past time

Seeing the blood all over the field, coloring the river eerily red, while she had no chance of even putting on a worthy display of her own skills, she was soundly beaten by the guy she feared, hated, loathed, despised...but also adored and loved, something she couldn't really explain.

It was at that point, after she had sneaked a kiss from him, while unconscious, that Risu had decided to take her training more serious and to finally start going for that same level of strength that guy had, not to mention that she was impressed by the level of his techniques, yet when she wanted to investigate a bit further in his clan, using her own family connections, not telling her uncle Enaka, she got on a dead end when no one seemed to be willing to share some insider information.

Disgruntled about this, Risu simply had come to the decision to blow of some steam and prepare herself for the rise through the ranks of the shinobi world.

"Sometimes, monsters do become legends or even gods, so we can't be running behind them."

Even though she still believed herself to be a monster, as this wasn't easily pushed aside in her mind, one thing was certain, she had been looking upon this title with less hate and discomfort than before, as a monster can also be someone crazily strong, which did appeal to her, being called a monster for such a reason.

Present Time

She knew exactly which training ground she wanted to go to for her training, the B area ofcourse, which had been cleaned up and straightened out again after the soar she had with the affectionate shinobi named Rippã, of whom she had heard that he had been promoted to chuunin, which only made her more certain to do her best.

All she could and had to do now was give it her best shot and train her strengths, while shallowing out her weaknesses.

The first thing she did was starting with a healthy breakfast ofcourse, which she had plenty of times, though this one was special. She had gotten some coffee, since she had gotten a liking to the taste of it, after having tasted it for the first time before sparring that guy.

Next to the coffee, she had grilled makrel, some onigiri with salt and curry flavor and some rolled up, fried eggs. All the things of a breakfast she liked, a traditional breakfast was always the best and knowing she would need the energy from her food, she had brought an extra large bento with her and three bottles of milk coffee and green oolong tea, so she wouldn.t be thirsty or tired during the day.

A free day for training, eating, learning and most important: to improve herself, so she could finally start her race to the top.

484/2000 (med.nin. C-B)

past time

Risu came down from the stairs, playing with her red ball, which had been made by her favorite uncle Enaka, when she came down, she almost tripped over the edges of her yukata, chuckling a bit because she thought it could've been a funny look for others. When she walked to the living room of the house, ready to go to the terras and play outside with her ball, the young girl saw her Uncle Enaka training with her mother.

Surprisingly, her uncle, who she had' thought to be quite strong, was only barely able to fight on equal footing with her mother, who was an ANBU elite and a potential candidate to get a seating in the Hokage's advisory council, which was only reserved for the best, the brightest and the strongest of the konohagakure no sato, the hidden village of the leaf.

With her mother, as well as enaka covered in the scales of the Ouroboros clan's very own Hardening snake scale jutsu, Risu watched amused at the spar between her mother and her uncle, enjoying the last moment her mother would be seen alive.

present time

She didn't really know how to quickly reach a new summit of power, but the wise words uttered by her uncle when she was still an academy student, would always remain as her best way to reach it anyhow: "No great deeds, no great power comes without great effort preceeding it."

So, rather than trying her best just in training her ledical ninjutsu, she had to find out if she had a decent affinity with it. Though her clan thrived with medical ninjutsu, her family; the main Orochi family relied more on the bodymodification properties of those certain skills among medical ninjutsu, rather than the various healing properties.

"Well, it's not like we forget to use those either," The young kunoichi laughed rather silently, when she could feel the change course through her veins, as the chakra started to build up, strengthening and reorganizing the almost dead and useless cells out of which the outer layer of her skin was built of and in a sudden rush, her left hand grew colder and harder, less flexible, but more able to retain and detain greater forces than usual. "Just imagine what power I'd have if I would be able to fully control the enormous benefit behind the ouroboros clan's jutsu and skills. However, it seems I'd first have to learn myself some new tricks and a better grasp of my powers, I'd guess."

With a slight hiss, she turned around and slammed her fist, covered in the white, hard scales, against a tree, seeing as she had use strength which normally would break her fragile bones and tissue, she was more than pleased, to see the tree moan under the strength unleashed upon it, but Risu knew fully well that if it were her uncle doing this, that tree would've been anihilated with a single punch, for he had the full power of the Hardening snake scale jutsu in his command, something the young kunoichi hoped dearly to reach very soon.

529/1013/2000

Chakra 135/150

Spoiler:

The sun had already reached its highest point of the day, one of those rare late-winter periods with a warm and soothing sun as humanity's beacon of hope in the sky, which gave Risu a pleasant and confident feeling.

Setting herself at a small treestump on the terrain of training area B, the young woman took out the two bottles of cooled oolong tea, her bento and a small blanket, so she could have her lunch without having to care too much about everything around her, only thinking about regaining her strength and energy. When she had her fill and had drunk up one of the two bottles, she decided to take a short nap, laying down on the blanket and staring at the sky.

Past Time: Five years ago

The sky was blue, the sun giving a pleasant and warm feeling to Risu, while she sat down on a bench with Kaoru-kun, Ageha-san and Momo, her three best friends or rather her only friends. She had known them ever since she had joined the shinobi academy and became part of Team Three under guidance of Hamada-sensei.

They were laughing about what had happened on their last mission, where they were supposed to escort an old carpenter and his material to the Land of Iron, where he was supposed to fix a relative's inn. They're sensei had been caught in a nearby onsen, peaking at the girls taking a bath, which lead to him being chased out by a dozen of angry, halfnaked women.

And while the three genin were laughing about that incident, Hamada-sensei was sulking a few meters away, saying stuff like it being unfair and stuff, which only made the three of them laugh even harder.

Those were pleasant times, pleasant enough for Risu to set aside her own problems and her painful past. There, along with her three friends and Hamada-sensei, she felt she could finally forget about the pain of losing her parents and start her own life, a life with Kaoru, Ageha and Momo.

Past time: Four years ago

"No, no, I wont let you go, dont ask something like that from me Kaoru," The young girl muttered, her hands glowing green and hanging above the chest of a young boy. Her tears felldown on her hands, while they mixed with the rain pouring down from the sky. Her long black hair hung down, her headband had fallen on the ground into a puddle of blood and mud, while she cried, trying to save the life of the young boy, cursing her weakness. "Please...please, don't die."

The boy caughed up blood, yet even with the stream of blood coming out of his mouth, he still smiled, while his hand went upwards, touching the girl's cheek for just a moment in such a loving and caring way only a loved one could do.

"I wont survive Risu, but I dont mind," The wounded boy said, with a smile, yet with tears running over his cheeks. He looked straight into those snake-like eyes of Risu, remembering that a year or two earlier, he'd hated them, but now he didn't, he loved those eyes, just like he loved the girl to whom they belonged. "I'm glad I had tile to confess to you...but now it's time for me to go. My wounds are to severe, I wont be able to hold on much longer.."

"No, no you wont die Kaoru, you wont...die?!" The young man's hand fell down, his face had calmed down, with the tears no longer running and the blood no longer streaming, yet Risu still couldn't give up, she wouldn't. The girl pressed her hands even harder on his chest, forcefully pushing her own chakra through until the harshness of reality reached her mind, violently erupting into a loud scream filled with sorrow and madness.

A day later, a squad of ANBU found her, unwilling to move away from the boy's corpse, still trying to revive him, still holding on to it, but she didn't scream, she didn't cry, as her mind had broken, putting her in a complete catatonic state, she only muttered a single sentence when the shinobi quickly sought to bring her back to Konoha.

"We're...all monsters."

733/1746/2000

present time:

She woke up, springing straight up like a twig snapping upwards, her eyes wide open and breathing heavily, muttering a few curses while her hand was pressing against her forehead. risu hated to remember the bad things of her past, especially those she had remembered and dreamed about just now. It always made her feel so helpless, confused and weak, just the feelings she actually never wished to feel again.

Taking a look at the sky, she noticed her nap had taken far longer than she had initially desired, as the sky had turned a lot darker and clouds had started to pack together in this unwelcole gray sky she was beholding with her very eyes.

"Ugh...just my luck, waking up just before the rain," the young kunoichi sighed, while packing her stuff again, putting the empty bottles and the empty bento box back into her backpack, while quickly pulling out the hooded poncho she always weared when it was raining, knowing that it was always good to be dilligently prepared for the worst.

Even though she knew the rain was coming, the young woman just couldn't help herself but to try and give another try with her hardening snake scale jutsu and after performing the ox-tiger-snake seal, compressing the chakra to the skin on her left hand, a layer of strong and sturdy scales formed on it, giving her hand a slightly reptilian look, though her nails had not grown and her immaculate nail polish had luckily been left untouched and unscathed by this change of skin.

With a quick keap through the air, she threw a punch at the sale tree she had hit before with the same jutsu, glad to see that the result was some broken treebark and not a single scratch on her own skin covered with scales. if she'd get stronger, she'd be able to completely control the jutsu and utilize its potential to its fullest, which would signify the peak of her skills as an Ouroboros clan head and Orochi family member.

Giving a soft smile, she walked away after picking up her backpack.

"Rippã was right, we're not all monsters."

2114/2000 Medical Ninjutsu C->B