[Shouki Shizuka]

The Kuronmeru twins had a certain nasty reputation among recent Academy graduates, one Shizuka was closely familiar with - Shiu had been in her own class, while Enyo joined a year later. Devil children, arrogant towards teachers, callous towards comrades and sadistic towards enemies. The gossip which circulated around their misdeeds and bloodline was legendary. "Enyo spit in Minami-sensei's eye," "Shiu cut off his classmate's fingers," "Their family bathes in blood harvested from babies." The Shouki clan had gossip of its own, so she was sympathetic. "Just breathing in the same air as her can kill you," "Shizuka is an only child because she eats her younger siblings." Shizuka's first impression of the Kuronmeru twins - from the rumors - was that they were unfairly maligned by jealous classmates.

Her first attempts at sharing lunch with Shiu soured her hopes. He coldly refused her offers and returned her sympathy and charity with brutality during sparring matches. Shizuka was hopeless at taijutsu, and he exploited her weakness mercilessly. Shizuka didn't bear a grudge, though - his abuse was nothing compared to the pain inflicted on her by the Shouki clan. She did, however, keep her distance. For better or worse, she learned quickly to avoid such beatings.

It was Shiu's twin Enyo whom interested Shizuka - the Kuronmeru bloodline was, like the Shouki hijutsu, a technique which originated from within. Both clans manipulated their blood to deadly effect. And since Shizuka was determined to master her own clan's techniques, Enyo's advice would be useful. She had sent a letter to their estate, politely requesting a meeting with Enyo - but it had gone unanswered. So when Shizuka spotted one of the twins on the village streets, she took her chance.

It was a chilly early afternoon, made worse by a stiff breeze and light rain. Shizuka was wearing her warm blue kimono, an old and priceless family treasure, featuring designs of oceans and skies. She carried a light paper umbrella in one hand, and a cloth bag of groceries in the other.

"Kuronmeru-san," Shizuka called, not sure which twin she had found. "I was hoping to find you. I've been looking for Enyo-san, so I could ask some questions about my training. I need the assistance of an expert of the black blood techniques."

Shizuka waited expectantly for an answer to her request - the only problem - she had found the wrong twin.

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

It was an uncommon sight to see Shiu wandering the streets of Kirigakure’s business district. There was no shortage of allowance given to him, not ever as a reward for his progress as a shinobi, but rather simply because they could afford it, and it was important to keep expensive items on his person and in his possession so as to project his clan’s elite status. Shiu never felt the compulsion to spend, as things had become as bland to him as paper on his tongue long ago. He only ever shopped for necessities, and this was usually reserved for the merchants in the upper class district where he could, because that is what he thought was acceptable for him to do.

Shiu had not crossed the line into the business district to shop. He had received a summons for the Mizukage’s tower to brief him on a mission he was set to depart for tomorrow, and for that, there was no avoiding the district. He could have cut straight through the entertainment district to return to his clan’s compound, but he found the area tasteless, and perhaps even more than that, he was feeling a little outside of himself at the moment.

Shortly before the summons had reached him that morning, he had attacked his brother, and for his efforts to maim his older sibling, he had been dismissed and brushed aside, only receiving a taste of the brutality he knew his brother was capable of. A cut to his lips from a misplaced bite had put an end to their brawl altogether. His brother had not needed to mock him for his tainted blood. The disgust was plain to see in his expression, put off by the sight of Shiu’s filthy, red blood. His brother had left, not wanting to dirty his clothes, and he had been left to lick his wounds.

Shiu had been able to cauterize the wound himself, but not with having to touch the thing that disgusted him most about himself. Even though he had washed his hand hours ago, he still imagined the tacky feeling every time he touched his finger inward towards his palm. He had done this all throughout the mission briefing, present without being present, and now he was doing it again between market stalls and other storefronts.

He had left the compound with uncharacteristic thoughtlessness. His hair was up from the spar, but he had done nothing to prepare himself for the rain. Shiu may have reasoned he hadn’t needed to take any measures at all because he would be back to the compound soon anyway, but instead of tracing his path back home, he had started walking circles around the district without realizing it.

It was only after an all-too familiar voice called out to him that Shiu was pulled from his daze and stopped in his tracks.

He looked over at the girl. It was almost a point of pride for him to be able to look at someone, even interact with them, then forget they existed at all by the next day. This was how Shiu had conditioned himself to approach nearly everyone outside of his clan. It was how he enforced the pecking order, that they were outsiders beneath his notice, without needing to be boastful and, consequently, appear insecure. In spite of not having seen much of each other since graduation, and although he had tried to sink the memories of her along with everyone else that had been in that classroom, even he couldn’t completely forget someone he had spent the better part of four years with.

Her name escaped him, but flashes of recollection passed through his stream of consciousness at the sight of her face. A peppy voice. Attentive, raising her hand for an instructor’s attention. Him, thrilled by how helpless she was against his close-quartered aggressions. Their classroom teacher, intercepting their spars every time before he had the chance to gut her. There was another memory he felt must have been in there somewhere, but he was not going to struggle to recover whatever it must have been. She was not important enough for him to do that. With whatever recognition she had earned from him, all he felt in seeing her was indifference.

There was some degree to which her use of honorifics and his clan name when addressing him served to soothe his ego, but the small conciliation was short-lived in the face of what exactly she had called his attention for. Not only had she been looking for his twin, not him, but it was to talk about the exact thing he did not need to be reminded of.

"What good would any of that do you? You don’t have black blood.”

Neither of them did. It was a gift he had been deprived from, unfairly, and she never even had a chance of getting. The request for assistance in this had caught him so off guard, and at a point of acute frustration, that he hadn’t even thought about how best he could’ve subverted any expectations she may have had that he felt they were in any way equals. He just said the first thing that came to his mind.

"You wouldn’t be able to do anything with the techniques even if I taught them to you.”

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

"Ah, how could I forget. My name is Shouki Shizuka." She bowed. Even with her hands occupied, the gesture was refined and graceful. "I believe our bloodlines have a great deal in common, and use chakra to manipulate our blood in similar ways. Someone as skilled as you, Enyo-san, will have much to teach me."

Strictly speaking, the Shouki clan's poison body was not a bloodline. This was a sculpted secret, maintained amoung the rank-and-file shinobi, that the high mortality rate of their children was caused by "inheritance" rather than "sacrifice." Only the higher ranking officers knew the truth. Shizuka had no interest in maintaining the lie - she wanted the whole world to realize the barbarity of her clan - but spreading the truth was forbidden, and the clan promised death for breaking this law.

"Recently, I've been having trouble with shape transformation. I lose control over my blood the moment it passes from my body. I was hoping, since the Kuronmeru clan were experts in this field, you would be able to guide me."

Shizuka pleaded in an almost deferential tone, filled with nearly genuine respect. Then she made her real move. Drawing closer to Shiu, she attempted to cover both of them from the rain with an umbrella too small for the job. Her efforts were made even more ridiculous by the fact that the rain - merely a drizzle - was thinning even as they spoke.

"I wouldn't ask you to do it for free, of course," Shizuka put on her most charming smile. "Just say the word and I'll repay the favour, Enyo-san."

The traditional seduction arts were specialized against the higher castes of society. They encompassed the manners and etiquette expected of servants and courtesans to high lords and ladies, and enabled many shinobi to infiltrate high society in order to carry out missions. Beyond this, however, was a more informal catalogue of techniques. These were practiced by commoners and ninja alike, in an endless battle filled with more tears than the Shinobi Wars - the war of love. In this theater, the gap between Shiu and Shizuka was as large as the gap between a Genin and a Jounin. While Shiu had stubbornly remained aloof, and ignored or embraced his poor reputation, Shizuka earnestly strived to reverse the opinions of her peers. Her skills, tempered by dozens of rejections, allowed her to effortlessly close the distance, even with a stranger.

Her techniques might have been critically effective - if she hadn't named the wrong twin.

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

The corner of his lip twitched with moderate annoyance when the girl introduced herself instead of immediately answering his question. He didn’t care what her name was, he thought to himself, but it did recall some familiarity to him. The Shouki clan compound was close to his own, Shiu remembered, even though they were hardly a noble clan such as his own. Other than where they lived, he knew very little about them. Something about poison. Whatever it was, he doubted it bore any similarities to his clan’s bloodline trait in the way that she seemed to think it might. There was nothing in the world like Kuronmeru blood.

As to the question of whether he could teach her or not, Shiu had the knowledge. Maybe not as much as if he had the black blood himself, or had partaken in all of the special training sessions his brothers had been given pertaining to it specifically, but he had been privy to many a dinner table conversation where the mechanics of their clan’s kekkei genkai had been discussed. He absorbed every detail of those. A younger, more foolish version of himself believed that if he just listened and learned enough, he would one day be able to make his own blood run black. He had, of course, dropped the notion as he aged and matured, but the compulsive need to know all that he could was still there.

At first, when she walked towards him, Shiu thought it was just so that they wouldn’t have to talk as loud. When she didn’t stop, however, he stepped a foot back and curled his lips in the beginning of a sneer, staring at her with cold, unwelcoming eyes. She didn’t stop until she was close enough to him to bring goosebumps prickling along his skin. There was no amount of familiarity between the two of them where this close-distance was even remotely acceptable. The only circumstance where he would want to be in such close proximity with someone outside of his clan was if they were trying to kill each other which, if she didn’t back away in the next fifteen seconds, he thought, he would seriously consider doing.

But then a realization occurred to him that tempered the hostility that had ignited his eyes. Somehow, somewhere, during the course of this conversation, this girl had convinced herself that he was Enyo. At first, this epiphany only irritated him. It was all just more and more reminders of how he was not who he was supposed to be, that the very substance his body and flesh was composed of was just wrong. If that had not been the case, she might not have been looking for the company of his twin, specifically.

It was a rare moment, though, for him to be mistaken for his twin for this long. Usually once he opened his mouth, the misunderstanding was cleared. Even if he enjoyed messing with people in the way that Enyo did, Shiu did not have the acting abilities his brother seemed to have. He came off more monotone, and he didn’t emote with the same intensity of expression as Enyo often did. They looked nearly identical, yes, but there was good reason for Enyo’s rise to notoriety in their academy days and Shiu’s lack thereof. For her to have only become more certain in her assertion that he was Enyo… well, maybe she was just stupid.

Normally, he would vehemently push against this mistake. To call it a pet peeve for Shiu would be an understatement. He was, however, in a particularly foul mood, and after a second’s consideration, he decided the way he wanted to vent the frustrations that he had built throughout the day was to take it out on her.

Instead of looking upon her with the absolute disgust he felt, he tilted his chin up to try to look down upon her, feigning a smug, knowing look, as though giving permission for the ways she submitted to his superior knowledge on the matter. This came with a small challenge, considering she was taller than he was. It was also painfully obvious to him that, in spite of the gesture of intimate closeness, the parasol she carried was not meant for two people. He could feel the scatterings of the leftover rain soaking into the back of his hair and pattering his sleeve where he could not be shielded.

For now, he would allow her to try to cover them both with that pitiful umbrella of hers.

"What kind of favor do you think I would possibly want from you?” he asked. It was not an outright rejection, but Shiu wanted to make her work a little for the so-called ‘favor’ he was about to do for her. That, and he was genuinely curious about what it was she could possibly come up with for a Kuronmeru such as his twin. Shiu didn’t know off the top of his head if that was exactly how Enyo would’ve phrased the question, but so long as he didn’t acknowledge anything about his or his brother’s name, he might be able to drag this out without cluing her in on his true identity.

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

When Shiu asked what sort of favour Shizuka could offer, her expression softened, and her smile became more genuine. She had expected an instant rejection on principle - 'the Kuronmeru techniques are secret!' - so when he showed even the smallest interest in her offer, she was pleased.

"Hmmmmmmmm~" Shizuka pretended to think. "That's tough. What could I possibly do for the prodigy of the Kuronmeru clan? I could cook for you, but I'd never match a professional chef. I could take you to the theater, but you're so handsome that'd be a reward for me instead." 

Shizuka mused over her options with growing cheer. It was hard to tell if she was serious or not, since her formal demeanor gave way to a close friendliness. Shiu found himself drawn into her pace as various other favours were offered and dismissed, each accompanied by some compliment for his twin brother. It was becoming clear that Shizuka was apparently interested in Enyo, and her offer of a favour was really an invitation for a date.

In truth, Shizuka had no romantic interest in either twin. She enjoyed company more than most, and was always pleased to make more friends, but romance was a territory out of reach. After all, her kiss was as soft as barbed wire and as sweet as a corpse. The Shouki clan was cursed - doomed from the start in matters of love. Still, that couldn't stop her from having fun. There was a strange sort of freedom that came along with the curse. She could close the distance to anyone without fear of jealousy or misunderstandings. And if anyone was foolish and ignorant enough to confess to her, she had the unique and bittersweet pleasure of rejecting them for once, instead of the other way around.

Before long, the pair found themselves beneath an old tree in a tiny park - or someone's unfenced yard. Turning to face him, Shizuka held her umbrella over Shiu despite the fact that they were now entirely covered from the rain.

"In the end, I can't come up with anything, Enyo-san. Don't you have any ideas? For training and the favour. I could really use your help."

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Shiu was quiet as they passed through the streets of the business district, listening to the girl’s musings. It took very little time for him to recognize the pattern that she spoke with—offering an idea then immediately withdrawing for some reason of her own inadequacy. He never once considered there may have been any falsehood in her flattery. The bright pitch for which she spoke and the contended hums she used to give herself time to think communicated to him that she was in a cheerful mood, which he took to mean she was genuine. That, and he only heard truths in what she said. All she seemed to offer were domestic favors—perhaps the girl would rather have been a maid than a kunoichi—which he and Enyo both were rarely in some exceptional want of. They were, as by her own admission, offers of an unequal exchange, and he weighed each of them with the same value that she seemed to place on them.

The flirtatious solicitations that may have been painfully obvious to anyone else were completely lost to him. Flirting was a slanted pattern of speech, an attempt to persuade others to give something they weren’t outright asking for. Compliments to him were merely a recognition for the natural hierarchy within the village, his clan’s name at the very top. Vies for his attention only ever confused him, and were often met with harsh reprimands for assuming some kind of intimacy that was not actually there between them. If anyone had ever flirted with Shiu in his life, he would have never known it. He merely narrowed his eyes at her any time the direction of her compliments drew attention to her brother’s body.

He found himself wondering, as she prattled on, how much of what she said and the compliments she gave would have stayed the same had she known it was him. For all of her groveling, was it only purposed for the rest of the Kuronmerus with their blood shaded in obsidian lacquer, or was he a figure that she, too, knew deserved her yielding? She had called Enyo the prodigy of the clan, which could not have been further from the truth, but somehow she seemed ignorant to this. Instead of amusing him, Shiu only festered in a growing agitation, made worse by the fact that he wasn’t deriving any pleasure from this.

He stopped when she stopped, feeling a strange mixture of relief and disappointment when she admitted that she was out of ideas. Shiu had not been probing for any actual favors that could benefit his brother, but rather an unwanted thing that could have been used to degrade one or both of them. Nothing she said seemed to be the kind of thing he could weaponize for his own mischief. A mediocre meal, Enyo would simply throw away without eating. An invitation to the theater, he could just reject. Not a single idea stimulated him to imagine during a time when he desperately, desperately needed something to excite him, and he could not think of what it was he might have hoped for to throw on Enyo as payback for any number of grievances his twin had ever given him. The only thing he could think of to do was make her beg, but she would only be debasing herself for his brother, not him, and she had already done plenty of that as it was. Any more than that and he was afraid she would try pressing her ugly lips to his feet, or something akin to that nature.

"It’s as you said: it seems like the only thing you can come up with are useless things. I should have known better.” Shiu tried to control his tone and mask his frustrations behind an apathetic countenance.

He closed his eyes and paused, as though to think, before heaving a heavy sigh and tilting his head. "I suppose your efforts should not go unaccounted for. It really is the best you could hope for, and at least you seem to have a good understanding of the greatness of my clan.”

He paused again, as if to think more as he steadily cracked open his eyes, appearing tired, before looking at her. "I’m bored, so I’ll do this favor for you. When I want something from you in return, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, consider it a kindness.”

Shiu, again, was uncertain if he was mimicking his brother’s speech in a convincing way or not. He knew the way Enyo spoke, perhaps more than anyone, but recognition and reproduction were two different things. Instead of dwelling on it, he finally took the few steps back from out beneath her pathetic umbrella to create the distance he’d wanted between them all along. "Why don’t you show me whatever it is you’ve been working on?” He remembered that shape transformation was what she was stuck on, but without how exactly her clan’s techniques were being used, he could not think of how to apply the theory of his clan’s own blood manipulation.

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

Shizuka was deflated by Shiu's apathy. She had hoped to learn more about 'Enyo' by what he asked for a favour. Instead, she only figured out he was having a bad day. She had detected his poor mood and disinterest from the start, but simply ignored it and pressed on. Her influence rarely made people's moods worse. She just hoped there wasn't a rejection waiting at the end of it all. For a moment it seemed like there was - 'Enyo' had no interest at all in her invitations - but at the last moment he relented. Apparently he was 'bored.' Shizuka didn't appreciate that, or his tone, but at least she hadn't wasted her time. Even if it wasn't the results she was hoping for, her flattery did have some effect.

"Perfect!" Shizuka bowed, wearing the same cheery smile as before. She folded her umbrella with a one-handed flourish, while the other produced a small scroll from her sleeve. She stowed the umbrella within the scroll - and stowed the scroll within her sleeve - all in one fluid motion. Then without missing a beat, she took a deep breath, focused herself, and exhaled. Her smile was gone, replaced with an expression of serious concentration. "I'll show you now."

Shizuka closed her eyes, and folded her hands into the snake handseal. Soon, blood pooled within her nails. It flowed from her outstretched fingertips into the air before her, steadily forming into a dark crimson needle. More blood drifted upwards - drop by drop - sewn together by her chakra until the needle was finally complete. She opened her eyes as she wove the next handseal - in an instant, the needle crystallized and began to quiver. On her third handseal, the needle spun in the air like a broken compass. Shizuka clicked her tongue in frustration, realizing the technique was already out of her control. When she released the third handseal, the needle vaporized into purple smoke, as if pulled apart in every direction at once.

Shiu's doubts vanished together with the needle. What Shizuka had attempted was nearly identical to the Kuronmeru clan's blood manipulation. The difference was that she attempted it without the benefits of the black blood, while using the wrong hand seals.

"Haaaaaa... there you have it. The only special thing about my blood is its poison. Unlike yours, it's difficult to control outside of my body. I need any advice you can offer."

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Shiu looked on with an air of disinterest as the girl finally stowed her sad umbrella away. He did wonder, idly, what exact sort of compartment she must have had within her sleeves to hold the scroll she had procured then tucked back away, but he did not have time to ruminate on this for long once she began her demonstration.

At first, he saw the hand seal she held and nothing follow. It was only when the droplets began to collect in the air was he able to track down the origin, looking down at the deep red that had begun to fester in her nail beds. Shiu’s eyes widened.

She had been upfront about what she was working on. She had told him, explicitly, that she was working to control the shape of her blood once it was out of her body, and how she thought there might have been some similarities in their techniques, enough to learn from each other. For whatever reason was now lost to him, Shiu had never once considered there to be any truth to her claims. Now the evidence was right in front of him, crystallizing into a needle only to wildly flail around.

Shiu took a few steps back, wanting to put more distance between himself and that thing. He forgot for the moment all of his efforts up until now to impersonate his brother. He recoiled, his face screwing up into a look of absolute repulsion. "That’s disgusting,” he spat.

It was filthy common blood. Red in color, drawn from her body to be in reaching distance. It may have even been more disgusting than the red blood he was most often used to seeing from others, because once she released that dangerously volatile needle, it vaporized in a puff of purple colored smoke. It was unlike anything he’d seen from someone outside of his clan.

"How are you doing that?” he demanded, taking no action to monitor his tone. Then firmer, angrier, "You shouldn’t be able to do that.” It was uncanny to him that a non-Kuronmeru was able to manipulate their blood, red blood, at all outside of their body. He was a Kuronmeru, yet how many times had he tried to do the same in his childhood? Mutilating himself, but never to gain any semblance of control, only dirtying the outside of his body with what tainted contents he held within. This girl, Shizuka, hadn’t even needed to cut herself in order to do as much as she had just done. Somehow, miraculously, she was able to have a degree of control over her blood in a way he had only ever dreamed of.

He hated her.

And yet, as resentful and disgusted as he felt, some of his anger had begun to be displaced by a morbid curiosity, and he found himself genuinely wanting an explanation.

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

Disgusting.

Those were the first words 'Enyo' used to describe Shizuka's blood manipulation. She assumed that he meant her control was poor. Again, she was put off by the disrespectful tone and choice of words. Still, there was no shortage of arrogant teachers within the Shouki house, and she learned from them all the same - without breaking decorum. Speaking back against your master within the Shouki clan would only earn you a day in the cells without meals.

When her jutsu failed, he demanded an explanation. This confused Shizuka, since she expected members of the Kuronmeru clan to know the history of blood manipulation jutsu. Perhaps this one was a slow study.

"I'm very sorry my technique is not up to your standards, Enyo-san. As to how it is performed, the Poison Arrow Jutsu is a Shouki clan interpretation of the ancient Blood Arrow Jutsu." Shizuka straightened her posture and held up her index finger, all too happy to lecture the ignorant. "The first proto-shinobi used many techniques to fight even while disarmed and injured. Blood manipulation was seen as one of the fundamental styles of jutsu for many clans. Unfortunately, these jutsu were risky to use, as they aggravated even minor injuries, and were generally less potent than elemental manipulation. As such, they fell out of favour in every clan except the Kuronmeru and Shouki."

Having given her explanation to her satisfaction, Shizuka waited for 'Enyo' to respond. She had not found his behavior suspicious in the slightest - she knew Shiu very little, and Enyo even less. Until he revealed his true heritage, Shiu could lie as he liked and she would be none the wiser.

"That's why I came to you seeking help, Enyo-san. Blood manipulation is considered only the first step of the Shouki clan's poison release style." If Shiu had been surprised by Shizuka's blood manipulation jutsu, what she said next would shock him again. "While I've only been practicing blood manipulation for a week, I've been hoping to master it as quickly as possible so I can challenge my clan's more difficult techniques. Would you like for me to demonstrate it again, or are you ready to offer your advice?"

One week. Shizuka's technique did not appear particularly well controlled - it was painfully slow, as if she were a toddler only learning to walk. Surely he could do better... couldn't he?

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

Being called by his brother’s name slowly drew him back into what exactly it was he was doing here. The look of disgust and anger steadily eased out of his expression, settling into nothing more than an annoyed stare. When he had asked how she was able to do that, he had meant what exactly she was doing in order to get the blood within her body to behave that way. He didn’t need a history lesson. Even given the explanation, she was forgetting a key difference with his clan, and it might fundamentally set the blood manipulation of the Shouki and Kuronmeru apart. The black blood of his clan was a result of bioengineering in order to create Kirigakure’s perfect soldier. The techniques were grandfathered from the principles of water release much more than any ancient ninjutsu that she was referring to. Given that, even if he wanted to help her, Shiu wasn’t sure if he could.

His lip twitched a bit to hear that the manipulation of her blood was only a stepping stone in mastering the rest of her clan’s techniques. It seemed wasteful to him when they had something akin to his clan’s kekkei genkai right at their fingertips, apparently quite literally as she had demonstrated. It was almost an insult, but Shiu supposed that their alleged inability to master it like his clan may have been due to their kind having the wrong blood, and perhaps if they wanted to excel within their own standards, it may have been best after all to keep focusing on using whatever it was that polluted their bodies. This thought was the small solace he told himself to smooth over the pit of jealous rage that dropped in his stomach to learn she had come this far in learning this technique after only a week.

"No, I don’t need to see that again,” he said, calmer than before, but still no less frigid than he had been this entire time.

He paused to let himself think, shutting his eyes to better concentrate. Whatever it was she was trying to do with a technique like that—to him, he did not feel she explained herself well—it was reminiscent of several Kuronmeru techniques he had seen. What immediately came to mind was something he’d seen his brother, Inei, use several times. With blood smeared on his sword, he feigned a swing, then a volley of spikes shot out from what had been left on his sword. In order to pull something off like that, the blood needed to be infused with the user’s chakra, and the mixture would then be manipulated to bind the blood and chakra into the shapes they saw fit. From his perspective, the girl’s shortcomings came from her control.

Shiu may have been able to tell her as much too. Start with the basics that genin were usually taught to advance their control. Climb some trees or run across some more water. He could have told her to go do that, or gave some insight into how he had become as proficient with chakra control as he had learned to be in order to perform medical ninjutsu… but he wasn’t going to. He had no interest in helping her whatsoever. Instead, he tried to think of the most unhelpful thing he could think of. It might be funny, he thought, if he could somehow undo all the progress she’d made in the past week.

It took a while, certainly longer than it would have taken Enyo to think of something. Enough time passed that it may have come off as though he had no intention of answering her at all. When he did think of something, he opened his eyes. A miniscule ghost of a smile grazed his lips, feigning an amicable charm he did not have. It would not be hard to find the cruelty behind his smile if she looked for it.

"I just remembered something my clan did once that helped a cousin of mine who was having that exact same problem. Your blood can’t hold its shape because you aren’t feeling connected enough to that shape. You need to be able to feel that shape you’re trying to make on command. Get really familiar with it. For example,” he said, his smile widening, "you’re trying to make needles from your blood. The point of origin for your blood is from beneath your fingernails.” He lifted his own hand, then tapped each one of his fingertips once. As he did so, the smile twisted and grew to a sickening point. "So stick a senbon under each of your nails.”

He eyed her with a predatory excitement, anxious to see if she would actually do it.

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

Shizuka waited patiently for 'Enyo' to reply. His responses, as always, lacked manners. Her efforts at making a new friend seemed to be all in vain. She had hoped, with their reputation as it was, that the Kuronmeru twins would be at least be open to cooperation with someone who could see past their faults. If nothing else, such a relationship could be leveraged for mutual benefit. She was quickly coming to understand it was a pointless endeavor.

While 'Enyo' was deep in thought considering how best to sabotage his comrade's efforts at self-improvement, Shizuka idly studied the sky. The rain had stopped - or at least paused - and she searched for a rainbow to lift her spirits. Instead, she found a terrible black smoke rising from her clan's estate. She stood transfixed, unable to look away from the breath of death as it climbed, carrying an innocent soul to heaven. She let herself feel for a moment, but what came was not grief or sorrow, but a cold, impotent rage. She was angry - at the futile cruelty of her clan, and at her own powerlessness.

She turned her attention back to 'Enyo' in time to process his suggestion. His callous smile reminded her of the Shouki clan's torturer. Every tap of his fingertips brought back a memory - the clang of a hammer, shrieks of pain, a joyful chuckle. Now, it was fear that rose within her. She crushed it with killing intent, and marked 'Enyo' as it's target.

"Kuronmeru Enyo." Shizuka's tone was black with rage. "I offered you my favour in exchange for guidance. I need more strength. If what you say is true, and I can improve, then pierce my nails yourself." Shizuka held out her hand, as if daring Shiu to see his joke through to the end. "But if you're trying to make a fool of me, you should prepare yourself for the consequences."

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

His brow raised in surprise, and a short laugh escaped his throat, light and airy. Shiu did not always process tone the best. That generally took a greater empathy, a deeper understanding of human emotion that he lacked. The venom in Shizuka’s voice, however, was layered so heavily onto her words it was near palatable.

"Are you threatening me?” he asked, in part a genuine question. It was difficult for him to tell by her wording whether she was instigating a fight, taunting him to try to get close enough to stab her, or if it was meant as a warning in case his suggestion proved unhelpful, and if by holding her hand out she would truly allow him to just stick a senbon right into her.

Whichever way she meant it, the prospect excited him, enough to make his pupils dilate ever so slightly. After everything she had reminded him of, the idea of her just standing still as he tested just how far he could dig a needle in there—see if he could flay her nail off if he just shoved it in the right way—came to him as a soothing thought. If she was anything like she was when he knew her in the academy, then overpowering her would be easy. During a time when he was feeling as powerless as he had not even an hour ago, he was itching to have that kind of control over someone, pass over that helplessness. It was obvious to him that she had finally wisened up to the niceties she had spared him up until that point and would no longer take what he said at face value, but it didn’t seem as if she had parsed out his identity yet. More than anything else in that moment, he wanted to frost the ground around them in his attack, hold an ice senbon to her throat or her eye, and witness the moment where it sank in with her how much time she had just wasted trying to win over his favor.

But even in the heat of his unrepentant bloodlust, there was one fact that held him back from any rash action. All of this had happened because she had been trying to work on controlling whatever toxins it was that polluted her blood. Even in its infancy, that jutsu she wielded seems dangerous, uncontrolled. Things may have been different if he had practice extracting poison in his repertoire of medical ninjutsu, but this was not the case. He had no guaranteed antidote, and there were too many unknown factors. He knew better than to play foolishly with that, even if he had fully recovered from the beating he’d taken from his brother hours before. It would have to wait until he had something to deal with that pesky jutsu of hers.

The small spark that had found its way in his eye dimmed, and he was only left staring at her with some vague amusement. "I’ll pass,” he said, holding his palm out as a hint for her to withdraw her own. "There’s no reason for me to dirty my clothes with your filthy blood. I told you what you could do to help it. Do it on your own time.”

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

Shizuka studied Shiu's expression with the discerning gaze of a hunter. His obvious glee at the prospect of imminent torture sent chills down her spine. Fear. But fear now was only fuel for her killing intent - and when the fear was gone, only disgust remained. The longer 'Enyo' stared at her outstretched fingers, the more Shizuka became sure she would kill him - or at least leave him a bruised mess on the ground. She was still boiling over with anger that she had no way to control, and while her clan was powerful and unassailable, 'Enyo' was here now, and so weak in comparison.

And then, at the last moment, 'Enyo' held out his hand in rejection. Shizuka was not relieved. Her rage burned over, angry at having been denied her pretext to fight him. What's more, there was not a hint of contrition upon 'Enyo's' face - something else, not guilt, had stopped him cold. And now he was relaxed, as if Shizuka posed no threat to him whatsoever. She moved before she considered the consequences. She had been prepared for a fight the entire time, and did not miss her opening.

Shizuka shot forward, her hand closing around Shiu's outstretched wrist, her bloody fingernails digging into his flesh. He could pull himself free, but a tiny cut had already been made, and a sliver of poison found its way into his blood. It was nowhere near enough to take true effect, but Shiu would begin to feel a subtle, icy numbness from the wound.

"Cruel. Cowardly. And rude. You're lucky to have been born a Kuronmeru. If you were born to my clan you'd have been smothered in the cradle." Shizuka's killing intent was visible. Ribbons of poison mist radiated from her palms, coiling like snakes around her arms, torso, legs. It dispersed in a ring about her feet. Her every breath was filled with poison, drawn in, exhaled. The miasma pulsed as it flowed, like half a dozen heartbeats.

"Apologize for your insults. I'll offer you grace - and pretend this meeting never happened."

Shizuka placed her hands together and hid them from sight beneath her sleeves. She formed the handseals for a substitution technique even as she bowed deeply, her sleeves held in front of her face, blocking her vision. Such a bow offered Shiu the perfect opening for payback, though if he took the bait, he might find himself snared in a trap with no way to escape...

[Kuronmeru Shiu]

♔

The slight, smug grin he had was wiped from his face as she snagged ahold of his wrist, digging her filthy nails into his delicate skin. Shiu bared his teeth as he felt the crescent-shaped cut that opened his skin, and a small panic rose within him as that disgusting blood of hers tainted his own bloodstream, leaving a prickling tingle in its wake.

He had sensed the shift in her tone, the cold anger that came with it, but for as long as she had acted as a willing doormat for him, he had not expected even this much of a violent outburst from her. He was stunned for a moment, concerned for his body, uncertain about what she intended to do to him with such a toxic body, polluted such that it created a smog around her. The shock came to him in such a pang, it took him a moment before he was able to process what she was saying.

As the words sank in, though, so too did a frigid anger of his own. Cruel, perhaps, he could be seen that way by an outsider. Not everyone adhered to the Kuronmeru survival-of-the-fittest mindset, and many did not seem to appreciate the way their clan tested themselves against others. Rude, it only came natural. Those who had not earned his respect would not get it. To be called cowardly, though, was tantamount to sin, and the very suggestion of it pushed him over the edge of all his rationality.

Without thinking, the instant she pulled her hand away, he grabbed her quickly, digging his nails into her wrist just the same as she had done for him. Evidently, she did not appreciate this return, and she bucked her arm to try to withdraw it. He only tightened his grip. As he did so, he opened the palm of his free hand, where a thin strip of air crystallized to an ice senbon in his palm with a controlled pulse of chakra. In the same moment as she managed to break free from his grip, Shiu tightened his fist around the needle and plunged it down on the back of her retreating hand. The needle broke upon impact, but the effects of it were the same—an instant onset of frostbite-like numbness traveling up her forearm.

A few scattered puffs of snow fell around him then from the exertion of his chakra, dusting his hair and a little bit falling towards her own. He wore a strained, pissed-off smile, as though caught between states of vindictive and furious. Shiu had thoughts, things he wanted to say, but uncertain if she would try any sort of assault like that on him again even in her state, he opted to wait. There was dignity in not aggressing her further, and more than that, he wanted to see her digest the reality of the situation she was in first, and the irony for speaking of how lucky he was to have been born a Kuronmeru.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Sun Tōketsu [Snap Freeze]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: Hyōton
HANDSEALS: 0
REQUIREMENTS: Yuki Clan (Kiri or Yuki Branch)
DESCRIPTION:
Without needing a hand-seal, the user will create a single senbon ice needle in the palm of their hand and send it flying towards their opponent. When the ice comes in contact with a person or object, it will snap freeze whatever it touches in a half a meter radius. For example, if it comes in contact with an arm or leg, it will freeze the limb, same goes with a sword of Ninja tools.

coded by pinn @ thq

Shouki Shizuka

[Shouki Shizuka]

Shizuka's motivations for picking a fight were far from innocent. Whatever threadbare justification she constructed, she wanted to dominate Shiu - even more than he did in reverse. She was no more righteous than the 'vile' Kuronmeru she faced. The pair were alike in many ways, both victims of the two clans which embodied the unspoken shinobi code of 'strength as law.' This code was hegemonic. Whatever support or criticism they held for it - it controlled them. Their every thought and action was steered by the understanding that strength was freedom, and weakness imprisonment. Neither held any grudge for the other - the subjects of their anger and frustration were their own clans. Yet both were far too weak to act upon this enmity. They carried their resentment with them like heavy shackles, eager for the first chance to be free. To prove themselves strong.

Shiu's technique caught Shizuka by surprise. She had expected many possible attacks from her Kuronmeru opponent, but ice release was not one of them. Enyo wasn't capable of it. In just a single careless instant, Shizuka's left arm was frozen stiff to the shoulder. She leapt backwards, trying to form handseals, but found the fingers on her left hand intractable. Her panic rose, fearing Shiu might seize the advantage and continue his assault - but he remained in place, only watching.

Shizuka hastily put a distance of four meters between them, and pulled a scroll from her sleeve. She tore it with her teeth, forcibly unsealing her equipment - one pitiful umbrella, two kunai attached with Ikari talismans, and her kusari-fundo: a pair of small weights attached by a relatively thin three meter chain. With her feet, she drove one of the kunai into the earth, and with her good hand she coiled half of the chain around her frozen arm. Soon, she discovered she could just barely force her frozen fingers to form half a handseal. It would do.

It didn't take her long to finish her preparations, and by the end she understood her error and regained some semblance of calm.

"Hyoton. You're not Enyo... but Shiu. The Yuki. I'm terribly sorry for mistaking you for your brother." Shizuka's apology was given with all the sincerity of a conman. As she spoke, she filled the Ikari talisman under her foot with chakra, preparing the jutsu to be released later with a handseal. "Close your eyes, and I'll make it up to you." She spun her kusari-fundo in tight arcs to her side, approaching full of deadly intent.

When she was near two meters, she started her attacks - testing the distance and Shiu's response. While Shizuka was no master of kusari-jutsu, a careless approach by Shiu would end with him snared by the chain or worse. She was light and quick in her footwork, attempting to circle around Shiu and drive him towards her trap. She watched him closely, waiting for the beginning of his counterattack, especially careful of the ice release jutsu he had shown her earlier.

SPOILER: Click to show

SA
Enhanced Concentration
Shizuka's concentration is unbreakable. While focusing on a single opponent, she fights more efficiently, evading attacks without wasted movement and exploiting every tiny opening. Her efficiency increases as she continues to observe the same target – their habits and patterns becoming clear. Shizuka's concentration is particularly dangerous when her opponent attempts the same technique multiple times – Shizuka's anticipation allows her to preempt such repetitions, greatly reducing their effectiveness. While concentrating, Shizuka retains her normal awareness of non-targets.

Equipment
Kusari-fundo - 3m chain connecting two weights, both inscribed with a 300 lb. Omokute Karui seal on the bottom

Jutsu
NAME: Fūinjutsu: Ikari [Sealing Technique: Anchor]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Fūinjutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 1 [Ox]
DESCRIPTION:

A fuuinjutsu of the pre-written variety, the user writes 錨 onto a medium before sealing away their chakra. During the seal's preparation, the user can set the jutsu to be activated automatically or manually but not both. When the jutsu is activated, 5 sealing lines 5 meters in length with fly out from the seal, latching onto the first moving objects they come across in range, 'anchoring' the objects to the seal's location. The lines move at the speed of thrown ninja tools and have the strength of steel chains and can be broken with enough force. Damaging the seal/medium in any way will also dispel the jutsu. If set to be automatic, the jutsu will activate on its own if something within 5 meters of the seal moves, and if set to be manual, the user must form the proper handseal while within 25 meters.

NAME: Omokute Karui [Heavy and Light]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Low [Activation], Low [Deactivation]
CLASSIFICATION: Fuinjutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: One, One
REQUIREMENT: Senkin [Great Weight] or Oshiishi [Stone Weight], Seals are placed on self.
DESCRIPTION:

A simple modification that can be placed upon the weight increasing seals when applying them to oneself, or objects, but not onto another person. By performing the 'Snake' handseal the user can deactivate the weight from the seals returning them to a normal body weight unhindered by the self-imposed additional weight to their body. Similarly by performing the 'dog' handseal the user can return the weight to their body. This can allow someone to effectively utilize their weighted form, or lack thereof, as one could by putting on or taking off training weights.