Trabia Garden

[Zabuza]

Zabuza's ship touched down outside of the town called Trabia. He had heard of a training facility here that sounded interesting, and he was looking forward to learning a new technique or two. Before he joined up, he decided to meditate and prefect his Ice jutsus. He put on his weighted clothing and headed to his training room.

Zabuza formed the hand seals and focused his charka. The room grew cold, and ice spears began to form and fall from the air. Anyone in the area that he was focusing on would have been seriously injured, possibly even killed. Zabuza smiled in satisfaction.

"Impressive.", said a voice from behind Zabuza.

Naturally, Zabuza was quite shocked. He jumped upward and whirled around. Standing there behind him was Itachi.

"How did you get here?"
"I got on before you took off. Did you forget about our arrangement?"
"Well, uh, yes. Yes I did."
"Don't forget again. We have an assassin to kill."
"Right. I was planning on staying here for a few weeks. He should catch up with us by then, hopefully he will have had enough waiting and come for you."
"What do you expect me to do in this time?"
"Train. And be bait, of course."

Itachi nodded and let the room. Zabuza sighed and continued his training. That man was a bit creepy, even to him.

Zabuza focused his charka again and went through all of the jutsus he could remember.

"Henge!"

Zabuza's form disappeared in a could of smoke. When the smoke cleared, he didn't look like himself. He now resembled Itachi.

"Look at me, I'm an Uchiha. I have sharingan and no emotions.", he said. Zabuza grinned.

OOC: This is both my Saturday and Sunday training, as I was unable to get my computer working yesterday. Had to borrow my mothers to do this post. I gain 10 to all stats because of weighted clothing. I gain 20 hp and 30 determination. This is my 4th training session, so I gain 1 level. I put 50 hp and 40 determination. This puts all my stats above 400, I'll deal with that later though. Finished Blizzard.

[Zabuza]

Zabuza slept peacefully in his bed. At least, it seemed so on the surface. In the land of dreams, Zabuza was fighting a huge battle.
"You think that training will save you.", said a familiar voice in his head.
"You will never become stronger than me. Give up and become one of my men. Your friends, old and new, are keeping me company here."
"Who are you? I know you from somewhere! What is this about a new friend?", shouted Zabuza.
"Oh, I assure you, you will remember him when the time comes. As it is, that is not important right now. I want you to do something for me. I want you to kill Leon."
"Why?"
"My reasons are not for you to know. I want you to find Leon and kill him."
"Never will I be your pawn!"
"Then, I'm afraid you will suffer."

Out of the darkness of Zabuza's dreams, shapes began to form. Abruptly Zabuza found himself tied to a wall. Mist was all around him, and he couldn't budge his limbs. Noises came from the fog. A strange sound began to build. It was almost like wind passing over dead and decaying leaves on the forest floor. It sounded as if creatures were busily devouring long dead corpses. It sounded as if there were a foul bog nearby from which creatures crawled and shrieked with madness. It was all of these sounds and more. Such a horrible noise he had never heard.

Out of the fog strode a lone shape. It was wearing dark clothing that completely concealed it's form. He assumed from the way that it stood that it seemed to be a man who knew how to fight. Wordlessly, the figure drew it's blade. With a flash, the blade licked out and found it's way into Zabuza's bound flesh. The pain was incredible. The sword slowly sank deeper and deeper into his flesh, tearing and twisting every step of the way.

"Join me.", came the voice. "If you do not, this pain is nothing compared to what you will suffer. Find this place."

The sword withdrew. It was covered with Zabuza's blood, and he knew that such a wound should have been fatal. The fog began to clear, and Zabuza saw a large black castle. It sat in the middle of a fetid swamp. Strange dark creatures could be seen moving in the decaying water, and there were corpses everywhere. Slowly at first, the corpses arose. They started toward him in an uneven, sluggish gait. Their bodies were horribly decayed, there was no way they could be living creatures.

"This is the land of the dead and I am it's ruler. You will join me, one way or another."

As the voice went on, the walking corpses came closer and closer. They were so close now that the smell made Zabuza want to vomit. One of them reached out and grabbed his arm. It's rotten mouth found it's way to Zabuza flesh and it bit down. The pain was incredible, and Zabuza screamed.

Bathed in sweat, Zabuza awoke. He quickly checked himself, and he was whole. Breathlessly, Zabuza jumped to his feet.

"Another nightmare. I will find this man who sends them.", he said. His voice echoed in the silence of his ship.

OOC: A random little post here which gives me the excuse to say that I gain a level because all of my stats are 400 or above. Heh. Will update myself now.

[Uchiha Itachi]

Uchiha Itachi, his face as cold as ever, stepped slowly out of the ship covered by his dark cloak. The cover of night shaded his tired eyes. Itachi quickly glanced around and let out a slight sigh, he wasn't used to being quite so jumpy. He thought to himself about how weak he really was, finally realizing that there is always weakness regardless of the power you hold.

Not senseing any immediate danger, Itachi continued out of the ship to explore the town a little. As he got further from the ship images started to flash into his mind, strange, horrifying images. He saw himself chained and bleeding, and his little brother beside him dead, bloody on the ground. He dropped to his knees, never had his mind been flooded by thoughts he didn't control. He looked up in time to dodge a quickly tossed kunai. Searching the area he felt something all to familiar, it was the assassin from before. The man that stole his precious eyes.

Itachi readied himself for a battle, searching his senses and preparing for anything. He began to investigate possible senarios, running different instances through his head. Very quickly and suddenly a sharp knee drove into his unsuspecting back. Itachi winced in pain and flipped away. Itachi looked around as he redied a kunai and tried to regain his senses.

He felt it, a blow was coming from above. He sidestep and delivered a kick, but it caught nothing but cold night air.

"Why the hell is he so fast?" thought Itachi.
"Because you are too easy to read, those eyes were all you had boy" sounded out in Itachi's head, an unfamiliar raspy voice was invading his thoughts. He no longer had the freedom even to think. Itachi realized the itensity of what was happening as he readied his kunai.

Jumping up Itachi sensed another blow was coming, it struck him. Poof. The decoy had worked, a kawarimi dummy. Itachi jumped at the chance, finally seeing his foe. He let loose a kunai that barely tore the skin on the assassins shin. A bit of red stood out on the mans leg, dark and crimson, glimmering in the artificial cold lighting cast down by dim street lights.

Angry that he allowed himself to make a mistake the attacker yelled at Itachi, "You bastard. I am done toying with you. You are much to weak for me to waste my time!"

Itachi grinned, wishing he could mask his fear. It had been too long since a real foe had challenged him. If only he had his sharingan he thought. He then remembered his...ally. Zabuza was there, somewhere. How could he not sense this?

"No luck there boy, no one will save you. No ally can stop me now" mocked the assassin, still hearing the thoughts of the helpless Uchiha.

Then, the warriors heard an unexpected faint growl, "Henge!"

A thick fog cast over the area. No one was to be seen in this. It was left to senses. Itachi felt his ally, Zabuza had come. Realizing his opprotunity, Itachi withdrew to a place he felt would be safer as he tried to concentrate on events around him.

Zabuza didn't seem quite himself, infact he looked just like the helpless Uchiha. Zabuza sensed the assassins confusion in the dense fog. He rushed him and delivered a swift blow to the back of the mysterious mans knees. The man recovered easily and they began a hand to hand battle. Zabuza kept one hand free of the fight as he deflected blows and kicked out at the mystery man. He began to sign quickly. The fight was surprisingly well matched, each blow matched by its couter part and another was thrown. The men began to see their breath infront of them, feeling colder by the second. A harsh unnatural cold enveloped them. The assassin sensed bad news and began to work out a retreat. The mystery assassin began to deflect blows and was figuring out a way to espcape. Preoccupied, the assassin was struck, his carelessness brought him a hard blow to the chest. He fell backwards, following his stumble by a back hand-spring. The cold had gotten unbareable. The man jumped backwards quickly and felt a sharp pain in his chest, a tearing, cold, unbearable pain. He looked down only to find himself impaled on a long, sharp icy pike. He had been caught. His crimson, dark blood ran warm down the icy spike. He was done.

Zabuza's cold fog retreated away and the tempature began to rise back to normal. Itachi walked up to his side, and looked towards him. Zabuza noticed that Itachi's cold eyes were back, the unsettling blood red sharingan had returned.

"Hmm...I suppose I should thank you" Itachi said, glancing unsure at the impaled assassin.

"I suppose you should. You are back to normal now I take it?" replied Zabuza, with his usual cocky tone.

"I am. My eyes are back if that is what you mean. I am not done training though." Itachi stated, remembering that he was still a weak peon without his bloodline.

The two looked away. Somewhat fatigued they simply stood silent in thought.

[Zabuza]

Zabuza stared at the corpse, deep in thought. The man had been stronger than he should have been. Not as strong as himself of course, but stronger than anyone he had yet faced. There was something strange about him.

Zabuza walked over to the man's body and kicked it with his toe. The man's body shifted, revealing something interesting. Zabuza bent closer to look.

"What are you doing?", said Itachi.
"I see something interesting here. This man was stronger than he should have been, and I think that I have found a piece of the puzzle."

Zabuza searched the man. His hands went into pockets and the mans belt pouch, but he found nothing of interest. That is, until he inspected the man's clothing. Zabuza busily stripped the man while Itachi watched him, his face neutral.

"It seems I ruined his armor, but there are some things here that might be able to help you out. I don't want them myself, I have better things.", said Zabuza.
With that, he handed Itachi a ring, a set of gloves, and a black hood, much like his own.

OOC: Ok dude, you're finished with this, your challenge. You get a Shadow Ring, a Dark Hood, and Thief Gloves. They are all handy things, although things that could be purchased. I'll update you now as wearing them, although you can take them off if you wish.

[Zabuza]

Zabuza had made it to the middle of the garden. It was a cold place, and it suited him well. He pulled the large and heavy sword from it's place on his back and stared at it. It was a huge weapon indeed. It would take a very strong person to wield it effectively. It fit well in his hand, and it reminded him of the past.
The garden was a cold and unforgiving place. It was rocky and fairly unpleasant to the way that most people thought. Zabuza merely thought it reminded him of home. Grasping his sword, he began to swing it in a vicious arc. It was balanced differently from his other sword, and he had some trouble with it.

"You'll never learn anything that way.", said a voice.
Zabuza turned around and saw a woman standing there.
"Who are you?", he asked.
"Watch this.", she said, ignoring his questions.

She was wielding a sword identical to his. She approached one of the short trees and raised the weapon. She attacked more swiftly that Zabuza could believe, unleashing a flurry of blows. The tree fell down in sections, and there was something odd about them. Zabuza approached and inspected them carefully.
Each of the pieces of wood were frozen.

"How did you do that?", he asked.

The woman was gone. He had no idea who she was, but the was terrifying with a blade. He liked that. Readying his blade, he attempted to go through the same motions she had. Nothing happened. There was obviously some trick to it he had yet to master. He would figure it out.

OOC: Started learning Ice Slash and enrolled in Trabia Garden. Paid the fee for myself and Itachi, should he ever decide to enter. Left my gloves locked safely on my ship and am currently wielding Organics in their place for training purposes.

[Zabuza]

Zabuza's arms ached. He had been swinging the heavy sword constantly over the last few days, and he was no closer to learning the secret of Ice Slash. He knew that he would most likely have to focus his chakra into the blade somehow, but he had not the slightest idea of how to accomlish this. Giving up for the day, Zabuza decided that it was time for kunai practice.

Zabuza put on his weighted clothing that he had been packed for the occasion and gathered his kunai. He scavenged around, looking for things to make targets out of. Eventually he decided to use some of the pieces of wood he had sliced off of the surrounding trees. He took several of them and placed them a few feet apart each. He filled his hands with kunai and closed his eyes. He spun in circles several times until he couldn't tell which way he was facing.

Zabuza felt around with his mind, searching for the targets. He concentrated carefully, and soon he could feel his surroundings. His hands moved swiftly, silver arcs slashing through the air. With dull thuds kunai found their way to their targets.

Zabuza opened his eyes and surveyed his handiwork. He had hit each target, although not in the center. He would dfinatley need more practice with these.

OOC: Wrapping it up here, gotta go. It's too short to take creadit for both days, even thought I couldn't get on the internet. I'll update myself later. Austin is cool, but not a place I would like to live. Or drive in for that matter.

[Zabuza]

Zabuza sat on his ship contemplating his next move. He had grown stronger, but perhaps not strong enough. He began to lapse deep into a trance, attempting to meditate. Finding his thoughts muddled and confused from lack of exercise, Zabuza put on his weighted clothing and unsheathed his sword. He turned on the lights in his ship to their brightest setting. The lights cast many separate shadows of himself on the wall. He began to attack his shadows. He never could catch them, of course, but at one point he was almost convinced that he had.

OOC: Short training post. I gain a level as it is number 4, and I wore training clothes. Will update myself and everyone else tomorrow, library is closing now. Heh.

[Zabuza]

Zabuza concentrated on his sword. He tried, as he had so many times already, to imbue the black the with deadly power of cold. He concentrated and concentrated, willing the blade to grow icy yet retain it's strength. Once he had managed to make the blade quite cold indeed, but he could sense that the blade had grown brittle and would shatter. Frustrated, he gave up.

Zabuza decided to meditate. Perhaps the answer would come to him there. He drifted off into his own minds, searching for a clue to master this new technique. He knew that he was strong enough and was able to do all that was required to master this technique, but still the trick of it eluded him. He drifted back in his memories to the recent past. He recalled the time he had seen it used and watched for any hint of what might be the problem.

Abruptly, Zabuza realized that he wasn't thinking properly about it. A blade could not be made that cold without becoming brittle. It was the nature of cold. He replayed the scene again in his mind and watched it more carefully. There it was. He had spent all his time studying his blade and nothing else. The magic operated independently of the blade, freezing a split second before the blade connected. Such a thing was extremely difficult to time. Now that he knew how it was done he knew that he could accomplish it. However, attempting it was dangerous. If his timing was off, he could freeze his own blade and it would shatter. He decided that this would be something he only used as a last resort, a move of desperation.

OOC: Finished Ice Slash, I think I will start learning the mist spell. Will update self.