[Uchiha, Kai]

It was cold. Cold, and damp. Wet rain fell from above in droves as Kai walked circles around the camp he had set himself up at. This was all him, in a manner of speaking- A singular training session he had gone on, alone, to better hone his own skills as a Shinobi. An outcropping was before him- This was an ambush spot, set up for a group of criminals who had broken into a local widows home and caused a great deal of hardship for her.

Kai was simply acting out her revenge personally. It wasn't a mission- Not exactly, anyways. A mission would imply he took such a thing from an official source- In truth, this was just him being kind to an old widow who had previously made snacks and treats when Kai was on the trail out here.

But now, it was personal. Kai despised abusers- And more so than that, he despised those that would pick on the weak- Be they innocent old women or children alike. He was going to take some degree of pleasure in this... Which really made him wonder if he was some sort of sadist. Perhaps? It was unclear. Hard to tell.

Regardless, his trap had been set. He had all of his shinobi tools on him as well as his equipment- And some camping supplies to survive a few days out in the wild like this. It was good training, even past the deed he was doing for others- And he felt good doing it, too. 

Wire reel had been strung out across the clearing through the outcropping. It went over the road- The one that lead to the widows house. The scum who had attacked her said they'd be back for more- So he felt no shame in sitting here waiting for them- Two explosive tags on either opposite tree. A dangerous wire trap that could blow legs clean off.

Lightning struck, and thunder followed.

[Uchiha, Kai]

Splattering his face with rain, the water came down even heavier now. It was dark- Very early morning, as expected. The offending party would likely strike before sunrise, if his scouting was anything to go off of. He just had to make sure that who he was hitting was his targets, and not some random passerbys.

He didn't activate his Sharingan- Kai found the idea of doing so a bit redundant in truth, as he hid his head beneath a large branch. He had spent the last hour reading from his handbook- He knew he had a lot of learning to do on his own, and knew it'd be a while before his opponents broke the distance with him. So, why not spend some time practicing, be it handseals or otherwise?

Todays practice though, was on a certain type of handseal. One handed seals. One might question why such a thing was important when you were a Shinobi who had both hands, but... As a weaponist, and a glaive user, it was important that Kai was able to both fight in close range and use Jutsu at the same time... And currently? He couldn't.

So he sat there, flipping through the pages, reading carefully over the handbook on very basic, rudimentary one handed seals.

Lightning Struck again. Each one, a roaring thunder that got him ever closer to his fight.

[Uchiha, Kai]

Kai couldn't do anything complicated yet- Though that went without saying. Even this little booklet wouldn't give him the full run-down on what he needed to do to properly pull off advanced seal combinations- Really, this was rudimentary things that were made for disabled shinobi to pull off academy level jutsu. Anything that required more than three seals was completely out of the question, but that didn't stop him from working on it.

Weapon held tight in his left hand with the handbook, Kai's right hand would twist into two seals, one after the other- The seals for the Ox and Monkey. Chakra would flow through his chest, into his arms and into his... Hand. Damn, there was a lot of wasted chakra there, and his body was still used to using both hands. This would be a lot harder than he thought it was going to be.

He flipped into the hints and tricks section of the booklet, reading carefully as he attempted the same movements again. Focus on one side of the body... One side...

Ox. Monkey. Let the chakra flow, and... There we go. Chakra was flowing freely through his fingers. He always was a quick learner, but the fact that this had only taken a few hours to figure out- Well... He really stuck to his guns there. Work smarter, not harder.

Another bolt of lightning. Another wave of rain.

[Uchiha, Kai]

Next, he'd attempt an actual jutsu. This was a little risky, as he should be saving his Chakra for the fight, but... He wasn't expecting any Shinobi. He doubted, somehow, that his opponents were going to be anything more than simple pushovers for him to beat into the ground, as he worked down three seals to perform the transformation jutsu. Henge.

But what to transform into... Ah. A rock, nearby. Perfect size, too. One seal. Flow. Two seal... Ready... Three seal. Activate. His form changed, and in a poof of harmless smoke...

Kai had turned into a half rock, half man abomination. Oops. Just as soon as the transformation had gone off, it popped back out, releasing him onto the ground. So much for that... Seemed he was going to have to go back to the basics. Hands back down, eyes on the booklet, Kai would work his way through again, practicing the same technique over, and over, and over again. This might get tiring, but hey...

No pain, no gain, right? Even with all of this, he'd likely not take himself below half of his reserves- Not wanting to be completely useless for the fight, anyways. Yeah, that seemed like a pretty good idea to him, as more rain poured down in sheets.

[Uchiha, Kai]

The rain was coming down harder now though, and was actually getting in his face, and dampening his booklet. He couldn't keep this up. He grabbed the booklet and moved back over to his camp, placing into his tent as formed a few loose seals...

Before stopping. This would be a good bit of practice for him. He needed to light the fire to warm his clothes up, but... What if he only had... One hand to do it with? Kai pulled his left arm behind his back, holding it there as he pulled his right hand up. A two seal technique should do the trick. Veil of flame. That was a good one for starting random fires, and could cook even the wet wood in front of him.

One seal. Two seal... And... Youch! Kai yanked his hand back as he burnt himself- The chakra reacting in a rather poor way to his sudden usage of jutsu with only one handed seals. He took out some burn ointment, however, and began to treat himself, before getting back to it.

It'd end up being about fifteen minutes before he actually got sparks off, and another ten before the fire was going- Warming him up, drying his clothes, and most importantly...

Readying him for what was soon to come.

[Uchiha, Kai]

When another sound of thunder hit his ears- And it wasn't that of lightning- He knew it'd begun without him watching. Damn. He sprinted over towards the outing again, eyes peeking through the brush as he spotted it- An unintended casualty. A woman, laying face first in the ground, with what appeared to be... Damnit. Okay, her legs weren't off, but they were clearly twisted in ways they shouldn't be. And following her...

Were the crooks. He couldn't catch a break. They ran up to her, laughing at her misfortune, mocking her for 'falling down' as they began to get... Grabby, with her. She screamed- And that was all Kai needed to hear.

Four men. All above average height. Stocky builds. Looked like they could throw a mean right hook... But they didn't seem to have any training. At least, not that he could tell from here.

Kunai out of his vest, Kai twirled it around, staring carefully... Before flinging it forward, aiming for one of the laughing mens necks.

Bingo. It stuck right into the side of it, and he screamed out in pain, holding his bleeding neck as he stumbled backwards against a nearby tree. Seems Kai's aim was slightly off- The rain must have screwed with him. Didn't get a kill shot.

But it seemed like he had grabbed the attention of the others, as lightning struck close behind him, illuminating him against the trees.

[Uchiha, Kai]

It was like a scene out of a comic book. A dark knight, standing upon a rainy hill overlooking them all, one hand firmly grasping a weapon that was nearly twice his own size. Kai began to slow step down the hill, armor clanking as he took out a set of shuriken- All while the men tried to gather their equipment and prepare a defense.

"Fuck, who the hell is this guy?"

"D-Do I look like I know, Hiru? Just kill the bastard!" A shout came back as two of the men pulled out pocket knives of some kind- The last one holding the woman, pulling her into the back.

"Tell you what. You drop the girl now, I'll let one of you go alive." Kai spoke rather menacingly, his sharp eyes staring at each member carefully. These guys were pushovers, right? They didn't stand a chance against him.

"Yeah right- Time someone sliced you up, tin-man!" The first man shouted as he rushed forward, not waiting for his comrade. A deadly mistake, it seemed, as lightning struck again. In the flash, red sprayed across the field. And as the afterglow of the lightning drew over the ground, the first man had been sliced completely in two- Right across the gut, splattered behind the Uchiha.

"...Fuck, I saw that flash- He's a god damned Shinobi-- Boss, we gotta get out of here!" The bleeding man shouted, having seemingly stemmed his injuries.

[Uchiha, Kai]

"A shinobi, huh? Real tough... Yeah, I've thrashed punks like this before." Ah. The tough leader of the group, throwing the woman to the side aggressively, causing her to slam her head against the ground. Out cold, or worse.



He stepped forward, pulling a sword from his coat. Kai could catch it with his eyes... This man was trained. A former soldier, of some kind. Kai swung his weapon out, pointing it forward at the man, as the thug leaders buddy moved around to Kai's rear.



It was quiet, again, as rain fell onto Kai's visor. But he was patient. He was calm... And he waited for the untrained one to make the first move. Rushing forward from behind, the splattering of his footsteps against the mud and puddles easily gave away his position. A vicious yank, and Kai rammed the blunt end of his weapon directly into the knife wielders chest, causing him to wheeze and sputter backwards. The swordsman came from the front, seeing his opportunity.



But this was simply playing into Kai's hand. Swinging the weapon back around with a surprising amount of speed, Kai aimed to knock the swordsman off his feet- But the soldier was at least smart enough to dodge this, hopping up over the metal as he aimed a slice straight for Kai's head.



Unfortunately, the swordsman wasn't up against any regular soldier like himself. Kai was a Shinobi. A single seal, a race of dust, a flash of lightning, and Kai was gone...



Appearing behind the swordsman in the darkness as rain fell on the leaders thrusted blade.



"Game over." Kai whispered, as deadly as ever, as his hand flooded chakra into his weapon. Dragon's Bite suddenly lashed out, the flames rippling through the swordsmans gut as it burned through his internal organs.



The damage was fatal, though he wouldn't die yet- Falling face first into the ground as he coughed and choked.



It seems blood would stain the woods tonight.

[Uchiha, Kai]

The field was drenched in blood and a few broken weapons, as Kai looked over the corpses of the four men who had decided to strike out against him. In truth, he wanted to take them alive, but... Well, after seeing what they were going to do to the woman...

Prison was going to easy on them, as he stepped forward, checking to see if the girl was okay. She was alive, but... She needed help. Kai lifted her up, took her back to his camp- Packed, and moved back towards the widows house. There, he could deposit her, and the widow could take care of her, having known that both of them were now safe.

He stuck around for a bit, of course. He wanted to make sure the woman was safe, that she didn't end up bleeding out here, or dying of her wounds. It wasn't as though he could apologize quite so well- She was out cold.

Instead, he sat down and had tea with the widow as she looked over the womans wounds. It turned out the older woman had practiced medicine when her husband had gotten sick, something Kai could probably pick up a thing or two from as he listened to regale her tales.

[Uchiha, Kai]

Once he was sure the woman was okay, and that nothing else would happen to the two of them, Kai excused himself. He told the woman to give the girl his apologies, placing some money on the table to help pay for the woman's injuries, as well as the trouble she'd had to deal with before.

As for Kai? He went back to the scene of his crime. Yeah, he figured as much- The man who had the Kunai in his neck had finally bled out. Seems he woke up, crawled a good distance away, then passed out again. A simple stab to the back of the neck finished him off, ending his suffering as he wiped the blood off on his pants.

The rains were slowing down as well, which was just as good. It'd be a long trip home, which probably meant he'd need to make a few more rest stops on the way there. At least one more night of sleeping under the stars.

He buried the four men at the side of the road before continuing on, feeling melancholy about his act of 'heroism'. He wasn't big on being a vigilante, but... Well. Some things, people had to pay for. And these men would never learn.

[Uchiha, Kai]

As he set up his camp, Kai glanced through his booklet again, eyes drifting carefully over the pages as a light hum left his lips. He had a lot of work to do, it seemed. Even after all of that, he didn't even think to use one handed seals to his advantage. Talk about criminally missing out on good training.

All for the best though, he had tired himself out in practice so using more of his Chakra might have put him into some serious danger if he wasn't careful. He could only imagine what those scum would have done to both him and the girl had he lost. He shivered, though it wasn't clear if it was from the cold water clinging to his clothes or the thought of it.

This wasn't the first time Kai had done something like this, and would be a far cry from the last time. No, in-fact, he'd probably do this plenty more- Almost a sort of... Secret. Something he didn't tell others. Didn't tell Sachi. That he was out here taking lives, judge, jury and executioner all in one.

It made him wonder if he was actually doing this for a good cause. Or if he was just searching for an excuse to be violent. The ideas would dwell further in his mind as he drifted off to sleep that night, deciding he'd just make his way back to town in the morning.