Getting Back into Training [Sachiko]

Rocking one of her usual outfits, Sachiko Yamada made her way to the training grounds, eager to get more done. She wasn't happy with her current level of ability, ever since her match with Masuyo, and strove to push herself further. Of course, she was at a little bit of a disadvantage compared to others, as she wasn't able to do any Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or other things, and had to primarily rely on her Taijutsu, which while great, wasn't top notch. It was in that pursuit, making herself one of the strongest Taijutsu practitioners in the land, that Sachiko found herself approaching the training grounds today.

The girl had bound her chest up so that it wasn't very visible, making it a little harder for her to breathe and move around, but at least it wouldn't get in her way and bounce around while she was doing training, as it was annoying and distracting to her. Her top was a simple black t-shirt with a mesh undershirt visible through a V at the neck of her shirt. Her hands remained wrapped as usual, although she didn't need them to be. Her pants, held up by a simple brown belt, were a similar color to her shirt, although a little less dark black. The main difference she had with her usual training gear was the addition of sandals.

Sachiko usually preferred to go shoeless when training, as it let her feel the ground beneath her much more easily, however she'd been being yelled at a lot more lately for walking around without shoes on. It wasn't something she understood, as shoes also touched the ground and got dirty, and were no more clean than bare feet would be, but she wasn't necessarily all that smart and didn't want to argue about it, figuring that there was probably some reason for that sort of rule.

As she approached the training grounds, heading towards an empty spot, she stopped, watching a girl train who she hadn't seen before. She didn't mean to stare, of course, but she couldn't help it. She was using a clone to move herself through the air. Simply brilliant. Sachiko gave a wolfish grin at that, before snorting a little. "I can't use clones, doesn't matter." she spoke aloud, mostly to herself, amused that she'd thought she could use that tactic. It was easy to forget, when shinobi used ninjutsu so often, that she didn't have any herself.

Sachiko watched the girl take notice of her, and instantly quieted. She hadn't particularly wanted to draw attention to herself, but it was a little too late for that now. Still, she seemed to have misunderstood what Sachiko meant, so she shook her head in response to Kanna's words.

"Not a lack of knowledge. Can't use them." she spoke in her broken speech. It was obvious that whatever she was, fluent in their language was not one of it. She struggled to even come up with decent sentence structure, and she had to concentrate to come up with the right words in the first place. She didn't have a comprehension issue though, which was a blessing. She seemed to know what people meant for the most part, assuming she knew the words they were speaking.

She put her hands in the basic academy clone seals, and concentrated, as if trying to make a clone, and after a small struggle, showed nothing for it. "I can't use most jutsu." she admitted sheepishly. A lot of people looked down on her for that, especially the shinobi. They saw her as a dumb and useless girl who shouldn't even be a shinobi in the first place, but she had her talents.

"I'm good at Taijutsu though." she said, throwing a few full speed jabs into the air in front of her, as if there was somebody there. For a mere genin, she was fast, that much was true. That's why she was able to match Masuyo for a little while in a straight Taijutsu fight. Against ninjutsu, she was more or less screwed, but she'd overcome that difference somehow.

Sachiko nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, Strong Fist. Not much of it, but enough. Dynamic Entry, Leaf Whirlwind, Leaf Great Whirlwind, Leaf Gale." she said, counting off the techniques on her fingers.

Her eyes lit up when she was asked to demonstrate her aim. It wasn't impeccable, but in comparison with other genin, she was actually a fairly decent marksmen with kunai. It didn't really matter all that much, as she didn't use kunai very often, but she'd practiced a lot during her short stay at the academy.

Catching the kunai with ease by the hilt, she moved towards the tree and marked a spot on it with quick strike, indicating what she was planning on aiming at, and then took her original position, which she assumed the other girl wanted her to throw from. As she turned around to face it, she let loose the kunai, which, although it didn't pack much of a punch, did hit the mark at a decent speed.

She wasn't really all that strong without the use of her stances or adrenaline, but when it came to her ability to aim and hit a mark, she excelled. Her perception was top notch, and she'd had to be coordinated in the wilderness after all. You don't run through forests without some level of coordination, and the combination of the two meant she was able to hit targets that didn't move with ease.

The basics was a good indicator of her proficiency with Strong Fist. Too be fair, she had a few of the lower ranked techniques that she needed to learn as well, but she wasn't concerned with them for the moment, as what she had was enough for the time being. Taking a step backwards, assuming a hostile and defensive stance as Kanna threw a kunai at her feet, she tracked the blade and realized it wasn't going to hit her in the first place. She slowly lowered her defenses again after that, until she began speaking.

Listening eagerly, she realized that the girl was trying to help train her a little bit, offering some advice to her, and that was something that she always greatly appreciated. Whether it came to sparring or training, she was a hands on learner, and found that she gathered more experience by doing than by reading the textbook response. Maybe it was because she found understanding words more difficult than watching and doing, but it didn't matter too much, because she would just try things out to help improve herself.

The main issue she had was that her chakra and stamina reserves weren't all that great. Living and growing up with wolves, she was a pack creature, and they tended to help support each other so much that very few tasks were done alone. They tended to remain low energy until they needed to strike, and then strike with a hit and run and back off, which meant they were fast, but couldn't sustain as much. She was quite similar, as that was the life style she'd grown up in. She'd been working on her stamina though, so hopefully soon she'd be able to sustain much longer.

She watched as Kanna moved through the motions of the moves, picking up on what she was doing quite easily, perceptive as she was. The Leaf Great Flash wasn't all that difficult from what she saw, as it seemed to be fairly consistent with what she tended to do anyhow. A burst of speed to get her to her target, and then a strong attack afterwards that left the opponent reeling for the next person to hit, or for a follow up strike.

She tested a couple quick lateral kicks just to get the motions down. After feeling that she had loosened up enough, she pushed her muscles as far as she could, using more energy than she would be capable of sustaining for a long amount of time. It allowed her to push herself in small bursts, but would burn her out if sustained. Taking a deep breathe, she flooded her lungs with oxygen. Kicking off from a running start, she burst forward at a high speed, and released a lateral kick that held the power of her momentum as well as her own strength behind it, although that wasn't her point of focus mainly. Even so, with the power of the Strong Fist stance as well as the force of the blow was substantial.

Having used the tree as a target, there was an audible crack as her leg smashed into it, bits of the trunk splintering off, and the tree itself giving a small shudder. Kicking off the tree, Sachiko twisted her body and kicked off the tree, using it as a spring board and uncoiling a bit, her body like a spring. The combination of the twisting and coil meant that as she straightened out, her body twisted at extreme speeds.

It wasn't that different than either of the other two whirlwind techniques she knew, but it was a much more advanced version than either of the other two.

Landing on the ground in a crouch, she stood back up, releasing her breathe. Looking at Kanna, she was eager to see what sort of reaction she had. Her face was very earnest.

Tech Learned:

Leaf Strong Whirlwind
Leaf Great Flash

"I don't know what that means." she admitted, but assumed that she was saying she was good with Taijutsu. It was the only thing she could do really, and so the only things she practiced, so there was little surprise that she was good at it. Other people didn't quite specialize as much as she did, and though she was a little behind in experience, she was actually a lot better than most people of her rank because she had dedicated more time to it individually.

Her head tilted a bit as she pondered the other question. She didn't know what developmental issues were, but it seemed like she was asking about why she didn't talk well, so she had some idea what she was asking. "I have not lived here my entire life. Some shinobi found me. Raised by wolves most of my life." She looked at Kanna, not really sure why she was asking about her speech. Most people ignored it or made fun of it. "I've been here.... 7 years. Am 19 they think. Took me a while to learn anything really."

She could only offer estimations of her actual age, as they weren't really sure how old exactly she was. Hopefully that answered her question, but she wasn't sure if it would. She watched as the other girl kicked the tree and grabbed a leaf that glided down, wondering what that was about, but deciding not to ask about it.

"Why're you asking?" Sachiko's eyebrows furrowed as she realized that she had been slightly insulted. It was true, her speech wasn't as good as her taijutsu, but nothing about her was as good as her taijutsu, and she hadn't needed to bring it up like that.

"I.... would like to understand more." Sachiko replied, honestly having been frustrated at her lack of comprehension in most situations and conversations. Sure, she could hit things hard, but that only got her so far. It would be nice to actually know what words meant, and to not have to reach as hard for words to say. Her education was minimal, only teaching her enough to communicate, and after she was able to talk to a sufficient level, they'd dropped the education, and focused on trying to train her in combat.

Besides, she would learn more Taijutsu from Kanna, but it wasn't like she was bad at Taijutsu. Her speech could use some work, and that was the more important thing, as she couldn't really progress without a tutor there, but she was always going to be able to train Taijutsu on her own.

"My name is Sachiko Yamada. Yours?" They'd never actually formally introduced themselves, and if she was going to train under Kanna, she kind of needed to know what to call her. She remembered asking what her name meant at one point, and had been told that Sachiko meant "Child of Bliss" and "Happiness", which always confused her, as she didn't necessarily seem to be a purely happy person. Often she was incredibly focused, but that was it. She supposed it was because she grinned a lot or something. Yamada was simply one of those throw away clan names that they assigned to people they didn't know anything about.

Shaking Kanna's outstretched hand, Sachiko gave the older chuunin a grin. She had someone willing to teach her, and that was important. Someone was giving her a chance, which meant that maybe, just maybe, she could finally push through that barrier of not only her physicality, but also her speech. Maybe she could finally integrate fully, learn more, and speak better.

"I can use chakra, just have issues using it out of me." she said, meaning that she couldn't really use her chakra externally. Internal chakra flow was much easier to do, although she didn't often use it. She was able to use the tree walking and water walking jutsu for that reason, but it wasn't a natural thing for her to do. Sachiko used her chakra mainly to supplement her Taijutsu, because that's all she could use it for, even though she didn't necessarily have all that much chakra to use.

Her reserves were smaller than most, because she hadn't been practicing with chakra her entire life like a lot of people who used chakra had. Chakra was like a muscle, in that when properly trained and used, it would grow and be much stronger. When neglected and unused, it became malnourished, and wouldn't grow or be all that intense.

Still, Sachiko utilized what she had very efficiently, which was why she was able to be a shinobi at all in the first place. Watching what Kanna showed her of the new technique, Sachiko took a moment to replay the movement in her head, and then nodded, stepping in front of the tree. Miming the movements a few times to actually get the feeling of it down, she focused.

Swapping some speed from her strike, Sachiko took a moment of buildup to strengthen her strike. Strong Fist was good in that way, letting the user decide whether strength was more important than speed, or if speed was more important in a certain area. It wasn't all that great of a difference, but it would still maximize the power of her strike. Her elbow smashed into the tree in the same spot that Kanna had just struck.

She created an even deeper crater in it, more chunks of the tree splintering away. Kanna had actually had more force behind her strike, but that wasn't to say that Sachiko's power was negligible. Getting hit by a strike from either of them probably wouldn't be good for your health. She frowned, noticing that the damage she had done wasn't quite as much as Kanna.


-Learned: Leaf Destroying Rock Rise

Reversed Strong Fist Boost

Strength - B
Coordination - C+

The pat on the head was a fantastic feeling, a sense of accomplishment rushing through her for a good job. She hadn't been actually praised for her prowess much, and that was something she hadn't known that she needed. She was a little hard on herself, as if she wasn't able to match the same level of skill as someone else, she figured she wasn't good enough yet and thus had to get back to work on training. It wasn't a bad thing, but she hadn't known that the feeling of joy and pride was something that was wholly necessary.

She had been wrong, and hopefully she could continue to earn the praise in the future. "I live in an apartment paid by the village. Residential District 4, Building 29, Apartment 16." Sachiko gave her address, seeing no reason not to. "Could have just looked me up in the Administration Office though. As far as food, Steaks, Meats."

"Why is it important what I eat and where I live though? I guess you need to find me, so that is why you need my address, but food?" The wolf girl asked, trying to find an answer. She didn't really see why it mattered what her favorite food was. Did it matter what someone's favorite clothes were? Or that her favorite color was Grey-brown? It didn't make much sense to be important.

Nodding enthusiastically as the meaning of her words dawned upon her, Sachiko turned and bowed to Kanna. "I think that sounds fantastic. I will learn everything!" she said, although she soon calmed down from her excitement. "It would be a little unfair though. I know my alphabet already." she said, giving a bit of full disclosure. She didn't want to be unfair, and actually was interested in learning new things. Reinforcing things would be fine, but she knew the alphabet pretty well.

Of course, part of it was also that she didn't know what hypothetically meant, and didn't realize that Kanna was presenting her with a potential situation that was more of an example than anything else.

Wordplay was one of those things that she struggled with, because she only knew the basics of sentence structure, and didn't know a lot of words and their meanings. Kanna would probably have figured that much out by now, considering that she had multiple times in this conversation alone, not understood what she had meant. She was like a child in her understanding, even though she was by no means a child.

The female cocks a brow upright at the bow, but ultimately nods her head in acknowledgement at that point in time. "Then that's one of the basics out of the way." She chimes casually. She's not exactly sure if she's good at being well.. an actual teacher outside of training, but there was a chance to learn something new at every angle. This would just be one of those new things that she was bound to try out, for the sake of being of aid to others.

"Good though. I'll contact you in the next few days or so to get it started. Be prepared." Kanna remarks casually, and unfolds her arms. She starts to stride off at last, moving along at a casual pace just in case Sachiko wanted to stop her. The woman could tell this was the beginning of something that she'd take interest in. At heart, Kanna likes to help people out, so it's only natural that by doing this she'd feel a lot more optimistic if she just made the effort to aid her. There was no harm in it, after all.

If all was pretty much over with for the time being then she'd be off on her way. For now she'd probably just make preparations, if not get some more valuable training done.

(exit)

Sachiko couldn't really wait to begin learning. Now having something to eagerly await, she had some sort of drive and something to strive towards. She watched Kanna walk away, and didn't say anything further, instead tightening the bandages on her hands and began her training anew.

Striking the tree over and over, she was simply working on her usual training, to keep herself in tip top shape. From what she could tell, Kanna would be a great teacher to her, and that was something she needed. A wolf benefitted from the knowledge of the pack, not by going it alone.

-Exit-