Practice makes Perfect (Izumi/Invite)

The Konoha training grounds had become like a second home to Izumi. Unlike most of the larger clans, the Shimura had no designated district within the village. With no place else to train, Izumi made constant visits to the village's three training grounds. She knew all the strong, towering trees, the soft grass, both tall and short, and the sparse brown patches of dirt spread all over.

She trained interchangeably between all three grounds depending on what she wanted to work on that particular day. The training dummies made for good practice with delivering forceful kicks and punches, as well as target practice on a human shaped target. She'd practice knife throwing on the trees in the other training grounds as well, but that was less about deadly aim and more about hitting long distance targets while in motion. The smaller clearing allowed her to practice basic Taijutsu motions and movements with a close combat focus. She could maneuver in the same small area as though dancing with or around an imaginary opponent. The largest clearing, then, was good for her to practice closing long distances and fighting imaginary range-focused opponents.

Every day, Izumi cycled between her training regimens. She had five of them, with six being cardio focused and seven her one day off. This made a full week that she could easily repeat over and over again. She noticed improvement every time she trained. The only problem is that she hardly ever had anyone to spar with. So when she went to the large, open-spaced training grounds that one day, she got super excited to see someone else there.

It was a girl just like Izumi. She looked older and way more stylish. The dress, the bow, the gloves and mesh shirt; it all made Izumi suddenly insecure about her own look. All she had was a simple hair tie holding her dull brown locks up in the back so that it stayed out of her face and looked cute yet contained. The rest of her was covered by a long-sleeved pink overcoat that came down to her mid-thighs. It just barely covered short skirt she wore under it and it's high collar made sure nobody could see the white button up she had underneath. She was very prepared for the cold weather even though most of her legs were uncovered. They hardly ever got cold, so that was okay.

Izumi stopped at the edge of the clearing and eyed Kanna with a gleeful expression. She was so ecstatic to finally have someone to train with! It hadn't even occurred to her that the older girl might say no. Izumi stepped out onto the field with her closed-toed shoes and waved one her fingerlessly gloved hands.

"Hiya!" She called out. She started to run and jump in when it occurred to her that it would be impolite to do so without first asking.

"Um, hey, do you," Izumi started, shyly, "do you maybe want to train with me?" Her face turned beet red, her eyes looked everywhere but at Kanna, her hands were awkwardly folding each other and she had a toe digging circles in the ground. "Please?" She asked nervously.

Izumi only got more red and more jealous the more Kanna talked. How did she sound so calm, talking to a person she had never met? Izumi always got super nervous and couldn't make out complete sentences, never mind turning red and fidgeting. Plus, Kamna was soooooooo stylish! As the older girl moved around, stretching, Izumi saw more of her outfit and how well it went together. There were so many pieces! All Izumi had was a pink coat and some gloves.

She snapped out of her daze with a blink and a blank stare. "Uhhh..." she tried to remember what Kanna had even said.

"I'm Izumi!" She finally replied. She started to do some stretching of her own, mostly just arms and legs. Her morning workout left the rest of her pretty flexible and well stretched. Even what she was doing then was basically just habit. "I'm best at Taijutsu, yeah. I'm trying to learn the other stuff but Taijutsu is my favorite!"

"How about you, Kanna? What's your favorite skill?"

'She's so cool!' thought Izumi. This girl could do pretty much everything and Izumi bet she was super skilled in all of it.

"I'm pretty good at Ninjutsu and I'm working on my Genjutsu, but Taijutsu is definitely my best!" She said while she finished up her stretching.

Izumi wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. It was chilly enough outside for a sweater, but since she'd been practicing most of the morning already, her body was warmed up. The sweat didn't bother her. All it meant was that she was accomplishing something and as long as she was accomplishing something, her day had been well spent. Now that she was getting to practice with a cooler, older girl, her day was about to be super productive!

"Should we spar? Or how would you like to practice?"

Izumi thought about the question Kanna posed to her. Now that she thought about it, she realized that she didn't know very manit techniques. She didn't ever really need to. Back in the academy, her physical training and her general sense of hand to hand fighting won most of her fights. She'd heard of styles and taijutsu techniques, she just never really needed them. Now that she was out in the ninja world, she'd definitely need some and the more the better. It sucked that she'd be starting at ground zero.

"Um, I don't really know any techniques. Aaaaand I don't have any elements, either." She started to turn red from the embarrassment of being such a noob. Remembering what Kanna said about being nervous in training, Izumi turned her head so that maybe Kanna wouldn't notice.

Izumi watched Kanna perform the basic functions of the Strong Fist. It started with a stance. Izumi had seen people fight with stances before but she never really understood why. The ability of a fighter was in their body, so what good did it do to get yourself in a fancy pose before doing what you were going to do anyway? It looked like a waste of time to her. That's why she never bothered to try and learn them before now.

When she watched Kanna move through her punch, she was astounded by the speed of it all. Kanna was super fast! Izumi wouldn't have been able to get around the fist, but luckily for her, Kanna stopped just in time. Izumi still attributed all of this to Kanna's own natural physical ability. Once Kanna went in for the second punch without making her fancy pose, she could tell it was quite a bit slower. Izumi doubted that Kanna was pulling her punch to make a point. That meant that there was more power in using specific styles and stances, which meant Izumi could do even more to improving her ability beyond her normal body training routine! She had to learn this.

Izumi nodded to Kanna and put her body in a similar position to the one Kanna had used. It felt awkward to her. She would normally just stand there and move her arms and legs as she needed to, so holding them in this one particular way wasn't very natural to her. She could feel a difference in balance, though. After getting comfortable standing like that, she tried to throw a punch. It was far from being as fast as Kanna's, but it was a bit better than her usual punching.

"Like that?" Asked Izumi after throwing a punch and stopping it a few inches short of Kanna's chest. She wasn't as skilled as her teacher and she knew it, so she wasn't about to even try to stop her punch as close as Kanna did to her.

"Hm." Izumi pondered. Everybody knew kicks and this looked just like any old regular kick. The difference was how the kick was performed. That's how Kanna could move faster and stronger than she normally could. So if it wasn't about the action, then she'd have to ignore the kick and try to focus on the pose Kanna made when doing it.

Izumi thought on it a little more. She pictured Kanna repeating the kick over and over again in her mind and then decided to give it a try. Since Kanna stepped to the side, Izumi was able to stand exactly where her teacher had and go through the motions just the same.

Izumi got to a jogging start and then jumped into the air. She assumed the same pose Kanna had done while in the air and positioned her foot just so. The speed she had built up while running made it so that she had enough time to get her body adjusted and still impact the tree with pretty stout force. She was sure it wasn't as hard as Kanna could do, but it was pretty good by Izumi's standards.

Izumi settled her balance and faced Kanna. "Well? How'd I do?"