The Perfect Swing [Spectating Thread]

[Kaen]

Golden hues of brazen rays peppered the Sunan landscape below, not the faintest wisp of cloudy respite loomed overhead. So many days were like this, many more were to come. But this was not a bad thing, depending on your particular outlook on life, theory and the like. Kaen may have been a bit biased as his status of Flame Court Hybrid left him presumably unaffected by the intense, arid heat of the desert sun. But he firmly believed it built strong character and hardened resolve came about from such prolonged exposure. The Hybrid held a certain affinity towards a truth he felt to be universal, this world was survival of the fittest. It was a game to be won, those with most pieces, or power in this analogy , were sure to be the victors. Now ones personal definition of what fittest or power meant varied from person to person, specie to specie, but in the end it all amounted to the same conclusion. And it just so happened this was the reason he was here today, here observing, a short distance away, atop a building.

With his body weight pressed upon the sturdy railing of the rooftop, Kaen would rest his forearms on it with his hands folded together. He was in a relaxed position with one leg raised slightly, lightly tapping his right foot against the rooftop underfoot. He was making no attempt at being secretive or stealthy, nor was he in any sort of uniform such as his Anbu getup. No, he was opting for something more comfortable that would go hand in hand with the equally comfortable day he was experiencing. An all black, long sleeved coat with a fur lining for the collar draped over a regular ole white t-shirt. Coupled with a pair of black pants that allowed for both comfort and flexibility. A thin tuft-like trail of smoke slowly rose from his lips as a loose cigarette burned dimly. A subtle inhale caused the tip to glow a dark amber before diminishing back to it's less colorful state. Another tendril of smoke bled away into the air above Kaen.

Why was he here, at the dojo of all places? Scouting of course! Tenken gave him very specific orders that he fully intended on following. He didn't give a specific set amount, thus Kaen would continue to collect his candidates until little more remained for either the medical, or main branch. Of course this was under the guise of the Anbu, which he was not dressed for. But it wouldn't be very inconspicuous of him to stroll about in his uniform and watch a bunch of kids training. No, his regular attire would suit the situation much better; and besides, lots of other people came around to check out the up-and-coming future of Sunagakure. Perhaps there would be a few interesting contenders that would display their talents and value.

And lo! A most intriguing scene was quickly unfolding within the dojo training grounds. The vast majority of the students training below seemed... Less thought provoking, rather dull really. But another pair had caught his attention, or rather another academy staff member pointed it out to him. A young and sprightly looking potential swordsman and been training most vigorously with the added difficulty of weights. Impressive for someone appearing so young. What's more is he didn't appear to have the same Sunan-born complexion most had around here. Another refugee perhaps? The other, concealing the lower portion of his face, seemed more in-tune with his reasoning and ingenuity. In truth Kaen had not seen very many puppet users, but from what he's been told it's quite difficult and only a select few ever truly master the art. Would this other contender become the master, or fall to the wayside like so many before him? Only time would tell, but not that much time it would appear. The tapping of his foot ceased suddenly as he felt a determination well up within the training grounds. It was something of a sixth sense for the Hybrid, the scent of battle was something he naturally could pick up on. It was almost an innate craving for him, one he had been attempting to suppress for some time now. His recent deal with Lord Sousuke had dissolved much of his avenues for this appetite. Yes, he was slaying many Unbent these days, but the common grunt was hardly anything exciting for him, he craved the thrill of the fight. And what better way to showcase their potential for recruitment than a front row seat to a sparring session? As they gave the sign for battle he would watch onward with baited breath and anticipation.


[OOC Spectating thread created and entered for this fight]

 

[Toraono Michino]

Michino leaned his back against a marble pillar inside of the training grounds. The cool stone that was still in the shade felt good on his warm back, relaxing his muscles a little as he gazed on at the two students. His purple feline-like eyes watched with some fierce intent towards Koto especially.

Watching him with the weights had been eye opening and he really was rooting for the kid, but more than winning, he wanted to see if the Student had a certain potential. Even if he lost, if he displayed the right perimeters, Michino would do his best to convince the child into apprenticing under him. The Devil Cat style, self named as it was due to being a combination of two other techniques, was a sword art he was only able to originally learn through a Death God. A lot of practice followed before he dared to call himself a master of it, and in fact he only found the final missing bit of his art in the Battle at the Wall. Passing on the lost techniques of the dead was sort of Michino’s calling as he could freely access them whenever he wanted, but this style of swordplay was something precious to him.
As he watched the fighters prepare he felt a presence. Then another, then another, and some more. Students were stopping their early training, teachers their special instructions, and even passerbys were halting to watch. Turning his eyes away from everyone he scanned over the slowly gathering crowd for anyone familiar. His eyes landed on someone kind of familiar. Watching Kaen smoke the cigarette the only memory the man inspired was fire. Lots, and lots of fire; although as to why, Michino couldn’t say. He had no idea why the guy was there, but the man seemed a bit more interested in the two students than the other passing strangers. Hell his gaze on the two boys felt like it was bordering on Michino’s, and suddenly he had to wonder if the red-head was also looking for an apprentice.

A fellow academical rival? The Toraono could only hope.

Michino bit his thumb, rolled through three hand seals, and tapped a bare part of the pillar. He felt chakra and the soul of his sister roll out of his body and into the ruby imp body that appeared in the Mortal Realm. He nodded at her, having already discussed what was about to happen, and she zipped off. After a few seconds the small demon was scrambling up the side of the building towards Kaen,

“Hey~! Weird guy watching kids! I want to have a talk with ya!”

 

[Raizo]

"The Toraono are a prominent clan within Suna. They are..."

"Cat... demon... people..."

Honestly, he was fuzzy on the whole history lesson that Sousuke had attempted to give him about the clan. While the clan itself wasn't new to him, the Ryuzaki Clan's lore books of Sunagakure no Sato did cover them, the information they had did not fully convey the overly rich history that Sousuke tried to drill into his head. What he, and by extension the Ryuzaki, really knew about them had more to do with the head of the clan, Kuro. So he was curious about the location, especially since it now seemed to house the academy for the village. Both were things he had yet to formally meet or see, so why not pop around out of the blue?

He didn't want this to be a formal thing. He wanted to just hang out and take in the sights, much like he did in his strolls around the village. So he would not come dressed any different than his rather common-looking attire, a black and gold top with a golden embroidered Ryuzaki Sigil upon his back and white baggy pants that cuffed just below his knees. He would pop in and out of the area until his eyes finally caught sight of what appeared to the training grounds for the dojo. And much to his luck, there were some fired-up youngsters putting space between themselves and entering a readied stance.

The feel, the smell, the swell of chakra, even though faint, all of it was both familiar and exciting. A fight was about to happen. A fight between to of the young products of the Dojo. He was curious, as he usually was about the powers of those within Suna, so his eyes would grow affixed to the scene. With pure excitement in his eyes, he would watch on in hopes of seeing something truly interesting.

While watching the two young'ns, he would notice that both seemed to have a propensity with weapons. They were keeping their distance from one another, it was clearly a mixture of a feeling out process and potentially their own natural fighting style. It might have just been a lack of confidence, but both of them seemed to have a plan. These fights, fights between the young, were always so entertaining for him. They were almost always more honest and upfront fighting. Experienced battlers move away from such a raw strategy, add in layers, and try to play more chess. This was checkers. It was great. He couldn't be more proud of watching the vigor of today's young ones!

"OoooOoOOoooh seems like one is taking the advantage, but that other one seems like they got something planned. Wonder if they have enough time to pull it off!?"

 

[Kaen]

The duel between the future shinobi of Sunagakure was well underway. The energetic swordsman originally appeared to have the advantage due to his clear physical advantage, but the half-masked opponent was keeping up, toe to toe, with this fast paced battle. Both had their quirks, it seemed, both had their own respective alluring factors about themselves. It was still hard to tell who really had the advantage in this spar, both were showcasing admirable ability and clever usage of varying skills. Unfortunately his perfect birds-eye view of the training grounds was rudely interrupted by some demonic sprite, imp? Whatever it was, it was in his way.

“Hey~! Weird guy watching kids! I want to have a talk with ya!” With a single raised brow Kaen's attention was pulled away from the scuffle below. The otherwise curious look quickly turned to frustration coupled with furrowed brows. Pushing himself to a fully upright position he would turn his focus towards the strange creature, taking a final long drag from his cigarette he would flick the butt to the ground and squish it under his foot. "Who the hell you calling weird?" Kaen would steal a glance at the spar below and witness the young swordsman pull of an expertly timed dodge-counter attack. The half-masked puppeteer would respond in kind with a devastating projectile attack that riddled the swordsman. Nearly having forgotten about his visitor Kaen would begrudgingly pull his focus away from the fight again. "Look, I'm kinda busy here. What do you need?" He obviously wasn't busy, only referring to his interest in the fight below. Kaen was fully unaware of who this little creature belonged to, but he wasn't so rude as to just tell her to kick rocks. He would hear her out so long as she didn't cause too much of an disruption to his viewing pleasure.

 

[Toraono Michino]

“I’m callin’ you weird, weirdo- hey! Pay attention!” the small imp demanded after Kaen had shifted his attention back towards the two boys fighting below.
Michino couldn’t blame him. He had all but forgotten about the red-head on the roof tops above or that he had sent Owari to parlay with the stranger. His purple irises were intently focused on watching Koto as he followed the boy’s attacks with some difficulty. His ears had caught the youth’s self incantation of the sword style he was using. Was this something he just came up with? Was it something he always had? The technique being displayed wasn’t some run-of-the-mill sword style. Michino, a teacher of these warriors, could just barely follow Koto, and wasn’t surprised when he landed a glancing blow against his target. The giant shifted his arms across tightly across his chest, intently watching Hokori’s response.
The other boy didn’t counter with much fear or panic to the technique being displayed or the cut on his shirt. Instead he switched puppets and launched a different kind of attack, one that seemed like a far more offensive tactic compared to his previous; it also appeared to be working. Michino lifted a hand to rub his chin again in consideration to the puppet techniques being displayed. There was a lot more use for the combat style than he had originally given it credit for, but, then again there hadn’t been a proper puppet master in some years. Hokori could be a rising genius and they were all getting the honor of seeing it.

“Yeah, look, I’d rather not be up here either. It’s cold, you see what I’m wearing? I’m more like, an afternoon demon. Anyways, yeah, that giant dude down there with the long ears? His name is Michino and is a teacher here wondering who you are and why you’re so…intent on these kids.”
Owari didn’t bother with the fight below. She really couldn’t care for much more than doing what was asked and returning back into the safe space inside of Michino’s skull. Or, actually, maybe pop back over to the Youkai realm and grab breakfast. She doubted anything would escalate beyond the two kids fighting and if it did, well, her brother had gotten better at controlling his blood. However all this waited on Kaen’s response, and low-key she was wondering if it would of just been a better idea to drag him down to Michino using Gravity. Ah well, hindsight and what all.

 

[Raizo]

He was lost to the rest of the ongoings in the area, mainly because it was matters that did not concern him. His focus was still locked squarely on the two young combatants. Cognizant enough to not be a huge distraction, he would still find himself calmly reacting to the action of the ongoing battle.

"How many launchers does he have?!"

The two, even at this stage in their young shinobi careers, were displaying skills that he would consider unique. The art of puppetry was something that rarely any Ryuzaki took upon themselves to learn. It was an art that seemed to act in conflict with some of the more traditional warrior beliefs of the clan. That wasn't to say that puppeteers weren't in the clan, just that they weren't as well known or vast in number.

"And that other one... that strange chakra..."

It was hard to get a firm grasp on it, as the boy seemed to be using the power in a way that made it hard to really track. It was almost like he was warping the area around him, but without getting more involved it would be hard to tell whether that was a more complex power or if it was merely the emission of steam and/or fire. He could give off those faint after images too but doubted his steam induced images were anything in the same realm as this child's power.

Then there was his use of lightning. It wasn't strange to see Ryuzaki harness the power of electricity, but the boy had just used it suddenly for a surprise attack.

"This is great!" he would quietly exclaim to himself.

 

[Kaen]

“Yeah, look, I’d rather not be up here either. It’s cold, you see what I’m wearing? I’m more like, an afternoon demon. Anyways, yeah, that giant dude down there with the long ears? His name is Michino and is a teacher here wondering who you are and why you’re so…intent on these kids.”

Turning to look at see what the imp was actually wearing Kaen would chuckle. "Is your kind restricted to what you are allowed to wear? Seems more like you just left in a rush and didn't pay any mind to what time it was." He would again laugh as he lightly mocked the tiny demon. "For real though, Michino sounds very familiar. We might know each other, yet I can't recall from where. I prefer not playing this little game of telephone, so I'll just go down there for myself." With that Kaen would waste no time and place a single foot on the edge of the balcony and push himself off leaving a small plume of dust in his wake.

With a subtle thud Kaen would land a short distance away from Michino, hands in pocket so as not to cause the over-sized man to think Kaen a threat. "Oy! Your miniature demon said you wanted to talk to me. Do I know you?" Kaen would keep his distance and proceeded to lean up against a large wooden post and keep watching the scuffle on the training grounds.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Owari stopped in her tracks with a weird scrunched up look on the imp’s face. Why did she dress like this? In fact, this form she was in now, all small in seemingly powerless, wasn’t the same one she held in the Youkai realm. Why the hell not? Did Michino summon her in this way because of the sibling thing? She glared down suddenly at the man below,

“Yeah…I need to have a talk with him later too…” the demon muttered before exploding into a cloud of steam and chakra.

Michino almost didn’t hear Kaen land nearby or even him call out the giant. He even looked around for a second trying to find who called him, dazed by the amazing fight going on before he remembered that Owari had went to see who was on the roof. A part of him had hoped that she would of just run the guy off, but a sudden angry pulling in the back of his head told him the demoness had already left. The Toraono’s cat-like eyes scanned over the man and couldn’t help but get a sense of recognition from Kaen. Something about his presence in general told him that, even though he didn’t know the man’s name, they had met before. There was only so many ways they could have met, and the red-head didn’t seem outwardly threatening at first introduction so, he couldn’t be from the Underground. Which meant…

“Aye, we’ve fought alongside each other at least. Toraono Michino, running candidate for the Clan Head. I don’t know you by name but, now up close you look incredibly familiar. I believe we’ve at the very least felt each others’ powers on the battlefield during the Swarm’s attack. Weapons striking the air returned his attention to the two sparring,
“You’ll have to forgive me, I’m a teacher here and I have to keep an eye on those who might poach our students for darker means. Suna has come a long way, but, there are still those who would bring harm to such potential as these children, even in these times. We must remain vigilant in protecting our soldiers, no matter what stage of training or age.”

The giant’s eyes danced with cat-like excitement as he reached out to grip his staff and stand up straight again. It was nearing time to stop them before it got out of hand.

 

[Kaen]

“Aye, we’ve fought alongside each other at least. Toraono Michino, running candidate for the Clan Head. I don’t know you by name but, now up close you look incredibly familiar. I believe we’ve at the very least felt each others’ powers on the battlefield during the Swarm’s attack. Mention of the Unbent attack on the wall that had transpired recently was just the catalyst he needed to jog his memory. While he did not directly interact with this man he most certainly fought on the battlefield with him, among many others. “You’ll have to forgive me, I’m a teacher here and I have to keep an eye on those who might poach our students for darker means. Suna has come a long way, but, there are still those who would bring harm to such potential as these children, even in these times. We must remain vigilant in protecting our soldiers, no matter what stage of training or age.” Kaen would nod along as the oversized pirate explained what his occupation was and the duties that came along with it. In truth Kaen agreed with him, the future of the village would essentially depend on these young shinobi.

"I agree," He would start, hopefully pulling the looming man's attention from the fight for a brief moment. "These students are the future of Sunagakure, we won't be around forever. As for the poaching, I can't say that's not entirely what i'm doing here. But I am scouting, under orders of course. I figured the academy was a good place to start, see if any individuals would be candidates for future placements in our system." He needed to be as vague as possible but not to the point where he would want to pry further. He was telling the truth, just not the whole truth. He couldn't outright say 'I'm from the Anbu trying to look for recruits', now could he? In an attempt to not let Michino dwell on the thought for too long he would extend a hand outwards, for a handshake of course. "The name's Shinku Kaen, bannerman to Lord Sousuke." Should he take his hand in his own Michino would immediately feel the heat that naturally radiated from his body. The temperature would not be scalding by any means, but it would still be uncomfortably hot. Releasing his grip after a few good shakes he would nod towards the students they had both been observing. "So who are they? Anyone of note, or just up and coming shinobi to be? Rare to see such puppetry skills at so young an age, the swordsman isn't too bad either." Just simple conversation, with a side order of gathering intel for future use, no biggie.

 

[Toraono Michino]

I don’t know a lot about these two actually. They’re new students, I’ve seen them for maybe two week so far. They haven’t even began my Survival class and look at them already! One is of the clan that just made the big weapon deal with Suna, the swordsmen is from a clan outside of Suna, part of the Wilds. That…that is all I know. Oh! Okay, looks like it’s time to stop the fight,” the instructor said as the fight began to tilt to one side. A flame of purple demonic flame shot out of his left stump and formed into a leg that allowed the gigantic Toraono move towards the boys quicker than his normal hops. He didn’t look back at the red-head afterwards as he slipped right back into his role as a military teacher. He was proud of them both. They had signs of becoming incredibly strong shinobi in the future and Michino swore right then he would do everything he could to help either. The sword user he could outright train, and for the puppet master…well, he knew a certain old assassin itching to train a more proper apprentice.

[topic left]

 

[Kaen]

"Sure to be prominent shinobi one day. But yes, tend to your students. I appreciate your time today, Michino. I imagine our paths will cross again in the future." The massive Toraono, with incredible speed, approached the sparring pair to halt the fight. Kaen would let his gaze linger a moment later before he himself disappeared in the blink of an eye. Only a small plume of smoke remained in his stead as he left the scene.


[Topic Left]