Out on the Town [Open]

[Uragaeshi Riyoji]

The caves of Suna, as usual, were illuminated only by the artificial light produced by it's many subterranean buildings. The hustle and bustle of Sietch Zensunna produced a sound that could be heard across the village, residents spending time with family, tourists enjoying local casinos and other attractions, merchants haggling with customers on what the best price should be. It was all so familiar, yet at the same time foreign, to young Yanjirou. Whenever given a chance, the boy would often sneak away from his family's dojo in the more privileged portion of the village. From there, he would go wherever he pleased and try his best to blend with the common folk of the village. Even if, by this point, he was quite used to the layout of the village, the sounds of the streets, and whatever else the town had to offer, it still all seemed so distant. His daily life usually consisted of training at home, learning at home, eating and sleeping at home, and just doing things at home. The lack of exposure to the rest of the world was beginning to drive him mad before he was enrolled in the academy, and it was only then that he truly took interest in the lives of others. No matter how impossible it seemed for him to truly coexist with them.

Currently, he was trying his best to seem normal. Covering the ears inherited from his parents, he wandered the market in search of anything that caught his eye. So far, he found nothing, but the hours of walking he had done began to get to him, as his stomach grumbled.

"Guess I should eat..." He mumbled to himself while he searched for the nearest food stand. It didn't take long to find, given the fact that he was in the market, and he had to use the small amount of yen that he had on him to pay for an equally small sandwich. You would think that someone from such a rich family would receive more in the way of allowance, but it only helped him blend.

Walking and eating had never been an enjoyable activity for the boy, so he went to one of the shorter buildings and began climbing to the top, holding the sandwich in his mouth as he scaled the structure. Upon reaching the top, he would dangle his legs over the edge and slowly nibble on what he had bought. Maybe there would be something he could do once he was done eating?

[MFT]

 

[Toraono Michino]

It had been...nearly thirty...days?

　　Yoen was no longer sure. He sat on the flat top of a building with his back against the outer wall of the stair well. He was well into the natural shadow made from the unnatural lights on the cave ceiling; leaning straight against the brick on his left side was his plain long sword. The swordsman’s blue eyes looked out at the roofs of other buildings trying to imagine what he was going to do in order to survive.
　　About a month ago a man who called himself Ryuu Tengokai, a descendant of one of the Seven Fathers, and the current leader of their clan had sneaked himself into his studio apartment. This was a feat of some renown since Yoen didn’t live in the good part of the neighborhood, his folks were dead, and his relatives lived somewhere in the Lightning Country. To be able to find that one Uchiha who claimed the surname of Ryuu was astronomical but here the mad-eyed and blonde haired swordsman that claimed to be Tama’s father sat. The man laid three hard truths on him and a bargain. The first was that the young Uchiha was connected through blood one of the Seven Fathers and it was through that he was able to find him. The second was that the famous scientist whom had seemed to fall off the map was the clan’s secret bio weapon; one made through selective breeding over centuries. The last truth was that this bio weapon had the intentions of destroying the entire clan and any of the remaining True Bloods. Tengokai told him that if he wanted to survive, if he wanted his family to survive, then he would need to find a very special and rare sword that only made itself known to the members of his bloodline. Legend had it that it was buried deep in an ocean of sand and that a Sandwyrm ate the sword after the fact. His theory was that the sword’s power eventually killed the wyrm and now it’s corpse was where the Sunans lived. Yet an entire month had passed and he was no closer to finding this mythical blade that would lay to rest the terrifying bio weapon Ryuu Tama.
　　
　　With a loud sigh Yoen leaned his head back as he reached into his belt pouch to pull out his pack of cigarettes and tap it against his knee until one shuffled up above the rest. Placing the rolled tobacco between his lips he pulled it from the pack and switched it out for a lighter. With quick flick of his thumb the steel wheel caught the flint to cause a spark as the same digit pressed down on the release gas switch. Flame casually rolled out and kept itself alive so long as the Ryuu allowed it. Brushing the flame across the end of his cigarette the swordsman lit his tobacco and took a long drag as he let up on the gas switch to kill the flame. With a weary exhale a large cloud rolled out of his mouth. His eyes shifted over to the ledge of the building where a youth had climbed up with a sandwich to eat.
　　With a blink his eyes turned purple and tomoe appeared around his eyes. It allowed him a quick check to make sure the boy was...well normal, and was relived to find that he only seemed to have strange hair or ears, he wasn’t sure which, but that his chakra was also quite normal. The thing he was looking for supposedly had chakra that would send chills up a man’s spine.

 

[Uragaeshi Riyoji]

Yanji took in the sounds of the city, eventually reducing it all to white noise as he tried to eat his sandwich in peace. It was almost relaxing having it there, as it allowed him to think of absolutely nothing, something that silence could never do for him. The boy did not have the discipline to sit in utter silence for hours just to meditate, so to him, this was the next best thing. Everything was going great, his meal already had quite the dent in it, and he was already preparing to return to Suna's crowded streets, when a strange sound echoed from the shadows and broke the young Byakko from his trance, causing his ears to twitch. Quickly springing to his feet, he would turn around and be met with the sight of a man in the shadows. His first reaction was to grab his katana, as he did not know what intentions the man had, and watch to see what he would do. Due to his cat-like eyes, it was very easy to see the man's features, and the boy immediately noticed that his eyes had changed colors. He had no idea what this meant, but he did know that it peaked his curiosity.

His hand slowly lifted away from the hilt of his blade, and his eyes began to glow a golden hue as he cracked a slight smile. "I must admit, that seems like quite the interesting ability. How did you get your eyes to change colors like that?" He questioned, unaware that the man now knew everything there was to know about his physical body. Yanjirou decided it would be best to get a closer look at his eyes, so he slowly started approaching the man with his hands in his pockets. Of course, he was still being as cautious as he could manage currently, you could never be too safe with a complete stranger when they so obviously have some sort of unique ability. Once he was close enough to the man, the short boy reached up and tried to grab the man's face, keeping his other hand in his pocket, tightly gripping a makeshift knife he had made. If he was allowed to touch the man, he would carefully examine his face and eyes until he was satisfied, then shove his hand back into his pocket.

"Maybe trying to blend with common folk wasn't such a bad idea after all..." He would mumble before taking a few steps back. The smirk from before would be gone by now, but his golden eyes would continue to glow as he stared at the man for a few moments, adjusting his hood slightly to be sure his ears were hidden. "Ah, sorry about being so rude, my name is Bya-" The boy had to stop himself before saying his surname, "Yanjirou. My name is Yanjirou." Placing his hand over his chest, the boy would give a bow. Finesse and class were some of the better traits he had received from his father, not that he could show class as much with the raggedy clothes he waswearing in an attempt to blend in with "normal" people.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Curiosity was a strange thing. Often it brought about disaster and misfortune but from time to time a strange occurrence happened and someone learned without suffering.
　　Yoen sat perfectly still. The boy seemed to exhibit some technique in his stance though his power was left to be desired. A good swordsman could see someone’s power just by watching their movements alone. It was equally as obvious that the youth had ‘the gift’ though and he was being properly trained as his reactive stance was flawless; however a sword master didn’t reach for their hilt in reaction to a stranger. His experience in true combat was lacking but there was always room for improvement. His pride wanted to teach the boy a few things about proper fighting, and Kami knows he was good for it, but on a whim the Uchiha decided instead to ignore his natural reflexes and purposefully continue to eye the boy with glowing eyes. He moved his sword hand to do the cigarette work and let his left hand rest on his knee as a sign of good will.
　　
　　As the boy approached in his curiosity Yoen couldn’t but be helped of being reminded of watching a cat. He carried certain characteristics of a feline that made the swordsman wondered if he made a sudden movement if the boy wouldn’t jump three feet into the air and hiss at him; but he decided again to just be nice. As he got closer questions were asked and then hands probed his face.
　　“I’m an Uchiha. We have special eyes that change into a red color when we activate chakra in them, but since my irises have such an intense blue color from another strong ancestry they share the space.” And power, he thought to himself realizing again how true the words Tengokai must have been speaking about his heritage to one of the Seven Fathers. His ocular power came at a younger age than most of his siblings. In fact his older half brother had only managed to awaken two of his tomoe and he was ten years his senior. Once the boy had backed up again he gave his name and bowed with a grace that didn’t befit the clothes he was wearing. Yoen had only seen such grace preformed by those of the Royal Courts, the elite among the elite, and to see someone with such training eating a sandwich on a roof with raggedy clothes only perked his curiosity. He stood up and grabbed his sword by the sheath before shoving it back into his tightly wound belt that held his robe together. With his left hand unstained by nicotine he held it out to be shaken,
　　“Ryuu Yoen. Uchiha black sheep and traveling swordsman. Well kind of, I mostly just work as a Chuunin and do a lot of missions outside of the village. Still, close enough. I’ve seen my share of the Golden Ocean.”
　　
　　Once his hand had been gripped he would try to determine his ability with the sword. A well trained user of the blade is able to fight with either hand, and generally the left hand wasn’t a dominant hand for self trained swordsmen. He had learned this the hard way and had an annoying scar across his abdomen to prove it.

 

[Uragaeshi Riyoji]

"An Uchiha, hm.. I've heard of your kind from textbooks, but it is rather interesting that your eyes turn purple instead of red." The boy's eyes would return to their normal state as he became less interested after such a simple answer, and he would watch as the man tucked his blade back into his belt, which he hadn't noticed until it was adjusted. Once he was offered a handshake, Yanshi would stare for a moment. "Although I'm not quite familiar with handshakes, don't people usually use their right hand?" He would state with a slight chuckle, "Ah well, I won't argue with the way you shake hands." As he had read in a book on common-folk behavior, the child made sure to give a firm handshake, unaware that his abilities were being tested as they spoke. Due to his lack of experience in not only the world of shinobi, but the world as a whole, he did not know that swordsman who were trained by masters were typically the ones who used both hands, as he was trained to do, and assumed that even those who taught themselves would be sure to train themselves to be ambidextrous. At least when wielding a blade.

"Now, I know we've just met Ryuu-san, but would you mind showing me how your swordsmanship is? Of course, with how skilled a chuunin should be, I have no chance to beat you. But I like to believe that I learn from experience." The boy would ask as he slowly drew his katana. As much as he hated conflict of any sort, a chance like this might not come again for quite a while. It isn't everyday you meet someone who is sure to be a skilled shinobi on top of an empty rooftop, after all. Once his sword was fully drawn, Yanji crouched down slightly, right hand loosely gripping the hilt and left balancing the blade between two fingers, with the tip pointing toward Yoen. The sword was held to the side of his midsection, and could be compared to someone holding a pool cue.

"Whether we 'fight' or not is obviously your decision, but I would love to experience styles other than what I was taught. So I suppose.. I'm going to try and make you have no choice in the matter!" The boy exclaimed as he kicked off the ground and rushed toward the man, keeping his center of gravity low to the ground before he thrust his sword toward Ryuu's core. Yanji expected him to either dodge or block with his blade, but he really just hoped to pressure him to drawing his weapon as well. Of course, in the shinobi world there was no way to truly tell how an opponent would react to an attack such as this. He is still weak, after all, and there is always the possibility that there is some jutsu he didn't know about that strengthened the skin. Assuming that his attack would either miss or be deflected, the boy would jump back a few feet after attacking to see what the shinobi's reaction would be.

 

[Toraono Michino]

The hand shake confirmed his suspicions about the boy and as he unleashed the handshake he did something he wasn’t expecting and that was to reach for his sword. The swordsman didn’t know rather to applaud his bravery or berate his stupidity. His innocence was palpable, but for some reason he couldn’t help but feel more like applauding him. To be a true swordsman one needed the kind of foolish bravery Yanji was displaying. The tomoe that surrounded his iris began to spin playfully back and forth before suddenly diving into the center of his eye and emerging back out in a sharper state where they were all connected.
　　It was still something he was only starting to get the hang of but even Yoen knew he wielding something incredibly strong when he had learned to wake up the true power of his eyes. He stood stark still and cross his arms while he watched the boy draw his katana and move the blade in his hand in a rather awkward and dangerous stance; yet Yanji’s stance and eyes told him he had complete faith in his ability.
　　
　　“Okay, I’ll indulge you. However I warn you that I can’t show you my full technique without trying to kill you...and I haven’t met anyone who can best it yet.”
　　
　　They were filled with Determination.
　　
　　Yoen’s body subtly tensed up and prepared itself to move in which ever direction he needed to. The boy’s starting attack was with a powerful thrust towards his core. The mangekyou began to spin and the chakra filling his eyes intensified as he gained the ability to read Yanji’s chakra flow, muscle tenseness, eye movement, breathing ratio, and even how much energy he was exerting in this single attack. The information given to him by the collections of small single movements told him where he was going, where he was going to go, how he was probably going to do it, and what the follow up or counter to his attack or defense would be.
　　
　　He side stepped.
　　
　　The blade aimed for his core would sail harmlessly by as Yoen reached with his left hand to grab the hilt and draw the blade with an alarming speed. The steel of his blade whispered out of his sheath without nearly a sound before it came crashing down in a stabbing formation of six points. No matter which way Yanji decided to dodge the swordsman made sure that all of his attacks would miss completely with the exception of shredding through his ragged clothes. It would be on him to realize just the kind of gap there was between the two sword users and rather or not he wanted to continue. Of course in just the few seconds that had passed he could already feel the dull ache behind his eye of using his strongest ocular technique on an Academy Student; still like the boy was trying, he too needed safe training with a technique he didn’t quite have a handle on yet.

 

[Uragaeshi Riyoji]

Just as he expected, the boy's initial attack was dodged, and a counterattack quickly came. His eyes widened as he barely noticed the blade flying toward him, and the only thing he truly saw was the glint of the blade as it touched the light. But as low to the ground as he was, it was a tad difficult to move any other direction but straight, but using all of the strength in his right leg, Yanjirou managed to push himself away from Yoen, receiving a few cuts on his clothing, and a few minor wounds on the surface of his skin. Nothing he would notice in the heat of battle. After landing on the ground, the boy would jump back a couple more times and eyed the distance between him and his opponent.

"Should be good enough..." He mumbled before looking down and hastily feeling over his body with his left hand, fingering each new hole and looking at the small amount of blood coming from one of them. A sigh of relief could be heard from his mouth as he stuck two, blood stained fingers into his mouth and sucked on them for a moment.

"I guess they don't make people chuunin for nothing." Yanjirou stated, the fingers muffling his voice slightly as he stared at the man before him. It was clear that he would have to try something different if he wanted to get even a single scratch on the Uchiha, but he knew that the goal was not to win, but to learn. After he was countered, several different ways to use a similar attack had popped into his mind, almost causing him to lose focus while he was in the middle of dodging. So instead of trying something new to get a hit on Yoen, he would have to try something new to learn something new, which should be easy enough. There would be no point in trying to use the same move twice in a battle, the victim would only begin to learn how to counter if they survived the first attack. Taking the fingers from his mouth, Yanji would toss the katana to his left hand, take a couple of large steps forward, then leap a couple feet into the air before flipping the blade around, gripping the hilt with both hands, and bringing it down towards Ryuu's right shoulder. He knew not what his opponent would do to counter, or dodge, this attack. It was a move he hadn't been taught, and one that he had never attempted before, so his form was probably quite sloppy. The only thing that might've had any amount of skilled involved, was the accuracy at which he delivered the blow. All of the training he received on using a katana as a thrusting weapon was beginning to pay off, even if he hadn't perfected the style yet.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Yoen watched with his keen eyes as the boy rolled up from his counter. He could see the gears in his head turning and wondered slightly to himself if he was letting too much of his technique be seen already. He had no real intensions of trying to actually teach a lesson, but when Yanji leaped into the air with his blade aimed at his shoulder the swordsman couldn’t help it.
　　The Ryuu focused his eyes at the student and focused a large amount of chakra into his eyes which he shot forward. The invisible force was wide and, if the opponent had the same eyes as he, it could still be dodged but unless the youth had a way of detecting chakra patterns there would be no dodging the ocular genjutsu. Unlike most shinobi the Uchiha clan were absolute masters of mixing the genjutsu technique with other skills and a powerful user of the eye technique could cast out illusions without needing to weave hand-signs. As soon as the technique would strike Yanji’s sub-conscious it would make him see Yoen allowing the blade to dig deep into his shoulder, but there won’t be a wound and it’ll feel like trying to punch a pillow in his sleep.
　　The swordsman couldn’t help but marvel at the training the boy was receiving. Even with the genjutsu taking hold of his mind he followed the attack through and landed without pause. Most would black out and be stuck in a dream-like trance for some hours but he seemed to have enough willpower to muddle through one of his weaker eye techniques. A smirk began to pick at the corners of his mouth.
　　
　　Walked past the youth to stand behind him and place the flat cold steel of his blade against his cheek. The sudden shock of feeling something real should break the illusion.
　　“You have a gifted talent but unfortunately your technique needs work. The attacks you just used twice are attacks that are better off as bluffs with a long series of follow up or as finishers to a long string of attacks once you’ve found an opening.”
　　
　　He removed the blade from Yanjirou’s cheek and sheathed his blade without a sound.

 

[Uragaeshi Riyoji]

Yanji had no way of knowing that a genjutsu had just been placed on him, and was quite surprised to find that his blade was no lodged deep in the man's shoulder. He would have begun having a panic attack if he hadn't noticed that the location of the wound produced no blood whatsoever, and there was no feeling of an impact as it slid into his flesh. It was almost unfortunate too, as he was interested in seeing how much blood the shoulder might have produced. But it seemed that his mind pieced things together quickly enough to realize that it was likely an illusion.. A Genjutsu, as the shinobi would call it. Which is why he managed to keep his composure.

His suspicions were quickly confirmed as he felt a cold steel blade press against his face, not only snapping him from his illusion, but also causing the fake Yoen disappear into nothingness. Yanijrou quickly jumped forward and spun on his heel upon landing, now facing the man, noticing that his blade was sheathed. He responded by doing the same, but his made much more noise as he put it away. Soon after they had both stopped fighting, Yanji couldn't help but smile as his prowess with the blade was noticed. Fighting, as he said before, wasn't his favorite thing to do, but as any child would feel, he was happy to be complimented and critiqued on his form. It never had occurred to him that purposely dragging out an attack like that could be more beneficial than just going straight for the kill, but when he began thinking about it, it did make sense. It's easy to judge and react to an attack if the opponent is only making one action, but if they distract you with a series of attacks that lead up to a bigger one, or do something sneaky like hide a blade for use after feigning, it would most likely be much harder to read.

These were all things that the boy took note of as he thought of his reply, certainly something that he could use to not only end fights quicker, but keep himself mostly unharmed in the process of doing so. "I understand what you mean, and will be sure to remember what you've told and showed me." He said with a wink, reminding him that he was quick to pick up on things when he was determined to do so.

"By the way, if you're willing, how would you like to make our meetings less random? I may be in the academy now, but I find that one on one training is more beneficial, especially when the teacher knows your limits better than someone new." Yanjirou would pause for a moment as his eyes began to dim again, "I suppose what I'm saying is.. How would you like to be my tutor? When you have time of course, which it seems you have plenty of considering where you are..." A cheeky grin crossed his face for a moment after that comment, what could a chuunin possibly be doing on a rooftop spying on children trying to eat?

 

[Uragaeshi Riyoji]

Inactivity leaving. Sorry man, I gots things I want and need to do that have to be done fairly soon :/