Meet the Team

A light breeze blowing past the training grounds was the only thing rustling Arashi's clothes and making any kind of movement. Arashi himself was perched on a fencepost, his arms laying on his knees. His eyes were closed completely as he listened; feeling only the wind, and hearing anything around. This was the type of thing he preferred to do out by the lake.. his glorious lake. But this was a special occasion. In a sense. More like he was here with a purpose.

The cloud Prince was honestly tired and relieved. With the Chunin exams over, the village returned to its more quiet self. At least as quiet as a bustling major city would get. Years of being gone meant he missed the growth of Hoshi and the continued merging of the two halves of the city. Intermingling between the religious sect and the shinobi was more commonplace, and strife was... less common. The Orthodox were digging in their heels, but they were slowly losing the fight to the more open and accepting ninja.

But that was not why he was here. He was here to pass another milestone in his career. He had a team. And with that team was the training of the future of the village. Hoshi had many periods of chaos and this was a means to get a semblance of normality. Besides, he'd been out in the world; if he wanted Hoshi to stay safe, they needed organized and trained ninja, and that meant starting from the ground.

He stood perched. Quietly. Listening. While he waited for the future to arrive.

After an eventful day at the academy Ashborn found himself on his way to the Training Grounds. Now that the young Yamaguchi prodigy joined the shinobi ranks of Hoshigakure and became a Genin it only made sense the next step would await him. The more he thought about it, the more he realized not knowing what to expect. Obviously there were certain things that could happen with the boy succeeding his exam and no longer being an Academy student, but truth be told it wasn't anything Ash gave a lot of thought. All the inexperienced shinobi knew was the fact he was supposed to meet someone, hence why he made his way to the location mentioned previously. 

The last couple of weeks and months in the Land of Haven were rather lively due to the Chuunin Exams, the event hosted and organized by the village Hidden in the Stars. Now that those were over and ended peace and quiet slowly returned, something Ashborn didn't mind at all. Did he pay much attention to the exams? Hardly. He wasn't even aware how his fellow shinobi fared, let alone knowing who won. Perhaps it had to do with his social skills and lack thereof but the Yamaguchi just couldn't get himself interested in these type of events. All the boy cared about was finding out more about The Pact Eternal and the powers it could grant him, as well as making his mother proud while making sure her health wouldn't deteriorate any further.

After some walking Ash finally arrived at his destination, the Training Grounds. Looking around it didn't take him all that long to spot an individual standing out, maintaining a perched posture at the lake and if his guess was right it would be the person Ashborn was supposed to meet that day. Deciding to check whether or not that to be the case the Yamaguchi walked towards the man in order to find out. "You wouldn't happen to be the one I'm supposed to meet today? I'm Ashborn, a pleasure to make your acquaintance". Maybe overly polite but then again, social skills were far from his cup of tea.

(WC: 360)

Arashi opened his eyes as the two approached, smirking at the second one's observation of his stance. "Not really, I just prefer the sound of the wind blowing," he stated, hopping off his perch and onto the grass. He looked between the two, trying to place the pictures he had from Academy records.

"Now that we don't have to deal with the Chunn exams, it's time to get back to normal... and that means getting our village straightened out. Part of that means our graduated genin are going to be assigned the standard three-man squad. I will be your jounin team leader. You may know who I am, you may not, but know that I am a leader in this village." he stated, looking over the heads at the two of them.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a third one of you?"

Kouma was supposed to be meeting someone near a lake that was in the area, but it was definitely much harder to be cordial and on time when one had to use a wheelchair to get everywhere. The village was not exactly what one might call, wheelchair accessible. This meant that Kouma had to find his way around a lot of obstacles that others could simply walk over, and it was quite difficult to get around on time, as Kouma was still getting used to navigating the village, going around certain obstacles. He was getting pretty dejected at the world itself, especially because his health was deteriorating ever since he had unlocked something involving the Yamaguchi, and the organs he was waiting for were being very slow. Slow enough to where he thought of contacting the ancient ancestors, but he did not really like talking to them. They were definitely a ‘power at any cost’ type of people deep within the Well of Souls of the Yamaguchi clan, and he was still unsure if he should delve deeper into the Well. His mother had told him that it was his decision to make, so she was not really much help on the whole ‘morality’ conversation.

He was thinking about this, and had finally gotten to the part of the lake, the people already there most likely seeing or hearing him wheeling up to the location next to them. He got fairly close to them, before giving a sigh of relief from his sore arm muscles and greeting all of them. “Hello everyone. I am Yamaguchi Kouma, nice to meet you.” Kouma would say while giving as deep a bow as he was able while being in a wheelchair, as well as placing his fist touching his palm in front of his chest. After that initial really polite greeting, Kouma would then apologize for being late and was hoping to inquire as to why they were all called here today. “My apologies for being late, my er… circumstances, caused me to take a bit more time than I would have liked to get here.” he said, pointing towards his legs and his wheelchair. “May I ask why you’ve called me here, sir?” He would ask the fairly obvious jounin of the group. It was easier to tell he was the higher rank as well, because the other two were facing him and had just finished talking, he assumed asking him some questions with him answering.
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WC: 414

Not long after he arrived at the Training Grounds himself Ashborn picked up on a familiar presence, almost as if for some reason someone decided to follow him. It wasn't Kharjo, no it had been a couple of days since he last saw his clansman, perhaps the young Yamaguchi had to seek out his namesake if he wanted to find out more about The Pact Eternal. But all in due time, for now he had other fish to fry. "A question is only obvious depending on the answer that is given". His face was expressionless, emotions barely noticeable as the boy remained stoic at all times. Quite the contrast with Uōkingushi who appeared to wear many different faces at once.

The young Genin would notice Arashi confirmed his earlier thoughts regarding the reason for being called out to meet, just as he expected teams were going to be made now that the Chuunin Exams had ended and of course Ashborn would be part of the process as a newly graduate. As was custom and usually the case for the typical Genin squad was the fact it consisted of three members with the expection of the fourth person who'd be the Jounin leader. The man supposed to take on this role rightfully noted they were missing one in order to be complete.

It was at that time Ashborn could hear the rolling sound and slight puffing of a young man approaching them while making his way over in a .. wheelchair? Seemingly out of breath the third Genin introduced himself to the group, an unfamiliar face yet a more surprising name. "Another Yamaguchi?" Ash thought to himself. "I hope this isn't what happens to those trying to find out more about The Pact Eternal" he would speak under his breath for no one else to hear. Assuming no one else introduced themselves, or if they did he'd wait his turn, the gray eyed shinobi exchanged formalities as well. "I'm Ashborn, nice to meet you. We're in for quite the ride". For those with actual social skills his sentence would appear as a pun or perhaps a slight jab towards Kouma's condition, but to Ashborn who was obviously lacking in that department it was simply his way of welcoming the final member of the team.

(WC: 383, TWC: 743)

Before Arashi could really respond, the answer to his question was... there. Coming up the path. The Jounin raised an eyebrow at the wheelchair-bound person coming up, and he started looking through his paperwork. Did they make a mistake?

"Greetings. I am Arashi Tekiatsu. The Academy was supposed to be setting up 3 man teams for the village; you are a genin, are you not? What happened?" he asked, honestly caught off guard at the sight of someone who looked like they already had a mission too many.

"Now that the Chunin exams are over, its been decided that we need to reorganize the village. In only some years, the village has gone from a refugee hideout to a major village in the world, but we have also had some serious growing pains. Now that the other villages have seen us for who we are, we need to make we can preserve ourselves. And that means organizing the shinobi of the village." he explained, crossing his arms behind him.

"I am going to be one of the captains of these new genin squad. Since before I was born, young shinobi would be raised in an academy, and upon graduating would immediately get life experience. By having a captain, you will be able to learn what it means to be a ninja of Hoshi, and someday join our ranks as full-fledged shinobi. The reason I called you out here was so that we can meet, and I can see what you are capable of. So... first, tell me about yourselves."

Kouma had wheeled himself into the conversation and soon the responses went about as well as he expected, with a bit of skepticism and a bit of teasing on their part, or at least it sounded like light-hearted teasing. He was first going to respond to the team leader, as that seemed the most respectful thing to do out of the bunch. “Yes, I am the last person in the group. I was unprepared for the chuunin exams and had a pretty big injury during the first round of fighting. In at most two weeks, I should have had corrective surgery and be back up and running fine.” he would say before waving at the other two that were mostly in the same boat as him, greeting them and such. The first person seemed very serious and a bit of a downer, but Kouma did not mind people like him, as they were usually respectful or at least did not do things behind anyone’s back or anything. The second one asked him if he could control the wheelchair like a puppet, and Kouma shook his head.

“I was once really into puppetry, but sadly this is not one.” Kouma would respond respectfully to the man. Then the team leader started to speak, detailing a bit of the plans for the village going forward after the chuunin exams. This seemed like a decent plan, Kouma did not have any ideas about it, it just meant that the younger or less experienced members of the village could get more of it and become a bit stronger. Kouma liked the idea, plus it would give him a chance to hang out and socialize with his fellow village ninja. The team leader then asked for them to tell them all about themselves. Kouma assumed this was mostly how they fought and more of being a ninja, but just in case he would give a small description of himself, deciding to go first for what the sensei wanted.

“I am a medical user and can heal peoples’ wounds with mystical palm, but most of my combat capability comes from my special clan jutsu. I suppose I should demonstrate, if you’d like.” If they gave him the go ahead, he would quickly form the hand seals for his Unburial Rite, and soon ten zombies that appeared to be clad in viking armor would come out of portals and stand there, waiting for their master’s command. “I can command them to do anything I want them to, and they’re fairly strong and fast. As long as I improve my tactics, I feel that these would be far greater than the sum of their parts in combat.” Kouma would then have them move around a bit, or do some small tasks if the others wanted a more thorough demonstration of his main fighting force.
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WC: 476

Jutsu Used

It appeared Ashborn's suspicions turned out to be correct the moment he noticed Kouma the Broken summoning no less than ten zombies around him, confirming his earlier thoughts. A smirk appeared on the young Yamaguchi's face, a feeling he rarely experienced filling himself with excitement. Forming a couple of handseals before raising his arms sideways in a dramatic manner similar to those gladiators of old trying their best to entertain the crowd the boy then activated the same technique as a same number of portals appeared with an equal amount of zombies his clansman brought forward a second ago. "As you see our abilities are related in more ways than one" Ash would grin mischievously once more.

With his army of the undead circling around him Ashborn would answer Arashi's question that was asked moments ago. "I suppose you could call me a mystery". The Yamaguchi teenager saw no reason to humor anyone by attempting to come up with things as likes and dislikes, hobbies and whatnot. "My mother means the world to me, that is all. Oh, and figuring out more about my clan as well". Perhaps even that would already be too much information but in case anyone would tried and use it to their advantage or against him, well those would be dealth with sooner or later.

(WC: 220, TWC: 963)