;; run devil run (p/t)

[❥;; bexx]

{ENTER TO HI NO KUNI}

;; day one

sunset

Hi no Kuni was afterall not that exciting. She had high hopes coming from the sea. The only thing worthwhile to not was that it was big and full of trees. Forests and forests of green and brown littered the land making anything worth seeing fade away. But she'd never been here before so it was one of those rare opportunities to sightsee. What she noticed different about this country was that it was populated and few of the people who at least walked the place now had ninja headbands. The metal plate and blue strap were the same as hers but the symbol was different on them. They looked kinda cute. But she felt out of place. The big country intimidated her and she found that the only real way to cure that; other than to leave right away was to hide in the forest areas. She thought that because there was so much forest over the land she wouldn't be that easy to find. She needed to be a lot more careful now. She was on her own with no protection other than her jutsu training and her katana. That was hardly much comfort. She began to walk from the dock in the direction of the forestland.

The most dangerous place often proved to be the safest, that old saying rang in her head. She passed a couple of girls who were walking towards the dock. They gave her a strange look. She was a little strange in appearance. Silver hair that was braided in an odd way, dark brown eyes that gave blank stares more than much else. She stared at them blankly; her eyes piercing into theirs seeming to pick a fight. But that was how she was. 

Her walk to the forest was about a half hour from the dock. The trees looked so neat that they looked scary. She walked farther and farther into the lines of trees; stepping on branches here and there. Looking around all that meets the eye were leaves and the natural smell of forest. This place was pretty good for her. There wasn't much to do. There was a pond that ran she guessed through the entire forest. The waters looked clean and glistened under the setting sun. The sparkling water so tempting. She looked around seeing that no one was there today. She knew it must be her lucky day. To be honest, she was a little scared of this place. It wasn't so much the forests giving her a intimidating feeling but that she was on an unknown land and invading this land's forest. She was trespassing property that didn't belong to her because she wasn't a ninja of the land. She didn't even know anything about this country except the name and being the biggest of the five great nations. That didn't tell her anything useful. But she got here late already and doubted that there was anyone in the country who could answer her questions. She'd have more of a chance when it was morning and everyone was out and about. She was already here though. So what now?

She looked up at the setting sun. The sky was turning a bright pink and orange with the yellow of the sun. She loved sunsets. So beautiful. She estimated that it'd be about an hour to an hour and a half later that the sun would disappear and the moon would come out. So whatever she wanted to do that needed light she needed to get a move on. Running through her mind was the best idea. Since she just thought that if she needed to protect herself against unknown enemies her assets would only be jutsus and katana. So why not train a little? It wouldn't hurt. She actually didn't mind training one bit. It was fun with her guardian because it wasn't just her but solo training could be fun too. The only scroll she had on her was the Yukina Clan scroll but she already learned a lot of those jutsus. Kenjutsu training was more effective in a battle. Her only option was probably to go for the clan jutsu training again. She didn't mind but it was getting a bit boring with just ice techs all the time. In a land of the unknown she didn't have options.

"Who are you? What're you doing here?" A voice startled her from somewhere. She looked left, right and then in front and behind. No one. But there was definitely someone there. "Up here!"the voice said again. She looked straight up and sure enough there was a teenage boy sitting on a tree branch, feet dangling. He had brown hair and eyes with that weird looking symbol headband on his forehead. Then he's a shinobi too. He looked younger than her. Jumping from the branch he landed clumsily on the ground two feet from her. He was shorter and younger she could see. "Snowie" she said with a smile. Never be fooled by one of her smiles. They could be the sweetest things on earth but behind that she was vicious. The boy obviously didn't have much danger knowledge. "You looked bored alone. Care for a spar? He definitely missed the signs that said don't talk to strangers. She smiled again and nodded her head once. There will be no more smiles after this. The only thing that'd be left is him crying for his mommy. But no one knew that. Time for some fun.

[❥;; bexx]

sunset

She eyed the boy with curiosity looking at him up and down. His person was shorter than her, not much muscle. It means probably that his physical strength wasn't as good as hers. But she wasn't too sure about the jutsus he had. She would have to find out. Her smile never fading, she drew out her katana with her left hand holding it sideways in front of her and her right hand was tightly holding the hilt. This was a standard move of hers. Her eyes turned menacing now; narrowing into semi-slits while she waited for his first attack. She wasn't going to make the first move; that was just giving him a chance to see through her flaws. Never will she begin a fight; a gold rule of hers. He too had a katana. Swordplay was probably going to be the major component of the battle. That was interesting since she was originally planning to find someone to help sharpen her blade and polish her skills. Now this person came to her like a sheep offering. The nice smile now turned into a smirk. It was dangerous when she got like that. "Battle time an hour maximum." she muttered.

She had a little bit of an obsession with timing her battles. Every battle must be timed and she will not fight them any longer if the time is up. It means even if she must lose, she will not fight after the allotted time she gives to each of her opponents. With much practice, she is able to perfect to just the right amount of time she gives to each person she faces off of depending on their abilities, age, strength. But most of the time she calculates her time based on her own abilities, strength and stamina. She finds that she runs out of chakra lots of times and when she does she will have to count solely on her katana abilities or hand to hand skills. That was too risky. Especially if the person she was facing hasn't run out of chakra at that time. She was going allow any chance of her facing death on her first day in Hi no Kuni. She was also not going to allow any chance of death against this boy. He looked to much like those amateurs to really be much of a threat. She kind of thought she was giving him too much time. But this was her first fight in a long time so she can be a little gentle. He was a kid; needed to respect he was younger than her and should probably leave him alive. It must be fortunate that she hasn't reached full insanity or else she would kill without giving a damn to who her opponent was. She faces each battle like she was possessed by a demon when she hits full insanity and won't hesitate to show just how crazy she was. From where she learned to be like this she didn't know. Her guardian certainly didn't teach her to fight this way. Then it must be her life before landing in that little town.

She raised an eyebrow when the boy charged at her with an unsheathed katana. His legs were fast for someone his height. She gave him that much credit. She took a step back; just a small step back, her right hand pulling on the hilt of her own sword and then letting her sheathe drop to the ground. Her stance was a standard blocking one, with her sword raised. She was ready for him. A diagonal slash to her right shoulder was the starting point. Oh good! Her smirk in place she raised her sword horizontally to block his attack. He pushed his body weight against the blade so that she was forced backward. Her feet were on a roll when she was pushed back; quick small steps back against his pressure. But she soon found solid ground and stood firmly no longer letting him push her backward. Their swords created sparks in response to the deadlock and soon it was her turn to push him backward, placing her weight on him. Hers was much more effective as his feet stepped backwards fast almost tripping himself. This boy needed a lesson in basic combat. But she wasn't here to give lessons. If he was smart enough he'd be able to learn just by fighting her. The deadlock of their swords were deepening while the metal part of her katana was creating more sparks due to her weight. She wasn't an opponent that should be easily underestimated especially because no one knew her full potential; not even her. She was a very scary individual.

At a particular time during the deadlock she decided that it was boring just pushing her weight on a sword. She wanted to have more fun. So she burst a little amount of chakra from her feet to propel her body backward, taking her sword with her. The sudden movement made him fly back too but he was still standing. She was going to show him how wrong it was to challenge her to a fight. "You have one hour. Seems like you missed your chance." Her smirk darkened when she broke into a run, charging at the boy. His eyes widened obvious not counting on the fact that she was fast. For a skinny person she was very fast. She pivoted to her left aiming a horizontal slash to his arm. Notice that she didn't go straight for an organ. If he wasn't a kind she would have. He dodged but was cut a little in his upper arm area leaving a small ten millimeter cut. But she wasn't done yet. Almost as soon as he dodged, she reached her left hand out to pull him. He was spinning and when the sword hit him, she pulled on that arm bringing him closer to her. In a second she already twisted his arm back, aiming a deadlock. It was too bad he didn't at least try to block her attack with his sword. Instead he chose to dodge leaving her the chance to grab his non-dominant hand. As she brought him closer to her she tucked the metal blade of the sword very close to his neck diagonally making a really small cut on his skin. Now he was afraid. She could see that he was.

"P-p-p-please don't kill me!" The boy was close to tears. Her intention wasn't to bring fear to him or make him crap his pants but she wanted him to see that challenging random people that he didn't know might backfire on him pretty badly. "If I wanted kill you you'd have been a long time ago, kid." Her voice was a hiss in his ear. It was so cold and cutting that it made anyone shiver. Beads of sweat rolled down his face. She felt bad for the boy. She shouldn't unleash herself to him. He was just a kid. But he did give her an idea. With a push of her hand, she released his hand and took her sword away from his neck. She could tell he wanted to run away. But she wasn't done playing with just yet.

[❥;; bexx]

sunset
{Twenty Minutes into Battle}

"What do you want from me?" Even his voice was trembling. That was no good. She only wanted to play a little with him and he turned out to crap his pants. She actually felt empathetic; a very rare emotion. But she dismissed it. She couldn't let him see her weak like that. "You're the one who wanted to fight!" she reminded him. She tried to be more playful with her words because she didn't need a boy that would die of a nervous breakdown. "Only twenty minutes have passed and I said an hour. I won't leave you alone until the hour is up." she told him with a playful grin. Now she was purely playing her cards based on psychology. If she wasn't scary enough based on pure looks alone she certainly made up with her twisted psychology games. It was one of those hidden reasons why she timed her battles. She always left a little extra time for fun and games that involved some form of torture. Either she was going for the mind or for the body. Since she had let him off the hook with his body; time to play some mind games.

Seems like it was going to work earlier and better than expected too. "I surrender, alright?" No not alright she thought. She gave him an innocent little grins; those creepy little things that were so innocent that anyone could tell was fake. Underneath the innocent look was the real look of she didn't give a damn about what he said. He fell into her trap and she wasn't going to let him out without him begging for mercy. She spared his life but she never spared his mind. Little kids were fun to toy with using mind games. She was going to make him feel so overwhelmed that he literally crapped his pants. That was her entertainment. Too bad she was being so soft on him. But she was going to make it up right now. "Be happy I'm sparing your life kid or else I would have took it five minutes ago. So let's not waste anymore time here." Before she even finished that sentence she leaped forward, her blade pointing at his chest while she ran. His eyes widened and he froze. That wasn't fun. She was just going to have to make him move. The pointy part of her blade was aiming directly at his chest when she came very close to him. The blade was a like two millimeters from piercing through his clothing fabric. He couldn't move. His legs were pinned to the ground beneath him. He closed his eyes like he was anticipating her to drive the sword into his chest killing him.

At least put up more of a fight! Now she was getting edgy. When she was edgy she was unleashing another part of her insanity. She retracted her sword and then took hold of his right arm carrying his sword. She pushed the sword from his hand and then twisted his arm. With her body weight on him she was going to dislocate his shoulder. He let her do whatever she wanted. Was he a masochist? That bugged her too. She was giving him an opportunity to strike back at her and he's just standing there. She twisted his arm far back and with a push up heard the crack of dislocation. Tears swelled in his eyes. Dislocation was painful for a kid. "That's your little punishment for ignoring me. Now come at me with full strength. I'm not going to kill you." She then readjusted the dislocation and that part really hurt. A manly tear escaped and rolled down his cheek. "Aww I made you cry! She hadn't meant to sound pitiful or sympathetic at all. But the part about not hurting him was true. She just wanted a spar; a first spar in Hi no Kuni that she'd never forget. Battling this kid was certainly not going to achieve that but she was going to have fun. Every battle was fun to her or she made it fun even at the expense of her opponent. She shouldn't do that to a poor kid but a kid who had the guts to challenge her deserved every bit he got. She was already being lax on him. Seeming to have finally got his act together he picked up his blade and there was the first flare of anger in his eyes.

That's what she was looking for. She was going to have to be quick. When people were angry they would go all out on their opponent. He charged at her katana raised. He was definitely angry more like hating her. Maybe she went a little overboard with the playing bit. But she hadn't even started on the mind games yet. That could always wait. She readied herself for whatever he threw at her. And he actually threw something at her. A close look would be a three shuriken. Those things came at quite the speed but she was ready for that too. she didn't know what thing was being thrown at her but she knew something was so she was already ready to deflect or dodge. This was better to dodge than to deflect because she didn't have time to raise her blade to deflect. She jumped sideways narrowly escaping the shuriken. But he wasn't going to let her rest. She noticed that he slashed at her while she avoided the shuriken. Combo attack. That was certainly not expected. She let his sword hit her in the left shoulder. It wasn't her dominant arm and wouldn't impair much. The cut certainly stung because he was going at her with almost all his strength. It was getting interesting finally. It was a good thing that they were just using swords right now since she needed sharpening in her sword skills. She hadn't had a spar in a long time and needed someone to test on.

Apparently it hadn't gotten too rusty thankfully. He saw that he was beginning to pick up speed and he was already smiling at his own triumphs. He was already happy that he managed to cut her. This battle was going to be very interesting in the next half hour. Hopefully she could have that battle she would never be able to forget. Her evil grin widened and she clapped her hands in a childish manner. "Good job, boy!"

[❥;; bexx]

sunset
{Thirty Minutes into Battle}

She was starting to get a thrill from this battle that was new to her. She hadn't fought for so long that she never had much of a thrill. She was having fun playing with this boy. One second he was scared out of his mind and the next he was actually coming at her with some brains. She liked that. She might be able to turn him insane, or better yet half insane. There was no fun in full insanity. It was when he started hearing voices in his head whenever he got really confused or angered that was the best. She looked at him a second, brushing off the dirt on her skirt while getting up to a standing position. She was now going to train him in combination attacks, making him faster than his current speed. The main thing was coordination. Sometimes it was hand-leg coordination, sometimes only the two hands. She had a lot of training in coordination with her guardian during her stay at the little town. She knew that she was still not perfect so there was room for improvement.

She started to take a few steps back again. She liked close range contact so that she could scare people out of their minds and listen their racing heartbeat but not all attacks were going to be made close range. If she met a tougher opponent she probably wouldn't be able to get close enough for a legitimate close-range attack. So she always had her secondary weapons ready. Her hand reached to her weapon pocket that was strapped almost always on her right knee. She knew her dominant hand was her right so strapping her weapon pouch on her right knee was the most sensible thing to do. But she was thinking for the longest time if she should learn to be as flexible with using her left hand to attack too. But her training with her left hand was so hard that she was forced to give up on a number of occasions. For some reason she couldn't let her hand work with her brain and she had less control over her accuracy. She had been so used to using her right hand to attack that her left was just weird. She was going to use the boy for target practice. "Only a half hour more, boy." As if he needed an alarm clock reminder.

The using of her left hand and being able to use it as flexible as her right would make things a lot easier in a battle. Some of her potential opponents may try to take her down by pinpointing her left side because it was weaker. Soon the battle recommenced. This time she slipped her hand into her pouch and grabbed a kunai. She was going to start nice and easy with her left hand. Throwing her katana to the ground, she was going to attack only with her kunai. That was a risky move. She wasn't sure if she could put herself in harm's way by doing that. She noticed that his opponent was thinking the same thing. But he was going to be in for a deadly surprise. She might only be fighting with her kunai without the aid of her sword but it didn't mean that she couldn't use her other hand, her dominant to aim in case she was proving to be having more problems that she wanted with her left hand. The kunai was normally used for long-range throwing but she had another plan for that. Instead she was going to use it as a weapon for close range. Spinning the kunai with one finger around the circle at the top and then putting it to a stop quickly she was ready to begin again.

She could tell that he didn't expect her to take her kunai and use it like a dagger. She needed that as her safe measure. Long-range attacking was good but it left her open and an easy attack especially leading up from the attack should the kunai miss. She wasn't about to put that kind of pressure on her facing a kid. He might try to play tougher now that he's got an esteem boost from that attack she allowed him to get on her. She was building his confidence, making his attack more brave. She ran up to him making a first move. One of the things that she rarely did she was doing because she needed practice using her left hand. She aimed theoretically to attack him on his right upper arm but instead about two seconds away from swinging her hand diagonally for that attack she suddenly lowered that hand and hurriedly slashed at his waist area. She needed momentum and speed. She was under the impression that even if her left hand wasn't the best at attack with the right planning before attack she could still be successful. She noticed that the boy didn't expect that kind of attack either. Before the kunai even hit him though she jumped back; her right hand grabbed two shuriken while she jumped and threw it at him. A combination attack with both hands.

The surprise fully dawned on him but it was a little too late to avoid the shuriken. He managed to avoid her kunai attack which was impressive since it was a mid-body attack at such a close range and with little time to react. She was impressed at what this boy could do. But one of her shuriken caught his right shoulder. Blood trickled from his cut to the ground. She landed on the ground on one knee and looked up at him. She respected him as a fighter. Not really like a kid. She thought maybe it'd be best to leave the mind games for less respectable characters. "Fifteen minutes left, kid." she whispered.

[❥;; bexx]

sunset
{Forty-Five Minutes into Battle}

By now beads of sweat were starting to form on her forehead and down her back. It was getting hot. She wanted to end the battle quickly. There was still fifteen minutes out of the allotted hour. She was going to try and make this end as painless and as nice as possible. He had his fine share of her insane side that would probably leave him scarred for a couple of days. If he needed any more scarring he could just come and find her some time. But she was getting tired herself. After this battle she was going to take a little nap of sorts. She was going to finish him. Most importantly she was going to try out her last experiment. She wasn't looking to impose anymore injuries on the boy unless he manages to freeze up and just let himself get hurt. Then it wouldn't be her fault. She was trespassing and she was already thinking of killing a shinobi. That thought brought a smile. She turned her attention back to the boy who was inspecting his shuriken injury. The cut wasn't deep but it must hurt. "Are we done now?" Didn't she just say that there was still fifteen minutes? Maybe she was hallucinating.

Instead of giving him a straight answer of yes or no, she showed him the answer. In case he was a visual learner. She reached into her weapon pocket again and took out three shuriken and began running. She wasn't running at the boy though. She was running to her left to the place where she had left her sword. Somehow she needed her sword in her hand to feel secure. Her sword was her one and only partner for now and she treasured it like her life. It wasn't a long run before she got to where her sword lay. Picking it up with quick speed she turned on the balls of her feet and charged this time at the boy. She wasn't allowing him much rest time. She ran at him, sword in her right hand and shuriken tucked away in her left. She was going to try a different combination this time. Long range and then short. The last time it was short and then long so the most normal thing to do was reverse the order. She hoped that he wouldn't freeze up because freezing was just out of the question for combination attacks.

She stopped advancing at about two feet away from him raising her left hand. She needed accuracy and a stable hand for this to work. Her eyes were already locked on his right side again. She just wanted to see if she could do this. If she couldn't she'd be doing him a favor by not letting him be more injured but if she did--She needed a moment to have the courage to release the shuriken from her hand. That was where she failed. Nobody would ever stop for any amount of time to make calculations giving the opponent the chance to make an escape. She hadn't accounted for that. Her moment's delay cost her the accuracy bit since he caught on the fact that she was going to throw shurikens at his face. He just ran to his left. Since her hand was already poised at that angle, it was near impossible to flicker her hand to the left suddenly especially her left hand. If it were her right, she may still have a chance. Her shuriken landed on a tree trunk which was behind where the boy was standing. At least the accuracy was there, the speed not so much. There was definitely work there to be done.

But her attack wasn't done. As soon as she saw that her shuriken went crashing into a tree trunk she raised her right hand and went for the boy again. With her right hand she had complete utter control and mastery. She made a uppercut motion with her arm and the blade went upward from down below. That was a new attack for her to do. She was reaching for a lot of first times with this battle. The tip of her blade connected with his clothing tearing it a little at the center. Her attack hadn't been strong enough which was normal for her. She had already anticipated that the attack wasn't going to be as strong as the others. She was getting tired and wanted to end the battle with a relatively good note. She knew that the boy must be really scared of her by now since his eyes had widened again when she brought her blade upward. She wasn't out to take out any major internal organs or she would have gone for his chest or his very private reproductive organ. She was being nice; exceptionally nice that she was starting to hate it. She leaped back from her attack, her blade pointing to the ground indicating that she was not going to spar anymore. It was a good run and he did a good job. Then she realized she really hadn't answered his question. "Now we're done, kid. Thanks for being my target practice." she grinned at him and she thought he saw him shiver.

It was good that someone was scared of her. She made her first enemy/victim in Hi no Kuni after being here for not even an hour. It felt strangely nice that she did. Though what didn't feel nice was that he was younger than him and wasn't really at her level. If she had just gone for pure skill and not training she was sure he would die under her hands especially that moment when he was rooted to the ground. She could have killed him. But today was training and no killing. She walked past him, patting him on the shoulder before walking deeper into the forest. Her name would be remembered for a long time in that boy's head.

[Messatsu!]

+ 50 Exp!!

[❥;; bexx]

nighttime

She continued to walk the path along the forest going deeper and deeper into the forest area. She looked up at the sky. The sun already gone it'd take a few more minutes before the moon would come up. The sky was already turning a grey color almost entering pitch black. She hated staying the forest overnight. She was alone and was a little afraid. Even the bravest had a fear. Her fear was lonliness mixed with foreign places. It wasn't a good combination. She stopped at a tree, her hand outstretched and gripping the coarse tree trunk. She was tired, worn out by the travel time on the boat earlier today and then that battle with the kid. She needed a good rest to restore her energy. But sleeping here in the woods seemed not such a good plan. She turned on her heel to leave. She would find a boulder or sleep close to the dock. Anywhere but in the forest.

But she didn't make it that far. After she took a few steps in the direction she had come from she found a pain in her abdomen area. The cut that the boy gave her. She forgot all about it. Now that her muscles were relaxed and the stress of the battle relieved, the real pain of the cut came at her full swing. Fatigue hit her along with the pain and she found herself kneeling on the ground, leaning one arm against the tree trunk on her left. "Kuso--" she cursed under her breath. She was injured in a foreign land. If she was to be attacked now, she would be easy prey. Good thing it was getting dark and everyone should minding their own matters to take a random stroll in the forest. 

But she was spared having to worry about feeling scared about the forest because a moment later she was experiencing the first signs of unconsciousness. Her vision was blurring rapidly. Her muscles were weakening. She tried to push her body up to walk but it was in vain. While trying to stand up she fell forward, her right hand hitting the ground which was covered in dry mud and leaves. Her eyes finally closed; her body relaxing completely so that she could fall into a deep, undisturbed sleep. She didn't have to worry that someone may take her belongings or try to kill her since she didn't have a means to worry. This sleep would last a full twelve hours. It was the first time in a year other than sleeping on the bench on the boat while coming to Hi no Kuni did she sleep on hard ground. It was jvoluntary and involuntary sleep at the same time.

She had a dream even though she passed out. In the dream she saw her. A child form of her racing along a snow covered street. She was happy, all smiles, and she was tugging at the jacket sleeve of a tall man. She seemed to be wanting the man to come with her. In the dream she was about eight years old wearing a light blue kimono. The man that she was with was just a shadow kind of figure; his face blurred. But she seemed to make out the headband on his head. It was the same one she had. The power of dreams sometimes were the best way to being out memories that being fully conscious may not.



{EXIT THREAD}

[❥;; bexx]

{ENTER THREAD}

;; day four
sunset

She was here again at that same place she was three days ago. These past two days she hadn't gone anywhere but this forest in Hi no Kuni. Her mission wasn't to sightsee. It was near sunset meaning that not many people would come into this part of the forest. A perfect time for some solo training. She wasn't so much interested at killing people with strong jutsus or proving to anyone she was more capable than them. She learned jutsu for inner strength. If anyone chose to challenge her though, that'd be a different story altogether. She was not a hesitant fighter, didn't back down against a battle and wasn't the type to give up. That went without saying for spars but was also true about training. Pushing herself to beyond her limits she became strong in a short period of time. It was her way of showing dedication for what she enjoyed doing. Training was hardly fun but it got her the results she wanted.

She found her eyes facing the clear glistening pond waters again. That pond was her companion these last couple of days. She found that she took a liking to it's peacefulness. Soon she was going to leave Hi no Kuni and she really wanted to take this pond with her. She remembered how yesterday she had really wanted to do so and since she couldn't possibly root up a great body of water as part of her luggage, she felt it was necessary to leave a mark there; a mark that said that she had been there. Smiling, she remembered what sort of mark she thought of. Since she was so close to a body of water it seemed like the natural thing to train her clan jutsus. 

That was exactly the reason why she found herself facing this pond now. She was going to complete the last parts of the jutsu training. The road to learning was difficult but she can come to it's final stages. There had been triumphs and failures but she managed to get this far. There were times she really wanted to give up but reminded herself that this was only a B rank jutsu. There were still A and S ranks to be learned so giving up was impossible. She had two more attempts going for her to finally hit that one hundred needle limit that was marked by the jutsu. She was going to get to it today; even if it cost her all her chakra.

She stood very still, listening to the sound of the birds chirping. It was almost hitting nightfall where not many people would be able to see. But she didn't really need to see. What she needed was chakra. Attempt after attempt had marked into that small head of hers the technicalities of the jutsu. Now it was only a matter of time before she would completely learn the jutsu known as Sensatsu Suishou. At her level she was only able to create a hundred needles out of the maximum of one thousand. And she was having so much trouble even with that. It was a sad thought.    

Her feet brought her closer to the banks. She was admiring the sunset that was now in full bloom. The colors of pink, orange and yellow filled the blue shy. Looking at the pretty colors was one of the reasons she liked sunsets the most with sunrises coming to a close second. She was usually very weary by the time sunrises came to view to admire anything about it. While she looked at the setting sun she closed her eyes and retraced her steps of learning the jutsu. She had started the day before and very early morning too. It took her a full day to reach fifty needles. The whole one hundred would probably take two days.

[/color] 
[/justify][/blockquote]

[❥;; bexx]

;; day three
flashback || daybreak

It was very boring out here in the forests of Hi no Kuni. She wasn't a shinobi from that area so venturing out of the forest during the day wasn't such a good idea. The chances of her running into a high ranked ninja was far too great. Since she still wanted to travel to the other four great shinobi villages to find the answers to unanswered questions, she couldn't have herself killed. So she devised a plan which involved her training during the day and then going out of the forest for a few hours just shy of sunset time and then come back to the forest either for more training or to relax for the night. Training always suited her when she was bored enough to not mind the endless trials of the same things for an extended period of time. Today felt like one of those days where training could be entertaining somehow. 

She made her way down to the familiar pond. She had slept a pretty decent amount with her back against a tree trunk. After observing the forestland for a couple of days she found that she could sleep with relative safety here at night. Not many shinobi walked in to disturb her and the birds proved to be more companions than enemies. She woke up before the sun even came up and after thinking for a few moments already decided that it was going to be training day. She passed the tightly grown trees that gave her the path down to the pond. The pond was the only water source that she knew of in the forestland. She hadn't walked the whole forest since the land was probably a little too big for her two feet to travel. Her stay in the country wasn't going to be long so forest will always look like forests no matter the size.

She stood by the banks and looked out to the water. She liked the calm feeling water gave her. But she found more pleasure when water solidifed to become ice. She loved ice a lot. Seeing as there was probably going to be nothing to do for the entire day she was thinking that maybe training one water and then one ice juts from her scroll that she brought along with her on this trip was going to be beneficial. There were a lot of jutsus in that scroll that she hadn't learned yet. There were a few ice ones that sounded cool but she was in a particular craving for water jutsus.

She retrieved the scroll from her kimono and looked for a water jutsu she hadn't learned yet. Her latest and greatest achievement was Yuki no Kami B rank which almost took half her life just trying to learn the basic. She opened the scroll further to look for one jutsu that used primarily water and less of Yuki no Kami. Since most of the jutsus left to learn were all B rank requiring the need of Yuki no Kami at the same rank, she had decided to learn that first. And it was a good choice she made too. She found that a jutsu named Sensatsu Suishou was yet to be learned. It was basically a jutsu that created water needles.

It would come in handy in a battle. Smirking she looked over the important information particularly the handseals and any other information that she might need. She saw that under the domain it said Yuki no Kami even though ice was not necessary. It was probably just as a foundation. She thought it might be pretty easy since she didn't have to turn water into ice this time. But the easier the jutsu seemed the harder it actually was. She tucked her scroll back neatly excitement rising with the first official training session in Hi no Kuni.

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[❥;; bexx]

flashback || daybreak

She was ready now. She closed her eyes, taking in the smell of the forest. The earthy smell of the trees and the ground helped her concentrate. She was focusing a lot of her body's chakra from every point in her body. She was going to learn a ninjutsu. A ninjutsu used a combination of body chakra and handseals. But they both had to work together in perfect harmony like a symphony of an orchestra if she wanted success or ant form of it. She closed her eyes and entered full concentration mode. This step was absolutely vital. Her expression was grim whenever she was this way. Nothing in the world could break her concentration now.

The chakra in her body was everywhere. The closing of her eyes enabled her absolute sense of just how dispersed it was. This often occurred when the chakra was in a dormant state for longer than a few hours. She hadn't used any of her chakra since that day she met the boy and during the battle she had used very little. She needed her chakra to basically form a stream that pushed only against the chakra point in her right hand. Her palm was where the chakra point was. The body structure was set up in such a way that the points includes the following: her hands, her legs, and the front and back of her body. The body's chakra points were only to help with some of the Taijutsu jutsus that a shinobi may learn.

She felt her chakra running along her body, a warm feeling filling her body whenever it was active. She was looking for a moment when her chakra could be totally in her control and formed a steady stream. Right now it was too scattered. Naturally this sort of thing took the most of the training time because the build up of it was the foundation she would go on for the rest of the training. She remembered when she was training once where she didn't built a solid enough foundation for her countless attempts of the jutsus. What ended up happening was that she exhausted all the chakra and the reserve in her body and fell head first into a river. She learned from that experience that she couldn't be lazy and skip this step no matter how much time it took. 

She moved her right arm a little like a twitch when the chakra finally ran along her arm. She felt the pressure of the combined chakra. From just standing there and focusing, she was able to feel that it was basically divided into three parts: her right arm and her two legs. She had released a little of it during that battle to power her attack. It was good that it only lodged in three places making focusing chakra a little easier today. In what must have ten minutes of her just standing immobile on the bank with her eyes closed. Usually this particular stage of training took about twenty minutes. It was cut out in half for her this time around.

Her right hand was raised in the air, her palm facing the pond. She could somewhat feel the chakra waiting to escape. In a moment she was joining her two hands and forming handseals. The difference between ninjutsu and taijutsu jutsus were that the former needed handseals and the latter was more concerned with movement. She learned from her guardian that each ninjutsu used a string of a standard of either three or four handseals and they must be in the right sequence for the jutsu to work.

[❥;; bexx]

flashback || daybreak

The chakra was pushing against the chakra point in her right hand. It was getting irritating, to put it lightly. She formed the three string of handseals belonging to the Sensatsu Suishou jutsu and then pushed the energy into the water.  "Sensatsu Suishou!" Her voice was neither a whisper nor a holler. In a monotone she said the name of the jutsu. She looked at the stream of chakra that was escaping her chakra point. This was a fairly important step here. She was always trying to keep track of how much chakra she needed to use. A battle and a training were two very different areas of using chakra. In battles she needed to conserve her chakra to the finest amount because she only had one chance with each jutsu use. Also her chakra was very low meaning that in a normal kind of setting the use of a perfectly mastered Sensatsu Suishou would probably be the only jutsu she would be able to use and then she would have exhausted her body. In a training though the chakra still had to be calculated to the finest amount because she was literally using her chakra and dividing it based on how many attempts she makes on the jutsu.

In training she was always very careful of chakra release because she wanted to make sure that she released enough but not too much. There were times in her learning where she found that trying to learn a jutsu without any thought of chakra was rash and foolish. She has yet to develop control of chakra release. She had the chance of starting doing that with Yuki no Kami B rank. Being of the same rank she thought it automatically meant that she was supposed to release the same amount as she did that time. She was normally more organized than this. Once she was familiar with chakra and releasing it to form jutsus her guardian taught her a basic breakdown of how she should go about learning jutsus. She was taught that the best way to go about ninjutsu was to break it up in chunks to learn. Since she wasn't going to be expecting one shot perfection this was the safest way. But she forgot his teachings this particular day. 

Releasing chakra, she would pull back her chakra after the release of it after almost a full a minute. In that minute she had released a constant flow of chakra draining her body of almost one third of chakra. It was miscalculation and silly mistake. Her chakra was absorbed by the pond when she finally pulled back her hand. Chances were that she also realized how much more chakra she was using for a first try. This was a serious problem. Originally she had a plan that her body's chakra, which after a full night of rest, was enough for her to at least try the jutsu three times before she would be completely wiped out. Now that almost a third of it was drained she couldn't promise three tries. She watched the chakra take a dive into the water and fuse together. Oh shit! she cursed under breath. 

She punched the water with her fist in frustration. If using one third of chakra gave her at least something to work from, she wouldn't be so angry. But now realizing that it was all going to go to waste she was sure that her first try would give her nothing. The anger boiled inside and she couldn't just stand there and watch her failure before her eyes. What she did next was form the jutsu handseals again and then said the name of the jutsu again. Kicking the water closest to her she released the chakra from her hand again. This time she paid more attention to chakra release this time. Not calculated to perfection she just released it to the water particles that she kicked up.

It was all out of anger that this attempt was based on. Naturally the things done out of spite and anger normally didn't equate to success. That was exactly the result. She paid attention to chakra release but attention was not the only thing that governed chakra. This was one reason people usually had so much difficulty with chakra whenever learning any jutsu.

[❥;; bexx]

flashback || daybreak

The chakra fused with the water particles and they started to change shape. Just as they were about to change shape it stopped; the water plummeting back down into the pond. Not enough chakra. It was going to be trouble if this attempt was not at lease portionally successful. There was a lot of added work to learning jutsu of B rank. It was a stroke of luck the last time she learned Yuki no Kami. But this time luck simply wasn't with her. She was going to have to return but was a third trial possible given the amount of chakra she had left? She honestly couldn't say but she was sure that if she stopped for the day then, she wouldn't be able to use up her remaining chakra. She might as well give it a try.

She closed her eyes, her body facing the water. Chakra was running through her body again. The impact of the last two failed tries pushed whatever chakra she had left to disperse around her body. She guessed her body was sure it only had that last bit of reserve. It was trying to save what it could before it would run out completely. Even she wasn't sure how much chakra she had. Her original chakra was low already and this training lowered the low, setting yet another bar that was underneath the one she started out with. This feeling was not easing and it wasn't going to go away. The only option left was for to use up her reserve, take a nap to restore and then come at the jutsu again. Many times she had struggled with this kind of training and taken much longer than intended because of lapse of judgment.

Her chakra was slowly moving to her right hand. It sometimes felt like it had a mind of it's own; expressing either desire or not to listen to it's master. It was probably because she was using her reserved energy from then onward that it was expressing displeasure. But still, it belonged to her and had to listen to her, she disliked when things came down to this when she couldn't control anything anymore. She was the weakest at such times like a magician being forced to reveal the secrets behind his magic tricks. She wanted always to be in control. But unfortunately, today she couldn't be. It was all because of an error she made. But she would never make that mistake again; hopefully.

Eyes opening, she drew the handseals of the jutsu for the third time. She wanted to be strong. She called the name of the jutsu, drawing out the last of her chakra.  "Sensatsu Suishou!" Her voice rang out to the sunset sky and she kicked the water in front of her so that the water particles flew into mid-air. She poured out all the chakra from her body into the water particles hoping for a miracle. But miracles only happen in fairy tales. She watched a normal stream of light blue escape from the chakra point in her hand. 

The force of the chakra leaving her body was strong. She didn't stop until every every last drop of chakra left her body and she became limp. While she watched the water particles hungrily take in her precious energy she felt a sense of loss. The jutsu defeated her this round but it was only round one. There was going to be much mode waiting around the corner and she was sure that when the time came she would be the victor of this vicious training game. She bowed her head, not wanting to look at what ever her creation was. There will be a round two, she was certain of it.

[❥;; bexx]

flashback || daybreak

She would not be able to see her creation even if she wanted to. Right when the chakra was beginning to fuse with the water particles to take some sort of shape, she found her body beginning to physically feel the consequence of loss of chakra. It wasn't anything a small nap wouldn't cure but it hit her strong and sudden too. The impact was similar to if someone was suddenly hit by a brick over the head. There was no real debate as to what would happen next. She needed to take a rest, anything that would replenish the strength taken away by her training game. Almost as soon as she felt her body give way, she closed her eyes entering the familiar world of darkness known as sleep. 

She was once again caught up in a dream. This dream was just like the other dream she had when she passed out the last time. She was a little older in this dream and she was walking along a snow path with Tao other people. Again she couldn't catch their faces. They were both wearing headbands, one had theirs around their neck and the other had it strapped to the knee. She saw clearly the symbol on the headband. It was the same one she had. In the dream she was leaving some place, passing through a gate with the two mysterious people following behind her.

But that was all she got. The dreams were shattered fragments that she hoped would piece together in place. The more different dreams she had the more pieces she got of the mysterious puzzle regarding her identity. She wanted to grasp more but simply couldn't since her dream stopped there. This one at least told her that she was part of some village and had friends apparently. Not much else other than that. She would wake up with a start again, the sun gleaming down on her pale skin warming her body. It took her a couple to see where she was and then remember her training game. 

She slept too long this time. She looked up at the sun and saw that it was already mid-afternoon. Originally she had planned to only stay asleep a couple of hours so that she could probably start the second round of her training the water needle jutsu before mid-afternoon. It was daybreak when she first started to train so mid-afternoon was far too late for her to wake up. She looked around and stood up giving her body a little stretch.

She looked from left and right and saw that there was no one in sight. That was strange. Usually mid-afternoon was the time when people would take hikes around forests. Maybe Hi no Kuni people ran differently. But that was better for her since she was sure she needed more time to herself to keep on training. She was nowhere close to learning the jutsu and she wanted to have some kind of improvement after round two.

[❥;; bexx]

flashback || mid-afternoon

She was ready again. This was going to be the forth time that she was going to attempt the water needle jutsu. She divided her training into three parts. It was almost expected that the first part of four was going to be complete failure. Before she started this round she was sure to set a more attainable goal. She had only two remaining rounds for this jutsu for the day. There was only so much she could do a day. She closed her eyes and began to build up her chakra to start off her this round. She was going to have to make some progress at least.

She stood there at the bank of the pond like a statue. Her eyes still closed, she was trying to develop the chakra in her body to the point where she could have a solid flow of chakra for her use for the whole of the second round. This time her chakra took a lot longer to combine into one stream. She was going to be much more careful. The last time she was her mistake was because she was not concentrating enough in her training. The worst thing for a ninja was if the ninja got sidetracked during something as crucial as a training. 

Her whole body started to twitch. The chakra in her body was trying to take on her command. She felt her chakra surge through her body and it was taking too much time. Her right hand was shivering because of the amount of chakra that was surging through to it. She wondered if there was any way for her to speed up. Not the process but the use of her existing chakra. The thing about chakra use was that it could group together and then broken down into chunks depending on the number of times her chakra was called for. That was the normal way of going about.

But there was another way. Instead of making a big massive amount of chakra forced to break down, she was going to be a little innovative. She was going to release bits of chakra as it come to the chakra point in her hand. But it wasn't easy because it called for more chakra control. What was hard about this was it was uncertain how much chakra came in as bits and so she could actually release chakra for jutsu and then stop releasing at any point. It made trainibg a new jutsu very unstable.

She opened her eyes to test out her theory. Right now the cumulated chakra was almost a third of her actual chakra. A third of chakra meant that she had the possibility of making one perfect attempt of just forming needles out of water. How many needles will depend on her strength. She held both hands together to form handseals for the jutsu.

 

[❥;; bexx]

flashback || mid-safternoon

She was going to have to gamble on her chances. After forming the handseals for the jutsu, she said the name of the jutsu. Because she only had one third of her overall chakra ready for use there was not much control that was necessary. She kicked the water in front of her so that sparks of water was rising in mid-air. Her chakra was able to meet with the water just in time. A symphony performed by an orchestra; harmonic. She was not sure how that would turn out but she didn't have time to turn back. Her chakra was released from her hand in a solid and stream fashion to the water. The water began to glow with a light blue, as though an outer coating was suddenly applied to it. The transformation happened instantly. It was only when it began to transform that she grew hopeful. Her hopefulness was short lived because she soon found out that her experiment was not to be a success at all.

That broke her heart a little. The water particles stopped glowing and fell back into place. But what was better about this try was that there was actually a beginning to the shape of needles that she saw for no more than a second before they turned back into particles. So that must be a start. But what went wrong with the jutsu she still couldn't explain. Normally a B rank jutsu was at least supposed to be somewhat learned after four attempts. But she wasn't getting anywhere. She was going to try again but this time she wasn't going to increase her chakra flow at all. She had a hunch that it had nothing to do with her chakra flow. The thing about training high rank jutsus was that there was always a chance of failure but even if she wasn't able to create a hundred needles, with the amount of chakra being released from her body she could at least form twenty-five or fifty of the hundred needles. But the fact that the water particles just fell back into place was questionable.

She was just going to release any chakra that she had now pushing on her chakra point. But instead of using the pond water in front of her she wondered if she could call on the water that was potentially imbedded in the air particles around her. Then there would be no fix on the amount of water. The only factor that was now being considered was how much water was contained in air particles. But she came to an understanding that that was not the point. When she kicked up the air particles from earlier, she was providing a fixed amount of water from how ever much she could kick up and then forcing chakra on them. If she was able to somehow turn that around so that she didn't have to worry about little things like that she might finally get somewhere instead of nowhere. This was only a training so it allowed for error. So long as she learned from them. If her theory was right she could go ahead and use that method for the next few attempts.

Forming the handseals of the jutsu, she was now more concerned with water particles that she almost dismissed the use of chakra. She didn't follow her standard procedure or the method of breaking the chakra down that she devised earlier. Right now she was more concerned about advancement. She wasn't going to be stuck here for two whole days trying to figure out why no matter how much chakra she gave to the water it just wouldn't solidify into needles. There must be a breakthrough somewhere and she was going to find it. "Sensatsu Suishou!" she called. The birds that were flying above her gave a cry at the sudden noise she made and began to make horrible disturbing noises. Her eyes narrowing into slits she didn't their annoying presence and kept on training.

The chakra that was building escaped. She looked curiously at the impact her chakra made with the air around her. She didn't direct the chakra to the pond. She knew that if she didn't direct her chakra to any specific object it would just infuse with the air. That was what she was looking for. And that's what she got. The infusion happened quickly. She couldn't see the water particles visible because it was air but she saw the form of what looked like water needles. And twenty-five needles too. She was on a roll finally picking up on what she could have honestly benefited two hours ago. She was just glad that it worked.