|| [Hatake] : Fascination : [Kakashi] || [Part XXI] ||
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Oriko wandered back to her apartment in the early evening having taken a walk after finishing lunch with Kiyoshi, the low light was relaxing and she felt strangely at ease, far more than she had been for the past week. The early evening air was cool as she thought about what tactics she'd train for her spar with Kakashi no doubt the day after tomorrow, and how she'd put them into effect.
As she closed the door of her apartment behind her and began boiling some water for tea before bed, she reckoned that the fan would be a bad idea to use on Kakashi as she still had too little control over it and decided that the risk of seriously injuring him was far too high. She finished her tea quickly and went to bed, not finding it all that easy to sleep. She awoke early the next morning and made her way to the training grounds to begin practicing with the new sebon needles (with bells) and with running through in her mind how the kibakufuda would work (and wondering if making fakes would be worth it).
She trained tirelessly throughout the morning running through all of her jutsus and other skills as well as tactically running through her list of skills – what would work best when and where? She eventually paused to go an locate some lunch and then she'd go back to the library and take one last look at the available books to help her with gaining control over her fan (and maybe even something to help her with card Jutsu).
Oriko was getting steadily closer to understanding what the problem was with her fan and card Jutsu, but the books she was reading seemed merely to explain how chakra weapons worked, rather than tips for getting the best out of them. The majority of the book's she'd read talked about 'elemental recomposition', which she had little trouble with, but somehow she couldn't manage it when it came to channeling her chakra into something. She was lying flat on the ground in the middle of the training ground, again, tired out as the evening light was fading; her heavy breaths the only noise puncturing the air. She allowed her eyes to look over the dark sky, the occasional star becoming faintly visible, the cool air making her feel somehow…alive.
"Hey," His smooth voice cut across her peace, she jolted in mild surprise – firstly at anyone finding her here and coming to talk to her and secondly, of it being Kakashi, "What are you doing?" She didn't get up, but tilted her head back to glance at him, finding him sat close by but his entire body facing at a right angle away from her. She moved back to her previous, comfortable position, thinking that even if it were mid-day and he didn't have a mask on, she still wouldn't be able to read his expression,
"Relaxing,"
"Busy day?" He flashed his eye back to her,
"Hmm, just a tiring one…training mostly with less success than I'd like,"
"That perfectionist-thing of yours flaring up again?" She could hear a half-hearted smile in his voice, (although it could just be a part of his exceptionally dry sense of humour),
"O-Oi!" She exclaimed throwing an arm over her head to hit him, as she leaned her head back, a look of mock indignation written all over her face; Kakashi caught her arm, his hand gripping just firmly enough around her wrist to keep her knuckles from hitting his leg, "Aren't instructors supposed to be supportive?" She remained in her current position, with her head leaned back to meet his eye, with one arm still held by Kakashi above her head,
"Well, it's not as if you're particularly lacking in skills…or need me to tell you what you're capable of," He averted his eyes away from hers, loosening his grip ever so slightly on her wrist;
"True, but it's not as if you need criticize me for working hard," She grumbled quietly, she could heard a breath of amusement escape him; she tried to tug her hand back but he didn't recognize the request and held on, "Hand," She said simply tugging on it again. He relaxed his grip just enough that she had to pull her arm away and as she did so could feel his fingertips brush over the inside of her wrist.
Oriko also took the opportunity to sit up and turned to face him, leaned back on her hands looking back up at sky, more stars now visible, feeling quite uncomfortable but unsure what to say or do next;
"I apologize for being a bit rude earlier,"
"Hmm?" She queried, not sure what he meant, she looked over to him, searching for his gaze,
"Earlier, when you were having lunch with… uh…"
"Kiyoshi,"
"Yea, him…" Kakashi didn't meet her eyes, in fact he looked very uncomfortable, "Sorry, I shouldn't have barged in on your date,"
"What?" Oriko paused for a moment, opening and closing her mouth a few times, trying to form words, but could help herself and burst into laughter so hearty her ribs started to ache all too quickly. Kakashi wasn't quite expecting that response, but it still left him answerless as to what her relationship with the man was…and why he found himself so interested.
"Ah-haha! w-we're not dating! Ahahaha, he's my friend…he even has a girlfriend," She eventually stuttered, "Eheh, Iruka thought the same thing too…" She recalled still grinning in amusement, as she found the rather unimpressed look written over Kakashi's face, unsure why she found his expressions and question so hilarious,
"Well, that's fine then," His tone of voice was one quite stiff with no doubt embarrassment and Oriko couldn't help herself but burst into hysterical laughter again, but attempted to quieten it by slapping a hand over her mouth – but was still shaking with laughter.
Kakashi looked over to her, keeping a bored expression firmly on, but neither could he resist a small unseen smile at her amusement, welcoming the sudden loss of tension in the air.
"You are ready for our spar tomorrow, I trust," She managed to quell the laughter down enough to respond to his sort-of question,
"Yep, no worries,"
"Good…" Kakashi rose to his feet, as Oriko, who first allowed a yawn to escape her followed, as she slid the fan back into one of her pouches, having remembered that she'd left it onto the grass next to her, "What's that?"
"Hmm?"
"What was that you just picked up?"
"Oh, that's my fan…apparently it's made from wood which reacts to chakra and I can create blades of pure Fuuton energy with it…but I still can't direct it or control it well…" She responded dragging the little item back out to show him, he looked over it with apparent interest,
"Hmm…this is indeed well made…have you been using it in conjunction with any jutsus?"
"Uhh… no, why? Should I have been?" She queried meeting his gaze,
"Well, you don't have to, as I'm sure you've guessed you only need to channel chakra into it, but using it in conjunction with a jutsu may help you gain control," Oriko nodded, hearing the logic in his words, "Hmm…were you the cause of the tree I saw with half of its bark missing?"
"Err, ahaha, yea actually… A-err, blade of chakra escaped my control and ended up shaving that poor tree," She responded with a shy smile, feeling silly and a little embarrassed by his laughter at her failure,
"Ah-ha, well keep trying and it will be of invaluable use to you," She nodded in agreement rather than giving a verbal response. Shortly after, they spoke quick goodbyes as they parted ways to their respective apartments for a good night's sleep before their first training session together in some time.
Oriko was stood leaning on one of the upright logs in the training grounds relaxing while she waited for Kakashi to show up, it was now late morning and Oriko had already had the time to prepare a plan of action and to organize her tools in accordance with it.
"Ohayo," Kakashi eventually made his presence known,
"Hi,"
"Shall we get started then?" He queried, lifting up his hand band, "You don't mind, do you?"
"Uhh…. Well I guess not," She stuttered, a little surprised by his actions and why it seemed to put her a little on edge,
"Good," He stated, stepping back into a defensive position, "Ready, start!" They both seemly disappeared as Oriko reappeared in some of the lower braches of a tree, immediately pulling out two kunai, in her left a fake kibakufuda attached to a kunai and in her right, a kunai with a chakra thread attached. She paused for a few moments, listening to the sounds, she couldn't hear Kakashi at all, but intuition told her he was no doubt close by, she leapt down from the tree and sure enough Kakashi made his presence known, she immediately flung the fake one towards him purposefully missing to forcing him to move – which he did and just as he reached the peak of his jump, she threw the kunai with a chakra thread. Although he managed to deflect it, the thread now formed a good signalling post, something which Kakashi did not allow to escape his notice.
Leaping back, he formed hand seals faster than Oriko could keep up; she had only just enough time to leap out of the way of a grand fire ball (although it singed the bottoms of her sandals) as she pulled out two sebon needles (only one with a bell attached) and a length of kunai's all connected by super-thin wire.
She also connected the wide to the second sebon needle with no bell, and hurled the two needles at Kakashi, who dodged them both before she'd even let go of them, she left the needles be for a few minutes as she leapt out of sight behind a tree and quickly drove on the kunais into it, as she held the loose end close and leapt towards him, forming two kage bunshins, one leap towards her along with the original (which had an exploding tag in its grasp) and the other held back a little, creating a jutsu. Kakashi could clearly see the formation they were making and decided that he'd have to fight, rather than attempt to leap out of the way and leave himself vulnerable.
The bunshin made the first strike, although the taijutsu movement were far too predictable but he almost didn't notice the tag it held and just as he was about to get the clone out of the area, but the original was quick to join in. She threw the lead kunai, (which was being directed by a chakra thread) just out of Kakashi's reach, although he threw a counter shuriken, she was all too prepared and jerked the kunai out of the way. Kakashi however, was quick on the draw and threw a sharp kick at the clone, forcing it backwards as the original leapt in closing the net of kunai and shuriken, and the final clone, holding the card Jutsu, appeared from directly above, and threw the card the remaining two meters to connect to Kakashi.
He grabbed Oriko's lower arm and pulled down, creating an opening through which he could escape through but he wouldn't be able to completely dodge the card; the clone's next movements being shown to him through his Sharingan meant that in the space of a moment, he let go of her arm, formed the hand seals to a katon, which although was a lower level Jutsu, would be magnified by her wind chakra, which it was and exterminated the clone in a second. Oriko still hadn't moved fast enough to escape Kakashi who grabbed her arm again, pinned her to the floor while he sat on her back. Although her first clone hadn't quite been destroyed, he easily deflected the kunai complete with kibakufuda back towards the clone, with the knife in his own hand, before placing it at her neck,
"I win again!"
"Do you?" A clone appeared at his side with a kunai in hand held to his neck,
"Ahaha, well technically yes, but that was quite nicely sneaky," He tucked his kunai away, let go of her wrist and rose to his feet, as he clone disappeared – but enough to his surprise he had apparently captured a clone rather than it being the one stood next to him.
"Eh? You're the real one?"
"Yea, I switched it when I ducked behind the tree," She commented easily, tugging the wire of kunais back towards her and curling them into her pocket, as she too picked up her sebon needles, as Kakashi looked a little unimpressed at how she'd managed to fool him so easily, but too internally smiled – glad at her continued improvement.
"Well done, I didn't see that coming," He sighed, "Well, we'll meet up again tomorrow, at nine," Oriko nodded in understanding as he shifted his haitai-ate to cover his left eye, as they wandered back towards Konoha,
"Well, it would seem that you didn't do too badly without me," Oriko couldn't help but roll her eyes at his comment, "Your tactics are getting better,"
"Hmm," She muttered back, not really acknowledging or dismissing his words,
"Just keep on moving forward," Were his closing remarks as a bird circled above catching their attention, "Well, looks like I need to go, see you tomorrow," he disappeared in a puff of smoke,
"See ya," Oriko finished, feeling a little disappointed with her spar today – she didn't lose by much, but she felt that she could have done an awful lot better – there always seemed to be improvement needing to be made.