[aihara ryoko]

Another day, another fight. She’d slept well last night, and a little medical chakra had her back at tip top shape. She counted her lucky stars that’d she gotten so far with little more than a bloody nose, but there were still to fights to go. Hopefully not as difficult as the last. Ayukawa gave her a good run for her money, and made her play her trump card a little early. Now her shadow clones were known.

That didn’t make them useless, of course, just less of a surprise.

The cacophonous uproar of the audience as the second day’s events get underway is almost deafening, but she still picks out her name when it’s called. First to the fight! Finally things were going her way. With little hesitation and completely unhidden joy she races out into the battlefield, running, not walking, her way to the center. She’s all cheers the whole way, greeting the crowd back with large waves of both her arms. All the while the big steel Doomstar hovers behind her, following her obediently into battle.

She was dressed as she always was, and full of life now the wide smile under the sneer of her was a strange match. At least until her opponent got out to the center. Slowly it’d shift then, from less excitement and more sarcastic amusement. It was the grin of a girl that definitely though she was better than you, and was perfect for digging beneath the skin.

Kazui. Strange she’d fight another partner from round 2. The girl had been placid the entire time, calm and collected, so she didn’t count her typical verbal tactics would do much.. But they were just so fun.. Later though, when the fight called for it.

She shifts her attention over to the proctor and gives them a thumbs up, ready to begin. As she does, the Doomstar settles into its place on her right shoulder, her arm bracing it gently.

"Hey Kazui! I know aaaaaaall your secrets after watching your last fight!” she states boldly. This, of course, was a lie.  Kazui's fight was fought almost entirely in the mist..

[Deleted]

Don’t just weather the storm.
Dance in it.

❧

Day two of the third and final round of the chunin exams was finally amongst them. After her fight with Toru, the girl was taken immediately to the examination room where she had her shoulder attended to. The small senbon wound was healed up quickly enough for the Uchiha to return back to the lounge area where most of the genin watched the fights as they transpired. Despite the fact that she thought the mist was as annoying as it could be, she had to thank the boy for masking their fight. No one truly saw anything other than when the two fought high up on the walls of the arena. This thought crossed Kazui’s mind as she sat in the lounge area, waiting for day two to finally get underway.

Much like the day before, Kazui would hear her name called first, which meant she would yet again be opening the contest in front of everyone to see. The butterflies and the nerves that she felt at the beginning of the first round, were nowhere to be found on the second day. Instead, she was confident from the jump. Dark hues shifted slightly to her right, watching Issei’s reaction before she would nod and stand from her seat. Her journey towards the arena was normal. She didn’t run or jog, the girl simply walked to the center, seeing a familiar face as well as the start that was floating behind her. Another red team member? This had to be some kind of ploy, nevertheless Kazui didn’t care, much to the like of the first round. As of now, they were no longer teammates, it’s not like they were close to each other anyway, in fact Kazui was more than annoyed by the stone shinobi.

A scoff exited the girl’s lips as she finally stood across from Ryoko and heard the sarcastic words she spoke. Dark hues shifted from left to right, to show that she was already annoyed. When the proctor asked if they were ready however, Kazui would simply nod her head and answer, "Hai.”

With that, things would be on the way, and as Ryoko’s weird fuma shuriken floated gently down to her shoulder, Kazui’s eyes would spin from their bland black hue, and into the crimson and black designs that not many got a chance to see last round. As her clan abilities were activated, her left hand would begin to creep into one of her pouches ready to kick things off.

SPOILER: Click to show

Extreme Intelligence
Kazui is an outstanding scholar and is incredibly intelligent for her age whether she knows it or not. Albeit that she is still very young and is still growing, her intelligence is nothing short of greatness. This ability is shown less when she is living her day to day life, and is shown more when she is in the midst of battle. In her day to day life, Kazui can guess riddles, solve puzzles, and crack any kind of code in only a few moments. These feats are passive to the young girl, and she doesn't think it's that great, it just seems easy to her. On the battlefield, Kazui is able to formulate numerous plans and strategies to fit whatever situation she and her teammates are in.

Enhanced Speed
As a child, Kazui was born weaker than others. Her health conditions set the girl at a disadvantage since birth, however her constant effort and drive to become the best has pushed her far beyond many others the same rank as herself. Her speed is nothing to be taken lightly, she has pushed herself physically to be able to not only outpace her opponent, but outright force them into keeping up with her and pushing them to the brink with her speed as well. The girl is fast, quick, and agile on her feet, even rivaling those who dedicated their life to the art of taijutsu.

Enhanced Chakra Control
There was a problem that Kazui noticed during her time in the academy and that was the fact that she often found herself tiring out and exhausting herself rather quickly, even when she had just started she could feel herself beginning to wilt. So to counter those measures, the girl studied and asked around, trying to find the reason behind it and if there was a way she could fix it. She wasn’t born with massive reserves so while she utilized her justus, she often did so wastefully. But now, the girl has managed to control the amount of chakra she uses in a technique that allows her to fight much longer than before. She uses the absolute bare minimum of the chakra that’s needed, and not a drop more.

Uchiha Bloodline: One Tomoe Sharingan:
Being born within the Uchiha clan, Kazui has been blessed and/or cursed with a power that only an Uchiha can possess when they have experienced extreme emotions that causes their chakra to pour into their optic nerves, gifting them with the Sharingan, also known as the eyes that reflect the heart. The sharingan gifts the user a variety of abilities for them to use, the most notable is the user’s enhanced perception to the point where everything that is seen is perceived in a somewhat slowed state which gives the user the ability to analyze and obtain a good sense of the opponent’s movements/actions, and while this is in no way comparable to the likes of a more mature sharingan, the ability is not to be taken lightly. In addition it allows the user to read lips, and decode other movements as well, which stems from the eye’s enhanced perceptive abilities. It also allows the user to see chakra in a physical form, and they are then able to assign color to it, the sharingan can also detect disturbances in a person’s chakra which also allows them to see through genjutsu with absolute ease.

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[aihara ryoko]

The reaction only encourages her. She narrows her eyes as the fight starts, ready to spring into action. As always, she wasn’t the sudden attack sort. She had to get prepared. She starts bringing her hands up, but pauses a moment as Kazui’s eyes go all weird. It was hard to tell at the distance, some 30 feet between them, but it was weird. She was curious, looking at them but not letting her curiosity get in her way. Even Ryoko couldn’t see the chakra strings she used to control objects, but Kazui could see em. A dozen or more attaching and detaching nervously to everything around her. She kept her focus on the Doomstar, but it only took one string to support it. That one remained constant and steady.

She continues drawing her hands up as Kazui’s reaching into her pouch, and crosses her fingers. A shadow clones pops into life beside her. The clone had her back to Kazui, and wasted little time in reaching down for the real Ryoko’s leg and reaching into the pouch on her leg. Out comes two small scrolls.

The Doomstar glides down easily, Real Ryoko’s arm lifting and urging it forward. It glides forward silently and takes up a position some ten feet in front of Ryo, between herself and Kazui. The clone then quickly steps away from Ryoko and peels the scrolls open.

From inside one, three familiar Mercystars pour, heavy and made from wood with steel reinforcements. The other scroll spills forth ten windmill shuriken, all into pile at the clone’s feet.

Ryoko wouldn’t do much for the moment, she was being cautious and watching Kazui, preparing to intercept her with her most dangerous weapon, if she can’t get to the safe ones. Once the weapons are available, however, she reaches her left arm out towards the clone, and sends chakra threads out to the weapons. They connect almost immediately, and with a tug of her hand she brings the trio of wooden weapons over. The clone, likewise, reaches both hands down towards the windmill shuriken, and six of them rise on her strings. They spread their wide blades open and begin to rotate slowly in place.

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsu used: NAME: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu [Shadow Clone Technique]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: None
HANDSEALS: 1
DESCRIPTION:

Kage Bunshin is a Jounin level Ninjutsu technique. The normal Bunshin technique creates a copy of the ninja that lacks any substance. The Kage Bunshin distributes the ninja's chakra evenly among the clones and creates a real copy with form and substance. The clone itself can also utilize any jutsu the original ninja knows, as well as their kekkei genkai. When the clone finally disperses, any new knowledge it has gained along with it's remaining chakra are passed back to the original ninja and any additional clones. This makes Kage Bunshin an excellent training method if the ninja has the chakra capacity and stamina to maintain the Kage Bunshins for an extended period of time. This allows the ninja to essentially reduce the time it takes to train and learn with each clone added. This is especially true when used with Tajuu Kage Bunshin.


NAME: Shisō Idō [Mental Movement]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low [Continuous]
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu(Puppetry)
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: N/A
DESCRIPTION:

The user of this technique attaches one or more chakra threads to one or more items, and takes control of them. These items may appear to animate, and be made to move in any fashion and any direction the user wishes. This force may also be used to push against stationary objects to brace them, to catch things that are falling, or really to affect motion in any way into any solid thing(grasping gases and liquids is an ill advised waste of effort). The amount of chakra required for this jutsu depends on how many strings are being used at a time. If only half of a user’s strings are in use, then only half of the needed chakra would be used.

Further rules relating to the use of Shiso Ido may be found in the Aihara Clan description.

NOTE: As an advanced Genin, Ryoko's limit is 6 items. She is presently at her limit with the clone, and can grab 2 more items with her real self, who only has the doomstar and 3 mercystars.
SA: Chakra Control,
Mental Might
Ryoko is very well practiced in her telekinesis, and constant training with heavy weapons has increased her mind's muscles to remarkable proportions. Her constant practice and relentless will to improve has won her noticeably increased strength over the others Aihara in her grade. She is able to lift heavier weights, and strike with significantly more force than average.

While this strength does let her lift more weight, this strength is still divided evenly between all her strings. It does not provide her with any additional strings, nor increase her maximum number of items controlled based on her rank. She is, however, now strong enough to use her Doomstar, and other such heavy weapons with a single string.

THE MERCYSTARS!

[Deleted]

Don’t just weather the storm.
Dance in it.

❧

From the look of it, it appeared as if Ryoko was intrigued by Kazui’s eyes. The shift in color as well as their spin as they changed from black to red was enough to normally catch many shinobi off guard, even jonin could not resist the urge to look into their eyes especially if they had no knowledge of the Uchiha. Nevertheless, Kazui would control her breathing and focus on Ryoko ahead, her mind and eyes keeping track of all the chakra threads that Ryoko was utilizing. The moment the stone shinobi began to move, Kazui’s hand would quickly enter her pouch for a brief moment and arm the girl with four shuriken, three held between her fingers, and the final one held between her thumb and her index finger.

As Ryoko’s clone appeared, Kazui wouldn’t allow them the chance to get comfortable and set up. Instead, the girl hurled her four shuriken at the two kunoichi more specifically the real Ryoko, however she would only see two out of the four as the other two were thrown perfectly into the shadows of the other two shuriken. With the clap of her hand, those four shuriken would grow into four fuma shuriken as they homed in towards Ryoko. The way Kazui aimed them was designed to separate Ryoko from her clone, giving her only the option to block them all or jump off to the side, away from the clone.

Yet, Kazui was not done yet. As her shuriken were in flight, she would dash towards the two Ryoko like a speeding bullet, knowing clearly which one was the actual human and which one was the doppelgänger. Her plan was quite simple however. As the clone stepped away with her hands occupied by the scrolls, Kazui would single it out, striking it with her blade, swinging the steel with insane speed in which made the sword appear as nothing but a blur before it found its place into the sheath. It was an attempt to snuff out any aid that Ryoko might have wanted from the bag of chakra, that’s if the shuriken didn’t get to it first.

SPOILER: Click to show

Extreme Intelligence
Kazui is an outstanding scholar and is incredibly intelligent for her age whether she knows it or not. Albeit that she is still very young and is still growing, her intelligence is nothing short of greatness. This ability is shown less when she is living her day to day life, and is shown more when she is in the midst of battle. In her day to day life, Kazui can guess riddles, solve puzzles, and crack any kind of code in only a few moments. These feats are passive to the young girl, and she doesn't think it's that great, it just seems easy to her. On the battlefield, Kazui is able to formulate numerous plans and strategies to fit whatever situation she and her teammates are in.

Enhanced Speed
As a child, Kazui was born weaker than others. Her health conditions set the girl at a disadvantage since birth, however her constant effort and drive to become the best has pushed her far beyond many others the same rank as herself. Her speed is nothing to be taken lightly, she has pushed herself physically to be able to not only outpace her opponent, but outright force them into keeping up with her and pushing them to the brink with her speed as well. The girl is fast, quick, and agile on her feet, even rivaling those who dedicated their life to the art of taijutsu.

Enhanced Chakra Control
There was a problem that Kazui noticed during her time in the academy and that was the fact that she often found herself tiring out and exhausting herself rather quickly, even when she had just started she could feel herself beginning to wilt. So to counter those measures, the girl studied and asked around, trying to find the reason behind it and if there was a way she could fix it. She wasn’t born with massive reserves so while she utilized her justus, she often did so wastefully. But now, the girl has managed to control the amount of chakra she uses in a technique that allows her to fight much longer than before. She uses the absolute bare minimum of the chakra that’s needed, and not a drop more.

Uchiha Bloodline: One Tomoe Sharingan:
Being born within the Uchiha clan, Kazui has been blessed and/or cursed with a power that only an Uchiha can possess when they have experienced extreme emotions that causes their chakra to pour into their optic nerves, gifting them with the Sharingan, also known as the eyes that reflect the heart. The sharingan gifts the user a variety of abilities for them to use, the most notable is the user’s enhanced perception to the point where everything that is seen is perceived in a somewhat slowed state which gives the user the ability to analyze and obtain a good sense of the opponent’s movements/actions, and while this is in no way comparable to the likes of a more mature sharingan, the ability is not to be taken lightly. In addition it allows the user to read lips, and decode other movements as well, which stems from the eye’s enhanced perceptive abilities. It also allows the user to see chakra in a physical form, and they are then able to assign color to it, the sharingan can also detect disturbances in a person’s chakra which also allows them to see through genjutsu with absolute ease.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Kage Shuriken no Jutsu - [Shadow Shuriken Technique]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Bukijutsu
ELEMENT: N/a
DESCRIPTION:
Two shuriken, like the fuma shuriken or giant shuriken, are piled on one another an thrown simultaneously. The trick is to draw the enemy's attention on the top shuriken while the second hides in its shadow just below it to strike the unsuspecting enemy.


NAME: Shuriken Henge no Jutsu [Shuriken Transformation Technique]
RANK: C-rank
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT:
DESCRIPTION:
This technique is a surprise attack that is designed to maximize the killing potential of thrown projectiles. At a hand clap, the projectile is instantly enlarged, proportionate to its size. This causes, for example, a shuriken to reach the size of a fūma shuriken, or a kunai to reach the size of a short sword.


NAME: Kasoku Suru [Accelerate]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:
A very simple technique, by using chakra the user is able to instantly accelerate themselves to their max speed. This can be done in just about any condition, but any techniques that slow the user's movement (such as armor from jutsu or most jutsu that might slow an individual) will still affect them.

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[aihara ryoko]

"Nope.” She mutters as quartet of shuriken are unleashed in her direction. A quick wave of her hand would send her strings out, attaching to the fuma shuriken as they fly, and stopping their forward progress with a thought. Last match Ayu hadn’t thrown a single thing at her, and it was annoying. She loved playing catch. Her left hand rises and she steps forward a little, pushing the shuriken back towards Kazui. It’d help, at least, one after the other the large shuriken being thrown back at Kazui. She wasn’t trying to hit the girl, no she was throwing them in her way, slowing her progress by throwing them where she’d have to slow down to avoid them.

Turns out throwing things at an Aihara is just giving them more ammo. Lesson learned, though.

The doomstar would still be doing the blocking, acting as a deterrent and barrier between her clone and the girl while she peels the scrolls open. She wouldn’t leave Kazui much of a chance to get through, unless she really wanted to risk getting through the Doomstar. It was sharp and heavy, able to carve through stone and iron with patience, but flesh stood no chance against it. If she was feeling brave, the closer she gets the faster the doomstar spins, until it is the audible and loud buzzing whir of some terrible fan. Up on the horizontal it was making a fine wall, as difficult to go around as it was to go over. Going under would be impossible without jutsu.

Subtle motions of her fingers send it moving in any direction, and unlike the slow physical movements of her body, her strings snapped items around with speed more akin to a taijutsu expert. It made sense, she was essentially a puppeteer, and puppets had to keep up with those taijutsu users. Her puppets were just simple things, though, lacking the finesse and style that real puppets had.

Keeping the girl away long enough to unseal her scrolls, Ryoko is soon able to finally fill her strings with the mercystars. As she does she would finally discard the Doomstar, wheeling it aside then letting it skid along the ground towards the retaining wall and away from the fight.

"You know, I kinda figured you wouldn’t make it easy for me to get my weapons out. For real, though, these things are for your own good. Doomstar is dangerous, kinda why I named it that.” She snickers softly as the Clone is lifting up 6 windmills to protect herself with. "The last person that got hit by it didn’t do well, and it took me forever to clean.” The clone casts a glance at Ryo, then focuses on Kazui. She was being cautious. She remembered one thing well from their time in round 2. Kazui was a tactician. A strategist. She was one of those forward thinkers. Ryoko would have to stay on her toes and ensure she didn't fall into a trap.

SPOILER: Click to show

Shiso Ido and Chakra Control both going strong. That can be said for pretty much every post.

[Deleted]

Don’t just weather the storm.
Dance in it.

❧

Kazui didn’t budge or blink as she saw that her shuriken were brought to a complete stop in mid aid. The damn strings stopped them in their tracks however the bottom two managed to get a bit closer to hitting their target than the other ones. That was a shame but it wasn’t the end of the world. A calm nonchalant expression rested on Kazui’s face as it always did, and as the shuriken were shot back at her one by one, Kazui would dodge the first before weaving a single hand seal and quickly focusing her chakra. The doomstar was acting as some sort of barricade between Kazui and the clone, but that didn’t put much worry into the girl’s heart. It’s rapid spinning was slowed a bit due to the girl’s eyes, making it much less threatening.

As the other shuriken were thrown back at her, Kazui would disappear and reappear in the clone’s blind spot, avoiding the thrown shuriken, and with the swing of her sword the metal would collide with - and drive through the bag of chakra with ease. As quickly as it was brought into existence, it would be sent back into the realm of nothingness as a small poof of smoke being taken away by the wind. The scrolls dropped to the ground, and Kazui would ultimately be a bit closer to Ryoko.

The Uchiha wouldn’t let up though. From the way the girl relied on using her strings to stop the shuriken and because of the fact that she was trying to unseal something gave Kazui the idea that she probably wouldn’t be too confident in close range, and so with the shortened range Kazui would try to take advantage. Her speed was immense as she dashed towards the kunoichi, keeping track of which specific string was holding the doomstar, the quick swing of her blade would look to sever said string of chakra which would result in the doomstar falling down to the earth just as the blade found shelter back into its sheath.

With the distance closing quickly, Kazui would form a hand seal, hoping to get Ryoko’s attention. If the kunoichi saw the hand seal, she would find herself in what seemed like a different area, leaves swirling around her and Kazui before the Uchiha was completely removed from the illusion altogether. From there Ryoko would see her darkest fear come true, playing out right before her very eyes. Whatever it may have been, it would be enough to scar the girl mentally and emotionally if it were something that truly shook the kunoichi to her core.

SPOILER: Click to show

Intelligence. Speed. Chakra Control. Sharingan - [Active]

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.

NAME: Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu - [Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Genjutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
TRIGGER: Handseal (Sight)
DESCRIPTION:
Activated by the user seeing a handseal, the illusion begins with the user being quickly obscured by some material natural to the location and disappearing from sight once it clears. This material could be leaves, sand, water, etc. A somewhat slower burning technique, it is still quite effective as this is a genjutsu that reveals the fears that dwell inside people's hearts. Everyone has an image of the one thing they wouldn't want to ever see. This genjutsu is a technique that draws forth such an image from within the heart and has one mistake it for reality. First, an imaginary circle of leaves will spin around and envelop the target, falling away shortly after. After a short period, the illusion will begin. This is to make the illusion more convincing, since the user will likely have moved before the illusion sets in. If the mental image is a gruesome one, the shock will be accordingly great. [2 rotations max from start to finish]

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[aihara ryoko]

"Ha! Fine, have it your way! Don't blame me if you get cut!”

Ryo turns to face her opponent, she was having none of this! Ryo didn’t to overwhelm with numbers, but she really didn’t want to kill her opponent. Truth be told she didn’t even want to hurt the girl. This wasn’t a mission, this wasn’t life or death. This was a game, a test, a chance to show what you could do. None of that called for killing anyone. Draw a little blood, sure, that’s part of the thrill.

She’d only had the chance to unleash a single shuriken before Kazui vanished from her spot with a shunshin. With the other three Fuma still on her strings, she’d bring them to bear. At least they were larger than typical shuriken, if not up to the great size of the Mercystars. She sweeps her left arm across to her left as she twists to better face Kazui’s new position, all three shuriken racing to her side even as she’s seizing control of the Doomstar again.

She could cut through the chakra string, that was fine, however the result wasn’t as impactful as she might have though. Instead, almost as quickly as it was cut another string reattaches, the lack of weight on her strings causing for immediate adjustment. Another string attached, then another, and then another and then another. 5, 6, five again, Kauai’s keen eyes could pick out 20 in total distributed among her objects, and they came and went almost under impulse. She’d have the Doomstar back under control before it even touched the ground. This was her art, what she’d practiced for, and she had more control over her strings than most Aihara had at her age.

"Whoa.. How did you do th.GAH!!”

Ryo’s wonder is cut off by sudden confusion as a swirl of leaves and wind blast around her. Her stomach twisted a little as the world bent around her, and suddenly she was alone. Teleportation? Wait, were they outside of the ring? No, that’d be a completely unfair way of winning, just teleporting.. Was this a trick? Something like that hidden mist thing? Was she just blinded?

Ryoko steps back. She could still feel the objects on her strings and she so pulled hard. She crosses her arms in front of her, sweeping both out to the sides. A twist of her body and she all but spins in place, drawing arms up and sending all four of her weapons into a fast orbit about herself, forming a wall to protect herself. A spray of warm red suddenly strikes her, though, as Kazui steps to close, and is cut down in a flash of sharp steel and vivid red.

At least in Ryo’s eyes. A slip, a lapse of control, an accident. Ryoko’s eyes go wide, all of her strings detaching in an instant as the spinning saw blade of her Doomstar cuts the girl clean in twain. Each half flops wetly on the ground, pangs of memory accompanying it. Ryoko drops to her knees as tears almost immediately begin to well in her eyes..

What had she done?! It wasn’t even so much the blood, or the death. It was simply losing control. If she needed to kill she could, but she did not need to kill. Not now, not Kazui. For all her arrogance, she kinda liked her. She was smart, and worked hard.. and now..

"N..no.. no..” she whispers. She slumps forward afterwards, burying her face in her hands.

[Deleted]

Don’t just weather the storm.
Dance in it.

❧

Ryoko continued to speak to Kazui as they fought, which was completely different from her previous fight where Toru and herself fought in what felt like absolute silence. Other than the footsteps and the sounds of attacks and genjutsu triggers, there was no other sound, no communication between the two. Kazui wasn’t one to talk in a normal setting, so of course that would carry over to her fights. Words were often used to get under someone’s skin, but that only happened to those who did not train their emotions to ignore the words and only focus on the fight.

Nevertheless, Kazui continued on with her plan. Getting behind the shadow clone allowed for her to get rid of it easily. And as she dashed towards Ryoko, the Uchiha would slash at the strings in an attempt to disrupt her connection with the doomstar, even if it was only for a brief second. From there the handseal would be weaved and with Ryoko looking directly at it she would find herself in a genjutsu, but she would not realize that. As Kazui disappeared for a moment, Ryoko’s fear soon began playing out to the kunoichi.

However once Kazui saw that the girl was caught, she would stop dashing towards the Iwa girl, and instead watched her reaction closely. Moving away from her area. For a moment she swung the blades violently, the next, she was on her hands and knees, tears gathering in her eyes as she buried her face into her hands, all of her strings detaching from their weapons . As bad as it made Kazui feel, she knew that her fight wasn’t done. Unless Ryoko felt so bad that she felt the need to forfeit herself, then the Uchiha would slowly step over towards the kunoichi, not in a rush to do anything.

Raising her leg, Kazui would gently kick Ryoko onto her back, blade drawn and stabbed just to the left of Ryoko’s face, her other foot pressed down onto one of her wrists, keeping the hand pinned to the dirt. As the girl stood over her opponent, she would break the genjutsu, yet the effects of it would remain. She would see that Kazui was still alive and that the fight was still going. If she wanted to continue to fight, then that was up to her, but Kazui did not want to kill her. With her eyes shifting to the strings, the weapons, and back to Ryoko the Uchiha would speak.

"Don’t try anything stupid, please.”

She asked softly, her hand still wrapped around her blade, ready to neutralize any threat that might try to arise.

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[aihara ryoko]

The roar of the crowd didn’t much change, which was strange. You’d think there’d be some gasps and stunned silence after she bifurcated a human in front of them all. A lot about this didn’t add up, but the shock of what she’d seen took her off guard. It was a first for her, genjutsu like this, and she wasn’t a fan. No sir.

She’s put on her back easily enough, removing her hands from her face as she catches herself, then peers up at her opponent. The arena was back, the crowd only now going a little quiet as they catch on to what just happened. They go back to cheering, no doubt, for the Uchiha.

Beneath her hood she peers up at the girl, sadness shifting to sudden joy upon seeing her alive. She wanted to jump up and hug her, but before that can process the great joy shifts to confusion. She looks at the girl’s face, her eyes, her still stoic and calm demeanor, and she can almost see the moment when she puts it all together..

At the realization, her smile grows wide again. "You.. tricked me..” she mutters sheepishly. "Yeah, yeah, you win.” She lifts up empty hands, admitting defeat as she does. "That was crazy.. Genjutsu, huh? Wow..”

She sits up, but remains seated for a moment. She resumes her normal attitude, though she was still a little shaken. Fingertips tremble slightly before she stills them by making little fists. After a moment she pushes herself to her feet, standing up straight and standingly by politely as the proctor awards KAzui the match. Ryoko dusts herself off, that was a very surreal new experience for her to process. She lets Kazui bask in the glory, but really she was taking a moment to get her tongue back under control. Her mind was still trying to process everything that just happened.

"I’d be more upset, honestly, if you weren’t also so damn fast. Good match, but you had that one from the beginning.” She gives the Uchiha a sure nod, and thumbs up of approval.

[Deleted]

Don’t just weather the storm.
Dance in it.

❧

Ryoko’s words and smile was like a breath of fresh air. A sigh of relief escaped Kazui’s lips as she removed her foot from the girl’s arm and pulled the blade from the dirt, placing it back within it’s sheath. Bending down, Kazui would grab Ryoko’s hand and help her up to her feet. As annoying as she was, Kazui had a newfound respect for her. Almost regretting putting her through such a genjutsu, and definitely glad that she did not have to harm the stone shinobi in order to finish things off. Her last fight was ultimately going to lead to her hurt Toru, but the timer ended the fight just before she could attack.

"Yeah.” She spoke gently as she dusted some of the dirt from the girl’s clothing. The smile on Ryoko’s face showed Kazui that the kunoichi was glad that she was still alive, even when that meant she was going to lose to the fight, and for some reason that would be engraved into Kazui’s mind and heart.

Nonetheless, after the proctor gave the girl the victory, Kazui would form the seal of reconciliation and offer it to Ryoko. A sign of unison to show that there were no hard feelings between the two.

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