Refining a Tin Edge [Private]

Mission Name: Weapon Testing [Repeatable]
Mission Type: General
Mission Rank: B
Mission Goal: A local blacksmith is looking for assistance in cultivating weaponry and wants someone that can test them. They either need to wield the weapon for him or be strong enough to put the weapons through the wringer to really test their durability and edge. The smith will have quite the assortment of weaponry, so you'll need to be prepared for some hefty practice.
Payment: 25,000 Ryo
Requirements: 1 C-Class Ninja or D-Class Ninja with both Bukijutsu and Kenjutsu Skills.

Satori had managed to acquire a job for them both that was still suitable for Tin, despite its ranking. It was a B-Rank mostly due to the amount of experience or skill involved, not necessarily due to the actual danger of it. Of course, Satori intended to make it relatively dangerous anyway. Tin needed the combat experience, and there was no reason not to kill two birds with one stone after all.

He was currently making his way into the Training Grounds where he'd told Tin to wait for him, hands tucked into his pockets as the tall young man lifted one briefly in silent greeting. Making his way across the puddle-laden ground before coming to a halt in front of him.

"Our third will be here in a few minutes," Satori explained simply before he would begin stretching casually, glancing down at the teen curiously. He'd started to properly fill out now, and between his outfit and the bow, he looked like a proper ninja. The padding to his wallet probably helped as well.

Satori couldn't help but smile at the change, it wasn't an unwelcome one by any means.

Tin sat down in the training grounds, waiting for Satori. He had told him to wait there, but he didn’t really mind. His knees were pressed up to his chest, with his arms on top of his knees and chin over his arms. Just waiting. His eyes peered out as he heard someone coming, he glanced over to see Satori making his way over to the training grounds, entering, then walking over.

“Third?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He stood up, straightening his back for a moment, then hunching down a little again. He did his daily exercises this morning, but he didn’t really feel all that tired from them, at least, form the ones that he did. It looked as though he was filling out a little as well, that’d be good if he got abandoned or something, he’d have more time to go hungry before he was a husk.

He scratched the back of his head, wondering who the mysterious third was. Maybe it was for the mission or something, who knows? He still didn’t like meeting and talking to other people, but he could at least make the smallest of talk now. He pulled down his hood, peering around before looking back to Satori expectantly.

Satori grinned down at Tin as he inquired about the usage of a third member, before he would tuck his hands behind his back and tilt his head while he replied, his tone casual.

"We're testing a local smiths works today," Satori explained simply, "So he's bringing them and watching for feedback so he can build on his craft. We're basically getting paid to abuse the items he made against one another," with this explanation Satori then shrugged before glancing over his shoulder at the sound of a cart approaching. Spinning on the spot as a large cart wheeled into the training grounds, a large man with broad shoulders pulling it along.

Halting in front of them, the man set the cart down gently with the sound of metal hitting metal filling the air before he grinned at Satori and Tin.

"Thanks for this, it'll give me some good insight into my weapons," he stated simply, offering a hand to them both starting with Satori, whom shook it casually.

"Names Mizushima Jori, weaponry specialist. A pleasure to meet you both."

"Satori Ryuutei, Tin," Satori motioned to them both before smiling, "Genin of Kirigakure. A pleasure to make your aquantance, we're happy to help of course."

Tin tilted his head. They were testing the local smithy. He wasn’t sure whether he’d be much help there. He wasn’t really an expert of his own emergency kunai knife, let alone anything else. Did smiths work on bows? Well, definitely not the bows, maybe the arrowheads. So his help was limited in that regard, so why did Satori need him for this? He eyed him suspiciously. Red flags sounded at his last sentence. Abuse the items against one another. He was going to have to fight Satori with those weapons or something.

Today isn’t going to be a good day.

Tin’s frown deepened as the cart arrived, sighing inwardly. “Great…” he muttered, turning away slightly as the smith came along, not really all that comfortable with people. He glanced at the hand, half-raising his own before lowering it again. He didn’t really want to have to touch him so, he just nodded to the man instead.

“…Yes.” he said once introductions were made and Satori said that they were happy to help. He doubted he’d be all that happy by the end of the day. “…How are we going to test the weapons?” he asks Satori.

Satori tilted his head slightly as he looked down to Tin, the teen wasn't impressed, but he never was really. He simply offered a slight smile in response and moved to the explanation as Jori went about beginning to lay the weapons out in a relatively organized fashion.

"You need to learn how to use weapons aside your bow anyway; otherwise you're going to be dead if it breaks or they're too close. You'll be using the weapons attacking me. It'll help you learn how to properly fight, give you combat experience, test the weapons and help even out your skillset a bit more," as he clarified this he grinned.

"He also has bows," Satori commented, glancing to the side at the handful of different lengths and sizes that rested there along with several other arrow types.

"If you do well, he may not just pay you. He may show you how to craft your own arrows and such as well. You were interested in that idea, right?" His brow cocked as a slight smirk played at his lips. Money and independence were big drives for the proud teen despite the fact not long ago he'd been a street rat.

Tin stayed, listening to Satori as he spoke. He’d rather have just learnt how to NOT let people get too close. Though, that’d mean Satori’d likely be teaching him how to evade things by throwing the weapons at him, which was his initial suspicion. He was somewhat relieved that he’d be using them instead. He didn’t really have to worry about Satori, he probably won’t be able to even hit him, if he did, then that meant he was getting better. He was probably using the substitution technique right now.

He perked up a little as Satori mentioned the bows. He turned and glanced at those in the weapon pile, they looked like interesting ones indeed. Though he thought bows were made by other kinds of people. Bowers? Boyers? He couldn’t remember what they were called, maybe the smith was one as well.

He tilted his head to the left, then right at Satoris’ suggestion. He thought about it. If he made his own arrows, then he wouldn’t have to buy others, sure he’d have to get the materials, but he could also get his own of those. He heard once of a pretty strong kind of wood from some other place, Leaf village or something, leafy instead of misty. Senjy wood or something. Maybe they’d make good shafts. Then in the village of rock or stone or whatever, some kind of metal that took people’s energy away, that’d make good arrowheads. He sighed. “Okay, let’s try it out then.” he grumbled.

Satori grinned as, after a bit of goading, Tin seemed to give in and agree to the methods. Chuckling he nodded once and stepped back, motioning for him to take whatever weapon he wanted. The smith had laid out an entire arsenal. Kunai blades, throwing knives, axes of varying sizes, swords of all types, hammers, shuriken, if you named it, the weapon was probably sitting there. Satori took a few steps back to give Tin room to work as his claws extended slightly before he would relax and smile.


"Whenever you're ready," he stated simply as his claws pulsed with chakra, causing their edges to glimmer softly as he lowered himself into position.

Razor Claws.

Eyes narrowed on Tin, even if he didn't know what he was doing, those were real weapons that had a decent design. If he hit him with the right angle it would probably cut into him pretty damn well.

Tin walked over to look at the arsenal. He tilted his head at the selection. He titled his head to the other side. What weapon should he pick? There were some weapons he couldn’t even put a name on. He shrugged, picking up a chain thing. He pulled on it, but there was more. He pulled, more chain. More chain. Then it finally ended with a kind of heavy ball at the end. “This is weird.” he said, before shrugging. He guessed he was supposed to twirl it.

He moved the ball down a comfortable distance, moving away from the other weapons and began to spin it with his right hand. Spin. More spinning. He wasn’t particularly strong, but it eventually made some wind that even he could feel. He lifted the weapon and began to spin it at an angle.

Then he ran toward Satori, leaving a few meters between them as he let go for a moment, then grabbed onto the chain again, aiming to spin the metal ball toward Satori’s ankle. He didn’t really know much other than to just spin it, he guessed other people can do all kind of tricks with the thing. Him? Spin.

Satori watched quietly as Tin made his selection, patient as ever while he released a low hum of thought as the boy moved through his choices until he picked up the chain. A smile formed on his lips before he would nod once in approval. Honestly, he'd considered any of the chained weapons as secondary options for him since he liked medium to the long range so much, it'd be a decent weapon for him later on. Though for now, it was clear he barely understood the basics.

Charging at him and spinning the weapon at high speeds before lashing out with it aimed at his ankle. A decent movement, though it was full of openings. That wasn't the goal here today though, the idea was to help him get affiliated with multiple different forms of weaponry so he had something to fall back on besides firing arrows into people.

As the orb came crashing toward him, Satori simply hopped back once as it smashed into the ground and sent chunks of dirt and mud in every direction. Considering Tin's lack of strength, it was an impressive strike really.

The meteor was striking toward the ground, but at such an angle that, once it skid along the ground, sending dirt and mud to places, it continued to spin as Tin twirled it. “Okay…” he muttered to himself. It was kind of a tiring weapon, but once it got its own momentum, it wasn’t all that bad despite its weight and constant tug.

Then, he moved toward Satori once more, this time aiming for his chest, once Satori most likely evaded that one too, he’d then aim for his knees. He’d continue a constant barrage toward Satori, only stopping once Satori did a counter attack, or when his arm got a bit tired from swinging the big thing around for a while, after six or seven attacks.
Chest - Knee - Shoulder - Head - Knee - Waist - Feet.

It was kind of fun to swing it about. He wondered about the other things one can do with it, but for now, it was made to be broken, probably literally.

Satori grinned as Tin began to get into it. Swinging around the heavy weapon without halting as it spun through the air, cutting toward him again and again. Each time he ducked and dodged, before finally, as Tin began to get used to its actions, Satori began to counter to throw him off-balance. His claws lashed out after the last strike, causing it to bounce upward and lose a chunk of its weight as his claws carved chunks from the metal orb.

He then leaped to the side and smacked it again, causing it to bounce back toward Tin. It wasn't so fast he couldn't avoid it, but he wanted to force Tin to understand the downsides as well, and adapt. He wasn't certain how many of his counters the thing could endure, but for now it was still usable. There were others he could play with soon anyway.

Tin’s left eyebrow shot up when Satori reached over and cut a chunk off of the hammer. It wasn’t all that sturdy, apparently his claws could just smash through it. Though, he was pretty sure he’d lose his fingernails if he tried the same thing. He was a little bit too pressed to be surprised when it was thrown back toward him, he jumped off to the side to avoid it. It smashed off against the floor.

He changed his grip to his left hand, giving it a sharp yank as he pulled it toward him, then rose his arm, allowing it to speed over his head, toward Satori’s. It was more of a reflex than anything else, he wasn’t even sure what he’d do after the attack, since the momentum was going to die the moment it hit the ground, but he did so anyway.

The ball flying back at him caused a low laugh to rumble from his chest, before he smacked it once more as his claws lashed through the material. Chipping another chunk out of it and sending it straight into the dirt in front of him as he idly fell to sit on his haunches. Arching a brow slightly in bemusement.

"You're getting better at reflexive action," he congratulated the teen with a grin, before nodding to the orb. "It can't take too many more strikes from my claws, though," as he stated this he would tilt his head.

"So, what do you do?" he inquired, seeing it Tin could come up with a basic solution to the problem. Assuming he was slowly losing his primary weapon, what was a way to continue fighting even after having lost chunks out of it? There were a few, but he wanted to know what Tin would come up with.

Tin looked down at the weapon as Satori laughed. It looked pretty weak now, there wasn’t many more chunks for it to lose before it just became a chain. Well… “A chain’s still a weapon, isn’t it?” he said, shrugging. Then he pulled it back and span it again. Despite his arm aching a little, he continued to spin it faster and faster. Then he switched it to the other side. Without the ball, it gained speed but lost some crunching power. Due to the chunks missing, however, it also gained some sharp edges.

Those could be used.

“Make do with what I have, I guess.” he shrugged. “Or just get a different weapon,” he added, before moving in, a little closer this time as his attacks were much quicker. Head. Side. Other side, head, shoulder. Groin. He could attack from many more different angles too, changing direction on the spot when he wanted.

The answer was one, the neutral ground response. Switching the style up was good, but the best answer would have been to close the distance and add even more versatility to it by altering ranges and using it in multiple ways instead. Still, it was a decent enough response so Satori was satisfied. Better than "drop it and run" like Tin likely would have answered with previously. Grinning he lifted a hand as the strikes continued to flick toward him.

Side-stepping each time as it lashed out, his claws biting into the links as chunks of the chain were removed again, and again until finally all Tin was left with was a chain about half the length of what it had initially been. Satori finally halted and settled back so that Tin could decide on a new weapon to test. He'd definitely seemed to like that one though, the medium-range must be something he was more comfortable with.

But he'd need other options as well if he wanted to continue progressing.

One part of the chain was broken. Oh well, swing again. Another part of the chain was broken. Oh well, swing again. Anudda one. Oh well, swing again. Anudda one. Oh well, swing again. ANUDDA ONE. Oh well, swing agai- He was almost completely out of the chain. He frowned at it, then at Satori. “This thing is too weak,” he grumbled, throwing the rest of the chain into the weapon part. “also, there should be some spikes on it or something, so people can’t just… Catch it.” he shrugged.

He stretched his arm, then walked over to the weapons rack, perusing again. He came across some kind of stick with another ball at the end, like the one before, except it was fixed to the handle and had spikes. “This, like this.” he said, picking it up, and swishing it at the air a few times.

Then he walked over to Satori. He got into a ready stance, then moved toward him. It’d look as though he was going for a frontal assault once again, but at the last moment, he weaves to the side, aiming to smash the weapon with both hands toward Satori’s left waist.

Satori chuckled softly as Tin commented on the chains and tilted his head slightly. "Spikes can make some maneuvers impossible for the wielder, that's why," he explained casually as the spiked edge came flashing in, initially appearing to fly at his chest before instead re-directing toward his stomach. A grin split his lips before the morningstar's head smashed into... his hand.

Satori's fingers placed between the spikes, his fingers causing cracks to appear in its surface from his grip on it. "Spikes also don't guarantee that your weapon cannot be grabbed. You'll meet all kinds of opponents, many more durable than I am if not as agile or strong. Even a sword-blade can break off of some ninja's chests unless they're incredibly well-made and you have the skill to wield them properly," as he explained this, he released the morningstars head and straightened.

"Now then," he motioned for him to keep coming at him with a smile, curious what he'd evolve the style into the more he used the different weapons. He'd learned how to use momentum with the other weapon, now how would he manipulate the shorter chain but stronger base?

Tin swung, but the morning star just landed into Satori’s hands. It appeared he wasn’t really picking particularly good weapons for him, they were all too.. Blunt force-y, and he didn’t particularly have the strength for it. Maybe something a little sharper, his kunai knife for instance, but even that seemed a little too thick, something to actually pierce others. But then again, did he want that?

He pressed his foot against the side of Satori’s knee as he spoke, trying to pry it out of his hands by pulling as a lumberjack would when his axe gets stuck in a tree. He felt kind of ridiculous doing so.

Finally, Satori released the morning star. It felt kind of unwieldy, it didn’t have a chain like the other one, so it felt less… Free? Just a spikey ball on a handle. It would’ve been easier just to use a regular club. He shrugged, before moving back and aiming to run around Satori, trying to get out of his view. Then he did something he had been practising for a while by himself.

He brought his spare hand up, doing the seals Ram, Snake and Tiger without moving his hands together, and thus making no noise. The other Tin appeared. Then they both jumped toward Satori. The fake Tin jumped highest, aiming to slam its Morningstar toward Satori’s head, while the real one jumped lower, more of a dive than anything else, swinging for Satori’s shin. Since they were both in the air, neither made footsteps during the attack.

Tin's antics on yanking at the morningstar nearly caused a laugh to form from his lips, but once he'd released it, it appeared that the teen had managed to get his footing once more and come up with a plan of some sort. Hands relaxed, he waited patiently as he suddenly dashed to the side and circled around behind him. Satori heard the slight shift of the air behind him, and a slight smile formed on his lips.

He could smell the chakra as well, so a technique then. Keen feline eyes easily caught the fact that the clone before him was casting no shadow. Still, all of these factors allowing him to read through the technique were purely due to a difference in their baseline abilities, as well as his bloodline.

The plan Tin had made was a solid one, and so he didn't wish to trod on the determination and progress he'd made. Instead of letting the clone faze through him, he dodged them both. His leg lifting at the knee and his head lowering at the neck so that the clones swing and Tin's own both simply ripped through thin air, missing his extremities by a hair before he settled back into position.

"Well done," he stated simply with a slight smile at the teens usage of the "useless" technique.

Tin grunted as Satori simply evaded the attack he had done, landing on his face in the dirt behind him. His clone had done the same, side by side. Equally defeated, at least, in this instance. They laid there, pondering their failures before one poofed away, and Tin stood up, wiping himself off and dusting his trousers and shirt, grumbling to himself.

Instead of wondering which was the real Tin, he just avoided both of them, annoying. He sighed, before gripping the Morningstar again. He’d begin swinging at Satori, it was a little hard to use the weapon, since it didn’t have a kind of momentum that he could gain from the ball and chain earlier.

He swung for the head, then chest. Afterward he tried moving around Satori, then striking toward his back, then swinging around for his arms. “How long am I supposed to use this thing?”

Satori grinned as the combat evolved a bit, Tin going for some more combinations. But it was clear he didn't favor this weapon nearly as much as he had the others. The first blows were easily sidestepped before the last flew toward him. Straightening slightly as the teen continued his combination, Satori suddenly shifted his balance and smashed his claws into--and through the morningstar at the final blow.

"Until it breaks, the rule goes for any of them," Satori explained simply as he grinned, flexing his hands a few times as his claws caught the light. With the weapon in shambles, Satori contented himself by waiting for whatever Tin decided to use next. Meanwhile, the smith himself was watching with a keen eye, clearly taking these tests quiet seriously to measure the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon.

He was even writing down the occasional note.

Sighing as another weapon bit the (and became) dust, he held the weapon now turned into a stick. He shrugged, according to Satori, he should be expecting this a fair bit today. He tossed the handle away, and moved back to the assortment of weapons, tilting his head as he looked about.

Something caught his eye, a stick. It had some kind of sharp thing attached to it, though it was tied in the middle. In fact, there were a great many sharp pointy things that were tied to it. Upon closer inspection, the stick was hollow. he wracked his brains for an answer, before remembering seeing someone blow something out of a stick to hit someone, that must be it.

He picked it up, and walked back to the duelling area. He picked out one of the sharp pointy things and put it, sharp part first, into the hollow stick. He then put it up to his mouth, and blew as hard as he could, while pointing toward where he was sure Satori’s chest was.

A blowgun was an interesting choice, but considering his preference for medium to long ranged weaponry he supposed that it made sense. Amused at how direct it was, Satori watched the needle fly toward his chest and simply smacked it away using it claws, snapping it from the impact before he waited for the follow-up barrage.

So far Tin had specifically stuck to medium and long-ranged weapons. Perhaps he should give him a bit of a push after this one to grab something else more melee-oriented. The was the point, after all. To help him get used to more than a single weapon and see what type of weapon he specifically favored in comparison to the bow. Obviously, archery was going to be his favorite, but that didn't mean he coudn't enjoy some secondary forms of weaponry.

Even if it was just using short kunai blades or other tools for short to melee range combat. As long as he got something else he enjoyed, that was the main point.

Well, it looked as though Satori was able to even slap away sharp point things. He looked at the projectiles, then at the hollow stick. He started piling up the sharpy things into the stick. He then started running around Satori, taking a very deep breath before clamping his mouth around the stick’s end. The first couple just popped out harmlessly, but the next few up until the last one managed to create a decent arc toward the musclebound human.

Once he was finished with it, he looked down at the stick once again, out of projectiles. He then aimed to throw the stick at Satori before marching back to the weapons pile. He picked out a wakizashi, at least, that’s what he thought it was. A small katana.

He then turned back toward Satori, before running around to his right this time, before aiming to slash toward his right elbow.

Satori watched the needles come flying at him, and though one was easy to defect, due to the nature of the weapons Satori had to actually focus to parry away multiple at once. The projectiles bombarding toward his form were all fairly easy to deflect despite this. His keen senses coming out on top at least as the light glimmered off them, each one shattered by his claws. The last few, however, were far more accurate with much better arcs, forcing him to use his second hand to deal with them.

After Tin ran out of ammunition, Satori grunted and straightened before he arched a brow at the next action. He supposed throwing it was an option as a last-resort, but...

The stuck bounced off his hide harmlessly, it didn't even bruise. He glanced at it briefly for a moment, before focusing on Tin as he moved toward the wagon to grab a wakizashi. Curious now, Satori would place his hands on his hips for a moment as he waited for Tin to get acclimated to the weight. Once he charged him, swerving to the right and swinging the blade at him, Satori turned and caused his claws to extend to their full length.

He then deflected the blade off their backs, eyes narrowing on him with a slight grin forming. That was more like it. He was curious just how Tin could figure out to use his speed for melee combat as well.