[Suzuki Taru]

An arrow flew fast, fast, so hard to dodge. Taru was sure even she would struggle to avoid one of her own arrows. But there were things that could be done to help up the chances, make it more likely that a shinobi would succeed at the task. She knew well what made opponents a more difficult target and in the few milliseconds of the arrow flying through the air, she watched to see if Ken would move just right, would manage to dodge this time.

Doing just what she'd hoped, Ken turned his body to the side, facing her perpendicular now instead of parallel, reducing the surface area of his torso. Now he was a slimmer target, more difficult to hit in the first place. She was sure her aim could've helped her there if she was honed to a deadly focus on the battlefield, but that wasn't the point - the point was for him to be able to react to that split second of the arrow leaving the string.

The arrow soared right past him, not hitting him this time, which means he would've avoided a deadly strike in battle.

"Nice!" She cheered again, doing something of a thrilled little dance. "Ken did it! Making yourself a smaller target is always a good way to dodge, so I have to praise you. Do you want me to fire another one?" She asked.

If she got confirmation from him, she'd up the difficulty a little, winding some of the tension back into her bow to shoot another shot.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

It felt good to say that he had been capable of dodging an arrow, it really did. But he wouldn't fool himself for even a second. If the arrow had been a real one, the moment of the shot was not announced and the woman did her best to try to hit him, which meant adjusting for his movement, Ken would be one of the lucky few that could turn his body to water in order to evade such attacks. For most people, an attack like that would more than likely prove fatal to the point where they might not even realize what struck them before they died. In a way, it seemed like a good way to go out.

By maneuvering his body in a way that made himself into a smaller target, the boy had at the very least managed not to get struck by every single arrow that had been fired his way, breaking the streak by not getting hit three times in a row at least. It got him thinking, what with his training having delved into a select few weapons, whether or not using a bow himself might work out for him. But after even a few lingering moments of thought, he quickly came to the realization that it did not resonate with him. His style of fighting took him from mid to close range combat, took him into melee combat, the kind of fighting that was up close and personal.

That was after all where his clan's hijutsu was by far the most effective.

"Yeah, lets do a few more."

Speaking with some level of confidence this time around, the Hozuki was ready to continue this level of training. But judging by the look of things, Taru was not going to make this next shot easy on him. But that was the way training worked. Nobody really got better by constantly repeating the same thing, it just meant that they became really good at that specific thing at that specific level of difficulty. But nothing more and nothing less than that.

[Suzuki Taru]

He wanted to keep going, which was good - it meant he hadn't let that one success go to his head and was smart enough to know he needed dozens and dozens more successes to really count himself as an expert at something! Unfortunately Taru knew a lot of people who did stuff one time and then called it quits for the day. She was more of the kind of person who spent all day training until her bowstring at worn trenches into her fingers.

Taru tested the tension of her bow again, trying to determine the perfect strength so that it would still be mildly realistic for him to manage a dodge. When she was satisfied, she straightened up, aiming again.

"Alright, this time, I'm going to count down to prepare you a little, but might not fire my arrow exactly on 'go,' so you'll have to practice training your eye to recognize when I'm letting go, okay, okay?"

On the field, he was going to need to know how to dodge danger that was unannounced, reacting to the slightest movements well enough to pull back and avoid damage. Being capable of responding quickly to even time moves of intent from an opponent could be the difference between life and death! That's why lots of animals honed that skill.

"One, two, three, go!" She held for a second... then loosed the arrow.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Preparing himself for the next arrow to come, it was now for the first time that Taru told him something he had already managed to figure out on his own. During the times in which he got hit, as well as the time when he managed to evade being hit for the first time, there was one thing he had been focusing himself on. Even though Ken had no fancy ocular powers to speak of, his normal human eyes worked wondrously when one knew what to look for. And up until now, he had constantly been trying to figure a few things out about the archer that he hoped would end up coming in handy somewhere down the line.

He had watched the way she held her boy, how it appeared when she took aim, how her finger moved just before she let go of the string, all signs that would point him towards when she might release the arrow. And while the arrow itself was still moving incredibly fast, now that he had an inkling of an idea as to exactly how fast it moved, he might not even need to rely on her telling him when she was going to fire. So instead, he did his best to drown out her words as they weren't going to be helping him out anymore. Instead of relying on her words, he would rely on her actions. Literally.

So the moment he saw the familiar movements he had taken to memory, he instinctively started moving the moment her finger was inching towards the final release of the arrow from the string. Once again angling his body, but this time even faster than the first time now that he knew it was a succesful formula, the arrow passed him as he could feel a slight breeze follow in its wake. This marked the second time that he had been able to do it, which was quite frankly doing wonders for his self-esteem. But that was not something he was going to be dwelling on as it seemed silly to do so outside of actual combat situations where one might risk their own life in the case of failure.

But thanks to this training, the chances of failure had at the very least been reduced considerably.

[Suzuki Taru]

Ken had a very serious look on his face, like he was totally in the zone, honing in and watching closely for all her tiny movements. She wondered if it was more like a predator readying for the pounce or a prey animal watching the treeline for any sign of danger. With enough focus, Ken was able to move to the side, narrowly dodging the arrow right again, arrow whizzing right past him and hitting the ground far away, bouncing against the dirt.

Taru whooped and whistled, another celebratory little dance as she cheered for Ken's success.

"Alright, alright!" Taru said. "Now you're getting really good at reacting in time. I guess I could keep winding up my draw strength."

Most people Ken faced in battle probably wouldn't have such extreme draw strength on their bows, though. Maybe recreating different circumstances of a fight would be more useful to him than her continuing to do that.

"Archers like to attack from the trees," she commented, almost non sequitur, though someone as smart as Ken could probably follow the way her mind worked anyways. She marched towards one of the nearby trees and said, "Maybe we should simulate an attack from above? What do you think? The leaves might make it a little harder to read the moment of release, so that's important to practice."

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Nodding as he heard to Taru's explanation about archers liking to attack from trees and the like, and how she could now keep increasing the difficulty by pulling the string further back. This would significantly increase the amount of power behind the attack, as well as the speed it would reach and the distance it would fly at. Which in turn also meant that if he got hit, the pain he would experience would be considerably higher than it had been up until now, a factor he honestly was not looking forward to a whole lot. But this wasn't the time to be squeemish. And if Ken was to be called something, it sure as hell was not going to be squeemish.

The Chuunin exams were quickly approaching, and he still had a long way to go when it came to training his eyes to perceive threats faster, for his mind to process the information more quickly and for his body to respond to what came out of all of the above in a fashion becoming of a skilled shinobi. But he was determined now, determined enough to know that unless he kept pushing his limits at least one more time, he couldn't afford to be content with the progress he had made. Even though Taru didn't exactly say it, the fact that she had undoubtedly been holding back tremendously meant that he hadn't gotten to a truly mentionable level yet.

"I imagine that that would crank up the level of difficulty by a significant margin, as I won't be able to see you as well, while the amount of time I have to actually consider dodging will be reduced by two rather impeding factors... let's do it."

Going along with the positivity the Chuunin had been showing, he tried to keep his own mind as positive as possible, as there was truly nothing for him to gain from being negative and down on himself. Even if he was more than likely going to fail this next part of the training by epic proportions, he still believed he owed it to himself to try. Because even if he did fail, it would at least show him just how much room he still had by which to keep himselg growing and going. He owed it to himself and to Taru to at least try.

[Suzuki Taru]

Since Ken agreed to the more difficult training attempt, Taru hopped up onto the tree, scaling it quickly to reach one of the middling-height branches, the kind of steady limb that she would feel comfortable camping out on for a long period of time. It was dense enough with foliage to partially obscure her, though she chose a limb that was a little sparse just to give Ken a better chance of dodging. She specifically wanted her drawing hand to still be partially visible between the leaves, providing him just enough information to try to interpret the movement in time.

Once she was perched on the branch, hunched slightly to maintain her balance, she raised her bow again. She carefully took an arrow from her quiver and notched it.

"If you listen to the environment, the forest can speak to you about potential dangers," she informed him. "When I shift my weight and draw my arrow back, the branch might creak. When I release the arrow, the force will make the leaves rustle. Not every sound is a threat, but it's still something to listen out for when you're in a fight," she told him.

She hoped he would strain to listen, ready for the next difficult part. She readied her aim, drew the string back.

"Alright, ready, and..." She let the quiet linger for a second, then released the arrow. This time it crashed through the leaves in front of her, rattling the branches as the practice arrow sailed forth.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Going into it with confidence, the ashen haired boy watched as Taru made her way into the tree, obscuring most of herself amidst the branches and leaves. Along with the increase in drawing strength and the lack of vision, the added curve and the functional gravity drawing the arrow down to increase it's pace by a minuscule amount, there were a lot of factors at work here. Perhaps there was too much to really factor in properly, though he was still going to try his best to do so anyway, even if much was likely going to be coming down to instinct and reflexes. But that was honestly neither here nor there, as listening to Taru gave him at least some idea on how best to handle this.

Listening to the environment, the creaking of branches and the rustling of leaves, it all sounded perfectly valid. As a young and aspiring ninja, he had been told that moving without making a sound while listening for those made by others was one of the cornerstones of being a shinobi out in the field. So relying on these fundamentals for this particular training as additional means of aid sounded smart. Doing his best to factor all of these things into the next attack that was coming his way, he noticed that Taru hadn't fully concealed her drawing hand from sight, which seemed intentional if he was being honest with himself. Had she really wanted to, it would have been easy to hide the attack fully in the branches and leaves.

As soon as the countdown ended, a momentary silence fell over the area before the string was released and the arrow got released. Seeing the moment of release, being able to more or less estimate a logical trajectory, hearing the exact moment when the arrow rushed through the leaves and knowing when and how to move his body. Yet still he felt a blunt pain radiating through his body as the arrow struck him while still only barely moving his body. Providing enough power to the spinning dodge he was trying to pull to move around on his feet in a three hundred and sixty degree motion before falling straight to the ground, it took him a moment to figure out what happened. He had clearly been hit, yet he had managed to see it all quite well, and had certainly factored it all in perfectly.

But as it were, it seemed that no matter what he did, he would not be able to do this. And that honestly made a whole lot of sense too. At the end of the day, he was dealing with a bow and arrow, and the further that string got pulled back and the further down the shot went, the faster it would reach him. So even if he managed to estimate the exact speed by which it moved, factored in the noise made by the leaves and branches and timed it to perfection, that did not mean that his body was going to be able to keep up with it the way that it was now. Which summed up an issue he had been having, one where his mind moved faster than his body was capable of keeping up with.