Wood Punching [P, Luci]

Keita was out in the early morning, getting in some exercise by continuously practicing his punches on a log in the training grounds. There didn't seem to be anyone else there this early, and Keita wondered exactly what time it was. He woke up simply thinking that if he didn't continuously train and keep himself up to date, he would slowly lose his muscles and such. He had actually toned his body up quite a bit, even though he was fairly young, he had some nice muscles, and he was glad that he was taught Taijutsu. He wanted to reflect on himself, so he was balancing on one foot, kicking with the other, and punching with the opposite arm, acting like he was fighting an actual person, but simply punching the log to keep strengthening his arms and legs, and with the other arm, there was a medical book that he was reading. He would hop between the logs and practice a bit of flourish with his steps, one after the other, maintaining balance as he skillfully switched the hand that he had the book in when he switched logs for targeting, and he kept reading. There were books scattered around the training area he was in, and once in a while he would put the book down after folding back a corner of the page, and then he would pick up another book, and start reading that as well as continuing his routine. One should not fear the man that practices one thousand kicks a single time, but he should fear the person that practices one kick one thousand times. Repetition to near perfection was the aim of the game with Keita at the moment, and it seemed like he was focused on training once again.

The mist was thick and he wasn't really listening to the outside world, although he was a fairly strong sensor, he didn't learn the actual technique to sense with his chakra, so he would have to rely on his natural given senses, which were still perfect because of the Mushikoro, but still, someone could sneak up on him if they were careful. Keita decided to sit and take a small rest, as he was huffing and puffing, and he needed to let his muscles take a quick breather. He still stretched a bit, because if the body suddenly stopped using it's muscles abruptly, it was going to be much more sore than if it was gradually stopped. He was in his gi, or training robe, and as such, he had his shoes off, and was simply wearing a white robe with a belt and pants that spread out as they got lower towards his feet. It was breathable and definitely good for training or sparring, but he had only underwear under it, but he was used to the cool air and cold of the mist by now, so he wouldn't get sick or anything.

It was really becoming something of a habit to catch Kasumi coming out of her home so early in the day. She was either going to the doctor or going to the training grounds. The latter was her destination on this day. Walking out of her house she wore a pair of black sweats pants and a black tank top. Her hands were wrapped tightly with a special type of cloth that would soak up sweat and blood like it was nothing while protecting her from breaking her bones upon punching something especially hard. Her hair was pulled up in it's usual bun to keep it from bothering her and on her feet were her usual black shoes. For one reason or another she thought that no one else would be on the training field. It was pretty early in the morning, so early in fact the sun was just rising upon her walk to the training area. Once she reached her destination she walked into the area. Her ears perked up when she heard the sounds of another person. The morning mist was a bit thick but she could make out the figure of a smaller person. Getting closer the mist lightened and her golden eyes could see the many books upon the ground and a boy training on a log. She knew right off the bat who it was and everything in her wanted to tackle the boy from behind and squeeze him tightly and just feed him. Her body shuddered she couldn't do things like that, she couldn't act like that under any circumstances.

Straightening her body she put those urges under lock and key but her heart beat faster than she could breath. " Out a bit early ain't ya Kei-Chan? " Strolling over she picked up one of his books and glazed over the page he was reading. She honestly didn't know what she was reading a placed it back down. Her golden gaze coming upon Keita's face. God why was he so cute. This was sickening, she couldn't believe a person could be so damn adorable. And look at him in his cute little gi training his ass off like he was going off into war tomorrow or something. She hated that the most, not only was he cute, he was younger than her and accomplished way more than she did. She was literally in a struggle with herself, she didn't know weather to cuddle or kill this boy.

As Keita was huffing and puffing, he adjusted himself to that his back was up against the log he was punching, and he started to look at his hands. He pulled out a pair of tweezers and started to pick out the shards of wood that had splintered off of the log and embedded themselves into his hands, and soon, he could hear someone actually approaching, but as soon as he turned and looked, he found his cousin, Kasumi. She was a fiery person and usually did whatever she wanted, just like her dad, which was the person that adopted Keita in the first place, so she was almost like a sister to him. They hadn't seen each other in a little while, as Keita was constantly out of the house, in the library, in the hospital, with the Kiseimu clan doctors, etc, so he was rarely around the estate anymore, and even if he was, Kasumi lived by herself. She was older than Keita by a bit, and Keita liked her a lot, and wondered what she had been up to.

Keita liked everyone, but he seemed to feel closer to Kasumi, simply because she was the blood related daughter of the man that was also essentially Keita's father. Keita perked up as soon as she said something about how she didn't expect him there that early, and Keita jumped up as she was looking through the book he was just reading. He was still out of breath, but waved and ran over and hugged her.

"Hiya Kasumi~chan! I haven't seen you in a while, how have you been? Sorry, I'm all sweaty."

Keita said, slightly blushing at the fact. He was working so hard so that he could eventually protect Kasumi and even his father, although he still looked up to both of them as elders. Kasumi was still a genin, but she seemed more experienced than Keita at the moment, and got into a lot of fights. Keita wanted to beat up the people that always gave her a bad time, but he didn't think he was strong enough yet, hence the training. Keita suddenly had a light bulb above his head, and something flashed, and he ran over behind the log to his backpack. It was funny seeing Keita carry around a backpack, as it made him look even smaller, as he had all of his books and medical supplies like aloe and bandages in there as well.

Keita rummaged through the bag, and grabbed his chuunin vest from it, as he had just recently graduated and became a chuunin, and he hadn't told anyone yet.

"Kasumi~chan, look, look! I haven't told anyone yet, although Auntie probably knows already. I'm a chuunin now!"

Keita's red eyes were sparkling really hard right now, so ecstatic to be advancing thanks to the emotional support his family always gave him. They had their problems with each other, but regardless of how Kasumi felt about the other people in the family, she always seemed to treat Keita nicely, and Keita loved it and appreciated it. The chuunin vest was so small, as it was fitted for him, and he wouldn't be surprised if Kasumi laughed at him a little for it. Who on earth was an elevel year old chuunin that would need this small of a vest, it was a bit humorous, even for Keita.

Keita seemed to be happy to see her as he looked excited and ran over to hug her, even out of breath he was still ever energetic. She really enjoyed Keita, he was the only person to be truly happy to see her and showed it no matter how much it annoyed her. Smiling she hugged him right back, taking in his scent she hugged a little tighter trying to hold on it for as long as she could. She let go though, she didn't need to be figured out that she was a softie. " It's ok Kei-Chan, I'm sweaty about eighty percent of the time. " A light chuckle escaped from her lips as she said this, it was true, she trained so much that it was weird to not see her glistening in her work out juices. " Yea I know, I've been you know busy, being the usual menace of Kirigakure..." Her voice trailed off, she wasn't really all that proud of that but hey she'll take it if it gets people to not bother her. For a moment she didn't notice how Keita perked up but then her eyes followed him as ran to his bag. She wondered what in the world could have set him off like that. Raising an eyebrow she raised her head a little, maybe to get a glance at what he had in that bag. She couldn't see but she didn't have too because cute little Keita came back with a cute little chuunin vest....Wait a what?!


What in the world was he doing with a god damn chuunin vest. Her eyes turned dark as she looked down at the child before her. He was close enough for her to grab, she was strong enough to twist his cute little neck and watch him fall to the ground. Every possible death scenario of the boy at her hands played in the instant she saw the chuunin vest. She was enraged but her face was blank for about thirty seconds before she pulled herself back into reality. She didn't know what to say really, she was trying to hold all her anger back and control her breathing at the same time. Taking in a deep breath she smirked at the boy and ruffled his hair. " Good job Kid.....You deserve it, all the hard work you do...Guess I gotta play catch up now.. Bet pop's gonna be real proud to hear that, but then again he probably expected nothing less from his ...Protégé. " The last word rolled off her tongue like venom. Seriously this kid was lucky he was raised around her as long as he was, and he was lucky he was cute because his life would have been shortened long ago.

Keita giggled at Kasumi's comment about how she was sweaty all the time, and Keita felt that she was hugging him extra long before letting him go and getting his chuunin vest. She seemed a bit shocked at it, as she just stared at it for a while, and it seemed she couldn't believe it. It didn't seem like she was happy for him either, and this was a bit puzzling to him, as he thought she would be proud of him. She said that she would have to play catch up as she ruffled his hair, after a while of just sitting there, and actually congratulated him on it, but he could tell that her tone wasn't the happiest. She then said something that sounded almost sarcastic, and said that his uncle, her father, would definitely be proud, and he would expect nothing less from his protege. The way she said protege seemed like she was angry, and almost making fun of him for it, and then it clicked.

She was mad that she didn't hit chuunin, and that she was angry with Keita for being uncle's favorite, or maybe she thought he was more important than her in her fathers' eyes. It was true that his uncle was usually nicer to him, but Keita had always thought that was because he was adopted, and he assumed that he treated his family a bit rougher due to the fact that they had a reputation to uphold. The Furue clan were essentially monsters, feared by most who have heard of or faced them because of their advanced element that could cause widespread destruction. The perfect harmonious relationship between the property manipulation and brutal force of the earth with the sky. Still, Keita was confused, but as usual, his mind worked furiously and as he looked at her and her posture and general body cues, he noticed that this was probably the case.

"Kasumi~chan... do you hate me? I didn't mean to make you sad, but I'm not uncle's protege. He's never taught me anything and we haven't trained, and he doesn't even treat me like a family member it seems.

I always feel, almost ostracized, like I'm some kid that the family is just babysitting until I'm old enough to leave. You have his blood, you come directly from him, there's no way he could love me more than you."

Keita had a tiny amount of water collecting in the corner of his eyes as he was recalling this, because people were always nice to Keita, but the people that knew about his secret, the Mushikoro, always seemed a bit fake when they were nice to him, and Keita always had that creeping suspicion that people didn't really like him, but he was always happy to make others happy, so he didn't really mind it. He took a small pause, before continuing on with his feelings, as he trusted Kasumi, although she seemed to resent him. Keita took off the top of his gi, revealing the large scar that covered his chest and back, and seemed like someone hit him directly in the chest with a lightning bolt. He had tried really hard to not show any one this, so he wasn't sure if Kasumi had seen it from when he was too young to remember, but Keita assumed it was the first time she was seeing this.

"Because of this, I sometimes don't even feel human, hehe. My real parents hated me so badly, that they couldn't even try to raise me, and gave me to the Kiseimu clan to be used as an experiment. There was an eighty percent chance that I would die in the procedure.... eighty. My parents decided to give up their child for money with a high chance of death.

At least your family didn't essentially condemn you to death, and they are actually proud to call you their daughter."

Keita was a bit angry now, which didn't suit him at all, simply because he was still a little ball of adorableness even when he had the pouting cheeks of anger. Keita put back on his top and then started collecting his books, because regardless of how the conversation went, Kasumi would probably want to be left alone.

His words sunk heavy in Kasumi's heart. She didn't mean no real harm especially not towards Keita. Seeing him as he was now Kasumi's heart sunk into her stomach as a feeling of guilt settled like a stone falling to the bottom of a lake. He had it way more rough than she did and instead of being a shit to everyone he was nothing more than a joy to be around, so much that would think everything in his life was wonderful. Watching for a second as the boy put his shirt back on, Kasumi looked down for a moment. Her life wasn't all that bad yet she was acting like she was going through it the worst. When her eyes settled back to Keita she saw that he was putting his books away, probably to leave, most likely because of the way she was acting. Moving over to the small boy she hugged him from behind, snuggling her face in his hair. She could feel her eyes water up because she never wanted to see Keita sad, he didn't deserve the kind of treatment she was giving. Kasumi scolded herself mentally for being so jealous, she should have been happy for him, genuinely happy. " Eh...Kei-Chan.. I'm sorry, I love you. I love you much more than you know... I didn't mean nothing by it..I don't wanna see you cryin, Kei-chan... You are the only one who I can talk to normally ya know, and you make me happy and you don't annoy me...I guess I haven't been all that nice to ya..I've been real selfish Kei-Chan and for no good reason either...I'm just..I don't know..But I'll leave you alone, you probably don't wanna say too much more to a loser like me.." Once again her hold on him lingered as if she was saying goodbye for what would seem like forever. The watering she had in her eyes filled and spilled down her cheeks, she didn't wanna lose Kei-chan, he was the only one she could talk too, but she could understand.. She was a fucking screwup, no one really wanted to be around her anyway.

Keita sighed as he was packing up his back pack, and suddenly he felt warmth on him and a bit of weight, as Kasumi came and hugged him from behind. She started to reveal her true self, the person that seemed to think she wasn't good enough for the world, and that Keita was the only one she could talk to honestly. Keita was smiling during this though, as his anger completely went away instantly with her hug, and he turned around once Kasumi finished hugging him, and then Keita hugged her tightly right back immediately with a big grin on his face. Keita had a bit of a stern face shortly after he started the hug, and was ready to tell Kasumi how he actually felt about the whole situation.

"Kasumi~chan, you need to stop thinking of yourself as a failure. No matter what others say about you, you should hold your head up and be proud. You're amazing, and no matter what happens, I'll always be here for you, cheering you on. If you actually trust me, then believe in yourself, because I believe in you!"

Keita's eyes were the extremely big, cute, lit up versions that they liked to be, especially when he was talking about anything that could be motivating someone. He hated to see Kasumi sad, just like she said she hated to see him sad, so he wanted to return the favor and make her happy. He didn't really care about packing up anymore, although he would still want to do it, he would just go and get some ice cream or something.

"Also, I could never, ever, ever have any feeling towards you other than love, silly! Let's go get some ice cream!"

Keita was in fact a little kid, as one could tell with this sentence, suddenly switching to wanting to go and get sweets with his older cousin and friend Kasumi. One of the only ones in the family that actually knew his secret, he trusted her with his life, but also with every day problems, and maybe he could talk about them with her over ice cream. His child mind was focused on ice cream at the moment, but he refused to let go of the hug he had on Kasumi, and would definitely wait until she was done hugging him. Although it seemed that his face reached up to her breasts, he was still too young to realize it might be considered perverted in some circles.