Kumogakure Team 1 Meeting {P}

It had been sometime since Ukita, chuunin of Kumogakure and self proclaimed samurai warrior, washed his hands of the bloody business of being a shinobi. Alas, it would seem as if fate had other plans for the wayward shinobi as recently he had found himself short of ryo and with tons of free time. In fact, he found retirement rather boring, sure, he had continued to practice everyday with his sword-he thought as it more of a pastime than anything else. However, he now found himself needing to take up the mantle of shinobi once more. His first order of business was to get back to leading a team.

Before he retired from shinobi life he had been assigned a team, but it would seem as if that team had been disbanded, understandably so. Thus, Ukita found himself assigned a new batch of genin. He had glanced over their files casually, but did not put much stock in them as what were pieces of paper compared to actually meeting people. So many many people put far too much stock in files and numbers, but when it really came down to it all that really mattered was one’s conviction. To ascertain his genin’s conviction and skill Ukita had sent out a letter to each of them, which detailed where to meet and the reason for the meeting. The reason given in the letter was simple: to introduce each other and get acquainted. Naturally Ukita planned to do much more than just that, but he did not mention it in his letter.

As for the place where they were to meet? The training grounds of Kumogakure. In fact, it was this very place where Ukita was walking. His long strides sent echos down the empty alleyways as he made his way through the cobbled streets. It took only a matter of minutes for the young chuunin to arrive at the training grounds and to his satisfaction there was not a soul in sight. In the center of this particular training ground there stood a tree about five meters tall and with a girth of one meter. It was by no means a large tree, but like those that trained around it; it was slowly growing. Walking up to the tree Ukita took a seat cross legged and leaned his back up against the tree’s trunk taking special care to make sure not to damage the sword that hung on his left hip..

Now, came the boring part: waiting. In waiting Ukita gazed upwards at the grey overcast sky, well what parts were not obscured by the tree’s lush green canopy. He had hoped for better weather, but alas it was not meant to be and the ominous clouds covered up the no doubt obscured Ukita’s view of the early morning sun. As he gazed up at the clouds a slight breeze blew by sending a chill up his spine despite the fact that he was wearing regal samurai armor. In the back of his mind Ukita felt a bit of apprehension. He was never a real leader, but it would seem he was now thrust into a position of leadership with no real direction. He was not too sure he was up to the challenge, but then again it would seem only time would tell.

Luka would have been getting ready to go pick up some groceries for that night's dinner in the institute as each child took turns every night cooking and it was his turn that night, he wanted to be prepared even if it was a bit early to go shopping for dinner. Just as he took a step out side of the facility, a man seemed to have just arrived with a letter addressing Luka specifically, so he politely thanked the messenger and waved him off. Luka would then continue to tear off the top of the envelope and pull out the paper content. Reading it he understood that he was finally put onto a Genin squad and that he was to meet up with this new team at the training grounds to get to know each other and discuss future plans. Although it was not written on the paper, Luka supposed that there was also a chance that they would spar, which was always great to get to know each other's abilities from a first hand position. That way they could work out team strategies and things they could do to benefit each other's techniques. For example if one person was a wind user and the other was a fire user they could use a collaboration technique where the fire attack was enhanced by the wind.

Completely letting the necessity of having to go shopping pass through his mind, he set off towards the training grounds. He was so excited that he was literally skipping in the said direction, gracefully leaping over anything in his path which included rocks, people, and not trees. He finally arrived at the border of the training grounds, going from one area to the next he would finally notice a man in full armor with a sword tied around his waist sitting against a tree. To Luka, this man looked fairly important, could it have been that he was a knight? Luka knew of no such things so he just supposed that the man was a strong swordsmen, but thinking back on the letter, it had said to meet here, so there was a slight chance that this man was a part of his team and an even greater chance that he was their leader since he seemed a bit older. Luka would then approach the man from where he had been standing, about ten meters in front of the man and asked, "Would you by any chance be a part of the Kumogakure Team 1 Shinobi?" If the man were to say yes, Luka would continue, "Well nice to meet you! I'm Luka!" A grin spreading across his face as he put both arms behind his head. The man seemed to be fairly tall even from a sitting position which made Luka a bit nervous since he was so short and young, but he tried to not that bother him.

Kiwoharu had been preparing his new equipment for training when he was given the letter by his parents after they received it from a messenger. He opened it carefully, and then read the contents thoroughly. He had been assigned to a team and he was to meet up with them at the training grounds. Despite the wording, he was certain to prepare himself for anything, bringing all of his recently acquired equipment with him. He strapped the wakizashi to his right hip, and placed his senbon in various places near his arms so that he could easily reach them in a combat situation.

Then he left home and headed toward the training grounds. His pace was a deliberate, quick walk, but he didn't run or skip, conserving energy for later. He entered the training grounds at this pace, wondering what his teacher and teammates would be like. As he was training to be a medical ninja, he would be responsible for their well-being. It would also be good to know their specialties so that he would know how to work with them best. If another used fire ninjutsu, he would have to train to use wind jutsu so that he could augment their flames. Wind was his natural element, but he actually hadn't spent a lot of time learning jutsu for it, as he had been focusing on his medical ninjutsu studies.

He arrived in an area with a tree at its center. Near the tree sat a man dressed in an unusual set of armor, as well as a sword. He then noticed a boy he had seen at least once before begin to talk to the man. If Luka received the positive answer he was looking for, Kiwoharu would approach to the same distance. "I am Kiwoharu Kimishima. Pleased to meet you." He said with a slight bow. He was really oddly formal and serious for a kid, but maybe there was more to him than this if one met him away from missions or training grounds or spars.

At the sound of a voice Ukita's head came out of the clouds as he looked upon one who, according to the files he was give, was named Luka. Ukita's face remained stoic as he gazed at the young genin. In response to Luka's simple question Ukita stood and then spoke in a clear crisp voice like an icy mountain creek, "Indeed, my name is Ukita Hideyasu." He did not bother to explain that he was the leader as he had included his name in the letters he sent out, so he would let them connect the dots.

Like any good natured kid would Luka introduced himself, which Ukita was pleased with. He did not want to have to deal with a bunch of immature brats, because, well, there were quite a few of those within the village of Kumogakure. Shortly after Luka introduced himself another boy introduced himself as Kiwoharu Kimishima. Nodding once to the boy a brief and fleeting smile passed over Ukita's face as he spied the sword that hung on Kiwoharu's right hip. The positioning of the sword interested Ukita immensely as it meant one of two things: one the genin was a swordsmen who used his left hand or two he had no idea what he was doing as drawing a sword from ones right hip with one's right hand would be rather hard to accomplish in a battle situation. Ukita figured he would find out which in due time.

Internally sighing Ukita noted that these two were on time while the third member of the team was no where to be seen. Not one to wait around for one tardy member Ukita began the little spiel he had been going over in his head for the past couple of day, "Well, as you know this is the first meeting for team 1 of Kumogakure. So, I figure we should take this time to get to know each other considering we will be working closely in the foreseeable future. I will start. As I mentioned before, my name is Ukita Hideyasu and I am a chuunin. I have lived in Kumogakure for my entire life. And, I currently specialize in the art of taijutsu, but also am fairly skilled with my sword." Finishing up Ukita waited for whomever was going to speak up next to speak. Naturally Ukita had left out that his last name was Uchiha as it was not important right now. Plus he much preferred to keep that side of him a secret. While waiting he leaned his back up against the tree once again. However, this time, standing as opposed to sitting.

[I'm really sorry for how long it took me to post. At first it was because I had homework, but then yesterday my friends wanted me to throw a party and they got some hookups for girls, drinks, etc. and I'm not one to decline something like that especially since my parents are gone for a week.]

To Luka's delight the man had in fact was his new team leader as it was stated as such in the letter he had sent out or at least that was the name of whoever had sent the letter, but Luka didn't think about that possibility. He had heard a name and it matched one he saw on the sender of the letter, which was satisfying enough for him. Even if this man was not their team leader, he would surely know the whereabouts of their leader, although hopefully this man was their leader or at least that's how Luka would have wanted it, mostly because of the fact that this man looked like a complete bad ass with his gear and Luka, still a child, was fascinated by anything of the sort. Before the man had continued to speak Luka's imagination had gotten the best of him and he was considering what the man was capable of. He knew that the man had a sword, but having a sword didn't always mean it was simply used as so, Luka had heard stories of people with magic swords and swords that could manifest the user's chakra. He now wanted to see the man in combat, but he wouldn't rush it, he would wait to see if he would initiate a training session first, after all they were to all meet here to learn more about each and what better way than seeing it first hand.

Before Luka could think of some more absurd possibilities of the man's power, his mind would be interrupted by another boy who had arrived and introduced himself as Kiwoharu. Luka had most definitely met this boy on multiple occasions, although he wasn't one to have a great memory and he had already forgotten who this person was, just as he had done the last time he met the boy.  The boy, Kiwoharu, then bowed with formality, which made Luka chuckle to himself, but he smiled and waved at the boy saying, "Nice to meet you!" in a cheerful voice. The boy would have hopefully understood the reason that Luka had forgotten him, which was due to the fact that kid's attention spans were so low. Luka now wanted to know what this boy was capable of too, but Kiwoharu didn't seem much stronger than Luka himself. The only reason Luka supposed so was because his subconscious memory had remembered the last time he saw the boy fighting, but there was always the possibility that he had gotten stronger, even if Luka didn't remember. Luka was hoping that the other member on the team was just as friendly as these two and hopefully strong and unique as Luka loved seeing new things.

Their team leader, Ukita continued to speak clarifying that this was in fact the meeting of Kumogakure Team One and that they should take time to get to know each other a bit better so they could all work more efficiently together in the future to come. Ukita had decided to start and told the two members who were here that he was a Chuunin, he had lived his entire life in Kumogakure, he specializes in taijutsu, and that he is also a decent swordsman. Since he had finished speaking Luka decided it was his turn to speak since he arrived first, "I can use Taijutsu with punching and kicking and everything! It's pretty cool and I'm pretty strong too! I can do a cool thing too, but I'll show you later if we get to spar, I think that would be fun. One of the Taijutsu moves I'm practicing is a cool ancient one that the Raikages used to use. Except I can't go any further in my training with it until I find a partner," he frowned for a moment then continued, "It's called the Lariat, do you guys know about it?" He would then wait for a reply and then let the other boy speak before he continued, he was feeling a bit more comfortable at this point, which meant he was to also be very talkative with energy building up in him.

He watched as the man he already assumed was their leader introduced himself. The name was in the letter, so that just made it even more likely that this man was the leader of their team. For once he had managed to get somewhere where Luka was in time to hear the boy introduce himself. Kiwoharu smiled slightly for a brief moment, returning his wave. "Nice to meet you as well." He understood why the boy kept forgetting him. Not every kid kept, or could keep, a stoic facade up as often as Kiwoharu. He had time to show his real personality when he wasn't on a mission or any other important meeting.

He noticed their leader's eyes pass over his sword. The positioning of the sword was correct for his style. While he had trained himself to be ambidextrous already, he still preferred to use his left hand for most purposes. The third member did not seem to be around, but that fact did not really concern Kiwoharu. If he was late, then that was his problem. If he never showed up, they'd need a third member. Either situation was beyond his control.

First it seemed they would be taking this time to get to know each other. Knowing what each person in his team was capable of would aid his future training greatly. It would direct him as to where he would place emphasis on when training, so that he would complement the others well. He listened to both of them explain their specialties and such. He had guessed correctly that their leader was good with a sword, and the taijutsu specialty wasn't too far off from that. Luka was indeed a taijutsu specialist as he had suspected for a while now. He moved to stand closer to Luka before speaking. "I am learning to be a medical ninja. My primary element is wind, and I plan on learning techniques for it as well. Perhaps I will learn or make something useful for us as a group. I haven't practiced with this sword that much yet, but I know how to use it, at least. Just point the sharp end toward the enemy." He left a joke at the end to show that he wasn't completely humorless or a robot.

He looked toward Luka after thinking about the technique he mentioned for a while. "Yeah, I've heard about it. The two-person version can take off someone's head, right?" The only reason he knew of that one was because they lived in the village where the technique was first invented. And he didn't really know the details of it, nor how to perform it. Plus he'd need to spend a lot of time focusing on taijutsu if he wanted to learn it, given its difficulty.

A Taijutsu specialist and a medical shinobi, Ukita was pretty sure this was going to be an interesting team considering their specialties. In the back of his mind he held out hope that the third team member was still coming, but his instincts told him otherwise. All the same he had listened to each of his team member's introductions and when the time came he responded to Luka's question about the lariat in a rather matter of fact tone, "Indeed I am well acquainted with the lariat technique as I use it as one of my main taijutsu weapons. It is both strong and versatile, but also simple and straightforward...." Noting that he was in charge of moving the meeting along  the young chuunin figured he should move the meeting on into its next stages.

Still leaning against the tree Ukita decided he would give the two genin a choice of what to do. Both choices had their merits as the genin would no doubt know, "Ok, well with the pleasantries out of the way why don't we move onto the more important? You two have two choices. One you can both spar me as a tag team or, two, you may spar each other. The choice is yours." With that Ukita allowed the two genin time to confer. Naturally fighting two versus one would give them experience in fighting together, but on the other hand fighting each other would allow the two team members to better understand each other's strengths and weakness. Ukita was rather interested to see what they would chose.

{Sorry for the meh post. Note this is Ukita, but I am too lazy to switch accounts...}

[Again, I apologize for the time it takes me to post, I am very busy and did not expect it because I thought I was taking simple classes this year.]

Luka had been surprised that they had both heard of his super cool and "new" (to him) technique, he was hoping that they hadn't heard of it so he could show it off in battle as a surprise and catch them off guard with it's sheer power, especially the increased strength version he had been working on. Now that he knew the leader of their team had such a technique, Luka would not stop training until his strength matched that of the man in order to be able to ask him to perform the double lariat with him, but he could possibly bring it up real quick at the end of their meeting, although Luka was a bit impatient and didn't know how long he could keep his question dormant inside his mind. The main thing that had surprised him was that Ukita had mentioned it was one of his main taijutsu weapons, meaning that there could be a possibility that Luka would not be strong enough to match such a person's Lariat unless he were to tone down his strength in their training process which would be ideal for proper training. Luke just hoped he wasn't one of those people who fought his hardest from beginning to end rather than building up over time, otherwise he would get crushed immediately by this man if they were to ever spar one on one.

Luka nodding in acknowledgement of the man's speaking, listened as he continued giving the new recruits two options, they were to either fight against each other in a one on one or together against their leader. This wasn't even a close to tough decision for Luka as he knew he was stronger than the other boy especially since he was somewhat like a support ninja, not as battle oriented as himself. It would not have been fair if he was to fight the other boy, so he decided it would be best to fight with him, so the boy could support Luka against a fight with their leader, so then they could see everyone fight not just the two, which wouldn't have been as interesting. Luka's main goal in this upcoming spar was to push Ukita to his limits if he could even get close to there and see how Kiwoharu could help in the situation. Speaking up before the other boy could and not realizing this, Luka said, "Well, I'd like to see you fight and since Kiwo isn't completely battle ready, since he is a medical ninja," completely going off assumptions he would continue, "I think we should be on a team, I really wanna see what you can do, I hope you're really strong, that makes things more fun and that's the only way I can get stronger right?"Quoting the professor he would say, "The only way one can get stronger is if one fights one who is stronger." If Kiwo were to agree, Luka would wait to see Ukita's reply and then get into his battle stance which seemed similar to that of a boxer's stance mixed with a street fighter's stance, his left fist in front of him hovering between his torso and head, his right a little lower and little more back, and his right leg back for support. He was ready and would take action as soon as everyone was ready, hopefully his speed wasn't too much slower than Ukita, so he could actually keep up.

While he might have heard of the technique, he had never personally seen it used, and as such only knew stories of its power. Kiwoharu definitely needed to get stronger before he could truly support his team. Right now his chakra control wasn't high enough to use even the most basic medical jutsu, though he could still manage wounds in other ways. He would try to figure out a wind technique that he could use to support them as well, though he would likely have to train before he could use that either. Right now, he could only support them with what he had.

He nodded slightly as their leader spoke some more. Kiwoharu thought for a bit about their two options. He didn't think that he would be very strong in either case, so he decided to keep silent for now until Luka decided something. At least in the former case he would have Luka on his side instead of against him. He nearly smiled as Luka spoke up fairly soon. He didn't necessarily agree that it was because of his training as a medical ninja, but he didn't say anything about that. He nodded slightly at the boy's suggestion that they should see what their leader should do.

Once Luka was done speaking, he finally said something. "That sounds like a good plan." He then waited for Ukita's reply before getting into his own battle stance. He put his right foot forward and that same hand in front of him in a defensive position, while his left hand neared the sword on his waist. To be honest, he didn't think any attack of his could make it through the man's armor, but if he could find a weak point, he might be able to get through. That'd depend on him actually being quick enough to successfully land a hit though.

Shrugging at both boy's responses Ukita sighed an almost inaudible sigh. This would be interesting to say the least. It had been a real while since Ukita had sparred with anyone, so he hoped that he was not too rusty to be beaten by two genin. All the same the chuunin had no plans to go easy on these two genin- what good would it do them to face an opponent who was holding back? Luka seemed to be the one who would be the main danger, but Ukita did not completely discount the medical ninja like Luka seemed to do- many of the strongest shinobi were medical shinobi.

Mentally preparing himself Ukita reminded himself to not resort to using his sharingan. He always had to remind himself, because he often used it unconsciously- it was hard to deny his lineage, but he tried to do so at every turn. He did not much agree with the advantage the accursed sharingan gave him. It seemed unfair...like nature had given him something others may never have, which was something Ukita thought was wrong.

All the same Ukita was ready for combat. He was no longer leaning against the tree. Instead he stood in front of it with a rather bored look on his face. His hand lay loosely at his sides, but he was ready to react at a moments notice. His feet were placed sturdily on the ground so as to give him a good base for attack or defense. Then once he was ready Ukita spoke in a cool imperious tone, "Let us begin." Ukita was not expecting too much, but perhaps these two genin would be more impressive than a first glance would reveal.

{Sorry, for the uber long wait and mediocre post...next time pm me on this account as I'll reply a hell of a lot faster.}