Chilin

[Sekitei Maiko]

With Satoshi off searching for his glasses, Maiko just sat back and watched, playing with her hair a little bit in the process. She figured he didn’t want her to help, and probably not wanting her to be close to him. Besides, the had just spent quite a bit of time, uhm, together; he needed his own space right now. Of course, she needed her own space as well to calm down a little. Her heart was still beating a bit rapidly from the heat of the moment. Glancing over, she just watched him digging around, blushing a little before turning away to look at the water to think about it all; how they were going to behave from now on, if they were going to tell anyone, what will happen between them in the future, etc.

Eventually Satoshi succeeded in tracking down his glasses, and from the looks of it there was a few cracks. She joked about it, telling him not to break his glasses anymore, but there were some practical concerns involved with that. If they broke on a mission, well, he’d be screwed; he couldn’t see after all, and if he couldn’t see he couldn’t fight. And if they were out in the wilderness somewhere, he obviously couldn’t just buy another pair. One of these days they would have to buy some backup pairs, possibly extra-strength metal. Hmm, that could be a fun-shopping trip, searching for the strongest metals to make a pair of frames for him. Maybe see if there was a way to get glass to shift shades during the day…maybe buy some sunglasses for herself too?

Of course, there was still the questions about dealing with his mother and all, and maybe their sensei Reinja. They both deserved to know that there was at least some interest between them, if not a relationship. But at the same time, Maiko was a little concerned. She didn’t have anything against Satoshi’s mother, but not knowing much about her, she couldn’t make a judgement. As for Reinja, she probably wouldn’t care as long as it didn’t get in the way of their missions. Still, better safe than sorry was Maiko’s motto when dealing with Reinja.

Bringing herself back to reality, Maiko began to talk to Satoshi about her plans with the wind jutsu. She was really excited about it, but as she talked she noticed that he was looking at his weapons. Well, he knew some wind jutsu, so would he want to give her a demonstration of something? Taking that as a cue, she backed off some to give him room for whatever it was that he was going to do. Deciding to stand, just in case, she watched as he brought up his weapon to his chest. As he did so, the sand in front of him blew up as a blast of wind went forward about ten feet. She could feel the after effects of the breeze, and the sand hitting her face a little, before she looked back up at him.

”You already know it….oh, that’s right. S-sorry about forgetting it Satoshi-kun.”

[/color] she responded embarrassingly. She had forgotten that Satoshi already knew the technique, and here she was giving him a lecture on how to do it. Coming over to him, it was time to get started. If he was going to teach him, well, this was going to be fun to see him try and teach her without being able to really speak to her.

”Okay then Satoshi-kun, my learning is in your h-hands now. So what should I do to start it off?” she asked, standing next to him and giving him a small smile of encouragement to get him started. The jutsu wouldn’t be too hard to learn, right? She could already mold her own wind chakra for wind jutsu, and she already had an attack that made a blast of small razor-like winds. All she had to do know was use that technique in one, bigger cut, right? Of course, she was wanting to do this without using her fans, which was something she didn’t have as much experience in. That was going to be the difficult part, but she was sure that Satoshi could help her.[/size][/blockquote]

[Watamura Satoshi]

Satoshi looked up when Maiko said sorry about forgetting that he knew the jutsu already. It was not like he knew it right off that bat, but the fact that he had only been a shinobi for three years and Maiko had been for four was something that most people would have thought that she knew just jutsu that he didn’t, but that was also the case. He smiled weakly and shrugged some. It was not something that he always used in a mission or something. He liked his twisted jutsu that he created a year or so. He shrugged some and looked around.

He watched her come closer to him and claimed that her learning was in her hands. He blinked and looked down at his weapons. He never really taught anyone anything before and usually it was the other way around. He bit his lip and thought about how he should go about it. Here he was trying to think of how he was going to do this without blushing and stuttering all over the place. He could talk just fine if it was mission related or jutsu related. This time it was jutsu related again so he would have to find the right flow of words and not make it sound like he was being too personally with her.

In the end he could see himself stuttering all over the place and blushing. He didn’t even want to think about taking on a Genin team like Reinja did with them and he got landed on the team. He sighed slightly to himself and pushed his glasses up towards his eyes some. He sat down in the sand to try and think for a moment or so. He glared at the sand for a moment and closed his eyes to try and remember how he learned the jutsu. A lot had happened since he had learned the jutsu so it was going to a bit harder for him to explain it just right. He knew there was a way to do it without the use of a weapon, but he never tried to do it.

To be honest he didn’t even know where to start in teaching her how to create it. It was just like any other jutsu that he had learned with the wind. He was not sure how she wanted to use the jutsu. With weapons or without? He slowly turned his head towards her and gave a weak smile. ”Huh…how you ….wa……want to….lea…..rn….we….a…pons?” He felt bad now since he could not get the complete words out of his mouth and turned and stared at the sand again. Times like this he felt like a complete idiot.

[Sekitei Maiko]

Apparently Satoshi-kun didn’t care she had forgotten he knew the jutsu. It wasn’t one that he used often, so maybe that was why she didn’t remember it? If he didn’t use it often it would have slipped her mind. He preferred to use his own custom jutsu more often. It was an impressive jutsu, but she preferred her own style. His just seem so stilted. That, and she always sucked at ball as a kid so she couldn’t hit the weapons like he did. She liked her slicing and dicing instead of smashing and hitting. That was why the Wind Cutter was the perfect jutsu for her to learn; it supplemented her own personal weapons and style. The fact that Satoshi knew it was absolutely perfect….if he could talk straight enough to get through it.

Of course, from the way he looked, he seemed nervous. He probably deserved; jumping from kissing and all that to this was probably playing hardball with his emotions. It wasn’t an easy transition; she was still a little red and blushing from it all, but they needed to move on. She had spent all this time getting Satoshi to get over her own awkwardness; she wasn’t going to let it consume her. Instead, she was going to fully focus on learning this jutsu and getting Satoshi to be able to teach. Besides, once they became Jounin they would have to teach Genin themselves. This was the best time to work on teaching; by teaching each other…at least once she learned something Satoshi wanted to learn how to do. That might be an issue since her style relied on a weapon so very different from his. Oh well, she was sure she’d learn something eventually.

Right off the back, he was stumbling and not making coherent sentences. She figured he was wanting to know if she wanted to do it with or without a weapon. The latter was much preferred; right now, if she was disarmed, she was almost useless. Wind Cutter would provide a nasty little surprise for anyone who attempted to throw her aside after being disarmed. But if he couldn’t make a full, coherent sentence, that wasn’t going to get done. So once again she was going to have to help him relearn Language 101.

”Well first off, I’d like my instructor to make full sentences.” she teased a little before digging out her fans from the pouch she stored them in.

”Second, I’d like to learn to do it without these.” she added as she set them aside on the ground. Since she also put the bag there, and it was right next to the water so sand wouldn’t bury it, they would be find. She could locate them later on if needed. Besides, they were chakra conductive; she could just send out her own chakra and locate them by the feel of it. With that out of the way, Maiko stepped forward a little, tipping Satoshi’s face upwards so he wasn’t looking at the sand, and then stepped back.

”So then, any particular way I need to mold my chakra to pull this off? Or do I just focus it in one specific spot?” she asked, seeing if that would prompt his lesson.

[/blockquote]

[Watamura Satoshi]

Satoshi knew that he was going to stutter over the words that he was going to try and get out when trying showing Maiko this jutsu. It was not like that he was didn’t know how to use it himself; it was the fact that he was not use to talking like this around her and was able to make good sentences when he was in a mission or talking about a jutsu. He hated to hear him like this in front of her and knew he better grow a spine if he ever wanted to get to take her out on a date. However, for now he would have to push that completely out of his mind and deal with what was in front of him now. Her asking him to become the teacher and show her a jutsu that he already knew was right in front of him.

He took a deep breath and asked her how she wanted to learn the jutsu with or without the use of her weapons. He was slightly shocked that she didn’t answer him right away for the most part. He thought it was because of his stuttering again around her. He bit the inside of his lip and thought for a second. The book that was in his pouch that he had token out was in fact at book of jutsu that one he already learned or wanted to learn that he put together. He knew the description was in there, but she already knew it since she told him how it was perform before. She knew the basic of the jutsu and that was about it.

His fear was answer when she told him that she wanted her instructor to make complete sentences for her. He grinned slightly and glared at the sand since there was no way that he would be able to glare Maiko without blushing and making himself look like a bigger idiot. He would have to make sure he could make sentences before he spoke to her, so he would have to think of a way to talk as if they were on a mission and that was harder than it looked for him. However he nodded slowly towards her to acknowledge that he understood loud and clear.

He blinked slightly when she said that she wanted to use the jutsu without the use of the weapons. He had never even tried to use the jutsu without the use of his weapons. He knew that this was going to be a learning experience for him and her. He would have to try a few times without his weapons to see if he could do this and be able to show her how. He was not sure if he could do it without the weapons, but it should be the same right? Before he could do anything at the moment he felt her tap his chin up, so his eyes were not on the sand.

To him there were a great number of things that make Maiko special to him. One she only teased him when they were not around a large group of people. Two he knew she only did the teasing to get him to talk better around her or any other girls, but admittedly his stuttering was worse around her given any day of the week. Three, ever since he had joined the team a year late she had always been there for him and he knew she would do anything for him and it was the same for him. Satoshi would give his life if it meant protecting Maiko; not that she needed protecting for anyone.

Satoshi smiled weakly at her when he drew his thought out of his head. ”…Huh, give me a few….I need to see something…” He was not stuttering this team due to the fact that he needed to test something on his own about the jutsu that he was going to teach her. He didn’t need his book since he had it memorize for the most part. He walked over to where she placed down her weapons and her water and tossed his weapons down as well. He walked about five feet from her and turned his back on her. He didn’t want her hurt if he lost control of this jutsu.

He closed his eyes and started to push his chakra into his left hand since that was his hand that he used most of the time. He felt the surge in his hand for a moment before thinking about how he used the jutsu in an upward motion with his weapons. He brought his hand down to his side and then quickly brought it up towards his chest. Nothing happened that he felt; no gust of wind, no gasp form Maiko, nothing. He grinned slightly and used his right hand and pushed up his glasses to his fast. This was going to be harder than what he thought it was going to do.

He quickly reached into his pouch and pulled out his book and started to flip through the pages. This is what he did when something that didn’t go his way. He ran straight to a book to read something. By this point he had forgotten that Maiko was behind him waiting for him to tell her what to do.

[Sekitei Maiko]

After telling him she wanted full sentences, he ended up looking at the sand. Well, silence was better than stuttering she guessed. Hopefully he would start to calm down some now and be able to talk normally now. As for her, she ended up just kind of looking around for about the same reason actually. By now her physical signs of the situation earlier had gone away. Her heart rate was normal, skin no longer blushing, and palms as dry as the desert around them. Well, actually, that last one was probably bad, so she dunked her hands in the water a little bit and got herself something to drink as she awaited his responses.

When asked about the weapons, she told him no weapons. Maiko knew that he usually used his own special jutsu, which had a weapon. Hopefully, though, he would be able to try out the technique without the use of a weapon. On the bright side, this meant that both of them would be learning something, even though he had a bit of a lead on her by being able to use the jutsu already, even if it was with a weapon. Still, glaring at the sand was not going to get them anywhere, so she had to rectify the situation by tilting his chin up and drew him back to reality. He told her to give him a moment so he could test something. This made her a little curious, both the actual lesson and the fact that he had talked in what amounted to a full sentence. She gave a bit of victory smile before stepping to the side and leaning up against a palm tree that was next to the water.

She watched as he dropped off his weapons at the side of the water and then turned his back to her. Moving around a bit, she got herself in a position to the side so she could see what he was doing. Eyes on his hands, she watched as he moved it down and then quickly brought it up towards his chest. Maiko was wound up with excitement, expecting a rush of air to shoot forward and cut through the desert. Instead, she found herself being…rather disappointed as absolutely nothing came through. Apparently not having a weapon was going to make this harder for him than originally believed.

”Hmm, nice try Satoshi. But don’t worry, you’ll get it soon!” she replied, trying to encourage him even if it made her sound like she was the one teaching him the jutsu. Of course, she had to encourage him, right? If he never figured it out, then he couldn’t teach her the jutsu.

He went over and got his book, and Maiko moved over to try and read over his shoulder and see what kind of hints she could get from him. Of course she didn’t touch him, but instead kind of held back a little right behind him so he wasn’t bothered. She partially wanted to scare him again, but mostly she didn’t want to bother him while he was concentrating on his work.

[/blockquote]

[Watamura Satoshi]

Satoshi was not sure what Maiko was going to do when he turned around and try to do the jutsu without the use of his weapons. He had been training with his weapons for three years now ever since Reinja had introduced him to them and he took naturally to them all together. It was the first time anyone really had pushed him to learn how to use a weapon other than throwing a kunai and a shuriken around. Of course he had tried using the small needle called a senbon a few times in the academy, but he usually ended up poking himself in the arm or hand with them and they were a bit harder for him to throw anyways. He had never been that good with small sneaky objects like that and didn’t plan on working on learning how to not stab himself. He was fine with his wind jutsu and his taijutsu skills for the most part. Nothing was going to really get him to change him mind about that.

When he had failed in his first attempt of creating the jutsu without the use of the weapons made him grin. Apparently though, he was being watched by his comrade because she had told him that he nearly got it in the long run. However, he still went over to his book and picked it up. He knew he should have started to learn this without his weapon first, but he told himself that he wouldn’t need it. He sighed to himself as he flipped through his book and found the page with the jutsu and his scribble written all over it.

He didn’t even notice that she was now standing behind him again. Perhaps this is what made him such an easy target for her to scary and tease. He trusted her to no end and knew that in the long run of things there was nothing that going to get him to change his mind about Maiko. She had been his best friend since he was placed on the team with them. However, being the only guy on their team was something that he had still not really gotten use to for that matter and it seemed that he would never get over it really.

He started to move his lips, but he was mostly muttering to himself then anything at this point. His finger moved alongside page and under words as he read them. He looked up slightly and slowly moved back away from her and he still didn’t know that she was that close to him at this point. He moved and slipped the book back in his pouch. He closed his eyes and started to store up the chakra in his left hand again. This time he made sure that it was a constant flow and pushed himself to surround his hand as if his weapon was in his hand. Within a quick motion like before he moved his hand up towards his chest. This time a small wind cutter come forward but only lasted about three feet. He smiled to himself, but knew it was nothing to really get excited about.

[Sekitei Maiko]

As Maiko stood behind Satoshi, it was pretty obvious he didn’t notice that she was standing right behind him. She didn't know if it was naivete or trust that made him do so. Either way, it made him an easy prey for her teasing, but she would hold off on it till he was done looking over whatever it was that he was doing. Besides, as the only guy on the team, he was the most fun to pick on. That, and his personality and flustering. It was all playful teasing though; he was her best friend after all, and she wouldn’t do anything that could actually harm him. The worst thing she’d do would be a playful punch that wouldn’t actually be painful.

However, she did find it rather funny when he started muttering to himself. Was it some kind of technique to help him memorize what he had read? Or was he just weird? Actually, it was probably a combination of those two factors knowing him. All of a sudden though he stopped reading and began to get away from her. Now this was going to be fun. With all that reading he probably figured out how to get the jutsu to start working, right? Not scaring him, she stood back and watched as he prepared his stance again. Like before, he quickly raised his arm, but this time there was actually a gust of wind coming forth. While Satoshi didn’t get excited, Maiko sure did. Squeeing in excitement, she ran over to Satoshi and gave him a quick congratulatory hug.

”Yay, you did it Satoshi-kun!” she replied as she came in from behind for the hug. Letting him go, she walked over to the side and looked over to him.

”Okay then Satoshi-kun, show me the stance that I should do to get ready, kay?” she asked, smiling a little mischievously. Since getting him to talk full sentences was working out, it was time to move on to part too; being able to actually touch her without fear. So she was going to simply ‘mess up’ enough that it would require Satoshi to move her around into the correct stance. Mentally giggling, she waited for Satoshi’s next move.

[/blockquote]

[Watamura Satoshi]

Satoshi smiled at himself when he saw the difference that he did the jutsu without the use of the weapons. It was not like anyone was going to expect him to do this without his weapons so he knew that it was something that he could catch people off guard about. He would probably still relay on this move more with his weapons then he would without the use of it. He did find that he would have to focus more on doing it without his weapon.

He jumped slightly when Maiko said something behind him. He had totally forgotten that she was back there and had thought she was closer to the water. He was trying to recall in his mind of her actions since he turned around, but he heard nothing behind him and he usually was able to tell when someone was behind him like that. However, this was Maiko he was talking about and usually she found herself behind him to tease him and such more often now then what it was in the start of their friendship.

He bit down on his lip and nodded slightly and blushed when he realized that she was praising him for being able to do the jutsu without his weapons. The next step now was to actually be able to tell her how she was going to do it. He turned around slowly and looked at the sand before looking up at her. He knew it would do him no good with showing her the book with the information as she already rattled off the jutsu to him before. He reached up and rubbed the back of his head trying to find the words for now.

He took a deep breath when she asked what stance that she needed for the jutsu. He wasn’t sure if it was all about stance or not since he had not had time to even considered how to work it without weapons. He bit his lip and grinned some and looked over his shoulder again. ”Stance….hmmm right…” He closed his eyes to see if he could remember how he stood. ”Well…huh…just stand with your hands near….your side…and…then try and focus your chakra into one of your hands…like your right one….don’t worry about the other one…”

[Sekitei Maiko]

Just as she had expected, Satoshi jumped when she finally spoke. It was just so amazing how in battle he could tell where the enemy and such was, yet outside be completely clueless as to what was going on around him. Was going to get him hurt one of these days, that for sure. Or maybe it was just her that could ambush him so easily. If that was the case, well, great if he ever went rogue, not so great if he did. Either way, it would be a pretty short battle with her probably winning either way. Maybe next time they would work on his ability to sense the surroundings or something. As she just explained to herself, that was pretty important for a shinobi.

”Satoshi-kun, you really got to start paying attention to your surroundings more. Sneaking up on you is fun an all, but a little more awareness wouldn’t hurt you one bit.” she said, playfully patting his head before moving away to let him do whatever it was he was going to go do. After, of course, praising him for the jutsu and causing him to blush. Embarrassment first, breathing room second was her general style of handling him. Soon it was time for her to take the chance of practicing the jutsu, and her evil plans to begin.

First she listened to him as he gave out his instructions on the stance and such. Admittedly, a more complex jutsu would work better for this plan, but this would have to do. She put her hands up near her side, purposefully one a little too close to her body. When he said to just begin focusing chakra to her hands, she did so, but probably not enough for the jutsu to work effectively (well, she hoped at least; she didn’t know for sure how much she would need for this to work out). Taking a deep breath, focusing the chakra, she slashed out against the air and….a small puff of air grazed her knee and stung a little bit. Not bad, more like if someone had just slapped you than anything else. Still, she let out a slightly exaggerated “Ow” to get Satoshi’s attention.

”Satoshi-kun, I think you’re going to have to help me out a little bit. I think I accidentally hit my leg.” she ‘whined’. There was just the slightest hint of a grin on her face, but she did her best to hide it from Satoshi so he didn’t catch on to her little scheme. Of course, if he wasn’t going to play the game she was just going to take this more seriously. After all, there was only so many times she could stand hitting herself in the leg with the jutsu before she would just give up on getting him over here anyway. No point hurting herself if it would just end in failure.

[/blockquote]

[Watamura Satoshi]

Satoshi blinked slightly when he was told off by Maiko about him playing attention to his surrounding more. He did well in battle and in training with Reinja all the time, but with her it was a different matter and he knew it. He didn’t seem to realize that she was always coming up behind him and knew that it was usually the case on how she hugged him from behind so often. He did enjoy the hugs, but he was not going to tell her that at all. He had already kissed her today that was unlike him so he thought telling her that he didn’t mind being hugged from behind from her would throw her off anymore.

He simply nodded some and made a mental note to try and be more aware of her in the future. Perhaps that would allow him to gain more confidence when talking to her, but he doubted that on many levels. He reached up and ran a hand through his blonde hair and looked around just in case anyone else was lurking nearby that she forgot to warn him about. He knew he was just being cautious right now with Maiko because of her comment and knew she would see it from him. He would probably be told off by checking now that no one else was in the area at the moment, but at least he finally checked right?

He watched her after telling her the correct stance to take in performing the jutsu. He tilted his head slightly and watched where she positioned her hands and before he could point out that she should hold her hands a bit further way she completed the jutsu and she let out an “Ow”. He hoped it wasn’t that bad that they would have to go in without her learning it properly, but her words next was not surprising. She wanted help with her stance and wanted to continue the training and he was all for this. This meant that he could teach her something useful now instead of the other way around.

He walked closer to her and bit the inside of his lip as he slowly started to reach for her hand to place it where it needed to go. The last time he touched her was when they fell and he had kissed her. He was trying to push everything out of his mind and think about the jutsu instead of what he was about to do. He closed his eyes and finally was able to reach out and touch her wrist. He opened his eyes and slowly moved it to the place. He quickly did it for the other hand. He gave her a weak smile and back up. ’’…huh…again…” He said a bit hastily and nodded his head.

[Sekitei Maiko]

After telling him off on not paying attention, Maiko felt a little better. It just seemed so odd that he could do so well on the battlefield yet when she was around unable to sense a simple hug from behind. It had to have been his awkwardness around her that was causing it, and there was a good chance it would probably get worse after today’s…incident. Still, it was kind of sad; what would happen if an enemy used a Transformation jutsu to disguise themselves as her and then take advantage of that to get behind him and kill him. Now of course they probably couldn’t copy her bubbly personality, but still, there was that chance there that she didn’t want to be there at all. She wasn’t sure how she could handle something happening to Satoshi….

She noticed that he had looked around, and thought it a little bit late, but oh well, at least he got the message right? For now Maiko let Satoshi have his moment, instead focusing on her evil plans for training. After sabotaging her efforts to learn the jutsu, taking a small injury in the process, she stood there waiting for him to arrive. The lack of chakra in her attack meant that the “cut” was nothing more than a scratch; it stung but liveable. It would be worth it to get a reaction from Satoshi as he began to walk over to help her out.

”Thanks Satoshi-kun.” she replied cheerfully as he began to move her arms and hands around. Now she had to giggle a little when he had to close his eyes and focus to do it, but he ended up doing it. That was all that mattered right now. Admittedly she had wanted a little more interaction; he had done it so quickly it was like she was something he didn’t want to touch and wanted to get away from as fast as possible. Still, just touching her was a step of progress.

With his urging, and a simple okay from her, she got to focusing her chakra again in her hands, feeling the energy flowing as she focused on forming it into the wind chakra needed for the jutsu. She tried to keep the amount of chakra small enough that should she make a mistake she wouldn’t end up hurting herself badly. Just being able to get the concept down would be fine; she could work on adjusting the size of it later. Taking a deep breath, she swiped at the air in front of her, releasing the chakra in her hand as she did so. This time she didn’t hurt any part of her body, and there was a visible disturbance in the air as a small blade of it went forward a few feet. While she doubted it would be enough to really hurt anyone, just the fact she got the concept down was good enough for her.

”Satoshi-kun, I did it! I did it!” she responded, squeeing a little bit as she did so and waving at him. Running over to him, she seemed like she was about to jump hug him again, but stopped right in front of him, just smiling and holding her hands behind her back.

”So then, do you want to call it a break and go celebrate, hmm?”

[Watamura Satoshi]

Satoshi decided not to comment on his lack of being aware of where she was when she was around. He did enjoy the hugs he got from her from time to time, but at the same time knew if he continued to let down his guard and someone else noticed that it would mean trouble. He could tell by her voice that she was worried about that too and was only looking out for him. There was no way he was made at her for pointing out one his greatest weakness to him. He welcomed this information from her and was determined not to let his guard down again around her even though he knew he would fail at the first few times of trying. He hoped that she would call him out about it when he did and that was all he could do about it in the long run of things. That was what friends were for in the long run of things, pointing out people flaws so they could work on them later in life?

Once he had set Maiko’s hands in the right area for her to create the movement he moved back and watched. He knew his attack like was weak and he knew later he was going to be working on it on his own. This was one way that he could surprise the people that knew him best and knew he used the weapons as his great choice in a fight. If his weapons were somehow knocked away from him he would still be able to do some damage to the person that was on the receiving end of his attack. He would have to thank Maiko later for making him teach this to her.

He watched as she created the wind and smiled. It was not as formed as his had been, but this meant that she got the concept down right. It had taken him a week to get it down when he was trying to learn it. He was smiling ear from ear at the moment at her achievement and he couldn’t help it in the long run of things. He was excited to be able to teach her something that was going to be useful to the both of them when they were in battle.

”…Well done Maiko-chan.” This, however, surprised him more than anything at the moment. He didn’t stutter over his words to her. The only part that he seemed to get stuck on was the first part, but after that the words slowly formed out of his mouth before he could stop them. He watched her as if not believing this himself. Had she heard this as well? Was going to comment on his speech? He didn’t know if he could handle her teasing at the moment and his cheeks flushed again.

He watched her bounce over to him as if she was about to hug him again and he closed his eyes some. He thought that might be worse than anything at the moment considering what had happened before with the two of them. He liked her that much was true and he had kissed her, but he didn’t think her hugging him was the best thing for the two of them. However, when the hug didn’t come he opened his eyes and listened to her words.

”Huh…sure…” He spoke softly and went to start gathering up his items that he had dropped or place down. If they left them here, they would never find them again.

[Sekitei Maiko]

After successfully performing the jutsu, Maiko waited with anticipation for Satoshi’s response to it all. Considering that he had been the one to ‘teach’ her the technique, and she had forced him to get a little more physical to do so, she had been expecting him to be his normal self and stutter and be embarrassed about it all. Instead, she was pleasantly surprised to find, while being his short-speaking self, the sentence didn’t have any stutters in it. Maiko let out a small smile of joy. Obviously she was going to have to bring the attention to such a momentous occasion.

”Oh, seems I’m not the only one to have learned something too Satoshi-kun. I didn’t hear any stutter in that line.” she replied, giggling a little bit as she relaxed herself.

While she didn’t use a perfect version of the technique, she knew she had the basics of it down enough that she could start working on it in her spare time. It would be some time before she could use it in battle; after all using an imperfect technique in a fight was a dangerous thing. Still, with the concept down pat, she could just train and be fine. More importantly, she now had another layer of combat skills; she wouldn’t be completely dependent on her fans for combat anymore. Now she could fight back even if disarmed. Furthermore, the technique worked rather well in tandem with her fans, so it was a wonderful two for one deal on that.

In her excitement of course she had gotten up close to him, but refrained from going all out and hugged him. No, she was going to work on something else now. Since he could now speak without stuttering all the time, and seemed fine touching him, she was going to test to see if he could work up the nerve to hug him. After all, he had went and kissed her already; a hug wouldn’t be a problem after that right? If anything, this was going to be harder on him than her; after all, she loved to give him surprise hugs all the time. No, she was going to be strong and resilient and resist the hugging for now! But first, it was time to get something to eat, and Satoshi of course had no objections to her plans.

As she had all her stuff on her person at the moment, Maiko just sat back and watched Satoshi as he gathered all his things. Returning to a more casual tone, Maiko started to try and figure out the logistics of the situation at hand.

”So Satoshi-kun, anywhere in particular you want to go to? I’m pretty hungry after all this. Maybe we can go to that karaoke bar thing that I love to go to?”

[/blockquote]

[Watamura Satoshi]

When Maiko had came to realize that Satoshi had not stuttered over any words when he spoke to her, she kindly pointed it out to him. His cheeks flushed when he realized that she had been right in that. He cased his eyes down not knowing what to say or do. He did hate when he was like this around her and how he could act calm and give commands on a mission or something. To him it felt different when they were on a mission. It took all the emotions out of him when he was assigned to do something for the village. She was just a pawn under his command to him, but there was nothing that he would not do for her on a mission either.

”I...try.” He said slowly and shrugged slightly hoping that she would soon forget all about what he had done. He knew he wouldn’t though. He had gotten a few sentences out around her and that was a good thing.

As he tried to annoy the giggle he went over and collected his bag and weapons. He quickly grabbed the scroll that he summoned the weapons from and did the jutsu that resealed them in side of it. He slipped the scroll in his pouch. He stood up and glanced at his reflection in the water. He could see how bad his glasses where now and knew a simple repair was not going to work this time. He was just glad that they usually had a back up pair ready for him so he didn’t have to walk around like this for a week until they made his.

Satoshi looked over his shoulder when she suggested that they go to the karaoke bar that she usually went to. He knew she could not control herself when in there and she went up and sang. Everyone clapped when she was done and it was for her stepping off stage. He had to think for a moment. Spend their time at a restaurant that she would hate or suffer through her singing and try to act like there was nothing wrong and that she was great.

Either way would work for him seeing how that he would never dream of telling her how badly she sang. She loved doing it when she was up there and didn’t care what others had to think about her voice. He wished that he had her guts sometimes when dealing with matters like this. He could not overlook certain things if he was up singing and he hoped that she would never think about dragging him up there to sing with him.

”Huh…yea…that is fine, Ma…..Maiko-chan…” He slowly said and walked over to her and then started to head back towards the village. He knew he could not linger in walking back to the village since it would take longer, but he didn’t want to give away their training session area either. It had always been sorta a unspoken bond between everyone of the squad to walk a mile away from the area and then to used ninjutsu to get back to the village.