The Konohagakure Aburage, a place for two ninja to come together and trade fists or maybe it's even simpler than that. Maybe it's a place where a team might gather before a mission or finish off some last minute training. Whatever their reasons may be this tends to always be the place the ninja are and thus why Izumi is here. As always, Izumi was searching for an opponent who could be considered the same rank or better. Sometimes she would pick on Chunin and especially Genin but it was good to have an actual fight than someone just messing with a new play toy. She wanted to feel threatened and as though there was the chance she may actually lose. She took the feeling of potential lose that she was only learning and growing stronger. Losing is strength - in certain amounts of course. If she could just learn her opponent and learn how to read them then that is a win in itself.

With her pouch loaded with tools and her body stretched and ready from her morning exercise, Izumi was ready to take on anyone. She first cruised on the Aburage in the shadows, as always, and held her chakra low to seem non existent. Besides, anyone of high rank would be able to notice her which would make it easy to finding an opponent. So far all she spotted was a few birds and a couple Genin - nothing special.

Stepping into the center of a grass land, Izumi looked up to the sky with her arms crossed and released a deep sigh. The faint wind lightly nipped at her hair and it passed by; its flow playing with her. Today was another day for overcast skies and it appeared that it may rain soon. Due to this she felt maybe it would be a good idea to give up and try again later. But at the same time it was the treacherous elements which drew out the stronger and more daring individuals. So someone had to come out.

With her attention still held on the skies above and her arms still crossed before her, Izumi stood and stared into the darkening clouds with hope and anticipation. Her eyes deep in thought like that of a wise man and her three blades hitched to her back and sides to show her ferocity.

The weather today didn’t seem fairly nice; the wind was blowing up a storm, the rain was just finishing a storm and the clouds were mostly in the way of the sun’s brightness, preventing most people in the outside area from feeling the warmth of its rays. Regardless of the weather conditions however, Ayame was always prepared to go to her daily routine of training within Konoha’s very own training area so once she looked out at the sky from her bedroom balcony, clothed in her orange jacket, white T-shirt, orange pants black ninja shoes and of course, her weights, she had already decided that she would be heading towards the training grounds, but the problem was exactly what she would do once she got there.

Shrugging her shoulders, Ayame silently decided that she would simply wing it when the time comes. Keeping that in mind, Ayame shrugged off the uncertain thoughts she was having before she took hold of the grey backpack that held most of her training equipment, her ninja pouch that carried all of her basic shinobi weapons and last but certainly not the very least, her personal blade being that of Hana Keikoku. Checking all of her items to make sure that she was significantly prepared and not about to be forced to go all the way back to her house for things that she had forgotten like the past few times she went out training.

Once she was sure that she was completely prepared, Ayame went back to her balcony to look at the weather once more, determining what it was going to be like by the time she got home. Taking in some mental notes on the sky’s pattern, Ayame leaned on the railing of her balcony then reeled back a bit before pulling on it in order to give herself some momentum that will help her hop over it and land on the floor right before her front door.

After descending for a couple of seconds, Ayame landed on her feet, crouching down on her two hands as the pressure from the fall raised. Ayame stood up and brushed herself off after the pressure lowered again so. She would then make sure her equipment was once again secure, Ayame reached in her pocket and took out a music player, turning it on, putting on a good song to walk to, and then placing o her earphones as she started walking towards the fields where she would be able to throw in some good ol’ fashion training.

After a few minutes of walking, and just a little bit of dancing on the way, Ayame had finally caught sight of the training fields. By now, the heavy winds had finally decided to take a break and were just breezing a bit instead of throwing itself in Ayame’s face the entire time, making the process of her training that much easier. Taking a few more minutes until she was actually within the contents of the fields, Ayame took note of what seemed to be a strange woman with black hair just looking at the sky. Ayame could tell that she appeared to be a kunoichi of sorts but didn’t pay too much attention to her though as she walked right pass the woman, exchanging a quick “Hey.” As she continued on until she was about 10 meters from her. Before getting into her real training, Ayame would start her warm up by stretching her arms, bringing them far into the air in order to get those muscle lengthen and bring them down to the floor, touching her toes as she did so.
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Izumi stared up at the sky for quite some time before someone entered the training grounds. She could hear the woman approach, her footsteps revealing she had years of experience. This caused a spark of curiosity to kindle itself in Izumi's system; now the woman had her attention as she came even closer. She just barely glanced out of the corner of her eye as a darkened form loomed towards her. With the simple move of lowering her head and directing her full attention at the woman as she watched her walk by.

Body actions seemed to speak a lot in Izumi's eyes and as the woman made her way past Izumi as though she were hardly there, Izumi could not help but feel some resentment. Her superiority complex kicked in as she narrowed her eyes a tad. She could feel the anger, that someone was crossing her path, begin to rise in her system. The woman, whomever she may be, left a quick 'hey" before she began to move around. Was this her training grounds? Izumi had a feeling it may have been but didn't truly care. She despised the feeling that someone was trying to walk around as though they were better - even if they truly were.

With her hands soon placed on her hips and her head turned towards the woman, a sort of testy expression crossed Izumi's face. She was conjuring up what to say.

"Well hi," Izumi greeted back, some sarcasm in her voice. Her eyes gazed over the woman as she tried to take information about her. From her build and powerful appearing muscles, much like Izumi's, she caught on that the woman has trained for quite a long time. The footsteps matched the owner.

"Izumi Takeshi" Izumi said, breaking a few seconds pause, "and who might you be?"

After she was finished with the “touch your toes” stretching exercise, Ayame had decided to get into the stretch in which you simply rotate your upper body at a 45 degree angle while keeping your arms outstretched for some good old fashion upper body stretching. She went on with this exercise for only ten, maybe about 20 or so seconds of rotating her body with her arms outstretched, Ayame finally caught wind of a female voice that obviously belonged to the only other female here, that being the woman with the dark hair that she had just passed by earlier.

While she was still turned in a 45 degree angle, Ayame turned her head just a bit so she could take a look at the woman that had just greeted her back, her facial expression being that of a playful type of confusion, not really mocking the woman but at the same time, she wasn’t really taking her obvious form of hostility, subtle or not from the way Ayame was perceiving it, too seriously. She simply took it in the form of a friendly competitive tone, though she still wasn’t exactly sure what there was to be competitive about. Nevertheless, Ayame continued to let her playful curiosity sort of brush it off and not take offense to her because of that.

Given that she was given a name by the woman would went by “Izumi Takeshi” and was apparently formerly asked for her own name, Ayame felt compelled to give it to her. After ending the rotation stretch she was performing, Ayame would then start another stretch so she can work out her back because lord knows she needed to keep that part of her body smooth and flexible to keep it from causing much pain to her. So Ayame did just that as she turned her back towards the woman and stretched backwards, going all the way back until she had to put her hand on the ground to prevent her head from hitting it. This gave off the appearance that she was preparing for a back handspring though she stayed in that position so it was more like a crab like stance.

Ayame held onto this stance for about one minute before looking up at Izumi and formerly introducing herself. “Ayame Akira.” She would then propel herself backwards in order to perform the back handspring so she would be able to land on her feet, utilizing the graceful style of the back handsprings that most gymnastics uses so she would just lightly land on the ground. Ayame brushed herself off before turning back around to face the woman that had just greeted her and held out a hand in order to imply that she wanted to shake hands, a subtle smile appearing on her face. “Nice to meet you.”

A flare of resentment sprouted in the darkest depths of Izumi's eyes while she sized up her opponent. Her hands tensed as they gripped her sides; her fingers pooling at her black pants and creating some wrinkles. Due to the fact her pants were open at her sides she was lightly pressing her hands against her skin as well. This created a faint redness. The tension, which would hardly appear to the woman due to Izumi's calm and confidence stature, would soon grow a bit more intense when Ayame back flipped towards her. Already it was obvious that she was good at Taijutsu due to the way her body moved.

She carried herself with pride and moved with a grace that most desired; much like Izumi. The two would fight with different rhythm of course but both could equal possess that grace and beat.

"Sorry to be rude" Izumi said as Ayame extended her hand, "but I prefer saving hand shakes until after the fight is over."

A partial smirk then crossed Izumi's face as her eyebrow twirked up a tad. "if of course you take me up on my offer."

Izumi stared into Ayame's eyes as though she were peering into her soul. She was trying to keep her eyes distracted from her right hand. It slipped itself into her pouch before a smile crossed her face. Izumi then began to speak again to keep her attention from below.

"Considering we're both high ranking ninja we won't have to worry too much on going easy, am I right?"

A sort of smirk replaced the playful competitive smile as her right hand wrapped around a kunai. When Izumi would see Ayame make the first hostile twitch then she would be prepared to dodge or parry with the kunai in her pocket. If Ayame distanced herself then she would be ready to attack. All in all, Izumi's eyes were set on her target and now she was ready to deliver. Her main intention, of course, to win.



OOC: Sorry, I know my posts are still lame. I think I lack detail or something. Fill free to PM your opinions because I need heavy criticism :/

Right after Izumi had stated that she would rather shake hands after a battle, Ayame blinked, simultaneously changing her expression back to that of a curious and slightly confused expression, except this time it was a bit less playful and quite a bit more thoughtful. This expression was formed due to the fact that her statement caused Ayame to wonder just exactly what she was talking about, though she did have a general idea using nothing but her natural common sense. Apparently, it would seem as if this one wanted to fight with her, but exactly why would she want that? Was it simply for friendly competition, boredom, etc.? Though that’s usually the reason someone would want to fight someone within these parts but she still couldn’t shake off that feeling of resentment that was pouring out of Izumi’s basic essence. Was she resentful towards Ayame? But why, Ayame was sure she had never met this woman before in her life so why would she feel resentment towards her already?

Ayame withdrew her hand after contemplating all of this, eventually letting it brush off her shoulders as she shook her wrist a little bit. She should have been used to it by now anyways. In her recent four years or so, Ayame was able to feel at least a bit of negativity towards her from a majority of the females that have laid eyes upon her, a trait that Ayame identified as jealousy because of mostly her looks, talent and overwhelming bank account. These characteristics of hers were not very important to her so she wasn’t the type to flaunt them in the face of everyone she sees but she could only do so much when she had to buy something, fight someone, or just simply go outside with anything short of a XXXL size hooded robe to completely cover her entire face and figure, especially these oversized breast that just magically grew to an alarming rate over the course of these four years.

Nevertheless, resentment due to jealousy was a part of her everyday life and she was forced to embrace it whether she wanted to or not. Plus, Ayame was never the type to back down from a challenge so this might actually prove to be quite a bit of fun for the blonde kunoichi. When the woman by the same of Izumi started staring Ayame down the eyes, the Energetic Enigma couldn’t help but return the favor, though throwing a bit more of a lazy look in her face than her new combatant but she stared her right back down nonetheless. “I’ll be glad to take you up on your offer.”

"Considering we're both high ranking ninja we won't have to worry too much on going easy, am I right?" “… Huh? Oh, I’m sorry; I was a bit distracted by your right shoulder moving so much while you take a weapon out. Lemme guess, kunai knife, right? Well, you seem to be in a bit of a rush to start this then” Ayame was still staring down the kunoichi’s eyes, but being so close to her shoulders, her peripheral vision couldn’t help but catch Izumi’s shoulder raise, a movement usually associated by entering ones shinobi pouch, usually starting a match with a kunai.

This proved to be quite interesting though as it would seem Izumi was a bit excited to begin this fight, marking her in Ayame’s books to not be the slow, overly strategic types like her former Uchiha teammate was. Fast and exciting, that was the kind of matches Ayame liked; it was now time to see what this kunoichi was made of so she wasn’t going to take things too slowly, but she still wanted to feel Izumi out a bit so she would let her make the first move for now. “Since you’re in such a hurry though, c’mon…” Taking a hop about three meters away from Izumi, Ayame held her ground while she simply stood there, waiting for a move. “…attack.” There was nothing more that Ayame wanted rather than to fight someone of a higher rank than most of the Konoha villagers, this should really get her blood pumping instead of just some boring old training.

She had to admit it was rather obvious about what Izumi was doing and her eye deceiving tricks weren't working. This was a good sign though. This meant that her opponent had a keen eye and was rather observant unlike the type whom don't seem to care and thus lose their focus. Yet another sign of a talented shinobi. This caused a pleased smile to cross her face for a split few seconds before her emotions faded all together. She was settling into her fighting mode just before Ayame requested her to come on. She then made her first mistake.

The second Ayame said "c'mon" and prepared to move a switch flicked in Izumi's mind. Ayame agreed to fight and now it was battle time. Seeing as how she was making a motion to leap back, Izumi followed Ayame's movements by drawing out the kunai with a twisted smile on her face. Her head was down and thus her eyes were darkened slightly. Ayame was mid flight when suddenly Izumi launched the kunai towards Ayame's stomach; two other shadows peeling off from her hand and aiming towards her right and left sides.

With the kunai launched and Izumi slipped into a stance which would allow her easy access to dodge, aka she was being light on her feet, Izumi prepared her second move by forming hand signs and beginning to generate chakra for her next attack. Izumi planned to win this whether she was necessarily fighting fair or not. Win, win, win, win - that was all that was repeating in her subconscious aside from her planing out what move she would do next based on Ayame's reactions.

The moment Ayame had took it upon herself to create some respectable distance between her and her new advisory, she started to sense movement coming from Izumi once again. To be perfectly honest, this was a little bit surprising for Ayame though then again, not all that much. Given the fact that she was simply trying to set the tone for a fight and was not preparing to attack or defend, Ayame felt a bit surprised that Izumi would actually go there knowing full well that Ayame had not even begun to set up a guard, much less actively defend herself over surprise attacks.

The part that made it not so surprising is that she had dealt with shinobi like this before, taking any opportunity to poke holes at the opponent’s defense, especially if they let their guard down, but that seemed to be more so a move of desperation rather than an opening move. Nevertheless, Ayame was feeling quite irritated from this by reflex alone, the speed of the attack not allowing her to think too much on the true morality level of this action but more so just gave her time to immediately react with her instinctive code of ethics, and this type of maneuver was not abiding by this code at all.

Instinctively growing a bit of irritation on the spot, Ayame, despite not having her guard initially up, would still quickly parry the blow of the kunai. She did this simply by bringing her right hand close to her abdomen so that her wrist was in the way of the kunai. Some might consider this a risky move, letting the kunai stab the wrist instead of the abdomen was clearly a better trade but there could have been better sacrifices than your whole wrist. But alas, Ayame’s wrist was definitely the best choice for this due to the sixty seven pound metal bars attached to her right wrist, which would cause the kunai to deflect from it.

The kunai knife would then spin in the right direction of Ayame due to the momentum of her pull going against the impact of the blade. Ayame would then catch the spinning midair kunai with her right hand and immediately propel it back towards that of its original owner, aiming right below her right collarbone. Given the combined time it would take for the kunai to reach Ayame, her to move about three inches to parry it then immediately throw it after touching it, Izumi would have to choose between finishing her handsigns or moving out of the way, though the latter might be a bit difficult because during her motioning in order to throw a kunai, she decided to add some spice to the situation by blowing a wind fist in that direction and given their just in range proximity and her current stance, the only way to keep herself from losing her balance would be to hold her ground, which would make dodging the kunai increasingly difficult so this should prove to be a big issue for Izumi if she didn’t think of something quick. Keeping her left hand close to her ninja pouch while actually being on gaurd this time, Ayame awaited the next move.

Jutsu Used:

Izumi had began to prepare her next move not even a second after the kunai had escaped her grasp. Meanwhile, she began to hold her ground even though she was still prepared to make her move. With the kunai making its way towards Ayame and Izumi working her hand signs; she would have an upperhand at finishing off her next attack. Hearing the sound of metal hitting metal only made Izumi want to smile. Her next attack would seem to cause more damage than she thought; seeing as how metal easily conducts.

When Ayame deflected the kunai, it soon spun up in range of Ayame for her to grab the tool. This was when Izumi's second attack unleashed in the form of what appeared to be fifteen small boomerangs. These boomerangs, which act much like honing devices, would appear above Izumi as they aimed towards Ayame. By then the kunai would be coming back as well but at least now Izumi had the chance to move due to her jutsu being finished. Her chakra control would allow her to continue forming her technique while she timed the kunai.

When it drew near she would move her arm up, one of her skills making it appear she had not moved, and would thus aim to hit the tip of the blade with the top of her hand. The black gloves around her hand would offer some protection against the blade while the force of her attack would knock the kunai off course and cast it away. She would then accept the air blast as she squinted - making sure to keep her attention on Ayame; even if it were hard.

By the time the kunai would near her though, the fifteen electrical birds would be making their way towards Ayame. First they would plan their assault as they swarmed around her and flew in circles from her feet to just above her head. Each seemed to have their own set path as they flew around before suddenly one would curve in towards her and try to hit her right back flank. The moment one moved another would soon follow and try to hit her left shoulder. Each would continue to do this until all had hit their target.

Now getting back to Izumi. Seeing as how she accepted the blast, thus placing her at at least four meters since she stood her ground and slid, she would then have more room to prepare yet another move. Her hands would already begin to form hand seals. Unless, of course, Ayame had other ideas. Overall, she was just watchful and preparing for what may happen next.

Spoiler:

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