Prove thy mettle [mission-invite]

Mission Briefing:

A scroll had been delivered at Yomi's house in the remote eastern district of Kirigakure, it was a scroll she had not exactly been eager to look forward to though, as it was a testament of her having become but another of the regular jounin who were chosen to care for and nurture the next generation of young shinobi. She had really hoped Takeo would've chosen her to have some sort of position at the council which would excempt her from such tenious duties like babysitting a bunch of diaperwearing buffoons who had but just learned about where the pointy end of a kunai was supposed to be aimed at.

Alas, she had no choice in the matter and for all what it was worth, she actually couldn't disagree with the current Mizukage's choices. Guidance was needed for the new generation, especially with the threat of that Honiko still looming over the village and the fact that for all what it was worth, she wanted this generation to surpass the generation of that traitor Himitsu Nozomi. There was no forgiving what had happened and if she had to mold and maul her newly selected subordinates to reach the ideal which she herself had presented, than so be it.

"Hmm, so I get two Kaguyas in my care and under my tutolage, not bad...not bad at all," The woman paced through the hallway of the relatively modest house she lived in, the wooden floorboards creaking underneath hefeet with every step she made. Licking her lips, she moved to the living room and placed the scroll on the living room table and sat down on the black leather sofa, all the while letting out a sigh. Pulling open a drawer underneath the tabletop, she took out a few sheets of paper and a pen, ready to write down a missive to those genin. No matter who'd show up, they'd get a proper first training and education in true kirigakure fashion.

Without any eufemisms or any flowery messages, she simply requested that those who'd be under her care and who'd be willing to learn anything, would be expected to arrive at the training area at about two days from the date she'd written the missives, expecting those who dared to take on her challenge at dawn.

As expected, Yomi arrived at the Training area way before dawn, dressed up in nothing but her most basic of training clothes, consisting of her usual black tubetop, black cargopants with suspenders and a trenchcoat over them. The only actual combat attire she wore, where her military combat gloves and her military combat boots, which had seen much if not all of her actions and as such looked rather worn and tattered. Now all she had to do was wait for the newly appointed genin to try and have some first hand training experience with her.

Yami gave a loud yawn, as he slowly walked towards one of the training areas of Kirigakure. The swordsman walked incredibly slow, for every one step of his own, those around him had already walked ten. Sometimes it didn't even look like the Genin was moving at all. The Shinobi was tall, six foot five, with long black hair tied in a ponytail, matching grey eyes and slightly pale skin, wearing a modified white kimono top reaching to his knees paired with a white obi sash, white tabi socks, matching straw waraji and white hakama pants. The kimono had embroidered into around the cuff of the sleeves twin cyan blue serpentine dragons, running upwards along the sleeves coiling around the arms were chains of golden silk embroidered into the fabric, hanging off his shoulders a white haori. The haori hung off his shoulders, sleeves dangling by the sides as arm's rested outside instead of in the sleeves. Attached to each thigh was a kunai holster storing ten kunai each, lazily slipped into the sash was a Kirigakure forehead protector, while lastly hanging on the left side of his hip three swords two katana and one wakizashi. From appearance alone, the black haired youth looked more like a samurai than a shinobi.

The Shinobi rubbed his eyes, rubbing the sleep away, looking like he had just woken up as the clothing he wore was all wrinkled up as if Yami had just gotten out of bed. The swordsman was hunched over, showing no enthusiasm regarding the matter that brought him out. Two days ago the Genin had received a missive calling him to meet at a certain training field regarding his new instructor. Personally, Yami would rather blow the meeting off and stay home, staying true to his lazy personality, but it was easy to show up then get yelled at by a superior.

Eventually, Yami would arrive at the training grounds, showing up at god knows what time, the Lazy Swordsman didn't really keep track of it. For all, he knew he could have shown up late or early. The swordsman would look around with a lazy gaze and expression, reflecting how he really couldn't give a hoot about being here, too lazy to care about it. "Haaaaaa." the Shinobi released a long drawn out sigh, the tone of his voice monotone and made the swordsman sound like he was bored.

The Kaguya's grey hues locked onto the sight of an older woman in combat attire standing more than twenty metres from him. The swordsman lifted a foot and began to approach, moving as slow as a turtle. In the time he crossed one metre, someone else would have walked the entire twenty. If the woman saw him she most likely would have to do a double take, checking to see if the Kaguya was even approaching. It would be an agonising experience for anyone who met the slow moving and lazy Kaguya.

By the time he did approach, the woman could have died from boredom due to how slow he was. "Send. Missive?" The Kaguya spoke up in that long drawn tone of his, pausing between each just too lazy to speak more than one word in one breath. Even then Yami hadn't spoken a complete sentence saying just two words. The boy cast a lazy gaze onto the woman, giving a loud yawn, not even bothering to cover his mouth, too lazy to be bothered with the effort.

"Kaguya. Yami." The Genin would introduce himself, which might surprise the woman because unlike other Kaguya, he shared none of their known traits. Most Kaguya tended to incredibly pale, and while Yami was pale it was nowhere near on the same level, one could even call him a tanned Kaguya. On the announcement, maybe the woman would even recognise his name, Yami was quite infamous around the village, called the Lazy Genin. Yami graduated over six years ago and hadn't even ranked up yet, doing the bare minimum of missions a year, usually once a month, sometimes only once every three months. Most times the Shinobi could be seen lounging about sleeping on some hill, beneath a tree, on a bench or anywhere else he thought comfortable. Yami was the embodiment of sloth.

Flipping the missive she had received around in the air Alkaid sighed before tucking it away by slipping it into a pocket. After Kotsubo-sensai had been chosen to become Mizukage and then vanished she had known it was only a matter of time until they selected a new teacher for her. That didn’t mean she was happy about the new arrangements however.

Her old team hadn’t done much since Kotsubo had been away on a mission ever since it had formed but breaking them apart already was folly in her opinion. When she was together with Tsubaki the two made the ultimate tag team. With Yumi supporting them with her medical concoctions and seals they where a formidable group.

Hadn’t Kotsubo promised to help her become stronger? How could he just swim off like that? Had the pressure of becoming Mizukage simply been too much for him or was something more sinister afoot? She was already neck deep investigating one mystery, trying to figure out the truth behind the murder of her clan’s elders. She didn’t need another on her hands.

She would have ignored the message but she couldn’t afford to once she saw who’s signature was at the end. With the old man out of commission Yomi was more the likely the strongest active ninja in the entire village, someone Alkaid used to admire greatly until recent events had disillusioned her somewhat.

Well actually she still did admire Yomi for her strength at least if not the color of her character. She was the type of woman you really didn’t want to cross. When it came to being bloodthirsty she was almost as bad as the old man himself. It was enough to make Alkaid wonder if they shouldn’t change the name of the village to chigakure or the village hidden in blood given the sheer volume they regularly seemed to shed.

As she made her way to the training grounds she made no effort to conceal her presnecne. While it sounded fun in theory to surprise to try and surprise Yomi she was smart enough to know that trying to sneak up on someone as strong as that with such a bad attitude was just asking for trouble with a capital t.

Her outfit she was wearing now was similar to what she’d worn when she’d been guarding the gate but with a more minimalist approach. On her head was the same golden hairpin as before, but her face mask was currently down since she didn’t need to conceal her identity here, but the dull red scarf was nowhere to be seen.

On her torso was the same purple sleeveless kimono which ended in a low cut flair skirt. The gray obi that keep it tied still had her forhead protector overlaid on it, but the rest of the outfit was gone. No gloves, no stockings and no boots. Just a simple old fashioned open zani sandals popular among ninja.

It was an outfit that was modest in the way she wore it and yet left a lot of skin exposed so that she could maximize the user of her bloodline ability. S he wasn’t here to spy but to train and their was no point wearing stuff that was going to get wrecked anyway. She had her usual self made katana and wakizashi hanging from her hips but she had a feeling those might not be enough though she held back from making another sword, not wanting to display her bloodline openly if she didn’t have to.

Other then that her hair had grown out a little since that day at the gates a few weeks ago, and her skin seemed to sparkle with a radiance it had lacked before. She was giving off a more refined, relaxed air then before making it almost seem like she was an entirely different person as she arrived at the field 5 minutes early on the dot.

She’d made it a point to be diligent and arrive early so she was more then a little suprised to she that her distant cousin Yami had beaten her to the punch. She’d never really talked to him before but his repudiation for being lazy proceeded him. She had to wonder if all this talk about him being slothful was nothing but a ruse, information he deliberately leaked out to get people to underestimate him.

“Good morning my dear Cousin.” She said politely inclining her head towards him in a polite bow. Unlike some of the more racists members of her clan (most of which where now six feet under) she had never really cared about things like different eye or hair color. Family was family and she’d always been good to those in the clan others had treated like outcasts. Still this was way more polite then she usually was to the point it almost came off as creepy.

“Morning to you as well Yomi-Sensai. Alkaid here reporting for duty.” She said giving a formal salute. After hooking up with her cousin Tsubaki she had been trying her best to reform her image and act more like a proper lady and princess of the clan should. “It’s funny, you said to come find you in the eastern part of town, but I didn’t expect it to meet you like this.” she commented with a light laugh.

In the end no matter how much she had changed Alkaid was still Alkaid. She might be a little more proper now but underneath that was still the mischievousness, spunky girl she had always been.

Waiting was not something Yomi was good at, despite her constant refusal to acknowledge the many flaws in her ruthless and bloodthirsty character which stood above all except maybe Nikuyo himself, the woman did realize that impatience was one of her obvious flaws and as such she made no effort to hide her disapproval of tardiness and any slothful behavior. While she had been waiting (much against her will) at the training grounds to meet up with at least some of the genin which had been placed under her care, the woman had already started to think about how to drill these wet behind the ears, greenhorn shinobi and turn them into a formidable united squad. However, no matter how hard she thought about it, the fact she had at least two kaguya under her care in all actuality simply made her blood boil and turned her decision in favor of the old fashioned way of working them to the bone if necessary. After all it was a tried and tested method of training: to break down a student till they were laid bare completely and then rebuild them into something cohesive.

The first person to arrive or at the very least attempt to arrive, seeing as the distance from which she noticed him didn't change all that much over time, was the genin who was one of the kaguya under her care; the male one called Kaguya Yami, who in all fairness seemed to lack any and all of the basic features usually attributed to the kaguya. It was a strange sight and even more so an annoying one, given she really felt being tormented by the guy's slow pace towards her.

When at long last, he finally reached her and made his introduction, Yomi could only glare at him with an expression of seething fury, her right foot tapping on the ground so fast and hard as a sign of her patience having reached its limit, that the loose sand underneath that tapping foot had been compacted so much that it was now as tough as rock. Not long after though, the second genin and coincidentally the second kaguya made her appearance: the girl who had faced that weird old man and his minions long ago alongside herself and...that traitor, who had been so gullible to believe Kotsubo was actually the stronger shinobi between him and Yomi herself and ofcourse who had been so focused on the idea of creating a team of swordsmen and women who'd carry Kirigakure's most sacred treasures. "I did specify to arrive at dawn," The Jounin noted as she calmed down significantly after heaving heard both introductions. "Do keep at it like this, I will not refrain from punishing either of you if you test my patience or show any disregard of my way of teaching, understood? Allright, now that we've gathered...It seems that the third of you...Kazehana Chikaro will not be joining us today due to...unforeseen circumstances."

Turning around and walking to one of the three wooden poles which stood on the open field part of the training area, Yomi let her gloved right fist crash upon one of the poles with a loud crackling sound. "We're expected to learn about eachother a bit more either through combat or through a simple conversation...but I do not care about your feelings, your desires and your petty dreams. I only need to know what you are capable of and how to put your abilities to the best of their capacity," Grinning rather deviously, the woman extended her left arm, stretched out the palm of her hand and motioned the both of them to come at her. "Impress me and you'll pass and you will be treated to something nice, disappoint me and you'll be getting a grueling drill session today. Give it your best shot, little genin."

Yami didn't show any sign of being bothered by the woman's attitude, far to lazy to care. The Kaguya simply yawned in response, thinking about when he could go back to sleep. At Alkaids arrival, one of his cousins the swordsman began to slowly turn towards, at least it would appear that way, his movements were just so agonisingly slow, it would feel like those around him could die of old age before the turn was completed, "Cousin." Yami didn't say much and bowed his head in greeting. Yami hadn't really interacted much with the members of the Kaguya clan, mainly because he lived outside the compound so he didn't have to deal with the clan affairs.

Yami gave another loud yawn, hands tucked into the pockets of his hakama pants, appearing to only barely be paying attention to Yomi as she spoke. Was it really dawn that they were supposed to meet? The swordsman didn't remember, actually he just couldn't be bothered to remember, he had only glossed over the missive before going back to sleep. "Haaaaaa. Pain." The lazy genin released a long sigh and said one word again. Yami showed no sign that he cared that their third team-mate wouldn't be showing up. Alkaid and Yomi would probably think how he even came to be a shinobi or why due to his personality and mannerisms.

"Should. Stayed. Bed." Yami didn't bother to contain his thoughts voicing them out loud for all to hear, apparently thinking he should have just stayed in bed. "No. Choice. Guess." The Kaguya continued speaking in broken sentences giving another long sigh. The swordsman placed his right hand on one of his katana. As the hand was placed an aura began to radiate from his body, this aura was slow and slothful reflecting of his own lazy nature. The lazy aura sharpened containing the sharpness of a sword, a lazy sword.

"Sword. Concept." Yami took a long breath in as if slowly becoming one with his sword. A thin blue aura came to life surrounding him and the undrawn sword. The aura was slim and sharp radiating with the intent of an undrawn sword. Even though Yami stood before them, it would appear almost impossible to recognise and it would seem a Yami had become a sword. Yami and the katana couldn't be distinguished between one another, as if they shared one being. Yami may not be skilled when it came to the Kaguya Clans Sikotsumyaku, but he made up for this in the field of Kenjutsu.

"Haaaaaaa." Yami breathed out, releasing the breath, having become one with the sword. The man then slipped into a sword stance that none would recognise, it appeared sloppy and lazy to most eyes, this was Yami's Lazy Sword Style. Yami took a single step, pushing off with his right foot, using very little movement, moving at 12 m/s which could be classed as slow for a shinobi. Yami appeared to be putting in no effort, but when he had crossed half the distance towards Yomi, his speed would suddenly shoot up to 60 m/s increasing by five times. Yami's aim was to draw his sword from its sheath and attack Yomi with a single slash, as the sword would be drawn Yami's speed would see a further boost rising to 85 m/s.

Spoiler:

Alkaid sweet dropped a little when Yami replied with only one word.  It seemed he wasn’t the talkative type.  He was moving so lethargically that she quickly took a step away from him, wanting to put more distance them just in case it was contagious or something.  She tried to maintain her smile but it was strained, as he continued to move so slow that he almost would make a sloth look fast in comparison.

“By the seven if he moved any slower I swear he’d grow mold.  How the heck did someone so sluggish manage to graduate from the academy?” she wondered to herself feeling herself grow increasingly annoyed by his presence.  Partly because if he kept that up he was going to be nothing but a hindrance, partly because he was making the clan and her by extension look bad.

The way he was talking wasn’t helping matter any either.  His sentences where clipped and if she didn’t know better she’d think his brain was as slow as his movements.  If only that Chikaro fellow had bothered showing up so that she’d someone she could actually hold a proper conversation with but with her luck he’d be a total weirdo as well.  

Yomi made it clear he wouldn’t be coming today which was bad as she wanted to spar with them to see what they could do.  On the surface 2 on 1 seemed advantages until one looked at the sheer gulf between their abilities.   Yomi wasn’t a jounin for nothing after all, it was going to be a major uphill battle.  3 on 1 would have made things at least a little easier for her since then she’d have another body to throw at Yomi if nothing else.

She wanted to talk to Yomi about this arrangement, see if she could be swapped into another team but now wasn’t the time for it since if she didn’t do her best she was sure going to pay for it later with a grueling training session from hell.  

When fighting someone this much stronger then her her options where limited.  She had to be careful when and how she used her special ability Silent infiltrator since while it made her harder to detect it she herself had a harder time seeing things while using it so she nixed that idea before the fight even could begin.  

Her best bet would be to coordinate with Yami and attempt to overwhelm the Jounin with teamwork but his fightign style was so unorthodox she wasn’t sure where to even begin on matching his timing.  He was family but it was so much different then when she was teamed up with Tsubaki since they knew each others moves inside and out.  If he was at least using the clan’s style she might have managed something but instead he was doing god knows what at a speed that was sure to draw Yomi’s ire.

“Well at least he can serve as a distraction then.” she thought as her cousin began advancing slowly towards the Jounin.  Yomi was probably expecting her to user her clan’s style as well so instead Alkaid opted to go a different route. Drawing her Katana with one hand she shifting her body into the stance for the brute fist.   Sure it was a Taijutsu style but nobody had ever said you couldn’t use it with a sword.

Drew chakra into her feet she exploded into action using the quick step technique to accelerate.  Even as she moved to circle around to Yomi’s backside while Yami was occupying her front Alkaid was forming a series of quick hand seals with her free hand. Ram, Tiger, Snake.   Once the third seal had been completed she began to generate a series of after images using the Mirage step technique to make it harder to tell which was the real Alkaid and which was the fake.

Closing the distance in the blink of an eye she slashed out with her Katana swiping straight towards the woman’s abdomen. Unlike when she had been sparring with her cousin Calin she hadn’t reserved her sword at all which meant she wasn’t holding back an inch. Frankly she couldn’t afford to if she wanted to land even a single blow.  She was aiming to impress which meant going full throttle straight from the beginning of the match.

Stuff:

Finally she would be seeing what these genin were made of, two kaguya hailing from Kirigakure's most notorious clan facing off against kirigakure's most notorious shinobi bar for Nikuyo, could the idea be even better? Yes, it could, as if there was one thing Yomi desired for most of the time in her life, it was to prove that those belonging to those ancient clans with their ancient bloodlines that they had nothing on the power passed through her own family from generation to generation; just like the kaguya a unique style, but one probably not as known, but without a doubt equally destructive as their well known bloodline limit: The Jigoku no Ken.

With Yami slowly moving at her as she'd motioned the two to come at her and Alkaid obviously prepping herself by the use of some variety of basic taijutsu techniques, Yomi's reaction was made clear as her muscles seemed to tense and slightly bulk up, with her hair being ruffled a bit as chakra coarsed wildly through her body. "Time to play," As she said those words, she kept a close watch on Yami as he started to accelerate, all the while grinning as she saw that the other kaguya was making the blatantly obvious attempt to go behind the jounin's back. "Not good enough!!"

Yomi's feet suddenly slid over the ground rather elegantly, utilizing the flowing nature of her Chrysantemum Dance, making a quarter turn so that the swiftly accelerating Yami would be at her right and the 'attempting to be stealthy fast' Alkaid was at her left, Yomi formed the handseals rat and ox, suddenly hardening her skin by using the Marigold Reflexion technique, making it slightly darker, but also firmer and stronger than usual, firm enough to have this increased defense and her gloves to allow her to showcase just how good her battle prowess and fighting coordination was. Despite not being the most perceptive fighter around, she was attuned to her own senses enough and intelligent enough to more or less understand and practically even predict the moves of her current opponents.

As such, her hands moved into the path of the incoming swords, with Yomi more or less ignoring the distraction of the additional Images of Alkaid surrounding her, after all...did the child really think she could surprise the jounin with a technique she herself knew just as well. Her intent was clear, to grab the two blades with the tips of her fingers and to use her slightly boosted strength and impressive constitution to withhold the swords from doing any more damage than perhaps tearing the fabric of her gloves themselves. With that done, she'd pull strongly at both swords to either disarm the opponents if they let go of their weapons or to pull the both of them towards her, at which point she'd just jump back with the intent to have them smack against eachother. Either way she'd have the both of them feel some humiliation. "You know, you got to try harder if you want to truly hit me. Don't try to attack me in such halfhearted manner, you'd only get yourselves hurt that way. Again!!"

notes:

Yami didn't show any outward reaction to what was happening, neither did he had an internal one. The Kaguya just didn't seem to care even as his sword was grabbed between Yomi's fingertips and he felt a pull. The woman was trying to pull him towards her, with the intent to disarm him should he let go of the blade or throw him into Alkaid, making them run into each other. The swordsman just let go of the sword, not bothering to hold onto it, he had two other swords. Lightning nature chakra would course through Yami's veins stimulating his muscles and nervous system, forcibly turning his body back into an offensive stance, having been thrown off balance by the pull of his sword before letting it.

The muscles in Yami's body cried out in protest as he put an enormous strain on them to return to the stance, feet planted firmly in the ground, bringing his entire body to an abrupt halt. This suddenly stop would increase the time between the two cousins colliding, as the slothful Kaguya moved to the right, the sword aura hanging around his body helping to boost speed. Moving at 20 m/s all Yami did was use minimal distance and effort in an attempt to allow Alkaid to slide past him, missing him by an inch. Yami's lazy step used very little movement, using only what was necessary to conserve as much energy as possible.

Afterwards, Yami would simply turn back to look at Yomi with his lazy gaze, "Done. Yet." Said the Kaguya kind of asking but not really. Yami gave a long exaggerated sigh, guessing that most likely they weren't done. Yami placed a hand on his second katana, in doing so the sword aura around his body grew returning to full strength. "Pain. Rather. Sleep." Yami mumbled about how much of a pain this was for him and he would rather just go back to sleep.

"Can. Give. Up" spoke up the Kaguya with his usual lethargic tone, giving the older woman a slothful gaze. Yami didn't get his hopes up that the woman would just let him resign from the battle and go to sleep. Personally, Yami felt like he would rather just accept the punishment than put up with this any longer, this was just too much physical exertion in one day.

Giving a long sigh once again the swordsman kept his sword sheathed and retreated to ten metres, creating a gap between him and the woman. "Cousin." The swordsman called out lazily to the other Kaguya as if to beckon them other. The swordsman chose not to attack, instead opting to call his cousin.

Yami didn't attack, mainly because he didn't know if Alkaid would get in the way or not. He chose to retreat momentarily to reorganise. Sometimes in battle, you had to momentarily take a step back and gather your thoughts. Whether Yomi would give them the chance was another thing. The swordsman would just have to be ready to act if she did. However seeing as how the woman wanted to test their abilities, chances were she may allow them to regroup. "Troublesome."

Spoiler:

Alkaid frowned resisting the urge to wince as Yomi’s form expanded slightly, her body becoming bulkier then it had been previously.  She didn’t know what the heck that was but she knew it couldn’t be good for her.   Her former team mate Yumi had once told her about how medics like herself could use various jutsu to boost their body’s natural limits and that was about all she knew on the subject.

The fact that the tech Yomi was using included a visual indicator that something was up was concerning.  Hadn’t Yumi said something about how it was usually hard for non sensors to tell if an enemy was actually using those type of booster or not.  

Did that mean it was extra potent or something?  Alkaid had no way to tell, but she was willing to bet cold hard cash that the extra mass wouldn’t slow the Jounin down much, if at all.  The change hadn’t been that dramatic after all.  It wasn’t like her muscles had bulged to the point she looked like some champion weight lifter on steroids or something.

Alkaid heard the words Not good enough as she went to get around the Jounins back but that came as no surprise to her that Yomi had been able to see her coming.  She hadn’t really been expecting the after images to do much on an opponent at that level but she’d had to try anyway because well you never quite know for sure otherwise.

The entire point of her opening move wasn’t to land a hit, it was to gauge how quickly Yomi could react to her.  She knew the Jounin was good that was beyond question, but she needed to see with her own eyes just how good to get an idea of just how hard she was going to need to work to land a hit.

Alkaid wasn’t stupid, but she wasn’t the brightest in the box either.  There where people that could do complex running mathematical equations on the battlefields and she wasn’t one of them.  She was fighting more on instinct and experience then some elaborate 5d chess plan.

Yomi barely had to turn so that she was facing the two Kaguya head on. Her hands moving to make seals that they seemed to blur as they went.  Again Alkaid didn’t know what the heck kind of jutsu she had activated but it seemed to have made her skin turn slightly darker.

“Frick I wish Yumi was here, I bet she would know what was going on. I should have studied harder.” Though Alkaid chidingly to herself.  Well there was no sense crying over spilled milk so she’d just have to do her best and she’d have to count her lucky stars she already knew as much as she did which was better then nothing at all.

As if by magic Yomi moved her hands into the way of the incoming swords snatching them from connecting when they where just an inch away from her body using just the tips of her fingers.  The awe inspiring sight was enough to make shivers run down Alkaid’s spine.  

She almost wanted to scream out how was this possible when she saw that the blade of her sword was touching the palm of the Jounin’s hands and yet hadn’t cut the flesh of said hands in the slightest despite ripping straight thought the gloves she’d been wearing like they had been tissue.  

Her Katana was made from her own flesh.  As she often liked to say she was the bone of her sword and she meant it quite literally.  It wouldn’t be idol boasting to say that it was one of the best blades in the entire village, just short of the seven swords themselves. Even that deficiency was only because she hadn’t fully mastered her bloodline yet.  

If that still wasn’t good enough to cut Yomi because of whatever tech she had used to make her skin darker then Alkaid was going to have an extremely hard time dealing any damage at all. The idea made her grin fiercely as she realized for once she could cut loose with wild abandon. Normally she could go all out on an ally, but Yomi was more then tough enough to take it.

Without hesitation she channeled Chakra into the blade before Yomi had the chance to tug, flowing the energy it in one quick burst. Without an element it wouldn’t make it any sharper then it already was, but it would extend the reach of the blade another five inches long which was more then enough to potentially stab right into Yomi’s chest if the move caught her by surprise.

From that range it would been tough for almost anyone to react it time, but Yomi wasn’t just anyone she was the best in the village so if anyone could pull it off it would be her. Not that it would matter even if she didn’t dodge since with her toughness enhanced the tip wouldn’t be able to penetrate her skin and just glance off without doing any damage whatsoever.  

Alkaid had know from the start that it was a waste of chakra, but she didn’t care because she wanted to make a point both to herself and to Yomi that she COULD hit the Jounin when she tried even if the touch was a purely symbolic one.    

What surprised her the most however was that Yomi’s grip on other end of the Katana wasn’t an absolute iron vice.  If the old man had grabbed it she could have done jack and shit to budge it but here she could actually resist with roughly equal force.  Digging in her heels she refused to be moved making it impossible for Yomi to jump backwards while still holding onto the sword.

Using another quick step forward to maintain the current distance between her and the Jounin Alkaid nimbly dodged out of the way of Yami’s body avoiding an unwanted collision with her cousin.   That kind of trick might have worked on someone who was fresh out of the academy but she was good enough that she could pass the chunnin exams if she applied herself and wouldn’t be tripped up so easily.

“We’re just getting started.” Alkaid replied to Yami, her voice burning with passion.  She wasn’t going to wait to hear the rest of what he had to say since he was speaking way too slow. At the rate he was going the girls would be able to execute another several rounds of sparring before he could event get to the point.

“I’ll do my best to keep her busy. You just take an opening if you see one.” she said issuing a command to her lethargic brethren even as she went on the offensive herself.  Fuck aiming to simply impress Yomi she was in this to win this no matter how slim the odds might seem. So what if Yomi’s skin was tough like diamonds now, she’d just have to fight a way to slice thought it anyway.

Switching fighting styles on the drop of a dime to the Dance of the blossom Alkaid lashed out with her sword using the Dance of the Camilla to push the speed of her sword strikes to the utmost limit, the length of her sword still extended by the chakra flow from earlier making the seemingly random strikes all that much harder to dodge.

Stuff:

Yomi had to think this true, despite the both of them being Kaguya clanmembers, one didn't look the part and the other actually used her clan's powerful taijutsu techniques for her kenjutsu. One to come up with surprisingly agile moves while being overally lethargic, the other surprisingly nimble, yet tougher than a rock. If it weren't for the marigold reflection technique, the girl's last attempt to pierce through the Jounin's defenses would've been a bad end. However, Yomi also cursed herself for not using her advantages properly, she was going to be hard on the two of them, yet unconsciously she had spared them the rod and given them time to rethink their approach and their strategy. "That was stupid," She thought to herself, keeping herself ready for whatever these two genin would try to throw at her.

As it seemed that Alkaid was taking the lead, Yomi decided to focus upon this little gem of the Kaguya clan. However, she was not going to hold back on this one either, it was time to teach this genin a valuable lesson, something they would remember and would take to heart, something to truly have them remember till the end of their days: That no matter how flashy, no matter how precise and no matter how brutal an attack is, when your opponent holds all the cards, the fight's over before it even began. "Lesson one: know your opponent's strengths and weaknesses or at the very least find a safe way to discover them," When saying those words as a valuable lesson to Alkaid, Yomi stretched out her arm in response to the Kaguya's incoming assault, spinning around that arm and drawing a circle of water into the air with her stretched out index finger, which instantly turned into a mirror-like reflecting pool of water which seemed to reflect the young Kaguya, forming an exact copy of Alkaid, striking at the exact same places as the girl and thus completely cancelling out her attack before vanishing.

"Second lesson, never think remaining in the back is the safest place," With those words, Yomi slammed her thumbs three times into her shoulders, bulking up her muscles even more and increasing her physical power immensely in the process. Instantly afterwards she suddenly shot out towards Yami, her sudden movement off the charts, as she slammed her wrists together, with her fingers spread out like a chrysantemum's petals before aiming to drive them deep into the half-Kaguya's gut with tremendous force. "Always keep your eye on the birdy."

notes:

Yami gave a long sigh at his cousin's antics, how in the world was he related to her? The Kaguya could only sigh as the female Kaguya charged back into the fray telling him to look out for an opening. The problem was Yami was not familiar with her fighting style, or the Kaguya's, in general, there was very little chance for him to accurately work in tandem with Alkaid. Yami had wanted to come up with a strategy to work around this, so they could get to know a little about each other's style. The Kaguya frowned as he prepared to fight in case Yomi decided to charge him.

Chakra surged through Yami's body igniting the Sword Concept, Sword Step and Lazy Sword style helping to boost his speed to the maximum. The three techniques worked in tandem rising Yami's speed to B rank, improving it by two full tiers, but the Kaguya didn't plan to stop there, as the moment Yomi had countered Alkaid and set her sights onto him, the male acted. Kicking off the moment Yomi had spoken, Yami went into a lunging strike, thrusting the sword forward, speed increasing by another tier as the Kaguya attempted to strike before Yomi could finish.

Yami, however, didn't intend to strike with the lunge, only using it to temporarily boost his speed up, lightning nature coursed through the Kaguya's muscle, sending a wave of pain shooting through his body. Minor tears formed in Yami's muscles as he was reverted back into a fighting stance, swinging his blade downwards as chakra coursed through it. A rush of chakra erupted from Yami's body increasing his reserves exponentially in order to perform this technique, "Three-Fold Slash" Chakra would release from the blade in the shape of three sword-like slashes of chakra that would come downwards to meet Yomi head on.

The Three-Fold Slash was one of Yami's finishers moves. The Kaguya didn't like fighting for too long and a few of his techniques were designed to try and end the battle in one move. These three chakra blades of chakra could be considered a killer move.

Spoiler:

Yomi as expected was strong. Really that was the only word that could adequately describe her.  Alkaid was pushing herself as hard as she could burning a terrible amount of energy in the process simply just to try and keep up.    Thinks that took her a great deal of effort to accomplish the Jounin could do the same and make it look easy.

That’s why when her cousin had advocated backing down and regrouping she had scoffed at the idea and pressed the assault.  To her the only way past the insanely hard obstacle in their path was forwards, not backwards.   Facing someone so strong was simply thrilling for the young teenager, made her want to push herself harder and higher to overcome the challenge, to quench her thirst for victory.

Yomi had a lesson for her, one she’d heard a thousand times before and what it basically boiled down to was “Know thy enemy”.   With Yomi she thought she DID know at least the gist of what the Jounin could do.   The woman was famous after all. They’d spoken before and Alkaid had even looked her up in an attempt to write up her own profile to add to the pile she’d accumulated on a a good chunk of the village so far.

The best armor smith in town,  A good medic.  Fights mainly with her fists and water jutsu.  Great at stealth.  All of it was just general knowledge that one could find by asking around town. But what did she know about the woman herself personally?  Just that she didn’t like to use weapons and that she was a psychotic, vindictive bitch that viewed herself as the head of the pack.

The fact she had let someone else become Mizukage instead of taking the role herself puzzled Alkaid.  She’d taken offence to the fact at the implication that another Jounin might have been equal to her. It was hard to see her taking orders from anyone who wasn’t an outright monster like the old man had been.

She thought she’d known Yomi but it seemed she still had a great deal left to learn about her.  She’d expected the Jounin to either try to tank the sword slashes simply because she probably could with little if any negative consequences other then a few superficial cuts.   That or she would find a way to nimbly dodge them at the last second.  

Alkaid never would have predicted being countered by her own reflection. How the heck was she supposed to beat mirror image of herself?  Sure it only lasted long enough to absorb her attack but their was nothing stopping Yomi from doing it again for the next one Alkaid threw.

There had to be someway around the reflection, but darned if she could figure it out on the fly.  She was a great actor and spy, not a field strategist.  Complicated battle tactics weren't her thing.   The only way she could think to get past her attack being reflected back at her was to strike when Yomi was too busy to cast the reflection in the first place.

Yomi went on to talk about how remaining in the back didn’t mean you where save. Alkaid wasn’t the smartest but even she was smart enough to know that meant the Jounin would be going after her cousin next.  

Shit she cursed inwardly . She’d taken the forward position because she’d wanted to buy time for her dark haired relative to come up with something clever.  She had to do something now to hold the Jounin back or her cousin would be up shit’s creak without a paddle.

As Yomi begain to slam her thumb into her shoulder the first time Alkaid raised her free hand as quickly as possible pointing her fingers at the Jounin’s chest.  Without a sound bones erupted from each of her fingertips, ejected with enough force to easily punch through steel armor.   Even for Yomi with her toughness augmented that would have to string it they managed to connect

Stuff:

This was becoming a real nuisance. Though in her haste to deal with the both of them, Yomi had thought her path clear to assault the male kaguya, the female kaguya whose own attack had been properly dealt with managed to sneak in a rather distracting attack, most likely to prevent the jounin from fully obliterating Yami. However, even a few speedy bullets wouldn't be enough to slow down this jounin.

She gritted her teeth when a handfull of bony projectiles managed to drill themselves upon her skin, desperately trying to get deeper into her skin and therefore aiming for probably some brutal damage, but Yomi was confident that even if it hurt, her own strengthened skin would even out the odds. So she pressed on towards Yami, her hands cupped together with the fingers slightly bend and their tips pointing at the young man.

It seemed the Kaguya male had managed to gather his bearings and in response to the jounin rushing at him, seemed to decide upon a familiar strategy: fighting fire with fire...or in this case using an offensive technique to try and stop Yomi in her tracks as she performed her own. Yet, it would prove to be futile, pointless to no avail. Their tactics, though rash and crude in make, did have some merrit and if they'd follow through and show no mercy, they'd probably become worthy shinobi to the village. "Not bad, not bad at all...but very very unwise in execution," As she took the incoming slashes as if they were made with a butterknife, painful yes, but not with a lot of oomph behind them, Yomi stopped herself right on time to stand right in front of Yami, the tips of her fingers only barely a millimeter away from the young man's chest. "Never forget your defense when fighting someone who is far superior to yourself."

Withe just the wind of displacement probably passing over the young man, Yomi suddenly relaxed her arms and her chakra seemed to become less violent, as she plucked the tiny bone projectiles out of her skin, the blood slowly trickling from both the tiny puncture holes and the minor scrapes coming from Yami's slashes. "Well done, this is good enough for me. You've passed your first test, as both of you managed to wound me, albeit only barely, you still did it."

Placing a hand on the Male Kaguya's shoulder, she sighed though. "Be glad I didn't want to be known as the genin killer...not like this, it would be bad for my overall reputation," Motioning Alkaid to come to the two of them, Yomi gave the kid a grin and clapped her hands. "You both have unique talents, but you two are still far from good enough to be considered a team. To truly know yourself and your teammate, I want you two to do some chores together, some training and some sparring. Is that understood?"

Yami simply gave the woman a lazy-eyed look as if he wasn't really bothered about it, or cared that he was about to die. "Death....haaaaa...all, that, sleep." The Shinobi stared dreamily eyed into the sky at the thought of eternal slumber like it was some heavenly gift for him, before shaking it away. The Shinobi didn't have a death wish. Giving a sigh the Lazy Swordsman walked up to his falling katana, picking it up and sheathed it into its scabbard. Once both Katana were sheathed, Yami turned towards Yomi listening to her. Yami supposed she wasn't all that bad for a teacher like she said, she could have killed him but chose not to, so that was something.

"I'm, guessing, I'm, not, going, too, be, getting, my, sleep, am, I?" The Genin asked in his usual sloth-like manner, hunched over. Giving a long drawn out sigh the swordsman rubbed his temples in mild annoyance over the idea of lack of sleep. "Training, what, pain." The incarnation of sloth gave a loud yawn, not bothering to cover it up. The Genin was exhausted from all this physical activity, it showed as his tall body swayed back and forth, looking like he could fall over or fall asleep where he stood.

Yami looked to his cousin giving her a lazy eye, "Long, as, training, doesn't, involve, Shikotsumyaku." The Genin lazily pointed a finger at himself, "Can't, use, it. Difficult, to, learn." The Genin spoke in regards to the type of training Yomi wanted them to do, as long as it didn't involve trying to train the Kaguya bloodline. Yami revealed that apparently, he couldn't use it, finding it incredibly difficult to learn.

Her bullets had been a valiant effort but not enough to change the outcome. Not enough to protect or save her cousin who was about to receive a royal ass whopping that would surely put him in the hospital. Or at least he would have if Yomi hadn’t stayed her hand at the last possible second.  It wasn’t that she had missed or anything but rather that she’d chosen not to hit him even after tanking all of their shots and bleeding a bit as a result.

Alkaid had though that her sensai was a bit of a psycho but maybe that was more of an act. She was showing a depth of maturity her that Alkaid never would have expected from her after their previous encounter.  The illusion of Yomi the invincible had been shattered, but in it’s place Alkaid saw such strength, such perverseness such force of will that she couldn’t help but admire Yomi anew.  Only an true idiot wouldn’t respect strength like that when they saw it.

“Heh, they don’t call you the strongest for nothing. I’m going to have to step up my game majorly if I ever want to reach the plateau you’re standing on.” she said earnestly.  She had focused on offensive because offense was the best defence in her book.  If push had come to shove she had her own way to protect herself from the type of punch her cousin had almost eaten, she just didn’t like to use it since it killed her mobility and ate a lot of energy in the process.

What good was tanking a hit in the short term when she couldn’t do it for long? If she wasn’t exact with her timing it would only put her at greater disadvantage something she could afford to have when she was up against someone leagues ahead of her.

“Yes maim.” replied Alkaid to Yomi’s order to do chores and spar with her cousin. Standing rimrod at attention she gave the Jounin a salute.  Turning to Yami she grinned. “Well that wasn’t a total disaster considering we’ve never worked together before Cousin.  I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job covering you.” she said apologetically.

Listening to Yami speak she sighed in exasperation.  “Could you talk any slower. If I didn’t know any better I’d think you where part sloth.” she said sarcastically as she raised her sword into the starting position and made the seal of confrontation.

“After all that my blood is rearing to go.  Come on I won’t let you sleep tonight” She said suggestively the lewd words slipping out of mouth so naturally that it was almost hard to tell she was only joking.  Saying stuff like that was such an easy way to wrap men around you finger that at some point she’d just gotten used to talking like that around them.

“And don’t worry if about if you can’t use the our bloodline or not.  Some can unlock it, some don’t everyone’s different and I won’t think any less of you for it.  Besides while the Shikotsumyaku is indeed strong it’s not everything. If I relied too much on it it’d become nothing but a crutch.  If you want to become something special, something great you gotta go beyond. Plus ULTRA” she exclaimed pumping her fist up into the air enthusiastically.

Having had her words for Yami and Alkaid uttered, Yomi thought the two would know that this training and introduction session was now officially over, but apparently they didn't get the message. The jounin intended for them to be together more often, to have them learn together on small mission that wouldn't need Yomi's constant attention, just so she could assess their strength later on, but this...misunderstanding was at the very least entertaining.

"Well fine, if you want to continue this training together I'll supervise the both of you, but you get only five minutes at which point I'll step in if necessary," The jounin exclaimed while taking a few steps back of the duo. "First to land three hits will win if this happens within the timeframe."

Yami turned to stare at Alkaid giving her a deadpan look. The lazy swordsman didn't really seem to care about everything that was being said, only looking on with his lazy expression. The swordsman blinked slothfully at his cousin, everything he did seemed to radiate with an aura of laziness. "Part, sloth?" The swordsman seemed to pause as if thinking over it, "Probably." Was Yami's slow response at the sarcastic accusation, as the female Kaguya raised her sword making seal of confrontation. The Kaguya gave a long drawn out sigh at his cousin's stance.

Yami raised a lazy eyebrow at his cousin's wording, especially at how suggestive it sounded. Most men would probably jump at the chance to sleep with his cousin, especially with the idea of going at it all night. Yami wasn't really one of them, he loved his sleep too much. The Lazy Genin gave a loud yawn, his body swaying back and forth, deciding to avoid it all, "Sleep." The Genin's eyes closed and he promptly fell, forward. The Genin face planted into the ground with a loud thud.

Yami didn't move after the fall, as immediately a loud snore echoed out from the grass. The Genin had fallen asleep where he stood and face planted into a sleeping position. The impact hadn't even woken him up if it had he probably had just fallen back to sleep. As long as they left Yami be, he would sleep right there in the middle of the training field all day and night without moving.

[EXIT]

When Yami replied to her sarcastic remark about being related to slots with a probably comment followed by a yawn it was almost enough to make Alkaid really believe it really might be true. Given his dark hair he was only half kaguya after all and she had no idea what the other half might be. If one of his parents where some kind of weresloth it would go a long way towards explaining a few things like why he was having so much difficulty awaking his bloodline.

When he crashed to the ground in slumber instead of starting the sparring match like she had requested Alkaid stomped her feet in a childish display of frustration. She was a bit of a battle maniac and after a match like they one she’d just had her blood was boiling for more but where was she going to get it? Taking on Yomi by herself was just asking for trouble, especially since she hated getting into a fight she knew she couldn’t win.

“We’re going to need to find some way to teach him how to find in his sleep if we’re going to get much use out of him, aren’t we Sensai?” asked Alkaid rhetorically as she relaxed her stance. Spinning her sword around to flick any dust off it she returned the blade to it’s proper sheath.

“Thanks for offering to supervise by the way, I appreciate it since you could have just gone off to do your own thing and leave us to it.” said Alkaid as she gave Yomi a respectful bow of the head. “I meant what I said about my bloodline by the way. It’s a good tool to have, but I need others in my arsenal if I ever want to be strong like you.” she said trying to gauge Yomi’s reaction to the matter.

To her surprise, rather than actually continuing the training, the male Kaguya, after being spoken to by the female Kaguya Alkaid, actually managed to fall sleep right there and then on the spot. Both rather annoyed, but at the same time amused by this happenstance, Yomi decided not to react too harshly to someone who at the very least had done their best to try and fullfill their duty during the training, despite the constant nagging that it seemed to all be a drag and a nuissance to him. "Well, I can't say you aren't unique," Yomi laughed at the sleeping genin, deciding it best to at the very least drag the sleeping genin to the closest bench and lay him to his blissful sleep upon a more suitable spot. Turning to Alkaid, she scratched the back of her head and chuckled. "Since I'm in a good mood after this exercise, I won't hold any of this against you guys, you did good enough for a first session. Just make sure not to fall back too hard, can't have my team end up being weak in comparison to the others."

Grabbing her backpack and signature trenchcoat, Yomi rummaged into the bag with her hand, grabbed a bottle of oolong tea and threw it towards Alkaid. "Drink this, it's got some added calcium which could leave it tasting a bit...bleh, but it's good for kids like you with all those bonestuff. As for your arsenal... as a Kaguya you have a brilliant advantage in physicality, but you waste it on kenjutsu. Spread your wings and diversify your cards a bit...I didn't get where I am now just by using taijutsu or relying on some gimmick alone."

[Exit]

“You don’t have to worry about me falling behind. I’m always up for a good workout wither on the training field or sometimes off it.” said Alkaid suggestively with a light chuckle.  She wasn’t trying to hit on Yomi at all, just trying to make herself sound naughty since she was trying to sell herself as a tough devil may care type.

Taking the drink that she’d been given she took a sip. Amusingly enough it tasted alright to her despite what her sensai had said about the added calcium.    Honestly the advice she’d been given was what had been bitter to swallow.  Diversify her cards? But how?  What sort of skill should she even try and learn?

She was more brawn then brains and she knew it.  Learning Ijutsu would just be wasted one someone like her, since she’d never be able to use it to even half it’s potential.  The same want for other brain heavy stuff like Genjutsu or Fuinjutsu.  That didn’t exactly leave a lot of options on the table for other stuff.    With a sigh she made her way back home having been left a lot to chew on.

[exit]