Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hisaki laughed, his friend started the showdown with a running punch. Pfft, that's nothing to dodge, Hisaki stepped foward, his timing exact, and put him entire beneath the extended arm. In the classic counter attack taught by his clan, Hisaki grabbed Yuki's arm, and made several lightning quick pinpoint pokes. Although he didn't shoot any chakra out, it seemed obvious to him that this kind of assault would have left Yuki's arm dangling and numb as though he'd slept on it for a few hours. After the pokes, Hisaki spun out of the attack, and behind Yuki. He jumped backwards to put some distance between the two, then preplanned his own attack. While he did so, Hisaki called over to the ex-medic trainee, "Just a heads up, if this was a real fight, your arm wouldn't be moving right now. Lunging at an opponent straightforward almost never works in taijutsu. I know that I'm not super-experienced in it, but that's something I know for sure. Unless you have crippling strength or super speed, a forward attack is going to be the easiest for an opponent to dodge.

Seamlessly, Hisaki blinked and activated his Byakugan. Instantly, he located the exact location of several points where he'd do maximum physical damage. Granted, his maximum physical damage was a bruise while using this style, but every clean attack counted. He got into attacking position: His arms were extended on both sides, and the farthest leg from Yuki was in a lunge position. The leg closest to Yuki was fully extended and at an acute angle to the ground. Overall, it looked like Hisaki could spring into attack at any moment.

Hisaki commented on Yuki's lack of taijutsu tactical knowledge. A small frown grew on his face as he retorted, "We both know it is useless if I try to take you by surprise thanks to your Byakugan, so if I shouldn't come at you head first, in what way should I do it?" He sounded half mocking, half questioning, for he really did not know that much when it comes to Taijutsu. Maybe, in theory, he would be good, but in practice its a different story.

Hisaki lunged forward before leaping behind the Yamanaka, who gave a quick gasp at the tactic, and swept Yuki off his feet, literally. Before he could launch a counterattack, the Hyuuga palmed the Genin's chest, making him make an audible low yelp. The Bishop didn't stay on his back, for he knew these actions would repeat itself, and hurled himself upwards and gained distance away from his friend by performing some hasty flips. "Alright, it seems black's knight has gained some momentum in this match. One to Nothing." Yuki commented more to himself than anyone.

Hisaki slammed his best friend in the stomach with ease, however, before he could pull off another hit, the Yamanaka escaped the spot and flipped away into retreat. Hisaki's stance relaxed, his muscles loosening again. If he were to get too tensed up, he wouldn't be exercising the teachings of Gentle Fist. Bulky muscles and indomitable attacks were the style of Strong Fist, not Gentle Fist.

Yuki charged in again, but this time, pulled a trick very similar to Hisaki's. The boy leaped overhead, and landed back to back with Hisaki. However, unlike Hisaki's sweep, the boy slid around to Hisaki's front to confront him face-to-face. Cold, mocking words escaped the boy's mouth before he attempted a punch, however, Hisaki didn't counter this time. Instead, Hisaki left himself fall backwards, letting the punch go over his flopped body. After hitting the ground, Hisaki quickly rolled to the side and pushed himself to his knees, then jumped to his feet. So far, Hisaki had successfully dodged two attacks, one with a counter, and another with a falling dodge. He knew that he had to keep this up to win, but then again, what is a fight if you score every hit?

While the still nameless Jogger readied his technique, it gave Notwen a chance to think about his predicament. Silently, he sat with his legs crossed, placing his hands on his knees. The long-haired blonde closed his eyes and began his meditation.
Back to the moment when this all began... he thought, subtly slipping into his subconscious. Drow awaited him at the usual place, this time already standing.
"So you are finally seeking the truth behind the betrayal of your country, eh?" asked the light-man, who had his arm held out.
"Yeah." replied the Uchiha, taking Drow's hand, "If i bottle up these feelings any longer, my emotions are bound to get the best of me again." Drow nodded understandingly. He knew the truths that Notwen was searching for, but as the latter's power, it was his duty to help the young boy grow strong.
"Today we are going to visit a new area of your subconscious. It's called Chrona, the island of memory." Notwen sighed.
"Alright, let's go." The two astral beings synchronized their wavelengths, flooding the island world of the Uchiha's subconscious with light. Drow, now in his golden-flamed form descended first, guiding the long-haired blonde to their destination. Unlike the previous island, Chrona was merely a circle of sand. At the center was an oasis that was ringed by palm trees. The water hole was filled with a clear blue liquid that sparkled in the light that the flaming being generated. From above the island looked like a doughnut. Notwen and Drow landed just outside of the palm tree fringe.
"We have arrived." announced the flaming astral man, gesturing to the body of water beyond the palm trees. "Just beyond the trees you will find your memory pool. By focusing on a specific day, the memory of that day will replay. Go on, try it." Notwen nodded and crossed the tree fringe so he was now standing on the edge of the sapphire blue pool of liquid. A closer inspection showed that the pool had a misty look to it. He sighed.
Let's see. The day i arrived back from Markry, a lot of things happened. Without warning, tentacles emerged from the water and snatched up the Uchiha, dragging him into the pool with ease.

In the material world, the Uchiha's skin began to darken slowly. First his skin tone achieved an olive hue, which darkened further until it was dark brown bordering. His hair also lost its dark blonde color, turning white, but retaining its volume.

To Notwen it felt like he had fallen well beyond the bottom of the pool, which appeared very shallow. Looking up he saw the circle that was the pool getting smaller by the second. A light coming from below caused the Uchiha to look beneath him, which caused him to gasp, which in turn made him realize he could breathe. The long-haired blonde was looking down on a three-dimensional copy of Sunagakure, which zoomed in to the area close to the village's entrance. Notwen was watching his previous body talk with Oasis. The feeling it gave him was similar to the one when he first saw his old body thrown against the wall at Raito-Harusen. As the conversation continued, then suddenly Fuyu appeared out of nowhere. Notwen opened his mouth, but no sound came out as realization hit him. That time he had lashed out at the blind shinobi for butting in to the conversation, but did not know that he was one of Oasis' team members. That blow lead to their fight, which ended with Kazekage Kenta breaking them up before either could draw blood.
The scene fast forwarded to the confrontation at the bath-houses between Sai and the Kazekage. While Soba and himself were egging on a physical confrontation, Kenta was trying to create a situation that involved no violence, winner, or loser. The contents of the poster Notwen had ripped up came back to him. Though childishly written, the posters did warn that Sai was a potentially dangerous man that had attacked the country. Then later on, how he had grovelled at Vyrin's feet. At that point in his life Notwen's aim was to become stronger, no matter what methods he used. This realization caused him to hang his head in shame. No wonder the Wind Country genin did not think highly of him. He was a traitor in their eyes, and with good reason.
"I see..." muttered the long-haired blonde, and with a rush of water, he was back on the surface.
"So you realize why they are acting that way towards you?" asked Drow, who was standing next to Notwen. The boy could only nod. "I know what you are thinking, and if that's what you want to do, i am not going to stop you." Notwen nodded again, but this time said something.
"I cannot return to the Village Hidden in the Sand. Not after how i betrayed those who considered themselves my friends..." With that, Notwen's consciousness returned to the physical mind.

As the Uchiha opened his eyes, the color returned to his skin and hair, something that he was not aware happened while he was in meditation.

Taijutsu is something I do need to dwell upon, but I do not have enough time to actually train more for it. As of right now, this shall be known as an overall test. He nodded in agreement to himself as he called out to his friend, "It's still one to nothing." Yuki know made a handseal. Alright, let's try to make a more distant attack and make him come to me!

He focused on it before hand. It will not be an intricate Genjutsu, just a small one, just like how Hisaki used a rather simple ninjutsu. "Let's try this one." Locking eyes with the blank eyes of his opponent, he focused on the Genjutsu. In Hisaki's mind, he would have probably seen a fist made of earth erupt from the ground to give him an earth shattering uppercut. Hmm...wait! Yuki stopped the activation of that Genjutsu to make a different handseal, then smiled somewhat playfully. Activating this Genjutsu, Hisaki would now see three large scythes of wind rampage their way towards him, "WIND SCAR!" Yuki roared at his opponent.

Hisaki laughed, "That wasn't bad Yuki, but I guess I'm still at an advantage huh?" Hisaki made a few more hand seals. This time, he'd made a low level ninjutsu, but a long range one instead. Hisaki held out his right hand, and supported it with his left. Wind revved up in his hand, and began to suck a narrow beam of air to his palm. Hisaki aimed the air-beam at Yuki, and yelled, "AIR TUNNEL!"

If this worked, Yuki would be pulled toward Hisaki at breakneck speeds. Along the way, he'd likely stumble, hit the ground, and beat himself up a little bit. Once he appeared in front of Hisaki, he'd lay a taijutsu style beat down on the Yamanaka.

Everything I thrown at him has been deflected or dodged. Whether it was Genjutsu or Taijutsu. Ninjutsu isn't exactly my strong point either. A small breeze passed by the two combatants as Yuki's gaze intensified. He sprinted towards his friend again, attempting a Taijutsu attack.

Hisaki told him to not be predictable with his attacks, however, what if he made them so predictable, that he was unpredictable? It was an obscure idea, but then again, Hisaki and Yuki weren't cookie cutter ninja types. He dashed and leaped over Hisaki, just as before. He even did his little spin to face the front. He went for the fake-out technique again, and went for a full frontal punch, but held back at the last second and went down for a sweep from the front. It was parallel to what Hisaki performed earlier, except from the front.

Hisaki chuckled, he'd just gotten an idea for a basic ninjutsu. The idea came from an anime he'd seen before. It was kinda futuristic, he remembered, but there was a lot of spiritual sort of stuff in it too. At the same time, it had a lot of action mixed in. Many of the characters had huge muscles, and they shot huge beams of energy at each other. Meanwhile, they were often yelling, or changing hair color. Hisaki couldn't remember the exact name of the series, but the overall idea amused him: Shooting ridiculous, near-apocolyptic beams of energy.

Hisaki jumped back a few feet, and said, imitating the show, "Now you'll see my true power! KAME-" He stepped back, and put his two hands to his right hip, next to his waist. The hands were cupped, and as he said the words of this 'powerful' technique, chakra formed a small, bright sphere in his hands.

"HAME-" he roared. The ball began to hum with concentrated energy, and grew bigger every second. It slowly engulfed his hands with light, and its radiance started to even rival the stars. Conviently, a cloud drifted over the sun, so most of the light in the area came from Hisaki's attack.

Hisaki forcefully put both arms out in front of him. The ball of light reached its limit, and Hisaki yelled, "HAAA!" The ball shot a wide beam of energy that roared as it flew through the air. However, the beam wasn't as powerful as it looked. The grass below the beam wasn't even sizzled or burnt in its wake. Instead, there was simply a light indent, like a huge ball had simply rolled over it and flattened it out. Upon hitting someone, they'd likely just fall backwards, like they'd been pushed down.

(236 lines)