Training in Solitude

[Feral]

One of Kusagakure's various training grounds was occupied by a single feminine figure, vigorously running laps around its perimeter. The girl appeared to be around fourteen years of age, barely a teenager, yet the way she held herself showed that she was as confident as a seasoned Kunoichi; it was painfully obvious, though, that she was a Genin, what with all the noise she was making. Between the pitter-patter of her untrained feet upon the hard packed earth and the way her clothing rustled as she moved showed that she had yet to master the art of maneuvering like a shinobi. As a recently graduated Genin, Raiba Ousatsu did not possess the ingrained skill of moving silently even when she did not have to.

After the fourteenth lap, the girl slowed to a jog. Her breathing was heavy, but even, and she did not feel any tiredness in her limbs; running was something she was born to do. To her, it was second nature, and she rarely ever experienced exhaustion due to the action. Soon, she was walking the fifteenth lap, her pulse returning to its normal pace. Ousatsu paused under the shade of a towering tree, drinking sparingly from her water-bottle; one did not chug water after a run or they would end up with a tummy-ache.

After the bottle was drained of its contents, she crushed it and tossed it down by her backpack and over-clothing. In favor of training, she had removed her black and red long sleeved shirt and slitted skirt. That left the girl in her metal mesh undershirt and biker shorts. The Genin swiped the sweat beading upon her forehead away with the back of one gloved hand, muttering a small prayer to whatever heavenly deity out there made the early morning weather tolerable; if there was one thing Ousatsu could not stand, it was a hot day.

After her short break, she began her yoga stretches. Her limber body slid and contorted into all sorts of positions, her breathing coming out slow and even as she aligned her chakras; this was a very basic meditation technique her aunt had taught her one afternoon when she was still in the Academy. Ousatsu had to admit that it did help her concentrate. The girl let her mind wander briefly to the other Academy graduates, and wondered what had become of them.
I'll go check the Mission's Desk today..after all, I can only rise through the ranks by completing tasks and showing my worth to the village...

[Nickito]

Kagami Taihen stood on the outskirts of the training ground in her shoulder-baring grey shirt, tight, midnight black shorts and deep red poncho. She had never been one for Taijutsu training, and her Ninjutsu skills were lacking sligbtly as well, so she had made her way to the training area with the intention of working out and growing even a little bit stronger than she already was. Her skills and talents had always lied in that which could be perceived only by the mind. Illusions. Genjutsu.

For some time now, it had been her goal to strengthen her body as she had strengthened her mind, and improve her skills in the area of Ninjutsu as she had in Genjutsu, but upon coming within sight of the training field she felt discouraged. Perhaps she was fated to be a user of only Genjutsu. She wasn't fast or strong, and she didn't feel that there was much she could do to change that. She also had a sort of fear of getting close to anyone or anything hostile, as it came with the chance of being wounded. She liked a challenge as much as the next person, but there was little she could do to defend herself in such a situation.

The fact that another girl, clearly athletic and built well, was already present and going through what Kagami would consider a rigorous routine didn't help her maintain the desire either. She ran, she jogged, she walked. And of course there were the stretches and contortions that the illusionist could never even dream about doing lest she hurt herself in her sleep. Just watching made the kunoichi sweat, so with a slow wipe of her hand she removed the moisture from her brow.

From what Kagami could tell, this girl was the exact opposite of her: strong, fast and agile in body. Though Kagami possessed these traits in terms of the mind, at the moment she didn't feel that that mattered at all. Most people only cared about what was considered true strength, something that would let you win a fight and turn the tides of a battle, or even a war. It was all well and good to be smart and cunning, but a ninja needed a healthy balance of body and mind, and of course the spirit that it took to be a shinobi. Kagami had but two out of three, but the thought of it sparked her desire once more. Somehow, she would get stronger. Just like the girl before her.

The young woman stepped forward, out from behind a cluster of trees and bushes that surrounded the field. She walked onto the dirt and earth that composed the floor of the field and made a conscious effort of stepping lightly and carefully so as to avoid getting dirt in her sandals or on her legs. Kagami disliked dirt and being dirty above almost anything else, after all. She opened her mouth to speak to the girl that was already present, stopping and standing tall with her arms beside her.

"Wow. You seem really strong. I bet you train a lot, huh?"

[Feral]

Ousatsu had been so deep in thought that Kagami's approach had gone completely unnoticed. With a startled yelp, the girl jumped and turned to face the other Genin, her body tensed in a rigid fighting stance. Only upon noticing the forehead protector baring the intricate symbol of Kusagakure did the dark haired girl allow herself to relax..and could not help but to stand just a little taller at Kagami's words.

"While I do train my body often...I wouldn't say I was stronger than any other Genin. There are several ways to be strong,"
Ousatsu studied the girl for a moment. The red poncho covered most of the girl's torso, so she could not really tell for sure what kind of physique she had. All of a sudden, she was very self-conscious of her own lack of coverage; while she had a build to be proud of, she did not enjoy exposing the way her dark fishnet undershirt and biker shorts clung to her body. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she dipped her head to Kagami.

"My name's Ousatsu. Raiba Ousatsu. What's yours?"
She offered a small smile to the girl she did not know, though the pale pallor of her skin and the deep crimson of her eyes were familiar to the dark-haired Genin. Perhaps they graduated the same year, and were just in different classrooms?
"And, if you'd like, you could join me. I was just finishing up my calisthenics, if you want to spar with me or compare moves, or something?"
Don't forget to check the Mission's desk today...you'll regret it. her inner-voice singsonged.

[Nickito]

The kunoichi stepped back slightly at the yelp that came from within the other girl's throat and smiled apologetically at her, though the rigidness her body took on and the stance that she entered unsettled her slightly. She hadn't come searching for a fight at all, but when the other seemingly calmed, Kagami breathed a small sigh of relief. She must have seen the village headband tied around her neck with dark cloth. Kagami reached up to touch it, the most valuable possession she had in the world.

"I guess that's true. Physical strength isn't the only kind of strength there is."

Blinking several times, Kagami took another several steps forward and looked at the items that were discarded on the ground. A crushed bottle of water, a backpack and what the girl assumed was the rest of the other kunoichi's clothing. She felt some sort of relief that the other didn't walk around as she appeared all the time, and she could tell by the way she covered herself with her arms that she must have begun to feel under-dressed. With a gentle bow of her head, Kagami spoke.

"I'm Kagami. Kagami Taihen. It's nice to meet you, Ousatsu. And sure, I guess I could join you. I'm not usually all that physical, so I might slow you down, but if you don't mind going a little slow..."

Her head had raised up and her chin now stuck out ever-so-slightly. She placed her satchel down on the ground near where Ousatsu's things were and began to pull her poncho off of her body. Rather than throwing it carelessly, she folded it up as best she could and placed it down on her pack, but chose to keep her headband around her neck. After her things were put down and secure, she stepped away from them and approached a nearby stump that had several "limbs" and a bulls-eye on it. Turning to Ousatsu, she smiled shyly and signaled that she was ready when she was.

[Feral]

"Nice to meet you, Kagami-chan," The dark haired Genin bowed to the other, her quicksilver depths boring into the other's crimson ones. The two were so different in appearance, it was almost laughable. Where Kagami is petite and pale and dressed to impress, Ousatsu is toned and sun-kissed and currently lacking in over-clothing; Kagami's deep auburn hair was quite the contrast to Ousatsu's ebony tresses. While the silver eyed girl was scarred from previous events and dirty due to training, the pale kunoichi was free of any blemishes.

"Nonsense! The purpose of any kind of training to is go slow at first to get the hang of it, and then build yourself up from there. My Aunt and Uncle are both retired shinobi, so I've been doing this longer than most," Ousatsu grinned reassuringly at Kagami, exposing her unnaturally pointed incisors. She walked up and stood beside the girl, glancing at her out of the corner of her eye. They were both standing in front of a humanoid target, wooden and decorated with bulls-eyes of various sizes.

"We'll start with doing what i call Pyramid Drills. This is a good way to practice your basic punches and train your body for physical activity," Ousatsu spread her legs until they were about a shoulder-width apart, and exhaled. She brought her hands level to her cheekbones and made them into fists. The Genin glanced at Kagami again to make sure she was following.
"First, we'll punch the dummy twenty times in what would be the torso slash abdominal region. She demonstrated.
"Then, we'll do one push-up," The dark haired kunoichi dropped down and performed a single push-up.
"When we come up, we'll do nineteen punches and two push-ups, then eighteen punches and three push-ups, and continue until we are at zero punches and twenty push-ups," Ousatsu turned her head slightly to look at Kagami, her eyes questioning. "Are you ready?"

[Nickito]

The kunoichi nodded her head in understanding as Ousatsu reassured her. Though she did a lot of drills and things while in the Academy, she had never committed to them wholeheartedly, so there was still a touch of reservedness on Kagami's part. Perhaps the reason she had never gotten exceedingly strong and toned was because of that reluctance to fully commit. Maybe the whole problem had been her. Maybe she had somehow stood in her own way. Maybe now that she had met Ousatsu, she'd be able to change somehow.

"Yea, that's true. Nobody's the best at something until they work at it at least a little bit. That's how it was for me and Genjutsu. The first illusion I ever created was pretty bad. The colors of everything kept bleeding together -- and that was only when I actually could add the color in at various spots. Most of the time I could only do black and white until I practiced it."

Before that admission she hadn't even told Ousatsu what her skills actually were. Kagami was sure that she had noticed her lack of color and tone, so she could only imagine what her first thoughts had been. Hopefully the fact that her talents lied in all that was the opposite of real and physical would make her look at Kagami as anything other than weak. Like she had said before, there were different kinds of strengths. Kagami was strong -- just not physically.

She stood ready, and though the explanation of the pyramid drills seemed overwhelming, Kagami swallowed her nerves and beat away her apprehension. If she didn't try to do them, she would never know if she was actually capable of doing them or not. She couldn't possibly be as weak as she made herself out to be, could she? Even if she was, working with Ousatsu was her only chance to change any of that in the least, and so she threw her first punch at the dummy, right where Ousatsu had instructed.

She pulled the hand back and looked at it, trying to ignore and accept the pain at the same time. She had put her full force into the strike, and though it hadn't been much, her hand was still delicate to the point that the force had made her skin red and irritated. With a brief look towards Ousatsu, Kagami bit her lip and scowled, but instead of giving up, she continue. She three another strike with her opposite hand, and another and another, alternating fists each time until she had throw a total of 20. She dropped to the ground and pushed herself back up, completing the first set, though not without difficulty.

By the end, her fists were the color of her poncho and they were throbbing with an intensity that she had never experience before. She also found that her shirt had become dirty from her brief time on the ground, and her forehead was drenched with sweat, as was some of her hair. Kagami took her shaky hands and attempted to brush the dirt off of her, and she wiped her face with her forearm, but left her hair alone. She hadn't even noticed the sweat that clung to it, but she likely would later on.

"That was harder than I thought it would be, and that was just the first set... Does it get any easier?"

[Feral]

Ousatsu had done this drill so many times that twenty and twenty was easy for her; in reality, the pyramid drills she did normally were higher in number, but she started at the basic twenty in order to encourage Kagami. The dark haired Genin put her full force behind her strikes, and her chest touched the hard-packed earth when she lowered herself into a push-up. At the end of the drill, there was a light film of sweat covering her entire body; her breathing was heavy, but even, and there was blood running down the index and middle knuckles of both hands.

The want to impress Kagami made her punch harder than she normally would during this drill, and broke through the thick calluses upon her seasoned knuckles. Fresh smudges of her blood were added to the already stained targets, and she felt her chest swell with pride at the throbbing of her fists; as she clenched them, more blood ran down her fingers and she shuddered, getting a sick sort of pleasure from the pain.

Ousatsu turned to look at her shaky companion, and grinned again.
"Good work! Honestly, I thought you would have to take a break after the first ten, but you powered right through that. You've earned my respect!" It was hidden praise, but praise nonetheless.

Perhaps...she and I will be friends..?

Surprisingly, the kunoichi found herself wishing for that with all her might. Ousatsu was a normally a loner and did not fit in too well with the others in her class due to her opinionated and impulsive nature. She was a trouble-maker by trade, a Hell-raiser by profession, and did not fit into the others' norms. But here, here was a girl who also did not seem to fit in, but approached her and was willing to train with her.

In the Ousatsu's opinion, that was cool.

"Gen-jutsu, eh? That would be cool to learn. Aunt and Uncle didn't really know too much about it except how to escape one...so my experience is pretty limited. I'm pretty good at Nin-jutsu, though. My release is Raiton!" The pride was obvious in Ousatsu's voice. She was not a natural born citizen of Kusagakure, and the fact that she held some sort of characteristic from her birthplace of Kumogakure (besides her appearance, of course) was just another step closer she felt to the parents she had never known.

"I also train pretty hard at Tai-jutsu because it goes hand in hand with Nin-jutsu. If I'm going to increase my rank and chakra levels, my body has to be able to keep up," She shot Kagami her infamous grin once more, exposing her pointed incisors.

[Nickito]

'She's incredible... So much stronger than I am. It's almost inspiring.'

Ousatsu was clearly more into the exercise than Kagami was. She hit the dummies so much harder, and she moved so much quicker. And despite all of that, she was barely sweating, covered with only a small layer of moisture. Her hand was bleeding too, and she seemed to barely even notice it. Kagami would have thought that a strike hard enough to draw blood would hurt, but Ousatsu seemed to welcome it, despite the almost undetectable shudder than Kagami was able to pick up on.

She felt a strange combination of emotions at her new friend's remark, consisting of slight insult, pride and relief. Though she took the remark as something of an insult about her level of skills despite her own personal feelings about them, she took it as a challenge; she loved when people underestimated her because it only made her want to prove them wrong. The pride came from the backwards compliment that had been afforded her. Ousatsu was incredible, and Kagami was glad to have impressed her. Deep down, she was sure the girl meant no offense. The relief came from her knowing that she had actually done it. Despite her frail appearance and view of herself, she had some physical strength hidden after all.

"I actually think I'm gonna take that break now."

After the words left her mouth, she placed her back against the stump and allowed her legs to slowly bend, sliding down to the ground until she was firmly upon it. She stretched her legs forward and laid her arms by her sides, allowing her ribcage to rise and fall, taking into her lungs the fresh, delicious oxygen and expelling the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. She could feel the fatigue building in her arms, and she knew that soon enough she'd bee walking around with lead in her arms.

"Raiton? That's Lightning Release, right? I've never met somebody with that ability. You must be able to do a lot of cool stuff with it."

Kagami smiled up at Ousatsu briefly before resting her head back on the stump and closing her eyes. She was tired and wired at the same time, and her body wasn't sure what to do about it, seeing as the kunoichi had never felt such a conflict within herself. She couldn't help but wonder how Ousatsu managed to do it all, but then she realized that that must be where her strength lay. Every person really did have a different kind of strength within them, they just had to find it, bring it out and nurture it into something special.

[Feral]

"I actually think I'm going to take that break now,"

Ousatsu couldn't help but laugh at Kagami's words. She really liked this girl; she was not afraid to tell it like it is, and did not waste any effort in pretending that she was not feeling the burn. Kagami knew when her body needed to rest.

"A break sounds good. I'll get you some water," Ousatsu walked towards her little haphazard pile of stuff and rummaged through her backpack for a few moments before procuring two unopened plastic bottles. Pivoting on the ball of her foot, she made her way back to the pale-faced girl and took a seat beside her. The dark haired Genin tossed one of the bottles into the girl's lap and proceeded to gorge greedily from her own.

Multiple gulps and a satisfied sigh later, Ousatsu's water bottle was crushed and thrown in the direction of her belongings. It was nice, training with another person. She sat contently with her back against the training dummy, one leg straight out and the other bent at the knee towards her chest; quicksilver eyes closed themselves to the world as she soaked up the sun's late morning rays, relishing in the feeling of warmth upon her sweat-chilled body. The nimble fingers of the Genin's right hand ran through her tangled tresses in an attempt to push them out of her face, to no avail. They fell right back into place, adhering themselves to her damp skin.

"I don't know about you, but I sure can't wait for a shower," Dirt kicked up from their movements had settled upon them, sticking to their bodies like sprinkles upon cupcakes. The scattered filth was only a few shades darker than Ousatsu's caramel skin tone, but she was still visibly a mess. "I usually train for another hour. Do you wanna spar, or something?" The hope was evident in her voice, and she could not keep from glancing sideways at the crimson eyed girl beside her. It was not the sparring she was excited for; it was training with another person. There was so much more to learn and accomplish when you were working with someone else.
"Unless you have somewhere to be?"

[Nickito]

"Thanks, that sounds good."

A small smile made its way onto her face at Ousatsu's laugh. She hadn't been so comfortable around someone in such a long time. Though she couldn't place the reason, she chose not to question it. It was easier -- and more enjoyable -- too just ride the moment and see where it was going to take her. Maybe she had found a friend in Ousatsu. She knew that she didn't have very many, so having Ousatsu would be nice, especially since she was also a girl.

As the water landed in her lap, her arms having been too tired to reach up to catch it, let alone actually receive it in her hand, she heaved a sigh and took in a deep breath right after. Within seconds the bottle had been uncapped, robbed of its contents and recapped. The red haired female had never been so thirsty before, not even as a child. Water was the one thing that had always seemed to be enough of, though sometimes she had had to settle for the unclean streams throughout the area.

"I think when I get home I'm gonna lock myself in the bathroom for an hour or two to be honest. I've never exercised like that before. I think there's probably a reason I haven't."

She smiled a smile that was just shy of being her signature Cheshire grin. Her body was covered in sweat to the point that she could feel the dampness that had found it's way to her shirt and shorts, clinging to her body with desperation. When asked the question of whether or not she wanted to continue, or if she had something else to do, she shook her head to both.

"How about we go get cleaned up and see if there are any missions we're interested in? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind getting a little more experience as a ninja."

[Nickito]

"Actually, maybe another time. It's getting kinda late."

She stood up and brushed herself off before grabbing her poncho and throwing it over her shoulders. After taking several steps away, she turned and waved at Ousatsu with a smile.

"It was nice meeting you. I hope our paths cross again in the future."

With her goodbyes said, she continued on, looking forward to a nice warm bath.

Exit~

[Feral]

Ousatsu returned Kagami's wave with one of her own, her lips turned up in a sort of half smile. The dark haired Genin had never really gotten along too well with others, so this entire training session was a success, in more ways than one. Not only did she feel better about herself, and stronger...but she also felt a strange sort of fulfillment.
She had made a friend.

Pivoting, she walked over and began gathering her belongings. The only thought on her mind now was getting something to eat, her stomach rumbling painfully in agreement. It was a short walk home from this particular training area, and Ousatsu let her mind wander briefly to her Aunt and Uncle, her kind relatives who had adopted her after the death of her parents when she was quite young.

I wonder if they'd be proud of me... An emptiness echoed in her heart, but she shook her head to clear it away. She had parents...they just were not her biological parents. At least they shared the same blood.
Shouldering her pack, Ousatsu made her way towards her home, enjoying the relief a cool breeze brought to her still heated skin, and did not look back.

Exit

[addy-hime ♥]

Feral, 60 EXP.
Nickito, 53 EXP.

[/justify]