Exploring the Forgotten (Open)

[Juzo]

Juzo crept quietly along hallways. The young man kept close to the walls and checked his corners as he went. Not that he really needed any privacy but he did enjoy the feeling of being alone. Made him feel like a successful ninja who was able to avoid detection by his peers. Albeit, he didn't think anyone was trying to detect him at this point so it was hard to say how successful he really was in this endeavor. When he was far enough into the maze of hallways and small rooms he slipped into an unused room and plopped himself down on a decrepit old stool.

"Now, where to begin," he murmured to himself. In one hand he had a scroll and in his other he had a small handful of snacks. With one quick movement he devoured the snacks and let his eyes drift down to the scroll. The boy carefully loosened the tie around the paper and unrolled the scroll. This particular jutsu scroll contained basic instructions for the body switch technique. It would be his next endeavor. What with Hanone helping him master transformation he was one step closer to being able to apply for a graduation. The young mans luminescent orange eyes poured over the basic instructions a few times.

"It looks easy enough," Juzo muttered to the empty room. Then he stood up and constructed a small trap. In this case it was a simple pull string with would release a kunai under tension. It would serve as the attack for him to dodge during his training. With a small sigh he stepped far enough away to give himself time to react. The young man then clenched his jaw and tried to prepare for what he was about to do. And right before he pulled the string he stopped and nearly had a good laugh at himself. Juzo moved forward and pulled the kunai out of the trap and then proceeded to dull the edge. No reason to mutilate himself in this case.

Once the trap was reset he moved back into position and gripped the string in his left hand. Then he dropped it onto the floor and stepped on it with his right foot. Mentally he thought about what the small scroll had said about the jutsu. With a deep breath he pulled on the string with his foot and attempted the body switch jutsu.

He failed.

The kunai smacked him in the arm and left a small grazing wound. Juzo stumbled out of the way and let out a short angry laugh. "Try again...."


[MFT]
WC: 433

 

[Juzo]

After an hour of practicing the technique Juzo took a short break to recollect himself and recalculate his plan of action. The young man put himself into an old decrepit seat and let out a long sigh. For some reason he had envisioned this being less of a difficult task. Which in turn made him feel a little guilty. He should have known better. The body switch, while basic, was one of the shinobi tenets of combat. Maybe he was thinking about this all wrong.

"I need to be more confident I think," the boy mused to himself. If anything he could feel that his constant doubt was doing more to impede his progress than his perceived lack of skills. If anything the perceived lack of skills was contributing directly to his inability to master such a maneuver. "More confidence," he thought to himself in that moment of honest clarity.

"I should try to expend a little more chakra during the maneuver," Juzo spoke softly to the empty room, "I'll get tired more quickly but perhaps I can shorten the time it will take to practice."

With that he got back to his feet and moved back into position. And for several more attempts he tried the body switch jutsu with relatively little luck. That was, until his fourth try. On that attempt he managed to perform the technique without any complications. At first he was a bit surprised but that quickly gave way to joy. The young mans face twisted into a smile and he jumped around a bit while congratulating himself. And in that moment he thought to himself; father would be so proud. A little more practicing and he would be ready to head home. Maybe try and find his friend Hanone who he hadn't seen in a few weeks.



MFT
WC: 303

 

[Hanone]

Hanone had been having a rough last few weeks. First, she had (thought) she had caught some sort of nasty virus. A day after classes started she woke with a fever which turned into violent bouts of vomiting. By the third day of her sickness she was severely dehydrated and dry heaving bloody mucus. Ultimately it had rendered the young girl bedridden and holed up in a hospital room for almost 3 weeks.

Her condition ended up being a rare sort of parasite rather than a virus that had been traced back to some imported fruit. Han was told she was lucky to be alive at all since the death rate of this parasite was 75%! She was one of five people who ended up playing host to the nasty bug and the only survivor, but she didn't know that and it was likely, no one was going to tell her either.

When she was finally well enough to be up and about again, she had been told what had happened to her and that she was not contagious since it wasn't a disease and the parasite had been wiped out in her system, but because of it she would feel weak for several more weeks and could even end up with permanent damage... though only time would be able to tell what kind it would be or how severe.

So for another week Hanone stayed home to recover, build up some lost weight and fluids. It was the weekend now and she was told she would be allowed to back to school that following Monday and if she took it easy, she was allowed to leave the house.

She'd been cooped up so long! Leaving the house was the best medicine. Although the village was in fact underground and in a large cavern, it still felt like outside to her.

At first she was just happy to walk around the nearby streets, as fatiguing as that was alone, but quickly noticed how many stares she was getting. Han was sickly thin, her skin still seeming greenish and there were huge dark rings under her eyes. She looked leagues better than before, but to the unknowing eye; Han looked abused or something.

She wanted to avoid to avoid the gazes, so she opted to visit her favorite place in Suna; the scroll locker. It was usually abandoned, which suited her fine. The walk there left her fairly breathless and as she entered into the large hall-like room, her hand shook as she reached out to steady herself. Then she noticed she was not, in fact, alone here. By happy accident her companion Juzo was there. Despite the illness sweeping over the now-frail looking girl, she smiled and said in a voice much softer than her usual tone, "Hi Juzo. Been a while... What you up to?"


mft

 

[Juzo]

When Hanone entered the room and spoke to Juzo she seemed unaware of the training taking place. At the moment she spoke the kunai trap was triggered and it fired three separate, but dulled, kunai in random directions. Juzo was still practicing body switch and he had to have an attack that was more arbitrary. Otherwise avoiding the attack would become far too easy even for a student of Juzo's skill level. Luckily this time he was able to dodge all three blades. "Hanone!"

Juzo's voice carried tones of excitement. But then he was slightly concerned. Hopefully she could dodge the dull edged kunai if they came too close to the entryway.

"Watch out!" the boy exclaimed as he appeared on top of a bookshelf out of the kunai's path. "Practicing some....." Juzo noticed that something was't quite right about his female friend. His keen eye looked a bit closer and noticed something was off. Something was different and he wasn't sure what it was. "Are you okay?"

"It has been a while since I've seen you and you look a little thinner than the last time I saw you," Juzo kept a cautious tone to his voice not wanting his voice to betray his concern. It was one of the basic parts of being a shinobi. He had to maintain a stoic expression in order to avoid being viewed as weak or too caring. But that didn't chance the fact that he felt like something must have been wrong. Otherwise she would have been in class for the past few weeks.



WC: 261

 

[Hanone]

The rail-like girl was surprised to see the kunai shooting about the room. There was one even coming her direction. Normally she would have been ready to dodge or block or something, but she was sluggish and weary. Her reaction time was too slow to avoid the blade and it slid over the upper part of her arm and flown out the doorway passed her.

Her lips parted in a surprised gasp, but no pain. The dull edge of the kunai didn't cut, thankfully or it might have been a nasty wound. Though Han hadn't managed to dodge the weapon and her response slow, she had still flinched away from the blade. With so little strength in her body, she ended up falling to the side and thumping up against the doorframe. It all looked very clumsy. "Oi... great timing, huh? Ya I'm okay." she said, her vice flat. Normally, the girl would had responded with more fire in her voice or eyes; her flame was more like a little candle flicker at the moment. It wasn't snuffed out... it just couldn't produce much heat.

With some visible effort, the girl nudged herself upright and stepped into the room, looking up to top of the furniture where he was perched. "Ya.. I've been on a diet." she muttered, lifting her arm and poked her bicep. "I didn't want to get too bulky, ya know?" a little humor colored her eyes and she smiled. Juzo was pretty good at hiding his emotions and Han barely picked up on his worry. What little she did made her feel good though. Seemed like he'd thought of her while she was gone. Maybe they were friends now? "But seriously, I was in the hospital. I'm okay now... looks like you're been practicing. Learn anything while I was out?"

Usually the beginning of the schoolyear was repeat stuff from the year before. She didn't feel like she had missed much, but she wouldn't really know until she got into class on Monday. She really didn't want to talk about her time in the hospital or what happened. It was had been really gross. She walked over to a stationary kunai and picked it up, ready to load it back into his contraption for him.


mft
379 wc

 

[Juzo]

Juzo shrugged, "Ha, you, bulky!?"

"Been practicing the body switch jutsu. I think I am pretty confident in what I can do now."

The boy hopped down from atop the bookshelf and moved closer to his peer. "You want to give it a go?" Over his should the contraption he had made for flinging kunai could be seen. It was a simple stick secured between two old bookshelves with a very elastic cord pulled back and caught on the edge of a table. Juzo only had to attach the ring end of some kunai to the contraption and pull the string which released the springy cord. It wasn't elegant but it got the job done and put in enough force for him to get a feel for evading attacks on the fly.

After he gave Hanone a chance to answer he moved towards the contraption and reset the cord to the table edge. After a little more tinkering he had 3 kunai attached and ready to be sprung into action. If Hanone didn't feel up to then he would get back to training himself. But he was slightly concerned with her statement about being in the hospital. For now he kept his concern to himself. Felt unnecessary to make a big deal out of something she obviously didn't want to talk about.

 

[Hanone]

Han snorted in response to her friend. She could to be bulky if she wanted to, though she didn't want to. Her mom was pretty bulky.. ya no. Definately not bulky. She was going to be strong and lean. And ya know, because even though she was going to be a shinobi; she was also a girl. She wanted to look nice in a dress as well as her bloody uniform someday!!

Han almost let herself start to mentally rant thereby almost missing the generally-stoic boy's question. Give it a go? What a go? For some reason she imagined he meant kiss a frog or something... she was still a bit out of it... which made her feel green in the face. Maybe she did need more sleep. "Erm, no. Thanks." instead the girl stepped away from the contraption and found a wall to sit down against where she might not be in the way. All the same, she would remain cautious for rogue kunai.

She really hoped he wouldn't want her to leave or something while he practiced, so she tried for conversation. "So Juzo, you've mentioned your family before, but like.. tell me more about your dad. I know you said he was one of Suna's best the last time we were here, but like.. how powerful is he? My parents are civilians, I don't know any really powerful people." She didn't know if he even liked this train of thought or conversation, but she was going to give it a go anyway.

 

[Juzo]

A few solitary taps with his finger told him the cord holding the kunai was suitably taut. He moved back several paces and made sure to keep the pull string in hand. Han wondered aloud about his father and his family over all. Juzo, not one to talk about himself or his family often, wasn't sure what he wanted to say. The boy remained quiet slightly longer than was probably courteous. Then he pulled the string and released the kunai which launched directly at him. At the last moment, when it seemed one had made contact with him, the air was filled with smoke and the boy appeared next to Hanone. Juzo was sitting with her as well.

"He is the best. Sometimes," Juzo spoke but he didn't sound confident in what he said. "He says he does research for Suna's medical division and I know he used to go on a lot of missions."

While he idolized his father he also wasn't that close to him. He continued to speak in his low tone, "I've seen him do some pretty amazing jutsu. One time he summoned a huge cannon made of stone. It launched these huge glowing blobs of lava at his command." Juzo remembered because it was like fireworks in the darkness of the cave. But then the young boy shook his head to bring himself away from the memory.

"The rest of my family aren't shinobi. Most of them live very traditionally and mostly maintain our estate on my fathers behalf," Juzo said with a flat tone.

 

[Hanone]

Han was so off her game that when her companion poofed into smoke instead of connecting with the dull kunai and landed next to her, successfully managing his technique, she jumped visibly. Tucking her feet back up and holding her arms loosely around her knees, the red head placed her head down on her arms and looked at the blue haired boy. Though her heart was still galloping around her chest pretty fiercely, her demeanour was pretty put together.

Han found she didn't really know what to say to Juzo, at first. His voice betrayed him; he wasn't speaking a like a boy who admired and looked up to his father. He spoke like a kid who was almost talking about a stranger. His droll tone made her feel badly for her friend. Her own parents were such a strong presence in her life, so loving and compassionate. While she didn't aspire to be like either of them professionally, she hoped to draw from their goodness and reflect it in her own life and habits. She got the feeling Juzo didn't have anything like that. And it was weird.

She too took a longer-than-usual break before speaking up. Her lips pursed and withdrew a few times as she thought of responses then rethought them. Finally the girl settled with a big toothy smile which caused her eyes to even squint shut and she uttered, "Ya know, I bet you'll be greater than he ever was or is by the time you're his age. You're the smartest person I know and definitely the best in the class." If he had been her brother, she might have hugged him or kissed his cheek, but instead she reached out a hand to grasp his, if he allowed it and would squeeze his fingers before letting go.

"Well my mom found out she was pregnant last week, so.. that should be fun. I've been an only child for a while, all my life in fact. Do you have any siblings?" She couldn't imagine that he did, but you never know. Some of the older families had dozens and you would never guess it.

 

[Juzo]

Juzo was startled when she held his hand and seemed to be trying to display some emotion to him. The boy was unsure what emotion it may have been but he took the vote of confidence with a small sly grin, "Of course I will!" The young Sunan drew himself up to his feet and kicked some of the fallen kunai around. "Nope, I am an only child in my family too."

After a moment of sliding the dull kunai around the floor with his foot he kicked one at one of the nearby decrepit bookshelves. Then he turned to Hanone and motioned at his small contraption, "I am pretty much done here. You sure you don't want to give this a try?"

If anything he seemed proud of his device and wanted to see his friend use it like he had been for the past few hours. "If not, maybe we can practice some jutsu? I just so happen to have a few jutsu scrolls for some basic elemental jutsu. Might be fu-u-un?" Juzo emphasized the 'fun' in his sentence in an attempt to coax her into agreeing. Training was important but he preferred to have a real partner during it.