Location - Kouin Bridge
Ichiro sits on the railing of the bridge carefully studying a
small, leather-bound notebook as he slowly sips at a warm cup
of sake.
Grunting and groaning, Isamu slowly puts down several large
wooden beams. "Whew, that was heavy..." Isamu says, when he
spots Ichiro sitting on the bridge.
Ichiro looks up at his young friend and asks, "Ah, Isa-kun,
what are you doing here?" Making a mental note of the page he
is currently studying, Ichiro closes the small notebook and
tucks it away into his belt pouch.
"Hiya Ichi-nii-sama!" Isamu exclaims. "I'm helping some
craftsmen fix the bridge by carrying stuff for them!" Isamu
looks at the beams and starts counting on his fingers, "One,
two, three, four, that should be all of the beams..."
Chuckling as he glances at the partially damaged portion of the
bridge, Ichiro says, "Yeah...Taishi-kun and I got a little
zealous up in our sparring the other day." Ichiro shakes his
head and mutters, "I really thought he was going to dodge that
one though..." Grinning slightly Ichiro says, "At least he was
only fighting my clone at that point, otherwise the damage to
the bridge might have been a little more serious."
Isamu shrugs and looks over to see the craftsmen approaching in
their cart, "Hi guys! The wooden beams are right over there!"
Isamu shouts as he points to the pile of beams. "So can you
help me practice some, like you did for me in the Academy?"
Isamu asks, trying his best to emulaute a sad little puppy.
Smiling, Ichiro says, "I don't see why not." Producing a small
piece of paper from his pouch, Ichiro adds, "Plus I just got
this letter earlier...someone wants me to show up at the
practice fields 'fully prepared for combat.'" Hopping off the
rail onto the bridge, Ichiro produces his mask and slips it on,
"A bit of practice with you couldn't hurt my preparation, I'm
sure. Though, I'll still need to stock up on explosive tags
and kunai before then I suppose."
"You're the best Nii-sama!" Isamu says happily. Isamu runs
over to an undamaged part of the bridge and takes up his
stance, "I hope we don't damage anything, otherwise those guys
are going to yell at me for being irresponsibe or something..."
Isamu mutters.
Ichiro lets several kunai fly as he suddenly dashes at Isamu.
Isamu blocks with his shield and jumps backwards throwing a
couple of shuriken at Ichiro.
Blocking the shuriken with his katana as he draws it, Ichiro
rapidly approaches Isamu. Stepping past Isamu, Ichiro slips
his front foot against Isamu's back heel and throws his elbow
into Isamu's chest.
Mentally thanking his father for the family armor, Isamu plants
one hand on the ground, and sweeps his legs into Ichiro's
ankles.
Dropping to one knee, Ichiro releases his katana and puffs out
his chest as he blazes through a series of handseals.
"Hmph, you take me too lightly..." Isamu says as he swings one
leg around at Ichiro faster than his shadow can follow.
Finishing his last handseal, Ichiro catches the kick with his
bracer as he exhales a large fireball at Isamu.
Isamu suddenly has an understanding of what happens to chicken
when it's roasted. "Oh, great, I just got my hair back to a
good length..." Isamu says, while he recovers from the
fireball.
Grabbing his katana, Ichiro leaps back and prepares for Isamu's
next attack.
Isamu sends a few shuriken wizzing through the air at Ichiro as
he runs to the pile of wooden beams.
Ichiro sheaths his katana as he spins around, allowing the
shuriken to clang into the large sword on his back. Forming
several handseals, Ichiro shouts, "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu" as a
clone appears next to him.
"Sorry guys," Isamu says apologetically to the craftsmen, as he
tosses a beam in the air and gathers his strength into one
fist. As his punch connects with the end of the beam, cracks
appear all over the beam. The beam shatters into thousands of
shards all flying at Ichiro, much to Isamu's surprise.
Both Ichiro's rapidly form handseals as they puff out their
chests and spit two very large streams of water that converge
on the hail of wood shards.
Hoping the same effect will happen, Isamu tosses another beam
into the air and punches it. The beam explodes into another
splinter hail aimed at the Ichiros. This time, Isamu runs after
the shards.
Turning to face his clone, Ichiro steps up onto his clones
outstretched arm then leaps to one side of the hail using his
clone's chest as a springboard, propelling his clone in the
opposite direction.
Isamu runs up to the Ichiro on the left, wondering if he's got
the original, and brings his fist full force into this Ichiro's
chest.
Ichiro grabs his chest and coughs up a large amount of blood as
he slides backwards along the ground, trying to keep his
footing. Twisting his head to the right slightly, then back,
Ichiro grins a bloody grin. "I'd better kick my regen all the
way up," he thinks to himself. "I see you want to play rough
then," Ichiro says as a stream of water shaped like dragon's
head zips at Isamu from the side.
Isamu tries to dive out of the way, but doesn't quite make it,
and is clipped by the stream of water. Isamu rolls on the
bridge till he manages to flip up to standing position.
Ichiro tears through a series of handseals. "This ends
now...Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" Ichiro shouts as two
dragons bolt towards Isamu from separate directions.
"Crap..." mutters a wide-eyed Isamu just before he grabs the
railing beside him and flips over the edge, just barely
catching a lower bar underneath the bridge itself.
Ichiro prepares to fire another Suiryuudan at the first sight
of Isamu. As his clone leaps to the water below, Ichiro
shouts, "How's it hanging?"
"This scaffoling is quite comfortable, but I shouldn't stay
down here for much longer...I yield." Isamu replies, "I need
to go get the angry craftsmen some replacement beams..." Isamu
then starts to climb up the metal bars leading to the top of
the bridge.
Ichiro relaxes and says, "Good fight, Isa-kun. You definitely
hit pretty hard. My clone still has enough chakra to patch you
up, if you like." Clone-Ichiro leaps back up onto the bridge,
landing near Isamu.
Isamu replies, "No thanks, those craftsmen would probably do
worse to me if I looked unscathed...Thanks again for the
practice Ichiro-nii-sama!" Isamu hears the craftsmen yelling
at him to go replace the wood he destroyed.
Ichiro's clone suddenly shatters into water as Ichiro says,
"Alright, well, good luck with that. I'm off to stock up on
supplies before I head off to look into this challenge."
Ichiro waves happily as he walks off along the bridge.