[b]Hope that was good. Here's the finale.

[center]Chapter 4: Five Miles Out[/center][/b]


Kitten took a deep breath as she ran on the spot, looking over at the roof right across from her. The distance was a good five feet, maybe five and a half. Six weeks ago, there was no way Kitten would have ever considered trying a jump like this even if it was on the ground let alone on top of sky scrapers. But now… now there was a chance that she could make it. She had made jumps like these before, though usually there was someone else on the other side to grab hold if she didn’t quite make it. Now she would have to do the jump to reach her teacher…yes…she could do it.

Taking in a deep breath, Kitten jogged to the halfway point on her roof before turning around and sprinting to the edge. She planted a foot onto it and then used all of her strength to push off, sailing through the air as she reached a hand out to an outreached railing. As always, time seemed to slow as adrenaline pumped through her entire system, with a cold realization that all of this would be useless if she couldn’t reach her destination.

Cold metal hit her palm and Kitten grabbed tight. Without a second thought she grabbed it with her other hand and swung herself up. The girl allowed herself to pant and rest for a bit before she jogged over, a wide grin on her face as she ran over to where Azumi was, now ready for whatever the woman had planned.

Her close quarters combat teacher was sitting on an air conditioning unit, looking down at her with a small smile. Azumi had her gun, as per usual, and seemed to be acclimating quite well to the entire parkour training and adaptation of close combat to it. She was changing her movements rather than just adding to them. Wasn't too hard, as it mixed quite well.

"Hey, Kit," she said, dropping off into a crouch before standing again. "Ready when you are. We can decide on rewards if that'll help."

“You don’t always have to bait me to get me to work,” Kitten said as she got into a crouch, “though I have to say, some curry would go down good after this, or mangoes. Mangoes would be even better.”

The girl ran over to the soldier and when she got close enough dropped down and kicked out at the soldier’s ankles, trying to knock her down.

Azumi grinned, watching the kick. She had always been the best at close quarters on her team when they were around, and this wasn't any different. Not to mention she didn't have to deal with guns, or people stronger than she was. As the kick came, she hopped up, dodging quickly and slipping a foot under Kitten's leg, trying to trip her up. Nothing too serious, just enough to let her know that, as usual, this wasn't really going to be an easy run. Even if she did go relatively easy on her, she still was a teacher here.

Kitten gasped and cried out as the foot slipped under her and she fell onto her a**. The girl grunted in pain but used her back to vault herself back onto her feet. She immediately followed up with a punch to the left side of Azumi’s shoulder while she moved her other fist as fast as she could to the woman’s lower right side, aiming for her stomach. Kitten has yet to have gotten a hit landed on the soldier, but she knew today was going to be different.

"And about the food, sure, I'll get dinner. Leaf's paying, though." She didn't want to brag, of course, but sometimes she was proud of her ability. The back of her left hand blocked the first hit, deflecting it to the side, the next one hastily gripped in her right hand, to block it. Her eyes widened a bit, and she grinned a little more. She was going easy, yes, but she did have some issue with pride. Not as much as someone else she had fought, but enough to be noticeable. Probably why she would talk during a training session like this. "Nice job, almost got me there. Keep at it."

Kitten grunted as Azumi was able to block both of the girl’s attacks, but did smile at the thought of dinner afterwards. More time alone with the soldier would do good for the Arctic Water user, especially considering that they had so little time remaining. No…she wouldn’t think about that now. Not when she just go so close to touching Azumi.

Kitten turned her body to a 45 degree angle and reached a foot out as if to kick at Azumi’s tibia…before suddenly putting it back down and using it to pivot herself even closer to the soldier and ran a hand into the soldier’s right side. The girl’s eyes widen as she felt her knuckles connect with something and so surprised was she that she let her entire guard down.

Azumi flinched slightly, but looked to the hand. Well, well, she'd actually made contact. That showed improvement. Still, unlike Kitten, she wasn't completely disarmed by it. She wrapped an arm around the girl's waist, putting her weight forward to get her off balance... and tripped her right foot forward, lightly bringing her down in front of her.

Still, the woman smiled down at her. "That was a good hit. I was off guard, I admit it." She gave the girl a peck on the forehead. She did care about her, like a sister, or perhaps a daughter, felt responsible for her well being. Having six weeks for them to get to know each other left a mark, especially since she didn't have nearly as much time with many others. "A little treat for the hit. Want another round, or moving to disarms?"

Kitten gasped as she suddenly felt herself falling back with Azumi’s weight on her. It took a couple seconds for the girl to realize what had happened and she cursed. Of course she had to let down her guard during an important time like that! How could Kitten be so stupid? Of course, these thoughts were interrupted when Azumi kissed her on the forehead. The girl’s entire face turned a light red and she stuttered a few things in an attempt to say something, failing for the longest time.

Kitten cursed to herself again. She didn’t need to be this confused right now! She took a few deep breaths to calm down, knowing that Azumi didn’t feel [i]that[/i] way about her and said, “Um…how about disarms?” She wanted at least one good score in a session before it was dashed away.