Ways to train (Meushi, Shikaniku)

[Yanagi]

Yanagi sank to the ground with her back against a much-abused training dummy that was little more than a cloth-shrouded log with a rough kunai-carved face. It was looking even more dejected than normal, having just been battered within an inch of its artificial life by the Konoha Chuunin for the past hour.

Said chuunin sighed, her breathing rate already returning to normal as she cast about for some new way to train, as if one would miraculously pop up out of nowhere. Predictably, this didn’t happen, leaving Yanagi with the option of following her boring old regime or going home.

Since the latter wasn’t going to stop her from getting killed on missions, the dark-haired kunoichi stood and strode to the centre of a large clearing, hopefully out of the way of anything flammable. She may as well practice her jutsu and hand signs while she was here. The last time she’d been on a mission, she’d become involved in a fight and had nearly lost when her seals weren’t fast enough. Though she’d eventually beat the ninja and had succeeded in her mission, she wasn’t keen on a repeat of that episode, and so Yanagi had been training to make herself faster.

Settling on a technique, and deciding to refine her chakra control as well on the spur of the moment, Yanagi flew through the six seals fast enough for her hands to blur, a giant fireball issuing from her mouth as she exhaled.
Well, the chakra control was good – she just needed to get a little faster.
Musing vaguely that she should have brought another bottle of water, Yanagi continued to produce fireballs of varying size as she pushed her arms to get faster.

[Yamanaka Meushi]

"Why are you even bothing with this? You don't even have a team."

Shikaniku was laying on the ground was leaning against a tree. Inoko had dragged him out on another training day, but he saw no reason why. Neither of them were officially on a team, which meant they had no chance of going on a mission. This would be their last little era of free team, till the bureacracy realized they were skipped over. Then it would be all training and missions from then on.

Inoko, meanwhile, was busy attacking a tree with some basic taijutsu. It was one of her weak spots. The Yamanaka were known more for their long-range attacks and Mind Body Change technique then their hand-to-hand combat. Sure, she'd never reach the levels of people like the Hyuuga, but being able to survive for a little bit would be a good thing. She stopped when Shika started talking, however, as her hands were getting a bit sore.

"Hey, maybe you should be doing some training instead of loafing around. Might do you some good," she replied, sticking her tongue out at the Nara boy.

"Whatever," he said as he stood up and stretched himself. He always wondered why this girl dragged him around if she always acted so rude. Probably because the fact he doesn't express an interest in her drives her mad. She was always a bit too concerned about her social life in his view.

She was going to say something, but a nearby blast of fire drew their attention. Was someone practicing their techniques, or was there more going on.

"I'm going over to take a look. You coming?" Inoko questioned, giving Shika a glare as she finished. To put it simple, she wasn't giving him much of a choice.

"Fine, but if its enemy ninja, I'm getting out of there."

"Deal."

The two of them quietly made their way towards the source of the fire, making sure to stay clear of their blast radius. They wanted to investigate, not get blown up.

[Yanagi]

‘Katon, Gôkakyu no jutsu’
A torrent of blazing orange and yellow poured from her mouth into a roiling sphere half the height of some of the giant trees surrounding Yanagi.
She narrowed her eyes to protect them from errant sparks, her hair whipping about her face in the violent disturbance in the air generated by her jutsu.

As she let loose the stream of flames, she wished the trees weren’t quite so close and so easy to set alight. She wanted to test just how much area her attack could cover, without having to worry about destroying the nearby landscape.
As the last trails of embers and smoke faded away from her dry mouth, Yanagi sensed two chakra signatures nearby.
Curious, she glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the chakra, mentally assessing what else was in that direction. Only more training fields, right up until you reached the village.

Yanagi shrugged. It’d just be some others coming to train, nothing to worry about. Still, they were being rather quiet...
An old memory hit her, from a time when her genin team had tried – unsuccessfully – to sneak up on their Jounin instructor. They’d ended up running ten laps of the village. When you’re ten, carrying heavy packs and it’s the middle of summer; those few laps were not fun. None of them could move the next day.

“I know you’re there. Come on out,” She called to the screen of trees and bushes, her voice open and friendly, but slightly scratchy from the fire. Though she doubted anyone was intentionally sneaking up on her, she figured she may as well be nicer than her sensei was no matter their intentions, providing they weren’t hostile.

She turned to face the chakra, so that her headband could be clearly seen. If it was anyone from Konoha, they’d know not to worry. And if they weren’t...well, Yanagi would just follow them, whether her chakra was getting low or not.

[Nara Shikaniku]

((I apologize for the delay in posting. Also, Inoko's profile has been revamped, and name changed to Meushi for future reference.))
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The two of them froze up when they heard the women call out to them. Obviously they had been seen, so they couldn't really run away from her. Still, they had no clue who she was, and so this still could have been a really dangerous thing to do. From the looks of the flames she was creating, she was probably a higher ranked ninja then them as well. About the only thing that could be going for them if something happened was she was wasting chakra through the use of the jutsu.

"Sure we can't just walk away now?" Shikaniku asked his female companion.

"Of course we can't run now, she's seen us already. Besides, I think she has a Konoha headband," she replied.

The Nara had missed that detail, and squinted his eyes as he focused on the metallic plate. Apparently the Yamanaka had better eyes than him, because she had noticed the familiar symbol of the leaf village on her forehead before him. He breathed a sigh of relief, glad that this wasn't some foreign ninja planning on doing evil and painful things to them.
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Meushi waited for the boy to respond, but apparently he dazed out a little looking at the headband. Seeing as the woman was not a threat to them, she didn't see why he was still hesitant about just speaking to her. The boy needed to learn to socialize a little more and look at clouds less. She, on the other hand, didn't have that problem.

Deciding to take the initiative, she went ahead and left him behind. She walked out of the woods were they were hiding and walked straight up to the woman, a 'shy' smile on her face. If she was too bold it would put her off, so she had to act a little nervous if she wanted to get this right.

"Oh, we're sorry for spying on you like that. My friend and I were training in the nearby woods when we noticed the fire. We were a bit concerned so we came to check it out. Good thing you're from Konoha, huh?"

She gave a bit of a small laugh to help break any tension that may have existed before continuing.

"Anyways, I'm Yamanak Meushi, and my friend," she pointed towards the woods, "is a Nara. He'll be here in a moment after he's out of his daze."
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"Alright then, I guess we should,huh?"

Looking around, Shikaniku found that Meushi had already ran off, and was already introducing herself to the woman. Apparently he zoned out longer than he thought, or she was just really fast. Either way, it was annoying. They still could have just quickly apologized and ran off, but her actions meant that he'd have to talk to the woman eventually.

Or he could still make a run for it, but his fear of facing Meushi's wrath for doing so compelled him to walk forward instead. He kept rather silent, and his look just screamed "I don't want to be here."

"Yo, I'm Nara Shikaniku."

[Yanagi]

Yanagi turned her head a fraction to focus on the blonde girl that emerged from the bushes, a questioning look on her face.
This slid into an easy, slightly mischievous grin at the girl’s first words.
“Oh, so you were spying on me,” She said hand on hip as she laughed. “Don’t worry about it; I’m not surprised you were curious. Though you may want to learn how to suppress your chakra more effectively – if I had been an enemy, you two would be in trouble right now,” Yanagi continued, nodding first to Meushi, then to the bushes where the Nara was still concealed.

She nodded again and waved when the boy stepped out to join his friend, introducing himself as Shikaniku.
“I’m Fuyu Yanagi, nice to meet you both,” Yanagi replied, the hint of her smile still lingering at the corners of her mouth.
“So, what were the two of you training? As you probably guessed, I’m here for the same thing. I could give you guys a hand if you like,” She offered, shrugging to show she didn’t mind either way. She was getting bored training on her own, and practicing with anyone, no matter what their rank was, would be better than scorching her throat and beating up dummies all day. Besides, if the pair of them attacked together, they could give her a fair fight.

Yanagi had heard of the Yamanaka and Nara families, and had heard from others how well they worked together; though she’d never seen any of them fight with her own eyes. These two, should they take her up on her offer, should give her an idea of their clans abilities. At the very least, she’d be able to see why the two families worked so effectively with each other.

[OOC: Sorry, short post. My muse is a bit low lately...]