[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

The air was heavy with the nearly overwhelming scent of rich incense mixing with the sour smell of sweat wafting the every corner of the room he found himself within. Around him at least a full three dozen other Warriors of Bishamon went through various exercises for a multitude of skills. Some were in the midst of learning skills he had already mastered himself, while other techniques appeared utterly foreign to his eyes. Some of what he saw his fellow Warriors practicing made him wonder how they could even possibly be useful in a fight.

I should focus more on the task at hand rather than what the others are doing. . .

The words resounded within his head, his internal voice chastising himself for getting distracted from the task at hand. One of his superiors among the Warriors of Bishamon had been generous enough to provide to him a scroll to study and he had to try and make the most of it before he set off for the Chuunin Exams. To an extent he still could hardly believe that he was going to be taking part in the exams. He had largely given up on the goal years ago when his shinobi career had needed to be put on hold.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

Unraveling the scroll once more, Hitsukai slowly read over it again. Some of the techniques detailed within were certainly of interest. However the man could also see what his senior within the order had meant that some techniques fell into something of a gray area as to whether a servant of Bishamon could use them in good conscience without violating their lord's order when it came to winning through the use of trickery.

Hitsukai was of the opinion that they would be entirely fine to make use of, but at the same time he did not wish to make waves when he had only just recently returned to the main temple. For now he would study one of the less problematic of techniques. Dragging his calloused finger across the weathered training scroll, Hitsukai would eventually stop at one of the names above a set of illustrations.


"Roaring wolf fist, hunt the weak huh? Seems a bit of an unsightly name, but the technique itself does not seem too problematic."


He muttered the words aloud, but had no real intention of speaking to anyone in particular. As soon as he spoke them, his body slowly shifted to rise from his knees and stand tall before the scroll that was spread out on the floor directly in front of him. Looking back down at the scroll, Hitsukai looked over the depicted diagrams once again and tried to envision how the technique was supposed to function.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

Frequently looking down towards the scroll, Hitsukai did his best to envision what was depicted. Unfortunately for him and probably every other soul to have ever read this scroll, whomever had done the illustrations for the training scroll was not exactly a master of their craft. So, unfortunately Hituskai was forced to try and guess as to what was exactly meant.

Backing away from the scroll so not as to accidentally hit it, Hitsukai attempted a quick leg sweep, but upon trying to envision how he would grab hold of his imagined opponent's throat; the attempt simply felt wrong to him. While hard to understand what exactly felt wrong about it at first, Hitsukai puzzled over the thought for a considerable amount of time.


How exactly are you supposed to know which way they'll fall? I meant if you hit from their right, they should fall right, but it's not necessarily guaranteed depending on their positioning. Maybe you're supposed to adjust as needed? No, the scroll would have at least mentioned the need to be adaptive.


Again Hitsukai would try the leg sweep while doing his utmost to envision the fictitious foe set before him falling. Thinking about it, even if they fell the way he had imagined, the grip would be awkward at best and while he could personally work around such an issue with the kinetic redirection, this scroll of techniques was one taught to a great many of people around the world meaning it shouldn't need such a specific work around.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

Standing for some time while looking at the rudimentary illustrations within the scroll, Hitsukai noticed that there was two depictions of the user being crouched. The second was where their leg struck out at the opponent, but the first just showed them crouched, with their foot at a strange angle downwards. He had thought it had been meant to show the user moving low into a crouch, but maybe it was something else.

Settling down low, Hitsukai remained posed on one foot and after a few moments lowered his other foot sideways. Taking a moment to look back to the diagram, something suddenly clicked in the monk's mind. It had not been depicting just lowering ones self, but rather lowering and then using a twist of a foot to turn oneself so as to maneuver further around to the target's side. It made a lot more sense to Hitsukai at least. If he could spin slightly to get onto the opponent's side then he could hit the back of their legs which was far more likely to force them to fall a given direction.

Although this also brought up an entirely new problem with the technique it seemed. If the purpose was to make them fall backwards, it was all well and good when the opponent was not ready; realistically though in the middle of a fight most opponent's would have their weight shifted more foward and on the balls of their feet. What exactly would stop them from just trying to lean or move forward when the kick came for the back of their legs?

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

For several minutes, Hitsukai simply repeated the low and twisting movement meant to get him to the opponent's side before whipping his other leg out to strike at the back of his imagined foe's legs. It definitely seemed he was on the right track with the twisting movement, but the strike at the back of the legs still seemed off to him.

Trying to approach it from a slightly different angle, Hitsukai stood up and began imagining someone doing such a leg sweep to him. He made a variety of movements, whether it was stepping forward or stepping to the side and lifting his other leg so as to let the imagined sweep pass under him harmlessly. Finally though he considered two key factors in the strike that was required.

The first of these was the proximity of the one doing the kick. From what he could envision, whoever was doing the kick needed to end the twisting turn while crouched especially close to their target. Doing so would ensure that their leg would hit not just one, but both legs even if they tried to step to the side quickly. The second important aspect was where exactly they hit their opponent. Hitting low near the ankle or high at the thigh would allow them to potentially shift their weight and avoid falling. If Hitsukai were to hit the back of their knee though it would make the joint fold and potentially turn the likely forward leaning weight against the target.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

With his minor epiphany, Hitsukai began to practice the technique once more with the alterations he had envisioned. A quick crouch, spin to the target's side which also would hopefully put him out of their field of vision for a brief moment and finally a powerful kick that was slightly raised so as to hit the back of their knee. His leg would need to power through and continue to push on the back of their knees which would further help direct the direction they fell.

Within a moment, Hitsukai's right arm whipped out towards where his opponent would fall and grasped at an imagined foe's throat. The position however was definitely an awkward one and while he might have had a grip on their throat, without using something like the heavenly grasp, he would have very little control over the opponent once they were down.

For the next few minutes, Hitsukai simply tried positioning his other hand in a variety of ways to help stabilize his position so would not be forced to use heavenly grasp or the Heavenly Pose in order to maintain his balance and project his strength into his grip. Although, even with the alterations it still felt somehow odd to Hitsukai.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

Wanting to begin fresh, Hitsukai stood and took a basic stance once more. He proceeded to take a step forward before quickly moving into a crouch where he spun with a quick twisting motion of his foot. Now beside his imaginary opponent his right leg kicked out at where the back of his non-existent opponent's knees would be and as he imagined them to fall his right hand would shoot out towards where their throat would be.

It very much was a perfect reenactment of his previous attempts, but this time he continued. Rather than simply stopping once his hand would grab a throat, the monk instead slid the leg that would have kicked the back of their knees towards himself and leaned forward. By shifting his positioning so, if he had actually been fighting someone he would have then been pressing them down into the ground by their throat and putting his weight into the arm that was holding their throat.

From what Hitsukai could imagine, this would help to further lock his opponent down and from there he could even go so far as to straddle his opponent if necessary to keep them contained or should he choose, he could potentially move to stand and simply lift them up by their throat.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

Assessing the technique in its entirety, Hitsukai felt that it would be a good addition to his repertoire. While the technique itself was relatively straight-forward, it did offer some level of unexpected movement and lent itself well to several potential follow-ups attacks.

After all he could move into further grapples, lift them for throws or could simply apply something like heavenly grip or even go so far as to use the Heavenly Feedback Loop to completely crush their throat. That being said it was not a flawless technique by any means, after all it was not as if his opponent would simply lay there and take it as meekly as his imagined opponent had.

There was the potential for a real opponent to make use of various ninjutsu or other chakra enhanced attacks, but he could try to prevent this by straddling their chest to keep their arms pinned. Alternatively if he went for a lift or just a choke then he could always use his other hand to grab hold of one of their arms to try and prevent them from rendering any handseals. It seemed like he would need to adapt as necessary, but overall the risks could potentially be mitigated.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

With a firm grasp of the technique, Hitsukai moved to the edge of the training grounds to retrieve one of the articulated training dummies. Taking a few minutes to carry it back to where he had been training and spending a bit more time to set it up; Hitsukai then readied himself to test the technique against a more corporeal opponent.

Taking a deep breath as he moved into the typical non-hostile posture that most monks would have before a fight. His hands were obscured by the sleeves of his robe and seemingly was entirely unprepared for combat. In an instant though, he dropped low into a crouch and performed the low spin he had practiced many times by this point. Moving to the side of the training dummy, his left leg kicked out at the back of its knees while he balanced on his right. As soon as the dummy fell backwards, Hitsukai's left leg retracted while his right hand extended to grab at his wooden foe's throat.

From that point Hitsukai's leg muscles flexed and pushed him upwards while his wrist twisted in order to throw the training dummy with the *Rocket Technique to launch the wooden dummy into the air.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

As the wooden training dummy came crashing down onto the ground, Hitsukai was considering the benefits of using the rocket technique in conjunction with the technique he was training. While it certainly could prove useful to deal with weaker enemies or those who for whatever reason he did not wish to remain close to; overall it seemed somewhat wasteful to throw the enemy away when most of his techniques required him to be close to the enemy anyways.

With a soft sigh Hitsukai began to reset the dummy in its original position, making sure that he had not cause any major damage to the training dummy in the process. Content that no major damage had been caused, he began to repeat the process. Taking his position, he dexterously spun low and to the side of the dummy, his left leg once more kicking out to the back of the wooden training dummy's knees. The moment it began to fall Hitsukai's right hand darted out to grab at his throat. This time however, instead of moving to lift the dummy he instead deftly rolled himself over and onto it's torso. While keeping his right hand on the dummy's throat, he used his legs to pin the dummy's arms against it's torso.

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[Yasuraka Hitsukai]

Straddled across the wooden training dummy Hitsukai gave a slight nod, mostly to himself. While it might not have been the most dignified method, it served well to try and limit what an opponent could do and more importantly if they were unwilling to surrender then it would probably be quite easy for him to force them into unconsciousness from such a position. All he would need to do in such a situation is keep pressure applied to their throats and keep his legs locked to their sides to prevent any sort of ninjutsu usage.

Granted it was not entirely a guarantee that they would not be able to use other types of jutsu, he understood that there was some jutsu out there that did not require handseals. Mitigating the potential usage of that which he struggled against was still the best he could do. Additionally there was always the option of just killing his opponent, but it was something that was supposed to be avoided if possible. To a certain degree, Hitsukai himself just did not like the idea of killing another person. It was so easy to just decide a life was not worth trying to sustain or save. . . Then again, maybe it was simply arrogant of him to believe he had the strength to decide such things.

In something approaching a slightly childish display, Hitsukai's fist quickly connected to the wooden dummy's face, a resounding crack reverberating through the hot air of the training yard. He stared at the wooden head for awhile, his mind imagining such a cracking noise coming from a human skull rather than wood. Would he really be able to do such a thing when the time came? Would he at least be able to do it when his life or the lives of those around him was on the line?

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