Exit Strategy

[Samejima]

Naoki was hanging around one of the training rooms of the Academy. Training in a different environment would help her adjust to later, when she did find her relative and have to use this place for training. She couldn't possibly impose on the Toraono clan forever after all, and though she still hasn't found any semblance of said relative's shop in the Grand Palais, she felt like she still had a long way to go before being able to go off on her own into the deeper reaches of the Red Lights.

Lightning's pretty nice to use... But so is water... Hmmm...

At this point, she was training her ninjutsu, as taijutsu skills were rather well-understood already. The last training session she'd had led her to understand how unprepared she was when dealing with taijutsu skills from the opponent, and she'd need another way to counter them if she was to hold her own against people who might hurt Suna, like the Cabal.

Patrolling will be in a little while, so I'll have time to train for a bit first...

She was currently trying to combine the two elements of water and lightning, the ones she had better control over. Okay... Deep breath... Setting her water flask on the ground, Naoki performed a set of handseals to try and draw out the water.

Water was the first to rise, being the element Naoki was most familiar with. She felt the flow and redirected it carefully so it would leave the canteen before performing another set of handseals to try and conjure lightning while the water was still there, and make them clash somehow...

But it was unsuccessful, and she hung her head in exhaustion. Nnngh. Do I just need more training with ninjutsu...?

 

[Kazumi]

The voodoo magic that somehow illuminated the underground village had begun to dim in the past few hours as night encroached upon the caverns. Unfortunately not everyone was lucky enough to be able to go home and relax in the evenings. Some of them, like a particular blond haired academy student, had to spend as much time as they could training to... make up for inborn talents, or lack thereof.

A garish orange colored figure walked down the hallway towards the assigned room. The outfit had certainly seen better days. Rips, tears and even some burn marks scarred the outfit until it looked like someone had spent months wearing the thing... which would not have been far from the truth. Typically they had large individual rooms, and Yumi had been coming to these private training areas almost every night. Tonight, for whatever reason, Yumi didn't understand at least, it seemed all of them had been booked up. Being on the bottom of the totem pole certainly had its disadvantages, and she was assigned to share a room with a genin, whose name she wasn't given.

It wouldn't be all that bad. Each of the training areas had been designed to be spacious and allow all but the most outlandish techniques to be practiced in secret within these rooms. Strengthening seals had been affixed to walls floors and ceilings and everything that one would need for most exercises, including modest sized basins of water and rock slabs were provided! Eben will all that, however, she was not looking forward to making a fool of herself more than she had too...

She stopped infront of the sliding door to room G-6 and shuffled the pile of rolled scrolls in her hand so that hse could rap the back of her knuckes against the wooden frame. It certainly wouldn't be a good idea to simply walk in and get decapitated by a flying shard of rock... not a great way to end a career. So, Yumi stood patiently for the occupant to open, hoping they would not be too upset with the need to share the space with a mere student.

 

[Samejima]

Hm? In the middle of a resting period, Naoki was able to register the sound of a knock on the door to the training room she'd occupied. Ahh I must've closed the door without thinking! No wonder this place wasn't getting any new people... She then walked over to said door and opened it, intending to leave it that way so people could still come in if they had no rooms to practice in.

It was then that she recognized who stood outside the door. The heartbeat belonged to one Tsukino Yumi, still in training garb though it was much worse for wear than before, whom Naoki met some time ago. "Oh, Yumi! Come in, come in!" she said, making way for the blonde to pass through.

Once they were settled, she began her customary interrogation period. "Pretty cool coincidence huh? How've you been doing? Training going okay? Making friends and all that? Ah, and about the case before, was your dad okay with it? And-" This was what she did when she was excited and nervous - fire off a set of questions that may or may not be personal. She was getting a bit better at controlling her outbursts whenever she came across people she knew though, and this time at least, she'd caught herself before she got too far ahead, waiting for answers and a possible 'uh, what was that?' or 'you talk way too much', as she'd come to expect from some students around the Academy.

 

[Kazumi]

As the door slid open and Yumi recognized her temporary 'roommate' a feeling of both relief and worry came of her at one, effectively overriding one another. Regardless, she gave the still-blindfolded girl a smile and came in, sliding the door shut behind her with her foot before she followed Naoki to a spot in the room. Yumi knelt over and let the pile of scrolls collapse to the ground, there was easily a dozen of them there, and they all looked relatively new.

As Yumi tried to reconcile which initial emotion was the better suited one, she simply smiled and nodded to Naoki as she was barraged with questions. "Much better than I had hoped," though she technically had not yet decided if that was the truth or not. "A few, mostly classmates. Oh, and yeah... he was a little dis...appointed, but it wasn't a big deal. I didn't tell him the details, because that would just have made him worry over nothing." She gave Naoki a reassuring smile, before letting it drop once she re-noticed the blindfold. Notably she did not bother to answer the question about training.

"I hope I am not interrupting... I had hoped to get a private training room... well, I mean without intruding on anyone else's, but they were all packed this evening. Really hope its not a big inconvenience." She glances away and looked a little bothered to be intruding on the girl's space, even if it really was no fault of her own.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki nodded, understanding fully, catching the missed answer regarding training but not pressing further. Must be pretty tough, considering... She'd snapped her fingers just then, to confirm her suspicion from the speech earlier. That set of training garb's going to need to be replaced sometime. Then Naoki automatically answered with a hurried, "Ahh no, of course not!" She'd been told to close doors whenever she went through them, so this had happened before. It's not like she minded sharing the space, "I just forgot you're not supposed to close the door if you're not taking the whole room is all..." she finished, smiling sheepishly. 'Man there's a lot of people training today though. Guess they've all pretty much recovered from the... stuff that happened earlier." Naoki's expression dropped a little, remembering some things that happened related to the Cabal attacks.

"You wanted a private one though? You don't mind if I stay do you?" she asked, noting that Yumi did close the door behind her.

Naoki closed her water canteen for now, in case any of it spilled out, and attached it to her waist. Then her curiosity shifted to the scrolls, wondering why there were scrolls and wishing she could read them as well, but not asking about them until her presence in the training room was confirmed to be alright by the student.

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi nodded in agreement with Naoki's comment regarding people's reactions to the incidents. Yumi had, thankfully, been so far removed from all of those things that she often forgot about them. She then ceremoniously sat down onto her bottom next to the scrolls and began to try and organize them by the various markings on the outside of each of them.

When Naoki then asked about her staying Yumi quickly looked up, shook her head and added in with a belated, "no no, of course not. This is your room, I will just be... reading these and stuff in a corner over there." She turned to her left and pointed towards the far corner of the room. A moment's hesitation later she added, with slight embarrassment on her slip up, "to your right and a few feet over in the corner of the room."

"I am just going to read these and flail about some. I mostly didn't want anyone to watch, and since you're still training with that blindfold I won't have to worry." She said it in a joking matter, but it seemed that initial remark was a serious one. With that she began to slide herself over towards that little nook, brushing the scrolls along the ground with her, rather than picking them up for whatever reason.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki nodded, used enough to the blindness now to not just turn her head reflexively in the directions people pointed at... but still having nodded before Yumi's verbal description of where she'd be, at which point she nodded again. "I'll be over there then, probably won't distract you too much. Good luck!" she added, making her way closer to the other side of the room.

Alright, let's try this again. Naoki sat down, unlatched her water canteen and performed the same set of handseals as before, with similar results. The water stayed in its floaty position this time as well, so she proceeded with the next set of handseals, causing some lightning to crackle. She couldn't see it of course, but she could at least feel the chakra she expended to make it stay in existence.

Now I just... need to find a way to combine the two... Concentration going between the water and the lightning, her eyebrows were furrowed pretty closely together as they came into contact, and even joined together fora moment... before inevitably fizzling out of existence, most of the water splashing back in the canteen. Sighing, she figured it probably wasn't going anywhere fast, and that her time would be better spent on the combination of other elements. Those two're pretty strong on their own anyway. Let's try water and wind next...

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi continued her butt shuffle across the padded training mats until she finally had her back to the corner. She leaned forward and gathered the last few scrolls, which apparently numbered seven, She aligned them vertically aligned them on the ground so that their seals stood side by side. Her eyes perked up towards Naoki as she began to practice her magical ninja techniques, a tinge of jealousy sparking across her mind before she quickly pushed it down back where it came from.

She reached out to the first scroll, unwrapped the small string that held it closed and unraveled it across the floor in front of her. It was a set of instructions, rather basic ones, at least compared to high level shinobi techniques. She read over it a few times as Naoki continued to practice before she looked up once again towards the bits of noise that Naoki was making caught her attention. That green devil attempted to claw its way into her mind once more, but again she batted it down with as much will as she could muster.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and formed a set of three hand seals: Tiger, Horse and Dragon. For a student she performed them perfetly and with a dexterity that could have been found in an experienced genin or young chuunin. There was a brief pause of tension as Yumi waited for something to happen but... alas nothing did.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki hadn't used wind much despite being a shinobi of the Wind Country, and so wasn't very experienced with it yet. She made a few handseals quickly, attempting to at least conjure some less flighty wind. The water was still coming quite easily for her at least, and she was able to successfully have the two manifest themselves at the same time. Ironically, wind was a little less pliable for Naoki, so she tried to soften it a little using the water she could control. Hnnn...

With a rather loud splash, it was quite obvious that she wasn't going to be able to combine elements easily.

At a loss, and with the water having plastered her hair on her face in an oddly hilarious fashion, Naoki sat there with dripping hands still held up in midair. Kuhhh that was pretty embarrassing...

Another string of handseals had Naoki blown dry, and she faced Yumi for the first time since they entered the room to say, as if nothing at all had happened, "I-I'm going to refill my water! Be right back!" She then dashed down the corridor to the nearest source of water to refill it, taking some time to calm herself down.

 

[Kazumi]

Perhaps thankfully for Naoki, her incident with the water seemed to have gone unnoticed. In fact Yumi had already began to bore her eyes with great frustration into the same scroll once again, looking for some hidden clue that would solve her conundrum. Only a moment after Naoki left she let out that frustration in an aggravated groan of contempt. It likely wouldn't take Naoki long to find some more water to use as such things was one of the purposes of having such an area, unless she decided to take her time, of course.

In the meantime Yumi had tried to perform the hand seals three more times, each successfully but to no avail. She tossed the scroll across the room towards the opposite corner and quickly unwrapped the next so she could try to begin reading the new one. Surely this one would bear more fruit! Surely!

 

[Samejima]

Ahh man, there's no way she didn't notice that! What do I do... Just say that training's done and I have to go? Why'd that have to go and happen like that...

Meanwhile, just outside of the training room, Naoki was debating getting right on out of there, despite still having training to do. She could always just go and finish it up in the outer areas of the Academy, since the training wasn't going to be dangerous anyway... But what if it happens again and I'm seen by even more people? Gaaah, if I could just figure out how to combine two elements... Oh! Maybe thinking about which element it'll become would help... Okay, I'll go in and try it again.

Naoki was fully braced for any comments Yumi would have, but none came. She must be thinking about my feelings. Such a nice person. Should be okay to tell her I really am blind by now, I think... Then she noticed Yumi's concentration, how her heartbeat was going quite fast, as if she was frustrated about something. But it would be bad to just bother her when she's concentrating like that right? Right. I'll tell her some other time... Yeah... Hm?

The genin's footsteps on the sparring mats alerted her to the existence of a scroll near where she sat before. Yumi's? Why's it here...?

She walked over to try and give it back, or at least ask if that was hers and Naoki just didn't notice or something before now. "Um..." As she got closer though... It became apparent that Yumi was concentrating far more than Naoki thought. What should I do? She's really into this. I didn't know she was this serious about training... Should I just leave it here? But it might not be hers... And so she stood there, a bit of a distance between the two, fussing over what to do.

[MFT]

 

[Kazumi]

It looked as if the girl were actually oblvious not only to Naoki's departure but her arrival as well. Even after Naoki spoke up to ask about there scroll Yumi's brows were furrowed as she made a set of four hand-seals (Body Switch), one quickly flowing into the next with artful precision. She held the final one with her eyes closed but again... nothing happened. Naoki might actually hear the sound of grinding teeth for but a moment. Suddenly Yumi snapped out of whatever trance she was in and looked up and over towards Naoki with a shocked confusion.

"Huh... what? Did you... say something?" She looked over towards Naoki and what was in her hand and then a tinge of guilt hit her. It was just the scroll she had tossed out of anger, but it wasn't the littering that had her feeling slightly ashamed. "Oh... sorry about that... I didn't hit you with it did I?" Just how oblivious was this girl?

 

[Samejima]

"N-no no, I just came back in, I just thought this might've been one of yours..." Whoa... She's pretty messed up about the training... Could I help maybe...? But I still can't read unless I go and activate... Naoki's mind went back to the time when her eyes became functional, with the released gate having allowed chakra flow to her eyes. Unfortunately, she was now loath to even try to call out too much power in fear of turning on that cursed seal again.

"Sssso... how's training going?" she asked, handing the scroll to Yumi as she sat down next to the student. "You know, I've heard it's better to be relaxed when you're training ninjutsu... For people who're starting out, the chakra might not flow too smoothly if you're straining yourself," she said, hoping to cheer Yumi up a little. An idea then came to her.

"Um, wanna try meditating? Might help!" As far as Naoki knew, chakra was a swirling pool that you can pull power out of, as she learned under Yoko-nee in her first few hours of training, albeit in a time-altered state due to a genjutsu. When that pool's all tensed up and frozen over, there's no power that can be drawn from it. "I dunno if you've done it before, but if you haven't I can tell you how... I think."

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi took in a slow deep breath and let it out in one long continuous sigh of frustration. "Really poorly. I... have a meeting with my ninjutsu instructor tomorrow with my father, and I really need to have a breakthrough before that." A tinge of worry caused her to unconsciously bite her lip as she looked down towards the schools she had laid out in front of her. An almost silent groan of worry escaped her and she looked back up towards Naoki.

"Maybe... if you think it would help. I've tried like... most anything I could think of." She silently considered that perhaps she simply wasn't cut out to be a shinobi, but quickly squashed that thought as if it were a vile insect. "You just sit and cross your legs, move your arms into a weird position and stay there a while... right?" She made no move to assume any such position, and the mere thought of such things made her feel silly, but she didn't have much of a choice did she?

 

[Samejima]

"Sort of... I usually just cross my legs and leave my arms alone though."

Naoki did so after the sentence, changing her position to face Yumi. Legs were crossed normally, and her arms were resting on her legs. "The main point is to kinda... try to feel your chakra. It depends on you I think, but I feel it as a sort of... swirly pool?" She then took a deep breath, and her shoulders visibly relaxed.

"Couple of breaths..." Inhale... exhale... "...If you can't feel it much... remember to relax..." Subconsciously, Naoki's voice was becoming laced with something akin to the usage of genjutsu, trying to coax Yumi into loosening up enough to allow her to feel her flow of chakra. "Don't think... feel."

 

[Kazumi]

With what seemed to be a resigned measure of reluctance, Yumi shifted herself around so that she could sit in a position in which she could mimic Naoki's posture and form. It felt really awkward and even slightly embarrassing, even though she knew they were the only ones in the room. She nodded as the other girl spoke and she closed her eyes, let out a deep slow breath and did her best to relax.

At first it was hard to relax. She had quite a bit of tension built up from weeks of worry, after all and that wasn't so easily tossed aside. As the seconds slowly edged on, as she listened to the oddly soothing sound of the blindfolded girl she actually began to relax more and more. Without realizing it, she almost teetered onto the edge of unconsciousness from the calming sensations. She began to softly rock back and forth ever so slightly as she tried to remember what her teachers had taught her to do.

Visualize that swirl of energy that coursed though her system and take hold of it. Mold it into what you desire it to bee and then release it... She could imagine herself reaching out towards that nebulous pool of energy, and as she dipped her hands into it to grasp onto it... it slipped right through her fingers as if it were nothing more than water. She pulled her mental hands back and had managed to take hold of nothing at all.

 

[Samejima]

Inhale... exhale... Naoki herself was beginning to meditate, with the present worries having been dispelled. Elements... water... lightning... wind...

There wasn't much difference compared to before, in regards to how her chakra felt, though she has been trying to increase its effects when she tries genjutsu. According to her knowledge on the Hashigaki, they should be able to utilize genjutsu well, but it wasn't... sitting right with her. As a result, she doesn't put her all into trying it or getting better at it, preferring to either throw some combo punches or mess around with elemental business.

Why's genjutsu so bad? I don't even know much about it... she also felt that statement was false, somehow. Something happened in that first shinobi battle she saw, something related to genjutsu that made it bad. She went along with this train of thinking, trying and trying unsuccessfully to figure it out until she eventually...

Thump.

Dozed off. She woke up when her head hit the wall, rubbing that side of it, and waited to see if Yumi had progressed any.

 

[Kazumi]

On the outside Yumi looked as she had, slightly dazed with her eyes closed in that meditative posture. Her brows had furroed though and inside her mind she tried again and again to plunge her hand into that pool, only to always grasp at nothing. What had first started out as a calm deliberate attempt was becoming more frantic as she tried harder and harder to grab onto.... something! Every time she thought she might have had something it always managed to slip through her fingers.

Just as she was about to lose her calm entirely she heard that soft thump and her eyes peeked open with relief and confusion. Seeing that the other girl had fallen over as she now rubbed her head to soothe the mild pain away. "Are... you alright?" Strangely, Yumi sounded quite agitated. As if the meditation had only managed to make her frustration worse, instead of better.

 

[Samejima]

"H-huh? Wh..." Naoki fixed her position a little. Ooh... Must've overdone it again. I need to stop sleeping when I do that... "Ahh yeah... just... sleepy? It happens," she said, laughing nervously. Naoki's hands now propped the rest of her body up on her legs, somewhat eager to find out if she'd helped.

"How'd it go? Did you feel your chakra?" Judging by the tone of Yumi's voice however, Naoki could tell that something had gone wrong. "It doesn't always work the first time 'round, is what Yoko-nee said... But um... you sound pretty... upset?"

It shouldn't actually be making it worse on her... Not relaxing enough maybe? Oh, or maybe all my talking disturbed her... I should've been a bit more thoughtful... O-or... or maybe...

"Did you recall a previous life?" Naoki asked, eyebrows raised quite high in surprise.

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi wasn't intentionally being irritable or grumpy to the other girl, but that glare of annoyance surely didn't help to convey that message. However, as Naoki spoke of past lived that expression shattered into one of simple confusion. "precious... lives?" Was that something that was supposed to happen? Yumi continued to give off that confused look, but it slowly shifted to one of suspicion that perhaps the other girl was simply playing a joke on her.

As the moments passed that sensation of attempting to take hold of her chakra slowly faded from her mind and with it her feelings of annoyance and frustration; though both still lingered deeper in the back of her mind. "Did... you?" She finally asked tentatively as if it was what she was supposed to ask.