Ikari in the quarry

"One! Two! Three! Four!"

Ikari was pumped, so damn pumped. Every rep was pushed harder then the one before it. The village had a lot to help their citizens, but there was a huge lack of a weight room, so he made one for himself. He found himself a small quarry off of the training grounds that he would spend hours and hours in a row, focusing on his strength. Lifting rocks, trees, whatever he would be able to physically move on his own. 

Today was leg day, and you bet your ass he wouldn't miss it for the world. He had a small tree thrown over his shoulders squatting the day away. Repetition after repetition, the veins on his forehead began popping off of his skull. He was feeling it today, he felt like he could do no wrong in his makeshift weight room. 

When he finished with the weight lifting part of his workout, it was time for his cardio. Today he was going to go for fifty laps around the village before the sun set, a reachable goal, if he got his ass in gear. Sweat already covering his entire body, he took a minute to enjoy the hot sun as it burned his skin. Taking a deep breath in, he put his fingers through his crimson red hair. Finally he got into his ready position, he was ready to destroy his body, so that it would rebuild, only stronger.

"And..........GO!" Ikari took off, step after step, he would get closer and closer to his goal. Wrapping around the village that first time, he was noticing that there was more people within the training grounds. Kumo had a ton of active shinobi which was good for most, but he didn't really care to strike up a conversation with any of them. He just figured it would be far too much trouble, dragging himself away from his training. 

Wrapping around the village the twentieth time, he noticed that his pace was far to slow if he was going to reach his goal to go another thirty times before the sun set. He dug deep and he pushed his body harder, striking the ground harder with each step, trying to claw his way to getting just a little farther with each step. 

He hit the fortieth lap and the sun had already set. Disappointed, he yelled out to the sky. Frustrated that he failed, he decided that his punishment was to go back to the rocks and work his legs a third time that day. He walked over to the rocks in the quarry, he watched as the sun was beginning to fully dip behind the mountain range that sat to the West. The mountains surrounded the whole village, but the Western range was by far the most beautiful in Ikari's opinion. 

WC:473

Coming from a long grub session at the best Ramen bar in town Ray was in all honesty on his way home to sleep on a few pounds. Fat always could serve as a natural shield, if used right. A few extra pounds wouldn't hurt as well, seeing that Ray himself looked rather poor size-wise due to how tall he was. As he walked along the sidewalk, a strange feeling suddenly overlapped him. Causing him to stop dead in his tracks, his face showed a sudden sign of concern, caught up in his thoughts as he couldn't quite grasp if what he felt was merely an illusion or reality. A sharp pain coursed the length of his abdomen, seeming to pierce flesh at first before the Uchiha grabs the end of his shirt, lifting it as he examines his stomach. Nothing was there, no signs of a wound or anything. This was all in his head, proven by the fact that the feeling came and left within seconds. "What an odd feeling..." he thought, caught within a daze as he wonders the true cause of such a random sensation. Having a sixth sense was something that was only talked about, rarely experienced with compelling evidence to back the claims. It was a short-lived moment, as as he lowered his shirt back down, Rayul seemed to forget the encounter almost instantly as he continued along the road.


Reaching halfway to his home, he began to pass by the training grounds of Kumogakure once more. He's been here a couple of times, hell, who hasn't? It's a wonderful place for anyone to study, train, or both, provided that they don't mind kunai flying past their faces during their stay. Reaching an opening that stretched far enough to display a good amount of the training grounds, he looked around noticing all the promising shinobi practicing their skills. One person caught his eye: A rather sturdy built man who was nearly as tall as Rayul himself, hair as yellow as the sun as he punched and kicked and fought the air with sweat drenching his entire body. Surely he had to have been going at it for quite some time, an indicator being how wet the guy's body seemed to be as the sun glistened on his skin. No telling what type of training this guy put himself through, in all honesty. He was fucking jacked. The definition of a body-builder if anyone was to ask Rayul. He'd shit fucking bricks if this guy was any younger than him, looking as if he'd have a wife and 3 kids the way he both carried himself physically and seemingly mentally, given by the way he seemed to have lots of discipline. Ray wanted to meet this man, someone who he never seems throughout the village before, to get a sense of what was going on. Maybe the guy himself could use a training partner since nobody seemed to be joining him.

As Rayul got closer, he noticed another bystander seeming to approach the man. It was the man Rayul met earlier the week. The one who stood in front of Ghost the day he found Ghost half dead. "No fucking way." Rayul thought at first, watching the short 'kid' get closer to the hulk-of-a-man alone in the training grounds. he begins thinking back to the day he rescued Ghost, not knowing at first what was truly going on until he took Ghost to the hospital, learning that his brother was clearly in the wrong. He had threatened whoever this was over seemingly nothing, only driven by the previous rage of not knowing that Ghost had done to wind up nearly dead. Ghost had played rogue has he learned, giving whoever this guy was every right to defend himself and the village against what seemed to be a rogue ninja. He owed someone an apology, not just for them but for himself as well. He acted on impulse back then, not fully knowing was going on before such accusations were made. The universe was giving him his opportunity to make it right, as it seemed he was in the right place at the right time. Picking up his pace, he starts to jog over to them both, hoping his presence wouldn't cause a shift in the general atmosphere. "Hey!" Rayul says as he becomes just a few meters behind the guy. He stops as he doesn't want to get too close since this man might see close distance as hostility. Taking his hands from his pockets, he brushes off his clothes as he begins his introduction, hoping to catch the attention of one of the two. "I guess this guy training his ass off caught both our attention, but you gained mines fully. I'm sure you remember who I am, probably on bad terms, but luckily I'm here to hopefully change that. I'm Rayul Tunechi, Genin of Kumogakure. We first met back when I saw you and my brother Ghost engaged in an altercation it seemed. Had no fucking idea he had chosen to play Missing Ninja on you and whoever, which is why I threw around angry threats so freely. That shit he did wasn't right, man. Hope there aren't any hard feelings behind what I said. Was only acting on what I had seen at the time."

[WC: 893]

Ikari, still frustrated with his failure to reach his goal of fifty laps was heading over to his makeshift weight room when someone walked up to him, a small figure by the looks of it. Didn't seem to be that strong, or too much to look at when looking at the surface. "What is under that surface of yours? Or are you really just a scrawny runt of a child?" Ikari thought to himself. When the figure got within speaking distance, he had asked Ikari if he had been running all day. Saying that his legs must be mush after completing such a high level of intensity in a training session. What the child didn't know was that Ikari had actually failed his actual goal of fifty laps. 

"I have been actually, I was going for fifty laps. But my ass only reached forty four." He wasn't sure if that was the right amount of laps that he completed, either way it wasn't fifty... damn it. "Actually my body is pretty used to this level of training. I'm actually heading over to the quarry just off of the training grounds to get some weight lifting done. We don't have an actual weight room around here, so I just use to the big rocks instead." Ikari thought to himself for a split second. "What about you? You workin out or just coming to sight-see?" Ikari then noticed another figure coming up to them. 

The two newcomers to the training grounds seemed to know each other, how he didn't know, or really care. But he was interested in the story that the second walk up was telling. Someone "posing" to be a missing ninja in the strongest village on the continent and actually attacking other citizens of the village? Bad plan, while he was sure that he knew the outcome of that little plan of his, he figured he would add a little to the conversation, what little he could contribute. "Someone posing to be a Missing Ninja in the middle of the village? That plan was not very well thought out, especially in this village, bastards are hard here. What ended up happening to him?" Ikari would wait for the answer from the newcomer. He realized that nobody had actually provided their names or anything of the sort, but eh, shit's overrated anyway.

WC:392

Katsu blanched at the boy man things words. He quickly exclaimed “50 laps! Damn you don’t do things small do you?” Neither he nor his brother were ones to shirk off work, but that was a level of intensity neither had really shown. That being said, every once in awhile Katsu would find Masaru off training on his own, so that he could try and best his brother.

Masaru stepped up behind Katsu a moment later, exciting his brothers shadow. He wasn’t sure if the boy had actually noticed him but it didn’t really matter either way. “Still 44 laps is nothing to sneeze at. I am sure you can make it next time.” He gave an encouraging nod, though something told him this boy wasn’t looking for encouragement and hit words were neither wanted nor needed. Still, it seemed like the polite thing to say.

Katsu had no idea anyone came to the quarry to lift weights and the idea of doing so had never crossed his mind. Still it did make a kind of sense. Heck if you grabbed a pickaxe and did some real quarry work you might even be able to get a paycheck out of it. It would certainly give you a heck of a workout, and the general up and down motion of swinging the pickaxe likely led to some stellar back muscles.  He might actually have to give it a try some time. Still, he hadn’t come out here for training, this day had been all about unwinding, and getting away from reality for a day. “Sight seeing I suppose. Had a rough few days and just wanted to get out of the house. Still you caught our eye and curiosity led us here.” Masaru nodded along to his brother's response.

The boys turned as they heard a somewhat familiar voice. They couldn’t place it immediately, but upon seeing Rayul, it came back to them. The frenzied struggle with an unknown assailant, their first true fight. Adrenaline shot through them, as they looked at him even though he wasn’t doing anything threatening. Masaru immediately stepped closer to Katsu, ready to merge with his brother if a fight was coming, Katsu on the other hand, unconsciously stepped back slightly, his arms coming up in a semblance of a defensive stance.

It took the boys a moment to really take in Rayul’s words. The angry man that had appeared before them that day wasn’t shouting at them, or attacking them. He was talking calmly, and while he hadn’t actually apologized, they got the sense that he was trying to make amends. While neither boy could fully trust that he wasn’t still angry, they could see it from his point of view. Had either of them come across their brother in that state, they certainly wouldn’t have handled it any better. Honestly, they didn’t even know if they would have been level headed enough to simply grab their brother and run, instead of lashing out with more than words at the presumed attacker.

Katsu relaxed slightly, standing up a bit straighter, no longer looking like he was about to receive a blow. “Hi.” He waved a bit awkwardly. “Nice to meet you under better circumstances, I am Katsu, and this is my brother Masaru.” He gestured in his brother’s direction. “It was an unfortunate event to be sure. We had no idea he was a Kumogakure shinobi until a briefing that night. To say the least we were confused as hell when you appeared and took him away.”

Masaru then spoke up, “Honestly even after the meeting we were still a bit confused, but now that we know the full story, I don’t think either of us would have acted any differently than you did if we had arrived at the end of that fight.” At this point they heard the large boy interject a question. Neither could disagree with his statement about it being a bad plan though they didn't feel it necessary to say so. It only seemed right that the twins answered since they had been at the very center of it. He turned to him, “Long story short, the two of us and another female genin had just met when someone attacked us out of nowhere. The attacker insinuated that he was there to kill us and we couldn’t see him as he used a jutsu to hide himself. In the chaos that ensued we defended ourselves and Ghost nearly died.” Katsu put his hand on Masaru’s shoulder, “It was a regrettable outcome.” His last words were directed at Masaru though the other two would still be able to hear him, “You did nothing wrong.”

[WC 783]
[TWC 1389]

Claiming 893 WC EXIT for death

Ikari acknowledged both of the fellow Kumo ninjas with a nod and told them that he was going to go back to training in the quarry. If either of them ever wanted to fight or train, preferably the first one, then they could most likely find him there. He would then leave the conversation and walked over to the quarry for some training.

WC:63
TWC:928 

Claims: +9 stats

+928 towards Earth Element (928/4000)

Approved.