You are not connected. Please login or register

Naruto Saga » Hi no Kuni » Konohagakure » Éclairs { Claire | Private }

View previous topic View next topic Go down Message [Page 1 of 1]

1Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Éclairs { Claire | Private } Sun Aug 28, 2016 6:10 am

Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa Ackerman


D-rank
The Land of Fire, a peculiar name given to a piece of land lush with greenery. The Sun radiated onto this central geography of the Elemental Continents, providing the region luxuriant in nutrients with the appropriate sunlight for phototropism. Settled in the middle of this rich area was a village deserving of its name, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, nestled comfortably among five-dozen-meters-tall floral titans that stood as its natural guardians, welcoming prosperity and sheltering the settlement from opportune-takers.

While a village primarily purposed for assassins, it didn’t lack the finer luxuries of hot springs which attracted no small number of customers, one of whom happened to be a fair-skinned woman, whose short black hair fell around her face, ending at her neck. Her leather jacket clung intimately against her frame. Her lips dipped beneath the red scarf pulled around her neck, eyes surveying the empty but vast fount with volcanic water soothing to the skin. The lack of clients despite the renown of this establishment was the owner’s reward for Mikasa’s recent assistance in a theft of their accounts. While not one to indulge, she welcomed the gesture following the owner’s insistence, seeing no issue with an hour or two of respite from her years-long search of her brother.

Mikasa moved to one side, removing her jacket first and foremost and hanging it up carelessly on the clothesline. Her deft hands went next to Éclair, but as fingers closed around the sheathe and handle, her eyes glanced up once more to survey her privacy and security, an unnecessary but drilled preparation for disarming herself.

The spring was vast, a rectangle with shoddy edges and curved vertices, with hard rock meeting water and serving as the natural foothold she stood upon. Thirty meters wide, fifty long, it was the largest single spring the business had, fixed with some man-made alterations to model a spring that was completely within their legally owned land. A breath left the Ackerman's lips. No one in the area with a lovely hour ahead of herself.

It had been far too long since she'd been pampered.

364 words | 364 total

2Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Mon Aug 29, 2016 6:14 am

Claire Lightning

Claire Lightning


D-rank
Lightning had made her way from the mountainous peaks of the Land of Lightning to the heavily forested regions of the Land of Fire, finding her way into its heart easily enough with vague directions she procured from the local bars that were cheaper and more informative to visit than their less disrespectable businesses. She wasn’t looking for much in general, but her sources were neck deep looking for her foster mother, who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, and until they came to her with reliable information, she would be found searching instead for her parents’ murderers, the people who intended to snuff out the light of her family due to the blood of her clan.

She would never understand the beauty in her power. It was very powerful, sometimes oddly-coloured lightning that she’d learned to perfect and mine the effects of. She’d not yet met someone else who’d shared her blood though, so perhaps there was some charm to it that she was missing, a secret that she’d kill for in a heartbeat.

Her search had led her to the vague location of Konohagakure, and by vague, she meant really vague. Reports only mentioned one of them passing by here within the last year, and that could’ve been anything from a simple stop to pulling a heist on someone’s life, similar to her own. While most people would question the legitimacy of such reports, though, Lightning had several influential, but not high-key, individuals in the Land of Lightning’s Daimyo Court who were able to connect her with the right individuals, leading her to the right places almost all of the time, with small holes for errors often strictly tackled for the security of the Daimyo, as unsanctioned information leaks unlike hers often had far-reaching consequences.

The village of Konohagakure was easier to find than she’d expect, though unlike most hidden villages they didn’t actively try to hide their location. Kumogakure was only considered a more well hidden location because it was physically tiresome to get there if you didn’t know exactly where you were going. Iwagakure and Kirigakure she couldn’t say were too hard to find from what she’d heard and read, though the natural mists around Kirigakure often shrouded its precise location from the unexpecting.

Right now, the twenty-one-year-old stood at the entrance to the hot springs, dressed in her normal attire with her ninja equipment in her pouch on her waist and her gunblade hanging in a sheathe hanging by her hips. She stepped in despite the lack of a person manning the counter. She’d booked the place for the day, and she was damned well going to spend it, given her previous day’s arrival was rife with sore muscles and aching limbs. Deciding that having paid upfront was enough to warrant her a day at the hot springs without needing to check in, she walked in through the changing rooms and into her fenced destination.

Stimuli assaulted her senses the moment she stepped past the doorway. There was the warm steam on her skin slightly obscuring her vision and coaxing out the warmth in her body. There was the smell of freshness in the air, with each breath she took bringing a waft of refreshing air into her lungs… There was the woman standing against the left wall, hanging up her jacket and poised with her hand on her blade. Lightning narrowed her eyes at this unsanctioned intrusion, wondering if she was the woman in charge of keeping the hot springs in tip top condition, and that Lightning had simply caught her at a bad time. Eyebrows not letting up and suspicions aroused, she called out, “Who are you?”

WC: 639

3Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:25 am

Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa Ackerman


D-rank
Her survey of the land she’d been gifted for the hour was interrupted when the sight of a pinkette entered her vision. Dressed rather officially, Mikasa remembered such a uniform that matched several individuals hailing from the Land of Lightning who’d paid a visitation to several Sunagakure officials within the Land of Wind. Odd to see such a uniform so far out of its locale, and it was little different from the last time she was stunned at the stark cultural getups that different countrymen wore.

The woman’s pink hair flowed behind her, doing nothing to reduce the intensity of her narrowed eyes and pursed, thin lips. Mikasa returned the expression, sour someone else would dare intrude on her personal time. The woman’s attire was primarily a jacket of faded white, pulled tightly over a brown dress that seemed to restrict little to none of her movement with the short skirt. A belt coiled around her waist, securing her garments in place. The stranger’s right hand was suspiciously leveled with the protrusion of a handle, seemingly a dagger from its small hanging sheathe. Her left hand was similarly no less a variable, as close to the red pouch on her left thigh as it was.

There were fifteen meters between the two females, the newcomer having entered just through the entrance, and Mikasa being to the far left of the room. The walkways were narrow, no more than two meters and slippery from the constant vapour that lazed in these springs. Mikasa’s right hand remained on Éclair’s handle, the only guard pointing inwards parallel with her arm.

The two of them stood in a line, parallel to the almost straight edge of the springs, which stretched fifty meters into the distance, obscured almost completely by steam anywhere beyond the thirty meter mark, as it seemed to be everywhere within this enclosure.

“Who are you?” came the snap question, slightly muffled by the distance, but still recognisable in its hostility.

Bringing Éclair a quarter of a meter out of her sheathe in an intimidating manner, Mikasa answered swiftly, “Mikasa Ackerman, the woman who has the springs for the day. The better question is: who are you and what are you doing here?”

378 words | 742 total

4Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:33 am

Claire Lightning

Claire Lightning


D-rank
Claire saw the unfamiliar woman drawing her blade slightly, she retaliated. Her body lowered, and her left leg stepped forward to give her some stability, while her right hand closed around the handle of her gunblade, holding it tightly in a forward grip but still keeping it within the sheathe. Her eyes narrowed further at the possible danger this woman would pose. She was an unknown, but Claire wasn’t unskilled by a longshot. She wouldn’t back down from a challenge that a stranger posed to her; to do so would be a disgrace to herself, her family, and what she stood for.

“Mikasa Ackerman, the woman who has the springs for the day. The better question is: who are you and what are you doing here?” the woman asserted.

She had the springs? Claire didn’t think so! She’d rightfully paid for the services of this establishment, and she was damn well going to enjoy herself, even if she had to send this woman packing. Drawing her blade out of its sheathe, she held it to her side, pointed outwards and upwards, and slanted slightly forwards.

“My name is Lightning,” she introduced. “And I have the hot springs for the day.”

Despite her provocation, Claire wouldn’t dash forward, instead opting to watch the woman. This wasn’t a conducive place for a fight, with only a slippery path of fifteen meters between them, of no more than two meters wide. While this wouldn’t impede her running any, it would certainly make it more dangerous if the two of them clashed, since a single misstep or feint could throw the other into the hot springs. As soothing as the hot springs could be, it didn’t change that the hot springs were fundamentally hot, and sudden contact with it, like how they were likely to if they did so during their fight, would likely cause light burns. Nothing she couldn’t handle, though.

However, as aggressive a front as she was putting on, just like how she was used to, Claire still allowed the other to backdown. She came to the hot springs to relax in the way she loved most, not expecting to have to draw her blade against someone similarly armed to fight for her downtime.

WC: 382 + 639 = 1021

5Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:27 pm

Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa Ackerman


D-rank
So it would seem as if she alone were not the only individual of the two to favour aggression over diplomacy, as the intruder, too, prepared her weapon. It was a rather curious blade, not truly the traditional straight weapons that she knew of. Its curved edges would prove challenging to properly counteract, had anyone not taken the time beforehand to analyse it and prepare their muscles to face such an obtuse weapon.  The weapon was brought out to the woman’s right, leaving the obvious plan of attack to be her left, if only the interior walls of the hot springs didn’t limit her choices. There was only a two-meter-wide path spanning fifteen meters distance between the two, leaving the only obvious solution a clash between the two.

Not even a microsecond after she’d taken out her weapon, Mikasa had responded in kind, drawing her weapon fully out of its scabbard and holding it in front of her with her right hand, slanted forward. It resembled the samurai’s normal stance, with her left hand still on the sheathe attached to her waist, while her right was prepared with her actual blade. Éclair glinted against the light, a single straight length of beautifully polished metal marking its unmarred surface, with small engraved lines serving as decorations that didn’t compromise the structural integrity of her weapon.

“My name is Lightning,” the stranger began, “And I have the hot springs for the day.”

Curiously, neither of them moved. It appeared that a stalemate, at least for now, was evident, as both parties analysed the other’s stance. Mikasa wasn’t too familiar with what she was facing, though she knew enough about footwork and stability to know that her opponent and contender to the hot springs would not be a stationary fighter. Her blade held to the side spoke of her preference for flanking maneuvers as opposed to a frontal focus.

The hot spring air felt warm on her skin, but it was ignored in favour of concentrating on the woman’s every move. ‘Lightning’, she had introduced herself, likely indicative of a quick combat style or a preference for the element that Mikasa wielded so naturally. Well, she would be contested in that department if she were, for Mikasa too prided herself on her speed, and her lightning was second to none.

Should the stare off continue for five seconds, Mikasa would relinquish the grip on her scabbard, instead placing it into the ninja pouch behind her waist, where she kept most of her equipment, taking in her hand three shuriken, though keeping it hidden still. Another second and she would rush off towards ‘Lightning’, feet finding grips on the slick surface easily without need for the flow of chakra, while her single dao was held out in front of her throughout her sprint, before it would be drawn to her left. Upon reaching a meter of Lightning’s position, she would attempt a left-to-right slash of the horizontal nature, aiming to lock down Lightning’s own blade whilst her left hand flung one of the shuriken at the woman, aimed for her neck, intending to quickly incapacitate her attacker.

537 words | 1279 total

6Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:27 pm

Claire Lightning

Claire Lightning


D-rank
When Claire had drawn her blade, the other woman, Mikasa Ackerman, had done the same. There was a stark difference in their styles, with Mikasa’s seemingly a more balanced, stable style focusing on disciplined and practiced sword arts. Of course, that was a big assumption to make, however likely it was, given that MIkasa could easily have experience in not simply a more berserk-based combat style like Lightning herself did, but had the decency in her swordsmanship to alternate freely between the two.

Nevertheless, the two continued eyeing each other, eyes ready to react to the slightest visual stimulus of the other. The calm before the storm was normally something that chilled most individuals, though in Claire’s case it wasn’t a matter of fear. Rather, it was the excitement that ran through her veins, coursing and sparking through her entire body just like the element she was so attuned to, the element for which she had such a strong affinity for that would, the very same that had allowed her to get to this point, as a guard of the Daimyo court and as someone who was past that position.

As soon as Mikasa burst off towards her at five meters per second, Claire reacted in the same fashion at the same speed, for the two of them to meet in the middle after travelling seven and a half meters each. Assuming that Mikasa would continue with her tactic of striking Claire the right to the left, at least from Claire’s perspective. Claire’s own gunblade would swing in from her right, clashing almost perpendicularly with Mikasa’s own blade parallel to the ground. It was at this point that Mikasa would fling one of three shuriken at her, and reacting on impulse, Claire twisted her blade with the intersection as the point of rotation, blocking the one shuriken that flew at her. As she was currently using her left leg to hold out with her right hand against Mikasa’s blade, her right leg would shoot outwards, aiming for Mikasa’s own neck, too for a quick incapacitation.

WC: 354 + 1021 = 1375

7Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Mon Sep 05, 2016 9:16 am

Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa Ackerman


D-rank
The two swordswomen met in the middle. Mikasa was unsurprised by Claire’s show of skill, first in the quick and rapid steps she’d displayed in a prompt response to her approach. The deflection and counter were well-executed for a woman with a bastardised fighting style, not that Mikasa had little experience in that department. The two blades clashed in a distinct, piercing ring, locked against each other with a simple, taunting meter gap between the two women, and a rapid rotation of ‘Lightning’s curiously-shaped blade had protected her from the quickly tossed shuriken, the star meeting the blade and reflecting off harmlessly into the air above the two, as its momentum then proceeded to carry it through harmlessly behind Claire, seemingly lost.

In a respectable show of flexibility and agility, Claire’s right leg shot out in a retaliation. Pushing off her locked sword and her feet, Mikasa retreated a meter backwards, simultaneously flinging the remaining two shuriken with an outward flick of her wrist. One would target the hilt of Lightning’s blade, attempting to disarm her with light, significant cuts to her right fingers, while the other travelled to the exposed calf of Lightning’s right leg, still caught in the final vestiges of her desperate reciprocation. Her sword be poised in front of her, at a forty-five degree angle counter-clockwise from the normal, prepared for a response, with which she was likely to parry less the situation demanded otherwise.

With her outstretched left hand, a string of pure chakra would latch itself with the shuriken two meters behind Lightning. An enclosing of her hand would pull the shuriken towards the back of Lightning’s neck, supplementing Mikasa’s frontal assault with a rear strike that Lightning would likely fail to notice. The only indication would be in the subtle balling of her fist, which was most likely ignored in favour of the two shuriken fired at point blank, with all three travelling at five meters a second.

With Lightning’s outstretched leg, it would be impossible to pull back without the aid of a technique, though the woman was likely able to better respond to the distraction sent to her right hand. It was not meant as a debilitating maneuver, serving only a distraction, with the truly fatal strike to end this disrupting skirmish arriving from behind Claire herself. With but two tenths of a second to react to the two shuriken ahead of her, and four tenths for the shuriken behind her, a wound was almost guaranteed.

428 words | 1707 total
Spoiler:

8Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:03 am

Claire Lightning

Claire Lightning


D-rank
Claire’s leg lashed outwards, aimed for Mikasa’s neck, but it never connected for the other woman leapt back a meter, using the force between their blades to move back in time. She then flung her left hand out, the two shuriken somehow travelling different trajectories despite having been thrown in the same motion. It was likely a skill or a jutsu, but Claire wouldn’t be left thinking, as she knew her position as it was was more than dangerous.

She didn’t want to be the first to unleash potent jutsu within their fight, though she wouldn’t know if this woman, Mikasa, already did anyway. However, her instincts won over the unspoken rule she’d set for herself. Her eyes moved to Mikasa’s right, visualising her standing to the woman’s right. Currently, Mikasa would be standing with legs apart, left leg slightly ahead of the right. Her right hand would be holding her straight blade in a diagonal, while her left hand would’ve been bereft of the shuriken it once held, giving Claire an advantage in that field.

Claire pictured herself standing to Mikasa’s right, just half a meter away. She pictured herself holding the blade outstretched to her right, ready to be brought in for a swing to Mikasa’s abdomen. Her legs would be spread apart for stability from the impending dash. Lightning chakra flared to life within her body, arcing across her skin, and Claire burst towards the position in a magnificent show of speed, throwing both shuriken ahead of her flying back at their owner from the force of the chakra, though they would likely bounce off harmlessly without the technique that would’ve gone into the throw. However, that was not the point.

Claire would’ve seemingly blinked out of existence, appearing to Mikasa’s right in a flash signified only by the small arc of lightning that connected her current to her last position. Her right hand swung inwards with all her might, her gunblade already beneath Mikasa’s right hand and sword, already within her guard, aiming to cut and burn. With her distance, dodging would be almost impossible, lest she too fall back on a jutsu like Claire was forced to.

WC: 377 + 1375 = 1752
135/150:

9Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Wed Sep 07, 2016 9:51 am

Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa Ackerman


D-rank
The battle should have concluded with no injury on her part, but it would seem as if otherwise. The three shuriken approached Claire from two angles, ensuring that while Mikasa could only distract her with the frontal two, the rear shuriken would hit its fatal mark. Unfortunately, through some burst of speed, augmented by the lightning that coursed through her body – visible from the arcs that traced her skin and marked her travel – assisted Lightning in both removing herself from the shurikens’ line of fire, but also repositioning herself for a lethal counter.

From the corner of her eye, Mikasa saw the woman to her right. Mikasa spotted the blade already in motion, and instinctively leapt backwards, though the oddly shaped weapon would still scrape at her clothes, cutting through the fabric with ease before drawing a thin line in her abdomen. The wound was not deep, but blood spilled forth in miniscule amounts, painting her white shirt a patch of red as Mikasa grit her teeth from the sting. Her complacence had cost her, and while it was but a scratch, it would not be courteous to admit her loss. To take the battle and further would simply be hazardous for business.

Assuming Lightning paused with her assault after having drawn the crimson liquid Mikasa would sheath her sword, acknowledging her loss. She would let a sigh of disappointment at her carelessness show before collecting her jacket from where it hung, the bravado from her words now humming an empty tune in the crescendo of her loss. Her wound would not require medical attention; she was not so fragile as to collapse from a scrape, but she retreated from the establishment in silence to get it tended still. There ought to be medical paraphernalia where she rested, and in its absence she could travel to the closest clinic to have it bandaged.

Mikasa moved to one side, removing her jacket first and foremost and hanging it up carelessly on the clothesline. Her deft hands went next to Éclair, but as fingers closed around the sheathe and handle, her eyes glanced up once more to survey her privacy and security, an unnecessary but drilled preparation for disarming herself.

The spring was vast, a rectangle with shoddy edges and curved vertices, with hard rock meeting water and serving as the natural foothold she stood upon. Thirty meters wide, fifty long, it was the largest single spring the business had, fixed with some man-made alterations to model a spring that was completely within their legally owned land. A breath left the Ackerman's lips. No one in the area with a lovely hour ahead of herself.

It had been far too long since she'd been pampered.

For now, she would have to bid the hot springs farewell until the near future.

471 words | 2178 total

{Exit}

Reaction Time: E-0 → D-3 { 1925 words | 150 ryo }
Strength: E-0 → E-1 { 75 words | 0 ryo }



Last edited by Mikasa Ackerman on Tue Sep 13, 2016 8:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

10Éclairs { Claire | Private } Empty Re: Éclairs { Claire | Private } Thu Sep 08, 2016 5:35 am

Claire Lightning

Claire Lightning


D-rank
Mikasa managed to react to her strike, leaping back in time to minimise her damage to a simple cut to her abdomen. Even still, Claire was still satisfied that her strike had connected; it proved that they were at least on the same plateau when it came to where they stood in terms of their skill with their weapons. Equal, despite Claire having landed the hit, because she knew her use of jutsu had helped her gain a quick advantage in this fight.

Claire tightened her grip around her weapon to prepare for another bout, only for the woman to sheath her blade. While initially confused, Claire caught on quickly, replacing her gunblade in its holster as she watched the woman collect her jacket. It was an unspoken victory in her favour and the woman trudged past her to the hot springs’ entrance, acquiescing to Claire’s claim. There was an unspoken tension that remained in the air, though it was to be expected given that the two of them barely knew each other, but it was at the back of Claire’s mind as she watched the woman’s retreating figure disappear past the doorway.

As she prepared to soak herself in the warm bath, the hot springs now all the more soothing that she’d stretched her muscles unexpectedly before indulging, she wondered why the woman hadn’t reacted with a jutsu. Perhaps she didn’t know any? It was an unlikely result, since most in the army, ninja or not, were trained at least in the basic uses of jutsu; even if she hadn’t had anything as complex as Claire’s Blink (simple for ninja, complex for others), she should’ve at least been able to guard herself with a layer of chakra to dull the blow.

Perhaps she would ask if they ever met. The chances of that were low, though, with this Mikasa figure not on Claire’s radar, and with the village as big as it was. Of course, all her thoughts and concerns disappeared as Claire all but blacked out from pleasure as her body dipped underwater.

WC: 355 + 1752 = 2107

[Exit thread]




Reaction Time from E-0 to D-3: 1925 words and 150 ryo
Speed from E-0 to E-1: 75 words and 0 ryo
Perception from E-0 to E-1: 75 words and 0 ryo

Sponsored content



View previous topic View next topic Back to top Message [Page 1 of 1]

Naruto Saga » Hi no Kuni » Konohagakure » Éclairs { Claire | Private }

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden belong to © Masashi Kishimoto.