Wanted: Hyuuga teaching Gentle Fist. (P, IO, NK)

Bar nodded in satisfaction at his advertisement. Short, so the word count for the advertisement was cheap. His personal contact information was attached. All he had to do now was wait, and dodge the inevitable bullies who would be looking for a Hyuuga who couldn't fight back, yet. In the meantime, he could work on puzzling out the Sixty-Four Palms himself.

The two strikes at the beginning, Bar reasoned, had to involve a tenketsu in each of the legs. Cripple their movement, and they couldn't run away from the technique. But which? The next two strikes most likely involved one in each arm, probably a joint. Cripple their defense and offense, and they were essentially helpless. But was it the shoulder or the elbow? The next four tenketsu was a bit fuzzier, but he reasoned it had to be around the solar plexus, the source of bodily energy. Unless they were some four in the head, for the spiritual energy and the next eight were for the cluster in the belly? Bar scratched his chin, considering...

If someone entered now, they'd see Bar standing in front of a blank mannequin, one finger pointing at the locations of various tenketsu in the belly. Obviously they wouldn't be marked, Bar was placing them in his mind.

Haru grunted as a newspaper was thrown in his face.
Wanted: Hyuuga Teaching Gentle Fist was the line that covered his eyes.
”You should go help the kid. There aren’t that many Hyuuga in the city, we need to stick together.” Said the old man who threw the paper at him. Haru’s grandfather.
”Then why don’t you do it? And how the hell did you get into my apartment?” Haru questioned, throwing the paper off his face and sitting up in the couch he was laying in, his nap interrupted.
”The same way you get out.” Responded the man, pointing to the window. ”And it would’t hurt for you to be the teacher for once.”
 
Haru rolled his eyes.
”Fine, old man, but do me a favor and knock next time.” He told him, standing up and walking across the room, donning a sweatshirt, not bothering to put a shirt on underneath it.
”Is that any way to talk to your grandfather?” Chuckled the man. Haru remained silent, tying his headband on clumsily, covering up his sharingan eye with it. Climbing up into the windowsill, Haru hopped down to street level.
 

Within a few minutes, he was at the address he read in the paper. Nothing left to do, but knock. He knocked on the door, waiting for someone to answer it, hopefully this “Bar” guy that put out the ad.

At the first knock, Bar activated his Byakugan. Well, his visitor was a Hyuuga, the strong chakra at his eyes proved that. But one of them looked... odd. "Who is it?"

Haru folded his arms as the boy answered his knock with a question. He would ignore the question, deciding to answer with something that would reveal what exactly he was there for. With his byakugan, he could see that the boy had been hitting the legs of the mannequin he was using to practice the gentle fist. Ah, the brought him back. He remembered learning to fight in just that way. He probably still owed the training towers money for all the broken mannequins.
 
”You shouldn’t aim for the legs in your first two strikes. It leaves your guard down for a counter attack.” He explained to the boy, still standing outside the door. ”Aim for the chest first, it makes it harder for them to counter follow up attacks.” He added, deciding that it was probably okay to come in. He would twist the knob, opening the door.

”The name’s Haru Hyuuga. I saw your ad in the paper. I’m glad to help anyone who doesn’t like the idea of living in that stupid compound.” He would say to Bar, waving in greeting.

Bar waved back, dropping the Byakugan. "I'm Bar. Hmm... The chest? Where, specifically? The heart? The lungs?" Bar would point out likely tenketsu on the mannequin. Bar really wanted to explain his reasoning behind striking the legs first, but at the mention of the compound, Bar couldn't help but flinch, quickly looking at Haru's facial expression, then looking away. Bar's entire manner changed, from the attentive student to a small, frightened child, who had been suffering from far too much neglect. "So, um, how much you asking for lessons?" Bar mumbled, as his throat went dry on him.

At closer examination, Haru might notice that the tenketsu behind the mannequin's knees were also scratched.

Haru stepped into the room, towards the dummy.
”A strike to the gut usually does the trick. You’ll want to adapt your strikes based on the situation.” He would explain. ”If he’s guarding high, go for the gut. If they guard low, go for the neck.” He would add, pointing to the respective spots on the dummy.
 

[olor=grey]”No charge, kid. Like I said, I’m glad to help out.”[/color] He would tell the boy, shaking his head. He didn’t need payment for this kinda thing, he was like a cousin or something, and the last cousin he had met had dropped dead on the spot. Ever since meeting Cheri, Haru had found family very important. ”Do you know any other gentle fist techniques, or have you yet to be taught?” He would inquire, folding his arms.

"No charge?" That was unusual, possibly even suspicious. Like an open wound, Bar's past began bleeding, tainting the present... "You in my old man's Potato Gang? He make you promise to teach me, when I made Genin or something?" While Bar verbally grabbed at straws, he settled into the wide Gentle Fist stance and executed a perfect "Palm Bottom" to the dummy's solar plexus with his right, followed by a Snake Style V-shaped left "fist" to the dummy's carotid, then retreated to a neutral stance. "... And then what? Do I capitalize on his reactions, and pick two other tenketsu, essentially at random? I mean, I know you're supposed to follow that with four tenketsu, then eight, then sixteen, and so on with no repeats, but surely there's some sort of order to follow?"

A thought struck Bar, and he looked at his hand, forming it into an Eagle Claw-style fist. "Master, when performing a strike, am I supposed to limit myself to one tenketsu per strike, or may I use each one of my fingers to strike one of the cluster of tenketsu on the belly?" Bar demonstrated.

(Sorry for not posting, busy week. I should be good from this point onward.)

Haru tilted his head in confusion at Bar’s comment. Potato gang? Haru didn’t really have much of a history with old men or potatoes, so he simply shrugged.
”I probably don’t know your old man. I was raised separate from the Hyuuga compound, my family has had some disagreements with them in the past.” He explained, leaning against the wall as the boy made a display of his abilities. ”Don’t strike at random, exactly. Make educated attacks, pick your strikes based on your opponent’s position.” He would tell Bar, stepping away from the wall. Woah, did that kid just call him “Master?” Awesome. The boy suggested a rather interesting method of attacking with the gentle fist, essentially hitting five tenketsu at once… Not a bad idea. Beginning to walk towards him, Haru would answer.
”For now, stick to one tenketsu per strike. Once you master the basics, you can move on to a personal style like what you mentioned.” He would answer. It was best to not overcomplicate the training by making him ail his fingers at five tenketsu at once.
 
He would take the boy by the shoulder, turning him so that they were facing each other.

”Here, kid. Dummies can’t fight back, you need a live target to get the full effect.” He would tell Bar, taking up his modified gentle fist stance, which was lower then usual. His right leg was in front, bent in a more offensive posture then normal, and his right arm held lower then his left arm. ”I assume you know the basics. Try to hit me, let’s see what you’re made of.”

Sparring with the master? Bar had no illusions that he'd be able to defeat Haru, but he at least hoped to impress him. Best case scenario, amuse him. Haru did make a mistake by walking away from the wall, and Bar intended to exploit that opening. There were lots of mannequins, shuriken targets, and punching bags around the room, not just the one they were practicing on. Since Haru was letting Bar make the first move... Bar quickly decided on a strategy.

While keeping his eyes on the bob of Haru's Adam's Apple, Bar got down into a sprinter's stance, his right leg slightly more forward so that he could use his hands. Bar activated his Byakugan, then flipped his extra-long sleeves over his hands, hiding the Tiger > Boar > Ox > Dog > Snake seals he made, Substituting his body for a shuriken target behind Haru.

Kicking off the wall, Bar sprinted forward!

Once he was in melee range, Bar's left fist narrowed into the Snake Style, striking for the tenketsu behind Haru's left knee, since most of his weight was centered upon that leg. A millisecond behind, his right middle fingers aimed for the tenketsu in the lower back, the mirror of the solar plexus, if Bar had been striking from the front. First two! Bar thought.

Meanwhile, Bar converted his forward rush into a vertical one with a left-foot stomp. Regardless of whether he hit or not, Bar would spring back, his arms up and palms out, ready to slap aside the counter-attack or do another Substitution Jutsu.

Haru activated his byakugan as the boy signaled that he was ready to fight. The boy dropped his sleeves over his hands, although because the sleeves had to be clasped together in order to preform hand seals, Haru took a wild guess at what Bar was doing. Bar substituted away, replacing himself with a shuriken target. In the back of his mind (Literally) Haru watched Bar charge him down, aiming a strike at the back of his knee, and his back. His leg bent forward as the strike hit, and he felt another strike hit home on his back as he spun around for a counter attack.

 

He sprung forward towards Bar, activating his taijutsu shunshin to quickly move behind Bar, about facing so that he was facing the boy’s back as he sprung away from where Haru had previously been standing. Using the boy’s momentum to his advantage, he used the Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms, his hands taking on a dim blue glow, as he struck out at the boy, aiming for the small of his back and his neck.