A return of some sorts (Wind)

Yoshimaru walked into the Konoha training grounds at night. Small flakes of snow drift down to the ground barely sticking without melting. He was wearing a long sleeve athletic like shirt with athletic pants to keep off at least some of the cold of the outside. He breathed in and out as he walks to where he wanted to go, which was by treeline. He was able to see his fog like breath because of the heat differences between his breath and the cold night air. Because of the snow clouds in the air, there was little light that he could use to see. His checks were only a little flush from the brisk air, and his lips were a little cracked because of the cool temperature. Underneith his feet as he walked was the sound of his feet trenching their way through the snow, cruching and compacting the snow under his feet to form footprints.

Soon he reached the treeline he was walking toward, and he stopped there as if he were waiting for something. He curiously looked around at his dimly lit surroundings, including the snow covered tree tops, the foot print he had made walking here, and the unique ice crystals falling from the heavens above. He was waiting for his sensei whom he had not seen in a very long time. He had been very busy, and he hadn't had a lot of time to spend training. He was ready to restart his training because he has been falling behind his teammates. He cackled a little bit at the fond memories of his teammates: he had not seen them in a long time either.

To keep ready for the training and warm, he started to stretch a little by keeping his knees straight with a little bend then leaning down to his feet. Then he ran in place for a few minutes while moving his arms in varying sizes of circles. Finally, he relaxed for a little bit awaiting the arrival of his master, Lady Coal.

Coal had arrived early today, a little too eager to get to beat on one of her students. It had been some time herself since had gotten to practice her trade against a clever and evasive opponent, but she hoped she could make short work of the genin. After all, her student was her student.. it wouldn't do well to be beaten by him. Amid the trees, in the cold, Coal awaited with her allies. Two copies, kage bunshin, lurked around the perimeter of the meeting ground, acting as her eyes and ears while the real Coal lurked safely underground. Hidden in the earth she was hidden, but she knew that Yoshi was aware of both her love of hiding, and her elemental affinity.

As Yoshi approaches the small patch of woods that had been assigned as their meeting grounds, both clones press tighter against the trees they were in. Hidden behind leafless branches, the shadows of the trunks helped conceal them. The various Coals give Yoshi his time to settle in before speaking. "Ahh.. so you've arrived at last." says one clone from one direction. The next clone picks up, casting the same voice from the opposite side of the smal grove. "Do be on your toes, dear, this could get exciting.." the voice follows, then fades away into the darkness. A moment passes, but only a short one, and Coal makes herself better known.

The visage of Lady Coal crests the surface of the ground like mermaid breaching the surface of a calm ocean, but only rises to about her mid section. From about thirty feet away, she wiggles her fingers effortlessly through a trio of handseals, then places both palms to the ground. The immediate reaction to the jutsu is a localized spiking of the ground, some two dozen narrow spears of stone rising up quickly from the area all around Yoshi. If he did not react properly, impalment was a very real threat. Coal would be above the surface for only a moment, and even as the spears were rising upwards, she would be sinking back into the ground for protection.

All around him she owned the forest. Some twenty birds littered the area, nestled in trees and simply watching for now. Each one was a creation of Coal's, and simply lurked in wait for the time it was needed to come. Each one could act as a little tattle tale, popping like a shadow clone, to provide Coal with information. Each one kept a look out, for now, sitting silently in a tree, like natural scenery.

Spoiler:

Yoshimaru could hear the voice of Lady Coal taunting him in the darkness. He noted that different directions of the voices of Lady Coal meaning she must have made one of her shadow clones that she is known for making, at least by her students. Under him he could feel the ground slightly shaking, and Yoshimaru knew well that she was a master at earth element ninjutsu. In order to avoid the earth ninjutsu ( at that moment he didn't know exactly what it was), he swiftly jumped towar the tree aiming his feet at the trunk, and then he kicked off from it, sending him fairly high into the air avoiding most of the spikes below and caused him to flip. While flipping, though, he barely was scratched by one of the spikes coming out of the ground on his hand, causing him to start to bleed.

He continues his flip through the air and then landed as oftly as he could on the ground in order to stiffled the crunching noise of the snow below. He looks around at the scene behind him now. The spikes of earth stiking from the ground outward and the treeline behind them. He knew he should keep moving so he did. He continued to run through the snow outside of the treeline. He brought out a few kunai from his ninja pouch that was by his side in order to prepare. The blood comingt out from his hand was touching the cool air out the outside, and it began top quickly became viscous. He concentraited some of his chakra into his blood forcing it back into the body by something was strange about it: the skin around it was quickly healing, and Yoshimau began to wonder about this.

He quickly started to smile, but he had to keep running. He had no time to worry or celebrate what he had just discovered about his blood, but he still had the thought in his head that it was not healing as quickly as he was hoping for. He scanned the trees trying to eye his sense, but alas he couldn't see her in the trees because it was so dark and the snow clouds in the sky. 'Where is that devious sensei of mine? I know that she is just toying with me, but she does play a little rough.' A small noise could be hear in the darkness after that thought and the running noise stopped.

From the tree tops, a clone makes its first move as Yoshi begins to retreat. Calling on the power of one of her seals, Coal charges the symbols on her feet with chakra, and prepares herself for the release. The moment chakra is pushed into the seal it is distruibuted evenly throughout the muscles in her legs and feet. The surge of chakra causes her legs to push herself forward, and in a moment she's in completely different settings. While the technique was still short of teleportation, the body flicker transported her 50 meters in almost an instant, easily allowing her to catch up with her speeding student with a blur of motion. She appears from seeming out of nowhere, running alongside of Yoshimaru and smiling as brightly as ever.

"Don't run, Dear, you'll only tire yourself out." she says quite happily, just teasing the boy a little more. It was not as though she should have expected a challenge, fighting a genin one on one, but she was certainly not going to take it easy on her student. As she is running to keep up along side him she draws her right arm up in front of her. The delicate tracings of fuuinjutsu seals covering her flesh form several seals around such an important limb, but only one mattered for now. With just a little chakra the ring of fine black text circling her forarm above her wrist begins to glow, and a rather lethal weapon appears. As the seal distributes the chakra in it over her hand, it begins to glow with a stark, white light. A wedge of chakra about two feet long appears extending over, around, and beyond her fingertips, the harsh crackling sound of chakra meeting physical air peeling around it like very quiet thunder.

Of course, Though Coal wanted to make this a challenge, she was careful not to kill Yoshimaru. She swipes the blade at him as easily as swinging an empty fist, the short but unthinkably sharp blade sweeping at his body in somewhat predictable, rather basic attacks. She aims for no vitals, and in her own eyes may as well be waving her arm randomly with how untrained the attacks are. Yes, Coal is not even trying.. yet. Still in the trees the other clone advances quietly to catch up with the fleeing Yoshimaru, while the subteranian Coal trudges along well behind the group, hoping to catch up in time.

On the ground, Yoshimaru tries his best to keep his distance for Lady Coal because he knew she had something in store, and he continues to run. He astutely guessed that she was preparing for an attack of some sorts, and he knew she wasn't out to kill him. Maybe she might only mame him a little for not training with her or the team for a while. Either way he was thankful for this sort of training, and he was going to try his best to pose a challenge for the powerful jounin. He could see the light quickly forming beside him, and he guessed if was going to be a chakra related attack to to the darkness of the night meaning that it could have no natural source unless highly impossible circumstances arose. He slyly smiled knowing that he would not be able to dodge all of the attack because she was so fast compared to him.

He quickly jumped to his right slightly while putting on his breaks by planting his feet has hard as he could in the snow. While doing this, he got sliced rather deeply on his left side, cutting through the layers of his clothes and the skin going about 1/2 of a centimeter deep and 15 centimeters across. He let out a slight cry when he got cut because he just couldn't help it: it was a simple reaction. Blood droplets go through the air because of the strike. It starts to bleed just as his hand is bleeding, but like his hand it is starting to heal just by concentraiting on his wound just a little. The wound closes faster the more he puts more thought and energy into it, and the spots feel warm. 'What is this?' He continues away from the forest and the pursuing Lady Coal.

He starts to run in the opposite direction that he was running, and yet again another noise was heard in the darkness of the night, like something thudding into the snow. He continued to run as fast as possible, but he wasn't very adpt at running. The smell of iron was in the air for some reason, too. He was not cut fairly bad, but to anyone else's knowledge it could be that bad, and it was still bleeding. Yoshimaru ran as if he had a hurting blow that he couldn't help but acting that way: the way in which he was running. He had a steel kunai in his hand while he was running and there was a little bit of blood on it. The wound on his hand had nearly healed.

"Going that way huh?" Says the pursuing clone as Yoshimaru doubles back the way he had come from. It seemed a silly move in her mind, but maybe he didn't know there were still two more Coal's to deal with. The one in the trees could have intervened to cut off his escape, but it didn't need to be done. Back towards you Coal says in her mind, the seal on the back of her neck transmitting the message from the clone to the safely hidden Ninja underground. She smiles just a little, and slows her persuit in anticipation of intercepting the now incoming genin. Of course, the original clone doesn't just stand there. The clone flicks her fingers through a trio of hand seals almost too fast to be read, and she draws in a short breath.

The next moment she spits out of compressed ball of glowing hot chakra, which streaks through the air towards Yoshi. She doesn't exactly aim for him, though landing in his general proximity would be enough of a fright as the jutsu explodes with a powerful force, and expands into a momentarily swirling cloud of explosive fire and heat. The jutsu wasn't aimed to harm him, it was only aimed to distract him, and keep him moving in the same direction he was running. It was underground, really, that Coal's primary assault was going on. The hidden clone remains up in the trees, watching each move closely as to not miss a thing, and all the while Relaying this information to the Jounin through the single mind seal on her neck.

Beneath the surface Coal didn't have long to wait. The fireball explodes only a second before the non-clone is cresting the surface of the earth once more, and preparing a jutsu to trap her agile student. She forms a pair of handseals, then presses her hands against the ground, hoping the fireball distraction would not even have Yoshi looking this way. Of course, she wouldn't be surprised if the boy assumed she was hiding underground here, it was the same direction she'd been seen in last. The jutsu she cast results in a small cave in, and complete disolution of the solid ground in the general area. Like an ant lion's home, a large, thirty foot wide, pit forms, with sandy crumbling sides, and a pit of loose sand in its center. Objects and people caught in these traps often just sink towards the middle, helpless to escape.

Spoiler:

Light comes at a quick speed behind Yoshimaru. Undoubtably, it must be some sort of heavyly chakra based attack due to the amount of light released, and the light coming behind him is light that would come from a fire. Yoshimaru shrewdly guessed it must be some type of Katon technique. Yoshimaru had to get out of the way of the oncoming fire technique, but it came as a sort of double edged sword for Wind. The light released from the katon tech. allowed Yoshimaru to see the real Wind come out of the ground. She was not out yet, but a glimsp convinced him at that point it was the real Lady Coal. Quickly, he jumped out of the way to the left again: he dodge the fire ball. He landed in a splat in the snow just before the fire ball exploded with his arms out stretched. The fire ball exploded sending flames onto him, and Yoshimaru quickly rolled around to put the fire out.

There was then two explosions from both sides of the young man. They were both relatively small compareds to the explosion of the fire balls. They were approximately right where the two Lady Coals were. He had previously planed this from the start when he knew there was a clone. At two seperated intervals, Yoshimaru used the darkness to plant two explosive seperate explosive tags on kunai in the snow at those spots. Those two spots where the explosives were. But due to the darkness of the outside he didn't notice the ground near him become brittle and wither an indenting plane. It was like a sand dune becoming larger. The sound of the sand rolling down into the sand dune got louder and louder.

Yoshimaru had to react quickly before the earth technique would get him. He got to his feet by pushing on the ground with his hands in a push up like form while bringing his knees up. He then quickly stood and started to run, but it was too late for him: he was sinking into the dune, being drawn toward the center of it. Yoshimaru tried to grab onto the sides, but he could not grab it. By this point in time, his hand was completely healed, but his right side was a little damaged, and it would require further time to heal. The healing was starting to get a little tiring to him because he was only a genin at that time, and it was his first time ever even knowing about this power. The air was quite cold and still smelled of irony blood, and Yoshimaru seemed to be floundering in the caving in sand dune. His fate though, seemed destined to meet with whatever awaited him in the middle.

Spoiler:

The jounin appears once more at the lip of the crater, grinning to herself as Yoshi flounders amid the loose, flowing sand. The center was little more than chest deep sand, that could seem all the more terrifying for it's constantly shifting, and threatening to pile more sand down, atop his head. Of course, The jutsu wouldn't kill him. Typically, this jutsu would include a ninja at its center, flowing with the earth and prepared to dispatch the opponent themselves, but Coal didn't have her previous partner with her. Even Coal herself seemed slightly worse for wear, but was still standing rather easily. The Char marks on her upper body still remained from the note that had exploded off the side, but it's effects must have been minimal, though it seemed unlikely she had been directly atop it when it exploded.

The clone, might not have had such luck. With the explosion from the note even only close by, the effect was enough to distrupt the fragile thing, and pop it out of existence. Yohshi would only have the one Coal up there, for now, smiling down at him just a little. "Ahh, you're stuck, huh? Well, come on, I'll wait. Climb on out of there. It's not as hard as you think it is. Just gotta do it as though you were walking on water." she says, then waits expectantly. Why she thought these genin could walk on water might be a mystery to some, but she had learned to accomplish the feat as a child. And even then, she had to learn it again at the academy. The others in team three, however, also showed no knowledge of the technique just recently, so who knew if Yoshimaru knew how.

Off in the tree, the last remaining clone continues to watch and wait, quietly hidden in the background. The branches and leaves provided easy enough cover for her to hide behind, and still she maintained at least an only slightly obstructed view of the fight herself. She snickers in her mind as Yoshimary is caught in the pit, but also seems rather pleased by the pair of explosions. She had watched as Lady Coal pulled herself out of the ground and approached the pit. Though she could hear the words the Lady was saying, it was the louder voice in her mind she paid more attention too. The constant communication between Coal and clone provided her with instructions, and the clone prepares to respond in kind.

Now nearing the center of the earth ninjutsu, Yoshimaru looked up at his sensei. He has been struggling to get out of the pit with his bare hands and nothing else, but that was his problems, and he recognized that. Yoshimaru tried to think of a way it would be possible to get out of the pit by regular means, and he finally figured it out: he had to use chakra in order to subvert the moving of the sand. Yoshimaru had seen this been done by Lady Coal in previous encounters by walking on water. It would seem as if someone need to distribute chakra to one's feet in order to make it stick to the surface; however, the chakra would have to change forms for fluids, such as water and in this case the free moving sand. That would obviously be the tricky part.

Yoshimaru brought together his hands to focus his chakra to both of his feet and both of his hands. After transfering the chakra to those areas he found the manipulating the chakra in his hands and feet seemed to be quite natural becuase he has learned the art of tree walking in the ninja academy. However, this was a new experience because it was as if the body new how to respond to the changing amount of pressures needed. Soon Yoshimaru was able to grab a hold of the sand with his chakra like a glue with his hands, and pulled himself mostly from the sand. Quickly afterward, Yoshimaru stood up on the moving sand, and he was almost at the center of the sand.

Yoshimaru then, after getting most of his balence, sped out of the area like a bat out of hell. He didn't like the idea of getting stuck in the unknown, but he also realized he was running into the clutches of Lady Coal. He took out a kunai and threw it at the jounin as he was running upwards. He realized that his sensei had taken some damages; however, she seemed as if she didn't get hit at all. Upon breaking the plane of the ground, he noticed that the clone was gone, but he had no knowledge of the other kage bunshin. What was he to do in this situation? Perhaps it would be over soon, but only time would tell.

After a little hop back to make some space between herself and her student, Coal catches the incoming Kunai rather easily. No sooner is it in hand before it's twirling about her right index finger in quick little circles. "Hey, impressive, you got out of there pretty quick. Not everyone just stands there when you're trapped, but not bad for a first time. You want to try out some edged weapons? I don't much use a kunai when I fight, but I suppose it never hurts to get some practice in when you can."

She flips the blade around in her hand as she speaks and presents it out in front of her in a defensive stance. Coal smiles and waits as the clone in the tree begins to move. The clone slides silently around a branch, and drops herself down easily to the ground below. As she falls the clone forms a pair of handseals, and focuses a small amount of chakra in her hands. The moment she lands she sinks further, finishing the jutsu by pressing her hands against the ground and merging with the earth beneath her. The move is quick, and almost completely silent, allowing the clone in the distance to never once announce her presence. Hidden once more the clone begins to sneak forward underground. Still fully charged with chakra the clone had many ideas, though for now would just be catching up. There was quite a distance between the tree she'd been in, and where Yoshi and the real Coal had ended up, but even beneath the surface, Coal could move with relative speed.

Speed was, of course, relative, because though Coal has precision, and grace, most know her to be a rather slow moving woman. She rarely rushes, when she isn't forced too, and even now was just waiting with almost statuesque motionlessness. Coal wasn't the sort to sprint or run or flail with endless assaults on her enemy. Her martial style favored precision to speed, and able concentration over brute strength. Her smile remains as placid as always, even while beneath the surface she was raging with energy. Her chakra continues to churn and bubble, forming great masses one moment, and fading the next. The energy flows into and out of each limb, each finger, each pore of her being, filling her with energy and movement inside, even when she remains still on the outside. Those who could have seen her chakra would have seen the tempest of energies contained inside of her, but to normal eyes the scene is less troublesome. "Well come at me, then." She says, calmly as ever. "I'm not going to hurt you too bad."

Yoshimaru knew that Lady Coal would do something like she did. She was a jounin, and to think otherwise would be a grave and stupid miscalculation. He watched how she caught the kunai with her hand and then twirled it around. She invited him to come and rush in, but that would be stupid, too. She is much more physically fit than him in every way, which would make walking into that situtation would mean suicide in the battlefield. However, that didn't mean that Yoshimaru wasn't going to take an offensive stance from where he was.

After he threw the kunai and Lady Coal catching it, Yoshimaru decided it was time to use his kekkei genkai for his advantage. He released the blood that was on his body, and channeled it up his right arm. He quickly rose his right arm, and the blood shot out at Lady Coal. It was his body temperature, which made steam rise off of it as if flew through the air at her. As the blood went out, it spread out, instead of condencing into one shape. The spread of this sheet would be something like 3 meters in diameter.

The snow in the air was falling down at a constant pace, just as it had been since he started his training with his teacher. The snow on the ground seemed not to accumulate, but it was because this had only been going on in a relatively short amount of time in comparison to the start of the snow fall, it seemed this way. The air was a little cold still, but the exersize was keeping Yoshimaru warm for the most part.

Yoshimaru then started to run to the right of where he was standing. Something was strange about this situation though. The situation that Lady Coal put him in suggested that she had something planned that he knew nothing about because she did not progress to attack. He may have just been a little bit too suspicious, but something in his mind was definately off. The weather though was starting to take a little toll on his body. It was causing his muscles to tense, and Yoshimaru, though he was warm from the exersize, was starting to feel the bitter chill of the cold. He worked through it as he ran. He didn't know of what awaited him under the ground because he didn't even know about the clone in the first place, and he didn't know that it had gone under the ground. Something awaited Yoshimaru, but he had no idea.

Spoiler:

Coal only smirks little at his responce. Some people just never listened. She had wanted to try her luck blocking and parrying the genin's assault, but in the end that wouldn't have taught too much anyway. Clever as always, Yoshimaru defaulted with non-direct assault. It was really the most basic part of being a ninja; work smarter, not harder. With almost no thought on the matter at all, her hands form a few simple seals. As the blood expands she presses her hands to the ground, and the ground splits in front of her. A great wall some twenty feet high bursts forth from the ground, and forms in place in almost a second. The solid granite rock face was forty feet long, making for a formidable defense from oncoming assaults. The blood would splash against the stone, and succeed only in staining it red. Three feet of stone separated Coal from any danger, now, and for the moment she was conveniently out of sight. Of course, she wastes little time before casting another jutsu.

Stil crouching near the base of the wall, she does not even bother to stand back up. She forms three seals and once more presses her hands against the ground. With ease and grace she sinks beneath the surface of the world, and becomes one with the rock. Protected from the surface threats for the moment, Coal lurches forward unseen, while relying on the vibrations in the earth to get her bearings. These would typically be the only things she had to assess the surface world, if the fight were not well planned. Just as Coal began this voyage beneath the surface, hidden behind the wall, her clone finally climbs above the surface, and switches places with her.

As the real Lady Coal is moving underground, the clone leaps high atop the twenty foot high wall. She grins and crosses her arms, understanding well the exchange that had just happened between Coal and Yoshi. "I said attack me with a knife, not throw blood at me. That's just gross. I hope you have an easy and effective way to get that out of clothing if it gets all over, cause these robes were real expensive you know." she says, smirking quite happily as she does. She was just stalling now, waiting for the real Lady to get in position. Though she can't see her original, the clone can hear her easily enough. As always the constant jabber of planning and otherwise humorous comments kept Coal and her clones constantly informed of the other's whereabouts, plans, and thoughts.

Spoiler:

As stated before, Yoshimaru had no idea that Lady Coal had made a clone, but he was a little suspicious of the events that were happening. He thought it strange that 'Lady Coal' made a wall rather than just avoiding the blood, and that it seemed to take Lady Coal a little bit longer to get over the wall than it should have. He certainly hadn't figured out what was really happening in the rush of the moment because of his inexperience; however, he figured something was alligning for Lady Coal. Still, inexperience made him a little ignorant to what could be evident to someone even more higher ranking than a chuunin. He decided it was time to inact his supplementary plan to try to weaken Lady Coal.

He stopped in the snow and spun around using the slickness of the snow. The blood that splatted on the wall shot up at the Lady Coal clone at a quick pace, and Yoshimaru using one hand sign to harden the tips of the blood into extremely sharp blood needles. There were approximately five needles, and they were going fast enough to puncture the skin of Lady Coal. These needles were as hard as steel and extraordinarily long.

Yoshimaru got extremely tired while doing this. He was expending a lot of chakra for a genin, and he was starting to pay for it with the effects on his body. He breathing pace quickened, and he legs started to feel as if they were made out of jello. He legs started to shake not only because of the new weakness but also because of the bitter cold that was biting him. He knew that this was coming soon, and that it would happen at any time. It came to pass that he could barely do anything. He relaxed his hand signs from the weapon creation process, but he kept his mind focused on the needles heading toward the Lady Coal clone. He might as well try his best to do as much as he could. He was only a genin after all, but he was hoping he could at least try to win. He had succeeded in destorying another Lady Coal clone, and hurting the real one; however that was not enough for him.

He breath in and out, waiting for something to happen. What would be the result of his attack he just set into motion? Perhaps one of the needles would at least puncture her skin. But that wouldn't stop her at all, and he knew that already to be fact from the way she took the exploding tag that he had hit her with earlier.

Spoiler:

The Clone just smiles a little more brightly as Yoshi stands his ground and spins in place. His lack of evasion would play into her hands, and the real Coal would be sneaking closer and closer with each passing moment. The clone keeps Coal informed as Yoshi forms his jutsu and sprays blood through the air. The clone does nothing to move at all, it just stands there stoically, with it's arms crossed. She had little doubt the jutsu would pop the clone, but the longer she lingered there, the longer she kept his attention diverted upwards, and not towards the ground at his feet.

All the while Coal positioned herself. She swam low and made her way beneath Yoshimaru. She felt the tremors flowing through the each, tingling out each placement of a foot with a small vibration. She could feel the pressure and weight of people above, but remained otherwise blind to the topside. What information she could get from the clone told her that everything should work well, so she springs into action. It would be about the time that the sharpened blood made contact with the clone that coal would be set into motion. She focuses her energy beneath the surface of the ground, and reaches her hands out in front of her. She forces out the chakra into one place, and stone turns to crumbling sand at her fingertips. The clone vanishes in a small puff of smoke, and at the same moment a familiar jutsu is begun.

Just like before the ground turns into a gaping pit of sand. What was once stable earth is replaced by a sucking vortex of loose dirt, a cone shaped pit some 15 feet deep, and twice as wide. Coal rests at the center of the pit, staring up at her student with Kunai still in hand. It's always been known shinobi shouldn't fall for the same trick twice, but she thought she might get him. Yoshi was looking a little worn out from the activity so far, so she guessed his chances of evading seemed pretty slim. Of course, she also knew Yoshi was quite cunning, and unpredictable. She knew that he knew she made great use of clones, but did he sense the switch? She squeezes the kunai in her hand just a little bit tighter; the same one Yoshi had thrown before, the one the previous clone had been lacking. She prepares to strike should the chance present itself, though is already picking out a nice, non-lethal stretch of skin to cut open.

Spoiler:

Watching the clone closely, he decided something was definitely wrong because the clone meerly stayed where it was. It was trying to waste time, and Yoshimaru recognized that. It didn't even try to avoid the oncoming attack as the needles would pop her clone like a balloon. Then Yoshimaru's fears were realized. He was right all along in the bad feeling that he had, but he was not thinking clearly because of his sapped chakra. Yoshimaru slowly prepared his hand signs waiting for the attack to come, and it certainly did.

Right below him a trap was sprung just like the other previous trap. He finished his hand signs and smiled a little at this. Then bam, he was out of the way of the trap that Lady Coal had used on him. A log was in his place, and Yoshimaru was on the edge of the forest in plain sight. There was no need to hide himself because this training would be over. He could not possibly defend himself any longer. In fact, he was laying down by a tree with his back against it. The cold was nipping at his skin, and he was starting to get the chills. Wind needed to attend to the genin quickly before the cold air got too harsh for him to handle.

He then said with a weak voice, "Lady Coal.... I am done... I conceed. I can no longer go on. I am so weak right now that I need you to take my to my bed. I do not know how much longer I can stay awake... I am so.... sleepy." He sayed there as long as he could awake. He was starting to fade in and out between reality and the dream world. He seemd to have a satisfied expression on his face. Perhaps it was from the dream, or maybe it was his actions he was proud of.

A good ninja is not personified by all the great deeds and things he has done through his life, rather it is by satisfaction, that a good ninja is made. When one poors all of one's soul into something, all they can ask for in return is satisfication and tranquility. Yoshimaru had both of those at that moment, but he went off to the dream world before Wind could get to him. He was thinking of laying down beside some trees, looking up at the clouds and thinking wonderous things. However, like in all dreams, he had no bounds and was unaware it was a dream. Bliss was overtaking him in his thoughts.

Spoiler:

Coal sinks back beneath the surface of the sand to avoid if falling log, and swims through the ground for just a moment. She rises once more into vision on the outter perimeter of the crumbling pit, and sighs happily. With the fight over, the Kunai in her hand would be mostly useless. She returns to twirling it around her right index finger, and wanders quiet slowly over towards her collapsed student. Yes yes, it did seem the fight was over, but she was still quite pleased with the progress he'd made. Maybe next time she'd give im better instruction on the art of walking on water. Of course, moving on to more advanced techniques was always the more entertaining option. "Well, that was quite the work out." she says, though she'd barely broken a sweat. "You certainly did well. The placement of those explosive notes caught me off guard. But, we can discuss all the tactics another time. Go ahead and rest, I'll get you home. You just try to stay warm, and you can wake up all fresh and ready for more in the morning."

Coal lingers back a few steps, watching Yoshi fall deeper and deeper into unconciousness. She can't help but snicker just slightly at how worn out the boy had become, but then decides it best to just get him home. She spends just a few moments standing there, drawing chakra from her seal while Yoshi rests, then finally calls upon a pair of shadow clones. As usual, her clones would do the heavy lifting, and both would hoist the sleeping boy onto their shoulders. They then take off at a moderate clip through the woods, bring the boy home for a good rest. The clones would give him a once over once there, to assure he had no lingering injuries. With a clean bill of health, Yoshi would probly be back at work the next day. That was what Coal was hoping, at least.

As she watches the clones run off with Yoshi, she remains behind. It'd be a good ten more minutes of enjoying the peaceful surroundings before she left, and when she did she would have refilled most of her chakra. In spite of her boundless energy and endless stamina, Coal still just walks quite peaceufully back towards the village she lived in. It was a good walk away, but the falling snow around her would make quite the pretty one. She would call upon a bottle of wine before she got home, her own elemental jutsu easily able to get the sake hot and steaming, so she could truly enjoy the cold walk home.

(Topic Closed)