Crazy Heart of Gold

[Willoria]

It was rather a sunny day, and Hyuuga Aina had chosen to take some time to herself. So much had been changing as of late, she not only had a boyfriend, she had learned Shizumeru for him, and the world of being an adult in the shinobi world had hit her like a sack of bricks. Kawa had given her truths she wasn’t sure she was ready to face, and somehow that had led to a walk that some might view as childish. She had chosen to walk through the zoo. It was free and they usually had maybe a dozen animals to look at, animals which constantly changed. It was probably her favorite place in the village, if only because what she was seeing now. A little girl up ahead was standing on a fence, leaning forward as she tried to pet a rather tall and very pink bird called a Flamingo. Of course a rather upset parent was now trying to grab at her and pull her back, but the entire scene had put a smile at the Hyuuga’s face who also had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.

The entire display was rather adorable, even as the mother tried to bribe her child away with cotton candy. The young shinobi simply chuckled to herself as she watched the bribery succeed and the family wandered away, leaving Aina alone with the brightly colored birds. She didn’t linger long though, she often had more fun watching the families in this place than the animals.

Yet as she wandered she found a cart of food and treats and paid for a couple of sticks of teriyaki chicken, nibbling on them carefully as she walked. What struck her as odd as she walked was an enclosure that appeared to be completely empty. It appeared to have been lived in at some point, but as she leaned against the stone wall and peered in, she realized it was completely empty. As she looked around further she realized that there wasn’t anyone observing, except for a couple of the zoo workers, one of whom seemed to have a furry little bundle in his arms.

Aina wandered over to the pair, pointing to the enclosure as she began to speak. ”Hey, so where are the animals here?” she asked the pair.

The two turned and looked at her, one of them turned to leave while the man with a bundle in his arms spoke. ”They got sick unfortunately.” he replied, shrugging with the bundle as if to indicate whatever he held wrapped in a blanket, which let out a little whimper. ”This little guy is all that’s left.”

Aina gave him a puzzled look before stepping closer and extending a hand to the blanket, pausing just before touching it and looking at the man as if asking permission silently. When the man nodded, she lifted the blanket and saw a rather adorable pair of brown eyes staring at her and a large pair of ears to go with them. It took everything she had not to melt at the sight. ”So what happens to him?” she asked. The pup seemed almost sad, keeping his nose hidden and trying to hide further in the blankets as much as he could with a rather sad sounding whine.

”Well they’re pack animals.” he said, sighing rather sadly himself as he watched Aina take a piece of chicken off of her teriyaki sticks and try to offer it to the little guy. It was several moments before he brought his nose out long enough to snatch the chicken and his muzzle disappeared again, eating the morsel as he buried himself in the blanket. ”Without his family, he’ll never thrive… so the zoo is going to put him down.”

For a moment Aina froze, staring at him in shock. ”What?!”

The man nodded as his counterpart returned and extended his hands for the animal. ”It’s a mercy. Otherwise he’ll let himself starve in his sorrow. They aren’t meant to be alone.” he replied, turning to hand the animal over.

But Aina reached out and grabbed the man’s elbow as she suddenly interrupted. ”No!” she said, shaking her head. ”That’s just not right, he needs a chance…” she said, looking at the little eyes that stared at her from inside the shadow of the blanket. ”I’ll take him. Let me try to help him.”

The pair exchanged looks and the man shrugged. ”I mean, the zoo was gonna lose him anyway… if you really want him, he’s yours.” he said, offering the little animal.

Aina took him carefully, the pup whimpering as she moved him from the worker. But as soon as she offered him the entire chicken teriyaki stick as a bribery, cotton candy had worked with the kid she’d seen earlier, why shouldn’t this work? And it did. The little guy took the chicken right off the stick, chewing on it happily as Aina turned away to carry the little guy home. ”You look like a Goro to me.” she said quietly.

846/800 pet payment

[Willoria]

Aina sat on the floor of her room, her legs tucked under her in more of a kneeling position as she set a stack of papers down next to her. Each page had a fuuinjutsu of some kind on it, most of them being D ranks as she prepared to work with her training. She’d been studying a great deal of things lately and today she had a mind to set herself to her fuuinjutsu, a study she had been seriously slacking on as of late.

She picked up a book from beside her, reading over the instructions concerning the removal of seals and she shrugged, it seemed easy enough at least. And with that she marked her page and set it aside, pulling a piece of paper in front of her that had a basic D Rank fuuin on it for means of practice. The young Hyuuga closed her eyes as she formed the seal, allowing chakra to gather around her fingers before laying it over the seal. She removed her hand with a smile, a smile that dissipated rather quickly into a frown as she saw the seal was still there and she took a moment to think over what could have gone wrong.

Once more she focused the chakra into her hand, this time allowing it to center over her palm before she rest it against the paper and grinned, certain it would work this time and yet again as she withdrew her hand her smile quickly turned to a frown. Again she had failed and she wasn’t quite sure why.

She snatched up the book again and read over the notes, chuckling as she reached a particular passage. ”If chakra is not gathered within the entire hand, it is entirely possible that the removal will not work. Some seals are larger than a hand, it is true, but failing to focus chakra within the entire hand means you are not taking advantage of the entire surface area of your hand. In doing so, you are not using the amount of chakra required.” Aina rolled her eyes as she formed the seal again, both frustrated at her stupidity and the strange phrasing of the book that often confused her.

She felt the chakra swirl around her hand, beginning at the palm, before it surrounded her fingers and ran between them, leaving her hand with a slightly tingling sensation as she rest it against the paper once more, this time remembering to trace the fuuin first. Tracing the fuuin was quick work for her, her fingers well practiced in the task due to her own personal fuuin on her own flesh. And once she had traced it she rest her hand against the fuuin and was able to lift it away. This time the smile stayed on her face.

Training InformationShow

WC: 471/450
*[Fuuinjutsu • Remove Sealing: Tiny]
D-Ranked Fuuinjutsu
Prerequisite: 3 control, *[Fuuinjutsu • Remove Sealing: Miniscule]
By doing the needed handseal, the user traces the outline of a D ranked fuuinjutsu. After doing so, the user places their hand over the seal, removing the seal.

[Willoria]

Aina really wished she could call this Fuuinjutsu ‘easy training’, but fact was, Shizumeru was anything but easy to train, especially since she didn’t want to subject Minoru to being a guinea pig for her studies, especially after the way he had reacted when he found out she was learning it. For some time the girl hadn’t trained further on it at all, too worried about upsetting him further, but after a few days she had come to a realization. Sometimes to help someone you care about, you have to do exactly what they don’t like or don’t want. Minoru may not have wanted her to learn it, or maybe the spirit’s influence on Minoru didn’t want her learning it, but it didn’t matter, this was to protect Minoru and she had pledged to do so at any cost to herself.

And so she sat on the floor of her room, leaning against her bed with scroll in hand as she read it over, papers with fuuin drawn on them were scattered all over the place as she studied in silence.

”Initial Dominion may be vital as a means to control a Genma host or Spirit that has found itself out of control or unable to subside the Spirit’s influence.” she read carefully, paying close attention to every word as she knew she’d have very little practical application to practice this jutsu with. ”The key to this jutsu is that the user must have a stronger will than that of the Spirit. The spirit always wants out, it always struggles to be free of its host and desires to be alone. In using this jutsu the user is asserting their own dominion over the spirit, forcing it back into the host that the host may function without its poison.” Reading such things concerned Aina but she knew these were not only jutsu she needed to learn, they were also harsh realities the young woman would need to face in regards to the boy she cared so deeply for.

”In the old lore one may read of demons and spirits possessing someone and some hero casting them out using some great technique. This is not that, yet some may say the concept is similar. The spirit or genma is a means to an end, they are a tool, it is their chakra and their power the village and the host requires, not their personality or conflicts. At times the will of the beast may overcome the host creating a scenario all too similar to that of a person possessed. It is imperative that this is dealt with quickly lest the spirit sealed get free. This jutsu, when used properly, forces that spirit to be locked away once more within the host, but also allows the host to continue using the chakra for a time afterwards without interference from the spirit. This allows the host to learn more about the chakra and controlling the power itself without as many hindrances.” Aina sighed as she let the scroll rest on her lap a moment, thinking over what she had just read. Certainly controlling the abilities that came with the genma was important but she wasn’t sure how shutting off the contact between spirit and host would help them learn to work together. In the back of her mind she told herself to assume this should only be used when the two were impossibly at odds. Perhaps something like this would give Minoru a chance to clear his head and quiet himself without Aturasu’s ramblings and often desire to kill Aina herself.

Shaking her head she picked up the scroll again and continued reading. ”One must understand their own desires to use this jutsu. Most importantly, one must understand their role. Under no circumstances is the genma in control, they are not gods, they are tools of the village to be used as the village sees fit and as such the user of ‘Initial Dominion’ must force them to submit in a single moment with the use of their own chakra.” Aina sat the scroll down with another sigh, picking up a few papers from the ground that were empty, periodically glancing at the design of the seal. Very carefully and rather meticulously she drew the seal on the paper she had grabbed, practicing the feel of each jagged edge and curve that she might better be able to use the seal on the fly.

Her first attempt was alright, and was quickly discarded as she picked up another sheet of paper and tried again. Just as it had happened for her with past jutsu, each attempt became easier and each discarded paper was harder and harder to toss away after she finished her work until finally she thought she had a product she could be proud of.

So then the real test. She formed the seal and performed kai rather simply, but nothing happened and the girl frowned. She immediately closed her eyes with a sigh and remembered when she first caught a glimpse of Aturasu. She remembered how helpless she felt, the sheer panic of the moment as he moved against their enemies with a finality that felt more like murder. And it was with this in mind she felt her pain rise as she wished she’d had the strength to stop it. As her eyes opened she formed the seal to detonate a seal again with kai and there was this strange ‘poof!’ with caused the girl to jump and yelp. It didn’t do anything as it wasn’t on a target, but at least she knew she was doing something right now.

Training InformationShow

WC: 941/850
*Shizumeru • [Initial Dominion]
C-rank Fuuinjutsu
By placing the correct seals onto a piece of scroll parchment and making contact or onto the host themselves and performing 'Kai,' the caster is able to immediately seal away the Spirit. This seal will slowly degrade and the host will have the ability to call on the Spirit's chakra again for 3 posts or unless the seal is broken.

[Willoria]

Aina was sitting out on the back porch, trying to find a way to enjoy her training somehow, and so far this was the only way she could think of. She had her scrolls around her, a pot of hot green tea on a tray with a couple of snacks and her legs were tucked under her as she went over the information, periodically glancing up to see her brother, Nobu, training with his summon. It was a rather large white tiger, Aina had never interacted with it directly as this was new for even Nobu, but she thought he looked pretty cool at least. But she was here to train and her mind couldn’t focus on her brother right now.

She picked up the scroll she wanted and spread it across her lap as she read. ”Summons are tricky creatures as they come from another world, you could call it another dimension even, and the way they enter this world is through a particular ninjutsu. However they can be rejected from our world in more ways than one, though these ways all branch from various types of Ninjutsu. The key is to use your chosen jutsu to create a sacred space on which a summon cannot trample, cannot step into, and if you do this to the summon’s primary space, they are forced out of our world and back from where they came.” Aina wrinkled up her nose as she read this, silently wondering how this was possible. ’This makes it sound like summons are some kind of demon, that’s just weird…’

But as Aina read on, she found her concern addressed. ”Doing this is often referred to as banishing the summon, a term and phrase often used in myth and legends when speaking of demons. Summons are very rarely demons of any kind, however they are creatures with a spirit, a spirit that is linked to another world. In using ninjutsu to summon them to this world the user is using their own chakra to bypass that link and allow them to dwell in our world for a time. This is why a summon user will feel a constant drain of chakra on their system the entire time that summon is present in this world simply because they are using their own chakra system to temporarily bind them to our world. But the moment this is cut off or disrupted, the summon cannot remain. While there are many ways to do this, the way covered here is a Fuuinjutsu seal.” As Aina read she found an example of the seal itself drawn in the scroll and she found it rather fascinating. The seal itself was both intricate and beautiful. While she knew it wouldn’t seem as such once she got used to it, at first glance it almost seemed intricate and difficult even.

Not willing to let herself become discouraged, Aina set the scroll aside in a place where she could still see it and took up a notepad and pencil, immediately setting to practice drawing the required seal. It was certainly going to take time getting used to, as this particular seal had jagged edges and elegant curves, and she’d have to get used to drawing it quickly. Her first attempt took her several minutes as she carefully checked and double checked the design all while writing it out. But in taking so long she made sure she didn’t have to erase anything as she went… which would have made things just take even longer.

Once her first attempt was done she compared the two side by side, trying to determine what differences existed between the two and almost immediately circled several points where her drawing not only didn’t match the seal, it was different enough to cause a problem with it. Aina had learned enough about fuuinjutsu at this point that she knew how much of a difference could interfere with a seal’s purpose, and how much she could get away with. In this case, it was too much.

She tore the paper off and set to her task again, this time drawing the seal as quickly as she could, leaving more than a handful of mistakes in her wake but that was part of the reason she did this. Knowing what mistakes she made when she wrote it slow might be a start, but to really know how bad off she was, she needed to know how many mistakes she’d make when she wrote it fast.

And so another paper was torn away and she set to work on her third. Each attempt was a little better but unfortunately, like most things like this, drawing something quickly left you prone to all sorts of mistakes and this was not an exception. Each time she did it there was one, if not several, things very wrong. Before long she was tired of practicing on paper and she stood, shoving papers and scrolls aside to begin actual practice of the fuuinjutsu itself, even as her brother continued to train with his summon.

Aina moved off the porch to stand in the grass, her hands moving through familiar seals before she crouched and inscribed the fuuinjutsu on the ground. As soon as it was complete she stood but before she could do the additional seal, her fuuin was gone and the young Hyuuga was swearing out loud. Clearly she had messed up again.

With a sigh of frustration and resignation to the fact that this was taking more work than she’d anticipated, Aina formed the seals again and dropped down to the ground to draw the fuuin once more. She was still moving rather quick on the fuuin but had drawn it far better, or so she thought, as she straightened up and formed the next hand seal. But as she did so the fuuin, which was supposed to expand, instead began to expand but when it was just barely big enough to encompass her feet, it shrunk down and disappeared again, prompting more swearing from the girl.

”One more try…” she told herself as she formed the handseals again, and dropped to the ground to draw the fuuin yet again. She focused on her drawing, drowning out her distractions, even her brother and his summon, as she worked her way through it. She was certain it was right this time, she was certain it was perfect. And so after so much practice and the failed attempts, the seal suddenly expanded and covered the yard, and then some, causing her brother’s summon to suddenly disappear with a ‘poof’ as it was forced out of the area and back to where it came.

For several moments Nobu and Aina merely stared at each other, and with a suddenly outcry of shouts and swearing Aina ran off, tearing through the house to get away from her now very angry brother… who appeared to be wielding a few throwing knives.

Training InformationShow

1159/1150
*[Fuuinjutsu • Dimensional Seal]
B-Ranked Fuuinjutsu
By doing the needed hand seals, the ninja then inscribes a fuuin into the ground. After the fuuin is completed (1 post), they do an additional seal, and strike the fuuin with their palm. The seal then expands up to half a mile, augmenting the ground to become a 'forbidden' ground. As long as the seal is active, any summon that's brought onto the field will immediately be returned from where they came. This only works on summoned things, so anything that's stored in storage fuuinjutsu will still be able to come out. Once the user leaves the area or stops channeling chakra to the seal, the fuuin fades away.

[Willoria]

Aina arrived at the training ground, hands in her pockets as she walked. She knew she had so much work to do, she’d been slacking on her training and she felt like it had shown in her last couple of missions, not to mention during the invasion. She hadn’t expected to find Kazuo training here already, though she wasn’t bothered by the sight of the Inuzuka. She gave him a wave and watched him and Koji working together for a moment. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, being fairly unfamiliar with higher level Inuzuka techniques though it reminded her of something, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. But of course, she had her own training to attend to, and even watching the pair was just another way for the Hyuuga to procrastinate, which she really needed to stop doing.

She found herself some spare space on the same training ground and withdrew one of her kunai from a scroll pouch on her vest, giving it a spin in her hands as she thought about the Ochiba technique she wanted to train first. It was less of a technique and more of a stance, but not an easy one for her. Sure she was used to having her brass knuckles in her hands when she fought but this wasn’t the same.

She purposely held the kunai and slipped her middle finger through the pommel almost like slipping on a ring. She flexed her fingers a few times, feeling awkward with the kunai in hand, and yet she was supposed to fight this way? Hand to hand? She made a face at the thought, simply hating the feel of the kunai in her hand.

Still though she turned towards a training dummy, which really was just a post in the ground, and drew her other kunai, situating it in her hand in a similar fashion before staring down the dummy as if it owed her money or something. She brought her hands up in front of her to protect her lower face and seemed to bounce on the balls of her feet for a moment before delivering a couple of punches into the wood of the training post.

She grimaced at the feel of it, feeling like it was pinching her hands even more than her brass knuckles usually did but she knew she needed to adjust. It seemed she’d be letting more callouses form on her hands as she delivered a pair of lower torso strikes on the training post before coming up for a wide-swinging punch from one side and then following up in the same form from the other side. Her knuckles were sore already, and she could feel the soft skin of her palms being pinched around the grip of the kunai.

She turned and angled herself as if striking from the side of a human target, delivering two right handed-punches low and in quick succession against the training post before delivering a hard left from a high sweeping move and the post vibrated in place from the impact. It was a warm day and already she could feel her core temperature rising, knowing she’d be sweating soon but not minding it all that much. She loved it honestly, so long as it was the product of a good workout.

As she struck at the post repeatedly, in her mind it took on the form of Enma, that creepy-smiling face that made it clear he enjoyed sick and twisted games. She wanted so badly to cave in that smile and so as she struck against this post she struck as if she had that chance, over and over again, quick punches to the face, followed by a knee slamming into the post even though it wasn’t originally planned as a part of her training. She struck low and in the ribs, slamming fists into the solar plexus area as she could have sworn the face shifted from that of Enma to that of Yaku himself.

That emotionless face that never seemed to change, not with the smallest to the greatest bit of bloodshed, with a yell of frustration she hammered her fists against the lower torso and ribs several times, her hands going numb as the handle of the kunai dug in with every strike. She struck the body, she danced to the right and slammed a sweeping fist into the side of the face before sweeping left and upper cutting a fist into the ribs and feeling a satisfying crack, though it was simply the post beginning to crack under the pressure of her strikes. It wouldn’t break entirely, as strength was not her greatest gift, but the crack satisfied her imagination as she swept towards the center again and let loose another flurry of body punches to the mid torso, at least six, before cocking her right hand as far back as she could bring it and slamming it into the face of her target.

Oh if only it were real, but even as she brought her hand back and slammed it into the post she simply couldn’t trick her mind fully and she still felt the wood beneath her fist as it connected and she took a step back, opening her hands to look down at the damage to her palms.

Training InformationShow

WC: 890/850
Ochiba • Leaf Duster
C-Rank Bukijutsu
The user will place their middle finger through the pommel of the kunai, gripping the handle of the kunai and hanging the blade out of the left side of the palm, using the weapon as a knuckleduster. The user will raise his hands to protect his lower face, and keep his elbows almost united. This stance signifies that they will focus on the usage of their fists for a while, even though they are not at all limited to them. As they enter this stance, the user's way of fighting at close combat will alter slightly. From here, the user is very much able to get close to the opponent and deliver very painful combinations made of punches.

[Willoria]

As Aina took a break from her first training of the day, her mind working around how to train the other, she glanced up to see one of her brothers approaching. It was a welcome sight, since she’d asked Jirou to meet her there and train with her that day anyway. She’d need all the help she could get if she was going to be a Jounin soon. She hardly felt deserving of the upcoming rank, that much was certain, and so she was working twice as hard to get through her training and learn new maneuvers both as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

”So what’s today’s maneuver?” Jirou asked as he approached his little sister, drawing a kunai and spinning it in his hand.

”Ochiba. You need to attack me so I can try and redirect it.” Aina replied, spinning a kunai in her own hand as she put the second away.

Jirou simply shrugged, stretching his arms a moment before charging at his little sister, swinging wide with the kunai and his arm straight out. Aina’s response was to step around his arm but reach out with a hand to snatch his wrist, not unlike what Yoru had done to her during a spar, and push his arm away while slamming the hilt of her kunai into the muscle of his upper arm.

It was really that simple of a technique, but that didn’t mean Aina knew it in full yet. As she watched her brother rub his arm where she’d hit him, she knew she’d have to keep doing this to commit the reaction to her muscle memory. As of right now she had to think about it too hard really.

Her brother finished shrugging off what was sure to be just a minor bruise and brought the kunai out in front of him in a guard position, as Aina mimicked the move and the pair stared one another down for several moments. She knew her brother was taking it easy on her for the time being, fighting slower and weaker than he did by nature so she could learn the technique.

When he charged at her again he made a sweeping move from his hip, outward and up towards her face as Aina moved to intercept him again. Her hand came up as she ducked under the sweep and grabbed his wrist, this time pushing his move further than he meant and setting him off balance into a stumble. She followed up by tapping the hilt of her kunai against his sternum as she spun out of his guard, the tap just enough to signal that she could have made a move if she had wanted to. But of course she wasn’t looking to seriously injure her brother, she was only looking to learn the move.

Jirou was quick to get his balance back and turn towards his sister to strike at her with the kunai again. This time his hand was aloft, holding the kunai in a downward dagger position as he brought it at her face. In response Aina quickly stepped towards her brother and moved her hand to slap his away at the wrist but she didn’t move fast or hard enough, his arm colliding with her shoulder hard enough to knock her to the ground.

As she landed on the flat of her back, Jirou capitalized on her vulnerable position and came at her, dropping to a knee as he brought the point of the kunai down towards her neck and Aina needed to react quickly. She had decided at the start of this only to react within the move she was learning and this time she reacted by instinct. Kunai in one hand her other reached up and clasped his forearm to push it aside. Just as the point of his blade hit the dirt, the hilt of hers slammed into his chest and knocked him back enough to allow her the adequate space to role to the side and out from under him, coming up to her feet as she waited for him to make another move.

She didn’t have to wait long. He was smiling, glad she’d made it out of the maneuver but he was supposed to attack until she told him to stop and so he did. He charged at her again, hand and kunai blade out for a direct thrust which Aina intercepted. One hand closed over the wrist and pushed him away while bringing her other hand up to slap the hilt of her kunai against the side of his neck lightly before letting go of him and spinning out of the way as the man staggered.

He turned and swiped at her again and this time her hand once more clasped over his wrist and this time pulled him downward and her other hand and kunai came at him, stopping only as the blade came close to his eye as she did not release him again but smiled down at him.

”Not bad.” Jirou told her simply, straightening up as his sister let go of him and he crossed his arms. ”You have another one to train don’t you?”

Aina simply nodded as she prepared herself again.

Training InformationShow

WC: 874/850
*Ochiba • Redirection Correction
C-Rank Bukijutsu
Prerequisite: 5 Strength, 5 Speed, 5 Wit
The user having experienced many fighters in battle and holding great knowledge in close combat fighting, will be able to spot the weakness in physical or even some ninjutsu attacks. Using their free hand they will place it around the limb directing the incoming strike and turn it into a different direction changing their pathway and redirecting them. This allows them to follow up with a strike of the limb with the kunai or they can simply let them go. This can be broken out of by anyone with higher strength than the user.

[Willoria]

Aina had so much that she needed to do, so much she needed to prepare for, and so little time to do it all in. She had been taking missions with Kazuo and Yoru lately, taking her mind off the emotional pain of watching her boyfriend sleep his life away and unable to awaken. She had found, slowly, that the missions were easier to focus on and began to even drown her sorrows in her training. Today she needed to find a way to work at her own reaction times, her speed, and as such she was out in the market place. She couldn’t help a smile, remembering that the last time she had tried this, she had failed miserably. In fact she had run into a jounin named Hayasu last time, and she had a feeling others might not be so courteous, but that didn’t matter today, she still needed to train.

She started on the rooftops, running as quickly as her feet could carry her, leaping the small gaps and even jumping the larger ones as she attempted to keep moving without breaking her rhythm and without breaking stride. As she moved it seemed to get simpler as she went on, as she got used to judging the distances and jumps and figured out how to calm herself down and worry less about falling, but after a bit she decided to give herself a new challenge.

As she leaped into the air, she didn’t aim for the next roof, but the cloth overhang just to the right of it. Her arms spun to maintain her balance as she brought her feet up underneath herself and slid down the cloth, and she literally hit the ground running. As she slid off her makeshift ramp she had to at first jump over a crate of goods by one stall and flip forward out of the same stall before she got herself into the road. It would have seemed complicated to her if she had stopped to think about what she was doing, but stopping was against the point of this entire exercise, she had to keep moving.

She bobbed and weaved around a few shoppers, managing to get around them without having to slow down at all. But there came a few points where simply stepping around someone didn’t work. As she ran up behind a group of shoppers she was forced to leap to her left, one foot landing on the wooden table of a jewelry booth and immediately using that step to launch herself ahead of the group to keep writing, putting her more into a zig zag pattern.

The young Hyuuga was already panting, trying to catch her breath as she continued moving through the market. A group of younger genin provided another opportunity, only in this case rather than going around them she leaped into a forward flip and landed on her feet just in front of them, still moving despite the shouts that followed her. She knew so far she had managed to keep up her current pace without hurting anyone or breaking anything and so she wasn’t concerned about any shouts coming after her from anyone, especially a group of kids who were probably skipping out on their own training for the day.

Things seemed to be getting more difficult, the further she made it through the market. She knew she’d be circling around eventually to areas she’d already been in but that was okay. As she came around a section that had been damaged in the invasion she didn’t even look at it, she didn’t want to think about what had happened to her, to her village, to her boyfriend, or any of it. There had been so much hurt to go around that day and she was beginning to feel so self-centered and self-focused for letting herself dwell on her own pain. She moved into an area of the market that had restaurants, and that was where she knew it was going to get interesting.

She had to suddenly dash to the side to avoid an older man with a pot of hot broth, and twist her way around a young woman carrying vegetables in her arms for one of the local establishments. The hardest of course was always those with the pots, she knew that the hot liquid could do more than hurt or burn her, such things could do serious damage if she ran directly into them. At one point she’d nearly run into someone and at the last second leaped to her left, bounced her feet off the wall to flip to her right and keep moving.

It wasn’t an easy task but she was quite literally taking it all in stride, determined to keep a move on. By time she finally came skidding to a stop she was in front of the Mamorinuku headquarters, looking up at the building with her hands on her hips and panting as she tried desperately to get her breath back.

Speed – Stat Training 2Show

WC: 838/800

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part I Day after day she did this, and it never got easier, the pain never lessened. Every time she stepped in that doorway she was holding her breath, some very foolish part of her hoping she would see him sitting up. She wanted to see him smiling, laughing, his arms spreading open to accept an overjoyed hug from her. And for a brief moment as she pushed that door open, she could almost see it. But then she had to face the crushing reality as the door swung open and her white eyes adjusted to the light from the open window on the other side of the room. He still lay in that bed, he still didn’t move save for the barely noticeable breathing. Every time at least one tear would snake down her face as she saw it, and forced herself to move to his bedside and sit by his hand.

She always took his hand in both of hers, as if warming it or rubbing his hand would somehow rouse the man from his seemingly eternal slumber. Every time it was as if she was noticing the slightest changes in his skin, how pale it had become, how the muscle in his body had deteriorated already. He very slowly was beginning to look nothing like himself. She remembered they day they had met, how he had passed out from exhaustion, working himself too hard. Yet now he lay here as if a boy who had never worked a day in his life, even the palms of his hands were softening. There were days where she would form the seals for a Shizumeru technique that had once allowed her to communicate with him and genma in mind, but it never worked. She had screamed and begged him to wake only to have nurses come in and drag her away. She had rest her head on his chest and begged quietly for him to come back to her, only to sob quietly and have to dry a puddle of her own tears that had soaked through the blankets. Every day was one sad, pathetic display after another.

Today she had resolved to be different. She had just returned from a mission with Yoru and though she silently feared that her new mission partner hated her for her cold, naïve demeanor that had come to comfort her in the days since ‘losing’ Minoru, she had resolved herself to a day of something different. She had entered the room the same way, but as that single tear tried to escape down her cheek she reached u a hand and wiped it away, taking a deep breath to steady herself and motioning to the nurse who stood behind her.

Before today she might not have thought to do this, she might have seen it as crossing a line or something her naïve mind couldn’t comprehend doing without a deep blush, but after the things that had transpired at the hot spring she wasn’t sure she cared. She loved Minoru, she knew that now, and she wasn’t sure she could ever love someone else the same way. She had never told him that, but she was determined to know that, even if it meant he’d never actually know.

The nurse left the room, leaving a cart with a basin of warm water and several cloths in the room, which Aina wheeled over to the foot of the bed. She removed her vest and set it in a nearby chair, along with all her weapons. From there she moved to the bed and slowly rolled the blankets down until they were in a simple bundle at Minoru’s feet, revealing him in the simple hospital gown. She moved down to the basin and dipped one of the cloths in the warm water, hissing at the heat of it as she hadn’t expected it to be quite so hot. She could feel the cloth cooling even as she wrung it out, and decided to start with his feet. She glanced up at the nurse who, though she’d left the room, still stood in the doorway and nodded to Aina with a sad smile on her face, and Aina began to wash Minoru’s feet. She couldn’t help a small smile, wondering if this would have tickled him normally. Could he still feel it? Would he dream of feathers at his feet? The thought of him dreaming of suddenly standing on feathers that moved and tickled his feet and jumping away from them made the Hyuuga give a small giggle. It couldn’t be helped.

Once done with his feet and his toes, she moved to his legs, pausing at his left calf as she lifted the leg to let the flat of his foot rest on the bed and lift his knee, and she found what looked like the start of a red rash. She called the nurse over with a simple motion and the woman nodded. ”It’s the start of a bed sore.” she said quietly. ”It’s common with patients like him… after you’re done we’ll shift him to lay on his side for a bit and give his body a break. It’ll help to heal it and I can bandage it more easily from that position.” she told Aina, still keeping her voice quiet.

”Thank you.” Aina replied in her normal voice, not registering that the nurse was whispering, likely not wanting to interrupt what was Aina’s first real moments of helping with Minoru’s care. ”And it’s okay to wash over it as well?” she asked, ”It won’t make it any worse?” When the nurse shook her head, indicating it was okay to wash over the sore, Aina went back to work, speaking to the nurse again. ”My mother is supposed to drop some flowers off in the lobby… could you get them for me?” And with that simple question, the nurse seemed to scamper off while Aina returned to what she was doing.

It took a long time, and Aina was only just finishing with Minoru’s legs, feeling more than a little awkward as she blushed deeply, remembering again how the nurse had explained to her that certain areas were just as important to get washed as others. Yet Aina didn’t look up until she was washing his chest, his hospital gown folded down to preserve his dignity at least, even though the nurse who was in the room with Aina was the only other who had done this for him since his time in the hospital.

Aina couldn’t help a smile as she saw the flowers. Clearly her mother had put the bouquet together, though Aina had asked just for a bit of cherry blossom. There were at least four whole branches of it, cascading out of the vase with a lovely purple and a blue flower coming out of the center and Aina paused in her work long enough to place the vase on the side table. She noticed as she washed him, on her third rag now, and not for the first time, the scar that ran up his arm to his shoulder. Part of her still wondered what it was from as she ran her fingers down the length of it, she had never gotten to ask him about it.

Before she knew it she was washing his face, being careful about the water puddling in his eyes or anything, she couldn’t help but think that wasn’t a pleasant feeling even in his condition. Once done she, and the nurse moved him onto his right side, towards the flowers. The nurse removed the cart and basin from the room, leaving Aina alone with Minoru once more as the Hyuuga pulled the blankets up over him again and lay behind him, her nose against the back of his neck as she closed her eyes. For the first time since she entered the room she felt tears run down her face, yet she didn’t sob or cry out, she didn’t scream, she simply lay there with one arm under her head and the other on his side as she slowly seemed to cry herself to sleep with a single thought on her mind.

’Is this all we’ll ever have?’

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part II Every day Aina made it a point to return to Mino’s side at the end of the day to help care for him under the supervision of his primary nurse. But today she was allowed to bathe him without her watchful eye, the pair given privacy it what would probably be the closest to an ‘intimate moment’ they would ever have. Just as she did the days before she carefully and meticulously cleaned him from head to toe and replaced the flowers by his bed, a gift from her mother’s garden. Tonight she didn’t say a word, she was tired, she was worn down by the day, but still she made sure to take care of Minoru. Tonight she paid special attention to his hair, taking a wet cloth and sitting by his shoulder as she carefully washed each straw-colored lock and noticing he was due for a haircut, she’d have to ask the nurse to send someone the next day.

It wasn’t until she finally finished with his hair that she paused to speak, running her fingers down his cheek and under his chin as she leaned forward and kissed his forehead. ”How did it come to his?” she asked quietly, sighing as she watched him. He seemed so peaceful she thought she could almost be fooled into thinking he merely slept. ”My parents have been pressing me to find my own place.” she told him, brushing his hair out of his face with her fingers. ”I haven’t started looking yet though… somehow I always thought that I’d have you with me when I was looking I think… it’s weird to look at homes now, they’re all just empty to me now…”

She stood long enough to arrange the flowers her mother had sent, and moved to the window to pull the shades open now that Minoru was decent. There was no sun, it had sent nearly an hour ago but the stars and moon let a light into the room that brought a smile to her face as she sat on the wide window sill and turned her white eyes back over to where he lay. ”Remember those missions at the academy that we took?” she asked him, knowing he’d remember, yet never answer her in return. ”When we walked down that hallway the first time and you told me about your childhood… I kept wondering if someday we’d be walking down the halls telling the same things to our own children as we took them to their first classes…” A light blush graced her cheeks as she chuckled at the thought. ”I was too embarrassed to tell you… I kept imagining a boy with your clan’s prowess and a girl with mine… honestly I didn’t care what clan abilities they did or didn’t have, I just wanted…” she took a deep breath to steady herself as she felt the physical urge to cry well within her chest. But she refused to let it loose, she was having just a nice conversation with him right? Tears were unnecessary.

”I used to imagine us having a rather large home, a yard we could play with the kids and train in… plenty of space to run around, and even enough space for my mother to stash flowers I’d have to purge our home of later…” she couldn’t help but to laugh, recalling all the times her mother had hidden a flower in her room and Aina would find herself trying to force Goro to sniff around the room to find it for her so she could get rid of it. That same pup even know was curled up at Minoru’s feet with another guest that Aina had only seen sparingly, the black panther Hikari who was his companion.

”I’m scared of getting a big house now… I don’t know if I’ll ever have someone like you again… I don’t think I can feel that again…” She took a deep shaking breath and stood, walking over to the animals, resting a hand on Hikari’s head as the animal returned the gesture with a look up of bright eyes. ”I may never have children… but I guess I could have extra rooms, for guests… maybe Hikari here will finally take me up on my offer to come sleep at my place if my brothers aren’t there…” As she spoke the animal began to purr almost as if she heard her and Aina laughed.

”First time I invited her she came with me you know? Then she met Nobu… she didn’t take his playfulness as well as you did, she tried to bite his hand and got a mouthful of his ass instead… poor girl… you should have seen her heaving on the front lawn afterwards…” she told her love, snorting in laughter as Hikari growled under her breath. ”I assume that means you think I need my own place too?” she asked the rather massive feline who seemed to snort in response before resting her head down again, this time on Goro’s belly. The little wild dog growled quietly and rolled over on his back, still asleep, as the panther made herself comfortable again.

”I guess that means I should give in and start looking, huh Minoru?” she asked him, sighing quietly as she moved to sit beside him and rest her head on his chest. ”You know, I’ve saved a lot of money… do you think they’d let me move you to my place when I have one? I could care for you better there, or at least spend more time with you. I could hire a nurse for when I’m on mission or something too.” After a few moments of quiet, as if waiting for an answer, Aina lay her head on Minoru’s chest to rest, feeling exhausted still from her day and she said quietly the simple words she had never told him in consciousness. ”I love you, Minoru.”

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part III Aina signed in at the front desk, handing the clipboard back to the nurse before heading back to the room. She hardly listened when the woman offered to walk her back, if there was one thing Aina was growing weary of it was the looks. She could see the pity in their eyes when she came here, and the young Hyuuga wanted no part in it. She made her way to Minoru’s room as usual, but she had been out late tonight and had arrived after the nurses had already bathed him. Of course she thanked them as she arrived at the room but she was still determined for her visit. Even Hikari had insisted on accompanying her and as soon as the door was open the panther hopped up on the bed and curled up at her Master’s feet.

Meanwhile Aina sat down by his side, taking his hand into both of hers and massaging it with her thumbs as she thought things through. ”I finally decided on a house today.” she told him quietly, whispering as if he were actually asleep as she always seemed to do. ”It’s bigger than I need, and it’s rather plain, but I like it. It’s a five bedroom but I plan to make it a three, I’m going to knock down a wall between two of the bedrooms for a private training area. My brothers say they’ll help me too. The living room is rather big, so is the kitchen. You’d love the back porch, it’s spacious… so is the yard… mom wants me to put a flower garden or something back there. I was thinking vegetables and fruit at the worst but, I don’t know…” she trailed off, her own words had been rushed, almost as if glossing over a subject and frankly she was.

There were some things she was scared to tell him. She knew he was asleep, she knew he couldn’t really hear her, she was only doing this for herself in the end wasn’t she? Aina shifted and laid down, resting her head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat, using one hand to move his so the palm of his hand rest on her shoulder. It was almost more comforting this way. ”My mother… she told me something today.” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. ”Her and my father want to arrange a marriage for me.” she finally said, a tear snaking its way down her cheek. She couldn’t help a sniffle, turning her head so she was buried in his chest, choking back a sob before she finally sat up, moving to hold his hand in hers once more… it felt so fragile.

”I screamed at them. I told them no, but they’re insisting… I told them I want to be here when you wake up but Father… he says you never will, that I’m holding on to something… to someone who is dead already…” The tears streaked down her face as she held Minoru’s hand in one of hers and her free one moved to touch his cheek. ”But you’re not dead… you’re in there somewhere, I can see it… your skin is warm, you breathe, I can hear your heartbeat… you’re alive and I c-can’t… I can’t let go of that…” she sobbed, her head dropping to his chest again.

Hikari’s head perked up, her yellow eyes staring at Aina almost sadly as the girl cried and for several moments the young panther remained where she was. It wasn’t until it became apparent that the crying wouldn’t stop soon that Hikari stood and stretched, her tail curling up into a straight line for a moment before she walked across the bed, careful not to step on Minoru, before she stretched out on his other side, her head resting on one of Aina’s arm on the boy’s chest.

Aina turned and looked at the panther, attempting a smile before using one hand to pet her on the head carefully, sighing as she sat up and wiped away her tears, wishing she could chide herself for behaving like a child, and yet she couldn’t. The pain was so real to her she couldn’t understand how it could possibly be childish. ”My father was so mad at my reaction he stormed off… but Mother… she said she’d find someone who would understand.” she told Minoru, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. ”She said she’d find someone who would understand about you, about my visits, about everything…” she added, taking a deep breath as she tried to steady herself.

Aina looked over and saw the panther had shifted, resting her head on Minoru’s chest now and she reached a hand to scratch behind Hikari’s ears, smiling down at her as she knew the animal missed her Master as much as Aina did. ”Mom says I have a responsibility to the clan now, she says I’ll understand some day… she claims I may love him someday like I did you, like she does Father but… I don’t know if I can ever…” Aina shook her head, remembering for a moment a mission with Yoru as he had demanded to know if she knew how to love. ”I couldn’t even fake such an emotion for a mission… how am I supposed to feel it for real again?” she whispered, turning to lay across Minoru’s torso, her head resting on the warm body and fur of Hikari.

”I don’t want to accept this… I don’t want to be okay with this… no one can or will ever replace you for me… I feel like I’m doomed to be a shell. I’m going to become just another mindless member of the clan…”

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part IV She couldn’t tell the days apart anymore. It’d gotten to the point where her days were spent in her office doing paperwork, her evenings caring for Minoru, and her nights like she was now. She sat in her own kitchen on one of the counters, a bottle of sake beside her, open with a cup not in sight, the young Hyuuga Jounin having taken to just drinking straight out of the bottle until she felt sleep pulling at her relentlessly.

Tonight was no different.

She felt her mistakes pulling at her, the nightmares already running through her mind of watching her own clan leader fall as she was pulled away by the same man who had spilled his blood. Even worse was when that same man turned his back to her and damnation bit into her flesh. Picking up the bottle to take another swig she slipped and almost fell off the counter, nearly falling and winding up in a fit of giggles.

In her drunken state she never heard the front door open, or the footsteps that came towards her as she stood on the ground and slid to the floor, bottle still in hand. Honestly she didn’t even notice her brother Jirou was there until he snatched the bottle out of her hand and her face was suddenly forced to the side with a resounding ’SMACK!’ that knocked her the rest of the way to the floor.

Aina turned her head slowly and stared up at her brother in complete shock. ”Y-you… you jusht…” She could barely get the words out, both due to her drunken stupor and her surprise at the fact that her brother had just slapped her.

”What the HELL is wrong with you?!” Jirou demanded, reaching down and grabbing his sister by her upper arms, pushing her against the counter as she yelped in shock and pinning her there with his hands on either side of her. If she were to try to move, she’d have to push her way past him. While Nobu was focused on ninjutsu and medical, Jirou was all tai and strength and was much stronger than Aina. Even sober she didn’t have much of a chance against the man.

”What are you talking about?” she asked him, staring up into her brother’s eyes and the rage she had honestly never seen before. Jirou was as easy going as Nobu, moreso really. The man drank regularly and was known to sleep his way around the females of the village. He had never seemed to care about much of anything, and yet here he was, pissed as hell at his sister who he had always told in the past to lighten up and have a drink.

”I was in the liquor store earlier and found out you’ve been buying enough sake lately for a bottle a night… and I get here to check on you and find you so drunk you never heard me knock or call you at the door?! What is wrong with you?!” He demanded again, stepping away from his sister a moment with an exasperated sigh, running his hand through his spiked black hair.

Aina knew that cologne he was wearing, he always wore it when he had a date, when he was chasing some girl and yet now he was here instead. ”Didn’t you have a date tonight?”

Jirou shook his head as he turned around to look at her, noticing that she was simply too drunk to process why he was there, or what was going on around her for that matter. The man walked over to her and, after a little effort, took the bottle from her and went to pour it down the sink.

”HEY!”

Yet as Aina ran over and tried to reach around him for it, Jirou pushed her hard enough she landed on her ass on the floor. ”You’ll thank me later.” he told her as he finished what he was doing and left the now empty bottle in the sink before walking over to his sister. He held out a hand to pull her up and once she was on her feet he moved his hands behind her and suddenly lifted her in his arms, bridal style. ”It’s time for you to sleep this mess off.” he told her as he started walking back towards her room.

”Nuh uh.” she replied trying to get out of his arms, but between their strength difference and her drunken state, she simply couldn’t manage it. ”But… the nightmares…”

”You’ll face those later.” Jirou told her as they made it to her room and he set her on the edge of her bed. ”Don’t worry about those right now.” he added as he saw his sister slump back on the bed, the alcohol still hitting her hard as she just didn’t have the energy to stay sitting up, that or she was too frustrated with Jirou to even look at him. Either way, the man smirked as he managed to remove his sister’s boots and then removing her vest, pausing as he saw her scars. With a sigh he shifted her around in her bed so she was laying on the pillow properly and pulled the covers up over her. ”Tomorrow you’re going to be hung over as hell, and we’ll talk then.” he told her, getting a grumble from her in return.

He looked over at her nightstand and picked up a small wooden box. He looked inside and found the studs for her piercings and shook his head. ”The day after though you’re going to put these in, you’re going to do your make up like you used to, and you and I are going to get you back on track.” he told her, hardly noticing the black shadow of the young panther that slinked into the room behind him. He watched Hikari leap up onto the foot of the bed and curl up into a ball even as Aina replied.

”What’s the point? I’m just another Hyuuga now.” she said quietly. ”I have nothing else. I’m not unique.”

Jirou sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed beside his sister as he reached over and lifted her head up carefully to undo the braid in her hair so that she could sleep more comfortably. ”Because between me, you and Nobu you’re the only one with a hope to do anything… and that’s because you’re a stubborn ass and have always walked to your own beat, kid. I’ll be damned if I let you give up on that now.” He replied, remaining at her side until she fell asleep, and even then he only left the room long enough to get a blanket and pillow which he lay on the floor beside her bed and made himself comfortable for the night.

Most of the family saw him as a womanizing drunk, but if there was one thing he was going to be good for it would be the make sure his sister didn’t let tragedy turn her into the same thing.

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part V As Aina awoke the first thing she noticed was her pounding head, and the second was the smell of food. She opened her eyes slowly, glad to realize her bedroom door was shut so there was very little light in the room, but looking down she saw a blanket and pillow on the floor she could have sworn she didn’t put there. Despite the fact that it made her nauseous, she carefully moved her feet out from under the blanket and laid them on the cold floor, sitting up straight as she tried to remember the night prior.

It wasn’t long before she remembered Jirou bursting into her home.

Carefully the young Hyuuga woman stood, holding onto the doorway a moment for support before she finally opened the door and winced at the sudden light. Yet as she turned and walked down the hallway, heading for the kitchen, she could hear the sound of popping oil and smell fish which surprised her. When she got to the kitchen she found Jirou standing there in a pair of sweatpants, a dish towel over one shoulder, and standing at the stove apparently cooking. She took a seat at the breakfast bar and leaned forward on her elbows, watching him for a few moments before she finally spoke. ”I didn’t know you could cook.”

Jirou looked back at his clearly hungover little sister and grinned. ”It was mother’s last ditch attempt to make me useful in the household, I let her think I never got very good at it.” he replied rather proudly before turning back to the fish frying in the pan.

”But you kept up with it?”

Jirou nodded, and before long had served up the food on two plates and turned off the stovetop. He set a bowl in front of his little sister. There was fried rice with sesame seeds, fried white fish of some kind, and some kind of sweet sauce over it all along with hot tea. He put some in front of her and stood on the other side of the small breakfast bar, leaning against it as he pulled out chopsticks and helped himself to his own small serving. ”Easier to get a girl to sleep with me if she thinks there’s a good breakfast in it for her in the morning.” he told her between bites.

Aina rolled her eyes out of reflex, immediately whimpering at the pain that shot through her eyes and head as a result before she finally picked up her own chopsticks and set to nibbling on the food. It really wasn’t bad, she had to admit that much. ”And yet the guy who sleeps around and gets drunk every night he can, came here to stop me from drinking by myself, in a safe environment, and lectured me on it.” she remarked, looking through her disheveled bedhead hair at him.

Jirou sighed and stuck his chopsticks in the bowl, leaning forward on his forearms and elbows as he looked straight at his sister. ”I’ve screwed my life up. There’s no doubt about that. I was useless in the invasion, that’s a no-brainer too. Even our fairy brother managed to at least pull you out and save your life, I can’t say that much. I was so hungover I was passed out in bed and lucky our home didn’t get destroyed in the chaos.” he said, before pointing at his sister with two fingers and poking her in the forehead. ”That’s. Not. You.”

Aina frowned as her brother poked her in the forehead, and attempted to swat his hand away before taking a sip of her tea with a grimace. She had thought it was green tea, turned out it was a rather nasty tasting tea her mother was fond of that she claimed cured any ill. And of course Jirou laughed at her reaction to the taste.

”Look, Aina.” he finally began seriously. ”I know you’re hurting. You’ve never had anyone before Minoru who loved you like that, and you never had feelings like that for anyone before him. It’s a hell of a blow, but you’re letting it destroy you.”

Aina set down the teacup and shook her head, almost instantly regretting the move as she fought to burp rather than something worse as a nausea overtook her. ”It’s not just that, Jirou.” she told him quietly.

”Then what is it?”

Aina sighed, looking at Jirou a moment in silence. She wasn’t used to the man before her being the one who was all kinds of supportive and helpful. Usually it was Nobu who tried to help her through these things and part of her wanted to demand to know why he suddenly cared. But she knew the answer. He was her brother, and he was the one who had been the first to find out she was in trouble. ”I failed.” she told him, her gaze dropping to the bowl of food in front of her. ”I failed Minoru… I failed my village… I failed my clan…”

”So what?” Jirou challenged. And when Aina looked up at him in surprise she found his gaze fairly intense considering he wasn’t using his Byakugan in that moment. ”So what?” he repeated the moment he realized he had her gaze and her attention. ”Failure isn’t the end, and it’s certainly not a reason for you to give up. The woman Minoru loved, and yes I said loved, you know he did, didn’t give a damn about clan rules and expectations. You’ve always been bull-headed and stubborn, you’ve always dressed and appeared how you wanted. You always wanted to prove you were stronger for it. Now you’re the assistant of a bannin who is known to be next in line for Hokage, you’re part of an org that protects this village and now-.”

”BUT I FAILED!”

”THEN TRY AGAIN!” Jirou’s response was as loud as Aina’s and emphasized by his fist slamming into the bar between them. ”You’ve never been the type to give up or fall on your face! You’ve always tried again! You’ve always rebelled against the norm and it’s what you need to keep doing! Be you! Push against all expectations and don’t crumble! Help our village to rebuild and help the clan to live through all of this! You’re not the only one hurting, Aina. You’re not the only one who lost someone and you sure as hell aren’t the only one falling into a bottle because of it!”

Aina froze in place, staring at her brother shock as she realized that even though he was angry, tears were spilling down his face, and she wasn’t sure why. ”Jirou… why…?”

Jirou sniffled, reaching up to wipe the tears from his eyes as he stood up straight and walked around the table to suddenly pull his little sister into a hug. ”Ai… we almost lost you…” he said quietly as he held her tight, using a nickname he hadn’t used since Aina had become a shinobi. ”You were taken hostage, you were stabbed, even Nobu as he healed you was crying. You have no idea what happened after you passed out…” he told her, and he went on to tell her everything that had happened. He told her how Nobu had barely managed to bandage her through his own tears, his hands shaking so bad that Jirou had to help him. Their parents couldn’t handle seeing her hurt and hadn’t even helped at all, the two brothers alone had taken her to get additional help and healing as she needed.

”Aina… I know you’re hurt, I know you’re upset… but you’re not the only one.” he said, looking down at her as he cupped her face in his hands. ”Why do you think mother and father want to arrange a marriage for you? It’s nothing against you or against the love you bear Minoru… they want you happy. They don’t want to lose you and they realized that they almost did. They want to see you with a family, to see you happy and in love again, it’ll take time but you can find it…”

By time Jirou was done speaking, Aina could feel the tears spilling again as she wrapped her arms around her brother’s waist. ”I’m so sorry…”

”It’s okay… but it’s time to stop being a selfish little bitch and get on with it, huh?”

Aina couldn’t help it, between her tears she snorted in laughter. Now that comment was the Jirou she knew, not the sensitive one crying as he held her, but the asshole who was overly fond of smacking her over the head. Seemed this time it was just figurative.

[Willoria]

It had been some time since Aina had trained, having allowed herself to wallow in her own misery and pain for some time in regards to Minoru falling into a coma. Not only that but many in the clan blamed her for the loss of the scrolls and their clan leader, and since them her brother Jirou had been pushing her to look at these criticisms as a reason to improve herself, not to wallow, and slowly that advice was working.

Today Aina had left the clan compound for the forest of death, and with a smile on her face she activated her Byakugan to survey the area and check on her own work. All around her were trees with explosive tags on them and, with the help of Jirou who stood nearby just in case, they had been set for proximity detonation. ”I hope you know, you’re batshit insane for this.” her brother told her from where he leaned against a tree, with a grin plastered on his face.

”Just being me like you demanded.” she reminded him before taking to the first tree with the proper technique. She ran up the side of it, Byakugan still active, and the moment she neared the tag enough to hear that tell-tale ‘hiss’ she flipped backwards, landing in another tree and as the first exploded she saw another next to her begin the same process. She ran across a branch and leaped from it, the explosion from behind her propelling her forward.

Rather than landing on the branch as she’d been planning, she nearly missed the one she’d been aiming for due to the propulsion and instead caught it with her hands, using chakra to stick to it and flip herself up to the top. Already she was beginning to question her decision to use these kinds of tags for this training. She was already fairly fast and while it had seemed like a good idea at the time to work on her own speed, she was realizing now why her brother had refused to leave her alone after he set them up.

She could hear him laughing as she ran around the trunk of a tree and another ‘hiss’ sounded. Even with her byakugan active she was having trouble seeing the tags while moving at top speed and barely managed to leap to another tree before that one detonated as well. ”How many of these things did you use??” she called down at him as she started swearing, dropping from the top of one tree after finding another tag and landing on a lower branch. She had to move quickly and jump to yet another tree to avoid the falling debris from the resulting explosion.

”Enough to prove you’re crazy!” Came Jirou’s return shout.

Of course listening to him had nearly cost her and with a muttered curse she was thrown from one tree into another by one explosion and had to purposely roll off a branch and drop to the ground to avoid another explosion and close call. She tried to block out the sound of Jirou’s laughter as she jumped into the trees again, taking on the obstacle course her brother had put together for her. She tried to focus on nothing but the trees and her feet, keeping her ears open for sounds that would give her the warning she needed about the location of these explosive tags.

Before she knew it the scenery was flying by. She’d hear a ‘hiss’ and kick off a branch to land on another just as her eyes caught sight of another tag beside her and she’d be forced to jump to another branch, grabbing with her hands and swinging her way up onto it. She had to push herself to keep moving, even if she didn’t find a tag. That was the entire point of this after all, she wanted to improve the speed of not only her movement but her own reflexes as well, both with and without her byakugan.

Before long she found herself acting rather than thinking, using smaller branches to throw herself away from tags that were about to detonate or even just dropping if she didn’t have a place immediately in sight to jump to. This went on for nearly an hour total, by time she managed to jump to her last tree she was drenched in sweat, only to realize there were at least three tags under the branch she was standing on. She leaped up to grab the one over her head and swung herself forward, hearing additional hissing from two tags on the branch she had grabbed and swearing she landed in another tree just as all of them went off and the Hyuuga fell to the ground.

She lay there for several moments before a stream of words came from her mouth at her brother that could not be repeated and left her brother in a laughing fit on the ground.

Stat Training 3 – SpeedShow

830/800

[Willoria]

Aina had spent so much time in her own grief she felt like her mind didn’t know what quiet was anymore, and so today she stood crouched on her feet, hands together and eyes closed but what was different about the way she did it was the fact that her feet were against a cliff wall, her hair back in a braid but hanging down alongside her face as, if she opened her eyes, she’d be staring down the cliff. She was high enough up that she was higher than most trees, though a few of the tops of them were still at about eye level.

Her muscles ached from the way she squatted within minutes, but what was really pulling at her was the feeling of just how high up she was, and the fact that she had to hold the tree climbing technique for so long. Truth be told she was feeling a little ill and quieting her mind while maintaining the technique was getting difficult as the Hyuuga didn’t particularly like heights.

It didn’t help any either that while she was there, feeling the perspiration from nervousness running down her face and dripping off her nose, she heard footsteps on the cliff behind her. ”You’re a bit of a crazy person, aren’t you?” came the voice of Kazuki, a fellow member of the Hyuuga clan that Aina had run into a few times now.

Aina sighed heavily, keeping her eyes closed as she tried to focus on clearing her mind rather than the voice of the Hyuuga behind her. ”Go away Kazuki, I’m trying to focus here.” she told him in response.

Kazuki instead seemed to take it as an invite, sitting on the edge of the cliff as he watched her. ”Somehow, I don’t think this is safe, so I’m going to stay here and make sure you don’t fall to your death… or something.” he replied, ensuring he was annoying Aina with his mere presence.

Meanwhile Aina simply tried to return to what she was doing, though as the moments moved on slowly she found this kind of training was the most difficult, even though she wasn’t moving. Not just because of Kazuki’s presence, but because quieting her mind was near impossible. There were moments that all she could think about was the fact that she’d end her day by, yet again, going to see Minoru and bathing him, preparing him for another night and another day in that coma. She knew she’d have that moment when she hoped to walk through the doorway and see him awake, and that was what scared her more than helping with his physical care.

Honestly it wasn’t the only thing that invaded her mind, there were good memories too, things she tried to focus on more and tried to keep her mind on even more. She remembered walking the halls of the academy with him as he told her about his past, as if it would impact her opinion of him at all. She had never cared about the family behind him, or the beast within, once she’d realized there was more to the unique boy than the horns on his head, she had realized she really liked him. He was caring, and he protected those close to him at any cost, those were things to admire.

She was seeing more of him in others lately, like in Yoru. The man infuriated her, not because of the embarrassing situations they’d already been in either, his insensitivity to her situation drove her mad. She couldn’t see how he and Minoru were ever friends sometimes, how did Yoru care about him at all? Did he? But even as she sat crouched on that Cliffside, she chuckled, realizing that even as unfeeling as he could be, he had protected her as well and was strong like she had always known Minoru could be. She could see that Minoru probably had looked up to the man for that.

Then there was Takeo, aggravating as ever, almost moreso than Yoru, but the man had been so angered and hurt at the thought of Minoru being dead he had completely lost sight of himself for a moment. Though Aina supposed that just made him more like her than Minoru. It was strange looking at others around her and the way they were impacted by Minoru’s coma, realizing there was no such thing as two sides of a coin, perhaps the six sides of a dice would be more accurate.

Minoru had had such a huge impact on everyone’s life, he had so much value to so many, even without the beast. Aina was completely lost in thought, not even noticing as she was losing her grip on the wall at first, at least until she felt the first skid and a yelp came unbidden from her lips.

Fortunately Kazuki was still there, paying closer attention to Aina than he’d care to admit as his hand lashed out and grabbed her under an arm. ”I gotchya.”

Stat Training 4 – ControlShow

841/800

[Willoria]

”You sure about this?” Kazuki asked as he pulled on a pair of fingerless gloves. He stood in the training area with Aina. The sun was high in the sky and the pair were preparing for training. Aina had asked Kazuki to help her out since her brothers generally hated actual spars with her, the twins were too afraid of actually hurting Aina to really train with her. But it seemed Kazuki didn’t much mind sparring with Aina, so long as there was a purpose behind it, and as Aina was soon to find out, Kazuki could keep up with her pretty well.

By time Aina confirmed she was sure about sparring with him, her fellow Hyuuga took his first swing which Aina easily ducked under, her hands coming up in a guard. At first each punch he threw, Aina managed to duck under, step back out of his reach, or even swat away. But as they kept at it and the sweat began to drench her hair, she knew she couldn’t keep it up, yet she pushed herself to keep moving.

The first blow that actually landed wasn’t even a punch, it was a kick to her ribs that she hadn’t been expecting. Aina brought her elbow down too late and missed intercepting the kick. She staggered to the side but Kazuki didn’t let up, following through from the kick to her left side with a hook from her right that nailed her in the face.

Aina was thrown down but she rolled towards him, forcing Kazuki to jump over her and by time he turned to face her again she was on her feet once more and ready to keep going. The pair kept at it without pause, one blow after another and Aina wasn’t the only one who was struck down more than once. Before long Aina had bruised ribs and a busted lip but Kazuki had a busted eyebrow and broken nose to match.

”Getting tired yet?” he challenged, a grin on his face as he blocked another punch from Aina who merely shook her head in response, ducking under a high kick before swinging at him and managing to get a shoulder as Kazuki turned rather than his spine which she had been aiming for.

”Not at all!” she lied, having trouble even keeping her breathing even as she spoke and slapped away one of his fists. The next one slammed into her sternum and knocked her back, but she followed up with a roundhouse that barely missed and kept him from following up and capitalizing on the moment with a move of his own, not to mention getting a chuckle out of the man.

Kazuki seemed to be highly competitive, proving so as Aina came in for a punch and he not only sidestepped it, he slammed his shoulder into hers to throw her off balance and aimed a punch at the side of her head, sending her skidding to the ground. As Aina came up she had to bring both hands up to slap down the knee that came for her face and used the momentum transfer from his knee to her hands to pull herself up to her feet and slammed her own fist into his sternum.

Kazuki staggered a moment and Aina followed up with a spinning kick to the side of his head that send him sideways but as he landed on the ground and she came close to try and make things worse for him, he spun with his legs out and kicked her back. A moment later he was on his feet again, throwing a punch at her which she intercepted by hooking her arm at his elbow and slamming a fist into the side of his neck.

As he pulled his arm out of her hooked arm he grasped her elbow and pulled her to himself, slamming his fist into her nose and finally repaying her in kind for his own broken nose but Aina didn’t back down. Her forehead met his already broken nose, causing the man to stagger back with a groan. But he couldn’t let his guard down for the briefest of moments.

Her leg came at the side of his head and he grabbed her ankle and yanked, forcing her to her back on the ground before he moved forward, her ankle over his left shoulder as he moved to punch her in the throat. Unable to get her leg completely free she twisted to the side just enough that his fist hit the dirt instead and the man started laughing at her.

”What?!” she demanded, panting as she lay on her back both trapped and pinned with one leg up over his shoulder and her other leg underneath him.

”You really going to say this doesn’t look bad?” he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively to indicate the position they were in.

”Perv.” Aina replied, open hand slapping Kazuki across the face which only made the man laugh harder.

Stat Training 5 – StaminaShow

836/800

[Willoria]

Aina sat on the branch of a tree, looking down at the training ground below her. She had thought about getting one of her brothers or Kazuki to help her out today but then she had decided on something less simple than traditional training and though she might cross it with some form of entertainment. She formed the appropriate hand seals and a moment later, on the ground not too far below her, came into view a fire clone of herself. She watched the clone walk around, circling the tree for a few moments before it moved a few feet from the tree and looked up at her.

With something of a bored smirk on her face, Aina formed the same seals again, and a second clone came to being beneath her. It too circled the tree and went to stand beside the first, looking up at her real self in the tree. A third time she formed the seals and a third time a clone appeared below her, circling the tree and walking out to the other two. A moment later all three took a swing and none of them landed a punch as Aina sat there, maintaining the technique on all three and watching them try and fail to hit one another. A single hit would take the clones out and so she wasn’t hoping for a real hit just yet, in fact right now this was just for her own mild amusement and practice with her ninjutsu techniques before she tackled something more complicated later.

As she watched the three clones duking it out, she formed a few different hand seals for a different technique and a moment later she snapped a twig off the tree and funneled her chakra into it. She threw it at one of the clones, throwing it at a high arc to ensure it got to its target and moments later it landed right on the clone’s head, exploding and taking the clone with it in a burst of flames. Aina couldn’t help a childish giggle at the spectacle.

Clearing her throat as she tried to calm herself she watched the two remaining clones stare at her before she motioned for them to get back to what they were doing. And yet again she formed the seals and another clone stepped into the mix after it had circled the tree. Honestly it was only mildly amusing and she almost wished one of her brothers would show up and interrupt the spectacle, if only because it’d be fun to interrupt their concerns and curiosity with another explosion.

Aina formed a few hand seals as she maintained the techniques for the three clones and turned to the tree, a small flame appearing on the tip of her finger. Normally it was a technique used to cauterize wounds but she didn’t use it as such, instead using it to mark the wood of the tree and write a design in it. It was actually a seal design she had been working on but it was nothing more than a drawing with fire, and a couple times she had to pause to blow out a small flame that had taken to the dry bark of the tree. But before long she was bored of that too and she snapped another twig off the tree.

She formed the seals and funneled her chakra into the twig before throwing it at a high arc. This time the clones all backed up at once and the flames erupted in the grass harmlessly, doing no harm to any clone though it brought a frown to Aina’s lips. She had really been trying to hit at least one of them after all and she watched as each of them went back to what they were doing without pause and sighed quietly. She should have expected it, after all she was throwing the twigs aloft and not directly at the clones so even with their low skillset and simple tasks, they could step out of the way of the twigs harmlessly.

For the moment she chose to keep with what she was doing, snapping another twig off the tree but as the clones looked up, expecting to see it come flying at them she just smiled and waved, waiting until they went back to what they were doing and were no longer paying attention to her before she did what she had tried to do the last time. She formed the seals again and funneled her chakra into the twig, this time flinging it rather hard at the nearest clone and giggling with glee as it slammed into the clones head and both burst into flames on the spot.

The other two remaining clones jumped back and seemed to glare at her, frowning almost as if she had killed their pet or something really. She of course still giggled as the two went back to what they were doing, after all the idea was that she was going to maintain at least two clones the entire time and they would fight one another… making three and destroying one was just part of the fun really, or at least part of the entertainment portion of the entire thing.

She sighed under her breath and this time plucked a leaf from the tree before forming the seals, mildly wondering if the chakra would cause the leaf to behave any differently than normal. She funneled her chakra into the leaf this time after she formed the same seals as before and she simply held it in the air and let it go. She found it odd that it didn’t fall straight as if the chakra had weighed it down some, but it fluttered and spun as all leaves do until it alighted on the top of the head of one of the two remaining clones and a second later it exploded into flames.

Aina fell into giggles again, even as she formed seals for two more clone and sent them after the first. She was getting a childish entertainment out of this and she knew that, but honestly, training was boring there was nothing wrong with livening it up in such a way right? So long as it was still training. As she found a larger leaf to funnel her chakra into she couldn’t help but think it was nice to laugh at something so asinine and simple as this and escape her woes for a little while. She was tired of her clan mates who talked behind their hands about her, she knew it had resulted in her parents having trouble truly arranging the marriage for her that they had sworn would happen, but in this moment Aina didn’t mind. Honestly she didn’t mind the temporary loss of the arrangement just this moment anyway, it gave her more time to do things on her own and better herself.

Though she did notice as she funneled her chakra into this larger leaf that a clan mate had seen her and wandered closer to see what was going on. This particular clan mate appeared to be older than she, perhaps an elder, and seemed curious about her work. She funneled the chakra in the leaf and grinned again as she let it fall. It twisted and turned in the wind and landed on another clone, but it didn’t seem to explode immediately. In fact the clone quite panicked and began to freak out and run in circles to try and rid itself of the devil leaf but after several moments and a stupid slap to the leaf it finally detonated into flames and both clone and leaf were gone in an instant.

Aina started laughing so hard the remaining clones dispersed. And as she looked up to see the passing elder try to scurry off before she saw he was laughing too, she damn near fell out of the tree.

Stat Training 6 – NinjutsuShow

1324/1300
*[Fire Element • Fire Clone]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
After performing the needed hand seals, the user concentrates Katon chakra into the form of a clone. This clone looks identical to the user in every way. The clone can go up to a one hundred feet away from the user. Once destroyed by any weak attack, the clone quickly expands containing Katon chakra and fire, and will burn anything within five feet of the blast with first-degree burns.

Taijutsu: 1
Speed: 1
Strength: 1
Stamina: 1

*[Fire Element • Bomb Creation Technique]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
After forming the needed hand seals and forcing katon chakra into an object that the user is touching, the user will throw the item at a target. On contact, the object lets out a powerful blast of flames in a 3 foot diameter around it that can cause first degree burns and expands with roughly the force of an exploding tag. The user can hold the explosion in the object for a single post but this technique must be released before the post is over or it will fizzle out and waste the chakra. This does not damage the object at the center of the explosion.

*[Fire Element • Cauterization Technique]
D-Rank Iijutsu
After performing the needed hand seals, the user concentrates Katon chakra into one of his fingers, forming a tiny flame. They then place their finger on an minor wound, no longer than 6 inches and no wider than 1/2 inch, drawing theirfinger across the wounded flesh. After a period of 1 post and a great deal of pain, the wound will be cauterized.

[Willoria]

Traditional training was just so damn boring. It was enough to make Aina want to claw out the inside of her own skull when she thought about it. Even as she walked out onto a lake and ran across it, trying to work on her own use of her ninjutsu, she found herself already bored out of her mind and even as she got off the lake she leaped into the trees, using chakra to keep her grip as she went from branch to branch. She liked times when she could try to have fun with it, like her clones and the leaves and all that, it was kind of fun making clones explode with leaves and a little chakra, especially since the chakra didn’t really make the leaves seem all that different.

As her thoughts went on and on on the subject, she formed a few seals and a clone suddenly appeared just to her left and behind her, running along with her and keeping pace. They ran and jumped carefully, crossing one another’s path here and there and after a moment she formed the seals again, adding a second, this one to her right and just behind her. A third time and she added a clone just up ahead of her. At least this way she was less bored, she had clones running with her. Well, rather she wasn’t alone, she quickly realized that she was still bored and even as she kept the techniques active to try and work on her own abilities she found herself yawning as she ran. That just didn’t seem right.

She formed the seals again and she had a fourth clone, again and she had a fifth, and before long she had at least eight. The strain on her wasn’t as bad as she thought it might be. Yet she kept on running and moving forward, running her fingers on the fuuinjutsu on one of her shoulders. Once she had a senbon in hand she was grinning, her byakugan was activated, and she was on the hunt. She let most of her clones run ahead of her before she gave chase and leaped up into a higher levels of the trees so she could get a better vantage point. The first one would be easy to find, the first target was always the most unaware and a moment later she let fly her senbon downward towards the clone’s head and it burst into flame and disappeared.

Aina couldn’t help a laugh even though it only served to give away her position to the other clones. She kept a move on, never resting and never stopping as she went after the other clones. She could see them putting more distance between themselves and again she traced a fuuin on her shoulder to draw out a single senbon. But the second target would take her longer to get to. This one was constantly changing what level it was on and only as it dropped to the ground and ran in the dirt did she finally manage to let the senbon fly, slamming into the back of the clone’s neck and causing it to burst into flames as well.

So that was two down and six left. Aina herself dropped down to the ground and ran across the dirt, using the advantage of her byakugan to look around and up into the trees that she might try to figure out just where her other clones had gone. She managed to catch glimpses here and there but they were hard to keep an eye on and not because there were six of them. The problem was that they were all moving at a constant and refusing to stay at single height. Some dropped lower and into the bushes while others got into the highest of the heights of the trees which put one at least out of her sight entirely, despite her use of her byakugan.

Aina traced the tattoo on her shoulder again before leaping into a tree. One of her clones had established a pattern of staying in the trees before dropping to the bushes and if her guess was right it would be coming into the bushes again shortly. A moment later she was happy to see she was correct and before the clone’s feet even touched the ground her senbon flew into the small of its back and the clone burst into flames and dispersed to the point that Aina actually had to cross her arms over her face to protect herself from the flames as she leaped through them herself in her objective to keep moving.

She didn’t stop, moving from one limb to the next as she sought out a fourth target. She knew it wasn’t too far off but it seemed to have changed its own pattern and gone higher into the trees, and so Aina went higher to get after it. She had to dodge branches a couple of times as the clone purposely pulled on more springy limbs to try and snap her in the face, only once was Aina surprised enough to nearly get caught by the branch that came flying back at her. She’d actually dropped to lower branches temporarily with a laugh and a comment to herself about how she could be a real pain in the ass. Yet she kept on moving.

Her hand moved to her shoulder yet again, drawing out the single senbon she would need as she moved along, leaping higher into the tree, and yet despite the senbon in her hand she found another fun idea in her own mind and she put the senbon between her lips as her hands moved up to grab a branch overhead. She flung herself into the air and flipped so she hovered a moment in the air and spit the senbon at the clone, putting the senbon in the back of the clone’s head. Aina let out another laugh as her fourth target was vanquished and she was on to find her fifth.

She was quickly realizing that between eight clones and the use of her fuuinjutsu she was likely to exhaust herself soon, though that was kind of the point right? She had to push herself to get better and push herself she would. Between her talks with her brothers and the fight with Yoru the girl was feeling more than a little inadequate as a Jounin, as if she hadn’t deserved the promotion at all she was remembering her words to the elder who had granted the request for her promotion. She had vowed to be ready for the next threat and while she was hunting clones she was suddenly finding herself picturing them as Enma and Yaku fleeing before her.

Her fifth target she decided would be the one that had gone the highest and out of her view and quickly the Hyuuga made her way to the very tops of the trees. It was more difficult to leap around up here from one tree to the next but she refused to let herself go lower as she saw the clone straight ahead and having the same problem. With a grin on her face she drew the next senbon and tried to force herself to move faster though that was a task easier said than done when some of these trees were scraping her legs up. She knew she couldn’t keep it up for long and flung the senbon as hard as she could even as she dropped down to a lower branch to try and give her legs a break from the pain.

The senbon only managed to make contact with the clone’s ankle but for such a weak clone it was more than enough and it burst into flames. Aina looked up briefly to make sure she didn’t catch any part of the forest on fire and with a satisfied smile she moved on to continue hunting for the last two clones.

Stat Training 7 – NinjutsuShow

1337/1300
*[Fire Element • Fire Clone]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
After performing the needed hand seals, the user concentrates Katon chakra into the form of a clone. This clone looks identical to the user in every way. The clone can go up to a one hundred feet away from the user. Once destroyed by any weak attack, the clone quickly expands containing Katon chakra and fire, and will burn anything within five feet of the blast with first-degree burns.

Taijutsu: 1
Speed: 1
Strength: 1
Stamina: 1
*[Fuuinjutsu • Storage: Partial Expel]
C-Ranked Fuuinjutsu
Prerequisites: *[Fuuinjutsu • Storage: Expel]
This fuuinjutsu is specifically used when multiple objects are stored in a seal. Using this partial expel the user may withdraw a single item from a seal where multiple items are stored. As an example, the user may withdraw a single senbon when ten are stored within. However of course once all items have been used, the seal is empty. The seal does not magically produce items.

[Willoria]

Aina had been diving into her training head first as of late, taking every spare moment she had to train, and allowing for now her paperwork to stack up on her desk. She didn’t much mind it honestly, it probably meant that when she wore herself out and the medics told her she wasn’t allowed any strenuous activity for a few days she could take that time to finish the paperwork. In her mind that meant the problem would eventually balance itself out. Today she was trying instead of paperwork to take another approach to her own ninjutsu training as she stood out on a lake using the water walking technique. For several moments she merely stood there and took a few deep breaths, meditating on her day and what she had planned for it as well as the time she would spend later with family, perhaps before going to see Minoru as was her tradition in the evenings.

But the girl was, as always, bored and a few moments was all it took before she was yawning and in addition to maintaining the water walking technique on the water she chose to create clones. She formed the seals and a moment later a fire clone stood on the water just a few feet from her, it’s hands together in an all too familiar stance of meditating as it maintained the same technique to remain standing on the water. Unlike Aina it of course had to do this to keep its own form, given it was made of fire and all and water rested just below itss feet.

A few more seals and a second clone was made, it too immediately set to meditating quietly and standing on the water as still as it could manage while keeping up the simple technique. Aina watched the two curiously even as she formed the seals for a third, hearing it come to life a couple feet behind her and take up the same position. Honestly she wasn’t finding this any more fun than normal training but she had to suppose that all training had its seriously boring moments that she just couldn’t stand.

With a sigh she formed another set of seals that a fourth clone appeared not too far away and still within sight of her eyes and her byakugan. She knew extended use of her eyes would drain her chakra faster but the entire point was to use as much ninjutsu as she could after all and it would certainly help her to be able to do more at a time if she practiced this way.

As such she tried to be happy about the fact that she formed yet fifth clone and then a sixth. By time she was done making clones the lake was covered with them, probably fifteen or so in all and Aina decided this was the point when she wanted to have fun. She really didn’t have any twigs or leaves this time so she couldn’t blow them up in humorous ways like she had just days before, and since she was on the water she didn’t really want to use senbon if only because she didn’t feel like going looking for them after the fact. Besides, she doubted the fish would appreciate their home being intruded by needles that might even kill a few… though it did give her a thought for fishing later which made the woman giggle.

No instead she decided, as she fought to maintain all fifteen clones, that she would use additional ninjutsu to dispose of the clones and with a grin on her face she watched them start to move. It was her intent of course, they all had been meditating and now, while still using the water walking technique, they would start running around. After all, a moving target is always so much more fun than one that just stands there and does nothing.

She formed the necessarily hand seals and drew in a deep breath. A moment later she breathed outward, emitting a fireball before her and sending it forward, slamming into a clone. It was a fairly weak technique compared to others and so it didn’t make it past the first clone it hit, although the first clone hit a second before both disappeared in a plume of flame and Aina giggled, watching the other clones as they started trying to run faster. Though honestly running faster wouldn’t help, there were still thirteen of them after all and all of them on a single lake and running in a circle around her. It was like shooting fish in a barrel honestly.

In the interest of keeping things fresh and a bit different, not to mention the entertainment value of it all, Aina chose to use a different jutsu this time and formed a few seals, focusing chakra into her right hand. Aa she did so a small fireball formed in that same hand and she grinned, watching the clones run around crazy for a few moments before she through it and yelped happily as the fireball made contact with a clone. This time as the clone fell away into fire and dissipated the other clones avoided it meaning only one was destroyed this time and left twelve more for her to deal with.

But this was quite alright with her. She was getting to enjoy this perhaps a little too much honestly. After all the clones did look like her before bursting into flames. The thought occurred to her that this could be some self-conscious enjoyment of what she saw as getting revenge on herself for her own failings but she shrugged the thought off rather quickly, knowing full well that that was just downright silly after all.

Granted she had her fair share of failings to make up for but she certainly wasn’t going to let anything stand in her way now as she formed the seals again to make another fireball in her hand. Didn’t everyone get this much enjoyment out of destroying their own clones honestly? After all, her own brothers were the ones who had told her training with clones was sometimes the most fun as well as the most convenient as training partners could be harder and harder to come by, the stronger one got.

The fire ball rest in her hand long enough this time, as the girl was lost in thought for a moment, that she actually started to feel a slight burning and cursing under her breath she through it. Somehow this one ricocheted off one clone into another and into a third, meaning there were only nine left now as these fell to the water and dissipated into flames and hissing out of life in the water itself.

She chose her first method again and formed a few seals, taking in a deep breath before breathing out a small fireball which slammed into the ass of a nearby clone and made Aina laugh even as it pitched forward on its head. As a result this one didn’t so much fall into flames as it just hit the water and went out as a result of the contact with the element’s arch nemesis.

There were eight left now and Aina was thoroughly enjoying herself as she giggled incessantly and formed the next set of seals, forming a fireball in her right hand again and throwing it at a clone’s head. This clone was thrown forward by the impact into a flip, its feet slamming into the shoulders of another clone which seemed to start a domino effect. In the end four more were destroyed and only four remained. Since there were only four on the lake now they were rather well dispersed and instead of forming another fireball Aina chose to chase them all down, one at a time and she took off at a full sprint. It wouldn’t take long really, given their abilities were so simple and their roles so vague, but she found it fun nonetheless.

Stat training 8 – NinjutsuShow

1341/1300
*[Fire Element • Fire Clone]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
After performing the needed hand seals, the user concentrates Katon chakra into the form of a clone. This clone looks identical to the user in every way. The clone can go up to a one hundred feet away from the user. Once destroyed by any weak attack, the clone quickly expands containing Katon chakra and fire, and will burn anything within five feet of the blast with first-degree burns.

Taijutsu: 1
Speed: 1
Strength: 1
Stamina: 1

*[Fire Element • Mini Fireball Technique]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
After performing the needed hand seals, the user draws in a deep breath before emitting it in the form of a fireball. This fireball is shot at a speed of four. This fireball can only travel in a straight line. If the target is hit by it, the ball of flame causes a first-degree burn to be inflicted. The fireball must be shot within the same post the hand seals are done in.

*[Fire Element • Flame Bullet Technique]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
After performing the needed hand seals, the user focuses Katon chakra into one of their hands. This causes a fireball to form in the palm of their hand. They can then throw the fireball the same as they would any other projectile. If hit, the fireball causes light burning, barely a first-degree burn. If not thrown within two posts, the ball will dissipate into the air. The fireball typically only travels 20 or so feet before burning out.

[Willoria]

Aina had become almost obsessive in her pursuit of training, and despite the fact that some areas of the Hyuuga Compound were still under repair, she made her way to the nearest training ground to continue her work. She wasn’t the only Hyuuga there, though her presence clearly wasn’t appreciated, there were more than a few members of the clan after all who viewed her as being at fault for the loss of their scrolls. In her grief over Minoru she hadn’t noticed it as much but it had become increasingly obvious as of late. It was hard to ignore it all, but Aina chose for now to focus on her training, knowing the only way to prove herself was to better herself.

She chose to focus on the technique at hand, a gentle fist move known as ‘chakra daggers’. She stood before a practice post as she channeled chakra throughout her body, using her tenketsu to her own advantage as she focused primarily upon her hands. Her byakugan she activated as she worked that she might better watch what she was doing and she was happy to see the chakra at her fingertips extending.

She kept her fingers extended as she began making slow strikes at the post, smiling at the small cuts that appeared in the wood in response to her chakra. But she wasn’t happy to see just how shallow the cuts were. She knew the daggers were supposed to be longer if she really wanted to be able to cut through something, especially if made of chakra itself.

Aina took a step back from the post and took a few deep breaths, focusing on her fingertips yet again as she tried to work with the chakra. She opened her eyes and looked down as she worked to extend the daggers, lengthening them a bit more before she turned back to her training post and began making the long exaggerated strikes again. She wasn’t just making shallow cuts in the wood anymore, she was leaving long gouges in the wood, leaving curling bits of wood on the ground in the wake of her movement. Yet she still wasn’t quite there.

Taking a step back once more she looked down to her hands and focused again on what she was doing, channeling a bit more of her chakra around her fingertips to lengthen the daggers out and before long that length was roughly 3/4’s of that of a kunai and with a grin on her face she went at the post again. Bits and pieces flew near and there, no longer neat little curls but entire chunks of wood flew this way and that, bringing a smile to the young Hyuuga’s face as she moved away from the post.

Now she just had to maintain it. Away from the post she made similar moves as if striking though there was nothing to strike and the woman swat at the air, maintaining the chakra by maintaining a constant channel in her hands. It took a bit more focus than her normal strikes since she was doing more than just striking at the air, but it put a smile on her face to finally start making progress again. Within moments she was able to forget the words that were being said behind her back, and on the rare case to her face, and focus only on her work and her training.

Before long she found herself flowing with the movement feeling almost like she was dancing rather than fighting and even the concentration required the maintain the technique seemed simple and came as if by second nature. She was having fun with it, but as she realized it had begun to come easy to her, she realized it was time for the next technique.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC:634/600
~Chakra Daggers
C-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: Chakra Needle, 6 Control.
By channeling chakra throughout the body, the ninja creates small needles from the tenketsu on their bodies. These needles are about 3/4th the length of a kunai. These are capable of slicing through things made of chakra, which normally could not be broken or cut. This technique can also penetrate defensive jutsu.

[Willoria]

Completing one training and moving directly into the next was Aina’s goal for the day. But as she finished one technique she chose instead to take a moment to rest her body as her mind worked out the next technique. She had never really planned to learn the next one, known as the Twin Lion Fists, Aina had never really seen much point in it and felt it was mostly decorative. But as her clan’s scrolls had been stolen she had suddenly found herself at least sentimentally attached to most of the techniques she had yet to learn, and as a result she had decided to learn every Gentle Fist technique she could. Fortunately Jirou knew every one of them and so she didn’t have to go through the awkwardness of asking someone for help, considering the view most of her clan had of her at this time, and she was able to take down some notes from him.

To begin she closed her eyes and tried to envision what it would look like, her mind giving life to the faces of the lions that would soon adorn her fists as she took on an invisible enemy. She spent several moments simply picturing the lions as she knew this was just as important as the chakra. If she didn’t spend time getting the details right in her mind, she would never be able to get the move right either.

With her eyes closed and her mind trying to put an image to the lion in specifics, she began to focus the chakra to her hands. She could feel her tenketsu in her hands and arms swirling with the energy she pushed in that direction as she brought her hands up in front of her, balled into fists. The chakra washed over her fists, a living breathing entity as it always felt to her. Over and over again she pushed that it might wash over her fists over and over and each time there was more chakra.

By time she opened her eyes, her byakugan active, she could see the chakra swirling over her fists as it began to take shape. At first it was just a series of bumps over her fists but the more she worked with the chakra to try and mold it into what she saw in her head, the more it changed. The shapeless lumps that she could see in the chakra soon began to take shape, the nose remaining jutting out while the eyes receded back a bit to take on the necessary darkened orbs and the mane of the lions seemed almost to grow on sight, lengthening even as Aina’s smile grew and she looked at her other fist to make sure the same was happening there. She was having far too much fun shaping the chakra into such a specific form, enjoying every little detail that she was forced to both imagine and bring to life.

Focusing on the chakra before long the lions seem to shake their manes and roar though no sound came out and Aina moved forward, swinging her fists as if aiming for an invisible opponent. That was when she discovered what the hardest part of the technique would be. She had to not only keep the visual idea in mind as she moved but she had to focus on the chakra to keep it in that shape. Ever thrust of a fist she imagined the jaw of the lion opening with a roar and snapping at the target as if desiring to take a bite of the tender flesh that was never present in an unable to be seen target.

Yet Aina smiled as she moved, the chakra didn’t add a literal weight but she could almost feel the power circling in her fists and the chakra there even now and was loving every moment of it.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 649/600
~Gentle Fist Style, Twin Lion Fists
C-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: 6 Control, 6 Taijutsu.
By channeling chakra to their hands, the user forms two large lion-shaped shrouds of chakra around their hands. This technique is made to supplement their physical attacks. Successfully striking the opponent while this technique is active knocks them back 5 meters unless their strength is higher than five. This technique lasts for up to three posts.

[Willoria]

Aina wanted to think the next technique would be simple and a quick thing to learn, after all, it’s just a smaller version of another technique, right? But the more she took a moment to rest her body and think over what she was going to attempt next, the more she realized how wrong she likely was. Creating a spin with her entire body was something entirely different than creating a spin in a single hand. With a sigh she resigned herself to the fact that this was going to take a good deal of work, and turned her attention towards a grove of trees. To her these would be the perfect targets to practice against. She could aim at nothing and the grass all day long but she wouldn’t see much of an effect, but trees? Trees could show a much better effect and she thought just maybe that would be a better option.

With a sigh Aina closed her eyes and stood before the trees, hands resting open, palms downward, before her as she worked through her chakra and her tenketsu. She felt the chakra moving as her mind tried to make a plan. She knew that the chakra was supposed to come from her palm and so she started there. Focusing on the chakra in her wrists and hands she channeled it all forward, using her tenketsu in her hands themselves as she thrust both hands forward to put the spin into motion but the resulting maneuver was more than simply disappointing. The chakra was thrown forward with a slight spin but it was barely enough of a puff to send the grass shivering in fear, much less impacting the trees, and Aina growled under her breath at such a weak result.

She looked at over her own chakra and tenketsu, her mind working to resolve the problem and for the moment she decided to start further up her arm. She focused the chakra around her tenketsu all the way up her forearm and sent it all careening downward and through her hands, putting a spin on it as she thrust her hands forward. This time the result wasn’t so bad, the blades of grass not only danced but they were sent spinning by the turning chakra and even a bit of bark came loose from some of the nearby trees.

But Aina felt like it wasn’t actually hitting properly. In fact, it almost seemed like it wasn’t hitting at all, it was just being thrown forward like someone throwing a ball with an underhanded pitch, and it was then that Aina got an idea. The move was supposed to look like it came from the palms but what if it was just around her palms? She could get much more strength out of her chakra if she used the tenketsu on her arms instead of funneling chakra away from them down through her hand as she had been doing.

And so with a smile finally plastered on her face Aina focused on these tenketsu again. But instead of diverting the chakra she allowed it to move down her forearms and forward. Thrusting her hands forward she ‘shoved’ the chakra as well, letting the chakra from her palms expand out in a sharp spin as she did so, throwing all of the chakra into a wild spinning vortex from each hand.

She couldn’t help the silly grin and laugh that came from her own lips as it all shot forward and slammed into nearby trees. One of them didn’t hit the tree nearby head on but grazed it, sending splinters of wood and bark in every direction while the other slammed into a tree directly and bored almost straight through it. Aina covered her mouth with her hands in both shock and embarrassment as she watched the latter tree fall with a loud crash.

Jutsu InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 647/600
~Eight Divination Signs, Vacuum Palm
C-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: 5 Taijutsu, 6 Control
This technique is similar to Eight Divination Palms of the Hand, Heavenly Spin, but targets a specific point rather than a general area. Thrusting their palm outward, the clan member can release a high-speed palm thrust. A spiraling, compressed shell of chakra is formed and bursts outward in the direction the palm is facing. It travels at a speed of 6, hits with a strength of 6, and travels out up to ten meters. If the shell hits the opponent, they will be knocked back 10 meters unless they have a strength of 7 or higher.

[Willoria]

Some techniques were simply than others in practice, and there were some that were simple only in thought. Aina had spent some time arguing with both Jirou and Kazuki about a technique known as the White Haze Dance and how it honestly made no sense to her as to how the technique could be difficult, and both boys had laughed at her. Kazuki had been the one however to explain to her that the technique seemed easy in theory but in practice it would be much more difficult. Many techniques required the user to focus chakra in the user’s hand but there were fewer techniques which required both the focus and a burst of chakra from the hand, and he had enlightened her that this technique was one of those.

As she stood on the training ground, her hands before her in fists, she closed her eyes to start the process. Like she had so many times before she allowed herself to feel her chakra in full detail, focusing entirely on it as it enveloped her body and she chose to shift her focus to particular tenketsu. This time she focused on her hands alone, feeling the tenketsu and the chakra moving both within and through them. She began by holding her hands out before her, watching with activated byakugan as her own chakra danced around her hands and gathered ‘vanished’ from sight as it gathered in front of her hands and suddenly shot outward. She frowned, wrinkling up her nose at the result as it wasn’t quite what she was hoping for in all honesty.

She let the chakra clear before beginning again, gathering her chakra less in a moving mass and trying to focus instead on gathering it en masse and all at once. She could see the brightness of her own chakra increasing and somehow knew the hue of it would be almost visible though a chuckle escaped her lips. She remembered her brother telling her that it would be a light blue hue and for a moment she’d forgotten that the use of Shizumeru would cause her color to change and instead of blue she was staring at a concentration of a light purple hue which darkened as she focused more and more and gathered more chakra to a single location.

After a few moments she released the chakra from both hands all at once, creating a quick and momentary burst of the purple hue which might have injured someone standing in front of it, and yet at this moment there was no one there, there was no one to injure and Aina chose to move on to other maneuvers.

Aina began to move in a fairly simple punching and kick combination that belonged to no particular style. She simply wanted to try and force herself to use the technique while moving, as by standing still she couldn’t get a good idea of how she was doing with the technique. The move was simple, left punch, right punch, high kick, spin kick. As she moved, fighting an invisible and obviously very predictable enemy, she tried to focus chakra into her hands and found it took much longer this time to gather it as necessary. Every time she did a strike, either a punch or a kick, she momentarily lost her focus and found herself a couple steps behind where she had been. It wasn’t a total loss, she didn’t lose every bit of chakra she had built up, but it was enough to ensure she wasn’t getting things moving anywhere near as quickly as she would have liked.

Instead of stopping, she continued on, reminding herself that improvement required practice and so over and over again she punched and kicked at the air, focusing the necessary chakra into her hands. After some time she was finally rewarded as she saw out of the corner of her eyes the chakra had become concentrated enough to glow dimly with that purple hue that gave her away as a Shizumeru user. And so in her next pair of punches she released it all at once, smiling happily at the release of chakra that would have definitely shoved an opponent back a significant distance, if she had been striking a real opponent of course.

But it still bothered her just how long it took for her to build up the chakra necessary for the move and once more she went back to work, ignoring the pain in her muscles of the repetitive movement as she continued just as she had began. She punched forward with each hand, one at a time, followed by the high kick and a spin kick. Already by the second time through she could see the chakra out of the corner of her eyes, bringing a smile to her face as she realized she was finally having some success with her attempts at the new technique.

By time she was coming into her third attempt she knew the chakra had finally built up enough to do the technique justice and on her next punches she released the built up chakra. It burst in a rather gorgeous purple hue and dissipated quickly, leaving a happy, albeit exhausted, Aina standing there with her hands on her knees and panting as she doubled over to try and catch her breath.

Yet just as one more measure she turned for a training post and this time brought a hand back to build the chakra up in it, holding the position for several moments before she saw the hue out of the corner of her eyes and brought her arm forward, slamming her fist into the post and shattering it.

Jutsu InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 949/900
~White Haze Dance
B-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: 7 Taijutsu.
The user flows chakra into their hand, causing it to be enveloped in a light blue glow. Then, the user will strike the opponent with this hand, releasing the built up chakra. If the opponent has a strength of 7 or lower, they are knocked back 8 meters. This is an effective counter measure when facing someone in taijutsu range and is often used to set up other attacks.

[Willoria]

Every day of training was a new set of challenges for Aina, and today would be no different. She had dedicated herself thoroughly to her training and she was beginning with her clan techniques. The first of today's routine was going to entail taking something she already knew and making it stronger. She was learning the heavenly spin absolute, a stronger version of the rotation which she already knew and already could perform to near perfection. But this one was stronger and so was going to require more from the young Hyuuga than her usual level of focus.

She began in the simplest form possible, sitting cross-legged on the ground with her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes closed and she meditated on the chakra within. Her hands rest up in front of her face as she leaned her forehead against her fingertips and her chin upon her thumbs. She felt that swirling energy within her as she meditated upon it, focusing on the energy that starved for an outlet, for a release of its own. In every technique she did, she held back, she had to control every bit of chakra expelled in the interests of her own stamina levels. If she did not regulate every release then she was doomed to all far to early in a fight, lost by her own hand and her own recklessness.

She worked with the chakra within, seeking out her own tenketsu with it and working to explore every point of release. Using this rotation meant she'd be releasing chakra from multiple points at once and getting it to the point where she could do that on instinct without losing too much would take practice and very careful planning. The first attempt was always key, just as she had learned the original technique this way, she would learn the absolute in the same fashion. Though a technique requiring a constant motion, the best starting point was to begin without motion of any kind. She began with her own hands, smiling to herself as she felt the little bits of chakra release here and there in her face with the way it rest, and even as it moved up her arms. The chakra rotated within, moving up her arms and every brush up against the tenketsu meant a minute release of that same chakra almost as if the chakra were refamiliarizing itself with every pathway within Aina's body. It was not dissimilar to an old lover caressing a body he had become all to familiar with, and yet he sought only to reacquaint himself with every curve.

She felt the movement continue through her shoulders and as it moved she straightened up, rotating her shoulders as if encouraging the movement of chakra down her spine and through her body. A smile slowly crept across her face as she stood and stretched, the chakra still rotating through her hips and down into her legs. It was several minutes still before it was complete and Aina was ready for her first attempt.

Her Byakugan was active as she took a few steps forward and, much like the start of a dance, she seemed to put one foot out of place but as her toes touched the ground her arms extended and almost immediately folded in across her chest as she pushed herself into the spin. She spun like a top, her braid wrapping around her neck almost immediately as she moved, a feeling she was accustomed to, and as the spin began she felt the chakra release from her tenketsu in a steady flow. Every single pathway had been explored by its old lover and now every pathway was used all at once in her spin, creating the rotation and the flow of chakra around her. With her eyes open she rather enjoyed the change in her chakra's color, rather than the blue hue most were accustomed to seeing hers was a purple as a result of her use of the Shizumeru styles jutsu.

When she came out of her rotation and her feet began to skid to a stop she felt the tenketsu shut down and she found herself wishing she had let Kiyori come with her, the Henrin might have been able to give her a better view of her own technique and progress, giving her a better idea of what she needed to do to fix it. She could feel even as she slowed and the chakra flow ceased that there was something off, it hadn't been as strong as it needed to be and her entire body reminded her of it. It wasn't that she felt a pain from not using it right, it was that the entire move felt familiar, too familiar. She had managed to perform the rotation the same as before, perhaps just a little stronger, but not to the level she needed and so almost immediately Aina moved right into another one.

She took a couple of steps and her foot moved out to the side, kicking herself into the rotation again. For a brief moment her arms were extended and aided in pushing her into that spin and yet a moment later her arms were tucked in and crossed over her chest and a smile on her face as her tenketsu opened and released chakra all at once. She could feel it working, the force with which the chakra came from her body was much different than before and though the movements were familiar the chakra expulsion was not.

And so when she finally came to a stop this time, a grin plastered on her face, she knew she had gotten it right.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 969/900
~Eight Divination Palms of the Hand, Heavenly Spin Absolute
B-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: Eight Divination Palms of the Hand, Heavenly Spin; 7 Taijutsu.
This is a more powerful version of Heavenly Spin. Utilizing the Byakugan and concepts from the Gentle Fist Style, the user will begin by spinning in place like a top while expelling chakra from his/her body. This creates a powerful vortex that extends about 6 meters in all directions from the user's body. This technique defends the user against projectiles, taijutsu, and ninjutsu attacks. If an opponent with a strength less than 8 is caught in its radius, they are forcibly pushed out. This technique can last for a maximum of two posts.

[Willoria]

Her next task would have been so much easier if she had someone to practice on. Unfortunately, as a Hyuuga, it was rather difficult to find a sparring partner willing to let her use techniques that had the potential for closing tenketsu and even death, and in Aina's case it was even more difficult as of late given her issues with fellow clan members since the invasion. And so she was stuck for now with training dummies and invisible opponents to train her Divination signs jutsu techniques. Though in some ways that was fine with her, after all, she didn't have to deal with taking someone to the hospital afterward if things went wrong while she trained.

As she had done with other techniques she began her training with meditation. Sitting cross-legged on the ground she focused on her tenketsu and her chakra but this wasn't a moment where she would be reinvestigating her own tenketsu, for this technique the tenketsu she needed were on the tips of her fingers and so those were the only ones she was really all that worried about. She didn't sit long with her eyes closed before she opened them with active byakugan and looked down at her hands before her. Moving her hands carefully she wiggled her fingers and smiled as she watched the chakra dart from her fingertips here and there in a seemingly random order. Honestly it was something she had started doing before her academy days, a simple practice her father had always told her would aid her in the coming days as she prepared for techniques such as this one.

Aina stood and stretched a moment before she dropped her body into the starting position to begin the maneuver, her mind working over the speed she would need in order to make all her hits in the time frame required. Her mind went through the moves, her foot placement, hand placement, and the exact expulsion of chakra from her fingertips. For a Hyuuga it was just like the average shinobi checking their equipment, but in her case she was checking placements and maneuvers, making her her mind was ready and her body prepared.

It was only after her mind went over everything that she began to make her move. Her arms swung and her hands darted forward as her feet moved, for a Hyuuga the movement was so practiced it was natural and as beautiful as a dance by the most skilled. After all, a Hyuuga trained for these techniques from birth and Aina had been no exception. Her recent days of slacking off on her training, preceeding the invasion, were long gone and no indication of the level of dedication the girl was truly capable of. She yelled as she moved, one expulsion of chakra after another, her feet kicking up dirt and skidding across the ground as she gritted her teeth and moved. After the point of sixty four hits she forced herself to keep going, realizing she wasn't moving as fast as necessary.

If she kept at the speeds she'd been going an opponent would be able to simply step away from the move and that simply wouldn't do. The entire point of these techniques wasn't just the closing of tenketsu, it was the hits that came in such a rapid succession the target simply couldn't get their balance back enough to step out of the way after the first hit came down. This was the secret that worked hand in hand with the byakugan to enable the closing of tenketsu at these close ranges without the target escaping the desired effect.

Yet here she was, her feet were moving and her body wanted to stop at sixty four. She had to force herself on, growling under her breath at the fact that her body was so willing to just stop rather than continuing. Aina had become so accustomed to the shorter technique it was as if, though she had prepared her body for the more drawn out versions, her body still wasn't ready for it and instead was eager to quit before even getting ahead.

By time she finished her first attempt, panting as she tried to catch her breath, the Hyuuga felt like she had failed entirely. She had technically completed the technique successfully but she knew every strike after the original sixty four were not only forced, they were costly. If she had been going against a live target she surely would have failed. After all, it wasn't just the target who couldn't stop once they were struck, the user was under a repetitive movement that, once they begin to move, it's difficult to pull out of. Dodging any attack during that time is difficult and, in some cases, is quite costly. It's why Aina had never performed such techniques when taking on more opponent than one, it'd be too easy for them to dispatch her in the process.

And so with all that in mind, she set herself to the task again, hardly giving herself a break before she immediately moved into another set up. One strike after another on an invisible target, the numbers rolling through her mind with every strike. Again every shift was well practiced as her feet kicked up dirt and skidded across the ground. As she reached sixty four she almost found herself smiling this time as her body continued to move within the appropriate rhythm and in her mind the numbers rose. It was only after the final strike that her body came to a stop and she slowly stood up straight, taking a deep breath in what seemed to be relief to have succeeded at her goal.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 975/900
~Eight Divination Signs, One-Hundred and Twenty-Eight Palms of the Hand
B-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: ~Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand, 8 Taijutsu, 7 Control
Used in melee range, the clan member will shoot short bursts of chakra from their fingertips while striking the opponent's tenketsu 2 times, then 2 more times, 4 times, 8 times, 16 times, 32 times, and finally 64 times, making a total of 128 strikes. This damage forcefully closes the 128 tenketsu struck, stopping chakra flow of the opponent in that area and severely limiting their ability to use jutsu. This prevents the opponent from using a large portion of their ninjutsu and genjutsu, B-rank and lower, causes the target some significant pain, and inhibits their chakra control (-2 control), making useable techniques cost the user more chakra than usual. The interruption of the opponents’ chakra will last for six full posts.

[Willoria]

As Aina moved on to her next technique in her mind she leaned against a tree, crossing her arms under her chest to catch her breath and closing her eyes as she mentally took an internal check of herself. Though no one had been striking at her she knew that did not necessarily mean that she hadn't been hurt or injured during her training and, especially since she was training alone, she needed to take special precautions in this regard. If she became too depleted on chakra or hurt herself and didn't pay close attention to it, she could easily wind up in the hospital right alongside Minoru. While the depressed version of herself might have thought that sounded like a good thing at one point in time, now it certainly did not and she tried focusing on the task at hand.

Satisfied that she was fine and her chakra pool was fine, she let her mind move on to her chakra at its source. The next maneuver she wanted to learn seemed like a rather simple maneuver since she already knew a variation of it but this one was really a combination of two other techniques. When she opened her eyes with an active byakugan she brought her right hand up in front of her face and stared at it, looking over the tenketsu even as she focused on the chakra within. She gathered the chakra around her fingertips, almost easily forming the blades at her fingertips that were required for the technique and as she pushed off the tree with one foot she swiped to her right with the hand and was rewarded with the sound of those blades digging through the wood of another tree close to the first. She couldn't help a smile but she knew the task itself would be a bit more difficult than that, after all she needed to not only form the blades, she needed to focus on them in order to properly maintain them.

She stepped out into the clearing area of the training ground and turned her focus to her other hand as well, allowing the chakra to slip through her tenketsu there and form around her fingertips, extending into daggers. Once she had her daggers in place she stood up straight, bringing her hands up in front of her as she closed her eyes and took her time to focus. She would now have to maintain the constant flow of chakra necessary to maintain the technique while she attacked multiple invisible targets. Such a technique would be handy if she ever got herself into a position where she would be forced to defend herself from multiple enemies, likely a situation where she had gotten in over her head.

For a few minutes she stood unmoving, her mind working through the mental picture necessary to keep up the training without looking ridiculous and very nearly falling short. Her mind was wearing down from all the training so far. But moments later she was moving, striking out at 'enemies' that surrounded her and using her hands as blades. She danced to her left and swept a hand at eye level before dropping to a knee to cut upwards before stepping away and kicking at face level and following up with a spin with both hands extended. If she were fighting real enemies she couldn't help but realize she would be dancing in a slight haze of blood spatter. Her own upward cut a moment before almost caused her to lose focus and laugh outright. She was starting to think Yoru was right, that she did have some weird instinct to always go for a man's balls.

She kinda wished he was here to see her train and see that, she could only imagine the way the man would cringe. Men always seemed to have sympathetic pains and a weird habit of grabbing themselves when another man was damaged in that region. It was a thing that honestly baffled Aina to a degree.

Yet on she moved, never stopping and never ceasing her onslaught of invisible targets. She aimed a cut diagonal from shoulder to hip and spun away to her next target with an upward strike into the gut and adding a cruel twist into it. As if she were being attacked from behind she kicked back once to knock someone back, swiped with one hand to leave a small cut and crossing with the other hand for a true wound that would have sent any living man staggering.

Her moves continued like both an elegant and deadly dance in which partners left bleeding. She was sure if she ever had to actually use this technique against the amount of people pictured in her head, she'd walk away with more than a couple of bruises. She was certain she'd add to the blood spatter that was sure to be ever present in the air. Yet even as the thought crossed her mind she still moved, striking high and low, rolling across the ground to come up to her feet and make another strike. Her energy was waning and she was realizing just how difficult it could be to maintain such a technique in true use and yet she still was enjoying every moment of it. It was a dance whose steps she would memorize in time, and she honestly hoped to put into practice at some point in time.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 927/900
~Guardian Eight Divination Signs, Sixty-Four Palms of the Hand
B-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: 7 Taijutsu, 6 Control.
The Hyuuga clan member flows chakra into their hands and emits a constant stream of chakra from their palms, creating sharp chakra blades. Then, by using their natural flexibility, the user could strike at almost any target within their field of vision. The user stands at the center and would simply need to turn to face in the direction they would attack in. This chakra is able to cut through most things that attempt to break through the protective sphere created by the technique such as weapons, large debris, humans, and even some ninjutsu attacks. This jutsu has a range of 6 meters and lasts for a number of posts equal to the users stamina stat divided by two, rounded down.

[Willoria]

She had at least one more thing on her agenda for the day. It was another technique that she wanted to think was easy and yet she knew it would be anything but. This wasn't a rotation but it would require her to expel chakra from her body all at once and in a short burst to knock back targets and weapons. This wasn't going to be like the rotation though, while she would expel chakra in a similar manner it would be a much harder expel and just a brief shot of chakra rather than maintained and in the rotation.

As a result Aina was beginning her training much like she had for the stronger rotation, with meditation. She began in the simplest form possible, sitting cross-legged on the ground with her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes closed and she meditated on the chakra within. Her hands rest up in front of her face as she leaned her forehead against her fingertips and her chin upon her thumbs. She felt that swirling energy within her as she meditated upon it, focusing on the energy that starved for an outlet, for a release of its own. In every technique she did, she held back, she had to control every bit of chakra expelled in the interests of her own stamina levels. If she did not regulate every release then she was doomed to all far to early in a fight, lost by her own hand and her own recklessness.

She worked with the chakra, seeking out her own tenketsu and working to explore every point of release. Using this technique meant she'd be releasing chakra from multiple points at once and getting it to the point where she could do that on instinct without losing too much would take practice and very careful planning. The first attempt was always key, just as she had learned the original technique this way, she would learn the absolute in the same fashion. She began her little releases once more, taking accountability of every tenketsu and it's function. She smiled to herself as she felt the little bits of chakra release here and there in her face with the way it rest, and even as it moved up her arms. The chakra rotated within, moving up her arms and every brush up against the tenketsu meant a minute release of that same chakra almost as if the chakra were refamiliarizing itself with every pathway within Aina's body. It was not all that different than the actions of an old lover caressing a body he had become all to familiar with, and yet he sought only to reacquaint himself with every curve.

She felt the movement continue through her shoulders and as it moved she straightened up, rotating her shoulders as if encouraging the movement of chakra down her spine and through her body. A smile slowly crept across her face as she stood and stretched, the chakra still rotating through her hips and down into her legs. It was several minutes still before it was complete and Aina was ready for her first attempt.

She bounced on the balls of her feet, almost nervous for her first attempt if only because this execution was going to be so very different than past techniques. She began to walk forward before spinning and striking at some invisible foe. As she pulled back from this foe, her mind creating an image of a man lunging for her, she focused within and suddenly she tried to 'fire' chakra from every tenketsu all at once. The result was more than a little disappointing as she had expected something much bigger. For her efforts all she got was the equivalent of a puff of smoke when she'd expected an explosion.

With a frown she focused inward and realized that such an attack couldn't be spontaneously thrust upon an opponent. She would need to gather the chakra as she fought, let it gather around the specific tenketsu she was using and only then would she be able to 'fire' it properly to effect the enemy in her desired fashion. She was realizing this was less of a timed technique and more like a last resort. She would only have occasion to use it if she were being overwhelmed and even then she'd have to gather the chakra before using it, meaning she'd likely already be wounded when she used it. It was a prospect that was certainly disappointing as she knew the cost of such a technique was not low.

It truly was a last resort technique.

With a sigh Aina went back through her motions, moving as if fighting off multiple attackers, all while she built up chakra within. Yet building up the chakra alone wasn't quite so simple, she had to actually build it up and have it at the ready at multiple chakra points and as she mvoed she realized this was almost a recipe for disaster. If she took too long building up such a technique she could wind up dead before even getting a chance to use it. Though at the same time she also realized that if this were to happen on a mission where she had companions it would be a good way to protect them. She could use herself as a distraction and use the detonation of the technique as her final move in life.

A sad thought really, one that echoed through her mind even as she finally used it and was unable to help the grin that formed on her lips as a result of the chakra that seemed to explode from her person.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 956/900
~Gentle Fist Art, One Blow Body
B-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Using their ability to expel chakra from every chakra point on their body, a member of the Hyūuga clan expels a blast of chakra all around them, knocking opponents and attacks away from the user. This technique has a very short range (giving a maximum range of 3m) but any opponent with a strength lower than 9 will be knocked back ten meters. Due to the amount of chakra being expelled in this technique, the user suffers a drop in chakra (-1 Stamina), making this dangerous to use over and over.

[Willoria]

Day after day of training, that was the plan Aina had in mind at least until she felt she had finally attained a strength and knowledge worth the rank of Jounin. Though she had been promoted, she still had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind like she hadn't really earned it, especially after the incidents of the invasion. Some blamed her for the loss of the clan scrolls while others tried to tell her there was nothing she could have done to change the outcome of the situation. But somehow even she felt like that was a lie, yes standing up to Yaku and Enma would have ended in her death but she couldn't help but wonder if that wouldn't have been better than to have been humiliated the way she had been. And yet there was no way to go back in the past and change what had happened or her inaction.

Instead she was at the training ground once again, sitting cross-legged with her hands in her lap as she meditated on her own chakra. Getting stronger meant learning something new and if she was going to learn something new she was starting with the techniques of her own clan. As she often began her training when it came to Gentle Fist techniques, she chose to focus on her tenketsu, getting a feel for everything again. Sometimes she didn't just feel groggy after waking, she simply felt out of it.

For her first technique to train she knew she'd need the tenketsu in her hands primarily and so she took a few moments working her chakra through the area, taking account of everything. She had worked so hard the day before she wanted to make sure there were no issues. And while she found she was certainly sore and overworked, everything still functioned fine enough to train.

She closed her eyes to focus on the chakra within, her hands resting on her knees with palms facing outward for safety reasons as she forced her chakra down the appropriate paths to the areas around her hands. Forming the blades as required with the jutsu was going to be interesting, she already knew how to form daggers but this was going to be quite a bit different.

As her eyes opened, her byakugan activated, she watched the chakra around her own hands, watching it swirl and move as she tried to form the appropriate shape to begin the blades. It wouldn't take her long to get the daggers just as she had before, but looking at it she remembered how hard it had been the first time. Even now as she focused on the blades, trying to lengthen the chakra out, she realized it wasn't going to come out right. Lengthening the chakra was simple enough but when you're working with a finite amount of chakra it was going to be weak to attacks or be too thin to actually cut through anything and she was forced to drop the technique for a moment and think over her options.

Of course, the only reason she had a finite amount of chakra was because she was trying not to be wasteful. She was trying to train A rank techniques that day and would need all the chakra she could, but she didn't want to run out either. Yet that kind of thinking was already causing her to realize that she wasn't going to be able to reach her goal if she didn't take the risk. With a sigh she closed her eyes a moment, effectively shutting off her byakugan at the moment as well, as she focused on her chakra within and began to push it towards either hand and rather carefully. She didn't want to overload her tenketsu and strain herself either, but still she worked to gather a significant amount of chakra into either hand. At her level of training it wasn't really a difficult task, her chakra, the writhing living force within, had become maleable and worked according to her wishes, she had learned to tame it.

When she opened her eyes again she activated her byakugan once more and almost flinched as she looked down and saw the sheer amount of chakra she had managed to accumulate in her hands and sighed quietly. She had a bad feeling she was going to wind up being rather disappointed by time she was done, this could be too much. But still, she focused on it and formed the daggers as she hand in the past and from there she worked on lengthening them. It wasn't long before she found herself smiling, having attained the necessary length for the technique of two feet. But it wasn't enough, the length was fine but the blade was so thin she couldn't imagine it cutting much of anything, though it had potential for piercing that wasn't the sole purpose of the technique.

She focused once more on her hands, watching with her byakugan eyes as the purple chakra swirled and shifted. She tried focusing at the base first, funneling more of the focused chakra from her hand into the base of the blade to start widening it and from there the chakra moved up. Of course she was doing all this on one hand for the moment as she practiced her work. Before long she thought she finally had what she needed and turned to start working on the other hand.

The process for her left didn't take nearly as long as the right now that she knew what she both wanted and needed for the move and shortly after she stood to her feet carefully, moving her arms to rest behind her, palms pointed outward with the chakra blades as she focused on maintaining them. As always a key part of her training would be not only creating the blades but also maintaining them in combat. As usual she didn't have a living target and so would have to practice as if she were fighting against some invisible foe, though that had long since become her favorite way to practice such things if only because it was better than putting someone else at risk.

Aina ran forward as if charging her invisible target and brought her right hand and chakra blade in a forward swipe and a backhanded return, her left coming forward in a stabbing move as her right moved back as if to stab at an opponent to her rear and she spun to face them, her left swinging around at throat level. Every move was practiced and though not entirely graceful as Aina was not yet versed in bladed techniques, her moves were still viable and would be useful in true combat.

Just as with other techniques she was quickly finding herself having to use more energy than she had originally thought just to maintain a technique. Though she had mastered the knives technique, this one was much different if only because of the amount of chakra she had to maintain. Creating it had nearly drained her, or at least that's what it felt like. As she finally dropped the technique and moved to sit against a tree and catch her breath, she let her mind wander over the technique and all the work she had put into it just to make it work. If there was one thing she was realizing, it was that she sorely needed to learn some kind of bladed technique and not just because of the gift her brother had gotten for her. There were several techniques she knew now with Gentle Fist that allowed her to create bladed weapons out of chakra, and she was certain that if she did some extra work she could figure out more.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 1336/1300
~Chakra Spike
A-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: Chakra Needles, 9 Control.
The user gathers chakra from the tenketsu on their fingertips and pool it to the palm of their hand. The Hyuuga can create a spike of chakra on their palms. This spike is about two feet in length and six inches wide.

[Willoria]

Every day of training brought with it new strength, and a new skill, and Aina let herself fall into an obsession with improvement and training. She did very little to visit friends or family right now, unless it pertained somehow to mission or training. She often left her guest from Suna in her home or to do her tasks with another Hyuuga to watch over the team so that she could work, it was giving her an all new appreciation for the couple of friends she had left in the clan. She hardly knew the man but Kazuki most of all had been a great help to her so far and a great aid in making she certain duties were seen to and yet her training did not miss a beat.

Today she stood in the training grounds, yet again, sitting in a cross-legged position and her hands resting in front of her, palms together, as she meditated on the chakra and energies within. Less than a simple task given recent events, still she worked to mold and manipulate her chakra within as she saw fit before she began using the technique itself. Aina had learned more than a couple of her clan’s techniques by this point and was more than happy to move on to the next level of the Divination signs series, this one required two hundred and fifty six strikes of her hands. It would take work to perfect, to perform, and she knew it would be worth it, knowing she could cripple most enemies with the technique was enough to put a smile on the Hyuuga’s face, despite her recent depression.

She took time to pay particular attention to the tenketsu in her hands and fingers before she stood and stretched, knowing that as she was already accustomed to this technique, the hardest part was going to be keeping it going long enough to attain the amount of strikes necessary to fulfill the maneuver. She took her ready stance, aiming for an invisible target for the simple fact that she felt it was too dangerous to practice such a thing on a live person. If she messed up it could mean more than just a bruise or even a cut after all.

She rested in a ready position for only a moment before her feet moved and her hands drew back to gain proper momentum for the strikes. With every strike there was a burst of chakra from her own fingertips, and after every step she cited aloud, for her own benefit, the number of strikes performed so far. Her feet moved with the strikes, knowing hits of this kind would knock a target back or cause most men to stagger and she’d have to follow to keep up the count. One after another and another, her arms would feel the first pinch of soreness before long and before she even finished the move. Her body had been conditioned for a shorter version of this technique and it didn’t take long before that fact was becoming painfully obvious.

Throughout the maneuver she was supposed to be speeding up and yet as she drew close to the end of the sequence she was accustomed to, she could feel herself slowing down quite a bit. She was still moving rather fast by the standards of most, but that didn’t mean she was up to snuff for the technique. After some time she finally skidded to a stop, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath and ran the scenario through her head. She knew that finishing it was a simple task, she had to push herself to just keep going and finish the technique, but as always that was going to be so much simpler said than done.

And so with a deep breath and a heavy sigh, she set to the task again. She dropped into a simple ready position and launched herself forward without pause or hesitation, her hands flying as fast as she could manage and every would-be contact on her invisible target was a release of chakra from her fingertips that was specifically meant to close chakra points. Her feet kept up with the hand movements, moving as skillfully as any dancer along the ground. Yet the hits were meant to be hard, she knew if she were striking a real target she’d also be kicking up so much more dirt than she was now.

Sweat dripped down her brow as she moved along, every hit as hard as the last, every expulsion of chakra from her fingertips was identical to the last and every bit as deadly. From time to time, as part of the maneuver, she’d spin around, the count rising and rising as she went along. Her muscles were straining and she channeled her own chakra from within and up towards her fingertips to encourage it along, to keep moving and keep striking as she needed to. By time she reached the count of one hundred and twenty eight she was still going at a steady pace, something that certainly put a smile on the girl’s face though it didn’t last long as she focused on what she was doing.

Of course, a brief smile was all it took to mess her up, the momentary distraction caused her feet to slide in the dirt and she stumbled, falling forward and barely managing to catch herself with her hands before she hit the ground. With a groan and a grunt of frustration she stared up at the sky, her mind working quickly over everything that had just transpired and trying to find her mistake that had caused her to fall. Of course the only thing her mind could center on was her own smile, it seemed to be the culprit and she couldn’t help but to shake her head at her display of such a childish endeavor.

And so Aina stood and dusted herself off, shaking her head at her own idiocy before dropping into that familiar position once more. She was determined not to fail this time nor get distracted. She wasn’t even going to give herself a break as she moved straight into the attack. She set her eyes on an invisible target, her feet moving along the ground and kicking up dirt as her fingers released chakra upon each and every strike. It was carefully practiced and every bit was specifically placed that if she were to strike a living, breathing target they would more than likely be unable to use jutsu for a good deal of time.

She did not smile as she continued her count and the number of strikes rose. She simply moved in almost an elegant fashion, spinning here and there as part of her planned moves and her hands strike at essential points of the body. She was so focused on her work she never noticed a figure standing in the trees, watching her practice. Her body moved and her braid danced along. The only sound was that of her feet and that of her count, the man in the trees smiling as he watched her, almost as if he were proud despite the fact that his only relation to the woman was a clan tie.

As she came down to the final count and skidded across the ground, her hands in the final resting formation, the woman finally allowed herself a grin as she stood up straight and stretched, shaking her head as she looked back at the skid marks across the ground from her own feet and she couldn’t help a nervous laugh. ”Well that was certainly interesting…” she muttered as she began to stretch out her arms and legs both, feeling a soreness echoing through the muscles and, she could swear, the bone as well.

”It was quite the sight, too.” Came Kazuki’s voice from the trees.

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 1322/1300
~Eight Divination Signs, Two Hundred Fifty Six Palms of the Hand
A-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: Eight Divination Signs, One-Hundred and Twenty-Eight Palms of the Hand; 10 Taijutsu, 9 Control.
Used in melee range, the clan member will shoot short bursts of chakra from their fingertips while striking the opponent's tenketsu 2 times, 4 times, 8 times, 16 times, 32 times, 64 times, and finally 128 times making a total of 256 strikes. This damage forcefully closes the 256 tenketsu struck, stopping the flow of chakra in the opponent within the struck area and severely limiting their ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu. This will stop most jutsu from working, A-rank and lower, cause severe pain, and lower the target's control by four (-3 control). Often times, this technique will cause the victim to faint as it stops the flow of all chakra use except those needed for survival. If the opponent has a stamina of seven or higher they can withstand fainting, and those with a stamina of nine or higher would be able to use jutsu. The interruption of the opponents’ chakra lasts for eight posts.

[Willoria]

Aina rest her hands on her knees as she took a few deep breaths to center herself, looking over to Kazuki as he spoke up and the girl gave him a rather puzzled look. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh the suna team finished up for the day and headed home, after I walked Kiyori back to your house I figured I’d see if you needed any help here.” Kazuki replied, still leaning against a tree as he watched Aina trying to recover from her last technique.

Aina thought about it for a moment and nodded. “Actually yeah, this next technique is my last for today, the Twin Dragon Fists. I could use a dummy.” She added with a wink, laughing as Kazuki grinned and stepped out of the trees. He took up a defensive stance and merely waited while Aina took a deep breath, closing her eyes to focus on her chakra within. Yet it was only a moment, and then she launched herself forward, aiming several punches at Kazuki which he fairly easily blocked. The two were on the same level for speed and Aina knew it would be difficult to hit the man, and yet she wasn’t just trying to hit him.

Aina was taking a far less meditative approach with this technique. She knew she would need to focus like she did with the lion fists technique but before she had worked on the focus before the fight, this time she would use the fight to force herself to focus in a way that she could both mold the chakra and maneuver without pausing between either. If she could form the jutsu while already fighting, she was certain she could do it any other time too.

Kazuki of course was taking steps backward as she moved forward and aimed strikes for this chest, abdomen and even his arms. Meanwhile she tried to channel the chakra within and push it towards her arms, feeling it begin to coat her hands and arms as she struck at Kazuki with a ferocity previously reserved only for a real fight, but the man still held his own very well. He was even grinning from ear to ear which honestly frustrated the hell out of Aina, but she couldn’t let even her own frustrations distract from her as she forced herself to mold the chakra while fighting. And yet, again, she had managed to distract herself without meaning to. Kazuki took a hold of one wrist and slammed a fist into her chest at the solar plexus, knocking her back and winding the woman.

She skidded and dropped to a knee, wheezing as she tried to catch her breath. “What the hell?!”

Kazuki shrugged. “You’re too slow. As you tried to focus on your chakra, or at least I assume that’s what you’re doing, you’re slowing down and losing focus. Try again.” He told her, his playfulness was gone leaving behind only the seriousness of a Hyuuga in training.

Aina growled under her breath, momentarily reminding herself of Kazuo before she launched herself at Kazuki again. The chakra she had built up only moments before was gone now and she had to start over, striking for the man’s torso even as she tried to draw on her own chakra. She could feel it seeping through the chakra tenketsu in her arms and yet that was not enough, seeping out would only cause her to waste it and she knew that all too well.

She aimed several strikes at his abdomen, feeling him tense under her strikes and hearing him grit his teeth and grunt as her blows landed and she pushed her chakra through her system, slowly molding around it all around her hands and arms until there was a good thick coat of it. She knew from her experience with the lion fist technique that she needed to focus and form the chakra before she finally started to form it. The chakra of course at this stage would do nothing to Kazuki, even as blows landed against his arms and chest as it was unfocused and not really being used just yet.

She could feel the chakra shifting and taking on a new form over her fists even as she struck at Kazuki who seemed to be letting less and less hits land now, causing her to realize her hits were probably coming harder, the closer she came to completing the technique. Yet this time she did not smile nor let that small victory detract from the situation at hand as she continued to assault Kazuki with one strike after another. It wasn’t long before the man’s bangs dripped with sweat, just as Aina’s hair was drenched in it, the both of them moving non stop in this fight.

She felt the shape of her chakra shifting and for a moment she thought she caught a glimpse of a mouth, yet a moment later a fist slammed into her face and knocked her back, causing her to stagger and drop the technique again. “What the hell?!”

“You left yourself open, Aina. Just because you’re training a new technique doesn’t mean you should lag enough in the fight or lose your focus enough that you can’t counter or you leave yourself open.” Kazuki replied, moving forward as if to try and attack the woman again.

Aina grit her teeth as his first strike landed against a forearm she brought up to protect herself and almost immediately she stepped forward to stomp on his foot, forcing him to leap back and giving her back the advantage of advancing on the man, swinging strikes aimed again for his torso and yet she chose not to spare his face this time. However he was doing well at keeping her strikes at bay now, causing Aina some frustration as she channeled chakra into her hands as she moved. She wasn’t fond of this, she really wasn’t happy that right now if she achieved the technique she wouldn’t know if she had done it right because he wasn’t letting it hit him full in the chest or at all really, all of her blows were glancing off his arms and hands.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the chakra had formed in sufficient amount around her fists and forearms, a moment later it began to slowly take on a living, moving, shape that made Aina overjoyed. Yet this time she did not slow to wonder at it, nor did she allow herself to lose her focus enough. She continued her relentless onslaught against Kazuki even as the chakra moved and a mouth formed as if roaring at Kazuki in silence, a tail working its way across Aina’s arms, as if the tails wrapped around and held the dragons in place, and Aina was grinning from ear to ear now.

Kazuki continued to block while Aina maintained the technique, forcing her to continue striking with it as she fought to force an opening on the man and yet unable to strike him with it just yet. The look in her eyes was clear frustration, her temper eating at the back of her mind as she pushed herself and snarled in anger at the fact that he was still managing to block her.

All the while Kazuki simply smiled at Aina’s frustration, only angering her further as she felt he was mocking her entirely, her and her inability to get him to open up for a strike. Yet that was part of the training too, was it not? If she couldn’t create an opening with which to strike, how could she be expected to properly execute the technique, and so the woman finally decided to play rather dirty.

Her left foot stopped down hard on the toes of his right, causing his eyes to drop for a moment as he flinched and her fists slammed into his chest, throwing the man back and into the dirt, leaving Aina grinning over him as he spoke simply. “You owe me a beer.”

Training InformationShow

WC Break: [(7 Wit) + (11 Nin/Tai)]x50 = 18x50 = 900
WC: 1345/1300
~Gentle Fist Style, Twin Dragon Fists
A-Ranked Nintaijutsu
Prerequisite: 8 Control, 8 Taijutsu, ~Gentle Fist Style, Twin Lion Fists
A stronger version of ~Gentle Fist Style, Twin Lion Fists, by channeling chakra to the hands, the user forms two large dragon-shaped shrouds of chakra around their hands. This technique is made to supplement their physical attacks. Successfully striking the opponent while this technique is active knocks them back 8 meters unless their strength is higher than seven. This technique lasts for up to five posts.

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part VI Aina had not been home in some time. She had been attempting to heal emotionally and spend time to herself, including training and bettering herself since the invasion and Minoru’s sudden coma. The only time she’d honestly been home was once when Yoru was hurt from training and she brought him by for some help from Nobu and his Iijutsu talents. Honestly she was smiling as she arrived, despite the looks she got from a few of the Hyuuga she passed. Some still saw her at fault for what had happened, though others had seen her working hard to improve herself. But to change the minds of many of them, it would take far more than simple training and missions to redeem herself.

Aina walked past her mother’s flowers and opened the front door with that grin still on her face, happy to see her mother in the kitchen and apparently cooking. ”Oh I know that smell!” she piped up cheerfully before she even saw the ingredients for her mother’s colorful mochi spread across the counters. Aina pulled up a tall chair to the kitchen island, not even noticing the way her mother bristled as she had spoken. The younger Hyuuga glanced around, realizing her brothers weren’t around and she decided to ask a rather random question of her mother. ”You know I’ve been curious, why am I the first one to be pushed to move out and get married? Don’t you want to try and marry off Jurou and Nobu first?” she asked as she poked around at the colorful mochi on the kitchen island before her that were cooling. After a few moments she found a blue one that was cool enough and plucked it from the bunch, nibbling carefully even as her mother turned to face her.

She wasn’t expecting the reaction she got at all. Her mother turned from the stove to face her and quite literally slapped the mochi from Aina’s hand, causing the girl to leap out of her chair and take a step back, hands raised in front of her as if expecting another strike. Before she could even ask however, her mother spoke up. “Because you’re a coward!” the woman spat at her.

Aina froze. Not once in all her life had her mother said a negative word to her, much less something as harsh as this. Her hands slowly dropped to her sides though she took another step back. ”Mother… what…?”

“That’s all I get to hear, Aina!” The woman continued, her hands now firmly planted on the kitchen island between the pair. “Every single family I’ve seen! Your brothers still have their wild oats to sew it seems, but you… I thought you were my responsible one. I thought Minoru’s coma was the chance to help you move on with your life! But no! I can’t marry my daughter to a single member of the clan, much less a respectable one, because she’s a sniveling fool! I heard all about it, Aina! How you cowered during the invasion! How you let them kill your own clan leader! How you just stood there and let it all happen!”

Aina wasn’t sure at what point during her mother’s rant she started crying, but she could feel the wet tears as they slid down her face in silence, and the young woman stared on in horror. ”Th-there… there was nothing I could do…” she said quietly, weakly, as her hands came together in front of her and she pinched her forearm discreetly. This had to be a bad dream right? It had to be…

“You could have tried! Yet you did nothing as they tore through our village and took our secrets! Well congrats, Aina! You’re not getting married! You can run off with that corpse of a boy after all! I’m sure you two would be very happy together!”

Aina was frozen where she stood. Never had she seen this kind of venom from her mother, this kind of hatred. Not towards her certainly, not towards anyone else before either. It was almost as if this was someone else entirely, screaming at her for her one failure that Aina still didn’t know how to wipe away from her record.

“I can’t disown you, Aina. As a Hyuuga it would be irresponsible of me… but you are not welcome in this house. I don’t want to see you here ever again. Leave!” When Aina did not immediately move, her mother came around the island and grabbed her forcibly by the upper arm and pulled the young Jounin towards the door, causing her to simply stumble along in shock. At the door Aina was shoved forward, tripping on nothing it seemed before she fell down the steps of the porch and landed in the dirt. She jumped to her feet almost immediately, spinning around just in time to see the door shut on her.

This was not how her day was supposed to go. Aina had just wanted to spend the day with her family, and here she was covered in dirt simply thinking, what the hell just happened? She didn’t even notice as someone reached out and touched the inside of her arm gently, it wasn’t until he spoke that she realized he was even there. ”Aina? You alright?”

Aina turned and looked at him, one of only two friends Aina had left in the clan she was learning rather quickly, Kazuki. He had helped her train despite the rumors and accusations launched at her back. In response to his question she could only manage a shake of her head and the man reached up a hand to wipe the tears from her face gently.

”Come on.” he said quietly, taking her by the hand and intertwining his fingers with hers as she numbly followed his lead. Whether he knew the source of her tears or not, Aina wasn’t sure. But somewhere in the back of her mind she was registering just how grateful she was that at least one person was left who didn’t throw those words at her, those accusations. She couldn’t even contemplate whether her mother was the only one who felt this way… her father… her brothers… she just couldn’t think about it right now.

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Part VII Sweat dripped from the end of her nose and her chin, flung into the air as the woman spun and the back of her fist slammed into a wooden post, a side kick to follow not only shattered it but sent it careening further into the training ground. Her white eyes were intense as she panted to catch her breath, the braid her hair had been in had long since fallen apart and it was loose and wild about her. The little cloth that had kept it tied back lay lost in the grass somewhere. She screamed at the shattered remnants of the post as her hands clenched into fists, nails digging into the palms and drawing blood, though blood already dripped from bloody knuckles that had been driven into wood over and over again. Her scream was low in pitch, gutteral, not in triumph but more the sound of a wounded animal.

"Judging by your angry-at-the-world behavior, I'd say you already heard." Came a familiar voice behind her.

Aina straightened, swallowing hard as she turned to look at the man, her makeup streaked down her face in her own anger and grief, mixed in a swirling mess in the Hyuuga's mind. The man was quite the opposite figure to her, his clothes were clean, his hair spiked and his eyes calm, his posture was relaxed as he looked at the woman before him. If it weren't for their very humanoid shape, it would almost look like a man staring down a beast. "What the hell do you want?" she asked between breaths as she still tried to catch hers.

Hyuuga Kazuki looked her over briefly as he considered her answer. It was little wonder why she was alone, why no one had come near her in recent days. She looked like a beast, not a shinobi, she was an animal gone mad and off the rails, how could anyone approach such a thing without fear of getting bit? "I wanted to make sure you knew he was awake, under trial, but it seems someone already told you... and this is not the reaction I was quite expecting."

Aina rolled her eyes as she turned for a tree where she had laid her things, yanking her sword from it's sheath with far less care than the weapon deserved. "Liar." She said as she turned to look at him, waiting for the truth.

Kazuki's demeanor shifted, his stance tensed as she drew the blade and he looked at the dark steel, wondering if it was meant as a threat or just the next step in her little tantrum. "You're right. I came to talk to you about it."

Aina took a couple steps towards him and practically leaped at the man with her blade drawn. He seemed to draw his own from almost nowhere, though in reality the thing was in a sheath at his own back. Their steel clashed and rang as a wolfish grin came to Aina's features. "About what?" She asked, shoving her blade against his and jumping back as Kazuki took a couple steps back of his own.

He spun his blade in his hand as he watched her like a hawk for her next move. 'If this is what she needs, so be it...' he thought to himself. "Aina... I know you're hurt. Your family put you through hell. The boy even put you through hell and now he's awake... but to him the world isn't all that different. He went through hell and he needs you. At the least he needs truth from you... he need to know about you and Takeo, and he deserves to hear it from you."

Aina's grin dropped and her stance faltered a moment at the words. Of all the things she thought Kazuki might have been here to talk to her about this certainly hadn't been at the top of the list, hell it wasn't even on the list. "No." she said simply in a form of a whisper, shaking her head. "I gave everything I could, I lost my family for my relationship with him... he gave in to that beast, Kazuki. HE GAVE IN!" She nearly snarled at him. "Do you realized what that did?! How it ripped me apart?! I sat by his bedside! I waited! God! I waited! The moment I move on, more ridicule, and now he wakes up, it's all back to normal for him but I still have to live in this hot mess he left me in!"

If she hadn't expected his words, she certainly hadn't expected this. Crossing his sword over one shoulder to rest the dull side against his clothing he suddenly lunged forward and in all her distraction she almost didn't manage to block his incoming downward swing. The blades rang as the two shinobi were practically nose to nose and the snarl came back to Aina's face at Kazuki's attack, but his face bore a snarl almost as bad. "God you selfish bitch!" he snarled.

Aina's eyes widened as she broke the contact and took a step back, bringing her blade up once again as he attacked yet again with a strike hard enough to cause the clash to ring down into her wrist and the woman gritted her teeth against the pain.

"Have you even asked what happened, Aina?! Have you ever stopped to wonder what was so bad that made him give in? That boy didn't leave you by choice woman! There's nothing wrong with you moving on, your family and friends are wrong for what they did to you in that regard! But he didn't try to leave you and he doesn't deserve to hear by rumor that you're fucking his Sensei!"

His next attack slammed into her so hard it knocked her to the ground and from her back she stared up at him with side eyes, the tip of his blade resting against her throat as he stared down at her, shaking his head. "Aina his family is gone, he has nothing left. The least you can do is talk to the boy. You waited long enough, and hopefully he'll understand that, but he still deserves your friendship. And Masami could learn from him, if you'd just stop acting like such an infuriating child and go talk to him." Growling under his breath in anger at both Aina's words and his own loss of self control he sheathed his own sword with a loud snap and turned on his heels to leave, only stopping when he realized what he heard behind him.

Aina was crying. They weren't little tears either, not little whimpers, she sobbed in such a way as she hadn't for a long time, not since Minoru fell into that coma, and not since her family had damn near disowned her. "I should have been there..." she whispered. "I should have been there to help him... to stop him..."

Kazuki turned and walked over, kneeling next to the woman and pulling her up into a seated position, pulling his friend up to rest her head against his chest. "Easy." he said quietly, just as one might say to calm a distraught animal or calm a horse. "You couldn't have changed it, Aina... but you were right about one thing." he whispered. "You do have to live in this... and so does he..."

[Willoria]

Crazy Heart of Gold: Blessed By Ash She wasn't running, she wasn't leaving home, but she was certainly alone in the moment. Standing high in a tree just outside Konoha, Aina stood on a branch that gave her a view not only of the surrounding terrain but also of the edges of the village itself. Tears ran down the Bannin's face as the memories flooded her mind. She couldn't see him, she had started that walk so many times and every time she had turned away in the final moments before he would ever see her. She felt the pain pulling at her, and when she had run into Minoru in the streets by herself she had felt it all come rushing to her head. He had become not only what he hated, but something she could detest. He was a fall down drunk, he had lost the genma, he had lost himself, and to the Hyuuga it looked as if he had lost his very soul. She was sickened and angered. Never had she ever seen him so weak, such a coward. His attempts at some strange form of apology had only made her angry. His attempts to understand her rage had only fueled it and the woman was blinded by it.

She had seen that same weakness in Zakuro. She had received his messages, his requests for help, and she had met him for training. But the training never happened. Seeing him falling to pieces in front of her had only brought back those memories of Minoru and the rage that accompanied it. She could still feel him beneath her fist as she had struck the boy with a power she never should have unleashed on the boy. She was a Bannin just as Kawa had been when he fell. He had been her mentor and she was supposed to be the same to Zakuro, but instead she had caused him pain. She had no idea what that pain was about to bring about, and in the moment it was probably best she didn't. But all the possibilities ate away at the woman in her thoughts.

"My Love... my children... those that look up to me... they deserve better." She whispered the words to herself as she turned and stepped right off the branch of the tree. She rolled as her feet touched the ground and came up to take off at a run, seeking some sort of solace that she hoped would extend to healing for her own mind as well. There was no location in mind, nothing specific anyway. She only knew she was a village Bannin and needed to get her own mind, her own rage, under control if she was going to be of any use. Someone with her kind of power and her kind of temper was a dangerous combination. Growing up her temper had been a boon, it had helped her fight her way through impossible situations and even survive some things she wasn't sure she would have otherwise. But it was all different now wasn't it? How could she lead if those she led only angered her and she became dangerous to them?

By time Aina skidded her way to a stop she found herself somewhat lost. She knew she was far away from the village and yet still she was surrounded by high trees, standing in the shadows beneath them she decided to simply sit beneath them for a rest. She was panting, having run hard and without a focus or a direction in the least. She leaned her back against a tree and closed her eyes as tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. "How do I change this?" she wondered aloud, bringing her hands up and running them down the length of her face. But even she knew the real question. 'How do I forgive myself?'

---

It was like the ticking of a clock at the back of her mind. Her eyes flickered open and she looked at the trees around her. It wasn't just shadows here anymore, it was a darkness. Night had fallen and it seemed still she sat beneath that tree. "When did I fall asleep?" Aina put a hand on the tree as she pushed herself to her feet and began walking once more. A chill ran through to her bones as a wind came through the air and rustled her hair. But every step she took also caused something else, a pain resonated from within. A burning sensation at her core caused a pressure to build in her chest and Aina found it ever harder to breathe. "What is this?" she asked aloud, finally stopping at another tree. Her hand reached out and touched the bark as she breathed heavily, trying to calm her own breath and heart rate. She didn't notice at first the effect her touch had on the tree. As she lifted her white eyes she noticed the bark began to char and burn, smoke rising between her fingers. Aina felt like all she could do is stare at it.

"Rage."

Aina tore her hand away from the tree and the smoke stopped, but the voice seemed to almost echo in her mind. She turned suddenly to see someone standing behind her, eyes wide as she took in his appearance. The hair, the manner of dress, and event the voice. She had only heard it once in her life before and only a simple phrase. This time, just as then, the word was quiet and spoken without feeling. This was the man who had spoken her damnation when she was younger. He had given Enma the okay, and Enma had slashed open her gut the day they had invaded the village. "Fushinkou Yaku..." the woman whispered. "So this is a dream then..." she added. It was the only explanation she had. There was no way that years after the fact one of those two would be in the woods without the village knowing of it. It just wasn't possible.

"Dreams can show truth." He remarked, hardly looking at her as he looked around at the trees around him. He hadn't been a man who struck Aina as someone who spoke much, only further confirming her thoughts that this had to be some kind of dream. "In dreams we accept truths we cannot admit aloud." He looked at her without a smile, but without any form of malicious intent either. It was only that stare, the same one that had unnerved her during the invasion. He had saved her then in a sense, but also made clear that a wrong move from her and he would not hesitate to kill her. All that was still held within the man's gaze. "Are you really going to let that rage kill you and everything you care about?" he asked, pointing towards the woman's torso.

Aina blinked, staring at him as she still tried to process his presence in this dream. Why would her mind conjure him? But as he pointed at her torso the woman flinched, dropping to a knee as she felt that burning pain surge within. She looked down and saw her mid-section burning red-hot as if embers of flame hid beneath her flesh. "No..." she whispered, shaking her head, swallowing hard, her breathing turning erratic as she realized what was happening.

---

Aina awoke with a scream, practically leaping to her feet from where she had fallen asleep against the tree. She blinked rapidly, brushing off her chest and torso with her hands before she looked down and realized she was back to reality. She looked all around her and realized Yaku was gone, she was back where she started, but none of that changed the words she had heard in her dream. 'If I don't control this rage somehow, it'll destroy everything I have...' She managed to calm herself down from the dream and looked around her, her mind working as she tried to think of a use for her rage. She knew burying it would only make things worse, she needed to let it out without exploding and then the thought came to her.

It would be hours of work, at a minimum, and she knew that. She walked until she was out of the trees, finding an open field and sat in the middle of it. She crossed her legs beneath her, rest her hands on her knees and closed her eyes. Still she could remember and even almost feel where that burning anger had sat within her in her dream, and she reached out to it. It wasn't dissimilar to reaching out to her own chakra when she would learn new releases or new jutsu. She could almost feel the fire at the core of this source, and as always seemed to happen when she focused on her ash, she could almost taste the crumbling pieces in her mouth and on her tongue. It only furthered the idea in her mind as she began to meditate upon the rage, and pulling the feeling of that ash in with it.

She focused on holding onto that feeling as her mind seemed to almost fall away from her body. She no longer felt the breeze in the field, nor heard the movement of the grasses. All she was aware of was herself and that burning rage within. It washed over and through her but it didn't dissipate. She pulled it deeper within, compressed it, fought with it, and sought a way to bring it all together. Her breath quickened as it felt as if it were burning, her limbs shaking with the strain of it. The rage begged to be released but that feeling only caused the image of Zakuro hitting the ground after her fist had connected to replay in her mind. No letting it all out in one fell movement caused only damage and destruction. It would do no one any good. Still as she struggled with it she felt that heat burning just under her skin, a desire to do violence rising in her mind. Yet she held it beneath her skin and couldn't help a grin as she felt her flesh break.

It began at her left forearm, though her eyes were not open to see it immediately. Her skin seemed to almost darken, something seeping out of her pores and slowly covering the skin there. A breeze kicked up and blew the ash from her skin, leaving behind skin reddened from the brief touch of it. Another cool breeze brought a comforting touch to that warm skin and her eyes finally opened. It was dizzying to suddenly have her eyes flooded with light. But she turned to look at her arm and a small smile came to her lips as she saw what had happened. What came next may have seemed a rash move for some. She drew a kunai out of her vest and suddenly dragged the blade across that reddened skin. Blood ran down her arm as she stared at it and once more closed her eyes. She released just a little bit of that rage, letting it bubble towards the surface where her skin was broken and blood dripped. Once more something seemed to seep out of her pores and the ash spread, covering the flesh.

Aina opened her eyes and reached over, brushing the ash from her skin and saw the cut was gone. In its place was a jagged burn as if someone had taken a metal rod and held it to the hurt flesh until the cut was sealed shut. "Cleansing fire and healing ash... how ironic..." she whispered. She knew what this meant, she could do good for herself with this rage and yet punish herself for it at the same time. Fire had always felt like such a cleansing thing for her in the past, it only seemed fitting that she could use it to better heal herself. With a sigh she looked to the sky and realized the stars had come out. Her nap under the tree before had been moments but her meditation? It had felt like moments as well and yet the sky was proof that it had certainly been hours at best.

"Not quite yet." she told herself as she silently wondered if she should head home just yet. Instead the woman closed her eyes and set herself to her meditations once more, and this silent blessing of the Ash. After all, being able to use it in combat was going to require more practice to make the regeneration second nature.

Word Count: 2200

[Willoria]

Aina set out early in the morning with a single purpose in mind. To train until she was in pain, and to push herself even farther. She had to leave before the sun rose, knowing this would require her to go find a sheer cliff face, a thing not exactly common in the woods of Konoha. This required her to talk a walk a good distance out in search of something just rocky enough for her purposes. By time she finally found something that would suit her, the sun had risen into the sky and she was certain the walk had been a couple of hours at the least.

Once her eyes came to rest on her targeted structure, a smile crossed her lips and she walked straight up to the base of it. Resolving herself to use no techniques, the woman reached out for the first bit of rock that jutted out and took a hold of it. She was already strong enough that she knew simply climbing the rock face would be all too simple a task for her, and instead chose to climb it using only her hands. By time she had gotten to the third piece of rock she would use to aid her ascent, she already knew this was both the right way to do it and a troublesome way to do it. She could feel the pulling of muscle and tendon in the insides of her elbows, and a heat spreading to her shoulders as she moved slowly, just one rock at a time. If she had been using her feet she might’ve been able to climb that wall so much quicker, but alas, this would be slow going. She had to admit, as determined as she was to get stronger, that was going to annoy her greatly and quickly. With each move she reminded herself her purpose behind this, and her own dedication to it.

A dozen handholds later and she found herself sweating. The liquid would bead upon her forehead and roll down into her eyes, her hands and grips had become a bit slippery despite the fingerless gloves she wore, and she was certain that her shirt was sticking to her back. Taking a moment to hang by one hand she unzipped her vest and wiggled her free arm out of it before switching and doing the same with the other side. Once her other arm was free of the obstruction she simply let it fall, taking a moment to watch it flutter a moment before seeming to fall hard. She didn’t keep much in the vest these days, mostly empty scrolls, but the pair of kunai in one of the pockets was just heavy enough to keep it weighted so that it fell straight. At the least this was a comfort in the fact that she wouldn’t have to go searching for the vest later.

Of course she could have kept the thing on, but over time that would have only proved an unnecessary burden. After all, she was working on her physical strength, not trying to see just how much she could sweat. As she picked up her progress up the sheer face of the cliff once more she could feel the warmth of the sun at her back, her bare and exposed flesh accepting the warmth quickly and for a moment she wondered if it wouldn’t have kept her cooler to just keep the vest on after all. But a breeze picked up from below and caressed that same flesh, adding that into the sweat running down her spine she found herself fairly cool and content with her situation, save for the pulling she was feeling in her arms.

Each motion brought with it just a little bit more of an ache, and was just a bit harder to achieve. Each handhold was more difficult than the last and before long she began to feel that pain in her muscle groups shifting from an ache to a burn. Yet this only made the woman smile, it was a sign that her work out was doing just what she wanted it to do. With a grunt she would continue her upwards momentum, taking the cliff one reach at a time, without a single step involved.

If Aina were honest with herself though, this wasn’t just about training, this was also about punishing herself. This was also about pushing physical pain into her body to wash away the emotional, to funnel it all into what was hopefully a much healthier outlet. Even as she climbed the wall she couldn’t shake the image of Zakuro’s face in her mind and his expression when she had struck him. She couldn’t shake the image of Fanho’s injured face, something that had come as a direct result of what she had done to Zakuro. As she climbed tears began to run down her face though she did not sob. Sobbing honestly would have undone her grip on the stones, her sweat had already made it difficult enough, she didn’t need uncontrolled emotional outbursts to add to it. Yet she allowed the tears to run down her face free and unbidden, if only because they desired to do so. Tears in training were not such an unusual thing, and if anything could be a health way of letting out her rage as well. At least up here there was no one to see it, just her and the cliff.

Some probably would have told Aina to talk to someone, perhaps even see a therapist of some kind. But as a Bannin she couldn’t help but to see either action as a weakness. Naturally Takeo would see her at her weakest points, perhaps even her children from time to time. But she just couldn’t bring herself to let anyone else see it. She had bottled it all up instead, resulting in her explosive anger and rage. But as she climbed the mountain she could feel everything beginning to melt away. No the pain would not be forgotten entirely, and she certainly had things to make up for. She needed to tell Fanho the truth of it all, tell him that she was responsible for what had happened to him. She also needed to work up the courage to speak to Zakuro and apologize to the boy. Because of her actions he had gone rogue, he had nearly jeopardized everything he had ever worked for in his life in this village. It was something Aina wasn’t sure she could even forgive herself for, but she knew she needed to at least tell Zakuro of her own remorse.

Lost in thought the Bannin almost didn’t notice how high up she had gotten. Already she was more than halfway up and paused to look down at the sights below her. It was terrifying in many ways, knowing that even as a Bannin a fall from this height would severely injure her… at best. But it was also beautiful. As she enjoyed the view she of course alternated arms, shifting from one to the other here and there to keep her work between the two even, still dedicated to her strength training even as she admired her views. Not too far from her to her right she saw a bird’s nest and was happy to see there were at least three chicks in it. They were baby hawks of some kind she thought, and all three were hungry. They chirped aloud, stretching heads and necks as far as they could to get the attention of their mother. Aina considered herself lucky when the mother arrived to feed the babies and she went unnoticed, and so was able to watch the animals interact for a few moments.

Of course she couldn’t stick around, she had to keep moving. Her goal was to get to the top of the cliff before the day’s end. She knew her trip back would take some time but she contemplating staying out for the night and heading back in the morning, after all, strength wasn’t the only thing she desperately needed to train. She was a village Bannin and yet she hadn’t taken time like this to dedicate to her own training for some time. One motion at a time, one handhold at a time, yet again she pulled herself upwards. She had been going for so long at this point, climbing so high, that she was drenched in sweat almost from head to toe. Every move was pain and she groaned with each reach. Her shoulders had begun to shake but the woman was dedicated to reaching the top and not only for her own safety either.

Her grunts of pain had progressed to groans and moans as the woman pulled herself up each time. The most awkward part of it all was that since she wasn’t using her feet they just dangled in the air from the cliff. The particular rockface she had chosen was slightly slanted, a fact she hadn’t noticed until she got further out. As it had begun she hadn’t thought much of it, the toes of her boots dragging against the cliff as she moved up, but over time she was making less and less contact with the stone as far as her feet were concerned, and her body was no longer leaning up against the rock. Instead, at some point, the slant had progressed to a point where her feet dangled in the air and so did her torso. She was finally forced to hold the entirety of her bodyweight in her hands. She hadn’t even realized she’d been cheating herself at first but that became more and more apparent the further along she went.

There came a point where all Aina could think about was the end. How long until she was done? Oh how relieved she would be. More than once she thought she saw the edge and felt the beginning of that relief wash over her, only for that hope to be dashed as she came to find that wasn’t the end, but another slant or just a larger stone. Things progressed and become more and more difficult as she went along however, but one piece of relief did come her way early. The slant that caused her to dangle in the open came to an end and she made her way past a sharp ledge to find over it was a sheer wall and she could see grass peaking over it. Grinning despite the sweat dripping into her eyes and onto her lips, she pulled herself one stone at a time. Every muscle in her arms ached and screamed for relief. Every joint burned with over exertion. Even as she pulled herself up, still managing to refuse to use her legs, she caught below her knee on the very ledge that had left her relieved with what she could see past it. But by giving in to that hope and relief as she climbed, it seemed she had dropped her guard a bit and been less careful. The ledge caught just below her knee and as the woman pulled herself up the rock face, it tore through her skin down her leg, leaving a seven or eight inch gash down her shin. Aina couldn’t help the cry of pain that left her lips, and the growl that followed as she became quickly pissed at herself for doing something she considered to be so stupid. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. The shock of the pain caused her to release with her left hand and for several moment’s she dangled, even catching her left elbow on another rock and cutting it open too.

For a few moments she dangled still, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself before flinging her arm back up and getting a hold of the stones. The rest of the climb was so much harder than the rest, even though it was only about ten feet. The agony of her bleeding limbs seemed to make it feel like fifty feet. Yet eventually the woman pulled herself up onto the gross on the top of it and grinned. Laying on her back she was triumphant and just started laughing into the ether.

Training: Strength
WordCount: 2,053 (2 stats)