[Oborozuki Yuri]

Midori's upper body follows Yuri's movements and a hot slap comes in for her leg; Yuri is already in momentum and has no time to move out of the way, instead shunted backwards by the connection. It sends a surge of pain through her muscles, an achy, stinging feeling. The rippling pinpricks echo through her leg as her breakdance slides backwards, legs coming over her head. She pushes her shoulder off the ground, jumping back in tandem with Midori's own backflip out of the way.

Now that they're standing head to head again, this time a short distance between them, Yuri exhales hard. Smoke obscures her face again, lit only by the cherry for a moment. "It's about all I got," the young genin muses, smiling a little. Her eyebrows are narrowed, brown eyes locked on her teammate turned temporary foe. 

In the brief moments before anyone makes a move, Yuri tries to assess her sparring partner. She had seen her in action and knew enough of Midori to know she ought to stay away from her fists, as she packed a devastating punch. Yuri also knew Midori to be somewhat aggressive, which made the way she played on the defensive here a little out of character - was she perhaps going easy on her young teammate? Casting three handseals, Yuri is touched by the thought. 

"Well, c'mon then. I showed you mine... show me yours." Yuri's voice is as blasé as ever, but there is a deft tone of seriousness to it as she assumes her cat-like stance once again. Smoke coils up and around her crown, her cigarette half-burnt now. 

---

Netsu Midori - 272

[Netsu Midori]

Midori is surprised when Yuri seems unwilling or unable to continue on the offensive, and instead blows smoke in her face. With the two Genin face-to-face like this, it leaves the green-eyed ninja coughing for a moment, then blows out through her mouth and nose once, hard, which pushes the smoke away. She doesn't realize that Yuri has even done any of those handseals, which might have been a clear and obvious sign for most people that something was up, but with Midori unaware, she doesn't even know that she's under Yuri's genjutsu. As a result, when she's goaded into taking the offensive by Yuri's invitation, she doesn't hesitate.

Midori winds back with her right fist, acting as though she's preparing a hard straight punch, but instead her left hand rocks forwards with a jab aimed directly at Yuri's cigarette, as though she's trying to knock the thing straight back into the other Genin's mouth. Should it connect, it'd likely just crush the lit cigarette and maybe bruise Yuri right on her lips, but Midori isn't putting a lot of force behind it. She's fully aware of how important a woman's looks are, and even if she was being insulted, she didn't want to be brought before Etsuko to answer for why Yuri's lips are split from what was supposed to be a friendly spar. In any case, the jab is quick, and she frowns as she makes the punch, so that the aggression is clear from her facial expression.

"Let that one be a warning, Yuri. Disrespect me again and I'll make your face even more flat than your chest."

[Oborozuki Yuri]

As if caught unawares by Yuri's display, Midori rushes into a punch aimed straight at Yuri's face. It connects hard, not only crushing the cigarette and giving a soft hiss as the cherry is snuffed, but shattering Yuri's jaw and teeth with aggressive force. "Let that one be a warning, Yuri. Disrespect me again and I'll make your face even more flat than your chest." Midori would feel Yuri's skull crack ugly beneath her fist, and see the blood pour from the young genin's face as she stumbles back, clutching at her broken maw. There's a blubbering noise, a panicked look in the teen's eyes as she looks up at Midori, horrified.

On the outside looking in, Yuri had sidestepped with a bit of ease. As Midori is caught in her Genjutsu, the Oborozuki circles to her teammate's back. At the insult, her head falls to her shoulder with a startled, puzzled look over her face.

On another note, Yuri was feeling a hamper on her energy based solely on her lack of chakra. She was at the bottom of the pool.

"Oi, don't be a pervert!" The booming, otherwise neutral voice would bring Midori out of the jutsu just in time for Yuri to finish aiming a kick; she's standing in a sort of T pose on one leg, torso craned parallel with the earth so that her dominant foot can deliver a powerful blow to Midori's back.

---

Netsu Midori - 239

SPOILER: Click to show

TECHNIQUES USED

NAME: Kouji [Affairs After One's Death]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: To Use: Very Low | To Maintain: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Genjutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 3
TRIGGER: Visual
DESCRIPTION:
After three hand-seals, the user will cast a Genjutsu over their opponent. When the opponent attacks, it will seem as if their attack lands, landing a mortal or fatal blow upon the user, when in fact the user is moving around unhindered, leaving their opponent open for attack.

[Netsu Midori]

Midori is quite surprised by the reaction she gets from what she'd thought had been only a slight jab at Yuri's cigarette. She'd been holding back quite a bit with her strike, so the sensation of Yuri's skull fracturing under her fist is exceedingly odd, especially because this time around, her strike wasn't being further empowered by the use of her clan's kekkei tota. Her own face is hard-set in its serious look, but internally she's actually freaking out quite a lot. She hadn't really meant to do more than cause some pain to the younger teen, and now the other Genin was horrified of her for a simple jab.

The older woman feels that there must be something wrong. A jab from her shouldn't be quite so destructive as all that, especially since the strike had really been mostly just for deflection. She's further surprised by the voice behind her, turning to see Yuri, now unharmed, aiming a strong kick straight at her back. She's too unprepared to be able to block or dodge it now, so she does the next best thing. She moves with the kick, trying to lessen the force of it so that it only stings a bit.

But there's no way she's going to let Yuri get in a verbal jab by calling her a pervert.

"Oh, there's nothing perverted about the fact that you've got nothing going on under your top."

A verbal jab should be met with a physical one, and so Midori moves back in on Yuri once more, throwing an elbow at her shoulder in an attempt to knock her over. It was similar to the elbow that Hotarubi had thrown at her during their spar, although Midori couldn't actually change her arm into a blade-like structure the way the Yamakira could. The best she could do was to flex her forearm, making the elbow bone stand out even further as she aims to slam it harshly into Yuri's collarbone and make her spin from the force of that strike.

[Oborozuki Yuri]

Yuri's harsh kick is met with lessened resistance, but connects nonetheless. She's only a little giddy that she'd managed to work the genjutsu feint into her taijutsu approach even running low on chakra, but she does not let it inflate her ego - her face stays the same, hard and steady, even as she inhales long and exhales a train of smoke as she tries to move back out of the way of her teammate's impending retort.

Caught off guard by the continuous calling of attention to her chest, Yuri falters, blushing a little with her eyebrows pinched. "What's y-"

Interrupted by an elbow jab to the collarbone, Yuri doubles backward and spins once on her way backward. Catching her cigarette before she lets out a ragged breath, the young genin catches herself on a knee and a foot, holding the still burning smoke out at her side as she catches her balance. She lets out a hard chuckle, pushing off her bent knee with her free hand to come back into a standing position. "Damn," she spits, clutching her bruised collarbone with one hand. Sighing, she stretches out her back a little, rolls her shoulder, exhales. "You almost made me drop my cigarette." It returns to her mouth.

Low on stamina, basically out of chakra - Yuri doesn't hesitate even then to charge back at her teammate, this time in a sort of hazardous zigzag tradition. It's uncalculated, a technique she knows could be perfected, but it will do for the short distance between them before she slams head first into Midori's torso. Connecting or not, Yuri doubles back with two hops, throwing senbon with either hand on each land - hop back once, throw five senbon with the left hand - hop back again, throw five more with the right.

---

298

[Netsu Midori]

Midori feels quite proud of herself for landing the elbow strike, especially with how it throws Yuri into a spin for a moment before she practically has to drop in order to stop the spin and regain control of her movements. Midori is now in a much more ready position, bouncing on her feet like she's seen some other fighters do, particularly Hotarubi. She keeps a close eye on Yuri while she readies herself to come back in and take the more aggressive lead on the sparring fight. She flips her black hair back over her own shoulder when the younger Genin remarks that she nearly dropped the cigarette, but she knows that her collarbone is in pain now, and perhaps that will lead to an easier fight from this point forwards. But no, she's rushing forwards in a zig-zag pattern that's somewhat difficult to keep track of.

At this point, Midori mostly ignores trying to find the pattern to the movement, and instead focuses on waiting for her teammate to reach within striking distance, because that's when the combat is actually going to matter again. While she might try to slam her head into Midori's chest, Midori is rather more ready for it, and she puts her hand on top of her teammate's head, using another dodge that's certainly more difficult to guess at as she leaps up and over Yuri, using her head for leverage to be able to leap over her like a game of leapfrog. This might make it quite difficult for Yuri to throw those senbon at her, but she ducks below each one, like a boxer dodging punches by ducking and weaving away from the senbon as she approaches Yuri. Once within range again, she slams her fist forwards, aiming to strike at Yuri's collarbone with a straight punch, specifically aiming for the same one she'd hit with her elbow before. Continuous strikes on one part of the body are definitely worse than strikes all over.

"Keep up! Keep up or you'll drop, too!"

[Oborozuki Yuri]

Maybe it was a little foolish to charge right back in - Midori catches her with ease, bounds over her, which completely throws off Yuri from following through with her intentions anyway - she never gets to throw senbon. Suddenly, Midori is on her other side, throwing a fist pointedly at Yuri's injured collarbone. She bites down on her cigarette's butt with a gasp, exhaling smoke as she quickly wiggles out of the way, moving her shoulders ninety degrees out of the way.

As Midori goads her on, Yuri wants to grumble and crumple downward - so she does just that! "I don't plan on droppin'," she remarks through gritted teeth on an exhale of smoke as her whole body falls flat to the ground in front of her teammate; her legs are bent so that her knees are at her flank, and her elbows are splayed outward so that her hands can steady her quick movement upon the earth. Without missing a beat, she surges again, breakdancing in a similiar way as earlier so that her unharmed shoulder meets the ground, momentum spinning her leg parellel with the earth in a sweeping fashion to take Midori off her feet. Bounding up and pushing off the ground, Yuri flips onto her feet - hissing, she grabs at her wounded collarbone, fingers hooking over her neck. It was hard to carry her full weight like that on a busted bone. "Tch."

---

236

SPOILER: Click to show

TECHNIQUES USED

NAME: Yureru Neko [Wiggling Cat]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:
The user wiggles in much the same way a cat does when avoiding being pet or picked up, just barely moving out of the way to evade an incoming attack. Because the user moves the minimum possible amount, this technique is susceptible to big sweeping attacks or attacks with a large area of effect, but the restrained dodge leaves the user in a strong position to counterattack melee combatants in range.


NAME: Tairana Neko [Flat Cat]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:
The user evades an attack by swiftly dropping to all fours and keeping a low profile. This evasive maneuver is very quick and sets the user up for an immediate counter-attack but is extremely susceptible to low hitting attacks.

[Netsu Midori]

Midori finds herself missing her attempted strike, though not by much. Where she normally would have followed up with a second strike, Yuri seems to suddenly disappear from view, having dropped all the way to the ground. Midori stops in her sparring to stare down at her. If she were in a joking mood, she might have pointed out that Yuri herself did, in fact, drop, in direct contradiction to her own statement that she wasn't planning on dropping at all. But Midori isn't in much of a joking mood, even if she's not actually in any kind of an aggressive mood just yet.

Her legs are caught in another sweep, but at least this time, Midori is able to plan around the sweep kick, throwing her own legs out from underneath herself as Yuri tries some kind of breakdancing attack that she can use to bring herself up to standing once more with the spinning momentum. Midori does something completely different, slapping her hand to the ground and using the force of that slap to bring herself straight back up onto her feet. While she might have tried another direct attack at Yuri's collarbone again, she decides that she's done enough punishment to the other Genin's shoulders, and she instead tries a sweep of her own. After all, she's wearing the Hung Gar rings on her ankles as well as on her wrists, so the attack is almost certainly just as dangerous as one of her punches. Her own sweep is aimed at Yuri's legs, rather than her ankles, which should make it far more difficult to dodge.

"Enough fancy dancing. Where's the damage, Yuri?"

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Fukisoku Kaihi [Irregular Dodging]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: N/A
REQUIREMENT: Taijutsu Secondary or Agility SA

DESCRIPTION:

While any individual can try to jump from the path of an attack, those truly skilled at the art of evasion will find less obvious methods to avoid attacks. Dropping down to a split, flipping just over the area of attack, contorting their body into unusual angles and so on. This technique is effectively just a higher degree of training to use either the terrain or the blindspots of an attack to dodge in usual ways so that the user may either more readily escape or press their counter attack.

NAME: Jōshō Tataku [Rising Slap]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: N/A
REQUIREMENT: N/A

DESCRIPTION:

A simple technique meant to quickly get the user up from a prone position on the ground. The user will slap at the ground and force their body to push away to quickly right themselves. Naturally this can be used whether they are on their back, front or either side, but they will always righten directly opposite of whatever is touching the ground. So slapping while on their back will force them to rise in a forward facing manner, slapping while on their stomach will have them move in the direction of their back, etc.

[Oborozuki Yuri]

Even though the sweep collides with Midori's legs, she slaps the ground on her way down and comes right back up - Yuri blinks, having no time to dodge the mirror threat against her own legs. Her knees buckle, legs giving out from under her, and she falls to hit the ground hard. Landing on her rear, Yuri grunts, feeling a bit beat up. Her shoulder ached, her muscles felt weak, her head was spinning. She sucks at the nearly finished cigarette, plumes of gray rising from her as she sits at Midori's feet.

"Enough fancy dancing. Where's the damage, Yuri?"

Yuri chuckles, once again pushing herself to standing. She sways on her feet just a bit. Her smoke is bent, still lit, but she takes it between her thumb and forefinger. She pinches the cherry with her other hand, eyes fluttering up to her teammate's brutal gaze as she pockets the snuffed butt. "One more try," she exhales, the last of some smoke trailing behind her as she rockets forward. She steps low on her right foot, feints to the left with a powerful blow to Midori's stomach - before it can hit, Yuri steps off her right knee to deliver a series of two powerful blows aimed at her teammate's head.

Except each of these blows are feinted, neither gracing Midori's face - until the third, aimed from below at Midori's chin, with enough force to knock her back should it hit.

---

241

SPOILER: Click to show

TECHNIQUES USED

NAME: Uwaki Ashi [Fickle Paws]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: N/A
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:
The user performs a trio of quick but light palm strikes aimed for their target's head, replacing some or even all of the attacks with feints instead if they so desire.

[Netsu Midori]

Midori practically falls for each of the feints, dodging blows that are never really meant to land in the first place and mostly just thrown in order to throw her off. She seemingly can't be thrown off by feints when she assumes every single attack aimed at her is a real strike, and so she prepares to take the strike to her stomach by tightening her abdominal muscles, with the intention to catch the fist without really taking much damage at all, but instead the punch is pulled back before contact. And so is the first blow aimed at her head, but instead of assuming the third strike would be another feint, she takes a step back. With the blow aimed at her chin, the step back is all that's really needed to avoid the uppercut.

"That's just too much wasted energy!"

And Midori meant it, too. Although she had very little chakra remaining, she hadn't been dodging away from attacks just because she didn't want to get hurt. Dodging was much easier than blocking, and it wouldn't have allowed her to gather as much Kesshoton chakra in her left hand if she had tried blocking instead of simply dodging as much as she could. Now, though, she'd gathered up enough Plasma Release in her left hand that she could aim another slap at Yuri's own right arm, letting the concussive force smack into her upper arm along with the additional weight of the Hung Gar ring. But that seems to be the last of the chakra that she can make use of for now. She knows that overuse of Kesshoton, especially after using up so much of it, was quite dangerous to herself and others, so she decides that this last hot slap would be the last one she uses for this spar.

"Feinting like that just uses more energy than an actual strike. Just hit me!"

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Hotto Surapu [Hot Slap]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: Kesshoton
HANDSEALS: 0
REQUIREMENT: Plasma Form
DESCRIPTION:

After funneling Kesshoton around the hand the user will slap their opponent across the face which detonates into a shockwave of rippling plasma that can knock someone down if delivered with enough force This technique has a low absorption level before breaking apart and gaining the lower absorption adds only a very minor to increase to ripple.

[Oborozuki Yuri]

The spar is slow, each of their movements highlighted by each breath that passes. Yuri begins drawing in deeper, more ragged breaths now - her muscles sag, wanting nothing more than to give in. Midori dodges all of her hits, feint or not, and delivers a painful blow to Yuri's dominant hand. She lets out a harsh breath and a small ack!, her whole right arm hurting now, from her bruised collarbone to the shockwave rippling through the muscles in her forearm.

"I'm-..." A harsh breath. She drags herself back into her original stance, even if it seems a little feebler now. Her hands are fists in front of her, knees bent. Another breath. "I'm trying!"

Her eyes sting like there's smoke in them, but she is not smoking now. She takes a deep breath. She wants to keep going. But she's not sure she can push herself; she was aching, on low battery, dying for a smoke. She'd never felt so drained in her life, and it was all over a little spar - one where she got her whole right arm busted up. Yuri sucks at her teeth, flexing her raised fists. "I don't- I don't know if I can keep going," she admits, somewhat coolly, but does not drop her stance.

---

213

[Netsu Midori]

Midori herself is similarly feeling tired out, more from chakra exhaustion and physical exhaustion, especially after using the Hung Gar rings concurrently for so long. Her joints feel loose and her arms and legs feel far heavier than before, and since they're both breathing quite heavily, the older woman can tell that they're both worn out from the marathon of training they've been doing. She's not even sure that training for this long has any further benefit for herself and Yuri, so she drops her own fighting stance in order to remove the weighted rings from both her ankles, then bending low to remove them from her booted feet as well, and she feels much lighter now, though she's still too tired to keep going at this rate.

"Hooooh, shit! I'll give you this, you're tenacious, for a kid..."

Despite her qualifier of "for a kid", it's quite clear that Yuri's toughness has actually made a pretty positive impression on Midori. She honestly didn't know that her teammate was this tough before this, but she almost feels proud of Yuri now. It was certainly a rare sensation for the older Genin, and she slips the weighted rings into her weapons pouch since they're far too heavy to carry in her hands after sparring for such an extended period.

"Okay, squirt, we've trained for more than long enough. Any more and we'll just end up hurting ourselves for so long that Etsuko will be annoyed with us."

She pauses for a moment, about to say something she never thought she'd say about another person. Respect was an exceedingly rare thing to come from Midori, and praise was even more uncommon than that.

"Good job."

After this compliment, Midori has to work hard not to make a face or gag at the words she'd just said. It was corny and lame, to use one of Yuri's words. She's definitely spent too long sparring with the young blood, and now she was more than ready to go home and just sleep. With the sparring done, she starts to walk out of the training field, her ankles still somewhat sore from the sweeping kicks earlier.

[Oborozuki Yuri]

Yuri's stance drops. Yuri drops. She'd gone back on her word - twice. She hits the ground and leans back on her hands, thankful to catch her breath. It's only when Midori removes them that Yuri realizes what she'd been wearing around her wrists and ankles had been weights, and she feels silly for having missed it. Those coupled with that plasma chakra did some serious damage, and she felt it all through her right side. She lets out a sharp breath at being called just a kid, but she nods along sideways when the woman mentions Etsuko's possible irritation with pushing themselves.

When there's a pause, Yuri's brown eyes dance up to Midori as she contemplates her next words.

"Good job."

Yuri watches as Midori turns away a bit too quickly, like she's trying to hide a guttural reaction to the extended kindness. Yuri watches as Midori saunters away, with a home to go to. Yuri wonders if there's a family where she's going, or if she'll be alone all the same.

Alone, Yuri falls backwards, staring up at the sky turning pink. Night was coming. She pulls out a cigarette and lights it, and stays unmoving until her breathing is even again and her body doesn't ache quite as much.

EXIT