Blood, Sand, and Confusion [Tutor w/Maikeru]

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

It was funny how Maru's protege ended up asking Kaori for a means of help. Genjutsu was something that she had been very fond of, using it to manipulate the minds of her opponents and tricking them with hallucinations, which cause damage to to a person's psyche. Recently, she discovered the ability to shatter a person's mind using her genjutsu, now giving her a boost in strength; something she had longed for. While she doesn't wish to kill people, at least those that she deemed worthy of dying, she never quantified breaking a person's mind as a form of death. Kaori hummed a song to herself, using the hushed soundwaves that escaped her lips to guide her into the arena. The tournament was at a temporary pause so the fighters could take a temporary break between rounds, so Kaori took this time to train Maru's 'little nugget' in the art of Genjutsu. Certainly, this could probably have been done in a small room, but due to her need to use sound to cast genjutsu, she felt that a more open place would be more suitable. Wouldn't want to get affected by her own genjutsu because the sound waves bounced back and went into her ear.

She wore a pure black cat-suit with a sheer spandex shirt underneath. Normally she would wear her usual shrine-maiden apparel, but due to how difficult that stuff is to put on (while blind) she opted to wear something a little bit easier to put on. While it takes a bit of time to squeeze into the skin-tight leather outfit, at least she has nothing to worry about in regards to articles of clothing being missing -- leading to her being stark naked due to forgetting a pin or a strap. The outfit was kind of a pain to remove though, she had that much going for her. She stood in the middle of the arena and pulled out her feathered fan and waved it at her face. The cool, moving air brushed over her sweaty flesh felt desirable. Even-so, she wished for autumn to arrive; this being the first autumn that she couldn't see the colors of the leaves.

The sound of the silver-bell attached to her choker clanged as she shifted around; this served a dual purpose. Not only did the shifting around help her get a bit more comfortable while she waited, but the jiggling of the bell lets her 'see' if the one she is to tutor was arriving. If only she had someone around to teach her how to properly control her sonar, her life would be so much easier. She let out a grumble as sweat started to fall into places she'd rather it not. She even lifted the sheer spandex up and down to try to get some air-flow. "Breathable spandex, my ass," she said with a bitter look on her face.

[Topic Entered -- Maikeru and maybe 1 more academy student is cool. PM me before doing so though, please]
WC: 482 / 1500
Post: 1/5

 

[Maikeru]

It was early afternoon when Maikeru arrived at the stadium. He gave a low whistle as he approached the doors, admiring the size and majesty of the thing. Sure, they had one like this in leaf, but, it was also nice seeing foreign architecture at work. Taking a momentary pause of admiration, he stepped through the large double doors, and into the arena. Luckily, he was just in time to see his tutor having some.. complications with her clothing. He raised one of his eyebrows as he watched for a moment, before speaking up.

"Kind of a warm day for skin tight latex, isn't it?" He questioned aloud, taking a few more steps into the arena. "I know I'm handsome and all, but, you're Maru-senpai's girl. I wouldn't do that to him, though, I do appreciate the effort. If nothing else, this will be a class I always treasure for one reason."

He gave her a soft, innocent smile, completely forgetting that she was blind and his charm probably wouldn't help him with her. Though, it probably wouldn't have even if she could see. Unlike his sensei, he had shown up in a plain blue tank top and black shorts, very typical of training wear. He had left his kunai and such at home, since they would be training genjutsu he didn't think he would have much need of it.

"So, Sensei, I have a question for you before we begin." He started, continuing to move closer to the woman. "Why did you give me a fake name at the bar with Maru? I asked around about you, trying to see what your expertise was before this training. No one has ever heard of you. So, what gives? Can't trust a fellow leaf shinobi? You know, trust is the foundation of any student teacher relationship, don't you?"

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(Post 1)

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

"It's leather, idiot!" she said to the familiar voice that just arrived. She clicked the bell, sending out a wave of sound. It returned to show the image, a very low resolution one, of the child named Maikeru. She rolled her eyes at his comment about his good-looks; not that she was able to tell from being unable to see any particular features. The most she could get out of the information she was given was a person's height, shape, and silhouette. The urge to scream so loud that it burst his ear-drums started to build. She wasn't Maru's girl nor was she anyone's girl. "I'll let that comment pass this one time." she said firmly as she returned to business; training this brat how to use genjutsu.

"I'll tell you about that later. It's unimportant. But what you are here for today is to learn the art of genjutsu, which I'm pretty darn good at," she said, tooting her own horn. She couldn't help think that that was pretty much all she did against Suyashi. Now that she had to rely on her voice, that was pretty much all she can do now; attack with her voice of power and even cause people to hallucinate whatever it was she wants them to. Perfect for the songstress she aspired to be. Sadly, she wanted people to feel emotions through songs due to how powerful they were instead of weaponizing it. Beggars can't be choosers after all.

"Someone like you might have to use handseals for genjutsu," she said, ignorant of the special eyes owned by the child and ignorant of how the Uchiha used genjutsu. She waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Just keep in mind that someone like me can't be affected by visual-based genjutsu, so you'll have to rely on the other senses; the sense of touch, the sense of hearing, and the power of will. For everyone else, you can also use visual genjutsu," she explained. Thank gods too! Reaper's Gaze was an abominable genjutsu!

​

"We'll start off with something simple," she said as she clasped her hands and cleared her throat and sang a few notes from a song she knew. The song that she sang didn't matter, as long as her voice carried throughout the arena and reached his ears. As the sound reached his ears, he felt a sharp bit of pain in his ears before he started to feel intoxicated; like he just drag an entire keg of wine. Things started to spin and he began to feel queasy. Clearing her throat, she raised her hand into the air and snapped her fingers, dropping the jutsu without shattering it. She's trying to teach the child, not kill him after all.

"Now you try," she said as she ran her fingers through her long black hair, moving the hair out of her eyes out of pure instinct.

WC: 482
Total: 963 / 1500
Posts: 2/5

 

[Maikeru]

The deafening screech that ran through Maikeru's eyes caused him to place his hands over his ears, not that it did anything to dull the noise, or the pain associated with it. His sharingan spun into life as he clenched his teeth in pain, causing him to see the chakra flow of both himself and Kaori in front of him. There was.. a disruption in her chakra flow, an unnatural one.. the one that came with a genjutsu. As his eyes begin to spin, in an attempt to reverse the genjutsu, the pain subsided him, a grateful gasp catching in the back of his throat as Kaori broke the genjutsus hold on him.

"Okay.. note to self, I can't resist every genjutsu thrown at me." He said, shaking his head to clear the lingering resonance in his ears. "You should know though, I don't need hand seals for my genjutsu. Haven't since I was very young."

To drive his point home, he locked eyes with Kaori, the two tomoe of his eyes spinning around his pupil as he focused his chakra through them. The Insidious Gaze of the Uchiha clan didn't need the victim to actually have their sight to work, it simply needed direct visual contact with the chakra points in their ocular socket. As his chakra locked onto hers, he began to explore her brain, looking through knowledge of various jutsu and techniques until he found the one he wanted. The jutsu she had just used on him. He locked onto that memory, to the experiences of learning and mastering that jutsu, and tore at them, brutalizing and maiming any chance she had of accessing them.

Her chakra system would heal the damage, rather rapidly in fact, but for the moment if it had been successful, she would have zero memory of every learning that dreaded technique. He gave her a small smile, cocking his head to the side in a moment of brief triump. He was sure it had worked, but since his fight with Reicheru, and her ability to easily shrug off one of his genjutsu, he had been having doubts about himself.

"So, Sensei, what was the technique you used on me?"

(367 words)
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[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori's mind reached a blank after hearing the words spoken by Maikeru. While he struck her with Amnesia, she is more than aware that she was stuck in a genjutsu. She had troubles answering the boy's question, but at the same time, she quickly threw together a set of handseals and Canceled the Genjutsu upon herself. "Not quite what I asked you to do, but I guess that'll work," Kaori said as she tugged the corner of her lip downwards in a bit of an annoyed manner. "Let's not use that particular jutsu except for doing ninja-things like getting away, mm-kay?" she said with a bit of a smile upon herself. While there were many things she'd like to forget, this wasn't exactly how she wanted it.

"So you're one of those red-eyed people, hm? That makes sense," she stated, thinking for a moment. She hadn't encountered many Uchiha as they were a pretty rare breed in Kumogakure. She recalled the now-Hokage being one of those people, only way that explained how he caught her hiding in the bushes from a good, long distance away. She also doesn't get how some of their genjutsu work. Why would their sharingan affect someone who is blind when she can't affect people who have gone deaf. Cruel world.

"Since you actually know how to use Genjutsu, let's move on to Genjutsu defense. As you saw earlier, the set of handseals I did was for a jutsu called 'Cancel'. This jutsu disrupts your chakra flow just long enough to stop the genjutsu from affecting your mind. The only downsides of it is, you need to know you are under a genjutsu. Some of the genjutsu you'll deal with aren't easy to tell if you're in reality or in fantasy. Also keep in mind that it doesn't work on super strong Genjutsu either," she explained before pulling on the mesh that covered her breasts and pulled up and down on it to get airflow between her boobs.

"But for you red-eyed folks, you can easily just reverse the genjutsu on people, ridding yourself of it. For Uchiha like you, I suggest learning the ability Clarity," she said before clearing her throat. "You do have that ability right?" she asked.

"So let's practice on your genjutsu defense real quick," she said as she cleared her throat and sang a few more notes of the song she sang earlier. As the song entered his skull, he felt the strange urge to facepalm himself twice as hard as he could. "You are under a genjutsu, so reverse it back to me."

WC: 432
Total: 1395 / 1500
Posts: 3/5

 

[Maikeru]

There was a look of understanding and gratitude as Maikeru listened to Kaori speak. Finally, a tutor who actually knew what they were doing. Not someone who prattled on about themselves, and how great their abilities were. He was thankful that there was finally someone who actually wanted to mold his skills, to help him develop as a shinobi. He let out a sigh of relief, before responding.

"Of course, sensei. Just give me a heads up be-" That was when he felt his hand hit his face the first time.

He grimaced in pain, the muscles in his arm tensing against the next hit that was coming. Apparently warning wasn't something that came naturally to Kaori, he would have to remember that little fact for later. He shifted his eyes from his hand, to the face of Kaori. Chakra began to mold in the back of his head, wrapping itself around the mold of chakra that Kaori had implanted into him. With the spinning of his eyes, the tomoe creating a hypnotic pattern, he did his best to reverse the genjutsu that had a grip about him.

He let out a breath as he felt the chakra alleviate from his system, before redirecting the mass of energy back to it's caster. His eyes locked with hers, and he felt a bead of sweat form on his brow from the intense concentration this took. He wasn't too experienced with this ability of the Sharingan, and it certainly showed. Still, he was able to at least redirect the attack. If it worked or not, was yet to be seen, but, he felt satisfied in the results he had. Even if they weren't.. optimal in the end.

"That's the best I can do at the minute. I'm still learning how to master my Sharingan. I.. don't really have another Uchiha to teach me. I'm branch family, so the main family seems to avoid me. Even those who stole their Sharingan get more personalized attention from my clan head." He let out a sigh, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry sensei, I don't mean to make excuses. I will try harder from now on."

[362 words]
[1136/1500]
[Post 3/5]

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

SPLAT! Kaori's palm slammed right into her face. She quickly pulled back her hand and formed together the handseals for Cancel, quickly canceling that jutsu. "Well, Genjutsu will come without warning. Most of the times, you won't know if it's coming until after it affected you. Not that most of them have visual signs, anyway," she said before rubbing her face, trying to get rid of the pain of just slapping her. "If you're so paranoid about genjutsu, there are a few ways to avoid it though," she said before raising a single finger:

"Hiding in plain sight or entering stealth is a good way to avoid getting affected by Genjutsu. Can't genjutsu someone that doesn't know where you are right?" she said before tapping her lips for a moment in thought. She had been showing signs of seeing people's shadows even though she was blind. The boy's shadow was all she could see right now; clear as day it appeared to her. "Except if you encounter someone called a 'Grandeur Phantom'. Going into stealth against them is pointless since your shadow lingers even while you're in stealth. I don't know how that works, it just does," she said shrugging her shoulders.

Kaori cleared her throat and closed her eyes and started to sing once again; a haunting melody caused a massive crystal of pure sound to appear and shatter, causing a rain of sound to flutter down, before 3 clones appeared directly in front of her. Kaori nodded her head before all four of them pointed at Maikeru (or at least where she believed he was) and stated, "Clones. Clones are an extremely easy way to avoid genjutsu. These are pretty effective but are easily countered by someone who uses their voice like me. Instrumentalists can also use their instruments to cast ninjutsu in a wide area, also affecting clones; just be aware of that," she said as she waved her hand, causing the clones to vanish.

Kaori pointed a single finger into the air. "There is one more way. Willing to venture how else you can defend yourself against Genjutsu?"
WC: 350
Total: 1745 / 1500
Posts: 4/5

 

[Maikeru]

Defense against genjutsu? Honestly, the thing that Maikeru liked the most about Genjutsu how how few defenses it seemed to have. Its not like you could just build a set of armor for your psyche. Well, not literally at least. No, with Genjutsu you were generally stuck at the whim of the caster, whether you wanted to be or not.

"Uh..." he started, rubbing the back of his head in thought. "Well, I suppose you could learn to fight without sound or sight, that counts off the majority of genjutsu triggers."

He really wasnt sure what Kaori wanted to hear. He had no idea outside of reversing and cancelling it, what else was left. He closed his eyes, hoping some spark of inspiration would smack him in the face.

"Or, you could take the enemies fingers. Most people cant do genjutsu without hand signs. You cant make hand signs without fingers, ergo, no genjutsu."

(154 words)
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[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori nodded to the child's responses and shrugged her shoulders. Those weren't quite the answers she was looking for, but he wasn't wrong. Though, not being able to hear or see were detriments of their own. With a quick flurry of handseals, a crystal appeared above her head for a moment, causing a shrill squealing noise. The crystal vibrated so fast that it appeared to be ready to shatter. The crystal finally shattered before showering Kaori with glitter, forming a shield around her. The dome surrounded her with images of ghosts and other malevolent specters easily seen in the sheen of the barrier. "This is known as 'Barrier' or known precisely as 'Wall of Spirits'. This is a great jutsu to block out whatever genjutsu you think will be heading your way. The only problem is, you are limited to what abilities you can do through this thing as it blocks," she said as she walked into the barrier, almost as if she was stuck in a mime-box.

The 'boooooong' sound from the barrier was a good indicator that she was pretty much stuck. With a wave of her hand, she dropped the barrier and walked forward towards the student. "just about everything," she said with a clear of her throat. That was her first time teaching someone so she felt a bit uncomfortable, taking a deep breath out to calm her nerves. "Well, that was a quick run-down on genjutsu and primarily defense against genjutsu. The reason I taught you defenses against genjutsu is because, in order to know HOW to properly use genjutsu, you'll need to know what can counter genjutsu," she said before letting out a little laugh, rubbing the back of her head with her hand. "Easy enough right?" she said.

She raised a single finger into the air while keeping her hand at the level of her eyes. "Well, if you don't have any more questions. Same time next week for next lesson?" she asked.
WC: 329
Total: 1745 / 1500
Posts: 5/5
Tutor done.
I'll leave after you.

 

[Maikeru]

A barrier huh? He was.. surprised. He had never heard of a barrier before now that was able to block illusion damage, what exactly was this shinobi who was training him. Regardless, he walked up the barrier, giving it a small knock. Although it was invisible, he could see the chakra flowing around Kaori, and it felt more solid than a steel wall. This was truly, and utterly fascinating to him. He gave the girl a small grin at the barrier.

He continued to listen as Kaori explained that the lesson was over, and that she would be tutoring him again. That was good, he really enjoyed this lesson. Besides his teaching with Kenshin, this was probably the best one he had had in a very long time. He moved to the wall of the arena, sliding against it and taking a seat. He was surprisingly tired, he guessed that using his genjutsu reversal still took a bit out of him.

"That barrier was really cool, I wouldn't mind learning stuff like that. My defenses are.. not my strongest suit, and I wouldn't mind shoring that up." He spoke honestly to her. Maikeru was no prodigy, he struggled with a lot of things. "I wouldn't mind learning some high level genjutsu either, I'm getting more and more capable of it every day, so, whatever you could teach me would be great. I might not be ready for the highest echelons, but, something high rank would be very cool."

He finally stood up, yawning and stretching his arms. He supposed it was time to take his leave. He gave Kaori a respectful bow, before walking towards the door of the arena.

[Topic left]

(280 words)
(Post 5/5)
(1570/1500)

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori smiled until she heard the boy's footsteps vanish into nothingness. She exhaled in an exasperated manner, relieved that that lesson had gone on without the child acting petulant, forcing her to become an absolute bitch. Thankfully, it didn't come to that and she was left with a 'successful' tutoring. She placed both of her hands upon her hips and nodded her head. "It seems the disciple of Maru isn't a complete idiot like Maru. At least that's a bonus. Maybe I should teach him how to fight with weapons or even use ninjutsu next time," she said, pondering to herself. She shrugged the idea off and has her mind set upon a bottle! She raised a hand and shouted "Wooohoo!" at the thought of getting drunk. Kumo's liquor was pretty darn good, if she were to say so herself.

[Topic Left]