Let's Grow a Brain

## **Let's Grow a Brain 3-17-17**

Asa: The weather around Hoshi was perfect. Clear skies, warm air with a nice cool breeze. It was days like this that children enjoyed the sun or honed their skills.Asa, however sat inside his home, empty and alone like always. The young boy was at a desk near the front of his home, papers scattered on the floor as he studied various ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, tactics, etc. Studying was usually something he did on his own but the boy was starting to grow tired of being an antisocial little turd. He sent out letters to both his teammates, Kenzo Ryu and Arata Hiyashi. He figured Kenzo wouldn’t show up considering that studying wasn’t really his thing, however he didn’t know anything about Arata. The two haven’t really had an opportunity to get to know each other aside from the mission the two were assigned to. Asa didn’t really care if Arata joined him or not but a little company wouldn’t hurt either. At the moment he was studying tactics for different combat situations. Hopefully if Arata joined him the two could just simply discuss their own tactics with one another. For now, Asa stayed at his desk, mumbling to himself as he read in the solitude of his home.

Arata:{AH} Arata Hayashi had been contacted by a teammate, one that wasn't prone to threatening to skin him alive, or stab him in the face, or the junk. It was a relief to know his team had members in it that weren't prone to team killing! Or psychopaths. So he was more than happy to scamper off and get himself dressed up in his normal ninja attire. His eyes were burning garnet at the prospect of someone that wanted to train with him. The message denoted that he should meet with Asa Uzumaki at his house. Arata got a bit lost along the way, scratching his head and having to ask where the Uzumaki lived, no not the Konoha Uzumaki, the Hoshi Uumaki. Yes there are Uzumaki living in Hoshi they have been, he had to explain. Whatever, Arata stormed off from a few people who were more than annoyed with the whole 'Who is on first' routine they dealt with Arata. After about forty minutes of searching, Arata found himself at the Uzumaki household and getting inside to find Asa, poking his head into the room. "Allo! Pleased to meet you." {AH}

Asa:Asa yawned as he looked up from his book. He turned his head turned his head towards the sound of the familiar voice. The boy slowly stood up to greet his guest. “Welcome” He said with somewhat of a forced smile. The smile was only force because Asa wasn’t the best when it came to human interaction. “Come on in. Ignore the mess..” He said as he started to pick up the scattered papers from the ground. He dropped the unorganized stack of papers on his desk before grabbing a nearby chair and pulling it next to his. Not too close though, he made sure not to be to close...that would be weird. “How are you?” He asked before dropping back into his chair and turning to his desk, still skimming over the paper he was reading

Arata:{AH} Arata scooted on into the room, carefully stepping over books or papers. Taking wide strides with tip toes as he moved through the room and strewn about study materials. As he found his way to a seat, Arata looked over at Asa and just had to say it, "You're room's a total mess." He scratched the side of his head, "Doing alright. What are you studying in this mess?" He tried to look at the paper and get an idea of what there was to study. "Why'd you call me over today? Need someone to help you organize?" He teased Asa, putting it across three times about what a mess the room was. {AH}

Asa:Asa scratched his head in embarrasment as he chuckled a bit at the comment. "Yea it usually gets this way when I get into my studying mode. I've been meaning to hire someone to clean for me." He mumbled a bit before turning to his teammate. "On a more serious note I felt like this would be a good time for us to get further aquainted and study together. Strategize, ya know? Improve on work as teammates and all that crap. " he said as he shuffled through papers. "All I know about you is that you have water release...which doens't really compliment my fire release well but I think we could think of some way to combine our skills...hopefully" the boy said as he looked towards his teammate

Arata:{AH} "You're kind of an idiot you know that? Fire release mixes great with water release. Just makes a lot of toxic steam." He commented while looking at the books. "You came to the right person at least. I can specialize in either long ranged support or close ranged assault. I can plan ahead pretty well. What do you specialize in?" Arata asked all of this and paused a moment, waiting for a response. But before he could get one, Arata would ask something else of Asa, "What do you specialize in as a ninja? And who the hell is our third teammate? I didn't even know we were together. Just that I had captain stabsalot." {AH}

Asa: Asa’s eye twitched at his teammates comment. Did he really consider steam to be that useful? “Eh. Steam isn’t really that useful in combat if you ask me. It can’t be manipulated by us so its just a waste of chakra. Its terrible to use for a distraction since it’s so thin and we can easily be seen in it. It’s hot, but it’s also quickly cooled just by coming in contact with the air.” Asa paused as he felt himself about to rant on but instead he stopped himself, focusing on what his teammate was saying. “Our third teammate is Kenzo Ryu…” He said softly as he thought about the spar between the two of them where Asa gave the kid some pretty serious wounds.” He looked at Arata and shrugged. “As for me. I’m pretty decent in every area. Mostly close combat and long range support. My biggest strength is strategizing I suppose though.” He said as he completely turned his chair around to face Arata.

 : {AH} Arata sighed, placing a hand over his head and eyes mostly, listening to someone trying to sound smart. "Asa, Asa, Asa, Asa--Dear sweet Asa." Arata tossed the scroll back at him. "Clan leader or not, if it isn't in your wheelhouse to think of strategies on the fly, you can't be the team's strategist. You have to account for different variables and be prepared with different formations beyond just Plan A." Arata turned and sat up on the bed. "Now I can't speak for our little Dragon," He referred to Kenzo's last name, "But a standard formation is something wise that allows us to observe how the enemy acts and start making countermeasures. Many enemies I have noticed tend to dress in a certain manner if it befits their skill set. Let alone what village they hail from. Looking at their attire is a way to whittle down what their skillset is possibly. Observation is the next. After finding that out and going on the defensive, we switch to a counter measure to be their foil and go on the full offensive when they are off guard." He walked through the room, carefully stepping around between the different spaces between the books and papers. "Let's say we have an enemy that fights with wind jutsu. Our sensei's crystal structures would break the flow of wind, while you could then use your fire into their winds to follow the current and flash fry them. Say they are a fire user. Keep the pressure on them with your flames while I work on snuffing them out from the sides with my water. That's just a few examples off the top of my head. In the end--it really comes down to what you can see." {AH}

Asa sighed . He wasn’t wrong. So far it looked like Asa and Arata were the smartest members of the team. “Do you know any genjutsu?” He asked. “Looking at it I feel like that is our main weakness on the team. I know Kenzo doesn’t know any and from what I’ve seen so far neither does Kai sensei. She’s the only one who would probably be able to escape a powerful if we’re all trapped under one. She’s….special.” He said as he referenced Kurama. Asa shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter though. Genjutsu users aren’t that rare. Plus I feel like we’d be able to handle one pretty easily if it came down to it. Asa stood up and stretched a bit, bending his back and stretching his arms. “So we have a basic strategy down. Anything else you wanna go over?” He said as he paced around. “We can’t really discuss much strategy since the team isn’t here.”

{AH} "You know, I think learning some genjutsu would be a good idea. Thanks for the idea." He looked over at Asa, deciding on a few things. "You mentioned something about chakra threads. I need to learn chakra flow, and there was something I needed to look into about a different weapon. I thought about getting some sort of weapon that would allow me to fight from afar. To be honest, getting up close isn't my style unless I need to." He pondered, considering what it was that he could use for this idea of his. "Give me a few days and a full meeting with the team and I can start forming some strategies with captain WantsToKillMe." {AH}

Asa smiled a bit. "Perhaps we can help each other out a bit." He said as watched Arata get up. The two would start walking towards the door. "If you need a new weapon let me know. I have some friends in high places that can get some high quality gear for you" He added as he opened the door. Arata simply nodded at the boy's comment. He continued outside, smiling at Asa before heading off. Asa closed the door and sighed as he turned around and looked at the scattered papers. "I really do need to higher someone to clean"