In the middle of a training field, near the Forest of Death Matsuri stood panting. She thought for a minute all the training she'd been doing....what was it for? She barely managed to sneak past the Hyuga to make it here, everyone looked at her strangely that morning, like they had something to say.
She looked at the practice dummy, which had been near smashed..... herself however even more.
"Looks like I over did things.... again..."
Chinatsu sat lazily in a tree not too far from the training feild as she observed and made small mental notes on the girl who beat the training dummy nearly out of existence. It was certainly interesting, certainly a bit entertaining as well. She also wondered if this was a good time to drop by and say
hello. Deciding rather quickly that now was the perfect time for an introduction, she pulled an arrow from her sheath of them and knotched it easily in her bow, then let it fly. Her target was the remains of the training dummy, and like she knew it would, it hit where she wanted it to. Then waited impatiently
for it to be noticed.
Matsuri was facing Chinatsu as soon as the arrow hit the training doll, even with her blindfold on, her Byakugan was always at least partially on, though not very strong, she hadn't noticed her before hand. She saw the young girl sitting in the tree nearby.
"Hello?"
Dropping out of the tree and landing easily on her feet with a soft thud she walked over to the girl. "Hello, indeed," Chinatsu said. There was a lofty smile on her face and a somewhat intrigued look in her eyes or at least in the green one. "What is your name?" she demanded to know. With a glance at her arrow in the training dummy, she went to retrieve it. "Well, do you have one?" she asked impatiently.
The tone threw Matsuri a bit off guard. That was a bit straightforward, Matsuri didn't even know the girl's, and she was wanting hers. She took a second before realizing the girl was demanding an answer immediately.
"My name's Matsuri... Matsuri Hyu-... Just Matsuri."
Matsuri still disliked using her family name. She glanced, turning her head towards the training dummy, looking at it as if she didn't have a blindfold. The arrow was perfectly shot, it looked like the girl wasn't too shabby. Especially from a shot sitting down.
"Your pretty good with a bow. What's your name by the way?"
She titled her head when she heard the name, Matsuri was not a bad name. Chinatsu shrugged, who was she to judge names? "Well it is nice to meet to you," Chinatsu said. She took in the ragged appearance of Matsuri and thought it was a little off somehow, she trained like that? "You will not dissapoint me, will you? In the team I mean, with Hiroshi-Sensei? It does not appear you will, but I have to be sure. Cannot have a useless team mate," she said, her tone was dismissive yet serious. She had forgot about her name, about introducing herself. She grinned and then shrugged. "Thanks, the names Chinatsu, Chinatsu Hon," she added.
Team? Shock ran through Matsuri's body. What was this girl, Chinatsu, talking about? Matsuri hadn't been on a team for.... years... Had it been that long? Not since team 4.... Had she really been assigned a new one? Her heart leaped for a minute, finally, she could get out of the Hyuga compound, it felt like a dream come true.... then the thought came to her mind, could it just be mistaken identity? Matsuri was a little hard to miss though. How did Chinatsu know anyways?
"Uh... Miss Chinatsu, what team do you mean? Do you, is it- I mean, are you looking for Matsuri Hyuga? I-I'm a former missing nin you know. No one seems to trust me to do anything..... well mostly no one."
It left a bitter taste in Matsuri's mouth using the last name, but she had to be sure.... maybe that's what everyone was talking about in the compound. A sudden flash of anger flashed through her for a second, if so, why hadn't anyone told her!?
She tried to read the feelings of the girl, but with the most expressive parts of her face covered it was difficult. Chinatsu was not sure if there was anger or surprise or bitterness or one of everything. Matsuri was a puzzle to her at the moment and one she wanted to solve. "Ah, you have not been told, I see. Well, from what I heard over heard, you are being put in my team which is led by Hiroshi-Hon," Chinatsu said. A hyuuga? She was a Hyuuga? She blinked and glanced at the training dummy, no wonder it was nealry beaten out of existence. "Yes, Matsuri Hyuuga, thats the one, she is you. And if they do not trust you to do much then you have to force them to see you differently," she said. After a moment she paused and asked "could you remove the blind fold?"
Matsuri simply shook her head at the comment of forcing them to see things differently that was her goal. As far as the blind fold.... that was a bit more difficult. Her battle with her flashbacks that happened everytime she saw flashes of light, like removing it, made it harder.
"I'd rather not..."
She thought about it though. Probably not a good start to the team though by refusing to do it.
"But...."
She turned away from Chinatsu, and took off the blindfold. Light flooded and she flinched for a second her breath quickened for a second, but she stopped herself as the flashbacks hit her. She turned around slowly to Chinatsu afterwords, showing one eye glowing white and then, the other one which was...red. In a mission she'd lost her left eye, and had it replaced it with a sharingan.
"This is me without the blindfold. One of the many reasons most people don't trust me."
Chinatsu was about to insist, but then she did take it off. A shocking surprise, but an intriguing one nonetheless. "Two different eyes, two different assets in the field and two different reasons why one is special. I think you should see it like that, I have two different colored eyes but nothing special about them. They just make me stand out more than usual," Chinatsu said. She did not miss the quickening of Matsuris breaths, it made her all more the puzzle to her. "I do not know much about you, but I would be a fool to underestimate someone like you. I think they are afraid of you, of what you can do," she added. She reached into her pack, pulling out her sketch book of sorts and sketched a quick portrait of her face. The detailed areas were the eyes. Then she deposited her pad into her pack and closed it.
Matsuri looked surprised. People scared of the like of her? Wasn't she always laughed at through her life. The thought that anyone could take her seriously was new to her. It the sketchbook didn't escape Matsuri's notice either. It seemed like Chinatsu was the type to take notice of things for the future. Matsuri had met lots of missing nin like that... the kind that survived longer for the most part. Matsuri was starting to get more and more curious about her new teammate. It looked from the movements of her hand like she was sketching something. Her maybe? Yes, her hand was definitely moving in a way that was drawing a head.
"Why the portrait?"
Matsuri had the feeling she knew the answer.
She caught surprise, doubt was there too and the two emotions mingled in a way that was almost as puzzling as Matsuri herself. From what she could glean from this encounter so far was that she had little confidence and yet was very capable. "You look doubtful while perhaps pleasantly surprised, I think. It was an interesting expression and one I want to remember," Chinatsu said. What she did not say was that it was her way of keeping track of those she deemed noticable enough to watch. One who had intrigued her, like her old team mate, Sayuri Cho. She was also in the sketch pad. Thinking about her, made her feel a pang of loss. "Care to sparr with me for a bit? I have yet to train today and I do not much care for skipping a day, I need to stay sharp or else my accuracy will decline and I will miss my targets," she explained.
Matsuri smiled a bit. She found Chinatsu very interesting, and she really was curious how she fought... Still, sparring against a bow, that would be harder than it seemed. Very few ninjas used bows, but arrows were tough to fend against.
"Very well... I take it you don't miss. J-just don't aim for the vitals, I won't either."
She supposed that her opponent preferred long ranges. But Matsuri knew everyone already read her range by looking at her eyes, or her stance. Everyone expected her taijutsu. Matsuri wasn't weaponless herself though... most people just didn't see her weapon. Matsuri's hand brushed her hand past where her bells were on her hip, before turning her hand into the position to declare the start to the spar.
"I'm a bit curious how you fight, Miss Chinatsu. What rank are you? I'm Chunnin"
"There is no reason to aim for such places if there is no reason to kill," Chinatsu said. It was true, the odd girl prefered not to kill if she did not have to. If it was not required then she would choose not to, because as much as she enjoyed the thrill of toying with her target the fun was lost if the target died. Matsuri was a Chuunin? A chuunin, someone above her. It was not sitting well with her and her she stared blankly at the girl in front of her. Her posture was stiff and unsettled before it relaxed, a more distant expression settled over her face like a mask. It was best not to let more emotion seap through her casual and calm appearance. "Genin, and I do not dissapoint. I think you will find how I fight a bit unsettling," she said smoothly, her mind was racing ahead to plan. To plan her moves and to plan how she would go about this sparring of sorts.
Matsuri nodded her head to declare her move, and both hands reached to both hands of her side, the left one ontop of her bells, as she started to channel chakra to them, and the other to her pouch. Starting to run to her left, she would throw the kunai, aiming for the strings of the bow.
There was a couple things she assumed about her opponent. That she was along range fights, and preferred that range, and that she expected Matsuri to rush her for close range, and probably was already planning for what to do at that range. Matsuri wasn't going to take either option, keeping herself at midrange, between the two. Matsuri's forte wasn't where it seemed. Her eyes, though varied, were not strong compared to other users of the two, her Byakugan especially was not strong. Her Taijutsu wasn't her strongest point either.
Chinatsu was a bit starlted by the sudden start of the sparring but was also accepting of it. She had her bow out in the next second and an arrow knotched the second after that as she darted after Matsuri. She would keep in mind the abilities of her opponent, of Matsuri Hyuuga. Aiming for her bow was a low shot, it was her only cherished weapon and it infuriated her. Luckily, she managed to narrowly dodge but it was too close for comfort. She let her arrow fly, aimed at the heels of her opponent and knotched another arrow in the next second, letting it fly towards the other heel. Then she fell back some and maintained a steady distance away as she took a measured a breath.
The first arrow was strung quickly, something Matsuri guess she should have expected. She had really one question that was answered by Chinatsu pulling back the bowstring. Her goal in her arrows seemed speed of the pullback, good reflexes, so she could shoot quickly, but that would mean the arrows weren't as powerful as a more heavy bow. Wouldn't mean they were easy to dodge, or not powerful due to jutsu. As Matsuri saw Chinatsu's finger loosen, she jumped upwards to barely dodge the first as it scratched her heel, sounding her bells as she went, and slammed her right hand downwards to send a vacuum palm at the second, not able to hit the arrow itself, but having the arrow itself collide with the palm to send it to the side enough to miss.
It looked like she'd be on the defensive this match, not offensive. Didn't look like she'd manage more time on throwing kunai for a second. Her left hand stayed on her bells as she kept chakra going through them
She needed to get close enough to her opponent to be able to work any of her offensive jutsu, so she picked up her speed a good bit and began closing the distance. As she ran, she pulled out another arrow but did not knotch it. Instead she positioned it in the middle of her two hands and began performing some handsignals as chakra formed around the arrow itself as she did so. Chinatsu knew she had limited time to shoot it at Matsuri and so she closed in some more as she knotched the arrow, the now covered in lightning chakra arrow was sent at the bend of her knee. Then in an attempt to make it harder, she sent three others at her heels and one at her hands.
As Matsuri landed from her jump, her right hand rising, she saw Chinatsu preparing a new attack, and adding chakra to it from the looks of the handsigns, these would be harder to dodge or just block normally. But it gave her a second to regain herself. Her right hand swiped past her pouch as she made the notion of throwing something, not a kunai, but the pouch itself at the incoming arrow. As the arrow made contact with the pouch, it would detonate the arsonal inside, a few explosive tags. In the explosion, and smoke, Matsuri moved herself in a completely straight position, to have the other arrows aimed at her limbs miss her, and make herself harder to hit.
There went her entire arsonal, Matsuri tried not to think about how much money it'd take to replace all that. She was having a bit of fun in this so far, serious as it was. In the smoke Matsuri switched the bells to the other side of her hip, incase her opponent would fire at sound, they would hit to right, they did keep ringing however.
The sudden explosion of the pouch made her jump back and stop running for a second as the smoke covered the feild. Afeter a second, Chinatsu started running again as she pulled another out of her sheath and instead of immediately sending it towards Matsuri, she pulled out some string and tied it to the end of the arrow securely. Then she knotched it and sent into the smoke with the string still attatched and then darted back some as she did the same handseals but to the string in place of the arrow. When she was done, she watched as the string light up with the lightning chakra and explode as it made contact with the arrow, it was a mild explosion. She did not put much chakra into the string, but it did cause some trouble now and then.
Matsuri watched from the smoke with her Byakugan as she kept the chakra going with the bells. What was the girl doing she wondered, she prepared herself for the arrow, wondering if her opponent could sense through the smoke. As she fired Matsuri was confused as it wasn't pointed at her, but she kept her stance
Almost.... almost there
Surprise caught Matsuri as the explosion went off and sent her sprawling out to the left, kicking up dirt. She clenched her bells as she went. The explosion would blow away the smoke as well. As the dirt would from impact, the bells started echoing. Matsuri looked at her opponent from the ground
"Good move..."
Chinatsu only nodded, not wanting to do much at the moment. The string tactic had worked and to her surprise actually got her opponent. She decided to pull back, while perfroming a few handseals and watching a clone form of crows. She sent her clone in to fight up close while the real Chinatsu stayed back and observed before doing anything.
Matsuri lept up from her position on the ground, a little surprised her opponent hadn't taken the opportunity to fire at her, though her byakugan saw her opponent forming the clone.
I should have grabbed the blindfold before the spar, my eyes are starting to hurt.
The bells still echoed about for some reason, making it hard to hear from where. Matsuri's hand hadn't left them since the match started.
"I just have one question... what are you expecting to see?"
Matsuri ran at an angle, again for the tree line, trying to run to the side of the clone of Chinatsu. She suddenly seemed much lighter on her feet, not leaving behind even footprints.
Her clone ran in the direction of Matsuri, then in a second she dispersed into a multitude of crows that were directed at Matsuri as Chinatsu knotched an arrow in her bow. The echoing of the bells, it was starting to bother her and her attention was now on finding the bells. Remembering that Matsuris hands had been constantly by her sides, she would focus there.
As the clone dispersed, Matsuri put her right hand up as if startled by the crows, before the arrow was fired. As the arrow passed, it seemed to inexplicably miss, with Matsuri tossing to the left. She must have dodged it. It almost seemed like her reflexes improved, but it was far higher of an increase than should be expected. Matsuri kepts running toward the tree line, where she have more cover.
She kept more silent than before.
Chinatsu stopped, she was confused and becoming increasingly more frustrated with what was happening. It had to do with sound, she needed to stop the sound. Taking out an explosive she attatched it to an arrow and fired it into the area she last saw Matsuri. This time she would need to be closer in order to land another hit on her. She had a few other offensive jutsu but needed to close the distance.
The real Matsuri, standing where she had landed from the earlier explosion, saw her opponent pull out an explosive, and she acted in that moment as she saw her turning towards her.
Has she already seen through? I guess I did make it obvious, but it doesn't look like she's broken out
Slamming her palm forward, she fired a Vaccuum Palm straight at the arrow as soon as she saw the finger start to loosen, she was hoping to detonate it right as it left the bow, enough to blow back her opponent, but hopefully not enough to remove any fingers.
If her opponent wasn't tricking her, then Matsuri still should still be cloaked by the dojutsu, but perhaps her foot digging in to launch the palm would give away position. If it landed as it should to detonate, Matsuri was going to fire with another vacuum palm, aimed at the stomach, though not too strong.
The arrow had not made it very far before it detonated from the Vaccum Palm and the explosion seemed to make the surroundings change but just for a second. Chinatsu blinked before seeing that everything the way it was before the possible flicker. It sparked an idea, she took out two arrows and attatched an explosive to one then knotched them both, aiming them at the last place she saw Matsuri again. The arrow would detonate as soon as the fuse got to the paper. Mean while Chinatsu darted in the direction of the woods with the crows flying above her and going forwards.
As Chinatsu reached for another two arrow, Matsuri shook her head, it was a bit draining fghting a bow, but she was starting to see Chinatsu's style, she wasn't bad. Matsuri ran to the right, out of where she was before, and made two quick hand signs, Snake, Rat, to cause a rather simple jutsu.
Matsuri ran as fast as she could to the nearest training dummy she could find, the training dummy she was using earlier, tattered and not too much life to it anyways, kicking it up into the air at the incoming arrows. The constant barrage of arrows hadn't let Matsuri run very far, every time she tried, something came at her. Something she could appreciate, Chinatsu always had a bag of tricks.
A spiral of leafs would circle about Chinatsu for a second.
Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu
Not a nice jutsu, simple as it was. Chinatsu was about to 'kill' someone close to her, Matsuri was sure.
The leaves, she recognized the leaves almost immediately and tried to clear her head she watched herself fail time after time. She shook her head, then it clicked. This was a genjutsu. She did the Kai signal it vanished, but she was still shaken by what she saw. The training dummy exploded and the surroundings changed, it made sense to her then. This was another genjutsu. It explained why she thought the surroundings flickered before. She performed the Kai singal once more and broke out of the other one. Then she let loose a multitude of arrows in rapid sucession at where she saw Matsuri, going directly at her as she performed a series of handseals. Then when she thought she was close enough, she flicked her hand and let the Paralysis Whip dart towards Matsuri.
Matsuri panted heavily. Using both eyes was taking it's toll, she never fought for long without her blindfold for that reason, and all the training she had been overdoing beforehand hadn't help. Her Adrenaline was the only thing really keeping her going, she was going to wake up sore tomorrow, that was for sure.
As her opponent strung more arrows, Matsuri was starting to realize she couldn't keep up. She only had enough chakra really for a handful of techniques. Matsuri decided to put everything she could into one last attack
Matsuri slammed her palm into the ground to send a vaccuum palm point blank directly into it, sending a clound of dirt flying into the air, with enough force to send Matsuri with it, above the arrows, the ground also reflecting some of the force. Matsuri was hidden by it. She flew at Chinatsu as she brought out her electric whip. Matsuri focused the rest of the chakra she had left into her hand, and reached out to grab it.
This is going to sting....
She threw all the chakra she had into the whip as it hit, sending Gentle Fist: Black Widow threw the whip itself at Chinatsu. Matsuri's signature, combining taijutsu in Gentle Fist with Genjutsu, Gentaijutsu!
Matsuri's chakra would channel into Chinatsu's arm, setting off all the muscles in it to contract, causing high amounts of pain, sort of like the immense amount of pain through Matsuri's own arm causing her to scream in pain as she fell out the sky like a meteor towards Chinatsu
She was forced to jump back some as the Vaccum Palm hit the ground , using her other hand to cover her eyes to keep dust from getting in them and was caught off guard as Matsuri flew at her. Even more surprised when she grabbed the Paralysis Whip, she could not help the gasp of pain as the chakra got into her arm. At the same time her whip was shocking Matsuri before it burned out and dissapated into thin air. Chinatsu staggered back some and her arm stung, it hurt. It did not help when Matsuri was flung on top of her and sent them both to the ground in a disgruntled heap.
Matsuri groaned in pain ontop of Chinatsu. Out of chakra, in pain, and out of tricks.
"O-Overdid it.... again...."
It took her a second to realize she was ontop of somebody. She rolled over to her side, falling off. Next time, she'd have to stop using so many tricks, and just fight straight out.... but she was glad to see Chinatsu's arsenal, it did answer alot of questions she had about her. She dispelled the genjutsu in Chinatsu's hand. The pain was only temporary from Matsuri, though generally very intense.
"You did pretty good....Miss Chinatsu...."
She threw her non burned hand ontop of her sharingan eye. She had an absolute migraine after all the chakra used, and the information overload her Sharingan regularly gave her. She really wanted a bath after all that.... just a nice calm bath.... but first she'd have to get up... That was the hard part. She decided to just lay there til she could get up the strength.
"So... what's sensei name?"
Matsuri was excited the prospective, tired as she was. Finally, some freedom. That, and this was probably the best training she'd had in months.
Chinatsu struggled to get out from under Matsuri until she finally rolled off her and she sighed in relief. "Next time... Land somewhere else," Chinatsu gritted out. She forced herself to sit up and her eyes focused back in from where she did not like dazed. She was taking deep breaths, a lot of them to catch her breath. "Hiroshi Hon," she answered with after a few more gulps of air. Then she stood up and reluctantly, held out her hand to help Matsuri up. Her eyes darting around to find the blindfold, then she went to fetch it and came back. Holding it out to Matsuri as her other hand reached into her pouch, taking out two apples. One was red and the other was green, an offering of sorts though she said nothing of it.
Matsuri managed sit up, grabbing the blindfold.
"Thank you..."
She half slid it on, just to cover her sharingan.
Matsuri saw the two apples, as if Chinatsu was offering one. Matsuri's stomach grumbled. She'd forgotten lunch. How long had she been out here? She looked over to see the sun starting to set.... she'd been out a while.
"Thank you very much..."
Matsuri reached out, slowly grabbing the green one, and taking a bite out of it.
She glanced over to her burnt hand... looked like she was going to need a medical nin by the end of the day.
She tilted her head, the green apple was an interesting choice. Chinatsu took out her sketch pad and flipped to the portrait and wrote the word green on the page. She was the first to choose green over red, but nonetheless it was best to watch her. To keep an eye on this Chuunin, her team mate and hopefully she would not dissapoint. "An apple can go a long way," Chinatsu said in response. Depositing her sketch pad back into her pack and sighed, her arm still hurt.
Matsuri nodded her head, slowly getting up.
"I guess I'll see you real soon. I need to go get patched up.... And explain to the Hyuga's how I mysteriously wasn't there all day..... and eat...."
Matsuri somehow doubted she would ever get past number two....
She started limping home.
"Thanks for the spar."