Unconventional Training Methods

[painted_seals]

Who: Sai and Open
When: IC 1/16
Where: Gardens
What: Art, mice and doubles.
Rating/Warning: PG-13


a. Sai sits cross-legged on the steps of a newly renovated garden path with a sketch pad resting on his knees. With little effort, his hand runs across the paper in quick lines that come together to form the shadow of a figure that looks strangely like the one standing in front of the fountain meters away from him.


b. A small inky mouse bursts through a gooseberry bush and hot on its trail is a grey alley cat. Spotting someone up ahead, the mouse changes its path and hurries towards the new player. The cat is quick to lay chase and pounces before the little rodent can scurry behind the other, but in its haste it misses the true aim of its prey and is quick to re-route pouncing on the person's foot just as the mouse scurries up their leg.


c. Custom had Sai practicing his taijutsu in the gardens, a more familiar area for a ninja of Konoha amid plants and trees. From up above two ink clones make their move and Sai flips back as two kunai's embed themselves on the ground he'd been standing on seconds before. Pulling out his tanto, he deflects half a dozen shuriken and kicks the first clone square in the chest before spinning around to deflect the sword coming down on him. He then jumps back and the second clone chases after him forcing him to step to the left where a hand suddenly grabs him from the ground below - the first clone. Sai parries off a blow from the clone above ground and quickly slams his tanto down on the first destroying it and covering his foot in ink. With his foot now free, he manages to jump away just in time to avoid a slash to his exposed stomach. Gripping his sword tightly, the ninja faces off his ink creation ready to embed the tanto in its side when the sound of approaching footsteps reaches his ears stilling his movements. Sai immediately turns away from the clone and toward the direction of the sound, while the clone shifts its attention to the new arrival, sword still firmly in its hand.

Comments

a!!!

[hoasen]

[This is sometime just after she bought snacks to go to the pool party for! She spots a young man drawing, and walks over to inspect.

He's very fast with his strokes.]

a!!!

[painted_seals]

[Laid down on the thick paper is an unfinished sketch done in charcoal. On her approach Sai is busy smudging the edges with his thumb to better soften the previous stroke.]

[hoasen]

[On closer inspection, that looks a lot like her.

O-oh...except she bites down to keep her mouth shut, she didn't want to interrupt him while he's in his creative zone.]

[painted_seals]

[His hands stop their movement. With his thoughts lingering on the drawing beneath his fingertips, Sai forgets to remind himself to smile and simply turns to face her point blank.]

.....

[hoasen]

[As soon as he stopped, she looks up to see him staring right at her.]

...

[...OH WAIT.]

A-ah, I am sorry for interrupting you!

[painted_seals]

[He stares up at her.]

You didn't interrupt me.

[hoasen]

Oh.

[She blinks back at him. WHAT DOES SHE SAY--]

It's a lovely drawing.

[Nailed it.]

[painted_seals]

[Sai shifts his facial muscles into a smile remembering the gesture.]

Thank you for staying still.

[hoasen]

[Now she gets it, he was looking straight at her because she's his reference. This is why she wasn't interrupting.]

You're...welcome?

I am honoured though, to be the subject of a talented artist, even though it was a surprise to find out.

C

[yourotherleft]

[Zoro really has to stop getting lost in the gardens. At least he can get here, more often than not, to hunt bigger foes, but every single time he's there he gets completely turned around in the trees and ends up nowhere near the fun stuff.

Today, though. Today, he can sense someone above-average in the trees ahead of him, and though his hands stay off the three swords at his hip, his eye and ears are on the alert for whatever might be ahead of him. He pushes aside branches to let himself into the clearing, not exactly sure what he's seeing...training, or an attack.]

...huh. Definitely not the lake.

C

[painted_seals]

[Black eyes still on the intruder. He doesn't sense any chakra from him nor is there a visible headband, but his eyes easily spot the three swords at his side. His gaze shifts beyond him for a moment, he can't sense anyone else nearby. Quietly, he sets his sword down but doesn't put it away. His clone does the same waiting to intercede should he be needed.]

......

[yourotherleft]

[such tension, he can feel it. But he can't sense anything from the other figure, making Zoro wonder. People should register at least something with haki, so if it doesn't, what does that make it? A robot?

He raises his left hand to show he's not about to draw, at least not of his own volition]

Don't suppose you know which direction the lake is? I wanted to get some fishing in.

[if by fishing he means monster-killing...]

[painted_seals]

[Black eyes stare at him for a moment longer; he's lost. Sai sheathes his tanto and the ink clone follows his motions. The lake? He didn't know they could fish in them. Silently, he tucks that information away for later use.]

Which lake? [The gardens boasts a lot of lakes.]

[yourotherleft]

[whoa wait a minute] There's more than one?

I heard rumors there were bigger fish to fry in the lake in the gardens. I'm tired of beating on fake people in the gym, I need a real challenge.

[painted_seals]

[Sai blinks, he's not sure if he understood...]

You want to beat on the bigger fish in the lake?

[yourotherleft]

Pretty much.

[hrm] I guess I won't find out until I see one if they're even edible. Eh.

[painted_seals]

[He's not sure if they have fish as big as what he's looking for to begin with but he does know the location of the lakes. He's made an aerial survey of the gardens and remembers the closest one. Sai moves toward the newcomer, dispelling the clone. The clone bursts back into ink spraying the surrounding grass in black liquid.]

The closest lake is twenty minutes east.

B

[protectthecastle]

[Veronica is examining the gardens and trying to familiarize herself with this new place (all while wrapping her head around the fact that some places were apparently considered "unsafe". When the inky mouse bursts from the bushes with a rustle, her eyes widen as it makes a beeline towards her, followed closely by the cat.

She carefully wraps her hands around the creature, shielding it from the alley cat which meows at her, circling around her legs.]

B

[painted_seals]

[The mouse takes refuge in her hands, wiggling closer into the safe haven she's created even as the cat tries to reach it.]

B

[protectthecastle]

[Nope. Sorry, cat. She'll bring it some cat food later somehow but for now she carefully walks backwards, trying not to trip over the cat and going back in the direction that the mouse came from.]

B

[painted_seals]

[If she follows its path a second mouse will be waiting in the bush having stayed behind and hidden after the cat's initial chase of it's companion. Upon her approach, it looks up at her, its inky tail swishing back and forth. At that moment, the mouse in her hands begins to wiggle out of her hands and back to the ground below.]

[protectthecastle]

[She turns to make sure the cat has truly lost interest and left before she carefully stoops down and lets the mouse go to join its companion.]

So you had a friend waiting for you already.

[painted_seals]

I ordered it too.

[Sai walks up behind the gooseberry bush.]

[protectthecastle]

Oh.

[She watches for a moment more as the mouse she'd been helping greets its companion before turning to the newcomer.]

I see. They are yours? I have never seen mice like this.

[painted_seals]

[Sai stops a few feet away. He's been monitoring the mice since the two were spotted by the alley cat. His drawings had to be self-sufficient when he sent them out to relay messages and the attack had presented a simple way of testing how well he could direct them away from danger while at a distance.]

That's because they aren't mice.