[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

Some years ago, in the Land of Lightning… Kizumi would be lying if she said she hadn’t cried when the twins were finally promoted to genin. They’d worked so hard for so long in the academy, and while she hadn’t been as involved as she would have liked in their training—she was overseas for the vast majority of their academy years—she was still as proud as an aunt could possibly be. To her chagrin, it had been a few months since the twins’ promotion, but she had picked something up in her travels that she really thought Natsuo would get a kick out of it, and it seemed like it would be a good belated graduation gift. (That she hadn’t also gotten Katsuo something didn’t seem to cross her mind; she was a little flighty, a little impulsive, and anyway hadn’t Katsuo always been the spoiled baby of the family? Surely it wouldn’t hurt to do just a little something special for Natsuo, given all the gifts she’d showered Katsuo with in the past sixteen years.) She met up with Natsuo at the training grounds, her gift wrapped up in a plain, utilitarian box wrapped in plain, utilitarian brown paper. "Happy late graduation, bud,” she said, grinning as she held out the box. "I gotcha something.”

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[Natsuo Jokyū]

Being that they'd graduated for a couple months from academy students to genin, Natsuo and Katsuo had already been assigned to their teams. The young Jokyu wasn't sure which team Katsuo had ended up on, other than the fact that it wasn't his. But Natsuo himself had ended up on Genin Team Two. Being on a team also meant going on missions with his annoying teammates. The two other genin were Suzaku and Takame, both of them being from the Kyuumu clan. While their sensei was Eitama Sora. After a few months, they still had little information about their teacher. 

Regardless, on the day that his aunt was finally free to give him a congratulations for graduating, he was stuck on a mission just before. It was a simple missing cat scenario, but with Natsuo being the way he was he, of course, got scratch marks on the chest area, his shirt being torn in the process. That wouldn't stop the boy though, he'd gotten the little medical attention he needed before going straight to the training grounds. 

Upon arrival, the boy would instantly recognize the wrapping for a gift, he'd gotten plenty from their aunt before after all. He knew all too well how her gifts looked. It was always some bland color. Sometimes it was a yellow far too bright to not blind anyone, others it was a pitch black, but this was a new low. The color of dirt: brown. Still, he'd give the gift a chance, asking his aunt the simple question, "What is it?"

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

Natsuo’s shirt was a little torn, with a couple of small bandages peeking through the ripped material: the classic evidence of a cat-catching mission going exactly the way it was supposed to. Kizumi smiled, her heart swelling with pride. "Open it and find out, dummy,” she said, pushing the box into his hands. "I’m not gonna ruin the surprise.” Despite the plain-looking exterior of the gift, once the paper was ripped off and the box opened, Natsuo would find that the inside was carefully packaged: within a snug, soft fabric molded to the shape of the weapon was nestled twin blades, shaped more like cleavers than swords, with a deep circular notch towards the hilt of each blade. Attached to the pommel of each hilt was a sturdy-looking chain. "I got them from a Oonakayama craftsman in Sunagakure,” Kizumi said, once Natsuo had a chance to examine the weapons. "They’re chakra reactive and should respond to your magnet release abilities.” She tilted her head, considering the boy and his blades. "Have you used a weapon like this before? I can show you the ropes if you want to practice.” It wasn't the kind of weapon that Kizumi kept in her usual rotation, but there was hardly a killing implement that had been invented that the woman hadn't laid her hands on at some point in her life. Showing her nephew the basics was the least she could do.

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Kizumi smiled as the boy arrived, but Natsuo wasn't sure what the reason was exactly. Was she just happy to see him? Happy his hard work paid off and he graduated? It was really hard to tell with her sometimes. When they were younger, Natsuo had always thought the gifts were just her way of loving them, but he had learned much later that it was her way of making up for not being around as much as she wanted to. There was nothing wrong with either of those reasons, he just wasn't aware of them until later. 

She handed him the box, as plain as it was, mentioning that she wouldn't ruin the surprise. "Wouldn't telling me also be a surprise? Or are you already getting too old fashioned for that?" Classic Natsuo, always making fun of his aunts age. 

The blades inside definitely weren't as plain as the wrapping. Two dual cleavers with a chain attaching the hilts of the weapons. The sharp end of the blade was amber, as if the curve didn't give it away enough. He couldn't complain though since, as far as gifts he'd gotten went, this was the most practical. Probably the only thing he'd received for graduating that he would actually use. Both blades had a half circle towards the hilt, a good thing for executions. 

She'd gotten the weapon itself from a craftsman in Sunagakure, one of many places she'd been countless times. They would also respond to his chakra nature. She'd definitely gone out of her way to get a weapon that suited him. She knew the boy was far better at long range than close range, and that he didn't have a decent weapon for long range that he liked yet. The more important question though, "Does it have a name?" Even before he was taught, Natsuo had always been one to treat weapons with respect. If you wanted to trust a weapon to save your life, you had to know its name before hand. Or, if it had no name, give it one. He'd look at the blades as he asked the question, thinking in his head. Who are you?

"Depends on what you mean by something like this. As far as the chakra responsiveness goes, not at all. But two blades with a chain connecting them? Kinda. We used a lot of safer versions of weapons at the academy, one was like this but more wood." While he kind of knew what he was doing, he could always use more help. "But, the help is definitely welcome."

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

"‘ey,” Kizumi warned, sticking her tongue out at the teenager. "Don’t be rude. I’m youthful.” Thirty-two, or somewhere thereabouts; she tried not to think about it too much. As far as civilians were concerned she was in her prime—but a shinobi’s life tended to be short and difficult, and Kizumi had just received her commemorative pin for two decades of service. She was getting old. She didn’t need this friggin’ punk to remind her of it. She watched with no small amount of pride as Natsuo examined the blades. He asked if it had a name—it didn’t. "That’s for you to decide,” she said. She wasn’t in the habit of naming her weapons, herself; that was a flight of fancy she’d had in her teens, until practicality won out. There was something embarrassing about showing up to a fight as an adult woman with Widow’s Tears at her side. It had been a formative experience for her, though, and if Natsuo wanted to name his weapons, she wasn’t going to tease him for it. "Alright, here.” Kizumi pulled out a number of shuriken, and idly tossed them at varying distances away from Natsuo—at his feet, a quarter meter, half a meter, one meter, three, five. "Test out your kekkei genkai first. Magnetism, so I’d assume it makes the blades magnetic, yeah? Give it a shot. After, I’ll show you some tricks on the dummy.”

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[Natsuo Jokyū]

Ah, a typical response from his aunt. Some things never change. "Youthfully old!" He stuck his tongue out back, before laughing. Truthfully, she wasn't nearly as old as some of his teachers or even chuunin. Sure, she was getting there, but she'd still be his aunt either way. "Oh, sorry my shirts ripped by the way. Didn't exactly have time to go home and change." He'd apologize. He wasn't nearly as much for keeping up appearances as his mother, or Katsuo for that matter. But he at least made a habit of apologizing if need be. 

The name was his decision. Without even thinking, he simply blurted out "Oni slayer." He felt no need to retract the name. It sounded a lot cooler than his aunts old weapons when she would name them. Plus the weapons were black, the same color as onis as far as he knew. With an amber colored blade to match an onis eyes. It fit pretty well all things considered. 

With that, testing the blades out started. Kizumi threw a few shuriken at varying points of distance. There was a group at his feet, a fourth of a meter, half, a full meter, three, and five. Five separate groups. They'd start out by testing out his kekkei genkai with the blades. With kizumi expecting it to make the blades magnetic. Once that was done, they'd do some tricks on the training dummy. Poor training dummy.

He picked up his new weapons, the chain wrapped behind him as it fell loosely to his knees. He started with the farthest distance, using the chain to swing the right blade so it looked like a circle of metal with a black tip. He threw it, slightly harder than a kunai thanks to its mass, and poured jiton chakra into the chain. The result was it being magnetic as it picked up the grouping of shuriken. The shuriken aligned as close to the tip of the cleaver as they could. "Huh, sounds like someone was right."

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

Natsuo stuck his tongue out at her in reply, so she stuck her tongue out further, blowing a wet raspberry in his direction. She grinned—the twins’ laughs always made her smile. He apologized for the state of his clothes, which she waved off. "Cat-catching mission, mm?” she said. He hadn’t told her, but it was obvious enough—she’d done the same damn thing at the start of her career. "Shit happens, bud. Your clothes are gonna get a lot more torn up than that in this line of work.” Oni slayer, he said, like the name had just spoken to him, popped into his head fully-formed. Kizumi nodded her approval. With her shuriken set-up, Natsuo gave the weapons a try, tossing his blade out to the farthest grouping first—once the blade got close, the shuriken were drawn to the sword, like… well, like magnets. She felt, very briefly, a pang of envy—she’d never had any particular talent for ninjutsu, and the advanced elements were something you had to be born to, not something that she could ever learn. There was, fundamentally, absolutely nothing special about Kizumi, and there never would be. There was a certain kind of grief that came with that, quiet but sore. But damn, she loved these kids, and even if it meant they’d surpass her in no time at all, she’d be there to support them every step of the way. "It’s almost like I know some stuff,” Kizumi said with a laugh. "What’s the range on the magnetism? See how far you can push it before the shuriken stop reacting to the blade.”

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Of course, his aunt Kizumi hadn't changed one bit. Blowing raspberries and the like as they always did. She still gave that same grin that she always did anytime either of the boys laughed, though Katsuo did far less of that nowadays. 

Obviously, Kizumi knew how chaotic and disastrous cat-catching missions were. "Knowing you, you probably recommended our team be given this mission? So, my shirt being in tatters is, in essence, your fault then huh?" He joked, he was rarely ever serious with his aunt on meetings like this. If it was shinobi business that was one thing, but on one-on-one meetings there was no need to be serious. They were family, after all.

Kizumi approved of the name he gave his new dual blades, Her next suggestion was to see how far the shuriken would be able to react to the blades. That gave Natsuo an idea for something else to test out. He slid some of the chain into his hand before spinning it vertically at a decent speed. He could feel the weight of the blade as it spun in the circle. When it reached a point where it would go the farthest diagonally while also being decently close to one of the piles, he released his grip on the chain. It landed a bit over 1 and a quarter meters away from it. He channeled his jiton chakra through the blades as he slowly pulled the blade closer to him. Once it reached roughly a half meter, the shuriken began reacting once again. "Seems like about half a meter."

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

"Yes, naturally,” Kizumi replied drily, stroking her chin as if deep in thought. "As the premiere jounin member of operations team two, my primary responsibility to the village is assigning the worst cats in town for you specifically to catch. Your observational powers are astounding, Natsuo.” She chortled, far too entertained by her own joke. His experiment was a success—half a meter radius before the shuriken reacted to his blade, dragging closer towards it like, well, a magnet. "Perfect,” she said, jogging out to gather up her shuriken. "Next test: you wanna get a good feel for how heavy the blades are, how fast you can throw them, and how strong the magnetism is.” Six shuriken back in her hands, she tossed them out again, expert flicks of her wrist sending them flying along a neat trajectory to land in the training dummy’s head, torso, arms, and legs, all with varying degrees of lethality, some sunken much deeper in the wood than others. "You know your range, now check to see how effective it is. Can the magnetism rip a shuriken out of someone’s arm? If you swing the blade around the back of the target, can you pull it through to the other side of the wood? This is all shit you need to know before you start using your weapon in live combat.”

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[Natsuo Jokyū]

He only gave a blank stare to Kizumi, signaling that he didn't understand her joke. Of course, he did understand it. It was more fun to mess with the woman though, make her second guess whether her humor was too aged for the young Genin that was her nephew. 

He succeeded in testing the range of his new weapons ability, now Kizumi wanted him to test the strength of its ability. He wanted to go about it in a way that wouldn't hurt his aunt, but it wasn't likely with what they were testing. First, he tested how far he could throw one of the blades, spinning it in a circle around his hand, he launched it, around eight or so meters away from him. It zoomed straight past Kizumi with no trouble, right where he aimed. He was definitely getting a handle on it. Next, was testing the abilities strength. He pulled hard on the chain, bringing it back towards his aunt in an arc, channeling Jiton chakra through the chains, attempting to pull the shuriken from his aunt's hand, with his blade above her so it wouldn't cause her much damage. Whether it succeeded or not would likely depend on how hard Kizumi gripped the shuriken. 

Once the blade had reached him again, Natsuo grinned, "How was that?" His excitement with the weapon was clear.

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

Natsuo’s goal was to make her doubt herself, and doubt herself she did, her hearty chuckle dying in her throat as the teenager gave her a blank stare. Was she that out of touch with the youth, or was she just not funny? All of the village elders liked her jokes—which set a seed of despair blooming in her stomach. Of course the elders liked her, she was fucking old. She held her remaining shuriken loosely in her hand, her focus solely on Natsuo’s technique and aim—except she was so focused on how he was swinging the chain that she realized too late that he was aiming for her and not the training dummy. She ducked instinctively, dodging the wide arc of the blade’s swing, but the shuriken in her hand flew from her grasp and attached itself neatly to the flat of Natsuo’s weapon. Kizumi cackled, surprised and delighted. "Not bad, kid. Try it on the actual dummy now, though. Next you can try snatching things out of midair.” She was genuinely impressed and distinctly proud of how quickly Natsuo was picking up how to handle the weapon—it definitely wasn’t an easy one, challenging to effectively wield at range and lacking a lot of the benefits of a standard katana or sickle in melee range. But he took to it like a natural, and would only get better with time.

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