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A Long Day (Private, Training) Mon Dec 21, 2015 9:27 am
Quo
D-rank
Carefully, Quo scoped out the forest clearing, ensuring that every part of it would serve her for the afternoon training that was to come. This was one of the only things she missed about her home; there, her parents would have helped her with her training, providing company and moral support. Here, she had to mark off the trees herself, place the targets and judge the sight lines to be challenging – but not impossible – for her skills.
(Perception E>E1, 77/75 words)
With the sun just starting to breach the clouds above, Quo began to stretch. The girl settled herself carefully, working the morning fatigue out of her limbs as she bounced on the spot, considering how she wished to begin. It was vital that – as an independent ninja – she didn’t allow her skills to degrade, which made it all the more important to plan out precisely how and what her training would encompass. As she considered the day’s objectives, a few breathing exercises helped to centre her, put her in the right state of mind and marshal her body’s energy.
(Endurance E>E1, 99/75 words)
When she started to move, it was at a carefully-controlled pace. She’d measured out the clearing with this exact purpose in mind; precisely one hundred paces took her around the circuit of it, and as she sprinted around the circumference of the clearing she could judge her speed accurately, timing the journey and focusing on the consistency of her speed. The challenge of it was ensuring that she didn’t let up! One hundred paces, and then another hundred at the same speed, and then another hundred…
(Speed E>E1, 86/75 words)
The longer she went, the more that familiar ache came upon her body. She’d always been gifted when it came to her speed and her reactions, but her relatively-small form was just not well suited to long periods of intense activity. Soon, sweat was starting to pour from her, and her lungs were beginning to ache. Still, she refused to let herself yield. Five minutes of intense physical exertion flowed smoothly into ten, and then into fifteen. She couldn’t let herself yield just because it was growing more difficult! She could practically hear her mother screaming in her ear.
”Don’t you dare stop, Quo, you lazy child! When I was your age I could already do this for an hour! Are you so weak?!”
The girl’s lips pressed together tight into a flat line, and she grit her teeth together, sweat dripping down her brow, over her eye where it stung and burned. She hissed faintly in the back of her throat and that moment of distraction cost her dearly. She slipped, and running flat out she found herself tumbling head over heels towards a tree.
(Endurance E1>E2 186/150 words)
It was only by blind luck that she was able to skid up to her feet, her reactions snapping into gear as her training took over. One hand slapped down heavily into the earth, and she twisted as she lunged herself upwards from the ground. In the same moment she focused her chakra towards her feet, every muscle in her body tensing with the effort of it. Please, please let this work, otherwise she was in for a world of pain!
(Reaction Time E>E1 81/75 words)
Her impact with the tree wasn’t the most graceful she had ever been, but her legs bent with it and the chakra stuck her fast to the trunk rather than bruising herself badly with the impact. She took a deep breath, steadying her nerves, and then walked carefully to the first branch, resting there for a moment.
It was interesting how a change in perspective could change the area. Suddenly, from this height, the crosses she had marked in the trunks of the trees to pick out her targets seemed a lot more obscured. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember precisely where they had been placed.
And when she leapt from the tree, she flung her weapons wide. Her kunai sliced through the air, impacting the first target dead centre and cutting deep into the wood. The three kunai she released went on swirling, erratic arcs through the area…
One managed to cut into the edge of its target, the other two were off by a few inches.
(Perception E1>E2 170/150 words)
“Honestly, Quo! How do you expect to put food on this family’s table when you can’t even put a kunai in a man from thirty paces?”
Quo shivered faintly at the memory of her mother’s voice, and walked around the clearing to collect her equipment. She had to strain to pull the kunai from the tree, which seemed reluctant to give up the sharp metal knife. She was careful, though; she really did not have the money to risk losing her precious weapon. A faint rumbling in her belly reminded her that, for all her mother pushed her, the older woman was right. She was weak. But she would become stronger.
(Strength E>E1 85/75 words)
She did have trouble putting food on the table.
Pulling the shuriken back out of the trees, her kunai twirled in her hand and then, she brought it across in a vicious slash. The edge of the blade scratched hard into the wood, and she began to work herself in a well-practiced kata. The movement of the blade was perfectly considered, slashing into the torso of her imaginary opponent again and again; each cut on its own would have been little more than a nuisance to a grown man, and indeed, even combined, they were of little importance to the tree…
But she put her heart into it, carving over and over again as her arms worked at this as hard as her legs had worked at taking her around the clearing. Sap began to weep from the tree’s trunk as her eyes gleamed with frustration. All of that bottled frustration coming out to stab over and over again into the trunk…
(Strength E>E2 162/150 words)
The sun had reached the midday point by the time that Quo finally began to tire. She was exhausted, her slender frame trembling with the effort she had put into maiming her imagined foe, who – if they were foolish enough to simply stand there and be cut to ribbons – would surely have perished. Towards the end, the assault had become less a calm, considered approach to slashing, and more a frenzied attack, stripping away bark and exposing the softer wood beneath the trunk for as high as she could reach. The tree was still standing of course; a silent, judgemental witness to her sustained and pointless attack.
Her breath was laboured and her heart pounding in her chest as she walked over to her supplies on shaky feet. She had to rummage deep into her pack to find her water, which she drunk deeply, almost slugging the whole thing down at once- but she made herself stop, because it was important to pace herself.
A single rice ball would have to do for lunch, and she consumed it with all the reverence and care as though it were the world’s most delicious meal. The young girl savoured each and every morsel, and when she was done, allowed herself to close her eyes for a moment and let the plain taste linger on her tongue. She might be poor, but she was no longer hungry. That was a strong starting point.
(Endurance E2>E3 240/225 words)
Suddenly there was a noise in the forest behind her, a twig snapping underfoot, and her head whipped around in that direction. It was as though, all at once, how terribly quiet the clearing was came sharply into focus for her. The girl’s training had been brutal in that regard; anything that felt out of the ordinary, any hint of trouble and she was to prepare for the worst at the slightest sign that she was in danger.
Her mind raced with possibilities. She’d undertaken a lot of missions in the past year, just to keep herself fed and supported, and she’d undertaken even more before that – there were people out there who had reason to hate her, to want to harm her, just because she had taken money from their enemies. Who was it? Another ninja? That seemed unlikely given the carelessness of the approach. A bandit or thug, then? Perhaps a soldier? More?
She strained her senses as hard as she could, searching for any indication of who or what was about to attack her…
She could hear the wind moving through the trees, the way the leaves rustled against one another. She could see the movement everywhere, the whole forest was alive after all, and from the smallest blade of grass to scuttling insects, there were dozens of things attempting to attract her attention.
(Perception E2>E3 227/225 words)
And then it hopped into the clearing.
The unfortunate rabbit never stood a chance. The moment its fuzzy form bounced from the bushes, Quo’s full arsenal was flung in its direction. Shards of whirling metal death were unleashed with lightning speed towards her unwanted interloper, slicing through the air with the silent rush of deadly intent carving a direct path towards the animal.
The rabbit didn’t even have time to realize that it was intruding in anything at all. It bounced out from its bush, seeming almost cheerful in the instant before the kunai and shuriken came stabbing into soft, tender flesh – and unlike the trunk of a tree, the rabbit was far less able to withstand the assault, letting out a startled squeak before it flopped over bloody into the dirt. Quo blinked twice, and then stood, walking carefully over to the animal. She nudged it with the toe of her boot, and then grinned from ear to ear. She would have something far better than a rice ball to eat tonight!
(Reaction Time E1>E2 173/150 words)
It didn’t take long for her to retrieve her weapons, skin, gut and hang the rabbit from the branch of a nearby tree to dry. With that as an incentive to complete her training faster, Quo put her head down and really began to run. Before, she had been distracted; annoyed by the thought of her mother and the expectations heaped upon her shoulders. This time, her speed was uninterrupted, and she began to incorporate the trees into the training rather than shying away from them.
With her head down and her arms behind her back, she ran as swiftly as she was able around the clearing and then leapt into the air. Bounding from tree to tree, trunk to trunk, she leapt amongst them perhaps inspired by the rabbit who had met its grizzly end moments earlier. Now that she was back into it, the chakra flowed easily and she was a flitting shadow as she worked her way up the trunks of the trees, running from each one to the next as though it were a simple path.
(Speed E1>E2 180/150 words)
The faster she ran the more intent she became upon the speed itself rather than just the consistency of it. It had been a while since she had tried to go as quickly as she possibly could, and now she found herself testing those old limits without really being aware that was what she wanted to do. Each heartbeat found her leaping further, recovering faster, moving to the next… if only she hadn’t lost her ninja wire on that last mission! It would have been incredible to be able to incorporate that, but alas, the wire was long gone…
Her legs were no longer aching with the effort of it, her breathing far more controlled as her brow furrowed and her intent flowed through her body. She wasn’t some meek little child learning how to pick up a kunai for the first time, after all, she was a Hattori! Trained since she could stand and destined to become one of the greatest ninjas of her generation!
As her resolve redoubled in her heart, the girl’s movements became far more potent, energy flowing powerfully through her frame as she became a flitting shadow, dancing from one tree to the next and never staying long enough for her imagined foe to land a blow. In her mind’s eye she could picture the last man she had really enraged; a great, ugly bandit whose clumsy movements had made it easy to make a fool of him.
(Speed E2>E3 243/225 words)
The more her speed picked up, the more her impromptu training area became a whirling obstacle course. Branches rose up out of nowhere to try and strike her down, leaves obscured her view and each tree seemed to come on swifter than the next. Her own speed turned the place into a dangerous slalom, demanding that she duck, dip, dive and dodge her way through the increasingly-treacherous terrain.
Every moment was another potential injury, every instant demanded her complete attention – it was at times like these that she really felt as though she were a ninja, where she could believe her heritage more purely than when she was simply walking down the street or taking on another job. Right now, it felt as though the whole world were moving slower, just for her.
The girl’s body was a graceful weapon pirouetting through the air, hands and feet helping to guide herself, slapping against trunks and branches to bounce off again in another direction, forever coming within inches of being struck out of the air by the harsh reality of the world around her – yet she constantly remained just beyond reach, daring the trees to knock her to the ground, twisting in defiance of gravity.
It was as though she had entered a zen state where she was in complete attunement with the world. It was wonderful. It was glorious. And then the branch she was on gave a groaning crack and she was sent tumbling back towards the ground.
(Reaction Time E2>E3)
Barely, she managed to land heavily on the floor. With her knees hitting hard, the girl grunted faintly and rolled over onto her back. The sun was starting to descend towards the distant horizon, now. How long had she been able to maintain that state?
The branch that had so betrayed her lay heavy on the floor, and she walked over to inspect it. The dead wood at its base had finally succumbed to her training, it seemed, but it might actually be useful to her after all. With a heavy grunt, the girl lifted the branch up above her head, and walked towards the centre of the clearing with it.
It took her a long time to break the wood apart, to strip it of leaves and smaller sticks and then start to pull it apart into useful blocks. The work was tiring, but it was necessary – soon enough, she had enough wood for her purposes. Then, she just needed to dig out a decent pit.
Again, this was a difficult task, but one she took to with gusto. The girl was well used to doing this kind of work, though she preferred to avoid it when she could. The fact was that a life of hardship meant quite often being unable to find a comfortable bed to sleep in, and needing to rely on her own abilities. The wood chopped, the pit dug, as the sun began to slip beneath the treeline she had a roaring fire going.
(Strength E2>E3 250/225 words)
The scent of roasting meat filled the clearing as the sky behind the treeline burst into an array of brilliant pinks and oranges. Hungrily, she sunk her teeth into the haunch and tore away, relishing the taste of it… right up until the moment an arrow knocked the rabbit leg from her fingers. There was a confused pause, a couple of seconds as her brain reeled to make sense of what had happened… and then she snapped into action.
Ducking down beneath the firelight, the girl strained to pick out any sign of movement from amongst the flickering, dancing shadows. Her eyes narrowed in the darkness, and she didn’t even breathe as she struggled to hear anything over the sound of the crackling flames.
Somewhere out there, she knew, there was someone who was trying to kill her; someone moving with skill, probably, and they surely had more than one arrow (for what archer carried only a single piece of ammunition?) All at once, the quiet enjoyment of her solitary training had been stolen away from her. She was furious.
It didn’t take long for her to catch sight of the man – tall, thin, with a scar down his cheek and a bow held loosely in his hands – he was skulking around the edge of the clearing, clearly trying to see where she had gone after the arrow had been loosed.
From the look of him, Quo would have estimated he was about forty years old, and obviously a peasant – not a trained warrior at all. The girl’s lip curled in frustration. Why such a man would have dared to try and attack her was beyond the ninja… but here it was. Plain as day. From her crouching position she started to work her way around the far side of the fire…
(Perception E3>D 302/300 words)
With a flick of her wrist the girl flung a shuriken one way, sending it hurtling around to cut across the man’s uninjured cheek. In that moment he turned towards the path of the shuriken, a tiny cut drawn over his face, and his back turned to the young ninja. There wasn’t a moment of hesitation in the girl as she lunged from her concealed position, kunai in hand, and sprinted full on towards his exposed back.
It was all she could do to keep herself quiet, but she swept through the night as soundless as a ghost, feet barely seeming to touch the earth in her desperate rush. She knew that at close range, his bow would be next to useless – but she couldn’t afford to squander the element of surprise. Even if he was just a peasant, he was still a grown man and towered over her younger form by a good two feet. If she gave him the opportunity, he might have been able to overpower her.
There was a desperation in her that urged all fatigue from her limbs, and made it as though she hadn’t spent all day training at all. The adrenalin thundering through her heart urged her to strike in hard, fast and merciless – the girl’s body kept low to the ground to present as minimal a profile as possible, and the unfortunate would-be murderer completely unaware of her approach.
Instead, she swept in towards him in one heartbeat, and in the next her kunai stabbed deep into the soft flesh of his thigh. He screamed and turned, lunging erratically at her, and she ducked beneath the blow to stab again into his leg, before sweeping around behind him. Another two blows struck out into his rear and he howled with rage and shame.
(Speed E3>D 301/300 words)
What followed was not the most elegant or dignified of duels the ninja world has ever seen, that is for sure. The man’s bow clattered to the ground and, clumsily, he tried to draw a dagger of his own – but Quo saw that coming and stabbed him in the back of the hand. Every time he tried to defend himself, it seemed she was there, darting around and swirling just out of reach. It was as though he were attempting to wrestle with the wind.
Every second, another little cut formed over his body as she danced around him, untouchable and impossibly fast for such a young woman. All at once, it felt like her smaller size was a distinct advantage over his gangly, overstretched body. She just kept stabbing, and he just kept crying out, his increasingly-pointless attempts to defend himself getting him absolutely nowhere. Each time he tried to lash out, she was just out of reach, only to duck back in and shank him in the leg, the side, the soft flesh of his armpit.
The longer the duel continued, the more the man was left bleeding, bloody and ragged. His peasant’s robes were slick with it, and at last, he fell to his knees, huffing and panting as he tried to draw a proper bead on her.
All he could do in the last was to glare at her with raw hatred boiling in his eyes. “You, little monster!” He growled in the back of his throat, drawing up some phlegm which he attempted to spit in her face. Neatly, Quo pirouetted out of the way, and brought her hand smacking sharply into the side of his temple instead. There was a final groan, and the larger man toppled to the floor, his eyes rolling back in his skull as he went.
(Reaction Time E3>D 306/315 words)
Quo took her time to bind him. The rope she had available was old, threadbare, and would never have stood up to a proper ninja – but she pulled the knots as tight as she could, and then used the makeshift bindings to haul him up to one of the trees she had not injured in her training. It was a strain to lift a grown man, but she was roughly able to shove him into place, positioning him carefully before she started to wrap him up again.
When she was finished the unconscious man was, she felt sure, not going anywhere.
Finally, she was able to recover enough composure to actually stop and think. She didn’t recognize this man, nor did she know why he had come for her, though she had her suspicions.
Shuffling forwards, her eyes glanced back reproachfully to her ruined dinner, and she brought her hand up to smack painfully into the side the man’s face.
“Hey. Hey. Wake up.”
There was a groan from the unfortunate fool, and so she struck him again, twice more, to rouse him from his forced slumber and bring him back to the world of the waking. The smack of her hand against his face rang out through the clearing, and his lip split against her fingers. Tch.
“I said wake up, you piece of filth.”
The man’s eyes opened blearily and she wiped her fingers on the front of his shirt – one of the less bloodstained parts.
“Why you—“ The peasant started, trying to lunge for her – the rope frayed and he struggled, so her fist impacted painfully with his nose again, a loud crunch echoing through the clearing as he bounced back against the tree trunk.
The teenager cracked her knuckles as her hard yellow eyes stared into his. “I want you to think very carefully about your position before you speak again.” She said, “Because there’s more than just rabbits in these woods, and right now I’m tempted to leave you out for them.”
(Strength E3>D 338/300 words)
It did not take a long time for the peasant to break. He wasn’t being paid enough to risk his life. Few people ever were, in her experience, and he answered all of her questions with the honesty of a truly desperate man.
When it was over, he seemed genuinely surprised that she cut the bindings and let him go. She stood and tucked the kunai back into her pocket, gathering up the rest of her materials. She’d proven that she was conclusively better than the poor soul; she had no reason to kill him, not after he’d told her the whole story.
It seemed that Boss Takata had taken offence to her last mission, to slip some sleeping drugs into the sake consumed by his gang so that another group could raid their stores. The man was a fool. He should have known better than anybody that her loyalty was only ever for sale to the highest bidder. Now he’d placed a bounty on her head – just 50 ryo but, she supposed a man like that couldn’t really afford much better after all of his riches had been stolen.
With a sigh, she shouldered her backpack and hefted her belongings once more. Kicking dirt into the fire, she looked up at the cold night sky. She’d trained all day long, fought for her life, and now she had a choice between going and confronting Boss Takata – most likely needing to fight more and for no money – or leave the Land of Lightning for a while.
The girl sighed as she worked a kink out of her neck. She’d always wondered what the Land of Fire was like this time of year; certainly she’d heard a lot of interesting things about its shinobi over the years…
And so yet again, the girl began to run. If she kept going until dawn, she’d probably be able to make it before any more intrepid idiots seeking a quick payday found her.
(Endurance E3>D 329/300 words)
(Perception E>E1, 77/75 words)
With the sun just starting to breach the clouds above, Quo began to stretch. The girl settled herself carefully, working the morning fatigue out of her limbs as she bounced on the spot, considering how she wished to begin. It was vital that – as an independent ninja – she didn’t allow her skills to degrade, which made it all the more important to plan out precisely how and what her training would encompass. As she considered the day’s objectives, a few breathing exercises helped to centre her, put her in the right state of mind and marshal her body’s energy.
(Endurance E>E1, 99/75 words)
When she started to move, it was at a carefully-controlled pace. She’d measured out the clearing with this exact purpose in mind; precisely one hundred paces took her around the circuit of it, and as she sprinted around the circumference of the clearing she could judge her speed accurately, timing the journey and focusing on the consistency of her speed. The challenge of it was ensuring that she didn’t let up! One hundred paces, and then another hundred at the same speed, and then another hundred…
(Speed E>E1, 86/75 words)
The longer she went, the more that familiar ache came upon her body. She’d always been gifted when it came to her speed and her reactions, but her relatively-small form was just not well suited to long periods of intense activity. Soon, sweat was starting to pour from her, and her lungs were beginning to ache. Still, she refused to let herself yield. Five minutes of intense physical exertion flowed smoothly into ten, and then into fifteen. She couldn’t let herself yield just because it was growing more difficult! She could practically hear her mother screaming in her ear.
”Don’t you dare stop, Quo, you lazy child! When I was your age I could already do this for an hour! Are you so weak?!”
The girl’s lips pressed together tight into a flat line, and she grit her teeth together, sweat dripping down her brow, over her eye where it stung and burned. She hissed faintly in the back of her throat and that moment of distraction cost her dearly. She slipped, and running flat out she found herself tumbling head over heels towards a tree.
(Endurance E1>E2 186/150 words)
It was only by blind luck that she was able to skid up to her feet, her reactions snapping into gear as her training took over. One hand slapped down heavily into the earth, and she twisted as she lunged herself upwards from the ground. In the same moment she focused her chakra towards her feet, every muscle in her body tensing with the effort of it. Please, please let this work, otherwise she was in for a world of pain!
(Reaction Time E>E1 81/75 words)
Her impact with the tree wasn’t the most graceful she had ever been, but her legs bent with it and the chakra stuck her fast to the trunk rather than bruising herself badly with the impact. She took a deep breath, steadying her nerves, and then walked carefully to the first branch, resting there for a moment.
It was interesting how a change in perspective could change the area. Suddenly, from this height, the crosses she had marked in the trunks of the trees to pick out her targets seemed a lot more obscured. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember precisely where they had been placed.
And when she leapt from the tree, she flung her weapons wide. Her kunai sliced through the air, impacting the first target dead centre and cutting deep into the wood. The three kunai she released went on swirling, erratic arcs through the area…
One managed to cut into the edge of its target, the other two were off by a few inches.
(Perception E1>E2 170/150 words)
“Honestly, Quo! How do you expect to put food on this family’s table when you can’t even put a kunai in a man from thirty paces?”
Quo shivered faintly at the memory of her mother’s voice, and walked around the clearing to collect her equipment. She had to strain to pull the kunai from the tree, which seemed reluctant to give up the sharp metal knife. She was careful, though; she really did not have the money to risk losing her precious weapon. A faint rumbling in her belly reminded her that, for all her mother pushed her, the older woman was right. She was weak. But she would become stronger.
(Strength E>E1 85/75 words)
She did have trouble putting food on the table.
Pulling the shuriken back out of the trees, her kunai twirled in her hand and then, she brought it across in a vicious slash. The edge of the blade scratched hard into the wood, and she began to work herself in a well-practiced kata. The movement of the blade was perfectly considered, slashing into the torso of her imaginary opponent again and again; each cut on its own would have been little more than a nuisance to a grown man, and indeed, even combined, they were of little importance to the tree…
But she put her heart into it, carving over and over again as her arms worked at this as hard as her legs had worked at taking her around the clearing. Sap began to weep from the tree’s trunk as her eyes gleamed with frustration. All of that bottled frustration coming out to stab over and over again into the trunk…
(Strength E>E2 162/150 words)
The sun had reached the midday point by the time that Quo finally began to tire. She was exhausted, her slender frame trembling with the effort she had put into maiming her imagined foe, who – if they were foolish enough to simply stand there and be cut to ribbons – would surely have perished. Towards the end, the assault had become less a calm, considered approach to slashing, and more a frenzied attack, stripping away bark and exposing the softer wood beneath the trunk for as high as she could reach. The tree was still standing of course; a silent, judgemental witness to her sustained and pointless attack.
Her breath was laboured and her heart pounding in her chest as she walked over to her supplies on shaky feet. She had to rummage deep into her pack to find her water, which she drunk deeply, almost slugging the whole thing down at once- but she made herself stop, because it was important to pace herself.
A single rice ball would have to do for lunch, and she consumed it with all the reverence and care as though it were the world’s most delicious meal. The young girl savoured each and every morsel, and when she was done, allowed herself to close her eyes for a moment and let the plain taste linger on her tongue. She might be poor, but she was no longer hungry. That was a strong starting point.
(Endurance E2>E3 240/225 words)
Suddenly there was a noise in the forest behind her, a twig snapping underfoot, and her head whipped around in that direction. It was as though, all at once, how terribly quiet the clearing was came sharply into focus for her. The girl’s training had been brutal in that regard; anything that felt out of the ordinary, any hint of trouble and she was to prepare for the worst at the slightest sign that she was in danger.
Her mind raced with possibilities. She’d undertaken a lot of missions in the past year, just to keep herself fed and supported, and she’d undertaken even more before that – there were people out there who had reason to hate her, to want to harm her, just because she had taken money from their enemies. Who was it? Another ninja? That seemed unlikely given the carelessness of the approach. A bandit or thug, then? Perhaps a soldier? More?
She strained her senses as hard as she could, searching for any indication of who or what was about to attack her…
She could hear the wind moving through the trees, the way the leaves rustled against one another. She could see the movement everywhere, the whole forest was alive after all, and from the smallest blade of grass to scuttling insects, there were dozens of things attempting to attract her attention.
(Perception E2>E3 227/225 words)
And then it hopped into the clearing.
The unfortunate rabbit never stood a chance. The moment its fuzzy form bounced from the bushes, Quo’s full arsenal was flung in its direction. Shards of whirling metal death were unleashed with lightning speed towards her unwanted interloper, slicing through the air with the silent rush of deadly intent carving a direct path towards the animal.
The rabbit didn’t even have time to realize that it was intruding in anything at all. It bounced out from its bush, seeming almost cheerful in the instant before the kunai and shuriken came stabbing into soft, tender flesh – and unlike the trunk of a tree, the rabbit was far less able to withstand the assault, letting out a startled squeak before it flopped over bloody into the dirt. Quo blinked twice, and then stood, walking carefully over to the animal. She nudged it with the toe of her boot, and then grinned from ear to ear. She would have something far better than a rice ball to eat tonight!
(Reaction Time E1>E2 173/150 words)
It didn’t take long for her to retrieve her weapons, skin, gut and hang the rabbit from the branch of a nearby tree to dry. With that as an incentive to complete her training faster, Quo put her head down and really began to run. Before, she had been distracted; annoyed by the thought of her mother and the expectations heaped upon her shoulders. This time, her speed was uninterrupted, and she began to incorporate the trees into the training rather than shying away from them.
With her head down and her arms behind her back, she ran as swiftly as she was able around the clearing and then leapt into the air. Bounding from tree to tree, trunk to trunk, she leapt amongst them perhaps inspired by the rabbit who had met its grizzly end moments earlier. Now that she was back into it, the chakra flowed easily and she was a flitting shadow as she worked her way up the trunks of the trees, running from each one to the next as though it were a simple path.
(Speed E1>E2 180/150 words)
The faster she ran the more intent she became upon the speed itself rather than just the consistency of it. It had been a while since she had tried to go as quickly as she possibly could, and now she found herself testing those old limits without really being aware that was what she wanted to do. Each heartbeat found her leaping further, recovering faster, moving to the next… if only she hadn’t lost her ninja wire on that last mission! It would have been incredible to be able to incorporate that, but alas, the wire was long gone…
Her legs were no longer aching with the effort of it, her breathing far more controlled as her brow furrowed and her intent flowed through her body. She wasn’t some meek little child learning how to pick up a kunai for the first time, after all, she was a Hattori! Trained since she could stand and destined to become one of the greatest ninjas of her generation!
As her resolve redoubled in her heart, the girl’s movements became far more potent, energy flowing powerfully through her frame as she became a flitting shadow, dancing from one tree to the next and never staying long enough for her imagined foe to land a blow. In her mind’s eye she could picture the last man she had really enraged; a great, ugly bandit whose clumsy movements had made it easy to make a fool of him.
(Speed E2>E3 243/225 words)
The more her speed picked up, the more her impromptu training area became a whirling obstacle course. Branches rose up out of nowhere to try and strike her down, leaves obscured her view and each tree seemed to come on swifter than the next. Her own speed turned the place into a dangerous slalom, demanding that she duck, dip, dive and dodge her way through the increasingly-treacherous terrain.
Every moment was another potential injury, every instant demanded her complete attention – it was at times like these that she really felt as though she were a ninja, where she could believe her heritage more purely than when she was simply walking down the street or taking on another job. Right now, it felt as though the whole world were moving slower, just for her.
The girl’s body was a graceful weapon pirouetting through the air, hands and feet helping to guide herself, slapping against trunks and branches to bounce off again in another direction, forever coming within inches of being struck out of the air by the harsh reality of the world around her – yet she constantly remained just beyond reach, daring the trees to knock her to the ground, twisting in defiance of gravity.
It was as though she had entered a zen state where she was in complete attunement with the world. It was wonderful. It was glorious. And then the branch she was on gave a groaning crack and she was sent tumbling back towards the ground.
(Reaction Time E2>E3)
Barely, she managed to land heavily on the floor. With her knees hitting hard, the girl grunted faintly and rolled over onto her back. The sun was starting to descend towards the distant horizon, now. How long had she been able to maintain that state?
The branch that had so betrayed her lay heavy on the floor, and she walked over to inspect it. The dead wood at its base had finally succumbed to her training, it seemed, but it might actually be useful to her after all. With a heavy grunt, the girl lifted the branch up above her head, and walked towards the centre of the clearing with it.
It took her a long time to break the wood apart, to strip it of leaves and smaller sticks and then start to pull it apart into useful blocks. The work was tiring, but it was necessary – soon enough, she had enough wood for her purposes. Then, she just needed to dig out a decent pit.
Again, this was a difficult task, but one she took to with gusto. The girl was well used to doing this kind of work, though she preferred to avoid it when she could. The fact was that a life of hardship meant quite often being unable to find a comfortable bed to sleep in, and needing to rely on her own abilities. The wood chopped, the pit dug, as the sun began to slip beneath the treeline she had a roaring fire going.
(Strength E2>E3 250/225 words)
The scent of roasting meat filled the clearing as the sky behind the treeline burst into an array of brilliant pinks and oranges. Hungrily, she sunk her teeth into the haunch and tore away, relishing the taste of it… right up until the moment an arrow knocked the rabbit leg from her fingers. There was a confused pause, a couple of seconds as her brain reeled to make sense of what had happened… and then she snapped into action.
Ducking down beneath the firelight, the girl strained to pick out any sign of movement from amongst the flickering, dancing shadows. Her eyes narrowed in the darkness, and she didn’t even breathe as she struggled to hear anything over the sound of the crackling flames.
Somewhere out there, she knew, there was someone who was trying to kill her; someone moving with skill, probably, and they surely had more than one arrow (for what archer carried only a single piece of ammunition?) All at once, the quiet enjoyment of her solitary training had been stolen away from her. She was furious.
It didn’t take long for her to catch sight of the man – tall, thin, with a scar down his cheek and a bow held loosely in his hands – he was skulking around the edge of the clearing, clearly trying to see where she had gone after the arrow had been loosed.
From the look of him, Quo would have estimated he was about forty years old, and obviously a peasant – not a trained warrior at all. The girl’s lip curled in frustration. Why such a man would have dared to try and attack her was beyond the ninja… but here it was. Plain as day. From her crouching position she started to work her way around the far side of the fire…
(Perception E3>D 302/300 words)
With a flick of her wrist the girl flung a shuriken one way, sending it hurtling around to cut across the man’s uninjured cheek. In that moment he turned towards the path of the shuriken, a tiny cut drawn over his face, and his back turned to the young ninja. There wasn’t a moment of hesitation in the girl as she lunged from her concealed position, kunai in hand, and sprinted full on towards his exposed back.
It was all she could do to keep herself quiet, but she swept through the night as soundless as a ghost, feet barely seeming to touch the earth in her desperate rush. She knew that at close range, his bow would be next to useless – but she couldn’t afford to squander the element of surprise. Even if he was just a peasant, he was still a grown man and towered over her younger form by a good two feet. If she gave him the opportunity, he might have been able to overpower her.
There was a desperation in her that urged all fatigue from her limbs, and made it as though she hadn’t spent all day training at all. The adrenalin thundering through her heart urged her to strike in hard, fast and merciless – the girl’s body kept low to the ground to present as minimal a profile as possible, and the unfortunate would-be murderer completely unaware of her approach.
Instead, she swept in towards him in one heartbeat, and in the next her kunai stabbed deep into the soft flesh of his thigh. He screamed and turned, lunging erratically at her, and she ducked beneath the blow to stab again into his leg, before sweeping around behind him. Another two blows struck out into his rear and he howled with rage and shame.
(Speed E3>D 301/300 words)
What followed was not the most elegant or dignified of duels the ninja world has ever seen, that is for sure. The man’s bow clattered to the ground and, clumsily, he tried to draw a dagger of his own – but Quo saw that coming and stabbed him in the back of the hand. Every time he tried to defend himself, it seemed she was there, darting around and swirling just out of reach. It was as though he were attempting to wrestle with the wind.
Every second, another little cut formed over his body as she danced around him, untouchable and impossibly fast for such a young woman. All at once, it felt like her smaller size was a distinct advantage over his gangly, overstretched body. She just kept stabbing, and he just kept crying out, his increasingly-pointless attempts to defend himself getting him absolutely nowhere. Each time he tried to lash out, she was just out of reach, only to duck back in and shank him in the leg, the side, the soft flesh of his armpit.
The longer the duel continued, the more the man was left bleeding, bloody and ragged. His peasant’s robes were slick with it, and at last, he fell to his knees, huffing and panting as he tried to draw a proper bead on her.
All he could do in the last was to glare at her with raw hatred boiling in his eyes. “You, little monster!” He growled in the back of his throat, drawing up some phlegm which he attempted to spit in her face. Neatly, Quo pirouetted out of the way, and brought her hand smacking sharply into the side of his temple instead. There was a final groan, and the larger man toppled to the floor, his eyes rolling back in his skull as he went.
(Reaction Time E3>D 306/315 words)
Quo took her time to bind him. The rope she had available was old, threadbare, and would never have stood up to a proper ninja – but she pulled the knots as tight as she could, and then used the makeshift bindings to haul him up to one of the trees she had not injured in her training. It was a strain to lift a grown man, but she was roughly able to shove him into place, positioning him carefully before she started to wrap him up again.
When she was finished the unconscious man was, she felt sure, not going anywhere.
Finally, she was able to recover enough composure to actually stop and think. She didn’t recognize this man, nor did she know why he had come for her, though she had her suspicions.
Shuffling forwards, her eyes glanced back reproachfully to her ruined dinner, and she brought her hand up to smack painfully into the side the man’s face.
“Hey. Hey. Wake up.”
There was a groan from the unfortunate fool, and so she struck him again, twice more, to rouse him from his forced slumber and bring him back to the world of the waking. The smack of her hand against his face rang out through the clearing, and his lip split against her fingers. Tch.
“I said wake up, you piece of filth.”
The man’s eyes opened blearily and she wiped her fingers on the front of his shirt – one of the less bloodstained parts.
“Why you—“ The peasant started, trying to lunge for her – the rope frayed and he struggled, so her fist impacted painfully with his nose again, a loud crunch echoing through the clearing as he bounced back against the tree trunk.
The teenager cracked her knuckles as her hard yellow eyes stared into his. “I want you to think very carefully about your position before you speak again.” She said, “Because there’s more than just rabbits in these woods, and right now I’m tempted to leave you out for them.”
(Strength E3>D 338/300 words)
It did not take a long time for the peasant to break. He wasn’t being paid enough to risk his life. Few people ever were, in her experience, and he answered all of her questions with the honesty of a truly desperate man.
When it was over, he seemed genuinely surprised that she cut the bindings and let him go. She stood and tucked the kunai back into her pocket, gathering up the rest of her materials. She’d proven that she was conclusively better than the poor soul; she had no reason to kill him, not after he’d told her the whole story.
It seemed that Boss Takata had taken offence to her last mission, to slip some sleeping drugs into the sake consumed by his gang so that another group could raid their stores. The man was a fool. He should have known better than anybody that her loyalty was only ever for sale to the highest bidder. Now he’d placed a bounty on her head – just 50 ryo but, she supposed a man like that couldn’t really afford much better after all of his riches had been stolen.
With a sigh, she shouldered her backpack and hefted her belongings once more. Kicking dirt into the fire, she looked up at the cold night sky. She’d trained all day long, fought for her life, and now she had a choice between going and confronting Boss Takata – most likely needing to fight more and for no money – or leave the Land of Lightning for a while.
The girl sighed as she worked a kink out of her neck. She’d always wondered what the Land of Fire was like this time of year; certainly she’d heard a lot of interesting things about its shinobi over the years…
And so yet again, the girl began to run. If she kept going until dawn, she’d probably be able to make it before any more intrepid idiots seeking a quick payday found her.
(Endurance E3>D 329/300 words)
Hokage: 
Kazekage: 
Raikage: 
Tsuchikage: 
Mizukage: 