[Festival] Smells like Teen Spirit

[Ace Trainer]

"Ehhhh!?" a raspy cry coming from the young Suna shinobi. "The strongest huh. Well, that sure is something.", the flyer he'd been reading left his hands, slowly dropping through the air and landing on the ground. It was a clear morning, the sun reaching far into the bright blue sky, a few wisps of clouds and little more in sight. Indra took one more look at the sky before giving off a soft sigh and slipping the bandages hanging loosely around his neck back over his head and onto his eyes. Indra had been surprised he had been permitted to go to this festival at all by the Suna leadership, having asked multiple times fully expecting a no. A yes had finally been given, however, as the village wanted to be able to continue to display its strength in spite of...recent events, they elected not to prevent anyone from going. Indra's attendance had been contingent on two things however: he was to be under surveillance by his oversight squad at all times, and that he would be required to wear bandages over his eyes and hands. He didn't mind the first too much, but the second had been quite frustrating.

Being blind did not make this journey very fun, so he'd slip the bandages off any opportunity he had by himself. But as he rejoined the crowds, he knew the bandages would need to go back over his eyes. Honestly, Indra thought the eyes he received from the soul genma to be pretty cool. But, he understood how they gave an indication to his deeply desirable power and if it meant he got to be here, he was happy to accommodate. Navigating while blind, however, was not something he was used to. One thing about it though was that it did force him to use his hearing, which was now overlayed with the ability to hear souls. It did make navigating a little bit easier, at least he wasn't bumping into people no matter how quiet they were because he could always hear them.

"Just need to find my way to one of these banners so I can go train under it, I guess.", he muttered to himself. Slowly walking through the area to see if he could sus out where the training grounds were while he was blind.

[Niro]

Meanwhile, Ashura was already in the training grounds. His own unique characteristics caused by Janesisu were easily explained away as a Kekkai Genkai and rather than draw attention to him, the village had preferred to play it cool. His own squad of handlers was situated somewhere where he couldn't see while he attempted once more to draw forth Janesisu's power and conjure something up. Ashura's focus was disrupted however by the arrival of a blindfolded yet familiar fellow. The outfit was clearly Indra's but the blindfold definitely through the young Hizashi for a loop.

"What the hell? Indra, is that you?" The teen called out loudly in confusion as he watched the blind folded boy enter the training grounds.

[Ace Trainer]

It had taken some time, but the sound of excitable souls slowly turning to nerves, to anger, to the soft grunts of training had gotten Indra to where he needed to be. But as he approached, the sound of another soul stood out to him, one he'd quickly became accustomed to over the recent months. Before he could be sure, though, his jinchuurinki counterpart would call out to him in shock, "Oi oi. Calm.", was all he said in response. For a moment, Indra drew in a deep breath, focusing his soul on all the sounds of souls around him. For a moment, he just focused, and then he'd let out the breath as he found was he as looking for. Six of them in total, three of the souls had been the ones following him the entire time, the squad he'd been well aware would be on his tail. The other three were souls he'd heard only on occasion but he recognized none the less as the soul of his oversight squad got closer to theirs - Ashura's squad. Well, if anything it meant they were extra secure...right?

"You been training huh? Well, guess we're here for the same thing at least. Whatcha working on? Show me what you've got!", the fact that Indra couldn't see wasn't lost on him. But knowing Ashura was learning something would inspire Indra to as well, or so he thought. Before he'd left they'd shown him how to shape his chakra into Kuuton, so he thought he would spend some time training that first and foremost.

[Niro]

"I, uh, haven't really been working on any jutsu. Been more focused on getting better acquainted with uh...you-know-who. That and doubling up on the training regime the Academy taught us." Ashura replied with a big cheeky grin as he flexed his left arm to show off the visible muscle the boy had put on since their sealing. Then he realized the blindfolded boy in front of him couldn't see him anyway and put it down with an exasperated sigh.

"You learned any jutsu besides what the Academy taught us yet? Between you-know-who, my clan jutsu, and then its basics I don't even know where to start! Not to mention one of my 'chaperones' had mentioned something about 'Kuuton'? Rings a bell from class but I..might've slept through that one." The boy explained with a laugh.

[Ace Trainer]

Without his eyes being visible, it was certainly harder to read how Indra was feeling about anything, but when Ashura mentioned getting to know "you-know-who" better, there was a sort of physical recoil that Indra did, his usually flush face getting a little whiter for a moment. Ashura's tone seemed to imply he and his genma had some form of relationship...which was certainly not the case for Indra. His interactions with the soul genma thus far had been less than pleasant, the genma seemingly uninterested in any sort of collaborative partnership. He stammered for a moment, "Ah, yeah, I mean, I've been doing the same mostly., scratching his head in the process.

"I got a couple but nothing big yet. I was gonna learn Kuuton too! One of my guards uses it and said it would match me well. Plus I was gonna pick up Kugutsu, Sunagakure is famous for it after all!", he did a sort of fist pump, seemingly recovering from his shock earlier.

Taking a few steps, he'd begin waving his arms around him, "We should train some more, I'm trying to get stronger. We got a tournament to win!", he continued to reach about until he'd bump the training dummy with his arm. The dummy would tumble over, crashing to the ground and Indra would here the clattering of a bunch of metal falling off of it, "Oh geez did I break it!?", he called out.

[Niro]

"I guess they are still hosting the chuunin exams even with the war going on...It'd be bad for us to look bad, huh?" Ashura wondered as Indra smacked the dummy and caused it to fall over. The makeshift person made of wood crashed to the ground and parts of it flew off. There in the wreckage, a fat little lumpy sack was easy to spot. Ashura picked it up and tossed it about in his hands before pulling on the thread holding it closed. His eyes widened in surprise as the bag revealed a stash of shiny ryo coins.

"Wonder who would leave this here? It's bound to get destroyed..." Ashura closed the purse string back up and began to look it over. His eyes swept over the canvas and on the bottom of it he found a poorly scribbled on name. He couldn't make the actual name of on the bag out but what he could make out was 'gang.' So some street gang had stashed their ryo here, huh? Guess that meant it was free game.

"Looks like we just got a little bit richer!" Ashura joked as a trio of rough and dirty looking teens entered the training ground. The Hizashi's eyes went from Indra to the bag to the newcomers, back to the bag and then back to Indra. The boys were talking amongst themselves before seeing the destroyed training dummy. Their voices turned into cries of anger as Ashura grabbed Indra's wrist and began to laugh and run away.

"Run!" He cried out to Indra before raising his voice even higher for the hooligans chasing after them. "Smell 'ya later!"