Too Young to Drink, Old Enough to Kill

Zyxis wondered what it would be like to drink alcohol. He was pretty sure he would be able to handle the kick of it, the chakra was his buddy, and chakra wouldn't let him get too drunk. Or so he would hope. In a world where there were jutsu that could heal a cut-off arm, he was pretty sure there had to be a No Hangover No Jutsu. Did alcohol even taste good? Why was he wondering about this? Cause he had just passed the bar on the way to the Training Grounds.

He had such an imaginative mind. Sometimes it was a good thing, and sometimes it wasn't. He had been trying to learn how to put that spark towards being more conversive, but Zyxis usually just laid back and let things happen.

As he got to the training ground, he stopped. He forgot why he had even come today. Damn it, alcohol. Didn't even drink it yet, and he already forgot shit. Although he still agreed one day, he should try it.

Probably wouldn't hurt.

In all honesty, this wasn't the most honorable job Ryūka had taken over the years, but it was a job nonetheless. As long as it paid (and it did), Ryūka didn't complain. Two girls approached. They seemed young. "Sorry." he said, holding his hand forward to stop them, "I'm going to need to see your ID's.". The girls mumbled and sighed and complained, and gave their ID's to Ryūka. Smokeperf looked at the ID's, then back at the girls, and his eyes traveled between the two groups a few more times. "Go ahead." he said, allowing the girls in. It was a boring job. But on the good side, his shift was almost over.

And at that second, he realized his friend Zyxis was passing by. He seemed to be headed to the training grounds, from what Ryūka could tell. He waited for a few minutes for his shift to be over, than headed to the training grounds himself. When he arrived, he found Zyxis immediately, and headed over to him. "Hey Zyx. How's it going? Here to train?". Ryūka had a giant metal flower floating in the air behind him, something he didn't expect Zyxis to notice.

Kyson and Kiko were on thier way back home from the food store. Kiko the 1 meter tall baby panda was walking to the right of him. The Hozuki was holding a plastic bag full of snacks in his right hand as he was approaching the training grounds. He didn't feel like going around the entire training grounds, so he decided to just walk through it to save time. Taking his time as he made his way through the training facility, Kiko kept trying to reach the snack bag in his right hand, but Kyson would just raise the bag to where he couldn't reach it.

Kyson wasn't in his formal attire at the moment. Just a black t-short, gray sweat pants and his sandals. Since Maku was back, there was a lot he didn't half to worry about and he didn't have to slave in the raikage's office everyday. So it was his first day off in a long time. It felt good to not have all the work load be put on you. Now he could focus on his own agenda without worrying about much else. He noticed two other people in the training grounds, he didn't really mind them. But he had to make his way past them in order to get to the other side.

He would walk to the side of the two, they would be about 3 meters to his left. But soon as Kyson was about to walk past them, he quickly shifted his head left and stared at the white haired one for about 3 seconds. It was weird, the white hair, the height, the baby face. It was like looking at Royalty back in the day. Back when the two lived at the training grounds, but times had changed as they grew older and life hit them. "Sorry about that, you look like someone I know." Right after he said that, Kiko jumped for the snacks in Kyson's hand. But Kyson would raise them above his head once again so he couldn't reach it. "What did I tell you.." He said to the baby panda.

The panda would hiss at him with an angry look on its face. Kyson would make fist with his free hand and place his fist down on kiko's head. "Your too adorable to intimidate anyone." He would say with his fist still placed on the top of his head.

Zyxis turned at the sound of Ryūka's voice. It was always nice to see a good friend. "Hello, Ryūka, it's great to see you. I'm not sure what I'm doing here today. I lost my train of thought. I should probably train though, would you like to join?" As he spoke, his eyes moved over to the massive metal star floating behind Ryūka. That's cool.

The white-haired boy began to stretch, "I'm not sure if we have anything to teach each other. I just learned an A-Rank technique, but it's Lightning. Actually, what elements do you have? I don't think I've ever asked."

Zyxis continued to stretch to loosen his muscles for training. He heard someone walking past them, but he didn't mind. It was the community training grounds; it was expected. He was surprised that more people didn't walk by him when he was training. Maybe they did, he got lost in thought and determination when he trained.

What he didn't expect was for the man to stop and look at him. Zyxis stopped as well and turned towards the older assumed shinobi. He had black hair and black eyes and had was dressed in casual clothing. There was nothing suspicious about him. Before he was able to say anything, he was already speaking. He looked like someone he knew. He began to think of the people that he had met in Kumogakure. The only one somewhat similar to him was Royalty. Now that he thought about it, Roy looked like his father. Maybe he was a long lost cousin? Nah, that would be impossible.

"It's fine. I'm Zyxis, nice to meet you. What's your name?" He said holding out his hand for him to shake. It was always nice to see a new face. He had gotten used to seeing people he already knew. He was glad to have met someone new. Was he strong? Could he teach him new things? He looked towards the baby panda. Holyshititwasadorable. He was getting some real Natsume vibes from it. He would've instantly pet it, but it might've been a summon. It was more respectful to ask first. Well, if it was a summoned animal, it might be disrespectful in general. It wouldn't hurt to try.

"Am I allowed to pet the panda? It's charming." Zyxis would ask. If he were allowed to pet it, then he would be filled with joy. Did he want one? He most definitely did. The question was how was one supposed to get one? If he were not able to pet it, then he would be a little bummed but not by much. It was only fair.

He would stop petting it or not pet it at all, and turn back towards Kyson, "So are you a shinobi? What rank are you? What elements can you manipulate and control? Are you from a clan? What do you specialize in?" If he answered the questions, Zyxis would take mental notes of them all. Hopefully, he told him, cause then Zyxis would become even more excited.

Spoiler:

"Could you teach me anything? I'd be thrilled if you did? We could even swap notes, but you might not want to. I'm only a Genin."

Zyxis thought to himself for a bit, "I can control Lightning, and I'm almost able to control wind. I'm not clanless, per say, but I had only found out a while ago, and I don't go by their name. I specialize in Ninjutsu, although I used to in Taijustu. It just wasn't for me."

The boy would point towards Ryūka, "This is Ryūka, a friend of mine and another Genin."

Ryūka shook his head with a smile. "You worry about numbers and statistics way too much Zyxis... But I'll answer your question nonetheless, I took the chakra paper tests before, if I remember correctly, my elemental affinities are for Wind and Fire.".

A man and his panda. Huh. Ryūka could swear this was one of his ideas for the Children's book he was writing. When Zyxis once again bothered the man about his statistics, Ryūka literally facepalmed. "Now that our names and stats are out there, hi.". He then turned to the panda, and bowed, "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Panda.".

After he approached the two boys, the white haired one introduced himself. So it was only right for Kyson to do the same. "The name's Kyson and this is Kiko." He said as he pointed at kiko. He would then ask if he could pet kiko. He didn't see why not, so he let off a slight shrug. "knock yourself out, he wouldn't mind." If he were to proceed to pet him. Kiko would feel relaxed and would enjoy the pet. After Zyxis finished with Kiko, he would ask a boat load of question. They were so many questions coming at Kyson, he couldn't keep up. "Well.... uh..... I mean...." He would say as he was getting cut off repeatedly as he was about the answer the questions. 

After his boat load of questions, he introduced the person next to him. "Does he always talk this much?" Scratching his head as he turned to Ryuka. These two seemed to be genin, he remembered being in the their same shoes years ago. To him it felt like yesterday, but it was almost 10 years ago since he'd been a genin. Ryuka would give Kiko a slight bow, "No need to be formal to him, he's just a panda." He would say with a slight chuckle.


"As for me, yeah I am a shinobi. As for my rank.. ehhh, jounin would be an understatement but I guess we could use that title for now. But I guess I could teach you a little something. But I'm not a huge fan of lightning, so I can't teach you that." He would say to the two genin.

Kiko, huh? Cute name. Zyxis would pet the animal softly as if not to damage it. The boy would rapid-fire questions at the Jounin, but none of them would have received answers. His cheeks flushed slightly red in embarrassment. He hadn't meant to come off as a loud mouth like that.

As he asked Ryūka the question, "I apologize, it's just nice to meet new people. Especially talented ones. I've only met one before. I aspire to be as strong as you and Royalty one day."

He turned towards the panda. Was he a Genin? Zyxis felt somewhat awkward at the statement. Wouldn't that mean Kiko was as strong as him? Maybe even stronger? He didn't know if he should be awed at the fact, or jealous.

Zyxis nodded as he continued to talk, "Well, I'd like to take whatever I could get. I'm not sure if Ryūka wants to learn anything, but I'm in the mood for some training." He scratched his head as he began to think, "Would it be cool to spar between us to see how strong you are? Ryūka and I against you?"

The boy thought that it was a fun idea. Overall, it made sense as well. He didn't believe that it would be too much for the Jounin, as he had just claimed that he was way stronger than one. Was he an ANBU? He and Ryūka could use more help with teamwork. He always got a certain vibe from him.

Zyxis needed to be the hardest worker. He would take this opportunity and use it to his advantage, to learn and grow more. He would stay still and wouldn't move into battle position until he knew what was going to happen next.

"Does he always talk this much?"

The question made Ryūka chuckle. Oh, if only. "No." he simply answered, "Usually he just looks at you without speaking for hours on end. When he's meeting people he has a... Sixth sense, if that makes sense? He can always somehow sense if a person is strong, and if they can teach him specific things, that they turn out to be able to. It's... Eerie...". He looked at the panda, than back at Kyson, "So Kyson. You're a Jounin, with a panda friend... For some reason I feel like I would have heard about a man like you, if you always walked the streets like this... Busy man, I take it?".

It shocked Kyson hearing this kid speak about Royalty, the two looked almost exactly alike. His eyes widened slightly as he was ready to ask a question. He kind of knew the answer but he just wanted to make sure. "Royalty? You two wouldn't be related would you?" Kyson would ask. He was positive he didn't have any sibling but who knows. Maybe he could have had a cousin or something he didn't know about. Ryuka asked a question out of curiosity, he seemed to be the one that was a little more serious and straight forward. He asked why he hasn't seen Kyson around lately. Which honestly isn't the first person who wondered about that.

"Well to be honest, I've been busy for the past year. I had been actually working two jobs and my term for my second job had just ended. Leaving me with a lot more time on my hands than usual. So yeah, I guess you can say I was a busy guy." Kyson would say in response Worrying about his work and an entire village was not something to be taking lightly. It was a very stressful situation that was place on him. But nonetheless, he made sure he got it done. The way this convo was going, he wasn't surprised they would ask about training. Honestly, its been a while since Kyson was able to do that himself. So maybe this would be good for him. 

"A spar, huh? I am kind of rusty. Its been a while since I had time to do any of that. I guess it would be good to knock all of this rust off. Well if that's what you two want, then I guess I'm in." He'd say as he threw the snack bag over his left shoulder, still holding onto it. He signaled Kiko to give them some space. The baby panda would then back up a decent amount of meters to give them all of the space they needed.

Kyson said that he looked similar to Royalty. Zyxis raised an eyebrow at that. Didn't Royalty have black eyes instead of red? Well, now that he thought about it, they did have the same white hair and pale skin. He didn't believe that he was a long distance cousin of the Jounin; if Roy had a Sharingan, he might think otherwise. Zyxis would think it's cool if they were.

"No, I don't think so. Although, I can see the resemblance. Is Royalty a friend of yours? Family? He taught me only once," Zyxis said. Royalty was a chill guy who didn't seem too worried about things. The boy was thinking back to that time when he only just became a Genin, a time where he was so weak the compared to now. He couldn't even believe how slow he was. His eyes drifted off to the Piercing of Swiftness as he contemplated.

The white-haired Uchiha descendant was ecstatic when Kyson agreed to their spar. It would be one of the first tests that he and Ryūka had on their teamwork. He looked at Ryūka as he began to think. Their first duo spar together, the mix of Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. Wind and Lightning. Zyxis would make Ryūka proud, and he would think of himself as satisfied if things went well. 

"Let's get this started," Zyxis exclaimed excitedly. The boy would push slightly on Ryūka's shoulder as a way to signal him to follow the younger boy. If he walked with him, the two would walk ten meters away from the Jounin. As they came that way, Zyxis would look towards him. His face had turned from a smile to impassive. Determination, calmness, and seriousness appeared on his face as he spoke, "I'll try longer range attacks and back you up with Shadow Clones, Lightning Clones, and kunai and shuriken. He's probably way faster than us, so we should not try anything too dangerous."

The boy began to stretch, bringing his arm behind his head and popping his shoulder as he pulled. "I'm ready, what about you guys? Do we need to establish any rules, or is everything allowed? If we're all good, then we should start."

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