The time to Strike! [Open]

[Juzo]

The pair traveled from the dusty old closet down to the Academy. Within they found an area designated for students to train at. This particular area was very plain and obviously for the younger students like themselves. It lacked the fire burns and scars of the area for older shinobi. It had no real cover and was moderately lit. The area was approximately sixty by sixty feet and had hewn stone floors and thick columns holding up a weathered wooden roof. Juzo always wondered why the roofs were made from wood. Perhaps it was something from a time before they migrated underground?

He was unsure, having never been to the surface, but he was excited to find out one day.

"I bet you thirty yen that I can master the transformation jutsu before you do," the boy blurted out as they arrived. He turned to look at his new companion with a fierce determination in his eyes. "You do know the basics of how to do the transformation jutsu, don't you?"

While Juzo couldn't yet replicate the technique he did understand what it was he was trying to accomplish as well as how to do it. He just continued to fail at actually completing the activity. Theory was easy, performing was hard.

 

[Hanone]

Little Han played follow the leader with the blue haired boy from the scroll locker all the way to the academy grounds. It wasn't particularly far from where they had been previously so little conversation passed between the two until they arrived at the training yard. Hanone stepped into the wide, very large 'room' and almost heard an echo from her footsteps. It was very wide and very empty.

Her male companion broke the silence first, immediately challenging his school-peer to a test of skill. Challenge was always welcome to Hanone. She had a fiery spirit and a desperate desire to prove herself worthy, perhaps not to the boy, but definitely to herself. She knew what a shinobi should be, she had a vision of what kind of amazing ninja she would become someday. In fact, she was going to be the kazekage!

Smiling devilishly at the prospect of competition and meeting Juzo's orangy gaze, the girl yelled "You're on!" Of course.. that's when her face turned a bright shade of red, almost rivaling the tone of her tresses. She... didn't know how to do a transformation jutsu. In fact she'd never even tried before.

"Erm. I've never tried before though." her bright eyes averted to a far wall. "Don't suppose you have a book or something?"

 

[Juzo]

Juzo grinned a boyish grin. "This will be simple then. Prepare to lose!"

His little hands were brought up into what he thought looked like an impressive handseal. Some sort of transitional handseal between boar and dragon. It did nothing. "You use the hand signs for.... the dog, boar and ram. Then apply some chakra and...."

From his initial clumsy handseal he slowly paced through the three necessary handseals. They were still fairly new to him and it was hard to remember the slight differences between each hand sign. But as he hit the third sign he applied chakra, in the wrong way, and then conjured a large cloud of smoke around himself. When it faded he looked.... sort of.... like Hanone. But really it was like a limp noodle version of the girl and he quickly fell to the floor breathing in harsh short breaths.

"Uhhhhhn," he gasped as his back came into contact with the floor, "that didn't go as well as I had planned it....."

 

[Hanone]

Han's face turned downward into a frown which gave her a fairly mean look and she crossed her arms. Juzo was going to win and she was going to look like an idiot. She didn't like him at all. Mr. book-boy was so good at...

She had been wallowing in her grumpiness when Juzo's attempt to recreate the transformation jutsu did nothing at all. A small sweatdrop formed at her temple and she pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh. Mister big-talk was more like it. A lot less threatened by his words, she watched with more interest and less disdain as he tried again. Dog, sort of boar and... no that wasn't really a very good ram sign either.

POOF! Smoke rose up, and cleared only to reveal....

Han's jaw dropped and her face turned that bright red again! Just look at that version of her! She looked like a melty ghost! This time, there was no helping it... she bust into a laugh! Her laugh was loud and gleeful, ringing loudly throughout the room. Juzo landed on his back and returned to himself roughly.

"No kidding! That was t-terrible!" she said, wiping her eye with her small hand. Slowly her laughing abated and she poked at Juzo with the toe of her sandal. "Okay, okay, my turn!" Hanone had been practicing the handsigns carefully for the last two years. She was very proud of her forms. Mina-sensei had said she made the best handsigns in the class, so she took some pride in performing them to near perfection before Juzo, albeit slowly.

Dog. Boar. Rat. Wait.. what? She didn't think about it until it was too late. She pushed a heavy flow of chakra into the 'jutsu' and ended up blowing herself backwards. She landed hard on her butt in a swirl of smoke that wisped away quickly, revealing Han with a blackened face and hair pushed back from her face like spikes. All that was clearly visible on her face were the startled, blinking eyes.

Well... that was interesting.She shot a death glare at Juzo, daring him to laugh.

 

[Juzo]

"Let's see you do better...." the young man muttered as he rose to his feet. The "transformation" "jutsu" wearing off as he did so. And while his companion laughed it up Juzo decided to think about what he had just done. What error had he made again?

"I had the signs correct?" Internally he thought back to the hand signs. They looked good and he moved forward with his train of thought, "did I envision who I was going to turn into?" The mental image he had used was the girl standing in front of him. Due to extremely sharp vision he was able to get a good look at her face immediately and that meant he had two frames of reference for this attempt. So it was unlikely this was a part of the problem. "Did I build up enough chakra?" The young man started to think about it but then Hanone was blasted backwards!

Before she even had a chance to finish her glare he had erupted in laughter. Juzo was still slightly winded from slamming into the floor. So between each burst of laughter he was forced to quickly inhale which gave his laugh an usual quality. Somewhere between pathetic and comedic.

"I don't even know how you did that!" He finally yelled out as his laughter came to an end. "Okay well, maybe this will be easier to figure out with someone else."

He moved closer and offered a hand to help her up. "If we look at what we both did wrong then we can figure this out twice as fast," he stated plainly but with a jovial tone, clearly put at ease.

 

[Hanone]

Han wanted to be mad, really she did, but she found her sour face melting away (somewhat like Juzo's transformation had?) and she was back to laughing. Her mirth mingled with his and she laid herself back on the solid floor, spreading her ashen arms out wide. Her laughing subdued with little hiccups here and there as the boy exclaimed his surprise at her epic failure. She was just as taken back as he was.

Bet she couldn't even replicate it again. "Ya, probably." she agreed, thinking they could use the aid of someone older or at least with a little more experience.

All of Hanone's guarded or defensiveness about the boy was gone. She felt an easy friendship forming and only lamented for a moment she hadn't bothered to speak to the boy earlier. Smiling, she extended a dusty hand and clasped down on his own offered one, allowing him to pull her to her feet. A quick shake of the head loosened the spiky mess, but the dark face would require further cleaning later.

She was about to suggest they work through the handseals slowly, maybe in unison when a mean laugh erupted toward the north end of the training room, followed swiftly by a softer, yet just as mean giggle. Han's face lost it's amusement and ease and her expression was replaced with a tight, angry one. She knew those laughs. Scowling, she looked away toward the floor. "Great..." she muttered, taking a step to the side, unconsciously putting Juzo between herself and the voices.

From behind a pillar, a tall boy and slightly smaller girl emerged. They were wearing matching colors, had similar faces and even had the same nasty grin. Clearly twins. "Nice going Han-chan. That had to be the dumbest attempt at a transformation jutsu that I've ever seen!" The boy spoke, teasing her harshly.

The girl grinned, wrinkling up her nose in a puglike fashion. She agreed by drawing out a long 'yaaaaaa' in response to her brother's tease.

Hanone sunk further behind Juzo and said nothing as both twins began to approach. They both were wearing their new, shiny genin forehead protectors at their waists, 'fashionably' rather than functionally and if you had to guess, the boy even seemed to be pushing his hips out too far for comfort, as if to say 'here's my genin badge!!' He was almost a foot taller than Juzo and his sister was maybe a few inches more. They were both at least 2 years older than the younger students.

They stopped maybe 5 feet away from Juzo and Han and the boy exclaimed loudly, "Who's this, Han-chan? Your boyfriend?" He sneered at Juzo and tapped his foot. His sister copied him.

Spoiler

 

[Juzo]

Juzo didn't seem bothered, intimidated or even aware of the situation. In fact his expression was relatively blank but peaceful as he stopped his laughter and focused on the approaching pair. Clearly newly graduated students who now bore the mark of a genin. His mind evaluated the situation like he had learned while he did his best to remain off-the-radar. "They clearly all know each other. And it is now obvious why she didn't want me to call her Han-chan. Must be a long running rivalry of some sort. Maybe she doesn't know how she comes off to other people...."

When the boy finally referenced Juzo he knew that it had to happen sooner or later. It had given him enough time to get a few points figured out. Without changing his expression he broached the conversation, "I think..."

"....you should leave. Now."

Even his tone of voice was 'flat' when he spoke to them. Normally a genin headband would have told him that he needed to be more careful with how he dealt with this duo. But he had also noticed the way they held themselves just to accentuate the headbands at their waists and that made him think they were proud of their new toys. So if anything they were pretty close in skill. So when it came down to it he found no reason to be feel inferior.

 

[Hanone]

Han's hand had found its way to her mouth, a half curled fist with the side of her index finger touching her lip. It was an subconscious gesture one made when they were scared or upset and trying to comfort themselves in an uncomfortable situation. She did not like this kids. They had been her tormentors for several years, neighboring children that had spent their younger years making fun of her, pulling her hair and stealing her things when they were younger. As they got older, they had broken her possessions and even hit her a few times, leaving her bruises and black eyes.

It was a childish fear of hers, one she had never known how to put aside. Your bullies are always your bullies, right?

So her gaze had followed their approach and stayed fixed firmly on either twin as they came close enough to touch basically until Juzo spoke up. Something changed in him and her gaze shifted over from her enemies to the boy's face. From her position she could only really glimpse the skin of his cheek, but for the most part his hair and ear were in her line of sight.

He wasn't afraid of those two at all. Not one bit. Though he was short, shorter than her and much smaller than the other two, he seemed like a giant in the room to her. How could he be so confidant and calm?

Clearly she wasn't the only one surprised by his calm, dominant demeanour. The older twin's face split into a frown and a small bead of sweat formed at his temple. The girl, however, either hadn't really taken notice of Juzo's seriousness or didn't care and took one step forward, her index finger extended. "You sure think you're tough, little boy. I should teach you a lesson in manners! In fact, why don't you apologize to me and my brother, hm? Little worm boy and his girlfriend!" she teased and laughed cruelly.

 

[Juzo]

Juzo didn't seem angry when he spoke. In fact, he wondered what the pair before himself thought at his little act. Did they take it seriously? It was hard to tell because the male had a small response and the sister had no response. Perhaps he needed to dial it up a notch. "This is a private session. I'm afraid you two are going to have to leave or else you'll need to pay me to stay," he kept his tone serious but not overly serious. It didn't need to be played up that much. Mostly because it would likely expose his hand to them. That would likely result in more violence than Juzo felt like dealing with.

"Do you two even know who I am?" he spoke as if it was foolish of them not to know, "I am the son of a great Sunan shinobi!"

 

[Hanone]

Han probably should have kept out of it, but with the calm demeanor of her companion, she felt a lot of courage build up within her. She stepped out from behind Juzo and dropped her hands showing allowing them to rest back at her sides.

The girl twin didn't seem impressed by Juzo's declaration and flat st the ground. "Sure he is. disbelieving "probably just a great big pig like Han-chans mom and dad.

Without hesitation, Han spoke up, "And you're a cow, Yuri! . It felt good. Yuri certainly wasn't impressed and almost jumped on Han, if not for her brothers quick reaction. He gripped down on his sister's middle, stopping her quite effectively. With a snarl of indignation, the girl was tossed back toward where they'd come from and the boy took the chance to respond, pointing his own finger at Han. "You asked for it Han Chan. You better watch your back. he shot Juzo small, nervous look then started to leave himself. Apparently he took everything here stupidly even if his sister had not.

They left almost as quickly as they came and Han rounded on Juzo when the two were out of sight."I think you made them nervous. Um. Thanks....

Would you have fought them if they attacked us?"

 

[Juzo]

Juzo waited until they were out of sight before responding to his new companion. When he did his face dropped from his stoic expression and cracked a grin. "I would have fought but I don't think I would have won." The boy let out a short laugh and held his hands back in the awkward hand sign he had used before, the one that didn't actually mean anything. "But they didn't need to know that!"

"Now, lets focus on our training! We need to work hard if we don't want to get trampled under foot," Juzo said enthusiastically before dropping his ridiculous hand sign. At that point the academy student asked a more personal question, even if it ran counter to continuing their training. "Who were they anyway?"

The young mans hand fell to the first sign, that of the dog, while he waited for an answer from his peer. After she answered he would try to focus the hand sign and see if they could logically work through what they had done wrong. With the two of them working in conjuction they could test different methods twice as fast. Juzo liked those numbers. Especially when one took into consideration that he had, thus far, done most of his training solo. It felt nice not to be alone for once.

 

[Hanone]

It was such a relief they had left. The tenseness in her body washed aside and she found herself counting her little lucky stars nothing worse had happened. They were just so mean, those two.

The prospect of returning to working on their training was one most welcomed, though her hands shook a little when she brought them up before herself and placed them into the first handsign like her blue haired companion. "Well, I'm glad you scared them off then. I know I couldn't have won." She hadn't really planned to bring up more than that about her adversaries, but Juzo pushed the matter a little by asking how she knew them, or rather, who they were.

For a quiet moment Han looked at at the back of her left hand where it sat upon her right fist, placed in the sign for 'dog' as she contemplated how to respond. She didn't really know Juzo at all, friendly as he might be and companionable as well. It actually made her feel more apprehensive because what would he think of her after the telling? He'd probably laugh at her.

Finally she sighed and gave in, "Yuri and Yuki. They are my neighbors. Mom and dad used to have their mom babysit me when I was little." She shifted her hands, carefully making the next sign; boar. She pressed the heels of her hands together and flipped them upside down. "They've always been mean. Since their dad was a shinobi, he taught them a lot of things and they would practice what they learned on me. I mean, at first they said it was a game, but after a while I knew they weren't playing. Their mom was always busy with her crafts so she had us 'play' outside a lot. They're two years older than me."

"Even though I stopped going over when I started the academy at 8, they still would attack me whenever they got the chance. Yuri broke my pinky finger once, on purpose." Reflexively her right pinky finger twitched from the memory. Han was sad, she didn't like thinking about them and she dreaded going outside by her own home, which is why she ended up spending more and more time at her parents' bakery.

She moved her hands into the last position; ram, which was one of the hardest. She did it pretty easily though because she was good at handsigns! "I'm gonna beat them both one day." with determination, she focused chakra and looked directly up into Juzo's face.

POOF! a cloud of smoke. As the smoke cleared, there stood a pretty close imitation of Juzo. He was a little gimpy and his left eye was a little smaller than his right... and his hair was purple but it was almost there! She held it for a moment then released the jutsu, returning to herself in another poof of smoke. She smiled huge, a very white toothy grin and said, "Beat that."

 

[Juzo]

Juzo frowned. Her second attempt was much better and they hadn't even verbally worked through what they had done wrong! The young man knew he had to do better this time or else he would look like a fool. The boy had a moment of hyping himself up internally before he would commit to a second try. "Just have... to.... know.... I can..... do it."

Slowly he moved through the handsigns again while watching his companion. This time the cloud of smoke popped up again and when it descended a crude Hanone look-alike stood in his place. This one had bulbous lips and squinty eyes. Clearly a poor impersonation of the girl before himself. With a sigh he spoke, "Well your doing better at this than I am. I think you'll be able to handle those two jerks very soon!"

In that moment he dropped the poor illusion and sat down, "What am I doing wrong here?!"

 

[Hanone]

Han was surprised that she was beating the boy with transformation. She kinda wanted the 30 yen but then... he had said mastered the jutsu to win it. He was actually much closer this time than last time, probably on par with what she just did! Course she tried not to wince at those terrible fish lips. She probably would have punched anyone else...

So she plopped down next to him, bumping her shoulder against his in the process. "You did really good." she said, hoping she didn't sound patronizing but instead encouraging. "I have been practicing my handseals for like foooorreevver so I have them down pretty good. You do dog and boar okay, but your ram is a little off. Here, put your hands up into the sign and I'll help you." she said, smiling a bit. If he would do as bid, she would help move his hands into a proper position, if not, well then she'd just wait until he decided that he wanted to do next. She was sure with the proper handseals he was going to get this down before her.

"I'm really bad at chakra control, I usually use too much the teacher says. I think you probably use just the right amount."

 

[Juzo]

Juzo allowed the girl to mold his hands into the proper ram symbol. It seemed like his pinky fingers were at an odd angle before. "Like this?"

Maybe this was the tweak he needed! But before he applied chakra he took a moment to evaluate the situation. It would be foolish to rush into it too eagerly. First he made sure he was doing everything else in the proper order. Dog; looked solid, boar; definitely good, and then the ram symbol which Hanone had corrected. That definitely felt correct as well. Now he just needed to focus his chakra in the right way....

Poof.

And there before Hanone stood Juzo with a near perfect imitation of the girl. It seemed the ram symbol had been holding him back. With a mirror grin he spoke, "Controlling my chakra was never the difficult part for me. But it looks like I need to practice my handsigns more." The boy rubbed the back of his head. Mid swish of his hair he transformed back and tried not to appear too sheepish. "Thanks for that. It has been catching me up for a week now."

 

[Hanone]

She was really happy to see that she'd figured out his problem. Now if only there was a way for him to help her, but that wouldn't be possible probably. He couldn't teach her how to control the flow of her chakra better.. that would just be practice and more practice (so says their teacher).

The copy of herself was near perfect and though she wasn't happy about losing the bet, it was awesome to see him manage to master the jutsu already. He was really talented... She wanted to be that talented...

When the boy returned to himself with a hand pushing through his now blue hair, she realized she was standing very close to him (having fixed his hands moments before) and was able to notice the brownish and yellowish parts of his iris that added to the orange effect of his eyes and found herself flustered a bit. Too close! She hopped away from him laughing maybe just a bit too loudly, "Haha..ha! Well I guess you win this round, booky. I don't have yen on me so you should come to my family's bakery, I can get you money from there. Do you... want to meet me there later? Maybe around 4?" She was ready to leave anyway.

Meeting up with bullies, practicing jutsus and losing competition was a little draining anyway.

 

[Juzo]

Juzo thought about it. He had sort of forgot about the bet and really wasn't that worried about the money. It wouldn't help him become a better shinobi. So he shook his hands, "No, no that is alright. I just wanted there to be some motivation for us. Maybe you could just get me something nice from the bakery. Call it even?"

Otherwise he seemed to be agreeing with her arrangement. The boy hadn't brought anything as far as he remembered so he didn't need to collect anything before leaving. Instead he held his hand out for a hand shake, the universal sign of peace. "And I am sure you will get it down soon. My family says it gets easier as you grow up."

Then he thought about the short interactions they had had today. "Definitely interesting....."

"And really good that I was able to get transformation jutsu down better. I'll be able to practice on my own time and perfect it before the exam. Maybe I can try to get my genin rank sooner!" Internally he found himself excited and ready to face his next challenge.

 

[Hanone]

Hanone raised her hands and waved them before her, then said, "A bet's a bet, Juzo. I always keep my word, so I'll get you 30 yen worth of baked goods!" Then she dropped the one and extended the other, clasping her hand to his, accepting his handshake.

She liked that. It felt respectful and a little personal, unlike the usual bow their culture would have said was traditionally the way they would have said goodbye/hello/whatever. And he was treating her like an equal this way too. It made her beam and she flashed the boy a very white, toothy grin. "Ya, you're right. I'll be the most badass ninja ever." she was joking... and not.

With a little last squeeze of her fingers, she let go of his hand and turned tail to leave. She started to jog toward the door and waved over her shoulder. "Don't forget. 4! It's at the corner by the import market." Which was a very very large establishment in the shopping center. Everything people wanted in Suna that couldn't be found in a desert was usually shipped in and oftentimes, it ended up at the import market. It had an official name, but that's what everyone called it.

Hopefully the boy would come.

mft
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