[Okada Sakuraba]

Sakuraba had quite a jarring revelation this morning. It was out of nowhere, but called for, and the topic had likely been stewing for years. Sakuraba was now a junior Guardian, right? He was just a Genin, so being a full-blown Guardian Corps member was one thing entirely, and he wasn’t wearing the uniform just yet – had to graduate, apparently – but his display of the Lightning Encampment Wall granted him Morihito’s stylish favor in enrolling. Now…

Well, fuck. He just realized it this morning when going to buy groceries for his parents. He instinctively just leapt onto a wall and began walking, while his body fell straight down to the floor and knocked him out cold for 5 minutes straight.

He hadn’t learned how to walk on walls or on water yet… how the hell? Why? How? When did he forget to learn that? Wasn’t that the core tenet- wait, he could’ve sworn he learned it back then with his previous teammates?!

Speaking of… he was informed of a new teammate lately. If dey think I can’t walk awn walls… I’ll be made a fool of! he panicked internally, deciding to spend this day catching up on his training with that damn technique that almost every Genin already knew. Did he do it by himself?

HELL YES! He’d die before he told anyone that he still hadn’t mastered it. Dude could summon a wall of lightning from above, blind people, wring their skin off with his bare hands and last longer than a crossfit junkie, but walk on walls? On water?

So embarrassing… but his sensei likely asked some of his teammates to help one another out, even if it was against his own wishes. Should they reach the spot where he was seen last – the mountainous regions surrounding the village – he’d be seen struggling to walk on a precipice. Bruised, but whole – strong, but utterly weak.

[Okami Shizuka]

Wolf of the Infinite Okada Sakuraba

While it hadn’t been very much time since Shizuka had been assigned to Genin team 2, he was still rather confused on why there hadn’t been an official meet up of the 3 of them yet. Their team was, sadly, without a formal sensei, so any of their group missions would need to be headed by an available stand-in of appropriate rank.

That said, he was called out to meet up with his teammate Sakuraba. Yet another Okada. Looking at a shinobi roster, it was like… 80% Okada. What sort of otherworldly marketing do you have to have to be so successful that your clan dominates the ranks that thoroughly? More research is required.

With direction from a superior, the boy went to seek out his guy.

Reading the note he had gotten from his senpai, it appeared that Sakuraba still had yet to master a few of the basic requirements for advancing to chuunin. For a ninja, mobility was kind of everything. It ensured they stayed not only covert and efficiency, but stealthy and perhaps most importantly of all: Alive.

The ability to run on water during an escape could literally spell the difference between escaping and dying. Shizuka was already a top performer when it came to agility, thanks to his feline composition, but he imagined others may struggle with it.

Looking up from the note, he realized that the okada might be doing more than simply struggling….

Patiently he waited until he was noticed, potentially observing his peer’s attempts to walk on a wall. He made a mental note to make sure his face looked fairly inviting, even if he did find it somewhat humorous. In reality, he was just happy to have teammates again, so it was a no-brainer that he would help!

OWL