[Sesshoku, Hizou]

A gentle breeze of snow sown air grazed against Hizou's rosy cheeks as he stood out front the public hotsprings of Yukigakure. His head was tilted down toward a small antique scroll; it's facade was wrapped in a dulled purple frabric and when opened revealed finely articulated kanji painted on the cotton paper insides. Hizou's eyes scowled the intricate characters, slowly reading to comprehend its contents in full as he awaited his team-mates for a training session.

Kazu and Kohaku seemed to be taking their time to arrive today, letting the young diplomat to read over the scroll again and again, hoping to find some hidden wisdom contained within. Indeed, the scroll was filled with a mass of wisdom for a budding diplomat, especially a trainee herald of the diplomatic corps such as himself. One quote stood out the most to the young genin. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting". He read the line over and over, letting his mind muse on its meaning. The chuunin exams were beginning soon, and as he was familiar with the one on one fighting matches, Hizou was perplex how one could implement such an ideal. Nevertheless when the time came, he would do his best to keep it in mind.

---

Notes:

-213-

[Yuki Kazu]

Kazu, as per usual, was late. Though, it wasn't due to the normal reason of him being lazy. Instead, Kazu was irritated. He wasn't the team leader, so why was he being told to teach his new teammates water-walking? Unsupervised, no less. Sure, he had mastered the technique, but knowing how to do something and teaching it were two very different things. Kazu had never been good at explaining things, how was he supposed to explain how water-walking worked? The boy sighed; this was likely another test to see if he was really ready for Chuunin. That or they were just keeping him busy while his paperwork went through.

Still, he couldn't just complain all day. He grabbed his usual jacket and headed out the door. 

The location they would be training at was distinctively different from when Kazu had learned the technique. He'd learned it by walking on snow first, then switching over to water. Meanwhile his teammates would be going straight to water. And if they failed, they'd get a nice hot bath. For some reason, when training in Yukigakure, there was almost always some divine punishment for failing. Kazu was just thankful he wouldn't get punished this time.

As he arrived at the hot springs entrance, he would see Hizou. "Hey, where's the other one?" He would ask his teammate as he approached. Maybe he wasn't as late as he thought.

[Hoshino Kohaku]

[attr="class","rlover"]

[attr="class","rloverFlowers"]

I won't give up 'cause there will be a day...

I'll be worth it

[attr="class","rloverTag"]Hot Springs Training

[attr="class","rloverImg"]

[attr="class","rloverText"]

❛❛

Oh no she was so late! Why did her father demand she help out with his stand today of all days? She had important business to deal with when it came to her team especially because they would be training on a technique she would need to learn one day. Sure she could have tried to learn it in her own free time, but being able to have someone show a visual example was much more useful than a simple scroll description. Yet here she was being forced into working the stand during the early morning rush and while she was able to help the business it didn't help her ambitions and desires.

Once she was free she rushed her way to the hot springs where they were supposed to meet and she found herself being the last one to arrive. Panting slightly from the sprint she apologized, "Sorry about that I had to help father out at the marketplace." It wasn't an excuse in her mind, but rather telling them the situation that caused her to be a bit late. Catching her breath she slowed her racing heart and collected herself to he normal professional manner before adding, "So how do we go about this?" She would then turn her eyes panning her attention between Kazu and Hizou respectfully to see who would be leading this training session. She was excited to learn whatever they would teach her.

ZYTL

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[Sesshoku, Hizou]

Hizou furled his scroll closed and calmly placed it into his waist pouch as Kazu arrived. He slowly paced toward his team-mate, holding a warm smile on his face. As he met the blue-eyed teen Hizou placed a hand on the bridge of his nose, showing a hint of impatience. The air felt even colder around Kazu, as if their presence affected the atmosphere - Hizou always put this down too their Yuki clan heritage, having noticed the same of his former Yuki team-mate.

Looking at the pale blue hair adorned on Kazu's head remind him of them. His mind drifting back to his last team, and the horrible fate that befell them. Hizou just struggled his shoulders and sighed as Kazu ask where the female of the group was. However it wasn't long until the third member of the team arrived. Hizou gave them a quick nod before they could explain themselves. Then while listening to their excuses, he turned his back and begun walking to the hotspring pools.

"Your commitment of your family is quite alright, we've all been there. However they should understand your studies come first" Hizou uttered with a polite tone.

Once he reached the edge of the pool, the Sesshoku turned back to his team-mates, looking at Kazu with a glare. "Now Kazu, would you explain why we're here?" He asked.

---

Notes:

-226-

[Yuki Kazu]

Kohaku arrived shortly after Kazu, explaining her tardiness. The boy responded with a simple, "Don't worry about it, I just got here myself. Plus, if I'm teaching the time is more of a guideline then a requirement. I'm not gonna mark you as late or anything crazy like that. Plus, you can't really say no to your dad." Kazu gave the girl a bit to catch her breath before walking towards the hot spring area. 

"You and Kohaku are here to learn the water walking technique, I'm here to teach you. It's about as simple as that. I wasn't really allowed to choose the location so... try not to burn yourself too much?" The word teach left a slight distaste in Kazu's mouth. Teaching was never his strong suit, but his sensei seemed to think he was good at it... for some reason. He had never been good at explaining anything, and now he was supposed to teach two new teammates? He sighed, Masahiko was starting to expect a bit too much of him.

Eventually, they arrived at one of the hot springs. Masahiko had gotten them this area for the majority of the day, so they'd have plenty of time. "Alright, this is the water you'll be walking on. You have to have a certain level of control when using the technique, even more so for this than tree-climbing. Mostly though, you just have to make your chakra adapt to the movements of the water. Other than that, it's about the same as tree-climbing." It then occurred to him that they might not have learned tree-climbing yet. He learned water-walking first, after all. "To explain Tree-climbing since you guys might not have learned that either, you basically apply chakra to your feet to walk on a tree. It has to be a specific amount though, otherwise you won't be able to climb or the tree will break. If you apply too little for water-walking, you'll fall into the hot water. Too much and you might go flying. So, be careful." He would finish his explanation. Hopefully, it was enough.

[Hoshino Kohaku]

[attr="class","rlover"]

[attr="class","rloverFlowers"]

I won't give up 'cause there will be a day...

I'll be worth it

[attr="class","rloverTag"]Hot Springs Training

[attr="class","rloverImg"]

[attr="class","rloverText"]

❛❛

Despite being late it seemed her teammates weren't that deterred by her tardiness. They were quite supportive of her helping her family out and even if their responses were drastically different, one taking a more family should understand the route and the other taking the family comes the first route, it was good to know the two were of similar tendencies as her own. It made this team feel like one she could easily rely on in the future. Not that she felt she couldn't, but having that stable foundation was certainly something she at least appreciated.

After getting a little bit of time to catch her breath she would find that Kazu would be teaching their lesson today instead of their instructor. That would be a nice change of pace. Sure she did enjoy their genin team leader for all that they were worth, but she did enjoy listening and learning from different people as it was nice to have a variety of teaching methods. It did make her wonder what Hizou's teaching methods would be like though so hopefully one day she could learn something under his tutilage someday.

Eventually, the group would make it to the hot springs where they would be learning the water walking technique. This technique would help Kohaku be able to travel on terrain that was very unstable which would prove a valuable asset for her training. So when Kazu was explaining how it worked fundamentally, even telling them hows it's similar to tree climbing, she found it both interesting and slightly horrifying. "What do you mean by flying?" she would ask Kazu slightly shocked at the idea of someone lifting off the water and being thrown around like a ragdoll.

ZYTL

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[Sesshoku, Hizou]

Hizou stood at the precipice of lapping water. He could feel its warmth radiate, mingling with Kazu's own cold atmosphere. It felt odd having two different temperatures caress around him, yet to find a comfortable equilibrium . With a  focused gaze over the frame of his golden spectacles, Hizou listened with his utmost attention. Though once hearing the Yuki's explanation, he quickly rolled his eyes. He could not fathom how such an experienced genin was explaining the concept of water walking in such vague, rudimentary terms. Hizou wanted to scoff but held it back as a sign of courtesy.

"I'm familiar with the concept of tree climbing, and as you've seen before i can use wind release to argument my steps... If that's what you mean by flying? Although it's true, i haven't mastered water walking yet." Hizou spoke softly as he reached down to touch the hot water below.

Even through the thick leather of his gloves, Hizou felt the heat reach his skin. He took a moment to watch it, and the vapor spiraling as it hit the cold air. Kazu must have chosen the hottest of springs for the training session, something the pair of learners would soon discover. He slowly drew the hand from the hot-spring, raising his posture. "I assume this was Masahiko idea? Negative reinforcement.. Smart." he uttered.

---

Notes: 

-223-