[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

Of all her new ‘students’ the one that was the most difficult for her to deal with was probably Raika. All things said, the young woman was probably just as suited to be a Special Jounin as she was. It was why it was a bit difficult to conduct herself around her, after all, leader or not the chances Raika would be gone before long was fairly high. The girl had talent, just like the other two – but she had the experience that came with age.

"Alright, Hyuga-chan, since there’s not a lot I can teach you, I can at least help you get more acquainted with swordsmen and people who rely more on their speed rather than their technique.” the team leader was already pulling tightly on the ribbon holding her hair in place. "Even without some fancy eyes I can already tell you’re vastly stronger than I am as far as physical strength goes.”

"So how do you wanna play this? Are we sticking to pure fighting, or do you want me to throw in jutsu to simulate opponents who’ll avoid getting up close and personal.” Raika would already see that her teacher had brought along a wooden sword rather than her real one – likely to avoid any accidents that could affect her chances with being at her best for the Chuunin Exames. "We could just spar outright and the first one that gets grounded or takes a solid blow loses, but there’s also the option of trying to work on your footwork. I’d just be running away and relying exclusively on ranged attacks to hit you in that scenario though.”

She would have to pull her punches on the intensity of the flames, but that was something she felt confident enough in doing. "Its a shame I couldn’t train with you from day one though, I get the feeling we’re probably close enough in fighting prowess that I could’ve gotten much better with a fighter like you to train with on the daily.”

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[raika hyuga]

444 words  Yamanaka Suzune D-rank EXP training: 1/8 posts

Raika was actually somewhat curious about what her first training session with her new sensei might be like, since they didn't seem to share much in terms of their specialties. It does feel a bit odd to be called by her last name, still, but she's always been very informal, especially for a member of the esteemed Hyuga clan, which prides itself on its formalities and politics. She's also a bit surprised when Suzune suggests that she's actually stronger than her own teacher, which she has a bit of disbelief in. After all, the other woman was of a higher rank, and had trained in swordsmanship, so she would likely already have surpassed her own strength multiple times. Although, the dark-haired kunoichi wasn't about to deny praise. She's even surprised to be given the honor of choosing how their training would go, but she thought that might just be because of their difference in age, which was rather uncommon for a Genin and a Special Jounin to have a gap this wide. She shrugs at the options presented, then takes a bite of an apple she'd brought along with her. Raika was certainly aware of the bokken that the woman had taken to this training session.

"Hmmm... I wouldn't mind working with jutsu and swordplay alike, although you might find I'm pretty okay-ish."

The Hyuga smirks as her natural confidence leaks through her statement a little, and she tosses away the mostly-eaten apple. She's still wearing her typical workout gear, since she'd done a bit of warming up before she'd met with Suzu-chan for the training, then she laces her fingers together and stretches her arms forwards, causing the fingers to crack with a cacophonous sound before she twists the Hung Gar rings on each wrist to ensure that the weighted rings are locked in place around her wrists. She takes on a ready stance, though if Suzune had expected the Jyuken stance that the Hyuga were known for, she might be surprised that Raika is taking on a much different stance first. She stands to her full 6'3" height, a full foot taller than the other woman, with her heels together and feet in the shape of an L, her back foot perpendicular to the forward-facing front foot. Her left hand is behind her back, while her right is forwards in Suzune's direction, palm upturned and her elbow held against the side of her body. It was an odd stance for a Hyuga, to be sure, but Raika looked confident in it.

"We can put in lots of training, at least up until the Chuunin Exams! It'll be fun to build up a sweat!"

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

"Alright! I like the attitude.” Suzune told the other girl with a cheery thumbs up. "Yeah, sure, we’ll put in lots of training. Don’t worry too much about the katon jutsu I’ll use later, I won’t have ‘em at full power but pretend that they are. The last thing I want is for you to get complacent.” she wasn’t too familiar with the stance, but that stability and confidence she could see in both Raika’s body and eyes was all too telling. Not that she was going to hesitate, even with the difference in height, Suzune was still using a weapon and she knew that the range hers provided meant that the genin had to be wary of the engagement distance between them.

"Lets go!” with that announcement Suzune charged forward, her feet barely even rising from the ground as she advanced on her genin’s position. One would think that she was going to run towards the martial artist, but Suzune would begin the fight by swinging her weapon in dangerous arcs, tracing diagonally, horizontally, before terminating the series of actions in a thrust.

She was fast, very fast and that was without employing techniques. Still, it wasn’t like it was an impossible gap for the Hyuga to cross, she was definitely an experienced and disciplined enough fighter to be able to adapt.

‘I want to see just how well she can follow these movements.’ she thought calmly.

The special jounin had already informed about the Hyuga’s supernatural vision – honestly who in Konoha didn’t know about them? If she was going to overcome Raika, it wasn’t going to be through deception, that was for sure. She had to catch her with an attack too fast for her to evade, but for that positioning and pressuring the genin enough that Raika entire concentration would fall on Suzune was essential.

Did this girl have those pressure point things going for her as well? She looked plenty strong, so Suzune honestly wasn’t sure if she did master those pressure point techniques. Raika looked like she could break in a few ribs with just a fist so it wasn’t as if it was necessary...

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[raika hyuga]

406 words Yamanaka Suzune 2/8

Raika nods in understanding when her sensei explains that the Katon techniques won't be at full power, but she should react to them as if they are. That made sense to Raika, and she was willing to avoid or evade them as they came up, as she was the type to take training somewhat seriously. Confident as Raika is with her physical abilities, she's sure that her sensei is far greater in terms of what she can do with her sword, likely far surpassing the Genin in raw ability and natural talent that Raika lacks in weapon-based combat. She'd have to rely on all of her Taijutsu training if she wanted to successfully avoid damage when Suzu-chan uses her blade. Her Byakugan activates as soon as the sword is out, her eyes heavily focused on the other woman as she approaches swiftly and starts swinging her blade in various angles. The Genin herself is forced to keep track of every movement using her Byakugan as her body twists into seemingly unnatural positions in order to avoid a direct hit.

Raika assumes the only reason she's not successfully struck right away is because Suzu-chan is avoiding using the full speed and strength that she has for weapon combat, and the raven-haired Genin is thankful for it; even with a wooden sword, Suzu-chan could probably leave several bruises, but Raika is using her Byakugan to full effect by keeping watch of how Suzu-chan is positioning to strike at every moment, even when she's moved herself to an odd position. Finally, she steps into Suzune immediately after one missed attack, lunging her arm forwards to aim a strike to her sensei's stomach, her palm facing forwards as she lets loose an eruption of chakra from her palm to try and trigger her diaphragm to go into shock and knock the wind from Suzune's lungs from the attack.

"There!"

Whether the attack hits or not, Raika immediately drops back again, backstepping to try to avoid the wooden sword's range once more, as she had been before, and she once again brings herself to the starting position, though mirrored now with her right arm behind her back and her left arm forwards, prepared to face down another assault from her own sensei. This was actually somewhat exciting! It was definitely more interesting than any of the training she'd had with her previous sensei, who had seemed quite busy most of the time.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

There wasn’t even any time to talk, Raika’s ability to maintain full awareness over everything happening within a set area around her was making it difficult for Suzune to even land a hit. Then again, this girl was someone who was a genin in only name, if it was just her raw ability to fight with her body, the swordswoman would’ve easily put her solidly in the tier of a chuunin – maybe a genin even.

Suzune immediately realized her error but didn’t have much of a way to get out of the attack range. Rather than trying, she decided to at least keep herself from getting taken out of the spar so early. She slammed her sword back into a resting position and drew on her chakra, striking at the ground not as an attack, but to propel herself back out of the range of Raika’s counter attack.

It was only because the pugilist had decided to refrain from advancing that Suzune wasn’t in deep trouble. "Whoa there!” she was breathing a little hard from the shock, though she was at least on her foot. "You’re definitely at the level I was expecting you to be.”

"Lets try a different approach.” how well could the byakugan track many targets? In theory, perfectly, but Suzune wanted to poke first. She formed numerous hand seals, and generated multiple fireballs floating around them. They weren’t at full power so Raika could at least sense that being hit was probably just going to cause her skin to redden or her clothes to singe at best. "The opponents you’ll face will try to use numbers against you given your level of skill, pretend all these fireballs are high level jutsu.”

And Suzune charged at her, just as the balls would start moving towards her at varying speeds. In a real fight, the winner between them in a clash could’ve been anyone, but this wasn’t a fight. Suzune wanted to test and push Raika’s ability to react to threats even a few steps higher in time for the exams.

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[raika hyuga]

535 words Yamanaka Suzune 3/8

Raika is feeling pretty proud of herself for making her own sensei retreat after her attack, even if her strike missed the mark. It was a show of improvement for her capabilities as a shinobi, and proof that she would be hard to fight against even when an opponent had a weapon. She hoped that such a situation wouldn't happen in the Exams, though; as skilled as she felt, she didn't know what tricks some of those Genin might try if they went up against her. Raika herself is also breathing a bit heavily, having to dodge around the attacks as much as she had was actually even more physically draining than attacking. The compliment to her skill was definitely only making her more eager to continue the training spar with her sensei.

"Oh, well, I've been training in Taijustu for a long time, ya see..."

It was likely even longer than Suzu-chan might have been able to guess, since Raika had needed to learn evading attacks in Kawa in order to stay alive. She'd had to keep herself away from the grips of the cannibals, and even a few of the very hungry animals that the swamp lands in the darkest parts of Hi no Kuni were home to. She's curious now about what her sensei means about a new approach, but she's clearly eager to learn what Suzu-chan has in store for her. She watches through her Byakugan as Suzune performs her handseals and focuses her chakra, which coalesces into balls of flame floating in the air. Raika thinks she can see something else as the fireballs form, something inside those balls of flame, but she's not sure of herself just yet. Perhaps with more training, she'll figure out what exactly she was seeing in each of those balls of flame. For now, she was told that some of her opponents will instead use Ninjutsu in order to attack her, but Raika herself has a plan for just such a situation.

"Oooh... Yeah, that could be bad if I relied on Taijutsu too much to fight back against Ninjutsu..."

She takes a deep breath to prepare herself as the fireballs and even Suzune herself approach at a rapid pace, but Raika is already moving into a different position, finally taking up the actual fighting stance that the Hyuga were famous for. It was, after all, the most powerful defensive option that Raika herself had access to... In this position, Raika begins spinning herself around as all of her tenketsu emit chakra at the same rate, and the rotation becomes a swirling dome of protection, blocking out the fireballs and momentarily turning the protective dome of chakra into an infernal blaze before the fireballs expend all their energy. The usefulness of her Kaiten technique is further proven by keeping Suzune back, at a far enough distance and with enough defense that the attempted sword swing shouldn't be able to make direct contact with the Hyuuga inside.

Still, the amount of defense the dome needed to provide made Raika somewhat exhausted once she stops the spinning, causing the dome she'd created to disappear as she breathes heavily and dabs at her forehead to wipe off the sweat.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

The balls of flame would converge on Raika’s location, the large but hollow balls of flame crashing one by one against that barrier, causing the entire thing to be brightly illuminated for a few seconds as the high amount of air provided the flames all the oxygen they needed to burn brightly, exhausting the ‘fuel’ there was in them.

By the time each attack finished landing she could see Raika sweating a bit. Honestly Suzune really felt like her student was so much better at her in combat, but maybe her seemingly indomitable performance was derived from her stamina. Like a machine burning through all of its fuel to go all-out, maybe she too needed to close a fight in a short span of time.

"Man...” Suzune hadn’t seen this move in action before, but she had heard of it. Witnessing it for the first time however was another thing entirely. She clapped her hands gently, but her nod of approval was sincere. "I didn’t think you’d be able to do that, but now that you have I think I shouldn’t worry about you passing the exams.”

"As long as you can avoid a worst case scenario like being surrounded by that many opponents, you should be fine.” the instructor did rub her chin at a thought. "So would it be a stretch to say that you have limited ranged options? At least given this style of combat?”

"Now that I’ve seen your performance up close, I don’t think I have any need to help you train with that. Some sparring will help you get used to things sure, but how do you handle opponents that attack from range? How do you close the gap? You wouldn’t use this move you showed me for a single sniper.” of course, maybe it was too much to ask. They’d only just met recently after all.

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[raika hyuga]

465 words Yamanaka Suzune 4/8

Raika recovers a bit now that Suzune isn't attacking her anymore, and she stands up straighter than she had been, crossing her arms as she recovers from her sudden use of such a technique as a defensive barrier against her sensei's Ninjutsu as well as the combined physical attack, feeling proud of herself initially for her skill in her clan's own techniques as a method of protecting herself from techniques. She revels in the applause that her sensei gives her for the moment, but then the conversation changes to where she can improve, and she listens intently at the description of a different scenario, likely one that she'd not considered just yet. She quirks an eyebrow, wondering to herself and thinking for what she can use for ranges greater than melee range, and she realizes she has very few options for longer ranges, where her skill in Taijutsu isn't going to be so helpful.

"Ah... I don't think I really have an answer to being attacked at longer ranges. I suppose I have a few options, but they're not really as effective as my Taijutsu attacks at all..."

In a bit of demonstration, she plucks a kunai from her weapon pouch, and after focusing at a position to her right, she throws the kunai without even turning her head in order to hit a tree dead-center with the kunai, though the throw needed a moment of concentration in order to get the weapon to fly straight. Though the Byakugan grants Raika a great boon in not having to look directly at what she's aiming at, her lack of skill with weapons means that she has to really focus in order to improve her aim with throwing weapons. But she shrugs at this shortcoming.

"My best bet for a long range fight is probably to dodge away from attacks until I can close the distance and take out the attacker. After all, if they're attacking at range, maybe they're not so skilled at melee combat..."

It was, she realizes, a rather weak answer, but it was legitimately the best answer she probably had. The offer of a spar certainly piques Raika's interest, though, and she smiles brightly at the invitation to do so with her sensei.

"Well, I hope you go easy on me! You're probably better at fighting than I am, sensei."

With that, the dark-haired kunoichi moves down into the Gentle Fist stance; now that she'd seen some of the Eight Trigrams techniques, it would likely be a bit of an exercise in futility to surprise her with more of the Gentle Fist style. Although, if she acted as though she was only skilled in the Gentle Fist, that might also give Raika a bit of an opening for a technique from another fighting style...

”

by Pinn @ THQ

[Yamanaka Suzune]

七転び八起き

Adversity builds character!

Suzune was no fool, she could tell that this girl was too skilled to simply be at this level. The amount of effort someone put into things was something that could be seen in the expression on their faces and heck, she didn’t even seem like she was on her last legs. If Raika had been going all out, then the girl wouldn’t be able to stand up. "Neither of us are going all out as far as I can see.” she waved her hand dismissively at the statement. "I’m a Special Jounin, I’m only really good at my specialty. I reckon you’re likely better than me in your forte so don’t underestimate yourself.” ranks were great and all, but age and genetics were on Raika’s side if she was being honest.

"But you know what, it might not be a bad idea to try going harder at this. My weapon’s not steel so you should be able to break it if push comes to shove.” the girl’s fingers coiled around her sword’s handle, drawing it back, her feet sliding away from each other as she maintained a new stance. Her finger hovered near the tip of her blade, the edge glowing brightly as Suzune funneled all her charka at that point.

"I want to see how you deal with an attack with power enough that redirecting it casually might be too much." The Gatotsu was one of her best techniques. "Ready?” as soon the the Hyuga heir gave her the affirmative, Suzune raced forward, feet kicking into the soil to send plumes of dust into the air while she closed the gap.

Suzune’s form seemed like an orange blur, but with the attack being telegraphed as it was, Raika had any number of ways to avoid it. The only question really, was would she try to avoid this thrust completely, or was she going to try and tackle it with one of her prodigious techniques.

0000 -- @tag

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄ƷƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[raika hyuga]

371 words Yamanaka Suzune C-rank XP Training: 5/9

Raika is actually a bit surprised at Suzune's insistence that she might actually be better at Taijutsu, at the very least, than Suzune is, which just might be true. Regardless, it's a little true that neither of them are actually going at full strength, but her Byakugan can see that Suzune now uses a technique that focuses chakra along the tip of her weapon, though it's wooden and so rather unlikely to really cause serious damage, but she's more than aware that even the Jyuken's ultimate defense is simply a casual defense, and with Suzune requesting that she instead use her full force, Raika focuses intently on her sensei, taking in a deep breath and then giving the other woman a quick nod to let her know that she's prepared.

Although her Byakugan was focused intently on trying to keep track of the higher ranking shinobi's movements, the sudden rush towards her still catches her a bit off-guard, but with the attack being a direct line attack, it's still the kind of attack she'll be able to react to, just in the nick of time. Using her entire hand rather than just the fingers, like she normally would with a Gentle Fist technique, she uses a completely different style of defense that she'd learned from a certain blonde kunoichi from Kusagakure, the Tekken style. The wooden sword still nearly grazes her skin as she brings her hand up to try and grab hold of Suzune's wrist, putting all her might and the weight of the Hung Gar rings into the movement to force the other woman's hand up and away. Of course, such a movement might also bring the other woman closer to her, which could cause them to somewhat crash into one another. That might be a bit awkward, considering their difference in height.

"Ah... Sorry, sensei."

If she had managed to take hold of the blonde woman's wrist, she'd immediately drop it, sheepishly stepping back and rubbing the back of her head with her other hand. The other fighting style was one that Raika still hadn't really mastered, but she'd gotten a few of the techniques down thanks to the sparse training she'd had with Chisai, so that was helpful.

”

by Pinn @ THQ

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Tekken: Buki Busō Kaijo [Iron Fist: Weapon Disarming]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
DESCRIPTION:
For use against an opponent attacking with a weapon. The user will grab said opponent’s arm, usually at the wrist but if the weapon blocks this they will grab higher along the arm. After having a firm grip on the opponent they will wrench the arm down and outwards, twisting it at an odd angle and causing the opponent’s grip to weaken enough so that the weapon may be knocked out of their hands.