Big Training in Little Mist Village [I/O]

After he explained what he had wanted to the girl Saya, she started to explain some things to him. At first she started speaking about fairly random topics, but at least they sort of pertained to taijutsu, such as Pinocchio working on taijutsu and weaponry training, and her fighting a taijutsu user and it not going very well. Hiroyuki thought about that, and noticed that she was alive and did not seem to have any overt or major wounds or disabilities, so there was probably nothing to worry about, and he even felt like consoling her a bit, as it seemed that her face soured a bit when she thought about that time. Hiroyuki did not really understand what she had gone through when fighting that person, but it seemed to bring up a couple of bad memories, and so Hiroyuki could only offer a couple of words to her, as he did not know how to cheer other people up. He thought about his mom, and how she would cheer up whenever she would rub his ears, and so he decided to do that, everyone liked fluffy things, right. So, Hiroyuki decided to lean forward a bit before explaining. 

“You can pet my ears… that always seems to cheer my mom up.” he would innocently say while leaning forward as if offering his ears towards her. His ears were indeed fluffy, and they felt really nice to pet, although if he knew that people were treating him like they would treat a pet cat, he was unsure about what he would do with that information, all he knew was that he would be unhappy about it. Soon, whether or not the girl pet his ears or not, she would shake her head and get out of the funk she had been feeling, before explaining some things that she knew about taijutsu. She first explained the basics she knew, saying that the range requirement to get close to their target was the big weakness, which was true for most people, and that ninjutsu was her main combat aspect. She then explained the different ranges she liked to fight at, as well as where she would mess up if she let a taijutsu user get a little too close to her. Hiroyuki did not mind this explanation, he had heard it all before from his mother, but his mother opened up his mind to different possibilities while fighting, and a different way to fight as opposed to most people. 

Well, most people who practiced taijutsu, anyway. Her idea was to actually keep a distance from the long range users, even though almost all of the damage one of them could deal was up close, that did not quite matter. The distance between targets did not really matter at slightly longer ranges, as the taijutsu user could avoid most things at a distance, especially projectiles. For the more tricky jutsu that would suddenly just pop up near them, she had a special style that she was in the middle of teaching Hiroyuki, which was a way to manipulate force, which could be used to defeat and destroy anything that he came across. His mother was a fierce beast, but her fighting style when she actually wanted to fight a dangerous opponent was anything but brutal and fierce, and was simply a way to dodge, evade, and divert the attacking force of an opponent to tire them out or force their various options. 

After understanding a bit about your opponent, it was fairly easy to get a little closer at a time, slowly whittling down their ability to fight by exhausting these options, before attempting something with stored momentum. Hiroyuki did not understand it yet, and was busy practicing another powerful taijutsu his mother taught him about, as she said he was not quite ready enough fo4r the official style of their family. Hiroyuki wondered exactly what to tell Saya about, as she had asked what sort of fighting style he adopted, and he supposed that he should just tell her the basics of his style currently. He thought about what sort of fighting style he would adopt if he had to fight someone right now, and it would still be a wait and see type of style, evading for a while before inevitably countering. Most taijutsu users get overzealous in trying to just sprint at people that they would easily make mistakes. 

“My style of fighting is more a watch and see type, where I wait for my opponent to make mistakes before trying to get them for it.” he said, trying to articulate the words with his slightly limited vocabulary. He was still learning, so most people would give him a pass on that. She also said that someone threw a punch from range, and he knew of certain ways to compress the air with the force of a punch, and that it was a way that taijutsu users could slightly bridge the gap, but there was still not a whole lot that one could do with things like ninjutsu and puppetry dominating the long distance fighting area. He also wanted to clarify something for her before he let her speak again, so he quickly chimed in. “Also, I don’t have too many actual techniques, I’m still really new in my training.” He wanted to make sure she knew that he only really had his body at the moment.
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WC: 908

Well. This day just took a turn. On one hand, there was absolutely nothing Saya would like more in the entire world than to pet this boy's ears. If there was one thing you could say she loved more than anything else it would be mappo tofu, HOWEVER if we take her addiction to the shop by her home out of the picture, the one thing she loved more than anything else was cute things. The bulk of her energy in a given day was focused solely on figuring out how to become more adorable! Still this seemed like... A trap? a faux pas? She wasn't sure. She shifted, but didn't actually reach out, her gaze glancing back to her sister. 

Rolling her eyes, Ai would reach forward, giving Hiro a small skirtch behind the ears. This was one of the first times the puppet had ever actually touched someone other than Saya, and it would be apparent that while her body didn't hold warmth like a person's, her body had been made to feel so close to a regular persons asside from this fact, that it could make a person  question if she wasn't actually alive. The body heat thing ruined it pretty easily though. She was still working on how to do that without lighting her on fire... Rest in piece Ai v1-56. 

"Ah. So you're reactionary? I would say thats how we fight too. Pinochio is more of a push and don't give up ground type of fighter last I checked, but My sister and I are definitely more inclined to react to what our  opponent does and try to take advantage of their mistakes. " She could clearly see flashes of her past encounters in her mind as she explained. She'd never been the agressor in combat. It was either her  reacting to support Daiko, or her answering a random attack thrown at her in self defense. It fit with her ninja way. If she had the option, she'd never have gotten into those fights. The spars were fine, but she hated the idea of real combat. If she fought someone seriously she would need to commit to taking their life before they take hers. If you kill a killer, you become the killer and the number of killers can never become zero. Well. There are sorta ways but at that point it starts to get really messy. 

"No worries! I remember when I was just starting out too. I worked really hard, and now I'd like to think i'm kinda powerful! You just gotta train one thing at a time untl you have the tools you need to protect yourself and those you care for yanno? Actually. Pinochio and my sister are just starting off too, so I bet yall can learn the basics together some time. What techniques have you learned so far? I'm really interested in what taijutsu can do. Honestly I've only ever seen like one actual taijutsu maneuver, and it was trying to kill me so I didn't really get a chance to study it's effects very effectively. " 

(TWC 3082)

As Hiroyuki was waiting for the head pats that he wanted to use to cheer up the woman in front of him, it seemed like nothing was happening, until he felt a hand on his ears that gave him a good scratch. Getting scratched behind his ears always felt good, and it seemed to give the other people some joy too, so it was his go to when cheering people up, it was essentially a win-win situation for everyone involved. He did not really notice that the hand that was scratching him had no warmth, as it was really difficult to tell the warmth of things that were simply scratching you, as she was not really exerting any pressure or anything. He noticed a bit, but people had bad circulation, and other things, so he had no real cause to question it either. He simply enjoyed the scratches and mewled a bit before it was over and he went back to looking at her, and he noticed that it was the girl Ai that was scratching him, but Saya seemed to be out of her funk regardless, so it was okay. 

She then went on to start talking about her also being reactionary, and saying that Pinochio was a person that was more of a type to rush someone and not give up any ground, while the two of them in front of him reacted to what their opponents did, taking advantages of any mistakes they may make. That was also how Hiroyuki was taught, and currently he was still learning the basics of his mother’s fighting style, but before he could learn anything substantial, he needed to temper his body completely. This required a very grueling process, but his mother said he was one of the most talented and swift learners in the art of taijutsu that she had ever seen, and he loved the praises from his mother, so it was a great feeling for him to make his mother proud. “Oh I see. Yeah, my mom taught me to let my opponent make mistakes first and try to get them after, as people always make mistakes. You just need to make mistakes that are less exploitable.” Hiroyuki said, as if reading off a script. 

It was apparent that his mother had said this to him many times, and so it was drilled into his brain, even though his vocabulary was still evolving. He had to look up the word exploitable a few times to make sure he knew exactly what it meant before he started repeating what his mother had said to him. She then went on to comfort Hiroyuki about any lack of power he might be feeling, and said that she worked hard to become powerful. She wanted to have tools to protect those you care about, which perfectly aligned with Hiroyuki’s feeling of wanting to become a protector ninja, so he was a bit starry eyed listening to Saya. She then said that her sister and Pinochio were learning the basics too and they could learn together. “Oh, that will be fun! Tell them I’m willing to whenever they want and I’m not busy.” She then asked what sort of techniques he had learned so far, and Hiroyuki sort of rubbed the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed. 

“Oh, I only know a single technique right now, as my mother wanted me to wait until my foundation was stable before I started training her special style. I can currently open the Heavenly Gates in my body, but only up to the second one.” Hiroyuki said as if that feat was pretty worthless. Most people did not even know how to open any of the gates, and the second one a ten years old was pretty amazing. However, with someone as powerful as his mother to compare oneself to, it kept him very humble. “If you don’t know, they just make me really strong for a little while, but after my whole body hurts a bit.” Again, it was a bit of an understatement about how damaged one’s body became, but he did something like that everyday with training, so he was downplaying it without really realizing it. 
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WC: 705

"That is quite a fair method of combat. Saya kind of does the same, but I should try to focus less on what my little sister does. I suppose that would be my style as well. I tend to react fairly well to things as a front line ninjutsu specialist. Taijutsu or weaponry users have a tendency to push the advantage against those who don't generally fight in close range, but I've found tricks that allow me to turn that around. My puppetry skills struggle against high strength targets, but any mid to long range fighter who has specialized tools for close range combat i've found can use the element of surprise to dispatch of threats fairly quickly. " This was a true statement, but what she'd failed to add was the main basis for this style. It wasn't so much that they'd chosen to specialize in reactive combat. Instead team puppets ideals meant that they preffered not to throw the first punch. Reactive fighters are never the agressor, and it allowed them to feel out the situation to see if they can resolve it without actually having to come to blows. Unfortunately that hasn't exactly saved any lives yet as many of their serious combatants were very committed to the task of ignoring rational discussion and trying to end their lives.

She thought about the style her team had developed. She held an incredibly important role as a puppet, but now she was the pupeteer. Would she follow the same patern? It didn't seem right to simply borrow her sister's puppets, but did she really have the flare to create her own works of art to fight with?

"Well of course! I'm sure he'll be glad to have a friend to work with, and it sounds like you two have alot in common!" Their prefference of fists to ninja magic was a similarity between Pinoch and Hiro, but that was where their fighting styles differed. Pinochio was always the first one to want to rush their enemy. That was probably partially because of his rank as a puppet, and his need to prove he could hang with the rest of the group though. How much of his intensity now stemmed from them leaving him out of combat because saya had made more powerful puppets? She would need to have a long convorsation one of these days with him to figure out if his disappearance was a direct response to their own actions.

"Huh. Yanno, I heard Pupnochio being filled in on Pinoch's training and I think he's learning the same technique. He's been struggling with the first gate last I'd heard though. He said something about having to focus his resolve and punch more trees so we just left him with a forrest to knock down..... He did it surprisingly quickly honestly." What could she say, the boy loved to punch things really really hard. Ai's position in her group was such that she found her opinions often in the centerpoint between pinochio and Sayas. As she interacted with people, she noticed even her stories weren't really her own. Was she meant to be a background character? That would be quite the awkward situation, given she'd just taken the spotlight from Saya who stood right beside her quietly listening.

(TWC 3631)

Hiroyuki listened intently, much like a model student would listen to their teacher. He was learning a lot, even if these talks and conversations with Saya and Ai were not quite lessons. There was quite a bit to be learned from someone’s experiences simply laid out for you to interpret yourself. Hiroyuki was nodding along to what Ai was saying, thinking about their ideas of reactive fighting being really similar even though they seemed to have opposite specializations and ways of fighting. It was interesting to get the breadth of experience that comes with someone actually able to go around and experience life. She also talked about using the element of surprise to quickly take down threats as well, and this was also something that his mother spoke about a bit, but always said that sneak attacks are a tool that the weak use against the strong to try and even the odds. She also said that he should be strong, and not have to use anything like sneak attacks, but Hiroyuki did not think that was what she was talking about. 

“When you mean element of surprise, do you mean a sneak attack? Or simply catching someone off guard?” Hiroyuki wanted clarification, but regardless of what she said, he would not think any less of her for it, just wanted to know her perspective. After this, it was talking about Pinochio and he having quite a lot in common, and Hiroyuki nodded. He wondered if Pinochio would really be willing to teach him, as the small man seemed a bit haughty and self important in his opinion, and was only walking around like a teacher to fuel his own ego. Hiroyuki did not have too bad of an opinion about him, there was nothing really wrong with having a lot of confidence in oneself, but it seemed that Pinochio could not see his own mistakes as mistakes, which meant it would be really difficult to get him to correct them, which also meant that his teaching standard might be a bit worse than others.

She then talked about how the small man said that he was having a hard time with the gates and solved the crisis by going and punching trees. Hiroyuki simply wore a cute confused face at this, as the gates were somewhat of an inner power that you have to summon forth from the depths of your fighting spirit, and he wondered if someone’s fighting spirit could really be boiled down to punching things really hard. “He just… punched trees a lot and got the hang of the Heavenly Gates? That seems strange.” Hiroyuki said, thinking that it was really weird, and that there must be something else to it, but he would probably be wrong in that regard if Pinochio was as Saya had described him. After this small conversation, it seemed that there were only a couple more questions that Hiroyuki had in his mind, before he wanted to leave and simply digest this through some meditation and physical training in his own room he had booked. 

“So, miss Saya and miss Ai, I do have a couple more questions before I go to my room to train. I know this might be a bit ‘wrong’ but would you have any opinions on how a melee fighter would get close to a distance fighter like you?” Hiroyuki would ask with some innocence, although he knew and hinted at it being a bit wrong to essentially ask someone what their weakness was, but this particular weakness was not something that would be too much of a secret eventually, he just wanted a head start to see if he could start developing a way to get closer to people.
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WC: 624

"Oh! Sorry. I mean... Kind of both. So, My blood has special power. I have access to an element of incredible power and some of it's effects can come as quite the surprise for people who assume they hold the advantage in close ranged combat. " In emphasis, she'd allowe mokuton chakra to flow from the secondary point on her spine up her body to pool in her solar. She raised a hand, and a small pink flower seemed to bloom from the skin on her wrist, petals opening up to set against her flesh like a tatoo.

"I suppose it would be more in line with catching someone off guard, but If needed I can conjure Wood style vines that work incredibly well against taijutsu fighters. They can also be used to quickly remove me from a situation that looks too bad. It's surprisingly hard to describe, i'm realizing." In emphasis, three vines stretched out from the flower on her wrist, snaking down to touch the ground to her left. at mental command the three wood style whips curled upward and twisted about each other to give example of the control she held. "So basically, If Im in trouble against a close range fighter, I use these. They have two arms, I have six vines so their advantage gets shifted pretty quickly. "

The second question actually kind of caught her off guard. She hadn't even thought to question the explaination when she heard pinochio explaining to pupnochio. HAD he really learned to use the technique by punching things really hard? It seemed possible, even if only by virtue of her having zero clue qhat a heavenly gates is. She'd just assumed it was a really hard puch. "Uh. That's what he said? We don't really train together. He's been off doing his own thing now that he has autonomy. I think he feels like he needs to prove that he can stand on his own two feet or he'll be stuck in my shadow, but he doesn't realize we're a team. My power is his power."

"that is a very difficult question to answer Hiro. In theory, the answer is speed and mobility. In theory, You just need the ability get out of whatever techniquest the ninjutsu user throws at you as you close distance, but that is much easier said than done. My little sister is unique in her bloodline techniques, of course, so I would assume other ninjutsu users would be easier, but uh. I guess the big thing to recognize is when you can and cannot advance. If you rush strait at your opponent and they have a large scale area of effect technique you risk walking directly into it and not being able to get out. I would bet that having ability to manipulate space time would help though. I've heard that they can teleport themselves with jutsu. " how WOULD a close ranged fighter close the distance? Ideally for them, they wouldn't. There were so many different tricks that a mid to long ranged jutsu based fighter could use to trap someone just trying to punch...

(TWc 4151)

Hiroyuki watched and waited, his tail swishing back and forth, as he was listening to the explanation of what Saya meant when she said to catch people off guard and capitalize on their mistakes. She explained that she had a bloodline ability, otherwise known as a Kekkei Genkai. These strange and wonderful skills that a lot of people were born with that gave them some extra powers when it came to the ninja world. There was something to be said about the strong clans that had something of that nature, Hiroyuki knew of the Uchiha and the Hyuuga. They were the most predominant ones that he could think of off the top of his head, as their eyes had become famous for their prowess across all of the ninja world. Hiroyuki had no idea what they did, but he would learn later probably, there were plenty of Uchiha and Hyuuga in the village, currently. The other one that he knew was the Senju, but he was still really young and did not ask about what they could do. He just knew they were famous and their clan always produced powerful ninja. 

She said that her element gave her an advantage in close combat, and it seemed that a lot of the usual ninjutsu users did not have such a great advantage, and they were pretty weak up close. His mother told him never to believe something like that, because ninjutsu users had a large amount of tools that could be used up close, and so you always had to be on guard against things of that nature. Hiroyuki nodded to her as she finished, making sure to watch her as she grew flowers on her arm, and gave a big ooh. “Oh, they’re so pretty!” Hiroyuki could not help but say as he gazed at the pretty pink flowers that were stretching around her arm. She then stumbled on her words a bit as she described a couple of ways she could use her powers to take on some close range taijutsu fighters, but he assumed it applied to all close range fighters, as she said right after.  She then showed that she could conjure vines and other close ranged wood style techniques, or wood adjacent techniques.

“Oh I see, those seem really useful, especially if they’re really strong.” Hiroyuki said while touching the vine, as he could not help himself from doing it. Playing with the vine a bit as a cat would play with a piece of string, he also made sure to note that he should simply treat everyone close range as a threat, as even if they appeared to be weak up close, they most likely had some sort of option up close, at least if they were somewhat competent. He nodded along to his own thought as Saya started answering his second question, which was a strange response, as it seemed that they did not train together, and that Pinochio used to be fake or something, Hiroyuki did not really understand what she was saying, but he new that Pinochio was training to become stronger so that he did not have to rely on her anymore, but she said that they were a team, essentially forever. Hiroyuki aww’d a bit at the sentiment, before waiting for her to answer his third and final question. This was something important, as he wanted another person’s views on this, or technically, he wanted as many viewpoints on this as possible on the subject.

He trusted his mother implicitly, but there was still something to be found in taking a bunch of viewpoints and seeing what people thought about a subject you were interested in. As he was listening to her, he realized that the question was a lot harder than he really thought, as he was asking someone to pretend to have experience in something that they did not have any in, and so it was really difficult or near impossible to provide any in depth analysis, but what she did say pleased Hiroyuki to an extent. She started speaking about the main crux of the issue, when and how to advance. It was a pretty simple thing to learn when to retreat, but you had to constantly pick and choose your battles when it came to advancing towards your opponent, and this was a point of contention with the people he had asked before. He knew that it was risky to run at people because they could have some form of large area attack that would make it impossible or really difficult to actually dodge it, and so there was nothing really you could do unless you knew how to maneuver around. She then talked about some form of space time techniques to help people teleport around, but Hiroyuki did not bother with any of that, as that was not his path of the ninja. 

Hiroyuki nodded again, and thought for a bit, his ears twitching as they did when he was in deep thought, before he suddenly came out of it with a couple of ideas he would love to put into practice. This required him to immediately start with physical training though, which meant that he would have to say goodbye top his two wonderful elder sisters he had met. “It was great talking with you guys, thanks a lot for the help, even if it was just talking. I should get to my room, I want to try some things and digest what I’ve learnt here today by talking to you. Thanks a lot Saya-oneechan and Ai-oneechan!” Hiroyuki would finish with calling the two his elder sisters, before giving them both a hug and heading off into his own room to start his training, waving to the sisters as he headed out of their line of sight and the door to his own room closed. He looked at the wonderful beach front he had and the training weights, and put them on before the real virtual reality simulation started. 
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EXIT
WC: 1005
TWC: 5901
Using 25% training facility discount
Claiming 76 Strength
Claiming 2 Speed
Using 1875 words for Taijutsu Amplifier
Using 1875 words for Tsuri-Goshi
Using 750 for Leaf Rising Wind
Using 375 for Feint
Using 375 for Leaf Whirlwind
Using 651 towards Front Lotus, 651/1125

Approved

"they are definitely beautiful, but their effect is--well. I mean. I guess the effect is also beautiful BUT also very strong. I can summon up to six of these vines, each moving at my command for a variety of uses. It's like the foo dog heads--that's a jutsu I used when I was still learning. It's a bunch of puppy faced staues that like. Can come out of the ground to defend me. I've been working on some much more powerful stuff lately. " She was excited to talk about her creations. While it felt a bit like bragging, She'd been working to break the understood limits of ninjutsu, and found incredibly feats of strength in the power of her blood. Some, like her ability to create clones so lifelike that they could go as they pleased, was held to those she already trusted, but things like this she was excited to talk about. Unfortunately, the difference between their heritage would make it so she couldn't pass this power on to the tiny taijutsu user.

She abosolutely needed to talk with pinochio soon. This boy seemed like the perfect training partner for him. While she couldn't actually help him with much--given the difference in their skillsets, Together he and pinochio could hopefully learn to hone their bodies and weapons to deadly power. She smilled as the boy began to play with her fines. She swished and flicked the small wood construct about to give him a challenge, though she'd match the speed he moved. The speed and power provided by her chakra was incredible, but not quite so useful when the goal wasn't to outspeed your foe. It would just be rude.

"YES! Hopefully we can meet up again and do missions or something. If you're ever wanting my help with something, or just want to talk you can always find me somewhere in the village. Just listen out for music. I'm often putting on performances throughout the village so that I can brighten the lives of the village and keep up my skills. One day, I'm going to be the premier cosplaying performer of the ninja world, and people will pay tons of money just to get me to travel to their village so that they can hear my music! Right now I've just kinda got my puppet that is also a stage and the band I keep on retainer though. It's good enough. " Both girls would smile brightly at the title. They'd managed to make a new friend, and more than that, they'd gained information they hadn't had before. Even with the difference in their power, Hiro had so much he could teach and show team puppet. maybe one day she'd use a bit of his teachings to increase her puppets taijutsu efficiency. Pinochio would have loved that.

She headed out of the training facility. Her puppets followed behind, as they walked in silence down winding streets to where a certain vendor kept shop. Mappo tofu in hand, team puppet would call it a day and break for lunch!

(TWC 4661 putting it all towards kanzeon lotus embrace(4661/5k exit and topic closed!)

Approved.