In search of Knowledge

[papfles]

Training thread for Nazo Takiga!

Chapter 1:
Act 1: The encounter (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=423876&postcount=4) | Act 2: The proposition (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=425651&postcount=5) | Act 3: Weeding out the tares (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=426023&postcount=6) | Act 4: Trading places (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=426854&postcount=7) | Act 5: Now you see me... (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=430908&postcount=8)
Act 6: Picking up the pace (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=439221&postcount=10) | Act 7: It's time for evasive manoeuvres (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=440194&postcount=11) | Act 8: Hit the ground running (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=441490&postcount=13) | Act 9: The course (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=441974&postcount=14) | Act 10: Prosper in adversity (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=464845&postcount=16)

Chapter 2:
Act 1: Warzone (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=514126&postcount=18) | Act 2: You think you know someone... (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=515081&postcount=19) | Act 3: It's over ... (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=533465&postcount=20) | Act 4: The end (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=546178&postcount=21) | Act 5: Teardrops on the ocean (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=563880&postcount=22) | Act 6: As if (http://forum.narutochaos.com/showpost.php?p=564831&postcount=23)

[papfles]

Missions for Nazo Takiga!

[papfles]

NPCs Helping Nazo Takiga!

[papfles]

Chapter 1:

Act 1: The encounter

Nazo woke up to birds chirping outside the window. As he looked around with his eyes half open, adjusting to the light, he could not detect where he is. He felt sore, every muscle seemed to hurt, and even blinking was not a comfortable thing to do. (looks like a hospital, must’ve been exhausted after the battle). He shuffled himself upwards, resting his back against the bedpost and the wall. (That’s right, I graduated. Where’s my headband).
He reached underneath his shirt, but it was gone. (Where did it go?) He glanced around the room, looked over at the table on the far side of the room, but all that was there, was his pouch of seeds. He bent sideways to look underneath his bed, holding on to the opposite side, so that he wouldn’t fall out of bed.(not here either)
Before Nazo could realize it, the floor became the first party to enjoy lip action from Nazo, as he did not have enough power in his arms to hold on to the bad, sending him face-first towards the neatly waxed floor.

SFX: *THUD*

”AARGH…. That’s it!” Nazo said, twitching one eye slightly.

Nazo got up, scraped his face off the floor, whirlwinded his way through the hospital room – practically rearranging the furniture as if it were a decorating show- looking for his belongings and then headed for the door, with his pouch as the only thing he found.
Reaching for the door knob, the door suddenly smashed open, crashing Nazo against the wall, between the door and the hallway wall.

SFX: *SMASH*

unknown: “Oh dear, our patient seems to have left.” As the door swung closed again, revealing Nazo pinned to the wall, his face on the door. Feeling his way to the door, he retrieved his face, twitched his eye a bit more…

Nazo: …

Unknown: “my my, that must’ve hurt… Luckily, you’re in the right place for that” and she smiled at him.

Nazo looked at her, she was probably a couple of years older than he was and judging by her clothes, she was an intern at the hospital. She was holding on a couple of sheets, She wasn’t that ugly too look at though: a pair of glasses to hide her eyes behind, purple hair that was pinned up with a hair-comb. A few hairs escaped the comb, giving her that “special” something.

Unknown: “I said ..are you okay?”

Shaken to reality by her voice, Nazo said: Listen lady, all I want to know, is where my stuff is. It’s very precious to me, and it’s all I want to know actually.

Unknown: There there, that’s not very polite. I was merely checking to see you were uninjured. You could at least answer my inquiry about your wellbeing?

Nazo: I appreciate the concern, but I really just want my stuff. I’ll be fine, it’s not the first, just like last time, just a little worse. (OoC: a line from a blink182-song, just passed by as I was typing, it seemed to fit ^_^)

Nazo: you can’t seem to help me, so I’ll be going to find someone who can.
Nazo turned around and once again headed for the door, feeling his face to check whether his nose had not turned into a huge cauliflower from the two hits in 10 seconds.

Behind his back, the lady changed her friendly appearance. Her smile disappeared; she now looked menacing that even Nazo could feel it, although he was not facing her. A chilling wind entered through the window, sending a shiver down Nazo’s back.

Unknown: that is NOT how you treat a lady, you know. You do NOT turn your back to a lady, understood?

Nazo tried to act cool as he kept strolling towards the door, looking sideways, so he could catch a glimpse of her in the corner of his eye. As soon as she had caught his eye, he stopped his movement. “Lo-look lady, I-I didn’t mean to insult you…honestly”. Nazo noticed the sheets flapping in his direction, guided by the wind, as if they were the train of a wedding gown placed on the wrong side of the bride. In the meantime, those few strands of hair seem to move like daisies in the wind. The mysterious lady seemed to pierce Nazo with her eyes, making Nazo unsure where to look and what to say.

”hey, look at that….*gulps* isn’t it a lovely day outside…I think I’ll go enjoy the sun” Nazo tried.

unknown: GET BACK IN BED, NOW!

Before Nazo could protest, his legs had already carried him into the bed and he had shuffled himself back underneath the blanket, and put his head back on the pillow.

After the wind subsided, the lady went over to the table, picking up the pouch Nazo dropped in his cartoonish move back to his bed, placed the sheets on the table, alongside the pouch.

”In case you’re feeling a bit chilly at night” she smiled as she walked to the door.

As soon as she had opened the door, Nazo, clamping his blanket, looked over his shoulder and asked: “I’m sorry lady. I’m really attached to that headband…well, to both now that I’ve past the academy. Shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Sorry.”

The girl stood still, looked at Nazo with a sense of calm over her. Then she tilted her head slightly, put an enchanting smile as she squinted her eyes and raised her shoulders and said “it’s okay. Everyone goes through life as they please” and she left.

Nazo stared at the door a bit, thinking that it was a really weird thing that just happened. (if every day is going to be like this, I’m going to lose more than my face).

Suddenly, a head popped back into the room. “Oh, by the way”

AAAAAARGH

My name is Tairaki Moui. (OoC: deduced from “peaceful fury”, adapted 1 letter) I’ll be your nurse while you stay here, this is my floor, so be sure to shout if you need something.
She winked and whizzed back out.

(thank god I’m in the hospital already, that girl is going to give me a heart attack). While Nazo thought this, he smiled. “Don’t worry…Tairaki. I’ll be a good patient now” he muttered almost inaudibly.

[papfles]

Act 2: Proposition

Nazo was dreaming about flying across the city, in a blue suit with silly red shorts, while screaming “here he comes to save the day”, when he felt a light falling on his eyelids. The light didn’t feel like the shimmering of water or light falling through the trees and hitting his eyes, but more something like a sunray trying to penetrate his eyelids. As he slowly opened his left eye, trying to find the source of the annoying light, he noticed Tairaki sitting in the chair next to the table.

”hey, knock that out, it’s annoying and I was having such a funny dream”

Tairaki giggled. “I noticed, you were humming some weird song about saving the day *hihi* So how’s my favourite patient of room 316?”

Nazo felt a bit uncomfortable (wow, her favourite patient of this room) when he suddenly realized that he was the ONLY patient in the room.

”He-“ But Tairaki wouldn’t let him finish his protest.

”Because, if you are feeling any better, I want to take you somewhere” as she continued to reflect the sun into his eyes.

“whe-where do you wan- KNOCK IT OFF, stop shining that thing into my eyes!”

Tairaki giggled and threw it onto Nazo’s bed. “I think you might actually like it”.
Nazo held his hands in a cup-like position, hoping it would be some silver-wrapped candy, because the food in the hospital…well, Nazo had had better food. When it landed in his hands, Nazo’s eyes grew several inches as he was profoundly shocked by what he saw. (this can’t be.)
Glimmering in his hand were the two headbands he had gathered. One from his dad, and the other one from the academy. They had ingeniously been put together. A piece of black and white cloth had been sewn together, and each colour had received a headband, making it a perfect circle.

”hope you like it, I thought I’d make it into 1 thing, so that your past will be tied to your future”

“Wow….simply wow. Thank you very much.” Nazo thought about the way he behaved last time. “Now I feel even worse about my reaction last time”

“don’t worry about it.”

Nazo thought about where to wear the headbands and decided it would be a good idea to wear it around his neck. Then the headbands would not only provide clear and visible proof that he’s a shinobi, they would also shelter his neck from harm from both sides.

“tee-hee…. Thinking like a shinobi already. Using the headbands as a protective measure. Smart.”

Nazo was surprised at her response, wondering how she knew what he was thinking. “You’re not some sort of voodoo-mind reader-thingamajig person, are you?”

Tairaki raised one eyebrow and frowned upon Nazo, immediately making him feel tiny and puny. “Mayeb you're not the only person who’s a shinobi here.”

”So you’re one as well?” Nazo asked.

Tairaki immediately start swinging her hands from left to right, while frantically gesturing “no” with her head. “It’s just…many shinobi have landed in this hospital, and I’ve seen quite a few in the past months. They’ve all kept their shinobi ways and always kept thinking how they could use everything to their advantage…well, except for the dead ones of course”

Nazo shivered at that last part. (She surely has a morbid sense of saying it like it is)

Undisturbed by how Nazo gazed at her, Tairaki further explained that the room they were in, had certain features that a shinobi would probably already have noticed. Nazo had to admit to himself that he hadn’t thought about all this that meticulously.

”The door for example: It’s obvious that standing behind that door reveals a blind spot for anyone entering this room. I’m sure you’ve also noticed, looking out the window, that we have a rather large garden and a glasshouse where we grow fruits, vegetables and flowers and such”.

Nazo shied away from looking at Tairaki when he realized he hadn’t noticed about any of those things. He was too busy dreaming, thinking about his headbands and Tairaki’s frightening first encounter.

Tairaki noticed she was telling him things he hadn’t discovered by himself. “Hey, don’t worry, no one expects a freshly graduated academy student to have the same skills as a veteran shinobi”. She tried to comfort him with those words and it seemed to work, as Nazo managed to put on a little smile. “Let’s hope you have more skills than the dead ones, right?” she giggled. Nazo’s eye twitched again (AAARGH…thanks lady, that’s very comforting…).

“Well, let me help you on your way while you’re recuperating. That pouch you have there, is it for seeds or something?”
”yeah, I got it from my parents, it’s the only tangible memory I still have”
“As I thought. Well, that's why I actually came and that's what my proposition is all about: why don’t you pay a visit to the glasshouse when you’re up for it? I’ll gladly show you around, and maybe you could do some work there to help me out?”
”Sure!” Nazo said. “Maybe I could find some interesting things there, thanks a lot Tairaki.” Nazo pulled away his sheets and jumped out of bed, bending through his legs slightly and holding his two hands - gathered in a fist - in front of his body. (All right, I ran out of herbs during the academy fight, maybe I can restock there.)

Tairaki stood up with a bashful glow on her face and a tiny smile as she walked to the door.
“Meet me there in the afternoon.”
”Why can't I go now? I’m all psyched up.”
As tactfully as she could, Tairaki said: ”Oh, I just thought you might want to have those sheets cover you up or something because you won’t be able to go out dressed like that”

Nazo looked down and noticed he only had on a shirt and a cute little underpants with a little piglet as a print on it. (AAAAAAAAAARGH, crap!) As swiftly and casually as he could – hey, it’s never a bad thing to still try to keep your cool with a lady around -, he tried to say “oh, you’re probably right” and pushing his shirt down to cover up his crown jewels while shifting closer and closer to his bed.

“Well, I’m off now” Tairaki said as she closed the door. Nazo hoped she hadn’t seen whatever he didn’t want her to see. Unfortunately, Nazo could hear Tairaki yelling to the other nurses: “Hey, guess what I've just seen”. Nazo felt all the shame of the world enter his body, as he dropped his head and sighed (this is going to be a long, shameful day *sigh*)

[papfles]

Act 3: Weeding out the tares


Nazo impatiently waited for the afternoon to start. He looked out the window, staring at Tairaki working in the glasshouse where she was cutting flowers. She looked cute, occasionally stopping to move through her hair and sweep a bit of hair back behind her ear. And the hair that managed to get away and returned to hinder her eyesight was casually blown up by a gust of wind leaving her lips.

SFX: DING DING

Nazo was startled by the clock. (12 o’clock, that’s the afternoon for me) Nazo rushed away from the window and almost flew towards the door.

SFX: SCREECH

Nazo came to a full-stop, looked down and he sighed a breath of relief as he did have his pants on this time. He opened the door, walked down the corridor, and down the first flight of steps. He dwindled down the stairs until he reached the main floor. He hurried down the hall and slowed down as he passed the reception (right, I can’t run inside the hospital). The moment one of the nurses behind the mahogany desk noticed Nazo passing, she immediately turned her head over to her colleague next to her. She raised her left hand to her mouth, placing the back of the hand right next to the right hand side of her mouth, in an attempt to cover her lip movements from being read by Nazo approaching from the right.

Nazo noticed that they were talking about him, as the colleague listened and then looked up to catch a glimpse of him. (Why are they talking about me…did someone draw a silly thing on my face?)
The two nurses started to giggle as Nazo past the counter and walked towards the steps leading to the garden. He could hear them talking about his underwear. (Tairaki!) Nazo steamed with rage that she told everyone in the hospital. He looked back only to notice that the two nurses had called out a third nurse who was back in the office. Nazo glared at them. (What do they think I am, some sort of attraction to behold? That ONE time I do something stupid and it’s going to haunt me). The thoughts barely left his brain or Nazo felt another painful moment in the making. Time seemed to stand still as Nazo felt around with his foot for a bearing. (Nope, no ground there.) Nazo immediately tried to stretch out his hand to get a hold of the railing besides the steps. But however slow the moment seemed to pass, his hands moved even slower. (Oh well, let’s just get ready for the humiliation and the pain. TIMBER) The next moment, Nazo was laying flat on the pathway that divided the garden and lead up to the stairs he just fell down from.

He peeled his face off the floor (this is getting familiar) and did not even look behind him, as he could just hear them roaring with laughter. (They’re probably aching as well, stomach ache from all the laughter *sigh*) Nazo decided he would not give them the opportunity to look at his face, so he slid across the pathway sideways so that his face would remain invisible to the nurses at all time. As soon as he had turned the corner and was out of sight, he let go: AAAAAAAARGH…grmbl, and I’ll have to face them again when I go back to my room….well face them…I won’t have much to face them with if I keep falling like this.

In the meantime, Nazo arrived at the glasshouse and knocked on the glass door, waiting to enter. Tairaki looked up from her work, gently smiled – as always – and waved him in. As soon as Nazo entered, the scent of a thousand roses, mixed with lavender and rosemary surrounded him, making it seem he was on a sunny hill in a magical land called “California” or something like that.

Well well, aren’t we anxious to get started? It’s only 12.05 and you’re here already. Tee-hee, seems like you rushed too…. Which surface got the pleasure of meeting your face this time?

Nazo sniffed and raised one eyebrow “attempting humour? When will women learn….”

”Oooh, a defensive jab because your pride is hurt” Tairaki giggled. Nazo chose to ignore the attempts to tease him. “What can I do around here?”

”well, my young padawan… it just sounded like a funny word, I just made it up (padawan? What the hell… she’s been sniffing too many herbs I reckon)… You can go to the herb patch over there, you’re probably most at ease over there. And they offer a soft landing in case something does go wrong”.

Nazo had to restrain himself from not going “aaaargh” again as he passed Tairaki on his way to the herb patch in the back. Tairaki softly said “Hey, I’m just teasing you, you know” when Nazo passed behind her. “I know, I know, just don’t know what to say back” Nazo admitted and he patted her on the shoulder. “If you need me, just holler and I’ll be right here….unless I fall on the way over” (I’d better make this joke before she does it). Tairaki nodded and continued cutting flowers. (see, that shut her up, hehe). Nazo walked on towards the desk in front of the herb patch.
After a moment of silence, Tairaki exclaimed”watch out for the floor though, it’s extremely flat” and giggled as she hummed a tune during her work. (AAAAAAAAARGH, that woman…one day, I’ll trip her!)

(several hours pass)

Drips of sweat fell down from Nazo’s forehead as he had worked the entire time to weed out all the tares from the herb field. He finally stood up and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He then stretched his arms into the air, holding them together and fell back a bit to completely stretch all his limbs.

He turned to see where Tairaki was, but she had already vacated her spot and was nowhere to be found. Nazo decided he would go and look for her, as he did not know what to do next. He left the glasshouse and looked left and right for a clue. “Over here”
Nazo stepped to the side of the glasshouse and saw Tairaki sitting against the building, with a straw hat on and enjoying the setting sun. “Come and sit next to me” she gestured while patting the place Nazo could sit. Nazo took a seat on the ground with one leg stretched on the ground and the other drawn up halfway.
“You did pretty well; you worked hard to turn that herb patch back into shape. It was needed; it has been neglected for quite a while now. D’you have any skills with herbs or something?”
”My mother and father, they were into all plants and trees and stuff. I kind of got it from them. That’s why I carry that pouch, to use whatever seeds and herbs that I’ve gotten to know inside out over the years. A gift from my parents.”
Tairaki listened carefully, with both legs suspended close to her body while she clutches both knees in a hugging position. “yeah, you told me about it the other time. That’s nice. It’s nice that you have such fond memories of your parents. That’s why I wanted to do something else for you.”

”oh?” Tairaki grabbed a book that was laying beside her, and gave it to Nazo. It was a book on herbs. “you can use it better than I can. The patch of herbs is now your responsibility, okay?”. Nazo was again surprised at Tairaki’s generosity. “thank you tairaki, thank you once again”

That’s okay, she smiled. “Now it has a use and it’ll help you as a shinobi.” Tairaki got up and walked away. “I’m going home, my work for today is done. I’ll see you tomorrow” and she rushed out the front gate, waving as she went.

Nazo waved back, still waving even after she left. “THANK YOU” he yelled. He got up and headed back for the door as he kept flipping the book. (pretty interesting book I must say)

From the minute his foot touched the pathway, generating a different sound than walking on the grass, Nazo felt that eerily sensation of those two nurses waiting at the front desk like vulture waiting for a carcass. (gadzooks, those two again…*sigh* I don’t want to go past them again… If only I could skip past them without them seeing me)

Nazo pondered.

“maybe…”

[papfles]

Act 4: Trading places

Nazo moved towards the front of the steps but kept close to the wall so that the nurses would not see them. (let’s see, I can only kawarimi with something rather close and with a rather large size. And they’re only nurses, they won’t know what has happened when I kawarimi past them.)
Nazo measured the distance to the nurses. He knew he had to use 5 steps (equivalent to 1 fall…*sigh* that Tairaki…her sense of humour is getting to me…*sigh*) to reach the top of the stairs and then another 5 meter before he was right in front of the desk. That was not kawarimi-able. (darn, it’s too far. I’ll have to test the ultimate limit of my current kawarimi-use). Nazo looked around to see which object could help him get where he wanted to faster and which also allowed him to test his limit. His eye fell on a huge plant, decorating the otherwise dull and white hallway. (now…let’s see)

KAWARIMI NO JUTSU

(… a bit too far apparently) Nazo eased one step closer and tried again, failing again. He repeated the same tactic for another couple of times before it actually succeeded. He now stood on the opposite wall, but not a step closer to getting past those childish nurses. He waited patiently for an opportunity as he gazed around the welcoming area for an object he could use. (That water cooler would be possible, that standing clock as well, what to choose what to choose)
Nazo was eeny-miny-mooing between the clock and the water cooler when a male nurse passed the desk with a huge box in his arms, walking towards the stairway he needed to get to his heavenly bed. (Oh, this might actually be fun and training at the same time. Let’s just try whether we can pull this off)
Nazo waited until the nurse passed out of view to start his manoeuvre (timing has to be exact; otherwise this will be another embarrassing moment. Luckily Tairaki isn’t here). He looked at his watch to see the exact time he started everything.

KAWARIMI NO JUTSU

Nazo poofed away, and appeared where the water cooler used to be. He quickly looked to his right and saw the male nurse walking on. (Damn, move faster Nazo) Nazo quickly gathered everything necessary to perform another body replacement.

KAWARIMI NO JUTSU

He now found himself in the hands of the male nurse while the box wiggled a bit as it got placed in front of the wall and next to the desk. “Hello” The male nurse had no idea what had happened and was overwhelmed by the added weight Nazo created. As the nurse fell forwards, Nazo performed yet another to move further down the hall.

KAWARIMI NO JUTSU

Nazo had now switched places with a chair that was arranged there for visitors. Meanwhile, the male nurse, while holding a chair, had a date with the floor.

SFX: THUD

Nazo couldn’t suppress a giggle (I know how you feel bubba….but still, that was funny!) and then kawarami’d again to reach the stairs.

KAWARIMI NO JUTSU

As Nazo reached his destination, he looked at his watch and turned around to overlook the damage he had done. He tried to count how many steps each kawarimi had overcome between the box and the nurse, the nurse and the chair, and the chair and yet another plant. (Not too bad, 4 kawarimis to pass the entire hall in about 8 seconds. Now I’ve got a time to beat and a distance to beat.)

Nazo felt a bit proud, but that feeling quickly escaped his body when he heard the two nurses scream because of the interior re-decorating someone (hihi) had done. Nazo immediately ran up the stairs and went to his room, where he ducked under the covers and couldn’t wait to do all of this again when he went back to the glasshouse tomorrow morning.

[papfles]

Act 5: Now you see me…

After a good night’s sleep, Nazo woke up, yawned while stretching his arms over his head and looked at the clock. (8.30, a good a time as any to start working)
Nazo got up and got dressed in a matter of seconds. He looked out the window and noticed it was sunny already. (outside training it is) Nazo smiled. He ran down the hall, down the steps, changed to a quickened step, the kind of step that would make every lifeguard at the pool go “hey hey, no running” anyway, as he approached the front desk. He could see the two nurses starting to giggle already, but he didn’t slow down, he smiled back as he noticed a kid in front of the desk.
KAWARIMI NO JUTSU

Within a flash, he switched places with the small kid, who had no idea where he was, talking to the water cooler all of a sudden. Nazo now found himself in front of the two nurses, but he had ducked down, so they couldn’t see him. He could hear them saying “where did he go? Did he turn into that child?” Nazo giggled. He then did a HENGE NO JUTSU turning his face into that of a Samoan warrior performing the haka with tattoos and tongue hanging out. He then jumped up and yelled “BIG WARRIOR FACE OF DOOM!” Two screams could be heard all of Konoha, dogs howled along, while babies cried their pants full.
As the cardiac facility had now received two new patients, Nazo confidently walked out, with a smile on his face from one ear to the other ear.

Nazo stepped out of the front gate, wandered around in the town and tried to find his way to the weapons store. After a tiring search of half an hour, he ended up on the same street he left on, staring at the “weapons store HERE”-sign (… ………..sigh, why do you mock me?…)

Within 2 minutes, he was outside again, with a shopping bag full of goodies (10 kunai, 5 metsubishi, 20 ft of wire, 10 exploding notes, a pouch and a kunai holster). He looked back at the store and grunted for having lost half an hour locating it.

As soon as he returned to the hospital grounds, he went back up to his room, placed everything neatly on the table, in alphabetical order because that’s how mommy arranged the cabinets as well. He then returned outside with the book Tairaki gave him, in his hand. Along his route, he took every plant with him, running in and out of the building several times to get all the big plants he needed.

He then started to place the plants several feet from each other, with each plant just a bit further than the previous one. (This is quite the workout, who would’ve thought these plants weighed this much). From the front of the lawn to the back of the lawn, just in front of the glasshouse, now stood 5 plants, gently waving in the wind and enjoying their ever-slow reach for the sun.

Nazo prepared himself and now stood several feet away from the first plant. (let’s see how far we get). Three kawarimi’s down the line, nazo couldn’t go on any more as the fourth seemed to be a bit too far. (hmm, should I pull it closer to clear all five at once, or should I go back and keep trying until I can make this jump?) As he raised his head to the sky while squinting his eyes slightly, he heard a familiar voice.

“What are you doing? Thinking? You’ve broken your face quite a few times already; don’t add your brain to that list”

(TAIRAKI) With his head slightly between his shoulders, fumes coming from his ears and his eyes bloodshot with rage, he turned around.

YOU…YO-

Just as Nazo wanted to say something extremely clever (OoC: yeah right…), his eyes fell on something peculiar about Tairaki today. He checked to see what it was. It wasn’t her face, she’s still smiling as lovely as always (the vixen!). He went down to continue his search for the special thing he noticed. He passed her chest (hello there! *wink wink*) but sensing a small wind which reminded him of his room-encounter he quickly continued the search. Suddenly he saw two hairy little bundles hiding behind her back, occasionally peeking from behind her. “oh, I see you’ve brought your cute friends”
“that’s right” said Tairaki. “why don’t you two come and say hello, come on now, don’t be shy”.
“don’t push me! Leave me alone!”
Suddenly, a small girl, about 10 years old, appeared. Black hair, blue eyes and a flowery dress on. She glared at the other one and then she put on her best smile and said “hi ya”.

That’s Mabui (OoC: cute in Japanese). And the one acting tough is Kamereon (OoC: chameleon in Japanese). Tairaki steps to the side and Nazo sees Kamereon giggling because Mabui had to show herself. As soon as Tairaki moved away, his giggle stopped and he didn’t know what to do, moving his hands from in front of his body to his pockets, then through his hair, behind his back, eventually sitting down and looking around and then looking at Nazo “what are YOU looking at?”
Nazo looked at the young boy, guessing his age would be around 12 to 13. “You look even worse than I do, and I’ve fallen down quite a lot. What happened to you then?” (mwuhahaha, now I have someone to badger, pesky little teenager)

Nazo had not even finished his sentence or he felt a downward sensation.

SFX: THUD

AAAAAAAAAARGH…. Get the hell off me!

Both Tairaki and Mabui giggled. “You shouldn’t have said that, Kamer will deck you and you won't even know what hit you". Nazo lay beaten on the floor, with Kamer sitting on top of him.
“Say you’re sorry”!
“FAT CHANCE, baby”

Nazo performed a kawarimi with the first plant, a cactus.

There!
OUTCH!
Let’s cut it out, I want to train, nothing more, so if we could stop this already.
Hmpf, training, you big wuss, you can’t even see ME coming, what are you going to do in real battle?
Nazo stood amazed at the poignant remark the little boy made.
Now now, boys, that’s enough, let’s call it quits for today. Kamer, you come with me, we have to go get you checked out. Mabui, you run along home now, you’re done.
“Ok, Tairaki, thank you very much for today! See ya later, mister!” Mabui skipped out of the garden as Kamer sped away into the hospital without saying a word. “don’t mind him, tough on the outside, cute on the inside, a bit like….well…”
Nazo waited for the first positive remark Tairaki was about to make (wow, I’ve got to remember this one).
”well…a bit like…me”
Nazo’s jaw dropped to the floor (that woman…). In the meanwhile, Tairaki winked and left.

Nazo shook his head (bah, don’t think about it too much, just continue with your training). He picked up the plant and placed it back in its original position and started his training again. The entire morning and afternoon, Nazo performed the same trick, kawarimi-until-he-couldn’t-anymore. He then rested against the wall, flicking little rocks against the tree or reading in the herbs book, until he felt he could start again. This lasted the entire day.

At the end of an exhausting day, he was resting again, when Tairaki came out and walked up to him. “so? How is it going with the training, mr. shinobi?”
”not so good, still can’t manage to pass that 4th kawarimi because it’s too far off”
“hehe, not all things in life happen overnight you know. Practice makes perfect, you know. Now, give it a rest for tonight. Enjoy your night of sleep and just keep going as you’re doing now. It’ll work”

Nazo did not hear her inspiring words as he had already dozed off and gone nighty-night.
Tairaki sighed “boys…never know when to stop”. Tairaki signalled a couple of nurses to come with a stretcher and bring Nazo back to his room.

“Sleep tight, Nazo”

[Azure Wrath]

Interesting. I approve this so far. Interesting NPC's, though i got a very wrong impression of Tairaki in the beginning (i pictured her an evil oro-type person, lol)
But it looks very good. Keep it up!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m38/azure_wrath/seal.png
Approved!

[papfles]

Act 6: Picking up the pace

Silently, Nazo walked through the hospital while he looked at his hands. He held on to his wrist with his right hand while alternating his left hand between a fist and stretching his fingers again. (Pain, not the most comfortable feeling….no pain, no gain though).

He passed the front desk and saw that the two nurses shuddered away in preparation for another vicious attack from the face of doom, but Nazo merely smiled and placed a note onto the desk and walked out of the hospital.

Hello you two, I would like to apologize for my behaviour the other day. Let’s start over again. My name is Nazo and I’m in room…well you probably know which room I’m in, since you two work here. Let’s just say that I appreciate what you do here, and that if you need my help, don’t hesitate to let me know

Greets,
Nazo

He spent the entire morning in the glasshouse, reading the book on herbs, then searching for those particular herbs, and mixing them with water. Nazo decided to put a break on the work because he was getting nauseous of all the different odours. He grabbed one capsule of herbalized water with him and went outside to let the wind blow his drowsiness away.

While he was laying there, flat on the ground, arms spread wide, the breeze gently swept across his face. (This is nice)

Resting are we? No wonder you’re a lousy shinobi, you’re a slacker.

Nazo looked up to find Kamereon standing nonchalantly over him, not only literally looking down on Nazo but most likely figuratively speaking as well.

Nazo didn’t feel like arguing so he shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ll do as I please thank you very much. I’ll train how I want to train” Nazo turned his head, closed his eyes and continued his relaxation.

“Hmmpt, loser” Kamereon walked away, leaving Nazo behind him. “There’s never time to rest. You rest, you die”
“Whatever”
“I guess you only learn things the hard way….it was nice knowing you”

SFX: SZZZZZZ

Without hesitation, Nazo rolled sideways, away from the sound he didn’t trust. As he rotated, he noticed an explosive tag that was placed right next to his head. In the distance, Kamereon continued to calmly step away. (I’m not getting enough distance between me and the tag!) Nazo instinctively placed his arms in front of his face, protecting his eyes with his ulnae, as he kept rolling away, trying to avoid the explosion

DOTON: JINKOUJISHIN TOBURAI NO JUTSU (OoC: artificial earthquake burial technique)

SFX: BOOM

Nazo, covered by dust, dirt and rubble, slowly looked over his arms to see the damage. A huge hole marked the spot where the tag had exploded. Nazo looked to his left to see Mabui breathing heavily and sweating as she sat on one knee, with both of her hands placed on the ground. (She did this? She’s just a little squirt.) “Hmpft, you got lucky. You should thank Mabui for what she did.” Kamereon didn’t even bother to look behind him and walked into the lobby of the hospital, disappearing out of view.

Nazo got to his feet, wiped the dirt off his clothes and noticed he was not harmed at all.
”Kamereon might be a tad harsh, but in fact, he’s right. You might think you’re doing okay, but in fact, both of us could probably take you down without breaking a sweat. Please don’t think too badly about Kamer, he’s been through a lot.” Mabui got up, wiped the sweat from her forehead and hurried after Kamereon. “Train until you can’t move anymore. Don’t take breaks when you feel you’re out of chakra. Just push harder” she yelled as she vanished into the building.

Nazo realized that Mabui was actually correct, he wás getting complacent. Gaining a bit of experience every day, training a bit every day, resting because of nausea, that was not going to help him help others.
He decided he was going to resume his training from the day before, but that he was going to up the ante. Not only was he going to train his kawarimi, he had to improve every other measly skill he had.

He looked at his hand (bite the pain…), locked both hands and stretched them in front of his body, cracking the fingers. “Let’s do this”.
This time he placed the plants in a circle, picked up a few branches to build the skeleton of a small tipi in the middle, and tied a tiny bell to it. He grabbed his kunai, walked over to the point of the circle that where a plant seemingly was missing, allowing the circle to become a full circle. He then performed kawarimi no jutsu multiple times, switching place with several plants. In the meantime, like a darts player aiming for his one-hundred and eeeeeeeeeeighty, several kunai shot from all across the circle straight to the middle.

(darn….no hits)

After he picked up the kunai, he returned to the open spot in the circle and repeated the cycle. After several attempts, he finally managed to hit the bell once.

SFX: DING

(all right! Now I have to augment my rate of success. Screw that arrogant Kamereon, I’ll show him I can be like any shinobi)
Relentlessly, Nazo kept training the entire afternoon, skipping lunch to train.

At around 4 in the afternoon, two shadows appeared from inside the hospital. Kamereon en Mabui both came strolling out into the sun, the one with his hands in his pockets and completely uninterested, while Mabui was happy to see the intensity Nazo was training with. She slowed down as she passed Nazo, coming to a full stop when Nazo paused to pick up his kunai. Kamereon on the other hand kept walking.

”You’re making progress, that’s nice to see mister!”
”hehe, thank you, but I’m still not there yet” After these words, Nazo – sweating, full of scratches, and with blood and dirt under his nails – resumed his constant barrage of the tiny bell.
“just keep go..”

Without looking back, Kamereon ordered Mabui to shut up and move on. Mabui turned her eyes to the floor and stepped away from Nazo.
“hmpft, progress… He’s still nowhere near a shinobi” The words had just left his mouth like a train leaving the station, or Kamereon had already dashed away, leaving a footprint in the sandy pathway.
Nazo had just performed his second kawarimi and went towards his third, as suddenly a blurry shadow appeared lightning-quick in front of him. It was Kamereon, standing in front of him, his back towards Nazo. He bended through his knees slightly, forming a U upside down, while one elbow shot back, hitting Nazo in stomach. “Be prepared for everything, especially the unexpected. Hmpft, you’re not cut out to be a shinobi.”

The belter sent Nazo straight to the ground, while he clamped his stomach in agony. The strain from the training made it hard for him to breathe, especially when the wind had just got knocked out of him. Trembling as he tried to get up, he spit some blood. Back on his feet, he spit again, took a deep breath, turned to Kamereon and put a smirk on his face. “Good one”
He then formed seals and continued his kawarimi-training. Kamereon looked on as Nazo kept training without even attacking him. “Hmpft…..Let’s go, Mabui” He put his hands back into his pockets, kicked a pebble to the side and left the premises, with Mabui trailing him.

Nazo however, badly bruised and battered, kept training until the night set in. As he threw his last kunai, he severed the cord holding the bell to the branch.

”That ought to be enough for today”.

[papfles]

Act 7: It’s time for evasive manoeuvres

URGH

Nazo stood up, aching all over. Even his nose complained. He sat on the side of the bed, with his hands supporting his head and with his elbows on his knees. He yawned. With one eye open and still yawning, he looked out the window to see it drizzling. “Lousy weather…oh well, any type of weather will have to do”. Nazo jumped out of the window (shortcut!) and just before he landed, he used kawarimi to replace himself with a large boulder, so that he landed safely on the grass, while the boulder seemingly fell out of the sky, terrifying the patient on the ground floor eating in the hospital restaurant.
(Hmmm, he spit honey pops all over the wall….not a pretty sight)

As soon as he landed, he heard a whizzing sound, Nazo instinctively did a forward somersault, rotated on his foot, placed one arm in front of his body, while the other reached for a kunai so he could deflect – if necessary – and retaliate – if possible.
He noticed a wooden stick with a round blunt end flying towards his head. Ducking as quickly as he could, he evaded the object. He frantically turned his head, trying to locate the place the object from. He judged the trajectory but saw nothing when he looked at the place where he thought the object came from.
”Nice evasion, but still not good enough”
(huh? Mabui? Where is that girl?)

Before he knew it, he felt an intense pain in the back of his head, as it was met by another wooden stick. (Aaaaaargh) Nazo immediately dropped his kunai and grabbed the back of his head.
”Oh ow, you shouldn’t have done that”. From three sides came a barrage of wooden sticks towards the defenceless Nazo. Even though he was still in pain, he managed to evade two, by leaping into the air. While he was invading the space of the birds and the clouds, he heard Mabui shouting out again “Another mistake, you have no evasive manoeuvrability in the air…I guess you need to learn the hard way”. Instances later, Nazo felt the impact of several items on his legs, flipping him sideways as he plummeted to the ground.

Nazo hit the ground with the entire length of his body at once. Wincing from the pain, he was actually glad to be near the hospital, because he was going to need it.
”ok, ok, I get it, I need more work”
”You get it? I’m afraid you don’t. Kamereon wouldn’t even give you a second right now, so actually, I’m still going soft on you. You need to keep going, mister!”

While Nazo had turned his body, facing the ground, using his forehead to rest against the ground to allow him to breathe a little, Mabui did not give him a second of rest. Yet again, a salvo of wooden objects flew towards the most sensible parts of Nazo, in order to inflict maximum damage and pain. “Your opponent won’t go easy on you either”.

Nazo swung his legs sideways and pushed off on his arms, flipping his on his back, while his legs flew forward. He kicked the first stick with his left leg, the second with his right leg, pulled his legs towards his torso and pushed forward with all his might forced into his thighs. This flipped him a little bit into the air and landed him on his feet, ready to meet Mabui’s onslaught head-on.
Blood trickled down from his leg and from a gash on his left cheek. “Why are you doing this? Did Kamereon set you up to this?”

Mabui shook her head. “No, Kamereon would just put you in the hospital to show you how weak you are. I’m just trying to encourage you to go for your limit and beyond that limit when you train, because that’s the only way you’ll realize that it’s no longer a game, but life or death as a shinobi. Oh and by the way, if you are wondering how these items hurt so much…. They’re made of wood, with a lead ball in the blunt head. It’s not meant to kill, but to spread damage as they impact. You’re going to wish it were kunai after today, mister!”

Nazo readied himself to engage the “enemy” this time. He swung two kunai around his fingers while Mabui equally prepared her next move. The next couple of hours, Nazo suffered tremendously as Mabui relentlessly pursued him with her wooden sticks, picking them up as she ran around the field, seemingly without getting tired. Every time Nazo pleaded for a break, Mabui would pick up the pace, to annoy him further. Four o’clock in the afternoon, the rain had subsided and Nazo – wet, tired, annoyed and in hell – was out of options. He had used his kawarimi plenty of times, combining it with henge to confuse her, and throwing kunai in between kawarimi’s to avoid getting hit again by the thumping wooden sticks.

All of a sudden, he noticed that Mabui had no more sticks to throw and he went for his first attack of the day, using bunshins which he formed behind a tree to confuse her, while he tried to gain momentum to get behind her using the same trick he pulled during the academy-training.
Seconds later, he found himself behind Mabui, kunai to her temple, completely out of breath. “So…does this… mean that the training …is over?” Mabui simply stood there, as calmly as she had been the entire time. “Not bad, mister!”

In a flash Mabui ducked, stretched her arm sideways, put chakra into her feet, and pushed off backwards, taking Nazo’s legs with her.
Next Mabui was pressing into shoulderblade with one of the wooden sticks, numbing Nazo’s left side.
”Never ever think a fight is over when you have the advantage, mister. You need to take the other one out!”
Mabui released the pressure and took a couple of steps back. “Training is over, I’m going home, otherwise Kamereon will be mad at me”
In a blind fury Nazo leapt up, with the left arm hanging motionlessly next to his body, turned around and roundhouse-kicked Mabui, hitting her full in the face with the outside of his foot. This sent her spiralling towards the floor, leaving a flattening trail of dust and grass.

Realizing what he had done, he apologized immediately and ran over to help her up. “I’m sorry Mabui, really! Forgive me”
As Mabui got up, wiping the smidgen of blood from her upper lip, she smiled. “Seems you understand what you need to unleash to become a good shinobi.”

[Azure Wrath]

Good work!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m38/azure_wrath/seal.png
Training Approved!

[papfles]

Act 8: Hit the ground running

GET UP!

Nazo turned around to see Tairaki standing over his bed.
It’s time for more training, no slacking off today!

What time is it? 7.15? Oh come on, at least let me crash until 8, hop in, you look like you could use some sleep as well.

Excuse me?

The window of Nazo’s roomed smacked open and seconds later, Nazo found himself in a freefall without a parachute. He could still feel the imprint of her shoe on the left side of his face. Crashing into the surface, he helped to turn the hospital’s garden into the crater-filled surface of the moon. After he had climbed out of the hole, he saw Tairaki leaning out the window with a huge smile and shimmering eyes “train well, Nazo!”
(that woman….devilish)

You ready mister?

AARGH, Mabui, stop sneaking up on me all the time…. You haven’t fired any of those wooden stick-thingies have you?
Nazo looked around in a panic for any unidentified flying object heading his way.

No, no mister, don’t worry this time. Good to see you on your toes though. This time, I’d like for you to follow me, mister!

Where are we go- HEY!

Mabui shot out of the garden, expecting Nazo to follow. “If you can’t follow, I’m going to have to use those wooden sticks again though!”
Nazo’s eyes spread wide open (no, not those!) and he started his chase. Once outside the hospital, he looked left and right for a clue where Mabui went.

SFX: TICK TICK TICK TICK

(Sounds like roof tiles)
Nazo looked up and saw Mabui running on the roof of the weapons store. He followed her on the ground, grabbing a big box along the way. Mabui jumped from one roof to another, as Nazo tried to keep up with her, avoiding collisions with the people in the street. They merely looked as if someone had drawn a painting of a crowd, and had smeared out the paint before it had dried. Suddenly Mabui jumped sideways, moving out of Nazo’s sight.

(As expected) Nazo threw his box onto the roof, held his hands in front of his mouth and performed a Kawarimi to switch places with the box. He did not have time to rest though as three wooden sticks flew his way. (Darnit!) He immediately fell to the roof surface, laying flat on the ground, while the sticks flew over his head. In the meantime, Mabui became an even smaller dot in the distance. Putting chakra into his feet, Nazo pushed off from the roof – dislodging 2 tiles – and he continued his chase.

After chasing and dodging Mabui for two hours across the entire city of Konoha (at least now I know where the ramenshop is), Mabui headed for the gate that leads out of Konoha. Close on her tail, Nazo followed.
Kotetsu: HEY HEY, NO RUNNING!
Mabui and Nazo whizzed by without slowing down.
Kotetsu: … friggin hoodlums nowadays…

Mabui now led Nazo into the forest, often disappearing behind trees and into bushes in an attempt to confuse Nazo. Nazo halted his run on the tree above the bush Mabui fled into, as he awaited Mabui’s next move. All of a sudden, three Mabuis came out of it, each crashing into a different direction. Nazo was surprised to see them running off so fast. (ok ok, bunshins… if they are real, then they should be like Mabui, let’s see) Nazo checked the first one, running north. (That’s the fastest; I’ll have to check him first) He checked his movements, and noticed he did not disturb the leaves he ran through.

He turned his attention to the one heading west, back to Konoha. (Why lead me all the way out here, only to return?). Nazo knew that if he decided to follow this one, he would only be increasing the distance between him and the third Mabui. Before he made his move, he looked at the one running east. That Mabui was speeding across the surface without a single sound, leaving Nazo to believe that the second one was indeed the real Mabui. Just as he readied himself to pursue that one, he saw something that made him change his mind. Just as the third Mabui jumped over a branch, she landed in a puddle, splashing water everywhere, and giving Nazo the evidence he was looking for. He let himself drop from the branch, and pushed off from the branch below, in pursuit of the eastward-bound Mabui.

“Not bad, not bad at all. You seem to have moved up the ladder a step, mister!”

As quick as a beat, Mabui stopped, signalling Nazo to do the same and to join her.
Nazo halted his run and jumped down next to Mabui.

“This is it, mister. This is where I wanted to take you.”
Nazo followed Mabui’s gaze sideways until he saw what she saw.

A beautiful large clearing in the middle of the forest was in front of them. Lush green grass was waving from side to side, as instructed to by the wind. The field was huge, with a tiny stream slithering through it like a snake.

“Nice, isn’t it, mister?”
Sure is. But, why did you bring me here? Was the chase our training?

Mabui walked over to the field, and sat herself down against a tree. She patted the ground next to her, to point where Nazo had to sit.

“I love this field. I love being a shinobi too. And I love training other people to become better. You see where I’m going, mister?”

Nazo shook his head.

“Oh, Tairaki told me you were a bit…dim but you really dim, right mister?”
(Aaaaaaaaargh, Tairaki!)
I want to combine everything I like, mister. This field, being a shinobi and training other shinobi. Once I’m allowed to do so, I want to turn this into a training course. Many shinobi don’t know what to train and they just repeat what every other shinobi has done before them, tree walking, water-walking as if they were little outings, like a picnic or something. I want to push those shinobis to the edge of their abilities from day 1. Just like I’m doing with you.

Nazo listened to the explanation this little, tiny girl gave. He wondered how this girl could be so caring about others, wanting others to improve. She sure is way ahead of her age.

I even have a name for it, mister. SoS-course!

What does it stand for?

”Shinobi or Sucker-course. Because those that fail here, will die, tee-hee!”

Nazo’s gentle smile for this cute girl’s dream immediately vanished. (This girl is Tairaki 2.0…*sigh*… Why does this always happen to me?)

Mabui noticed the change in Nazo’s behaviour. “I’m sorry, mister. Tairaki told me to say that, she thought it would freak you out.”

(grmbl… that bi-)

Anyway, I don’t want to kill anyone here on this course, but I do want to push their limits. If they can’t raise their own game, then I WILL take away their headband, so that they cannot endanger other shinobis anymore.

Hehe, whenever you’re going to build this, count me in. I’ll help you build it. Hell, I’ll even be your first customer, how about that!

“You’ve got yourself a deal, mister! Now eat your lunch, because training isn’t over yet!”

Nazo opened up his lunch pack: “GARLIC BREAD?”

[papfles]

Act 9: The course

While Nazo was dreaming about eating a combination of ham, mayonnaise, a sandwich, tomatoes, some eggs, Mabui was planting several items into the ground, all across the field.
When she was ready, she returned to Nazo lying against the tree with his eyes closed.
She tapped his toe and waited for him to open his eyes.

”Once you’re ready, mister, go to that first kunai, and I’ll explain the course, okay?”

Nazo got up, while Mabui turned around and ran to the other side of the field. He checked his attributes and made sure that everything was well-attached and ready for use. Slowly making his way to the first point, he looked around to get a better view of the course Mabui had constructed. (Hmm, there’s kunai everywhere just sticking in the ground)

Okay, I’m ready, what do I have to do?

Mabui waved from the other side to show she heard him. “You have to make it over here, and pick up every kunai along the way. I’ll be standing here, not moving. GOOD LUCK”

Nazo felt a tad uneasy. (I’m not that big an idiot that I need to do something this stupid, now am I?) He grabbed his own kunai and hurled it towards the first kunai sticking in the ground.

SFX: BOOM

What the hell was that? Hey, Mabui, any more surprises?

I thought you could use some waking up; you’re probably thinking that this is a lame exercise. But don’t worry, no more kunai with explosive tags from now on.

Nazo started his run towards Mabui, changing direction left and right in order to pick up the kunai. His first kunai was not a problem, as the explosive tag had already exploded. He ran past the flower patch, jumped over the little creek, obscuring a couple of fish during his passage, and grabbed the second kunai out of the ground. (Hmmm, this isn’t good)

Nazo felt uncomfortable at the speedy development of this training. He looked sideways towards Mabui, who just kept smiling. Halfway down the track, Nazo had already collected 3 kunai and hadn’t faced any difficulty so far. All he had to do was run from left to right, picking up the kunai along the way.

Just as he had taken his fourth kunai, he heard Mabui giggle. “Going good so far”.

DOTON: DOROKU GAESHI NO JUTSU

From all sides a wall of earth rose far above Nazo, trapping him inside.
”You didn’t think I’d let you walk right up to here, did you mister?”
Nazo smiled (hehe, should’ve known she’d use her doton against me), he looked around to find a way out. Knocking on the wall, he could see he couldn’t get past that, not even with an explosive tag, as he didn’t have enough room to get away from the explosion.

“Time is ticking away mister, you’d better think of something quick or it ends here for you!”
(Hmmm, she’s not kidding probably)

Nazo considered his options and realized he had none except one long shot. He pulled out the rope he had, pulled it through the kunai’s hole and threw the kunai into the wall, two each on opposite sides. Nazo then tied a knot at the end of the rope, so the kunai wouldn’t shoot through. He grabbed the rope firmly, and used each kunai as a jumping platform, just wide enough for one foot to get a hold. Jumping from side to side, he reached the top of the wall. As soon as he escaped the entrapment, he pulled the rope, freeing the four kunai, enabling him to rush towards the fifth one, without losing the previous four.

DOTON: JINKOUJISHIN SUKIMA NO JUTSU (OoC: Artificial earthquake: Crack technique)

Nazo felt the earth underneath his feet fall away, after Mabui muttered her jutsu. As he fell down, he flung the rope forward with a swift movement from both hands above his head, hoping that the kunai would fly into the ground, giving him an option to get out. The rope flew towards the ground, but Nazo couldn’t see whether it had done what he had hoped, because it has disappeared from his field of vision, as he dove into the crevice Mabui made. Holding on firmly to the rope, he suddenly felt a tug on the rope, swinging him towards the wall of the crack. Nazo smashed into it. Nevertheless, he didn’t loosen his grip of the rope, as it was his only lifeline and he needed to get out quick because if only a couple of kunai were in the ground, they wouldn’t hold out much longer.

In the meantime, Mabui had taken a seat on the ground, patiently awaiting Nazo’s visible return. Step by step, she could see Nazo’s arms surface, clutching the edge of the crevice, while he ostensibly struggled to gain a foothold, so he could get out. When he emerged on the solid, horizontal ground, he panted heavily, mouth wide open, while being on hands and knees.

“No rest for you mister, no rest in battle. Get to the next kunai, please”

Nazo looked up to see the next kunai shine in front of him, just a few meters away. He scrambled together his weary body as he sprinted towards the fifth kunai.

DOTON
(Oh no…not another one)
SEKIJUN NO JUTSU

Without hesitation, Nazo stopped and backflipped, expecting an attempt to hinder his approach of the kunai. Luckily for Nazo, he was right as a stalagmite rose in front of him.
Mabui smiled contently.
“You seem to get the hang of it, mister, nice job!”

Nazo did not waste any time as he ran by the stalagmite and grabbed the fifth kunai (only one more). During his run, he unhooked all the kunai and left the rope. With five kunai in his hands, he went for the final kunai, looking at Mabui to see what she was doing. The sixth and final kunai was only a couple of yards away from Mabui herself. As the distance between the two closed, he noticed Mabui bringing her hands to her chest to perform seals. (Not this time!) Nazo hurled three kunai a bit in the air and launched the two other kunai at Mabui.

When the three other kunai landed in his hands again, he fired them as well, spreading them so he had a square of kunai with a single kunai in the middle. After this move, he kept running towards the kunai, hoping that he could get there before Mabui could recover from his attack.

Mabui indeed was taken by surprise by the attack that Nazo had launched. In stead of the first attack she wanted to perform, she called forth another earth wall by performing her doroku gaeshi no jutsu. She jumped on top of the wall, only to find Nazo standing in front of the wall with six kunai in his hands.
”You moved”, Nazo said with a wink.

”So I did, nice work, mister! I did not expect you to attack me like that. That’s good, while being on the defensive you found a way to gain an advantage! Congratulations!”

Nazo bowed his head in gratitude. “Thank you Mabui, you’ll make a perfect teacher!”

Nazo grabbed his rope and then walked off the training grounds with the little Mabui on his back. Thanks for the piggyback ride, mister!

He stopped to look back on the mayhem Mabui caused in an attempt to stop him (plenty of shinobi are going to curse her after completing her course… Suckers)

[Nova]

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a130/tnova15/seal.png

Approved. Very different. I like that. We certainly have a contender here. I'll watch out for you pap.

[papfles]

Act 10: Prosper in Adversity

The wind picked up several leaves and pushed them higher than their tree-fixed comrades. If a leaf could possibly hope for anything in its entire life, then this gust of wind surely gave it everything it had dreamed of and more. A rollercoaster of twists and turns, sudden drops before picking up speed again, overseeing the entire village, while peacefully gliding back to the ground.

Nazo followed a particular leaf as it screamed, shouted and yelled its way down the airborne amusement park. As it left the hospital grounds, its exhilaration of exploring new grounds would surely send a stream of adrenalin through its veins. Unfortunately, that is not always the path that one is sent upon, as having the wind aid you in your quest can sometimes lead you on a path of self-destruction. The tiny, green-yellowish leaf demonstrated this perfectly, as it hit a puddle and went to its watery grave, after enjoying his last spike of living life to the fullest, it would seem.

With his arms crossed and left wrist forming the hotdog between the buns of his chin and his right wrist, Nazo rested on the windowsill. He had been following these little spectacles that nature provided for several days now, without leaving his room.

It had been several days since that day, that day that Nazo had been training for, that day that he had been waiting for. And it was over even before he could blink. He had let himself down, he had let his parents down and he had let Mabui and his friends down.

With his head hanging low and his hands in his pockets – ever since the fight actually – Nazo returned to the hospital to face the music, to recover from his defeat…mentally, he would need and could use some healing. He turned the corner of the gate to face a huge banner hanging from the first story windows with “good luck Nazo!” on it. He was baffled by the sight. It was obvious that Mabui had been waiting the entire day for Nazo to return, as he had seen her in the window immediately prior to her rushing off and re-appearing on the stairs in front of the entrance. Behind her, a group of nurses, patients, doctors and staff gathered to cheer Nazo on after his first – undoubtedly exciting – fight. Mabui held her hands close together with her index fingers touching her mouth, sporadically clapping her hands rapidly as a sign of anticipation before Nazo spoke.

Nazo took his hands out of his pockets, while the gathered crowd waited in excitement. Before they had realized what had happened, Nazo was well underway in the hospital and several people stood several feet apart from each other, in a straight line aimed towards the group of people, like a string to a balloon.

Nazo didn’t feel like talking to anyone after his shameful defeat in the preliminaries, using his kawarimi to escape the scene he would undoubtedly cause after telling how he fared. He did not want those eyes, full of pleasure and delight, to sink into the ground as if their local hero just lost the bout for the championship belt because he choked on a pretzel.

Arriving at his room, he placed a “quarantined” label on his door, to make sure that he would be left alone until he was ready to face the music.

Wind swept through his room. Nazo didn’t even look up, keeping his eyes half-open like roll-down shutters, and placing the side of his head on his arm now, while attempting to look over his shoulder to the door. “Hello Tairaki. I’m not in the mood to talk, you know.”

Tairaki stepped into the room, with a smile on her face. “And why is that? It’s just another day, isn’t it?” It looked as if she was determined not to let the past influence the present, to pretend nothing had happened. It was just an ordinary day for Tairaki probably.

“Nice try, but the past is what makes the present. So just leave me be."

”No can do, mister you-look-even-worse-than-when-you-hit-the-wall. It’s my duty to put the rooms in order and to make sure that the patients get better.”

“Whatever. And your little wind-trick won’t scare me again, so don’t bother”

Tairaki kept a smile on her face. While cleaning the table, she placed a bright-yellow, wrinkled piece of paper on the table. She blocked it from Nazo’s view by standing in front of it as she placed everything on the little platter. Nazo had resumed his James Stewart-ish observation of the outside world. Noticing he wasn’t paying any attention to what she was doing, she grabbed the platter, turned around, took a couple of steps towards Nazo and bent over. “don’t fret about the past. You learn from the past and you move on. Life always hands you new chances.” Nazo didn’t even bother to look her in the eyes. He just shrugged his shoulders, almost hitting her in the chin. “oh, and one more thing. I’ll cut you up and serve you to other patients if you insult my element again.”
Nazo’s eyes flickered into existence, with his pupils apparently running all the way back into his skull, hiding behind the “coward”-part in his brain.
Immediately, she changed her tone again “oh, and don’t forget to check your desk. The past apparently won’t stop hunting you” and giggled as she walked out the door again.

“That girl, turning into a real vixen, isn’t she?”

Nazo attempted to continue looking outside, waiting for an interesting sight, but he couldn’t control himself and wound up looking at the table for the letter Tairaki had dropped there. “darn that girl, explicitly telling me about the letter, knowing all too well I’m too curious about stuff like that.”

Nazo reluctantly got up, pushed his chair back and walked over to the table. He snatched the piece of paper from the table and examined it closely. (looks kind of official, an imprint of the city’s kage in the top left corner). Nazo flipped the piece to see if something was written on the back, immediately flipping it back as it was empty.
“let’s see”.


From the desk of the Kazekage,

Nazo,
You are hereby re-entering the Tournament of the Sun. One of the shinobi that had entered could not manage to arrive in time, and will therefore be replaced by a shinobi from the preliminaries.

After a long and careful consultation between myself and the judges of the tournament, we have decided to allow you to show your true potential.
Do not shame our trust in you by losing again. You now know how life as a shinobi can be, so you’d better learn from that and move forward.

Kazekage,
Gaara from the Sand



Nazo couldn’t believe that the kazekage himself had instructed his return into the tournament. Surely there were other candidates that deserved it more. All kinds of thoughts raced through Nazo’s mind, all heading for the “this is what you’re going to do”-box in his head. As thought 3 outwitted thought number 7 and arrived first, Nazo knew what to do. He immediately laid out his inventory and envisioned what he would do in his next battle.

Well, well, it seems you do have some spunk in you after all.

Nazo rotated his torso so he could lean on the back of the chair with his arm while facing the door. There he stood, Kamereon, confidently leaning against the door post, one leg crossing the other one and resting with the tip of its foot against the ground. He inspected Nazo from head to toe.
“All cried out? Or are you still going to wither like a little petty flower on the windowsill?”
Nazo turned his eyes to the ground and grinned. “Hey Kamer, still as cheerful as ever?”
“Hmpft, at least I’m not the girly girl with the mood swings after a minor setback, now am I? Anyway, one piece of advice: prepare yourself better than you did the last match.”
“I kno…” Before Nazo could finish his sentence, Kamer had already left his position and was nowhere in sight. Nazo kept looking at the empty space previously inhabited by Kamer. “I know…and I will”.

After he had cleaned and checked all of his equipment, he strapped on his headband and headed for the door. Just before his hand reached the doorknob, he made a clear-cut decision that he would not create the same disgraceful situation as last time when he had to kawarimi all the way to his room to avoid any confrontation. Seconds after henge’ing into a male nurse, he ran into the hospital, remaining under the detection-radar.

Running down the steps of the hospital, he was in the clear, seeing the front gate approaching rapidly.

“Where are we going in such a hurry? No more time for pouting?”

Tairaki appeared at the front gate, with Mabui at her side, her hand in hers. “So you’re going to the fight ey mister?”

Nazo screeched to a full-stop, kicking up dirt and pebbles. “How did you know what I was going to do? And another thing, how did you know it was me?”
Nazo unhenged and glared at Mabui, for he suspected her to have read his letter.
”Now now, it’s not her fault, I told her”
So you read my letter?
“Yup, it’s kind of hard not to read it, seeing how I’m a curious girl and I just happened to read the first word and continued moving my eyes from left to right.”
Nazo crossed his arms and raised one eyebrow while looking at Tairaki. He put his mouth in a twist to show his disappointment with Tairaki’s behaviour. “So, what you’re actually saying is: You just read my letter and pretty much told everyone about it?”
”Yeah” Tairaki giggled.
“We just wanted to wish you good luck mister. It’s not because you failed the last time, that you won’t succeed this time. You trained well; you thoroughly made me enjoy it. And you gave me a piggyback ride!”
”Haha, that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it Nazo. Good luck, don’t let anyone else put you down, it’s all up to you and the mental games you seem to play with yourself. Just go forward, with your head held high.”
Nazo listened to the two girls giving him words of encouragement while they walked by. Ending her little speech right beside him, Tairaki placed her hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear “Even Kamer wants you to kick some ass”.

This all gave Nazo an incredible feeling, knowing that these three backed him up, even after such a humiliating defeat. Full of confidence, he left the hospital grounds once again to prove his worth.

(several hours later)

Nazo happily walked back into the hospital grounds. Although it was not a perfect fight, he had overcome his previous anxiety and managed to come out the victor this time. He had done his kage proud hopefully. And he felt good as well. Everyone who had said to him that he had to learn from the past, was right in the end.

“I’m guessing you did okay this time?” Tairaki sat in a first-storey window, looking down on Nazo.

”yeah, it was better than the last time at least.”
”That’s nice to hear. You’d better get ready for the next round then” she winked.

Yeah…thanks. The things you guys said to me made me think and I realized something I had said when I fought in the academy.

Oh, and what is that?

Nazo, as he struck the ground with such a force the wooden boards underneath him seemed to hurt as well: (damn, he’s fast)

Udon: The bunshin was amateurish, but the kawarimi was good. The problem was you drew attention to the object you switched with. It is better to use something I wouldn't instantly know the location of.

Nazo crawled back up, placing his left knee on the ground and resting his left hand on that same knee and sat there while listening to his sensei’s advice.

Nazo: (Hmmm, the water gave me away?! Darn, and I thought I’d waited long enough before I called the bunshin, so that he wouldn’t have time to hear or see anything to give it away. He could tell the difference, from that one step the bunshin had to make before lunging at him? I’m in for quite the workout here, it would seem…hehehe, GOOD, I need to prosper in adversity, and this is my chance).

Nazo acknowledged his mistakes, pushed off on his left foot and regained his posture. He stroked his thighs with his hand to brush off any dirt from the fall. After that, he reached out to feel his left shoulder (quite the hit, and why do I get the feeling he’s still holding back). While clamping his left shoulder firmly on top with his right hand, he turned his head towards this shoulder, grimaced as he slightly pushed his shoulder forwards. The slight crack he heard, felt good.
Nazo: (Aaah, that ought to do it)

Nazo smiled as he walked into the hospital. Just before he would’ve disappeared from Tairaki’s gaze, he looked up and said “You have your secrets… I have mine.” He waved and walked inside.

Tairaki just smiled at Nazo's attempt at being enigmatic and returned to her daily duties, visibly relieved that Nazo had made it through.

[Azure Wrath]

Yay, re-read through it all!
The training is approved and it is also very good! Those little touches (the SOS-course! :p) make it a pleasure to read this!
Keep up the good work, pappy!

Let's see what has improved in all these posts:
Chakra Control (because of Kawarimi training)
Chakra Pool (because of Kawarimi training)
Kawarimi Ability (because of ..um...Kawarimi training?)
Henge Ability
Projectile skills
Agility (All of your damn races!)
Evasion (Dodging those damn kids!)
Stamina (All the dodging and races)
Intelligence, concerning herbs (reading the herb books help with this... O_O)

I believe that would be it... (or, the important ones at least)

APROVED!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m38/azure_wrath/seal.png

[papfles]

Chapter 2:

Act 1: Warzone

“What the hell happened here?” Nazo stumbled.

His eyes turned from left to right, up and down, seeing nothing but a blur, while his brain tried to analyse all the sensations into one clear picture. He dropped his bag onto the ground and slowly stepped forward. His stride seemed to lack continuity as he often couldn’t bear the sight before him.

”This…. This is brutal…” All his mind could focus on was the cloud of smoke that seemed to overpower the blue that otherwise dominated the skies above the hospital.

Then, a familiar face appeared.

“Nazo, you’re Nazo right?” as she came running straight for him.

Still wandering, shifting left and right like a tanker caught in a midnight storm in the open sea, Nazo failed to recognize her immediately.
“Nazo!”
”Wh- What happened… Why…”
”Nazo!”. Suddenly two arms gripped his shoulders and violently shook him, as if the other person wanted to make sure that body and mind both focussed on the matter at hand. “Snap out of it, there’s no time.”
“Why is everyone outside? D- Do we have termites?”

The burning tingling on his right cheek brought him back to reality. In front of him was a nurse from the hospital, one of the two he had scared with his face of doom-trick. But she wasn’t here for revenge or something… that was clear to see. The gashes on her arms, the cut on her forehead…. It looked as if she should be lying in the hospital, instead of working there.
“We’ve brought everyone out here, because it’s too dangerous.”
Nazo gazed to his left, a grassy field in front of the hospital completely dotted with little groups of sick people. “This many?”

“And that’s not all… We’ve counted them, there are only 142 here, we have 144 patients and staff in total”

Nazo shifted his eyes back to the nurse and only now noticed the state of the hospital, after looking over her shoulder. He pushed her to the side and ran a few meters forward, while keeping a frightened look on the tarnished hospital building. It looked as if it had been ransacked by a pirate ship, at least a 24-gunner. The entire front of the building was riddled with a huge amount of holes and a part of the eastern side appeared to have been blown out by some huge explosion. Pieces of concrete were still dangling from their metal partners-in-“standing the test of time”, while several water pipes had burst, offering a joyous spectacle to the oblivious children.

“Get these children away from the building, it’s not safe!” Nazo blurted out in a moment of leadership. “You’re missing two, right? Any idea who they are and where they might be found?” Nazo kept inspecting the building to see any sign of weakness that might endanger his hospital visit. (I usually come here to get better…If I died now, I can just imagine the completely ironic tombstone Tairaki would make for me)

“Well….there’s this little kid in room 101 and….”
“Hurry up, we never know when it’s too late”. Not a second after Nazo’s words left his lips, a loud thunderous bang escaped from the hospital, making everyone in the grassy field cringe, fearful of getting hurt. Nazo quickly pulled his head behind his arm while keeping a close eye on any debris that might have been flung over the roof. “Speak up, lady, or the next person you should slap back to reality should be yourself” (wow, acting tough in this instance…Tairaki would’ve threatened me alrea-)

“Tairaki! The other one missing is Tairaki.” The nurse placed her hands on her lap and bowed her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to tell you so you wouldn’t do anything rash.”
Nazo had given other people the opportunity to stand where he just stood (OoC: in other words: he ran). The nurse looked up, shouted his name a couple of times, but to no avail. He kept running straight for the entrance of the building.

Something clicked when he heard that name…something snapped. All logic went out the many holes in Nazo’s head (must find her…).
Completely ignoring the dangers that he was looking for when he was outside, Nazo stormed inside and let his instinct guide the way. (The nurses’ lunch room, as good a place as any to start looking for her)
He dashed through the corridors, abandoned as they were, not hindered by nurses telling him to slow down.

A violent blow shook the foundations of the hospital, forcing Nazo to cling to the wall. (What the hell…it’s like this place is under siege). He headed for a higher floor, having found nothing on the ground floor. The second he stepped onto the first floor, he heard heavy breathing from the room on the left. The sign above the door read “101”. (That kid… how could I have forgotten about that kid. Tairaki would’ve wanted me to get this child first.)
Nazo tried to pry the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.

“HEY, are you okay?”
Yeah…. I just can’t get the door open…it’s stuck.
”Are you near the door or can I try to break it down?”
“Go ahead, it’s clear”

Nazo stepped back into the corridor, bent through his knees slightly, turned his torso to make his shoulder the spear point that would connect with the door first. He streamed chakra into his legs to increase his speed. (Here I go)
The door slammed open easily, tearing the wood that just before formed the receptacle for the metal lock along with it. The speed with which Nazo barged in, caused him to trip and fall over all the debris.

“you are …Nazo, right?”
”Yeah, how’d you know?” Nazo said as he dusted himself off and searched the room for the voice. He noticed a small boy – covered in dust and clutching his arm – sitting in the corner of the room.
”I recognized the way you fell to the floor, it’s rather notorious in this hospital.”
(………*sigh* What… Is everyone here a comedian?)

The room looked ravaged. It wasn’t identical to every other hospital room anymore. Sure, the rectangular-shaped entry hall, with the door to the right to the bathroom was still there, but behind this entry hall, normally stood a square-shaped room with two beds next to each other.
It was as if a giant had come and shook the dollhouse of his giant sister. Nothing was where it was supposed to be.
The most striking thing was the side wall. Normally, the hospital walls were all white with a minor touch of pink here and there to liven the place up. Now, it has a distinct picture of the trees and the grass with a city landscape behind it.

“I've seen this damage from outside. What happened to the wall?”
“I believe the correct term is –gone–, sir”
(…maybe I should just leave him trapped, it’s like Tairaki 2.0)
Yeah, I can see that, but how’d it happen?
No idea sir, I was sleeping when a loud crash sent the wall to the ground.

Nazo stepped over to the wall and looked outside to see the damage the wall suffered from the impact. (Must’ve been a fast blast, seeing how the edges of the hole are quite clean…)
“Can you get out yourself?”
Yeah sure, don’t worry, I’ll leave right away.

- A couple of minutes later -

(I’ve searched every room on this second floor too; she’s nowhere to be found)
Nazo puffed as he proceeded to the third floor.

“…. No jutsu”

Seconds after Nazo set foot on the third floor, a huge blast could be heard from the end of the hallway that literally shook Nazo off his feet. Falling to his knees and holding onto the wall and the floor simultaneously with each hand, Nazo waited for the rumbling to stop. (What kind of jutsu was that? The shock was similar to that one earlier…)

Nazo hurried to the place where the sound originated from, making sure not to arouse any suspicion of his presence. Arriving at the room, Nazo was startled (This - This is my room?!).

Opening the door, Nazo stood in the entry hall of his own room, with Tairaki standing several feet away from him. She looked tired. Her clothes were torn to pieces, clawed to ribbons. She held her head towards the ground and sighed heavily while addressing Nazo.

”So…you’ve come back for me? You shouldn’t have”

She looked as if she was warming her hands by rubbing them over each other, while uttering those words, when all of a sudden:

KAMAITACHI NO JUTSU (cutting whirlwind technique)

Without hesitation, Tairaki raised her head and thrusted her palms towards Nazo.

(whoa! Wh-.) Before Nazo could react to what Tairaki had done, he was flying towards the hallway wall, like a tomato being launched – green bit first – towards a baseball bat. The impact was so severe that Nazo passed out almost immediately.

Wh- Why?

Next, I’ll take…

[papfles]

Act 2: You think you know someone…


“Hey, are you okay?” So how’s my favourite patient of room 316?

Tairaki? How come I’m in my own room again?

Nazo looked around and saw nothing conspicuous aside from the fact that everything was in top shape, as if nothing had happened.

Well, you were injured, so we had to take care of you, that’s what a hospital does.

Nazo couldn’t understand what Tairaki was saying, he felt the blow, he felt the pain from Tairaki’s words and how she looked at him with disdain and contempt when she struck that deciding blow. How could he be where he was, with Tairaki gently wiping his forehead?

“Injured? But … you were the one who injured me!”

“What are you talking about, Nazo?” Tairaki looked genuinely surprised after Nazo’s claim. He couldn’t sense anything fake about her startled appearance.

“You attacked me, you even threw Kamaitachi no jutsu at me, causing these injuries.”
Nazo pointed towards his many bandages around his arms and his head to illustrate his point.
Tairaki merely smiled and continued her job as a nurse, opening the window, and looking outside at the children playing on the grass. She then turned around and leaned against the ledge.

“It looks as if you’ve taken quite the hit on the head when you went through that glass window. We may have to do a check to see whether your brain has not been damaged. Although I doubt much damage could’ve been done to it anyway”
(… It’s Tairaki all right….)
“You want to know what really happened? It’s nothing as spectacular as shinobi attacking or anything like that. You were training and miscalculated your jump, and went through the window of the ground floor, that’s it.”

Nazo’s eyes fluttered. (an illusion because of a head injury?) Tairaki noticed that Nazo was completely flabbergasted by this apparent turn of events.


So… It wasn’t you?
(Praise be to Gaara)

Tairaki tried to ease Nazo's mind: Of course not, Nazo-darling. Let’s not get carried away. Besides, if what you dreamt was true, then you would also have to know that one of the basic skills of a shinobi is the henge no jutsu…It would be very easy for someone to pose as me”
"But...But" Nazo stumbled, as he tried to make sense of it all.

Tairaki raised one eyebrow and frowned upon Nazo, immediately making him feel tiny and puny. “Maybe you're not the only person who’s a shinobi here. This is a hospital for Suna after all. Many shinobi pass through here, maybe someone has a grudge against you because you actually won at the tournament. People like to bet on those fights, you know...

Nazo's head kept throbbing as the pieces were put back together by Tairaki, to aid him in his recovery.
”So you’re one as well?” Nazo asked."I mean...you did use a wind jutsu on me."

Tairaki immediately start swinging her hands from left to right, while frantically gesturing “no” with her head.
"Didn't you listen, even IF something like that happened: Someone else could pose as me very easily, silly boy! I'm not a shinobi."


So you can’t use wind jutsus? You’re just a nurse? Didn’t you do some windy entrance when we first met, or was it just some lame little wind that just happened to fly through the room?

“No idea, that bang on the head apparently did more damage than all those face-falls.”
(grmbl)

”Oh well, I’ve got to go now, there are some other patients that require my attention, so you’ll just have to weep and cry until I return, Nazo.”

Nazo was happy to see that Tairaki hadn’t lost her touch and that he had imagined it all.
“See you soon, Taira-“
Tairaki turned back around, interrupting Nazo’s speech as she walked to the front of the bed.

“oh, and one more thing. I’ll cut you up and serve you to other patients if you insult my element again.”
She then put her hands in front of her body, moved them around faster than Nazo could see and muttered:
KAMAITACHI NO JUTSU (cutting whirlwind technique)

---

HIAAAAAAAAAAGH

Nazo shot up, sweating like a soda in the gruesome heat of a midsummer’s day.

Hey, relax Nazo-mister. You’ve been having these nightmares a lot since …. that day.

Nazo kept sighing as he tried to grasp the reality of the situation. Looking around, he could only see wooden boards everywhere, and 4 beds spread evenly across the room. He glanced over to the bed next to him, only to find no one other than Mabui sitting there, staring at her feet underneath the sheets. (looks like a temporary field hospital...what am I doing here?)

Had a nice sleep, mister? You looked pretty bad when we found you. Glad to see you pulled through, Nazo-san.

Mabui? What happened to you? You look like hell with all these bandages.

Oh, don’t worry about me mister, I’ll be fine. My injuries are only superficial, unlike yours, which really cut you up badly.

How did you get hurt, Mabui? Nazo wondered.

Mabui grabbed the sheets with her hands and ducked her head down even further, clearly to avoid having catching even a glimpse of Nazo looking at her.

“I came to the hospital to see it lying in ruins, so I went in to look for survivors, mister. That’s…That’s when I found you, bleeding badly. Since you were not responding, mister, I tried to bring you back out for treatment, but then it happened.”

”WHAT, Mabui? what happened?” Nazo shouted.

Mabui hesitated. Nazo could see that she struggled retelling the events that led up to the current situation. Her mouth was struggling to keep shut while her heart bled, knowing what those words would do to Nazo.

“You deserve to know mister, I’m sorry. It was Tairaki. I only barely managed to block her attack with an earth wall. I just ran back after that, trying to stay alive and getting you to safety mister.” Silence fell into the room, vocal cords were being slit to avoid any unneeded remarks.

Nazo stared in front of him. His eyes showed no life. (…I just imagined all that friendly talk...There's no way she would call me Nazo-darling…Tairaki did not rescue me…when she attacked me, it must’ve jogged my memory and I relived some parts of my short-lived past with her…but it seemed so real…why? )

(OoC: the parts in italics in the dream are actual quotes from my previous chapter, used to build a dream around.)

“Tai-ra-ki….why?”

[papfles]

Act 3: It's over...

It seemed as if the weather adjusted itself to the way Nazo was feeling. Clouds crept in as soon as the sun wanted to enjoy the world with its warm embrace, cutting the sun’s show time short. The moon usually got full control of the night, but as so many times before, fewer spectators were there to enjoy its performance. Even the glory of the stars and the overwhelming purity of the universe faded with the gloomy empty gaze Nazo had while staring at the gently rocking surface of the pond in one of Konoha’s National Parks, namely the GaiMite National Park

(OoC: Yosemite => Gai Mite …)

It has been two days since the incident but Nazo still had not managed to say a single word, his mouth resembling the gates of a city under siege, refusing to yield to the pressure. Only much-needed rations that managed to sneak past Nazo’s sub-par lust for life, kept Nazo alive and breathing every day. That’s all he wanted to do for now, nothing mattered.
He grabbed a small stone from the dew-ridden grass, attempting to crush it in his hand. It was completely beyond him, he could not understand anything anymore. Why do birds chirp and fly around as if it’s the best thing in the world when two seconds later, one is caught by a cat, ending the glorious time they both shared? How can the other one carry on after such a dramatic event? Nazo had been contemplating on this matter for several days now, but had not yet managed to find an answer. And what was worse, was that in his case, the other bird decided to hurt him instead of some third party that ripped his heart out. Clamping the stone until it hurt, Nazo stood up as his blood began to boil out of disbelief and he hurled the stone towards the lake. Its splash into the water not only disturbed the quiet night, but also shattered the water’s surface, sending ever-growing ripples from the heart of the impact, never to return. It reflected how he felt at this particular moment in time, this moment that he could not let go, this moment that caused him to die a little, this moment where his world seems to run away from him, never to return.

Turning his back to the lake, he placed his hands in his pockets and dropped his head between his shoulders, to use them as a makeshift cover for the howling wind that tormented his already beaten and battered body. Slouching back to the hospital, Nazo passed several trees and bushes on his right near the entrance of the park. Without lifting his head and stopping, he mumbled “You don’t have to keep watch over me, you know”
It wasn’t hard to miss the shape that was leaning against the birch’s bark, with his arms folded. “Well, at least your awareness skills have not been affected,” the shadow stated.
“Whatever.” Nazo kept moving ahead, with a firm desire to get out of this wind and into the relative warmth of the ravaged hospital.

“So, you’re just going to pout all day? Never lost anyone dear to you before, have you?”

Nazo stopped dead in his tracks, not even flinching. (How can you presume to know what I’ve been through in my life?) “So what…Kamereon?”

Even though he was in front of Kamereon, Nazo could feel his disapproval piercing his back. Kamereon shook his head while remaining in the shade, resting against the tree. “What are you going to do in a mission when a fellow shinobi dies while doing his mission? Sob and cry for another 4 weeks? Grow up man. Life is about conquering disappointments and getting stronger because of them.”
Nazo let him finish his little rant, his little life lesson. “Finished,” he said with a stoic calmness about him.
Kamereon couldn’t prevent a tiny snicker to escape his lips. “Fine, do as you wish. Why not quit being a shinobi and run back crying to mommy?” he sneered.
Nazo refused to let this jab influence him as he waited for Kamereon to finish. Basking in the moonlight and awaiting any further comment to come from the dodgy figure behind him, Nazo kept silent. After a few minutes, he started to walk forward again, not wasting another word or sentiment on whatever Kamereon had tried to get out of him. His lips, his soul, remained uncanningly closed.

With a smirk on his face, unknown to Kamereon, he continued his walk towards the hospital, without even answering Kamereon’s question. He had already made up his mind, but his soul kept clinging on to times past as if the jury had already decided but was not willing to give the answer because the jury had been residing in a four star hotel and was trying to stretch this luxury-spell for a couple more days. But his body and his brain overruled his soul and acted.

(Bye…)

While Nazo kept increasing the distance between himself and Kamereon, he dropped his double headband to the ground, leaving it for whoever desired to have it.

[papfles]

Act 4: The end

There it stood. A cardboard box atop the table in the corner of the room. A cardboard box was all that was left.
A single kunai kept piercing the table’s skin, screeching in apparent pain. Small woodchips were sent flying off, destined to start a new life amongst the dust on the floor. A long ditch had already been carved into the table, a never-disappearing memory to its creator. A lousy piece of art.

Nazo had thought about allowing the kunai to get a taste of what it was designed for, blood. Bringing the shiny point ever closer to his own skin, he couldn’t maintain a steady hand. The tremor in his hand would’ve caused the kunai to wreak havoc to his arm, drawing lines as if a giant earthquake had thrown the seismographic machine off the charts and right into his arm. But he wanted to feel pain. The pain he had felt several days before. The last shred of human sentiment he had experienced. But he lacked the courage, the will-power.

The clouds were taking over the sky, blackening the ground below. No silver lining could be perceived at their edges, even though it was indubitably so that the sun waited for a chance to break through. This was a general truth. The sun would always prevail in the end. But that day, just like the day before, it appeared to be a bit lacklustre in its sovereign reign over the Suna skies. The deathly clouds had full power for the time being.

Unlike the sun’s kingdom in turmoil, Nazo’s situation was a bit more serious. For him, the end was nigh, not being able to feel anymore, not having enough courage to continue. He raised the kunai and did what no other shinobi would probably dare. (….)

Mabui was walking down the hall of the hospital. It didn’t feel like a hospital anymore. Several emergency lights flickered non-stop, occasionally illuminating the corridor. People lay everywhere. Only a few rooms had survived the onslaught and with a surplus of injured people, it seemed as if they had just resorted to piling them up – like towels in a closet. Making herself as thin as possible, clutching each elbow with the opposing hand, she made her way through the mass of bodies sitting, lying and standing in the passageway. She averted her eyes to the ground, often focussing on her own two feet. Being the young girl she was, Mabui was never the one to appreciate open wounds, broken bones, fever-induced gibberish and such. It reminded her of the human frailty. How strong someone may have been prior to a life-altering event, the puny, pathetic, regretful shambles that remain are often too confronting to behold. Humankind needs the illusion of grandeur to sustain, to survive. At least, that’s what Mabui seemed to radiate.

With a leap over the last injured man, she had reached Nazo’s room. She figured it would be best to keep an eye out for him, especially after what Kamer had told her about his encounter at the park. A warped mind is more likely to commit errors ; that much she knew. And Nazo was warped at this time. Aimlessly he had been wandering around the past few days, walking the same circle in his mind over and over again. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. That was the other reason why she felt she had to look after the poor shinobi now. That was the mission she gave herself.

She sighed, shook her head, and put on a smile, just before entering the room. She slammed the door open and cheerfully said “Hey mister, how are you?”

Her eyes were torn open and fixated on a particular point. The view of metal was not unusual to her, but the position in which it was placed and how it was angled towards the holder, stole all the words from her throat. Unable to utter specific words, Mabui just squeaked whatever sound was willing to leave her lips. “Giaaagh”.

Nazo failed to look up from his downward gaze. The table top was the apple of his eye. The ditch in it was the object of his so-called affection. “Don’t bother to change my mind, it’s over and done” as he send the kunai flying down.

She couldn’t bear this sight, tearing as she tried to move her feet towards him. With Kamereon’s speed, she could surely prohibit this thing from happening. But her skills lay elsewhere, much to her current dismay. She was nailed to the floor, only managing a single step from a gravity-burdened left leg. Her hand shot out, as if it was long enough to intercept the loss of another one close to her. While the kunai, propelled by the force Nazo had given it, continued its downward route, Mabui couldn’t bear its sight. With tears blurring her vision already, she closed her eyes and let gravity take over. She plummeted to the ground, falling on her knees. The shock blasted through her thighs up to her pelvis, bolting her head forward against her chest. Her arms rested to the side of her body, lifeless, not knowing what purpose they served.

The dreaded sound soon followed.
As she braced for the collision of the metal with flesh, a clattering metallic sound was all that resounded.
Slowly, she raised her head, wiping her eyes with the newfound life in her arm.

Nazo’s hand rested upon the cardboard box, having dropped the kunai in it, along with his other shinobi gear. He was still staring at his home-made desecration of the table, while his hand grabbed the edge of the box. “I thought shinobi were not allowed to show emotion or let their emotion get in the way of their judgment?” Nazo sneered.
He pushed back his chair and picked up the box under his left arm. Without even blinking, he walked past Mabui, who couldn’t get up, who hadn’t been able to reply, who hadn’t incapable of stopping him.

Just before Nazo turned the corner, he stopped. He looked sideways at the emotionally wrecked excuse for a human being, sobbing on the floor.
He merely snorted and walked away.
She trembled all over. Bringing her hands in clear view, she tried bringing them together in a fist but it cost her a lot more effort. It felt even more difficult than the worst fight she had ever been in. In a moment of blind rage, she made them into two little balls, and smacked the floor as hard as she could. Again, she slammed them into the ground. And again. And again.

She had failed.

[papfles]

Act 5: Teardrops on the ocean

He couldn’t help but grin as he turned the corner and walked down the corridor, towards whatever would lead him away from what he was experiencing now and away from those that wanted to reach out to him. He wanted out, to get away from everything that made him feel like a grieving, sobbing old lady. Utterly devastating Mabui’s attempt made him feel good; it made him feel alive again.

Lashing out at others what he couldn’t grasp himself seemed like an excellent, guilt-free way of lifting his spirit. The grin fixed on his face. Nazo felt it was his turn to reach down and rip apart the very arteries that sustained any friendly feeling towards him. He had been severed from his own heart a few days ago, and he was not going to allow anyone else to do that to him again. He was not going to flail around aimlessly, trying to cope with reality and trying to figure out why certain things just happen. Life was cruel, but he could deal that hand right back. It was his time to be cruel too. He now had his way of dealing with it. He could just mentally attack with pin-point accurate cynicism. Mental attacks without the guilt trip, without the physical fatigue. (No more mental anguish for me. I’ll just hurt them to stay clear. If they get hurt by my actions, then I can’t get hurt by them.)

The dubious nature of the corridor lights gave his grin a rather ominous appearance, calamitous even. The smile of someone who knew that pain and devastation were there to be abused for his own protection, perhaps his own delight even.
He recklessly stepped through the corridor, paying no attention to whoever obstructed his stride. The vibe he was emitting – accompanied by his devilish grimace – seemed to clear a path in front of him. His overwhelming, threatening image was enhanced by the light’s indecision to illuminate the hall. This constant doubt between darkness and visibility made it seem as if he was constantly appearing several feet further while his gaze remained fixed in front of him, undeterred from his goal, like a lion waiting for the kill.

Suddenly, he snapped back his right hand, slowly turning his head to assess the damage as he stopped. Like a completely lifeless collection of limbs and joints, Mabui flew sideways. She hadn’t seen the vicious assault, as the darkness had blocked its flight. Simultaneously with her collision with several patients, a table and some chairs – like a bowling ball connecting with several unsuspecting pins – Nazo’s smirk increased and the amused laughter in his eyes outshone the spells of darkness.

After the thunderous crash, Mabui tried to get up, but was prevented major movement because of the table lying on top of her legs. With outstretched arms, she raised her upper body off the floor while trying to fight off the pain from the multiple bruises. The next light flicker, Nazo’s legs were right in front of her and she could feel an ill-fated tug at her shirt, near her neck.

Nazo had silently approached Mabui and lifted her up by her shirt, putting his fist underneath her jaw. As she struggled to look him into his eyes, he playfully looked down on her. He had pulled her off the ground, with her legs dangling a few centimetres above solid ground. “Well, I guess I’m not the one bumping into things face-first anymore. Does it hurt?” he said, glancing at her legs.
“Wh-Why did you hit me, mister? I only want to help you”.
A minor chuckle escaped his lips. “I asked if it hurt.”
“No….It doesn’t hurt that much, mister.”
“Oh, okay”

He pulled her closer, in an apparent attempt to hug her. He could notice a tear escape the corner of her eye. It accelerated as it speeded towards the ground to end up as a mere crushed version of its former self.
Another titter could be heard when Nazo observed the tear splash apart. “I guess you could say that’s how I am today. A mere splatter from who I used to be.” Although every possible thought raced through her mind, Mabui couldn’t voice what she wanted him to know. He just looked at her stifled expression and shook his head, not even attempting to suppress his delight. “Hmpf. It’s time to discard whatever could hurt me. And I’m beginning with you.”

He raised her up until he had almost stretched his entire arm. He then looked down, averting his eyes, grimaced and then said it, almost inaudibly. (Happy landing.)
Pulling her closer for a few inches, he gathered enough strength in his arm to raise and stretch his arm fully in a faster motion, letting her go at the limit of his arm. This time, he didn’t look for what happened to Mabui. He didn’t care anymore. That’s what he told himself.
Patients rushed to Mabui’s aid as she crashed through the window, while Nazo’s eyes danced as he walked away. (This place could use some fresh air. Nice job, Mabui.).
He didn’t hesitate once, as he passed all the familiar faces from the staff and the patients. He ignored them as he headed for the exit.
This was it for him; Mabui no longer belonged to his life. Neither did this hospital. He couldn’t care less what happened to it. They all got what they deserved. And he didn’t want to have any part in it; he didn’t want to belong somewhere. (Attaching yourself to something only gets you hurt, nothing else). That… is what he told himself.

Then… just for a split second…his concentration broke as he noticed the yellow ribbon in front of thàt room to his left. His stride broke for a second. He tried to resume his step, but felt a strong inner pressure halt his movement. His strict, relentless viciousness gave way for a moment. He was drawn to the yellow ribbon. Without even thinking, without even blinking, he ripped the yellow ribbon down and barged in. Quickly, he closed the door behind him. His heart was throbbing like a drummer beating on his toms. The adrenaline it was pumping, not even in the tournament did Nazo experience the same feeling. He looked around. Near the window, with its closed curtains, stood a beautiful mahogany desk, littered with files and papers. Next to it stood a large, metallic file cabinet. Several drawers stood open, as could be expected of a busy staff member. Nazo walked over to the window and opened up the curtains, allowing light to seep back into a room that had been sealed off from the real world for several days now.

(So this is where Tairaki worked) Nazo looked over the several dossiers, casually strewn about on the desk. Flipping several files, he noticed that they were all on patients of his floor. Even his own file was amongst them, but he didn’t pay it much attention and just glanced at the different files.

Turning around, he saw something that he couldn’t have foreseen when he had just met her, but which seemed perfectly logical when thinking about their last encounter. The entire wall was penetrated by several bars. They protruded from the wall, allowing all sorts of items to be stacked upon or atop them. (I should’ve known… that bi-)

Nazo couldn’t say what he wanted to say about Tairaki. His heart objected to this furious, cold-hearted reasoning by Nazo’s mind. Nazo could feel his two beings tear each other apart for control. Every fiber of his body could feel the struggle that his heart tried to win. It was as if it was threatening to deny passing around any more blood if Nazo didn’t accept its request. It pushed through all the lovely memories Nazo had of Tairaki, of this hospital. It was as if the heart had been waiting for this opportunity the entire time. It would strike at the place where it thought that Nazo’s rational mind would be at it weakest: Tairaki’s place. Nazo fought back tears as he reminisced of how she had taken care of him, how she had cheered him on in the tournament, how she had playfully jabbed him verbally without even missing a beat. A minor nostalgic smile formed while the tears banged on the doors of his eyelids to escape with their luggage of frustration, misunderstanding and incomprehension at what had happened. It would relieve him if he could just let it out, and his heart knew that.

The memories flashed before his eyes, and suddenly his appearance changed. Running through all the thoughts he had of Tairaki, he had come to her final appearance, where she brutally attacked him and left him for dead, neglecting that which she had done up until then. This was the chance his rational mind had been waiting for. It pounded him with the repeated image of Tairaki firing her jutsu at him. Again. Again. Again. The tears had been forced back inside of him. His warm feeling, which he had just felt several seconds before, was now gone. A cold wall, made of hate – hate for Tairaki and how she betrayed him – now surrounded his heart, while his mind giggled at how easily he had vanquished his opponent with a single image.

The message was clear: The fun things that had happened in the past allowed for a nostalgic smile, but offered no solutions for the present and the future. The bad things however created scars onto the soul of the one suffering. A constant reminder of what one does not want to happen again. This had its effects on the present and the future. That was why the mind won in the end; it only needed that single painful memory to bring Nazo back to reality of what had happened. Thàt was all that remained of his past with Tairaki.

Nazo stared at the wall. Shuriken, kunai, metsubishi’s, scrolls, daggers, everything a shinobi could ask for, was placed on the wall, whether it was crammed into small cabinets or slid over the bars.
Regaining his previous posture and attitude, Nazo didn’t waste time grabbing what he thought could be useful in the future. Flipping through the scrolls, he picked whichever one he liked and placed them in the cardboard box. He gazed at the weaponry until it appeared into his view. The highest weapon on the wall would be his. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the prime weapon to have, and that he deserved it, seeing how much he had suffered because of this girl. The diamond wakizashi felt light and the light on its blade made it appear majestic. He smiled as he put it on his back and headed for the exit.
He had gotten from her what he wanted. It felt as if this was the only positive thing that Tairaki had ever done for Nazo. He grinned as he left the room.

(-tch)

He left the hospital, determined never to return.

[papfles]

Act 6: As if

His trek towards the gates of the village of Konoha didn’t take very long. Nazo took this time to take his mind off of what had just occurred in the hospital behind him. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a little note.


From the desk of the Kazekage,

Nazo,

You are no longer participating in the Tournament of the Sun. You are hereby requested to withdraw immediately.
I am aware that I have asked you to return into the tournament to show what a Suna shinobi is truly capable of and you have demonstrated that magnificently in your last fight. I do not wish for anyone else to witness your potential.

Unfortunately, that is not the only reason for your requested withdrawal from the tournament. A letter has arrived recently, with some urgency. That is why I decided upon this course of action.
I regret to inform you, but your mother has passed away during your absence.
There are not many words I can say to express my sympathy for your loss, therefore I will keep it short.

I will allow for a temporary recess from your current shinobi tasks at hand, and give you the opportunity to travel back to your parents, so you can say goodbye to your mother.

You are expected back in Suna in two weeks.

Kazekage,
Gaara of the Sand.


He had kept this quiet until he could’ve talked to someone dear to him about his loss. The conflicting emotions of his tournament win and the loss of his beloved mother were too much for him to handle.
But this was no longer the case. Nazo didn’t feel sorrow for her death anymore. It was a part of life, and this setback would not deter him anymore from becoming who he wanted to be. People were going to die, and his sobbing, crying and grieving won’t help anyone. There was only one person that needed his help and that was Nazo himself. This note now provided his perfect escape from everything he wanted to leave behind.

Abusing a death to escape sorrow and pain, yet he didn’t feel the least bit dirty about his actions.

Heavy gusts of wind, dancing with the torrential rain, battered his face as he approached the booth near the village gate.
He didn’t bother to check out as he kept walking, closing in on the gate, moving further away from the mess behind him.

Kotetsu: Hold it! No one leaves the village without checking with us first. You need permission as a shinobi to leave the village.

Nazo didn’t even bother to stop.

Kotetsu: Izumo, if you please.

Izumo: Understood! Suiton Mizuame Nabara!

Seconds later, Nazo couldn’t move, being stuck in a field of gooey substance.

Kotetsu: We know you, Nazo of the Sand. We’ve seen your fight. It was good, but do not think you can do whatever you like now. You still abide to the shinobi rules, remember that!

Nazo grinned. “Fine. Here.” He threw the note onto the desk. Kotetsu, aggravated because of the arrogant behaviour of the genin, picked it up and studied it.
His face turned a bit bleak at the sad news at the bottom of the letter. He then gave the note to Izumo, while addressing Nazo.

Kotetsu: My apologies, Nazo.

Snapping at this comment, Nazo retorted. “Well, I’m guessing a personal note from the Kage of the Sand will allow me passage back, now won’t it?” Kotetsu and Izumo could hear the vile undertone quite clearly.

Kotetsu: No problem, Nazo.

Izumo immediately released his jutsu, allowing Nazo to keep going.
Kotetsu couldn’t help but give Nazo one final advice before he was out of talking distance. “I hope you act more frivolously when you return, young genin.”

Nazo smirked. To show his contempt for the remark Kotetsu gave him, Nazo spat sideways – making sure it was seen – against the huge wooden gate. The saliva slowly made its way towards the ground.

(Don’t count on it.)

[Azure Wrath]

Ok, time to CC this.

Let's see...

There were no real skills learnt in this chapter, as all was pure storyline (unless you classify your character turning into an emo as a skill, go ahead :p). You learnt to get pummeled into submission by a girl, to hurt innocent people and to be cold and cruel. Congrats! :p

As for some CC...

Suddenly two arms gripped his shoulders and violently shook him, as if the other person wanted to get that last candy bar out of the candy machine without paying for it

Candy images contradicted the context, suddenly taking you out of the whole serious vibe, into a humerous/off-topic feel, which kind of disturbs the flow and overall feel of the post.

(OoC: in other words: he ran)

(OoC: the parts in italics in the dream are actual quotes from my previous chapter, used to build a dream around.)

Personally, i felt that these were not needed (took me out of the act)

”I recognized the way you fell to the floor, it’s rather notorious in this hospital.”

“I believe the correct term is –gone–, sir”


This was good humour and it was funny... but man, it came at a wrong time. The hospital is under attack, the kid could have died and Nazo saves him... whats the first thing the kid does? Ridicule Nazo? I found this a bit unbelieveable and very out of place. It was good to have some humour, but i doubt a person would crack jokes like that at such a time (in my opinion at least)

It has been two days since the incident but Nazo still had not managed to say a single word

I believe there must be a comma before the but

But today, just like yesterday, it appeared to be a bit lacklustre in its sovereign reign over the Suna skies.


Told you this on MSN, but let the 39.4 views per post of SOS see this. When speaking in past tense, you dont refer to 'today' or 'tomorrow', you refer to 'that day' and 'the day after'



My comments on the chapter? Really good. The very last chapter seemed a bit rushed, IMO, seeming a lot shorter and lacking the lush visuals and emotions that you portrayed in the rest of the chapter. The entire chapter gave me a feeling of coldness, reflecting poor ol' Nazo's emotions. The double-dream was both brilliant and utterly annoying (in a good way, dont worry) and you conveyed Nazo's emotions very well, keeping him as cold as liquid nitrogen at all times. He's emo and i want to kick him. And for you making me want to kick him means big kudo's to you. ^.^


XP: One session, involving no serious training, but a lot of growth on your character's side (Storyline development and such, hardening of your character). So...
2 XP for you, for some really good storyline advancement.

Good work, keep it up (yeah, thats what she said)

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m38/azure_wrath/seal.png