[Kuronmeru Keiji]

"No," he bit off. "Don't hold it there."

Keiji manipulated a bit of suiton on his fingertip, circling it around itself to demonstrate what it ought to look like on the inside.

"Circulate it."

The water spun around on his finger, with a few drops flying off in a straight line now and again to simulate the blood being returned to the stream.

"You're just pushing your blood against it now, utterly pointless." As the words left his mouth the water fell to the ground.

He got up and paced a few feet away. The breeze between them was gentle and smooth, but the voice it carried to Enyo's ears was sharp.

"Blood carries three principal types of cells," his fingers rapped against his palm to ensure his relative's attention. "Red, white; what we care about now are the third - platelets."

"With your current skill, you can't target specific cells. You probably don't even know them all." An exasperated sigh shook his body. It said: What do they even teach them these days?

With a smirk and a shake of his head, Keiji dispelled his manipulation of the poison inside Enyo. Impairing his ability to learn wouldn't do, as fun as torturing him might be.

"Because you don't know them, you can't manipulate them and you'll have to just circulate set amounts of blood at a time. Try it."

With a cough, Keiji began a long lecture on the exact contents of blood. It was only the mere basics and was more of a way for him to pass the time while Enyo practiced, but perhaps his cousin could pick up something.

It wouldn't substitute a full education, it might even be plunging him into the deep end, but Keiji still believed - erroneously or not - that Enyo had more capability to learn than most.

...Plasma: erythrocytes, leukocytes (lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, casophils, neutrophils), the thrombocytes in question... On he went, detailing the functions and creation process of each as the minutes stretched on.

---

Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo was listening but he wasn't really happy about it, he wanted to do what he wanted to do and he did not like to be told by his rebellious cousin what he should be doing. It was not as if he were any more successful than his father or his eldest brother. They were quite important both in the village and in the clan... They were too busy thus to teach him on a regular basis. Enyo understood this, and it was why he often studied no his own. He understood the theoretical side of things, of course, but not always the practical.

"I know what it carries," He snapped, looking annoyed. He had read the scrolls multiple times!

But that didn't stop his cousin to go into an obnoxious, know-it-all lecture that made Enyo's skin crawl, he just wanted to stab him again. But instead he just sat there and worked on the wound. It wasn't extremely quick or immediately successful. The cauterization had worked its magic far faster than this blood circulation manipulation he was doing, particularly because the manipulation was only circulating blood to the spot and not actually focusing a technique of another type to heal the reddened wound itself.

Indeed that part would take time... But he didn't stop, not until he felt his own chakra control falter from exhaustion and he lowered his limbs against the ground where he sat.

He didn't say anything, he refused to admit defeat, but it was obvious by how he was breathing that he was exhausted.

Kuronmeru Keiji

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[Kuronmeru Keiji]

Keiji watched, arms folded, as Enyo sagged into an exhausted heap. The glowering look on his face did not go unnoticed by his older cousin. A seemingly sudden change occurred. Anger was building in Keiji, anger that far outweighed what he ought to feel at Enyo for simply failing to apply medical ninjutsu theory to practice.

"Are you mad, little boy? Good! You should be!" he hissed. He wasn't going to bottle up his wrath just for his cousin's sake. "You're pathetic. Take some of that anger and make it not so!"

Keiji glared down at his cousin, wanting nothing more than to grab him by his scruff and toss him about. The logical part of his mind said it wouldn't help anything, but another side didn't care. They settled for venomous words.

"I can see by the look on your face that you're deflecting blame."

Keiji crouched down in front of Enyo, bringing them eye to eye. His brows were furrowed, but there was a slight smile on his lips. He stared unblinking at Enyo, reading the reactions on his face with each word said.

"You're thinking: It's not my fault! Your expectations are too high!" he exclaimed in a pitched-up voice mocking Enyo's own, accompanied with exaggerated facial muscles and hand movements.

"But the only one to blame-" he stuck his finger into Enyo's chest. "-for how shit of a shinobi you are is yourself! Not me, not your father, or anyone else."

The pleasure he felt from laying his noble cousin low was its own reward, but he also hoped his provocations were taking good effect. He wanted him angry. He wanted him to get up, to push past the exhaustion and lash out at him.

"Your brothers have left you behind!" he laughed out in Enyo's face. "You're a disgrace!"

---

Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

There was almost nothing in the world that got Enyo to act a certain way than to call him a 'disgrace' to his face, or in his ear shot. It was a nickname that he had come to scorn, that had once fallen from his father's lips, and then parroted by the rest of the family. It was, uncommon that he lashed out at his direct family members for it, except for his brothers but they felt his wrath often without the word. It did not need to trigger anything... But others? Those that Enyo inherently viewed as beneath him, no matter what?

It made him glaze over, eyes full of bloodlust, a desire to kill. It was like the word trickled through him like vitriol and he was ready to kill others for it without any mercy. Superiors, anyone... It did not matter who, as long as they were put down, even on the brink of exhaustion as his limbs felt now, after he had already pushed himself to his own limitations.

He was shaking, trembling and yet he somehow managed to left his arm towards Keiji who was so dangerously close he could smell him there. Enyo's left arm shot towards him, the same one that had the fumei ha and he very literally tried to gauge Keiji's eye out from its eye socket with all the displeasure and hatred locked in his blue-eyed gaze.

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[Kuronmeru Keiji]

Keiji'd seen the blow coming, as expected. With a lean back, he grabbed Enyo's arm and changed the blow's trajectory. Rather than lodging into his eye, the blade cut a deep gash from his eyebrow to his scalp.

"Ahhh," he let out with an ecstatic sigh as the blood pooled to the surface. "So that's the word." Disgrace, he'd have to remember that. It was good information. It'd been worth it.

His eyes followed Enyo's arm down from where his fingers were viscously gripping him to his exposed elbow. How delightfully easy it would be to drive a kick into it. Or to grapple him into an arm lock. But Keiji glanced to his side at his uncle, just before the blood from the wound began to cloud his sight.

"I swear, one of these days you're going to make do something we'll both regret." he whispered into Enyo's ear, low enough that his father couldn't hear. Keiji shoved Enyo's arm back against his chest and stood up in the same motion. He looked playfully down at him with an eye that said: Just kidding!

He traced the outline of his new gouge with his fingers, coming back wet with black blood. "You're still too weak to take an eye from me." It wouldn't always be true though. "You want another chance to, then you'd better train your ass off."

"I'll be waiting." he said while wiping blood from his forehead. Keiji spat into the dirt on the ground, stomped it in, then exited the courtyard while side-eyeing his uncle.

Away from prying eyes, he thought.

---

[Exit Thread] Kuronmeru Enyo

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo was shaking, but he was doing so with the force of his thrust. There was tension with how he was being held onto, stopped in his momentum to try and really put down his cousin. What an annoying thing to be faced with, his nose scrunched in that irritation showing his displeasure...

But then Keiji stood and pushed his arm away and he followed through from the ground, before his arm fell to the ground, the blade scrapping against the grass and dirt he pulled it back, clogging mechanisms no doubt but he would have to clean it up later anyway.

Enyo did train hard, but he had not yet reached the level where his brothers were. He had vowed and vowed again that he would kill them. It was promoted in his family, that was so full of spite more than any Kuronmeru in the clan. They were made to be soldiers, and to not have a fear in killing. Enyo had that struck from his mind a long time ago.

The genin licked his lips once, watching his cousin eye his father who was just standing there as before, stoic and unmoving as a rooted tree. There was not really disappointment in his gaze though, there was what seemed like nothing. Perhaps a hint of approval, Enyo had managed to cut up his cousin a bit more than he had expected after all...

Keiji left and Enyo was left to stand slowly with trembling limbs and finally he was on his way towards his father, he needed mending, a bath, and rest.

[end]

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