[Hoshino Kohaku]

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

I'll be worth it

[attr="class","rloverTag"]Drift Away

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❛❛

Things had gotten better for Kohaku as time from the Chunin exams passed. While she still hadn't figured out if this was the path she was going to take she at least was feeling better about training. Working with the blacksmith certainly helped as she could use the anger and frustration to help at the forge. So to say she spent a lot of her time there was an understatement. She hadn't even seen her teammates or sensei in quite some time because of it. Isolating herself from everyone just so she could try and figure out what she wanted from the world and where she was going in it. [break][break]

She had neglected her training because of this and though she wasn't going back to the next exams, since she passed the last one, she felt so far behind now and needed to learn something. Yet learning from her sensei and teammates just didn't feel right as of right now. She couldn't face them and least not yet. Kohaku needed someone new. Someone whom she didn't know closely at the very least. There was a plethora of shinobi in Yuki to choose from for that, but she had no clue of where to start so she decided she would go back to a training spot she trained at before. It seemed so long ago that she and Hinata had trained climbing up trees in this area, but now she was back here again, but this time lost on what to train. If only there was someone who could guide her back to the path she strived towards for so long.

ZYTL

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[Minamoto Mei]

Mei did not, as a rule, spend much time in the training grounds. This wasn’t to say the Yuki woman didn’t train (far from it, actually), but rather that she tended to do so away from the usual places, preferring the quiet anonymity of the tundra or the warm familiarity of her Byakuya home’s backyard to the sterile, cookie-cutter fields erected within Yukigakure. Or, at least she used to. Nowadays, her duties as Hanchou kept her chained to a desk six hours of the day, leaving very little time to go traipsing off into the frozen wastes to train (and nevermind riding across the entire country).

God, I hate these places. The Yuki woman thought as she jogged into the mostly empty field, glancing across the ice encrusted dirt. It was a typical autumn day, cloudless and hovering somewhere just below freezing; every breath misted before her face, forming little clouds of steam that floated away into nothingness. The evergreen trees were still, each one dusted with a light layer of snow that had blown in the night before, making the whole place look like a brown and white nightmare of blandness and uniformity.

Still, she had come to train, not complain, so the Hanchou got to work, slowly limbering her muscles up through a set of routine stretches and simple exercises, some of them familiar to even a civilian onlooker, others… less so. Raimaa had shown her quite a few stretches that would, to an untrained observer, appear more scandalous than helpful, but the motions worked muscles that few people stretched, forcing the body to twist and bend in ways it normally would not. So when Mei bent back, arching herself almost entirely around so that her palms were touching the ground, and saw that there was a girl pacing back and forth like a worried hen, she did the only sensible thing one could do: she kept stretching.

"Busy there, young one?"

Hoshino Kohaku

[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"]Drift Away

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❛❛

She wasn't alone, but then again when was she ever alone? There was always someone around so why was she so worried about finding someone to help train her? Sure the person who appeared was no Masahiko, but whomever they were she certainly had a presence to herself that Kohaku could at least feel. This was mostly because of the streches the woman was doing so of which were a bit extreme if Kohaku could say so herself. Sort of reminded her of when she learned irregular dodging with how she bent herself. So maybe this woman could provide a solution to the situation that she needed.

"Sort of," Kohaku would say honestly approaching the stretching woman and deciding to follow along. She needed to get her mind off herself so copying the exercises the woman was doing seemed like a good excuse to do so. She found she was certainly not as limber as this woman, but enough so that she could do them just with a tad bit more difficulty. "Been second-guessing myself a bit lately on being a shinobi I guess," Kohaku would say after a bit of silence from the stretches. The picture of that white-haired boy she fought in the exams appeared in her mind.

ZYTL

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[Minamoto Mei]

Mei watched the girl as she spoke, noting the slight flush that crept across her face whenever she looked at her. A sign of embarrassment, given the situation, though not one she could do anything to fix; she had already committed to the stretches, and wasn’t about to stop just because a Genin had walked in on her and found them embarrassing. Still, the girl seemed intrigued, and after a few moments of silence joined her in her routine, working the stretches (with some difficulty) and following her motions to get limber, all while answering her question.

"I see." The Yuki woman said, straightening herself out into a normal stance as she turned towards the girl, every muscle loose with the subtle soreness that came with a good bit of stretching. She was ready to move now, to run and hit and be hit, should it be necessary. Not that she thought it would be, given the girl’s response. There were a dozen reasons why a child such as her might be reconsidering life as a Shinobi, though the majority of them revolved around some variation of "this is too hard,” which seemed… less than accurate, given how the child had committed to the stretches. Only one way to find out.

"And why might that be?"

Hoshino Kohaku

[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"]Taking Back the Crown

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❛❛

She had asked the hard question that Kohaku herself had been answering in her head for months but hadn't said aloud to anyone before. Why? Why was she feeling this way now that she had to direct the answer to someone instead of just letting it fester inside of her she was unsure of how to articulate her feelings. "I'm not sure how to say," She would begin trying to figure out her words, "Best to start from the beginning." Kohaku would take a deep breath and begin looking at her past as she spoke.

"I was always one who fell behind in the academy not having the technical skill as others having come from a background of merchants so while in the academy I had to work extra hard just to stay on par with others. Then when it came to taking the chunin exams I did alright enough to technically pass them, but in a few of my fights I got to see how drastic in difference I was to my opponents." Kohaku would look up at the sky in remembrance of the exams and how much it affected her. "My first fight ended up with my opponent quitting saying he had nothing to prove in the fight and I guess I took it as someone looking down on me. He was talented and had the skills of his clan on his side while I simply had my weapons and agility."

Kohaku would stop stretching at this point and then sit down to reflect some more as she spoke, "Then every fight afterward either ended in a draw because we took too long to fight or my surrender cause I saw no way of actually winning my match. It felt like nothing I could do would be worthy enough to match the caliber of those who had a clan name behind them or special skills that made them unique. I just felt so ordinary." Looking back down to the ground she grumbled, "Probably a stupid reason I know, but it's been nagging me for months now and I just am having a hard time picking myself back up from it."

ZYTL

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[Minamoto Mei]

"I see." Mei said, her ice-blue gaze focusing down on the young Genin’s face as she spoke, head tilting to one side. She had been in a similar place to this girl once, decades ago; cast off from her clan, abandoned by her father and left to on her own, she had grappled with much the same thoughts before her Kekkei Genkai had manifested itself, granting her the ability to push aside the dark thoughts and focus on honing her skills. But unlike her, Kohaku had no such genetic luck to fall back on; she was a clanless child, one who had to make it on her own merits, whatever they might be. The Jounin Hanchou took a moment to parse through her thoughts, lips pursing in a tight line as she stared down at the Genin, unblinking… and then she nodded, lips parting in a soft frown that belied her calm, soft tone.

"There is no shame in doubting yourself, child. Only a prideful fool would deny ever feeling what you feel now, and I do not think you are either of those." She paused then, turning her head towards the empty field to their left, wind blowing flecks of snow down from some unseen drift. She couldn’t feel the cold, not as others did, but the white-haired woman knew the temperature was dropping, albeit slowly. A long few moments of silence passed, her gaze lingering on the vast white landscape beyond, allowing the girl time to process her words- and when it came time to speak again, Mei did so with the firm, quiet authority born not of rank, but experience.

"But enough of that. You came here to train, no? Tell me what you are working on. I am certain I can help."

Hoshino Kohaku

[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"]Taking Back the Crown

[attr="class","rloverImg"]

[attr="class","rloverText"]

❛❛

Kohaku wasn't sure how to take the woman's words. They sounded like words of affirmation on her own emotions and how it was a good thing she felt these lows, but why would something like this prove beneficial to her? It felt like it only dragged her down for so long yet she was supposed to embrace these emotions to drive her forward. That just didn't seem or feel right to her, but then again she only had been in the shinobi lifestyle for a few years now so maybe this woman had a plethora of experience over her that made these views a lot more clearer. So it probably would be best to listen to this woman and follow her advice.

It wouldn't be long before the woman would try and assist Kohaku on her training. This would cause Kohaku to sigh a bit before saying, "I'm not exactly sure. Lately, I have been in a rut on what to learn, but I tend to need to get in close for battles." Kohaku would think about how much she was able to dodge attacks in the exams, but getting in was always an issue for her. Sure she was generally faster than most of her peers in speed, but that was just her running speed others had ways of getting to places faster than that and she needed her way to do the same. "Is there a jutsu to get to places faster?" she would ask her impromptu mentor hoping she had the answer Kohaku was looking for.

ZYTL

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[Minamoto Mei]

Mei saw the doubt, raw and unfiltered, flicker across the girl’s face, her lips pressing together in a thin line as the Genin spoke, clearly still uncertain. Comfort and affirmation were far from the Yuki woman’s best social skills- she could get by, particularly if she was dealing with Raimaa, but when faced with a complete stranger her efforts tended to fall flat, if they came across at all. Still, the girl seemed to take the moment between her advice and the offer to help train to center herself, her voice noticeably less shaky and focused as she spoke again.

"I know several." The Jounin replied, tilting her head to one side as she went over what she could realistically teach the Genin, It was highly unlikely she possessed the chakra reserves to utilize any of the more advanced movement techniques she knew, and without knowing her elemental affinity there was no way she going to teach the girl Wind Walk, which left her with only one real option. "For you, however, the simplest one would likely be best. I assume you’ve heard of the Body Flicker technique?"

Mei paused, allowing the girl a moment to process her suggestion before she continued on, her hands coming together to form the seal needed for the technique, without focusing and chakra into her limbs. In truth, she likely could have outsped the girl’s senses on her own, unaided by a Shunshin- but for teaching purposes, it was best to ensure the student had clear instructions at every step of the process. Especially with a jutsu as potentially dangerous as the Shunshin. "TO begin, you must form and hold this seal."

Hoshino Kohaku