[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare is back on the training fields, though this time around, she's not focused on learning more Ninjutsu techniques. What she really needs to learn more about is her skill with Bukijutsu, in order to make sure that she doesn't end up being caught in close combat and only having some fairly simplistic, if effective, weapon techniques. Her Ninjutsu skill was clearly working well with what Homare had so far, so she now wanted to focus more intently on her skill with her sword and axe, and she thought she'd heard of a style of combat built upon the idea of utilizing two weapons at once. For most people, this might have been dangerous and difficult, as most people only had two hands, but Homare had many, many more than most people. She just didn't really know where to start with this training; she knew that there was a specific style for the method of attacking with two weapons, but she wasn't sure if her sensei knew it, and so she had chosen to learn it without Sora.

This was why she had enlisted the help of someone of the same rank as her, who was also looking to make himself more skilled to prepare for the Chuunin Exams himself, and whom she'd worked together on several missions. They'd worked surprisingly well together, and now she wanted to try and give herself a try with more Bukijutsu. For now, she was swinging around her shinobi axe and katana, trying to prepare herself both physically and mentally with some stretching and some of her warm-up exercises while she waits for Ken to show up. She'd given him a time to show up to the training grounds, but she'd shown up far earlier to make sure she was prepared for the physical exertion.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

It wasn't every day that someone requested to train with him, yet today seemed to be one of them. So far, it had always been him asking other people to spar with him so that he could learn from them and get better. But to be quite frank, he had been progressing a hell of a lot, but not exactly where it mattered. Because since his last sparring session, Ken had managed to not only learn how to utilize his lightning release chakra, but had also managed to create a singular but incredibly powerful ninjutsu. One which he was sad to say could not be utilized in battle yet due to the sheer amount of detrimental effects that came with casting it, and the lethal power it contained.


To say that it was not the kind of technique one should ever just use in a spar or during a fight against an opponent who possessed an uncertain skillset was the understatement of the year, as just utilizing it against someone who could outmaneuver him and attack his exposed sides or back could be considered a death sentence. As such, he would keep the knowledge of his technique to himself and not share it with a single soul. Bringing his trusty wooden training sword, the bokken was always going to be his preferred type of weapon when not fighting for the village during a mission, or fighting to kill. The way he saw it, a sword was not something someone should wield in a friendly spar, as it really only took the slightest miscalculation on either part for someone to be inflicted with a lethal or even fatal wound.


Shinobi were after all only human at the end of the day, and making mistakes was unfortunately just another part of the human experience. And he was not going to be the one responsible for one of his fellow shinobi having their lives or career ended. Nor was he really looking forward to being the one that got ended. So in classical Ken style, he kept in mind the time that he was going to be required to be present, yet arrived a few minutes early. Just to be safe. But as it turned out, Homare had had the same idea and arrived even before he had, which was not something he was used to. Normally he was the one that arrived first, so even arriving early like he had and being second almost made him feel tardy. Regardless, he would still approach as though nothing was the matter.


"Alright, i'm here. What did you have in mind for this training?"

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare is seemingly in her own world, because she doesn't notice the arrival of Ken at first even in the slightest; she seems to be wholly focused on her warming up practices, so it's good for him that he actually spoke up first to announce his presence and ask what she had in mind for training, which snaps her out of her mental fugue state. She instantly stops her wrist warm-up to look at him and give him a little smile of greeting before she gets straight to saying what she plans to be doing with him.

"I need to improve on my Bukijutsu skill, and that likely means using some different techniques... Particularly ones that could make use of more than one weapon, for obvious reasons."

She seems to notice then that he's using a bokken, rather than a real blade, and she realizes it might look somewhat odd to him that she's holding two steel combat weapons, so she looks to reassure him quickly.

"I'm actually capable of producing more blunted weapons of my own, I just prefer to warm myself up with the real weapons, since they're heavier than the golden spider thread... It ensures that my muscles and such are prepared."

With that, she returns the shinobi axe to her belt and the katana to its own sheathe before she seems to be chewing on something, rather like gum. After a few moments, her two lowest hands reach into her own mouth to draw out some golden substance in a long, sticky string. Gradually, she shapes it to match a bokken, and then she does it again to form a shape similar to an axe, though the head is rounded instead of sharp to ensure that even the blunted edge won't cut, since even axes are made wide and heavy enough to ensure that a blunt edge will still allow it to cut.

"Specifically, I'm trying to use a new style of combat, one using two weapons at once... I thought this might give me an edge in the coming Chuunin Exams."

[Hōzuki Keneō]

"Hmm.."

Judging by the setting, Ken honestly wondered if he was the right person to be asked to help with this sort of thing. There was surprisingly little he could do with a sword, though he was at the very least getting better. When it came to helping someone else out however, the only thing he could truly be expected to do was to try and get a few hits in, block a few in turn, and do his best not to get hit. That was really all there was to it. Feeling as though he should express that as clearly as possible, that did not mean that he was not at the very least interested at giving it his best shot. He just wasn't all that great with a sword yet.

"I'm honestly not sure if i'm the right person for such a thing, given the fact that i'm hardly a master swordsman. Still, practice is practice, so i'm game."

While that was quite easily said, that in itself raised up another point to be handled. The rules of the spar. A week or two ago, he had sparred against a shinobi from a foreign village, though the rules had hardly been made clear. Before he knew it, he was being engaged by someone more powerful and much more fast, slamming his sword into his and almost breaking it. It was only afterwards that rules had been established, and he was told that it was in fact allowed to use certain non-offensive ninjutsu techniques that might end up destroying the training yard. It had seemed like the kind of rules that really only were in the favor of one as she had been allowed to increase her own combat prowess.

Him on the other hand, he hadn't a whole lot of techniques in his repertoire to begin with, which meant that he honestly never really stood much of a chance. And had it not been for the "whoever tags the other first wins" clause, he would absolutely have been decimated. Due to the clever use of the rules mixed with his own techniques, he had been able to win that day, though he had not been fighting like that all that often since. So now that they were planning on doing a spar, it seemed to make sense to ask what the rules of this particular one would be.

"What are the rules?"

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare is actually a bit surprised when she hears that Ken is somewhat reluctant to think of himself as the right person to be training with, and she has to disagree somewhat with his own measurement of his own skill. She'd seen him in combat, and he was quite resourceful just with his own jutsu, and if he was anywhere near as good at training the sword he kept at his hip, then he was certainly more than good enough to practice with.

"Most of the other people at the Chuunin Exams will be as strong as you or I with their weapons. We need to practice with our peers, and learn from our teachers. Besides, you're probably about as good with your weapon as I am."

She starts to get into a proper fighting stance to try and learn this technique she'd been looking to learn when she's interrupted by Ken asking her for the rules. Homare blinks for a moment, then realizes that perhaps setting some early boundaries would ensure that they keep their training safe and without injury or damage.

"Ah. Rules. No jutsu outside of the ones that involve the weapons we have now, particularly Ninjutsu. No using any techniques that could cause significant damage to the training fields. Hrm... Neither of us is allowed to maim, break... or, obviously, kill each other. If we're bleeding, we stop and make sure we're not seriously injured."

One thought crosses her mind, somewhat late, since she'd trained with other girls and women only up until this point, which is somewhat odd now that she thinks about it, but this final rule should put Ken at ease if he worries about that kind of thing. After all, she's pretty sure he can't actually become water without using a jutsu of some kind, so actually physically damaging him is actually a possibility.

"And no strikes to the groin, either."

As though to make good on her rule about not using any other type of jutsu, Homare's two upper pairs of arms fold behind her, keeping them out of the way and holding onto the opposite forearm to assure Ken that they're not going to be performing any secret handseals.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

"Hmm... alright."

Hearing her out on the rules, it once again seemed like these rules would not favor him in the slightest. Perhaps even more so than the last time he had sparred, as the rule then had been for him to not use any destructive ninjutsu. This time however, it was the rule of 'no ninjutsu, period', which essentially locked down every single technique he knew, thus putting a considerable amount of restrictions on him, not to mention the fact that he was now severely outclassed. Not so much because he couldn't use any weaponry techniques yet, but because he was also short several weapons... and several arms.

By severely limiting his repertoire, he was now essentially put down in the same level as an academy student, which was rather detrimental to be sure. Sighing a bit as he looked at Homare while gripping his sword with both hands, he made peace with the fact that he wasn't going to be winning anything here today. But honestly, he had more or less come to terms with that as it had more or less been the name of the game. Whether it was training with Toru, Sora, Taru, Ren or Eiko, he had always been at a massive disadvantage. And while every single fight had been highly educational, the one thing they all had in common was the fact that he always lost.

"Bring it."

Holding the Bokken right in front of him with both hands right below the other, his dominant hand gripping right beneath the guard, he looked at the part where the weapon had originally been cracked by the Mizukage during his first actual spar. Thankfully, he had used his odd coral kekkei genkai in order to fix the break and strengthen the sword back to a point where it was arguably better than it had been before it got cracked. Locking his eyes on Homare, he bent slightly through his knees as he put his feet slightly apart for more grounded footing. He was as ready now as he was going to get.

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare honestly thought she had done what she could to make the rules somewhat balanced, being mostly unaware that the other Genin had actually not had very much training in Bukijutsu, and so she hoped that these rules would actually benefit him and restrict her. She prepares herself by getting into a combat stance, holding her golden blunted weapons in each of her lower hands and keeping her two upper arms folded together and out of the way behind her. Then she rushes in at Ken, using her sword-like weapon in a thrust towards his chest to try and make him go off-balance, and then quickly following up with a "slash" from her axe-like tool.

She was actually moving at full speed, so they should match one another a bit when it comes to weapon speed without causing too much harm thanks to the blunted edges of her weapons. However, because she'd never actually practiced the attack before, the second thrown attack actually puts her a bit off-balance, but she goes down into a roll to recover, with her arms coming off from each other only to help her with the roll and ensure that she didn't actually land fully on her own appendages and cause herself any serious injury. When she comes back up, it's clear that she had failed in the use of the technique and was chastising herself a bit on the poor execution, even if it was her first time trying it out.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

And just like that, their spar began. Maintaining his footing as he allowed Homare to approach him, he instantly started keeping track of as many of her movements as he could, trying to pick up on any potential tells while also attempting to get an accurate read on exactly how fast she could move or react to counter actions. Given the way in which his mind worked, it was a shame he could not yet get his body to move along with it perfectly yet, meaning there was some level of delay between him noticing an attack and him moving to avoid it. The reaction time that was built into the human brain that was arguably the same for everyone, but one he wished to shorten as much as he could.

The first attack was a relatively simple one, and one that could in theory be avoided relatively easily. It was the forward thrust that was aimed to force him into moving, which was made considerably more difficult when he knew that Homare not only had multiple arms, but multiple weapons too. But since she had put one pair of arms out of the way and held her axe on one side and her sword on the other, there was at least one thing he could do right away. Waiting for the thrust to get within range, Ken would move his sword slightly to the side before pushing it back against the side of the incoming sword, aiming instead to throw the young woman off-balance. But that was not all it did.

Having decided to move into his strike, he would allow his own bokken to trace along the length of Homare's weapon, running it all the way to its base in an attempt at striking her in the chest. The important factor here was that he knew quite well that a thrust generated forward momentum, which was really useful when performing certain attacks, but would act in a detrimental fashion if the attack failed and a counter attack came their way. But perhaps the best thing about this particular counter was that he had factored in the other two arms holding the axe, which was why he had stepped in to push against her weapon from the side opposite to the axe. This meant that, if she wanted to use it against him, she would have next to no way of stopping the counter attack.

If she were to attack by shifting herself for a strike with the axe, Ken's sword would move along with it and undoubtedly strike her against the chin due to being forced to move along as well. But it would allow her a chance to strike back, if she was willing to take the hit. If she were to break off the attack and move away, his own counter would likely fall short. Whatever the case might be, he was confident that his insightful counter attack was going to be more than sufficient.

[Mayonaka Homare]

What Ken is likely not aware of, and what Homare had not told him, was that she had actually received not just the set training from the Academy on weapon use, but even personal training from one of the premier swordmasters of Kirigakure, though Sora was not a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. The counterattack is one that is generally the least effective against a thrust, usually much better against a caught and locked strike. However, Ken is fighting with two hands on his weapon, while Homare has only one for her axe and one for her katana, and while this does mean that her own attacks are physically weaker than any one of his attacks, it also means that she has significantly more flexibility in how she can respond to his own counterattacks.

Instead of trying to fully block the counterattack to her chest, she shifts around the attack while keeping her blade between his own weapon and herself, seeming to flow around the counter in order to continue the swing of her axe. Unfortunately, her balance is still heavily offset by the attempt to swing the axe and having to use the flowing block to keep the counterattack from striking her, and so she quickly drops back anyway in order to keep her footing. She would definitely have to figure out a better method of using the technique without leaving herself so dangerously open, perhaps by putting a little less energy into the feinting thrust?

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Ittoryu: Ryuurei Fusagu [One Sword Style: Flowing Block]
RANK: D
STAMINA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Bukijutsu
ELEMENT: N/a
HANDSEALS: N/a
DESCRIPTION: Less a set technique and more a way of utilizing one’s weapon to the fullest, Ryuurei Fusagu is designed around one core concept- the art of "flowing,” like water, around an attack in order to open up new angles and create opening in an opponent’s defenses that would not naturally be there if you stand against them face to face. To this end, the steps of the technique are rather simple: the user brings their weapon up to deflect an opponent’s blow as normal, but steps around the attack rather than holding their ground (without dropping their block), thus deflecting the incoming blow while forcing their enemy into a momentary overextension, opening them up for a counter-strike. Though quite useful, this technique is limited to use in close quarters, and is utterly useless at range.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

Unsuccessful. Even though his strike had been going exactly where he had wanted it to, at some point, it felt as though his weapon was no longer running along another weapon. It was almost as if it had suddenly been taken along by something liquid that guided his Bokken elsewhere. And if there were someone who knew a lot about liquids, it would be the person who could actually turn his entire body into one. So he knew what he felt, even though it was really nothing more than a feeling. Still, as his sword was being moved away from its intended target, he could see the turning of her body in a way that would quickly bring the axe back into play. It was something he had to put a stop to, one way or the other.

Shifting herself around the attack in the way she did as his weapon more or less flowed off, there were honestly only so many 'good' options and responses available, as well as a lot of bad ones that were obviously out of the question. But as he was in the process of a response, that was when he noticed it. The axe coming in as she angled her body in to attack by having to face in his direction first had seemingly thrown her off balance. Using the momentum of his strike that was now hitting nothing, he would keep himself going but lower himself considerably to the floor. Flowing the momentum right into his now extended leg to attempt a leg sweep, he imagined his lowered position, her lessened footing and his strike aimed for the legs would be enough to break off a continued assault.

[Mayonaka Homare]

Although she had been able to avoid being struck by the counterattack, she certainly couldn't handle the new loss of balance caused by attacking with two weapons like this, and that combined with Ken's leg sweep ensured that the Mayonaka girl would fall, with her upper and middle arms disengaging from one another in order to brace her from falling all the way down onto her back. From this rather less advantageous position, she's not quite as strong as a firmly-footed opponent, but she can still make good use of this position that is not likely to be encountered by any other kind of enemy.

She brings her katana back down towards the top of Ken's head, though the attack would do little more than cause a sting of pain and bounce her arm back up even if it should connect, though a near miss would strike his collarbone or his shoulder; she didn't put in enough force to seriously hurt anything. With her strike made, she'd use her arms to flip herself back up into an upright position, now with the practice axe held in front of her and the bokken made of her own golden spider string now held back and level with her waist, tip pointed forward in preparation of a thrust. Homare might have blundered in her initial attack, but she might have shown Ken that she knows a thing or two about using weapons.

[Hōzuki Keneō]

With the successful sweep of the leg, Ken watched as Homare started going down. At this point, he made no attempt at going in for another attack as this was a sparring session, not some kind of fight to the death to see who would forever be the better combatant. He was plenty content with how this had played out so far, as the use of taijutsu was still something he was only recently starting to work into his repertoire of moves. That said though, he felt like he wasn't all that bad at it, as long as he stuck to the fundamentals and wouldn't try to make it his main style of fighting. For him, the goal was still to get better at various forms of ninjutsu and the use of his weapons after all. Everything else was merely an addition.

As Homare fell, Ken remained watchful of her moves as the fact that she possessed various limbs more than he did made her into a formidable foe that was hard to properly estimate in terms of threat level. With most people, he knew what to look for and what to count on since there were exactly two arms and two legs to watch out for. With her however, the fact that her anatomy was quite different and allowed her to strike from various angles and with multiple limbs at once meant that it was difficult to estimate what she could and could not do when compared to someone with less arms. And for good reason, as an attack still managed to come at him even as she was falling. This likely would have been considerably more dangerous had it been a bladed weapon.

But seeing as how she was entirely off balance, he managed to still protect his head by raising his wooden sword above him with one hand at either side. Blocking one blunt weapon with another blunt weapon, the attack just kind of slid off as she tumbled over, which prompted Ken to take two steps back and more or less put his guard down, at least physically.

"Did you get what you needed out of that? I'm getting kinda hungry."

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare's attack fails to strike true, but that was also a good thing; it meant that Ken was still skillful enough with the blade to be able to defend against even attacks that might come from odd directions, even if he didn't believe himself as capable without Ninjutsu. Granted, Homare feels that she didn't really get what she needed out of this training spar, since she hadn't correctly performed the technique even once yet. She wonders if perhaps it's partly due to the fact that her axe isn't nearly as long as her regular katana is, and she considers breaking the rule in order to make use of her clan's golden thread to create a second katana from hardened gold spit to match the first katana.

But no, Homare is honorable, especially when it comes to rules she put into their training spar herself. She sighs a bit when Ken mentions that he's getting hungry, and one of her upper hands presses against her forehead, as though trying to hold in her disappointment in both herself and the way the training is going. It was a rare moment where her stoic face was not quite so firmly planted over her real emotions. Meanwhile, her middle hands work to gradually change the axe into a second katana; it wasn't using Ninjutsu, and so she felt this much was fine.

"If you will humor me but a moment longer, I will even pay for your meal myself, if you like."

With that, she reaches her lower hand back up to grip the handle of the second golden blunted katana, testing the weight distribution of it in the same hand with a quick flourish. It really does feel much more natural to the Genin, and so she actually tries the technique a few more times, working on thrusting with one and then immediately following up with various strikes and slashes across and around the thrust with the second blade. Almost right away, her balance and her attacks seem much better, and when she's doing it well enough to feel comfortable, she turns towards Ken to see if he had been paying attention to her testing with it.

"My movements... are they ugly? Or do you think I'm doing the technique correctly? It is hard to judge when I am the one doing the technique and I am no master..."

His outside perspective might give her enough insight to know if she's doing it correctly. Even as she asks, she's starting to pull the purse that holds her money from within her clothing, hidden away to keep it from being pickpocketed as she starts considering how much this meal might cost her...

[Hōzuki Keneō]

"Honestly, i'm not sure if i'm the right person to ask about that sort of thing. I'm not really that good of a swordsman myself. But sure, we can continue for a bit longer."

Sighing after he spoke, he twirled the wooden sword in his hand for a bit, regaining his sense of balance and grip as he looked towards the Mayonaka girl, who seemingly had something different on her mind right now as he didn't outright move to attack him after he said he was fine to proceed. There was a level of unhappiness with her own moves, which made sense as he frequently felt inadequate when he tried to apply his skills against other people. Usually, he ended up getting hit over the head or in his gut with a practice blade before long, though that was also because he had a tendency of asking those above him in skill and experience for training.

"But I guess if I was to point something out, there were some moments where your footing seemed... shaky. Perhaps the difference in shape and weight between a handaxe and a katana threw you off-balance."

There had been some moments he had been able to make use of, though that was also because no technique was ever truly perfect. When there were two people who held a sword, it only made sense that one would look for flaws and openings left by the other, so called gaps in their armor for lack of a better word. When Ken had seen how she struggled to bring in her secondary weapon, which in this case was the axe, that was when he did his best to make the most of his own skill in an attack of his own. And that wasn't to say that her skills were bad or ugly or lacking, it just meant that she either didn't fully control the move yet, or that his own counter move was better in that instance.

"So it's not like they're 'ugly', you might just be attempting a technique with weapons that weren't meant for it, thus setting yourself up for failure. So you either need to figure out a way to adapt to where your point of balance would be or somehow distribute the weight better, or attempt it with the weapons that were meant for it."

That was really all that he could say on the matter. Whether or not he was right on the mark or not hardly even mattered at this point, as he merely stated what he had seen in an attempt at being helpful rather than trying to come across as condescending or mean.

[Mayonaka Homare]

She feels a bit annoyed when Ken states that he is also not a master, which was not what she had really been insinuating, but she also realizes she hadn't been entirely clear with what she meant. Homare had simply meant that she wasn't enough of a master to know from her own usage of the technique if she was doing it correctly, and so an outside pair of eyes might find mistakes she's making more easily. The statement that her footing was shaky when she had been using both a hand axe and a sword was perhaps throwing her weight around too much and putting her off-balance. Therefore, even weapons that match one another in weight and balance would almost definitely ensure that she can manage to stay balanced herself.

It was something to consider. At least he told her that her usage of the technique wasn't ugly, it just wasn't meant to work with two different weapons, but instead for using two similarly weighted weapons. That's good enough for her, she can practice with two blades some other time; for now, she feels she might as well get Ken a meal so that this training will have been worth it for him to participate in.

"Well, we will make a sword master out of you yet. For now, I made a promise to pay for your meal after training, so I should make good on that promise. Where are we going for this meal?"

She's already putting away her weapons, readying herself to leave the training field. Homare clearly felt that she'd spent more than long enough on this one technique; she could perfect it herself some other time, now that she thinks she knows what she's been doing wrong with the jutsu she had been struggling with.