Fighting with Fists!

Mission:

The Hyuuga was stocking shelves at his workplace. His clothing was his usual workplace attire. The dark haired man wore a nice set of crisp, ironed, white pants. The Hyuuga always made sure to iron his pants daily since, after all, his appearance was very important. Especially as a professional, he wanted to look, well, professional. Additionally, he wore his navy blue, quarter button shirt. Thankfully, he had recently bought a new one. He had been growing in size because of his increased training. Though, not so thankfully, he did have to buy that shirt. Why his company didn’t allow him to exchange his older, clean, pristine, shirt for a new one that was a size up was a mystery to him. It did serve as a nice bonus to the Hyuuga though, since he decided to send his old shirt home to his family. Nothing like a good bit of reuse to get value out of things. The Hyuuga finished off his outfit with a simple leather belt running through the belt loops of his pants, black crew length socks, and brown leather shoes. They were not his usual boots, but more of a dress style of shoe.

At the moment, the dark haired man was working in the sauce section of the grocery store. He put can after can of chunky tomato and garlic sauce on the shelves. This work, while boring and seeming meaningless, gave Amikiri a great sense of pride. The Hyuuga thought that, sometimes, simple, essential work was an undervalued job.

As Amikiri continued mindlessly stocking shelves, his boss came from around the corner. The Hyuuga hoped this was one of those positive work conversations and not a negative work conversation. His boss wasn’t particularly cruel or anything, just very rigid with the company's rules.

His boss approached Amikiri and, pulling it out of his pocket, handed Amikiri a letter. “This is for you. If this is gonna get you out of work today, I don’t want it to happen again.”

The Hyuuga started opening the letter and nodded along to the words spoken by his boss. After tearing the seal and unfolding the paper, Amikiri read it silently to himself.

The Hoshigakure Mission Department is requesting your presence at the academy. You have been tasked to help create and update the taijutsu training techniques of the academy. Your skill in these techniques has been recognized. Please show up an hour after noon. Do not be late, it will reflect poorly on yourself and you do not want to set a bad example for the academy students. You will be working with at least one other person.
-Hoshigakure Mission Department

The Hyuuga looked at his boss and quickly folded up the letter. The dark haired man glanced up at the clock before turning back to his boss and saying, “Yeahhh, so I kind of have to go right now.” Amikiri started walking backwards as he said this, finishing his earlier sentence by saying, “I promise it won’t happen again.” The dark haired man ran off, making his way to the requested location. Clearly the letter got to the Hyuuga later than it should have because when he got the letter it was only five minutes to one.

Amikiri weaved through the streets. While he wasn’t using his shinobi speed, he still managed to maintain a pretty fast pace. He weaved through market stalls, narrowly avoiding knocking things, and sometimes the occasional person, over. Unfortunately, Amikiri had not been to the academy in a while, so he was a bit lost on how to get there. He got to an intersection and, observing the area, decided to go the less traveled route. The Hyuuga could have picked between the two at random, but he believed indecisiveness was a sign of weakness.

Eventually, the Hyuuga managed to make it outside of the academy. Looking at a large nearby clock, the time read 12:58. With a couple minutes to spare, the Hyuuga tried to catch his breath before making his way inside the building. Looking at the outside of the building, it looked relatively inconspicuous. Amikiri assumed this was to prevent any hostilities from religious members to be targeted towards academy students. It was a very simple, limestone structure. The stonework was immaculate, with the surface appearing as if it had no cuts or grooves anywhere in it. There was a singular, well polished wooden door that was the entrance to the building.

WC: 746

Otoko had been training as a ninja for years, developing his skills in various martial arts and mastering the use of weaponry and ninjutsu. He had always been a dedicated student, eager to learn and improve his techniques so that he could one day become a master ninja himself. His ultimate goal being to one day join the Nova Corps of Hoshigakure which he felt would in turn mean he was a master ninja. The day started like any other, Otoko made his morning cup of coffee and sat out on his patio enjoying the morning sunrise. The sun started peeking over the landscape and kissing the rooftops of the village giving the village a rather warm orange glow. When he finished his cup he fixed himself a bowl of cereal and gulped it down quickly before heading out the door to run some errands for the day.

Otoko got himself dressed like any other day grabbing his hat to finish off his look for the day. When he opened the front door a letter, that had been wedged into the slot between the door and door jam, fell to the floor in front of him. He looked around the hall to see if the messenger was still nearby but he saw no one and couldn’t hear the sounds of footsteps scurrying off. He bent down and retrieved the letter from the floor scanning the envelope for any clues as to who it might be from or what it might be regarding. When he got to the front of the envelope the only indicator of who it came from was a note on the front stating it was from the desk of the Kage. Otoko’s eyes widened when he saw the note, “this must be my next mission assignment, I wonder what it’ll be this time!” Otoko walked over to his desk, closing the front door behind him. He reached over and grabbed his letter opener from the top of his desk and made a slit in the envelope so he could easily pull the letter out. He unfolded the letter and placed the opener back on top of his desk.

As he glanced over the letter he smiled and read the letter aloud to himself: "Otoko, you have been tasked to help create a training regimen for our ninja academy. We have been having problems with some of our younger students, and we need to find a better way to train them. We also need you to provide demonstrations that can be used to create visual learning tools and make sure that our students are learning the right techniques and that they're able to replicate them on their own. You will be participating in a Taijutsu Only Spar that will be recorded and shown to new students for inspiration. We want to show them what it means to be a true ninja, and I think you're the perfect person for the job. You have been assigned a teammate for this mission who you will meet at the academy entrance at 1’o’clock this afternoon. Please don’t be late."

Otoko felt a surge of excitement. A spar? This was something he had been looking forward to for a long time. He couldn't wait to show off his skills and inspire the younger generation of ninjas. He was not a taijutsu specialist however, and was worried that he wouldn’t be able to show the kiddos the best example of taijutsu skills. He shrugged his shoulders, “maybe whomever I am paired with will lead the showcase and Otoko could learn some things as well. Otoko looked at the clock, he had a few hours to kill before he needed to be at the academy and decided he would head over to the training grounds to warm up with some of his taijutsu drills and get limber. Otoko left his house feeling elated. This was an incredible opportunity, and he was determined to make the most of it. He headed quickly to the training grounds and started working by himself while he still had some time to spare.

After a few hours Otoko felt he had reached a good stopping point and wanted to make sure he gave himself enough time to make it to the academy in time. When he checked the time he realized there was a chance he would be late if he didn’t kick it into high gear. He quickly backed his things and bolted over to the academy and sprinted as quickly as he could. As he was arriving at the academy he saw Amikiri just ahead of him. He caught up to Amikiri and put his hand on his shoulder, “Hey Amikiri! What brings you to the Academy today? You wouldn’t happen to be here for a taijutsu spar session would you?” Otoko was hoping the answer would be yes as he knew the Hyuuga well enough and knew that Amikiri was an exceptional user of taijutsu. Otoko waited patiently for a reply from Amikiri.

[WC: 837]

The Hyuuga stood around for a few seconds, waiting for his teammates to show up. He managed to catch his breath before, noticing him in the corner, Otoko Senju. The man was wearing his typical cowboy hat, which always slightly amused the Hyuuga. It’s not like the Hyuuga’s didn’t also stick to a relatively similar appearance most of the time, but having a signature clothing item like a hat seemed quite amusing to the dark haired Hyuuga.

Amikiri felt and saw Otoko put his hand on his shoulder, with the Senju saying, “Hey Amikiri! What brings you to the Academy today? You wouldn’t happen to be here for a taijutsu spar session would you?”

The Hyuuga nodded and responded with, “Hey Otoko, what’s up? How have you been doing, man?”” Responding to the cowboy’s questions about his presence here, Amikiri said,“Well, I’m here for some work.” Pulling his letter out of his pocket, the Hyuuga continued by saying, “I’m just here for some simple Taijutsu work. Something about helping update the taijutsu training methods and program. And yes, I hear there is a spar involved in this assignment. From the looks of it, it sounds like you are here for a similar thing, am I correct?”

The dark haired Hyuuga would finish up his statements by saying, “Well, we’re supposed to be in there in about,” Amikiri quickly looked up at the clock, “one minute. And no one was ever hurt being a tad early, so why not head in right now?”

Amikiri would walk forward to the limestone building in front of them. Amikiri, even though he disagreed with the style of architecture, had to admire it. As he had observed early, the surface of the building appeared to be a singular perfectly smooth limestone slab. They either would have to move this massive block in one piece, probably from a quarry a good bit away, or have someone who clearly was a master mason work on this. Or, as Amikiri frequently forgot, which was ironic considering it was his elemental affinity, a powerful enough Earth Release user could do this. The dark haired Hyuuga was amazed at the thought of something like that. Right now he thought he was impressive for being capable of creating sword slashes that flew through the air and being able to reinforce his body with chakra. Maybe one day, he would finally learn the magic and secrets of ninjutsu and learn to channel his earth release.

Anyway, Amikiri looked at the door in front of him. It was a beautiful yellow pine, sanded, polished, and stained to perfection. He reached for the doorknob and, upon attempting to turn it, felt himself unable to. He tried a couple more times, still being unable to do so. The Hyuuga knew he wasn’t capable of some of the feats of strength he saw other shinobi perform, but he was still quite strong compared to your average person.

All of a sudden, in a flash, Amikiri remembered from his time in the academy all those years ago. He channeled a bit of chakra into his hand and this time, finally, he turned the doorknob and opened it. Amikiri walked through the doorway and after walking a bit inside so Otoko would have space if the Senju chose to follow him, he heard a loud bell dinging. Amikiri winked at Otoko, saying, “Always better to be a bit early than a bit late.”

Walking up to the front desk, Amikiri asked, “Excuse me. We,” pointing to himself and Otoko, “are here to update some training guides for taijutsu, as well as participate in a spar.”

The man behind the counter said, “Ah yes, that’ll be in room 103. Straight down the hallway and the third door on the left.” The Hyuuga nodded his thanks. At this point, Amikiri decided to let Otoko lead the way to the classroom and would follow along with whatever plans Otoko had in mind.

WC: 640 (all dialogue written by other players has been removed from this)
TWC: 1386/1800

Otoko smiled at Amikiri’s greeting and gave him a response, “I am doing well sir and a little better now knowing i’m doing this with someone i know. I was worried it would be some random shinobi that i had not met yet, but this puts me slightly at ease, especially since you are pretty familiar with taijutsu and specialize in it as well. As you know, while I can put up a good fight, taijutsu is not my specialty.” Otoko nodded in agreement at Amikir’s statement on being early and then followed behind him as they headed towards the ninja academy. He paused when they reached the entrance door and was slightly amused as he watched Amikiri struggle a bit with the door. After a moment Amikiri seemed to figure the door out and Otoko followed behind him through the door and up to the front desk. Otoko replied to Aimkiri’s winky statement, “couldn’t agree more!” He waved to the front desk attendant when Amikiri introduced them and gave a slight bow. As the man directed them down the hall to the correct room Otoko thanked the man and led the way to the room’s door. He opened the door for Amikiri and directed him through the door with a waving arm motion and then would follow behind closing the door behind them.

As they entered the room Otoko couldn’t help but be amazed at how large the room was. It was a two story room with viewing platforms on each side of the room which was essentially the entirety of the second story. There were multiple cameras set up on each side pointed down to the large tiled gym floor. At the back of the room on the first floor was a large stage that had about a foot rise compared to the main floor where a man was standing and motioning to a table to the left of the boys. “Put any unnecessary belongings there on the table and you can collect them when we are finished with the tutorial.” The man said to Otoko and Amikiri. Otoko walked over to where the table was positioned and began taking his vest and anything else that was loose fitting, leaving just his shirt, pants, and boots. Otoko turned to Amikiri, “since this is just for Taijutsu, I figure it's best to leave everything loose behind so they can make sure to see our movements clearly.” Otoko put his hat down on top of everything he had put down as he didn’t want the hat to cause interference with any of the angles. He looked back at Amikiri and smiled, let’s get this thing started shall we?”

Otoko headed over to the center of the gym and positioned himself to be facing the man with room to the left of him for Amikiri to join when he was done putting whatever he needed to, if anything, away. Whenever Amikiri took his spot the man would nod at them in approval, “Welcome and thank you for coming, I know you didn’t have much of a choice, but thank you nonetheless.” The man cleared his throat and approached the young men before continuing, “As you read in the letters I sent you, today you have been tasked to help create a training regimen for our ninja academy. We have been having problems with some of our younger students, and we need to find a better way to train them. In order to do that you will be fighting each other and we will create a visual learning tool to show our students. The goal is to make sure that our students are learning the right techniques and that they're able to replicate them on their own. We want them to understand what it means to be a true ninja, and I think you two will be perfect examples for this younger generation.” The man took a breath before continuing, “I appreciate you getting here on time but without further ado, let the show begin! Please feel free to fight however you see it, i don’t want anything choreographed or pre-planned. This spar should just be as natural as it can be, i would only ask that you use different methods of attacking to showcase different methods of attacking and defending. The floor is yours, have it!”

With that the man turned and headed back to stage taking a seat in a chair against the back of the stage. Otoko turned to Amikiri and waited for him to turn as well before bowing and getting in a fighting stance. Otoko smiled, “You being the specialist, feel free to take the lead here, I will follow as best as I can.” Otoko would do his best to keep up with Amikiri but knew he was probably no match to Amikiri in this realm, he just hoped Amikiri might go a little easy on him and not make him look too bad to the other younger students. This would be good for Otoko though, he knew he had an opportunity to learn a lot from Amikiri and would probably go back to feeling like a student again getting his butt whipped by an older kid. Otoko typically stepped in against bullies when they were picking on the younger weaker kids and more often than took a decent beating. While this was a completely different situation and Amikiri wasn’t a bully, he couldn't help but put himself back in that place. He had no doubt though that this spar would turn out similarly to those fights back then. Otoko would put up a good show and give it his all, but Amikiri would definitely prove to be a lot to deal with 1 on 1 in a taijutsu only situation. When they were done with the spar Otoko would bow to Amikiri and the man who proctored the spar. He would gather his things and head home for the day head held high, because even though he was bested he learned a lot today.

EXIT
[WC: 1009]
[TWC: 1846/1800]

Claims:

The two men made their way down the hallway, ready to participate in this matchup. Otoko opened the door for the Hyuuga and, graciously, indicated with a small wave of his hand for Amikiri to enter. Amikiri nodded at the Senju and stepped into the room, with Otoko following shortly thereafter.

The room in front of them was truly impressive. While Amikiri thought this might have simply been a quick spar with a few teachers watching and maybe helping a couple teachers learning some basic or even slightly more advanced techniques, what he saw in front of him was truly the opposite. A very brightly lit room, which Amikiri had to briefly shut his eyes thanks to, was extremely large and was about two floors tall. Viewing balconies lined the area, with many shinobi of all ages watching. Additionally, many cameras peppered the walls. There was a table off to the side where the dark haired Hyuuga was told to put anything he wouldn’t need.

Amikiri moved forward further into the room, to the table. He wore his work uniform, but was currently wearing a flannel over it. The Hyuuga quickly removed the flannel and then started to get work on removing his ninja tools. He quickly glanced over at Otoko who, just like Amikiri, seemed to carry quite a lot of gear with him. Amikiri started emptying his pockets, removing everything. That included his five shuriken, five kunai, two smoke bombs, two explosive tags, 2 heart shaped candies, and his pair of sealing bands.

Looking around the room more, Amikiri noticed a stage. It was elevated off the ground and the Hyuuga quickly realized it was for the purpose of demonstrations. The ground seemed to be made of a material with more friction than the wood. Amikiri started to make his way towards the stage, before stopping dead in his tracks.

By this point Otoko had made it up on stage and the Hyuuga said, “Oops, forgot something. Sorry about that.” Amikiri, using a bit of chakra, took off his armor. Even though he had crafted and bought his new armor, Steel Fortress, a few days ago, it was far too out of the ordinary to wear with him. That was why in his normal attire, included now, he had his Nise bonded to his clothes. The Hyuuga quickly removed it, separating the chakra bond between the armor and himself. Nise quickly seemingly vanished, before reforming itself into a small cube no more than one inch in each of its dimensions. He jogged back to the table to place it down before returning to the stage.

The Hyuuga said, “Once again, sorry about that.” The proctor started to give some directions and then soon enough, the fight was on. Amikiri smiled and nodded at Otoko, before quickly letting his face return to a serious nature.

Amikiri let Otoko take the lead. While Otoko could likely assess Amikiri’s skill with Taijutsu thanks to the Byakugan’s less than subtle natural appearance, Amikiri was left wondering how well Otoko could perform in a taijutsu battle.

Otoko started to come at Amikiri, with Amikiri deciding to dodge. The Hyuuga quickly analyzed the Senju’s form. Otoko was quite fast, but unfortunately not at the Hyuuga’s level at speed. But what Amikiri knew would give him the upper hand was Otoko’s style of fighting. Otoko was, as mentioned prior, certainly fast, but lacked the ability to channel it into his strikes. The Senju relied on his strength to fight which, after a short observation, Amikiri realized their strength levels were quite similar. Amikiri decided to start fighting back, but partially to get some practice in, with his strength. The two were roughly evenly matched, but thanks to Amikiri’s speed, he started to gain an edge. After noticing the instructor’s slight boredom, he decided to instead of using his strength, channel his speed into his strikes. He became much faster and stronger, his blows becoming much more effective. Soon enough, Amikiri gained the upper hand on Otoko and the fight ended. Otoko ended with a bow and Amikiri gave a simple nod. Living in the countryside, Amikiri had never known too much about the traditions of the ninja world and all the bowing.

After Otoko left but before the instructors left, Amikiri would show them some higher level taijutsu techniques such as Gentle Palm: Vacuum Burst, Gentle Palm: Dominion, and Gentle Palm: Vacuum Burst. After that wrapped up, the Hyuuga noted the time, grabbed his stuff, and headed back home.

WC: 754
TWC: 2140/1800

[Exit]

Claims:

Approved