Naruto Saigen Roleplay

One dreary winter morning in which many had been mourning, the young Kaguya maiden Ou did find herself contouring. She went about the workshop yes, made of her room you see? Out grown it though she surely had, so expand it had to be. The white haired prospect gathered it up, her belongings and took them in.

For whatever reason, she set up a forge at the battlegrounds down at the inn. It was a good location. Thst was for sure, a nice intersection of roads. Many could pass through here for sure, perhaps she could set up a store. The goads of the lode and the load and the loads, the loaves, the knows, the nose, the pose. Each of these things were a taxing misfortune, a bellowing flame in the embers she'd forge in. She started with stone, formed it into a circle. She widened it out, she gave it some speckles. At the end of the drying, she speckled and freckled. Delighted, excited, even almost ignited, she worked fervently onwards and fervishly bited.

Hammering away, the Kaguya was quite busy. She tended the fires, the flames of her furnace. Her forge, her tempest, her flaming red earnest. The red glowing stone had been reduced to molten. It bellowed exceptional heat, not to touch, or else hello. The hell one could feel from touching this molten stone, was nothing compared to the grotesque task of bone. She forged it out smoothly, taking her sweet time. She brought it forth from bone from her marrow, with craftsmanship, care, practice, and time. It was a long drawn out method, not rushed in the slightest.

The bones they did ossify and yet they were off the high, she worked back and forth, now pleased with her setup, she decided to take break and go for a get up. Some training would do, for sure, she could even do both. She brought forth her bones and shaped them out in her mind's eye. This particular design was going to make people cry. She knew it was true, as soon as she thought it. Oh well, she supposed. She'd already wrought it. She conjured up courage and tremors inside. She wrought it with malice, yet precision and kind. She formed the shape based on the design of the bruises. Two round circles, made of bone, with a length of cord in between them, betwixt them, made of tiny splintered bones, like chains.

A Bola she had made, for sure, of her own bones and such. A prototype, for certain, that much she knew for sure to be definitely true. To try it out. Nonetheless, was what was was to do. She tossed the Bola at an passing critter of the night. Even against such a small frail target, she knew it wouldn't do. The chains were just to small to hold up, she had to change the design twas true. She would get it right, for sure, she had the right idea. A hybrided corded projectile weapon, was certainly a stretch. She'd make it work, She'd work it first, and leave out all the wretch.

Again she conjured, bringing forth her limbs, a bit of bone that extended from within. From the arm bones long, it spread out to song. Then stretched out thin and became corded, threaded, like rope, intertwined, and even thin. Yet retained its strength just as she had intended. For sure she had the method down now, for bone threading. She made another one, taking the bone from her shin. Then another, the bone from her ribs. Then the thigh, the other shin, then another from her chin. From the collar bones, from the shoulder blades, from the spine, from the sins.

She worked the bones out and practiced in repeat the methods. She worked it until it was nothing but memory. On command, she could produce it, from almost anywhere. Rope if bone, of any thickness, on demand, on command. A useful new tool to add to the box. She made a Bola now, and tossed it down the lot. Two large spheres, made of bone at the ends of cord. A tripping, trapping, disabling trap hazard. In the right persons hands, a dark evil tool. Not quite yet for this warrior, but with training, who knew? Anything could happen when one had the right mindset. Who knows, things could get worse, for sure. Or better, or cursed.

It wasn't enough, she needed to perfect the method. It wasn't quite right, she needed a second. She thought on it long and she thought on it hard, she made new developments and prototypes and littered the yard. She cleaned it all up and then set back to work, she supposed she could try giving the cord a jerk. She set back to work and then jerked the bone outwards. It left from her elbow, and spindled like chains. The bones connected in sequences, it was exactly as tamed. She shot out the Bola, this one straight from the arm. It hit at a training dummy, way down the yard. It wrapped round its legs, not a bad hit. But she needed a moving target for sure. Still, she wasn't quite fit. For now she'd make the weapons and practice a bunch. If someone were willing, she'd sit down for lunch. For now it was early though and the sun was just up. Her new forge was running hot, and the intersection was soon to be busy. The training grounds would likely fill up as the city awakes from the slumber which takes them at night.

Still though she persisted and continued her training. Through the mist, she created the bones. From her arms, she shot forth a Bola. A corded projectile, meant to entangle. Another she made, and shot under the glade. From the upper arm now, rather than the forearms avow. The next Bola came out from her neck, straight behind her. By twisting and turning, it shot off through the air. Without a care to be fair, the continued the chore. Not a bore but a lesson, she summoned forth her best then. Bringing forth great muster, bones from all the bluster. Another Bola struck out, then another, then some others. She sent them out cleanly, in sequences and sundered. She continued to practice it and made sure not to falter. Not until it was perfect, but until she could not make a mistake.


1077/1000


†Death Bone Pulse: Bola
D-Ranked Taijutsu
Ossifying bones from anywhere on their body, the user will create up to three bola and launch them outwards (or throw them). The Bola have a strength equal to the users and have a cord roughly half a meter long and on strike will wrap around whatever was struck, snaring it. They are considered both projectile and corded weapons.

In a time before the Great War, in a time before the rank of bannin, Aimi Kaguya did some training in the misty night...

As Ou went about her business creating weapons from bone there came the distinct sound of sound metal clashing against bone though there was nothing to see at first. Through the fog of night came Aimi Kaguya, a cousin, holding his longsword down at his side in one hand and one of the bolas that Ou had made in the other. He stopped when he came within eyesight of Ou and, yep, that was Ou alright. That mask of hers was always so distinct it was easy to pick her out from a crowd. She was like some short parody of an ANBU member in dark clothing. None of the Kaguya were short on individual characteristics but Ou certainly had a style all her own.

Holding up the bone bolas aloft Aimi called out, "Oi, watch where you're throwing these!" before smiling, chuckling softly, and tossing the bones to the ground with a satisfying clatter. "You know there's our own personal training ground back at the Kaguya compounds, what are you doing out here?" he asked before immediately deciding that he didn't care one way or the other. She was a genin training in the middle of the night all by her lonesome. Who hadn't? Taking a few steps forward and away from Ou Aimi reached down behind his back and removed the scroll he carried there before kneeling on the ground and opening it up. "I'm restless and could use some exercise. Don't aim those things at me, 'kay?" he communicated before making a short series of handseals and pressing his hand to the opened scroll. A puff of smoke surrounded him for a few seconds during which time he stood up and grabbed a hold of the special case that contained twenty of his longswords side by side.

With a flick of his wrist they were airborne and came raining down around him and away from Ou, covering a 10 meter radius at random angles and positions. He sat the case down on top of the open scroll and lifted his drawn sword up to rest on his shoulder. What would he train in his Mugen, Infinite One Sword Style, tonight? As he was pondering this the sound of foot steps came through the darkness and the mist prompting him to lift his head to meet their coming. The light of the forge illuminated the figure of yet another ninja, one that Aimi didn't know, in standard Kirigakure gear. "What exactly is going on here?" the ninja questioned and Aimi smiled. "Just a bit of training! Actually, you're just in time, would you mind helping me with this?" he asked the stranger.

"Help you?" they asked but as they were speaking Aimi was already on the move, dashing forth and darting between his blades until he was behind the ninja who had enough time to realize that Aimi was gone and begin to look behind him before the jounin struck, cleaving his blade into the ninja's back and leaving them momentarily stunned - long enough to grab another of his blades from the ground around him and strike again, spinning on the spot and embedding the blade in their side. He would continue like this, intricately spinning - practically dancing - as he moved around this poor passerby and leaving his blades in him like some sort of grotesque parody of a voodoo doll. He stopped when he had left twelve blades in them, grabbing a thirteenth and standing in front of their gored body. Blood leaked and spurted from them, a terrible ring of viscera surrounding their feet and the immediate area. Aimi himself had managed to remain bloodless somehow.

As the traumatized shinobi looked at Aimi in the eyes, hardly able to even whimper, the jounin lifted his thirteenth blade up high over his head, grabbing a hold of it with both hands, before bringing it down to exact a terrible sequel to his assault. He struck each and every one of the swords he had left clinging to his fellow ninja's body a second time in sequence. The sound of metal hitting against metal like so many bells mixed with the sickening squelch of cut flesh as the swords were forced deeper into his targets' body. When at last the final blade had been struck all twelve of the blades would dislodge themselves from the ninja's body, Aimi having struck them at such an angle and at such a speed that their removal was more or less simultaneous. Aimi stood back with longsword in hand and watched as the man stood on shaky legs. He looked the older Kaguya in the eye, shaking, nearly on the verge of collapse before asking simply, "Why...?"

Aimi scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, calm down. I'm going to heal you in a second. You'll be fiiiiiiiiiine!" It was all that he had time to say before the ninja began to collapse. Aimi Kaguya, true to his word, thus took the first step in healing him by moving forward, quick as he liked, and taking the first step in repairing the mans' body by lying him down on his back which. Each sword removed was impaled into the ground around them and left to pool blood in the street.

Such were the hyper energetic whims of Aimi Kaguya.

400/400

Mondai left his home screaming to his family "See you later I'm gonna go and train!" before he packed his longsword and decided to explore a new location to train. As he found his new place and as soon as he turned the corner he saw two Kaguya one training some sort of odd bolo jutsu and another was peering over an incredibly injured body healing it back into shape. For some reason, he never got to train allows it was almost as if his training was haunted. Aimi was a face he didn't expect to see after his ass-kicking as Mondai would call it personally by Shinjiro. "OI! Aimi-sama! I got past the "basics" as you called it eeerrrr' at least some of them! Still got stances to work on but I'm getting there!" Mondai in his confusion simply nodded to the other Kaguya and threw his gear next to a dummy and drew his folding long falchion out of its sheath. He went into a fairly neutral stance which was Langort a simple forward-facing stance with the blade pointed forward. He had studied the gist of the previous techniques from his family but had his family's combat book just in his bag just in case he needed a refresher.


He warmed up his joints through dynamic stretching and doing light shadow sparring. Before he went into 'true' focus and visualized a warrior, a master of in the art of swordplay, katana in hand while the rain trickled down his skin only him and Mondai nothing else a duel to the death, a dance of blood and steel. As he imagined that they rushed towards each other he also imagined the real emotions of a raw one-on-one duel. Fear, adrenaline, and exhilaration all in one. During his shadow fight, he constantly saw one slash that had the ability to land yet it was always dodged and blocked no matter which way he switched it up. Vertical cuts, low cuts, but he knew that he needed to use Weschel or Change guard to catch him off guard and slice his legs to ribbons. As they fought he continuously switched into Weschel yet every time it was either of axis or his cuts were off its target. Then he finally nailed it it was perfect perfectly pointed just low and deep enough that it was out of peripheral view, the blade was pointed between the feet of his foe and he quickly without telegraphing did a cur resembling a windmill, slashing the fictional swordsmen legs before transitioning to slash his torso in two ending the battle. Now he only needed to try it out in real life to see if he had truly mastered the technique. Mondai placed himself near the dummy then pointed his sword towards the dummy he intentionally missed a downwards slash in order to gauge the distance properly before he flipped his sword over so the flat pointed downwards before slashed in a circling windmill like motion. It worked like a gem and the dummy was soon neatly sliced into three small pieces. He turned around and looked towards Aimi awaiting judgment. "So what do ya think? It's nothing fancy yet but trust me it will pay off in the end! You will see!" He turned towards the other Kaguya and started walking towards her before he introduced himself! "Names Yūgana, Mondai bled for the Karagata family!" Before he turned around again and looked at his family's old book filled with ancient attacks and techniques he moved down the long list to the next step in his path to mastery.

602/600

Now was the time, the young Kaguya supposed. It was a wonderful thing some days, having a cousin. A family. People that could understand. Their was a certain amount of weight, a pressure, with being a Kaguya. Others just wouldn't understand, she supposed. She shot a greetings to her cousin, truly, a prodigy in the making. One day soon, perhaps, a legendary shinobi yet. Her mask she did remove now, for she was not truly at work. Her pale face was said to be sweet, or so she'd been told. "Good morning to you, our cousin." She spoke up in the fog.

"No promises, she chuckled," at the Bola comment they'd made. For sure though of course, they would aim then elsewhere. But then a thought did persist, naye made a stand. "If you are here, perhaps then it is destiny." She spoke again after a moment of consideration. "It feels good. For the first time, we're free." Her face died. She began to contort, ossify and exhort. Produce abhorrent marrow shards outwards from her person. A visage of a number yet given a lesson.

"Let's have a go then." She gave to them both.

"Form One" She gave it a go, a vicious and wretched and contouring contorting grandeous show. She turned on a dime, she imagined eight circles. Eight circles and then eight circles. Eight circles within eight circles. Eight circles and then eight circles. She made the pattern out, she spells it out in her mind's eyes. The young warrior persisted, taking on a gloomy visage as their stance shifted weight towards the cat. On tip toes, weight shifted, yet crouched at the knees. Suddenly a leg darted out, and a jumping cartwheel had twisted. No longer a cartwheel, but a twirling corkscrew wheel, three Bola shot out, first at the cousin, then three more at the newcomer. They were thrown with precision, and given such a twirl, if they were to hit they would for sure cause a stir. Aimed at the legs, the blade hand, and the throat, she landed cleanly, on one leg, having produced such a show. The other landed after and yet they moved in motion again.

Jumping immediately and changing direction acutely, the young shinobi bounced through the air again as before. Faster, she thought, and she tried it again. A volley of Bola, this time all three rounds at once. One at the blade hand, one at the other hand, the last at the legs. Faster, she thought again. There was no way she would let it go. For certain, the shinobi would go through it in tow. Landing just now, she looked at them now, mustering her will to bring about hell's row. She landed then jumped, one leg after the other. She mustered up her will, her strength, her resolve, and her grit. She brought forth her training and quickness and deft hands as a gift. Acrobatics prowess rang true through the bone. A marrowed end marrow shards in flight from within. A long darting jump that such changed directions, the young genin felt a tad taxed as this one had cost them. As they jumped through the air, they used their deft hands yet, they spiraled through the movements like an Octopus prey.

In each of their hands, they withdrew four bone needles. They launched themselves through the air, spinning in a three sixty. They fired each of them in sequences, two each at a time. In following the movement's, they followed the rhyme. A macabre dance, a spiraling notion of throwing, a look of dark gloomy gleam in the most cunning of mist honing. One senbon each at all of the eight targets, at a decent pace for training but not intended to kill, the needles flew home towards the two friends and the dummies too still. One aimed at the hand and the other at the eye, she threw them all at once in the blink of an eye. At four separate targets she had tossed the lot. She had brought bone to fruition. She had given it thought. The young forge maiden landed, yes still was not satisfied. She needed it perfected, one could not fault her for that. Through grit and through sweat and the calm of the morning mourning mists, the young Kaguya disciple spoke into the midst. Our name is Kaguya, Ou, bled for...The New Seven." She jumped again, twirling through the air and landing on a tree branch, her mask having appeared upon her face now, having appeared halfway during the landing. Her eyes showed brilliantly through the morning light, and the red dots were prominently displayed along her head. The pale visage of the mist's symbol loomed about as well, carefully fashioned during this creation. "It is our pleasure to serve you; as always." She lept again, again she spiraled, though this time with a change in direction. The other facing, she brought forth four senbon of bone yet again. The genin up and coming was here in the mist. With deft hands again she brought out her marrow needles. Tossing them at once, she motioned her arms yet. A volley of needles, two aimed at each target. Again, two at a dummy, two at a cousin, two at a dummy, two at a new friend? The thought crossed her mind. Perhaps two new friends? Who new? Time would certainly tell. For now training was nice, she could break out of her shell. She tossed the needles about in a row of precisely tuned marks. The needles they rang truly through the air like the hawks. At the targets each she aimed a bit of the needles, but separately she had aimed each of the two in the pairs. In a circular motion, she invisible them now.

A needle towards the blade hand, a needle towards the other. At the dummies, she'd aimed for the heart. This was the sequence for now it would seem, but better yet, she decided to polish it keen. To clean it up more, she took it to the next step. She performed a kai, and more dummies were produced yet. These dummies they moved, they were basically puppets. Quite useless in combat, akin to bone Muppets. For this purpose however they would certainly most do. They darted about and leaped and swung around too. An obstacle course maneuver bone technique of her own making, they attacked at the others nearby as well, though one came at her to, forsaken.

In total now their were twelve moving figures. Two training dummies sat solo, whilst Ou and the others sat amidst nine lingering bone dummies. They moved as though Genin, had roughly the same stats. "A skirmish? If you will? Let's get that injured one out of here." Asked Kaguya, Ou. Nine dummies versus three shinobi.

"Lettuce fuck." She said, and jumped once again. If it was a skirmish, it could be fun then. She twisted once again and brought forth more precision. More will, more persistence, more grit, and more bone. She brought forth ten needles this time, She aimed them quite precisely, and made sure to mark true, she even added a sequence of kicks to make room. A needle each at one of ten targets. She examined it keenly, and launched the needles true. A bone from each finger, and from the thumb too, they rang through the air towards the hands of the drones. One needle too at the throat of the drones, the last extra needle she sent down towards a dummy, striking it squarely where the eye would be.

1271/1000 speed

Ah, Mondai was there too. He approached the two Kaguya and called out to Aimi specifically, making the jounin lift his head up and look at the younger ninja... much to the dismay of the injured ninja beneath him who reached up weakly to try and get Aimis' attention. "P-p-please..." they pleaded. Aimi, without looking, placed his hand over the injured ninjas' and forced it down. "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhut the fuck up," he said before smiling at Mondai and giving him a small wave. "Yo. Making progress, huh? That's good, that's good," he said before Ou took his attention away from Mondai. She spoke, ossified bone, and began to... leap and jump around. He watched her for a moment or so and, when she sent fragments of bone in his direction, deflected her projectiles with ease. She was young yet and had nothing on him when it came to pure physicality. Different from him in how she applied her taijutsu, she seemed to favor a more flowery approach to moving around. Jumping, twisting, flipping around made you a difficult target, sure, but in Aimis' experience it was more of a waste of energy which is why he did such things as little as possible.

The injured ninja groaned underneath him and, admittedly, it sounded pretty bad. "Alright, alright, knock it off, Ou," he said to the younger Kaguya before turning back to the ninja he'd slashed up practically to bits. He looked down at their extensive injuries and let out a sigh. Multiplication was certainly an effective tool for ending a life. Without the presence of a medical ninja immediately on hand, like himself, this would have been fatal to most individuals. Fortunately for this random bystander he was in fact a medical ninja and he could in fact fix this. Standing up and sheathing his sword in the ground next to him Aimi threw together a string of seals, took in a deep breath and then breathed out.

From his mouth came a ball of green flame, the same color as most iijutsu, that formed in the air over the body of the fallen ninja. It hovered in the air and burned stationary, giving off a soft, comforting warmth. This warmth could be felt up to 10 meters away which covered pretty much the entire area that his swords were planted in the ground, meaning that not only would the ninja benefit from this jutsu but so too would Mondai, Aimi and Ou if they happened to get injured for a while. Beneath the flame the severely wounded shinobi's wounds began to heal slowly, the bleeding stopping first followed by the flesh beginning to seal. The progress was slow, slower than it would have been were it but a single injury on the body, but there was progress. All 12 of the deep cuts were healing themselves gradually.

"Alright, there, you're healing. Stay still, stay quiet, and you'll be fine in no time," Aimi assured the ninja. He tapped his foot on the ground twice before turning his back on the wounded ninja. "Remember to breath," he advised more or less sarcastically. He knew that this jutsu really didn't require the patient to do anything for it to work. It radiated chakra in exactly the same way as the iijutsu Mystical Palm over a sizeable area, passively healing anyone and everyone within it. He'd developed this jutsu to free up his hands since, realistically, despite his technically being a medical ninja, he was really never treated like one. His talents in murder and destruction far outweighed the more or less textbook basics that he knew of iijutsu. This green flame, however, was something he'd developed to suit his own needs and better combine his attributes... well, that, and...

Realistically this jutsu served something of a darker purpose than other iijutsu. The truth of the matter was is that Aimi was aware that his shinobi profile was more situational to have him as an offensive striker, the kind of ninja you'd send in to bust up a fortress or to take down an especially dangerous target. It would be rare that he used this jutsu to actually heal someone because, frankly, there were few shinobi who he could team up with that would perform his usual job better than him. Thus this jutsu had been developed with a two fold purpose; the aforementioned utility of an iijutsu that could heal multiple people in an area of effect, but it would more likely be used to satisfy his own sadistic urges when they happened. This jutsu lasted for a while and it healed indiscriminately. If it came to it and the scenario were just right, Aimi could see himself using this jutsu to keep an enemy alive longer so that he could extract more punishment from them.

It was with this thought in mind that the Kaguya looked back down at the healing ninja at his feet. His hard face took on a more sinister air to it in the green glow of the fire. There was a glint of satisfaction in his eye as he watched his victim heal, knowing full well that once he was in a few moments, he could break him again...

400/400

"My apologies, Aimi." She said after a moment. She'd paused for a while and soaked in nothingness for a moment. "I have something nasty that I'd like to try out. It will take some time, but I think it will pay out." She looked at him for a moment and then took a few steps forwards. Indeed then, her hands went up. They grasped at her mask and removed it from their brow. Her pale face was revealed for a moment. "Can you heal chemical burns to lungs?" She asked with a completely dead serious face. Her hands then began to weave and she thought in her head. She visualized the passages of chakra in her head. She had taken the lessons, started out quite a number.

For now, she would begin to weave the seals differently. She needed to add bits in pieces and pieces. Grinding together, yet separated too. Condensed, dispersed, and encroaching anew. A long moment she sat and developed a mist. It wasn't quite what she wanted. It was so tiny, the size of her fist. It was dull blue in color and made her palm damp. She formed seals in it again, while holding onto a dummy. Again, mist appeared from her palms, though this time from only her fingertips. Small, tiny dull blue spheres she had condensed down through considerable effort. But it wasn't still what she wanted, so she cursed under her breath. "Damn" She muttered out, and then paused for a while. She performed a Kai and released a bottle of milk. She popped the top off and drank it down slowly. Deep breathing. Milk would congest you. Would that make it worse? She wondered aloud if it wasn't yet cursed.

She formed the hand seals again and slapped onto the dummy. Again, just some mist pearls, but not what she needed. Again, she performed hand seals and yet this time the mist was green. But only, ever so slightly. It was not working as she wanted. So she looked to the elder. "You combined Fire and Iijutsu then, yes? I saw it with my eyes." She continued after a moment. "What then, do you think if healing an acid mist jutsu? Should I become capable of making it?"



377/1000


Acid Mist Sealing: We Go Down Together
D-Ranked Fuuinnintaijutsu Maneuver
Whilst pivoting on one heel and dropping their hip, the user will form hand seals with one hand while grabbing onto a target with the other, swooping one leg in between the targets legs and attempting to sweep them off their feet whilst also grabbing them. As they do they will ossify the bones in their hand to cause needles to come out from their palms and/or finger tips as well as tiny pearls of acid mist at the tips of the needles. Then, a spew of Acid Mist will be emitted from the pearls outwards in the direction of the needles for a number of posts up to [1/3] the users [chakra pool]. This acid may be used to write a fuuinjutsu on contact that binds the user and the target together with a strength equal to [control].

"Hm? What? Chemical burns?" he asked, turning away from the healing ninja on the ground and facing Ou as she spoke to him. It took him a moment to process her question but once he had he gave a casual shrug of his shoulders. "Yeah, yeah, easy if given enough times. Basic Iijutsu can take care of that easy peasy," he confirmed for her before turning and looking back down at the wounded but healing innocent at his feet. His fire was doing its' job and already the wounds were closing, but it was a slow process all in all - well comparatively slow anyways. The number of wounds that had been sustained would easily be classified as "life threatening". As such there was much more to heal, so the warmth of the flame took longer to work over the entire body than it would have had there been but a single cut. They were still breathing though, even if just slightly, which meant that they were recovering and that was good enough for the bannin.

He monitored his "patient" (read test dummy) for the next several moments, not paying attention to Ou until she spoke up again when he would turn back towards her and once again take a second or two to process and consider her question. "Well yeah. Seemed only logical really to heal up multiple wounded at a time, and I needed a vehicle that wasn't my own hands, so a ball of fire seemed like the easiest thing... though I suppose a skull could have worked as well," he commented, jutting his thumb over his shoulder to point at the floating green ball of healing flame. At the second part of her question he furrowed his brow. "Not sure I understand your question. Do you mean to ask me if I think it's worth your while to learn iijutsu to heal acid mist ninjutsu? Or are you asking if I think it's a good idea to combine iijutsu with acid mist? Because if it's the former... it could be, but the medical arts take a lot of time and dedication to learn, let alone master. It takes some serious chakra control, so do you think you can manage that?"

"If it's the latter though... wouldn't the acid burn at the flesh at roughly the same rate as you were healing it?" he posited, rubbing the back of his head and trying to imagine the jutsu theoretically. The reason that his fireball worked as it did, after all, was because he used his chakra to neutralize the burning capabilities of the flame. Anyone could run their whole body through it and they'd be fine. An acidic healing mist though? He imagined that it would simply be a constant state of agony for whoever was in it, always burning but healing at about the same rate so their flesh would melt, reform, and melt again over and over simultaneously. It was kind of a devious thought, really, but somehow he didn't think that was what Ou meant.

"If you want you can practice on this guy over here. I'll fix him up no matter what we do!" he said cheerfully. His words were followed by a groan of pain that drove his attention back to the ground. "Y-y-you... bastard...!" the ninja seethed, trying to push themselves up from off of the ground and look up at the pair of Kaguya. Aimi glanced down at the ninja and once again rolled his eyes. "Oh, calm down. So long as I heal you nothing will be lethal! It's not like you're dying now, like I used something that would INSTANTLY have killed you!" he rationalized, deciding it would be best to demonstrate his point. He turned on the spot and walked over to where a sword of his was sticking out of the ground in a ring around the fallen, healing ninja.

Grabbing a hold of his blade, Aimi would rip it from the ground and unleash an arching cut straight up into the air with such tremendous speed it could hardly have been said to have occurred at all! In fact, to Ou at least, it would have appeared that he simply grabbed onto the sword and then was holding it slightly above the ground in an instant while directly above him a clearly visible line would form through the mist that rose up higher and higher, temporarily clearing a path through the fog that not only rose to great heights but great lengths as well, the cut in the air every increasing in size as it traveled further and further away until it reached a maximum length of 50 meters and cut a thin hole in the clouds above.

"See that?" Aimi asked, planting the blade back into the ground. "If I'd done THAT to you you would have been cut clean in half, and nothing I could do would have saved you!" he said casually, much to the displeasure of his "patient". "That... doesn't make this... okay...!" they groaned, slowly regaining their strength back as their wounds slowly closed up and they pushed themself up off of the ground. Aimi scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, whatever. You'll get over it and have a cool story to tell! I'm increasing your clout with each passing second!" Aimi bragged.

400/400

Intently then it was that Kaguya, Ou did listen. Glistening mist droplets did whistle in then amidst them. Dull blue in color, it came from the setting. Betting on mist was a win with no threading. Her eyes darted about and she listened keenly to the words. Perhaps then, a mist which can bring something more beneficial. Something not acid, not acidic, not dismissal and abysmal. She thought on it long while listening intently in between. Basic Iijutsu then, could do what she spoke of it would seem. Good, that was good, the mist had many healing shinobi. She supposed the others would too, and that too was good, true. Aimi looked onwards and continued to explain.

"Good, good, I don't have to worry then."

Kaguya, Ou took it all in and made sure not to listen in vain. Her veins then did bulge into a flexed bit of fashion. Her hands moved down quickly and she brushed off her jacket. Her mask had come off after all so now was no time to hack it. Though training was weary and she'd certainly used up much chakra, she considered for a while just how much she could make drama. How was it that people stayed so social in the mists? Maido's influence it would seem had riled up fire in this one's gist. This one, indeed, felt a burning in their soul. A burning like acid, from a deadly cobra's tooth hole. Her eyes then did widen, and she smiled in delight, for a human target dummy live was better than wood. At least, it would be easier to practice. Or, it would be were they standing.

She witnessed the flash, and the wave that brought crash. Indeed, she witnessed it, but didn't comprehend it at all. She saw the wave and the draw of the sword, but the strike itself was so fast her eyes couldn't paint a picture, how abhorred. Delighted with the prospect of such powerful cousins, her mind began to raise. Maido would like that one. She thought to herself then. "That was truly beautiful." Ou finally said quite out loud. She gestured towards the offered target then and took a stance now.

"Get up and come at me then." She poised to the fighter. In a lighter, tighter step, she became fluid in the mists. She dropped down her hip and then pivoted quickly, some hand seals came out with bone needles and it was grizzly. From out of her palms and her finger tips some bones sprouted out about and anew. True they were mottled with acid mists the size of pearls, as one might do. So then she came around and kicked her leg between the target's and then brought her hand. She brought the acid bone concoction jutsu in tighter, and brought dark black chakra into the brand. To brand with this acid, as though a horror tattoo bath then. A long consideration had been put into this task then. Bringing her chakra in tighter, she pretended it was wires. She moved it about and formed it into her fires. Except fire wasn't the game this time, that she would save for later. Either way however, this was sure to be an ill fitting vapor. Her hand went to grab at the hand of the target. Her leg went to sweep, the other hand grasping at shirt collar. In one motion they had turned and brought down the bones. Her right hand went through shirt, and pricked around the collar bones, stabbing at bone. Acid pearls then spewed the flesh, causing the skin to sizzle.

A seal was formed while held down, on the targets left hand and right collar bone. Damnit, I missed. Kaguya, Ou thought to herself. Still however, it was progress, and part of the technique had worked as intended. Her hands were stuck to the target. It would have been better to grab their other hand, she supposed. Either way now the two took a tumble, and she rolled under them, on her side, bracing a blow. She cushioned herself using the target, swinging her hips round clockwise in a fluid kick off from the tumble. She pulled their right arm around backwards and began to bend. Maintaining the contact of the glue fuuinjutsu, she truthfully wasn't sure how to break free without melting them. A release method then would likely be best. Of courses, she could just form more bones to displace herself she thought suddenly. Hmm, perhaps flint style would be a nice next thing to use, thusly.


377+
767
1144/1000

Aimi stood back and watch Ou do her thing, executing some sort of combination taijutsu and fuuinjutsu technique as far as he could tell. The execution was simple enough, but as he watched the pair tumble around on the ground under the glow of his healing fire, he couldn't help but see flaws in the jutsu as it was. What if the opponent had some way of lashing out when you were up close like that, like a Kaguya, for example, pushing bone out to impale you? Perhaps a niche concern, but the teacher in him saw that improvement could be made. His ears, though, picked up on the sizzling and screaming that was occurring before his eyes, and he had a feeling that there was acid getting involved in this technique whatever it was. Pretty nasty, pretty nasty.

Nasty enough that it would kill if it left things as they were. With a sigh he stepped forward to where the two were on the ground, struggling against each other, and bent down to pick them up from off the ground. "Alright, alright, break it up," he said, gripping the back of Ou's shirt as well as the shoulder of the already injured shinobi after dropping his blade into the earth and ripping the two of them apart, probably causing damage to the other ninja in the process but separating the two of them with a little bit of effort on his part, almost like peeling layers of glue away from each other. Ou he sat on the ground on her feet at arms length away. The passing ninja he just dropped to the ground and let writhe and scream for a few moments. His fire was already working on healing them up, but damn that must have been painful...

Aimi could help with that.

"Oh, quite crying! You're acting like you've never been burned with acid before," Aimi moaned, unable to keep a smile off of his face because, not even that deep down, he knew that yeah, he probably hadn't ever felt the kiss of acid before. It wasn't like every ninja could regenerate like he could, so touching acid in any capacity was was generally considered, he understood, 'a bad idea'. "Doctor's on it, just gimme a second," he would continue to say, moving over to where another one of his blades was stuck out of the ground and taking it from the earth. With a bit of his chakra channeled into it, Aimi would ignite the blade and hold it up as if to inspect it for a moment before walking back over towards the injured man.

"Now I'm not gonna lie, this is going to hurt, but it'll help you heal faster and probably won't sting as bad as that acid. Probably," Aimi said, twirling the sword in the air before lifting it up over his head. The man simply continued to scream and moan in agony. "Alright, I'm gonna go on three. Ready? One-" Aimi said, channeling more chakra into the blade to make the flames dance wildly before swinging the sword down without any further warning! Once the flaming sword made contact with the man there would be a sudden burst of fire that engulfed his entire body momentarily before burning itself out. Afterwards the injured ninja was left with cauterized wounds that had previously been there or not healed yet, and an almost total body burn along with charred cinders of clothing and no hair.

Knowing intimately the pain that fire could bring, and being in something of a sadistic mood, Aimi couldn't help but relish a bit in what he had just done. His guilt was assuaged slightly with the knowledge that he was going to be able to fix that damage easily enough with some iijutsu... the hair wasn't going to come back, though, for a while anyways. And hey! They'd stopped screaming!

"Man, I'm a good medic. Why don't I do this more often?" Aimi mused, planting the tip of the sword he held at his feet and musing on his potentially wasted career not being a fully dedicated medical ninja. He didn't really believe his career had been wasted, though.


400/400

Aimi could only muse for so long before his 'patient' reminded him that he existed. Looking down at the man as he moaned in pain, Aimi frowned and reexamined his patient. The flame from his Warmth jutsu was still growing strong and so even then the burns were healing themselves - but something occurred to Aimi. Between all of those cuts and burns and the whole melting of flesh, this guy had been on the ground! The ground was filthy! There was no telling what sort of bacteria had entered this guy's system through his wounds! Internally Aimi kicked himself for being so reckless; how was he going to sleep at night if this guy developed a blood infection and died sometime a few days later?

Striking the guard of his long sword so that the tip would be buried in the ground enough to keep it held up steady, Aimi would turn and kneel on the ground beside the 'patient'. "Hold still now, I need to disinfect your... body," Aimi said, bringing his hands together and performing a series of handseals. In the palm of his hand he created a ball of flame that was practically identical to the floating ball of green-light giving flame that was enhancing the healing of everyone around. With his spare hand he reached down and grabbed a hold of the ninja's jaw, gently (relatively) prying it open and moving to put the ball of fire into his mouth.

Naturally, he struggled, turning his head from side to side weakly which forced Aimi to tighten his grip and keep his head still. "Don't move, this isn't going to burn you but you have to swallow it, alright?" he reassured the man, forcing the ball closer and closer until he could shove it down the man's mouth, holding his hand over his burnt lips to ensure that every spark went in as it was supposed to. With his hand over his mouth and able to keep him still like that, Aimi would reach down with his other hand and rub on the 'patient's' neck, encouraging him to swallow. And swallow he did!

What followed was a pretty typical reaction for such a procedure. At first the man was still, then his eyes bulged open as the heat began to radiate out from his stomach and travel all over his body like a sudden, rapid, oncoming fever. Aimi was acutely aware that this step felt pretty terrible - which was why he continued to hold the man down. He was pretty weak at the moment so it wasn't hard! Digression aside, the feeling of fire travelling through your veins like blood, burning away any sign of poison, toxin or bacteria was quite uncomfortable to be sure; not painful, not really, but the sudden increase in heat to the internal body was certainly not a sensation that was worth repeating multiple times! This guy would actually have to rest and recover some after this to make sure his motor skills were fine.

Once he was sure that his jutsu was hard at work disinfecting the man, Aimi let go of his healing mouth and stood up, holding his arms up over his head and stretching. The tormented ninja looked up at Aimi with disdain in his delirious eyes. "You're... a madman..." he moaned through regenerating lips. Aimi grinned maliciously. "Aww, thanks! Keep talking sweet like that and I'll have to give you a kiss with a fist!" replied the Kaguya. Man, being a medic was fun! Seriously, why didn't he do this sort of thing more often? Probably because, normally, the people he drew his sword on were supposed to stay dead, huh...


400/400

Before long the feverish feeling did pass in the ninja and he was left still and panting on the ground. Aimi, meanwhile, would look over at what his two companions were up to, curious to see how their training was going. It was during this interval of time that the wounded ninja, seeing a chance at escape and feeling the worst of his wounds heal up completely, would turn over onto their belly and attempt to crawl away.

Of course, Aimi was only distracted for so long and when he looked back he would find the shinobi attempting to slink away slowly, pain still obviously wreaking havoc on their body. "Hey, you shouldn't be moving right now! Your body's still healing up, and I know you're still feeling dizzy from that fire passing through your system," Aimi said, simply walking forward to catch up with his run away 'patient'. As he drew closer the ninja tensed up, gritting his teeth and reaching down into one of his side pockets that had survived the flash of fire. "Get away... from me!" he managed to get out before deftly pulling a kunai from out of nowhere and slinging it back and upwards, the blade narrowly missing Aimi's face but cutting his cheek all the same.

The cut made Aimi stop in his tracks. Blood oozed down the side of his face and he felt it's warmth in the mist. Looking back, the ninja would freeze out of a sudden fear as the look in Aimi's eyes had changed. A shadow had fallen over him and a pair of cold blue eyes, light sapphire lights in the dark, glowered down at the still healing man. "Big mistake, hurting your doctor like that," Aimi said menacingly, reaching up and pressing his thumb over the cut and wiping away the blood. Already his minor wound was closing fast and would be completely healed up by the time that this was over.

"Allow me to teach you some manners!" Aimi proclaimed, squaring up his stance by pulling his legs together and placing his heels against one another, one foot facing forward while the other stuck out parallel from his position. He pulled his arms together over his chest, his left arm bent at the elbow with his forearm pointed upwards in front of his face, hand open and fingers splayed to partially obscure his expression while his right arm reached under and cradled his left. While this was happening, Aimi was ossifying bones all throughout his body, creating new ones at speeds that could hardly be believed. A faint crackling sound could be heard through his skin!

Slowly, a skeletal hand would emerge from seemingly nowhere behind him and place itself on his shoulder, only for a skull to follow and creep it's head out from behind Aimi's neck. There was an instant where those dark, hollow eyes stared down at the man like a yawning abyss. Then, without warning, the rest of the skeleton would follow - from the waist up it would emerge from Aimi's back, both arms raised; it wasn't alone. Simultaneously a multitude of other skeletal structures of a similar form would emerge from the Kaguya's back, some directly connected to him while others branched off of each other, forming a tower of skeletons behind the bare chested Kaguya! There were dozens of them easily, and each and every one of them all stared down at the wounded man that had no idea what wrath he had unknowingly triggered!

"LEARN!" Aimi would roar, throwing his arms down at his sides, elbows bent and forearms extending away from his body, bending his upper torso backwards so that his body formed a slight curving arch while the volley of blows was unleashed! Dozens upon dozens of skeletal hands all lashed out at once, fists balled and bones flying as they lashed out in punches practically simultaneously! There were so many boney limbs flying and at such insane speeds that it was impossible to keep up with all of them - but their target was clear; the wounded ninja on the ground! Those skeletal fists pounded into the man over and over again, him and the ground surrounding him, kicking up dust and dirt and stone as they broke through the street and pommeled this poor unfortunate soul while Aimi himself grinned a hellacious leer!

The assault might very well seem to go on for an eternity, but in reality only a small handful of seconds passed, during which time Aimi landed more hits on the man than he had probably every taken in his life. His body was broken and battered, left still and bleeding in a crater created on the merciless whim of the Kaguya!

Standing up straight once more and lowering his arms, Aimi would look down at what he had done and frown, regaining his senses now that his ephemeral wrath had left him for the moment. "Stupid man," he chastised. Slowly he would pull back the multitude of skeletal upper bodies back into his own while creating another series of hand seals and creating yet another Warmth fireball. This time there was no way that the ninja was going anywhere. He was out cold, on the brink of death, and in need of saving. Aimi would save him of course, he just needed time.

Time, and not to be provoked.


400/400

Hardly any time passed between Aimi pummeling the man into the ground and more ninja suddenly arriving on the scene! There were three of them, all appearing out of the blue, just shadows that darted out into the light and stood as people, looking down into the crater that Aimi had created and the near corpse that lay within it.

"What in the HELL happened!?" a kunoichi asked scornfully, looking up at Aimi and the other two ninja with raging eyes. Aimi turned around to face his accusers with a lackadaisical look on his face. He simply shrugged. "Training accident. He'll be fine, I promise. I'm a medic, and-"

"If you're a medic then why the hell aren't you treating this man!?" a different ninja piped up. Now all three of them were looking to Aimi for answers. The shirtless Kaguya just threw up his hands into the air. "Easy, easy! Look, he's being treated right now!" he said, pointing to the ball of flame that was actively healing the man up.

"That's not nearly enough!" the kunoichi said, getting down on her knees and holding her hands out to channel green chakra over the body of the man. Ah, so she was a medic too! Made sense that she'd be so concerned. And it made sense that the three of them showed up so quickly. They probably heard the disturbance and came to check out what was going on. He was about to explain in further detail when the third ninja spoke up.

"It's no good, we have to get him to a hospital!"

"Now hang on, the fire's regenerating his body, if you'd just-"

"You expect us to trust your weird fire to heal this man!? That's no iijutsu!" the kunoichi accused.

"But it is..." Aimi said kind of sheepishly, looking to his green-glowing flame and feeling judged for it.

"We have to move! He could die if we stay here!"

"Right, let's go," the kunoichi said, pulling her hands back. Then, they were gone... well, not exactly. To Mondai and Ou, sure, they'd vanish in the blink of an eye, same as when they had come. Such was the difference in speed between the three of them and the two of them. However Aimi could see what was really happening. It was all so clear to him, and how could it not be? He was capable of moving even faster, had been for years! His speed was debatably his most powerful asset and it was very much the first thing he focused on training up when he was younger. With time and experience came clarity, and Aimi's eyes had grown sharp over time.

He watched as the kunoichi lifted the man up from off of the ground and pulled him into a fireman's sling across her shoulders, how the other two ninja moved to help position him on her back. He watched as all three of them stepped out of the crater and then dashed off down the street, running as fast as they could, presumably, to get to a hospital and treat the man he had beaten into the ground. He could see their every movement and step clearly and with unclouded eyes, could track their moves right up until the point that they went around a corner and vanished. All this he saw in what would amount to a second or two. It might as well have been a casual jog to his eyes.

"Aw, man... my training partner's gone," he lamented. He wasn't expecting to get in trouble for this - his rank protected him from that - but he was disappointed that his Warmth couldn't have done it's job fully. Once again he turned to the flickering ball of flame and, similar to how he could see the three ninja's every step, he could watch the waves and paths that sparks took in the flames, how it danced and how the green light of his chakra radiated off of it. If he felt like it he could probably count how many stripes of orange turned to yellow and how many there were of each color at once. He chose, instead, to pout, crossing his arms over his chest and grumble, "It is too iijutsu..."


400/400

With Aimi's training partner being taken away because of "MeDiCaL rEaSoNs", the Kaguya was suddenly without a punching bag! Fortunately for all parties involved, namely Mondai and Ou, he could always make more as needed. Thus it was that with a sigh Aimi would take a few steps further away from the younger shinobi, channeling chakra and ossifying bone in the same measure, before hunching over forward. Over the next few moments a collection of 9 fully formed skeletons would emerge from his body one after the other, climbing out from his flesh and forming a loose circle around him.

Straightening up and stretching on the spot for a second, groaning as he did, Aimi would say simply, "Alright you bozos; fight me!" What would follow would be a flurry of white as Aimi and his nine skeletal constructs moved and danced in synchronicity for a moment with Aimi dodging every hit that came his way before he himself lashed out, striking with precision and knocking heads clean off of necks and sending bones flying! The whole ordeal lasted for only a handful of seconds, after which Aimi was left standing alone with what amounted to nine corpses strewn about on the ground around him.

Aimi let out a small sigh and ran his hand through his hair, picking out a knuckle bone and flicking it away. "That was fun!" he said to himself and it was true; thus far he hadn't really done anything too strenuous to work up a sweat, but those few seconds of intense combat had done wonders from pinking up his pale skin! Not to mention that he wasn't all that experienced with fighting multiple people at once - particularly when they had him surrounded - so it was good practice really! He could easily do it again... but then... There was something else he could do...

Fighting against a group of skeletons he could do at any point really, so instead he began to channel his chakra, sending it out from his body and into the bones that surrounded him. There were nine bodies worth of bones there - that amounted to 1854 bones - and he hadn't really poured his chakra into anything so intricate and scattered before so he took special care and time to do so now, ending up taking more time than was likely truly needed to accomplish the task. He didn't mind though, time could be cut down later with practice.

Once he was certain that his chakra was imbued into each and every bone that was around him Aimi took in a deep breath, let it out slow, then tested his idea out. Raising his arms out in front of him, Aimi would flick his wrists upwards and - success! Slowly the bones all around him in a wide circle would rise up into the air. A smile would shine on Aimi's face. "Oh yeah, just as planned!" he cheered. Lowering his arms down to his sides and placing his hands on his hips, Aimi looked around at the floating bones. Time to have some fun!

With a jerk of his head, the cloud of bones would flit off to his left as one, moving like a wave or a swarm of insects in unison with one another. Another jerk of his head and they circled back around and flew over his head to the right! "Oh man is this fun!" he said aloud, letting out a bit of a chortle as he raised his hands once more and moved his arms this way and that, directing the flying bones to follow. Figure 8's, waves, forming shapes! This was great! While he was playing around he idly thought, 'This must be what Kasai and Nishiki feel like when they're using their jutsu!' Of course, this wasn't true kinesis. Far from it really, but it was a close and unique approximation of it. Just... spookier!

With a laugh Aimi would throw an arm forward in a wide arch, sending the swarm of bones slamming down into the ground in front of him in a line. Each bone, from skulls to fingers and tibias, would pierce the ground and stick into it, creating a very neat little line that would split over between Mondai and Ou. "Ha! Sorry, sorry, just, playing with myself!" he said cheerfully, regretting his choice of words almost immediately. His expression fell as the realization came over his face and he let out a groan. "This is why I don't have fun..." he berated himself quietly, standing up straight and flicking his wrist upwards to pull the bones out from the ground and with another flick he brought them back over to him, letting the pieces slowly swirl around him.

With his free hand he gestured and a skull came floating towards him. With a twirl of his fingers it spun in place. He could certainly control the bones like this, no doubt about it, but what if he tried... He thought back to his fight against Kasai in the tournament, how that dragon of earth had torn his arm clean off! Kasai had changed the shape of the earth to do that, so could he...?

Concentrating on the skull, Aimi tried manipulating the chakra he had imbued in it and... success! With not so much effort the skull sprouted spikes a good six inches long! If he could do so with a skull he could surely do the same with the other bones, and likely more! Of course, he would always be limited to what bones themselves could do... but as he waved his hand and sent the spikey skull back into the dancing cloud of bones around him, he realized that what he could do with these bones was probably enough as is. True this wasn't ever going to be as powerful as true elemental kinesis he wagered, but with a bit of creativity of ingenuity on his part, he imagined he could use this jutsu to surprise more than one type of opponent!


400/400

Having had a bit of fun and created a proof of concept for a new Kaguya jutsu, Aimi realized something - his eyes were beginning to hurt. Likely just a bit of straight, though it was possible that he was getting a headache. So, naturally, he did the only thing he could. Close his eyes. It was time to give them a bit of a rest anyways. The thing was, though, even with his eyes closed as they were, he was still able to see. Aimi's bodily senses had grown heightened over the years, easily to the level of what would be considered 'super human' for most metrics. Not that he had reason to use these senses that often. The necessity for them rarely came up when conflicts could be settled relatively quickly with a swing of his sword... but every now and then, when things slowed down...

And it helped when his eyes were hurting. Seeing little reason to not give these super senses a bit of practice, Aimi, with his eyes still closed, would push his hand downwards towards the ground and force the bones that had been floating around him to settle on the earth, where he felt the impact in his feet travel up his legs, his torso and over his head and back again. It was something of a strange sensation to be sure. Each bone, regardless of size, created something of a 'ripple' that he could feel traveling through the ground that touched him and then passed back outwards weaker than before. These initial ripples and the secondary ones gave him a clear picture of where each bone was relative to him.

Of course, it wasn't truly sight. Not really, his eyes were closed! He could simply feel the distance and visualize it in his mind as he felt the vibrations of objects and even people pass through him and back outwards again. If he focused hard enough, he could even 'see' for quite a ways away. Dozens of meters in fact! He could 'see' Ou and Mondai off over yonder, practicing whatever it was they were practicing, he could see the buildings beyond them based on their own vibrations, if he tapped his foot he could see structures around him with a certain clarity.

If he really focused, he could even see things that were in the air. Not nearly as clearly though. The ground beneath his feet or the water he immersed himself in acted almost like a canvas, and anything moving or making vibrations on that canvas helped to paint a picture. The air was much more... fluid, for lack of a better word. The sense of touch wasn't nearly as accustomed to things that were so ethereal, so when something did register it came off as fuzzy or faint. Strong winds were like visual distortion when sensing things like this when it came to anything airborne. Subsequently, viewing the world this way had it's limitations. However, so long as it was tethered to the ground and he could feel it, it was almost as if he were viewing things with his eyes wide open.

Now when it came to sound...


400/400

The sense of sound, unlike that of touch, was quite a different beast in comparison. Few thought about it but the sensation of touch was felt from head to toe and even some of the subtlest sensations can be felt if one was paying attention hard enough. Hearing, on the other hand, was located between two points of the body only. Sensitive though the ears are, this limitation inherently makes utilizing these organs for a higher purpose more difficult over all. Fortunately for Aimi, his control over his body was quite literally heavenly, and his attitude of never-ending improvement drove him to exceed all expectation. Not so fortunately, though, his eyes still hurt so he kept them closed.

His thoughts drifting to the differences between the sensations of his skin and muscles made him begin to focus on his ears, the ear drums further within. He pulled up his medical knowledge of the human body in his mind and focused on the ear, thinking of the fluid within that vibrated to create sound along with all of the other sensitive instruments that made up the human ear. Taking in a deep breath, he cleared his mind of all thought (to the best of his ability) and focused on only one thing: hearing. Listening. Picking up any and all sounds that came his way.

He could hear Ou and Mondai not so far away. Moving. Training. Talking. Some of their sounds were subtle and difficult to make out from even this short distance, but if he focused hard enough, he could hear their foot steps, the sound of their clothes brushing against skin, their hair moving through the air as they moved. A little more and he could hear their heartbeat. More, still, and their sounds would reach him and at once, he could see without seeing.

This wasn't like how he "saw" by touch. It was more cerebral, judging what sounds were and how far the distance was, how those sounds bounced off of objects and '"illuminated" those objects so to speak. In a way it was like a natural sonar like bats and dolphins used (not that Aimi was aware bats and dolphins could do such a thing; it was just a happy coincidence!), the sounds bouncing around the world and reaching his ear to paint a picture of the world around him. A colorless picture, of course, one made up of shapes and outlines that he could identify through memory and general knowledge. He wasn't actually blind after all - not even when focusing his hearing like this! It was simply a substitution for sight.

Lifting his leg up, Aimi would place it back down on the ground and listen to the sound of his foot on the ground below. The light 'pap' of his foot bounced beyond him and reached the circle of bones around him and he could 'see' their shape, make out their position, size, number and so forth. With his eyes shut he would step forward towards the edge of this circle and leap over it, safely landing on the other side. With a small sigh he reached up and rubbed on his eyeballs through his closed lids. They still hurt and he wasn't ready to open them just yet, so, he might as well see just how far he could make this go.

If he focused hard enough, Aimi could listen in on people several hundred meters away. Hear their words, their breath, their conversation. He could hear footsteps in the mist, the sounds of bird wings high above, of arguments, bartering, he could even hear... huh! How about that! The ninja that had come and taken his "training buddy" away, trying to discuss where exactly to take the man while one of them applied iijutsu to his wounds. This brought a slight smile to his face but the smile quickly fell as the downside of such good hearing came to bear; if he didn't focus, he could hear everything. All at once. This quickly became obnoxious and overbearing, his ears beginning to ring and hurt just as much as his eyes! All this auditorily input acting like visual was quite a lot to take in!

Before he knew it he was pulling his hearing back. With a groan he would open his eyes and blink several times, moving his hands to his ears and covering them a moment to damping the noise. After the ringing in his ears had passed, Aimi would pull his hands away and shake his head, blinking some more and standing up straight. His eyes still hurt and now his ears lightly rung. Yet he didn't mind so much. It was nothing a nice, long nap couldn't take care of, and besides; he'd pushed himself beyond yet another limit and found yet more skills to bear!

How far could he go, exactly?


400/400