A New Dawn, A New Day [Hoshi]

Ryūka smiled. "I... Guess it might have to do with your chakra then... I'll try to teach Zyxis next time I see him. Maybe he'll be able to get a better grasp of it. He seems to be more experienced in Chakra-based techniques than the two of us. He relied more heavily on Genjutsu and Ninjutsu than us, after all, even though he says he's a Taijutsu specialist like you... Anyway... You want to... Punch me? Um. No offense but, no thanks. I'll let you hit me if you can, the next time we fight. Today, I think it'd be better if we focused on our training. Are there any Jutsu you're learning currently? Maybe I can aid you in your training.".

If Hoshi still decided to throw the punch, Ryūka would dodge out of the way. He started stretching. "I'm thinking of getting a custom weapon made... Should be ready for our next spar hopefully... Are you like... Getting armor or something? I don't know what Taijutsu fighters use. What do you even spend your money on?".

[WC: 1380]

"Money? Yeah I don't really use it at all. So It just sort of piles up. Some rent I guess, but only tiny amounts to the point it's not a thing. Hell if ya need money for a wep than I can give ya some. Not all of mine but a good amount. Like? 2000 ryo is alright? You could always pay it back if you want but their would be no need." Hoshi truly had no need for money. If he needed food badly he could always hunt and pick the berries he knows are safe to eat. This Ryo he spoke of was pretty much just lying around in his house begging to be stolen soooo. Might be better to give it to Ryuka.

"In terms of move's I guess i'm working on improved blocks? Since ya know last time my arm got pretty fucked up" Hoshi chuckled at the thought of the fight. "But yeah I do want to learn how to block better and even perhaps be able to hit a target from range with taijutsu? Know any of those kinda moves?" Hoshi asked out of curiosity since even he barely knows what Ryuka can and can't do in a fight. Though he's definitely intrested

There he stood. Ryūjin Kamidogu, the Smokeperf himself. Being offered money. He was made of money. He was money. If he wasn't inherently able to turn into Smoke, what he would be able to turn into would be money. He smoked money. He drank money. He ate money for breakfast. He used the money he made from using his money abilities on money missions to buy more money. "Thanks." he simply said, smiling and shaking his head. "Still I appreciate it. Maybe we should go shopping some time. Buy you some more... Fashionable clothes. Then you'll really know how to spend money, and why others like to do it.". He chuckled. He appreciated Hoshi's sincerity and generousity, but he didn't need money enough to lend some, even from a friend. It still raised the question though, how much money did Hoshi have, to offer 2000 ryo out of nowhere like that? It depended on how generous he truly was, but Ryūka did not dare to believe that anyone could be generous enough to offer a large portion of theirs. He assumed Hoshi must have had at least a hundred thousand ryo hidden in the forest somewhere, to be able to offer him so much money without a second thought.

Anyway, he did not want to dwell on it so much. Money wasn't really that important to him either, except for when it came to buy weapons. He was doing alright, by any stretch of the word. "Taijutsu Techniques?" Ryūka repeated, as an answer to his generous friend Hoshi's question. "Hm... I don't know a lot of pure Taijutsu techniques, to be honest. Though... You know. Weaponry and Taijutsu are really similar in many regards. I unfortunately can't think of anything... Oh wait. I might know one thing actually.". Ryūka took a few steps back to prepare himself to show off the technique he had in mind. "So..." he said, slightly leaning forward, "First you drop your center of gravity just a little bit. Then you tense up your muscles, and get ready force your body forward, as if your whole body is a single punch. Then," he dashed forward, not straight towards Hoshi, but aligning himself so that he would move past him. "You rush forward.". He stopped, and turned back to Hoshi. "It's called the Bull Rush. Don't know if you'd be interested, you seem to have your own variations of it, more potent, to say the least.".

"Improving your defensive options by the way..." Ryūka said, taking out a kunai from his pouch, "...is a good choice. I've been trying to improve my defensive capabilities as well. Since I'm lacking in the area of brute force, I decided that conventional block techniques may not be as potent in my hands, and I approached the defensive state differently.". He started moving the kunai around, in a set speed that didn't change. It looked like the kunai was dancing in the air, if Ryūka didn't pay attention to his own arm. "I've been training to be able to move an attack out of the way, instead of stopping it. It's riskier, but also opens up the target better if I'm successful. The disadvantage is, in a real battle, I'll always have a weapon of some kind in my hands. So, I'm not going to be able to respond to dead-range attacks in the way I want. If I trained in blocking, maybe I could have faster responds, but it's... Just not what I'm good at, you know?".

Ryūka put the kunai back into his pouch. He chuckled, then sat down to the ground, "How would you even hit opponents with Taijutsu from a range, by the way? I thought the whole deal of Taijutsu was to be close up to your opponent, and hit them at close range, not allowing them to escape. Similar to weaponry in that regard, in fact. Sorry, am I running my mouth again? Hope you don't mind, it's just what I'm used to, when I'm not in a fight or on a mission... So. Another round of questions. Do you belong to any clan, by chance, Hoshi?". Clans were a concept that was introduced to Ryūka only recently. He was still trying to understand. Some clans were apparently able to do things that no other people could do. It sounded weird to Ryūka. He assumed after all of these years, genetics would be shared around so widely that pure bloodlines like that wouldn't have been a thing anymore. Apparently, Ryūka was wrong though, having read more about this subject, he had come to terms with this fact. Along with the realization that he would never know anything %100 correctly.

[WC: 2164]

Hoshi was surprised at the fact that Ryuka didn't even accept his money, Someone like Ryuka would need all the money in the world to obtain those weapons he has right? Half his money should've been ok for Hoshi to survive on but He guessed Ryuka is maybe a bit more rich than he is right now with money. How rich even is this orphan ,Hoshi could never tell, but at least Hoshi knows Ryuka is fine when it comes to money even if he's planning on buying new gear as he said.

Sadly for Hoshi Ryuka doesn't know many if perhaps any taijutsu at all that doesn't require a sword to go along with it. Strange that the skills from a blade barely translate into skills with hand to hand combat but that should be fine for now. Yet he gave Hoshi the idea of a new technique he may use yet... Even after seeing the bull rush Hoshi saw the technique as pretty weak and sloppy. So this must be the difference between a swordsmen and a fist fighter when both are out of their element. "I guess you could use a technique like that bull rush or whatever. But I have enough of those kind of weak techniques...Though I guess If I just." Hoshi simply decided to use the bull Rush but instead of into a punch... He put all his body's normal force into his shoulder to barge besides the Ryuka who had past him. It was sloppy but definitely something that could be trained beyond the Bull Rush presented in front of him. Definitely though this technique is already shaping up to be beyond what Ryuka just demonstrated. "Yeah after practising with just a little variation I think I can make that sort of move work."

After using a prototype of a new move Ryuka made a good effort at answering his question about a defensive technique. This starts to become more clear to Hoshi as he always thought raw strength would be more important to blocking, yet what Ryuka stated indicates that it's not the power of the block but how one moves the momentum of the attack. Now here's a part where both swordsmen and martial artists can get behind, The theory of what works in battle and not the execution of it. "Hmm so ya not good at blocking yet huh? Well i'm not either but I think the battle with ya did do great works as my arm was able to block alot of your attacks. Less like a block though and more as if it was just getting in the way all the damn time."


"But from what I've seen in a fight is blocking is much more effective if instead of reacting to your opponent you practice thoughts by yourself about where they would attack and how if you were in a certain position. And prepare for that with movements to the point your body would just move on it's own via muscle memory and shit to protect you." Hoshi should be the king at giving advice too people. But then he may give advice to some worthless people and have a boring ass time. At least Ryuka is a great learner, which shows why he's the stronger one out of the two.

Ryuka started to laugh when he thought about Hoshi's question "HEY! I'M SERIOUS WHEN I SAY I WANT TO BE ABLE TO HIT PEOPLE FROM A DISTANCE!" It was true what Ryuka was saying that Taijutsu's entire invention was to be a close range technique and yet even so, If all Hoshi could ever do was Taijutsu then perhaps alike how he uncovered the Evening Elephant he could also uncover a different technique that he could perhaps use at a distance? Perhaps alike the Evening Elephant a shock wave? Even he himself couldn't tell. 

Yeah Ryuka was running his mouth abit but It was good that Ryuka was acting this casual around Hoshi unlike their first meeting when he barely spoke any words. Even Hoshi though Ryuka would be the silent one instead of Zyxis.

A clan? Well Hoshi had an idea of what he wanted to do right now but the training grounds was not a good location "Hey Ryuka before I answer that, would you mind following me out of the training grounds and into the Forest? I have a couple of fine tunings for some techniques I want to go through but i'm afraid if I use them in here I may get kicked out for massive destruction and whatnot." It was true. Hoshi was planning to use a series of techniques that may in of themselves destroy the foundation of these well made training grounds easily and so the forest far away from civilisation may be a good place for Ryuka to yell at his techniques and tell him how to do them better.

If Ryuka began following him to the forest or if he stayed here, Hoshi would continue to be besides Ryuka just to discuss the issue of clans. Hoshi's heard of several clans in the past ,especially Uchiha to which he's read up a tiny bit more out of intrigue for one being the creator of the Lion's Barrage, but he has never truly understood why clans are how they are in honest descriptions and why they had powers beyond most normal people. "I honestly don't belong to a clan at all. Or at least I think I don't? Never really knew my family well enough but from what my old man told me neither my father or Mother were special. Though I guess my "true" father is still unknown to me So i should really say my Mother and her husband. Though I think this question is better suited to Mr Smokey here turning into a gas cloud over here!" It was strange that even though he could turn into smoke Ryuka simply dismissed it as a natural thing to occur within all people. Perhaps before he lost his memory he was a member of a clan? Who knows.

"Also this maybe a weird request. But I plan on learning the way of the blade one day and was hoping if you could teach me the basics when I get myself a weapon that can actually be used as a blade instead of that wooden stick you gave me." The reason for the sudden interest in learning the way of the sword had nothing to do with Hoshi's own wants and desires in a fight, But rather Hoshi hoping to give Ryuka a good fight within his own element so that Ryuka is able to have a good fight rather than Hoshi himself.

-If Hoshi and Ryuka went to the forest-

"Look we've already arrived. I guess It's time now to bring out my new technique's I've learnt to see if their good enough" With everything in order Hoshi looked for something big and ended up finding a massive stone the size of a house "Bingo." eHoshi took a deep breath with both his hands together and After a deep breath his muscles increased in size with them darkening greatly. His eye's became white as a yellow aura exuded around his body. With this around him Hoshi prepared to use the Evening Elephant taijutsu. Against the stone. and within an instant beyond Ryuka's Reaction speeds. The massive stone the size of a house disappeared ,more accurately blasted into several piece's, as Hoshi used the evening Elephant to attack the stone five times in a row. With the deed done Hoshi turned around to Ryuka "Huff. Huff. So... Any flaws... In that attack... You see???" 

"No, let's chill here. Maybe Zyxis will show up.". He took out a pipe from his pouch, and started smoking his finger. Hoshi spoke a lot, but he didn't say a lot. "In fact, wait here, I'll go get my katana from the shop... You know, just in case we need it.".

As Ryuka rejected his invitation to leave and simply walked off."Oh. Well ok then..." Might as well wait for Zyxis. And who knows. He could arrived any second. With this in mind Hoshi decided to pretty much just take a nap in the middle of the training grounds. I mean what's the worse that could happen from Hoshi letting his guard down with Zyxis's possible entry?

NOTHING!

Zyxis didn't go home last night. He headed out towards the forest, wanting to take a little break from... everything. As he traveled, he began to think about what happened. His eyes flickered as he activated his Sharingan, two commas slowly spinning around his eyes. It seemed as if the unlocking of his Sharingan has been directly related to his emotions. On the mission, when he wanted to save those children, and when he wasn't able to help their mother. The image of her being carried away on a stretcher flashed through his mind. He grits his teeth and begins to run. He didn't know where he was going, but he just needed to move. An hour passed and he collapsed on the ground, sweat covering every inch of his body. He took off his shirt and threw it to the side, letting the cold wind caress his skin. He stared at the full moon with a grim expression. He pulled out a kunai and headed toward a tree. He needed to train and practice, he shouldn't ever stop. With all his strength, he slammed the kunai against the tree. It didn't cut deep, but it cut. That's all that he needed.

The sound of metal scraping and hitting against wood echoed throughout the night. Zyxis' arms burned, and he wanted to stop, but he wouldn't. He had been through tougher situations, and he wanted to practice his survival skills. About an hour later the tree finally fell. It wasn't that big of a tree, only about two meters high. He put the kunai away and went to find a few sticks and some rocks. He carried five large stones in one arm, and three big branches in the other. He threw everything on the ground and began to arrange it. With his kunai, he dug a small, thin hole in the cold dirt. He placed one branch in said hole so it would stay upright, while he laid the other two so that they were supported by the first one. This made a slanted triangle shape.

He brought the five stones over and put them in a circular shape. He began to dig out another hole with his kunai. After using his blade like a shovel, and cutting his fingers a few times, he was able to place the logs in there. His hands felt numb.  He wasn't aware that Kumogakure no Sato got so cold at night, or else he probably would've brought gloves or something. He kind of wished he was able to manipulate fire at the moment. He placed the logs in the pit and began to scrap his kunai against the stone. It would sharpen it, and at the same time, create sparks to make a fire.

After everything was set up and a fire was blazing, he placed his sweat-ridden shirt by it and laid in his little house. He had laid down a bunch of leaves that he could lay down and triple-checked them to make sure they weren't poison ivy. The warm fire crackling made him smile. It was controlled and pleasant and would dry his shirt up. He went to sleep, happy with what he had done.

He woke up. Luckily, it hadn't rained. He made sure that everything around him wasn't on fire. The fire had died down throughout the night, and he hadn't died from hypothermia, so he felt like the first night went okay. He threw on his shirt, stretched, and then abandoned the little fort he had made. Right now, he was starving. And his mother and father weren't going to make dinner for him right now. What he really wanted, was bear. He had heard that the meat was tough, tasted really gamey, but was good. He started heading North, looking for water and/or animals. It took him about an hour of traveling, but he finally found a stream that fell down into a small waterfall.

A smile appeared on his face. There, catching the fish that jumped, was a bear. He wondered how good they would taste together. With all of his strength, he threw the sharpened kunai in his hand. He was surprised at the bear as it looked up, and moved faster than it should of. His kunai entered a tree and buried all the way down to the hilt. He had already taken off after throwing it. Chakra filtered through his body, and he went flying off in a Dynamic Entry. The bear roared. It didn't just shout, blades of wind flew out from its mouth and headed straight towards him. He wasn't able to change the direction of flight, but he channeled chakra around his body. Two of the three were deflected but one sliced his cheek, a thin line of blood appearing on his face.

He hit the bear with a strong kick, sending it stumbling back a few steps. It wasn't the best move to perform as the bear had a really sturdy build. He found that out the hard way as he felt a burst of wind and the bear was sent flying forward. Zyxis moved, claws barely missing him. He burrowed forward in using the Bull Rush technique. His shoulder rammed into the side of the bear, and he sent him rolling. He could easily use a Genjutsu and finish this, but he wanted a good fight. Something to take out his anger and frustration on. He roared as the bear recovered and ran at him. He was headbutted, but he held his ground. 

With a scream, he used one arm to pull out a kunai and to slam it into his ears. Blood exploded all over his hand as the bear roared. He was hit with the wind at point-blank range, and he was sent flying. It wasn't a great idea for the bear since the kunai was in his skull and tore straight through his bone and tendons when he sent Zyxis flying since he was still holding on tight to the blade. The wind took on a different pitch of voice as he was sent flying. It was peaceful, but at the same time, it most definitely was not.

As he was about to hit the ground, he activated Flicker Movement. The world around him seemed to slow down as he landed. Although he had slowed down, the momentum of the bear's attack was too much, and as soon as he hit the ground, he continued to roll. His body was thrown backward, and before he knew it, his head had hit a stump at dangerous speeds. His eyes turned backward, all the way into the back of his head as the stump was split in half and splinters were sent flying everywhere, sadly, most of them into the back of his head. The world turned from sunny to pitch black in less than a half-of-a-second.

And then his eyes opened again. The pitch black seemed to recede, and he was left with a purplish night. He groaned as he lifted his head. There was a tremendous pain in the back of his skull, worse than a migraine. He reached up with his palm to feel the wound and screamed. He looked at his hand as he brought it back down. It was stained red. He groaned as he pushed himself off the ground and stumbled forward, barely able to keep up with himself. He couldn't think straight. One second he would blink, and the next he would have built a campsite. His body moved on autopilot as he tasted seared bear, recovered his kunai, and yanked splinters out of his flesh.

That was the last time he went toe to toe with a bastard like that. He had almost died, and it wasn't even from another ninja. From a wild fucking animal. He spits out some hair with his poor skinning job. You try to do something you've never done before on the brink of death. He wasn't sure when he had gone to sleep and pulled out all of the chips from his scalp, but there he was. He had woke up the next morning, all of his chakra located at the wound. The bleeding had ceased, and it was very raw. He ate more of the bear and left the rest for the wild animals. He had to keep moving.

He examined various berries and nuts. He made sure that they weren't poisonous and wouldn't kill him before he ate them. It seemed his continuous reading and studying in the Academy rewarded him with something. Red berries were really sugary and made his expression scrunch up, blue and purples were tangy, and yellow ones were straight up bitter and sour. The nuts he ate all seemed to taste the same. Mixing them with the bear made him want to vomit. He definitely wasn't a culinary genius.

Time passed by quicker than he knew. His shirt was discarded to the forest at it was all ripped up and torn, to the point where almost nothing was left of it. He had taken the pieces that could work and covered the wound on the back of his head, like a bandana. His sweatpants were torn and looked like very poor shorts. His hair was messy and unkempt, most of it fell in front of his face from sweat. He couldn't remember a time where he was so helpless. Bruised, beaten, and swollen; ready to sleep at a moment's notice.

He smiled. He rarely smiled. This grin spread across his whole face showing his white teeth with pieces of meat, and some red and blue from berries. He felt alive and wild. His primal side seemed to roar as he ran, moved faster than before, quicker than the wind. Zyxis raced against time itself. More days seemed to pass. He fell into an orderly routine. Kunai to the wild animal, set up a base, move on. He tasted bear, wolf, deer, he refused to eat rabbits, squirrels, frogs, you name it. Many nights he would vomit, his stomach unused to such creatures.

But he continued to eat. He had to be conditioned for when he was actually out in the wild. Life seemed to disappear before his very eyes. He didn't think about his shitty family history and Sharingan, about the woman that he had unintentionally killed, nor the need to be quiet and contained. He giggled, no he chuckled, no he laughed. He screamed and roared out in the wild as he jumped from tree-to-tree like a crazy Konohagakure no Sato ninja. He went deep into the forest, it seemed to be calling him. He swung among branches and flipped.

His fist drilled into the side of trunks, his kunai were sharpened and chipped more times than he'd like to admit, and he felt finally unfettered. He decided that he would clean and bathe daily in the waterfall and rivers. He seemed to lose a sense of direction and found himself even more. A week had passed since he had entered the forest. He had slept for two days straight, and the rest of the five he explored. Everything tasted great, his tastebuds didn't discriminate. He was confused when he thought the place he had landed in seemed familiar. The grass tickled his feet - he had lost his shoes some time ago - and the air rushed into his nose.

The sound of kunai, punches, and chakra being launched resonated throughout his body. The Training Grounds. He was at the Training Grounds. He didn't want anyone to see him like this. With a white stained, red stained bandana. Shirtless with ripped, worn shorts that were supposed to be pants. Cut, bruised, and bloody. Looking like a feral caveman, or would he be considered a jungle man? Forest man? He went to move and get out of the place he was in but failed as he saw a familiar face.

He blinked as Hoshi slept in the training grounds. Wouldn't this be a bad place to sleep? He didn't know why he would nap when there were kunai and justu being sent all over the place. He decided if he should leave or say hi to him. Hoshi probably wouldn't believe what he saw, a half-destroyed man that usually stayed very clean, and contempt. He shrugged. He had seen, smelled, felt, and tasted hell. He picked up a small stone and threw it at Hoshi. It wouldn't hurt him, only alert him to his presence. If it hurt, that would be sad for someone who specialized in Taijutsu. 

"Hi there." He'd say if Hoshi looked at him or not.

TWC: 2,163

Ryūka was surprised that Hoshi was surprised that he didn't accept his offer to lend Ryūka some money. In Ryūka's mind, it was the obvious choice to make. He worked a lot, and he made a lot of money on his own anyway. There was no reason to put any pressure on his friend Hoshi, who should have been saving money himself, at least according to Ryūka. The man lived in the forest for god's sake. That was no place for a ninja to live. He also didn't have any kind of a fashion sense, wearing plain t-shirts. It was true though, that Ryūka probably needed more money than Hoshi in the immediate future. He was a weapon specialst, after all, who needed money for weapons to stay relevant in this day and age. While Hoshi, and even Zyxis too, oonly used their fists and kicks.

Sadly Hoshi clearly didn't see the beauty in the way Ryūka used his technique. Maybe the elegance and the usefulness went over one's head when they weren't the one using it. Maybe Bull Rush simply looked to simple from the outside, just looked like dashing, hiding its usefulness. Either way, it seemed like Hoshi wasn't that interested in the one technique Ryūka had decided to show him. It was somewhat ungrateful and somewhat disrespectful, but now that Hoshi and him were friends, even close friends perhaps, Ryūka had forgiven him in an instant. It was strange, obviously, that even though weaponry and Taijutsu looked so similar at a first glance, the Jutsu they used, the techniques they learned, and even the most basic way they moved during combat was so different from one another. It made Ryūka smile, thinking about it. Weaponry had an obvious range advantage. Few arms could be as long as an opponent's arm + a regular sized weapon. On the other hand, a weaponry specialist could be disarmed, could not have their weapon on them (although in that scenarion Ryūka would have blamed them, as he believed all weaponry specialists should keep their weapons on them at all times), their weapons could easily break in battle, they might have needed, for multiple reasons, to sheathe and resheathe weapons. Obviously any single second you had to spend in battle was a small disadvantage. And swordsmen seemingly needed a lot more time in the battle to do simple things.

Taijutsu users didn't need to sheathe and unsheathe weapons. They didn't need to consider which one of their weapons fit the situation the best, which one they needed to use to be the most efficient. They didn't need to take care of their possessions, they barely needed to pay blacksmiths, they didn't need time gettng used to each weapon they bought... There was a lot of advantages Taijutsu had over Weaponry. There was but a single advantage weaponry had over Taijutsu; the weapons.

Ryūka ran towards the blacksmith. As he did, he recalled the punchyboy's words. A taijutsu move that could attack from a range? That was broken. There must have been serious disadvantages to it. If taijutsu could attack from a range, after all, what was the point of Ninjutsu, and Weaponry? Ryūka had to already start speculating, theorizing and strategizing, if he wanted to beat a move like that. He wondered what kind of range it had, how big the area of effect was. It was hard for Ryūka to imagine. He let it go, assuming he would have seen that attack in a short time, if they decided to spar anyway. 

Hoshi's fast growth was scary. When they met the first time, when he was training with Zyxis and Ryūka bumped into them, he seemed to be really weak. Ryūka, using his superior strength and also his experience, had beaten them, coming out of the battle unscathed. The only thing that slightly put him in a disadvantageous position in that battle was the Genjutsu used by Zyxis. But even that didn't end up creating a position for the two Taijutsu users to really hurt the Smokeperf. On their next spar, between just Ryūka and Hoshi, the teen boy seemed a lot stronger than their first fight. A lot. He had grown at an alarming rate for Ryūka. He possessed true power now, and could even be dangerous, if his loyalty ever became questionable. Turned out that the more experienced of the two had to keep an eye on the other one now.

Zyxis, on the other hand was a total mystery. Any time they met, he seemed to pull another rabbit out of his head. Another trick, another surprise Jutsu. And he seemed to wait for the perfect time to hit him with those palmed cards. For the first spar they had, he had lied to him about not knowing any Jutsu. He told Ryūka that he basically knew nothing, and even learned about the basic academy techniques from him.  Then out of nowhere, he pulled a lightning release technique. Last time, they were fighting in close quarters, and he pulled a Genjutsu out of nowhere. It seemed to be a Zyxis thing. To hide his capabilities to wait for a vulnerable moment. It was something that Ryūka would expect of him now. He wondered if the red-eyed boy would show himself that day. 

Either way, Ryūka finally arrived at the blacksmith he had given his katana to. After waiting in line for a few minutes, and paying the man for his work, he took his katana with his fixed sheath, and went back to the training grounds. While the blacksmith prepared his weapon for him, he chatted with another samurai waiting for his weapon to be prepared. "And then this guy talks for like a solid 30 minutes. Speaking about how he's fighting trees and bears. Gives me nothing. And expects an answer. What do you even tell a guy like that?". Ryūka nodded. "Yeah, you're right. You can't say anything. That's fair. See you later, weird samurai guy.". He took his katana, waved both the samurai and the blacksmith goodbye, and left.

He swiftly made his way back into the training grounds and noticed Zyxis standing in front of an asleep Hoshi. He approached the two. "Hey Zyx!" he said enthusiastically, patting his red-eyed friend on the back as he kept talking, "It's been a long time. I haven't seen you around. Where have you been lately? On missions or something?". He looked at the asleep Hoshi, then turned back to Zyxis, "I've only been gone for 3 minutes." he said, smiling, "This happened last time too, come to think of it. I waited for him to wake up, and I was right in front of his face, and he didn't notice me when he woke up, and just left without saying anything. What's with him and sleep, I wonder?". He shook his head, and looked at Hoshi. "So... Did you come here to train, hopefully?".

[WC: 3375]

As Hoshi slept he remembered the old tale he heard whilst he was young. About the story of a young boy out in the wilderness tried to battle a bear for some reason. Within this the boy nearly died yet held strong in the face of danger and defeated the seemingly insurmountable trial gaining many word count for the victory. Yet throughout all of Hoshi's life he never understood what word count meant. Nor why it was used at the ending of a pretty fun story of the boy in the wilderness continuously training. 

Hoshi unknowingly has a stone thrown towards him. Yet right before it hit him his sleeping ears could still pick up the danger and in a moment he "woke up" barely dodging the stone by rolling to the side. Heh so Zyxis did try and attack him in one way or another as he slept, yet acting asleep should still be fine for the moment. Should be good ol fun. After he managed to hear Ryuka insult him he jagged up with a start "HEY sleep is a normal thing ok Ryuka and Zyxis I do hope in those pretty damn screwed up clothes ya here to train. In fact we haven't all been together like this in a while. Ryuke got his katana repaired. Zyxis is here all ragged. And i'm here. Why don't we spar just like last time!" He's been waiting for this moment for ages. The rematch of them all in a singular fight once again. Except now Hoshi is more ready than ever.

Zyxis, for some reason, had the urge to punch Ryūka in his fabulous face. Although, that soon went away when he said hi. Zyxis grinned a big smile. It seemed as if his blood was still pumping from his adventure. The shirtless, ragged torn pants, lazily tied bandana wearing Genin felt completely different.

"Hey! You're right, it has been a while. Probably cause I was out in the forest for about a week. It's always nice to go get a fresh breather of zombified air. Am I right?" He stretched a bit as he continued to listen to Ryūka. Wow, he felt really stiff for some reason. Zyxis shrugged as he talked about Hoshi, "He's Hoshi. That's really all the explanation you need. At least, that's enough for me."

The thought of training seemed to rile him up even more. He really felt as if that would do him some good. Right now, he was a bundle of energy ready to explode. Who should he fight first? Ryūka or Hoshi? Hoshi's confirmation that he wanted to spar too made him grin from ear-to-ear.

"Let's do it. Ryūka, I really want to fight you. How about we do one person versus another and the one left out takes notes and trains as they wait? If you want to, you and me first Ryūka."

Zyxis then smiled at Hoshi, "You'll get your turn next." Zyxis backed up to the point where he was ten meters away from Ryūka. He took in a deep breath and then let it out. Right now, he was ecstatic and hyper. He wanted to spice this up a little bit.

"Hey, Ryūka. If you want me to get serious, just say it. Or maybe I'll see it. I have an eye for those sort of things," He put his fist up, ready to spar. "You take the first move if you want."

TWC: 2,500