The Stuff of Nightmares

It would be the middle of the night when Azrael left out from the Kaguya clan district where he was staying, heading for the village training grounds. Dressed in all black from head to toe his Kirigakure Hitai-ate fashioned into a belt, the lower part of his face covered by his demon mask, a single bell earring in his left ear, with his white hair standing out in the moonlight. Between the low amount of most through the village this night and the moon hanging high in the sky, larger than normal with just a light tint of red cast over it's normal white, of course this would be just a trick of the eyes. It was what some called the hunters moon, while others view it as a sign of the beast. Whatever you wanted to call it, the streets of Kirigakure would be illuminated brightly by the moonlight from it. The soft chime of his bell earring echoing through the empty streets of the village, he wasn't trying to hide his presence or that he left. Even Never and More would Caw out in the night as they flew high in the sky over the head of their master, giving a clear view of where he was in the village if anyone knew him. He just simply wished for privacy, and considering the others knew of his love for the Deadwood, it was highly possible they would just assume that he was going out there.

He knew Sero didn't mind them doing their training within the district considering it was abandoned other than those of the Brigade, and his techniques didn't usually cause structural damage anyways, however he was working on something he wasn't sure he was ready for the other Nightmares to see, at least not yet. Since his reawakening he had been borrowing medical books in an attempt to learn more about the human body and causing pain that could be physical rather than his normal mental attacks, his encounter proved to him that he was not up to his full power and he would need to further his own abilities if he was going to succeed in his assistance to his Master. He had already mastered the basics of the art, but wanted to perfect stronger techniques before he showed the other's and his Master.

As he arrived at the training grounds he would activate his chakra sensory so that if someone did happen to come along while he was training, he would at least be alerted to their presence. Never and More would perch themselves on a nearby tree branch, so far the Ravens had been the male's only witnesses in his training. With his sensing technique active, he would begin. First focusing chakra into the palm of his hand as he approached a dummy at one end of the training grounds. Once he got close enough to the dummy, Azrael would thrust his hand forward into the dummy, his hand cutting through it like a knife. Azrael removed his hand from the dummy, inspecting it with the chakra still around it. He would stare at it for a few seconds before touching it to his other hand, instantly cutting into his palm. Wincing in pain slightly he would remove his chakra scalpel covered hand and look at the cut on his palm. 'So that's what it feels like,' he would think to himself as the chakra covering his other hand shifted and he touched it to his palm again instantly healing it. This was a good start.

{603}

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Learning Chakra Scalpel Technique (200/200)
Learning Mystic Palm Technique (200/200)

Raika shows up in the training area herself only a few moments after Azrael has healed himself, though she wasn't aware that he was even here. The Ryuutei ninja notices him right away; after her meeting with Sero, there was no longer any bad blood between her and the genjutsu ninja; at this point, she was just looking to train some more jutsu to make her a better assassin for the Nightmares. She comes right up to Azrael and gives him a nod; she wasn't really looking to try out her new jutsu on him directly, but she needed a scent that wasn't her own. She's already ripped off a piece of her own cloak, although it doesn't look any less tattered for the damage, and she approaches him with it in her hand before holding it up once they're just about a meter away.

"Do me a favor. I need to try a new technique, and for that, I need a scent I can track."

At this point, she reaches over and rubs the fabric over his shirt, and then just to make sure, she presses it into the hand he'd just finished healing up himself. Although Raika notices the blood, she doesn't say anything as the fabric wipes all the blood off, ensuring that it's now completely covered in his scent.

"Thanks."

Then she brings the re-scented fabric to one of the dummies a few meters away so that her training doesn't directly interfere with his, and she pins the fabric to her own training dummy with a shuriken. With that done, she performs the Hidden Mist technique, causing the area nearby to be layered in a dense mist, thick enough that anybody without a dojutsu particularly suited for visual perception can't see through it. Then, oddly, Raika dashes out of her own mist. Something else that's quite strange is that her eyes are actually closed, though her face is snarling and her nostrils are flared open. She's now taken on the fighting stance of the style known for its brutality, the Brute Fist, though her fingers are pulled back, leaving her claws out on her right hand. Raika presses her weight forwards onto the balls of her feet, focusing chakra to flow along the bottom of her feet just like with the surface walking technique, and then using that focused chakra flow to dash forwards in a sudden burst of speed, reaching a speed she wouldn't normally be capable of and using her claw for a harsh swipe at the dummy.

The single swipe is damaging enough to rip the dummy wide open and tear it directly from its wooden post, leaving its stuffing-filled lower half attached to the claws in her right hand, and the speed of her ferocious swipe leaving the mist bisected before the mist slowly dissipates. She drops the dummy to the ground and tramples on it on her way back to pick her shuriken out of the upper half that's still attached to the post.

OOC: Learning Dividing the Mist (C-rank custom taijutsu) 278/200

CP: 180/185

Techniques used:

Spoiler:

Feeling the familiar presence of the beastial chakra that was Raika on the edge of his sensory range, Azrael would quickly release the mystic palm technique before turning to look in her direction. "Raika Ryuutei, wh-" Azrael had started to ask her why she had followed him, when Raika started talking saying something about a technique before rubbing his chest and his hand with something and then walking away. Azrael stares after her with a puzzled look upon his face, he had thought she followed him, but from the looks of things she just happened to show up here as well. Azrael watched her for a moment, slowly realizing that he had allowed her to simply walk up to him and place her hand on him without a word. This could not stand, he should not have been so careless, so unaware. Had she been an enemy he could have been killed, or worse captured. He had to figure out a way to protect his feeble body from someone that may be faster than him, who could get to him before he trapped them in his illusions. It was yet another reason that he had began this study of medicine, that and to help his Master achieve his goal eventually. Using chakra to protect his body, healing it the instant it was damaged seemed like the best way to achieve his own protection, though it would require precise timing and the perfect amount of chakra, enough to heal the damage but not enough to waste his chakra in the process.

As he watched her dash from the mist she created and destroy the dummy she had been aiming for, Azrael would look back to the dummy he had struck and saw the small hole he had created. His strike while precise, lacked any power behind it unlike Raika's strike. However he knew there had to be a way for him to use his Chakra to enhance his physical prowess, even if just for a moment. Taking a slow breath as he focused his chakra, allowing it to flow freely through the entirety of his body before focusing it all behind a singular focused punch. Azrael was not a physical person and Raika would know that from their meetings, however with his chakra enhanced strength on top of the extra focus of chakra into the strike itself, Azrael's punch was capable of ripping the dummy's head from the body and send it flying away. Looking back to his fist, Azrael would smile beneath his mask at his hand, before had he thrown a punch like that his fingers would have been broken, but it seemed as though everything still worked right. Azrael would stretch out the fingers of his hand opening in closing it a few times before turning back around to face where Raika was.

Azrael didn't know whether Raika watched him punch it or not, as his chakra sense only allowed him to feel her presence not see what she was doing. He had been so focused on getting his own chakra just right for the punch, that he stopped paying attention to what she was doing at the time. He didn't care one way or the other if she had or not, as he was doing this for himself not an audience. Though now that he was done he would look back to her, so long as she was not currently occupied with her own training he would approach her, otherwise he would wait until she was done to do so. Now that he was done with what he had planned on practicing, and the fact that there was now someone else in the training grounds, an idea popped into his head.

"Raika Ryuutei, This One would ask a favor of you." His low whisper behind the mask as his red eyes looked at her, "This One has a new technique, but requires assistance in it's performance. Can This One use you?" As he waited for the woman to respond he would already begun channeling his chakra, if Raika agreed to be his guinea pig for his new technique then Azrael would form the Tiger hand seal ensuring that it could be seen by the woman. It wouldn't take effect right away, but as long as she watched him perform the hand seal then it was done and soon she would find herself blinded by his bringer of darkness genjutsu.

{749/1352}

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952 unused WC
Learned  Yin Healing Wound Destruction (A-Rank Ijutsu) 250/250
Learned Chakra Enhanced Strength (B-Rank Ijutsu) 200/200
Learned Cherry Blossom Impact (C-Rank Ijutsu) 150/150
Learned Bringer of Darkness (A-Rank Genjutsu) 250/250

Remaining WC: 102

Raika flexes her claws a few times, ensuring that the swipe hadn't damaged any of her nails or her fingers, but everything seemed to be working fine after such a harsh strike. Still, she figured that she would need to somehow strengthen her nails before she tried something like that against armor. She leaves behind the broken dummy where it was and has started approaching Azrael again to see if he'd be willing to teach her how to defend herself against his mind tricks, but she stays silent when she sees that he's focusing on the dummy. Raika watches how even Azrael, with a single strike, rips the dummy's head clean off its body and sends it flying away; she can see the chakra lining his fist, and she lets out a single, low whistle of approval. If he could teach her that... but she wasn't sure if he would, and besides, she had to focus on not being attacked where she was weak right now. And she was weak with mental attacks.

Her eyes had been following the trajectory of the dummy's head, but now she refocuses on Azrael when he's turned back to speak to her and request her help, instead. The small hairs on the back of her neck stand up when he requires assistance in one of his new techniques, but she figures that would be the perfect time to ask. After all, she'd already somewhat used his assistance for her own training already, so it was only fair that he use her for training as well.

"Sure, as long as you teach me how to break out of those mind tricks. I figure it would be best to learn from another Nightmare."

Her eyes flash to the handseal as Azrael makes it, and her sight is instantly snuffed to blackness. This time, however, she stays calm; she'd learned to focus her mind when her other senses are blinded; Raika looks directly at him, following him using just his scent, which she'd already used once before to track "him", or more specifically a dummy with his scent, so she knew which scent was his and how to closely follow it.

"Not a bad trick. But that's not the kind of technique that works on a Ryuutei... You got lucky tricking me with that mind trick in the forest, and I got angry instead of focusing on your scent."

She pauses for a moment, then recalls that she'd threatened that she would break off his jaw if he caught her in another genjutsu, but she had given permission this time. Raika figures it would be best to assuage any preemptive thought of her retaliation.

"And I'm not going to rip your jaw off this time. I gave you permission."

Azrael would walk around the woman as he felt his genjutsu take hold, though she seemed to be able to follow him movements which was odd at first, but after the woman's explanation it made sense and Azrael would note that he would need to work on some techniques that could attack more than one sense, as then there would be few things others could do to stop him. He would pace for a few moments in silence and then step closer to Raika, as he moved towards her he would form a string of hand seals before lightly touching her forehead. Of course, she would be able to feel him touch her forehead, she wouldn't know that he had just stacked in another illusion. After tapping her on her forehead Azrael would finally speak, "Breaking an Illusion is simple, however This One has discovered that the most difficult part for most is separating reality from illusion." Azrael would pause as he spoke allowing his words to sink in, of course for this instance her having to discover what was real and what was not was rather simple as she already knew he had placed a genjutsu on her. "Before We tell you How to break free, please tell this one, what does it feel like?" Azrael would ask with a questioning tone in his whisper. After Raika answered his question, Azrael would continue. "Once you are able to separate truth from lies you have to options, the first and sadly what most try is pain. Inflicting enough pain to yourself, can break the illusions, however it can also cause more harm than the illusion would have. The second option is what This One advises you using, mold your chakra within you and allow the impurities of the genjutsu effecting your chakra to be released through Kai." As he said these words, Azrael would be standing directly in front of Raika so that her face was met with his face and her eyes would be met by her, whenever she ended the illusion, he had cast upon her.

If she was able to use Kai to break out of his darkness genjutsu, then her direct line of sight would be met with the face of Azrael and his glowing Akayurei, if her eyes met his she would trigger yet another genjutsu. Unlike the one where he touched her forehead this one would cause her pain; he would be certain not to kill her of course as that would be bad to do with a fresh recruit such as her. Azrael would simply wait patiently for what the woman was going to do once the buzzing within her head would begin to drive her crazy, shortly after which the genjutsu he touched her with on the forehead would activate causing any physical harm done to her to be ampilified by her brain to think it was greater than it actually would have been. If the woman was smart enough, she would be able to see through both of his Illusions before they could even take hold of her, though if she wasn't smart enough then she would be doomed to life within the illusion. Though Azrael would not actually allow her to suffer like that, he may not know her well, but his master named her a Nightmare and therefore she was a part of their family, and he would ensure her safety, even from himself.

Once she was free from the Bringer of darkness, whether she made eye contact with him or not he would speak in his low whisper. "Not bad Raika Ryuutei, You impress This One." his words really didn't mean anything as it was his mask that he wanted her to look at this time. If she looked at the mask, it would move just as it had the time they had met, only its demonic tongue would lick across the teeth this time. If she did not break free of this one then soon she would find herself standing before a large Maw as it tried to eat her. however it was also possible that she would be able to break free rather simply due to the fact that she knew him to be a genjutsu user and to expect such things, however with three genjutsu stacked as they were she could release herself from the wrong genjutsu and still find herself stuck in one. Azrael would simply watch to see what she would do. Though it was also possible that the woman would have absolutely no idea he had placed other Genjutsus upon them, if that was the case then it was possible that he had been wrong about her, and Azrael did not think that he was wrong, in fact he felt almost certain the woman would be able to break at least one of two of them. Of course, if she was unable to break one or more of his illusions then he would step in and end the jutsu himself so that he doesn't cause harm to them as, she is a new nightmare, and as such it was his goal as is every Nightmare, to assist other Nightmares when they needed to be.

{877}

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102 left previously {979}
Training A-Rank Custom Genjutsu "A Fate Worse than Death" (300/300)
Training A-Rank Custom Genjutsu "Insecta-Psychosis" (300/300)
Training A-Rank Custom Genjutsu "Jowls of Demise" (300/300)
{79WC remaining}

Genjutsu Countdowns
AFWD ~ 0/2 Posts
IP ~ 0/1 Posts
JD ~ 0/2 Posts

Jutsu Used:

OoC:

Raika tilts her head just slightly, putting one ear higher than the other and using the difference in height to better detect some of Azrael's movements. She can tell that he's moving around as his scent circles around her, her nostrils continuing to flare to catch every scent for her brain to analyze the information, much more like a cat than a human would. The scent of him grows stronger as he nears her, but she doesn't back away, instead remaining still before he places a fingertip on her forehead, which would be an odd thing to do in most circumstances, but she was dealing with an odd person in Azrael. Then he asks her to describe how it feels to be in a genjutsu, and she shrugs nonchalantly.

"It's really subtle. If I didn't already know this was one of your mind tricks... genjutsu, that is, I would barely know, except that it kinda feels like an... itching, I guess? If I wasn't already trying to focus on it, I probably wouldn't even recognize it was there."

She's quiet again when he tells her how most break out of genjutsu and how it's usually either with pain or through Kai. Raika racked her brain for a while, then thinks she remembers how she'd been told that Kai worked by focusing chakra, then rapidly expelling foreign chakra from her head like a repellant. She pulls in some of her chakra and focuses it upwards as she forms the Tiger handseal in order to better focus what she's about to do. With quite a lot of effort, she finds that she has to push a huge amount of chakra out just to relieve the genjutsu that had made her vision completely dark, only for her eyes to meet with Azrael's glowing red eyes directly.

Raika has just enough time to think to herself that she doesn't like the look of those eyes before he starts speaking again, telling her that he had been impressed by her breaking out of that genjutsu; she instantly disbelieved it. Azrael didn't strike her as one that was easily impressed, and she still felt some kind of itching sensation in her head, one that was just barely even noticeable. With her mind focused on the itching sensation, she closes her eyes again to focus on her chakra, gathering a huge amount of it up with the Tiger handseal again and missing the trick with his mask. Each time she does this, she can feel that she has to expend quite a lot of chakra; if this keeps up, she's just going to end up too exhausted to continue. She's lucky that she can feel that bestial chakra and even her latent Uzumaki chakra feeding into how much chakra she can use to blast the genjutsu from her head, ignoring all other outward stimuli to feel out for more itching sensations; she's even lost track of Azrael's scent from how hard she has to focus inward. This wasn't really Raika's usual method of doing things.

It takes her a few uses of Kai to be able to rid herself of the foreign chakra, as it seems to have stacked itself on top of each other, and by the end of it, she's panting from having to expel such a huge amount of chakra in rapid succession, her sharp fangs showing through her panting from the exertion, but she focuses a bit more for feeling out any more foreign chakra in her head; when she no longer feels that chakra inside her, she's much more careful this time, and scents him out for his general location, turning her head to avoid his gaze when she finally opens her eyes.

"Sonuva bitch."

OOC: WC: (more than 150)/150 Genjutsu Kai

CP: 90/185 (180 to start, 30x3 for S-rank Genjutsu Kai)

Jutsu used:

Genjutsu Kai (x3 S-rank due to Intelligence stat difference)

Jutsu learned:

Spoiler:

Azrael would smile under his mask as he listened to how the woman described how the genjutsu felt, having never had an illusion cast upon himself that he couldn't see through, he had yet to experience such a feeling, which was why he was interested. As he began his onslaught of Genjutsu, he would watch how Raika would react to each one and how she would quickly go to break out of one just to find herself in another. Azrael, smiled as he made himself a little proud in that moment as he watched her struggle with his illusions. He wouldn't move, just simply stand in the same spot he was when he had activated his jowls of demise technique. When she had finally broke out of the last illusion she had been stuck in, she seemed tired and exhausted just as he was from his own exertion from before she had arrived and since, though his was more of simply being tired, rather than physical exertion.

Azrael would start a slow clap four or five times as he stepped closer, noticing Raika avoiding his eyes. "Do you feel as though you can perform Kai effectively in the field, Raika Ryuutei? Or would you like This One to continue so you may practice more?" Azrael asked as he stared at her waiting for an answer, neither his clap nor his questions would be sarcastic or meant to insult the woman. He clapped because he was truly impressed that she was able to realize she had been placed under so many genjutsu at once, even the ones she didn't see fully, and his questions would be genuine as well, as he truly wished to help his fellow Nightmare as she had him by being his target practice.

Assuming Raika did not wish for more Genjutsu to be thrown at her, Azrael would tilt his head slightly. "You do not need to fear This One's eyes, Raika Ryuutei. This One swears by Sero, that we will attack your mind no longer." Azrael would lift his left arm above his head and Never and More would take off from their perch into the sky above the young Nightmare pair. "Raika Ryuutei, would you care to join This One for something other than training? We know a spot where they will serve This One, what they call Fish. It is rather Delicious, if you have not had them." Normally, he would not eat near other people as it required him to remove his mask to eat, however recently he has figured out ways to keep his face covered even while eating.

Raika takes a few breaths, but she no longer feels nearly so winded. Those genjutsu had been a lot to break out of, but her deep and wide chakra had let her brute force her way through them without having to get to feel what it felt like to be under the genjutsu. After being asked if she thinks she can effectively perform Kai in the field, Raika shrugs before carefully considering for a moment. The fact that she'd had to focus exclusively on how it felt to have that itching sensation of a foreign chakra inside her told her that she'd need a better method of actually being able to tell if she's in a genjutsu, but that wasn't something that Kai could actually help her with...

"I think I can use Kai just fine, Azrael. My problem is going to be in trying to figure out how to find out if I'm in a genjutsu, first..."

Her eyebrows furrow in contemplation. Although she'd learned that she could use her other senses if one genjutsu targeted a particular sense like her eyesight or hearing, that wouldn't really help her with genjutsu that didn't rely on any of those senses at all and would instead focus on other aspects. She sighs and gives up for the moment on thinking about that, because she is actually starting to feel a bit hungry when Azrael suggests they get something to eat. Although he seems to not know for sure what a fish is.

"Yeah, all right. First we eat, and regain some chakra, then I take you back here to try and toughen you up against Taijutsu..."

Raika gives Azrael one of her extremely rare smiles, although he might have a feeling that the smile was not one genuinely meant for him, but for what she might do to him as some form of payback. Although Raika would never outright suggest that she was going to beat him up for putting her in so many genjutsu that she would have to break out of.

Regardless, she starts heading towards the entrance of the training ground, wiping sweat from her brow with the wrappings around her left arm while she makes her way out, letting Azrael lead; although she could catch and eat her fish raw whenever she felt like it, she might as well take up the other ninja's offer of food.

(Exit w/ Azrael)

"Excellent, yes." Azrael would reply to Raika's statement of believing she could perform the Kai, though she admitted that her problem would come from identifying the genjutsu. "This One will do our best to help you, Raika Ryuutei. Just as This One would help all Nightmares, we have been studying and we believe it is possible to mix different types of chakra. This One may be able to help you in the discovery of genjutsu placed upon you." Azrael would reply with an unseen smile beneath his mask.

When Raika mentions coming back and toughening him up with Taijutsu, Azrael would shake his head, "You are mistaken, Raika Ryuutei. This one does not use Taijutsu, this one is not physical." he would answer completely unaware that she witnessed him punching the head of the dummy off, though he was not lying as that was not taijutsu. Still Azrael would take the lead as they exited the training grounds and headed for the place that sold the things called fish.

{Exit w/Raika}