*[Yoshin • Crushing Grip of the Great Serpent]
A-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Prerequisite(s): 35 Speed.
A technique designed to utterly maim and debilitate one's opponent, the practitioner will launch a flurry of strikes, all targeting key muscle groupings, tendons, joints, and gaps in the skeletal structure such as the ribs and spine. As the strikes make contact and sink into the opponent's flesh, the practitioner will violently twist the blade upon entry and upon exit. The violent twist will cause miniature air pockets to form and violently expand in the wound with a Strength equal to half of the practitioner's Strength stat, rounded down. These air pockets worsen the damage and bleeding, rendering the affected parts of the body and any parts of the body directly connected to them immobile and paralyzed unless the opponent has a Rigid Structure technique of equal or higher rank than this technique that protects bones, muscles, or skin against damage. For example, a blow to the shoulder would render the entire arm below it limp, and a blow to the spine would render anything below the affected vertebrae paralyzed. This paralysis is permanent until the opponent seeks highly skilled medical attention.
"So, you're finally getting it." The man's long hair swept across his sweaty face as he let his guard drop for the first time in a while as he exhaled slowly allowed for his rapid breathing to slow in the process. "A little, I think." Both men laughed and smiled at one another, it had been a rather intense sparring session for Zao and Sanzo as the two continued to press one another until the more experienced Taijutsu user, Sanzo, had started to pressure Zao into a corner. Taking a break after the round had finished the two men wandered off to the side, grabbing some water the man's friend spoke. "Your precision with the blade is good, but I must say you are kind of weak in the strength department, my friend." Though the muscular jounin was picking on his slender sparring partner at the moment he was just pointing out the obvious, but Zao knew that his strength was one of his personal weaknesses. It had always been something he knew and thus worked diligently with his ninjutsu and summoning to be able to cover and hide it from others. Shaking his head almost dismissively towards the larger man Zao tilted his head back as he gulped down some water from the water bottle as went over the last round in his head taking in both the good and bad, and where he could improve with his technique against his comrade.
Though he wasn't able to fully digest the round as the other man placed his strong hand upon the slender white haired shinobi's left shoulder as Zao turned to him, "I wasn't finished brother, I've been analyzing your speed and control. From what I can tell even though you lack raw physical power your ability to strike at the smallest opening and with the utmost precision. Thus, I want to teach you a technique that I learned from the Yoshin style. I normally wouldn't offer to teach this technique as it requires a profound understanding of the human body and its nervous system, but you are far more experienced in the medical field than I'll ever be." This new revelation from Sanzo cause for Zao to take a step back, of course he'd heard of the Waterfall country style of fast swordsmanship that targeted vulnerable points of the body, but the precision needed to pull off attacking pinpoint areas in the mist of combat was almost unthinkable. Yet, his friend and college wanted to teach him? A short while later the middle-aged man found himself standing before a man size target with several dime sized dots painted onto it and combining this with his own knowledge of the human body the bannin was able to visualize all of these points on a living target.
In order to use this technique successfully Sanzo had explained to him that he needed to not only strike the tiny dot with the tip of the sword almost perfectly in the center but that it was a two-step strike that Zao needed to produce a twisting motion at the end to create additional damage to the target. The warmup was just him slowly striking with his single arm at each of the dots, committing them to memory and allowing him to strike at each through instinct alone, strike after strike. When Zao felt he had a decent starting grasp of the technique, and the striking areas was when the muscular man stepped in and as Zao attempted to hit the target rocks were thrown at him forcing him to dodge and often completely miss the mark with his strikes. But a determined man wasn't so easily swayed as he slowly improved and in return the taijutsu user started to use kunai forcing the man to dodge or be injured by the actual thrown weapons. Then after several days of working he managed to get a perfect strike back-to-back, it was at this point that the throwing weapons stopped and Sanzo himself stepped in between Zao and the target withdrawing two short swords. "Not bad, but now you have to do that while I try to defend the target. This will be the true test you'll have to pass to say that you've gained the initial mastery over the Crushing Grip of the Great Serpent..."
/400