Supaku listened intently to Sensei Hanbei as she explained the parameters of their mission. It was beginning to get dark as the mine came into view, which was somewhat worrisome for Supaku, she was not overly fond of the idea of not being able to see while they carried out this mission. Looking from Yori to his sister Ko, Supaku tried to come up with a plan of attack. They both seemed to be capable, if somewhat annoying, shinobi. Though she’d always wanted to be in a position of authority there had never truly been an opportunity for her to be in one before. And now that the moment had arrived, she was more than a bit nervous about it, especially with Hanbei’s earlier speech about losing team members. More than just not wanting to be responsible for losing anyone, she didn’t want to lose anyone at all. And the revelation that the mine itself was not enclosed was a terrible one. That meant that they would be fully exposed to all manner of danger, which did not bode well. Though looking at the setting sun gave her a sudden burst of inspiration.

“Alright, so the sun is setting. I’m thinking that probably the best thing we can hope for is to get in there unseen. If it’s as open as you say, walking in in broad daylight isn’t going to give us the advantage. So if we wait until twilight then we at least have some semblance of cover. Until then though, we should get as close as we can without being seen, we need to find out exactly where that VIP is, and how to extract her without any of us being hurt.”

She sized up both Ko and her brother Yori; Ko would probably have an easier time of actually acquiring the VIP, but then again, she would also likely be better at defending her brother. Where as he had earlier stated, Yori was likely useless in a close up fight, but based on other things he had said, she guessed he was probably pretty sneaky. She would sigh quietly as she ran several plans over and over in her mind. The problem she could see was the her and Ko were evenly matched in terms of what they were capable of, and Yori just wasn’t. She didn’t know what to do with him, she wasn’t even sure if she could leave him alone. She decided she probably couldn’t, and would draw herself up as tall as she could, leveling her gaze at the siblings.

“I think I’d like to have Yori with me, if that seems alright with you. How’s your stealth Yori? You think you can sneak in and get the VIP while Ko and and I watch your back? Once we scout out the area, I’d like for you and I to get as close as possible to the VIP while Ko secures our exit.”

She would wait to see if anyone balked at her plan, she hoped it sounded reasonable. She really thought that it was the best division of skill, she was confident that Ko could handle herself, and she wanted to make sure that nothing happened to Yori. But she wasn’t sure that Ko wouldn’t do anything stupid trying to save her brother, so separating them seemed the most logical course of action. Time would tell if she was correct.

584

Supaku tried very hard to hide her discomfort at the sight of Yori’s disturbing. . . whatever it was. She assumed it was some sort of jutsu, but it could very well have been just a simple scare tactic for all she knew. Though that was doubtful seeing as she had just asked him whether or not he was sneaky, and he followed up with that unnerving display. Her eyebrow would raise as she attempted to disguise the shudder that ran down her spine while she nodded her approval to Yori. “No thank you, I don’t want one Yori.” Were all the words she could manage to squeak out before making her way with the group towards the mine. The walk there was not nearly as hard hard as the sneaking around once they got closer. It was quite dark once they had arrived at the edge of the mine, and looking down she could barely make out any details below. She could see plainly the VIP set up in the center of the large open area, along with various pieces of machinery laid out, no doubt set with traps. At least she would have set them with traps if she were in charge of catching people off guard.

She walked carefully along with Yori, keeping a wary eye out for things out of place, sounds that were unusual, anything that might give her a clue that something was amiss. She didn’t know what to expect though, she’d never spent anytime in the mine before, so it was all strange to her. She supposed though that if the mine was dirty, then things that were out of place were likely to be clean, so she tried to catch a glimpse of anything that sparkled or shone in the faint light that still lit the far horizon. It was relatively slow going as she and Yori carefully picked their way down towards the VIP, and terribly frustrating as well. Her clever plan of looking for traps was not terribly successful and she was not finding anything worth noting, occasionally she would hold her hand out and gently touch Yori’s arm to pause their progress and take in their surroundings in greater detail.

“Do you see anything yet Yori? I can’t see a thing down here, it’s way too dark.” She whispered her question to him as they crouched and looked around, she felt a bit silly whispering, but they had been instructed to treat it like a real mission, so she felt whispering was probably part of it. “Not yet, not yet. Well, the VIP over there, but I don’t think she’s going anywhere just yet.” Supaku couldn’t see his face, but she could hear the smirk in his voice regardless, so she would sigh and keep moving not interested in having a semi-witty exchange. “Come on Yori.” She said with no small amount of exasperation. “We’re almost there, if we’re quick we can catch her.”

Supaku gasped as a hand reached out and grabbed her, holding her back. She spun on her heel and went to strike the offending attacker and stopped as she saw it was none other than Yori, or who she assumed was Yori, as she still could not make him out altogether very well. “Don’t move.” Was all the young man said to her as he held on to her waist and moved uncomfortably close to her. She stayed as still as possible not even daring to breathe as Yori reached for her as though to embrace her, and was quite relieved when he didn’t, but only for a moment as she realized that he was fiddling with something behind her. “What’s going on?” She asked quietly, her voice only showing the slightest tremor of fear for the unknown. When he didn’t answer, which did nothing to alleviate her fear she closed her eyes for a moment and practiced her breathing exercises, knowing that if there was ever a time that she needed to remain calm, it was probably now.

After what felt like an eternity she felt a tug and heard a slight tearing sound and then Yori gradually released her, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder. “You walked yourself right into a trap. But don’t worry, I got you Supaku.” He gave her grin and then turned her so she could see the wire stretched out across the ground, leading to the senbon launcher hidden in the piece of machinery quite near the VIP. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of it, the fact that she’d very nearly blown the whole mission so close to it’s finish was appalling. And moreover that Yori had seen it was more appalling still, she should have seen that trap, perhaps she had underestimated him? “Thank you Yori, I don’t know what I would have done without you here. Gotten shot I suppose, good eyes on you. Well, I guess we finish up the mission then?”

And with that Supaku reached over, checking for anymore wires or traps, and started to pick up the VIP.

869/1453

Supaku was expecting a lot of things on this mission. She was expecting to be graded, surprised by hidden traps, have her intelligence tested by puzzles, dexterity pushed to it’s limits and any other number of mundane trials that she would struggle through but ultimately pass with flying colours. This though, she had not been expecting at all. As soon as her hand had touched the VIP all hell had broken loose. The explosion was near deafening, and Supaku felt her heart leap into her throat as from all around her she felt the massive wave of chakra bring forth torrents of water that quickly rose to engulf the ground she stood on. She had little time to think about what she was doing, she saw Ko leap to the top of a building and followed suit, scrambling as fast as she could, heedless of any of the traps she might be setting off in the process. The time for trying to pass the Patriarch’s test mission was long past, now their group was in very real danger.

The men and women that came forth from the various tunnels from around them were terrifying to behold. Dressed mainly in black, holding all manner of sharp and evil looking weapons and fully surrounding them the two girls were trapped, in the bottom of what was now a lake arena of sorts. As one of the women swayed their way forward Supaku tensed up, her mind racing trying desperately to think of plan, a strategy. . . anything that would help them all escape in one piece.

"Come now little Hyuga, surrender yourselves and we will make this as painless as possible, resist, and we will make sure that the experiments that you live through will have you begging for death. We'll have you live either way, but, you'd be surprised how badly one would want a basic sedative. haha"


Supaku was a brave person, or at least she had always considered herself to be so. However she’d never been in a truly life threatening situation before. These people were well and truly going to hurt them, there was no question of that in her mind. Sensei Hanbei’s earlier words were going through her mind, about losing members of the team, and it was all she could do to not shout at both Ko and Yori to just run. She could handle being hurt, she could figured it would be over quickly, but what she couldn’t handle was failing them. They were her responsibility, she was the Squad leader, and their lives had been entrusted to her, at least insofar as making the plans of attack, or in this case retreat were concerned. She was brave, but she was also not a moron. She would activate her byakugan, and she could clearly see that there were eight of them close enough to catch all three of them, no matter what direction they chose to run to. This was bad, very bad. Nothing she had ever trained in, or read had prepared her for this.

One thing she knew for certain, there was no way in hell that she was going to surrender to this crazy woman. She hadn’t offered an alternative that resulted in anything but torture, so it simply wasn’t an option. As she stood there next to Ko and saw her activate a jutsu she sighed inwardly. There was no way they could win, no way on earth. Even if Hanbei was here, which as she looked around with her byakugan she could see that she wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter, they were outnumbered two to one. And herself, Yori and Ko were inexperienced, and as for Sensei Hanbei, well she had no idea. The best she could hope for was to plan an escape for Yori and Ko. She knew that there was no chance for them all to get out, but two of them? Probably. She would turn her to face the oncoming woman with the deadly looking saw and speak quietly to Ko. “I need you to get Yori out of here. That’s your main priority, we can’t win against all of them, if you see an opportunity to do it, get him out and go get help. I’m going to try to create a distraction.”

Supaku would take a step forward and roll her shoulders back raising her head to level her gaze with the skull masked woman. Okay Supaku, if there was ever a time where you need to be able to be a bitch, this is it. These people are threatening to cut you and your squad up, and it's your job to stop them. You can do this. She flexed her arms, curling her fingers slightly as she activated her Chakra Infusion Technique, she wasn’t certain she’d get the chance to use it, but it was worth a shot. She shouted as angrily and haughtily as she could, daring the woman with every flick of her wrist as she pointed, to come and take her bait, to let Supaku be the distraction they so desperately needed.

“Surrender? Did you forget who you were talking to, you pathetic disgusting pile of filth? You are speaking to Supaku Hyuga! Do you really think that your trivial attempts at intimidation will be enough to frighten a Hyuga? You must not be very bright or you would have sent more people, and better trained ones at that. I don’t know what possessed you, you thick headed bitch to try and take me on, but you have made an enormous mistake tonight.”


949/2402

”Chakra 130/150”:

“I need you to get Yori out of here. That’s your main priority, we can’t win against all of them, if you see an opportunity to do it, get him out and go get help. I’m going to try to create a distraction.”

Ko would look at Supaku with a questioning look 'But we stand the best chance of living fighting together...' She would retort before the men came into the range of her Byakugan, she was able to see their chakra, 8 of them in total, and those 8 fighters were stronger than any of them individually, even if not by a great margin, they were stronger. Ko would recant her statement, nodding and beginning to move to the back of the building's roof. However, the group of them were advancing closer and closer to the group, but the lead female of the group was not expecting the gall that came from one of their victims to be. As Supaku opened her mouth, vile contempt and vitreol was all that escaped in a lyrical tyrade which caught the proud disciple off guard. Anger would cowl within the woman and many of the other Disciples had taken their eyes off the genin to focus on supaku and the member of their team that she was addressing. Ko and Yori would take this as their chance, both activating the body-flicker technique to immediately exit unharmed leaving Supaku within their ranks.




However, exiting was not the only thing that was on their minds, retreating to the point that Hanbei sat at, he would look down at the crew, Yori looked to the chuunin who seemed to be waiting for something to happen. The group were anxious, Hanbei would look back at the group, telling Yori at the very least to send word to nearby Jounin or ANBU if he could, Yori would then look to Ko, telling her to be the person to do it, Yori would be able to assist the resistance at long range, Ko was faster than him with a better skill-set that lent her to be more physically able. Without hesitation Ko Nodded and charged off into the distance. Looking to the remaining Hyuga, Hanbei would ask him if he were sure that it was a good idea that he stay with him. Nodding affirmatively, Yori would throw a couple of threads that would knit into Hanbei's clothing for protection, Hanbei would sigh, performing a couple of hand-seals as chakra would begin to flow out of his back... looking down at the event that was happening in the basin.

"How... how dare you! you insignificant little worm! Do you have any idea who you are addressing!? By the time we're done with a little runt like you, your homunculus will be sent rampaging back into your clan and massacre everyone you've ever cared about, we'll make you're your conscious to ensure you get to watch every moment but be unable to do a damn thing for your insolence! I will **** end you!"

Circular saws in hand she would attempt to charge down Supaku, taking a spinning swipe at neck height with one and spinning with the other, crouching down to take another horizontal pass at her gut. Though no sooner had she decided to charge Hanbei would leap high into the sky, performing hand-seal after hand-seal as he would swoop in like a falling hawk with his supernatural walking practice active. As soon as Hanbei was twenty meters within range of the men that were surrounding them, he would aim each of his hands down at one of them, a streaming hail of needles would rain down upon them from above, targetting one of the faceless goons and the massive hulking behemoth of a man. The goon was collected with the needles, dozens of them penetrating his form while the behemoth of a man took needles down his back, shoulders and neck. Some needles penetrated deeply causing pain, but many of them only seemed to sink in an inch or so... Something was different about this guy.

Hanbei would look like an angel, two massive quilled wings extending out of his back as he touched down on the water. Using his stream of needle hell and sweeping it for another three of the attackers, though finally they would catch up, leaping backwards to avoid harm as Hanbei would focus the stream from his other hand on the behemoth of a man in the front.

"Hey! Why don't you guys try to pick on some-one your own size, hmm?"

The tables turned, and Hanbei would find himself quickly surrounded with four of the remaining group, one of the faceless goons, the massive man, the small female and the athletic male. Each of them looked fearsome, but Hanbei wasn't going to let this go without a descent fight. Looking over to Supaku, she was against three now... while her loss was more or less assured, with Yori backing the two of them, there was at least a chance the group of them could hold off until reinforcements were on the way. As for the battle before him. Hanbei didn't like the odds of being 4 against 1, but there wasn't much he was able to do in the mean time. Watching them was like looking down the barrel of a gun, he'd need to be on his toes, but with his wings of needle hell active, and the stream of needle hell having fired almost 1000 needles into the large opponent, to what little effect it looked like had been done. He was sure that he might be able to do something in this fight. Allowing the stream to ebb he would look to the four around him.

"It's real brave of you to be picking on a bunch of kids, why kinda monsters are you?" He would begin, taunting at the men.

"It's no business of yours girly, but attacking us was a big mistake!" The attack from the four would come in quickly, one of them would throw a handful of impliments at Hanbei from behind, but with a single turn Hanbei would bat the scalpels away with one of his wings, hurling 50 needles from the wing back in response in a shot-gun like scatter, requiring the small girl to use a defensive technique in order to guard against them. Following through with the spin Hanbei would level his other wing Horizontally and strike out with it, sending another 50 Senbon in a 200 degree line  forcing the other ninja to block and evade, all save for the huge foe, who would charge through the needles, each of them skinking in ans stopping with a metallic ping as he would attempt to bulldoze the Guanyin. Looking behind him, Hanbei would leap high with a single wing-beat, not able to fly, but able to jump and guide his landing to where the big man had once been performing hand-seals on the way... and leaving a surprise in his place. There'd be an explosion of needles as his landmine technique went off directly in the face of the monstrous foe, causing him to grunt in pain.

"The lot of you think you're Doctors... I'm a Guanyin!"

The men would scowl as the plague masked man that stood high above them all would hear the comment, and take a step forward as he intended to enter the fray.

chakra:

Supaku was pretty brave. She wasn’t the type to turn down a challenge, or run in the face of adversity. But this was a new one, she stood there after having screamed at the woman in the skull mask, with the full intention of enraging her and drawing her full attention onto herself so that Ko and Yori could escape and was now seriously questioning her own intelligence. While she knew she was brave, she had also always considered herself more intelligent than brave, the biggest part of success in her limited experience, was to be well prepared. And in this particular instance she had most certainly not been prepared for any of what had transpired. Now that she most definitely had the woman’s full attention though, she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Her plan had ended at making her mad and keeping her focused only on herself. Supaku could feel the cold pricking sweat of fear along her spine as she struggled to come up with a second part to her enormously flawed plan of attack.

"How... how dare you! you insignificant little worm! Do you have any idea who you are addressing!? By the time we're done with a little runt like you, your homunculus will be sent rampaging back into your clan and massacre everyone you've ever cared about, we'll make you're your conscious to ensure you get to watch every moment but be unable to do a damn thing for your insolence! I will **** end you!"


Terror. Pure, unmitigated terror. That was what Supaku felt as the woman charged at her with circular saws in hand. It was as though she were watching it in slow motion, which of course she wasn’t because if she were then she probably would have been able to do anything about it other than just stand there. The woman was simply faster than her physically, but some part of Supaku’s brain was allowing her the unpleasant grace of seeing the end of her life played out clearly in half time. As the first lethal saw strike made its connection with her throat and Supaku’s hands began to rise to block it in vain, she was suddenly confused as she felt no pain. There was a resounding and vibrating ‘boom’ noise and then the woman in the skull mask was thrown violently ten meters directly away from Supaku.

There was no blood spray that she could see in the immediate area, and she didn’t feel like her throat was sliced open, so she sprang forward as she was certain that she wouldn’t get a better opportunity than this to attack. Keeping her body low and tucked in she would dart in towards her opponent, her left fist aimed at the woman’s solar plexus while her right came up underneath her chin. It was incredibly risky being this close, but she was hoping that her close proximity would help mitigate the damage the woman could cause with her weapons by limiting her swinging range with them. She had no real experience with anyone swinging weapons at her, so she had no idea and it was a true shot in the dark but she had to try something and was unwilling to just die standing there afraid. If either hit landed her, or better yet both of them she would use her Chakra Infusion Technique, to leave behind katon chakra, it wasn’t much but if she could hurt her a little it might give her the chance to get away. If not, she would attempt to stay inside her range of movement, taking as much power out of her swings as she could. If she was lucky enough, the unexplained launch backwards had dazed her enough to land at least one hit.

646/3048

”Chakra 115/150”:

’To Err is Human...’

Supaku, though stunned for a moment, had taken the opportunity to attack, chasing down the woman for close quarters combat. Through her tenacity and relatively quick action, the first of the two blows would hit, however the quivering arm of the Genin would reflect in very little damage other than a light bruise to the woman's abdomen as she would keel down into the uppercut to the underneath of her jaw. Something was wrong though, Supaku was able to feel her skin, but it was as if underneath she was far more solid than that of a normal person and she took far less recoil than a normal adult would, to the point that there was a stage when she buried her fist into her lower chest, it felt like she was hitting cushioned steel. The weakness of the two strikes compared to the sub-dermal augmentations to her body allowed her opponent to recover quickly, performing a single backwards cartwheel with the backward momentum and bringing a kick up for Supaku's jaw while the other men beside her would activate chakra strings, launching thirty of them from 3 different directions with hooks attached which would latch to Supaku's clothing and skin on contact if hit in an attempt to tangle her while she was in middair.

'It would be a bad place to be...'

Supaku, should the kick land would be caught in the intricate web of wires and hooks within moments, pulling tight like a lethal spiders web as none of the hooks would penetrate more than a fifth of an inch into her skin. The men would pull from the three directions, effectively catching her with their barbed net, suspending her from her arms legs and body drawing them all in 3 different directions so that she would not be able to move yet alone use hand-signs or any other technique that would require movement. Though, she would also have to overcome the pain. Blood stained the glowing blue wires red as it would touch onto the water. The woman she had punched would rotate back to her feet and look at the display of team-work, each of the people had done their job, finally. Though she scowled at their grinning response as it was certain that they had allowed her to be hit by the Genin, each of them knowing in their own right that any one of them could have prevented it if they wanted to. The embarrassment counteracted her rage like a surgical tool as her hate simmered to a mild disdain.

"Well now, looks like we've got you... so, you just stay there precious... This will all be over soon." Stepping closer she would sheathe the saws and remove an object that looked like some form of spherical clamp, approaching quickly and grabbing a handful of Supaku's hair before reaching down for her face with the implement. It would become needlessly apparent what the device was meant for. It was a tool specifically tailored to removing the eyes from other ninja, the fact they had such a specific implement meant that this kind of thing must have been done before. Likely many times. the woman would become little more than a shadow as she would be silhouetted by the sun, bending over the Hyuga as no anesthetic could numb what came next.

---

'But the boy fought on.'

Unlike the predicament a few dozen meters across from her, Hanbei was in the midst of the fight of his life, the people around him attacked with a fury with their chakra enhanced implements forcing Hanbei to duck, dodge and weave, using his needles to block the weapons first, leading to their instantaneous destruction but taking the offensive edge off the maintained techniques allowing her to then block them with his wings. Ducking and diving Hanbei would move side to side, having broken out of their circle, they could now only come at her from one diraction, and her wings of needle-like pinions were something that they were not going to get through without the use of more jutsu, which meant more chakra. Ducking, Hanbei would cover over her head with one of the wings as a shield as one of the bone-saws crashed down on it with a crack. Hanbei would spin, the needles catching on the teeth of the saw, bending it at an odd angle and prying it free of its masters control and hurling it into the lake as she would complete her spin with the other wing outstretched chopping for her opponent's legs. Catching none of them but forcing them to leap up and backwards as Hanbei would smile.

With another large wing-beat another 50 needles would explode from the wings in a shot-gun pattern catching a couple of them off-guard and dealing some light wounds from the slender needles. More simply bouncing off the massive opponent that recovered from the needle bomb that had been used before and charged hanbei down once again like a bull. With nothing seemingly able to hurt him in the physical department. Hanbei consolodated her medical chakra into her hands and bringing them to her lips. The blue tone chakra would convert to red as the Guanyin Kekkei Genkai would be entoned, just about to exhale the soothing wind technique, there would be an explosion as something slammed into the water causing a small tidal wave in and around the area Hanbei was in. Smashing Hanbei and all of her opponents away violently with the ripple which would be little more than a rolling wave by the time it reaches supaku.

"What the hell!"

Hanbei would cringe when she realized what had happened, the leader who had been atop the cliff had dropped into the frey to intercept the summoning of Hanbei's converted chakra. The mask of a plague doctor as he would raise a hand, ordering the others to back off for a moment. With a heavy exhale plumes of steam would be expunged from behind the mask as a heavy and hoarse voice would sound from beyond the mask. "I think that's enough of that, lad. It seems we have what we came for, so why don't you take your student, while she's still alive and leave before this becomes worse for you all. Hmmm? You fought well, but, we won. Everyone it's time to go... Reinforcements will be here shortly."

Something was wrong, very wrong. While it was true she didn’t have any true combat experience, this was not the first time she had struck a person and she knew this was not what it was supposed to feel like. Supaku was young and inexperienced, but even still she was not weak, and she had felt as though she had just punched a wall and not a human at all. Her arms trembled from the force of her blows being abruptly stopped and then suddenly her jaw snapped backwards as the skull masked woman's foot made contact with it in a stunning kick that sent her reeling backwards. She saw stars and her nerves screamed out in pain as blood flooded her mouth where her teeth had cut into some part of her tongue. The idea that this was not going well was the understatement of the century, and just as she imagined it couldn’t possibly get any worse as her feet left the ground and she was sailing through the air wondering if Ko and Yori were on their way back with reinforcements she felt multiple sharp pieces of metal pierce into her skin.

Supaku winced and groaned, the metal digging further into her skin and clothing as she struggled to get free. She couldn’t see very well what was going on, be she could feel well enough that she was suspended, and that try as she might her movements were doing nothing to facilitate an escape. When she had thought about her death in the past, she had not envisioned this. It had always been something more heroic, saving a baby from a burning building or leaping in the way of a lightning jutsu to save the Hokage. Not dying alone and helpless at the bottom of a flooded mine at the hands of crazed thugs. It was disappointing in a way, however it also was a bit of a relief to know that she was done, that she could stop being scared. She could feel the blood running from her wounds, taste it in her mouth and she knew she should be more terrified but right at the moment the only thing she was, was sad. She would miss her family. And she regretted not having any friends to miss.

"Well now, looks like we've got you... so, you just stay there precious... This will all be over soon."

As the woman spoke Supaku felt the fire light up inside her once more and she couldn’t help but get one last dig in at her. It was in her nature to antagonize and she really didn’t feel that she had anything left to lose. So she spat out the blood in her mouth so she could speak clearly and glared at her as she approached, using her hatred to help mask her pain.

“Of course I’m going to stay here you idiotic bitch. Where in the living f*ck do you think I’m going to go you cowardly whore? It took three of you to pin a tiny girl here and now you want to try to order me to stay? You really are a piece of work you know that? You can kill me if you want, but know this; you’ll never get away with it. You will die, I promise you.”

The passion and bravery that Supaku felt all but melted away as the tool that was intended to be used on her came into view. She was more or less prepared to be killed, but as that piece of metal came for her eye she felt a cold rush of terror and she pulled with all her might against her restraints. The hooks dug in further causing more pain and blood to pass unnoticed by the Hyuga as a torment the likes of which she had never dreamt could exist overtook her as her first eye was expertly removed from her skull. She screamed in agony, or at least she supposed she did, it was as though time had stopped and she could no longer hear or see or sense anything except for the horrific pain that existed where her eye used to be. As her second eye was taken time stopped again and she thought that perhaps she screamed again and thrashed and wailed. She only wished desperately that they had just killed her. Everything was so dark and full of pain, and all she could hear was a woman’s voice screaming in the distance.

763/3811

Supaku wasn’t sure what day it was, or where she was, or what was going on. She had lost days, of that much she was certain. She had bits and pieces of memories or perhaps dreams and nightmares all jumbled together in her mind and every waking moment now was not only a physical struggle but also a test of her will. When she had truly awoken from her shock induced state the first thing she had tried to do was open her eyes. It had taken her a few panicked moments to realize why she couldn’t open them, and then a few more to try to calm herself down and stop crying. Crying as it turned out, without eyes, was horrible. She had sat there in that bed for a good while, or what she assumed was a bed for she had no real way of knowing without seeing it, before finally gathering the courage to try to get out of it. No one had been around when she had awoken that very first time and she had felt so very alone, the space she was in seeming an infinite empty abyss, right up until she swung her legs over the edge of the bed where she thought the floor might be and wound up banging her shin on something hard. It had hurt a good deal and she had yelped in pain, swinging her arms forward to cradle her bruised leg, and had immediately felt multiple items briefly as she swept them off said hard thing onto the floor with a crash. It was then that someone came into the room to check on her. The abyss shrunk slightly in size as the person asked her if she was alright, but she could only laugh bitterly. She knew what they meant and yet the irony of it was astoundingly amusing. Of course she wasn’t alright, she was blind now because some crazy woman in a skull mask ripped her eyes out. She was hardly worried about her leg or whatever it just was that she broke. It was probably not gracious of her, but all Supaku could manage to spit out between clenched teeth was “I’m fine, the picture of health.”

After apologizing profusely to everyone she spoke to those first few hours Supaku did try to be kinder. She worked hard on trying to walk around without bumping into things and insisted on being taken to the training room, determined to not be a hindrance to name Hyuga. She may have lost her eyesight, but she still had training to do and she spent as long as she could stand it practicing her punches and kicks and rolls. It was frustrating and she failed and missed more times than she hit, screaming as she threw her whole self into her training. She was repeatedly told to “sit down and rest”, “take a break”, “it will come with time”, or the worst of all, “you can do other things”. None of those patronizing sentiments would she accept. She was not going to stop trying, not matter what it took. True she no longer had access to her byakugan and as a result most of her jutsu, but that did not have to mean that she was helpless. She had made a promise to herself when she was very young to never fail again, and she didn’t intend to break it now.

When Hanbei came to see her in the training room, she didn’t recognize her at first, as was the case with most people. She hadn’t realized how much she relied on her vision for everything, now that it was gone she truly felt at a disadvantage in all aspects of her life. She kept striking the pel as Hanbei spoke, readying herself for yet another “maybe slow down” speech, and she was pleasantly surprised when one did not come. When Hanbei spoke of how there were alternatives to the byakugan she would pause in her attacks and lean heavily on the pel, taking the piece of fabric covering her eyes off in order to mop at the sweat on her brow while she listened. She tried to position her face so that she was looking in Hanbei’s direction before speaking as kindly as she could.

“First off Hanbei, please don’t feel bad. It’s not your fault. It’s that dumb ass bitch woman’s fault. Which if I ever get my hands on her, I am going to wring her scrawny neck and take her goddamned eyes out. Right before I hand her over to the Military Police of course.” Supaku would take a couple breaths before continuing, clearly upset.

“Secondly, I need to get stronger if I’m going to continue training. Thank you for not coming here to tell me to stop, since I wouldn’t have listened to you anyway. I need to find these people and make them pay and more than that I need to live the rest of my life. If you have a way to help me then please tell me because I desperately need help.”

866/4677

"Thank you for your kind words, but a teacher will always be responsible for the care of their students, but no, I'm not here to tell you to stop. Kind of the opposite really, I'm here to tell you you haven't been training anywhere near hard enough. You don't know it, but the Byakugan, although it is a source of unimaginable power, its the core weakness at the heart of the Hyuga clan. A Ninja has to accept that one skill-set is not enough in an ever-changing world, one day Juken isn't going to work, or one day you'll lose your sight, one day you'll meet someone that defies all your expectations and you have to be ready for it, or you'll lose. Other ninja are, but never the Hyuga, their born power is so tried and triumphant it is often enough to overcome any obstacle... But not this time. So, you'll need to learn to do what every other ninja in this world does, learn to cope and live with disadvantage, and maybe even find a way to use it. So you need to identify your weakness, say it out loud, and think of what you can do to circumvent it.

While you're fighting me."

Supaku was surprised at Hanbei’s words, here she was completely blind since her eyes were taken out, and this woman had the audacity to tell her she wasn’t training hard enough? She felt her temperature rise as the white hot burning of anger spread across her cheeks. What on earth did she know about it? Supaku was equally surprised at how quickly her rage rose to the surface, she had been so busy trying to keep training that she hadn’t spent any time processing what had happened to her. But now that she was being forced to think about it she found that she was actually furious. The sudden quiet after Hanbei said she would be fighting her was unnerving, and she tried to place her body in the direction she had last known Hanbei to be standing. Supaku was acutely aware of the fact that she could not hear much above her own laboured breathing, she had been going hard at training all morning and now she was nearing her limit of endurance. But Hanbei’s goad “...you'll need to learn to do what every other ninja in this world does, learn to cope and live with disadvantage…” had given her one more push of adrenaline and there was no way in hell that she was going to be satisfied with being just like every other ninja and simply living with disadvantage.

"Your weakness is easy, you can't see. But sight isn't the only way you can discern location. But not a Hyuga, you're used to seeing everything and now you cannot, you are not just blind, you are far more blind than most, your clans' fixation on your eyes is in your very blood."

Supaku was instantly riled by Hanbei’s seeming jab at her being newly blind, and just as she opened her mouth to retort she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. A weapon? Or jutsu? She honestly could not tell the difference, the only thing she knew for certain was that it had hurt. Her words were swept away as she inhaled sharply through her teeth and instinctively turned to face the direction of the pain, readying herself to attack. She listened for sounds of footsteps, or breathing, the creak of the floor or swish of clothing. But she heard none of that save for the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears as she would move quickly towards the last known location of Hanbei. Just as she moved to strike out at where she thought Hanbei was, another sharp pain exploded in the back of her leg. She would yelp out her surprise as she spun on her heel trying to discern where this new attack had come from. Around and around she spun, moving to a new location every time she felt that same sharp pain in some new and inexplicable spot on her body.

“Fight me properly!” She would roar as she moved blindly about the room, getting more and more frustrated as she was introduced to the stabbing pain again and again. “You think I wanted to be like this? You think I stood there in that damned mine, the mine that you sent me to, and just waited until that f*cking woman did this to me? She was a monster and now I’m being punished for her atrocities. How is this fair?!” She screamed at the air as she whipped her head back and forth trying to locate her assailant by sound alone.

"This is how an enemy will fight you when you're weak, trying to break you down peace by peace... so how will you deal with this enemy Supaku?"

Then she heard it, the sound of a piece of metal lightly tapping on the ground off to her left. Filled with fury she pounced and was met with more disappointment as she felt another pain, this time at her neck. A killing strike. "Far too easy... do you even want to be a ninja!?" She would swing her arm backwards, attempting to connect with Hanbei’s core, far too angry to hold back her strikes and not nearly concerned enough with her own well being. She would scream out again in anger, hostile to the point of being unreasonable. In her mind’s eye all she saw was red; hating the woman who took her eyes, hating Hanbei for torturing her with this ‘training’, and hating herself for failing so miserably at it.

“How dare you?! The only thing I’ve ever wanted to be was a ninja, and because of you that’s all gone now! I was supposed to be responsible for Yori and Ko, who was supposed to be responsible for me? I did my job, they’re fine, they both have their eyes. But you failed me, you might as well have left me there to die.”

With each new pain that she felt she would howl in rage, her temper causing her to reach a state of near mania. “I should have died there! I failed with the one important task I’ve ever had. Just like the fair. I should be dead, and I don’t deserve to be a ninja. I can’t even fight you and my life isn’t in danger.” A shuddering sigh would pass through her body as her anger slowly transformed into something else; focus. She had failed before, so many times. She realized now though in this quiet moment of despair that it was her who had failed. She had always believed that the world was against her, trying to make her fail. But that couldn’t be true, she searched her heart and found what Hanbei said to hit the proverbial nail on the head as she accepted that she simply wasn’t trying hard enough. She had always attacked every problem head on, assuming that she could beat everything into submission. Never being comfortable with the idea that she would have to submit in order to succeed. This time though, she would submit.

Each time she was tricked by the small weapon she marked its direction and began to slowly recognize the sound for what it was. A distraction. She only heard the tink of metal on the floor right before a strike came at her body. So she waited, she stopped spinning and lashing out indiscriminately, and just listened. She tried to still her heartbeat, her breathing, and just focused on listening for the soft sounds of Hanbei moving. She could feel the breeze coming in from the windows and let her attention fall to the sensation. The longer she spent allowing the feeling of the wind to encompass her the more she became aware of its pattern. Still moving her head towards any sounds she heard she allowed the distracting tink on the floor to be her guide. She would begin circling again, this time with intent. She knew what the cool brush of air felt like on her skin, and she would use it as a measure for her next strike, for in its absence she felt certain that she would find Hanbei blocking it from reaching her. Supaku would turn and wait and feel and listen, lashing out in the empty spot where free flowing air should be but wasn’t.

1451/6128

"You're barely even 'trying' to fight me... just because you're blind doesn't mean you don't know the fundimental basics of martial arts. Your stance is shabby, you have no form, no focus, nothing. Did loosing your eyes also erase your training? Were all your teachers that awful? So you lost your eyes, congratulations! I was tortured for two years in Sunagakure until I spilled my guts about everything I knew about Kumo, my home. If they find out, I'll likely be branded a traitor and never see my family again... To do that, the bandits who caught me severed almost every tendon, burnt and flayed my skin and disfigured every sense of mine to make me do it! But oh what a victim YOU are! Poor You!"


Hanbei’s words hung in the air as Supaku would draw in a breath and unconsciously relax her arms. She suddenly felt very petty and childish for blaming recent events on Hanbei, as though she was the only one in the world who had ever gone through any sort of trouble. It made her feel ashamed to realize how selfish her last outburst had been. She had been so wrapped up in how awful her own circumstances were that it had not occurred to her that other people might have their own traumas to deal with. Supaku’s breath was now coming in ragged gasps as hot and painful tears poured down her cheeks, stinging the spots where her eyes should be.

“Hanbei. . . I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean. . . mean to blame it on you. I was just angry, and being selfish. I didn’t know-”

Her words were cut off by her sobs as the weight of her own words pressed on her heart. Supaku had never given much thought to others before, and had certainly never thought of herself as being self centered, but there it was; plain as the day she could no longer see. An eternity passed, or seemed to, while Supaku wept miserably, covering her face with her hands and sinking to the ground onto her knees. Until finally Hanbei’s gently spoken words reached her ears.

"However, while I say your eyes were as much a weakness and a liability as they were a strength. You've been given the chance to become truly great. The chance to truly adapt to not having them, the chance to eliminate that weakness. That way, when they are regained, you will have an advantage against all other Hyuga who, like you are now, will likely loose themselves in despair, and against an opponent who attempts to blind you... you will have an ace in the hole.

So, now that we've gone through that, I think it's time to focus now, remember your training. Hear, smell, taste, touch and sense. All of these senses are amplified without the use of your eyes. It will be hard, but try. You'll need to give it everything you have."

Hanbei’s words of encouragement were enough to break through the surface of Supaku’s ocean of despair. In the silence that followed Supaku’s sobbing would quiet as she wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve and rose from her kneeling position on the floor.

"You didn't die for a reason... When you rise above your weakness, you become stronger, and the greater the weakness, the greater still you will ultimately become... You think of loosing your eyes as a curse, you need to start thinking of it as an opportunity."


Supaku was trying hard to see the good parts of her current predicament. But it was difficult to say the least, she had never had to deal with anything so difficult and it was near overwhelming. Setting herself back into a fighting stance she listened and felt around her. Reaching out with her remaining senses she focused hard on what she could perceive; a slight creak of a floorboard off to her left, the swish of fabric and jingle of metal, the change of air pressure between her and what must be Hanbei. The longer she stood there and concentrated the more she recognized and began to form an image in her mind of her surroundings and what moved in them. She knew that this was only the beginning and that it would continue to be a challenge, however she had never backed down from a challenge before and was not about to start now.

“I lived because of luck. There was no skill or effort on my part to do so. Now though, I can work to earn that grace, and work I will. I’ve never given up before, not going to start now.”

Listening and feeling she would snap her head towards where she knew Hanbei was standing and turned her body to match the new direction, waiting for the incoming attack.

829/6957

As she turned to face her teacher, Hanbei could not help but smile proudly as her student finally seemed to open her senses more broadly, sight it seemed was not the only sense she was capable of using. Now that she had been though her crucible it was time for Hanbei to prove how useful this re-imagining of herself was, standing firm stealth it seemed was no longer an option, but was Sayuri able to read attacks coming at her now? So it was that one test would end and another would begin. Looking at her stance, it seemed solid now, this uneasy confidence was something that she definitely seemed to be trying on, though there was a determined look on her face, if not one that was not without fear, it was one that was willing to finally give things a serious try. Hanbei was impressed, this strength spoke deeply to her character.

"Well done, you managed to fine me. However you should be warned, I'm not the most quiet of people, nor the most stealth focused ninja, though neither seem to be those who took your eyes. However, discerning the location of a person strafing around you is one thing, a person in combat, in motion, is much harder. You'll need to activate that mind of yours, predict their movements a little ahead of time, listen for upper body, lower body, left, right, listen for a weapon and its heading and predict the strike. If you only act on your hearing, you'll be precious micro-seconds behind and you'll always react too late. So, are you ready?"




'Fight!' Hanbei would call as soon as she made an affirmative, taking a running step in for Supaku before taking a Jab directly for her upper chest with needles clenched between her right hands' fingers. Following the first strike Hanbei would drop to her knees with an attempt to spin and sweep Supaku's legs out from under her with a pretty standard reverse heel kick before finally, as a finishing blow, Hanbei would roll backwards in a rising somersault, hurling the three needles between her fingers at Supaku, each needle trained at three separate locations, an upper left shoulder, the lower left hip and the center right of her mid-section. If Supaku was able to deal with this quick exchange, Hanbei would happily stop, if not, the assault would continue until Supaku stopped taking damage from Hanbei's strikes, nipping at her with needles until such a time that Supaku would finally adapt to them. It could take a while, but Hanbei was certain that in the end, the barrage would come to an end, leaving the Genin no doubt panting, and a little sore.




Carefully pouring some for her self an Supaku, Hanbei would hand some over before verbally confirming that the tea was in front of her to drink, and that it was fine in a temperature sense."well, that was that, I'd say that's the foundation of everything you need to know to make a full recovery as a ninja. Work on that, and you will still be just as good as any of us plebs, but, just because I'm an awful teacher, there is another way for you to see the world in the mean time. You're used to flowing chakra into your eyes right? You could always try flowing it into your ears and amplifying your hearing to compensate in the mean time, echo-location is a powerful tool. Or perhaps your skin for a sense of touch or motion with the world around you. It would make things easier, but I wanted you to learn to cope with your disadvantage without a technique first, as frustrating as it must have been for you, haha... sorry."

Hanbei would end her spiel, looking to the Hyuga as she was hopefully not too mad about the whole thing, not just teaching her a technique to cope with her disability but rather learning to use it before giving her another crutch to stand on. Sip by sip Hanbei would finish her tea until it was done, standing up with some newfound purpose.


Hanbei would proclaim with a smile.

[8564 words

Trained Stats:

STR, END, SPD B-0 -> B3 7200/7200
REA B-2 -> B3 900/900]

"Well done, you managed to fine me. However you should be warned, I'm not the most quiet of people, nor the most stealth focused ninja, though neither seem to be those who took your eyes. However, discerning the location of a person strafing around you is one thing, a person in combat, in motion, is much harder. You'll need to activate that mind of yours, predict their movements a little ahead of time, listen for upper body, lower body, left, right, listen for a weapon and its heading and predict the strike. If you only act on your hearing, you'll be precious micro-seconds behind and you'll always react too late. So, are you ready?"


Supaku listened to Hanbei. As that was all she was able to do now; listen. Her teacher’s words had softened somewhat, no longer filled with disapproval and bitterness it seemed. In truth Supaku was not ready, she felt like her whole world had fallen apart and the only thing she really wanted to do was curl up and fade away into the same blackness that now consumed her vision. It was a difficult moment for her, fighting the urge to give up, and instead carry on and fight. When Hanbei yelled ‘Fight!’ it took her by surprise, though it shouldn’t have, she had not once said that the training was over.

Hanbei’s first attack came straight at her chest, and hit squarely where it was most likely meant to. The pricking of the needles and the heavy ‘whoosh’ of air being pushed out of the way by Hanbei’s hand told Supaku all she needed to know. That she needed to try harder. She was fairly certain that Hanbei did not intend to seriously harm her, but there would be those who did. Focusing her senses outwards she felt again for the air that would come just before a strike, and the subtle sounds of metal, cloth and bones as the moved and shifted.

She felt the kick at her legs too late and only barely managed to stumble away and in that moment she lost track of her opponent, her frustration managing to disorient her. A quick stab in her upper left shoulder brought her back, and she turned her body with a quick step backwards exposing as little of herself as she could to the incoming attacks. Again she was too slow as another sharp bite was felt on her left hip, and just as the doubt began creeping in again she felt something different. A quiet ‘whoosh’ of air and the hum of metal went past her midsection. Internally she was thrilled at this small success. Albeit accidental success. She concentrated on the singing bits of metal and the pressure of the air and continued dancing about with Hanbei, until thankfully she was bade to stop. She gasped and panted, suddenly aware of the effort the exercise had taken. She had been moderately successful at anticipating Hanbei’s strikes and was pleased that there was only half a dozen sharp bits of metal lodged in her skin.

Carefully taking the cup of tea from Hanbei, she would place her finger gently inside the cup as she made to sip it, just until she could feel the hot beverage on her fingertip. A measure so as not to accidentally misjudge how much liquid was available and pour it all over herself. She would smile as Hanbei suggested some interesting methods to overcome her lack of sight, at least her heart was in the right place. It was a struggle for Supaku to reconcile these new ideas with what had been her vision for her future. The last thing in the world that she wanted to do was imagine a world where she couldn’t see.

"So, whaddya say, the two of us stay and practice up a little with some chakra control, and then the two of us will track them all down and take those eyes of yours back!"


The idea that she could actually get her eyes back, IIthat sparked her interest.

“I would love to. Mainly just the getting my eyes back part. I appreciate your help of course, but I owe those people a visit.”

She would gingerly set her cup down after testing with her other hand that there was indeed a safe surface to place it on. Rising to her own feet she would turn her head in Hanbei’s direction and smile.

“When do we go?”

{Exit Thread}

757/7714

Jutsu Training:
Dark Sight (C-Rank) 1000 WC + 150 ryo

Stat Training:
STR D-0 > D-3 = 1175 wc + 150 ryo
SPD E-0 > D-0 = 1175 wc
END E-0 > D-0 = 1175 wc
PER E-0 > D-1 = 1500 wc + 25 ryo
REA E-0 > D-1 = 1500 wc + 25 ryo

Training Total = 6525 wc + 200 ryo

189 wc left over

[exit thread]