The Crimson Nekomata of Konoha Rank:Genin 磁気 | Classes:Taijutsu|Genjutsu | Scholar 力 | Body Rank:S+ 勇 | Elements:Lightning,Earth,Fire,Magnetism
tabMina wasn’t ready for Kotori to run around the table and give her a hug. The smaller girl squeezed the redhead tight enough that, as tough as she was, Mina still felt herself get crushed. She swore up and down she heard more than a few bones crack. However, despite the sudden pain, Mina felt… happy as well. Her own circle of friends was more than lacking. Being so close to someone outside of sparring was definitely a first. And while she wasn’t as obvious in her uncertainty, but her own fear of not being interesting enough for Kotori to like her was a slow fear that had been dwelling in the back of her mind. So even though Kotori was crushing her and was close enough to be yelling in her ear, Minashiba felt entirely comfortable. She wrapped her own arms around the smaller girl and held her tightly in return, letting out her own peal of laughter, similar to if she were being tickled. Her very body felt lighter as her spirits lifted… or maybe that was Kotori hugging her out of her chair.
As the Hyuuga turned to yell for the owners of the establishment, Mina cheerfully smiled over the girl’s shoulder at the couple. She even managed to give them a thumbs up! By the time Mina got put down, Kotori had already asked for a to-go order for more ice cream. Once the salty sweet treat had been distributed, Mina nodded enthusiastically at Kotori’s question. “Mhm! Much better!” Mina was suddenly more full of energy about training than she had been in the morning. “Hey, last one back to the training ground has to do two hundred laps around Konoha! Readysetgo!” Without giving Koori a chance to answer, Minashiba bolted from the parlor. And while the Genin was excited to train with her new friend, she found that her mind kept wandering back to the sensation of how Kotori’s hands felt in hers.
A few days later and the two Genin were seemingly inseparable. Training or just spending time together until either the day was over or they passed out. At some point the two even found a private place they spent training due to the sheer amount of destruction and problem they caused. Some ruins of a small village just outside of Konoha that the two girls had to sneak out every time they wanted to go there, even going so far as to make even that part of their training. It was a lot of work and left Mina tired every day, but it was still something she looked forward to doing the next day. Kotori’s hard working attitude and perseverance was infectious and drove the redheaded Genin to work harder than she was used to doing on her own. Why was Mina getting stronger? It was something she thought about ever since Kotori had mentioned it at the ice cream parlor. In the last few days of hardwork Mina had slowly started to formulate her own answer: to be able to stand proudly at Kotori’s side as an equal. The Hyuuga was much stronger than her, but Mina found herself getting there bit by bit.
So as part of her new routine, Mina found herself in their training grounds early, which was the only time she was early to anywhere. She calculated her rate of growth compared to her friend’s and, with the added headstart that Kotori had, Mina needed to train for a set amount of time longer than the other girl to just catch up. One of the things she found herself working on was trying to fine tune her chakra control. Or, more specifically, form and element manipulation.
Mina had spent days doing this training. She would stand and focus her chakra to her palm and try to get it to rotate at a high frequency while still keeping it compact. This particular morning Mina had already been working for hours, before the sun was even up, and she was already out of breath. She was getting there by using her other hand to mold and spin the chakra while her other focused on gathering it in one spot. As she held the orb of spinning chakra in her palm Mina would stare at the swirling mass of air. As she watched, her levels of energy only really permitted her to express her level of pride as relief on her face.
__ Kotori was caught off guard when Mina suddenly challenged her to a race right after they received their treats to go. "WHA?! NO FAIR!" She chased after her best friend, and so began new their new journey with an ice pop in their mouths. She was positively elated to have someone to have fun playing, hanging out, and training with. Kotori was pretty sure Mina couldn't finish the course she suggested, but she'd help her keep up and reach the finish line anyway.
Kotori had a lot of fun and gained a lot from playing and training with Minashiba over the course of several more days. Her family seemed none the wiser about her sneaking in and out of the village since she was usually out of the house training every day anyway. Not that Kotori could tell, but it was plausible that Kouta might have been a little suspicious but was too busy acting as an assistant trainer to their father. Her mother was more focused on something about reconnecting with some other Hyuuga family far away and Izuna was being dragged along for a lot of that. Kotori was glad she was being left to her own devices, and her Byakugan made it a lot easier to sneak past the village guard details.
While Mina was focused on practicing her form manipulation with the Rasengan technique Kotori approached their designated training ground with nearly-inhuman speed and agility. Her dojutsu let her navigate to the location with ridiculous ease and she'd land ever so quietly behind Minashiba and the concentration session. "Oh wow Mina-chan! You're really getting that technique down!" Kotori cheered loudly, "Kotori is impressed!" She would only realize she was being disruptive if and when the Rasengan might probably explode due to concentration lost in that moment. Of course, if Mina was able to keep her concentration then that just meant Kotori's praise was that much more relevant.
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pyrategross
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:31 pm
The Crimson Nekomata of Konoha Rank:Genin 磁気 | Classes:Taijutsu|Genjutsu | Scholar 力 | Body Rank:S+ 勇 | Elements:Lightning,Earth,Fire,Magnetism
tabMina had been so entranced by her success that she hadn’t even noticed Kotori coming up from behind her. So when the Hyuuga loudly greeted her right in her ear, as was her MO, Mina was not expecting it. The redhead yelped and jumped about a mile into the air, give or take a few feet. A ripple went along the girl’s skin as shock petrified her for a few moments. And when her feet finally did hit the ground Mina found it hard to regain her balance. She stumbled and swayed and waved her Rasengan hand high above her head as she did her best to keep her focus from waning. Come on, come on... She thought, but all that came from her throat were noise of comedic distress Mina was so intent on keeping the form of her chakra going despite the scare that she didn’t pay as much attention to her own less than stellar footwork. The Genin finally tripped over her own feet and fell Rasengan first into a ruined building. The chakra orb drilled right into the old stone, sending debris all around the girl as the wall melted away like butter. Stone crumbled and fell and there was a beat of silence as the last stone fell among the rubble. A second later Mina popped her head out from the pile, coughing.
She wasn’t mad or anything, though. “Hi Kotori!” Mina beamed at her friend. She adjusted so she could rest her crossed arms on top of the stone pile, seemingly unaware that her lower half was still submerged. “I didn’t think you’d be here so soon! I forgot that ‘Minashiba’s early’ is just ‘Kotori’s On Time.’” She said with a laugh at her own stupid joke. Mina relaxed a little and let out a humming sigh as Kotori would respond, simply smiling as she watched her friend be her usual energetic self. It was good Kotori was so energetic, it told Mina she was well rested. Or excited. Or both. “Thank you, by the way” Mina added, to answer Kotori’s own joy at her mastery of the Rasengan. “With the exams coming up, I figured fine tuning my chakra control would give me an edge. What about you?” Mina inquired as she tilted her head curiously. “You think you’re ready for this big bad exams?”
__ Kotori kept her Byakugan active just a little longer to witness Minashiba's impressive display of chakra control and manipulation. Despite inevitably losing her balance, the ball of intensely focused power maintained its form and power- as demonstrated when it tore a dilapidated structure to shreds around Mina. "Whoa..." Kotori cooed, apparently impressed by the results of her friend's training. She deactivated her dojutsu shortly after that to meet Mina's greeting with a merry grin, "Heheh! Kotori was worried she might be late. Luckily, finishing a few laps around the village doesn't take very long." Her pre-dawn run had been cut back a little so she could get here when an opportunity came up. Kotori had figured out that if she isn't too consistent about how many laps she finished it would be harder for others to track if she had stopped or not. Just another precaution to make sure her and Mina could keep practicing out of the village undisturbed. She approached the rubble Mina was stuck in and thrust out a single, fuuton-infused palm toward it. The debris was blasted away and behind Minashiba, leaving her surprisingly unscathed. Mina mentioned learning that technique for the exams and Kotori nodded understandingly of the endeavor. With the debris now clear, the little Hyuuga returned her attention to her freed friend and thought aloud for a moment to reply, "Hmmn... Masato-sensei is too busy for Kotori to figure out how strong Kotori is now." She appeared to be in deep consideration for an accurate answer about how she felt about the upcoming exams. Her chin fell in between the stroking of her index finger and bottom of her thumb to accentuate her contemplative process while she continued to say, "Papa says that Kotori is too strong to be a genin, but mama says Kotori is to rash to be a chunin- whatever that means." She shrugged after remembering her mother's chastising remarks. The two only agreed to let her do it because they knew she'd go anyway. "Kotori just wants to fight strong people and stuff!" Kotori was confident in her skills, but thankfully Masato had taught her long ago not to overestimate her abilities or to underestimate an opponent. This was why she believed that using all her strength to defeat any challenge, no matter how great or small. As long as she held back, it would only be a victory unless the opponent was really bad and wouldn't relent. There wasn't a lot of blood on the genin's hands as of yet, but she was far from pure. Hopefully the Chunin Exams wouldn't give reason for that to change. Returning her attention to Mina again, she exclaimed, "That technique was really awesome, Mina! You totally smashed that whole building to bitty bits in one hit!! Like bawshwam brrrrrrrrrt!!" Kotori energetically gesticulated something akin to smashing an invisible object between her palm and fist while making silly noises that didn't necessarily mimic the sounds of the Rasengan shredding through the old stone structure.
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pyrategross
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Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 10:28 am
The Crimson Nekomata of Konoha Rank:Genin 磁気 | Classes:Taijutsu|Genjutsu | Scholar 力 | Body Rank:S+ 勇 | Elements:Lightning,Earth,Fire,Magnetism
tabThe blast of wind took Mina by surprise.As the rubble was cleared away easily, the girl stood there with a dumbfounded look on her face as her now disheveled hair fell around her face. While Kotori thought out loud, Mina took a second to retie her hair back into her ponytail. Mina herself was worried about the exams. The reputation for being brutal was widespread, and not knowing exactly what they would be encountering made it hard for the planner to, well…. Plan. Were they ready? Mina let out a thoughtful hum at the same time as Kotori, mimicking her pose almost exactly. Kotori was, for sure. The Hyuuga’s dad was right: Kotori’s fought on a level that was much higher than Chunin, maybe even higher than Jonin. Even for what she lacked in caution she made up for in raw power. But… The two of them had spent a good deal of time training together by now, but the redhead Genin wasn’t sure if her own skills were up to the task.
Her goal had been to be strong enough to stand next to Kotori as an equal. Was she there? Was she even close? The girl doubted it; Mina felt like she was missing something to really push her over the edge but it seemed like her friend was there already. As self doubt started to creep up into her thoughts, Mina took a second to shake her head to get them out. Kotori would probably admonish her for thinking things like that. Well, there is only one way to find out… Mina thought to herself. She was brought out of her own little world by her friend’s praise, a smile immediately snapping back on Mina’s face to replace the one of slight concern.
“Yeah, it’s totally awesome!” Mina’s eyes lit up with excitement just thinking about her new jutsu. “It’s like hrrrmmmmMMMM~” She added her own sound effects to Kotori’s theatrics. The two children probably stood there making different noises at each other for longer than would be deemed necessary. After about a minute Mina couldn’t help but start laughing, leaning against what was left of the building she’d ruined. “Hey Kotori.” She half-laughed as a thought came to her. “You wanna see how strong you are, right? Why don’t we train by playing a game of tag? If nothing else, you could use me to see how strong the other Genin are.”And I get to see just how close I am to you.“Oh!” A sly smirk crept up on Mina’s face as she gave Kotori a smug look. “And if you win, I’ll give you your birthday present early~” With a wave of her hand and a poof of smoke a box appeared in Mina’s extended palm. “I was gonna wait until after the exams, since they’ll probably be going on through your birthday. But why not make training interesting today?” With a twirl of her wrist and an effort of will, the box disappeared again as Mina re-sealed it into her clothes. “Whoever’s still it by the end of the day loses. Whaddaya say?”
