A Shadow in the Clouds! (IO)

Kumogakure was quiet today as the clouds sway with the wind, cascading across the bright blue sky as they painted a perfect day. A familiar young man standing in the center of what appeared to be a massive circular pad on the peak of one of Kumogakure’s many mountains, the distance to the edges about 15 meters in each direction making the diameter a total of 30 meters. Stairs located to the north ascending to a higher ground and to the south to descend from the mountain and return to the inner portion of the village. The wind from the west causing the long blackened hair of the young man to dance across his face and back, he was facing to the north himself. His general blueish attire and stone cold eyes were sported like always, it was another day of training for him and Asuma intended to prove his worth as an Uchiha somehow. His stance was normal, feet were shoulder width apart and hands at his hips though merely hanging there and not supported on his hips. He took a deep breath for but a moment before exhaling slowly and getting a feel for his chakra and his physical body for the day.

The sun had reached its peak for the day, this signifying the time as midday. Asuma extended his right hand about chest height in front of him merely a foot, his palm facing himself as he began to gaze into his palm. Chakra flowing to it as he decided to do a little review to himself on chakra control, this was a basic training style that helped many genin and weaker learn to maintain and control the use of their own chakra’s. Though unaware to Asuma, he would not be alone in his training for long.

(301 Words)

“One hundred and five, one hundred and six, one hundred and seven....” 

Ikari’s time in the quarry was beginning to pay off, every day he went into the quarry, the rocks were getting bigger and the reps were getting more and more numerous. The rock he was currently squatting with was 10 meters tall and seven meters wide. Ikari’s legs looked as though they were becoming pillars of pure muscle and that was exactly what he was looking for. After his two hundredth rep, he heard several people talking about a different training grounds that stood above the very clouds themselves. Ikari was never one to really care about where he trained as long as he could grow in his strength and in his skill, but he figured the view would be something not wanted to be missed. 

Ikari tossed the rock off of his shoulders and he jumped up and down, cooling his legs back down from that intense workout. He walked into the training grounds and began walking up the steps, blown away that he had actually never went up the steps before. These steps would make one hell of a leg workout that’s for sure. He decided that he was going to get in a superset of a leg workout and sprint up the steps as fast as he possibly could. He got himself into a readied stance, he counted down from five and launched his body up the steps, each step he would hit it harder than the one before. Half way up the steps, his body began to grow tired. He couldn’t get his body to keep going, it was almost like it was fighting his mind from pushing even harder. 

Ikari’s anger swelled in his mind, he hated it when his body wouldn’t allow his mind to take control and push his body to new heights. His chakra began pulsating out of his body. His eyes burned with the intensity of the sun and his hair seemed to be burning like fire, each lock of hair flowing and whipping around like a blazing inferno. His body finally let go of the fight and his mind controlled his body once again. He practically flew up the steps until he finally made it to the top. His legs felt like a machine. Each muscle on his legs begin more defined than ever before. 

He leaped out of excitement when he reached the top. His chakra still swirling around his body with a crimson glow, eyes and hair still the same, burning like an inferno. He then looked around and he saw the twins that he had been seeing  around the village quite often lately. The one that could morph together and create or vanish certain parts of his body. He was interesting to say the least. He walked up to the twins and he saw there was another figure standing before them. He was not much to look at, almost as small as the twins were. He walked up to both and asked with the same excitement that he had when he cleared the steps. “Who wants to fight?!” Ikari had both of his hands in fists and he was in his fighting stance. He was ready for a fight and he wanted to test the meddle of the new guy that he had yet to meet.

WC:561

Asuma really hadn’t been paying much attention to the world around as he focused on his palm, the chakra gathering in the center invisible to the eye though he himself could feel it. He had collected and focused it into the central point and began to raise it’s concentration, though in an instant the chakra dispersed back into his internal reservoir when he heard a voice that distracted him. Asuma’s face began to show distaste before the twins had even fully arrived, the familiar sound of his gritting teeth ‘Tsk’ as he heard them grow closer. Truthfully he didn’t mind them too much, but at the same time he couldn’t stand their behavior and mannerisms. He lowered his hand down around his waist as before, though he never turned to face Katsu and Masaru upon their united arrival. He even heard the sly remark about being grumpy, which didn’t help him in unfurrowing his brow. He continued to listen upon hearing the comment of ‘breaking’ Asuma come from Katsu, to which he looked back at the two over his left shoulder tilting his shoulders ever so slightly to expose the left side of his face as he looked at the two with aggravation in his eyes.

Asuma responded to the ‘standing in the wind’ comment with his usual detached and cold voice, though this time his aggravation present spoke “Are you two simply here to annoy me or perhaps you intend to do something else?” Asuma turned around in the midst of his sentence to fully face the twins, however at this point his eyes shifted to the newest addition who came up the stairs in a hurry of his own. Asuma sighed, another high strung guy with too much energy til deal with. Though he had a decent idea, Asuma could tell Katsu had become stronger he just seemed to radiate a bit of improvement since the last time he had seen him. “A spar would be a good use of our time, seeing as there are four of us.” his cold voice would reach out to the other standing in front of him. He began to look at this newcomer as he had never seen him before, he generally hated people who were this hyper so it would not be long and Asuma would most likely grow to distaste this man as well as others. Asuma began to wonder if he was the only person in this village with his kind of personality, everyone else was so high strung and optimistic it seemed and most had no strength to back it up.

(434 Words)
(735 Words Total)

Claims: 5 stats 

+561 towards Mind's Eye of the Kagura (972/2500) (Previous Progress)

Approved @Ikari