Snakes under the flowers (Max) (NK)

The breeze of the morning rushed into the open window of Hato's apartment. She was already awake and getting dressed in her combat gear, which included a white tank top, combat pants and black heeled boots. She also put her hair in the normal bread that she always wears. Before leaving for the training ground, she closes the window. "One day." She smirks to herself. With that, she takes off. The clicking of her heels following her. 

The clicking of the heels against the rocks surface stopped as soon as Hato arrived at her destination. The training field was pretty much empty at this time of morning. It didn't bother Hato at all, it was relaxing. She started with her physical training. This included her punching and kicking a wooden training dummy. Her training from her academy days numbed her of the pain of strike solid wood. She wasn't a weak feeble woman, if she wanted to, she could knock out an entire bar of horny men on her. But if there were a bunch of horny men on her, she would just use that to her advantage. It's what she did best. 

After a half hour of striking a wooden dummy, she stopped for the second part of her training routine, chakra control. Sadly that only included transformation jutsu, walking on surface technique, substitution technique and clone jutsu. It was what ever genin knew, but she had only started as a genin so she needed to learn other techniques. Well, she didn't have anyone or anything to teach her. So she just thought to improve the other things she knew. She started up a large rock formation, using the walking on surface technique to walk on it. So she did, with general ease as well. She was great with chakra control. But now it was a time for testing it. Hato wanted to see how long she could stay side ways on the rock. She just stood there, focusing her chakra.   

WC: 332

Max would find his way slowly to the training grounds. He hadn't had as much training as he probably needed as of late, and his last training session with Komori had ended rather abruptly. Max never realized just how dangerous Stein was, so he would have to refrain from using it as much in training as he could end up killing someone on accident. Max didn't want that.
 
He wore his normal attire, a simple white short sleeved shirt and baggy pants. He hadn't been wearing his flak jacket because... well he didn't honestly think he would need it for some simple training by himself. He had his puppets, but they weren't on his back like normal. He had started simply putting them in his Storage Displacement to make it easier to carry them all as he didn't have the muscle mass to lug around all of his puppets, especially not the likes of Dread Knight.
 
It looked as though the majority of the training grounds were empty, so his training would have likely been undisturbed but he saw a face that he hadn’t been able to attach a name to. Max tried to get to know everyone in the village to some capacity. It helped build comradery and unity, and it allowed Max to glean much insight as to what was going on in the village. One could never have too many friends.
 
They seemed to have a really low chakra signature, so Max would assume that they were fresh out of the Academy. It made sense considering that they didn’t register on his sensory and he hadn’t ever seen them before. Max used to go to the Academy to train and keep up to date with the newer shinobi, but not so much as of late. He hadn’t even been back to the old orphanage lately. There was simply just so much going on that it hadn’t crossed his mind much until just now. He would have to make a visit to the orphanage soon, maybe do some volunteering or possibly give them a donation. Max had a home now, but the same couldn’t be said for all of Kumo.
 
Max would walk over casually to watch the other blonde stand there on a rock. Albeit she was standing sideways, but it was rather… odd. Perhaps she was testing her limits? Yeah, that must have been it. Max couldn’t think of many other reasons to just stand sideways on a rock.
 
“Hi! I’m Maximillian Yamaguchi, but my friends all call me Max. Are you training?” Max would ask, his inquisitive nature getting the better of him here. Perhaps he could aid her training and teaching another person was great training as well as you really have to know the material to teach it to another effectively.

"Perhaps I can help you?"

WC:473

OoC: You are welcome to set up the training grounds however you see fit and I'll train you however you would like (spar, instructional teaching, physical conditioning, etc)

Hato was staring off into the distance, deep in thought. Her thoughts where the only thing she made sure wasn't out. If her thoughts were released, she would be in deep trouble. They were full of venomous things. 

Suddenly, Sano's thoughts were interrupted by a young voice, introducing himself to the much older woman.  “Hi! I’m Maximillian Yamaguchi, but my friends all call me Max. Are you training?” Hato looks at the boy and smiles. "Yes I am, Can I help you with something?" Her voice sounded cheery. The thing about being a manipulator is that you don't allow exception on who you try to fool. Then the boy asks if he could maybe help her train. She thought it was odd at first but then she remembered the kids at the academy and how they are genin now. Maybe this Max character could teach her something. "Alright then," She jumps off the wall and lands by the boy with grace. "Show me what you can do?" She challenges. Hato needed to know if this child had what it took to train her.

WC: 183
TWC: 515

Max would watch the lady as she jumps, carefully assessing her form and speed. She wasn’t particularly fast, must less so than Renji had been out of the academy. Of course, he was of the esteemed Hyuuga clan and that had probably been a large factor in his quickness.
 
She wanted to see what Max could do. The boy would think for a moment, not entirely sure what she meant, but then he realized she probably wanted a demonstration of his techniques. He almost thought she was challenging him to combat, which would have been… different than he would have expected.
 
“I’m not very skilled in the manipulation of Ninjutsu techniques, nor am I particularly good at Taijutsu. I’m the most skilled puppeteer in Kumo,” the boy would say as he made the signs and pulled out his most basic of puppets, the skeleton. He would use his threads to make the puppet move about, much like a human would. “and I also dabble in the medical arts. I’ve read a lot of material on the subject and have learned several jutsu’s like this one,” Max would say before directing the skeleton puppet to slash at his exposed arm. Its claws would rake through the skin, leaving bloody slashes along his upper arm. Max would then make what looked like a Ram hand seal followed by a Tiger seal. He would then place his hand over the slashes and they would heal rapidly, disappearing right before their eyes like some sort of magic trick.
 
“What did you excel in during your academy training?” He would ask, hoping to glean what this young lady specialized in. Hopefully it wasn't Genjutsu. Max knew very little in the ways of Genjutsu other than the fact that he hated the experience of it. Typically there was great pain and odd images of altered reality, or maybe that was just how Maku used it. Nonetheless, it wasn't something Max was particularly skilled at.

WC: 328

Max took her up on her challenge. Thankfully he understood that it wasn't a spar challenge. Everyone that knew Hato, knew that she wouldn't stand a chance against most people in the village. But that's only right now, she knew her powers would only grow from here. 


“I’m not very skilled in the manipulation of Ninjutsu techniques, nor am I particularly good at Taijutsu. I’m the most skilled puppeteer in Kumo,”  Max said, presenting his puppet the skeleton. Most skilled puppeteer, surely that a grand title, Hato thought to herself. She placed a hand on her hip and put her weight on the hip. "Wow, impressive." It wasn't sarcastic either, she never had the talent for puppeteering but she always thought it was interesting. 

Then Max continued to show off some of his abilities. After leaving a scratch from the puppet, he healed it. Medical style? That's good, at least the child could teach me that. After he showed off his healing abilities, Hato started to clap, not slow and sarcastic, but like he was a main act of a show.  She started to talk sweetly again. "Wow, surely a boy of many talents." 

Then the master of puppeter was asking the questions, “What did you excel in during your academy training?” Hato put her finger to her chin as to recall her academy days, which wasn't that long ago. "Well, medical and taijutsu were my top subjects. But I did well all around." She gave a sweet smile. "So if you could help me with medical style jutsus, that would be great, as well as other jutsus if you don't mind. I hear that body flicker is a useful jutsu. So I wouldn't mind the help in that field." Hato gave an almost cute nervous laugh. "It would make the whole learning trip a lot faster." She almost made herself believe she was the sweet type. Of course, that isn't the true her. She almost wished, deep down, that she could be like that. That she could be free of hatred and power hungry feelings. But those emotions were too strong in her heart and she was forever cursed.  

WC: 360
TWC: 875

Max would happily accept the praise of the new person. He wasn't accustomed to new people being kind towards him. Most people looked at him with strange glares and disgusted looks, almost as if he was some sort of monster. His friends were always kind to him, but they all knew him beyond a simple first impression. 

So she was good at medical techniques and taijutsu. Max was pretty awful at taijutsu, as he wasn't the most physically impressive specimen. He was alright at getting his puppets to move and attack with haste and their chakra enhanced bodies allowed for much more force than he was able to put behind a strike. "I can teach you about medical techniques. I know a decent bit about that field of study." Max would say as he smiled. He was proud of his development in the medical arts considering that he was entirely self taught. 


"I'm not sure where to start in regards to the jutsu, since I am not familiar with how developed your chakra control is or how deep your reserves are. I can show you the basic stuff, things that I know nearly anyone could learn, and if you think that you are ready I can show you some of the advanced techniques as well." He would set the puppet down, resting it gently against the rock and propped up in a seated position. The boy was treating it with the utmost care, almost as if it weren't simply a tool. 

"You said you wanted to learn the Body Flicker technique as well? That seems like it should be simple for you to learn, something easy to start off with. You simply need to form the Ram hand seal and focus your chakra to your body, using it to fuel your muscles with chakra and enhance your speed a great deal. I would demonstrate, but I don't know how much use that would be. So just try and breath, and focus your chakra to perform the jutsu." Max was trying to be a good teacher here, but he wasn't all that great at teaching others. It was easy to learn how to do things and how things worked, but relaying that information to others was hard. 


WC: 376

OoC: Sorry. Was dumb and lost the first post I was working on and hastily put this one together.

Hato was happy to hear that the boy could teach her medical techniques. She desperately needed jutsu if she going to preform in the chunin exams coming up. "Thank you," She said, applying more of the kindness she had been taught to use to earn trust. Trust was a gateway for manipulation.

Max explained that he didn't know much of her abilities with chakra control and her chakra reserve. He explained that he could teach her strong techniques when he thought she was ready. Hato nodded, finding that reasonable. She wasn't cocky or egotistical, she knew when she needed work and what kind of work. That's why she was getting help from experienced shinobi from the village. And today it seemed she would be getting help from the greatest puppeteer in all of Kumo. 

They started with body flicker. Max explained that after using the hand sign, Ram, Hato would need to focus her chakra to fuel her muscles, which would fuel her speed." ...So just try and breath, and focus your chakra to perform the jutsu." He explained lastly. Hato nodded, it being her time to try it out. She weaved the ram hand sign and let the chakra flow through her. It was smooth, like a gently moving stream. She then expelled the chakra into her body. All she needed was to get to point A to point B with this jutsu, which was 5 meters away. Her movement was quick, to the untrained eye, they wouldn't of see her go to point B. But Max had a nicely trained eye, so he would be able to see her movement to the points. Regardless if he could see it or not, she had done it. It was relatively easy for her and it was a shame she couldn't figure it out on her own. Hato turned to the twelve year old. "I got it down. What's next?" She was impressed with herself, it didn't matter that Max may or may not think it was. But she still needed to install the illution that she was dependent on him, other wise he might not train the other techniques with her. 

WC: 361
TWC: 1235

Max would clap and simply give a nod suggesting that she seemed to have it right. "Yeah, like that. You seem to have the hang of it." The boy would note that despite the technique she still had not gone very fast, though he would try not to dash the hopes of an aspiring shinobi. 
 
What's next? Hmm, well judging by her still developing chakra she would have issue with the more advanced techniques, so Max would start with something a bit more basic. "Have you learned the basic medical techniques to patch up minor cuts and bruises?" Max would inquire. He had been ready to show her, though without any injuries to fix he may end up having to inflict a minor cut on himself again. "I can also teach you how to use Chakra Anesthetic, to help relive pain and unneeded suffering from your patients. Which one would you like to see first?"
 
Either way, Max would show her both starting with the one she wanted to learn first. He would perform all the necessary hand seals for each jutsu, slowly for her to be able to study and replicate. If she needed a test subject, Max would use himself as one. While it was always risky to allow the untrained to perform medical procedures on you, Max figured that he could simply fix whatever problems may arise, if any, due to her inexperience.


WC:236

Hato obliged to the praise and the comment from Max. She enjoyed being complemented from people, normally men much older than Max but it was still flattering to hear something like that from the self proclaimed puppeteer master.

Now it was onto the next jutsu training. Max asked if she knew basic medical ninjutsu. Hato simply reply with a shake of the head. He also offered to teach her the basic chakra anesthetic. "Let's start with chakra anesthetic to stop the pain and then basic medical ninjutsu to heal it." With that, Hato pulls out her own kunai. "Don't worry, i'll use it on myself, just make sure to jump in if it goes bad." 

Max shows her the the necessary hand signs for both the jutsus. She nods, noting down the hand signs in her head. Then she cuts her palm with the kunai in her hand. The blood flows from her palms and the pain reaches her. She remained calm and weaved the hand signs Hare → Ox → Monkey. Then it was time to focus on her chakra flow as that was the most important part of medical style justu. The jutsu needed to come from the tips of her fingertips, so thats were she focused the healing flow of chakra. Just then her tips lit up in calm blue flames. They weren't actually flames because they didn't burn. Next up was getting in to her nervous system. That was easy enough because the nervous system was everywhere. She stabbed herself with the "flaming" tips in the chest to the nervous system. She held it there, focusing on the healing affect of the jutsu. Finally, after a few moments, the numbness ran through her. Good, She thought to herself, Now to heal this cut. 

She weaves boar and rat only because she was going for the more advanced version. She didn't need it but it would still help her in future. Again she focused on her medical chakra into her hands. It took a bit longer to activate than the chakra anesthetic put finally started to glow with chakra, it was working. She then placed her non bleeding hand to the bleeding one. It was starting to connect the skin cells again, pushing the blood back and bringing it on it's way through her body again. She sighed in relief that it had worked, she was putting a lot of mental thought into that jutsu. 

Hato looked at Max for his reaction. "What did you think?" She hoped it impressed him. Why did she? She didn't know herself. It might of been the fact that she never had a true teacher. Sure, there were the academy ones but those were lame and didn't truly care. Max was teaching her. And she enjoyed  the thought of impressing him. She tried to not think to deeply into this thought because she was training for her future, the future where she was top dog.

WC:494
TWC: 1729

Max had no issue with being a safety net for others. If she didn’t manage to heal herself, or she accidentally cut too deep there would be serious risk, and Kumo can’t afford to lose shinobi in basic training exercises. Defending the village? Sure. Out on a mission? Also fair game, but not during training. Max would nod, making sure she understood that he would do whatever it took to keep her safe if things turned for the worse. She would then slice her palm.
 
Max would sit back and watch as the lady manages to use the anesthetic jutsu with relative ease. Her chakra control is pretty spot on it would seem, and she was also a fast learning. Such was good, as it would allow her to develop quickly. With another medical shinobi in the village it would relieve some of the burden from Max and Saya since they were typically assigned to the same tasks since they were a team together. Having another medic would be nice, as once they improve they will likely be able to lead their own team and keep those people safe from harm.
 
The blue tips of her fingers slid easily into her own chest as she used the technique. The fingers would pierce her clothes and into the chest cavity, minor blood trickling on her fingertips as she pulls them out to finish with some basic medical arts to mend the wounds. She has no issue with grasping the needed control to perform that technique as well. Max was impressed with her. While it was not the most impressive show of medical mastery, she seemed to have a really good basic understanding of the control needed to become a powerful medical practitioner in Kumo.
 
Max would smile and tell her, “Nice work! You really do seem to be a natural at this. You picked up these basic techniques faster than I would have hoped. With some more work you will likely be a strong shinobi and a capable medic.” Max was much shorter than she was else he would give her a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. “So… I don’t actually know your name. What was it? I’d like to know so that I can follow your progress. I really think you could be a capable shinobi with proper training and direction.”

WC:391