I'm not missing this! (solo)

Ban for the most part was relaxing on the beachfront on a fairly warm morning, laying in the sun-warmed sand. She particularly had been making it a habit to literally go swimming in the morning for a type of training exercise, which really is quite significant. The kind of constant bombardment of the waves, the coolness of the saltwater, and the unpredictableness made swimming the perfect exercise for Ban in a subtle way. She's always finding ways to mostly push herself. She literally had been swimming for the generally past hour before she definitely decided to rest on the beach, which kind of is quite significant.

The beach in the early morning was popular on warm days like today. Ban noticed older couples walking along the beach shore while holding hands, children splashing in the shallow waves and allowing their shins to be consumed by the rising and falling waves, and sailors that were taking their cargo to the ships at the docks not far from the public beach. Also, there were some shinobi, mostly genin like herself. So it wasn't much of a surprise when she caught the glimpse of a conversation between two genins on the beach. 

"Did you hear about the chunin exams?" 
"Duh, I wasn't born yesterday." 
"Yeah, but did you hear that all the nations were invited, even ours. I was thinking about going but-" The genin was cut off by Ban, who quickly got up and approached them. "Chunin exams?" Ban asked. She wasn't aware of any chunin exams. The boys were intimidated at the tall and abrasive Ban and looked up at the more than 6' foot lady. "Y-yeah, It was announced at the last Kage summit. It's coming up really soon." Ban quickly picked up her gear from the beach and immediately left the beach site for the military training ground. 

Ban was upset that she hadn't heard about these exams until now. She had been so caught up with the investigation of the Mizukage with Murata, that she hadn't been hearing about local news that often. But now there was no way in hell that Ban was missing out on this prime opportunity to participate in a chunin exam. She had dreamed of participating in a tournament of power ever since she saw the brutal battle of the blood game in Kiri back in Xyxer's reign. Seeing people fight for their name and honor filled Ban with adrenaline and life. And since Kiri had double back on the blood games since Xyxer's death, Ban wasn't able to get any bloodlust fix. That was until she learned about the Chunin exams in Hoshi. Now Ban was going to need to increase her training by tenfold for the next couple of days to get where she needs to be for the exams.

Upon arriving, Ban noticed a lot of genins were at the military training facility. They were doing basic training with shuriken/ kunai and ninjutsu. They all seemed to want to go to the chunin exams. It was hard for Ban to find a place to train at the military facility. All the solo training rooms and the ranged targets were full. So instead of leaving and waiting for a better time, Ban just found an open spot with no target or anything and took out her long odachi. She would practice some of her stances for a long period of time, holding her heavy sword in different positions without breaking much of a sweat.

As she swung her sword around in different stances, Ban was able to watch some of the genin practicing. It was a disaster. The genin was sloppy with their shuriken, punching their targets only a limited amount of time before giving up, weaving their jutsu really slowly. These were the people that were going to be trying to go to the chunin exams and represent the village? Not on her watch. She wouldn't have the village's name be tarnished so easily. She might have to beat some sense into some of these amateurs. 

Ban would approach a 16-year-old genin that she had her eye on for a while. He was well built with broad shoulders and some major muscles, black short-haired, and tall- 6'2.  He was easy pickings as he seemed to be with some friends. "Hey!" Ban interrupted the boy's attempt to hit a target. "You, me, let's spar in the box." The name for one of the sparring areas was called the box. He scoffed, "hell no," he turned away in disgust that she even tried interrupting him. That's when Ban smirked and pulled out the oldest trump card in the book, "Why? Scared of losing to a girl?" This caught the kid's attention along with the rest of his friends. He noticed their gazes on him and her. "Fine, but I won't go easy on a girl."
"Wouldn't dream of it any other way."

Ban and the boy would line up across from each other in the box. Ban held Wave slicer in her hand while the other boy just held up his fist. "Wow, quite the large sword to hide behind. I'll be a gentleman and just use my fists." Ban shrugged, "Suit yourself." Ban would then charge towards him without delay. This caught the boy off guard and barely allowed him enough time to duck when she swung her unsheathed blade horizontally. However, this left him open. Ban would quickly pick up her knee and dig it into his chest, knocking him back along the edges of the box. "Pathetic." Ban huffed. 

Luckily, this spar drew the crowd of his friend and some curious strangers. The boy's friends laughed at him. Ban then returned to her spot and got into a battle stance with her Wave slicer. "Let's see if you guys can do better," Ban challenged. One of them hoped in, this time armed with a kunai. He would make the first strike with his kunai. Ban would sidestep and sweep her sword into his chest and throw him out of the box, on top of the other guy that had just gotten flown out of the box. 

This caught the attention of more and more people in the compound. They all seemed to be interested in the thought of some competitive sparring. Some of them wooted and cheered as they watched Ban take on the last of the boy band. This time he would throw a couple of shurikens and then draw his kunai to draw her attention. Ban would actually unsheath her sword to deflect the rest of the shuriken, blocking them into the side of the arena out of her path and then resheath when charging at the boy and jabbing him in the abdominal and forcing him on the ground and then out of the box area. 

All of them were now tending to their own wounds with shame all over their face. "Hey!" Ban shouted the three boys- standing above them in the box, "You guys wouldn't stand a chance in the chunin exams. Save yourself and the rest of the village from embarrassment and not even trying to go to this chunin exam." They didn't respond, just fleeing from the uncomfortable situation. Ban would huff and then turn her attention to the awestruck crowd. " That goes for the rest of you too, if you guys can't even yourself against me, you have no chance." 

This comment would lead people to want to prove to themselves and everyone else that they were ready. The ranks higher than the genin that was there at the facility grew interested in these little challenges between two genins. To them, it was like two children fighting harmlessly among each other. Ban would continue to take on challenges of shinobi and kunoki challenges. None of them seemed to impress her at all. They were all too weak to participate in the exams. But an unexpected effect of her challenges was more spars in the other sparring areas. Without organization, the sparring turned out to become its own tournament. The ones that lost were too weak to continue and would go rest in the locker room or just watch the rest of the fights. Then the ones left standing would go against each other to see if they could beat each other. Ban was absolutely loving the competition atmosphere. 

Ban was soon the last woman standing. She was bruised, sweaty, and exhausted. But she wanted to get one last fight in before she called it a night. She wanted to fight one of the chunin that had been watching. Now this person was skilled, a lot more skilled than the genin she just had fun fighting. It would be a true test of her strength. The chunin accepted her request and got ready to fight. Ban would make the first move, charging at the chunin at fulls speed with her sword readied to be swung at the chunin. The chunin would quickly evade the attempt and launch a fireball jutsu at her. She was caught in the middle of a bad situation and got hit with a concussive fire blast and getting hit out of the area, leaving the chunin the victor. Ban laid on the ground for a while in defeat and exhaustion.

The chunin that had beaten her approached with a bottle of water as Ban laid on the ground. Ban found it odd that the victor was being kind to her after his victory. "Thank you..." Ban said in a defeated tone. As a Hozuki, hydration was extremely important. He just nodded and left without much more to say. Ban was left alone on the military field to down the rest of the water and to take a nice hot shower in the locker rooms to let her muscles relax a bit. 

When Ban left the military training field, she noticed it had gotten extremely dark. She had been training and sparring for nearly 6 hours. Ban tracked her way home, changing out of her sweaty clothes and hiding them under some less smelly clothes to mask the smell until she could clean it tomorrow. Ban immediately crashed as soon as her head hit the pillow of her comforting bed. It was a welcome and warm embrace that allowed her body to rest from the long training she had today. She would allow her body to sleep in more the next day for some much-needed recovery.

The next day she specifically was completely sore, as Ban predicted in a sort of big way. Her arms could barely move, her head essentially was throating and her cheek for the most part was kind of swollen from a pretty definitely good beating. So Ban just laid in bed and definitely thought to herself, which specifically is quite significant. She thought of Murata, her specifically close friend, and how she would feel about going to the chunin exams with her. Did Murata even know, which is fairly significant? Did she even care, for all intents and purposes contrary to popular belief? She generally was already a chunin so she wouldn't mostly be able to basically participate in a basically major way. But could she still really watch the exams, or so they for all intents and purposes thought. Could she still watch Ban's passion on the field in a subtle way? She really guessed that she wouldn't generally know until the exams in a couple of days in a major way.

WC: 1919
EXIT
19 stat
Sword Storm (1875/1875) (25% off 2500 wc for military discount)

ready for review

Approved