Lin woke up early, pushing the covers off and feeling groggy from that night. She stretched and rubbed at her burning eyes. It was too bleeding early to start training. Looking at the clock she still had an hour to be ready. Maybe just five more minutes of sleep would help? Her head bobbed and she snapped it up. Nope, it would have to be a day where she was just tired.

If it weren't for the events of last night, and the puzzling part about it was why the ninja was parading around in a girl's body. Perhaps it was to throw people off like her. It would be hard to imagine anyone turning themselves into someone that couldn't legally drink. That had to be the reason for her transformation.

Lin yawned, still sitting in bed and scratched at her burning eyes with the palms of her hands. Still way too bloody early. Reaching for her clothes on the chair where she left them last night she put on her ninja gear, a shirt, the Kumogakure vest, her skirt that matched and black leggings underneath. She decided to go with her combat sandals, as she would most likely be moving around more than she was yesterday.

Looking at herself in the mirror, her hair was askew, showing the scar that looked as though she had been hit by a lightning bolt. Rolling her eyes she quickly took some time to fix it so that it was mostly hidden, packed her senbon and put her headband on her forehead. looking back in the mirror she smiled at her reflection and quickly made her way out of the house with fifteen minutes to get to the Kage's estate.

She made it there with two minutes to spare. Walking up to the front gate guards she said, "I'm here to see Gin." They looked at her as though she had sparks coming out of her ears.

"What business do you have with Gin?" One asked, a halberd user it seemed. Probably of A rank or above. It would be useless to try to trick him, sneak past him, or use any sort of force to get in. Lin sighed and shrugged her shoulders, "She said that she wanted to train me, and that I should be here at eight o'clock sharp."

She hoped that it would be enough to get her in the gate. It seemed like indeed it was, as the guards looked between eachother and nodded. "Right, I'll take you there." The halberd user said, shouldering his weapon and walking casually. He could probably afford to show his back and openings to a genin. Well, soon he would not underestimate her. She would see to that.

They walked up to Gin's door and knocked, "Girl to see you Gin." The guard called and looked at Lin, "White hair, could be that you two are related."

WC: 511

It didn't usually take much to wake up Gin. Her excellent hearing coupled with a hint of paranoia made it so that even the slightest of sounds would cause her sleep to be interrupted. The sole exception to that, of course, depended on whether or not she had had enough to drink the night before. Usually, that meant at least two bottles of hard liquor. Unfortunately, that hadn't been the case the night before. Her original plan was to get as drunk as possible by herself. At least she now had a way to entertain herself for the foreseeable future - a young girl with white hair and blue eyes not unlike her own. Maybe about ten years ago, Gin had looked like that. Of course, by then her body had been far more... developed. Also, she already had two five year old girls by then. Momentarily, Gin was reminded of Chie and Reiko. She missed them both quite dearly. The last time she had seen them had been a couple of months ago, after having rescued them from the clutches of Sunagakure's Council. Her heart ached.

Before the girl arrived at the Raikage's Estate, Gin had already been woken up. The guards had a habit of pacing up and down the hall every now and then. She couldn't blame them. Although their job was supposed to be prestigious and important, it was also wildly boring. Instead of trying to go back to bed, she had decided to head over to the library to do some light reading. Quite honestly, she was running out of new material, but it was better than doing nothing. She supposed she could also start warming up, training on her own as she had been for the past few weeks. However, she wasn't exactly in the mood. As for developing a lesson plan, she preferred improvising. Skimming over the pages of one of her old books, she lit a cigarette. She spent about an hour that way before Lin's conversation with the guard roused her curiosity. Closing her book, she headed down the stairs.

Almost immediately, she was ticked off. "That's Lady Gin to you," she said to the guard from atop the stairs. He was momentarily startled but gave a begrudging nod. Gin knew that her presence there made them uneasy and that paying her any sort of respect left a sour taste in their mouths. To them, she was a representation of the war that was about to break out. To her, it was just an annoyance. "And not all people with white hair are related. That's like saying everyone with black eyes is an Uchiha," she pointed out. Before the man could respond, she motioned Lin to follow her.

Down another set of stairs, they would arrive at the extensive gardens behind the building. It was wide and spacious, even though they were carefully tended to and decorated. It was still as good a place as any to start their training session. Once they both arrived, Gin would speak. "I trust you warmed up before coming? She asked, lifting an eyebrow. Whatever the answer was, Gin would go on to explain what they were about to do. "The goal today is to train your perception and reaction skills. We'll move on to jutsu and more complicated things when I decide your basics are up to par, understood?" She began. Her voice left no room for questioning. "Now, take this," she said, offering Lin a piece of black cloth. "Wrap it around your eyes. I'll stand several meters away. I'll throw kunai at you and other random projectiles, maybe even the occasional jutsu. Your job is to dodge them. To help you along, I'll tell you which side I'm aiming at," she finished explaining. Gin turned on her heel and walked several paces away from her new student.

She was considering for a moment whether or not she should use the girl as a guinea pig for a couple of jutsu that she had been meaning to try. For the moment, she would stick with just kunai and shuriken, but really, she had to make this worth it for herself, too. She would consider the pros and cons as she went on with the training exercise.

[WC: 726]

Lin didn't answer the question of warming up, but proceeded to listen to Gin's instructions, nodding all the while. Going to throw kunai at me while blindfolded. This sounds like the hellish training that she promised. Perhaps I'll get better. If I don't, then I'll at least get to use my medical jutsu, and perhaps get a bit better in that. Were her thoughts on what Gin was saying. She took the black cloth and secured it snugly around her eyes. She knew, somehow, that if she cheated she'd get more than a scolding. It would only hurt herself if she cheated anyhow.

She readied her senbon in her right hand, her dominant hand to deflect any stray kunai and turned her right ear toward Gin trying to get the feel for how she was breathing, when she moved, anything that would help her decide when to dodge. With the dark encroaching on her vision, the one thing that she usually used to pick up on things such as traps, attacks, or anything else, she felt like she didn't have much of a chance.

She carefully listened for any signs that Gin was about to throw something when she stated, "Alright, I'm ready" and tensed, waiting for the test of her skills to begin.

WC: 738

At Lin's lack of answer to her question, Gin assumed that she hadn't bothered to do anything besides walk over to their meeting place. She sighed. Undoubtedly, the girl would feel the effects in the morning, if not now. Well, that would be enough of a lesson for her. In her experience, pain was a great teacher. It was why it was one of her more commonly used tools. For better or for worse, her new student would find that out soon. Realistically, it would be for worse. However, she had already agreed to be Gin's newest pupil. There was no going back for her now, she had said as much the night before. Gin had a feeling that she wasn't the type to break her word. It was an honorable notion, but one that would prove hard to follow at some point in her life. Not everything in the shinobi world was as black and white as some people made it out to be.

Waiting for Lin to get ready, Gin took a kunai out of her pouch and began playing with it - tossing it about a foot into the air and watching it spin before catching it again. All the while, she considered placing a seal on the small weapon in order to practice one of her more recent jutsu concepts. She shook her head. The point wasn't to kill the girl. She would have to find something else to practice it on, even if it made the current training session somewhat dull for her. After all, throwing kunai was akin to second nature for her now. There was a point to this rather simple exercise, though. One that would become obvious soon enough.

Once Lin was ready, she instantly started their training. "Left," she said simply, rapidly throwing the kunai towards the mentioned direction. Specifically, she aimed it to Lin's left shoulder. Briefly, the former Kazekage wondered if she would end up turning the girl into a pin cushion before the morning ended. Well, that was up to her dodging abilities. "Focus. Concentrate on your surroundings but don't let them overwhelm you. Target what you need to hear and feel. Everything else is secondary," she instructed, preparing to throw another kunai. "Right," she said, aiming for the girl's right thigh.

[WC: 1117]

Lin dodged right and felt a scrape against her left shoulder. She would have to be faster than that in order to remain unharmed through the training. She wasn't about to give up after one kunai though, even if she thought that this training was a bit unfair. It was for her own good. She was caught in the middle of this thought process when receiving the instructions from Gin.

Breathing deep, she felt her sandals in the dirt, the wind blow past her, the smell of rain tickled her nose, probably a couple of hours out. Her ears twitched with each sound, people passing by the Kage's place, the guards taking a break. The sound of Gin's hand on the handle of the kunai. When Gin said "right" She immediately jumped right and tripped over a rock.

it hurt a bit, and she hadn't known that it was there, and she knew that this was probably something that she had to work on. Seeing as the mission that she had done recently she had backed up into a chimney, and she had tripped over a small rock here in training, she obviously needed to work on concentrating on everything around her. Not just the person in front of her.

To gain this focus, she would need to work harder. She sighed, getting up and feeling blood running down her right kneecap, it was probably scraped and filled with dirt, but she would wash it later and use the medical jutsu on herself.

"Sorry... I think I'm ready again." Lin said, her voice unsteady with embarrassment. I can't lose her respect in the first training session. I have to work harder or she's going to toss me out on my ear and I won't have a sensei again. It has taken too long to get one. Now. Confidence! She exhaled slowly and found her center before affirming "I am ready again."

WC: 1057

Gin considered throwing a kunai at Lin while she was down. It certainly would have driven the point across. She would have done so under regular circumstances. However, this didn't quite fit under that category. She was under the watchful guard of Kumogakure's guards, stationed around the Estate, supposedly to keep the Raikage safe. Really, they were glorified prison guards, making sure that her unspoken house arrest was followed. Understandably in these troubling times, she was seen as a threat. Hence, throwing a kunai and stabbing a defenseless Kumo genin probably wouldn't sit well in their book. It was the excuse they needed to push the council to arrest her formally. Sanosuke likely wouldn't let them, but Gin had no intention of causing the unwanted commotion. She would have to keep her usual training methods more... restrained, at least for now.

Gin twirled the kunai in her hand while Lin stood up once again. She already had a few scrapes from the kunai that had brushed against her skin. It was just about what Gin had expected for their first training session. In other words, she wouldn't let up just because Lin was injured. In battle, her enemies would never do so, so why should she? In Gin's opinion, conventional training methods coddled students and built up false expectations of what battle was really like. Are you tired and injured? No problem, we can stop until you feel better. Such circumstances never happened in real life. Opponents and enemies rarely had pity or compassion. Therefore, Gin purposely made her training worse than most battles. If her students were too weak to last under her methods, they would no doubt en up in the same situation later on.

As soon as Lin was standing again, Gin threw a series of kunai in quick succession. "Left, left, left, right, left, right," she said, barely a second in between each projectile. Hopefully, Lin would learn to tell when she was going to throw a kunai in which direction before she had to state it. The silver haired woman was purposely repeating the same motions every time she launched one at Lin, making sure that her clothes rustled and her posture shifted enough for the genin to notice. Once Lin learned to read the pattern, Gin would turn it on its head.

[WC: 1511]

Murmuring something to herself, she was caught off-guard by the first throw, it barely didn't sink into her Left elbow, she pulled it in tight to her body. and started to breathe regularly. Her ears were picking up on the movements of Gin's own body. It seemed that she was using a rhythm, and wasn't giving Lin much time to respond to the throws. She finally caught onto the movement of the cloth in the air and was able to dodge the Kunai. When she was relatively comfortable, she finally tried to parry one with her senbon, being able to in class as an academy student, she trusted that she could probably do it here, as she was able to sense where the Kunai were going by the whistling in the air.

A metallic 'ting' signaled that she barely parried the kunai, though it cut the back of her hand. She winced and gritted her teeth, releasing a breath through her closed teeth in a hiss. It was a relatively shallow cut, but on her hand, when she was used to moving it around, it hurt. The sweat from moving was starting to build up on her body and run into the cuts, and while they were nothing to worry about, the sting of salt was starting to annoy her. She was wondering if she was supposed to attack back, or just dodge. There wasn't much room for thoughts as she continued to dodge the kunai until Gin started to do something else. She weaved, ducked, and dodged out of the way. Finally able to tell where she was, where the rocks that were bigger than others were, and was even able to use them for extra leverage when she was jumping from side to side.

WC: 1358

Her new student seemed to be catching on to the cues Gin was providing her. Good. She even managed to parry one of Gin's projectiles. Gin smirked. It was a mixture of pride at the girl's learning curve and mischief when she thought about what was to come. Having a student was definitely one of the best sources of entertainment. Just to make sure that Lin hadn't suddenly gone through a lucky streak, Gin tossed a few more kunai forward, repeating her previous motions. "Right, right, left, left, right," she said in quick succession. The piece de resistance, so to speak were the two kunai that she held in her right hand. "Left," she said, launching them both forward at once.

All of her projectiles so far had aimed at the girl's limbs, for the most part - places where, if she were hit, the wounds would be relatively minor. Still, that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like a bitch. After all, that was the whole point of this exercise. Pain and the desire to avoid it were the most basic instincts that drove human behavior. It was why training people like her nephew, Sero - people incapable of feeling pain - often proved to be difficult.

If Lin managed to dodge most of the projectiles with relative efficiency, Gin would come to the conclusion that she had picked up on Gin's movements and intentional noises. She would now begin to use those same cues against Lin. She repeated the movements that distinguished the right side. "Left," she would say, making sure to say the word when the kunai was already half way towards Lin. Again, she would send cues for the wrong side to confuse the girl. Occasionally, she would repeat the sounds and movements as she had done before - matching the right movements to the right side as Lin had initially learned. "Left, right, left, left, right, right," she stated. Now the real part of the training was underway.

[WC: 1846]

Lin managed to parry the kunai, gaining confidence with the next sequence of them thrown at her. Then something changed with the movement, a very subtle difference to be sure, but it wasn't the methodical throwing from before. She heard the Kunai coming at her and parried the one, but the Kunai following it sank into her forearm. Surprised and a little hurt by the kunai she shouted, "Ow!" She left the Kunai in her arm, not knowing how deep it was, but it didn't feel very deep at all. It was not a wound that would keep her from dodging the others, but the hand movements that she used to parry were out of the question now. Well, if she wanted to keep from being hurt by the kunai in her arm that is. It was better to keep it there than to bleed out from a little kunai wound. It wasn't like she was worried that it had hit an artery, but if she yanked it out in haste she could nick it and if she did that the training would be over.

She grit her teeth and dropped her senbon, making sure that she wasn't making caltrops for herself to dodge the kunai. She listened to the clothing, making sure that she would catch onto any more of Gin's tricks. It was a learning mistake and one that she wouldn't do again if she had the chance. It was cocky of her to try to block a kunai thrown by Gin in the first place, but she wanted to at least try it out. Now she was getting the horns of the bull that she had taunted. It was not a good idea to be cocky around Gin.

She was caught by surprise by the kunai that Gin threw after the two kunai as well because she preemptively moved to the right. She heard the kunai's path before Gin told her left, but she was already moving to the right. It hit her in the left leg, right where she was aiming, nicking her calf. She grumbled as she felt the trickle of blood run down her leg. She really should have warmed up this morning, but she didn't think that she had the time. Sighing, she gathered herself for the next volley. This time, she didn't take clues from Gin's movements, but rather from the path that the Kunai was taking, the slight whistle of air through the ring of the handle, and the cues that she was giving verbally. It was enough to make her listen to nothing but these. She knew that there would be another trick coming up soon, but she needed to adapt to the situation. She took out her senbon from her other pocket, holding them in her off-hand. She tried to be ambidextrous, but she knew that she wasn't nearly as good with her right hand as her left.

Listening to the last kunai that gin threw, she tried to deflect it. Perhaps she would get lucky with her off-hand.

WC: 1884

Just as Gin had expected, Lin's dodging had become sloppy, at best. That didn't mean that Gin would relent at all, however. Her pace kept up. She continued making her movements as confusing as possible, mixing the signals that her new student had learned to follow. The former Kazekage was beginning to suspect that the girl had figured it out by now: This training session wasn't just about dodging and perception. Gin's style of mentoring was rarely ever what it appeared to be on the surface. The point was to force critical thinking, to encourage analysis and reliance on one's own self. It was meant to imitate the conditions of battle, of overwhelming odds and hopeless situations. Because in the end, there was always an answer, hidden somewhere. It was something that she had to keep reminding herself at times when things seemed utterly bleak.

Gin resisted the urge to yell out instructions. There was no such thing in a real fight. Rarely was there someone to support and guide you through the most trying of fights. And even if Lin did grow used to battle in company, it was best to prepare for moments when she was alone. Company was never guaranteed. Autonomy was key to survival. "Left, left, left, right," Gin called out, each time when the kunai was at a different distance from Lin. The girl would have to learn to ignore her and focus solely on what she hears and felt the kunai do.

Gin remembered subjecting herself to a similar training regime. She had never really had someone to guide her and teach her what it was that she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to live as a shinobi. In that regard, she had always been on her own. Her mother had always avoided the subject of the shinobi world, to the point where she hid Gin's Kuroka nature and her own upbringing as a Nara. Everything Gin now knew was self-taught, learned from the experiences life constantly threw at her. For a moment, she wondered how different her life would have been if she had had some sort of guidance from someone as strong and knowledgeable as she was now. Maybe she would have avoided many of the mistakes she had made along the way.

No matter. it was best not to think of things that would never be, lest reality seem far more cruel in comparison.

[WC: 2259]

Lin barely dodged the next few Kunai, and sighed. She was tiring a bit and her reactions were slowing to a bit less than she had anticipated. Her wounds slowed her down and pained her with every movement. Each time she got a bit slower, but focused on the Kunai a bit more. By the time that it was the 10th Kunai, she had finally caught on to the fact that Gin's movements, her clothing, her breathing had nothing to do with the kunai movement. Gin's directions came too late for her to react so she had to block that out as well. The guards talking was not a distraction anymore, but with the growing pain in her extremities from the sweat accumulating on them, and their constant movement she was slowing.

The pain in her hand made it impossible to use the senbon in a way that would save on her movements, and the pain in her leg made it harder to move. If Gin would just let up she could use her medical Ninjutsu. But that wasn't what an opponent would do in battle. She grit her teeth once more. It was a constant pain to move. She had to think of something before she was out of the battle for good. She knew that if she failed this training she would be driven harder next time. She wished again, but not for the last time that she had warmed up this morning.

Because Gin would not let up, she moved as quick as she could given the circumstances. The next kunai was coming right, she knew before Gin said anything, before her body made the last sound. The kunai missed her by a hair's breadth. She was able to dodge it! Triumph ran through her in a surge. She didn't need her senbon to parry the blows anymore! The elation filled her and gave her the strength to press on. She would need to heal after this simulation, but she felt more sure of herself. The next senbon would be coming soon, and Lin had finally found out how to track the movements of the Kunai.

WC: 2248

Gin was merciless in her training. She always placed her personal feelings aside for the sake of her planned regiment. However much she liked Lin didn't matter. What was important was that she place her student under pressure and guide her through the most trying of scenarios, so that she could draw her own conclusions and learn to trust herself and her skills. It was admirable that someone at Lin's current level could fight through her wounds. She was still standing, despite the several kunai impaled into her skin and muscle. Gin had to give her props for that, at least. Nevertheless, there was one last thing she wanted to do before she let her student rest and tend to her wounds.

Gin had lost count of how many projectiles she had thrown at Lin by now. She mixed her pace and movements in between to avoid becoming predictable. In complicated battles, patterns were almost impossible to notice. When they were easily seen, they indicated a trap leading towards a sense of false security. By now, Lin had probably learned that much. "Right, left, left, right, right, left," she continued. She could see the exhaustion pouring off of the younger girl. Her stamina needed work. It was a crucial part of battle. Long and drawn out fights were common, though that largely depended on the opponent's strategy and tendencies. All in all, being tired could become a death sentence. Gin added that to the things she needed to help Lin with.

Gin drew what could be the last kunai in their training session. She wanted to test whether Lin had actually learned to trust her own perceptions of the world around her. "Left," she stated. The kunai, however, was headed to Lin's right.

Lin moved through the pain, it was like moving through a sluggishly hot room. Each movement sent pain through her wounds. She concentrated on the sound of the kunai, blocking out everything but the sound of the kunai. She couldn't rely on Gin's movements, nor on the directions, only on the trajectory of the kunai themselves. She dodged to the left, the right, the right again, knowing that she was doing well because she wasn't being hit, she pushed through the pain.

Gritting her teeth she lept to the left and then parried the other kunai thrown at her right with her senbon. It was a clumsy maneuver, but it kept her from expending all of her energies on jumping and lessened the pain in her legs. She jumped to the right and then moved slightly to the left as the kunai soared past her right hip. It would be a stinging wound, nothing that she couldn't push through, but the salt from the sweat was mingling with the wounds in a dizzying sensation that shot through her system every time she moved. She didn't have time to take out the kunai, nor did she want to for fear of doing more damage in doing so without the use of her sight. She would have to train with her eyes closed some other time, to try to train her hearing and sense of touch more.

Lin could hardly believe that she didn't know her own body very well without looking at it. She seldom did, as she was mostly ashamed of the way that she looked, as was evident from her dress. She stood there, panting, waiting for the next kunai to be thrown. Waiting for Gin to take it out of her pouch and throw it at her. She was a coiled spring, ready to loose. The senbon in her non-dominant hand clenched so tightly it drew the blood from her knuckles.

WC: 2578

Gin allowed herself to smile in satisfaction. Lin had managed to dodge her last kunai. The girl seemed absorbed in her task, blocking out everything else that could distract her. She had managed to learn how to focus properly in a short amount of time. It was proof enough that Gin hadn't been wrong. The girl showed promise and had the potential to one day grow into a fine kunoichi. That was the part about training new students that always sparked her interest. She often saw herself wondering what kinds of people they would become. She had been right, at least partially, most of the time. Her instincts were keen where people were concerned. This girl, she had a kind soul. She was loyal to a fault and had a tendency to trust people far too much than she should. For a moment, Gin found herself worrying for the girl, wanting to protect her innocence from the cruel things the world could bring.

She shoved the thought aside. It was her duty as a teach her to prepare her for the future, not keep her from it. "Lin," she called, saying something other than a direction as she had for the past hour. The abrupt change in words and tone should have snapped the girl out of her semi-unconscious state. "You can remove the blindfold and tend to your wounds now," she said. "I would help, but I'm more likely to end up cutting off all blood flow to your limbs than to tie a bandage properly," she joked. She wasn't exaggerating, however. The fine movements and dexterity required for medical practices were beyond her. She could be an artist with a sword and was even skilled at fabricating her fake limbs, but other than that, her hands were meant to destroy, not fix.

Gin stepped forward, picking up the kunai she found along the way. She sealed them back into a scroll. It was easier to carry things that way. She really didn't know how she used to survive without the art of Fuuinjutsu. Once she was a few steps from Lin, she sat down. "Now we're going to review what you learned and what you didn't. So to start off, what was the first thing you did wrong?" Gin asked.

Lin sighed and dropped where she was to the ground. Two kunai in her leg, one in her hand, one in her opposite arm. Tenderly she took off the blindfold and let it fall across her lap. It lay there, a symbol of pride, a medal of honor. She had passed the first part of her training, or she felt like it at least.

Watching Gin pick up the kunai on the way to her, she got the sense that it wasn't fully over, but she could be elated anyhow. It helped to lessen the pain at least. Pulling out the first kunai in her hand was the beginning. She conjured the teal-colored chakra, tenderly coercing it to seal her wounds shut. The next to come out was the kunai in her opposite arm. Those were the hardest to tend to, as she had to focus the chakra into one palm. As she was sewing her wounds shut with Chakra and making sure that removing the kunai wouldn't nick anything that was important, she listened to Gin. "Sometimes I would prefer to be stronger like you. I feel paper-thin sometimes. My frailty seemingly in my blood Like my mother. She doesn't have a kekkei genkai, as you probably know, but she is weak nonetheless. No matter how much she trained her body, she just couldn't take a hit, nor dish out one. My father,the picture of physical fitness, wanted me to grow up like him. His strength was where his power came from. My mother's came from guile and speed. She can chop vegetables and have them in the pot faster than I can track with my eyes, but sometimes can't open a jar for lack of strength."

She paused and took out another kunai, thinking over the session and where she went wrong, "I think there are two answers to that. The first is: Not warming up this morning." Lin said, stating what she thought was the obvious, "Or, if you mean when we started the training it would be when I stumbled over the rock and wasn't aware of my surroundings." She pulled out the last kunai and used the healing jutsu once more on that wound, then omved onto the smaller nicks all over her body.

WC: 2976

Gin shook her head. "Not exactly. You're pointing out the obvious. I'm asking you to go beyond that," she said, softly flicking Lin's forehead. It was barely any penalty, more like a playful scolding. The girl was injured enough. Besides, they were past that stage in their current training session. She needed time to heal her wounds before continued.

"You won't always be caught prepared for a fight. Sometimes you'll be able to warm up or stretch, sometimes you won't. It's not a constant factor, though it does help to prepare when you know something is coming. You have to always take advantage of whatever information you have," Gin explained. Beyond whatever physical strength Lin gained from this training, Gin wanted her to be able to think critically about what the her principles of battle should be, so that she could internalize them until they became instinctive.

Fights were usually about more than who could run the fastest or punch the hardest. They were about strategy and using every advantage possible with precise and exact timing. If Lin didn't learn that, she might as well stay a Genin for the rest of her life. Gin lowered herself slightly so that she could be at eye level with the younger girl. "The first thing you did wrong was let your opponent dictate the terms of battle," she began again.

She felt like she needed to elaborate her point so that Lin would get the full extent of it. "You let me blindfold you without question. It's the reason why you tripped, why you couldn't dodge. You didn't even try to take a peek," Gin explained. Of course, she had been expecting Lin to follow her orders. She would have been genuinely surprised if the girl had tried to cheat. However, Lin's unquestioning attitude was what Gin needed to prove her point. "The point is, I set a condition in my favor and you let me, without a single doubt in your mind. Learn to question what's around you. If there's anything I want you to learn, it's that."

"So... warming up is still something that I should take advantage of, and I should really take advantage of any situation as much as I can." She tried to sum up what Gin had said and nodded, "So if I have a mission, I should always prepare as much as I can for any situation that could arise on that mission, and if I over plan it is better than beinc caught off guard." She smiled up at Gin and tilted her head to the side, giggling. She was still working on her wounds, but at least Gin was being nice enough to give her advice. Her father would have just gotten frustrated, thrown his hands up in the air and offered a response like, "Get stronger, or you'll never pass the chuunin exam." Or something along those lines. She pulled out another kunai and listened to Gin.

"So... even for training sessions with you, I shouldn't let you dictate all of the circumstances?" She questioned, tilting her head the opposite way and raising an eyebrow at Gin. She didn't really know the implications of what Gin had said and what they would be on the training that they were going to do after this, but she knew that she needed all of the information at this point to use for later on.

"So can I question training sometimes, and ask why we're doing the exercises we are doing?" Was the immediate question. She already had many questions to ask, but sighed, seeing what Gin would say before asking her about the dodging versus the blocking of Kunai.

WC: 3260

Gin poked the young girl's forehead with her index and middle fingers. It was an old gesture, one who's origin had been lost over time. From what Gin knew, it was meant to convey affection to someone younger - a student or a sibling. It seemed appropriate, especially considering the tense worry and confusion the sensed from Lin. "I'm telling you that if something feels wrong, do something about it. That doesn't just apply to training, you know," she said. "Don't let someone else define what cheating means, what's good or what's bad. Follow your own code, not someone else's," she elaborated. The entire point was for Lin to understand and to learn. There was no point in ignoring her questions or giving vague answers now. The practical part, illustrating her words, was already over. It would be a waste if Lin didn't get the point of it.

Gin now stood up, dusting the dirt from her clothes. "Now that that bit's over, we can move on to practicing jutsu. Do you have anything you're working on? Lord knows I do," Gin began once again. She put her hand to her chin and tilted her head upwards in consideration. "Want to see?" she asked, grinning widely. She had a few things that she had been working on and she had never been above showing off, for better or worse. Regardless of Lin's answer, Gin would start preparing her movements. Her eyes narrowed. Her expression became serious. She turned to face one of the surrounding mountains. Lightning crackled in the palm of her hand. The light shone off of her hair. The sheer force of her energy made her hair shift as if she were caught in a gust of wind.

A spear appeared in her hand - ornately decorated, created from her own chakra. She smiled widely. It was an expression that had a sort of wickedness to it. She prepared herself to launch the weapon, spinning it twice in her dexterous hands before winding up and throwing it with all of her strength. The spear landed at the top of the mountain and immediately exploded. A crashing thunder rang through the area. Once the smoke cleared, part of the mountaintop was gone, replaced by rubble. With a smile on her face, Gin turned back to her newest student, an innocent smile on her face.

"I suppose I can help you with ninjutsu. Were you ever interested in learning how to handle a sword? I could also teach you seals, maybe even teach you taijutsu?" She was rambling at this point, and was speaking as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't just shown an immense display of strength. "Medical's out of the question. I could provide you with patients, though," she said brightly. The connotations of that last part were... troubling, to say the least. Her cheeriness only added to it.

[Training Lightning Release: Divine Lance (雷遁・神ランス ~ Raiton: Kami ransu): 2000/2000]

Lin watched in wonder as Gin annihilated the mountain top, the spear creating a crack like thunder as it demolished it. She was awed by her master's skill with Ninjutsu and with weapons, Perhaps she could emulate her.

"well, I would like to learn how to use my ninjutsu better, and perhaps how to fight with my taijutsu. There is apparently a taijutsu that uses pressure points and senbon to attack at people's vital spots. It is a taijutsu because it uses precision and speed to plant senbon in someone to form clots and also to numb the body parts there." She looked at Gin and smiled, a big smile of a student that had complete trust in her sensei, "I've been working on a couple of jutsu on my own, Mostly things to enhance my own abilities and those of my teammates, should I ever have any." She looked at her feet and kicked at a rock, the self-same one that tripped her before.

"Let's go ahead and go through with training jutsu and also taijutsu. I want to get stronger so that I can protect those that I care about. Like you!" She smiled, the smile of one who hadn't endured pain at all, but rather one that put complete trust in Gin. She knew that she would be safe as long as Gin was her sensei. Gin would make her strong, like tempering steel. She had healed all of her wounds and was still on the ground. She hopped up quickly and stretched, making sure that she didn't have any soreness in her limbs by stretching them. She didn't have any and so she smiled and nodded, "let's train those two."

WC: 3765

Gin nodded at what her student was saying. It didn't seem like she had a concrete plan yet, but it "The kind of Taijutsu I use is based mostly on deflecting other people's energy. I don't know wnough of the human body to pinpoint chakra points and nerve endings properly. I do better with less precise movements," Gin explained. She had, for a brief time, considered buying a Byakugan on the black market in order to target the human body more efficiently. She came to the conclusion, however, that a calculated punch to the chakra network and an incinerating fireball managed to do the same thing - namely, incapacitate her target. Maybe she could, however, find someone to teach Lin something similar. She would have to add that to her list of things to do. She didn't tend to associate too much with Medics, but she would surely think of something eventually.

At the mention of the jutsu that Lin wanted to train, Gin nodded again. "So you want to take on more of a supportive role during combat?" she asked. It would help set a series of goals if they could narrow down the kind of shinobi that Lin wanted to be in the first place. Gin wasn't used to taking a role other than pure offense. Training Lin would be different and challenging. It would lead to something interesting, that was certain. Maybe in a few years, they could combine hers and Lin's abilities during combat. The idea was exciting. She almost missed the fact that her student said she wanted to protect the former Kazekage. "It's been a long time since anyone said they wanted to protect me," Gin smiled, extending her hand to ruffle the girl's hair.

That being said, Gin readied herself to help Lin train the jutsu she had mentioned. "You can use me as a target. I'll tell you exactly what differences I feel," she explained. "I can stand a lot more damage than you can. That way if you screw something up, it won't really do that much to me," she concluded, stretching as she did so.

Lin nodded and thought about some of the techniques that she had been working on. She had been working with her senbon and with her jutsu in tandem with one another. She knew that there was one that she really wanted to use, but she restrained herself and asked, "do you know any good Raiton jutsu that I might be able to use?" She blushed and nodded, "I can support others by also helping to harm the enemy, right?" She didn't want to hurt Gin and it was written all over her face, "My jutsu aren't developed yet, there is one called the Regenerative Senbon, and the other is called the Adrenaline Senbon. The regenrative one helps restore wounds that I wouldn't normally be able to and the adrenaline one helps with increasing a bit of my team mate's abilities. Or that is the thought behind it."

She blushed and twisted her hands, looking from side to side. All of the confidence had eked out of her until she was once again a little girl trying to develop her first jutsu. It was supposed to help the bird that she was fighting to keep alive, but instead a crimson chakra had come out and killed the poor thing. She didn't want to do it with Gin because she was afraid something similar might happen. She took two senbon, and showed Gin what she meant, one of them crackled with electricity and the other one had a pale teal light surrounding it. The one with electricity in her left hand she held up first.

"This is the adrenaline Senbon." And then she held up her right hand with the one covered in teal chakra, "and this is the regenerative one."

Jutsu Shown:

WC: 4074

Gin frowned, going over the list of jutsu that she knew in her head. She looked back at Lin for a moment and shook her head. "Everything I know might be a little bit advanced, so best to wait until you have the basics down before we move on to that. In a few months, I might be able to teach you what I just did," she offered. If the girl had any knowledge of Wind Release, Gin would be able to teach her a variety of techniques, including a sensory one that may come in handy for her. Maybe she would be able to unlock the girl's wind nature a little later on. Now that she thought about it, it was like working with raw clay - she had the ability to mold it to whatever image she desired. Of course, as long as the girl was willing to learn. They would get nowhere if she lost her will to grow halfway thought their training.

The silver haired woman looked at the needles and nodded. They seemed useful enough. The ability to induce regeneration in the body by stimulating it with foreign chakra was interesting, more so when it could be done from a distance. As for the other one, causing a spike in adrenaline also sounded like it could come in handy. Considering the current state of her body and its top physical condition, she wondered how much of an effect it would have on her to begin with. She supposed that she would find out in a moment. Gin took a few steps so that she was standing a decent space away from her student. She readied herself, getting into a basic taijutsu stance. The idea was to get hit by the girl's attack. However, it really wouldn't serve much of a purpose if she wasn't injured in the first place.

The former Kazekage drew a kunai from her item's pouch and stabbed it into her thigh. She flinched. The feeling of the muscle tissue tearing stung. She drew it out and cast it aside for now. "Alright, let's see how good your healing is," Gin said, flashing the girl as smile. This pain really wasn't anything bad, compared to what she was used to fighting with.

Lin nodded at Gin's thoughts that she needed to grow. She felt on the precipice of an epiphany that would launch her from genin to chuunin rank. She hoped that the Raikage would approve of her step up since she had been running around the village trying to get to all of the missions that she could, and had made her presence known to all of the people of the village. She had even met people from outside of the village and had many powerful friends. Beaming she nodded.

She got onto the defensive when she saw Gin get into a taijutsu stance, before watching the older kunoichi take a kunai out and stab herself in the leg! It looked painful to say the least. Loosing the senbon in her right hand, she let go of the chakra that she was using for the senbon in her left. The teal covered-senbon struck Gin's leg right where the kunai was. Lin rushed over to take out the kunai, as it would not heal if there was a foreign object in it and then did one of her custom jutsu that she was working on, it was called "healing Pulse Jutsu". "Why would you do that without warning me?" She asked in surprise as the teal chakra shot out of her hand and healed the wound, it was easily a wound that was an inch and a half deep or even deeper, but with the healing pulse and the regenerative senbon it should have healed completely.

Readying herself, she took her hands and made another set of hand-signs and teal chakra manifested itself on her fingertips, waiting for Gin to hurt herself again, "I can't heal you if there's something in the wound, just to let you know." She smiled at the older woman, the shock from Gin hurting herself fading like the wound on Gin's leg.

Jutsu Used:

Spoiler:

Chakra used: 50 Chakra remaining: 100

WC: 4402

Gin let out a cackle. The young girl's innocence was actually quite adorable. From reactions like these, it was easy to tell that she wasn't quite used to violence. She still had a fresh perspective on the world, one that wasn't tainted by the cruelty that life had to offer. Part of Gin hoped that she would remain that way - safe and happy. However, if she wanted the girl to survive and thrive as a kunoichi, then she would have to show her and prepare her for everything that the world would eventually throw her way.

"What did you expect? I needed to be wounded to see if the jutsu works," Gin pointed out. The injury at this point was bleeding quite profusely. Gin, however, didn't seem to mind at all. She stood perfectly still as Lin worked her jutsu on her leg. The relief was almost instant. However, it healed slower than it usually would on any other person. It was a consequence of her physiology as a Kuroka.

Their bodies had a tendency to resist healing chakra. It could be a problem when in the field. The only instance she remembered it almost costing her life was when she had had her arm cut off. She had been passed out for several hours and it had taken several more for someone to get to where she was. By then, she had almost bled - her skin was cold and pale, her heart beat slow. The medics had had a very hard time keeping her alive. For a few weeks after, she had been relegated to bed rest. Before she could even recover properly, she had been summoned for a summit with the rest of the Kage. Gin almost shivered at the memory - the key word there being almost.

"Now show me what the other one can do," Gin ordered, shaking her leg and moving it around a few times to make sure that everything was alright. The muscles were still a little stiff, but she would be fine in a few hours, maybe a day.

Lin twirled the senbon around, yanking out the one in Gin's leg and hopped back twenty meters. "I was just worried is all." She said sulking, and blowing air into her cheeks. She didn't like to be teased, but understood that she had to be injured to use the medical ninjutsu. Sighing, she focused her chakra into the senbon and it radiated with raiton.

"Right, this one is the Adrenaline Senbon Jutsu." She nodded and threw it at Gin's lower body. If it worked the way that it should, it should speed up Gin's body by a little bit, making it harder to see her movements even as they were now. Well, that was really hard to do, but she would see if it worked. The effects should only realistically work for about 12-18 seconds before it wore off, and then there would be a fatigue spell that would make it harder for Gin to move, not by much, but noticeably for about 6-12 seconds after. She didn't know much about the jutsu except that she had tried it at home, and felt like she ran twice as far when she was done with doing chores at top-notch speed. That was after repeated uses of it though, and probably was also due to the fact that she had used too much of her chakra.

"So..." She guided, "How do you feel?" She was hoping that it was practical enough to use in combat, especially due to the fact that she could use it twenty meters away and accurately in fact!

WC: 280

jutsu training with Gin: Jutsu used:

WC: 4682

So far have used WC on:


1933 for 9000 WC total for Guanyin Medical Reversal Technique. . . For more info see:
http://www.narutosaga.com/t20701-old-friend-invite-only#169589

pending usage for the rest of the wordcount