Let's get this Training Started (NK, P, J and A)

Higuto yawned as he stepped onto the training field while keeping the hood of his hoodie down to allow himself to get a bit of sunlight. Today was going to be a day the Genin of team 7 had a bit of a training session with each other to see where they all each stood in terms of strength heading into the Chuunin exams. He was ready and willing to show what he had and also possibly grow that much stronger with his team as he walked over to a training log and hopped up to sit on it as he waited for his team. He looked up to the sky as there were a few clouds rolling along the clear blue as some would wash underneath the sun and provide him with small bursts of shade and coolness. All other times the sun was out the shine of his Hidden Leaf headband, which he always wore on the right sleeve of his jacket, would reflect it's light upon the leaves of the nearby trees which gave him something to become entranced by as he thought he might meditate for the time being while he waited for his teammates. This would allow him to be able to focus on the chakra within him in order to better learn to control it. He normally hated wasting chakra so this would hopefully help him learn to control it better.

The Chuunin exams were fast approaching and the members of Konoha's Team 7 were all anxious for it to start. The three Genin had only been teamed up together for a short time, but their Jounin leader, Kinzoku sensei, had seen something in them that lead to him recommending them to take the exams. As exciting as that was for them, it also brought on a lot of concern. None of them really knew who else would be participating in the exams, but considering they were the long-awaited Chuunin exams that tested young ninja on their prowess, Jason had little doubt that whoever they went up against would be hard to beat. For that very reason Team 7 agreed to meet at the training grounds today to test themselves against each other and hopefully gain something that would help them in the coming challenge.

By the time the young Senju arrived, he could see Higuto-kun already standing there gazing out at the nearly empty field. "Hey, Higuto-kun! We still waiting on Allegro? I hope you're both ready for today. I don't plan on holding back. I want us to be ready for anything that comes our way during these exams and I'm hoping that training against you two will get me there."

Allegro was last to arrive on the training fields that day due to the fact that he had to set up early for his gig at a restaurant in Tanzaku town later that evening. He was tired, his clothes were worn and a bit tattered, and his red dreadlocks were not in their usual tightly kept ponytail. Instead they were draping down his body, where some rested on his shoulders while the rest were on his backside. He was working hard to earn a little extra money to afford some new equipment for him to use in the upcoming chuunin exams. He was putting in a considerable amount of effort to improve himself during training so that he could achieve his promotion to chuunin, like everyone else. Kinzoku sensei was busy with important missions outside of the village, leaving the genin of Konoha Team 7 to tend to their own training. That would mean Allegro would have to put off learning new genjutsu techniques for now. Moreover, save for the Hokage, there was no one within the village who was skilled with fuinjutsu enough to be his teacher. Risako was undoubtedly a busy woman, and had no time too look after his training personally. So the ninja resorted to finessing scrolls from the Hokage's chambers to pick up secret sealing techniques himself. He trained them and began to master them after hard labor and intense training in the depths of the great Leaf forests and training grounds reserved for higher ranked shinobi. He was waiting for the opportunity to use the techniques against a moving target. When Allegro arrived to meet Jason and Higuto on the field, he would add to the conversation by saying:

"Yo! Sorry I'm late, guys. Let's give it our all today"

Higuto could sense Jason's chakra signature closing in as he opened his eyes and looked to see him stepping onto the field towards him. Seeing him Higuto hopped down off the top of his log and gave one of his usual big smiles at his teammate.

"Knowing Allegro he'll be here soon. Even if he had to crawl through a small pipe to be here. And I certainly wouldn't want you to hold back. We may very well have to fight against one another in these exams. Better ready then cautious."

It was then that Higuto caught the high chakra signature of Allegro stepping onto the field as he looked over and waved.

"Yo, Allegro, we were just talking abou-... Oh."

Higuto caught himself as he took notice of Allegro's state, hair disheveled and clothes wrinkly and in a mess, as he coughed nervously.

"I... really hope my pipe comment wasn't some sort of jinx. You look like you just got through a fight, friend. Are you ok?"

Higuto smiled nervously and was genuinely concerned about the situation. He didn't know if this was a case of Allegro being jumped or something but if it was he was ready to take action against whoever was stupid enough to attack his teammate.

Higuto seemed to be just as pumped about training for the upcoming Chuunin exams as Jason was. He promised not to hold back, and made a comment about Allegro being there even if he had to climb through a pipe. Sure enough, almost as if on cue, the red haired Uzumaki showed up just then, looking disheveled. Maybe Higuto had some super secret jutsu that let's him jinx his opponents? Or more likely it was just a terrible coincidence.

"Allegro-kun, what happened man?" Jason asked, puzzled. He was very happy to see his brother here ready to train, but he couldn't help but wonder why he looked the way he did. He didn't seem as energetic as he usually did either. He hoped it wasn't anything troublesome. Assuming Allegro told his teammates why his appearance was the way it was, Jason would offer some encouragement and an ear to listen. When all was said and done, he would get right down to business. "Alright guys, what do you say to a free-for-all spar between the three of us?"

Allegro was a bit embarrassed when his teammates noticed that his clothes were in tatters. He had gotten into a scuffle with some local hoodlums and thugs that were causing trouble for his friends in Tanzaku town. They were pressuring local shops and businesses for bribe money in exchange for protection they did not even ask for. Some folded immediately, and paid whatever it was the criminals asked of them. However others, including one of Allegro's friends, dared to stand up to such absurd and blatant tyranny and fight back. The result, unfortunately was the destruction of property for hard working business owners. Allegro for one, could not stand the sight of this, and immediately involved himself in the matter. He thwarted their plot and put his life on the line for the sake of those trying to make an honest living. He sympathized deeply with their plight as someone who hoped to run his own shop someday too. After fighting with the thugs, Allegro finally came out on top, and with just a few scratches and scrapes. It was only after reassuring that the respectable shop owners of Tanzaku town were safe did he make his way back to the village to train with his brothers for the Chuunin Exams.

Allegro gave a nervous laughter and scratched his cheek with one finger in response to Jason and Higuto's line of questioning regarding what happened. Allegro would assure them that there was nothing to worry about. "Just a little warming up before we got started, hehe" He had not even noticed that he was looking that bad. Nonetheless, he dusted himself off and shook his hair out, choosing to still let it dangle at shoulder length. Jason had suggested that the three of them test each other's strength in a 3 way sparring battle. "Sounds groovy to me. Give it your best, yo!" Allegro would proceed to bring forth a scroll from the depths of his shirt's right sleeve and laid it flat on the ground as he unravelled it. The revealed pattern of kanji seals formed a circular array around what appeared to be a musical note at its center. After a short chain of hand seals, Allegro would plant his right hand on the surface of the scroll and bring forth his trusty acoustic guitar. It had a strap on its backside that would allow the Uzumaki to fasten it on his back when not using it. Once this was done, Allegro would wrap up the scroll and return it to his sleeve, and then stand up straight to face the other two genin on the field. If no one made the first move, he would take a large step backwards that would bring him 5 meters from where he originally stood. As he landed, he would assume his fighting stance with one palm extended in front of him while the other hand stayed close to Allegro's face, closed tightly into a fist.

Higuto was still pretty worried about his teammate but, if it wasn't Allegro's wish to talk, he wasn't going to go forcing answers out of him. He could truly go all out on his teammates without any worries. Since it was rather hot out today and because he believed himself to be equal to his comrades he went ahead and unzipped his jacket with one hand while forming the Rat and Dog seals with the other. He propped his jacket on one of the nearby logs as particles started forming from the air itself and began to take shape on one of his back belt loops. The particles would take the form of a sword within it's sheath as Higuto cracked his knuckles and allowed a few insects to skitter along his arms before they would take to the air around him.

"If you're sure you're ready then I'm ready when you are."

The insects would all swarm towards Higuto and latch on to his sword sheath and hilt as he got into a stance and readied himself for whatever was to come next.

(Jutsu used: storage displacement retrieval: 20 AP; 390/410 AP
Insects used: 100/500)

Allegro-kun insisted everything was fine, and Jason knew better than to press him for answers. If he wanted to talk, he knew Jason would listen. He did, however, agree to a three-way battle between Team 7 in order to train. After agreeing, he pulled his signature guitar out of the fuinjutsu scroll he usually kept it stowed away in and leapt 5 meters back and away from both Higuto and Jason. Hig agreed as well, preparing in his own way for the battle to begin. Through what Jason could only guess was some sort of time-space ninjutsu, he summoned a katana on his hip and his insects began to swarm around it as he declared himself ready to go. It seemed Jason was the only one left to get things started. So, he decided he would be the first to make a move.

Standing 5 meters away from both Allegro and Higuto, Jason brought his hands together to crack the knuckles on both hands. "Ready." With that word signaling them all to begin, his hands formed the Tiger hand seal most likely before either of his teammates could react since they were already nearly clasped together. When he did, a mist spread over the area so thick that even Jason could not see more than 6 inches in front of him. At the same time that happened, he also formed the clone hand seal and then burrowed underground, leaving his clone above as a stand in and lessening the mist just enough for the three Genin to be able to see each other from 5 meters away as they had been. Thanks to the hidden mist technique, the original Jason was no doubt nicely hidden below the earth with his shadow clone taking his place. Hopefully it wasn't too much to start them off.

-30ap shadow clone
-10ap hidden mist
-20ap hlam
230ap remaining for clone
210ap remaining for original

Higuto watched, carefully, at his comrades movements in order to see who would make the first move and what they would try and do. Higuto saw Jason put up the Tiger seal as he was immediately able to tell he was going for the Hidden Mist technique due to his knowledge of the jutsu being able to use it as well as reading about it in his jutsu book. Even though he could've stopped Jason he was going to allow him to carry on and see what his Senju friend had in store. His senses soon went numb of Jason and, for some strange reason, he was soon unable to sense Allegro's chakra as well. He couldn't understand why but this made him believe that Allegro was about to make his own move soon. Higuto could barely see anything within the mist which made his vision useless as he decided to close his eyes and take notice of the noise of his surroundings instead. He could hear poofs of smoke within the mist around the area where Jason had commenced the Mist jutsu which sounded very similar to shadow clone jutsu. Whether Jason had made one or two clones Higuto couldn't tell but the most important thing to take notice was that Jason wasn't alone.

Soon after hearing the clone/clones appearance Higuto then soon started to hear the strum of guitar strings. Strange thing to do in the middle of a battlefield, Higuto thought, as he wondered if he was trying to perform some form of Genjutsu... which was odd being that he knew Allegro to be mainly skilled in Fuinjutsu. Could it have been a distraction possibly for one of his chains to come after him and trap him from below? Thinking this Higuto didn't feel it was safe for him to be standing there as he jumped straight into the air, unbeknownst to him avoiding Allegro's seal that traveled towards him along the ground, as he jumped straight out of the mist well above it as he sailed 55 meters upward. Using his added time to react Higuto would see that their entire field was surrounded within Jason's mist as he decided he'd even the playing field a bit and make himself invisible as well. With the quick formation of the Bird, Rat, Ox, Monkey, Rat, and Snake seals the sky suddenly began to darken as rain quickly fell upon the field and started to drench the entire place with drops of water composed of Higuto's chakra as his chakra, too, was now camouflaged. He would then form the clone seal as he formed a clone next to him who grabbed him by the arm and threw him hard and fast to one of the trees surrounding the field. He would look out to the misty field from his perch, his clone disappearing after finishing what he set him to do, as Higuto kept his senses sharp for anything coming his way.

He had to admit that this way was a little bit cowardly and while he knew his teammates well he couldn't imagine that he knew everything there was to know about them. They all possessed secrets against one another, as all ninja usually did, and he had only been with them for a few missions and a training session. For all he knew about Jason he was a skilled Senju with a high prowess of wood style under his belt. Apart from that this was the only time he had ever seen Jason actually use a water style technique and if he wasn't mistaken all Senju had to know both water and earth in order to be able to perform wood style successfully. What kind of earth style jutsu might he have known?

And Allegro? He had seen Allegro perform skilled Fuinjutsu arts many times, from his chakra chains to the mark that still resided behind Higuto's ear, and he had no doubt that anyone skilled in such arts would utilize them to the fullest especially while invisible. Higuto thought he made a smart move to allow Jason to use the mist technique for it was what he himself was set to do if no one made a move. He didn't know what to expect completely from Allegro but he had the feeling that there was a whole bunch he didn't know about him or his techniques. Especially anything that would require Allegro to suddenly play a tune from his guitar while in the middle of a dense mist surrounded by enemies and Higuto within his chakra senses. That was enough to tip off to Higuto that he had, more than likely, just dodged a bullet in some way. For now he would wait on the branch as the rain continued to pour down and conceal him from his friends turned temporary foes.

(Jutsu used: Rain Tiger at Will: 40 AP
Shadow Clone: 30 AP; 340/410 AP
Immediate cancellation of shadow clone so not much point in distributing AP)