A Show of Competence [NK]

Zankuros eyes almost lit up as he spotted his lollipop in Hoshis hand. This specific lollipop was of raspberry flavour and among one of Zankuros favourites. Although he had a few lollipops on him at the time, that very one was his last Raspberry flavoured. He flashes a smile as he gently slipped the lollipop out of Hoshis hand. For a second, he looked it over for any dust, dirt or any other foreign residue. After a moment or so he was satisfied that the lollipop was in fact clean. He exposed his toothy grin before sliding the Raspberry flavoured lollipop back into his mouth. As the lollipop slid by his lips, he responded to Hoshis remark; “It’s really nice, one of my favourites; want one?”. With the end of the utterance he slid his hand into his jumper pocket withdrawing an unsealed lolly. The lollipop was lustrous like gold and composed of water, erythritol, xylitol, fresh orange extract and stevia which was the chemical alternative for sugar. It was neatly wrapped in plastic.

This specific lollipop wasn’t made of traditional ingredients, instead it was a healthy alternative for his more sugary lollipop. Because of Zankuros poor background, he couldn’t always afford lollipops growing up. However, his adoptive mother quickly became aware of his habits and in turn began making her own set of lollipops for Zankuro to enjoy. In his personal opinion, her lollipops tasted a lot better than those that he had picked at the market; but she had a tendency to slip in a couple of lollipop compose of the aforementioned ingredients to that neutralise acid in the mouth and reduced the risk of tooth decay and cavities. As a result, despite the amount of lollipops that Zankuro eats on a daily basis, he has yet to suffer from and form of tooth decay.

As Zankuro extended the lollipop out to Hoshi he turned his attention to Ryuka who didn’t seem too interested in training  with the group. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t said much during the course of the encounter but he did indicate that he was going to train alone. Zankuro hesitantly nodded in response to Ryukas statement before turning his attention back to Hoshi.

"Before we start I want too ask you. How much do ya know in terms of fighting?", Hoshis tone came across as rather inquisitive and while it was true that Zankuro didn’t know an awful lot as far as practical fighting is concerned, he was experienced with formulating strategies and had a good understanding of how the human body worked. “Well…” Zankuro briefly rolled his shoulders into a shrug. “I only recently graduated from the academy… an’ I know what you’re thinkin’ ‘but you’re so old’.” Zankuro used his free hand to represent quotation marks as he referred to his age. “Quite frankly, I never thought that being a Shinobi would’ve been my thing… I was contempt with doin’ what I did. But yano’… family has a way of influencin’ things.”

As Zankuro finished responding to Hoshi, he quickly issued training instructions to him. "First let's just jog around the grounds." Zankuro nodded in response to Hoshi before taking off on a slow jog to one side of the training ground. There, he extended both hands, using his right hand to grab hold of his left wrist he rotated his torso to stretch his upper body muscles. From there, he leant forward to stretch his thigh and calf muscles. As he stretched he wondered whether all Shinobi were like Hoshi, demonic and frightening when alone but calm and friendly around others. Zankuro thought back to his academy days but no one that his studied with appeared to be so bipolar as this Shinobi. Zankuro considered that his menacing aura came from his focus and desire to get strong, something that he could relate to but past that, he was sure that he didn’t want to get on Hoshis bad side.

Zankuro sniffed, quickly clearing his nose of any excess residue; as all of that trickled down to his throat he spat it out from the corner of his mouth. Throughout his stretch he manoeuvred his lollipop to one side of mouth for it not to obstruct his breathing. As he swallowed one last collection of saliva and raspberry nectar, he took off on a run…

((Word Count 727))

With Zankuro besides Hoshi they managed too succeed in a small little jog around the entire training grounds. "So what were ya doing before ya entered the ninja life then? Hopefully somethin exciting." Hoshi would've remarked at his country bumpkin accent, Yet Hoshi's own dialect wasn't any more advanced. His was really out of choice too keep a casual attitude and less from his own inability too control his own speech patterns. Appearance maybe important but it's more important too have people around you feeling calm ,Something he was horrible at achieving, and pleased.

After the hour long jog was finished ,100 Ap worth, Hoshi was pleasantly surprised to see the boy Zankuro actually still breathing and keeping up with the slow jog. "Heh, Not bad. Ya actually have pretty good endurance. Enough endurance to the point to where ya have good potential. Ya must've worked up the durability of ya muscles whilst not a ninja then eh?. If so then I can't help but want too see what kinda strength could come out of ya if just a little bit of training is applied here and there." The fact that Zankuro seemed too be a promising ninja excited Hoshi to no end. Another promising face too train with.

But what exactly should Hoshi teach Zankuro, Should he teach him his own taijutsu? Being a teacher was hard work for sure as Hoshi scratched his chin as he racked around his mind for any idea to teach him and how too teach him. The methods which would suit Hoshi wouldn't suit Zankuro. And his ol mans teachings are a bit too strict... "Well if ya want too learn some taijutsu i'll be glad too help." Any form of ninjutsu training an genjutsu training is lost on Hoshi. So he could only teach the one thing he knows. Taijutsu instead. 

Hoshi had an idea of what too teach first "I have an idea wait one sec." He said as he dashed off at rapid speeds to grab 2 training dummies. These were light [8 strength too carry] so he could easily sweep by them and swing them over his shoulder ,to transport well, and head back too Zankuro. "Now a technique i'm about too show ya is one I like too use alot. The Iron Claw technique. Great for subduing the opponent easily." 


oWith the technique explained Hoshi set down a training dummy just 0.4 metre's away from Zankuro and then 0.4 metre's away from himself. With them setup Hoshi stretched his right arm by pushing it behind his head. "Now it's simple really. Flow chakra through the tips of your fingers and hold the face tight. With this power it's likely too subdue someone or at least keep them in close range." With it explained in basic ways, Hoshi was ready too now grab the dummies head in a unique claw like hand gesture and squeeze ,relatively, softly [15 power]. "Just like that! Now it's ya turn to use it." During this time Hoshi would stretch his body upwards as he watched Zankuro intently.

“Well… it was nothing fancy but I worked on the family farm” Zankuros response was somewhat short. He appeared to be a little hesitant again but that was solely because of that he was beginning to sweat. Zankuro made the wrong decision this morning in putting on clothes that he had worn for three days straight; his attire reeked of rabbits, dung and sweat, a nasty combination. However, the smell was only noticeable when Zankuro began to sweat which meant that it wouldn’t be long before his new found friend got a whiff of this foul odour.
 
The duo ran for about an hour or so, the exercise was relatively light and they didn’t take any breaks, however Zankuro could feel that deep down he almost at his limit. “Hoof… if we keep goin’ like this I wont last another hour” Zankuro though to himself while Hoshi went on about Zankuros potential. Zankuro responded with a polite smile before falling off to the world of his own.
 
For a brief minute or two, Zankuro day dreamed about having power that compared to that of this Shinobi. He thought about what made a strong shinobi. It appeared to him as if this Hoshi character had everything in order in his life, he was strong, resilient and a pretty laid back guy with a lot of friends. Zankuro on the other hand worked alone on most days and only had his family to speak off. He didn’t make a lot of friend in the Academy primarily because he was 4 years older than the rest of the Academy Students. It pained him to think about it but it was the truth, he had no friends but he was close to making one so he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his friendship with Hoshi.
 
Hoshi walked off and Zankuros gazed followed him on his travels. In a matter of seconds, he returned with two fresh training dummies. Hoshi explained a taijutsu by the name of the Iron Claw. Zankuro as an individual whose affinity drew him towards being a practitioner of Taijutsu seemed very interested in the prospect of learning another technique. Zankuro grinned, his grin covering his entire face as he exposed his perfectly straight pearly whites. Zankuro nodded along to Hoshis instructions but before long it was Zankuros turn to get involved.
 
He cleared his throat before responding with, “Okay, that sounds simple enough.”. He briefly inspected the general composition of the training dummy to better understand where to apply pressure. In a matter of moments he discerned a few things. Firstly, he determined that applying pressure to the facial region would push the contents of the dummy towards the back of the head, making it an ineffective approach to training technique. Second, he figured out that if he tried to wrap his head around the top of the dummies head then the sand or whatever it was stuffed with would move towards the neck region. It was a little tricky figuring out the best approach but within a matter of second he decided on the approach that he was going to employ.
 
Zankuro extended his hand out wrapping the base of his palm around the top of the dummies head. He took a couple of deep breaths, focusing his breathing while slowly channelling his chakra to the tips of his fingers.
 
Zankuro was a quick study when it came to most things. If he understood the theory behind how something worked then he quickly understood how he could apply his mind and body to achieve the same effect. As of late, despite being a Taijutsu specialist, Zankuro has dedicated some of his time into studying jutsu scrolls provided to him by the academy. These scrolls were no legendary secrets, they were simple seals and books that explained how sealing techniques worked. As far as Ninjutsu was concerned, Zankuro could perform Ninjutsu but the only major problem that he had was that he had no passion for Ninjutsu.
 
He had heard stories about the Raikage and the special Ninjutsu that is passed down to the Raikage and how one day he could eventually gain access to the power, but Zankuro didn’t care too much for it. His interests laid in the art of Fuuinjutsu; he found that one could achieve a lot of power through Fuuinjutsu. Zankuro wasn’t power hungry, he read the books about Fuuinjutsu before he went to bed every night, they were almost his bed time stories. The power of Fuuinjutsu techniques came across as fairy tales to Zankuro and so he enjoyed reading them. He was sure that when the opportunity presented itself that he would learn the mysterious art of sealing.
 
Suddenly, Zankuros hand locked up around the head of the dummy. In that very instant the sound of a ball deflating escaped into the surroundings. Zankuro effectively applied pressure corresponding to his maximum capability. With his strength and speed he focused on the sand inside of the dummy; his goal was to grab the sand by using this specific technique and it was a goal that he quickly achieved. As he closed his hand, the pressure generated by his grip forced a small hole to pop out on the side of the dummies head… a combination of sand and air effortlessly leaking from the dummy.
 
Zankuro shifted his attention to Hoshi. “Did I do it right?” He inquired as he released his grip on the dummies head. The dummy dropped to the ground in a very lack lustre fashion. As the touched down the sand and dirt around it danced across the ground. Zankuros eyes were still locked on Hoshi as he awaited for feedback…
 
 
(( Word Count 952 ))

((
AP = 90
Iron Claw Technique - 10 AP
Hour long Run - 100 AP
))

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Not sure why this wasn't posted in the training section of the topics needing replies.

Provide links to the previous training please.

(( Previous thread - http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t39975-start-of-a-new-day-open-to-all-nk

& My mistake.

))

Approved.