[Gima Taro]

It was probably a coincidence that it was a misty day when Taro arrived to visit the Land of Water. He had come to learn, a sort of... Foreign Shinobi Exchange program. A show of good will between villages, to teach and share basic culture and skills. Combined exercises incase of a war, that sort of thing.

He'd already made his way here. Since it was mostly water to get here, it was by boat, and since he didn't exactly have a personal boat, he used public transport. Which made him a very odd man out in the group of civilians, dressed in full gear with his ODMG around his waist. At least some of it was hidden by his cloak.

Still, he was at the arranged meeting spot. Where his supposed teacher was, well that was another question all together. Could this have been a trap? Going out of their way to capture a Genin though... While such a thing could happen, it was unlikely, and more an intrusive thought that ran through his mind.

Instead, Taro would decidedly wait nearby the shoreline. Shelfing his weapon, he'd take a seat on the soft sand, stretching his legs out as he pulled out his kit. Just the bare necessities, along with anything he'd normally take on a mission. He didn't really expect to be here without accommodations for more then half a day anyways, so no bedding or real shelter materials were brought at all.

But he did bring a snack. Running one hand into the pouch at his side, he took it out- A sweet, savory, caramel candy bar straight from home- Something to munch on while he looked out over the... Misty water. Man, not many sights. But he still felt a bit more at home here. His own home was a heavily industrial place in a lot of locations, filled with buildings and the like, so being out and about in land not to dissimilar to the farmland he grew up on was rather refreshing. It made him feel a bit more comfortable, at bit more... Easy. 

Good way to let his guard down too, in theory.

[Sora Minami]

It was rare for Kirigakure to host a foreign ninja in the village for very long. There were exceptions (the Chuunin Exams being a prime example) but, for the most part, foreign Shinobi simply didn’t spend time in Kiri, for any reason. They came, did their business, and left- no sight seeing, no dawdling, no mingling with civilians, and certainly no being trained by members of the Hidden Mist. Until today, that was.

Toru-sama seems bound and determined to defy the elders on this. Sora thought as she made her way across the sparse, sandy terrain to the predetermined meeting point. She was supposed to meet a sole Genin there, a candidate for the Foreign Shinobi Exchange Program by the name of Gima Taro who, in the slim briefing she had been given, was something of a troublemaker and delinquent. As if she didn’t have enough of those on her hand with Enyo. Still, it had been an order -from the Mizukage himself, no less- one she couldn’t rationally disobey, or even think of a reason to disobey it beyond mere annoyance.

So here she was. Traveling to meet yet another hard-headed Genin who needed to learn how to be taught. And this one wasn’t even from her village!

Eventually, though, the Jounin arrived at the rendezvous point, a section of beach that served as a rest stop for many travelers through Mizu no Kuni; with its flat ground, sandy soil and semi-protected cove, it was an ideal campground in the summer and an adequate one in the winter, so long as there wasn’t a storm blowing in. A good place to train as well, so long as you weren’t worried about getting wet. She spotted the boy easily enough- he was seated on the beach, chewing on some kind of candy bar, looking relaxed and thoroughly unaware of his surroundings. Time to fix that.

"Oi. Kid. You done napping over there?"

Gima Taro

[Gima Taro]

Words called out to him from across the sand. In truth, he didn't really know what to expect. After all, they didn't really give him too much information. But the fact that he wasn't stabbed in the back was probably a good sign of some sort, as he leaned back and glanced over at...

A woman. Adult, standard. She seemed like a Kiri-nin. Had the attitude of one. Napping. He almost snorted, but didn't want to come off as disrespectful as he hopped up onto his feet, patted down his clothes, and stepped forward.

"For now, I guess. Are you... The Kiri-nin they sent to teach me?" A real plain jane way of speaking, but it wasn't as though he was here to make friends- He just had to show up, show he was a proper, mature shinobi for his village, and maybe learn something along the way.

"Because if not..." He drifted on it for a moment, rubbing his chin.

"I'm not really sure. I can't exactly tell someone who lives here to leave. Anyways... Gima, Taro. Genin of Amegakure." He introduced himself regardless of her own intuition. While he had the notes of a troublemaker, he was still loyal to his village and that meant somewhat acting appropriate around other people.

[Sora Minami]

The boy was… not what she expected. He was short for his age, short and lean in a way that spoke of long stretches gone without food, but there was a scrappiness to his limbs, a calloused exterior that bespoke many fights and struggles. His gear was well worn and simple, little more than rags beneath a thick green cloak, though his headband seemed clean, particularly around the Amegakure symbol. Overall, his appearance was closer to that of a bum than a proper Shinobi- but for all his ragged exterior, the kid was surprisingly polite. Almost as if he was holding back.

"Sora Minami, Jounin of Kirigakure." She said once the boy was finished, her gaze softening slightly as she settled back on her heels, one hand atop Samidare’s hilt. Perhaps it had been rude of her to judge him based on the slim bit of information she’d been given in the briefing. But, then again, perhaps not. Only time would tell if the boy proved to be worthy of the troublemaker status given to him.

"...Did you bring a tent?" The question came suddenly, a swift jab in the conversation that was meant to measure his reaction- she’d gotten better at that, dealing with Enyo on a daily basis. How would he react to the idea of roughing it? Would he whine? Complain? Soldier on despite disliking it? The boy could have any number of reactions, but they would all tell her something about him.

Gima Taro

[Gima Taro]

A firm nod back at the woman. Respecting his own authority was dodgy, but Taro knew the importance of inner-village relations. You can't exactly 'Fuck around and find out' when it's not just your life on the line, but the status of your entire village. He was more then just himself, he was the sum of many parts, and even as a Genin, it was his duty to provide a good look at the military structure of his county.

"It's good to meet you, then." She really was the one he was supposed to meet. Well. She was... Adequately dressed. Standard Kunoichi fair, though if she wore something like that on his farm, his family would probably call her some form of indecent name. Then again, maybe that was normal? He'd seen it worn around in towns and cities. Maybe he was just a backwards savage from the sticks?

While that dwelled on that, she asked if he brought a tent. There were a lot of ways to take that, and a low hanging fruit of the fourth wall might drop quickly, but... Taro shook his head, standing up straight.

"No, ma'am." The idea of needing one was... Well, interesting, to say the least. Taro wasn't against sleeping in the sticks. Honestly, the forest grass was often more comfortable then the dumpsters he sometimes took naps behind back in Amegakure. He could only imagine the smell if the fact that he lived in a perpetual shower didn't make him as clean as a whistle just about twenty-four seven.

"Will I need one?" He asked. This was more of a formal question, as if there was a deeper meaning to her question. He wasn't asking if he needed one because they were going to camp, he was asking if they needed one for a specific task or goal they were going to complete. The look in his eyes, stern as the thick skin that hung over his arms, said it all- He was hardly a stranger to roughing it in any sense of the word. If anything, he was at home when he was uncomfortable, rather than the other way around.

[Sora Minami]

Huh. Interesting. Sora cocked her head to the side as Taro took the question in stride, reacting better than many Chuunin would have; no tantrum, no disappointment, just simple acceptance of the situation and what needed to be done. The Jounin nodded back at the boy, revising her assessment of him as she gestured towards the beach- the trip to Kirigakure wasn’t a long one, which gave them a bit of time before she had to escort him to her residence. Not a lot, but perhaps enough to impart something useful while they were there.

"No, you’ll be staying with me for the duration of your time in Kiri." Under her direct supervision and care, actually, but that mattered only so much. "You should keep one on you when you travel though. I can understand wanting to be lightweight, but with seals there really isn’t an excuse to not have one. Mizu no Kuni isn’t a forgiving place, even this close to the village."

The Jounin jerked her head then, turning about on a single heel as she strolled off down the path, perfectly confident that Taro would follow. He’d have to if he didn’t want to sleep out in the rain, after all. "So tell me, you have anything in particular you want to learn while you’re here?"

Gima Taro

[Gima Taro]

An escort back to her place? At least he wasn't sleeping on the floor. In truth, Taro sort of wondered if homes in Kirigakure were different then the other villages. He knew that from the country side inwards, going into the village of Amegakure was... A big step up in terms of housing. Perhaps the Kirigakurians were the same? Kirigakura... Kirigakuries... Kiris...? That'd keep him busy as he walked to think about, what was he supposed to call them. Kirigakure Shinobi sounded way to formal for his country head.

"I'm used to sleeping on the floor. It gets comfortable after a while." He explained rather calmly to the woman who was escorting her to his home. The thought of resting in anothers home was decent though. Probably better then sleeping in the rain, but he kind of liked that, too.

"...As for what I'd like to learn..." He looked down at his equipment, adjusting the gas gear on it a bit.

"I think I wouldn't mind learning how to walk on water. Oh, and up trees too, I suppose. This gear only gets me so far, it feels like a waste of gas to use it just to get on top of a tree branch." He explained, crossing his arms. It was a rather simple request, one that arguably could have been handled in his own village, but he added one thing to it as well.

"I'd also like some advice on how to use these swords well. I know your village is known for their swordsmen, so I was hoping you might be able to throw me some advice on these..." He walked up beside her and placed one of the holsters into the massive sheath, pulling out a long, blocky blade.

Being Sora was an expert swordsman, she could tell just by looking at it what the blade was about. It wasn't particularly strong- It seemed thin enough that it'd shatter rather quickly if forced into an actual sword clash without proper chakra control- But for all of its lack of durability, it seemed so incredibly sharp that it could likely cut through metal with the right stroke. Not to mention a glance at his sides showed there were several back up blades, which meant weapon destruction wasn't quite as big of an issue for the weilder.

"I hear some Ninja can make chakra flow through their weapons to make them stronger. I was hoping to be able to do something like that. Maybe you could show me?" He'd question, giving her a small smirk. It was a lot of requests in a short period, but they had a decent walk to do, so he had time to ask one after the other.

"...I'm willing to learn whatever you'll teach me though. If it means I can better protect my village and my allies, it's worth learning, I think." Again, he defaulted back to his original intent- While he was a dickhead at times and got himself into constant trouble, he was selfless when it came to his friends, his village, and the people he was loyal too. It was an interesting perspective, perhaps, compared to the usual.

[Sora Minami]

Sora listened to what the boy had to say with an attentive ear, picking up on the subtle shift in his attitude when he realized he wouldn’t be sleeping out in the rough. It wasn’t disappointment, not really, but it was close, something like surprise mangled with sadness and a bit of nostalgia. An eclectic mix of emotions, not one she would have expected in a child his age, nor with his reputation. It made him more complex than his file suggested, perhaps even likable in a scrapy sort of way. His ideas for what he wanted to learn were fairly straightforward though; tree and water-walking were standard fare for Genin in most any village, something he could learn from damn near anyone. But his second idea? Well, that had some meat to it.

"I see." The Jounin said as she walked, glancing at the boulders and sand around them. None of them were good surfaces to practice the tree-walking jutsu, not for any real progress- the boulders had some height to them, but not enough to really push the kid to master his chakra flow the way he’d need to in order to utilize the technique. "We’re a bit of a walk from a good spot to practice tree-climbing, but I suppose I can go over the theory with you while we walk, if only so you understand what you need to do."

"And as for those cleavers of yours…" Sora glanced back at the boy as she spoke, lips twitching up in a wry, knowing smile at the sight of his weapons. Inelegant and fragile though they were, the blades were sharp enough to cut through steel if handled properly, especially when chakra was pushed through them using a technique like Hien of the Sabre Jutsu. Neither of which Taro knew, of course, but still. Something for her to think about going over, when they had time.

"Well. I know a few tricks that should make them a little more effective. Even if you are better off getting a real weapon at some point."

Gima Taro

[Gima Taro]

Taro hummed softly as he crossed his arms, walking alongside the female shinobi as they made their way through the deeper ends of the woods. It was calm out here. Again, he put emphasis on that. Maybe it was the lack of constant rain...

No no, that couldn't be it. Rain was calming. Still, when she mentioned picking a good spot to teach him, he notably smiled and stood up a bit taller.

"Yeah. As long as its not written down too long, I can read instructions as well. I... I'm not great at reading whole books." It was the truth. He was a country headed bumpkin, so the fact that he could read at all was a bit of a miracle, all things considered.

Regardless, he kept up with the woman as they tumbled through the roads and brush, his eyes wandering over her clothes and down to her weapon.

"What sort of sword do you use? And, what is your technique? Can you make Chakra flow through your blade? ... Also, if it's." He stopped for a moment, wondering if he should ask what he was about to ask.

"If I may ask, what are you wearing?" He had to figure that out as well. Curiosity and all. Might as well ask now rather than later.

[Sora Minami]

"It’s called a qipao." Sora said once the boy was finished with his barrage of questions, lips parting in a soft smile at his obliviousness. He obviously didn’t get out much if he didn’t know what one was, though the fact that he seemed so… interested in it clued her that he was likely more interested in how she looked in it than the fact that he didn’t know what it was. "It’s a type of semi-formal gown worn by women in Mizu no Kuni during the summer, but it originated from the Land of Iron as a form of battle dress for female Samurai." Which was almost what she was, if she was being honest with herself.

"As for your other questions." The Jounin stopped, drawing her blade out in a single, smooth motion as she spoke, allowing the boy to examine the gleaming metal without actually relinquishing the sword. "Its name is Samidare, or ‘Spring Rain Cutter,’ if you prefer the direct translation, and it is considered an S-ranked blade by the smiths in Kirigakure." She paused, giving Taro enough time to look it over before she sent a pulse of Raiton chakra through the weapon, sending sparks of raw electricity arcing across its length.

"As you can see, Samidare is chakra conductive; it can channel any of the five basic elemental chakra natures, as well as funnel chakra through it via shape manipulation." Sora shifted the flow of her chakra then, spooling it out in swirl of energy as she forced it to lose its Raiton nature and instead pushed it out in a single, focused bar, forming the basis of the Sabre Jutsu without actually utilizing it fully.

"Your blades likely won’t be quite so useful when it comes to pushing chakra through them, but there are ways around that." She gave Taro a long moment for that information to sink in, then cut the chakra flow to her blade, leaving it just as it had been when she first pulled it out. The Jounin sheathed Samidare then, careful not to slam the weapon, and gave the foreign Genin a level look as she gestured to one of the nearby trees. They weren’t tall, but they’d suffice for now.

"The first step to using such techniques is learning to tree-walk." Sora said, walking slowly to the tree she had pointed out and taking one, two, three steps up its side, chakra flowing from her stomach and down into her feet, which allowed her to cling to the tree’s surface with ease. "See? Easy, if you know how." Which he didn’t, of course, but that would come soon.

Gima Taro

[Gima Taro]

Qipao... Hrm. No, in truth, he was completely oblivious to her fashion sense. He'd been around the city a lot, sure, but he'd never seen girls wearing that. Or maybe he had, and they just didn't strike out to him. Most likely, he just never talked to anyone who dressed like that, so the question never came about in his head.

In Sora's defense, she wasn't exactly ugly, so she could argue that he saw her as interesting, but it didn't go much further than that. If she noticed his scrappy appearance earlier, then she could tell just at a glance that he was hardly the sort to see attractiveness further than the very surface level, and even that was more pleasantries then anything emotional. Beyond her age and such, Taro was just a different mental state from your average 17 year old. He didn't care about girls, he cared about how well they could fight.

Still, his eye turned towards her weapon. Samidare. S-Ranked blade? He'd heard of ranks before. Obviously. S-Rank meant it must have been quite the powerful weapon, which, in retrospect, was probably a lot better then his hunks of metal he kept at his sides. But it was the man who made the weapon, not the other way around. At least, that's how he always thought of it. Fancy swords and crazy blades were cool and all, but steel was still steel at the end of the day and it mattered more how you swung it then what kind of crazy super powers it had.

Which was an odd point of reference to take, in theory, when you used something like the ODMG, which was built around being a fancy trick of a weapon. Though it held itself more in terms of utility and versatility than focusing on combat power. At least, that was the idea.

"I don't think these are Chakra conductive." He said, looking down at the stack of swords at his side. "But I guess they do the job." She let him think on that, and so he did, staring out over the distance as he crossed his arms over his chest. Then, she began running up trees.

Taro was less than amused, but only because he likely misinterpreted her instruction as mockery, watching her run up the tree like some sort of raccoon. Yeah, easy if you know how. Thing was, he didn't know how. He watched her do it, committed it to memory, but it didn't take a genius to realize just running up trees wasn't tree walking. That's more like, how you get a concussion.

So instead of getting snappy, he decided to elaborate the question further.

"Well... How do you do it? What's the secret?" He questioned, crouching down as he tried to trace back her steps. Was it a walking technique? Was there chakra involved? In truth, he couldn't tell- He wasn't a sensor, after all, so anything chakra related that didn't literally glow like a lightbulb might as well have been invisible to the novice Genin.

[Sora Minami]

It took Taro a minute to reply, his face scrunching up in something that might have been annoyance as she stood on the side of the tree, waiting. Then the boy asked the magic question, "How?,” and Sora couldn’t help but smile. It was patently obvious he didn’t have much of a Sensei back home, if one at all, to not even know the basics of tree-walking, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t learn it, given time.

"Chakra, obviously." She replied, lips twisting in a tiny, knowing smirk as she bent her knees and leapt up and off of the tree, somersaulting over Taro’s head before landing behind the boy. "You send a set amount of chakra through your legs and into the soles of your feet, using it to stick to the surface of an object. The amount of chakra is precise- too much and you’ll fly off whatever you’re trying to climb in a single step, while too little will let you go a short way up, then fall."

There was no trick to knowing how much chakra you needed to use; you just had to practice until you found out. And then practice some more until it became second nature. Which was why it wasn’t taught at any Academy the Jounin knew of; the amount of time and patience needed to master tree walking was beyond most Academy Students, never mind the chakra cost.

"You can practice on some of these, if you want." Sora said, gesturing towards the trees as she looked up at the sky, noting the sun’s place just below its zenith. They had time. Plenty of it, truth be told. "Just don’t climb too high at first."

[Gima Taro]

Chakra, obviously. Wow, if only it were that easy. Taro pressed a hand onto the side of his waist, looking up over the tree. Yeah, he didn't have a sensei at home. Hell, for the most part, teachers avoided him. He was kind of... You know. He was often seen as more trouble then he was worth, as he stepped up to the tree.

"Alright. I'll do my best." He clarified himself as he readied. He'd pull his cloak a bit tighter on himself, and tried to remember, thinking on the intel that Sora had given him.

Chakra into the feet. Yeah, he'd tried that before, he usually just ended up flinging off of it like some sort of spring. Not the desired effect, to be sure. But with the knowledge that he was using too much Chakra... Well, that gave him a good idea of what to do next, as he lowered the amount he placed into his feet.

This was going to be a tough one... But hey. You didn't make your first cake perfect. Leaping up onto the tree, he began his attempts as they moved.

He failed, of course. He failed over, and over, and over again. This was... Well, if they were moving his entire trip would be spent failing, getting back up again, and trying once more. He wasn't the quickest to grow onto something, but he had a level of tenacity that was incredibly difficult to overlook. When he had something on his mind, he reached out to get it.

So, when he had fallen for at least the forty or fiftieth time, scratches all over him, he still got up as if he was doing it for the first time- His vigor and can-do attitude not leaving him in the least bit.

"... So- Hrgh... What were you saying about... Chakra Conduction?" He questioned, making another attempt at the tree.

[Sora Minami]

Sora watched the boy as he tried to climb the tree, his legs churning with speed… only to fall a few seconds later, his grip on the tree faltering after just a couple of steps. Then the boy got up and tried it again. And again. And again. And again. He kept trying, even as they moved, running at every tree they passed by with a ferocity and enthusiasm that, in truth, would have made him rather well liked in the Academy at Kiri, even with his poor manner of dress. If only I could get Enyo to try so hard. Or any of her students, really. Ikana and Kasumi were fine Genin, but their drive paled in comparison to Taro’s, regardless of the results he got. Not that the boy got much in the way of results, but still.

"Oh, we’re interested in that now, are we?" The Jounin asked with a slight tinge of teasing in her voice as the boy readied himself for another attempt at a particularly tall tree, his face covered in scratches and cuts. "Well, I suppose I can tell you a little. If only for all the sweat you’ve worked up." She paused, giving the Genin a chance to try running up the tree again if he wanted to before she continued on, voice flatter and more serious, a classic Academy lecture tone that even a kid from Ame would recognize.

"Chakra Conduction is the ability of an object to have chakra foreign to it flow through it without damaging itself, particularly Elemental chakra. In essence, this allows a thing like say, a sword, to be used as a channel for Elemental jutsu of any of the five basic chakra natures. For example…" Sora drew Samidare then, focusing her chakra up through her gut and out into the blade as she drew the weapon and filled it with Raion chakra. To Taro, the weapon would appear just as it had before, seemingly without any change- until she swung it, almost casually, at a tree beside her, the blade glowing bright as it cleaved through the full length of the trunk in a long, thin line of blackened wood.

"See?" She asked, casually lifting Samidare to ehr shoulder as she let the Raiton chakra fade from the weapon. "It’s a very useful trait for a blade to have, though obviously there are many things beside swords that can be conductive. Knives, clubs, staves, even clothes can do it, if they’re made of the right material."

Gima Taro

[Gima Taro]

Taro's drive was mostly related to his want and need to not disappoint those around him. Again, it came down to not wanting to fail others, rather than himself. He didn't care if he suffered, but if other people had to suffer because of him, that was a whole different story, as he pushed himself once more to get up that tree.

She was speaking to him, and he could hear it, but he was also rather excited that he'd managed to pull this off. Because he had. He did it, he was climbing straight up the tree, and made it more than halfway up before he stopped, looked over towards what Sora was doing, lost concentration...

And fell right on his ass. Well, at least he got it once. He said nothing about it, simply getting up, brushing himself off, and watching her show the example of her Chakra conduction, which she then used to... Somehow make her sword... Better? Obviously it was, because it just cut a tree in half. In the tiniest bit of his mind, he wondered if it was necessary for her to cut down an entire tree that had grown for decades for a simple example, but...

Maybe that was just the farmer john trapped inside of him, as he nodded at her example. It seemed simple enough. Conductive chakra went through the weapon via element.


"Do the different natures have different effects on weapons? Say if, someone used Suiton on a sword, what would that do compared to say, Raiton?" He wondered out loud, trying to figure out how he could utilize it himself.