[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

When it came to matters of weaponry, Kizumi was not an expert in any one field—she’d gone up against enough master swordsmen to know that she was lacking in many regards—but she could handle most weapons reasonably well, and even use things that were not weapons with deadly force. I can kill you with my teacup, she’d said to someone once, and then she had. Shinobi who veered away from the traditional kit of kunai-shuriken-katana tended to veer towards more esoteric weapons, like Yaki and her meteor hammer or the Kusa genins’ collective love of kusarigama. Even the buki specialists of the village sometimes struggled to effectively teach these kinds of weapons, having no real experience with them themselves, and almost universally it was in these situations that Kizumi was tapped in to lend a hand. This had been true for nearly twenty years at this point—if someone wanted to learn a weird weapon, you called for the Armory. Kyuumu Risi wielded a scythe, and Kizumi would teach him how to wield it properly. She called the genin to a field of tall weeds that had taken root in the Valley of Lightning, heavy thunderclouds slowly rolling in through the sky overhead. Kizumi held a simple scythe, a farming implement she’d helpfully borrowed from one of the local botanists, almost definitely not combat-grade but effective enough for their purposes today. Kizumi was dressed plainly in comfortable training gear: loose pants, a compression bandeau, her hair piled up in a knot atop her head. She drank from a disposable cup of coffee—samples she’d been sent from the Kisei clan as part of their bid to open a stall in Akazaya for the exams—laden with cream and sweetener and a generous splash of liqueur. "Risi-chan,” she greeted cheerfully when he appeared, waving with her scythe. She was energetic despite her visible exhaustion: a dark circle beneath her eye, tell-tale imprints of a wrinkled pillowcase still etched into her cheek. "Sorry it’s so early. Coffee?” There was an additional cup, still steaming hot, at her side—this one unmolested by milkfat or sugar or alcohol.

risi -- 351

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

Risi had been more than a little surprised and perhaps quite nervous when he'd received a summons from the Raikage herself, although when he'd learned that it was merely an offer for combat scythe training, he had actually breathed a sigh of relief- at least, in the privacy of his own home. Of course, the Inshi would see this as an extremely profitable meeting as far as their espionage plans went, though Risi really didn't care about the espionage potential of the meeting, and only looked at it through the lens of becoming a better combatant by training with a weapon he'd picked for himself more as a tool for Genjutsu than as an actual combat weapon. After having to fight off a bear and the cloned version of another ninja in melee combat, or at least, within a range that necessitated the use of the scythe, he'd determined for himself that he needed to become better at utilizing it as the weapon it was really designed to be.

That said, with the training apparently happening outside of the village proper, and the storm clouds overhead made him hold firmly to the top hat that he often wore, with the Kumogakure headband wrapped around the central pillar as a hat band. Underneath, his long black hair fell straight down his back and over his shoulders, and the long hair and his pretty face gave him a very feminine appearance, even with the striking red color of his eyes. He wears a sleeveless white shirt and frilled cravat, below a black waistcoat with silver buttons on the front flaps, connected to the black mantle over his forearms. His skirt has buttons and a number of brown waistbelts with skull adornments. He also wears black boots and arm warmers, as well as fingerless gloves on both hands: a white one on the right, and black on the left, which is currently cradling the long shaft of his scythe. He's even brought along a weapon pouch attached to one of the many belts circling the waist of his skirt, though he's aware that the training will revolve around the use of the scythe in particular.

As he approaches the Raikage, he gives her a nice, friendly smile, although he's still sweating on the inside; his nervousness is repressed far into his psyche, smothered by the false mask of a facial expression he wears. It was a technique for hiding his real feelings taught to him by the Inshi, and it often serves him well.

"Oh, Hirana-sama! Fancy meeting you out here!~"

The statement is made with at least a bit of mirth, although he looks up at the scythe she's "wielding" with some consternation; while Risi's was built for combat specifically, with a perfectly straight haft and only a moderate curve in the blade shape, he could tell from a glance that the Raikage was holding an actual farming scythe, with a drastically curved handle made so that when held at the waist and with the farmer was standing upright, the blade would only be a few inches above the ground. It did not instill in Risi much confidence, but he hides this too, and instead simply takes up the offer for coffee, which he lifts and holds to his lips. He nearly decides to put it back down and refrain from drinking anything on offer in the future. It tasted faintly of coffee, but it was not as rich as the kind he would have normally made for himself. That spy training of keeping his real reactions and emotions buried under the mask were invaluable.

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

Someone more perceptive might have picked up on those tiny tells, the twitch of Risi’s brows or the swift way he put down the coffee cup, but Kizumi’s premiere flaw had always been a willingness to take what was given to her at face value. Risi greeted her cheerfully and drank some of the coffee, and Kizumi thought nothing more of it. "This is where all the cool kids come to hang out,” she joked, gesturing broadly to the expanse of nothing but weeds that surrounded them. "Don’t worry about the -sama stuff, baby, it’s just us and we’re just training.” Formality always felt gross to her ears, but never more so than when she was in training gear and nursing a hangover. "You’re not too comfy with weapons in general, right?” Everyone learned standard shinobi tools, but a scythe was a unique pick, and to Kizumi’s best recollection of Risi’s file he’d never demonstrated any particular aptitude for weapon arts. "Why don’t you show me how you’ve been using the scythe so far, I’ll fix your form if you need it, and then I was thinking I could show you a basic defensive technique that’ll help you maintain that healthy mid-range you need for good scything.” It wasn’t one that she had any particular mastery of herself, but she knew the principle of it, and there was no doubt in her mind that she could teach it well. Tucking the shaft of her farming scythe into her armpit, Kizumi formed a handseal, conjuring a shadow clone to face off against Risi so she could more closely observe his actions, reactions, footstance, movements. "Whenever you’re ready,” the clone said, twisting its scythe deftly in one hand.

risi -- 286

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

Risi gives the Raikage a simple smile as she jokes that the broad expanse of weeds was where the cool kids all come to hang out; while he recognize that it was a joke, Risi doesn't really laugh very often, even in his outward appearance. It didn't help that the Kyuumu in general and the Inshi in particular were a rather humorless bunch. It was a bit odd for him that the Raikage herself didn't seem too terribly interested in honorifics or formality, but he takes it in stride in any case. He'd need to keep that in mind in the future, not just for the Inshi family, but because it genuinely made him want to hang out with his Raikage even more.

The question about his confidence with weaponry is a bit more of a surprise, as he could feel himself getting a bit nervous underneath at the fact that the Raikage herself was keeping tabs on him, but he shrugs as though he's feeling nonchalant about the whole thing. Deep inside of himself, he was panicking, although it was certainly something that could have been written about him during his training in the Academy. This settles himself down a bit more; she was just remembering what she might have read in a report of his abilities, at least as far as combat effectiveness is concerned, and that's certainly something the kage would want to keep track of in terms of ninja forces.

"I know that I'm supposed to put the sharp part inside other people.~ But no, if I'm honest, it's not a weapon, even in my hands."

The suggestion that he should show her how he is with the scythe as a combat weapon is a new one, though, and although he knows he's not actually much good with the scythe, he figures it best that he learn about how to use it from someone that's actually good at weaponry at least. The promise of learning a good defensive technique is certainly some additional incentive, as he feels he might need to know that kind of information if he's going to be able to keep using it, at least as a back-up. It's rare to get a victory with just illusion techniques, after all.

To that end, Risi begins showing how he uses the scythe normally while Kizumi makes a single shadow clone, and although the twirling of the scythe with the shaft is quite elegant and flashy, it doesn't really have much force behind it, which someone as proficient in weaponry as the Raikage is likely to be able to tell from a glance. He seems to lose track of the blade of the scythe, causing it to miss with the dangerous tip as it's out of alignment during any particular strike. His footing is at least stable, and he does seem to know that the blade is the dangerous portion of the weapon and he can use the shaft of it in order to block, but it's not any more impressive than someone swinging around a kunai right after being given one.

Instead of only using the scythe as a weapon, however, he tries something a bit different, and uses what he can see of the reflections off his blade to see what kind of angle he needs before firmly gripping the shaft with both hands, angling the head of the scythe so that the sunlight reflects off the polished metal and directly into the clone's eyes. With a bit of chakra, he uses the brightness of the sun's rays as a trigger for his Genjutsu, hoping to show that although his use of this weapon is unsatisfactory, it's certainly not useless.

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Yuganda Shiroku no Jutsu [Distorted Vision Technique]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: To Use: Low | To Maintain: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Genjutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
TRIGGER: Visual
DESCRIPTION:

This technique is triggered by reflecting light off a metallic surface into the target's eyes. It is a simple Genjutsu which slightly alters the opponent's field of vision. The user will appear to be slightly displaced than reality, much like looking at a fish through water. This will cause the target to believe the user is in a slightly different position , approximately half a foot different than reality. The user is able to choose in the moment what direction they seemed to be shifted. This technique is useful for hand-to-hand combat as the opponent is likely to dodge into your attack.

[hirana kizumi]

A HEART'S A HEAVY BURDEN

It had taken her a while to catch onto the idea that most people were uncomfortable when they realized that she had read their files, and had a halfway decent retention of their files’ contents: she was no genius, nor was her memory especially good, but certain things got rooted in her brain and simply refused to leave. The random assortment of skills and talents of the more prominent names of her forces were some of those things, for good or ill. Kizumi laughed. "Hey, ‘stick ‘em with the pointy end’ is a good first step,” she said encouragingly. "Everyone starts somewhere, yeah?” To her eye, Risi seemed more of a performer than a combatant: he twirled the scythe like an especially sharp baton. Kizumi’s clone matched his movements deftly, keeping its own combat flow casual and comfortable as it attacked without making any solid or painful hits on Risi and blocked and parried just deftly enough to avoid being dispelled. Kizumi herself circles the field, watching the pair intently, her eyebrows raising as Risi angled the head of the scythe in an odd way that did not lend itself to either offense or defense. Her clone, she realized after a moment, was then not as sure-footed as it had been before, bleary-eyed and struggling now to aim effectively despite nothing obviously obstructing its vision. "Ooh, very clever,” Kizumi praised. "Genjutsu, right?” There were a number of bukijutsu techniques that blinded your foes, but usually they were much more obvious than the subtle movement that Risi had deployed. "M’kay, here’s some tips.” She came up behind the genin and gently—cautiously, pausing each time before she touched him as if to gauge consent and comfort—adjusted his footstance, his grip on the shaft of the scythe, the positioning of blade and how he had it angled. "It’s still a polearm at the end of the day,” she said as she gently knocked her foot against his to widen his stance, "which means your main benefit is control of distance. Tai fighters and kenjutsu babies are gonna struggle to close distance so long as you have control over your space. If someone does close distance you have the benefit of a hooked blade—pulling back is just as dangerous as thrusting forward, yeah?” Still blinking blearily, her clone demonstrated a swipe, followed by a backstep—pulling an invisible target towards her with the sharp curve of the scythe’s blade. "If you’re using it as a visual trigger for genjutsu, you need to have full control over the blade at all times. Lose your blade, you lose your trigger, you lose your advantage.” The clone attempted to kai itself out of the genjutsu but could not, to its own frustration, and it gestured vaguely at Kizumi as if to say: a little help, please?, but Kizumi just shook her head. "Suck it up, buttercup,” she said brightly. "It’s good practice for me, yanno? Here, Risi-chan, try this.” She lifted her own scythe up, spinning it rapidly between her hands until it was a whirling windmill of a shield at her front. "This will help with shaft control and understanding where your blade is in relation to the rest of you. My clone’s gonna try to hit you with some kunai—try using the technique to defend. Her aim’s gonna be shit until she figures out how to adjust, so don’t worry about it too much.” Kizumi’s clone, sighing in resignation, pulled six blunted kunai out of a hip pouch and stood at the ready, waiting for Risi’s indication that he was prepared before attempting to throw them at him in a slow, steady pace.

risi -- 607

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

With the shadow clone's vision somewhat shifted so that Risi would seem about half a foot to the left of his actual position, the sparring becomes somewhat easier for the Genin to engage in, although it seems his tricky tactics aren't lost on the Raikage, who remarks on his using Genjutsu during the pseudo-spar with her shadow clone. He worries for a moment about whether or not he'll be reprimanded for utilizing Genjutsu when they should be focused on his use of the scythe, but the more physically intimidating woman seems perfectly fine with it, after all, although she does, with his allowance of her to touch him as she sees fit, shift his footing and his grip on the weapon, and almost immediately Risi can feel the difference in both the stance and in how much power he can generate with the halberd-like scythe. He takes the instruction from his Raikage to heart, although she likely would not have given him such help if she knew about the Inshi family's intentions with Risi.

He listens intently to her explanation that the main benefit of his scythe is that it maintains distance, and also that its hooked form allows for him to pull an opponent in closer, which is probably one of the few things he doesn't really need from his scythe, but could certainly prove useful. It's a form of control, after all, being able to either keep an opponent at bay with the long range of his scythe or force them closer by hooking and pulling them, and control is certainly deadly in a combat situation. He also listens to her explain that he needs to keep full control of his scythe at all times, because losing out on his scythe's blade will likely mean losing out on his effectiveness with Genjutsu. He's somewhat sheepish at the instruction he gets for how to wield the scythe with care.

"Oh! I see what you mean... I guess that's kind of part of knowing that the pointy bit is supposed to go in the enemy, huh?~"

Risi at least feels a bit of pride when he sees that Kizumi's shadow clone is actually somewhat struggling with trying to escape from the Genjutsu, and it seems like Kizumi is actually expecting to keep the shadow clone under the Genjutsu, so he determines that he's to keep the shadow clone under this debilitating Genjutsu meant to make aiming more difficult for an opponent. He also watches as Kizumi uses her own scythe to spin it rapidly in front of her, causing the long handle of the weapon to form something of a shield in front of her to keep her safe. The difference between his twirling motion before and the more controlled, but also far faster spinning of Kizumi's own scythe is quite astounding, and he's not certain he'll get it right away, but the time for preparation seems to be over, because the shadow clone pulls six blunted kunai out and prepares for throwing. Right away, the Genin brings his scythe ahead of him and begins turning the shaft, turning it into a spin that increases in speed, turning it into a blur in front of him before he nods once to the shadow clone to show that he's prepared. He's able to keep the blade straight at first, at least.

[hirana kizumi]

"It all comes back to the basics, and the basics are stick ‘em with the pointy end,” Kizumi agreed, sage in her worldly wisdom. Her clone was visibly struggling. The first kunai she through was nearly a full six inches off-course, flying harmlessly past Risi’s shoulder. The clone squinted, trying to make sense of where her kunai had landed, and adjusting appropriately—only to overcorrect and send her second kunai flying to the opposite side of Risi’s head. This time, however, it was just close enough to ting against the blade of Risi’s scythe, his defensive technique successfully deflecting the gently-thrown weapon. "Two inches back to the right,” Kizumi called to her clone as she paced around the pair. The clone adjusted her aim again, then threw her last four kunai in quick succession—a challenge posed for Risi to keep his scythe in check, his motions smooth, and not allow himself to be knocked off-balance while standing his ground. Kizumi was maybe too used to having Chuya’s help in dealing with genjutsu—her mentor, as far as she understood, was practically immune to the illusory effects, and the mental space she shared with Kizumi when she wielded the Tidecaller made it so that she could help Kizumi separate illusion from reality. That her clone was struggling this much without external guidance… well, it was clear she had a weakness she needed to shore up.

risi -- 236

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

♔

Risi at least feels a bit proud of himself for being able to deflect as many of the blunted kunai as he does, although the one that pings off his blade so close to his head is actually a little worrisome. After a quick nervous gulp, he decides that there's little point in actually worrying about the kunai potentially striking him - if they do, they do, and he won't know until they've already hit him, so it's probably best to put them out of his mind for now. Instead, he focuses intently on just keeping the scythe spinning at an even rate, keeping to a quick pace as its form blurs, though not so much for Risi; his own raven-like eyes are capable of tracking it even when it would have become a blur for most other ninja of his peer group. His red-colored eyes at least had a wonderful ability to track fast-moving objects. Still, he has to brace his left foot behind him as four kunai are thrown in much faster succession and with far greater speed.

In fact, the kunai move quickly enough that Risi loses his grip from one of the kunai throws, causing the scythe to spin in his hands before he ducks down, stopping the scythe's spin by letting the scythe blade dig into the dirt as he drops down to avoid taking a few shots that would have struck his pretty face.

"Eep! I uhhh... guess I'm gonna need to practice a bit more, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it... gulp"

Despite his apparent fear, he carefully loosens the scythe blade from the ground and stands up again, taking hold of the scythe's haft in both hands and taking a deep breath before starting its spin again. At least he seems keenly aware that he has to focus even more on keeping its rotation steady, despite the forces of anything hitting the blade. He's certain he's close, since he's got the movement mostly down, he just has to focus on keeping it consistent even when it's being struck like that.

coded by pinn @ thq

351 WORDS - hirana kizumi - D-RANK JUTSU: 4/8

[hirana kizumi]

"Good maneuver,” Kizumi praised, clapping her hands once. And an even better recovery, she thought privately—a lot of people often got discouraged when they psyched themselves out of a defensive technique, allowing their fear of getting him to sabotage their commitment to seeing the technique through. Getting back up after to try again was a very, very promising sign. "Try thinking about moving at the same time—the flow from defense to offense and back. If you’re getting overwhelmed and need to adjust your strategy, how are you gonna use your scythe to enable that? What other tools do you have to regain momentum?” As she spoke and Risi collected himself, Kizumi clapped a hand on her clone’s shoulder to release it from Risi’s genjutsu—though she noted with some surprise that it took more effort, more chakra, than she thought it should have. Which made sense, she supposed, since her clone hadn’t been able to escape on its own, but that was a testament to Risi’s skill with genjutsu, that he was only a genin and already applying techniques with such potency. "We’re gonna amp it up, and I don’t want to risk hurting you because her perception’s all wonky,” Kizumi explained. The clone unsheathed a katana from her hip, blinking rapidly as her world re-aligned and her perspective shifted back into place. "Try the same technique against melee attacks, now. Try to keep moving, and keep yourself from getting overwhelmed—look for opportunities to turn the fight in your favor.” Once Risi signaled that he was ready, Kizumi’s clone would push an offense—striking with a few careful blows at first, testing Risi’s defenses, then pushing just a bit harder, faster, trying to keep the genin on the back foot as he practiced the technique.

risi -- 293

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

♔

Risi does feel that he's made quite a lot of progress already, but he seems to recognize that he's still got a long way to go before he can feel like he's learned the technique fully. Still, it seems like his understanding of and confidence in the use of his scythe is improving, if gradually, as he's training this technique. He supposes if he's going to use the scythe to make others think that he's good at it, it makes sense that he would need to actually be able to use it as an effective weapon if it's ever going to be convincing. That, combined with the need to keep himself safe through defensive techniques, is a very good reason for him to want to learn to use this jutsu, regardless of how harrowing it is to have to defend himself against the Raikage of all training partners.

He can tell that the clone has been freed from the Genjutsu by the way the Raikage's clone is blinking its eyes, and he feels somewhat proud that it had taken so much for the clone to be helped out of such a simple Genjutsu. But this training session had nothing to do with the use of illusion techniques; it was about the use of the scythe for this defensive jutsu. So Risi put away his pride for now and focused on the instruction he'd been given, to think about switching from the defense to an offense again with the scythe, and he thinks he's got a pretty good idea of how to go about that process. It's still a little unnerving to think about, but he works up the courage after a long breath in and out while the Raikage draws the sword from its sheathe.

"O-okay, let's go!"

Risi works at the spinning of the scythe, focusing not on just stopping the sword from hitting him, but on using the hook shape of the blade to pull the sword away to a safe angle away from him. It takes a lot of careful work, and although he's doing his best to look for an opening, the increased aggression from the clone is already starting to push him to step backwards, giving a little bit of ground over time, but this is also part of his plan for the clone. Despite his defensive technique faltering occasionally, he's at least able to stop himself from getting hit directly.

coded by pinn @ thq

405 WORDS - hirana kizumi - D-RANK JUTSU: 5/8

[hirana kizumi]

The clone’s strikes were careful, calculated; perceptive as the Kyuumu clan was, it was entirely possible that Risi was able to tell that there was a delay between the preparation of a blow and the delivery of it, careful consideration for where and how hard the edge of the clone’s blade was landing. It was making a decent effort towards landing a hit on Risi, but should a blow make its way through his defenses, he would find himself only lightly tapped for the failure; enough for a brief welt or a gentle bruise, maybe, but certainly nothing of severe consequence. "Good,” Kizumi called from the sidelines. Another strike was caught in the hook of the scythe, pulled off to the side; the clone twisted with the motion, circling around to attack from Risi’s flank instead. Her pace was subtly adjusted for her opponent; Risi would have more than enough time to react to the change in angle, if he kept his cool. "Remember that you can move in three dimensions. Left-right, back-forward, high-low. You have better reach right now, so you have more control over the melee space. Dominate it.” The clone followed into Risi’s backstep, pushing her offensive. Whatever his plan was for it, the clone was more than willing to fall into his gambit.

risi -- 219

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

♔

Risi was nothing if not clever, and his sharp bird-like eyes could catch the shift in the clone's blade movement. While normally, he wouldn't be able to keep up with the movement if his own scythe had been static, he was lucky that his weapon was already in motion when the shift happened, giving the Genin a chance to deflect the sword even further out of line by moving his twirling scythe to the side, and the sword is caught again, getting pulled up and over Risi's hat to miss him completely. But this angle of attack means that Kizumi's clone is now pressing the attack from a new angle, requiring a bit more work from Risi to change the direction he's moving; it's a strange path he's making, away from the training area and towards one of only a few of the training dummies that were sometimes used for practicing Taijutsu techniques.

Risi waits for a horizontal slash, then suddenly stops the spinning of his scythe as he steps aside, trying to make the sword smack against the training dummy before Risi smacks the sword away with the top of his scythe's blade, letting the blade ring its vibrations through the air. With this vibration, he performs his second Genjutsu on the clone, turning his red eyes to Kizumi's clone and smirking as the Genjutsu activates, knowing that the clone will think they're being attacked from behind by the "real" Risi, when in fact the Genin is winding his scythe back up to strike at the clone's midsection, while they might think that they're actually being slashed at from behind by an exact copy of the Genin himself.

Such a dual-pronged attack wouldn't be too difficult for Kizumi herself or any of her own clones to avoid, but the clone might be confused by the illusion into wasting more energy or leaving herself open, and Risi would take an opportunity like that in a real combat scenario. In this case, however, Risi's slash at the clone's midsection would be pulled back enough to be only a near miss, and he'd afterwards aim to push the clone back with the blunt top of the scythe's blade, likely annoying the clone but causing no damage to it, either, likely only stunning it for a moment before Risi returns his scythe to a spinning motion to ready himself for another potential attack. He's quite proud that he's able to get the scythe's positioning correct on the first attempt now, at least. He's certain he's got the technique about right, but only needs a bit more work in order to make its use perfected.

coded by pinn @ thq

439 WORDS - hirana kizumi - D-RANK JUTSU: 6/8

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Akigihen [Bloody Deception]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: Medium
CLASSIFICATION: Genjutsu
TRIGGER: Vibrational
DESCRIPTION:
When the user uses this technique, and an attack is made- however the targets decides to respond, when the genjutsu starts they will find themselves being blindsided from the back by an identical version of the user, and stabbed/pierced with an identical weapon. The target gets the visual, audio and pain associated with the stabbing.

Common sense applies, in that the target's mind will fill the gaps, meaning that if they are kneeling, the attack will likely be higher. If the target is wearing armor, it will pierce the armor. If the target is on the ground/their back, there will be nothing to blindside them and effectively be a wasted technique.

[hirana kizumi]

Risi and the clone went back and forth for a time, Kizumi calling out minor edits or encouraging comments as the bout went on. As the clone made a horizontal slash towards Risi’s midsection, the short strike was pushed away and struck a nearby training dummy instead—they had somehow made their way to the hand-to-hand portion of the training field. Risi smacked the blade with his scythe and a loud clang echoed through the training field. Suddenly the clone felt the distinct and familiar sensation of being stabbed, and she looked down to find the tip of a scythe piercing through her abdomen. Something was clearly wrong—an attack like this would have obviously poofed her in an instant—but it hadn’t, and getting stabbed resulted in a hell of a lot of pain. She grunted, her teeth grinding together, and instinctively wrenched herself free of the weapon while putting a hand on her midriff to staunch the bleeding. She was immediately forced on the defensive, the tempo of the fight now firmly in Risi’s favor. She was very nearly discorporated again by a near miss from an attack from another Risi—a clone? or was this the real one?—something that could have been fatal or at least very painful were this not a training scenario. The clone stumbled a step as she was pushed back, more than enough time for Risi to take up his defensive technique again. The clone went back on the offensive, but sloppier this time, her movements hindered by the necessity of staunching her wound and the pain ripping through her abdomen. Kizumi, for her part, watched in thoughtful silence, trying to understand exactly what the hell had just happened. The volume of the clang had made her think at first of otoninjutsu, but Risi didn’t use any handseals… likely another genjutsu, then. He really was very talented, she thought, weaving the techniques into his scythe usage as he did. She should be taking notes. Pulling out a number of blunted kunai, Kizumi repositioned so that she was flanking Risi from a distance, and tossed one idly into the air. "You’re doing great, baby,” she called. "I’m gonna dial it up a bit. Poof the clone and we’ll be done for the day.” She threw the kunai at Risi’s flank, putting more pressure on and forcing him to now split his attention between two assailants. Thrown weapons would punctuate attacks from the clone, trying to distract Risi right before the clone went in for a strike, or immediately following up a deflected blow with an attack of her own.

risi -- 438

LAIKA OF THQ

[risi]

♔

The Genin is once more made proud of himself for having put Kizumi's clone under a Genjutsu, causing her to become far less effective with combat than before as it's forced to use one hand to hold its stomach. He could see that the clone was even wincing in pain, and he wonders to himself for a moment if he's perhaps having too much of an easy time with this training. After all, this was a jutsu that should be giving him some difficulty, and here he was using his Genjutsu somewhat like a crutch. But perhaps this was also still good for training the technique and in the use of his scythe; after all, he wanted to incorporate both Genjutsu and his scythe together in combat scenarios, so it would make sense to use this training session to also see how relevant such a fighting style is as well. Right?

Regardless, he hears the real Kizumi speaking at his left side, telling him that he's doing great, but to be finished, he's going to need to poof the clone. He turns his head just a bit, immediately after blocking one of the clone's attempts to strike him with the sword so that he's got enough time for his chough-like eyes to catch sight of the kunai she's flipping in the air. Well, that seems important. Knowing now that he's going to be getting attacked from multiple angles as well as from the clone herself, he already starts devising a plan as he focuses for the moment on the clone, and once more leads the clone to a better position that he doesn't have to turn his head to keep track of both the clone and the real Raikage. He still has to shift the scythe in order to be able to block the first kunai thrown his way, then shifting right back over to block the clone's next attack.

Risi feels that if he doesn't figure out what to do soon, Kizumi's clone is likely to figure out a rhythm that Risi can't keep up with in conjunction with the kunai, so he needs to come up with something quick. Then again, he's already repositioned himself and the clone often enough- He waits until he sees the movement of Kizumi's arm to throw another kunai, and he changes the spinning of his scythe in order to catch the blade on its next swing in the hook instead of only deflecting it; this time, he binds the blade with the scythe and the shaft, pulling the clone forwards in order to try and block the thrown weapon with the clone's own body. Should the movement work, the blunted kunai should do enough actual damage to still cause the clone to poof.

"Hehehe! How's that?!"

coded by pinn @ thq

464 words hirana kizumi D-RANK JUTSU: 7/8

[hirana kizumi]

Kizumi herself was a testament to the concept of working smarter, not harder—not every training session needed to be about pushing oneself to a state of failure. Exhaustion had its place, absolutely, especially when it came to developing muscle and physical aptitude; but when refining fine motor skills and building good habits, exhaustion was a breeding ground for mistakes, and mistakes could be deadly when you were training the wrong things. Better to be slow and careful and precise than push yourself too hard and suffer the consequences. She trained herself as well as others with that philosophy—technique and safety first, raw effort second. Her clone was struggling by the time they reached this final stage of training, clearly suffering under the effects of the genjutsu; but it would be valuable experience for Kizumi once the clone got poofed, and useful for Risi to know that he didn’t have to exclusively train weapon techniques to learn how to better use his scythe. Any advantage he could give himself was a net positive, and she wasn’t about to discourage that. He was doing well even in response to the two-pronged assault, quickly adjusting where he was protecting himself from and repositioning himself appropriately as the attacks kept coming. He was leading the clone around again, though to what purpose now Kizumi couldn’t say— —until her kunai went flying and her clone, wounded and in pain as it was, got its sword caught in the hook of Risi’s scythe, its body used as a shield to deftly protect Risi from the oncoming projectile. The kunai sunk into the clone’s chest and it poofed with a light cloud of smoke, Kizumi’s kunai clattering uselessly to the ground. "Fantastic,” Kizumi praised, grinning broadly as she jogged up to the boy. "How ya feelin’? Here, have some water.” She discreetly sniffed the flask before she handed it over—had to make sure it was the water and not the rum. "I’m sure you know already, but you’re smart, and you got a good head on your shoulders. Clear thinking under pressure, it’s a good quality. Train your body to keep up with your mind and you’ll be dominating with that scythe in no time.” She clapped him on the shoulder. "I think that’s enough for today, yeah? Don’t want you to overwork yourself.”

risi -- 387

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