Just chillin (Flashback topic)

Sitting on the edge of a rooftop was a restless shinobi. It had only been six weeks since Hayato and his brother graduated the ninja academy. Looking down at his fairly new headband, the swordsman examined the music note engraved into it. He didn't know how to read music like the other citizens of the Hidden Sound. It was approximately four in the morning, and the teen couldn't sleep. Continuous nightmares of his life in slavery still haunted him to this day.

Learning the usage of chakra really seemed to boost Hayato's self-confidence in his combat abilities due to him learning how to fight with weapons as a regular person before he even understood what chakra was. He was wearing his usual sleeveless blue karate gi. The swordsman had his sword strapped to his back with a sash that went from his right shoulder to his left hip. The shinobi placed the headband around his forehead and tied it tight so it wouldn't fall off. It was easy to tie due to the headband having long straps on it.

Suddenly flashbacks ran through Hayato's head of the rebelion started by him and his older brother that freed them both. What were they going to do with their new life here? As a new graduate from the academy he didn't really know any other Genin so there was nobody else but his brother that he could talk to. But last he checked, his brother was still asleep. The warrior began to jump from rooftop to rooftop to clear his head. The night was the perfect atmosphere to truly feel like a ninja.

Looking ahead, he noticed an open area just beyond a forest on the edge of the area. Hopping up from the rooftop to the tree, the shinobi leaped across the trees and landed on te grass below. He noticed a book lying on the ground. So the curious teen picked it up. The cover was smudged and he couldn't make out a title. As he opened the cover, he noticed a picture of a ninja surrounded by a blue essence. It appeared to be a guide on chakra control. So Hayato sat down on a nearby log and began to read the pages very thoroughly.

"Oi!" A stern, feminine voice called out from above the young shinobi. There was a rustle of leaves as the figure the voice belonged to shifted within the tree above Hayato. "Do you always make a habit out of going through others' things?" The figure hopped down to a lower branch, straddling the wood at she lay down on her stomach, dark coal eyes peering at the teenager below her with a curious flicker. The girl's long black hair lay loosely along her back, tied absent-minededly together at its ends in an apparent attempt to keep it manageable.

The dark blue tones of the night sky seemed to bath the world in a soft blue light, the light of the moon shimmering off of the metal of their forehead protectors. Rena liked the silence of a moonlit night; the isolation the forest offered made for a nice escape. She started coming out to the forest when she and her brother had first arrived at Otogakure, as most of the other academy students had been training together for years and had a tendency towards exclusion. Her already porcelain skin, white and flawless as any of her clan members, seemed to glisten with an unearthly light under the radiance of the moon.

A small smile twitched at her lips while she feigned annoyance at the young boy, deep black eyes flitting down to look questioningly at the fingers that wrapped themselves around the pages of her book. To be fair, the book wasn't truly hers, per se... she'd forgotten to leave it behind when she and Amatsu ran from Konoha. She supposed that was considered unintentional stealing, but as far as she was concerned no one would really miss it.

The very first chapter of the book began with transfusing chakra into weapons merely by holding them. Hayato had made both his sword and arm braces out of chakra-conductive metal, therefore, he had the means to transfer chakra into his own personal items. From above there was a sound of a female voice followed by the rustling of leaves as Hayato neared the end of the first chapter in the book. This was clearly not an ambush, no ninja in their right minds would make their presence noticed if they were planning on assassinating their target. So the distracted shinobi kept reading the pages as he heard the voice speak once again. "Do you always make a habit out of going through others' things?"

"You obviously weren't using it, so I figured I would." Hayato stated plainly as he continued to read. The chapter ended with step-by-step instructions on how to augment the killing power of a blade by flowing chakra into it. Not even twenty seconds went by after this sentence before Hayato memorized the instructions, closed the cover of the book and looked up at the girl in the tree glaring down at him. Looking at the girl now, Hayato noticed her dark eyes and hair as she was in the tree above his location. "You can have it back now. I just wanted to finish reading the instructions in here." The teen explained as he tossed the book towards the girl in a spinning motion like that of a perfectly-thrown shuriken, he threw it gently enough that it would be easy for the girl to catch.

Drawing the sword off of his back while standing to his feet, Hayato held swords with both of his hands and began to focus his chakra in the exact way that the book had specified. He felt his chakra surging into the blade as the density of the chakra became so high that it became visible. The blue aura surrounded the swordman's blade as his eyes widened in amazement. He was actually able to accomplish this on his first try! He began to turn the blade and examine the beauty, the shining blue light reflected off of his headband.

"That's some book you got there." Hayato smiled at the girl "I just learned a nifty new trick. You have my thanks." Laughing out of excitement, Hayato quickly turned around and chopped the log he was sitting on before in half with minimal effort. This technique would come in handy! The materialised chakra was shaped like a blade outlining his own sword, cutting up everything it touched as he swung it around and chopped up surrounding stones and logs. Hayato was expressing joy that he hadn't known since he first discovered how to walk on water. "This is great! I finally learned something new with weapons before my big brother did!"

Hayato: 120/140

Rena raised a brow as he tossed the book up to her, easily catching it was she peered downward at the excited genin below. Huh. If he really wanted to learn something cool he should have just turned three more pages... With a shrug she pocketed the book in her leg pouch, letting one leg swing non-chalantly as he practiced with the blade of chakra he had created.

"That's some book you got there... I just learned a nifty new trick. You have my thanks." Her eyes glistened as her face broke into a playful smirk at his words. "It comes in handy every so often," She mused, dropping to the ground with a slight thump. Rena stretched, watching as her fellow genin slash with his sword. "And that," she added, nodding towards his sword while she stretched her arms up over her head and to the side, loosening her muscles while her barely covered and yet toned torso stretched and pulled. "Is some sword you've got there." Rena almost always wore very form fitting clothing that allowed for a large range of movement. The catch was, they didn't always allow for much skin to be covered, but she was not a modest person. Truth be told she cared very little about her appearance, and instead cared much more about her skill as a shinobi. If loose-fitting fabric would get in the way of her taijutsu, or snag in the middle of battle, then why wear it? While she could understand a certain level of modesty among citizens, as far as kunoichi went, she never understood the 'fashion' obsession.

"My name's Rena, by the way. Mind if I ask yours?"

Slashing his sword and cutting up everything in sight, Hayato was so preoccupied by his new technique that he hadn't seen the girl's full appearance yet. The girl dropped to the ground with a slight thump and began to stretch while complimenting the teen's sword. This hybrid blade had been forged by the shinobi himself and was one of the few things in the world he took pride in. This custom sword was an amalgamation of the Okinawan sai and Japanese katana that Hayatodeveloped a specific fighting style for. He was glad that the girl liked it.

"Thanks, I made it mysel--" the teen stopped in mid-sentence as he turned to see the girl's full appearance for the first time, which caused the chakra surrounding his sword to dispel from the blade similar to a candle's flame burning out. He had only made out slight facial features in the tree and was too distracted from the book to do more than just glance at her. She had an athletic build, much like his own, and was wearing very revealing clothing. Hayato actually found her attractive, which had caught him off-guard. He hadn't even noticed that he had stopped flowing chakra into his sword.

"My name's Rena, by the way. Mind if I ask yours?" the girl introduced herself, which made Hayato almost immediately snap out of his stupor. He glanced down at his sword and noticed that the chakra flow was gone, which slightly embarrassed him. "Oh!" the swordsman loosened his grip on the sword and tossed it high into the air "My name is Hayato. Nice to meet you, Rena." as he finished speaking he slightly tilted his body and caught the sword perfectly in his sheath without even using his hands.

Over the top badass sword sheathing:

OOC: Oooh, DBZ!! <333 You're like my new best friend <3
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Rena smiled as the boy's chakra dispelled upon looking at her. If she hadn't caught herself, Rena might have even let out a chuckle at the comical scene, but she didn't want to be rude. In truth the boy's movements were quite obviously skilled. The glint from the blade in the moonlight was not the only sight that was breathtaking; the way his body moved at if it were one with his sword made his skill obvious. A talented kenjutsu user indeed.... Rena had to admit, she was a little jealous. Weaponry had never been her strong suit, as she was much more suited for Nin- and Tai-jutsu, her body loose and fluid, but she'd always admired those able to manipulate weaponry with such prowess as the genin before her.

Her eyes widened in surprise as he sheathed his sword, allowing it to spin before landing perfectly within its sheath on his back. Now THAT was impressive. Cocky, yes.... but impressive. I bet you like to show off, she thought teasingly as she grinned at him, her surprise apparent on her face. "Haha, and it's nice to meet you as well, Hayato. You know, I'll admit I've always been a bit envious of you weaponry shinobi," She started, her eyes glinting as they looked at the hilt of his sword. "It takes a lot of discipline."

OOC: One of my favorite anime series since elementary school ^_^
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The girl spoke of being envious of Hayato's talent with weapons. What she said was true; the use of weapons requires a massive amount of discipline. Luckily for him, he had learned the art of swordsmanship, as well as many other weapon uses, at a very early age for self defense alongside his brother, Gambaldi. At any rate, he was glad that somebody had noticed that he wasn't some wannabe simply swinging a sword around like a stick.

"To tell you the truth, I learned to use weapons WAY before I even knew what chakra was." the shinobi of the hidden sound explained. "I was just a normal person not too long ago. My brother and I had to learn to depend on using our surroundings to our advantage in fights; picking up anything we could use to bash our slave owner's heads in. I guess chakra use is simply an add-on tool for us rather than a dependent. Although it does make things much easier in terms of combat effectiveness."

OOC: Ditto!

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Rena grinned, moving her entire body in one fluid motion to a prepared stance, as if about to enter combat with and invisible opponent. Her hands clenched into strong fists as her muscles flexed lightly, tensing just enough to be able to move quickly if threatened, but not enough to cause strain or to quickly exhaust her. She looked over at the young boy knowingly. "I was the opposite, actually. I've always known of chakra's existence, and since I was small my mastery over it has been expected. I don't view it as a tool, but rather an extension of myself. In a way," she added, making a sharp kick upwards with one leg, hitting exactly one leaf on a low-hanging branch and then pausing, holding the extended, difficult pose as the leaf slowly fluttered down to the ground. "I actually view my body as the tool, and the chakra as my natural energy, what I depend on. Perhaps that's what makes the difference between us tai and ken users." A small sparkle glinted in her eye as she casually lowed her leg and then eased out of her stance, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Kneeling down, she picked up the leaf she had struck from the tree, expression darkening with sympathy. "I apologize, though, for what you said about slavers. That is a horrible cross to bear, and a burden no one should have to carry with them."

As she began to explain her situation, Rena demonstrated her style and flexibility. Rena made a sharp kick upwards and kicked a single leaf off of the tree and made it flutter slowly towards the ground. Impressive. She emphasized how her own body mixed with chakra was an extension of herself, which was what Hayato and his brother were taught to think about weapons. She was even able to hold the seemingly difficult pose while speaking before slowly moving out of her stance.

Hayato watched as the girl knelt down to pick up the leaf she had just kicked while an expression of sympathetic sorrow creeped its way onto her face. She apologized for what had happened to him. In truth, if that event had not occurred, there was no telling the path that he or his brother would've taken in life. They surely wouldn't be as tough as they were now after taking daily beatings and training their abilities. "It's okay. I made sure to kill each and every one of those bastards when we escaped." the teen stated with a slight hint of laughter in his voice, indicating that even the memory of his revenge brought joy into his heart. "My brother and I were the ones who launched the escape plan and freed all the other slaves. We convinced them to fight with us by explaining how it would be much better to die a free man than to live a slave. After the escape, we came here and joined the ninja academy. We only graduated a month and a half ago." Hayato looked at the girl with a friendly smile as he tapped on the music note engraved into his headband "That's how we became Genin of the Hidden Sound."

At the sound of laughter in his voice, Rena couldn't help smirking herself as she imagined the sword on his back slicing through those maggots' bodies, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. It would seem that he was already a bit of a natural leader, then, if he and his brother could organize an entire revolt. That in and of itself was impressive, she had to admit.

Standing as he finished telling his story, she chuckled with him and extended a hand in friendship. "Well, I for one am grateful to have you among our ranks, for what it's worth. Is your brother a swordsman, like you?"

After the shinobi finished telling his tale to the girl, she extended her hand in approval of their friendship. Hayato smiled brightly as he took her hand and she stated that she was grateful to have the swordsman as a fellow Genin. She then asked about his brother and if he was also a sword user.

"Oh, G? Yeah, he and I learned our abilities around the same time. We both trained daily and developed our own styles of fighting." Hayato explained as he continued to hold the girl's hand, not really sure when the appropriate time to let go would be. "He is more of the calm and collective fighter while my movements are more violent and random to keep people from predicting my next move. But I can honestly do both, I just find my methods to be the most fun."

OOC: Sorry it's taken me so long x.x I left for a while for a convention and have been making up a lot of schoolwork.
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Rena grinned and retracted her hand, as the two had been 'shaking' for an awkwardly long time, but she didn't mention it. Violent, huh? The young genin seemed spirited, to say the least, but violent wouldn't have been her go-to word to what she would describe him as. Perhaps that added to the unpredictability of the boy. "Sounds like an interesting style. To be honest I've never had the pleasure of fighting a sword-user. I'd love to spar with you sometime; training alone can get monotonous." She suggested, a playful glint in her dark eyes. "You know, if you're up for the challenge that is."

The girl retracted her hand and began to claim that she had never fought a sword user before and suggested a sparring match. This was perfect! Hayato had not fought a hand-to-hand fighter that used chakra before either. "Alright sounds like fun. We should totally do that, riiiiiiight... NOW!" Hayato attacked without a moment's thought, warning, or hesitation as he swiftly grabbed the hilt of the sword and swung the sheathed weapon at the girl at a diagnal angle aimed for the area between the shoulder and neck.

If this girl was as good a fighter as he hoped she was, she would find a way to counter such a basic attack. This was going to be fun, he was curious which one of them would be the first to use their other supernatural abilities utilizing chakra flow. Only time would tell.