[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Training

Azarea stretched her flak vest an unfamiliar weight where it settled over her shoulders, but it felt good. Solid. She liked it. As the woman herself turned running one gloved hand through her long messy crimson locks to survey her surroundings. She'd offered to meet with Shosuke at training ground 3 which was mostly a wide flat grassy field, but now the Kunoichi was having second thoughts. Should she have gone to meet him instead and walked him here? They were supposed to be training his senses and on one day doing was a good way to improve, but maybe navigating here on his own was too much.

Anxiety creeping up on her Azarea expanded her own senses searching for the earthy bark and petrichor green signature of her favorite medic-nin. Eventually picking him out at a distance as she checks for any signs of distress from the other soon to be chuunin. The young woman primed to take off to meet him if there was even a flicker of distress. Because admittedly as much as Azarea tried her best to play it cool... she was a bit of a mother hen at heart. She'd just stab anyone who accused her of it and that usually kept such solicitous rumors from spreading too far or wide. At least where she could hear them. The fact she'd walked away from the Chuunin exams with multiple new adopted siblings, penpals, and two instances of indirect immolation maybe only reinforced her reputation a bit. As jogging to the edge of the training ground she strained to catch a glimpse of Shosuke to see how the medic was managing. He'd mentioned in his note something about his eyes hadn't he?

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 287| Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Despite Azarea's concerns, Shosuke was enjoying himself. This was one of the first times that he had been properly allowed out of the hospital since he had been brought in about a month ago. Sure, he had been allowed out to the roof or outside to the bench whenever he had wanted it, but it always felt like he had a leash tying him back to the hospital. It never felt like he was truly free to come or go as he pleased, and that had been immensely frustrating for him.

In fact, it had been all the worse for the poor little medinin because of the fact that he was trapped in the hospital of all places. The hospital, where he was surrounded by ill people who he was not allowed to help. He was a doctor, he had a medical license for crying out loud, and he was being denied the ability to treat them because he too was a patient. It was so damned frustrating sometimes that he had felt like crying.

Yet, finally, here he was. Out and about in the open air, and heading to training ground 3. Finally, the doctors had said that he was good enough to head outside, even if he still had to wear these damned protective glasses.

It was a pain, but if it gave him a break from the sterile walls of the hospital, he would have worn a dog collar and a leash. Anything for even the most base moment of freedom.

---

He walked slowly, still getting used to the feeling of a changing, shifting world around him. Ever since unlocking the power in the depths of the Mountain, he had had to learn to walk around as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

The sheer amount of information available to him now still itched like ants crawling over his body, but more and more he was getting used to it, with each passing day his limit grew further and his informational awareness was more precise.

Thus, Sho finally found himself standing at the front of Training Ground 3. Looking at Azarea.

To Azarea's observation, Shosuke clearly did not look well. His skin was pale and nowhere near as sun-kissed as usual, he was lacking the usual doctors coat she saw him in and was instead wearing essentially hospital scrubs. His eyes, usually framed so beautifully behind those rimmed glasses of his were completely obfuscated from view with deep, black glasses that seemed so deep one couldn't even see anything beyond them.

Still, he smiled at her.

"Congrats on your results, Az." Were the first words that came out of his mouth. "Sorry I couldn't celebrate with you..."

454 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank EXP 1/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Training

"It's all right. I didn't exactly stick around," Azarea quips her worry easing as Shosuke came into sight. Truthfully the second she'd been handed her flak jacket she was all, but out of there. Because... well remaining much longer waiting on someone who clearly wasn't going to show. It hurt. It was wiser, kinder, even to just throw herself into her work to distract herself. Yet the sight of the medic in familiar hospital scrubs. His skin as pale and sallow as her own had once been left Azarea with a lingering sense of deja vu.

"You've had a rough time of it. Kumo's hospitals are great, but after the first week or two you get real sick of them." She murmurs, "Come on over towards me. What sort of sensing are you wanting to learn? How to sense chakra? Or your clans way of seeing? I can offer advise for either." The woman inquires as she settles down on the grass cross legged. Letting the sun bask over her left her feeling a little better out here in the open air.

"You've got good chakra control. You could likely manage either method though most chakra senses aren't very useful for navigating your surroundings. They're better for picking up chakra charged seals, weapons, and people of course." Azarea explains with a soft thoughtful hum. "I believe the Yamamoto involves a sort of tremor sense utilizing pulses of sound through the earth and air to navigate instead, but correct me if I'm wrong. I've not had the pleasure of studying their methods in detail yet."

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 264| Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

She didn't really stick around long? He wondered exactly why that was, not knowing much about her home situation. He thought she would have wanted to spend time with her friends and her sister, considering how even someone completely unrelated like Atagi had mentioned that he had become friends with her.

Still, maybe that was just his mental concept of the woman rather than the real deal - in his mind's eye, Azarea was a popular genius with good looks, it was hard for him to imagine her coming up short in any category.

As she asked him to approach, he did so. However, in doing so, he suddenly stopped, looking as if he was suddenly hit by lightning. With his chakra sensing ability, he was able to sense every source of chakra in a small area. Paired with the fact that Azarea was an Aburame, it was like being hit with a flashbang of visual stimuli.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of chakra signatures all lit up like a Christmas tree, each one moving in different directions. It was a nauseating, overwhelming feeling that made Shosuke struggle not to clutch his stomach which was suddenly tying itself up in knots. The look of pain, or at least something close to it, was written on his face, clear as if it had been written on a chalkboard.

Even so, after a moment or two, he snapped out of it, trying to focus on the immediate environment, ignoring the stimuli that ran roughshod over his brain.

"Don't be silly, Az. If I just wanted such things, I wouldn't have bothered you. After all, you're a busy woman, you've got the kage to look after. No, I asked you out here because I wanted you personally, not just any other trainer. Because, I...."

He paused for a moment, wondering if he should say it. It was true, there were many other people that he could have asked if he just wanted to train his physical abilities. No, there was something more specific and far more private that he wanted to discuss with her.

".... I want you to blind me."

There was a pause for a moment, as if letting his request sink in, before realising just how it sounded and quickly backpedalling.

"Wait, wait, I mean... I heard through the grapevine that you have a genjutsu that robs someone of their sight temporarily.

My eyes are slowly starting to recover, but Eri pointed out that my dependence on it allowed me to adapt to it far sooner than I would have otherwise.

I want to keep abusing that advantage, but... well, I'm not about to rip my eyes out of my head, even if I need these sunglasses to see at all."

455 words | TACTICIAN

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank EXP 2/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

In retrospect, Azarea's refusal should probably have been predictable.

Azarea was a busy woman, and she was also someone who had gone through a lot of trauma herself. Though Shosuke knew only a little of what she had gone through, he knew enough to understand that asking her to cripple her friend, even if only temporarily, was a little insensitive.

From what Shosuke gathered, the Aburame clan was one that was extremely loyal to Konoha. That she was forced out of the village and made to live somewhere else was pretty much a death sentence in their eyes, relegating her to the ends of the earth as far as they were concerned. Though, the fact that they had exiled her instead of killed her was still a curious choice...

Whatever the case, it seemed the answer was going to be a no, and a rather emphatic one at that. He understood, but he hoped she wouldn't take it personally. It hadn't been any sort of value judgment, if Miroru had had the technique he would have asked her instead, but such was life.

If she was unwilling to participate in Shosuke's training, then he would simply have to go it alone.

201 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank EXP: 3/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

The one thing Shosuke could say for being a prospective head of a clan was that there was always someone willing to pitch in when he requested help.

In truth, Sho was unaware whether this guy was actually willing to help or was merely trying to cozy in on a prospective future leader, just in case it could curry him favour at some later point. But either way, he had managed to call out someone to pick up the slack where Azarea had left off.

If she was unwilling to train him, he figured, he would have to do it another way. As a result, those black sunglasses were replaced with a long, black ribbon wrapped around his face. It was a strange sensation, with something about it feeling almost illicit or shady, but it served the purpose that it needed to; it blocked out all light coming in, ensuring that even the little vision his sunglasses afforded was rendered moot.

At this point, having spent weeks in the hospital with the bandages around his head, the sensation of total blackness was a familiar one. Within that darkness, he could see everything that laid out around him - the training ground, the clan member, everything in his immediate radius spilled out like a sonar reading of the area.

It was a strange map, but it was a map nonetheless.

233 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP: 4/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

A lesser known but equally important ability associated with the Yamamoto blindsense was the ability to sense and detect the emotions of others through their heartbeat. Sho still lacked experience with it but he could sense the insecurity, the lack of confidence in this other guy - He was probably unsure about the optics of coming at his future leader properly, at what consequences would unfold should he actually hurt him.

So, Sho was going to have to be the one who went first.

Drawing his hands to his belt, Sho pulled out a trio of kunai from it and launched them at the other man. Having regained enough of his eye-sight, he had finally been allowed to carry his actual weapons again, though he doubted the village would smile on him using them whilst actively blinded.

Within the state of blindness, it was a strange thing - he could sense them whilst they were in his hand, and sense his opponent's location, but the moment they were let go? It was as if they stopped existing entirely. With no part of them touching the ground, there was no connection to draw from them and so they might as well not exist.

Still, in the moment that would have meant impact, the other man dodged ably, apparently forgetting his reticence in the moment of actual combat. It was amazing how much being forced to dodge could lubricate the wheels of conflict.

239 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank EXP: 5/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Again and again, Shosuke threw himself at the other man, trying to get him to fight him properly. Yet, despite everything, the man seemed to be focused on ducking, dodging, diving and otherwise getting out of the way of Shosuke's attacks. There was a point of satisfaction when Shosuke managed to land a few blows, the kunai having been blunted and thus incapable of actually penetrating the other's armour but nonetheless landing cleanly upon him, but it became more and more clear that this guy was going to be a pretty passive sparring partner.

Something about that annoyed Sho - He wasn't entirely sure what it was, maybe it felt like disrespect since the man had known what he was signing up for when he signed up, or maybe it was simply the fact that he had never enjoyed getting special treatment. But whatever the case, Sho could feel his anger growing with each passing second.

"Fine, if that's how you want to play this, I'll get serious!"

Throwing together a quick series of handsigns, the shinobi's hands began to change, appearing to grow and become wrapped within enormous stump-like gloves, vines and tree bark wrapping up both hands. Compared to blunted kunai and a few lame punches, this was something altogether more dangerous; A technique that could, if it was used foolishly or incorrectly, kill the opponent rather than incapacitate them.

"Fight me like you mean it, you bastard! I'm blind, not dead!"

248 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP: 6/8

Jutsus Used
NAME: Mokuton: Budōnoki no Te [Wood Release: Vine Hands]

RANK: B

CHAKRA USAGE: Medium, Low Drain

CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu

ELEMENT: Mokuton

HANDSEALS: 6

DECRIPTION: By kneading the chakra, the user is able to transform his tissues into vine-like constructs. Then, by activating the vines, stimulating them to grow rapidly, they lengthen at high speed ending in hands composed by durable vines that can be manipulated as if they were composed of actual digits, with this the user is able to use the wine-arms like whips or by even grasp objects with finesses as well swing themselves from above the ground. If the technique receives damage at the base of the technique below the elbow, the damage is transferred to the user.

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

The clan member paused for a second, turning to look at Shosuke as if wondering if they were really doing this. However, there was simply no point in answering that question; they both knew that he very much was. Even if it wasn't obvious in his tone, in the body language, or the fact he was maintaining the jutsu, it was obvious in the very way his heart beat. So, with hardening resolve, the man turned and charged back towards Shosuke.

It was a relatively simple bout; The man drew a blade he had kept at his hip as he charged, with Sho's response being to raise those enormous "gloves" of his in return. The sparring between the two could hardly be called balletic, the man swung his blade and Sho's gloves raised to block. Then, taking advantage of the man's proximity, the glove took hold of his arm and used it as a fulcrum, ripping him off the ground and tossing him across the training area.

Again, the man vanished as he came off the ground, making what came next difficult to see. Nonetheless, he raised his gloves in defense, something that seemed to work wonders based off of the sensation striking those gloves. It appeared the man had thrown some kunai during his "fall", taking advantage of Shosuke's lack of aerial vision.

Now, this was more like it!

230 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

D-rank EXP: 7/8
Jutsus Used: See previous post.

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

In the end, the brawl was a relatively short affair. With but a few more clashes like that, Sho launched one final strike at his opponent, his oversized mitt-like "hands" sending him flying. The body of his clansman shot backwards, sprawling over the floor and skidding to a halt.

Fortunately, being a clan of healers as they were, there was no doubt that the kinsman would be able to get medical treatment for that, having no doubt left some friction burn-marks over the man's back. Still, it did answer what Sho had been wondering; he was able to fight like this, but it definitely left him open to some pretty obvious flaws.

If he wanted to really serve the village again, he was going to need to recover his eyes. But how would that work? They were growing stronger day by day but if left to their natural devices there was no guarantee that his corneas wouldn't scar over and leave him perpetually in this twilight of half-sight. But who would he be able to rely on for such help? If someone in the Kumo medical system could help, surely they would have done so whilst he was still hospitalised? The boss seemed utterly clueless to how to help.

... Maybe it was time to start looking, no pun intended, further afield.

226 words | @closed

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP: 8/8
Jutsus Used: None