[Morning Training, open to all!]

[awokentospring]

Characters: Everyone!
Location: Training Ground, Shibusen
Rating: PG-13 for violence of the training sort
Time: 6am to 9am
Description: Training takes place every morning in the park to prepare the guests of the city for the ongoing war. It's handwaved most days, but approximately once a month this gets played out in a log. This log takes place on Friday, August 21st.

Official areas:

FAQ: In need of help or answers? Come here! Staffed by Neji (though he will be taking it easy and chilling at the Watch booth.)
Breakfast: The incentive for coming to Morning Training for those who actually don't care about Death City. All food providers are given funds to buy/prepare the food and are then paid for the time they spent cooking/preparing. Provided by Rosalia and Kanji (temps)
Combat Instruction: One can learn and improve on fighting techniques! Staffed by Cloud and Sion
Sparring: A bunch of people are there. You show up and pick one to fight. Staffed by Naruto and Sakura (beginners), Morgan (intermediate), Amaterasu and Cloud (advanced)
Weapon Transformation: New Weapon? Unsure on how to transform into a weapon (or how to transform back)? Go here! Staffed by Aqua
Soul Perception: Find out more about your soul, what they are, and what they potentially may do. Staffed by Death the Kid
Partner Training: Learn how to work as a partner! Staffed by Death the Kid and Sasuke
Weapons Handling Training: Learn how to handle sharp things and not so sharp things! Staffed by Auron and Genesis
Shooting Range: Learn to shoot a gun, not at quail though, so expect your face to come out of this just fine. Staffed by Naoto and Giroro
Meister Ability Helpers: Learn about your Meister ability and how to use it. Staffed by Akiha
Finding a Partner: Unpartnered Weapons and Meisters meet each other here! Staffed by Karina/Blue Rose
Medics: A place for medics to hang out, recruit and aid the injured - especially if they get shot in the face by accident. Staffed by Rosalia
Watch: This is where members of the watch meet up, chill, recruit and train! People interested in the watch welcome!
SEES: This is where SEES members hang out, and recruit!
Hug Brigade: A begrudgingly still opened squad dedicated to hugs of encouragement. Thank Lee for this! Staffed by Lee and his brigadiers!

There is no novelty class this time around :( Please be sure to sign up for one next month!

And of course, as always, feel free to make your own threads!

Comments

[sharingan]

[ it's not the first time he's heard something like this. when he'd last been awake, and everyone was here, regular death threats and looks of suspicion hadn't been unusual. Sasuke understood, he'd become a missing nin, after all. working with the man who had killed the Third.

the person I used to think you were—

there's something masochistic in him that can't help wondering.

the many ways things haven't turned out—

he says nothing, for a moment, but watches the other shinobi. he doesn't owe Neji anything, just as Neji doesn't owe anything to him, despite what he says. another Sasuke, the one he was in that world, he'd say i did it on a whim.

but that hadn't been a whim. it had been planned, calculated. he had wanted to save Neji's life. ]

[heavenly_earth]

[It's something he knows very well, and it's that will he appreciates. There were after all, several ways that encounter could have gone- one of those ended with both of them on the floor, though all of Sasuke's bleeding would've been internal.

Sasuke doesn't speak, but Neji meets the black of his eyes with a small smile]

Lee still holds some reserves about you, but I consider you an ally. I don't know if it means anything to you now.

[But it's a hard-won trust he's willing to formally extend if Sasuke ever wants to accept it]

[sharingan]

[ he expects it, despite how friendly Lee can be. he isn't used to Sasuke, the things he does, the way he acts— he's from a time when Sasuke kills and destroys villages and thinks of his own actions alone. his own goals. one where he refuses to hold anyone else against his heart.

it's taken him a long time to become the young man he is here in Death City. he feels no need to apologize, to explain himself, to these people. he's never offered it to Neji, and he won't offer it to Lee. they either take him as he is, or they don't.

but he struggles enough, juxtaposing the person he is here to the person he is there. it's not unlike being the boy he'd been, the sole survivor of the slaughter— but it isn't pitiful wariness, it's violence on the head of a pin.

there's no softening of his shoulders, when Neji extends that olive branch. he doesn't breath a sigh of relief, because the truth is that Sasuke hadn't been working toward it. he was a person of action, and that's exactly what he'd done. acted.

so he nods.

it can mean anything. yes, it means something to me. yes, i accept your words. yes, i accept this truce, this trust. Sasuke is no good with words. they always come too little, too late (but maybe he'd learned that from Itachi.) ]

[heavenly_earth]

[The acceptance- for that's what he takes it to mean -is underwhelming, but he thinks at least, that they've to agreement. Something that was unspoken until now, and still partially remains that way. But he's extended himself as much as he can and it's Sasuke's move.

Sasuke doesn't need their acceptance, and he might not want it, but that trust can only be broken or solidified by him alone. Lee might not really trust Sasuke, but he answers to Neji and he expects that in time, Lee will arrive at the same conclusion.

Neji idly wonders if they ever could be friends]

[sharingan]

[ there's a lapse of silence, then, something Sasuke is more than accustomed to in his interactions with others. but it isn't charged with a wire-tight tension, the way it used to be. the way it normally is, when Sasuke would find himself confronting with another shinobi of the leaf.

he can still recall how broken he'd looked, like a doll on the floor of Shibusen. the ripping in his clothing, the jagged feel of his ribs under Sasuke's palm, the way his breath had hitched when Sasuke had run him from the chamber to Auron's place.

he finds himself looking at Neji's chest, where he's seated. he can't see the bandages, not under his clothing, but he knows they're there. it's impossible to know what he's thinking, his expression is almost always so carefully schooled.

Sasuke had felt the tension, one that comes when you're wound up from battle. know Neji wouldn't have reacted that way around any other Leaf who might have found him there. there's not much of a breeze under the hot August sun, even the shade is warm.

when he speaks, his voice is quiet; low like a secret, because this is an admission in it's own right, and it isn't something he's brought up to Team Seven.

not really.

his eyes stay on Neji's chest. Sasuke doesn't meet his eye. ]

Was it me?

[heavenly_earth]

[Neji tries not to be unnerved by the sharp eyes that while not Hyuuga, seem to pierce what he's hiding there. The silence turns tense between them, and when Sasuke finally speaks, Neji has to replay the words several times before he feels like he really understands it.

It's just an admission he never expected, and now Sasuke's previous behavior makes even more sense. He's concerned over whether or not he's the one that had taken his life]

No. [He doesn't say that it was an Uchiha, even- just closes his eyes with a smile] No one killed me, Sasuke. I chose death to protect those I care about.

[sharingan]

[ some kind of tension unravels in his shoulder blades, and Sasuke closes his eyes briefly. this is closer to relief. after Sakura had told him he'd tried to kill her—

when he glances back up, Neji's eyes are closed and he's smiling and he looks almost peaceful and part of Sasuke hates it. shinobi put their life on the line, it's part of their job. once, Sasuke had thought he would find peace in exacting revenge on everyone that had done him wrong: Itachi, the Leaf, Madara.

Neji is dead. he remembers the look on Itachi's face when he had said the same thing. his life will go on here, but in the ninja world, his time has passed.

there's something wrong about that. maybe Naruto was rubbing off on him, but they should never have had to go through any of this. Neji doesn't say it, but who else could have killed him but an Uchiha? he shouldn't have had to choose death at all.

his name is a curse. his family and his blood limit are a curse. (god, but he misses Itachi.)

Sasuke's throat tightens and it burns into his veins, wells up like blood from a wound and Sasuke knows if he lets it run away from him he won't be able to control it. he takes hold of the emotion and wrangles the pain into fury because he doesn't know what else to do with it. ]

Will you tell him?

[ Lee. ]

[heavenly_earth]

[White eyes slot open and take in the vibrant field around them. The dozens of lives moving and training under bright sunlight and unforgiving heat. He's lucky to be here, to have this second chance at life when he no longer had a future to return to. So many things he'd wanted to do, but those dreams would be carried on.

But Lee.. He frowns, hesitates, because he knows how Lee will react, isn't ready for that yet]

Yes.. [He can't hide it from him forever] But not now.

[sharingan]

[ Sasuke drags his gaze away in an attempt to pull himself out of the septic course his thoughts want to take. he should grab to that relief he'd felt, seconds of it, that he hadn't been the one to take Neji's life. that this is at least one thing that doesn't make his hands red.

but that downward spiral is hard to claw out of. ]

Did you tell Naruto that?

[ because Naruto— he doesn't take lies well. Sasuke has learned this the hard way, in Death City. ]

[heavenly_earth]

[Naruto.. he'll need to keep a close eye on him anytime he gets too close to Lee. He doesn't trust the blonde not to say something]

More or less, though I expect he thinks I'll be telling him sooner rather than later.. [A sigh, he shakes his head] He doesn't understand how I have to handle this.

[sharingan]

[ Sasuke watches Neji for a moment, the considering look on the young man's face, before he looks back out into the field. Sakura and Naruto are both out there, it's hard to say what they're doing exactly from here, but Naruto is animated and Sakura looks almost indulgent.

she'll be gone this afternoon. a mission with Saralegui. ]

He thinks the best of everyone.

[heavenly_earth]

[Neji frowns, fingers slowly threading together. His own eyes drift toward where Lee's stationed himself, smiling for everyone, but with a frisson of worry and preoccupation that the truly observant can see]

Lee will pull through it, but it's not something he can handle on his own right now. For all his resilience, there are some ways in which he's fragile.

[Emotionally fragile. And he knows that Lee depends on him to support him, to give him all the comfort and reassurance he needs to bounce back to his relative norm. Because Gai-sensei used to do that, but without him or Tenten, Lee's grown even more dependent on him and in his current state, there's only so much he can offer him right now]

[sharingan]

[ sometimes, it's hard to think of any shinobi as fragile in any form. they spend so much time building themselves up into something solid and unbreakable. but maybe that was the difference between a genius level nin, and one that excelled through hard work.

Lee and Naruto, they were alike in many ways.
the same way Sasuke and Neji had their similarities.

the difference is that Neji is Lee's rock, and Sasuke— he knows what Naruto means to him, now. the grounding force he presents. the solid buttress that he and Sakura make to hold him up.

Sasuke is sure they don't know. just the way he isn't sure how he would ever explain it. ]

Hn.