Progression (Nariko)

He was taking a break.

From training, not from his career, the afternoon sun beat down on him in the training field and he rested under a rock outcropping in the training ground that protected him from the worst of the sun’s rays. His usual attire was with him, although not all of it was on him at the moment as he had taken off the hat, shirt and vest in order to keep himself cool as he trained. As such his upper body was bare. He was well muscled but not overly so, which he knew would give others an accurate gauge of his physical strength level. He was pale but not sickly, in all actuality he had a rather healthy complexion and a bead of sweat or two could be seen as he breathed with a bit more effort than usual.

He had been here for hours, working on adding more techniques to his repertoire and he needed a few minutes to let his chakra reserves restore themselves. So he was drinking water in the shade, his shirt, vest, hat, and cloak hanging on another part of the outcropping. He had a few more water bottles with him if he needed it, and of course his flask. While he would never go so far as to say that he was a heavy drinker or anything, he did enjoy it from time to time. Nothing excessive, just a buzz. He did however keep a flask with him because one never knew when one would learn something that made them need a ‘real’ drink to help prepare themselves to take care of it. His preferred drink of choice was a strong whiskey and he had his flask full of it. For drinking it instead of water would be rather stupid by anyones measure.

It was attached firmly to his belt though, so maybe that would be a good indication of how close he wanted it if he needed it. Maybe he needed to re-evaluate his habit after all. However today was not the day. He sipped at his water bottle, feeling his chakra levels rise bit by bit during his break before nodding his head in satisfaction, knocking back the last of the water in the bottle and standing up. Time to get back to work then.

Moving away from the outcropping he would roll his neck a bit, using one hand to apply pressure against the roll. Small little cracks and pops could be heard as he released built up tension and he would stop about twenty meters from the outcropping and focus. This next jutsu was B rank and was referred to as the ‘Lightning Rat Violent Quake’. He knew what it was supposed to do and he was working on completing the technique and adding it to his arsenal. He was very much a one trick pony at the moment, however if that was what he was then he would do everything in his power to make sure that it was one hell of a trick.

In order to utilize the technique and memorize how the chakra flowed through him for it he would generally try it with hand seals first. Then he could always perform the lightning technique in question without afterwards. It was incredibly useful and could catch people off guard rather abruptly. Something that he was rather happy he had up his sleeve if he needed it. So Tamwyn would first perform the jutsu’s hand seals normally. ‘Monkey, Ox, Boar, Tiger, Rat, Dog.’ He would think as he performed the jutsu rather slowly before launching the technique out. Multiple discs of lightning fired out from a discharge of raiton that coalesced before him. Fifteen discs to be precise and the lethal projectiles were flung outward at high speed with some cutting clean through other outcroppings and boulders. He had a bit of minor control over them as they flew, but it was slow and not really worth trying at that stage. Still the jutsu had been successfully completed.

“Now for the fun part.” He would say to himself before forming the chakra and immediately utilize the technique again, only this time with absolutely no use of a hand seal. As a matter of fact, he placed his hands in his pockets as he performed the jutsu. The lightning once again discharged before him and formed fifteen electrical discs and he sent them off once more. They retained the same speed, lethality, and appearance as they cut clean through rock and stone. The blonde haired man would nod in satisfaction before preparing to move to the next jutsu on the list.

Jutsu Learned:

It had been a long time since Nariko was able to just go out and be a normal person. She'd been the Raikage for a long time, and for most of that time, she was behind a desk or overseeing something important. Now that she was a Jounin (commander, but still a Jounin), she was able to walk around with a bit more freedom. Of course, she was a little bit more rusty now, considering she hadn't fought a lot recently, focusing more on home defense, so she made her way to the training grounds in her Jounin outfit.

That in and of itself wasn't any different than what she normally wore, but there was no Raikage robe or hat like there used to be. It was a simple one shouldered flak jacket and a dark jumpsuit. She was functionally indistinguishable from the average jounin. Now, that wasn't to say she wasn't a known face, almost everyone knew who she was. It was difficult to not know the face of the former Raikage.

It's with the thought of shaking off some of that rust that she found herself at the Training Grounds. Keeping an eye out for a suitable training partner, Nariko watched several of the people there, and only one really stood out to her. One of the benefits of her job from before had been that she knew most of the shinobi under the employ of Kumogakure at least by picture and name. She hadn't memorized everyone's files, but she knew names and ranks at least.

Tamwyn was practicing some lightning jutsu, and Nariko found herself being at least a little impressed. She knew he was still a genin, but he was performing a decently difficult jutsu. And then it was a repeat of the same jutsu, but this time without a hand seal. Nariko was extremely impressed. It was rare that people could use jutsu without hand seals. That demonstrated a high level of chakra control. She clapped her hands and approached, having been watching from a distance.

"Impressive, impressive. Where'd you learn to do that little trick?" she asked, folding her arms. Sizing the genin up, she got a decent measure of his physical ability, and while he wasn't a complete beefcake, he certainly looked like someone with quite a deal of strength behind him. Definitely athletic, probably also focused on physicality.

The sound of clapping hands would draw his attention away from his considerations of his next jutsu and his yellow eyes, still brilliantly glowing from the dregs of raiton chakra within his system would fall upon none other than Nariko Mizushima. A smile in greeting and a polite bow to a lady would be his physical response before speaking. "Good afternoon Nariko-senpai" He would say, his greeting polite, but lacking any of the forms of address one might associate with the Raikage. While some might still refer to her as 'Nariko-sama' out of respect for all she'd done for the village. Tamwyn thought that perhaps all of the 'Lady Nariko's' and 'Nariko-sama's' probably got a bit grating after multiple years in office. So the pale haired genin opted for a more casual, if no less respectful honorific that acknowledged her experience and seniority, just hopefully without the weight of 'sama' and 'Lady'.

Still, the fact that she had noticed him and picked him out of the folks in the training grounds as someone who might be worth approaching was something he recognized. It was a tremendous personal compliment to the genin and he felt a surge of pride at it, even if it may have not been intended. Her verbal regard of his ability to do lightning techniques without hand seals cemented that feeling of pride however. "It's something I've always been able to do. I can utilize any lightning jutsu without the use of seals. They're also more efficient on my reserves too. I haven't picked up any other elements yet though. So all I can do are a few lightning jutsu and some taijutsu." He would say, the last a bit deprecatingly. It was absolutely nothing against Lightning jutsu and taijutsu, he loved using them and found them effective. However it did leave glaring weaknesses in his overall skill set that he very much wanted to try to shore up.

His demeanor as he spoke was confident, but acknowledging of the limitations of his current capabilities. He was still at that moment very much a genin and while his 'little trick' was something that could be built upon to catapult him into legend. At that precise moment it was very much unrefined. Such refinement would be found in the learning and mastery of many more lightning techniques and an increasing in his physical capabilities so that he could follow them up with brutal taijutsu capabilities. However he neither had the jutsu repertoire nor the physical capabilities yet. Still though, if someone took his best shot head on, they'd know they'd been 'kissed'. "My best techniques are probably my personal ones at this precise moment. Most of them are Taijutsu related, a personal style, and a couple of combinations. Another is an augment for my taijutsu that'll let my fire bolts of lightning as I strike, and the fifth is something quite a bit more flashy than any of that." He would say, the last part a bit sheepishly. Flashy jutsu weren't always great, but despite his age he was still an inexperienced shinobi at that moment overall. His childlike awe at visually stunning techniques hadn't quite yet fully been diminished.

Still, Xuen's Roar was a hell of a punch for most people and he was rather proud that he had created and mastered it on his own without any assistance. He recognized the difficulty of it himself, even if he wasn't particularly vocal about it. If he could just harness and use that talent fully then his dream of becoming a world wide legend wasn't quite so far out of reach. Perhaps Nariko could help? He wouldn't want to impose himself upon her or anything, but he had come to the training grounds for a reason right? Maybe they could trade jutsu or something? If she liked his personal lightning ones enough anyway. Besides, what was the harm in asking. If she said no he'd be right where he was then, plus a bit of embarrassment and that wasn't going to hurt him. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in seeing any of those techniques by chance? If you'd be interested, maybe we could trade? I want to try to learn every lightning technique in the world. So far I only know my personal ones, the D rank Signal Flare technique, and the one you just saw me use. So any you know that I don't would be more than welcome." He would say, his offer on the table now. The only question now would be what she would say in return? Was he talking too much though? He realized he was a bit nervous, he was still a genin talking to the former Raikage and he, like any other in his position, would want to make a good impression. His hand inched toward his flask instinctively and he stopped it quickly, now wasn't the time.

Would she laugh at his offer and reject it? Probably not, she had never been that rude as Raikage or he would've heard something somewhere. No, if she refused there would be a perfectly logical reason behind it, and he would accept that. Still, that wouldn't mean the day was a wash. She could want to spar and that would certainly help him get his physical capabilities up, anything that she might be interested in doing with him would probably help him in some way.

Nariko smiled at the 'senpai' comment. It was definitely nice to not hear "lady" or "sama" or anything like that. She just enjoyed being addressed like anyone else. Sometimes it was the small little things that really could make someone's day a little better, and to her, that meant a lot. Even now, plenty of people still used high honorifics.

Tamwyn revealed that he was just naturally gifted at sealless Raiton, and also used Taijutsu. Nariko knew from her experience with one handed seals how useful that sort of thing was, but this boy had the potential to take that to its utmost.

"Ah, all of my techniques are very basic techniques that anyone can learn, or they're high level techniques that aren't often just taught to genin. As a teacher, I'm not really the best example, I'm just a walking encyclopedia of the normal library techniques. I'm not very inventive with new techniques, honestly. Although, you're a Raiton specialist.... I could give your Raiton a bit of an, uh... boost so to speak."

Ryuko probably wouldn't be too mad at her if she put a Black Raiton seal on this guy, would she? Even if she was, Nariko probably could deal with whatever she decided to do. A raiton specialist should have something to amp up their Raiton so that they could bring it to its utmost. Besides, she had to admit, she was curious to see what sort of techniques he'd developed. That sort of initiative was pretty interesting.

"Tell you what. Give me a demonstration of your abilities, and if I'm suitably impressed, I'll mark you with a Black Raiton fuuinjutsu." Of course, she was the type to do things hands on, so she dropped into a casual battle stance. She wasn't going to use any of her super high level things if she didn't need to, so it should be pretty fair. Without LRA active, there wasn't that much special about Nariko to set her apart from other Jounin besides the fact that she had fairly large reserves of chakra, was incredibly intelligent and used things in a way that most wouldn't think to.

She began analyzing Tamwyn, to see how he moved, what he was like as a combatant, if he was shy or not, basically all the small things.

-analyzing Tamwyn post 1

Her smile at his choice of suffix proved that he had indeed been correct in his choice. That was good to know and it showed that she preferred things to be more casual as well. Which was good, since he was hardly in proper uniform at the moment given the necessity of his training without a shirt on, lest he fry the thing into nonexistence. At his offer of a technique swap she would more or less decline, stating that she herself didn't have any personal techniques and that he techniques were either basic ones that anyone could learn. Or high level ones that a genin current learn. The latter caused Tamwyn to involuntarily grin. Provided techniques like that were unable to be learned by a genin because they didn't have the capability to do so normally. Tamwyn could probably surprise her. If they were restricted to higher ranks though than he would simply have to be patient. Still, perhaps he could prove to her somehow that he could handle them. In response to her answer however he would nod understandingly. "That's fair enough." He would say, a small smile and shrug as if to say 'Oh well' being done at the same time as he spoke.

Did wanting to prove one could handle high level techniques automatically mean one couldn't handle the responsibility they could require? Did it mean one wasn't mentally prepared? He didn't think so, he wanted to help the village as much as possible. While also growing his own legend as large as he possibly could. He wanted to be known throughout the world as the greatest user of lightning in it. Perhaps if he could prove himself to Nariko here she would help him in that goal.

Sure enough, she gave him a challenge, it equated to 'spar with me, impress me, and I'll give you something good.' Which Tamwyn was readily willing to accept. Dropping into the stance for his Ambush of Xuen, the pale haired genin would take in a calm breath. "Taijutsu only? Or are you 'really' wanting me to show off?" He would ask, a raised eyebrow in curiosity. It was important to know, otherwise he wouldn't use Xuen's Roar, or Xuen's Wrath. The former was essentially the firing of a large saber toothed tiger head from around him that launched forward with arcing bolts of lightning off it's form. The sound of the technique was akin to the roar of the beast itself as it hurtled toward an opponent, frying those who came too close to it's form. The latter was an augmentation to his own Taijutsu, which allowed him to fire bolts of lightning off of his appendages that would launch forward at high speed and electrocute those who were unfortunate enough to come into contact with it.

He began to analyze Nariko, her stance, her movements, how she fought. It took time for him to do such things and he was hoping that when he had done so enough he could use the insight such analysis gave him to surprise her.

Jutsu:

After he asked his question, and before she would have a moment to respond. An avian's cry would echo throughout the training ground. Up and down it people would stop and looking up to the messenger bird traveling downward in a lazy spiral, letting itself slow down. As it reached head level, on Tamwyn anyway, it would angle toward him and he would instinctively raise an arm to give it a perch. The bird would land and the genin would notice the small scroll attached to it's leg. Which he was expecting regardless. Birds didn't randomly go land on peoples arms generally. Removing the scroll he'd lift his arm up sharply, giving the bird a better angle to jump off from and send it on it's way.

Opening the scroll, Tamwyn would take a few seconds to read it before frowning in disappointment. Turning toward Nariko he would say and offer a bow of apology. "It seems I'll need to take a rain check Nariko-Senpai. I have been called for a mission." He would say, a small frown on his features. He was excited for that spar, and he'd wanted to try to impress the woman. Even if she hadn't offered to give him something if he had. Impressing the previous Raikage could only make one look good. It would've been a wonderful opportunity. Alas, the opportunity was taken from it by fate. He'd do some training at the small training ground behind the Administration Building later and still get some work done. Giving her a final bow, this time of farewell, he would quickly put on his full attire before leaving to report for his mission. It was back to the grindstone it seemed.

Exit

Nariko was about to respond to the question, letting him more or less decide what he wanted to do, but then they got a little interrupted. She sighed as she realized the spar wasn't going to be happening, but it was what it was. Duty came first and she knew that more than anyone else. "I guess a rain check then. Have fun and stay safe." Nariko agreed, giving him a little wave.

She then went around to the rest of the people, seeing if anyone else caught her eye, so she could brush off some of the rust. After a productive day of doing that, she left unsatisfied, with plenty of others leaving the training grounds with their fair share of bruises.

-Exit-