trainingwings | (no subject)

[If you happen to go out to the edge of the forest in a certain direction, you'll find Neji there. Frustrated with Luceti and what it means to be trapped here, he's taking it out in time-honored Team Gai fashion - by beating the shit out of whatever inanimate object no one appears to be using. In this case, it's a tree, which is definitely looking the worse for the series of blows he's directing against it. Nothing fancy for now, no Gentle Fist, no jutsu. Just good old-fashioned beating until he's exercised out some of his overflowing frustration. And he's talking while he hits -- just letting it all out here, so he can be calm and collected later, each emphasized word coming with a blow to the splintering tree.]

This... this damned hellhole, why did they have to decide it was a lark to grab everyone now of all times? I need to be home, I need to be fighting where it's going to do some damned good...

[Of course, he thinks no one can see him. Going to correct him on it?]

Player Name: Del
Are you new?: Y
Character Name: Hyuuga Neji
Character Fandom: Naruto

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[A pause.

She isn't making fun of him. She's fully sincere.]

So. Yes.

[And because she's sincere, he gives her a sincere response.]

Pride is a part of it. But it isn't the only factor.

I'm also very good at it. Someone has to fight, and for my home's sake, one of those someones should be me. To protect others...

[He can say this because Gai isn't around. If his teacher ever found out Neji had actually listened to those ridiculous lectures...]

Someone has to fight.

[It's a quiet echo.]

We're trained to fight. From five to eighteen, we're taught that there's no greater purpose in life than to be chosen for the Games.

[He turns that over, mulling it for a few moments.]

Just for the Games? What do those who are not chosen do?

They become Peacekeepers.

Sometimes they take other jobs, but they usually become Peacekeepers. And most of their skills have been learned for nothing.

Peacekeepers?

[Not hard to guess that that's some kind of police force or similar, but guesses aren't always correct.]

... That seems wasteful, I have to admit. For us... our skills are used no matter what rank we achieve. Even the lowest, the genin -- they serve as they can.

We don't have armies. The Peacekeepers answer to the Capitol, and they might have some force, but the Districts don't have anything like that.

[No armies? Ninja forces aren't exactly traditional standing armies, but they're the same concept; the idea of not having such a force at all seems alien.]

So you train up all these young people to fight, and then do little or nothing with them afterward? It seems... rather pointless, if you'll forgive the observation.