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- +8 instinct
Quote:Assassin's Control is a culmination of Zai's knowledge of human anatomy and her mental control over her own body. Exerting her will over every part of herself, Zai's able to accomplish incredible feats. This style is comprised mostly of techniques that improve her senses to incredible levels as well as allowing for fine manipulation of her body.
Shadow of the Tail
C-ranked Taijutsu Discipline
If being followed by somebody with a lower average between instinct and taijutsu, Zai can get the feeling she's being followed even if she can't see the individual. For this to work, the stalker must follow her for at least one post (or an in-character equivalent amount of time). The technique works on a subconscious level, picking up clues from the tiniest factors like crowd patterns, reflections, movements of particles in the air and on the ground, etc. Things so minute she can't pick out normally, but her sub-conscience can. This technique only tells her she's being watched and a very vague general direction.
Advanced flex
C-ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Through her intimate knowledge of her body, she is able to flex any muscle. This doesn't have many practical effects, but she uses it for unique launching mechanisms attached to her body and outfit.
Emptying of the mind
C-ranked Taijutsu Stance
After years of practicing her meditation, Zai is now able to completely calm and quiet her mind. This technique doesn't have many practical purposes but is useful against those that read minds and can be blocked through will and imagination. It does nothing against those that can search through her thoughts or push past mental defenses, but it does allow her to prevent herself from thinking anything she wouldn't want them to hear if they're only capable of reading active thoughts. While doing this, her Ninjutsu/Taijutsu and Genjutsu are effectively 1
Steel Flex
B-ranked Taijtusu Stance
By focusing her strength and flexing all of the muscles in an area at the same time, Zai is able to exert her full endurance on one location. Her muscles become as durable as materials made of 3/4 her strength stat. Meaning blades would cut the overlying fat and skin, but would feel like it had hit metal (depending on her strength stat) once it hit her muscles.
Finger Daggers
B-ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Prereq: Steel flex
By performing steel flex and hardening the muscles in her fingers, Zai is able to use her fingers like weapons. She has to move at a speed and strength high enough to penetrate a material despite not being sharp. Additionally, her bones are still just as strong as before, so impact with a stronger surface or force may cause damage.
Strength-Speed Transfer
A-ranked Taijutsu Stance
By focusing all of her energy away from her speed-related muscles to her strength related muscles or vice versa, Zai is able to transfer up to 12 stat points from speed to strength or vice versa. The transfer happens almost instantaneously and lasts for up to 7 posts. Any increase in one of the stats, will cause an immediate equal debuff on the other. Once the technique ends, it can not be performed for another 2 posts and results in -2 to both speed and strength for the next 2 posts.
Omnipresence
S-ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Prerequisite: 34 Speed
By turning her head rapidly every quarter second and responding to what she sees, Zai is effectively able to fight as if she were three people. So long as she's moving at a speed greater than or equal to 10 more than her opponents, she's able to see and react to attacks that are coming from different directions and angles. The speed of her movement makes it look like there are three of her rooted in the same spot, her after images almost seeming like ninjutsu-created appendages and portions of her body. This only works if the targets are at most 180 degrees apart.
Quote:Assassin's Act
B-ranked Taijutsu Discipline
After years of practicing, Zai has mastered the ability to mimic virtually anybody. By watching her targets, she is capable of perfectly mimicking any mannerisms, vocal tones and idiosyncrasies that she witnesses. This jutsu is passive during the observation stage, in that she's naturally observing everyone around her and catching all of the subtle things that would sell the act if she were to pretend to be them. Generally, if she's heard somebody say around a paragraph's worth of dialogue, she can mimick their voice to say anything, but it's risky since they may have unique pronunciations and mannerisms when saying things Zai didn't hear them say.
Quote:True sight
B-ranked Taijutsu Discipline
So long as some of a target's relavent muscles are visible while they're launching a strike, Zai is able to tell if they're about to feint. By watching what muscles are being tensed, she can see if the target is preparing to pull into a different direction, giving her a split moment's prediction which is often more than enough to give her an advantage in battle.
- Add the following spoiler:
Impact Spread
C-ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
By opening up her palm when delivering a strike and very carefully rolling the attack through her hand, Zai is able to apply all her force but diffuse it greatly through the target. This results in a strike having almost all of its strength used to push instead of creating an impact. This is mostly used to be able to subdue weaker targets without damaging them too greatly or killing them.
Ranged blast
A-ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Prereq: 34 speed and strength
By launching a swift strike with all her speed and strength and then pulling back and twisting the limp sharply, Zai releases a blast of raw air and force that can go up to 10 meters. The blast is only the size of her fist and on impact, spreads evenly across the surface. It impacts with a strength equal to half the average between her strength and speed. The point of impact immediately feels like it was hit by a regular Punch by that strength, but the force is then dispersed and pushes the target back an amount of meters equal to half the average of her strength and speed.
Vacuum Pull
A-ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Prereq: 34 Speed and Strength
With an open palm, Zai pushes her hand out with all her strength and speed before suddenly and very sharply pulling it back, the result being that she creates a very temporary vacuum in front of her. This vacuum is 5 meters long, but is only as wide and tall as her palm. On impact, the target feels like the portion that Zai's palm targetted was pulled by a magnet with a force equal to half the average of her speed and strength
Quote:Elbow Switch-blades -20
Two switch-blades on either side of each elbow, one pointed down and one pointed up (or back, depending on angling of the arm). This blade is 5 inches long and is kept in a small pocket with a small, flat spring mechanism that shoots out at at a speed of 25 once chakra is applied to it. The switch blades are triggered by very specific amounts of pressure in the right place, which can only really be done using Advanced Flex.
Knee Switch-blades-20
Two switch-blades on either side of each knee, one pointed down and one pointed up (or back, depending on angling of the leg). This blade is 5 inches long and is kept in a small pocket with a small, flat spring mechanism that shoots out at a speed of 25. The switch blades are triggered by very specific amounts of pressure in the right place, which can only really be done using Advanced Flex.
Short Blade-2
A three-foot sword with an 8 inch hilt kept on her lower back horrizontally, with the hilt pointing to her right. The rest of the sword is within the scabbard that's usually attached to her outfit, the partial sealing seal on the inside of the scabbard keeps the blade sealed away partially, while exposing the hilt so that it can be easily grabbed.
2x Long blades-4
Two five-foot swords with a 9-inch hilts kept on her shoulders with the hilts pointed diagonally upwards and away from the center of her back. The rest of the swords are within the scabbard that's usually attached to her outfit, the partial sealing seal on the inside of the scabbards keeps the blades sealed away partially while exposing the hilts so they can be easily grabbed.
Staff-2
A six-foot long staff that's kept on her outer left thigh. The staff is kept in a pocket on her clothing that is lined with a partial sealing seal, allowing for only four inches of the metal staff to be revealed.
Whip-2
She has an 8-foot long leather whip, one foot of which is the handle. A thick, rounded metal handle that juts out of a small pocket on her right outter thigh. The rest of the whip is in the pocket which is lined with the partial sealing fuuinjutsu that hides a majority of the weapon.
Leather gloves-2
Fingerless thick leather gloves that don't provide much in the way of defending against impacts, but are useful in allowing Zai to touch blades without immediately being cut. Of course, this pretty much only protects her hand when touching a blade that isn't moving fast or strong enough to cut through leather.
Wrist launcher-20
An angled blade with one sharp point and three inches of blade curving back on both sides. This almost boomerang-shaped blade is attached to the back of her leather gloves and can be launched with a speed and strength of 25 by performing very specific muscle flexing through the Advanced Flex technique.
Rods -3
one foot long with a 10 cm diameter, these are small but dense and heavy cylinders. Zai uses them in place of her arrowheads for non-lethal attacks. They distribute all the force of a regular projectile but very little penetrative ability.
- She keeps 25 of the rods on little pockets kept around her waist like a belt. Each one only is partially visible, as the rest is in the pocket that's lined with a fuuinjutsu seal.
- She keeps four on each arm, two on her forearm and two on the opposite side, also in special pockets.
- Two above each rib cage, about 6 inches below her armpits, also in special pockets.
- One behind each calf, also in special pockets.
Quote:Lethal Boots- Zai's special pair of combat boots that add an extra inch to her height. The soles of the boots are thick so as to contain the four blades that can be activated and forced to jut out. There’s one in the toe area, the heel area and on the left and right side of the boot. Zai activates the blades with a pulse of chakra, revealing whichever of the blades she wishes. The same process is used for retraction of the blades. Each blade is three inches long. The rest of the boots go up to just below her knee, with a metal-rimmed guard jutting out to protect her knee. The inside of this raised portion of the boot is also lined with senbon.
Quote:Arrowheads- 4 points
Having long surpassed what a bow is capable of, Zai no longer uses her signature arrows. Instead, she uses modified arrowheads that have a 1 inch shaft. Both he arrowhead and the shafts are made of one piece of metal, so they can't be easily broken like a regular shaft and arrow. The arowheads themselves are a regular size for arrows.
- 25x Kept in small pockets around her waist on a belt.
- 5 kept in small pockets on the front and side of each shoulder
- 5 kept in small pockets between her buttocks and her hip.
- 4 kept on each arm. Two on the forearm and two on the opposite side, in small pockets.
- 1 Kept in the side of each of the wrist portions of the gloves she wears, in small pockets.
Her father was once a rich merchant who long ago succumbed to his addiction to gambling and alcohol, taking him from one of the richest merchants within his province and a valuable source of income within the Karagata family to a discarded and forgotten thief. His income came almost entirely from cons and thefts. He was surprisingly a good thief and con-man, having plenty of skill and charm. His success was irrelevant, however, as any income was immediately turned into wasted outcome.
Her mother was a prostitute that was also officially an untouchable, so her clientele was limited. Zai's father had been a client of hers, but she refused to give up the child when she was accidentally impregnated. Her father was not a fan of the obligation, but allowed it in exchange for having a relatively attractive sex toy as well as a potential source of income in the future, and that's exactly how he treated his "wife" and daughter.
From the moment she could first form sentences, Zai was both remarkable and rebellious. she was essentially raised by her mother who tried her best, and the incredible amount of misfortune and suffering around her. Since she was first able to move or speak in defiance of her father, she did and was beat mercilessly for it. Her mother received a similar fate, with the added bonus of being consistently raped. It changed the two of them, making Zai angry and her mother focused on survival. She drilled the concept of self-preservation into her daughter, hell-bent on ensuring the world would never break her the way it had done to her.
By the time Zai was 10, she could already steal just about anything within grabbing distance without anybody noticing. She had decided at 7 that she could not depend on the income of her mother, and she was definitely not going to put herself in her father's debt. Her ability to detect and see through bullshit was impressive even for an adult's standards, and she had absolutely no patience for oppressors or authority. Even so, she was not at all ready for the day her mother died at the hands of her father. She was far more mature and strong than anybody her age, but seeing her mother beaten to death during a drunken rampage and then seeing her father not brought to justice broke her. What she had left of her childhood died on that day, along with both her parents. Her father was awoken for a brief moment that night, just long enough to see his daughters eyes staring down coldly at him while the sharp pain of a penetrating knife clawed its way up from his jaw until he was gone.
The next few years contibue to be a blur for her. She had nobody in her life any more and had only one goal: survival. She taught herself how to stay hidden, how to take advantage of her size, appearance and intelligence to one-up stronger and more dangerous clients. She would go a whole day picking peoples pockets and breaking into their homes to steal things, and never have a single interaction. She learned very early on how to disappear and get what she wanted.
At the age of 15, she managed to pick the pocket of a Jounin that was on assignment in the area. The jounin didn't notice the theft itself, but almost immediately noticed the lack of the jingle that had previously been there. Noticing just in time to watch her carefully and subtly sneak off, the Jounin chased after her. To his surprise, the young untouchable gave him an incredibly difficult chase that resulted in him having to use sensory to find her hidden in one of her many spots, bewildered she was discovered.
The jounin was beyond impressed. Untouchable or not, he recognized her potential and figured the social ramifications would be worth it if she became a shinobi that brought pride to his family. It'd also be a lie if he didn't admit something about the wild, viscious look in the girl resonated with him, making him want to help. So after much convincing of both Zai and academy and village officials, Zai w as adopted into the family that her father had previously been adopted into as well.
While she was far from a team player, the girl was unleashed at the academy. She immediately fell in love with Taijutsu and just as quickly made it clear why she had been accepted into the academy. Less than a year into her studies and she was blowing away the competition, even her upper classmen, when it came to taijutsu. She picked up styles with ease and immediately set to personalizing them, creating her own variations. Her ability with ninjutsu was also above average, but it didn't interest her, not nearly enough as the phsyical arts. It was the first time she was able to relieve stress and have fun at the same time, and she spent as much time as possible practicing.
Graduating the academy with ease, she very quickly rose through the shinobi ranks. Her ability with taijutsu only increased and grew more ruthless, leading to her creating her own style of assassination techniques that impressed even those whose job was primarily asassination. She was quickly growing into the ideal Kiri shinobi, especially now that she was taking an interest in ninjutsu. Having realized the power it could grant her, she began dedicating more of her time to it on top of her taijutsu.
Quickly, the village promoted her to special jounin tasked with hunting down targets and killing them. She not only did well, she flourished. Her name immediately rang through relevant circles and she quickly became known as a rising star and exemplary Kiri shinobi. She was treated better, approached by shinobi and citizens alike positively and frequently praised by her superviors.
Yet all the while, the girl was never satisfied. Her instinct for self-preservation had grown to one of self-determination. She had no friends, no significant others, no family. The jounin that effectively adopted her learned immediately that she would not be raised by him or anybody else. She rarely slept in a bed and almost never in the house she had been allowed to live in. She popped in out of a responsibility to the man that changed her life, but they had little more than a casual rapport and he was the only person she spoke to at all in a non-professional setting.
Her dedication to her training was primarily for her self, to ensure that nobody could ever put her in the position her mother was put in. She refused to be weak enough to allow any entity to control or limit her. As soon as she became a special jounin, she barely spent any time in the village, returning only when required. She was referred to frequently as the killer cat of kiri, by those not great at making nicknames, for her tendency to just quietly show up and leave, avoiding contact with just about everyone along the way.
The longer she spent outside of the village, the more she learned that what was normal in Kiri was very much not in the rest of the world. She learned that some places were much worse off, with people suffering for what seemed to be such easily solved and stupid reasons. Then she learned that Kiri's cruel caste system that was ultimately responsible for her childhood was not at all a normal at not at all a necessity, and for the first time she turned from ambivalent about her village to resentful. Her resentment grew with each visit back, and each interaction she hd with other countries did the same for her with the entire world.
It was all so stupid. The usually logical, apathetic and cold Zai was slowly plunged into bitter resentment and anger, which she did not handle well. Her obsession for strength only grew and she gave herself the goal of becoming the most powerful person in the world, destroying anything and everything that got in her way. She wanted the power not only for full independence but to be able to destroy any of the institutions she deemed stupid, which was most of them. Eventually, she just stopped returning to the village entirely.
She created created an organizaion of missing ninja, promising them protection and brotherhood in exchange for their contribution of strength. She aimed to create her own army, further securing her independence and giving her the tools to do what she wanted. In the proccess, she discovered the existence of Jikukan and immediately decided she had to have it. She chased down all leads for information on the style that she could find, with each of them either leading nowhere or resulting in assistance that wasn't sufficient. She couldn't learn it just from snippets of information, demonstrations and rumors, which would normally be enough for her to reverse engineer anything. The style was too complex and her mastery of ninjutsu was lacking, so se studied and she pursued. She needed a teacher, so she improved her ninjutsu and hunted down the first Jikukan user she could find.
Almost immediately, realizing how much of a threat the woman was, her target threw her into his personal realm. He was far weaker than her in all respects except for his knowledge of ninjutsu and Jikukan, which really only made im able to lock her way, not strong enough to defeat her. She was a constant drain on his already weak stamina for two years. His plan to grow strong enough to defeat her held a serious flaw: he could only train slowly, lesst he deplete his stamina and let her escape, but she was unencumbered with nothing but time.
Zai took the two years to train in a new way: mentally. Her prolonged solitude left her no choice but to either go insane or look inward. It was the most personal development she had ever experienced and by the end of it, she was practically a new woman. Her ruthlessness was there, but it was directed now. Her hatred for the systems of the world changed from a desire for anarchy and destruction to a desire for a new world order with her a the helm. Her fighting abilities became more crisp, precise and thoughtful,, straying from the brutal and primal nature it previously had. Those two years honed her edge, she was almost thankful.
As her control over chakra and her own body grew, the hold her captor had on her weakened. He could tell she was growing stronger and eventually had no choice but to hire a team of missing ninja to help him go into his realm and kill her. He severely underestimated just how much stronger she had gotten, getting him and four other b-ranked missing ninja killed, releasing her back into the main realm.
Escaping before it all crumbled behind her, Zai was now ready to take on the world. Quickly, she began searching for her old organization recruits as well as looking for new ones. Having formed a small team, she has begun the first stage of her plan: taking control of Juu no Kuni. It was less than four months between her escape and her building of a base within the country, she has a plan and no intention of going slow. The world was just waiting for her to fix it.
4c 3b 3a 1S
12 15 23 10= 60 VP
+75 VP for weapons
Instinct training +4
instinct training +4