees roughly 10 meters to the left of the training dummies.


He found her already practising, making faces at the training dummies in front of her. Thanks to being an experienced fighter, he could easily make out what was being said. “The dummy seems more angry than me.” She said to no one in particular. That elicited a soft chuckle from the Jounin. ‘A sense of humour it seems…’ he thought to himself. That was good, he liked working with people that could joke around. He continued to watch as she took a breath and walked away from the dummies. It appeared that she emptied some rocks onto the ground. Shortly after doing that, one of the rocks would fly towards the dummy. ‘Earth style?..’ He asked himself. He didn’t see any hand signs, which didn’t mean anything to be honest. He had a few jutsu that didn’t require handsigns. What surprised him more was that the rock flew past the head of the dummy and started circling around its neck, almost like it was attached to something. ‘Chakra strings perhaps? Maybe we have a puppet master in the making…’ His musing was distracted by Kari saying "Final Act: Tragedy ... Ka CHINNN" ‘Oh my…sh-she makes her own sound effects… Oh this is precious…’ He thought with another chuckle. This was going to be an interesting pupil indeed.


It would seem that she wanted to work on her control, since she was sending the rocks all over the place, with some telltale finger twitches. Kotetsu was not a puppet master, but with enough time it would be simple to read those movements. He watched her practice with a single rock for a dozen tries before she took a small break. ‘I wonder what she plans on working on next.’ His train of thought was interrupted though by a newcomer. It would seem that the girl was not alone anymore. Another female had entered the training ground. She started off simply watching Kari from a distance. Kari hadn’t seemed to notice, she was too busy moving multiple rocks this time. It seemed like she needed to work on her control better, as their movements became much more erratic the longer she manipulated them. It almost looked like one of them had it in for Kari, as it had flown directly back at her. She dodged out of the way by bending backwards and letting the rock fly over top of her. It was at that point where it seemed like she noticed the second of her observers, and jerked the rock back, smacking herself in the face. "Ouch," she muttered weakly, while lying on her back. It would seem as though the rock had cut her forehead, as blood had started running from under the white headband the young Genin wore.


It was at that point that the newcomer approached Kari. She approached her quickly too, not as fast as Kotetsu could move, but impressive nonetheless. Kotetsu hadn’t paid her much mind, as he was focused mainly on his new charge, but he took a few moments to observe the other redhead, she had piqued his curiosity. She looked a little older. She was definitely taller, her hair was longer and was more athletically built. This girl likely had some training under her belt, given the speed at which she moved. The girls hand glowed as she touched Kari’s forehead. ‘So she has some skill with medical ninjutsu…’ Kotetsu thought to himself. That didn’t mean much, as he could use the same technique. "You okay?" the older girl had asked after removing her hand. "Sorry I didn't get here faster." She offered Kari a hand, and helped the younger girl to her feet before saying "I'm Love Sakumo but you can call me Ai-sama." ‘A tad pretentious, don’t you think?..’ Kotetsu thought to himself as he watched the exchange. It was not a name he was familiar with. Once again, that didn’t mean much since he was still relatively new to Hoshigakure himself. It would seem that Kari felt the same way, as she replied by saying "Kari Tsukami..." with a bow. ”Sorry, for the honor of my family. I cannot address you as Sama. Would Sempai be okay?" ‘Good girl…’ Kotetsu thought with a smile. Respectful, but also willing to stand up for herself and her honour. That was important. Love would nod to Kari along confirming that "senpai" was acceptable. "Is the Tsukami clan noble here? Or do you not carry the name of your clan?" ‘How rude…’ Kotetsu thought to himself, already disliking this newcomer. ‘Who are you to ask a question such as that…’ He frowned. Perhaps he would leave his hiding place shortly to avoid any further insult to the girl he was to assist.


It did not appear that Kari had taken offence to the Love’s tone, which was likely for the best. Kari seemed to just move right along. "My father owns a Inn by the same name. He believes holding honor in our name will bring more customers." She then followed up that statement with another question. "You are from the Fire Country? Are you currently on vacation? What is the Fire Country like?" ‘Why would she be asking a question like that…’ He thought to himself. He had not noticed any identifying marks on the newcomer, but that could just be because he didn’t care enough to really pay attention. ‘That’s what I get for not seriously paying attention…’ Love answered almost immediately. "I see, well that is a good philosophy. Yes, I am from the Land of Fire. No, I'm not on vacation. I have official business here.” ‘Ahh.’ Kotetsu thought, based on the information. ‘That would explain why I haven’t seen them before…’ Love continued to answer Kari’s other questions. “The Fire Country is full of forests, bright and warm weather. Within our village at the base of a mountain is a formation known as the Hokage Rock, which has the faces of all those who have taken the office of Hokage engraved on it." Her tone had changed slightly, being a tad more enthusiastic. "Maybe one day when you're older and have a high rank you can visit."


It seemed that Kari was thrown off slightly by the last comment. "High...er Rank." She paused briefly, as if she was mulling it over before speaking again. "Sorry... I need to return to my drills." The young Genin said to Love. It seemed though that Love was interested in helping Kari, as she responded with "You'll get better faster if you have someone to train with. I only know one kugujutsu, but I can help you get faster and stronger if you let me." ‘I’d say that’s my cue…’ He thought as he hopped down from his tree and started walking towards the pair of kunoichi, allowing his suppressed chakra to return to its normal levels. “Ah, you must be Kari.” Kotetsu said to the young Tsukami Genin. “I am Kotetsu Shinogami, I’ve been asked by your parents to assist you in your training.” He looked towards Love and nodded. “Thank you, Leaf kunoichi for keeping my charge company. You are welcome to join in if that is of interest to you.” He would say with a smile.


WC: 1633

Kari stopped collecting the rocks. To her surprise, Ai-Sempai wanted to help her train. The girl saw what she could do and still thought she could teach Kari which made Kari a little interested in the offer. Kari did have some reserved from receiving training from a foreign ninja. What would happen should the two be forced to fight each other. The girl would know everything Kari was trying to do and more. However the same would go for the girl. Yes, she would be forced to expose some of her traits as well. The idea became more interesting. 

As Kari further developed the idea in her mind she realized that she really had nothing to lose that she already has not lost. The girl knew she was a puppet user. The girl knew Kari was not fully proficient at controlling objects. This added with the fact that Kari did not have puppets meant she had but everything to gain from this event. So the answer was obvious. Before she could answer with her aloof face. 

Suddenly A wild jonin appeared out of nowhere. He called himself Kotetsu Shinogami. It was not a name Kari was familiar with. However the man somehow knew hears. Did he every visit the academy? To be fair, Kari was known to many people as the weird girl so it was a fact she could ignore. In fact it saved her time on having to make up some way to properly greet the man. She gave a quick bow before staring him in the face. 

"Father hates ninjas and Mother is too lazy to hire a trainer."
Kari's statements were lies their selves, well partially. Her father did dislike ninjas but it was not below him to have his daughter's best interest at heart. It would be the perfect thing for him because he could devout his tim to the shop while helping his daughter. Her mother was lazy, but the reason she would not higher a teacher was because she was an ex-puppet user herself. There was very little other people could teach Kari better than her. Also these lessons could easily lead Kari into do more chores or helping with favors. 
"You were probably tricked by some kids Shinogami-ue. It happens a lot around me."

WC:381

(I cringe at your meta ass entrance)

Love could hear a newcomer approaching before she felt his chakra although she wouldn't glance at him until he reached them as she was awaiting Kari's reply. However, he spoke before she could. Rude. Love thought, it was also creepy that he'd been watching a young from a tree. He stated that he was hired by the girl's parents to train her but Kari didn't buy it regardless of if what she said was true or not it appeared that she would prefer to have Love train her. Whether it be a gender thing or she was just more interested in learning from a foreign ninja it didn't matter to Love, she would abide by the girl's wishes and the blue icicle would have to try again another day. While she was clearly respectful the girl also seemed like the type to shut down if pushed or poked the wrong way and this male seemed dead set on not letting anyone else do his job. Despite the common courtesy given he wasn't welcoming at all, the smile on his fat face didn't soothe or relinquish the feeling that he was asserting dominance without even knowing Love's rank.

The leaf kunoichi had no intent to play second fiddle to anyone, the red haired Hyuuga would wait to see how he would pressure Kari unless he had some written proof that the girl could identify as her parent's handwriting. Though if Kari still denied him Love would proceed to mentor the girl while Kotetsu sat on the side, she had a good feeling that even in denial the male wouldn't just up and leave. Yet if the smaller girl compromised to have both of them teach her then she'd stay, if not she'd leave as she wasn't needed and didn't care to gather information on the ninja here. Even if her meeting with the Hogokage were to go south knowing the capabilities of one random ninja wouldn't help much although it was interesting that carved on his gauntlets were Konoha insignias filled will jade. Perhaps they were gifts or an heirloom? The male also had leaf scales that formed a snowflake on his vest, given his alliance it would make more sense if they were stars. Could he be a runaway?

WC: 379

It would seem that his being here was not something the young girl was aware of. She bowed before saying "Father hates ninjas and Mother is too lazy to hire a trainer." Kotetsu would raise an eyebrow at the comment but didn’t say anything. It was his mission to assist her with her training, so it was not something he was going to simply abandon, but he also wouldn’t waste his time either, as he had other duties to perform. It would seem though that Kari had more to say on the matter as she continued on after her initial statement. "You were probably tricked by some kids Shinogami-ue. It happens a lot around me."

At that, Kotetsu would chuckle and produced the small rolled-up note. The note is a standard mission scroll with pertinent information which he would pass to the young girl to inspect. “This was given to be by one of our mission office staff, so it would be a pretty elaborate trick for some kids to pull. That being said, it is always in the village’s best interest that our shinobi have the assistance they need, and I would be more than happy to help in any way I can.”

He hadn’t forgotten about the Leaf Village kunoichi that he’d snubbed to a degree. Yes, it was a tad petty, but he was like that sometimes. She hadn’t said anything to him which didn’t surprise the Jounin in the slightest. While he waited for Kari’s response he would say to Love. “Forgive my manners. I am Kotetsu Shinogami, Jounin of Hoshigakure. It is nice to meet you. It’s not often to see a visitor from Konoha, considering how far apart the two villages are. What brings you to Haven Country?”

WC: 294
TWC: 1927

Kari opened the scroll and took a quick glance. It was impressive of official this was. To think you could really create missions for something stupid like this. The leaf ninja offered to train her for free while this jounin was doing it for money. Well, it was not a bad thing. Having a senior on the field did make things safer, assuming the man had good intentions. Also, that meant she would have to change the prefix she added to his name. It would make her father happy to play along.


"So he did... A waste of ryo..." 
Kari returned the scroll and took another bow. 
"It looks like I will also be in your care Shinogami-sensei. Please look after me and Ai-sempai as we practice and interject when needed."

Kari then casually strolled in front of Love and gave another bow, "Please help me become faster and more precise as I will be in your care as well Sempai."

She kept her head lowered as she went down her mental checklist. She respectfully acknowledge both of them and gave the two ninja the proper respects. Now all that was left was the training. Her goal today was to increase her proficiency with her charka threads to the point that she could control all 10 minimal error. With Love here, she could raise the bar and test it in live combat. The only problem now was the lack of a puppet but she could use the rocks as practice for that. 

Kari walked back to the training grounds and moved the dummies one at a time. Each one was pulled to the outer edge of the area, given the 3 plenty of space. to move around during the event. Then she proceeded to pick up her battle rocks. After collecting 10 of them she moved to the far corner of the ring and dropped the rocks. her hands hanged down her sides hidden in the sleeves of her cloak. Though the were unseen, they were ready to release her chakra threads and move the rocks. Now all that mattered was what the other two would do. 

As she set up she noticed the man introducing himself to Love which seemed redundant. The only thing that made it more redundant was that he asked all the same questions she did. Hopefully it would not bother Love and cause her to leave. It would not bother Kari but it would make this event a little disappointing. Either way, she would stand by idle as she waited for the other two to ready up.

WC 432

Flicking her eyes up to look at the male's face upon hearing the smaller girl's words Love watched his eyebrow raise at the comment about her parents. Then after hearing about her being bullied with a chuckle, he pulled out an official mission request, nothing fancy same as they had back in Konoha. Listening to the male's words Love leaned her left elbow on her ninjato tucked behind her on the same side. It was kind of odd to laugh at that time but as he explained himself it made sense why he did, so the Hyuuga would wait to see the girl's reaction after reading the scroll. During that time the male would turn his attention to Love and properly introduce himself to her. "Likewise." She would start. "My name is Love Sakumo but you can call me Ai-sama." Yes, even he was to refer to her as such only kage were exempt from doing so. "I'm here on official business." She finished short and sweet, there was no need to say more since the transaction would likely be kept quiet, especially if the person in question was to be dealt with without ever seeing Konoha again. The older red head wouldn't ask about his attire right now as Kari was the center of attention and figuring out if she would accept Love's offer was more important than discovering the male's origins. Hearing Kari's little voice once again her response was rather cold. The "also" she used let Love know what she needed to before the girl then turned to her with a bow.

The girl stayed in the position for longer than normal but when she stood up again she went to collect her training dummies. Love smiled briefly at the male before walking over to the ring as she was first up to teach the girl. The older female had intended to use only taijutsu but decided to test the girl's full capabilities beforehand. Copying the little red head's actions Love too picked up a rock, but only one. With one hand she formed the tiger seal and in the hand with the rock formed a stone baseball bat. "Show me what you got." She would tell the girl without saying whether she would be closing the 3 meter gap between them or just sending her rocks back. Although the girl was expected to respond as if this was a real combat situation. Hopefully, she knew that; Hoshi hadn't hand ninja for long but that was an academy basic that all genin should be well accustomed to.

WC: 430

Kotetsu watched the young Hoshi Genin as she took the mission note from his hand and read it over.
"So he did... A waste of ryo..." was her response before returning the scroll with a bow. "It looks like I will also be in your care Shinogami-sensei. Please look after me and Ai-sempai as we practice and interject when needed." It was not the statement that Kotetsu was expecting, especially since he was being blown off and relegated to sitting on the sideline when the mission he was given was to do the training himself. 'Look after?..' He thought to himself 'What is she expecting to happen here?..' Not that he really cared one way or the other, because it seemed that this Love person had some degree of skill. It was more the principle that since he was assigned the mission to train her. Being snubbed, whether intentional or accidental was not something Kotetsu took kindly to, but this was not the time nor the place to bring that up.

Almost immediately afterwards, Kari walked over to the Leaf shinobi and bowed to her, saying "Please help me become faster and more precise as I will be in your care as well Sempai." After that she walked over to her training dummies and collected some of the rocks she was training with earlier. She also moved the training dummies out of the way to give them some extra room to work with. It wasn't really worth bothering to do since there was plenty of space for them to work with without the adjustments, but that didn't really matter. Once she had made all of her preparations, Kari moved to the far corner of their little makeshift arena and dropped her rocks on the ground. It seemed like she was going to wait there for now.

'Ahh...She speaks...' Kotetsu thought to himself as Love responded to his introduction. "Likewise." She would start. "My name is Love Sakumo but you can call me Ai-sama. I'm here on official business." Kotetsu would smile in response before speaking "A pleasure. I've never heard of the Sakumo clan before. Are they noble in Konoha, or do you not carry the name of your clan?" He had kept any inflection or tone out of his voice to keep the comment as ambiguous as possible. Partly because he didn't want the question to come across as offensively as when she had asked the same question to Kari not that long before. Partly also though, because he wanted to see how she might react to what may or may not come off as a slight against her. While it could be perceived that the ice-wielding Jounin was being hypocritical as he did not use the clan name for which his Kekkei Genkai comes from, Kotetsu always has felt that honour to one's family was more important than honour to one's clan. Since Shinogami is his father's clan, he honoured him by using it as well.

As Love would walk towards the makeshift arena that Kari had set up, Kotetsu would shrug, and pull out a trio of Kunai from his weapon pouch which he would start juggling them nonchalantly at speed 50. 'These kunai could use some form of improvement...' He thought to himself as they were tossed into the air. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but they were missing something. Something he might be able to work on when his forge was fully up and running.

It seemed like the sparring session was about to start, as Love had picked up a rock, and turned it into a club. 'Huh...' He thought to himself. 'Earth-style user... And she made that tiger seal one-handed too. Impressive...' Kotetsu would wait until more had happened before making any comments.

WC: 634
TWC: 2561

Kari watched as the girl picked up a rock. With a hand sign later, it would evolve into a bat. Kari was a little disappointed. A weapon user should mean her opponent was a close range fighter. Thus Kari would need to maintain her distance else she would lose. Kari had no realistic way of keeping her back and the girl proved to be much faster than Kari could realistically handle. Her winning blow would have to be on the first turn.

Kari reeled in the 10 rocks into her sleeves and then connected her sleeves as to hide her hands. Then she made the following hand signs ram, snake, tiger and smoke covered her position. As quickly as it appeared, it vanished revealing 2 clones of Kari standing on both sides of the girl. Then the 3 Kari's, in sync, waved their arms and sent 3 rocks flying towards Love's feet. Her goal was to have all the rocks scatter around the her feet with her chakra thread running through the gap between her legs and a couple of inches to each of her sides, weaving a cross sketch of chakra strings to confuse her. One of the real rocks had actually landed a foot in front of Love and the other one was a couple of inches off her side where love held the bat. Then they all opened their mouth.

"I only have rocks..."
Kari finally responded taking the girls quote literally though she did think the girl had a alternative motive for saying the quote.

185/190 AP

WC:259

With a tug of her cheek and a raise of her brow, Love gave the male a "really guy?" look. He'd obviously been here from the beginning, not that it bothered Love though he could've chosen a better time to reveal himself. That way all of this subliminal spurning didn't have to happen, she wouldn't have minded just watching before having offered to train the girl. "As far as I know there is no such thing as the Sakumo clan." She replied without mentioning it was the first name of a man from a different, ancient clan. As previously noted she didn't know much about her maternal grandparents other than her grandmother was a Hyuuga so her parent's union wasn't opposed. And right in step with her second question that was now flowing from the lips of this male, she answered, "No, I don't. I'm a Hyuuga." She held no ill will for her eyes not giving that away, he might not have ever seen one even during any time spent living in Konoha. As farfetched as that might seem it's a real possibility especially since unconventional ones like herself and Rei were running around. Aside from asking her just to be an ass, he could've also assumed that she had stolen them or they were given to her because along with her tan skin she had Uzumaki red hair. Though there was the possibility he was clueless on that clan too and he just turned out to be more curious than Kari.

After verbally commencing the start of their spar Love watched as the girl hid her hands in the sleeves of her cloak. She didn't need her byakugan to know that the girl was likely weaving hand seals. Though she couldn't see the chakra flowing through the smaller girl she knew that the clones on either side of her weren't real. Shadow Clone jutsu only had one hand seal and she took too long fiddling inside of her sleeves before her clones appeared. Love watched as the "three" Kari's threw the rocks, the real ones landed between her feet, on her right side, and the last one was one foot in front of the Hyuuga. Even if Love had been fooled by the extra Kari's hearing one voice as they all "spoke" gave the secret away. "This is an interesting pattern." She replied after looking back up at her opponent. Not knowing the girl's top speed Love moved towards her with the speed she gained after one training session after graduating the academy (16). Moving at this snail pace she remembered how infuriating it was not being able to land a hit on Oro. She had no idea what the smaller girl was planning but not moving wouldn't be realistic to battle training.

WC: 464

(breaking turn order to streamline the sparring match. Kotetsu feel free to post whenever or interject when you feel something is dangerous)

The girl was fast. It was clear, Kari would not be able to match her speed or get away. Without a weapon, she would not even be capable of defending herself against that club. That was if the girl would reach her. The girl was over her chakra thread and seemed to be unaware of her plan. Ai-sempai fell into her trap. Now came the next issue.

Since this was training, Kari could assume that killing the other person was not allowed. However, it should be obvious that hurting the other person would we okay. How much she could reasonably do was another story. She needed her threads to be hard enough so that the girl would recognized she was hit but not sharp enough to cut too deep.

She twitched the two fingers and half of the rocks jumped into the air picking up the strings with them, including the string underneath Ai-sempai's legs. The other half of the rocks flew across the field bringing the strings with them. Now Ai-sempai had the real thread under her legs rising from under her and the thread at her side closing in to cut her off. At the same time, chakra surged through the strings making them solid and sharp like a dull knife.

Sweat rolled down Kari's face as the toll from using a third of her chakra at once hit her. Still maintain control she held her ground. It would be the final act in the fight, a tragedy.

135/190 AP
WC: 250