Open Blitzing in a Blizzard

[Shinrya Kirai]

Snow fell softly from the heavens on the ridged mountain tops. The thick blanket that already lay across the land was pristine, all except the trail of footsteps that led to where Kirai stood, staring out across the mountain line. She inhaled, the frigid air biting at her lungs, before puffing it out slowly, watching as the warm breath visibly steamed out. She pulled the scarf around her tighter, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets. It was quiet up in the mountains. She didn't much like people, a likely side effect of being shunned by h

er own family. She had started to integrate a bit better into the ways of the village thanks to a few people she knew she could trust, but she still preferred isolation to communal gatherings. Pulling the gray coat around her tighter, she turned and began trudging up the mountain further.

One might ask themselves why she found herself in the mountains in the first place. Even being well acclimated to the icy climate, many still perished here, forever preserved as popsicles, the winds carrying the weight of their grief. Some said that their voices could still be heard if you listened closely enough. Kirai could care less about the dead, for she barely cared for the living. No, her main purpose for being on the mountainside was that she came here to train. Unlike most of the shinobi of the village, Kirai wasn't trained conventionally. Her "gifts" made her a monster to her parents. The caregiver was more afraid of her than anything. Even the militia that she trained under as a weapon only taught her the basics of control. Kirai needed to spend time actually working with her abilities. She had used them many times, of course, but she had little to no understanding of them, and the control she had was primarily driven by emotion, not tactical planning. Needless to say, it made her more of a liability to people than an asset, no matter what people said.

The pink haired woman wouldn't likely be hard to spot, given the way her vibrant hair color stood out among the snow, nor would the dark clothing that she donned. It didn't really matter to her whether people approached or not, but it hadn't happened so far. Kirai finally made it to the spot she had been coming to for the past several weeks. It always surprised her that the area still managed to look new after her sessions. She let out another puff of air. "Ugh, finally. I swear that trek gets longer every time I come up here." Kirai set down the small bag she had brought with her. It had a few rations, but primarily it was just some minor tools or weapons if she felt inclined to use them during her practice. Kirai looked over towards the training dummy that she had crafted together out of the nearby resources and took a fighting stance. She wasn't sure what she wanted to work on at this very moment, but her routine always started with hand to hand combat. Precision training, then she would get into the more advanced stuff. With that, she got to work.

WC: 536

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

As snow fell down softly, Ziren laid with his back against a boulder. Everything seemed quiet. Peaceful even. One of the things that he would admit that he likes about Cloud ever since coming here five years ago.

It was slightly cold outside, but now the man was accustomed to the cold climate, which is far better than the harshness of Water Country's climate. He shifted to get comfortable and was about to take some Z's when he heard a blood flow. It seemed to be getting nearer. With a sigh, Ziren got up and stretched his body out before investigating what he is hearing. Whether it be a bandit, traveling merchant, or just some random ninja person, he would like to get the handle of the situation and act appropriately in case something were to happen.

Thanks to his kimono, Ziren was more or less hidden, unless if one were to notice blue hair or a shiny piece of metal that would resembled his left arm. But it wasn't as if Ziren was really hiding at all. Once he found the person in which the bloodflow belongs to, he figured that they weren't a danger. A young girl, probably a teen, fighting a dummy. Now Ziren was one to take training seriously and would like peace and quiet, but to go as far as a remote location such as this? What if something were to happen to the girl and nobody even knew where she was at?

The Chigokai waited a few seconds longer before truly making the girl aware he was there if she didn't already.

"Excuse me, Miss. I understand the importance of training and the want to practice in solitude, but would practicing in an isolated place like this really be good for you? I mean, what if something were to happen to you and nobody were to know where you are?"

If the girl would look at Ziren in his eyes, she would find the left eye is basically an orb of swirling with the color of blood. The right, when the wind blows just right to move the hair out of his face, shows the eye of the Byakugan.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Notori was up to his usual cat games.

He had followed his partner in crime for the entire day, having had insomnia from the night before and been unable to sleep. That morning he had used Genjutsu to make her spill a little coffee, make a couple of animals knock things over in her path, and almost got a bird to dive bomb on the trek towards the mountain. Yet, as Kirai went to start climbing the mountain, Notori felt a little sink in his gut; she was going to train.

Now not that, that was a bad thing, per say…but his partner had a bit of a problem controlling her strength and rage once it started getting out of control. Consider she never once made a single bit of contact with him, Ous assumed that she was planning on ‘cutting loose’ a little to test her limits. The fact that she started climbing the mountain without hesitation only confirmed it. With a near audible whine, Notori placed the Active Camo jutsu over himself and followed behind slowly, a good twenty paces behind so she couldn’t fully hear him. While the illusion specialist had a knot in his gut over the idea of Kirai doing her physical training, he didn’t hesitate to follow. He was one of the few people in the village able to break past that wall of mental rage and coax back out her ‘nicer’ side so that the creature inside didn’t tear apart the surrounding area; and herself.

By the time she finally stopped, way up in the middle of nowhere, Notori was tired - but not tired enough to not be an ass. Quickly doing a quiet step to move just beyond her, he set up a beach chair and a parasol from a set of scrolls sitting in his bag. Plopping right down caused the snow to crunch as his chair sank into it, doing little to actually keep his butt off the cold ice. But the imagery was all he needed. Lounging in the chair with his head propped up on his elblow, he looked over at Kirai and waited for her to finish building the dummy before she started training. As soon as she started with the first few strikes he spoke up, dropping the jutsu that made him invisible while adding a little snark to his comment,
“You really gonna go train without me? Guuuuurl. Gonna cause an avalanche is what you doin. Mmmhmm.”

He had hoped it would spook her. Notori was an expert at just vanishing and reappearing with his Genjutsu mastery, but it was Ziren he hadn’t seen at all. Despite climbing up ahead of Kirai to set up some snark, he had not noticed the shinobi in the blended kimono. The sound of his voice would cause Notori to shriek a little as the thin shinobi jumped back with his hands in a fake kung-fu pose.
“H-hey! I’m trained!”

[Entering with NPC Ous Notori]

 

[Shinrya Kirai]

Just as she had finished assembling the training dummy, she readied herself, inhaling for 4, exhaling for 4. Her trainers had advised her that the key to figuring out her true potential was in remaining calm and retaining clarity. She was not known for her patience. She was a loose cannon, struggling to maintain her mind, running on pure instinct. Instinct is what often got people hurt, or killed. She couldn't say she had much incentive towards keeping herself alive, she would do whatever got the job done, but some deeper part of herself wanted better. She didn't want to be a machine, she wanted the connections she had so cruelly been denied. She just wouldn't admit that to herself, or anyone else for that matter.

Kirai drew her fist back, landing a few softer hits. She counted in her head. 1, 2, 3, almost methodical. Repeat. 1. 2. 3. Suddenly a voice managed to catch her off guard. She gave a high pitched shriek, turning mid punch and her fist meeting air. She lost some of her balance, falling backwards into the snow. Sputtering, she looked up to see her partner and friend, Notori. A glare settled on her face as it started to turn a slight shade pinker, a small growl leaving her throat as she stood up and aggressively brushed the snow from her coat, crossing her arms at him. She huffed and looked away from him, embarassed. "Hah hah, the only avalanche that's going to be happening around here is the one to your ego when I finally beat you. In fact I-" Kirai started to stomp closer to Notori, a finger raised and pointed at him, prepared to continue her rant, when she suddenly stopped.

What had drawn her attention, and ultimately Norori's was the presence of another. It was another man, one she hadn't met before, with striking blue hair and wearing a beautiful kimono. The wind blew, allowing her to see more of his face. His eyes were...something entirely different than the ones she was used to seeing. It was entrancing. Kirai lowered her hands back to her side, suddenly forgetting what she had been yelling at Notori about. Oh, the man had asked a question. Thinking it over, she wondered how forthcoming she should be about why she found the mountains to the best training grounds. Before she could reply, it seemed Notori beat her to the punch. Kirai rolled her sea green eyes. How eloquent, Notori. Sighing, Kirai waved off the man's concern. "Mmm, an interesting hypothetical. I could ask the same of you, sir." Kirai grinned, her fangs flashing, a faint flash of red aura flowing off of the small horns that adorned her head, a deep rooted scorn flashing somewhere in the visage of her eyes. "Yet it seems that we all find ourselves gathered in such a remote place, on the same mountain, at exactly the same time. What a lovely coincidence, wouldn't you say?" She didn't want to explain her lack of control to anyone, not yet. It was her deepest shame, that she had made it this far as a trained asset and still seemed to have little understanding of her own chaotic abilities. Nobody needed to know of her issues, and it would be wise to not let others know just yet that she was a potential risk to members of the village. It certainly would not due well to poorly impact the reputation of her cousin, who had so generously given her a position among the military and a home where she wasn't treated like dirt. She had been gifted with pride in her name, best not to bring shame to it so quickly.

Looking back towards the man and Notori, she tried to smother down that part of her that tended to act out against others. There didn't need to be an incident, and Notori was here after all. Gesturing to herself, Kirai gave a brief introduction, as had been dictated as common courtesy by her tutors. "Kirai, member of the Shinrya Clan. This is my handler, Ous Notori." The pink haired woman shifted uncomfortably. Expressionless, she looked towards Notori, rubbing one of her arms awkwardly. "Did I do that, right?"

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

Frankly, Ziren would admit he didn't hear the blood flow of another person, one that was hidden under an Active Camo. He must have been breathing very slowly, which in turn could reduce the noise his blood flow made. It was also apparent that neither of them knew of his existence until he actually made himself known. From how they look and act, he guessed they were probably teens, maybe late teens. The boy was the first to take notice of Ziren, who went into instant defensive mode, talking about how he was trained. Followed by the girl's response to Ziren's earlier question which was basically a right back at you type of thing.

He could tell, specifically from the girl's demeanor that she either doesn't like him, or is trying to flaunt her power. Ziren gave a soft smile, and then said, "Heh, you got me there. I came up here to simply relax, how everything is quiet, so peaceful, you know?" He paused, before going on, "You know, you two remind me of myself. Of when I was younger, always going out of my way to some random places to train, though I never had a natural aura like yours, girl, but I do have something else that is pretty sinister that was a main reason of why I trained alone for a good portion of my younger days." With that said, he shown them just a small thing of what he can do. Blood drew out of his right hand and solidified, forming a kunai. He let it melt and absorb back into his skin.

He looked to the girl, "I don't know if you mean to show a darker side of yourself or not, but take this to heart. Know you are never alone. Make friends with those that you trust and that they believe in you. I've seen what happens when a person decides to walk the lonely path, it isn't pretty." He nodded to the boy, "You'll need people like him, those that have your back but won't hesitate to mess around with you."

He said the last part jokingly, for he knows that sometimes one has to lighten the mood especially when the situation seems tense, as with these kids that don't know him from a hole in the wall. "Haha, sorry, I'm a mednin and I usually catch on to a persons behavior. either that or I make false assumptions, and if that's that case, my apologies" And for the fact his old anbu training kicked in of analyzing people. but they won't need to know that part of his life. you can take the person out of the anbu, but not the anbu out of the person.

It was after he was done talking, the girl introduced herself and the boy. Kirai and Notori. And Notori was Kirai's handler? Ziren doesn't know what that was supposed to mean, and he wasn't really sure if the girl knew either. Ziren rubbed the back of his neck, well, he should at least introduce himself. "I'm Chigokai Ziren. Just a regular ole Mednin. So-" Before he could talk anymore he heard another blood flow nearing. He looked over to see a faceless NPC come up to him, "Ziren, it seems we need you to come into work on your day off, a lot of the mednin that were supposed to work today are either sick or are being swamped with patients,"

"Eh, well there goes my free day." He said to himself, before looking over at the two, "Well, you both take care and don't get yourselves hurt." He waved at them before rushing back to the village and to the hospital.

(TLUS)

 

[Toraono Michino]

It was taking Notori everything he had not to cackle in his best mocking laugh.

For starters, Kirai beat him? Last time she ended up destroying the absolute hell out of a training grounds, trying, to hit him. She had a very special impairment when it came to Genjutsu, even if the trade off was a helluva punch. Notori knew exactly the kind of power sitting deep within her just waiting to be tapped into, but control it? Beat him with it? Laughable. He’d have her wailing on those thick pines just slightly further up the mountain until her knuckles were broke. Then the guy introduced himself and Kirai gave the introductions for herself and Ous.

Ous, nearly lost it.

“Yep. Mmhmm,” he replied through grit teeth and a whimsical smile as he tried so hard not to burst into a fit of laughter. Her retainer? What was she, some kind of horrible destructive beast that needed to be monitored 24/7? Because she wasn’t. Let go of the awesome power to shatter mountains waiting for the right trigger and Kirai was just a normal Kumogakurian shinobi. She was talented, but then they all were. She was beautiful, but not a pretty as he was. Really aside from the horns and the bright-ass hair, the diminutive kounchi could of blended in with the rest of the woodwork…but that’s exactly what Nous really like about her. She refused to fall in line. She stood out, hands on hips, and declared supremacy; just like she did right before Ziren walked up. Yet he couldn’t help but let the idea of being her retainer crack the man up, and even more couldn’t believe she actually said it.

However, moments before his ANBU partner could turn beet red and ensue a whole round of mockery, the Med-Nin who was teaching them the wisdom of having good friends was interrupted by a faceless NPC. Notori couldn’t help but find everything about the situation there just whack, and stood staring at the guy until he left with the other person who had come to fetch him. As soon as he thought they were out of earshot, Notori leaned down a little with the back of his hand covering his lips to speaking quietly,
“Holy shit, did that chick literally not have a face?! I heard of facial sculpting but don’t you think that’s a bit far?”