It was still early morning in Kirigakure, and even as the female carefully paced her way silently down the near deserted streets, everything looked the same. Everything seemed the same.
With the ghostly mist still coiled about the skyward structure walls, and the long emerald grass that hid deceptively deeper puddles. Those amber lights reaching faded arms through the haze and the warm family voices that followed.  The musk and smoke and years and years of memories, lingering in the air floating about on the iced bitten breeze. This village.... this place; it  nearly looked the same as it had done the moment she had stepped through it's gates a life time ago... Nearly.
Yes. That's right. It was hard to ignore. The burnt portion dividing the luscious green, like a hideous black scar through paradise. The new shade of red ingrained in to the wood as she tested a step across the bridge. The crumbled buildings crushed when the village eyes were not looking. These mistakes would take months to wash away. Years maybe. These mistakes that were not there before when she came in to this water logged village.


Her.

Mistakes.

But we learn from our mistakes...

Taking a deep breath of the moistened air, Tenmei Sotsuji adjusted her bag over her shoulder once more and forced her steely gaze from the black clawing mass just visible through the fog and to the ground where she some how still stood. The village hidden in the mist; had come close to being the first home since she had left the snow behind. The constant chill of the rain, the consistent warmth of the people. The moments where she could let go and just let the cold take her in.
But even after all this time she was still an outsider. People still looked to her like she was an intruder treading all over their perfectly grafted gardens. People still blamed her for everything that happened. This... was inevitable. It was time. It was finally time to go.
So... with conviction lifting the weights from her steps, and the whispers dusting off the doubts, the special jounin continued her way to the gates for the last time.

...the last time.


"Hey. Where do you think you're going?"

It had been a while since she had heard that voice last... but Tenmei had far from forgotten. Those accusing undertones and spiteful glances. Arms folded, tensely poised, ready to strike with the force of his arrogance.... The first time they had met she was only a genin. New to the land and unsure of her strengths, he and his friends had cornered her like a scared mouse and  easily shown her just how much she wasn't wanted in this place. The next time was almost a year later and he had avoided her like she had the plague and made sure everyone else did the same. And the time after that....well, he wouldn't even make eye contact. And here they were again, standing face to face, her silver steel eyes meeting with his blue ones. Fire and water. Ready and prepared. Unstoppable and unmovable.....

"Step aside. I'm leaving"

"Oh? Where is your proof of permissions?"

Silence.

That's right. Permission. When she fought with the Lady Mizukage, Tenmei had declared that she was leaving. That she was going to walk out those gates the next day and no one could stop her. Back then there had been no answer. No try to convince her otherwise or denial of her demand. There had just been anger and tears and a shattering acceptance. But there was no official permission to leave....
No, it didn't matter. Defect or just be let out to walk the world Tenmei didn't care. One way or the other she was leaving this sinking land. And if it meant going through her child hood bully. Well....

"Did you not hear me, fire bitch? I said: where is your permissions?
Present them or piss off. I don't have time for outsiders like..."

There was no stopping it.


Her eyes flashed orange. Her knife flashed silver.
Before Tenmei could think about what she was doing; one hand had flicked down to the knife at her hip while the other had grabbed at his collar. Then, with a grip like iron and and strength like steel, she pulled him close enough to see the predatory golden in her eyes before slamming him back in to the gates he denied her, with a bone breaking crack. But Tenmei was not nearly done.
Without allowing him the moments to catch his breath, she was on top of him, the knife's burning tip poised at the throbbing artery in his neck and her hand pressing slowly...firmly... painfully in to his chest.
Yes. That's right. He wouldn't feel it at first. Just a growing warmth reaching through the layers of clothes, kissing his skin. But soon she would burn through his material layers and to the delicate bone protecting the fragile organ. The shinobi had left scars on him before, but this.... this would be the last.

His whimpering. His pleading. The worried eyes watching.


That's it, show them. Show them all.
Make them remember. They can't hold you back any longer.


Blank amber eyes. Pale empty expression.
Tenmei would not stop until she could feel his heart beating and the only thing standing between her and the world behind her, was the open gate and cleared path.

They can't stop me now.

-----
words: 947

Sensation


She could feel him watching. Peering over at her through those pitch mask eyes. Taking in the heat that seeped from the crawling across her skin. Trying to estimate the fault in her strengths and the cracks in her sky clear weaknesses while as she spouted those wrath fueled words.
Tenmei could almost imagine the thoughts floating around inside the wooden wolf carved face.
"She can't beat me." "She isn't good enough". "Hopeless" "Out of control, out of her league. A child. So pathetic. What a parasite."
The longer she stood there watching him, the more unexplainabley furious she got with the man. How could he be standing there so calm... so still and focused; when the claws of her scorching, searing force of heat were baring down on him like a viscious predator. How could he be watching her with such perfect control after challenging her like that.
It was detestable... unnerving almost that he could just stand there before her without fear. Without anger... Without....




Reaction



Tenmei snapped. Within her next breath, the Sotsuji had shifted her balance, leaned in for the momentum and swung out her leg in a powerful kick. Sending a roaring wave of heat to come rocketing towards him in the trail of her swing. If that had hit... if it everything went the way she wanted to for once, that one blow would have been devastating. The force behind it, the scorching heat if the impact was made then he should have been.... there was nothing. Just. Nothing.
The special jounin had felt the jarring deep in to her core. She felt her heat press in to him like a wave around a cliff side and yet...and yet he barely moved. Just a short couple inches to the side of where he had stood and a familiar scorch pattern to the side of his armour.
This was unacceptable. Already she needed to be better. Her next attack would have to be better.




Do not disappoint me, Tenmei.


It started again with her next breath.
The female pulled back the kick, regained the flawed sense of balance... and then, the moment she had her fingers wrapped around the handle of her clan gifted knife Tenmei came at him once again. But this time, she refused to miss. This time she wouldn't disappoint him.
And at first.... she didn't. The girl's aim was as true as it always had been. But the moment the solid metal pierced through his shoulder, she knew something felt wrong. It didn't feel like the dagger was piercing through muscle and bone. It felt more solid.... like she was stabbing in to the ground... Wait. That's it. That's exactly what it felt like. But the realisation came too late. Tenmei pulled her arm from the clone, just in time for her wrist and hand to be trapped inside, with her heat forcing the clay to go harder the longer she was trapped. It hurt. It was infuriating. And despite how she tried to pull herself free all it did was cause her more pain and to be even more desperate.




Retaliation



She was burning through chakra faster than she was burning through the mist... and Tenmei showed no sign of slowing down. Even with her arm caught in the earthern statue the heat continued to build like a volcano inside a sleeping mountain. But even the earth itself had it's breaking point.
Focusing the chakra in to the palms of her hands, the female waited impatiently until she could feel the heat pressing in around her bones.. her muscles. Pushing against the underside of her skin. She waited until the pressure was so crushingly tight around her fingers, when she suddenly released it one go, blasting it directly in to the body of the clone. If it worked.... if her technique was strong enough, the molded clone would rapidly weaken and crumble.. but only for just long enough for the girl to remove her hand and get some distance before it took it's form once more. His jutsu was strong, she couldn't disspitate it altogether in the first hit. But with any luck she wouldn't need to.

And now it was her turn

While the Sotsuji worked to get her stone trapped hand free, the other hand was slowly building up it's own chakra supply... but this time the process was faster. Deadier. With every beat of her eratic heart, the fire inside would shoot through her arteries with such agonizing force that some of that pressure. That... forced control started to slip through the tightly clenched fists.
Wisps of steam escaped in to the air. Whispers of warmth threaded through the chill, and yet... Tenmei held back. She drew back the  coiledhand and instead dashed forward with every bit of speed she could muster to swing the knife at him again. And this time she was going for the head. The calm faced mask that stared blankly back at her as if nothing could bother it. As if the constant attacks and fighting and harsh words meant nothing to it's carved expression.
No, Tenmei would aim the tip of the knife to calve through the false face and only then... only then would she drive her scorching. Searing. Fist of Fei straight in towards his ribs.

But it didn't end there.

"I could've shattered your bones then, do not pressure me into proving it"

Those words. She almost missed them.

Another threat. Another challenge. It made her blood boil. How could he? This man who so boldly stepped in to her periphery and saved the coward from her justice. This... Shinobi who declared so bravely that he could be stopped by the likes of her. Even now as she stood before him armed and rippling with the heat she wielded, how could he just stand there and threaten her without so much as an inflection of anger.. or fear... or anything that she could read? What was it about him that made her so damned furious?.... The answer was simple.
So simple that the woman was blinded to it.
He wasn't afraid of her. He wasn't intimidated or bothered or angry. He was still and calm. Like the waves lapping steadily under the bridge that day, he was steady and controlled. But she... Tenmei couldn't be more different.
While he was like the gentle ripples, she was like the waves on the beach. Breaking, crashing and pulling away. She had been so terrified of that coward... of their faces and their hate, and their actions.... that the younger ninja had lost herself and reacted like a reckless flame. Yes, the answer was as plain as the burns on her skin.


He was everything she needed to be.....


"Go ahead. You can try break me, to shatter every bone in my body. It's nothing I haven't felt before. But I don't need a clone to fight for me. I dont need a trap. I will turn you and your statue to dust before either of can get close"


... and the very thing she couldn't become.


---
words: 1210

Chakra 185/250:

Binsu stood still from a safe distance, judging every movement the kunoichi chose to make. She hadn’t changed her stance, she hadn’t changed her offensive technique. She hadn’t changed her motive…

It was difficult for Binsu to understand why she chose to fuel her attacks with rage and hatred instead of strength and purpose. One would argue she had demonstrated a great degree of strength in her previous attacks and that they all carried some sort of purpose, however Binsu couldn’t see much purpose in any of her previous attempts at scaring his body with her vengeful attacks, as all but none had failed in misshaping the man in any way. Perhaps she wanted to prove a point; perhaps she wanted to show Binsu he was wrong in doubting her strength and capabilities and declaring her weaker than he, or maybe she simply wanted to show the stranger the unstable side of her, the reflection she saw of herself on the other side of a cracked mirror’s surface.. Her alter ego. Whatever her motives were they weren’t helping the effectiveness of her attacks, nor did they paint a frightful picture of the kunoichi in the rogue’s mind. No. If any image could be drawn of her in the thoughtful mind of the swordsman, it’d be one filled with random splashes of paint all different shapes and sizes; none suggesting any direction or purpose in her actions and quite possibly her life.

One true conclusion that could be drawn from the strangers’ encounter, was that neither fought without reason, no matter the reason. Binsu fought to survive and achieve his personal goals in life. Those he had set for himself, none he had borrowed from others or was told to achieve by another. His shinobi code was as simple as the chorus of any catchy song, ‘every man for himself...’ Although a selfish code it was closer to the truth than the pathetic codes he had heard from other ‘shinobis’ along his journey in life. The swordsman didn’t see beauty in the faces of his friends or foes, but instead saw a story waiting to be told. He didn’t judge people strictly on who they had become, but also took into consideration the experiences that had lead up to shaping their persona. ‘You can’t judge the villain at the end of the story, without knowing the villain they were at the beginning of the story’, Binsu always said.

The kunoichi presented herself as an emotionally unstable outcast that only saw sorrow and betrayal in the eyes of those around her, no matter who they claimed to be. In one sense Binsu admired her cautious nature; it would keep her from making unlucky mistakes such as befriending potential enemies - but it would also keep her away from meeting potential friends. Normally Binsu would would disregard the kunoichi as another worthless, thoughtless body for him to treat as an obstacle to his goals, but Binsu saw more than pain and misery in her eyes. Amongst all the suffering, he saw hope…


Binsu’s mud clone, now a motionless life-size statue of what he looked at the time of its creation, cracked and crumbled at the mercy of the kunoichi’s jutsu. She had managed to escape the clone without burning as much chakra as he hoped she would, but knew she wouldn’t. He expected the clone’s destruction to be much sooner that she had allowed, but that was to his favour. The small rocks that once had been together in the form of a rock-solid Binsu replica had fallen onto the ground in a pile of rubble. Only chunks of earth and dust remained of the useless clone; the clone had reverted back to its natural, undisturbed state. Before he could celebrate however, Binsu saw the kunoichi initiate her second attack soon after giving him a short response to his claim of being capable to shattering her bones.

"Go ahead. You can try break me, to shatter every bone in my body. It's nothing I haven't felt before. But I don't need a clone to fight for me. I don’t need a trap. I will turn you and your statue to dust before either of can get close", the sound of her pain manifesting as her words spoke out in an echo towards his face.

‘She doesn’t understand...she needs to understand,’ Binsu thought to himself, as he felt his eyes begin to water, his vision reduced by 10% due to the blur in his eyes his tears had brought to them. “I do not wish to cause you harm, nor do i intended to expose you of your weaknesses. If only you could listen to your heart and not your mind, you’d see that i’m not your enemy...” Binsu began. He’d pause his rant at the sight of the kunoichi break into a chase towards him, in a similar manner to how she had before. He had enough time to initiate and execute a counter attack before her attack managed to reach him, assuming her attack was one of extreme close proximity. Without letting the woman cover a distance of more than 3 meters after she had decided to break into a chase, Binsu began to gather a large amount of chakra in the palm of his left hand. Thanks to years or practicing and perfecting his skill in chakra manipulation, Binsu had managed to gather all the chakra he needed for his upcoming jutsu within a second and a half. He then quickly fed the chakra raiton properties and exposed the nature of his jutsu a second later. The chakra took on the shape of a canine beast’s paw, complete with the claws and fur, though these shapes and textures were only ‘illusions’ of the jutsu’s actual appearance. The beast hand was at least 3 times the size of Binsu’s own hand and it cloaked his entire arm, his biceps and shoulder being the exceptions. And to think he had done all this in the time frame of 2 and a half seconds or less.

His attack was ready, all he needed to do was wait for the kunoichi to come into close proximity with him in an attempt at delivering a blow towards his head, but before she got the chance to he’d finish his sentence saying, “...you are, your own enemy.,” after which he’d decide to either stop her attack with his own or cancel it. The latter would only be a choice did the lady choose to yield.

---

(OOC note:) This attack was not used in this post, but is active -

chakra 260/300:

Total thread WC = 4002

Mercury blue skies swirling with silver and white; reflected it's dim light in to her pale grey eyes as she stared emptily in to the misty clouds. Feeling the cool, salt tainted spray against her smouldering skin. Her blood speckled lips.
For as long as Tenmei Sotsuji could remember, she hated the water. She despised the way it went on forever. The way it would hide it's creatures and it's bottomless pits under the ever changing surface. Feigning the calm and still that she never seemed to obtain before breaking apart over rocky stability.
But here, floating gently at the edge of the white capped ripples it was strange. It was... peaceful. All the noise from before: The wind as loud as thunder and the cutting crackle of lighting. The voices screaming in her head, louder than both. As the icy tendrils of water reverted to the gaseous form and started to slowly... slowly wash over her and pull her under the shallow surface, she was not afraid. Not this time.

But fear wasn't something scared away so easy


How could you have let this happen?

----------------------------

It had all happened so fast.
Even her memories struggled to keep up.

Footsteps alight and light against the water worn wood. Amber eyes a flash of tangerine in the mist. Short inhales and exhales escaping in snake like wisps of chilled steam. The female could no longer feel the cool metal of the knife pressing in to her palm, or the bitter metallic tang resting heavy on her tongue. She could no longer feel the strain of her muscles as she pushed her limits to get to him and finally make him understand her frustration. All the Special Jounin could remember feeling then was the raw exposed wrath that set her skin alight and filled her with an irrational ravenous desire to slice that mask from his passively calm features.... To carve through his flesh and bone and wood and every scarp of material he wore just to prove that maybe... just maybe she was not the only one here afraid of the one standing opposite. That she was not as weak and as pathetic as they had convinced her in to believing for so many years.

Show them all. Show the world.
Make them see the truth we see

She got so close.

The glimmering tip of the blackened blade. The screaming winds pushing in to his armour. The earthly scent of charred wood and singeing material. All of it... every feeling, every inch she crept closer. Every word in her mind spurring on the weighted footsteps; Tenmei became more sure of her reasoning.
He was right. He was always right. There was no stopping it now. Her mind had been made up. This creature... this being so steady and controlled. This shinobi who was the very epitome of what she should have become when the Seven Bells came calling. He would be the very last trial the village hidden in the mist would throw at her. The last obstacle to overcome. But  Tenmei Sotsuji wouldn't back down.
Not now not ever. Not when freedom to be who she was born to be, was just beyond those gates. She wouldn't be hold back. It was over.


C.R.A.C.K!


She remembered this feeling. The stinging streaks across her skin like serrated whip lashes tearing through her clothes, coating the scars with pinkish red burns. The cry of pain when the bone shuddering impact collided mercilessly with her ribs, throwing her to the air as if she were being cast aside like a uselessly broken doll.
The Special Jounin braced herself for when the ground would rush up with it's painfully crushing embrace. Breaking her shoulders, bruising her back holding her back once more.... but it never came. The pain never came. In it's place was the most wonderful hollow numbness she had experienced since that day in Yuki all those years ago. But this time, it wasn't snow that had frozen shattered her temper. It was the icy grip of water coming up around her battered form.

------

How could you have let this happen?

Time seemed to past slower now. It felt like it took forever for the feeling to slip away.... for her nerves to reawaken to the cold once more and grant her the ability to move.  And even after with the ability to move and feel... and remember, Tenmei waited out a little bit longer. She waited out those next few minutes just so she could try to hold on to that feeling that little bit longer...until finally, she had no choice but to fight her way through the steaming ripples and scramble to the stability of solid ground once more. Collapsing down on to her knees the moment she knew the ground could hold her.
How had she become so exhausted? When was it that time decided to resume it's normal pace? When did Tenmei stop being so afraid of the water that would have swallowed her whole had she not waited a moment later.  The female wasn't sure. Except that it may have been about the time where she stopped being angry at him.

Another long pause.


"Don't look at me like that..."



The words sounded distant but she knew it was her voice that spoke. Lifeless silver eyes on her trembling hands, water dripping from her hair and what was left of her clothes. Burned, tattered, tossed about.
She knew exactly what she must have looked like to him. Even with the mask still intact she could almost imagine the expression that would say more than any words could describe. And yet... the anger towards him was gone. The need to fight... gone. Disappeared. Dissolved in to the cool air and colder water along side the energy. She had failed. Again. And it had nothing to do with him.


"You were...you were right to stop me from hurting that coward. To stop me from hurting you.... You were right to not be afraid of me. I'm.... I'm sorry. Just stop looking at me like that. Like you pity me"
She couldn't help it. Fingers clenched in to her palms, inner heat working to dry her sopping skin from the inside out. The female refused to look at the empty masked eyes as she grasped for the nearest post to help her back to the unstable feet.
  "You should just go. I won't fight you again. I can see that.... I can see that I am still not strong enough. I'm sorry"


Exhausted. Hungry. Dehydrated. Tenmei Sotsuji wanted nothing more to get out of here. Leave her mistakes and her disgraces behind. All there was left to do now was to stumble her way through that gate and hope that her shame didn't follow.

I'm so sorry.

----
Words: 1166
Total: 5548

OOC: I too am sorry about the wait

Chance...

'A chance encounter, was that all it was for her? An accident, an unprepared meeting? In a way it kinda was, but the foolish rogue felt as though it was meant to be. Such a cliche thought; the two of them were destined to meet. Bindi felt as though fate had planned this 'unexpected' encounter to occur today and no other day, with her and him and no one else. The swordsman denied it to be a random encounter, for he believed that in a world where we can only experience what has already happened, there was no such thing as the unexpected. Even the expected can't be truly expected, and what will happen next was always meant to happen. To the ignorant, or rather un-thoughtfull mind, the future was always determined by the small changes caused by material things with the effects of chance, but Binsu fundamentally disregarded chance as a word created by man to represent the unforeseen nature of the predetermined order of future events. Sort of how magic is the word used to explain the unexplainable. All in all, Binsu didn't believe in chance, but arrogantly he knew it was very much a real thing.

The kunoichi was filled with self-doubt, Binsu could feel it. Either she had been forcefully brainwashed by the people around her to believe in the weaknesses of her actions, or she had nurtured that self-doubt in herself. He couldn't believe she was as weak as she portrayed herself, not after he had seen her cunning attacks towards him. Although none proved effective against his own arsenal of techniques, all were worth the effort he took in stopping or avoiding them. And the most part of him believed she was holding back. As he stared into her eyes, fighting the urge to force her to accept his helping hand, Binsu could see that even though her dignity had been tested more than once, her pride was never touched. She proudly denied his kind offer to help her up and instead used the strength she had preserved from their previous clash to pull herself from the ground to stand on her feet. Binsu was disappointed in her rejection of his offer, but the respect he now had for her washed that disappointment. A glimmer of light reflected in the young woman's eyes as she moved her glance from the ground to Binsu, meeting the patient swordsman's stare. The rogue caught her glance and maintained the eye contact they had achieved. He felt warm inside as their stares met somewhere in the middle. He could've held that stare for years.

"I don't need anyone. And you are better off without someone like me." The young man contemplated his response to the advice; he wanted to tell her she was wrong, and that he would better off WITH her, but he couldn't be sure of the accuracy of his contradiction. "I will take my chances with you," he reassured the lady, as he took a small step back to give a bit more space, all the while maintaining his stare towards the kunoichi.
"But I... I never... If that is how you feel. Then come with me. I'm tired of the rain and the mist and the water touched people. I'm leaving this place now and Im not coming back, so if you want to, follow me now through these gates. If not... then this is goodbye," the kunoichi spoke with a hit of pain in her tone. Her words were sincere and promising: she was inviting him to follow her on the journey he himself began taking a few months ago; the journey beginning with the sudden defection from one's own village, in search for more, whatever more was. More power, more freedom, more choices. If he did decide to join her, she would become as much of his responsibility as he would be her's. If he decided to deny her offer, she would walk away from him for good. She would be forever out of his life and the chances of them ever crossing paths again would be far more than slim. He couldn't bare the regretfull idea of leaving her so soon, the idea of forgetting who she was before he had even learnt about who she was. Joining her in her travels seemed a far more appealing choice.

The swordsman opened his mouth to speak under his mask, tilting his head up as a follow up sign that he was truly about to speak, but then something interrupted him and brought his intentions to a sudden halt. The swordsman could hear the feint noise of footsteps in the distance, the noise came from behind them: where the village hidden in the mist stood. Accompanying the sounds of footsteps was the sight that confirmed the swordsman's suspicions; six men all wearing the kirigakure flak jacket were in a slow chase towards them. They seemed slow from where he stood, but Binsu could see they were getting bigger and bigger, a sign they were getting closer and closer. That cowardly man Binsu had practically saved the life of earlier must've warned the others, but thankfully enough the mix ullage hadn't overestimated their strengthen and skill enough to have sent ANBU operatives after them instead. Binsu shot a quick glance back towards the kunoichi, who was now already halfway through the village gates but had stopped in her tracks in waiting for the swordsman's decision on whether to follow her or not. "We have to get out of here, fast" the swordsman said, purposely not making it too obvious that he had accepted her offer, but had used the word 'we' as a hint that he had accepted her offer. Before letting her respond, Binsu broke into a chase towards the village gates, passing by the kunoichi and not stopping in hope that she would immediately follow.




Total unused WC: 1817 (- 1700 training strength B-1 > B-3)

Left over: 117

------

Travel: 600/7628 = 7028

Reaction Time: B to B3 = 2400
Speed: B to B3 = 2400
Perception: C2 to B = 1400
= 6200 total

7028-62000 = 828 left over