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The frozen wind whipped tiny particles of ice against Hisoka’s bare skin – like cold needles silently stinging each nerve. Toned and refined muscles lifted his alabaster skin into attractive defined shapes along his exposed arms and torso. The fur that lined his vest danced and flickered as the chilled breeze swirled around him. The gentle push of the wind cause his low riding black fitted pants to press against his legs, outlining each curve and crevasse. His right arm rested comfortably on the hilt of his trusty Death Strike that was strapped to his lower back. The wind was much calmer today than it had been. A large blizzard had just passed, leaving the Land of Iron coated in a clean fresh layer of white power. Thick snow-covered pine trees and rolling hills surrounded the camp of Kirigakure shinobi. It would have been a beautiful sight if it were not the same damn sight that Hisoka had been seeing for the past year.

He heard the crunch of footsteps make their way through the powder toward him. He didn’t have to turn to see who it was because he already knew. He had asked him to meet here earlier that day. “This better be important.” The monotone voice of the Yamanaka nagged at Hisoka as he approached and stood next to him. Hisoka smirked, amused at his comment. “Yeah? Because you have sooo many other things you could be doing while we sit on our hands and wait for orders, right?” Hisoka chuckled before walking forward into the clearing. His feet padding over the hidden pieces of paper that he had pre-placed under the snow in order to give him a little extra advantage if he needed it - the element of surprise. Inokana’s expression hardly changed other than to glare at the cocky Ryoku. The two co-captains had been stuck together in the Land of Iron running reconnaissance for almost a year now. Being stuck somewhere with Hisoka for that long and keeping your sanity was no easy task. But, although they had their differences in the past, at this point they had developed some what of a comradery and had learned to get along... for the most part. ”Yes, actually. Unlike you, I prefer having things as prepared as possible for when we do receive orders." the Yamanaka obviously strived to sound official and superior while throwing in a little cherry topper of sarcasm. Hisoka chuckled again, pivoting to face Inokana, now walking backwards away from him, and folding his arms over his head. "I'm am truly sorry that interrupted your food-pill-organizing and thumb-twiddling. I know how important it is." His voice dripped with sarcasm. Trying to be the mature one, Inokana rolled his eyes and, with a sigh, changed the subject. "Why did you want to meet me here anyway?”

Hisoka stopped moving when he was a few meters ahead of the Yamanaka. He popped his sword out of its hilt only a few inches with his thumb. “Well, I thought since we’re stuck out here in the middle of bummble-fuck-nowhere we might as well make use of the time. 'Sides, I'd like to blow some steam anyways. And beating a scrawny Yamanaka kid in a spar is always a good way to blow off steam.” Hisoka’s cocky, playful grin spread apart his lips as he slid his sword out of its hilt all of the way and braced his body for battle.  

Inokana was of jounin rank as well and certainly lived up to the title. He was skilled, tactical and fought like the Yamanaka that he was. Training with someone of the same rank would prove to be invaluable especially in the midst of war. Staying in tip top shape was important in times like these. Inokana’s own ego was not about to pass Hisoka up on a challenge. A cocky smirk of his own began to tease the edges of his lips. ”You make it sound like I wouldn’t put up a fight.” In a flash, Inokana slid two kunai into his hands and threw them in Hisoka’s direction. Hisoka darted forward evading each kunai as they came flying his way. In the past he would have deflected them. Now he knows better than to waste the time and energy. He arrived at Inokana and swung his sword in an overhead slash down toward the blond's head. The agile Yamanaka promptly side stepped while also moving toward his opponent. Trying to readjust in time, Hisoka altered the downward swing into a side swipe. One of Inokana’s greatest advantages over Hisoka in the past had been his speed. But not anymore. Hisoka had been refining his physical skills for some time now - especially his overall speed and agility due to his new light weight sword and the quick style that followed. Inokana ducked to avoid the swing. Quickly coming back up, Inokana knocked the blade out of Hisoka's hand with a powerful blow to his arm before landing an open-handed hit on Hisoka’s side. He pivoted his body around to the back of the snow haired man and held a kunai to his throat as if to declare ‘check’. “Looks like your bark is worse than your bite, Ryoku.”

Hisoka smirked at the blond's arrogant words. "Don't get too cocky yet, kid." In an instant, a flurry of paper erupted from the powdery snow beneath them and shot toward Inokana. His quick reactions allowed him to barely leap away from the paper, flipping back in a series a back flips before coming to a stop no more than eight feet away. The paper quickly formed into eight small spears and darted toward their target. Inokana promptly wove a few hand seals before water shot up from the ground, creating a moving wall to knock the paper spears off course. Although the paper trick bought Hisoka some time, his goal was not to train in paper ninjutsu but in physical agility. Therefore, for this particular fight he preferred to stick with close range battle and leave the paper out of it for now. Doing this would certainly give him the disadvantage which would only make it sweeter when he won.

As the battle continued, Hisoka was observing and recording how exactly Inokana utilized his refined speed and reaction time so he could use it himself. It was a relatively subconscious quirk of the Ryoku's - after seeing a successful strategy or skillful move in battle, he often ended up incorporating it into his own fighting style. In fact, he had gained many of his tactics and strategies from his many battles with Inoshi Yamanaka - the current Mizukage of the village, and a friend and rival of Hisoka's since his days as a genin. However, much of Hisoka's fundamental training in agility came from a Mizukage that predated Inoshi's rein - Segumi. His speed and ability with weaponry and taijutsu were unrivaled making him the perfect candidate for Hisoka's teacher. From him, Hisoka had learned the basics of agility and the skill of speed. However, now was the time to refine them. Hisoka recalled one of the steps that he observed from Segumi. It was a very simple and basic step so, at the time when he learned it, Hisoka didn't think much of it. As a kid, he was much more gung-ho about the big fancy moves rather than mastering the useful fundamentals. The objective of the step was to train your body to distribute balance correctly for maximum agility and speed by staying on your balls of the feet and making your body as light and aerodynamic as possible.

Leaving his sword were it had fallen in the powder, Hisoka exercised the steps that he had learned in the past and took off toward the left of Inokana who's water wall jutsu was just coming to an end. He stayed light and aerodynamic, utilizing his agility training. As he ran he pulled a small scroll off of it's place on his back and unrolled it. Following the formation of a simple seal, a puff of smoke exploded from the paper revealing another katana. He grabbed the katana with one hand and threw two kunai at his opponent with the other. Inokana continued to play the defensive and quickly performed a sideways handspring to the right to avoid the kunai attack. "You really thought you could beat me that easily? C'mon, Kana. Show me something impressive." He toyed with the blond, enjoying every minute of the antagonizing.

Bursting into action, Hisoka threw a flurry of slashes at his opponent. He focused on keeping them short but powerful and used more jabs than swings. This fighting style was new to him since he had been using a heavy cleaver type blade for most of his life as a shinobi. But he was determined to master it. Inokana barely evaded or blocked the flurry of attacks with the help of a kunai in hand. Death Strike - the blade that Hisoka had left on the ground - was now behind Inokana. While they battled hand-to-hand, the blade began lifting out of the snow before it turned to face the two of them and shot toward Inokana's back. The Yamanaka narrowly avoided being impaled by moving out of the way just in time for the blade to arrive. However, it did manage to nick his shoulder in the process, creating a small tear in his sleeve and skin. Blood trickled out of the clean cut. Hisoka grabbed the blade but didn't continue to attack. He simple stood in front of Inokana. A satisfied mischievous grin spread across his face. With a snarl, the Yamanaka lifted his arms to attack only to freeze in place. Inokana's eyes opened wide as his body became paralyzed by the refined lightning chakra properties in Death Strike. He fell to his knees at Hisoka's feet as Hisoka crossed his blades in an "x" shape, with Inokana's neck at the vertex.

"Check mate, sucker."