Food

After spending her evening searching for her friends and doing what she had planned that left only one errand left to run for today: grocery shopping. It was perhaps one of her favorite chores to run. She had a general list to follow, though she frequently bought snacks and items of her own as a "reward" for doing the favor. It was on her parent's dime, after all. Natsuru dressed in a very casual outfit. She wore black shoes with tight black denim jeans with a two-toned white and black long sleeved top. Her long, navy blue hair was curled and a red bow was placed on the top right side of her head. Despite her casual dress she kept a sheathed tanto on her black leather belt, acting as her first line of defense. Beneath her top she wore a set of iron mail recently crafted by Ryuko. Its craftsmanship made it very concealed producing little noise while hugging her body.

With a shopping basket in her arms she waded through the patrons within the store to get to where she needed. What are these morons doing standing around so much? Buying food shouldn't take you that long. Finding a break in the crowd Natsuru finally made it to the snack aisle. With a simple sigh she was relieved. She would grab two boxes of small panda cookies, one with strawberry and the other with vanilla cream. This would be joined with a bag of chips and a prepared container of sushi. "Just one more thing... She couldn't forget the fried chicken for her midnight snack.

Nariko had been trying to find Natsuru Senou for a while now, ever since she had parted ways with Ryuko in her office. She'd actually donned her Jounin outfit rather than her Raikage outfit, in order to mingle with the public a little better. Being the Raikage was a great thing sometimes, but people tended to swarm her like a celebrity when she goes out in public dressed as the Raikage. Luckily, people didn't exactly know what she looked like yet, so she was still relatively an unknown, and able to go around without being spotted.

Having tracked her movements throughout the day, Nariko finds herself at the grocery store, finally having tracked her down to the place she was at. From there, she'd have to find her the normal way, by walking through the entire place and hoping she didn't leave before she found her new student.

Moving through the store, she glanced down each aisle until she spotted Natsuru, noting her from the picture in her files, and headed towards the girl. "Natsuru Senou, yes?" she asked, upon approaching the girl. "I'm your new sensei, Nariko. I actually am the Raikage, but that's not important, I don't think I'll be here long. I'm just taking the post until someone else can fill it better."

Natsuru was standing outside the prepared goods section as various "grab n' go" meals were prepared. They served as the Genin's primary food source. They were quick, easy, and moderately tasty. But she was not entirely bent of the quality of food as long as it resembled what she liked. It was hard to mess up fried chicken. As long as you remember to season the flour it comes out exceptional. Her eyes nonchalantly scanned the various packed containers counting the quantity of thighs and legs attempting to get the most out of her buck. The woman would be approached casually, Natsuru catching the movements out her peripherals turning her head in the direction of the woman. She was dressed in the uniform of a Kumogakure Shinobi. This could only mean village business. Oh great... Of course this disdain would not make it far enough to show on her face. Instead the stared blankly with a stolid glare, waiting for the woman to make her business.

It was even more disappointing that she knew her name. This really meant she was going to be approached with a summon from the Raikage or some kind of meeting. Though she her introduction rolled out her nerves calmed a bit. "Raikage, right. Looks like Ryuko wasn't kidding when she said they already replaced Seigi." Taking a package of cold fried chicken she placed it in her basket of various other snacks and some actual food. "Well, sensei, good to meet you." Natsuru used the episode of small talk to gauge the Jounin before her. She was short. In fact, she was as short as Shimiko. This made the woman's status somewhat hard to bare. For the longest time her superiors were at least taller by a few inches or the same height. As of late after meeting Simon, Hahashi, and now Nariko, she generally "stood out" among her peers.

"Did you have anything you wanted to go on about, or did you just come this way to tell me that?" After she said that she began heading towards the checkout counter. There was a short line, roughly three different groups in front of her. They all carried small baskets such as herself not going as far as Walmart bulk shopping with carts full of goods. Natsuru would try to go about her daily business with Nariko in the picture. She was not entirely enthused of having a sensei again. All that meant was the gravy train was about to come to an end and she had to get back to work. But with harder work came more skill. And of course professional skill came professional pay.

Nariko watched Natsuru as she spoke, seeming not to particularly like that Nariko was her sensei. In a way, it made sense. She'd had a lot of freedom without a sensei, and had spent most of that time as the de facto team leader. It made sense that Nariko showing up and taking the spot of team leader meant that she'd have to take a small demotion almost, and that was annoying to the best of people. Smiling at the taller girl, Nariko sighed.

"I don't have much to talk about, no. I mainly wanted to meet the members of my team individually. Ryuko stopped by the office earlier, so that checked her off my list. Nice girl. Anyhow, I don't really like summoning people via message. Thus, I needed to track you down, and Shimiko as well." she explained, frowning.

Looking her over, Nariko nodded seemingly to herself. "Okay, so, since I am quite busy with my position, I'm going to need a genin team leader, and I'm looking to you to continue your leadership role in the squad. When I'm busy, you're in charge. When I'm present, you'll be given quite a lot of control, but over all, I reserve the ultimate say. I think leadership suits you, and the best way to continue to build that up is through experience."

She followed around Natsuru, not helping her but not hindering her at all either. "I won't be very demanding of you, don't worry. You guys have actually demonstrated that you can function well with little guidance from absentee sensei's, and I'm probably the definition of flaky, considering my job. I just want you all to grow and I can help keep you alive and show you some tricks and stuff. Oh, right. Um, you'll be receiving a high priority mission for Kumo at some point soon, I'm waiting to hear more on that before I pass it off to you." she said, waiting for any sort of response.

Natsuru stood facing forward, listening to Nariko as she talked to her from behind. It was not done out of rudeness but more-so her laid back personality. When considering dealing with important business Natsuru did not find it necessary in herself to act differently. In short, she did not sign up to service for mannerisms and kissing ass. She was a skillful individual, and her skills were to serve Kumogakure. She treated Nariko, or any stranger, as well as she did Shimiko. She did not find it absolutely necessary to pretend like she was in tune with what Nariko was saying. As long as she could hear her, that was the most important part. And her passive hearing paid off. She turned looking over her shoulder at Nariko as she spoke regarding a team leader. Natsuru did quite enjoy being the 'boss' of Shimiko and Ryuko. When Akashi disappear she somewhat assumed the position herself, using her wisdom and general stature to gain the upper hand over the other girls. Ryuko and Shimiko were quick to fall submissive to her demand. When Nariko came into the picture she was a bit worried she would lose that control, and simply be placed in the same tier as her underlings.

With Nariko's promise of not only having Natsuru remain team leader, but still have control over their operations whenever she found herself busy was the cherry on top. A sultry smirk would come across the statuesque's face. "You really know how to make a woman's day, don't you?" As Natsuru approached the front of the line she began unloading her basket of mostly snacks and sweets, followed by the two items she actually had to pick up from the store. Nonetheless, it came out of Daddy's credit card. Her bag was filled again when the tab was paid, Natsuru leaving the semi-crowded grocery store with Nariko in tow. They would both exit the building being back onto the streets of the market. It was less crowded relative to its size.

"A mission you say?" After being promised sovereignty and basic training, she was being tagged with a mission. The sound of a mission made her heart sink, her experience with them being not-so-pleasant. Despite having made a full recovery she felt like she developed a sort of flinch when it came to dealing with oncoming missiles. The thought of her previous mission reminded her of the mail hauberk she wore casually beneath her clothes. Being made of tougher stuff and better craftsmanship she was at least at a bit of relief. "If you could, mail me the details as soon as possible. Although you may not be able to tell, I am a rather talented craftsman. Any possible preparations I can exercise before the mission would be infinitely helpful." Natsuru would begin, well, heading home. Her path would lead her through the market and up the Sky Construct. "What are these 'tricks' you plan to show up, hm?" At this point she was entertaining small talk she she waded through the market. She was a bit curious as to what Nariko was capable of. Being a Jounin, she must possess some form of valuable skills.

Nariko shrugged with a smirk on her face as Natsuru seemed pleased that she would still be mostly in charge of the squad. She could have answered with a sarcastic reply about how she knew how to please a woman in many different ways, but she didn't feel like making any sort of innuendo's right now. First impressions and all. She didn't particularly like to make people feel uncomfortable at all, and she didn't know Natsuru's tolerance for jokes of that nature.

She continued to walk with Natsuru for a bit, even after she had finished her shopping, but didn't even bother offering to help her carry her things. Even if Natsuru would be fine with it, and she wasn't sure that she would be, Nariko figured it was decent strength training, and a good test of endurance to carry things everywhere. Judging by the amount of sweets she had bought, she would probably need to get in a decent amount of exercise to maintain her current level of skill as it was. Since she hadn't taken any missions lately, and didn't seem the type to spend large amounts of time to train, Nariko needed her to be in as good a form as possible. Especially for this mission. "What I can tell you about it in open communication is that it's a special operation mission. Collaboration between different nations with their own special squads. I need to lead Kumogakure, so I can't participate, despite how much I'd like to. You'll be tracking down and bagging a very large and very dangerous beast of unknown origin, with really no information about it present." she said.

In truth, there wasn't all that much more that she knew herself, having not been present at the Kage summit. She had a few guesses, but nothing more than mere speculation. It was quite possibly a tailed beast of some sort, hence why she wanted Morikawa present. He had the ability to seal such a creature, as well as the intelligence to decide who would be best suited to be the vessel of such a creature. Ideally, she would have liked to be there and make that decision herself, but she couldn't so she had to leave it to him.

"As for tricks, well. Things that you can do with basic techniques that people don't always think of doing. I'll be honest, most people, as they get more and more skilled, loosen up on their basics. Stronger techniques become available, and so the weaker techniques are more or less unused and forgotten. I spent much of my time using things like the base clone jutsu to newer and more interesting effects. When they disperse, they become small smoke clouds. I'm sure you can see the usefulness of that. They're also easy to use to confuse an opponent. You're a ranged combatant, but if someone gets close up to you, make a few that are in close contact to you, and start punching, kicking, whatever. Even with high perception, it can get confusing to establish which is real, which to dodge, which to block, and can buy you extra time. Even wide sweeping attacks to destroy your clones become dangerous, as they run the risk of missing you and opening themselves to a quick counter. There are more uses as well, even with the limitations of that technique, but those are going to be saved for later."

She explained as she walked some of the myriad uses of weaker techniques that were still viable even against people using high level stuff. It was how she had become such a powerful shinobi and completed a lot of her missions without much issue. That was easy for her to pass on to someone else. It had been her experience that even with the versatility people had, they did tend to forget how many techniques they actually had, opting to use only the strongest they had, which then limited them to a handful of techniques rather than a full arsenal. It wasn't smart to forget your basics.

Natsuru did the same as before, keeping her eyes forward and eyes open to what Nariko had to say. The kunoichi delve into some of the details regarding the mission she had planned for her team. As it currently stood, she was no so thrilled. In fact, she was a bit unaware if they were truly qualified for the task. So you send Genin to capture this 'large and dangerous beast'? Natsuru has faced deadly encounters before, and as it stood she did not like them. Her lack of experience made death seem a lot more severe than what the veteran Shinobi had to say about it. Sure, nobody liked dying. And death in most cases is very unpleasant. But it sure seemed like the experienced Shinobi had a pragmatic view on death, where Natsuru still preferred to live and indulge in simple pleasures. Like eating cookies and fried chicken with a variety of sauces to dip from. Natsuru had not developed the certain devotion that made many Shinobi see their bodies as a tool rather than a living thing. And Natsuru may never experience that change.

But she hardly ever thought about losing her life in the line of duty. The concept only ever came up when confronted with a deadly situation. Even this mission request only slightly irked her. She was confident as ever, and perhaps that was what kept the Kunoichi going in the darkest of situations. Arriving at her family's estate conveniently when Nariko stopped talking, she would respond. "I see. Interesting indeed." Stepping briefly into the courtyard, roughly five meters from the wrought iron gates, she would step off the cobblestone path and into the trimmed, low-cut grass.

She would bend over slowly setting the bagged goods on the ground and transfer her position into a stretch as she slowly straightened her back out. "Talking's good if you can't show me, but I prefer to learn better with hand's on detail. I'm not asking for an all-out duel, seeing as this is my home. But I would like to get a feel for your combat, otherwise I'm going up in my room and eating my snacks." She used this as some form of bargaining. As a sensei she was somewhat responsible for her performance. It didn't matter if she agreed to the duel or not, though, as she fully intended to binge eat in the end. But at least working up a sweat would help lessen the damage of her neglected body. Akashi was a powerful sensei with immense speed on his side. She was curious as to what Nariko was capable of.

The Raikage looked at her student, contemplating the suggestion that they go for a more hands on approach to teaching. She nodded after a moment, a bit surprised by her initiative. Natsuru hadn't struck her as the type to do things hands on, or at the very least spar when she didn't have to, but then again, this was the sort of thing that she liked about her. One of the reasons she'd chosen her to remain as a temporary leader of the squad. "I suppose I can make some time for a light spar, sure. I'm not sure how much of my fighting style you'll get out of it. I prefer to nuke my opposition with jutsu, but obviously I won't be able to do that here. But I can give you a feel for my overall Taijutsu and close combat abilities."

Stepping off the cobblestone path and onto the grass as well, Nariko did a little bit of light stretching, but nothing too hardcore. It wasn't like she'd need to give this her all. So, Natsuru wanted to get a feel for how she did things then? That was fair. Since this was a demonstration of how she used low level techniques to subvert her opponent, then she would really only utilize them up to C rank at the highest.

"I'll, uh, fight a little slower so you can keep up, but my speed and coordination aren't all that impressive without using techniques to amplify them. I'm just kind of all decent all around the board, without specializing in anything, other than a large chakra pool. probably due to my excessive use of jutsu." She didn't want her student to be underwhelmed by her or anything, so she was very blunt. Taking up a basic stance against Natsuru, Nariko counted down. "If you're ready, 3, 2, 1, begin."

She waited to see what Natsuru would open with, as she was curious about the style that she would use as well, and tended to wait and watch when she had the ability to. As she said, she preferred to keep a mid ranged distance and nuke her opponents with jutsu when she had the ability to. Being able to use one handed seals without any issues was a huge boon to that, as she could start working on two jutsu at the same time, but she was limiting herself to lower level techniques, and she didn't necessarily want to use an overwhelming amount of them against Natsuru just yet. Maybe once she'd gotten a feel for her basic fighting abilities. The match was as much for Natsuru to get a feel for her as it was for her to get a feel for Natsuru, and maybe teach her a couple things in the process.

Natsuru was surprised at the girl's generally mild attitude regarding the whole situation. Even Akashi was more enthused than Nariko. The Jounin was not confident in herself or stalled a lot with what she said. Something she found odd for what was considered an elite ninja. It made her doubt the Jounin. Perhaps she was a newly promoted one? That would make sense. A seasoned Chuunin being promoted to a Jounin, who later found herself in a situation where she had to lead the village. It would explain her dislike for the whole Kageship scenario. Believing she was incompetent for the role it all seemed like a drag. Still, she had to at least be somewhat competent in combat. If she was a fresh Jounin being recently promoted, it would mean she would provide some struggle to the, what you would call, experienced Genin. She was on the same boat as Nariko. Natsuru was rather unskilled in Taijutsu. She was surprisingly flexibly, despite her body type and sedentary lifestyle to where she could comfortably pull her leg roughly head-level without straining her hamstring.

On top of that, she is considered fairly muscular. Nothing substantial, though she was known to "hit hard" back in the days of class. At least for a girl, who mostly display little interest in gaining physical strength. But overall she was a very mild Taijutsu user, and never hoped to invest any more in said field. Taijutsu users were always so...energetic and outgoing. Plus they dedicate a fair portion of their life in training. It was something that didn't fancy Natsuru.

Still, it was something she would associate herself with once and a while. She wanted to build strength, and expression through Taijutsu was one of the many ways to do that. It was time to show Nariko what she was made of. The countdown ended and the match had officially begun. Natsuru accelerated at Nariko, who was a short distance to begin with. The lunge was associated with Natsuru bringing her right hand, fist clenched, back behind her ear expressing a fully cocked straight punch towards the Jounin's chin. The punch was backed by the momentum of her body working as a lunge. It would serve to amplify impact in conjunction with her striking speed and physical strength. Though, in the very end it was an executed, basic punch.

Nariko stood her ground, mainly to see what sort of strength Natsuru had behind her punch. In normal circumstances, she would have dodged, rather than block, but this wasn't too big of a deal. Their match wasn't life or death, and she doubted that Natsuru was strong enough to do any sort of real damage with just a single punch.

Moving her left arm up, Nariko held her hand open, catching Natsuru's punch, feeling the power behind it as a measure of her strength. It was fairly standard, but she was using her body mechanics to pour slightly more power into her punch. Falling into the Arhat Fist style, Nariko's own right palm shot forward towards Natsuru's solar plexus, still holding onto Natsuru's fist to keep her in striking range.

It was a simple manuever, punch for punch. She'd slowed down a little bit, still faster than most genin, but slower than almost any Jounin. One real advantage she couldn't get rid of though was her higher constitution, and her perception. Natsuru's movements were completely within her range to see and react to, and her punch, regardless of how strong it was, wasn't really anything special when it came to punching her. It was decent for a genin, but it was obvious that strength wasn't her strong point. Her speed was what was impressive, her punch actually having some decent speed behind it for a genin, matching what she'd expect from an experienced Chuunin.

-3 Arhat Fist

Stamina: 157/160

Strength: D -> C
Constitution: B
Stamina: A
Speed: B -> C
Coordination: B -> C
Intelligence: B
Perception: B

The straightforward closed fist was stopped by the Jounin. Natsuru was not expecting such an easy hit. After all, Jounin were not a walk in the park. They were known as the elite Shinobi of any village. Perhaps on a weaker opponent they could have hesitated or misguided their parry. The seaweed haired girl was calm and confident in her movement. Nariko responded with a straightforward attack of her own. Natsuru was unsure if she was attuned herself, or if Nariko was holding back. Her palm thrust was readable and she was quick enough to even react to it. Using her free hand she pushed downwards while opening up to the side forming a right angle with her opponent. Her free hand would intercept Nariko's using her weight to her advantage as well as downward strength. She would snag her wrist tying both of their hands up.

Natsuru seized their opportunity to give her sensei a little surprise. Rising her left knee she would strike the Jounin's rear. It would cause an unpleasant pain and discomfort at most, giving her something to remember whenever she sat down. The corndog would be followed up with an attempted take down. When her foot made contact with the ground again she would clamp Nariko's right leg with both of her thighs. In conjunction with her pivot of her hips bringing her weight down upon her she would attempt to strike the woman's stomach with a pound with her free hand while pushing into Nariko with her still bound hand. If anything she would lose footing having one leg locked and both would fall onto the ground, Natsuru assuming the dominant position.

Natsuru caught her palm strike from above, killing the forward motion with a downward motion of her own, and from there, the two of them were locked into a quick grapple. As Natsuru's knee started to lift, Nariko's own opposing knee cracked into it, Nariko matching it with her right knee, although hers had a bit more force behind it, and she was quite a deal more able to deal with the backlash, her constitution was nothing to sneeze at.

It was a good try though, but her movements were easily perceived by Nariko. Shoving Natsuru's fist to the side, away from her other arm, Nariko formed a quick one handed seal with her now freed up hand, capitalizing on the younger girl's lack of knowledge of her. Nariko was one of the foremost one handed seal users, able to perform them without slowing down any. It would probably come as a surprise that she could do them, let alone with such an ease.

The jutsu that followed it up was perhaps even more unexpected. As she'd made no attempt to stop Natsuru from capturing her leg and tackling her, the two of them would already be falling as Nariko made her hand seal, using the basic Academy Transformation jutsu, turning into a squirell, running up Natsuru's arm as she'd already be falling foward, attempting to bite her neck as she passed it, leaping off her shoulder in the same movement, ending the transformation, letting gravity drop her onto Natsuru's back. "See, useful techniques that people rarely use."

-1 Henge no jutsu
-3 Arhat Fist

Stamina: 153/160

Strength: D -> C
Constitution: B
Stamina: A
Speed: B -> C
Coordination: B -> C
Intelligence: B
Perception: B

A single, red egg with green zigzags appears in Nariko's possession.

A single, blue egg with red stripes appears in Natsuru's possession.

Natsuru's knee was intercepted by Nariko's in an unorthodox fashion, but it worked for her in the end. It allowed her to close in and attempt to grapple her. This proved successful, shortly, until a cloud of smoke appeared and Natsuru was no longer grappling Nariko. In fact, a series of small rodent-like feet pattered up her arm coming from the smoke cloud. Being mid-descent she caught herself from tumbling onto the ground by assuming a push-up posture. This was successful, shortly, until a whopping one-hundred thirty pounds came down upon her back. The sudden increase in weight forced the Genin to pancake against the lawn. "Yeah...your body has its uses too I've noticed." In their bind a sudden presence was felt on her behind, an egg finding its way into the back pocket of her black denim. "And just what do you think you're doing to my ass?" Natsuru said this looking over her shoulder as much as she could, her hair messily blocking most of her view and scornful expression still being quite visible.

Though, given a brief moment she realized the presence in her back pocket was smooth and round. Raising her bottom up just enough to pucker its form she caught visuals of something round bulging from her pocket. "What's this? Get off me for a sec." Natsuru would wait for Nariko to get off before continuing.

Nariko's move was successful. She slammed down onto Natsuru's back, both of them crashing into the ground, but with Nariko having planned that. She hoped that Natsuru would take that lesson to heart, it was one of the things that people overlooked. Academy jutsu were still powerful in all walks of life. "I'm not doing anything to your ass." she said indignantly. "I prefer to flirt with people who actually express some sort of interest, thank you."

Of course, Natsuru would quickly realize that it wasn't her doing anything, having craned back to see whatever it was she wanted to see. Nariko took a look herself, and was confused to see an egg shaped lump in her back pocket. Realizing she was still on Natsuru, Nariko laughed, and rolled off the other girl, and spotted an egg on the ground where she rolled. Picking it up, she frowned, examining it. A red egg with green zigzag marks. "What is this?"

Looking around her, she made a small effort to see if there were any other eggs around, but otherwise waited for Natsuru to speak up again.

Natsuru reached into her back pocket as Nariko did. She found an egg just like her, though in a different color format. "How did that get in there? You know what, nevermind." She said, dismissing the egg. She figured someone though it was wise to sneak an egg in her butt when she was in town, one of the many reasons why she avoided the public in general. She couldn't stand people and their behavior sometimes. She preferred staying with her close friends and her own privacy most of the time. She haphazardly tossed the colorful egg in her grocery bag alone with the rest of her planned snacks. She would deal with that later. On both feet Natsuru would pat the dirt and whatever gathered on her clothes during their quick little spar. "Well that was very beneficial. I broke a sweat for the first time this week. But I think I'm going to head in for today. Enjoy your butt egg." Picking up her bag of goodies she would head towards her front door raising her hand as a sort of wave goodbye to Nariko, though not going through the effort to say anything or turn around.

[Exit]

Nariko pocketed her egg and waved Natsuru away. She had seen what she needed to from her student. He choice she made was a good one. Natsuru would make a good leader one day. She had to go check on Shimiko now though.
(Exit)