[Hōzuki Keneō]

In between sparring with various powerful and capable sword wielders such as Sora, Toru and Eiko, Ken had been left with a lot to think about. Aside from showing where he had grown ever so slightly, it had also shown him just how weak he still was and where he needed to well and truly improve himself if he was going to survive something as taxing and tricky as the Chuunin exams that were undoubtedly going to take place in the near future. In a way, he had been incredibly giddy for them, but had been fearful of them at the same time as he was certain that there were going to be those that had been a shinobi for a considerably longer time than he had and thus had what he lacked: Experience.

It was for this reason that he kept throwing himself into training over and over again, to get himself beat up while trying to land a hit on whoever he was facing just to see if he could improve as a result. Because to him, every bit of improvement mattered. With fresh bandages wrapped around both of his hands, a wooden sword on his back and his canteen full of water sitting by the edge of the training court, Ken had once again settled into a position of his own on the training yard of the hidden mist. From there, he would wait to see how many people might come in today, if some of them were willing to throw down for a spar and if there were things that he might learn as a result. Even if he could just watch other people train, it would be fine by him.

Because at the end of the day, improvement did not always come through training and hard work. Sometimes it came from proper inspection, perception and study, which were three things that could be gained just from watching other shinobi going through a training regiment of their own. Regardless of what might happen, Ken was about as ready as he could be to get down to business.

[Suzuki Taru]

On a day like today, Taru liked to escape down to the training grounds to get in a little bit of exercise and to cool off. She always liked to run down to the edge of the lake and splash in it, playing like a child even though her teenage years would be behind her very, very soon. It was only once her outfit was drenched and her hair was dripping that she was ready to get back to her training of choice.

Before she could tie on her blindfold, though, her eye caught on another shinobi. He was a young boy, small and unassuming but with striking blue eyes. He was pale and wore practical clothes, but what really caught her attention was his expression. He looked so dour. Maybe he could use some cheering up? Or maybe he had something really serious he was trying to do?

Whenever Taru had moments like this, she had a personal philosophy - if someone caught her eye, it was because the universe wanted her to talk to them.

So it went that she abandoned her own training to run up to this stranger.

"Hello, hello, and good morning!" She greeted. Her tone sounded for all the world like she already thought of Keneō as a good friend who she knew well, almost enough that one might think she'd mistaken him for someone else if not for the fact that she followed it with, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Suzuki Taru and the universe said I have to help you, so what are we working on today?"

[Hōzuki Keneō]

It would seem that today was one of those days where he was meant to meet yet another new person from the village's shinobi ranks. Moving up to him before he actually had a chance to do the same, on account of him not being entirely ready to move forward like that yet, the young woman swiftly introduced herself to him as Suzuki Taru. As he washed off some of the blood and grime from his knuckles with the water from his canteen, he listened to her as she spoke, bringing up the fact that apparently, the universe had told her to come up and speak to him. This was quite frankly not something he had ever heard before, though it seemed like an interesting subject.

"Hello, i'm Hōzuki Keneō, but you can call me Ken, everyone else does."

Come to think of it, he had started feeling like the way in which he introduced himself to people had almost become somewhat of a caricature. He always told people he met the exact same thing, letting them in on his full name before telling them to call him Ken. The fact that people called him that was likely because he told everyone he met that it was okay to do so, making it into a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"I'm more or less trying to become a better shinobi... a more versatile one rather than being a one-trick pony. But I feel it's difficult to branch out once you've become used to doing one thing well."

And that was more or less the truth to the matter. It was difficult for him to try and grasp something new when the thing he had been trying and doing well had been working out for him so far. Perhaps there was a hint of ego in having to admit that he couldn't get good at something straight away, regardless of how often he had to tell himself that there wasn't an artist in the world that created a masterpiece on their first few tries. Still though, it bothered him because he needed to do better, he had to be better.

[Suzuki Taru]

Taru hummed thoughtfully at his introduction, tilting her head a little to look up at the clouds in thought. Ken-because-everyone-else-does.

"Do I call you Ken because everyone else does, or because you like the name?" She wondered. Names had power, so she thought the intent behind using them was probably pretty important, too.

"Well, I like doing everything badly very well, so maybe that's why I had to come see you today," she said, nodding, as if she was assured of this reality now. "I focus my training across every area of study, all of them, since I think they're all very interesting. I like taijutsu and genjutsu and fuinjutsu and ninjutsu - well, I guess I've been neglecting my fuinjutsu studies, but I was going to get to that after genjutsu."

She clapped her hands together in front of her.

"The trick is to try to take the things you learn in one skill and use them for another. Everything is connected, so anything you learn in one place can usually be at least a little helpful in another."

She held up the scrap of fabric she had in her hands, that she'd intended to use as a blindfold.

"For example, I recently got really attuned to the environment to get good at aiming no matter the conditions. I was hoping I could use some of those skills to get really good at fighting blindfolded. Have you ever fought blindfolded?"

[Hōzuki Keneō]

"I'm not sure. I don't mind if people call me by my full name, my surname or my nickname. I just figured it might be easier for people to remember that way... and might seem a bit more familiar."

This was honestly the first time he had ever been asked whether or not he wanted to be called Ken or not, though that also got him to ponder on something else. This being the fact that, even in the confines of his own mind, he more or less always refered to himself as Ken too. It had become ingrained rather deeply, ever since people started calling him that way because as an academy student, he often brought his sword along on his back for training. A Bokken surely enough, as he did not yet feel comfortable around actual weaponry yet at the time, but a sword none the less. The children, quick witted as they were, had quickly made the link between the name Keneō and the word Ken for sword. Ergo, the nickname Ken was born.

Listening to how she talked about getting good at a wide variety of stuff in a rather peculiar manner, there was one thing she said which stuck with him. 'To take the things you learned in one skill and use them for another'. In many ways, that was how he had been using the Hozuki clan's hijutsu, to supplement it in a plethora of ways so that he could devise new techniques and conjure up plots and tactics in battle. Maybe this young woman had a thing or two to teach that could actually help him get ahead, or at least make it past his current block.

"No I uh... I can't say that i've ever fought blindfolded."

[Suzuki Taru]

He wasn't sure why he used that name. Pointing out that it was because it was familiar interested her. Maybe he was lonely and wanted people to call him a name that seemed more friendly so they could become friends faster? If that was the case, she could definitely call him Ken so she could be a good guide for him!

"I'm really, really bad at it," Taru said, waving her blindfold around. "I'm better at it than I was before, but I'm still no Ōzatō. But I was practicing it the other day, against Toru." Even though Toru was the Mizukage, she was in the habit of referring to him very familiarly. He was probably her best friend, after all. They'd trained and talked together a lot over the years, so she was very comfortable with him.

"I learned a lot of interesting things from it. Like the way clothing rustles when a person moves their arms versus their legs, or the way the shifting of hands on a blade sounds. Things I'd normally overlook because I can see just fine with my eyes, but that are really helpful when you stop and think about it. When you change how you're experiencing the world, you open up a lot of new perceptions. So let's see... Ken has a sword, so Ken usually does kenjutsu," she speculated, tapping her chin. 

"Maybe that means Ken should practice with his bare hands today? If you practice under an uncomfortable situation, you'll do even better when you're in your usual zone. That's why I train running around with weights on, too. Oh, we could train Ken's ability to dodge? Or your reaction time?"

[Hōzuki Keneō]

In all honesty, practicing with something like a blindfold on was actually quite high on his immensely long list of things he wanted to do, things he wanted to train and things he had to study up on more. His reasons for it were quite simple. He knew that there were techniques out there that impaired ones vision, like what the Hidden Mist technique was meant to do too. Luckily for him, the fact that he could immerse himself in water like only one of his kind could saved him from the issue of having to deal with such things. But there were undoubtedly a plethora of other techniques that could play tricks on the senses such as Genjutsu. For him, that was reason enough to at the very least broaden his horizon.

Even if he were still just a Genin at this point in time, there were Chuunin exams coming up. And if he did not keep up with his training and stopped pushing himself in the way that he had been up until now, he did not doubt the fact that those very same exams would end up blindsiding him completely. To that end, he needed to keep improving, to keep improving and to keep venturing into previously uncharted waters to make the amount of times where he felt uncomfortable in a fight as low as possible. To that end, Taru was quite right about the training regiment she was pitching to him. But as it were, she came in with a lot of different pitches for various ways in which they might end up training. So if this was to happen, they likely needed to compartmentalize and focus on one thing for now.

"I would like to try some of these things very much, though i'm not sure where exactly to start. Since you're my senior, i'll follow your lead."

[Suzuki Taru]

The decision was being left to her? She was still getting used to the idea that she was some people's senior now, even a year out from her promotion. It was so hard, though. Taru was the kind of person who struggled over decisions for a long time before suddenly getting a burst of inspiration and fixating very hard on what she'd finally chosen. That was how all her previous bouts of learning had gone.

Now she had to choose what to do with Ken. Now, now, now... She looked him over, assessing what was going to be the best for him. His hands were bandaged and he'd been washing off a bit of blood. Maybe he was struggling with getting roughed up? Maybe he needed to be able to respond to strikes faster. Dodging skill was one thing, but you had to be able to see and respond to an attack coming first before you could even start dodging.

"Let's focus on your reaction time," Taru settled on, pulling her bow off her back and checking the strings. She released some of the tension on the bow so she wouldn't totally skewer Ken. "I helped Kuronmeru Inei train his reaction time once, so I have experience doing that kind of thing." Inei was a decently well-known figure, she was pretty sure, so maybe Ken had even heard his name. One of the former wielders of the Raitō in the Seven Swordsmen and a member of the Kamenoko Mamori. "The way we did it is I practiced firing arrows at him and he dodged them. I'll use blunted arrows."

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Letting the name he was hearing mill through his mind for a bit, he didn't exactly manage to picture this person in his head. That said though, he had heard that the Kuronmeru were often quite full of themselves, though he had never really cared enough to figure out the reason. At the end of the day, it was just the talk of the town, or rather the village. And from one day into the next, that sort of talk could quickly change into something else entirely due to the whims of one person or the other decided they thought something else about the matter. But if there was one thing Ken was quite aware of, it would be the many swordsmen existing within the village, especially those that had been awarded one of the sword treasures of Kirigakure and those bearing the title of Seven Ninja Swordsmen.

One day, he too hoped to become one of them, though his skills with a sword and his grasp on the various forms of combat related to ninjutsu and taijutsu weren't all that great. But it was why he had been training as much as he had, to get better at everything he was currently just not that good at, and to get better at the things he could do. Whether he would ever get to count himself among them or be awarded one of these blades remained to be seen, though he was not going to rest until he got strong enough to at the very least be considered for such a role. Right now however, his training for today had been decided, and it was to be a reflex-based one, perhaps even with his sight taken away. In all fairness, he was rather confident that if he was to be shot at with arrows while wearing a blindfold, he wouldn't manage to evade a single one.

Arrows were fast, very fast. That, and they moved almost silently, save for the sound of a rushing arrow meeting the wind in flight, though one usually only heard that when it was already too late. To be able to dodge an arrow was a feat in and of itself, to do so while wearing a blindfold was bordering on the impossible: especially without the use of ninjutsu. But he was willing to try it if that was to be the goal, even if the likelihood of him failing was close to one hundred percent.

"Do I need to do that with a blindfold on? Because I can't promise i'll be good at that."

[Suzuki Taru]

Was he supposed to wear a blindfold while doing it? She considered it for a second, imagining the different scenarios. Inei was older and more experienced, so he'd had a pretty easy time dodging her, but it was still a really close thing a couple of times. Shooting at Ken blindfolded would just mean pelting him with arrows constantly, and that wasn't really going to be helpful.

"I'm a really, really good shot, so I think we should start without the blindfold," Taru decided. "You're going to have a hard time dodging even with your sight, so we should only graduate to a blindfold after you have a lot of practice, a lot of practice. Eventually you should be able to do it by even the smallest sound, though," she hummed.

With her bow prepped, all she had to do was get the practice arrows. She briefly jogged off to go raid the training supplies that were usually available at the training field.

Picking up a quiver, she stuffed it full of arrows that had a blunted head wrapped in sponge. This would still hurt a little if they hit Ken, but were unlikely to even leave bruises, so they made for good training material. Then she returned and notched an arrow.

"Okay, okay, I'm going to shoot now, so get ready to dodge." She lined up a shot, squinting, and then let loose, aiming right at center mass.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

If he were to be perfectly honest, the idea of getting shot at by arrows was not exactly something he was really all that hyped about. Even if the arrows were blunted and covered in sponges, he imagined getting struck by something which had the ability of being shot tens of meters away in miliseconds wasn't something someone should aspire to. Still, if it was something that would actually be of use to him and his growth as a shinobi, he felt he owed it to himself to try. Even if he were to get shot and bruised, it couldn't possibly be any worse than the bruises he received from sparring against Toru and Sora. At least, that was the hope.

"I don't doubt that you are. I just hope the training will work out for me and I won't just be wasting your time with the attempt."

Speaking plainly and truthfully, he would have hated it if all of this were to turn out to become one huge waste of time for the both of them. Mostly, he would hate if he failed where other people had succeeded, as that would more or less put him down as a failure in the eyes of the Chuunin. Arguably, that would hurt him a lot more than it would getting shot by a blunt arrow, as his goal of becoming one of the best shinobi in the village, if not 'The' best in the village was worth more to him than a handful of bruises. Taking a deep breath as he walked towards where he needed to stand so he wouldn't be right on top of the bow when the arrow got loose, he turned to face the woman.

"Alright, lets do this."

No sooner than after he had given the okay, an arrow shot right at him. He could see the moment it got released from her bow. He could see it as it left the bow string. And almost right after that, he could feel the sudden overwhelming urge to use hydrification to avoid harm from coming to him. It was almost an instinctual thing he had managed to bring about through a lot of rigorous training, but not something he wanted to use or rely on in training. While he fought the instinctive urge to turn into water, he felt something incredibly hard hit him right in the stomach. His momentary internal clash had completely blurred out the arrow reaching him in the kind of time and speed with which no living person could travel.

"Oof!"

[Suzuki Taru]

When she loosed her first arrow, it seemed like Ken didn't even have time at all to move before it struck him. Uh oh! He'd almost stood completely still - did he get distracted by something and end up lost in thought? She'd definitely done that before while training, and ended up getting bopped for it. It happened even to the best shinobi. What would have distracted him, though? She looked all around, expecting to see a cool bird or something. When she came up empty, she was forced to think more philosophically.

Maybe he was still worried about wasting her time and had gotten hung up on that?

"Sorry! Maybe I should've given you more warning before I let that one go," she said, winding down the tension on her bow even more. Hopefully really loosening the string up would make the arrow fly a little slower. She kept her draw weight really, really high.

"If it helps, I don't think anything anyone does is a waste of their time. Even if I mess something up or it doesn't go the way I wanted it to, learning is still fun. Every mistake opens up a new pathway to learning something, and I love exploring pathways! Oh, and learning! Yeah." 

She nodded vigorously.

"Humans are just animals that got very smart, so we're always going to mess stuff up. The best shinobi is the one that embraces it, because worrying about wasting people's time just makes you waste more time by worrying. Anyways, here comes the next one! One..., two..., three..., fire!" She gave more warning this time so Ken would have time to prepare! Then she fired the arrow off.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

"It's fine... it wasn't your fault... just a mild internal struggle."

Explaining it away in a rather simplistic fashion, it had been far from the first time where he had to work against himself when it came to springing the clan's hijutsu as a means of self preservation. It had come up when he had been sparring against Toru, the Mizukage, when he had almost used his abilities to avoid getting hit repeatedly by strikes of a wooden sword. And later again when he had gone through a similar regiment of training with Sora, one of, if not the best sword wielder in the village. It was hard to go against one's instincts when their entire body told them to take the easy way out, and do what a shinobi would do. But this was a training session, not a life or death situation.

To someone who was as dutiful as Ken and strived as hard as he did to become a proper shinobi, it honestly wasn't the worst thing to hear that he was allowed to make mistakes, and that not instantly being good at something did not mean that he wasted his or anyone elses time. Rubbing over his stomach for a bit, he could tell that this was likely going to be a bit of a sore spot. But due to the bluntness and the foam coverage of the arrow-heads, it was more than likely not going to leave a bruise like Sora's and Toru's swords had. Picking up the arrow that had hit him to get a closer look at it, he was certain steps had been taken to make sure he wouldn't end up getting hospitalized. That was good at least.

"Thank you for saying that. I'm ready for the next one."

Preparing himself for the next shot, he pushed all thoughts about liquifying himself out of his mind. Focusing entirely on the bow, he let his mind work entirely on figuring out how best to counter such a weapon that moved as fast as it did. Once again, he watched the slip of the bow string from Taru's fingers, the arrow being released from the bow as it sped towards him. Believing the likely target would likely be his stomach or chest area again since it had the largest amount of mass and the biggest chance of being hit, he would try to move himself to the side as fast as possible. And while it worked to some extent, he could still feel how his side was hit hard.

Had he been able to move a fraction of a second sooner or faster, he might have been able to move for that last pair of centimeters that remained within the arrowhead's reach. Even though the blow still landed and caused him to swerve on his feet, it hit considerably less than getting hit straight in the gut.

[Suzuki Taru]

A mild internal struggle. That was interesting phrasing. She wondered what he was struggling with! Maybe he needed to meditate. Usually she'd found that people who were internally struggling calmed down when they meditated a lot. She'd recommend that some other time, since meditating while you were trying to dodge arrows would probably just result in you getting hit with a bunch of arrows.

This time, Ken actually moved, reacting to the arrow as it was shot. In the end it still struck him in the side in a way that would be quite painful if this was a real arrow and not a practice one, but it was progress! He'd gotten really close to dodging in time to avoid the hit. It would take him a little while to work up the eye-body coordination to receive the visual cue to move in time, but this was a good start!

"Woohoo!" Taru shouted, throwing her arms in their air in a celebratory, acting as if even this minor accomplishment was the greatest victory of all time, because everything was worth celebrating to her.

"Alright, alright, you got closer to dodging that time. That means if you get yourself ready to dodge just a little, little, tiny bit faster, you'll probably be able to do it. Let's try again."

Once more she aimed for center mass and counted down; "Three, two, one..., go!" And she loosed the next arrow.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Though not the best thing for his ego, if there were such a thing, the Hozuki was still quite glad that he had managed to dodge the arrow to some degree. Because contrary to what people might believe, the bow and arrow were among the most lethal tools in a shinobi's arsenal. Sure they were large and had to be lugged around, loaded, aimed and then fired, but to a trained shinobi that knew what they were doing, he just knew that it was far more lethal than a sword. In close proximity, a sword was lethal, that much was true, but when someone who had perfected the art of the bow and arrow faced someone in a fight, the people they killed would never have seen them coming.

Up until now, Ken had met shinobi who were great at sensing other presences through chakra sensory means, which when combined with a weapon that could kill someone at a long distance seemed to him like no one would really be able to stop it. It was to be noted that Ken was merely a Genin and still needed to learn much about how the world worked and how combat evolved, though there was one thing to be said about him that went undisputed: He was rather intelligent compared to most. He could perceive things quickly, figure out how they worked and how they were best utilized and countered. That was the way his brain worked, and why meditation did very little for him.

The curse of an overactive brain, which was why he often went to bed early after having just eaten in order to give both his body the rest that it needed, and grant his brain and mind the rest that they craved. But it was as Taru said, if he managed to react just a little bit sooner, and move just a little bit faster, he would be able to do this. All of these shots were announced after all, rather than coming at him unexpectedly. But there was more to it. He needed to alter the way in which he dodged, which he would put to the test right now.

Once the arrow was released, Ken moved. Slightly to the side, just as before. Being just a split second faster seemed to make little to no difference, but every little bit helped. What was more helpful was the way in which he'd dodge, adjusting his footing and stance so as to rotate his body. Doing so in a manner that would stop his torso from being this broad surface, he would move his left foot backwards and put it behind his right, thus reducing the surface that could be hit by at least half as both of his shoulders were no longer pointed straight at Taru. And in that moment, he could feel it. But not like he had felt it before. He could feel how the arrow soared past him, so fast he could really only catch a glimpse of it in passing.

But the fact that it had passed him remained unchanged. Some measure of success had been attained.