Private [Class] Squeezing Blood from Stone

[Ryuu Nozomi]

The lowlands of Lightning Country were already awake despite the world feeling as if it was still at rest. Mist clung to irrigation channels and riverbanks before drifting lazily above fields that stretched in neat, deliberate patterns toward distant villages. Water moved everywhere here being quietly guided to feed crops, power mills, and sustain the lives of people who had chosen to build permanence in this place. Somewhere from just beyond the nearest rise, smoke curled from morning hearths and into the pale sky above. Retired shinobi, farmers, craftsmen, and a few large families called this place 'Home'. Civilization thrived in this belt of land because the mountains gave just enough and demanded little in return.

Abruptly, the land ended. Nozomi stood at the edge of a wound that had not existed the evening prior. There was a quarry which yawned open before her. It was a vast circular depression carved cleanly into the earth near the base of the mountain, where stone shifted from fertile soil into veins of pale marble and iron infused rock. However, none of the walls bore markings of long hours of work. It did not look old as most quarry's do, but it seemed legitimate none the less. She had arrived before sunrise, when the world was still dark and the first breath of cold air off the mountain cut through her and awoke every nerve in her body. She had welcomed it, due to her previous training, the cold kept the mind precise.

Each detonation had been perfectly measured and each collapse guided. The crater had been formed in layers as if workers had spent years peeling the mountain open to allow for such a quarry to exist. Here, she took pride in her work as she awaited Ruri to arrive. The sun now crested just above the horizon, spilling gold across the quarry walls. Heat followed quickly causing the exposed stone to bake which brought about a faint metallic smell.

This place would teach something different than the hot springs had. There, chaos had been the teacher. How to channel instincts into reaction, adaptation, and survival. Then, it taught a practice in patience in the cleanup phase. Here, the lesson would be creation through destruction. Rather then break something down to dispose of it, this would be a lesson in how to take something massive and break it down to become useful. The marble glimmered faintly in the morning light where veins had been exposed along the quarry wall. Pale, dense, and most of all, beautiful. Stone carved by pressure and time. A beauty that would soon become the foundation of the new hot springs.

She imagined Ruri's reaction as she wiped the sweat away from her forehead. The look on the girls face when the mountainous terrain abruptly changed character as she crossed the terrain will be enjoyable to see. For now, Nozomi simply waited on the edge of the slope down. The sun had just come up fully now and was beginning to challenge the cold air that dropped from the mountain top. Folding her arms loosely, she allowed her gaze to drift toward the path that led to this place and waited for the student to arrive.

[WC: 540, Class: 1/5, Total WC: 540]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

Before she had ever set foot on the road, Ruri had already worked up a sweat. Her morning had begun in the quiet courtyard of the Shuusui compound, the sky still dark and the air cool against her skin. Barefoot on stone, she moved through her forms with methodical precision, Gentle Fist stances flowing into one another, palms cutting the air in sharp, controlled arcs. She focused on balance first, then breath, then speed. Each strike was measured, each step deliberate, chakra pulsing faintly as she practiced channelling it cleanly to her feet and hands. When the forms were done, she shifted into conditioning, push-ups on her knuckles, deep squats, core work that left her muscles burning but loose, followed by long stretches that coaxed flexibility from well-used joints. Then, before the sun had begun to hint at the horizon, her body was warm, responsive, and ready for anything, exactly how she liked it. Only then had she set off at an easy jog, already prepared for whatever the day intended to throw at her.

Ruri crested the last stretch of the road just as the sun finally cleared the horizon. Mist still clung to the grass around her ankles and drifted low across the stone path, parting lazily as she jogged through it. Her pace was steady and unhurried, the kind that came from habit rather than effort. By the time she reached Nozomi, a fine sheen of sweat caught the morning light on her arms and collarbone, her breathing was deep and even, well controlled and practiced. She slowed to a stop in front of her, hands resting briefly on her hips as she drew in one more long breath.

“That was a scenic jog,” Ruri said with a small, satisfied smile before adding, “Morning.” With a nod.

Her pale eyes drifted past Nozomi then, scanning the terrain. At first glance, it was just earth and stone to her curious eyes, a large, abrupt depression where the land simply… stopped. A hole? Big, yes, but nothing about it immediately screamed danger or importance to someone without context. Her gaze lingered, thoughtful rather than impressed. Then she looked back to Nozomi, rocking lightly on the balls of her feet, energy coiled and waiting.

“I take it the stone is what we’re after?” she asked, curiosity edging into her voice.

There was no trace of complaint in her posture or tone, if anything, she looked eager, as if waking early and running into the cold mountain air had been a privilege rather than a burden. Truthfully, it had just been routine. Ruri always rose hours before she needed to, running through stances and forms until her muscles were warm and responsive. Starting a day without it felt wrong. Whatever waited for her in that quarry, she was ready to meet it head-on.

[Class Post 1/5]
[Word Count - 472]
[Total Word Count - 472]

 

[Ryuu Nozomi]

The lowlands stretched behind them in layered contrast. Mist clung to the grass while cold wind slid down from the mountains and met the sun’s growing warmth as it baked the ground unevenly. The land existed in different states of fertile and harsh, calm and volatile. Nozomi watched Ruri arrive, she had heard the girl before she crested the road. The steady cadence of footfalls, the controlled regulation of breath, and the way chakra settled rather than flared as exertion increased. It was a familiar pattern, one that spoke of preparation done elsewhere, Nozomi approved. By the time Ruri slowed to a stop, her body was already warm, aligned, and ready for more.

“Morning,” she replied, her voice carrying easily in the open air.

Ruri’s gaze lingered on the quarry with curiosity rather than awe. Nozomi turned fully toward the crater. What had been empty land hours ago now bore the illusion of long labor. There were clean-cut stone faces and wide shelves of exposed marble threaded with pale veins. It looked old and worked but the deception was intentional as newly scarred land invited questions.

“Yes,” Nozomi said when Ruri asked. “The stone.”

She stepped forward, boots crunching lightly against gravel, and gestured toward the exposed marble.

“This quarry will supply the material to rebuild the springs. Not just to restore what it was, but we want to improve upon it.”

Nozomi then raised one finger and spoke further, “Most people think it would require great force or explosives to yield results here, but you've learned better than that yesterday. You want to take the rock here and just like the bone, make it easier to crumble than stay together. There is... one key difference though."

She moved along the rim, indicating subtle shifts in color and alignment. Particularly the thin lines where mineral deposits changed along natural seams that cut diagonally instead of straight. She pointed out to a few different places in particular over the course of a five minute walk down the line of stone.

“Marble has natural fault points. Places where pressure already wants to go if you give it permission,” Nozomi explained. “Your Byakugan will see more than I can here. Use it to understand how it holds itself together. To start, we're going to mark up this rock into usable sections. You need to identify where large slabs can be taken out cleanly and where that pressure will naturally separate the material rather than shattering it into many pieces.”

She stopped and turned back toward Ruri, posture calm but attentive. She would take out a bag of clay in order to mark points of destruction even if they weren't going to break anything just yet. In this moment, a chill wind slid past them from the mountains, cold against sun-warmed stone. Nozomi adjusted her gloves, the mouths in her palms remaining restrained.

“Take your time,” Nozomi finished. “When you can tell me where to strike and why, we move onto the next step.”

[WC: 500, Class: 2/5, Total WC: 1,000+]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

Ruri lingered at the quarry’s edge for a moment longer than strictly necessary, letting the Byakugan settle fully into place. The world felt louder like this, not with sound, but information, it was difficult to describe to someone who'd never experienced it. The stone itself was simple, happy to spill it's secrets, eager to be taken or so it looked to her. She hopped down from the ledge and into the pit proper, fingers brushing the marble’s cool surface as she walked along, searching each small vein and crack that could be exploited. It felt different from the bone of the previous day, denser and older. Bone still remembered motion, growth, life. This stone remembered pressure and time.

“Alright,” she said quietly, mostly to herself, then glanced back toward Nozomi. “This is… kind of beautiful, actually. In a terrifying, ‘could-crush-me-if-I-mess-up’ sort of way.”

She shifted sideways along the wall, eyes tracing through layers of mineral density. Pale veins glimmered faintly, not with chakra exactly, but with stress, places where force had been stored for centuries. Ruri pointed one out, then another, narrating as she went, half explanation and half thinking out loud.

“See how this seam runs straight for a while, then suddenly bends?” she said, tapping the stone lightly with her knuckle. “That bend is a trap. You hit too hard there and the whole thing fractures outward like a spider web. But, if you start below it, the weight above should pull the break clean.”

She paused, brow furrowing slightly as she compared two nearly identical veins.

“…And this one looks promising, but it’s lying. The surface says ‘easy break,’ but underneath it’s all knotted together. That’d turn into gravel instead of slabs.”

Ruri straightened and rolled her shoulders, the familiar warmth of motion spreading through her muscles. The early jog, the drills before dawn, they were paying off. She didn’t feel stiff or cold, just how she liked it.

“You know,” she added casually, glancing at Nozomi as she moved further down the quarry face, “most of my clan training is about ending fights fast. Strike fast, precise, before anyone can react. This…” She gestured at the stone. “…this similar, locating the Tenketsu points, striking in the most efficient spot, taking what you want and it can't retaliate.”

A small smile crept across her face as she marked another fault line with a quick press of a finger. “I kinda like that.”

She worked steadily, calling out observations as she went. Sometimes she asked questions outright, why one seam felt more cooperative than another, whether marble always behaved this way or if this quarry was special. Other times, she just talked. About her morning routine, about how weird it still felt to think of the hot springs as something she’d help rebuild instead of just a place where she nearly died naked and screaming.

“I used to think rest days were a waste,” Ruri admitted at one point, hopping lightly down from a ledge. “Like, if you weren’t pushing, you were falling behind. But after the springs… and then yesterday…” She shrugged. “I dunno. Feels like there’s more ways to get stronger than just hitting harder.”

She laughed, quick and bright, then pointed out another promising section of stone.

“This one’s good. Big slab potential. If we cut along here and here...” she traced the lines in the air “...it should come away clean without stressing the rest of the wall.”

Ruri paused, glancing back at Nozomi again, a little more openly this time.

“Thanks. For… all of this,” she said, gesturing broadly to the quarry, the lesson, the trust implicit in being here. “Spent my life having to fight to learn anything, no one expected me to accomplish anyhing. But you actually explain things. Makes it easier for me to understand.”

Her grin returned, sharp and earnest.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m still gonna do things my way,” she added quickly. “But it’s nice having someone who doesn’t try to hammer me into a shape I don’t fit.”

She turned back to the stone, Byakugan still active, attention snapping back into focus as she identified a rather large, major fault line in this section.

“Okay,” Ruri said, energy humming through her despite the calm precision of her movements. “I think we've cleared out everything good on this level, want me to keep going or should we start Mining, or exploding I assume.”

She glanced over her shoulder, eyes bright, posture loose but ready, less like a student waiting for instruction now, and more like a partner eager to get to work.

[Class Post 2/5]
[Word Count - 765]
[Total Word Count - 1237]

 

[Ryuu Nozomi]

Nozomi let Ruri move, let her speak, and let her think out loud in the way only someone truly engaging with a problem could. Where others might have filled the space with instruction, Nozomi treated silence like a tool. It was something that shaped rather than pressured. So, she stood by and watched with careful, measured attention.

Ruri’s fingers brushed the marble as if it were a living thing. Not reverently, but intelligently. Nozomi noted how her Byakugan did not merely see the stone, but interpreted it. How stress lines became intentions, veins became history, and fractures became opportunities. It was exactly the kind of perception Nozomi valued. When Ruri pointed out the first bending seam, Nozomi’s gaze followed it without haste.

A small, almost imperceptible nod. When the second “lying” fault was called out, Nozomi’s eyes narrowed just slightly. It was not in doubt, but in approval. Ruri had not simply trusted the surface. By the time the girl finished walking the face of the quarry, marking lines in the air, Nozomi had already committed several sections to memory.

Only then did she speak, "You have chosen well,” Nozomi said quietly.

Nozomi stepped back toward the center of the quarry floor, the pale dust whispering beneath her boots. She planted her feet, anchoring herself... as if preparing to witness a grand show.

“You may begin.”

Her words were not permission so much as a transfer of responsibility.

She did not give Ruri a stance, a seal, or a technique. She did not direct where to strike first, but that was the point. Instead, Nozomi folded her hands loosely at her sides, the mouths in her palms pressing restlessly against their gloves, sensing the coming motion, impact and collapse.

"Go on, you've located prime points. Now, let's see it the fruit of your labor."

[WC: 304, Class: 3/5, Total WC: 1,000+]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

Ruri blinked, she stood there for a long moment, looking at the quarry face, then back at Nozomi, who had very deliberately not moved, nor raised her hands, nor produced clay or bone or anything explosive at all. No seals. No demonstrations. Just that quiet, dangerous phrase.

"You may begin."

“…Wait,” Ruri said slowly, a crease forming between her brows. She glanced around the quarry floor as if she might have missed something obvious. “You’re not...?”

She trailed off, then let out a short breath through her nose. “Oh.”

It clicked, a second later than she liked. This wasn’t about Nozomi carving the mountain open and Ruri helping clean up. This wasn’t controlled demolition by proxy. This was… her task. Ruri turned back to the marble wall, suddenly very aware of its size, its age, the sheer amount of weight held in something that had never once cared about human intention.

“…Is that even possible?” she asked, not quietly, but honestly.

It wasn’t doubt in her own strength that sparked the question. She knew exactly how hard she could hit. She knew what her palms could do to muscle and bone and chakra networks. This felt different. Bigger. Beyond what she’d ever been asked to do before. Then again… that was probably the point. She exhaled, rolled her shoulders, and stepped closer to a seam she’d pointed out earlier. She planted her feet, settled into a familiar stance, and raised one open palm.

“Alright,” she muttered. “Let’s start simple.”

She struck the stone, chakra flowed as it always did, into the stone, sharp and disruptive. The impact sent a tremor through the marble, and for a heartbeat she felt triumph as fractures bloomed outward beneath the surface. Then the rock burst. Not cleanly or elegantly either, the interior crushed inward, cracking in chaotic directions. Stone crumbled instead of separating, the seam collapsing into a mess of fractured rubble. Ruri stared at the damage with a look of resignment and silent frustration weaved into her furrowed brow.

“…That sucked.”

She tried again. A different angle. A deeper insertion of chakra, but the results stayed the same, internal collapse and no sign of a clean break. Effective destruction, sure, but useless for what they needed. Her jaw tightened, frustration creeping up fast.

“Come on...” she growled under her breath.

She struck again. And again. Nothing clean, nor meaningful. She pulled back, breathing hard now, palms tingling unpleasantly. The stone wasn’t resisting her, which would be a simple wall to overcome, but it was absorbing her force and breaking on its own terms. Crushing, not cutting. Her eyes flicked up the quarry wall, following the fault line she’d traced earlier.

“…Cut, not blunt force...” she said quietly.

The word lingered, till it hit her. Wind, her chakras true nature. The realization came slowly, then all at once. Wind didn’t overwhelm, it sliced and severed. If she kept forcing raw chakra into the stone, it would always break messily. But if she could shape the chakra, use it's natural nature to control it instead of brute forcing it, maybe she could make this work? She swallowed and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

“Okay,” she said, more firmly now. “Different approach.”

She lifted her hand again, but this time, she didn’t push chakra outward, she compressed it. Forced it thinner and sharper, like forging a blade from something that wanted to remain a hammer. It was hard, her chakra resisted at every opportunity, flaring unevenly, slipping out of shape, almost mocking her at her attempts to control it. The first attempt fizzled uselessly. The second cut too wildly and cracked the stone again. Ruri hissed, shaking her hand.

“Shit, no, thinner... thinner!”

She broke concentration, swore under her breath, tried again. Slowly, painfully slowly, she felt it begin to respond. Not a blade, not really, but an edge. Something that followed the stress line instead of fighting it. She struck again, palm snapping forward with controlled precision. This time, the sound was different. A sharp crack, crisp and decisive. Ruri froze in that moment, waiting with baited breath as a thin line split along the seam, running exactly where she’d intended. The slab didn’t fall, not yet, but it had separated. Her breath caught, then escaped in a shaky laugh. It wasn’t perfect and it certainly wasn’t fast. Sweat dripped down her temple, arms trembling with exhaustion and focus. But the stone had listened. Ruri set her stance again, eyes bright and fierce despite the frustration still clinging to her.

“Alright,” she said to the marble, to herself, to whatever was watching. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

[Class Post 3/5]
[Word Count - 773]
[Total Word Count - 2010]

 

[Ryuu Nozomi]

Nozomi did not step in while Ruri failed repeatedly. She did not correct or interrupt. Instead, she allowed the full weight of the lesson to sink in. She watched every blunt collapse and every ugly fracture. How each time the marble crushed inward instead of separating and the building frustration growing within the young girls chest. Nozomi catalogued it all with the same precision she used to plan demolitions and battlefield ruptures. She saw how Ruri’s chakra flared or dispersed when it was forced too hard. The feeling that set in when the stone accepted the energy but refused to obey it.

That was the point. Stone did not respond to strength. It needed to be coaxed and unrooted from a place of absolute stubbornness.

When Ruri’s frustration surfaced, Nozomi’s expression did not change. She watched the moment when the girl stopped hitting and started thinking. It was beautiful in a sense, and she let the entire scene play out before her. There was a realization to try to cut the rock rather than smash it and Nozomi felt a sense of satisfaction. She tried again and everything changed. Even Nozomi saw the way the hit made a thin, sharp and clean line. It was imperfect still but it was the right idea to be refined.

The stone took a moment to answer but eventually split in a clean nature. She stepped forward into the dust cloud as the sound of the split echoed through the quarry. It was the mountain itself praising Ruri for a job well done. Nozomi moved quickly and with purpose as the skin along her forearm tightened then parted with an organic sort of sound. Not wet or violent, but the sound bone shifting in a structural way. Pale calcium unfolded from within her arm into the cold mountain air. It was not a blade, or a weapon of any sort. It was a wedge, a triangular thing that was dense and Ruri would see that it contained a compact amount of chakra so that it would not break.

She drove it forward into the mountain and snapped it off in place to hold the work that Ruri accomplished. To allow it to bend and settle the stone and the cut to crack deeper into the face of the mountain.

"That..." Nozomi said in a whisper toward the girl, "Was well done."

She gestured towards the additional fault lines that needed to be cut, there was about five hundred feet east and west that this current fault just broke off. Then, she turned her attention fully back to Ruri now.

“You created the first true fault. That is the hardest part... but now you will need to repeat it.”

She lifted her hand and pointed along the base of the massive slab in order to trace an invisible line where Ruri’s Byakugan would already see the stress gather.

“A thousand times, if that is what it takes. Each clean cut becomes a place for a wedge. Each wedge becomes another shift in weight. Eventually… the slab will free itself.”

She stepped back once more, giving Ruri the space to work.

“You have already proven you can cut the stone. Now you will prove your endurance. Do it again...”

The mountain did all that the mountain could do, wait for Ruri to tear it apart, strike by strike.

[WC:562, Class:4/5 Total WC: 1,000+]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

Ruri smiled slightly at the praise, but she didn’t puff up or respond with words at all, she was happy but humble. Instead, she let the recognition settle into her chest like a weight, warm and grounding, then she turned back to the stone. That feeling of her chakra, making an edge, she chased it. The thinness of her chakra. The way it wanted to stretch instead of surge. She closed her eyes for half a breath, recalling the exact sensation of that first clean cut, the resistance, the tension, the moment the stone finally agreed to separate. When she opened them again, her Byakugan was already tracing the next fault line.

Step, set, cut, repeat.

Her palm snapped forward, wind chakra compressed and guided along the seam. The line forming faster this time, cleaner, sharper and more precise. She moved without hesitation to the next point, then the next, each strike more confident than the last. The rock face began to respond differently, fractures spreading predictably, sound sharpening from dull thuds into crisp cracks. She didn’t rush though, because this wasn’t a fight she had to win, it was a test of patience and stamina. Sweat built quickly, darkening her clothes, streaking down her temples and dripping off of her profusely. Her breathing deepened, turning heavy as the repetition set in, her arms burning from the constant movments, her legs ached from constant repositioning along uneven ground. Still, she kept going, methodical, precise, refusing to let fatigue sloppiness creep into her technique. Behind her, always just behind, Nozomi followed.

Each clean cut earned a wedge. Each wedge was driven in with calm, practiced force, the mountain groaning softly as pressure shifted and weight redistributed. Together, strike by strike, they unrooted something that had been held in place for centuries. By the time Ruri paused, hands braced on her knees, chest heaving, her muscles screamed in protest. Her chakra felt stretched thin but aligned, wind flowing through her pathways with a familiarity that hadn’t been there before. She wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her wrist, eyes already lifting to the next fault line.

Again, she would do it again, until every last chunk of marble was free she would cut. Until Nozomi gave her the instruction to stop, that they had collected enough, she would push her body to the brink, this was just training, just making her body and her mind stronger and sharper.

[Class Post 4/5]
[Word Count - 409]
[Total Word Count - 2419]

 

[Ryuu Nozomi]

Nozomi stayed close, like a constant presence without pressure. She watched the way the girl’s chakra thinned now without hesitation and how the cuts came cleaner. As such, the mountain answered her differently. It no longer resisted her force and instead responded to it.

“That’s it,” Nozomi said quietly, once, when another seam split true. Not to break the rhythm but just enough to let Ruri know the shape she was carving was the right one.

She followed each successful cut with a wedge of bone, extruding them with the same calm economy as before. One after another. The marble face began to sing in low, stressed notes, deep vibrations that traveled through the very ground itself and up into their bones. She counted without speaking the amount of strikes and wedges they'd place.

Two hundred more cuts passed like breath. Then three hundred. The quarry groaned more often now, the sound no longer isolated but layered. 'Not Yet,' Nozomi thought as dust drifted down in lazy sheets.

She watched Ruri push through fatigue with discipline rather than stubbornness. She corrected micro-errors without Nozomi's prompting. She adjusted stance before strain could turn sloppy. It was shocking how even her wind chakra stayed thin, obedient, and precise.

When Nozomi placed the wedge after the four hundred and second cut, she felt it. The mountain inhaled like a beast taking a giant breath.

“Stop,” Nozomi said in a sharp tone.

She crossed the distance in a heartbeat. One arm swept around Ruri’s back and side. Chakra filled Nozomi's arm to give her strength to lift the girl that weighed more than her. There was no time for explanation or debate. The slab chose that exact moment to let go.

The sound was not an explosion, it was worse. A deep, rolling detachment, like the earth deciding it no longer needed that piece of itself. It would feel and sound as if they were at the epicenter of an earthquake as the quarry wall sheared free in a single, colossal, motion. Within seconds there was a seven story tall block of marble peeling away from the mountain and beginning its fall.

However, even before gravity could finish the thought, Nozomi bit into her gloves to rip them away. Clay poured out in a rush from her palms as she spit free dozens of birds that snapped to form in mid-air. They swarmed the falling slab, ropes of hardened clay snapping taut as they latched on. The descent slowed, then steadied, and even reversed before the massive block crashed to the earth.

The block rose into the sky and Nozomi landed atop it lightly with Ruri in tow. Wind roared past them as the quarry fell away beneath and dust plumed upward harmlessly. Only when they were clear did Nozomi loosen her grip and set Ruri on her feet beside her.

“You did... great,” she said, finally.

The giant slab in which they now stood carried them smoothly through the air. It was magically suspended in the air by a dozen clay birds straining but holding. Below, Lightning Country stretched out into green lowlands, winding rivers, and distant roofs catching the last light of day. At the springs, Nozomi guided the birds down and released the block gently into the cleared basin. The marble settled with a satisfied thud. It remained whole and unbroken despite its size. Perfect.

“We will need to begin dividing this tomorrow,” Nozomi said, already stepping back. “We’ll start rebuilding with the civilians. For now, get some rest. Eat... Sleep... You've earned it.”

[WC: 593, Class: 5/5, Total WC: 1,000+]

 

[Shuusui Ruri]

Ruri did not turn around when Nozomi spoke. The words landed, settled, and were absorbed into her the same way the lesson itself had been, quietly and without ceremony. She rolled her shoulders once, feeling the burn there, the deep ache that had sunk into muscle and bone alike, then stepped back into position as if nothing had interrupted her. Her Byakugan traced the next fault line without effort now. What had once felt overwhelming, layers of density, stress, and resistance, had narrowed into something cleaner, more legible. She exhaled slowly, compressing her chakra not outward, but inward, thinning it until it held an edge instead of weight which made the strikes come sharp and controlled.

Crack.

A clean line split the stone exactly where she intended, no flare, no waste. She shifted sideways, already lining up the next cut, breath deepening as fatigue pressed harder against her ribs. Sweat dripped freely now, soaking into her clothes and stinging her eyes, but she didn’t stop to wipe it away. Behind her, she heard the sound of a wedge being driven home. She adjusted the next angle slightly, accommodating the shift in pressure. Her strikes slowed just enough to stay precise. This time the cut came faster and cleaner. The wind chakra followed the seam like it belonged there, slipping into the stone with less resistance than before. Ruri felt it click, her chakra no longer needing to be moulded into shape, but now acting true to it's nature as naturally as breathing. Her breathing, which grew heavier with each strike, each inhale pulling sharply at her chest. Arms screaming for relief, legs trembled faintly from constant movement along uneven ground. She clenched her jaw and pushed through it, irritation sparking, not at the work, but at herself whenever a cut wasn’t perfect.

Too wide, she corrected on the next one, too much force, she thinned the chakra further. Again and again and again.

The rhythm took over. Strike. Shift. Cut. Step. Behind her, Nozomi followed at a measured pace, hammering in wedges, coaxing the mountain to accept the changes Ruri imposed upon it. Stone groaned low and deep, the sound rolling through the quarry like a distant acknowledgment. Ruri paused only once, just long enough to draw in a steadying breath and shake out her fingers. Her palms tingled, chakra pathways humming with strain but also clarity. She lifted her head, eyes already finding the next fault line.

“I’ve got it,” she said quietly, without turning.

Then she struck again and the pit answered all at once. A deep, thunderous crack split the quarry wall as the massive slab finally surrendered. Stone shifted violently, dust exploded outward and the ground beneath Ruri’s feet shook, almost in fear, as the freed weight began to collapse inward. Her eyes widened, taken by surprise and before she could react, the ledge beneath her gave way.

Ruri felt herself drop... and then a firm grip seized the back of her vest and yanked her sideways with brutal force. She hit the ground hard, rolling as stone thundered past where she’d stood a heartbeat earlier. Nozomi didn’t stop moving. Even as she dragged Ruri clear of the collapsing pit, the mouths in her palms opened wide. Pale clay poured forth and took shape mid-motion, a flock birds forming rapidly, wings snapping into existence as they launched skyward. They intercepted the giant, tumbling slab of marble, freed after hours of pressure and slicing, carrying the chunk of stone away from the pit’s edge before it could crush everything below.

The quarry roared, then slowly it settled as the clay beasts flew off with ease, carrying easily several tons of stone. Ruri lay on her back, chest heaving, eyes wide as dust drifted down like ash. Her entire body trembled with exhaustion and adrenaline. She coughed once, then laughed, a breathless, incredulous sound.

“…Guess,” she managed between breaths, “The stone wasn't pleased by our efforts”

She turned her head slightly, looking down at the fractured quarry wall now an even bigger hole than it had been before. And as Nozomi finally released her grip and the last clay bird vanished into the sky, Ruri realized something important, she hadn’t just cut stone today, she’d made the mountain move.

"My body won't thank me for this days work, but this feeling of accomplishment, it's addictive." She grinned, still catching her breath.

[Class Post 5/5]
[Word Count - 732]
[Total Word Count - 3151]

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

Name: Ryuu Nozomi & Shuusui Ruri
Type: Class. Teacher = Ryuu Nozomi, Students = Shuusui Ruri
Link: https://ninpocho.com/threads/class-squeezing-blood-from-stone.69760/#post-394383
Rewards: 35x2=70 Stats (From Monthly Rewards) for both Nozomi & Ruri
+4,000 Yen for Ryuu Nozomi

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