The Crouching Tiger [Solo]

The other day really pissed Ari off to the point she got into a fight with Chika. It made her furious as that meeting wasn’t even for a team, in fact they were lame excuse to be called as a team! Although reflecting Chika’s words, as much as that Four-Eyes was mocking her. There was truth in his words and Ari didn’t know what was even more infuriating. The fact that he’s a jackass who can’t swallow his pride or the truth he strung together.

The sound of something dull connecting against a wooden object could be heard within the grand facility. Anger swelled within Ari’s body as she balled her left hand into a fist and struck against the wooden dummy. Even with the padding there, Ari felt jarring up her arm that made her recoil a bit. She hissed as Ari withdrew her hand to let the ache subside. Although there was laughter coming from a distance to which Ari looked over at the source. There was a group of 6 genin that were standing roughly 10 meters away and more importantly they were laughing at her. Something in Ari snapped, much like it did the other day as her eyes of fury focused on them.

”What?! You pipsqueaks gotta have a problem here?!” Ari shouted at them, and the leader among the group was roughly 5’2” with short black hair. Dark eyes, garbed in some green jumpsuit, and held a cocky grin on his face.

”Oh nothing, just that a foreigner has no business here in this facility! Why don’t you crawl back to your mountains where you belong peasant!” Every word that came from this punk’s mouth brewed hatred more so than earlier within Ari’s mind. She bared her teeth as this was nothing new, but it still pissed her off all the same.

”You wanna die punk?! I’ll kick all of your asses right here, right now!” Turns out this whole squad were wearing these green jumpsuits, but the dark haired Genin smirked as a brown haired Genin stepped forward. They all had that stupid grin on their face, the snickering and their mocking words. They’re all infuriating and because of them her world is all grey.

Still the brown haired Genin rapidly closed the distance with a flying kick, one Ari immediately recognized to be Dynamite Entry. Ari leaps up before swinging her legs as one was high and the other was low. A simple kick maneuver, but in that flying kick there wasn’t any room for evasion. To the boy’s credit, he did bring up his forearms to protect his face. Still Ari focused more in power than grace as the high kick slams against the boy’s forearms. The low kick however slammed against the boy’s abdomen, and the combination of kicks sent the Genin flipping backwards and the low kick made him lose air in his lungs.

That Genin still had a bit of momentum as he crashed on the ground and rolled away a good 2 meters. Ari however gracefully lands in the perfect stance of the Strong Fist as she faces the rest of the group. While the jumpy one was groveling and nursing his stomach; Ari looked straight at the group. A couple of them weren’t snickering anymore, but they certainly didn’t lose their attitude either.

WC: 587
[Learning Leaf Whirlwind]

Two of the five were next as they simply ran towards Ari instead of doing the flying kick trick this time. Ari’s stormy grey eyes focused at them, their stances were the same as her own. Meaning that they’re all Strong Fist users, but in her mind they’re incredibly stupid. She remained in her position so that Ari can watch and react accordingly to how they attack. Blondie on the right actually jumped up and practically tried to do the same trick she did to their buddy.

The other Brunette hanged back a bit to allow Blondie finish the maneuver and counter whatever Ari tried. Ari ducked under the high kick, and blondie grinned as if he won and continued swinging his low kick. However Blondie felt a sharp pain on his shin as his expression swiftly changed into agony. The low kick wasn’t successful at all as Ari blocked the kick with her elbow jab against the guy’s shin. To make matters worse, Ari grabbed with her free hand on the guy’s ankle. Pivoting her body into a spin as she shifted from the elbow jab into grabbing the back of Blondie’s knee. Brunette attempted to shoulder slam Ari, but Ari for caution sake took a step away from Brunette. Just enough space for Ari to slam Blondie against Brunette and both were knocked down.

Blondie being on top countered by sweeping a leg at Ari’s feet, one that Ari didn’t expect so soon. So Ari’s feet were thrown off as weightlessness took effect. Ari landed on her side as both of her hands were positioned to cushion the impact to be absolute minimum. No sooner than that, Blondie crawled up to her with a balled fist and punched Ari against her brow. Ari’s vision blurred for a while there as she felt something warm and wet drip from her brow. Her face was jarred downward as the result of the punch, and she was a bit dazed. A sharp kick landed against her stomach as she gasped in pain. Still the pain was enough to snap her out of it, and her right eye stung from blood streaming into her eye. The kick made Ari roll over on her back, but Brunette was going to kick her face this time.

So Ari rolled away from the kick before quickly springing herself to her feet. Blondie already rushed forward to throw a mid-level kick at her chest. Ari leaned away from the kick as she swung her leg low to strike against the only standing leg of Blondie’s behind the knee. Her strength alone isn’t enough to knock these boys down, but it’s enough to cause Blondie to buckle and it was a moment of staggering. Ari followed up by throwing a cupped fist that slammed against Blondie’s jaw, and that time Blondie went down cuddling his face.

Brunette lets out a war cry as he flies with a flying kick from such a close range. Ari couldn’t even dodge, but she brought her arms up just in time to block the Dynamite Entry from hitting her face. The jarring force behind the impact was painful to her arms as they stung. The kinetic energy was more than Ari could withstand as the kick sent the girl flying a good 5 meters. Ari recovered by flipping her body back to disperse the momentum and allow herself land on the ground on her feet. The girl winced in pain as her arms throbbed from where that kick landed.

WC: 609
[Learning Leaf Gale]

To say that Ari is hurting is sort of putting it mildly. None of them were life threatening injuries, but that didn’t make the blows any easier. Taking a punch in the face, a kick into the stomach, and nearly taking a kick to the face was pushing it even for Ari. She grits her teeth as Ari had at least a second to breathe. Yet to her dismay the breather was only because Brunette was weaving handseals, and spewing from the boy’s lips is a fan of fire consuming the area. Ari out of habit slipped into her Mystic stance as she leapt to the side. Just enough to avoid the flamethrower, but Brunette was turning his head to follow her. Luckily for Ari she could leap farther at a slightly higher speed than Brunette could. So she started to circle around him.

However what the idiot forgot about is his own damn teammates that could get catch on fire. The heat was intense on Ari’s exposed skin, and while some things came to mind they weren’t exactly non-lethal. A quick judgement on Ari’s part, but Ari took note of Brunette’s location. So Ari sank into the ground, away from sight as Ari moved underground in a straight line towards Brunette’s location. The moment the girl was gone he stopped the flamethrower as one of his friends was ignited with fire. There were panicked yelps coming from the group, but Ari didn’t really care as both of her arms burst from the ground underneath Brunette. With a sharp tug, Ari pulled Brunette underground except for the head.

Ari climbed out from underground as the earth shifted away for her, Brunette gawking at her and was scared. This whole mess with the fire was making Ari sweat. Turning on her heel, Ari looked over the rest of the group. One of the three that hadn't joined in the fray had part of his jumpsuit caught on fire and suffered 2nd degree burns along the boy’s arm. Given the body language of how the burnt Genin was cowering away, he wasn’t going to fight hopefully. Not even Ari would fight someone who can’t even put up half of a fight. Still there were two left, and Ari could already feel the strain in her body. It wasn’t much as she could fight these guys all day! But they’re just not worth the energy, and even so the damage she took still left their marks.

Ari took this moment to wipe the blood off her right eye with the sleeve of her shirt. Both hands extended to her side as the remaining two wouldn’t do anything, not even the ringleader.

”Well?! Is that all you got or are you all bark and no bite!” She called them out as her harsh tone was thick with venom. Ringleader, the dark haired one, gritted his teeth with the expression of defiance. The kind of expression Ari honestly liked to see as a grin played on her lips. The second of the last had shaggy hair, so Ari mentally noted him as Shaggy. Both of them sprinted towards Ari, and Shaggy leapt up for a Leaf Whirlwind while Ringleader slid low to kick at her ankles. Ari simply jumped above Ringleader and met Shaggy at eye level. Knowing what the motions were, Ari took the posture like she’s falling on her back, both kicks narrowly missing her small frame that clipped her abdomen. The instant Ari felt the clip, Ari utilized the posture to amass overwhelming power as she brought her leg up to kick above her head. In doing so, this kick connects against Shaggy’s chin and the sheer power behind it sends Shaggy flying at least 10 meters past Ari as he goes over her.

Upon her fall, with Ringleader being below Ari, he threw two simultaneous punches towards Ari’s back. Ari twirled her body with grace to face him, and immediately saw the fists awaiting her. Ari swiftly reacted by catching both punches into the center of her palms. Using him like a spring, Ari pushed herself to flip over the Ringleader and gracefully land behind him. Because of his low position, Ari quickly spun around with a sweeping kick that normally targets the feet. However in this case Ari was targeting Ringleader’s face. Luckily for him, Ringleader brought his arms up to block the kick from hitting his face, but the force still knocked him off balance.

Ringleader rolled away from Ari as the rest of his crew were either cowering, mostly buried, or groveling on the floor in pain. Aside from the cut on her brow, there isn't an obvious sign of injury on Ari’s part. By this point Ari’s anger was more or less quelled. Seeing the state of the group, the Ringleader was essentially already defeated. A sigh escapes from the girl’s lips as her bronze skin glistened with sweat.

”You’re no longer worth my time anymore. Go home.” Ari simply told the Ringleader, and there was clear spite in his expression like he wanted to spark an argument. But Ringleader stopped when one of his own crew grabbed the kid by the arm. Still a bit hunched over with their other hand tending to their stomach. There were no words spoken, and so the rest scattered from Ari’s location in a hurry. Of course Ari was kind enough to bring the mostly buried Genin to the surface, but the silver haired girl wasn’t even thanked. Instead the kid sneered and spat at her face. To which Ari immediately retaliated with a mean left hook against the kid’s jaw out of anger.

Like a sack of potatoes, the Genin went down as Ari growled in frustration while wiping the swab of saliva from her face.

”This is why I hate idiots!” She growled to no one in particular, and Ari didn’t even bother getting someone about the knocked out kid. Ari just left his ass on the ground as she walked away. There was a nearby pond about 40 meters away, and Ari uses that to splash cool water on her face. She hissed once the water touched the cut on her forehead. Once the water calmed to look at her own reflection, Ari checked how bad the cut was. A shallow one turns out, but it still aches and burns. A frown curled on her lips as she grit her teeth from the pain. Not just from her brow, but her stomach and arms. Thinking back on what those kids were saying, tears started streaming down her cheeks as Ari sobbed.

”Stupid jerks… They don’t know anything!” Ari muttered to herself as she was frustrated that she couldn’t stop the tears. So she resulted in splashing more water on her face. Her chest heaving from sobbing as the built-up weight on her consciousness was beginning to show.

WC: 1206
[Learning Leaf Rising Wind]
[Learning Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique]

The morning was warm and bright as the purple haired girl walked down the road, her konoha headband around her neck and her hair pulled into a functional ponytail. Her violet eyes saw everything with the sharingan active beneath them, hiding them from visual existence in the world. To be honest, this purple haired girl was Akari Uchiha, Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure. She had decided that in order to get a feel for her shinobi and to be able to interact with them normally, that she should start using a disguise to observe them as if she was simply a normal shinobi. Being the Hokage however, had other perks, and she utilized them to create a completely authentic shinobi ID for an individual that simply did not exist. In this guise she was simply ‘Himari’ an orphan without even a family name.

She was registered as a genin and she had made sure to activate her sharingan before activating the transformation that hid her real appearance. Otherwise the Sharingan might have shown through the fake form. Now however her eyes simply looked violet, pretty, but not anything like a doujutsu. Her genin status would give her the least amount of authority possible within the village while still being a shinobi. This would allow her to observe how her shinobi handled the genin of her village. As well as how other genin interacted with one another. Akari figured it would be quite amusing to see how this went. The only problem was that she had to ensure she didn’t take a solid hit, no matter what it took to keep that from happening. Otherwise her transformation would disperse and she would be visible in her true form once again.

Arriving at the Grand Konoha Training Facility, the purple haired girl would move through the floors to find people to potentially train ‘with’ when she eventually came across Ari and the six boys going at it. She would watch as a brunette boy tried to utilize a fire technique on Ari and watch  as Ari avoided it by tunneling under ground and then yanking him under. It had the added effect of causing him to catch his own teammate on fire and Akari winced. Someone would be going to the hospital for burn treatments soon. Once that was done two more stood and tried to come at her, one low and one high. She dealt with the one coming from on high first by jumping to meet him in mid air and landing a vicious kick to his chin that threw him a good thirty or so feet away.

Then she’d turn in mid air and springboard off the boy who came in low, using the force behind his own attack for the energy to springboard off of. When she landed behind him she’d do a spin kick, prompting Akari to wince once more. Spin kicks were flashy, but disgustingly dangerous. All it took was a well placed kick to the knee once your leg was in motion and you would be out of the count. The boy however was too low to take advantage, or didn’t know how to, and blocked the kick and got knocked off balance. The girl's dark skin had a sheen of sweat as she told the boys to effectively get lost and almost prompted who was apparently the ring leader to attack again. However his comrades held him back and they left, all except the one still trapped below ground.

Ari, and Akari recognized the girl as a genin named Ari, a foreign girl who joined her village and became a shinobi, went to free the boy but his response was simply to spit in her face and prompt her to knock him out in anger. Akari winced once more, she had a nasty violent streak. She was clearly proud and didn’t like to be disrespected. Ari would exclaim now about how she hated idiots before she went to a pond about forty meters away. ‘Akari’ would follow the girl a way behind, but by the time she caught up the girl would be crying, uncontrollable tears escaping her eyes as the feelings of guilt weighed down on her. Akari took a moment to gather herself. She looked like someone totally different and she’d have to act that way too, otherwise people would catch on eventually. So after collecting herself Akari as ‘Himari’ stepped out of the tree line and moved closer to the crying girl. She had clearly been the victim of whatever had started back there, simply defending herself, even if Akari hadn’t seen the start of it that much was clear based on the girls reactions now. People who started such things, didn’t feel guilt over them.

“May I come closer?” She would ask politely, holding up a cleaning pad and a bandage in her hand that she had obtained from her pack. She was careful to augment her voice quite a bit, it was simple for most girls to do so given that their voices were usually high in pitch in any way. She had stopped about 3 meters away, clearly close enough to see that Ari was crying, but not wanting to get any closer unless she had the girls permission. She’d probably already feel affronted by the fact that she had been seen crying, but Akari could hopefully deal with that. “Don’t worry, I’m alone. I was looking for a training partner when I saw what was going on, I stopped to watch because, well, frankly you didn’t seem to need any help with those assholes.” She would say, a small apologetic smile on her features in commiseration for what the girl had to go through.

To Ari’s perspective Akari would look no older than Ari herself, fourteen, if the Hokage remembered correctly, and would be tiny, hell, petite even. She had a wooden bokken across her waist and two weapon pouches upon her hips. Her violet eyes would be non judgemental, but underneath the sharingan would be keeping close tabs on everything.

Normally Ari would be better aware of her surroundings, but she was focused in the fight that she didn’t notice anyone else. The heat of combat pulsing through her veins as Ari came out triumphant. Albeit she is a bit battered and bruised as a result. Ari figured if she had taken another hit like Blondie’s punch to the head then that would’ve been it. Granted Ari has armor, and she has the gear now. Yet there was a difference between stabbing people and punching their faces. It always felt much better to knock someone’s lights out like Ari just did than stab them with a kunai.

The uncontrollable tears that streamed down from her eyes as the cool water dripped from her chin. Some strands of her silver hair were damp from the water. Even when the water calmed to allow Ari see a reflection of herself. It made her wonder if she really can do what Ari wanted. To be able to harness the five elements is an accomplishment by itself, as she hasn’t heard of anyone except for legends that managed to do that. But deciding on what element to focus on next is always the hard part.

Ari didn’t see Hirami due to the tears, but her ears still worked as Hirami spoke.

”Huh? Ari muttered as she was confused. Was she in the way? Was she impeding someone's training? Is she gonna have to knock another person out already? Ari didn’t know as she opened her eyes and turned her head to the side. Facing the direction of Hirami. She was pretty cute like a doll, but Ari’s immediate instinct was to shift her feet a bit wide and bent considering she was on her knees. Her hands opened with her fingers curled like they’re claws as it was the typical stance for the spirit lynx stance. Tears were streaming less from her eyes as Ari thought she was about to fight again. Although to anyone’s outside perspective, Ari was acting like a savage animal.

However her aggressive demeanor lost its edge when Ari noticed that Hirami wasn’t taking a fighting stance. Instead the seemingly fourteen year old girl was carrying a cleaning pad and a bandage. To which she recognized as typical primitive first aid, and the stern expression on Ari’s face gradually crumbled to a stoic expression. Ari shifted her back leg to sit on the floor before nodding her head.

”They were disorganized and they didn’t just attack me as one unit. Instead they fought in waves, and it made the fight easier because of that.” After all not even Ari could handle six people at the same time. At least not in her current level. A sigh escaped from the girl’s lips as she leaned back and a small wall of dirt erected from the ground just behind Ari. Something that she could lean against without discomfort.

”Plus they were more familiar with Strong Fist than myself. If it weren’t for me switching up fighting styles when that brute tried to cook me with his flamethrower, I probably would have been in the hospital right now. Well, that’s assuming anyone around here would put that much effort.” That’s when Ari realized that her left arm is uncomfortably warm, and she tenderly touches the exposed skin. Even to her hands it was warm, but that was also the side facing that flamethrower. It felt something equivalent to a sunburn, but nothing more than that. Ari undoes the buckle over her left arm guard of steel before taking it off. Then she submerges her left arm into the pond up to her elbow. It felt like ice, but she can tolerate it. Her steel arm guards also had a pair of loaded kunai mechanisms that was spring loaded on top of them.

Whether the girl suddenly froze up or was at a lost for words. Ari just appreciated the time to let her emotions smolder. Recent events has put a lot of questions and doubts within her mind. How can she improve? Will learning multiple elements really help her improve? Or will the effort be in vain? Compared to the Sharingan and whatever eye thing Chika has. Ari has none of that, and Ashitaka can apparently recover from wounds a lot quicker without using any technique to do so. All she could do is throw a punch and make rocks move.

”Hey, do you remember that Rin Uchiha? The one who defended Konohagakure from the Kyuubi?” A voice spoke from nearby as a couple of other genin were walking by.

”You mean the dead one?” The second was a female with blonde short hair as she held a smug smile on her expression. The brunette shook her head in dismissal.

”He’s not dead! I saw him walking around in the Market District earlier this morning!” Blondie snickered as she held the very same expression of disbelief.

”Yeah okay. And I’m the new Hokage as well.” It was a rude joke that mocked her belief to what Ari assumed was the girl’s friend. Whom puffed her cheeks as the brunette protested once more.

”I’m serious! He seemed a bit older than the last time I saw him, but it’s the same person I swear to you.” Not much else could be heard as they walked too far for Ari to eavesdrop further. Her stormy grey eyes shifted to the side at the water’s surface.

”Rin Uchiha huh…” Muttering to herself as her thoughts were swimming in chaos. Nothing really made sense, and what did were having a large impact of keeping Ari in this mental trap. Like her mind is sunk into a mud pit and it keeps dragging her down further everytime she struggles against it. The girl shook her head as Ari stands up to her feet with her arm guard in hand.

”I’m sorry, but there’s something I must do. I’ll talk to you later.” And with that Ari jogs off from the scene and outside of the grand facility. It was a glimmer of hope, but if anything hopefully whoever this Rin Uchiha was could help her. Even if it is a little, just maybe this can work.

[Exit]