Bordering on Cynical [MISSION]

[Saito Tien]

“Hello, Mister Rabbit.” Tien greeted the rabbit respectfully from his position atop a rock. He closed his eyes and put his hands together in the Kai handseal. “Your chakra seems knotted, my friend.” Tien told the rabbit letting the handseal break “Emotions such as anger and guilt can burden your tenketsu, little rabbit. You must let go of your unresolved feelings if you ever hope to feel complete.”

The rabbit stared at Tien for the longest moment before giving a twitch-like nod and scampering away. Tien looked after the rabbit with visible worry. He sure hoped that rabbit would take his advice. It was clear he had been in some form of pain. Of course Tien had no way of knowing what a rabbit's pain felt like and it was true that he might have accidentally mistaken the rabbit's happiness, confusion, curiosity or simply nothing at all for pain. Tien had experienced much pain and sadness in his lifetime and perhaps it caused him to take something of a cynical approach to reading people/rabbits.

Tien closed his eyes again and allowed his hands to come together in the Kai handseal once more. He was playing a game fellow brothers of the Saito clan had taught him while he waited for his assigned partner for today’s border patrol duty. The aim of the game was simple. You found chakras and you tried to identify what they belonged to i.e. person, dove, beetle etc... The game cost minimal chakra and was a good way to train your sensory perception.

“Hello mister, uh, person walking dog?” Tien opened his eyes and let his hand seal break just as a man and toddler passed by. The man gave him a seriously odd look and hurried his son up to gwet away from the weird shinobi on the rock. “Oh, woops.” Tien said brightly chuckling at his own silliness. “I guess I'm still a work in progress.”

Tien closed his eye and executed the kai handseal for the third time in so many minutes and sent his chakra out once more...

SPOILER: Click to show

Sensory Perception – Used to find rabbit. Used to incorrectly guess what a man and his son were. Used at end of post.

Chakra = 99%
Word Count = 378

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Masumi was not exactly happy to receive the messenger bird that brought news of her newest mission - not only because it was interrupting her training, but because she quickly found out that she had a partner on this endeavor. He was a member of the Saito Clan, a relation of the esteemed Yondaime Tsuchikage, and was one of few to receive the Saito's third eye, which meant that he was more of a sensory-type shinobi. Although, the information also indicated that he was fairly skilled in ninjutsu - a fuuton element user - and speed. So she supposed she couldn't really complain about him - not only was sensory ability valuable on a border patrol, but he had some medium to long range offensive ninjutsu to complement her short to medium range skill set. They would work fairly well together if combat did occur, which was always a plus... so long as he wasn't some sort of bumbling idiot, at any rate. All the same, she wasn't looking forward to this - it was always frustrating, the chunin thought, to be paired with someone whose skills were less than your own. But that was how jonin must feel most of the time, especially with their students - perhaps it made good practice, to know your limits to avoid pushing people beyond their breaking point, or something along those lines. It might have just been her ego talking, but despite being a mere chunin, Masumi considered herself one of the strongest shinobi in the village - stronger than some jonin, at the very least, that she knew for sure. Yet she was still so far outclassed by the Lord Tsuchikage - the difference between jonin and Kage was astounding. After she had returned to her home to gather the rest of her equipment - and quickly change clothes, since she'd been training in that outfit since dawn and it was nearing noon and she refused to do a border patrol in dirty, sweaty clothes - she headed towards the meeting point, and saw the other chunin sitting there and talking to himself. Of course she was going to get the crazy one. "Saito Tien, I presume?" words: 362 | tags: tien | notes: 362/3000 | credit: akemi of btn

[Saito Tien]

Tien had sensed her coming. Of course that wasn't because he was some sort of epic prophet of yore. He'd had his sensor feelers out as she'd approached and when she spoke his name it became incredibly likely she was the one he was waiting for. He had been told she was a girl. Also that she was younger which made sense given the height of the sort of vaguely human blob that was coming toward him.

“Hello misses Chuunin.” He said opening his eyes and letting his hands break apart. Tien rose from his spot as gracefully as if he weighed a feather. He smiled happily. “Yes, but my friends call me Tien.” He looked her up and down intelligently. “And you are my friend.” He decided within five minutes of meeting the girl that they would indeed be friends for life. “I hope you are Masumi Maeda. I have been waiting on her, or you, for quite a while. I don't mind waiting so much as it gives me a chance to hone my abilities but I am very eager to complete our mission. The safety of our borders is of paramount urgency. Last year there were three deaths due to border breaches; twice bandits, once rogue ninja themselves. ” Tien stopped and frowned. He was running his mouth off again. It was a habit he had when he was nervous.

“I am very sorry for the babbling I am just nervous to meet such an already experienced and powerful shinobi.” Tien explained all three of his eyes curiously studying her. “You seem stressed. Do you follow a nutritious diet? You clearly exercise enough. Are you sleeping regularly and routinely? Sometimes I find with my students that the stress of constant training works against their rate of learning. Do you take often breaks in your training? When was your last day off?”

SPOILER: Click to show

Chakra Tank: 99%
Word Count: 322

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Masumi just shook her head slightly. "We are not friends. We are comrades and nothing more." she replied stiffly. So, not only did this boy talk to himself, but he was the type to buddy up with everyone and say they would be best friends and a bunch of other fluffy nonsense she did not care for. "So I advise you get that idea out of your head." And who else would she be, really? "Yes, that would be me." Then he went off in a tangent about the importance of border patrol, and she raised a brow as she listened. Well. At the very least, he was well-informed - better a rambling boy with at least a semblance of intelligence than a blithering idiot. If she ever got stuck with the latter on a long mission... it wouldn't be too far out of the realm of possibility for her to kill him, dump the body somewhere, and blame it on an attack. Idiocy was the one thing she truly could not stand. Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Are you not older than I? You should be the one with more experience between the two of us." She did have a rather extensive mission record for her age, but the numbers weren't much higher than an average chunin's - it was just that she took part in more difficult missions due to her skill level. "There is no need to be nervous. I am not your enemy." As soon as she'd gotten the words out, he began to rapidly fire questions at her. "...I do not believe my dietary habits, sleeping schedule, and vacation times are any of your business." she responded. "And I am most certainly not stressed. Now cease this silly questioning so we can leave." words: 300 | tags: tien | notes: 662/3000 | credit: akemi of btn

[Saito Tien]

Tien did not mention that she did not need to be friends with him for him to be friends with her. He felt that she might take that the wrong way as if he were forcing her to be his friend. He would never do that to another person nor would he wish them to think he would do such a thing.

Freewill was very important to Tien. It was the single ideal of human law by which goodness could be had. It was also the same ideal from which all evil came too. As long as there was balance of these two forces however the world would be fine. At least that's what seemed fair anyway.

“That is true.” He said in reply to the comment about him being older “But I hear such good things about you. Is it true you are a child prodigy?”Tien managed to make such a question sound light as if he were asking the date of her birthday or the colour of her shoes. “You know, I heard you were really fast.”

After her terse reply to all of his questions there was a short silence tension filling the air somewhat. Tien looked at Maeda. Maeda presumably looked back at him. Three unblinking emotionless eyes versus her two. “Okay, let's go.” He declared brightly breaking the tension. “Where do you want to go first? We could go to the normal entrance to the village and then just pick a direction to walk around or we could head to one corner of the border and pick a direction or we could do something else. What do you want to do? Should I just follow you? Should I shut up now? Why are you so cranky? How fast are you? I'm pretty fast. We could race. Oh no, I'm blabbering again. You really need to stop me when I do that.”

SPOILER: Click to show

Chakra Tank = 99%
Word Cout: 326

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Masumi considered this question for a moment. "If that is how you prefer to think of it... then yes." The definition of a child prodigy was someone whose extraordinary talent made itself known at an unusually young age. While she had been at the top of all her academy classes, in both physical training as well as written tests and the like, it wasn't entirely due to her own genius. "I tend to put more work into my studies and training than a true prodigy would need to, although my innate genius is immense as it is. Getting complacent and believing that your natural talent will carry you throughout your life is one sure way to lead yourself to an early grave in this world." she explained. "I am more than merely fast. Some have compared me at my best to a mirage." Perhaps she was bragging a little bit, but he had asked, and so she felt obligated to answer - about this subject, at least. Her personal life... much less so. "It would be by no means facetious to say that no one in Iwagakure can match me, not even the great Tsuchikage himself." If the boy was looking at her, he might have caught a glimpse of a rare sight - the faint hint of a smile on the usually apathetic chunin's face. "My speed is by far my greatest skill and the one I treasure most." For a moment, she thought he was going to drop his endless stream of questions. Oh, how wrong she was. He began prattling on about how they should approach the patrol - she had half a mind to say that they should split up, just so she wouldn't have to hear him talking the whole time. Although it would improve their efficiency by a decent percentage - she could cover more distance alone than with a partner, after all - it would be imprudent if they ran into any intruders and lacked a way to signal the other to come to their aid. "We will exit at the front gate and head to the west. I would suggest you follow my lead - as you pointed out, I do have more experience. Please talk less. I'm not cranky - this is just how I am. Faster than you. I don't race. And you should learn to control your mouth." words: 397 | tags: tien | notes: 1059/3000 | credit: akemi of btn

[Saito Tien]

“You should talk to my students.” Tien replied after she had replied to his child prodigy question. “Some of them could do with that piece of advice. It is difficult to watch someone who passes with ease knowing that if they do not put in their heart and soul they never will. I have known too many that have passed due to their own sheer arrogance.” Tien seemed genuinely sad for a moment. “But it is nice to know you are not one of those types.” Tien added returning to his enthusiasm.

For the first time Tien glimmered a hint of enthusiasm as she told him all about her speed. It was clear that she was rather proud of this. Tien had heard of her speed multiple times. She was, perhaps, the fastest Shinobi in the entire village. The way she spoke gave Tien cause to believe her. She just didn't seem to be lying so either the rumours about here were grossly exaggerated and she herself had an inflated view of herself or it was actually all true.

Tien wasn't exactly slow either. He was at peak physical condition as all Ninja ought to be. He could probably keep up with her but he was doomed in a race. A race it seemed she was not too excited about. In fact Maeda's entire crankiness just went up a new rank. Tien realised that he very well might be taken as irritating. It was his constant, nervous babbling and he rather hoped he would be able to control himself lest this mission go awry due to an interpersonal disaster.

So, instead of replying, Tien straightened himself up to his full height and nodded. He allowed his hand to gesture in the direction of the front gates indicating 'you first'. She had, of course, agreed to taking the lead.

SPOILER: Click to show

Chakra = 99%
Word Count: 320
Total: 378+322+326+320= 1346/3000

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? "Students?" Certainly this fool didn't have actual genin students... Oh, wait - academy students. Yes, the thought that he might teach at the academy had escaped her momentarily - mostly because she didn't find much worth in the chunin that spent their time behind desks, prattling on at children that most assuredly weren't listening. "You teach classes at the academy, then?" Hm. In his case, that did not really surprise her. He was talkative - annoyingly so, in fact - enough to enjoy spending his day talking at children. And his skills had not developed to anywhere near her level because he spent his days in a classroom instead of training and doing missions. No wonder he found her so extraordinary - because she had actually accomplished something in her life while he was stuck lecturing and grading papers. Of course, she couldn't deny that academy teachers had some sort of use. The four to six years of schooling that shinobi hopefuls received did teach them about the village and its history, a lot of which people would be ignorant of if not for the classes. And that was about it, honestly. Everything else they did at the academy could just as easily be done by a jonin-sensei. And there wasn't anything wrong with starting teams and having tougher training at younger ages. In fact, it would probably increase the strength of their forces overall, even if some jonin were occupied with training teams for far longer than usual. "Do you ever want to become a jonin and have genin students?" Personally... She would rather join the Blast Corps than be a jonin-sensei. And she really didn't want to join the Blast Corps. Students would hinder her - not to mention, she didn't have the kind of personality necessary to teach well. The girl began to head toward the village gates. Hopefully, the boy was going to keep his mouth shut and all three of his eyes peeled for anything suspicious. "It is your turn to speak of your skills." Sure, the file she had received had provided a decent amount of information, but it was always good to hear it from the actual person - on occasion, files could prove too bland. "In case we do run into trouble, it will be useful to me to know - aside from any physical abilities, I am also somewhat of a strategist." words: 402 | tags: tien | notes: 1461/3000 | credit: akemi of btn

[Saito Tien]

“I do.” Tien answered in the affirmative to the question about working at the Academy. “Though I don't usually take whole classes myself. The Senior Chuunin generally do that. I help as best I can and have even been allowed to take classes of my own several times. I mean technically I am still in training after all. The blind ought not to lead the blind as my mother always says.”

“I would very much like to some day.” Tien answered about being a Jounin Sensai. “Though it may be some time yet before I find myself in such a prestigious office.”

When they set off he wasn't completely surprised when she asked him of his skills. It wasn't such an odd request from a squad mate to ask of anothers skills. After all it was a wise tactical decision to get informed on your teams strengths and weaknesses in case a combat scenario ensued. “I guess my taijutsu is about average but my speed, ninjutsu and chakra control are above average. Not that I'm overly specialised in either of those. I have some capability in Medical Ninjutsu but really not enough to call to in a pinch. My sensing abilities are good but not as fully developed for a Saito as you might expect nor as I actually want. I can distinguish species and things but not individual people quite yet. Am I forgetting anything?” Tien frowned thinking hard “Oh and I have only one elemental release and that is Wind which I have some useful jutsu for. Oh and I practise the Strong Fist way of Taijutsu, have you heard of it? I use swift, strong hits to incapacitate my target quickly and efficiently.”

Tien looked over to his companion. “Aside from the speed and, uh, 'genius' what are your other abilities like if I may be so bold as to enquire?” Tien asked curiously. She had mentioned her great speed but not her elemental affinity, taijutsu skill or anything like that.

SPOILER: Click to show

Chakra: 99%
Word Count: 336
Total: 378+322+326+320+336 = 1682/3000

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? "Was your promotion to chunin fairly recent, or does it just take many years to properly train an instructor?" Honestly, she couldn't deny being a little curious about the process of training to be an academy teacher and chunin proctor - it was a path she had stayed far away from, but that didn't mean she didn't at least want to know how it worked. Knowledge was always a good thing, even about such simple matters as this. "Are you also trained to be a proctor, like for the chunin exams if we ever happen to host them?" "It is not easy to progress from chunin to jonin, but if you put in the extra hours of training and focus yourself well, it is not as difficult to reach a jonin power level as you might expect it to be." Masumi informed him, that little smile still on her face. It was strange - but when he wasn't pestering her with a million questions in a row, she didn't find him to be all that annoying. "It's also a good idea to take on as many missions as you can, especially if you can get assigned to B-Ranks with experienced jonin." Medical ninjutsu, eh? That was something the files hadn't told her, and it would be good to have around, even if he wasn't a medical master - any ability to heal was better than none at all. "I practice the style myself, actually." she replied in response to his question about strong fist taijutsu. "Hm. Average chakra control, above average taijutsu, elite jonin level ninjutsu - doton and suiton elements - fuuinjutsu, and speed. Most of my ninjutsu are short to mid-range defensive or supplementary techniques. No genjutsu personally, but I can summon kitsune. They're genjutsu masters." And there were only two of them she didn't have the ability to summon - the fox king Kishin and his lieutenant Akuma, and they were far out of the realm of possibility at her current level. "I am a chunin in rank, but nearly an elite jonin in skill." That about summed it up. "So long as your questions are relevant, feel free to ask me about anything." Surely that would put a stop to any more personal questions he might have wanted to ask. words: 390 | tags: tien | notes: 1851/3000 | credit: akemi of btn

[Saito Tien]

“I will probably take part in a supporting role. I may not be in charge of each task but there are many tasks to be done for, during and after each task. I would be assigned to help with tasks like that.” Tien answered happy to answer as many questions as he asked. “My promotion to Chuunin was... Hmm, lemme think... Four years in a couple of months. Training is more an experience thing. You get lumped with a Senior Proctor for a couple of months and then you just kind of get assigned classes and stuff every day. When you become a Senior Proctor you get more fixed schedules like a class that you take throughout the whole year.”

Tien may well one day make a great Sensai but, to be honest, he was happy with the way things were now. He didn't particularly want to be put back in a squad nor be embroiled in high-risk life or death missions that ended only in blodshed for your friends or for your enemies. One way or another someone always got hurt on those high-ranking missions.

He was oddly happy to hear she practised the same style as he. It was a fairly popular style. The Leaf's open policy with it's taijutsu had caused the thing to spread freely throughout the ninja world years even before he was born. It was only as unique to leaf by way of it's technique names now.

Her detailed yet snappy description of her abilities left him kind of speechless. He had the feeling she had either recited this speech before at least in her head if not to others. It was well practised in the manner it was delivered. It was full of information with little distraction at all. Of course she obviously wasn't a woman of mannerisms and rabling s but this one was a little too concise. He was impressed of course. She was all that he had heard about her and a little bit more on the top. If more than a bit smug.

“That's a fairly odd clause to make.” Tien responded when she gave him the all clear to ask 'relevant' questions. Tien had long since abandoned the practice of relevance and relished the idea of going back to it. He understood what others meant but he had never found a thing completely irrelevant from another. If one looked closely and followed the many ties that bind reality together anything could be found by starting anywhere. What others referred to as relevance he had come to know simply as a measurement of how quickly a tie could be found from one object to another. An object that was tied fairly close to another was relevant and vice versa irrelevant. Tien had some trouble however when the idea of relevance was placed on the more metaphysical level of ideas. This links were a little more subtle. This was why Tien's questions could jump oddly from one subject to a completely different one. There was a link there and that's all that mattered to Tien but most of the time the link was so stretched that it simply appeared like a random off-topic question.

Tien's mind had gotten wrapped up in the intricacies of relevance that he did not speak for some time after his initial verbal response. Such that they had arrived at the gate before he had added a question or an explanation on why he had believed she had made an odd clause.

“Ah, look, here we are. I should probably begin making sensory checks at regular intervals. Do you have a preferred interval or will once every three minutes suffice?” Tien was conscious that he had handed the reigns to her so making assumptions and assertions would get him nowhere. Suggestions and action were the roles of the subservient squad member. It fostered a chain of command which, in turn, lead to decisive and unified action in times of crisis.

SPOILER: Click to show

Chakra Tank: 1%
Word Count: 667
Total:
378+322+326+320+336+667= 2349/3000

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] dear lucid, my time is right to dance away while the bullets fly you know they come so close, so close will you fight for your agenda or will you fight for air? Four years as a chunin? And he was about eighteen, so he had gotten his promotion at fourteen - which was actually a year younger than she had been upon passing the exams. Not that it had been her choice to wait three or so years before taking the exams. If she had been able to go it alone, without her insufferable teammates and the approval of her sensei, she most definitely would have. Hm. But that was neither here or there, and it really didn't matter to their conversation in the slightest. "Ah." He didn't seem to be all that succinct in his replies, like she was, which was slightly annoying - but something she'd likely get over. He remained silent after her description of her abilities, as if in shock. Well, what had he expected? He had heard the rumors of her being a prodigy, of her being sent on high rank missions more frequently than any other chunin in the village, and probably a few other things, to boot, and he expected her to have the skills of an average chunin? Masumi knew well enough that rumors were often exaggerated - such as the one she'd heard about the Lord Tsuchikage sleeping with that horrible cat woman, Senka. The extent of that relationship was her forcing him to buy her fish and things and letting her sleep on his head. As if the Tsuchikage would stoop to such depths to find a woman. "You do?" Masumi shook her head slightly. "You have a tendency to ask personal questions. I do not like personal questions, nor will I ever answer them. Thus, you should refrain from wasting your breath by asking them. That is what I meant by 'relevant questions.'" she explained, repressing a small sigh. Was it truly that difficult to figure out her meaning? She had refused to answer his personal questions earlier, but had accommodated him with answers to the questions about her skills and whatnot. The use of common sense wasn't too difficult, was it? "Three minutes will suffice." she replied, beginning to scan the area herself. She had no sensory abilities of her own, but she had eyes, and they were good enough ninety-nine percent of the time. words: 378 | tags: tien | notes: 2229/3000 | credit: akemi of btn