Tournament of "power"

Hoshi has made a bunch of new friends in a fairly short time span. Ryuka, The careful type and yet he seems to like combat and missions to a disturbing degree. He may have a fetish involving doing missions. Zyxis, The first other genin Hoshi met and who he personally considers a strong rival. He's the most well balanced fighter out of the bunch here. Finally Natsume, Whilst she is currently the newest and weakest member out of the group she is certainly growing in strength exponentially. With the spar showing that Hoshi will need to take her seriously very soon. 

This kind of group needs an event to do all together. But what kind of thing could they do, As Hoshi thought of this we was sitting next to the flowing river close to his shack to the types of things they could do. Something that's not a mission or even direct training. But perhaps... They could setup a friendly tournament? No their physical strengths are far too varied at the moment... Though a tournament of randomness? That could be fun as hell. With a jump Hoshi lifted himself of the rock near the river and went to his house to start writing up letters to send to Natsume,Ryuka and Zyxis.

With a quick rummage through his rickety draws Hoshi found himself a pen to write with. That'll be good enough to start writing up these letters... 2 HOURS LATER

"Training Grounds. 10:00 A.M. Prepare yourselves." It took Hoshi way too long to prepare that letter. Yet that's only because he wanted to pretty much troll them with a cryptic message and have the end result only be this childish meetup in terms of this fun activity for them all to participate in. The best one will win this exciting little bout of both wits and strength... Crap the wits part maybe Hoshi's downfall, But still he shall try his best to win!

NEXT DAY

No matter what anyone thinks the next day trope has been used by Hoshi in his own stories he has written ,only 2 so far, and yet it is one that's used for a reason. With the bright and early sun of the morning Hoshi unzipped his sleeping bag and hurried out of the house ,of course clothing himself into his redish/brown shirt and red tracksuit bottoms, at breakneck speeds. With him dashing into the village he accidentally managed to run into a branch. Smacking him right in the head...Although it left nothing too serious a big bruise would be visible on his head...

He entered the training grounds at 10:00 A.M exactly on the dot to begin the tournament. If he saw anyone within the training grounds he would simply approach with a grin and say "So ya guys ready for the most intense thing you've ever done in your lives!"

Ryūka was prepared. Oh boy was he prepared. He packed all kinds of games on him, chess, dragonchess, checkers, all sorts of playing cards, small tabletop games, some written adventures, just all sorts of stuff. He had an idea, and he wasn't going to let Hoshi outdo him or steal that idea from him. 

Instead of monologuing any longer, or describing his own actions, Ryūka entered the training grounds, full gear + bags on both hands, full with what looked like toys. "I'M READY!" he shouted from the entrance of the training grounds, after seeing Hoshi and Natsume. "I'M READY FOR ANYTHING! INTENSE IS MY MIDDLE NAME. No well, I guess Ryūka is, technically. Anyway, let's do this.".

If Zyxis had heard from someone that Hoshi had considered him a friend, he might've laughed., probably cried. He thought that the boy hated him, he acted like it. There was a fine line between rivalry and being a dickwad. Hoshi liked to walk across that line as if it was a tightrope. At least he considered him someone worthy to feud with; he seemed to like that.

Zyxis woke up like every other morning. There was no need to tell it again as it would just end up seemed repulsive after the many times it was said. He didn't feel like training today. Every day it was workout here, fight this, get the shit beaten out of him then. He needed a break from all the physical strain. He began to forget what his hobbies were.

This time when he went to the library, he went straight to the citizen section of scrolls. He wasn't going to learn a jutsu today, but he was going to read a lovely book. It was called "Beautiful." by Gracie Jones. He began to read it as he strolled around the streets of Kumogakure.

The sun didn't shine on his pale skin; it was a cloudy day just like the next. He wondered how Hoshi had gotten so tan. Maybe he had more melanin in his skin, but it looked like he had gotten a cheap spray-on tan.  He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. There was no need for that.

He got home around nine and went to go upstairs to finish his book. He didn't get the chance as something in the mail caught his attention. He raised an eyebrow. The note was from Hoshi. He was in a good mood, so he didn't shit on him by saying something along the lines of "he is literate enough to write this?". Zyxis read the note and frowned. 

It was just a note that seemed to say come to the Training Grounds. Could you get any vaguer? Was this how Natsume felt when he did the same thing without thinking? Zyxis decided that he would go, he probably needed to spend some quality time with Hoshi to get to know him better. Maybe underneath that tough exterior of muscles, bluntness, and idiocy, there was a pleasant boy who just needed a friend.

He thought it over again. Nah, that wasn't Hoshi at all. But they needed a better relationship, and they weren't going to get that if he didn't put in any effort. So he grabbed his satchel and headed out towards the training grounds. He purposely walked slowly so by the time that the reached them, it would already be ten o'clock.

When he arrived so did his rival. He waved his hand at him and grinned, "Hello, Hoshi. It's nice to see you today. I'm pretty ready for some "intensity," whatever it is."

He looked towards Natsume as her less-than-cheery voice sprouted up in the Training Grounds. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly as she began to scold Hoshi. It would kill him of embarrassment if they found out he did the same thing. He didn't want to get viewed as a creepy stalker, nor a bumbling baboon. 

Zyxis was happy to see the younger child, especially after the zombie mission. He swore he had never felt worse in his life when he had almost let her die. He wouldn't ever do that again, he declared it to himself. Not to Natsume, not to Ryūka, and even not to Hoshi. He never felt more strongly about a topic in his entire life.

"Hey," He said quietly, as if not to disrupt her already disrupted peace. "It's nice to see you, Natsu. You look nice this morning." Hopefully, he could put her in a good mood. He still felt guilty about doing the same thing when they trained together.

Zyxis almost jumped as Ryūka came into the training grounds like a crazy madman. He must've known that it was ten in the morning. Maybe he was a morning person. Now that Zyxis thought about it, he realized he must've been a morning person as well. He always got out of bed quickly and moved onto the rest of his day. Except for the times he was utterly exhausted, but other than that, if you woke up earlier, you get more stuff done. That's what he truly believed.

Zyxis nodded towards him as he walked closer, "Intense would be a pretty weird middle name. Well, not really. I don't have a middle name. Or last. Wait, do I now? I don't think so. Anyway, it's good to see you friend. I'm quite ready for anything as well."

So they weren't training today? Great! He couldn't wait to have some good old fun instead of just punching each other in the face all the time. He enjoyed playing checkers; he was excellent at it. Zyxis wasn't sure about chess as he hadn't played it when he was younger, and only just understood the purpose of strategy when he became a ninja.

He didn't know how to play any gambling games. He wasn't really into them. Maybe Go-Fish, but that wasn't a gambling game. Solitaire would be fun. Did Ryūka bring most of everything? If so, then that would be amazing. The man was on top of everything.

For some reason, Zyxis felt like his mind was running at a hundred meters per second. It felt as if he had just gotten a huge boost or something, a certain feeling that made him able to express his opinion more clearly and thoughtfully. It felt amazing, and he helped him in becoming more social.

He wondered if the others would see that it helped. After all, he had just blabbered off to them for a while. Without any mistakes as well, so he didn't need to feel embarrassed. What an agile, efficient and quick mind he had.

He turned to Ryūka. "I don't want to do much training today, but I'm so close to understanding how to use the Wind Element. Could you help me out, please?" It would be easier if Natsume and Hoshi went first.

WC: 1,076

Natsume's reaction was pretty fun, She seemed annoyed... In fact to Hoshi this was the first time she generally seemed less than excited about anything. The kind of steam she had to always keep that bubbly way about her must be pretty exhausting in and of itself. This side to Natsume seemed more natural than her constant expression of joy and interest, Which means she must either be really, REALLY pissed at Hoshi. Or Natsume's starting to feel more at home with the group finally.

With her arrival and Ryuka's general upbeat attitude about everything Hoshi was ready to announce to everyone the plan he had prepared and with a clap he began "Right guys it's time to begin. I've thought we've been training and doing missions non stop recently. I thought that these life threatening scenario's popping up every s often maybe taking a toll on ya guys so I prepared for us... To do a friendly tournament of skill, Smarts and strength! Though what I had in mind now pales in comparison to what our current." With hesitation "leader Ryuka has prepared for us instead." Hoshi had to admit not only that Ryuka was their current leader, But also Ryuka had one upped him in magnitude of the plan... Ryuka must of had his own idea and yet it seemed to easily come with Hoshi's own plan.

"Now then. Think we should all face each other in a series of games chosen by the combatants and thanks to Ryuka the games have become more varied then my original," Try and think of random stuff "Plan. With these we all face each other at least once. 2 groups will face off at once. If you win the game both of ya agree on than you manage to gain a point. The one with the most points at the end wins! The winner get's to be the leader on the next event or mission we do. So are you guys ready!" He tried to sound more enthusiastic than he actually was at the moment. This was meant to be something to helps the other guys cheer up from these dangerous missions... If Hoshi had his way the events would all be about training... But these guys may want a break from that Routine.

"First groups I think should be Me and Ryuka, Zyxis and Natsume. With this let the games begin!" Roaring out the final line always made things more authentic. With this ready Hoshi went towards the owner of all these games to ask him a simple question. "So. Ryuka. First game we have to play is tag. Once the other can't tag one for 1 minute their out of the game. Anything goes except lethal or very wounding moves."

The day before…

Ryūka was strolling down the streets of Kumogakure. He was on a patrol… Of course he was. It seemed like he was not taking off-time anymore. He was constantly either on a mission or training. He wasn’t complaining, he rather liked working and keeping himself busy. But there were obviously other things he wanted to do… He wanted to write, draw, sing, rap, dance… That’s the kind of person he just was. And it felt like the better a ninja he became, the more he lost ‘him"self’. And the more that happened, the more he gave in to the side of him that liked missions and fights. The side of him he liked nonetheless, but one he didn’t want to fully become. One he wanted to suppress with his personality.

And his friends, his future ‘teammates’ (though he didn’t know when he was being assigned to a team, it had been some time since he had become a Genin after all), had all left weird impressions on him. Zyxis was a snake. And by that, Ryūka meant A SNAKE. He always seemed to go for the lowest blows, the surest strategy, whatever ace he kept up his sleeve at the time. Literally every single time Ryūka faced him in battle, he seemed to have a new trick, one he didn’t show any hesitance to use, and also showed no sign of regret after doing so. The first time they met even, he told Ryūka that he didn’t know any Jutsu, even went so far as to make Ryūka teach him the basic Academy Techniques. And after Ryūka gave him all the insight he had on learning techniques, teaching him the stories he made up for the handseals, how did Zyxis pay him back? Oh right, revealing that he was being deceptive, and that he in fact knew a Jutsu, an aggressive one at that; in the middle of a friendly spar Ryūka offered to help the then-still-academy student Zyxis improve at fighting, out of nowhere, in close range. It obviously had only one explanation in Ryūka’s eyes, that Zyxis had deceived him only to be able shock him, and thus had ulterior motives. Motives that Ryūka still wasn’t sure if Zyxis lacked or not.

Then there was Hoshi. The “punch first, ask questions later” type of fighter. Sometimes it helped him, maybe? But most of the time, and in fact, as far as Ryūka could recall, it had backfired every single time. Especially the time he straight up attacked a citizen of the village out of nowhere, with seemingly no understandable motive. Ryūka still liked to believe that he actually meant well. He seemed like a simple guy. Unlike Zyxis, Hoshi would have probably made it clear if he was actually angry, or hateful. That’s what Ryūka believed anyways. Though he also believed that the guy still needed some talking to, especially on the subject on what being a ninja meant, the responsibilities of own, and the unwritten rules of being one… Even some of the written rules, now that Ryūka thought about it.

And lastly, Natsume. Well, Ryūka didn’t even know what to think of her yet, having only seen her for a short time. She was an artist, and Ryūka and her learned to use the Super Beast Imitating Drawing Technique together. From what Ryūka had seen of her, she seemed like an alright person. Time would tell.

Ryūka stopped his stroll after he saw a kid carrying mail wave at him. The kid brought over a letter to him. One by Hoshi again. “Training Grounds. 10 A.M. Prepare yourselves.”... 10 A.M.? Hoshi was such a bother sometimes. Ryūka didn’t understand why he liked to get up so early, train so early in the morning. In his opinion, noon, and even evenings were better choices than the early times he chose to call his friends to the training grounds. Still, Ryūka was obviously not going to refuse. “Yourselves…” Ryūka repeated in his head, So this wasn’t an invite to fight Ryūka one on one again, he must have called Zyxis as well, and maybe also Natsume. He wondered what he meant by “Prepare yourselves” though. Prepare for what? How could Ryūka prepare for something if he didn’t know what it was? Oh well, that might have been a problem for Zyxis or Natsume maybe… But not Ryūka. Ryūka was always prepared for every possibility. As soon as he was done reading the letter, he moved on once again, this time with greater pace and purpose.

He headed straight to a toy store he knew was close by, and bought all kinds of games that was plausible for the team to play in a tournament setting. He found board games ranging from being deeper than his poetry to being more shallow than Natsume’s prejudices on his poetry. After getting out of the store, he strolled for a little while longer before heading back home with his new toys. On the way though, he did buy another toy, this one from a blacksmith. It was a dagger, that the blacksmith had apparently bought from a merchant originating from Kirigakure, one that just spoke to him more than the other weapons the blacksmith had in his store, one that Ryūka believed he had to buy. The blacksmith was nice enough to give some insight into the lore and history behind the dagger, as well as its unique abilities, and its name; Shinsō.

That day again, finally.

Zyxis seemed to ramble on so much that every other sentence he stuttered out seemed to delete the memory of the previous one. “Yeah… That was… A joke…”. Ryūka shook his head. Okay now one of them was certainly going down. Now the only question he had in mind was whether to go easy on the other two or not. But that question was quickly pushed aside with a statement coming from Hoshi.

“Our leader…” . Huh. That sounded… Familiar, almost. Maybe a remnant of his old life? It distracted Ryūka for a short time, before he could get back to the moment. The word had very little to it, so Ryūka wouldn’t have come up with meaningful insight even if he had taken the time to think about the title, instead of coming back to reality, so the latter is what he decided to do. “Yes, I figured, since we’re good at vastly different things, I thought a simple battle tournament would have favored me and Hoshi over Natsume and - no offense Zyxis, but you too, not because you’re bad, but because I believe you’ve fallen a bit behind recently. Well, I guess today might be your chance to prove me wrong if I am in fact so…”.

He then turned back to Hoshi, and chuckled. “Sure, that sounds exciting. Okay, since you suggested, you should start as the tagged one, and you’ll have to tag me first. Let’s get a fair distance between us to start… 5 meters sounds nice, right?”. He walked out into an empty area in the training grounds, putting a 5 meter distance between him and Hoshi. He simply put his right hand forward, gesturing Hoshi to attack him, while his body vibrated for a second before settling. He was ready.

[WC: 1334]

Zyxis knew that Natsume was going to get upset, once again, he had already done the same thing to her before. Unlike Zyxis, Hoshi didn't seem embarrassed or annoyed with the development of her mood. He just seemed to accept it and move on. It was rude for him to do that He didn't even apologize. The Genin shook his head and concentrated on Hoshi. So they were having a tournament of sorts? That seemed fun. Although, he didn't think it through as much as Ryūka did. If it weren't for him, this meeting probably would've turned out boring. 

So a series of games, activities, and most likely puzzles. Zyxis wasn't the best at those sort of things. Well, he loved to do problems. He didn't play games at the Academy. He wasn't a fan of most of the children there. Activities and hobbies? He had a few. He liked to read, write, and run. They may seem dull in comparison to some of the things that Ryūka brought, but no one was been given the right to judge people. Although, Hoshi was an exception in his eyes. He wished that the two of them could've worked out something, he did.

But every time he even thought about it the next words out of that nincompoop's mouth was irritating and served to piss him off more. Maybe, just maybe, he should invest in another teammate. He most definitely liked Natsume more than he liked Hoshi and Ryūka, the little sister he didn't have. Hato, he wasn't so sure about her. Ryūka wasn't even bad either, but he got a bit of a vibe that the boy disliked him. Shit, in his eyes he didn't do anything wrong. He didn't know why Ryūka viewed him as he did, Zyxis wasn't even sure if Ryūka disliked him in the first place, but that's how he felt.

If he was explained the reason why, he would scoff in more of annoyance and astonishment that Ryūka belived that. They were shinobi. They were supposed to use everything that they were able to, and they were meant to be tricky, Zyxis wanted to win. If he was told again that what he did during their spars was underhanded, he would shake his head in doubt. He had nothing against Ryūka, absolutely nothing at all. When he sparred him and fought with him, his thoughts weren't "oh man, how am I gonna rustle his jimmies this time." He even made attempts to make sure that he was okay with what happening after his first mistake. It seemed as if Ryūka would never let it down though. If Zyxis knew, he knew that he would defend himself vehemently. Right now, he would have to continue sitting in the dark.

He cleared his head of these thoughts just in time for Hoshi to pick their groups. Sure, he had nothing against Natsume, but who died and made him boss? What if he wanted to do something with Ryūka? Zyxis knew he shouldn't be complaining, Natsume was the best choice he could've gotten. He looked at the younger Genin as Hoshi decided that he would have to play tag with Ryūka.

He saw her confused look, "Yeah, it wasn't sarcasm. Just a way to boost your mood. Sorry if that was confusing," Zyxis said as if to clear up things. Zyxis stroked his chin in thought. He wasn't sure what game he wanted to play at all. Maybe it would come to him later, but he had time to think as Hoshi and Ryūka prepared for their first round.

Zyxis knew that was a joke. Was he so monotone and bland that every joke he made sailed over the head of his fellow shinobi? Okay, that served to make him a little upset. He thought he was a funny guy, or could be. They didn't have to shut him down like that continuously. If he wasn't a shinobi, he could be a comedian! Have you ever seen a bland guy able to make hilarious jokes? He could make a living off of it. Damn, he kept getting sidetracked. Back to Ryūka, "I knew it was a joke... never mind."

Now that lead him onto his second point. Ryūka was the leader of their small group, which he didn't have a problem with since Ryūka seemed to fit the part the most. But Zyxis would be lying if he said that he didn't want to take over the role of leader. His goal was to be someone big one day, a Kage. If that didn't work, he wouldn't mind being an ANBU, but the big goal for their generation was for him to become Kage. Right now they were all kids, which might explain the idiocy of Hoshi, the low trust from Ryūka, and the bubbly attitude from Natsume. Zyxis had seen and heard some shit, but he didn't let it affect him. In his mind, he was already an adult. In the academy, he didn't want to make friends; he had wanted to train. Right now, all he wanted to do is get stronger. He already had a big goal, and he wanted to achieve it.

Was his personality just incompatible with everyone? Was he to live a life of disappointment and sorrow just because of his morals and views on life. Maybe he needed new friends who understood him or older ones. But right now he felt alone. He tried to change things, tried to talk more, but he assumed they were already under the impression that he was supposed to be the quiet, stoic,  and dumb and tricky?

He was knocked out of his thoughts as Ryūka said his name. Was he falling behind? He didn't want to believe that. His face turned red. Was it from embarrassment or anger? He wasn't sure. After this, Zyxis assured himself that he would get stronger. He wouldn't waste any more time. If they didn't understand him, if he couldn't get through them, he would have to do it forcefully. He didn't have to be nice; he didn't have to be quiet. Although, he wanted to. But people would respect him if he was strong. No more breaks, no more free time. He would focus on his training without a second thought and complete it with no remorse.

Right now, their activities? Zyxis was going to win them all. Their activities wasn't just a day of fun anymore, right now he was going to curb-stomp them and take the win. He would prove Ryūka wrong. He would show every one of them wrong. He looked towards Natsume with a blank face, except for his sort of red cheeks. With this, he would act like his usual self, but inside of his heart and soul there was burning fire. Natsume was his buddy, but right now he was going to destroy her completely. He wouldn't brag, he wouldn't do it unrightfully, and he wouldn't make her break down. He would do this for himself, and only himself. 

He left them to their own devices, turning towards Natsume.

"Let's play..."


[WC: 1,252 | TWC: 2,328]

Before they began Hoshi was surprised that Ryuka would consider Him an actual equal in terms of physical strength, As in his mind the strongest would be Ryuka. "Ya think too highly of me Ryuka. Don't put ya-self down." Yet Ryuka also just set the distance between them at a simple 5 metre's. Definitely not something he would do if defeat was imminent. "I'm the one chasing first? Makes sense but uhh." Ryuka would win in a contest of pure speed and yet Hoshi still had a chance thanks to his training to try and catch him. Yet what tricks could he use.

The match had begun with Hoshi needing to close the distance, He immediately reached with both hands to pick up chunks from the floor, Using his strength to get small chunks of the stone floor removed to use as a throwing weapon. 2 stones of approximately 5 cm radius's/ball shaped where prepared in that instant. With these "weapons" in hand Hoshi prepared to chase after Ryuka with the rapid movements only taking place within 2 seconds to prepare.

"Just because this is a speed game doesn't mean You'll be able to beat me easily." With this stated as Hoshi ran after Ryuka, He threw the 2 stones directly at Ryuka [90 speed, "75" impact force]. If they hit Ryuka they would hurt him greatly and injure him with a bruise. The stones wouldn't do anymore damage as they aren't fully stable and will crumble on impact with anything. The first stone is thrown towards Ryuka's right side of his body with the second being the left side of his body. As they were thrown Hoshi continued to dash at maximum speeds towards Ryuka