[Graded]Twinning Reds

[Willoria]

For the first time in a long time, Kazuki Amaya had slept in. Day after day of training, and it seemed her body had just decided it was done. Normally she was up with the dawn, but now that had passed a couple hours ago before she finally stumbled out of her room. Her red hair was loose and completely a mess of tangles, she wore a long black t-shirt that reached her knees and came out of her room completely barefoot. Her brother's door was closed and she simply walked right on past it, heading for the kitchen. The apartment was small, and many would think the pair too young to live on their own. But live on their own now they did, not long after their graduation and reaching the rank of Genin the pair had decided it was for the best. Being twins of course they didn't relish the idea of living alone and so they were roommates now, but at least they didn't have their grandparents to work around.

The place was relatively clean, but as Amaya made her way through the living room she found herself picking up a few things and throwing them away. It wasn't unusual. When it came to gear her twin brother kept things in tip top shape, but the house cleaning itself? Not so much. That was left to Amaya and she had long since quit yelling at him about it. At this point it was just a way of life. She got to the kitchen and washed a couple dishes before starting in on making breakfast, rice was in a bamboo steamer and fish sizzled on the stove. If her brother was sleeping in too, he was sure to be awake soon.

[TyDie]

Ryu had woken up a few times in the past few hours, in fact he had even heard Amaya walk down the hall to the kitchen. However, much like her, days of training nonstop had taken their toll on his young body, and he was clearly in need of rest whether he wanted to admit it or not. However, even he couldn't resist rising from sleep when the smell of fish filled the apartment. He rose from the bed, nothing but a pair of shorts that ended just above the kneecaps, and walked out into the living room with Amaya. Being so small, the kitchen could be clearly seen over a breakfast bar separating the two rooms, so he simply plopped on the couch and stretched himself awake. Much like his sister, his red mane was a wild and unkempt knot.

"Mornin." Was all he managed to choke out after his stretch was complete, his head tilted up to the smell of fish and his eyes closed as he inhaled the aroma. "You're making enough for me right?" It was a silly question, he sincerely doubted that his sister would leave him out of the food. The last time she had, the yelling match between them ended up catching the attention of their neighbors, who believed them to be some abusive couple. He was trying to avoid that again, and he imagined she was too, which meant there had better be some food for him on that stove.

[Willoria]

With her back to the living room, Amaya more heard than saw her brother get up and make his way in. She simply sighed and rolled her eyes as he asked about the food. Of course she was making enough, she knew better than to not include him now. The smell of food summoned him better than the sound of a blade unsheathing. She didn't even answer the question vocally as she kept working. By time she was done she had a pair of small bento boxes ready, each with a bit of teriyaki salmon, white rice, and a mix of veggies. There was nothing too sweet on the plate really as she turned everything off and turned to make her way into the living room. "Guess you couldn't wake up either, huh?" she remarked as she set both boxes on rickety little coffee table they had and she sat down beside Ryu.

Honestly it was a bit of a relief to the girl that her brother had trouble waking up too. She hated it when he one upped her in just about anything, and seeing as he outclassed her in taijutsu by a mile he often mocked her if she slept in later than he did or didn't train as long as he did. Like any pair of siblings the two quarreled over everything. On a day like today when both were completely wiped of any energy it was almost nice to have some quiet.

Amaya paused in her own nibbling of her food to look at her brother and notice the entangled mess that was his hair and gave a small snort of a laugh... which of course sent a couple pieces of rice at him. This only made her laugh harder.

[TyDie]

Ryu was about to repeat himself as Amaya didn't answer his question, but he was quickly silenced by the sight of her holding two boxes of food. He happily took the one closest to him, holding it to his chest with one arm while he gripped the pair of chopsticks that came with it in his other hand. "It happens to the best of us, which is clearly me." He shot a smirk to his sister as he made his comment, knowing full well she'd get upset by it. However, instead of getting upset, she decided to snort at him in laughter... which sent rice into his face.

An annoyed glare shot from his piercing blue eyes as he stared down his now laughing sister before flinging a stalk of broccoli at her, aiming specifically to get it stuck in the rat's nest she called her hair. It rang true and lodged itself in her hair, earning some laughter from him as he proceeded to go right back to eating his food. "Looks good on you, I bet you'd get more attention from men if you wore food instead of perfume." Again he laughed to himself, swallowing another bite of salmon as he awaited retaliatory fire from his sister. It wouldn't be the first time a food fight was started between the two.

Though if any more fighting did result, it wouldn't last long; a knock at the door would quickly take both of their focuses from any quarrels they might have had. Ryu quickly hopped to his feet and crossed the distance between the couch and the door in a few moments, peering through the eyehole before opening the door. He had no qualms about showing off his form, and if anyone had a problem with it they could easily turn and walk away, no skin off his nose. However, the messenger before him seemed unphased; an older man, likely in his early 20s, and probably a chuunin if he had to guess. "Got a message for you... Kazuki Ryu?" "mhmm, hand it over." The messenger handed over the scroll meant for Ryu, prompting Ryu to shut the door and turn his back to hit. However, before he could take even a single step from the door, he heard yet another knock.

With an annoyed sigh, Ryu turned to the door again, opening it quickly before staring at the messenger with a dumbstruck look on his face. "You better not be expecting a tip dammit, you're a shinobi. Probably a higher rank than me too, i'll be damned if-" The messenger held up yet another scroll, a light smirk on his face as Ryu stopped speaking. "This one..." The messenger looked over Ryu's shoulder at Amaya on the couch. "...Is for you" the messenger held the scroll out to the young woman, and retracted his hand when Ryu attempted to snatch it. "I was clearly instructed to give it to Amaya, not her brother." Ryu narrowed his eyes at the man for a moment before letting out a grumble and turning his back to the man, walking over to the couch to get back to his food.

[Willoria]

Amaya had wrinkled up her nose at her brother's remark about being the best, but it hadn't lasted long as she accidentally got her own revenge on him with the rice. Of course though, that meant he had to retaliate with his broccoli. The girl let out a shriek at his antics and glared at him fiercely as she tried to dig the offending vegetable out of her fiery locks. "Ugh! As if I want ANY attention from men!" she snapped at him, turning to fling a bit of fish at him, but suddenly she stopped at the sound of a knock. As her brother went to answer it of course she considered going and putting on pants of some kind. But as Ryu answered and it turned out to be a messenger for him, she didn't bother. She sighed and leaned back where she sat, relaxing before she heard another knock.

The look on her face was probably as puzzled as her brother's as the messenger was still there and cast his gaze on her. She stifled her embarrassment at her own 'outfit', telling herself that everything was covered so she was fine, before finally standing and walking over. Naturally she stuck her tongue out at Ryu as he tried to take the scroll and the messenger kept it from his reach. She accepted it with a smile and thanked the man, but the smile didn't last long as his gaze dropped to her long and pale legs. The smile vanished and she raised an eyebrow at the man before slamming the door shut without giving him a chance to react.

It was only the messenger's yelp on the other side of the door as it collided with his nose that brought her smirk back.

[TyDie]

Ryu had only just sat down on the couch when he heard his sister shut the door, and the muffled cry of pain that came from the other side brought a laugh out of the young genin swordsman. "Ha, serves him right! Nice one Imouto." It was a name he didn't use too often for his sister, but he mostly used it because he loved holding the few minute gap that he had on their time of birth. He was older by about 4 minutes, so he got to call her the "younger sister", much to her dismay. After popping another bite of rice in his mouth, he proceeded to open the scroll he had been given, unraveling it to reveal what lay within.
"Kazuki Ryu

You have been assigned to a two man team with another genin of your calibur, as is the custom for genin in our great village. We expect you two to push each other past your limits, strive to be better than one another. From this moment on, everything between you two will be a competition. You will constantly be trying to surpass each other, and in doing so you will both become greater shinobi for our great village. Be prepared, for this will be the genin you fight when it comes time to advance to the rank of chuunin. We suggest you meet with this genin as soon as possible to begin your training. The genin you are paired with is:

Kazuki Amaya." As he read the last name on the scroll, his eyes went wide, and he instinctively shot a glare towards Amaya. Her note would read almost exactly the same, except for the switch of names stating that he was her rival. After a few moments of awkward silence between the two, likely exchanging multiple stares and rereading the scroll multiple times, he finally spoke. "...Are you fucking serious?"

[Willoria]

Amaya stuck her tongue out at the closed door and turned away from it, a rather triumphant look on her face. Though naturally she rolled her eyes at her brother's nickname for her. Normally she argued it but she was a bit preoccupied with the scroll in her hands. She opened it up and looked it over, the contents nearly identical to her brother's. Of course the key difference was that it was addressed to her and named her brother as her teammate and rival. She stared at it for several moments as if she expected it to change. It was a dream right? She had to be imagining this. She had already spent much of her life in rivalry against her brother and had looked forward to proving herself against someone else. 'He always manages to outdo me somehow or convince himself he's outdone me....' she thought to herself, sighing heavily at her brother's outburst.

Clearly this wasn't a dream, she wasn't imagining things, and as she looked at her brother his expression confirmed it. The two were still stuck together for training. "Great, same shit different day... and here I thought they'd assign me someone that would actually challenge me." she quipped, rolling her eyes as she moved away towards the kitchen. She dropped the scroll on a counter as she went, quickly setting up some form of tea as she felt a tension rising up the back of her neck that she hated.

[TyDie]

It was clear that neither of them wanted it to be this way; Ryu definitely wanted a new partner to train against, as he felt he had outgrown his sister a long time ago. And clearly she felt the same, no doubt because she knew she didn't stand a chance against him. Ryu was just about to bring up the topic of a change in rival; surely it was possible, they just had to go through the proper channels and come up with some bullshit about how they wanted to preserve their familial bonds or something. But before he could get the words out of his mouth, Amaya made her quip... And Ryu's eyes lit up like fire.

"Ha, that's a hell of a claim coming from you!" Ryu chucked the scroll at the back of his sister's head, hard enough to thunk her but not hard enough to cause any real damage. "I was gonna say the same thing, but you know what? I guess i'll take the easy step up towards Chuunin. Especially if that step is your head!" Ryu laughed to himself before flicking another piece of food into his mouth, a look of triumph on his face.

[Willoria]

Amaya made a small yelp of a noise as the scroll nailed her in the back of the head and shot a glare at her brother. "Oh please!" she replied from the kitchen as she got the water going on the stove and set up the teapot, getting out a container of tea leaves as an idea came into her head. "Just because you can wave a sword around doesn't make you the best! Just makes the girls think you have a tiny pecker!" she replied, laughing before the sound of her dropping a tin came from the kitchen.

Her back to her brother he likely never even saw the handseals, but he would have heard the sound of absolute disgust she made. "Ugh!"

Jutsu UsedShow

[Genjutsu • Smell Of The Deceased]
D-Ranked Illusion Genjutsu
After performing the necessary hand seals, the user will make a sound of disgust and any victim that hears the sound will be pulled into the genjutsu. This causes the target to begin to smell rotting flesh and decaying bodies. The jutsu can cause nausea and vomiting from the target, depending on how sensitive their sense of smell is. The smell of the dead can also cause some mental stress on the target. This genjutsu lasts for three (3) posts.

[TyDie]

Ryu practically choked on a piece of salmon as his sister commented on his manhood in such a vulgar and uncouth fashion. Of course, he should've been used to it by now, but sometimes she came up with something from left field that he simply wasn't prepared for. "You can't even rightly say that and you know it! We're twins, you've seen it more than once dammit!" He rose from the couch and was about to close in on her for a real bickering contest, but then that smell hit his nose... oh that bitch.

He dropped to one knee almost immediately, coughing and retching as the smell of putrid death entered his nose. "Oh... you cunt!" He managed to choke the words out between dry heaves, but eventually he wormed his way over to a nearby stool with metal legs. It was unlikely to break as a result of a few solid punches, but the pain radiating through his hand after two or three blows was enough to rid him of that horrid stench. "I came -this- close to losing my breakfast dammit, and I'd have made you clean it up with your face!" He took in a few deep breaths to rid himself of the residual reflex to gag, righting his stomach once more before rising to his feet. He looked at his hand, a few drops of blood trickling down his fingers from wounds on his knuckles... A few shakes to rid himself of the pain and he'd be fine. But Amaya on the other hand... he was already planning retaliation. He looked to the corner, a couple of Bokken leaned up against the wall for practicing purposes.

"Damn you're lucky i'm still hungry... I'd beat your ass into next week." With an annoyed sigh he would return to the couch, where his food awaited him.

[Willoria]

Naturally her brother's reaction to her comments had her snickering, but what really got her laughing was when she turned and saw her brother drop to a knee. She grinned at him evilly, watching him with fascination as he reacted to her genjutsu. It was a sight that never got old for her. The girl could be kind, but truth be told she had a brutal cruel streak which meant her brother was often the target of new genjutsu or any technique she learned new really. She shook her head as he punched a stool repeatedly to rid himself of the gen and turned back to her teapot as it was screaming for attention now. She poured herself a cup, as well as one for her brother, before walking over and setting it in front of him. "It'll settle your stomach." she assured him before sitting on a chair across from him.

Like most of their bickering and fights, things got heated but then before long they were back to acting like normal siblings. Though she still knew better than to sit directly beside him right now as he was certainly plotting something. She retrieved her food and sat in her chair, nibbling quietly as she thought over the news they had just received. "How are we supposed to push each other when we operate on two different fields?" she asked herself, shaking her head. It was a serious question. Her brother was all about his sword, about taijutsu, while Amaya had fought to keep a balance to her own learning. It left her weak in her brother's expertise, but made her stronger than him in others.

[TyDie]

Ryu grumbled angry and annoyed as his sister handed him the tea, almost snatching it from the table before taking a small sip to calm his stomach. "Not like it could get much worse..." he spoke under his breath, not wanting to continue the argument but never one to keep his mouth completely shut. He drank another sip from his cup before setting the tea down, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back in the couch, looking to the ceiling as he thought on what Amaya had said.

"Well, that's true... Perhaps that's what they're counting on? I'm clearly set in my ways; It's no secret I intend on mastering the blade before I move onto any other avenue of study. You, on the other hand, are much more diverse. They probably expect me to force you to learn how to exploit someone's weakness, and you to force me to learn how to fight through my weaknesses." While he rarely showed it, Ryu had a mind for this sort of thing. Far more than just a mere brute, he learned from his father that the sharpest blade was as dull as a metal pipe when wielded by a dull mind. And so, while he preferred the action of the bladework, he didn't neglect the work of the mind. More than once Amaya had caught him meditating, and those were just the moments that he knew she had seen him. With his senses dulled in a meditative trance, who knows how many times she had actually walked in on him?

"Nevertheless, it seems we're stuck with each other more than ever. May as well make the most of it... sparring tomorrow? It's probably a good idea for us to do an all out spar, a way of gauging where we are now versus where we'll be months down the line." he took hold of his cup, eyes closed as he inhaled the aroma for a moment before drinking more of the piping hot liquid. He rarely complimented his sister, but her tea brewing skills were top notch, and she knew it.

[Willoria]

Ryu's annoyed comment stuck with her and Amaya sat in her chair thinking it over. 'Make it worse? Wonder if I could... but how would I do that...?' She sipped her own tea before taking a bite of fish, her eyes shifting back to her brother as he replied to her earlier remarks. She stayed quiet, her mind working over other ideas as well even as he seemed to more forward on the subject. She couldn't help a wrinkling up of her nose as he mentioned sparring the next day. They trained and sparred often, and she wasn't sure she liked the idea of more already. But what choice did she really have? The girl nodded and sighed. "Bokken only from you though." she remarked, frowning. "Jiji isn't here to help if you try and gut me again." she added, shaking her head.

It wasn't uncommon for either of the twins, or both, to wind up seriously injured in their sparring matches. In the past their grandmother had always supervised since she was a great Iijutsu user. More than once she'd stitched one of them back up and left them without a scar, in a situation that could have killed them. It was the one negative of moving out of the house they shared with their grandparents... they had to be a lot more careful.

"Also we should spend more time solo training or even seek out someone to teach us. Otherwise our Chunin Exam will just look like another petty sparring match of ours..." she added, mentally trying to think if she even knew anyone who could teach her things her brother wasn't already aware of at least.

[TyDie]

Ryu had to stifle a smirk at Amaya's face when the prospect of a spar came up. She hated sparring with him, mostly because while she liked to play with his mind, he almost always left her bruised and bloody, or sometimes even cut open. indeed, if not for grandma Yoshiko, Amaya might have died a couple years ago, when he damn near disemboweled her with a blow that he expected her to dodge. "Yeah... still can't believe Grandma Yoshiko was able to put you back together so well, without even leaving a scar. Bokken only, I wanna hurt you, not kill you." statements like that were some of the only times anyone would see any kind of brotherly love from Ryu. As much as they butt heads, as heated as their arguments got, as battered and bloody as they were when they walked away from sparring sessions, one thing always remained true; Ryu loved his sister, and by no means did he want to kill her.

But on the other hand, she also had a tendency to be a bitch, and so the arguing was still very present in their lives.

Amaya had a good point herself it seemed too, one that Ryu would comment on after finishing his cup of tea. "Yeah... Grandpa is a great teacher, but I've been thinking for a while that I should look elsewhere. Now that we've moved out, I should look into that more seriously. Same goes for you, i'm sure you can find someone that'll teach you some more chakra tricks... or maybe you'll wise up and pick up a sword like our parents." Ryu smirked as he finished his sentence, punctuating the comment with the last bite of his salmon.

[Willoria]

Amaya couldn't help cringing as her brother mentioned that day. The pair certainly fit the definition of sibling rivalry, but that day he had genuinely thought he'd killed her in a strike. She could still remember the panic in his eyes. They had barely spoken of it since, but she still remembered every part of it. His panic, the way he froze in place as their grandmother ran to help her. The pain hadn't even fully registered until the Iijutsu had begun. She shivered a bit at the memory and cleared her throat, setting her plate aside and sipping on her tea. Though half her food remained, she was done. Remembering that incident was always enough to lose her her appetite.

"I have my own blades." she quipped in return as her brother made a comment about swords, like he always did. "And our parents had more than just swords at their disposal. I'm not going to tunnel vision myself... thats how you end up dead." It was a touchy subject with her, in some ways she blamed a lack of diversity for her father's death.

[TyDie]

Ryu scoffed at his sister's comment on tunnel vision... he knew her well enough by now to know that she hated the idea of putting all of your eggs in one basket, and why she hated that idea. "You know as well as I do that there was much more to it than that Amaya. Father was a master of both ninjutsu and swordsmanship, his..." He had to pause for a moment, it never got any easier to talk about this topic. "...His death had nothing to do with that. He would want you to pick up the sword, and so would mother."

Of course, it was her mother that really upset Amaya, not father. She still couldn't see how strong and brave she was, how far she came in her life. No, all she could see was how it ended... Which was even harder to think about than their father's death. "It doesn't matter. This isn't an argument worth having again, for the thousandth time." Ryu walked down the hall to his room, realizing that he was still indecent for a trip outdoors. "I'm going to jiji and baba's. You coming?"

[Willoria]

Amaya almost seemed to snarl under her breath, setting down her teacup heavily enough it splashed on her which of course just frustrated her more. "Don't call me that!" she insisted suddenly. "Its Rei." she added firmly, shooting a glare at her brother. She hated the use of her real name and instead went by a nickname as often as she could. She knew her mother had chosen to name her Amaya and as such she had decided to try and forego the name entirely. Of course, she wasn't old enough to decide she wanted it changed legally, so all she could do was go by a nickname for now. "And they don't get a say in whether or not I use a sword... they aren't here to argue about it." she added, tears stinging at her eyes already. In this situation she normally would have pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them to herself, but of course in her current garb, or rather lack there of, that was just a bad idea. Instead she leaned forward and rest her head between her knees, her arms wrapping around her legs as she tried to bury her own urge to cry.

She heard her brother shuffling around, and his question and the girl sighed. "I guess." she replied quietly. "They'll need to hear the news still..."