Rising Tide

Sayuri found herself alone in the Kirigakure Administration building, not by chance mind you, and also by ‘alone’ she was merely looking for time away from Kitsuki. Arisu had been absent since their first and last official meeting so hadn’t been a concern for the Ice Queen, but the angelic princess was around every corner it seemed. Every corner of Sayuri’s mind anyway, always invading the relative peacefulness of her thoughts. She had come to this place for one specific purpose; to obtain more power. Going to the vault she was allowed in without question, and she entered and stood in front of the village's exclusive scrolls. Gently she picked them up and unrolled them, staring down at the ancient texts and committing them to memory.

That was the easy part. Some of them were simple enough that she knew she wouldn’t need to practice them to master their complexity (or lack thereof). There were three of them though that she knew would take considerably more effort to unlock the secrets of. For those three she would remove herself from the vault, giving a dispassionate nod to the guards in attendance, and head back to her mountain ice castle. Just as she had done before, she ascended the mountain to practice the art of ninjutsu. The trek was uneventful, no one wandered these woods unless they were looking for the Nightmare Brigade, or for her specifically. Even the animals had begun to understand that this territory was taken, and by something more monstrous than any of them.

The Yuki princess finally reached the top of the mountain, pleased to see that Frederick and Cayde were there to greet her. Her Ice Forged Sentinel and gifted Bone Golem respectively. They did not speak, she wasn’t even sure if they could, but they did give grunts of acknowledgement as she came into view, lumbering towards her and awaiting her instructions. “Hello, my friends. Frederick, Cayde. Such good servants. Keep patrolling the area, I will be inside.” The two giant guards would nod and move away to do her bidding, leaving her to walk with purpose inside the hyoton created palace that was her true home.

She had done some work to the place, collected furnishings and other important things for living in an ice palace. There were distinct rooms now; the entryway had a long and elaborately styled rug along the floor with various chairs and benches to accommodate guests that had to wait there. Beyond that was a large room with an icy throne at one end, and a long table made of the same ice with a brilliantly red table runner along it. There were silver candlesticks with equally red hued candles in them, and eight chairs surrounding the table. If she had the inclination to, she could host a fabulous (though quite cold) dinner party with all the space the center room provided. She had a fireplace constructed along one side of the large meeting room which she never lit when she was alone, but it was there to keep her guests from freezing. If she ever got any guests that she wanted to keep from freezing to death, who couldn’t do so on their own. There were other hallways that branched off from the main room, one leading to a bedroom that Sayuri called her own, and covered with intricate tiny ice sculptures that she made in her spare time. Some of the sculptures were made in sets; depicting scenes that she had witnessed or imagined, people she knew currently, or one’s she had dreamt up. There was a special shelf that seemed to be reserved for only one type of statuette. A man with a large sword that always seemed to look down on the world.

Once inside her room she would sit on the bedding and cross her legs, going through the techniques she had learned in her mind. Ordinarily she would have just practiced them, but she wanted to go unnoticed and creating giant walls of water, and waves that could crush entire cities was not something she thought was the greatest idea on top of her sanctuary. The first one - Rising Water Slicer - was one such destructive force. She knew it took four hand seals, Tiger - Ox - Snake and Tiger again and then a wave would rise high into the air at frightening speeds. That one required a decent amount of water to already be present in order for it to function. The second one - Water-Heavens Convergence - was much the same as the first; it required six hand seals however, Tiger - Dog - Monkey - Snake - Boar and then Tiger once more. It required a significant amount of water to already be present. Unlike the first one however, Water-Heavens Convergence allowed a sort of free form manipulation of Suiton. Whatever she dreamt of she could do with this, assuming no one could stop her. She could block attacks or redirect them, she could of course use it to attack but that seemed like less than what the technique was capable of.

Once she was satisfied that she had learned the first two, Sayuri moved on to the final technique; Great Waterfall Technique. This one was exciting. With only four hand seals, Tiger - Ox - Monkey and then Rabbit, she would be able to create a veritable tsunami. This technique would cause untold destruction, and she recalled that it was most likely the technique Hana used in the destruction of Moonspire. It was an interesting way to use it, and she thought perhaps it had been a test for a larger target. Moonspire, by all accounts, had been large but not largely defended - not like a Shinobi Village. She wondered idly what other target might have come next, but eventually decided that if it had been her the answer would have been all of them. After thoroughly training all of the village’s exclusive techniques, Sayuri would sit until it became too dark to see and craft more ice sculptures.

[Exit Thread]

[Trained 3 Techniques (2 A and 1 S) WC = 1020/800]

Techniques Learned Through Universal Claim:

Techniques Trained: