[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cause my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]@tag - 217WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Sometimes, ANBU work was a lot less than just disposal, espionage, assassination.

Sometimes, it was sparring with the little ninja of the village. Sometimes, it was kicking a pleb's ass to teach him a thing or two.

And so she finds herself somewhere out near the blue mountains, where the hills are rolling and rocky and the far off springs of the land made the atmosphere sticky, hot, damp. Despite this, the setting sun offered some cool darkness to flitter about in.

"They're late..." Ume mutters under her sharp breath, flexing her fists as she white knuckles a pair of knives in either hand. She's standing with her feet squared with her hips, shoulders turned slightly, an effective stance to thrust her blades forward in quick, slicing motions. Her long coat is heavy, but moves briskly with her movements, revealing the turtleneck crop and shorts she's wearing beneath. Left, left, right - right, right, left. She lets out a breath with each movement, steadying both her heart and chakra as she finesses the air.

Suddenly, she stops, drops her arms and stance, and looks around the clearing. Her pointed ears twitch in tandem with her nose. Blue eyes narrow, a wicked grin forming over her maw. "There you are," she coos in a sickly sweet voice.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Technically speaking, Shosuke was running late for his appointment.

Anyone who knew him properly would be able to tell that there was something suspicious about this. Shosuke was an extremely diligent person, someone who would never even consider being late to an appointment like this. He wasn't the type to go overly early either, but he prided himself on almost exact punctuality. Across all of his missions and duties, he had never once turned up late. Not until today, at least.

However, the truth of the situation was that he wasn't late. He had turned up on time, he had simply made sure not to announce himself, remaining quietly nearby. After all, with his tremor-sense, he was able to scout up to two hundred meters away, allowing him to remain quiet and simply feel his way around the area, groping silently and leaving no proof that he was ever there whilst he tried to figure out what was going on.

This was the second time in a month that Shosuke had been ordered to train under a specific person. Technically a third if you counted the mission with Kizumi herself. By now, he could clearly see the writing on the wall, that there was something that he wasn't being told. He didn't want to distrust Kizumi, he had nothing but faith in her abilities as a leader, but it was hard not to recognize there was something that he was missing.

The simple fact of life as a Shinobi was that there would always be things that one didn't know. One might not know why a VIP was important, or what they were transporting, or who they were being contracted by. All of those were permissible, but for him to be at the core of some secret? He didn't like it, and he wanted to find out what was going on.

However, all he could feel was that the person who had been arranged to meet with him was a Shitai - he could tell by now just what one of those felt like, they had the same altered heartbeat and symptoms that Itsuki had had from when he was filling in as her substitute mentor. Beyond the fact that this girl was a Shitai, it seemed like there was no other clue about her identity or about what this was about. Perhaps because, ironically enough, the ANBU tattoo was ink on skin, not something he was able to feel with his tremor-sense.

Eventually, a few minutes after the meeting time, when Sho had come to the decision that there was nothing else that he would be able to garner from observing her, Sho deigned to show up. Still, just to make it all that much more believable, his hands shot up into his hair, mussing it up and making it seem windswept and bedraggled - reinforcing the idea that he had been held back, or overslept, or at least give some unspoken justification for his "tardiness".

Slipping out of the building before taking the long way around the area, changing his avenue of approach to make it seem as if he had come from the town center, he broke into a sprint from the furthest point away from her, deliberately pushing himself and taking minimal breaths to ensure a flushed, slightly pinkened, sweat-tinged complexion by the time he arrived at the training area.

"S-sorry I'm late," Sho replied, bent over and panting, straining to get his breath back. Considering he wasn't a tai specialist, perhaps he had honestly pushed himself a little too far just for a cover story, it was actually a little hard to catch his breath. ", got held up... family matters... I'm sure you know what it's like..."

620 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 1/9
Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 258WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]There was nothing out of the ordinary about him to Ume - his blood smelled brightly and her tongue pokes out to swipe over a canine thoughtfully, but otherwise she had no reason to bat an eye. The Chuunin shifted her weight from one foot to the other, tilting her head as she sizes him up; this was the Yamamoto she was sent? Weren't they supposed to be a disciplined bunch? Ume clicks her tongue.

"Whatever," she shoots, slipping a hand out from the lapel of her open cloak, sleeves hanging limp at her sides. A knife twirls through her fingers in idle showmanship. "Shosuke," her voice is a sweet drawl, mapping out her words carefully in quicktime as she in the same moment assesses him as thoroughly as she can. Surely skilled, but lacking knowledge of the situation. Out of breath, mussed - how long had he been running? Was it a sense of duty, or something else...? Damn, she should have read his file more thoroughly. Standing only a few inches shorter than him, Ume doesn't look all too imposing, even as she braces her feet apart and points the tip of one of her blades at the fellow kumonin. "Blind Prince of the Yamamoto. Do you know who I am?" Her smile slides wide open, pointy teeth poking over her bottom lip. Her eyes crease unnaturally. Her heart wants to race, but it's a slow, dull thud - but she was excited nonetheless. Her voice grows louder, crossing the meters between them. "Because I know who you are."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Sho's eyes crooked up, looking towards the Shitai as she stared at him. He wasn't quite sure how he knew, but there was an instinctive part of his mind that told him that that was not a normal gaze. No, it felt like something else entirely.

He felt like a deer, caught in the eyes of a lurking wolf in the long grass. That feeling was only intensified more as she licked over one of those preternaturally sharp Shitai canines, those teeth specifically designed and evolved to suck the blood out of their victims. There was a hunger there, an undeniable one.

Even so, if she was expecting him to be fazed, or to be taken aback by the fact that she knew who he was, she would find herself sorely disappointed. Instead, he simply stared back at her, his eyes hard to see behind those thick black sunglasses of his.

"Why is it," Sho asked, his tone slow and clearly terse. ", so many of the people I speak to nowadays go straight to talking about my disability? Nobody goes "Oh, hello Yamamoto-dono, the sole bearer of Mokuton in the history of our village." or "Oh, hello Sho, youngest person in the history of our village to have his own medical license". Or even just Dr Yamamoto. It's always the blind thing."

Compared to the lack of confidence and trepidation shown in his original meeting with Kizumi, there was a sort of self-confidence that one could almost hear dripping out of his voice. It wasn't arrogance or self-aggrandizement, merely speaking things that were provable and verifiable. No compliments, no opinions, just raw hard facts about himself.

"I'll be honest - I have no idea who you are. Kizumi expects me to train under you, and that alone is proof that you're worth my attention. But she didn't give me so much as a clue as to your name. I can tell you're a Shitai, that much is obvious, but as to first names? No idea. So, let's correct that oversight."

Striding forwards, each step carrying him closer to her teeth, to that attempted aura of intimidation and predation. Yet, he did so regardless. His body language spoke of detachment, a certain casual air, although if she was particularly good at reading people she would be able to feel an underlying tension there. Was it because she had mentioned his disability or was it because of something else?

Whatever the case, he was soon standing in front of her, holding a hand out, clearly for her to shake.

"Let's skip all that blind prince shit; I'm Sho, and you are...?~"

438 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 2/9
Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 265WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Her expression does not falter, her smile does not waver. It does not matter how the boy likes the way she speaks to him, she is here for one reason and one reason only. "Mmm," she muses at his first outburst. Emotional, she thinks.

She does, however, blink as he begins striding forward. Finally, her smile falls as he extends a hand beyond her knife - but a flash of something violent twinkles in her blue eyes. The thought of spearing his open palm with the tip of her blade is almost too overwhelming to ignore, but he's being earnest, despite any underlying trepidation he might have about the situation. She stares at him for a minute, face void of any expression. Then she lets out a short, shrill laugh and twirls the blade over her fingers before sheathing it at her hip. Jovially, she takes his hand and shakes it. "You're stupid. You approach me without knowing anything I have in store for you, boy?" The fledgling shakes her head, amused but endeared.

Detangling from the handshake, Ume's hands find the back of her head casually, cloak billowing around her lightly dressed frame. "G'evening, Sho. You may call me Umechika. Shitai indeed, but I promise I only bite with consent." A cheeky grin flashes her sharp fangs. "Usually."

Turning on her heel, she begins walking away from him. "You ruined my plan, being all cordial 'n' shit." Once there's about 4 meters between them, she twirls around again. Now her hands are on her hips, foot cocked forward. "I was gonna have y'come at me."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

That might actually be the first time in Shosuke's entire life that someone called him stupid.

If he felt compelled to do so, Sho might have argued back that he was, in fact, not stupid - most of his techniques had been learned through reverse-engineering preexisting ones, he was clearly smart enough to earn his medical license, and he was routinely considered one of the smarter peoples in the entire village. What he was, however, was dumb, and before anyone asked there was a mile of difference between dumb and stupid.

Being dumb meant he was the kind of person who wouldn't even question teaching someone from Kiri or Ame simply because they asked for help. Being dumb meant he was the kind of person who would get into an argument with someone in public and yet still hang out with them the next day. Being dumb meant he was the kind of person who would, in front of the entire ninja community, deliberately flunk his own exam because succeeding would require assaulting a child, even if said child would turn out to be Miroru.

Just cos he wasn't stupid didn't mean he wasn't dumb, in fact almost all of the smartest people in the world were in some way dumb. It seemed to come with the territory.

"You don't look that much older than me, Ume, don't call me boy~" Ume. It seemed he had already decided to give her a nickname, the complete opposite of using such lofty "titles" from earlier. Even still, he had to admit she had a point, this definitely wasn't the smartest of decisions.

"Either way - Kizumi trusts you, that means I trust you too. I doubt she would have sent me to study under the type of person who follows through with a threat to stab someone without giving me heads up were you liable to carry through with that little threat of yours. This may sound ironic about a Shitai but... I knew you wouldn't be bloodthirsty~"

Accompanying that little joke of his was a smug little smile as he moved to step away, getting about ten feet back before throwing his hand to his belt, drawing a kunai of his own and gesturing towards her with it.

"If you want, I can still come at you. I just figured we should be on a first name basis before I, you know, attempt to assault you and everything. Call it me being nice~"

410 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 3/9
Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 235WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Though it's her preferred name anyway, she does not miss the way he is quick to nickname her. Trusting, open, heart on the sleeve. Not at all what she'd expect from an ANBU in the works. But she makes no outward notice of it, instead holding her wide open pose and crooked, toothy smile. She blinks slowly like a cat, flexing her fingers around the knife in her hand resting against one of her hips.

Blond eyebrows twitch beneath her fringe as Sho denies her bloodthirst. She wouldn't correct him though. Instead, her blue eyes track every inch of movement from there out. The way he moves away so casually, like she isn't a threat at all - the swift swipe of his kunai, the way he flashes it at her in a similar way as she had initially. Once more, she clicks her tongue.

"Well, consider it appreciated, Sho." Dammit. She was already starting to like the fucker. Annoying! Ume uses her free hand to broadly gesture outward, shrugging off her cloak entirely. It falls with a strangely loud thud, kicking up a bit of dust, to reveal her slender, barely dressed form. Her raised hand splays its fingers outward, silhouetted by the rising moon. Her other hand mirrors the first slightly, raised to her hip with the knife facing inward. She was, totally and provocatively, wide open for Sho. "Come on, then. Assault me!"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Hm... He couldn't help but notice an alteration in the way her heart beat as he said he doubted she was bloodthirsty. So, that had a reaction, huh? Somehow, it didn't feel like a good one - was she annoyed? Possible, it might have come off as more of a dig against her family than intended.

As far as Sho went, why he had been chosen as a potential ANBU recruit was still unclear. Nothing about his body language seemed to reveal anything about him that would suggest he had the inclination towards cold, calculated brutality that ANBU required. Even after being threatened with a knife, there was no malice in his body language, he seemed almost surprisingly innocent for a Shinobi.

But either way, she seemed very much intent on him coming at her. Well, if she insisted... However, even after training with Atagi and Yusei, he still wasn't much of a close-quarters combatant. He could react to it but he had no desire to play into a fighting style that was clearly more of her thing than his own. If she wanted to see what he was actually capable of...

Sho flicked his wrist suddenly, moving from holding the kunai like one might a dagger to a throwing knife, tossing it at her center mass without warning. If she stayed still, the kunai would strike her in the chest about an inch away from her heart, something that could be considered a fatal wound on most targets. Of course, he was entirely predicating his technique on the assumption that she was able to react, to move, to respond properly. In fact, the entire point of it being such a dangerous strike was that it would force her to move.

In the second after the knife was thrown, Sho's hands shot together, weaving through a trio of quick handsigns. In the moment the third was completed, a trio of wooden logs seemed to be launched out of the ground towards Ume's direction. Midflight, each of the logs were rapidly whittled down, taking the form of a trio of wooden facsimiles of Sho - a clone technique, something confirmed by how they stopped even looking like wood a moment after they were summoned.

The moment the three landed, each would work in perfect synchronicity, aiming to overwhelm Ume both in terms of raw numbers but also in strength. Each one still very much constructed of dense wood, the sheer striking power of each was like being struck with a baseball bat swung with full force. Unlike previous uses of the technique where they held back, each one was going full force.

If she was worth studying under, like Kizumi had said, then she would be able to handle this much at least. Just cos she was cute didn't mean he was going to hold back.

All this, and yet that innocence hadn't left Shosuke's body language. He had just tried to kill someone, albeit without expecting it to work, and here he was still holding himself like a Doctor rather than a soldier. Just what was up with this guy?

518 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 4/9

Jutsus Used
NAME: Moku Bunshin no Jutsu [Wood Clone Technique]*
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Mokuton
HANDSEALS: 3
DECRIPTION:
A clone that is created by altering the user's own cells with chakra to create vegetation. Possessing more endurance than the normal shadow clones. the doppelgangers are more resilient to damage. The clones have the ability to travel far distances from the user and are able to communicate with the original albeit the can only pass reconnaissance or simple messages with more complex thoughts and strategies depriving them from their full combat potential. The clones can be as simple in function as a wooden dummy for use in the Body Replacement Technique.

This makes this technique extremely convenient and a perfect clone technique that only the most powerful and fully developed dōjutsu will able to see through. By directly touching the wood clone with their hand, the user can absorb the information it gathered or change the shape of the clone. Because clone is made up of the user's own cells.

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 373WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Right off the bat, there's already so much Ume learns about Sho in just a blink of the eye. Despite his disability, his accuracy is perfect - so he was some kind of sensor, then. Ume wondered what nature it was. She learned too that he was a long distance fighter, obvious in the way he immediately hides behind his range by sending out clones to do his dirty work. Clones that are fashioned from wood - so a mokuton user.

Of course, she had learned some of this from his file; but it was painted so vividly in front of her, she can't help but make a mental note of it.

The girl does not move as the kunai soars toward her, wide smile unwavering and her blue eyes still piercing, sparkly, blazing with excitement. Her right hand comes up, still clutching one knife, to easily deflect the projectile. The angle at which she meets it with the edge of her blade sends it flying back toward its assailant. As soon as the clang rings out through the hills, Ume is already moving in response to the three clones coming her way. Practiced in hand-to-hand combat, Ume unsheathes her left knife so that she is dual wielding her short blades - she ducks low as they all come at her, passing through their collective to stand where they were a second ago. She hacks one way over the back of the center clone's head, arching a scar to its cranium, then draws her knife back in a quick, brutal thrust to the temple. If the blow lands, it's thicker than a human's skull, so pulling the knife back out is slow. Yanking it out, Ume uses the momentum to spin on her right heel, attempting a roundhouse kick to the second's head, powerful enough to splinter its wooden dome.

When she comes up for a breath, she's faced off in front of the third one, no matter where the other two end up. She lets out the breath she'd been holding, still smiling wickedly, and twirls the knives over her knuckles as she readies her stance. "Good stuff," she praises from afar. "Keeping your distance, overwhelming the enemy. No wonder Kizumi sent you my way."

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used

NAME: Kagami Yaiba [Mirror Blade]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Bukijutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:
Despite the name of this technique, it can be used with most weapons, although it’s difficulty mastering it means it requires a skilled user of such a weapon. Thus a swordsman would not automatically be able to perform this technique with a club. A relatively straightforward technique, it is nevertheless very effective against incoming shuriken. The user guards against an incoming shuriken with his or her weapon. However, rather than simply deflecting it, the user hits the shuriken from such an angle that it is sent back towards the enemy. Skilled users of this technique can even reflect kunai towards moving opponents by calculating their movement pattern (Chuunin+), or even reflect a shuriken while adding a curve to it (Special Jounin+). One use of this technique can send back up to three shuriken for a Genin, five for a Chuunin, eight for a Special Jounin and ten for Jounin and higher.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

No matter how openly he mentioned being able to use Wood Release, it seemed like so many people were surprised when they saw it for the first time. He wasn't entirely sure why that was - He wasn't a Senju, at least not to his knowledge, so having an extra release outside of a clan structure was a little unheard of. Even so, it wasn't like he was subtle about it. It had never been something that he had tried.

More than that, if Ume truly knew about him as the "Blind prince of the Yamamoto", then surely she knew about other stuff regarding his clan? The whole "Blessing from the mountain" thing? That was so heavily tied to his mokuton, so the idea that she didn't know was... well, it was weird to say the least.

Whatever the case, the two seemed to be surprisingly equally matched as Ume confronted the three clones. Despite being wildly outnumbered, she surprisingly seemed to hold her own. The kunai came in, only to be comfortably reflected by Ume's own knife, sent plinking away into the nearby dirt, sticking straight up like Excalibur from the stone.

Strangely, she didn't even seem to respond, there was no elevation of heartrate. If anything, she seemed entirely too comfortable with having her life threatened. That was... alarming, especially considering Kizumi apparently saw something valuable in her enough to send Sho to train under her.

Either way, Ume immediately made the mistake that every other shinobi seemed to make; that of assuming the wood clones were just like normal clones. Ume span from the first volley of strikes, bringing the blade in contact with the back of the first clone's head. However, when she dug it in, she would feel a great deal of resistance, causing her momentum to be lowered. What was more, as she placed the sword, another of the clones reached out, touching the clone with their palm.

In the moment of that touch, the clone's form changed. No, more accurately, it was more like the body distorted, morphed, like a photo being edited into something entirely unearthly. The "head" of the clone stretched out, back of its head twisting out and morphing with lacquer vines, wrapping around the knife implanted into the back of its skull. Best case scenario, Ume would be forced to drop her blade, worst case she'd have her hand sealed within the growing nest of wood.

As the "creature"'s head was now stretched out over far more space, the face looked appropriately disjointed and corrupted, like some sort of glitch from computer graphics. It was a horrendous thing to look at, and enough to stun someone at first glance if they weren't made of sturdier stuff.

Meanwhile, as Ume moved out to launch a roundhouse kick at one of the other clones, she might be surprised to find that they were prepared for her. Of course they were; he had been training under taijutsu specialists, and she was just an experienced fighter.

As she launched her kick, both arms of the clone shot up, forming a makeshift shield against her kick. The kick's force was enough to send splinters flying off from the impact site, a small but no less visible dent appearing in their form. Meanwhile, however, the density and immovability of the wood would send a shock of extreme pain through Ume's leg, almost as if she had just kicked a brick wall with full force.

In the gap provided by the other two, the third has already rushed in. Lowering its head and charging in, using the moment of stopped momentum and precarious footing caused by the blocked roundhouse kick to charge in, aiming to body tackle her to the floor and keep her pinned for the other two to wail on her, launching several kicks to her central frame as if they were stomping someone out in a gang fight.

Sho, for his part, remained still as he watched his clones go to work, instead simply digesting what it was she was actually saying.

"And what way is that, exactly? Cos I'm getting pretty tired of being tossed to random people across the village without an explanation.

She wants me to learn under you, but then won't do me the decency of actually telling me what it is I'm supposed to be learning. So, why don't you tell me what it actually is I'm supposed to be being taught?"

745 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 5/9
Jutsus Used: See Last Post

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 295WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Throughout the ordeal, Ume makes no outward inclination toward any of it - her expression does not change and her movement doesn't falter.

She'd been expecting the density of the clones, but not for it to grab her knife entirely. Of course, as soon as she saw how the clones interacted, one morphing wildly, she would stop her initial train of movement to take a jump backward, putting some distance between she and the clones and leaving her knife in the head of the one growing vines to swallow up her weapon. She clicks her tongue, disappointed in its loss. Blue eyes dance over the horrific figure, grin widening at the macabre display. It was wicked and, in its own right, impressive and scary. She adored it. She lets out a gleeful laugh. In the moment it takes one of the clones to try and charge at her over the new distance, Ume holds a single handseal to flood her body with chakra, disappearing from its path.

Though it simulates teleportation, she is only moving incredibly fast, agility heightened as she holds the handseal. She reappears 3 meters back, directly behind the original Sho. As her body comes back into view, so does her foot aimed at his head - the roundhouse kick she had been stopped from delivering earlier threatens to collide with his temple now, though she doesn't expect it to land. Thoughtfully, she throws herself backward onto her hands with the weight of the kick, catching herself in another push so that she's a few meters furthest from the mess of many Sho when she lands upright on her feet again.

Ume shrugs, still grinning. It never left her face. "Sorry, Sho, I don't have any orders to tell you what you're being taught."

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used

NAME: Shunshin no Jutsu [Body Flicker Technique]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: None
HANDSEALS: 1
DESCRIPTION:
By invigorating one's entire body with chakra, a shinobi can seemingly disappear and reappear in another location faster than most people can see. Often times one's movements are disguised with the use of an extra element, be it a smoke bomb, leaves, water, sand, etc. in order to hide the user's trajectory from those with skilled eyes. Though it mimics teleportation, it is important to remember this jutsu merely boosts the agility of its user. As useful as this technique is, it can only be used 4 times in a battle thread, compounding in exertion and difficulty each time. with any more usages beyond that result in muscle tears in the legs from overexertion. The hand seal for this technique must be held until the shinobi reaches their destination, making it impossible to utilize other techniques regardless of any preparation.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Just like that, Ume made the pivotal mistake that defined the outcome of the fight.

As the third clone shot forwards, aiming to jump her and bring her to the floor, Ume responded by triggering a body flicker, zooming around the battlefield. However, where it might be difficult to keep track of her were he to be relying entirely on vision, she never once left the earth of their little makeshift arena. In other words, his mind was kept up-to-date of her location the entire time, keeping her in his periphery even if she was unable to tell that he could see her.

As she finally came to a stop just in time to launch a kick at his head, she would notice exactly what he had been doing whilst standing still - his hands had been moving together. As she brought her leg up to kick against his head, she would be met with a meaty thwack of muscle against muscle... only for her leg to suddenly roar in pain as the reality of what she had kicked came to fruition.

In a puff of smoke, Shosuke's body disappeared and was replaced with... well, with Shosuke. Albeit, as her leg contacted against the head of this one, the pain in her leg and the sudden cloud of splinters around the area revealed that she had actually impacted one of his clones, the real Shosuke having taken the place of the second clone.

What was more, immediately sprouting from its head came thick, green thorns, immediately wrapping around her leg and forcibly binding it to the head of the clone, keeping her trapped on a single leg and unable to move from her position. Even attempting to do so would cause the thorns now wrapped around her limb to scythe in, drawing forth blood should she attempt to wriggle herself free.

Spinning on their heels, the other two clones turned to take advantage of this, launching blow after body blow, aiming to punch Ume senseless with their various strikes. It was a cruel trick, one that he'd had up his sleeves for a long time but never really had a reason to use up until now.

"Let me try that again," Sho spoke, this time with more authority in his voice and a clearly significant drop in the amount of patience he was willing to show. "Tell me what on earth I'm doing here.

I don't care if you don't have orders to do so, as long as you don't have orders to the contrary it's a pretty simple request. Especially since I've already gone to the lengths of giving you what you want - namely, a fight."

If Sho was being honest, it didn't feel like he was being taught anything at all in this little fight. All he was doing was showing what he was capable of, everything he was using was things that he already knew or had learned with other targets.

493 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 6/9

Jutsus Used
NAME: Tsurībaindingu Kawarimi no Jutsu [Tree Binding Body Substitution]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Mokuton
HANDSEALS: 5
DECRIPTION:
Like the basic Kawarimi no Jutsu the Tsurībaindingu Kawarimi no Jutsu requires being set up one post before use before being implemented. Where the two jutsu differ is when the shinobi in question implements the jutsu replacing themselves with a log or other natural plant based item of similar size they may tag the natural object in question with a small amount of mokuton chakra. Causing the log or plant based item to explode with thorny trapping vines that latch onto any limb that comes in contact with the log.

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 327WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]Her blow to his head is met with a solid thunk - her smile still remains, even as a pain shoots up through the core of her extremity and into her hip. She makes no indication of pain however, and immediately throws together a string of handseals - Bird, Dragon, Snake, Dog, Tiger - extending her right hand as a glow of sharp, hungry chakra grows from her flesh. In a split second, her hand has come down to obliterate the connection. It shatters with ease, her fuuton-laced scalpel vibrating over both hands, making the wood feel more like actual human in its resistance.

Because they had initially been ten feet away from the clones, they're nowhere near close enough to Ume and what's left of fake Sho's location to jump her by surprise. She holds up her hand as her free foot comes to rest on the ground, fingers flat, smile finally disappearing as Sho attempts to use some kind of stern voice on her. With the halting motion, she brings their spar to an end. If he ceases as intended, the chakra blaring around her hands fades to nothing.

"What I want?" She coos in a dark voice. "I wanted to see what I'm dealing with, not to fight you. I'm happy with what you've shown me." She tilts her head, crossing one arm over her chest and resting her opposite elbow over the crook there to swipe a finger over her bottom lip contemplatively. "You're difficult to take in a fight, and you're all spunky. I like that about you. So, sure, I'll give you a piece of information. Consider it a reward."

Her smile returns, hands on her hips. She gives one flush breath, a deep inhale and a long exhale. He worked her up just enough to feel that heart pump more than a beat a minute. It was exhilarating! But her expression is calm and easy, as is her voice now. "Ask any question!~"

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsus Used

NAME: Fuuton no Mesu [Wind Scalpel]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Low (Drain)
CLASSIFICATION: Medical Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Fuuton
HANDSEALS: 5 - Bird, Dragon, Snake, Dog, Tiger
REQUIREMENT: Chakura no Mesu - [Chakra Scalpel]
DESCRIPTION:
This technique is functionally identical to its parent technique, though its cutting power is greatly increased, giving this technique the ability to cut through chakra reinforced armors of the same power or lower.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Despite the obvious pain that was so evident in the girl's face, it seemed like her concentration and her determination weren't hindered even for a second. It was honestly impressive to see in person - it wasn't like Hotarubi, someone who didn't feel it at all, but it didn't seem to factor in to her considerations in the slightest.

Just what sort of things had this girl gone through to achieve this level of disaffectedness?

However, Ume had clearly made a mistake - she wasn't the one in the position of power in this situation. Her leg caught up as it was, her body's position uncomfortable and awkward, it gave the clone she was tied to far more leverage than she had. As such, when her hand formed the scalpel, the clone did the most obvious thing. It dropped, falling forwards and dragging the rest of her body with it. The leg that was connected to its head would serve as an anchor, yanking and pulling Ume to the floor with a sudden burst of violent tension.

Considering her apparent resilience in the face of pain, it shouldn't cause much of a distraction from her for long, probably wouldn't even cause her flow of chakra to the scalpel to drop. But if nothing else her form would be pinned under the incredible weight of the humanoid mannequin that was the wooden clone, leaving Sho in a position of power comparatively.

Taking the moment to evaluate the situation, Sho paused for just a brief moment; Even if he asked this girl a question, was there any way of guaranteeing that she would be honest? There was something twisted about her that made him certain that if she could get away with lying to him, she very likely would. More than that though, there was something rather strange going on with her.

Shitai as a clan had a rather unique physiology, perhaps due to the fact that they were hemovores. They consumed blood, and thus they had far less need to pump it through their system. If their heart beat as fast as a regular person's, there would probably be an excess in their system and they could pop like a balloon. That was Sho's theory about their physiology at least. But that made the fact that Ume's heart was beating at what could be considered a normal pace for other shinobi all the more alarming. It was almost as if...

"Are... are you getting off on this?"

Sho's tone was one of a mix of curiosity and disgust - He didn't like to think of himself as a prude, but there was something about the way that she was holding herself, how her body was reacting, that made it transparently clear that this was more than just a simple hobby for her. She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself more than one would reasonably expect, given the circumstance.

Still, to get to the meat of the issue - a single question, eh? One thing he was able to.... wait, wait, wait...

"Hold on, that's NOT the question. That doesn't count. I want you to tell me exactly what Kizumi is wanting me to learn. Cos between you and the other guy, it's pretty clear there's a running theme here I'm not picking up on. He kept speaking about how I was supposed to be "more than just a normal Shinobi", whatever the hell that means."

570 words | Shitai Maimomu

SPOILER: Click to show

C-Rank EXP: 7/9
Jutsus Used: None

[Shitai Maimomu]

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[attr="class","vgroup"] [attr="class","vogue"] [attr="class","mainv"]U M E [attr="class","vlyrics"] Cuz my insides are red And yours are too And the red on my face Is matching you [attr="class","vcred"]Yamamoto Shosuke - 437WC

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[attr="class","vpostbg"]It didn't matter if the clone dropped, Ume's hand came down and shattered the connection anyway, and she was free to continue calling off the spar as she originally meant to. It seemed as though Sho thought of himself as in the lead, but Ume wasn't cracking. She was, after all, in her position for a reason.

Still, as it never had once this entire fight, Ume's expression doesn't betray her even as Sho asks an awkward and admittedly inappropriate question. But her grin widens, her blue eyes flash crazy, and she begins walking forward with her hands still on her hips as he prattles on about what his real question is. She stands a few inches shorter than him, but the way she looks up into his black sunglasses is steadfast.

"Y'really don't know shit?" Despite the annoying pitch it's asked at, the question is genuine. Even she wasn't told much about the situation, just the basics, not the why, but she assumed he might have pieced it together by now. Maybe the OPs were really as secretive as they claimed to be - not that she ever worried about her identity too much. Probably less than she should, woops. She stands back just a bit, folding her arms over her chest thoughtfully. "I'm surprised you haven't picked up on it. Look, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say, but take all the secret training delegated by the Raikage as a compliment." She waves off the notion with a leisure hand, spinning on her heel to walk around Sho, in the direction of where the clones had started. "But the guy's right. You are meant to be more than a regular shinobi, considering any of the possible titles that might entail. What do you think you're being groomed for?"

She stops, bends down, and picks up her discarded cloak. Once it's resting on her shoulders again, she gives a satisfied click of her tongue and turns back to Sho. She walks back to him again, slow and easy. "But to answer your specific question - what Kizumi wants you to learn." Standing in front of him again, this time on the opposite side as before, her hands find her hips again. Her smile is bleeding all kinds of nasty things, but her voice does not shift. "I was asked to teach you how to be ruthless. My expertise is in being psychotic, Sho. Not much I can teach you outside of how to lose your mind for the good of the village."

It's a twisted version of the truth, but a form of the truth regardless.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

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