[Itagaki Mitsumi]

This was a bit embarrassing.

She knew that returning to the academy was going to be weird. Being older than most of the students, having dropped out once already - though, with the plague, that was hardly unusual - and returning changed. Not just older, but with a lot more baggage. But those were things she could mostly ignore. Hoping to avoid the cruel innocence of children as she focused on her studies, trying to become a genin as soon as possible. Trying to make up for lost time.

She was good with younger kids, fortunately. But training alongside them led to situations like this. Sparring with classmates who had not even entered their teens.

Not that Mitsumi could likely afford to take things easy. Despite being older, she was likely less experienced and less skilled. A lot of hopefuls started young, and actually had a talent for this kind of thing.

The set-up was a bit different than usual. Instead of a simple dojo to practice martial arts and direct combat, the repurposed storeroom had been arranged to train a shinobi's night fighting ability. The room was dark, and there were empty crates and other detritus to hide behind. Once the eyes adjusted, one could see, but not far, and not clearly. Mitsumi was pursuing a glimmer of an idea, trying to capitalize on her skill with the manipulation of chakra. If she could home her senses here, maybe then she could begin to find her niche. Fighting here was going to require keen awareness of their surroundings. Especially since it was no guarantee that they were the only two students using the area.

Mitsumi stood opposite her training partner, stretching her arms as the embarrassment and awkwardness returned in full force. Was she about to get trounced by a preteen? Or, perhaps worse, hurt a child?

She shook it off, and finally spoke up.
"It's, uh... Egao-kun, right? I'm Itagaki. I-if you forgot." They were equals as students, but the age gap couldn't just be ignored. Mitsumi hoped her small smile was visible in the gloom. "I don't think we've had much opportunity to talk, but... I hope we'll have a good match." Mitsumi dipped her head in a bow, then drew a blunted training kunai. Her stance shifted, dropping into an orthodox short-blade stance. The awkwardness and embarrassment slowly faded from her expression, as determination began to take hold. "Whenever you're ready."

The area and the exercise was mostly intended to train stealth, ambush, and defending against it, and Mitsumi intended to capitalize on it.

[Egao Momura]

Helping Hand

@tag

Hotei's blessings were many when one could truly asssist their fellow man, the reward that a fist to someone's face could bring was the same as carrying the groceries of another so they could focus on other tasks. Momura was the type to help both ways, and like a good conciliator - and shepherd to be - he had every compulsion to be as helpful as possible. Excessive bruising would be when he went from generous to greedy, and that was simply just not something he saw himself doing if he could help it. His Sensei and Father had both ingrained when to stop and when it was okay to be harsh in him, so this was just more training with the intention to assist a fellow member of the community that was the academy student body - a chance he was rarely given.

Bucket helm kept in place and a rust-colored hand forming to the right of his head, Momura would nod at Mitsumi, "That's right, thank you for remembering Itagaki-Chan. I would be showing a greed for recognition if I said that I did remember your name so the reminder was very kind," came a blunt and somewhat muffled voice of a child. Shifting low into a stance with his fists open, the floating hand taking on the stance of a open-palm facing upwards as the two squared up.

"May Hotei smile on the charity we perform here," Momura would follow up as the floating hand's fingers cupped inward to taunt Mitsumi forward, the young man having some level of control on the hand clearly.

- ❤ -

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

"R-Right..." Mitsumi shifted awkwardly. It was strange to about to be sparring with a child, as close to her own age as her younger brother. It was strange to be talking to a basket. It was strange to be referred to with the diminutive '-chan' by someone outside of her family, especially appended to her family name. It was strange to hear so much modesty about... offering her own name...?

But it was even stranger to hear a prayer like that. Almost made her forget about the floating hand. Almost. She didn't really know what it was, or how it worked, but it wasn't like enemies would tell you how their abilities functioned, was it? She ignored the urge to ask, and instead focused on herself, and how to proceed.

Her recent training gave her a flicker of awareness in the dark as she took that moment of calm before the storm to control the flow of chakra within her, and expand her awareness out. Doing so while walking in the wilds had been difficult enough. Maintaining it in combat - even partially - was going to be a giant hurdle.

But that's what she was here to do, wasn't it? And why they were training in the gloom, instead of a well-lit dojo. Mitsumi took a shaky breath, then exhaled. She wouldn't be able to hold this expanded awareness of hers. But she had to at least try to.

With her focus on the flow of chakra too demanding for her to risk using what little jutsu she knew, Mitsumi moved in cautiously, making a short series of experimental, testing slashes with her blunted kunai. Too far to cause any lasting harm, even if the edges were sharp. Clearly testing the water rather than land a decisive hit.

Her eyes kept flicking to that hovering hand, nervous about what it could do.

[Egao Momura]

Helping Hand

@tag

It wasn't complete pitch black as they got into things, but it was certainly darker then Momura would have liked. His opponent becoming little more then an outline, but he figured she had no more visibility then he. A 'fair' fight in terms of conditions, he was sure that he could give her a good fight here. Though given that this was a spar he had to make sure not to be overconfident as well, overconfidence was greed and his mom would have most certainly beaten it out of him if her teachings hadn't through his Sensei.

Momura obliged his senior student by letting her get close as he focused on listening for the motions in the room, all other thought falling away in favor for planning out how to move the helping hand and his own body. As Mitsumi came in close and her vague outline began to lunge Momura would sidestep, or shift their weight so that the jabs are missing, if narrowly. The hand assisting in swatting away the knife or simply colliding with it when possible. The waters tested out for any particularly unique motion Momura would sink low to sweep Mitsumi's right ankle in a leg sweep while the hand would jump forward suddenly for a palm strike towards her shoulder.

The full intention to leave the older girl on her back, or at the very least off balance enough for Momura to go on the assualt further.

- ❤ -

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Keeping her focus on the sensory ninjutsu was easier than it was before, but it was still taxing, and still extremely vague. She could tell, roughly, where Egao was, but not really what he was doing. That hand didn't register at all.

Her proving attacks were predictably rebuffed, and it seemed the gap in age didn't translate to a gap in experience. Or, at least, not one in her favor. Most of her martial arts training had been from the academy or with striking dummies, and it showed. It was orthodox and cautious, and thus predictable. She learned that the hand was solid - and largely impervious to what little harm her blunt knife could do. The gloom was oppressive, so she watched that hand carefully, as she summoned the courage to press harder.

Then Mitsumi felt Ego drop into a low sweep, and her caution paid some dividends as shifted her weight back and low, to maintain her balance. Which left her open to the shove on her shoulder. A more experienced fighter may have been able to step into the sweep, spin with the shove, or something else to maintain footing or initiative.

Instead, Mitsumi cried out, and toppled onto her back. But she kept her wits about her, kunai held out defensively as she worked to get her feet under her, intending to retreat. Egao had the advantage at close range. So she clearly needed another tactic.

If she could get away unscathed, that was.

[Egao Momura]

Helping Hand

@tag

Momura was having fun sparring with Mitsumi, that was about as deep as the thoughts got in his head as he sought to press forward. The gloom made vision difficult though even though she had only been inches from him. Letting it reach forward his goal was for the hand to strike Mitsumi once more in the shoulder. The attack itself being rather predictable as Momura's actual body slunk forward quickly.

Twisting on a heel a spinning kick would attempt to once more topple Mitsumi, his one advantage having been her lost balance. He didn't really expect it to land, but layering more then just the normal limbs of his body into fighting made his incredibly nasty to fight regardless. The teachers had only needed him to spar twice before they had realized that Momura was a terrifyingly good scrapper for his age, and especially when one did not use their advantage over him - ninjutsu. His ability to handle the realm of close combat owed only to Hotei's gift to him and his utilization of it and not truly any real trained skills in the area still.

"You are doing very well, keep going. You need to keep your balance though, letting yourself get tripped is really deadly in the field. Praise to Hotei that we can trade pointers now so that we do not lose more of this community out in the dangerous wilds right?" Momura would state sounding kind of excited on the matter. Pointers were always good to trade according to his sensei, and prayer always important. This was a very generous spar for them both indeed. Mitsumi allowing the young conciliator to spar for the first time in a while, and Momura in turn was offering tips as they fought to help her. It was a good trade in his eyes.

- ❤ -

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Mitsumi saw - and felt - the kick approaching, and rised her arms to block the oncoming strike, using its forced to retreat and gain distance. It was a poor block, as the impact made her arm and hand throb with pain. She grit her teeth, wordless enduring the impact. Egao was definitely a talented fighter, despite his youth. It stung more than she expected - if Egao had been a bit stronger, a bit heavier, she would have been sent sprawling again. As it was, her kunai was wrested from her hands, where it clattered onto the stone floor.

She managed to get her feet under her, and retreated rapidly, keeping Egao within the limits of her sensory ability as she found refuge in the gloom. She tested her hand, opening and closing it. Nothing broken or sprained, but her forearm would definitely bruise.

"Yeah, you're right," Mitsumi agreed with the thrust of the message, though the talk of Hotei went over her head again. She needed more experience. Not just with jutsu, or her sensory ability, but in general. To learn how to fight. She was clearly at a disadvantage at a close range, so a change of tactic was needed. "We all need to be stronger."

Mitsumi broke into a run, trying to circle around Egao, tracking him through her still-hazy sensory ability. While running, she extracted a pair shuriken from a thigh pouch, and paused a moment to loose them at Egao, before resuming her circling of Egao. How would he react to a target attacking from the darkness, where she couldn't be seen easily?

The shuriken were blunted, and unlikely to cause lasting harm, but it would still hurt to be struck directly by one.

[Egao Momura]

Helping Hand

Itagaki Mitsumi

Now she was using her head! Something that Momura was distinctly awful at doing himself. It was a skill that a rare few developed using the things people called a brain - fully functioning thought a simply impossible task for Momura in a time when he was meant to be doing anything else. The hands required only the simplest thoughts to truly move as he wanted them to, but simple thoughts added up and that made it harder to really move them. Having taken a defensive posture after Mitsumi had moved away Momura would watch the gloom of the room for the racing shadow, following the patter of feet on the ground to a degree as he tried to keep track.

The shuriken had then been fairly unexpected as an attack. What he had assumed to be more of a melee turning into a ranged brawl between the two academy students, and one that he was not equipped to win either. One of the shuriken thunking into his arm heavily while the other hit the tip of his helm just right and pulled the still slightly over-sized weave off of his head. Revealing little to nothing of his crimson eyes and more adrongynous face.

Knowing where they had hit from Momura would wince as he turned to face the direction of the blows and push forward into melee on instinct the hand following in from just behind Momura's back. Trying to keep out of sight before revealing last minute as Momura would try to close in in strike with a hooked fist at Mitsumi's stomach, the fist shifting from behind to also attempt a heavy strike again Mitsumi's cheek. All predicated on him actually managing to find her in the gloom.

- ❤ -

[Itagaki Mitsumi]

Mitsumi's sensory range wasn't long enough, it seemed, and Egao had sharp reactions and a keen sense of space. He advanced faster than she had anticipated, and her focus on keeping track of Egao's position caused her to miss the box behind her, which she brushed up against as she tried to retreat back again. Mitsumi hissed a curse, admonishing herself to pay better attention to her surroundings. Chakra signatures were one thing, but she knew she could feel out her surroundings as well, if she focused.

Mitsumi narrowed her eyes, focusing on the vague shape in the gloom, and the feeling of his approach. She snapped her arm down in a simple block against the strike against her stomach. But the floating hand was still scrambling her brain to adjust to, and as she tried to make sure she wasn't cornered against the crate and overwhelmed by Egao's clear advantage in close quarters, received a stinging strike against her cheek. She spun with the force of the blow, but kept her footing, staggering to gain some distance again, abandoning a counterattack in favor of a full-tilt retrreat. Even keeping her back to him to she could run full-tilt.

But even in the pain and confusion, she sensed an opportunity. She was still aware of his current location, so if she couldn't keep track of the hand with her limited sensory ability, she needed to make him lose track of her. Something decisive, that a thrown, blunt shuriken wouldn't be able to provide.

It was a gamble, but she moved her hands in a rapid set of seals, keeping her back to Egao. She had been taught at the Academy that people who wielded powers like Egao couldn't use ninjutsu, but he could probably recognize the technique if he saw the seals.

Her sensory ability faded to the tiny passive bubble around her, as she worked her hands in the Kawarimi no Jutsu seals, selecting a crate to switch her body with.

If she got the time to complete the jutsu, Mitsumi would stop abruptly, inviting an attack as she feigned being slow to turn around.