Kiku was back, standing alone on the rocky training field. There were still some scorch marks on the stone from his last trip there. He wondered if anyone else ever used this place. There weren't too many fire types in Sora, and this was mostly a fire oriented training field. A patch with no plant life wasn't too popular in a Senju dominated town.


Kiku shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He'd need to focus for this. He'd never attempted such a powerful or difficult technique, after all. The Uzumaki was worried. He didn't know if he'd be able to control it, or if he could get the attack going at all. Confidence had never been his strong suit, in spite of his skill with his element. Even if he succeeded, he expected it to be one hell of an ordeal.


He took his place in the center of the field, concentrating. This was going to take a lot of chakra. Kiku's clan had a bit of a reputation for massive chakra reserves, but if he had it he hadn't figured out how to tap into it yet. He assumed that he probably hadn't inherited that bit anyway. It didn't seem like the kind of thing that would happen to him. He took a deep breath, gathering together a large amount of chakra in his lungs. It started to take shape inside him. He could feel the fire power coursing through it, ready to ignite as soon as he spit it out. It was an exhilarating feeling, having all that power ready to be released at once. This was the best part of training, having a nice field off by himself where he could forget about his worries and indulge in a little power fantasy. Well, maybe not fantasy. He was about to spit out a huge blast of fire, after all.


Kiku formed the tiger hand seal and unleashed hell. He opened his mouth spitting out a massive blast of flame. It was bigger than anything he'd done before, and had a vague shape like an animal's head. Unpolished, but it was a start. He focused, trying to direct it in the air. The blast banked slightly, only managing to turn a few degrees to the left before it slammed into a cliff face and exploded. Kiku shielded his face with his arms, protecting his glasses from the shower of dust and debris.

The genin brushed off the layers of dust, coughing a bit. He'd gotten the power part right at least. That was stronger than anything he'd ever even tried. The control, however, still needed a lot of work. The shape was was less at the level of fine sculpture, and more like something a five year old might draw with crayons. It could have been a dragon's head, but then again it could also have been a dog or an airship. He needed to perfect the form. With that level of detail and control, directing its movement would be easier.


Kikuchiyo gathered another batch of fire chakra, preparing the jutsu again. This time, he managed to spit out something a little better. The shape was definitely a head now, and it had an open mouth with teeth. Still a bit vague on the kind of animal, but it wouldn't be mistaken for an abstract piece. He concentrated, trying to make it miss the cliff this time. The projectile started to angle upwards, barely missing another messy impact. With a bit more effort, it was shooting straight up. Kiku looked up at it with a big smile on his face, watching it rise into the sky. His smile faded a bit as it poofed out against the shield. Still, it was progress. He'd managed to control it pretty well before he got distracted by congratulating himself. If he kept his focus next time, he thought he might be able to steer it properly.


This time, he focused even harder. He was close last time, very close. Just a bit more and he could do it. Making a tiger sign, he spat out a proper dragon head. The mouth was closed, showing a row of fangs along the sides of its face. The eyes were on the sides near the top, with lines of fire flaring up above them like eyebrows. Kiku focused and it veered sharply, turning straight up. He didn't let it go too far this time, turning it back downwards and throwing it into a loop. He let out a laugh as it pulled off the trick, directing it again. The dragon head turned downward, slamming into a target dummy on the far end of the field. Kiku collapsed, exhausted but satisfied. He'd managed to do it. It would take a lot of practice before he could use it regularly, but he could do it.

[Words: 811, training portion complete]

Jutsu Trained:

Aka yawned as she walked toward the fire-jutsu training field to try and practice the Bijuu Bomb, it was the only pace she could even try with out the potential for destroying something. The fiery haired girl stopped a moment seeing another red head puffing out fire. She walked closer curious he was a bit young it looked, fire jutsu from what she understood took a lot of chakra.

After a few tries she watched impressed as he blew out a fully formed dragon insinrating the dummy. Aka stepped forward clapping, making herself know. "That was impressive kid, not a lot of kids your age can do that. Heck I can't do that." She walked over to him and held out her hand smiling. "Aka Tonbo,"

Kiku's rest was soon interrupted. He heard a woman's voice speaking to him. When had she gotten here? He scrambled to his feet, still a bit wobbly from the exertion. He didn't recognize the woman in front of him. In fact, she looked more like a girl than a woman. If it weren't for her voice, he would have guessed that she was younger than he was. He knew what that was like, he was often mistaken for an academy student. "Oh, um, thank you ma'am." He bowed, almost hitting his face on her hand. Kiku quickly straightened up and returned the handshake.

"Kikuchiyo Uzumaki." he managed to stammer out. Something seemed odd about her, and now that they were standing this close he realized what it was. She didn't have a headband. Was this another missing nin attack? He'd heard about the one a few days ago, the kage's younger brother had been killed. Only a year older than he was, murdered by some giant psychopath. He shivered at the thought, hoping she wouldn't murder the crap out of him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Absently she decided to but off her bijuu bomb practice, the kid's mind felt kind of skiddish to be doing that around. She glanced up at the sky a moment, "So I have some time to kill before I need to take off, do you want to train?" She frowned and mentally hit herself as she took in chakra level, "I shouldn't have asked, you look dead tired as it is, no need to run you into the ground with more work. Don't bother answering I can practice on my own."

Aka stepped forward over to the wooden training post. She grabbed the sheath of her Katana, flicking up an inch before grabbing the hilt with her right hand, in a blur she cut clean though the training post, with a small amount of help from her wind nature. "So Uzumaki-san, what is it like living in Sora?" She started running though her forms, attacking the post over to the right of the one she destroyed.

He froze up in terror when she mentioned killing. By the time he realized it was just a figure of speech, she had moved on to something else. The idea of training with her scared him a bit too. He was thoroughly worn out, and the way she'd been talking suggested that she was much more powerful than he was at his best. Not that he liked sparring anyway, it usually went poorly for him. He was relieved when she changed her mind before he had time to speak. It took a lot of pressure off him. "Okay."

He sat down, watching her train. He hadn't seen many kenjutsu types at work, and it was pretty intimidating. She was cutting through hard wooden dummies as though they were paper. He gulped nervously as she launched into her forms. She was good, very good. If she got mean he wouldn't even have time to get up. "Well, um, it's pretty nice. I have an apartment not too far from here, there's some good stores and stuff."

"That's good to hear," She shifted going into a more aggressive stance and adding chakra to the blade making her cuts deeper. "So what do you think of the Sokage? What he like?" Aka already knew him, but was curious what the other ninja thought of him and his status, she was still rather hesitant, her's was still unknown for the most part.

Kiku was getting increasingly nervous as her attacks grew stronger and stronger. "Well, um, I haven't really met him. He leads the village well, though. And he's protected us." He thought back to the big missing nin battle at the airship station. He hadn't seen it, but apparently the Sokage had whooped some serious ass. "And, well, he's had a lot to deal with lately I guess." A lot had happened recently. The death of one Senju, the birth of another, it was quite an eventful time for their little village.

Aka twisted, and flipped back before throwing her katana at the training post, it pieced ahalf way in. Aka nodded satisfied, as she reached in her pocket and pulled out a scroll. Unflinching, the red head bit her thumb, tossing the scroll unfurling it running the blood on the paper. A moment later the smoke cleared revealing a large two handed blade that was taller than both of the ninja. 

The head head lifted with one hand tossing it back and forth a moment before channeling chakra into it, a hammer shape of chakra formed around it, with a heave, she slammed it down. The Chakra reseeded, as set it next to her tip dug into the ground a moment, "How can you not have met your own Kage? I thought genin got their missions from them? Geeze I'm going to have to have a talk with him later. Another question what did you hear about the incident at the air ship docks?"

Kiku scooted a little back when she summoned the massive sword. It was huge! How strong did she have to be to even lift that thing, let alone wield it? Then the chakra hammer formed, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. That weapon was much more powerful than he'd realized. "Well, um, I haven't really talked to him. I just get my orders and go." To be honest, he'd been too afraid to approach the kage in any other sense. He was a very important man and shouldn't be disturbed.

Aka frowned slightly at his words, "You should, we is your commander, he's not as scary as you seem to think he is." She paused a moment thinking before grinning. "I know, after the summit I'll introduce you."

Aka heaved the sword again, running though forms. God she wished she had Ninjutus at times like these, a shadow clone would be wonderful to practice genjutsu on. "You wouldn't know how to make a shadow clone would you?"

He nodded at her advice. It wasn't so easy as that, but he could at least try not to be afraid of the super-powerful man who was currently angry and grieving from his brother's recent death. No biggie. The idea that she would personally introduce him to the Sokage seemed like an awful lot of pressure, but it did relieve him a bit. If she knew the Sokage, then she probably wasn't a dangerous missing nin. "Okay..."

Her next question caught him off guard. What could she want that for? "Um, no ma'am. Not a tangible one. All I can do is the image."

"Darn, well thanks anyway. If I was any good at ninjutsu I would do it myself." Aka sighed as picked up her sword again, turning her attention back to the younger ninja. "Red hair and brown eyes that is a rare combination. Is that a clan trait or a you thing?" The older shinobi frowned slightly she was itching to work on genjutu but she doubted it would be a good idea to ask, instead she started doing through forms, practicing with fake clones.

"Um, I don't know, really." Kiku frowned. He'd tried for quite some time to find out more about his family, but all that had come up was a name and a bunch of history from the Time of Legends. He hadn't even found his mother's name, let alone her hair and eye color. It had been a frustrating search, but by now he'd all but given up. If he had family, they'd long forgotten him. "I've never met another of my clan."

Aka frowned a moment stopping to look at the kid. "How can you not have met your clan? You're family...She paused a moment, are they all dead?" The red head always considered family to be one of the most important things. The only excuse she would allow was if his family was dead, even then they had all better be dead. "Where is your clan from?"

Kiku shrugged. "I was left here when I was a baby. I've heard there's not many of us left, but that's pretty much all." He leaned forward, resting his head on his knees. It wasn't really something he liked talking about. Being left by your own mother isn't exactly a pleasant thought. He quickly tried to change the subject. "May I ask why you're asking, ma'am?"

"Because, bright red hair, like ours, and brown eyes is a really rare combination. I was hoping that maybe, I'm not really sure what I was hoping for." Aka set the blade down and sat down. "Look you're not the only misfit orphan thing in this training field. Like a said our traits are, were, really a similar...so I thought I'd ask." The red head sighed scratching the back of her head half embarrassed.

Kiku blinked, trying to process this. Was she saying they could be related? Now that he thought of it, it did seem possible. Both had red hair and brown eyes, and both looked much younger than they really were. Could these all be clan traits? Was there some red-headed clan out there that looked perpetually ten years old? And both of them being orphans, it made sense that they wouldn't have run into other members of his near-extinct clan before. "Wait, do you think we're..."

Aka grinned and nodded, "Well I was kind of hoping so, would be nice to find blood kin. It gets lonely not really knowing where you're from or where you fit in. It's just nice to think that no matter where you go, there is someone waiting for you to come home that has your back. Now that I think about it, I should visit home sometime. It's been four years..." Aka brightened up as a thought struck her. "You know what? Even if we aren't really blood family, so what, you can still be my brother or cousin or whatever."

Kiku nodded. It was nice that she had a home to return to. He wished he could say the same. All he had was a crummy apartment downtown. He supposed that could count as home, but it wasn't much. He was starting to get lost in thought again when she snapped him out of it. "B-brother? Cousin?" She actually wanted to be his family? That just didn't make sense to him. Why would she want to hang around with him?

The shorter red head grinned and nodded, "Maybe if I can get Hide to let you, you can come with me to visit my home, though I'm sure he'll want you here to help defend the village with all that is going on, maybe another time then." Aka looked at him hopeful, "So what do you say cousin?"

It was about then that Kikuchiyo's brain completely broke. He sat there, stammering wordlessly. Meeting the Sokage? Going traveling with his personal friend? Possibly meeting family? It was way too much for him to handle. He went pale, freezing where he sat. Slowly, his face went from white to blue to purple. Kiku was forgetting to breathe. He toppled over backwards, losing consciousness.

Reflexively she summon her tails catching him, she chuckled setting him down next to the training post before kissing his cheek, leaving a note. The older red head left a small note, letting him know see be back another time, and introduce him to the Sukage later and kidnap him later to show him where she grew.

Aka looked back before body flickering away, laughing as she headed toward the airship docks. She had work to do.

{exit.}

About an hour later, Kiku awoke. He looked around, wondering where that woman had gone. It took him a moment to realize just how much time had passed. It was getting late. He stood, and saw a note fall from his lap. It seemed pretty nice at first, but he wasn't so sure about the kidnapping part. That sounded dangerous. Thoroughly worn out, he made his way home.

[Exit]

Training Approved