[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

There wasn’t that much time left for lessons, but if nothing else Suzune’s weapon of choice was a popular one. There was a decent chance that Kai would encounter an opponent that used a sword at some stage of the Chuunin Exams and greater familiarity with it might help him out. Besides, there was always the chance she was actually better at fighting than him, though that gap in experience might well be circumvented by those infamous eyes of the Uchiha.

The two were in a forest clearing near the vicinity of the village, surrounded by the comfortable shade afforded by well spaced trees and the canopy they supported above. Resting beside the trunk of the largest tree in sight was a bag that had been packed full of things and below it a blanket with some bottles of water.

"Right, so here’s what we’re going to do.” the blonde girl opened a scroll, undoing a sealing jutsu and after the predictable plume of smoke faded, they were left with two items between them. "I had this made just for this training session.”

They were wooden weapons, but they were heavy as the real thing. "Given that its so close to the exam, I can’t exactly afford injuring you even by accident. Though it doesn’t look like it, these weapons are meant to break when enough pressure’s applied at the right places. I won’t say it won’t hurt, but it sure beats an accidental cut or a broken bone.”

"I’ve asked an expert in Mokuton Jutsu to make these so don’t hold back.” the special jounin gave her wooden blade a few practice swings before resting it on her shoulders. "So, Kai-kun, how do you want us to proceed? A contest of pure skill, or do you want to use your jutsu?”

Suzune carried herself with ease, her posture, her stance, the way she talked, it all seemed so open and inviting. She seemed to be actually the sort of person who made for a great Academy Teacher, but there was no telling if her talents at befriending children extended to older aspiring shinobi.

"There’s no holding back during the exams of course, but you haven’t seen me in action and I’m not about to put complete faith in the anecdotes of your teammates. It isn’t that I don’t trust them, but there are things you gotta experience first-hand, you know?” she cleared her throat, her free hand now resting on her waist. "Or do you think I’m not cut out to be your teacher just because your last leader was a fair bit older.” her lips were curled into a smug smile, at least she had confidence to compliment her easy personality.

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[Uchiha, Kai]

Kai stood opposite the woman, his hand gently running over the wooden shaft she had presented him with. Well, it was certainly lighter than a glaive. But that... Made sense. That was fine.

He held it aloft as he listened to his sensei speak to him. She talked a lot, which was a stark contrast to himself, who often talked very little. Though that was improving, these days. She asked for skill or jutsu, and looking over the weapon...

"Skill. Jutsu..." He shook his head. He didn't need any jutsu training now. He needed raw skill. And that's what he'd use.

"Lets use pure skill today. I won't use my Sharingan." He calmly explained. It was for her benefit, but truthfully, it was more so for his own. He wanted to go against a superior opponent in almost all aspects- Kai needed to challenge himself, to win with his smarts, not his physical enhancements.

"Don't hold back. Give it everything you've got. I want to see just how fast- How strong you are." He nodded. He was okay if she went hard on him, or hurt him, even. If it got too bad, there were always medical nin back in the village. He knew she'd be able to control herself to not break something.

He stepped back, weapon pointing towards the ground, back towards the sky- Ready to move the moment he needed to.

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

"Kai-kun, holding back is a pretty important skill I’ll have you know.” she told the young man, wagging a finger at him. "I tend to usually hold myself back quite a bit. See, here’s advice that helped me in the exams before. If you can handle your opponents without going all out, do that. Not everyone you’ll encounter needs your best and if you actually play your hand and show them your best, well, their tactics against you will be better made.”

"But if you’re able to escape a surprise attack because you’re a little faster than they’re expecting you to be, well that can make a world of difference.” she muttered as she nodded slowly. It seemed Suzune was quite enjoying her role as a proper ‘leader’ for once. She’d never been in a leading position before, so it was nice being on the other end of things for once – with the exception of academy activities.

"Good stance and solid form, two points!” Suzune flashed him a smile that was all teeth. "Alright, lets consider this your assessment Kai-kun.” the girl’s fingers curled around the sword, she assumed her own stance and then...

Dust kicked up into the sky as she sprinted, the movements of her feet were impressive, but was was more so was the transition from running to a swift attack. The moment she felt that she was within range of that weapon, her sword was already swinging forward, tracing a curved line in the air as she was trying to seemingly land a blow on him.

But if she knew Uchiha, she could expect a trick or two for the aspiring Chuunin. Suzune might not have been blessed with superior eyes like two of the genin she now taught, but she had enough experience.

Her blows were starting to grow in volume, her attacks never terminating but flowing into each other. Was this some kind of ploy?

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[Uchiha, Kai]

Kai squinted at Suzune as she gave him the low down on why holding back was a good thing. That wasn't the point, was what ran through his head as she said it. He knew holding back was important. But that wasn't why he didn't want her to hold back.

He wanted to see how tough, how strong his teacher was. Then he could gauge what she could do for him. It was as simple as that. Still, he was a little irritated as she curled her hand around the sword and...

Here she came. She was fast. Remarkably fast. He wouldn't be able to block her attacks with a standard technique. But she was right on one thing.

His stance was solid. Solid... Yet liquid in nature. As she moved forward, his own foot slid backwards, twisting around as he used the weight of his own weapon to collide with her own. It was a wide angle parry- That caused wood to bounce off wood, while Kai used the momentum created from it to twist around and swing the reverse- Parrying another attack aimed at him.

Each strike was deflected or countered with expert parries. This was the basis of his fighting style- The Dragon Dance. A defensive style that could keep up with even projectile speeds, using ones own weight as a weapon to perform deadly, wide movements.

Of course, his own swings came right back at her as well- Each one had enough force to devastate and destroy. Or in this case, bruise rather badly. While her strikes were likely to be painful, there was no denying that his were going to be more so. Though it seemed, him hitting them would be a lot harder than her hitting him- As even with his 'perfect stance', glances and grazes got in here or there.

But even still, he held his own- Which was surprising, considering he was a mere genin up against a special jounin. He had clearly practiced his technique for a long time.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Ryū no Mai [Dragon Dance]

RANK: C

CHAKRA USAGE: Low [Continuous]

CLASSIFICATION: Bukijutsu

ELEMENT: -

HANDSEALS: 0

DESCRIPTION:
The user is capable of maintaining incredible momentum with their polearm by twisting and twirling it in their hands. By rotating their hands, arms and body in various ways, they can twirl and spin the polearm around their body in large circles. Doing this works as a functional defense capable of slapping away mundane blows and projectiles. This can also act as a powerful offense, delivering sweeping strikes backed by the momentum of the spins.

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

After he fended off the first few attacks, she noticed what he was trying to do and stepped away. Her footwork was light, gentle and she held her blade blackwards, drawing in the elbow of the hand holding the sword away from her face. Her other finger traced the flat of her wooden weapon. "Chakra I guess?” it made sense, something like that could be the result of training, but he was too young to have that sort of mastery which lead to her hypothesis. "I guess in a real fight, either I don’t engage you and turn this into an attrition battle or start shooting you with flames.”

Suzune didn’t move, not just yet. "But I guess we can’t do that, can we, Kai-kun?”

There was a technique she could use, but she was actually more curious about the interaction of this move and another she had mastered. "Lets go!” the girl leapt forward, charging right into defense but the moment her strike was turned aside she used that momentum to power her spin on one foot, twisting rapidly and then another and then another, her sword coming back faster than before.

The concept between both techniques was similar and they really seemed suited for defense, but now it was like two tops had been launched at each other. A tornado of steel against a whirlwind of metal. She didn’t speak, but rather was concentrating on her breathing, trying to regulate it and keep up this barrage, her eyes completely serious and her usually silent face a mask of concentration.

Yet, despite everything, the young teacher was studying him. Trying to memorize what he was doing so she could help him polish his fighting skills before the exams proper started.

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[Uchiha, Kai]

"This technique..." He slid backwards, slowing his defense for a bit as he stopped.

"It does involve chakra, yes. Though... All fighting involves some chakra." He shrugged. There was truth to that, right? It was lifeblood. It ran through them at all times, any sort of physical activity often burned through Chakra.

"It's less of a chakra based technique, however, and more of a series of motions. It is utilizing every movement with as little waste of momentum as possible." ... Wasn't she supposed to be the one teaching him? Whatever. This must have been her teaching technique.

At any rate, that was the most words she'd gotten out of him so far, as he moved back into combat. Again, her speed was formidable. It wasn't something he could quite keep up with on a regular basis- Even with his defensive technique in full spin, she was still getting in hits here and there, causing him to hiss in pain as he tried to keep up with her flow.

She could tell. Even at his full strength, he couldn't keep up with her speed. If only he had some sort of... Reflex enhancement ability, that could give him the edge...

He slid back, panting a bit, as he realized how outclassed he was in this case.

"Yeah- I can't keep up with that speed. I'd need to use my Sharingan to stop you from hitting me." He just didn't have the predictive analysis to see her attacks coming while they were in motion.

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

"I wouldn’t say that, there’s a few outliers out there.” well she heard, but never saw any. Allegedly there were masters who could do things without the use of chakra, but they were unproven hearsay. "Besides, over-reliance on techniques is something I want to avoid. They’re great but what if you ever get yourself hit my, I dunno, a Hyuga technique? I heard they screw up your chakra circulation, they what do you do?”

"Why do you need to keep up with my speed?” she asked him, planting her weapon’s tip on the floor. "You’re stronger than me aren’t cha?” at least, Suzune was fairly sure he was.

"Have you ever considered, that if you prepared some means to block or protect yourself from my attack, its a perfectly reasonable strategy to catch one of my attacks even if it injures you then trap me and finish me off?” and now she was trying to play the part of a teacher. "Kai-kun, don’t compete against me at my forte. Instead think out of the box. When I see an opponent, my first goal is to see what they’re good at so I can avoid a contest that relies on their forte.”

"You don’t seem very confident, but just so you can see.” she approached him, leaving the wooden weapon planted on the soil. "Try it.” she stopped in front of him, turning on her heel, presenting him her back. "Restrain my arms, I’ll try to get away. I get the impression neither of us are taijutsu experts, so just see how much of an edge you have over me if you actually took my hit with your armor.”

"I may be fast, but people don’t realize that a lot of strength is sacrificed there. If I can’t land a hit on your unprotected body parts, most other things are survivable. Its why I have to follow up rather than rely on a single, decisive strike.”

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[Uchiha, Kai]

Kai carefully listened to his teacher speak to him. He rubbed his chin, thinking on that. There was a lot of truth to what she was saying, which instantly flipped the switch in his head. She was clearly far more experienced than she let on, and maybe he underestimated her a bit.

That was... Good. That was really good, actually. He wanted to know more about this woman, how she acted, what she could teach him. The idea of smarter, not harder, meant learning as much as you could from your opponents as well, as Kai took a few careful steps back, listening to her give him information on a trade.

Traditionally, a trade was a dangerous maneuver. To allow an opponent to fully attack you, under the pretense that your attack would be more powerful, was incredibly risky. You could be the strongest man in the world, but a sword into your heart was still a kill strike, and two dead shinobi was a last ditch effort.

When she asked him to restrain her, however... Yeah, he could do that. A small idea sprung to mind of using his spool of wire to fully keep her bound and bonded, but... That was something to work on later. He simply nodded at her, speaking very little in the end, as he moved forward towards her arms- Now twisted behind her back.

He was big. Kai, that is. He towered quite a good deal over Suzune, and trained hard with heavy weapons and equipment. So when his hands moved forward, and she could feel the rough, callused grip clutch her tightly...

Well. While he had no supernatural strength, his grip was enough that, unless she had some sort of technique or strength of her own, she wasn't getting out of it. He pulled her close to his waist, back against it, as he kept her arms bound tightly.

"...Like this?" He questioned. He was starting to see it however. Yeah, he had strength over her in spades, that was for damn sure.

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

"See?” she did try to step away from him, but there wasn’t much she could do there outside pulling him forward just a few inches. "Have some more confidence in yourself. Of course, I’d only suggest doing this when you don’t have any more options or if you’ve got some kind of defensive measure set ahead of time.” it was pretty simple advice, but sometimes genin needed that kind of reminder.

"Out of curiosity, is using the sharingan pretty taxing?” she had been wondering about that for awhile now, two of the people on her team had dōjutsu kekkei genkai. "Mind telling me what sort of weaknesses they have? Does deploying smoke bombs help? Does being underwater serve as an obstacle? If you’re not comfortable with sharing, you don’t have to but it can help me think up countermeasures your foes might use on you.”

"Oh and one more thing,” she looked at him from this angle now that he was closer. "Maybe, just for the Chuunin Exams, you may wanna trim your hair. I’d never take my own advice, but you’re a guy, so you can probably afford to get a shorter haircut. Its just it does provide your opponents a chance to grab you that way.”

"Anyway, do you wanna let go now?” she shook her hands against his grip. "I’m not a taijutsu expert, so there’s sadly only so much I can do while I’m in this state. Though there is a technique or two I could use, it’d be dangerous for the both of us.” and she couldn’t afford to injure one of her students before the big day.

"Say, tell me something though.” this was a thought that had occurred to her. "Why don’t you and your other teammates train together? I approached each of you individually but part of me was expecting to see you all working together – training together. Was your last sensei not very hands on?”

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[Uchiha, Kai]

"They were not, no." Kai responded to the idea of his team being hands on with him. He shrugged a bit, glancing off to the side as he had already let her go when she asked. Yeah. Their former team leader wasn't great. And the one before that...

He looked down at the ground for a moment in shame, before sighing as he redirected his thoughts to her other questions.

"Ah... The Sharingan? Mrm... No. It's not taxing at all- It's a natural thing. Though, if someone not of the clan were to have it, it would be incredibly taxing..." He thought on it for a moment. The secrets of the Sharingan... He could share the base ideas of the first tomoe. Especially with a trusted member of the village, working to aid in his growth.

"As for its strengths and weaknesses... I think it's fairly simple if I just explain what it does, in it's current state." He focused his mind for a moment, back then, to that moment, to that... Event, as his eyes spiraled into single tomoe.

"The Sharingan see's chakra outlines. In essence... I can see the energy flowing through you, vaguely, through your arms, legs, and body. It's not very specific, I can only kind of see how much you might have left, but only if you had a lot of chakra to begin with." He pointed around him.

"It has a radius, obviously. But anywhere in that radius, I can see it. If you try to hide behind a wall, I'd know you were there. If you tried to hide in smoke, I'd know you were there. If I was skilled enough, I could identify different chakra signatures, meaning a henge would eventually be ineffective." He crossed his arms.

"That's besides the obvious things, like my enhanced perception and reflexes. There's more to the Sharingan than that, but... That's what a single tomoe can do. I know if you have more, you gain greater abilities." It was kind of loaded, when he thought about it. All those other Shinobi could work their entire lives and not get something he was just born with. Sure, the trauma to unlock it was harsh, but... Even still.

"It's a curse and a gift. As for my hair... Maybe. I'll be honest, I've been thinking of upgrading to a suit of armor." He scratched his chin. He was opening up again.

"I've practiced for a long time in wearing armor, so it shouldn't be too hard, and would provide good protection from my own fire... I don't know." He thought about weaknesses again.

"If I had to put a weakness on the Sharingan, it's that the sight of someone's chakra isn't exact. It's... It's like if I drew a blurry image of someone for you. You could identify that they are a human, and maybe that they are attacking, but you wouldn't be able to see things like handseals or what sort of attack they are going for." He nodded.

"So that could be used against someone who was relying on only chakra-based sight for advantage."

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

Suzune massaged her arms and stretched her elbow back from side to side, making sure she was limber and ready to move if they actually needed to continue the spar – though that was looking less and less likely with each passing second. "They’re definitely useful things, any Chuunin could benefit immensely from those things you mentioned.” and it really was impressive. "So I guess, when dealing with an Uchiha there’s only really one thing to do isn’t there?”

"Just overwhelm you guys without trickery.” she held out her finger much like a lecturer would. "Just like earlier, I wouldn’t bother with trying to deal with you with anything less than my best techniques. So that’s something you’ll have to watch out for.”

She could already imagine how it would play out. "One or two other genin will challenge you at the same time and just overwhelm you. Your moves are great, but even if you can see everything coming at you it doesn’t mean you have enough options to deal with all of those at the same time.”

"Actually, this might help out in a fight. I want to simulate that scenario I just mentioned.” the girl brought her hands together, forming seal after seal before she vanished in a plume of smoke and for three identical Suzune to appear around him on all sides. "I’ll attack you at the same time, though I’ll hold back the strength.”

"What I wanna see is how you’re going to deal multiple attacks from different directions from an opponent roughly around your level of skill.” each one had wooden swords, sure, but it was hard to tell which was which – or maybe only until he used his eyes. "I know you can see through me. This exercise is for you to pretend like each one of ‘me’ is a proper enemy. I need to know how you try to deal with situations like this outside you using your technique earlier.”

"Let me know when you’re ready.” she took a few steps back, brandishing her sword in different stances surrounding him.

Once he gave the go ahead, she sprinted forward, each of the three moving in lockstep, though each one was attacking him with different moves. A thrust, a horizontal cut and a diagonal slash.

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[Uchiha, Kai]

Watching her split into multiples, Kai glanced over each of them carefully, before his eyes activated to better approach multiple targets at once. She was right and wrong at the same time, and he felt compelled to correct her.

"Actually." He slid his weapon back, knowing this would require some room...

"I can't tell which one is the real you. Shadow clones dispense their chakra equally between each clone, making it impossible to tell which is the real one." He calmly added, though he wondered if deeper levels of the Sharingan could see through such tricks.

He could have used the same technique he used before- The Dragon Dance was powerful defensively, allowing a wide range of defense versus multiple foes, as long as he was not fighting in an enclosed space. But she wanted to see how else he could challenge her...

Very well then. There was one trick he wanted to try... Twirling around, his weapon held high, Kai would suddenly perform something interesting- Two one handed seals, each on a different hand... Both while still wielding his weapon. This was a unique style, which allowed him, in theory, to both fight with the cumbersome weapon and still perform rudimentary jutsu.

He hadn't mastered it yet, but...

Kai slammed his boot into the ground as the clones approached, a veil of flame suddenly rising to block their passages. He knew that wouldn't quite be enough, but it was for the sake of this argument that he quickly set up a kawarimi on his weapon itself, before leaping up into the air.

From there, he knew he could go out a bit more. He flung some shuriken from his pouch at each clone while still airborne. With the usage of his Sharingan, he was able to think faster. While he couldn't dodge any faster than normal, the ability to visually identify and come up with things in real time made him a much more dangerous foe- Not to mention the sheer accuracy of his Shuriken.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Katon: Fukumen Jouki no Jutsu [Fire Release: Veil of Flame]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Katon
HANDSEALS: 2
DESCRIPTION:
A skill where the user after performing the necessary hand seals [ two hand seals to exact - Dragon then Tiger] either stomp their foot on the ground or slam their hands against the ground. From the ground cracks emerge in their immediate vicinity as a burst of flame emerges forth to attack the opponent. This is mainly defensive. For it can be used to block projectiles and taijutsu attacks. The flames are about knee to thigh height depending on the skill of the user.

NAME: Kawarimi no Jutsu [Body Replacement Technique]
RANK: E
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: None
HANDSEALS: 5
DESCRIPTION:
After performing the necessary hand seals (one post prior to the technique's use) and locating a nearby object within a 10 meter radius (typically a log or something of similar size to their body.), the user switches places with the said object just before an attack lands, creating an optical illusion. During the small interval where they have left their opponent surprised, they may take the time to attack or flee.


Kawarimi on Glaive in the ground.


Also throwing some Shuriken while in the air.

1 Tomoe Activated.