Becoming a Master [PT, Ninja#1]

Ahh, the sun was shining, the clouds, while a bit obscure in their attempt to smother out the sun, were failing in their attempt to completely snuff out the light, and so there were pockets of light and non light scattered around the country that Relius called home. He hadn't been contacted by his parents in a while, and he wondered if they had passed on, but then his mind wandered to something different. He was always observing his surroundings, and although he was not a sensory ninja by any means, he was definitely one that tried to hone his senses, just like he honed his body well enough to perform Kabuki. He was in the midst of practicing for one, so instead of his normal amazing and beautiful suit, he was wearing a long blue kimono, he had his hair separated to each side of his head and purposefully frayed this morning, and he was wearing a dark blue Kabuki mast, fit with a devilish smile and small demon horns protruding out of the forehead portion of the mask. His movements were perfect, graceful, refined, something a machine couldn't get even if they tried, as the motions were fluid and perfected over a life time of practice. Making his way around the small field he was standing in, as it was acting as his current stage of sorts, and he was making sure that he was performing for no one in particular. If people came up to the training spot and watched him, they would most likely want to pay him for the craft and applaud, but Relius could not care any less than he already did for others' praise and money. He did Kabuki for himself for the most part, just like he learned to juggle and throw knives for himself as well. The sun hadn't gotten very far in the sky, and using the sun and shadows as a make shift clock, he could tell it was roughly around ten thirty in the morning, so he still had plenty of time before his training partner would show up.

The area where Relius was training was a rocky area that was essentially a large arena type circular area. The ground he was standing on was rocky area mixed with green grass and weeds that had crept along the sides and through the cracks of the rock to get to the sunlight above. It was essentially a patch work of grass and then hard rock, so Relius' feet were hitting the raw stone, although he didn't really care considering his feet were the roughest part about him and were covered in callouses that protected him from the hard rock. The arena was essentially a large circle, with the patchwork circle surrounded by large pillars of rock that jutted out of the ground. Behind him, there was a sudden drop off, as he was at the edge of a large cliff that seemed to edge down on the opposite side. In front of him, the most likely place his partner would show up at, slowly declined into the mist that gathered at the relatively high altitude, and if you kept following the incline, there was a set of smaller training fields that the genin and chuunin of the village often used. The lower ranked ninja of the village were usually lazy, even when they were going to train, so walking the extra mile or so uphill disheartened them, so only a few people knew that this place was an amazing place to train in. The pillars seemed to just straight up from a large expanse of seemingly nothing, because of the mist that accumulated at that height, some would even say that the area was covered in the passing clouds. However, the pillars themselves served as tactical advantage if one were to spar there, and there was plenty of leeway in terms of strategy, but not at first glance. The cliff led into a valley that was a large green pasture and field full of flowers.

He hadn't seen his buddy Sinna in a little while, more along the lines of a month, and so he was wondering how he was doing. Apparently his friend was doing just fine, because he was willing to come all the way out to the training grounds Relius told him about and spend an entire afternoon working their bodied and chakra to the bone. Relius relished the thought of butting heads with his old rival again, and he hoped he could tempt the man into making a gamble with him, like he usually tried, but failed to do, as Sinna was clever enough to know he would lose the one sided bets Relius made. This time, it was going to be a far better bet, one more in favor of Sinna than usual, and perhaps the man would find it as an interesting challenge. Still, he wondered what his friend was capable of after training so hard, and Relius himself was going to take this opportunity to expand his horizons, and try to get under his friend's skin once and for all. He loved teasing Sinna, it seemed like he was just a stone wall when it came to insults and goading, but Relius liked to think that he was getting to Sinna slowly but surely, and he would eventually either laugh or get a little angry, and then Relius will have won. The village was going to stick Relius with a genin team fairly soon, so he was greatly interested in this training, so that he could be the best he could be before having to baby sit some people, and maybe mold them into little versions of himself. Well, they wouldn't be as fabulous as he was, but they would be way more fabulous than the other village's genin when it came time to compete in the chuunin exams, so there was that. He wondered what kind of things were happening in the other villages since the day that the tailed beasts started sprinkling back into being sealed into people.

Relius had gotten so good at his Kabuki routine he was practicing, that he was able to think about all these things and multitask other things as well. Sometimes the best thing you could do when preparing for a fight was to clear your head and relax, which is what Kabuki also helped Relius with. He wondered what he should do when his buddy actually showed up, and which mask he would use. He also looked forward to making a mask out of his friend's face when he got there, which sounded worse than it actually was, but it was still funny to think about. Relius finished up his routine, and then walked over to a bag he had with him, and he quickly changed his clothing. He was now where his usual fabulous attire, although it took almost ten minutes for the master to put all of it on and make sure it looked perfect, and instead of his normal hair style, he had to quickly braid his hair into a ponytail down his back, as it was far too frizzed out for the Kabuki routine to be presentable with the suit and the rest of the man's ensemble. Relius had a simple black and purple striped cane with him that day, and was simply resting both of his palms, one on top of the other, on the pommel of the cane, as it was almost time for him to meet up with Sinna for training. They were going to start performing missions, him as the Anbu captain, and Relius as a jounin of the village and a genin sensei, so they might actually be seeing each other more often, rather than less. This was definitely going to be fun, and Relius put on his large grin that he had for everything on his face, made sure that the large strand of hair that stuck out and wiggled on it's own was covered by his large top hat, and then waited.  
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1350/4500 words

Hrm this day... It was going to be a drag. Want to know why? Well see it all started this morning when he woke up and looked in his mirror and his hair was in a ponytail which is something he had no memory of doing... Than he stood up and stepped on a broken piece of wood thus 2 splinters went into his left foot... After that? Well... Lets just say his breakfast had issues being cooked properly.. Anyway! He hopped in the shower and instantly cold water charged at him in tiny drips causing him to back up fast slipping in the tub and falling.. Thankfully he wasn't harmed but his foot burned like hell from having those splinters stuck in them.. But anyway enough of that. He would grab the railing on the left hand side and use it to stand up.. From there he noticed the hot water began working and he resumed his shower using a nice bar of soap which was very generic and created on some island by slave workers. Anyway he would rinse his body off and hop on the shower butt ass naked. From here he would peak his head out the hallway and make sure no one was there before jumping out and running to his room where he instantly closed his door. After slowly getting himself dry by natural means he put on some body spray and some lotion.. A brother can't be ashy!.

After doing all that stuff he would put on his boxers followed by his sleeved undershirt than his pants.. Next he would bandage his right foot and quickly pulled the splinters out which hurt lik- "OH MY GOD SON OF A BITCH! AGHHH" is what he would scream out after pulling the splinters from his left foot. He would then sit up and look at his red foot and raped it in bandages just as he had his right. From here he put on his boots than his vest followed by his thin coat.. After that he would rap his left forearm and then place his glove on than he would rap his whole right arm like he would normally do. He rapped his left leg like usual and placed his headband on his head today for once and just went with it like that.. His hair was still in a ponytail and he decided to keep it that way. As for his ninja tool pouches he would strap them to his back like normal. He grabbed the 3rd and final one and put it on his right leg. He would then grab his favorite graphic novel "Tale of a Ninja who rose from nothing" which was something he has been reading for awhile now.

Today was hmm... A special day for Sinna to say the least. He was gearing up for a showdown with his long time friend and damn near brother in the name of Relius. The two had been close since they were genin together and Sinna had agreed to spar the man today. For what reason Sinna didn't know considering he doesn't really spar much, He prefers getting his experience on the battlefield but today was a bit special. He wanted to get his feet wet against someone who would push him to limits he didn't know he had. Personally they could do this anywhere but they chose to do it in a place they weren't allowed in as kids. This rock formation training area where only Jonin could train and since Sinna still technically counted as a jonin he would make use of said facilities until Hope officially stripped him of said title. Jetting off towards the area Sinna just thought about the training him and Relius would do when they were younger and it made him chuckle considering this would be ten times the grind as before noting both men have grown greatly since they were kids.
Once near the area Sinna formed a hand seal before vanishing and popping up in the center of the arena him and Relius decided to use. "Take that damn smirk off your face" remarked a joking Sinna as he bore a smile seeing his friend take up this silly pose with his cane. "You look as if you're going to the Hokages coronation instead of fighting. You've been wearing creepy outfits like that since the academy." Joked Sinna as he continued to read his book from the center of the circle not even visually looking at Relius. "Now that you have my undivided attention what could possibly be worth training that I had to leave a clone at the root base?" uttered Sinna as he looked up from his book and scowled towards Relius.

Relius could feel the wind change against the skin on his face, considering all the other skin on his body was covered in clothing and gloves, along with other accessories. He liked to dote on his own personal appearance, especially because it made those around him either uncomfortable or angry, as his outfit had to be one of the most impractical sets of clothing for being a ninja, but looks were deceiving, as his clothing was essentially made out of lotion, it was so smooth and breathable. It was as if he was wearing nothing, minus the accessories, sort of hard not noticing that you are wearing a top hat. Relius would wait for another few moments, before a sudden puff of smoke would appear in the center of the arena they were in, fairly close to Relius. The smoke cleared rather quickly, but even through the smoke, Relius knew who it was and the smirk on his face turned into a large grin, as his partner was here. The man was a bit of a strange one, not unlike Relius, but he was a bit more focused on things, although in battle Relius was just as focused, although he didn't have as much experience. Relius was just a huge bucket of cunning, as he focused solely on his ninjutsu. Relius would watch the man as he would start to make jokes about Relius' smirk and his outfit, but Relius knew these were jokes.

"Take that damn smirk off your face" The man would say, Sinna had an obvious joking tone with Relius, so he knew not to take anything seriously, but then again, Relius almost never took anything seriously, not even battles most of the time.

"Haha, this smirk isn't going anywhere, especially not now." Relius was going to have some fun, and perhaps he would get legitimately serious, depending on what happened, but he already knew he was going to lose this spar here today, he just wasn't going to make it easy on the man he called his best friend.

"You look as if you're going to the Hokages coronation instead of fighting. You've been wearing creepy outfits like that since the academy." Sinna would again poke fun at Relius, but this was just a part of their greeting at this point.

"And you seem to be wearing a book on your face, as usual, at least my clothing has style. I can get you an outfit like this, you know, although it won't be as fabulous, what do you say?" Relius' voice and words were akin to what one would imagine the devils': sweet but dark, like liquid honey, tempting those who were listening to him without the need for genjutsu.

"Now that you have my undivided attention what could possibly be worth training that I had to leave a clone at the root base?" Sinna seemed a bit impatient, and perhaps he wouldn't be as into the training as Relius was, and that was too bad, as Relius wasn't about to let him be relaxed in this environment. Relius now actually turned towards his friend, and noticed he wasn't looking at him until he finished that sentence.

"Well, I have a bit of a wager for you, and not the usual one wear I always get you to pay for my food..."

Relius trailed off, his hands now covered by his cloak so that when he said the next sentence and revealed his intentions, he would have the greatest dramatic effect, as he was always for the theatrics.

"If I win, you have to give me the ryo from your next five missions. If you win, however, you will become... Raikage!"

Relius' arms shot sideways as he said the last word, the cape flapping in the breeze as he made a smile up to the heavens, and waited for his partner to recognize the impact and gravity of what Relius had just said. He wondered if he would believe him, Sinna knew that Relius was farely close to the Raikage already, but that's just because they both liked to slack off, so Relius told the kage about the best locations to hide from the anbu that would look for slackers. It was how Relius was getting away with not working for so long, although he felt like those days were coming to an end.

In reality, the Raikage was already considering Sinna to replace her when she inevitably retired and stepped down to do whatever it was she was going to do, Relius didn't really care about what she was going to do after the Raikage spot, and she simply asked Relius about Sinna. Relius said that he would be back to tell her how ready Sinna was for the job in a few days, and that's exactly what this test was for, but Relius would probably have to spin him a tail about how Relius could pull some strings and get him the spot, or something of the sort. He hoped Sinna didn't think he was going to go through with a coup de tat, because that might actually make him serious for a change, and Relius didn't feel like fighting for his life, he was a bit of a true slacker after all.
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Word Count: 880+1350=2230/4500