Home
1
Guanyin Training, Chiaki (Private, Wall of Text) Mon Feb 18, 2019 8:36 pm
Chiaki
A-rank
Guanyin Chiaki had heard of the Third Training Grounds from her mother. She said that there usually was a squad training there weekdays and that it was a zoo on saturdays. The only day that one might actually find the training grounds left alone was on Sunday. So this is why, Chiaki, daughter of Mizune, went to the training grounds. She wanted to become stronger, and her mother had taught her that she was able to not only make the blue Drakpo or chakra infused senbon of the Guanyin, but the red one as well. Her mother conjured two one foot long senbon this morning, the house was full of both an ominous and a calming aura. She looked like a yin and yang woman, radiating power before she let go of the jutsu. It apparently was tiring because she had broken into a sweat from a second or two of maintaining the jutsu. Chiaki noted this and asked her how she was able to manifest both of these. Her mother shrugged and said that it was a matter of looking inward and finding a trigger that would catalyze the Red Drakpo.
Well fine, she would find that catalyst, she had decided. Setting her jaw she walked along the path to the training grounds, coming around the corner in the dense deciduous forest that permeated Konohagakure. Her heart dropped into her stomach. There were three others that were already utilizing the training grounds. Too many for her.
Grinding her teeth against her instincts to turn and go to another training ground she walked up to the grounds herself, lowering her backpack. She had decided to dress in her usual attire a short plaid skirt with black stockings and brown loafers. The loafers were made of tougher leather than most and therefore served both as work-shoes and casual shoes and maintained her high level standard of dressing. She had put on matching underwear and brazier under her pink shirt. A bowtie ensured there were no wardrobe malfunctions when training and a white sweater, buttoned at the bottom around her midriff made her look like she was dressed for some sort of school or job function. She had opted to tie her hair back into a ponytail, but as she walked she reached up and started to twine her hair into a quick and tight bun at the top of her head.
Her backpack was full of things that she wanted to use for training, such as kunai, senbon, and the like. But she wasn’t going to use those if there were others around. Instead she settled down on the ground, making sure that her skirt was under her and wouldn’t fly away should a sudden breeze come up. Her backpack beside her, with her lunch inside she reminded herself, she settled down into a meditative stance.
Something inside of her, huh? Something that would be limiting the way that she used medical ninjutsu. She concentrated on herself, on her breathing, on her surroundings. There was one man, a high ranking shinobi within the village, that was in a suit. His collared shirt was synched shut with a red tie. The tie didn’t move when he did, no matter how fast his movements. His hands were a blur of movement, each one tapping the tree. The sound they made was that of a gattling gun, only a quiet, “Tick, tick, piff. Tick, tick, piff.” so fast it wasn’t even a matter of counting the time that he hit the tree, but his movements were more of the patter of raindrops on the ground.
An older man was meditating like she was. His beard was white and lacked the mustache. The hairs on his chin quivvered as he concentrated. He was dressed in a shirt with bow tie, the shirt was plaid and the bowtie was plaid. Annoyance ran up her features like a fast growing fever. She tried to settle down.
The other one was a woman who had a two handed japanese sword, a Nodachi. She wielded it slow and steady, her hands never trembling. Back and forth, up and down. THe movements of a river. The mouth tremor from the old man caught her attention again and she grumbled into a sigh. The sounds of the other two ninjas were comforting at least. The patter of palm made rain and the slow gliding of steel against wind.
Chiaki took one deep breath, then another to calm herself. She closed her eyes, the people faded and there was nothing but breathing, the sound of rain and wind in the training grounds. The backpack fell away from her consciousness as she looked inward. What was she trying to find? What was going on with the chakra inside of her? She breathed deeply and looked inward trying to find the thing that was inside of her. The thing that hindered her.
Deep within something stirred. A rage, a fire. She tried to put that down, that couldn’t be it, no it couldn’t be a rage that she was suppressing. Instead she looked to the side. A childhood spurning, a missed opportunity that she had with her father. Her eyes filled with bitter tears. He had asked her to go with him to the hospital that day and she had turned him away to be with her boyfriend. She was only fifteen at the time, and didn’t know about many of the worlds twists or turns, and she wanted to experience as much of it as possible. She had been pushed down into a kiss, her clothing ripped before she realized she needed to get out of there. A swift knee and the taste of blood and she ran, ran through the streets in a disheveled manner. Ran back to her father, or rather her father’s house. He pursued her like a wraith, a haunting that she couldn’t shake.
She barred the door and locked it, running to her room to do the same. She could still hear the pounding of the front door, the angry screams through her window. She never told anyone about it, nor would she. She opened her eyes to a blurred world, a world that was no longer full of the harmony of rain and wind, but rather the disharmony of war torn emotions and hate. She hated that boy, it was one of the reasons she didn’t stay in the academy. She hated him and she wanted to make sure that he didn’t pass. He was a part of the ANBU now though, and so she was afraid. She was afraid of what he might do to the enemies of Konoha, especially the women he encountered.
She bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling, the tears now coming in rivulets down her cheeks. He was ANBU and she still a genin. She couldn’t move past it. A sob wracked her body as she doubled over, balling her fists and driving them into her forehead. He was out there, a part of society and there was nothing she could do to stop him from climbing the ranks. She could try to tell someone now, but what good would that do? He was a higher rank, and he could kill her without being caught. The ANBU were faceless, godless, and above the law. She couldn’t… couldn’t even defend herself. She growled, something snapped and she felt suddenly drained. She gasped and let go of that feeling.
The old man had gone, but the other two were still there, still working with their hands. She sighed, wiping away her tears with the back of her sleeve and sniffling to relieve some of the mucus that had built up in her nose from crying. She needed her backpack. There were some tissues in there, in case of an emergency like this. She started to reach toward it and something crackled underneath her like previously shattered glass. She looked down to see that the grass that she had been sitting on was now grey without wick at all. The lifeless grass looked as if it had been over-burned, and the grass around that was dead as well, though it looked like it was the middle of winter, rather than being completely dead. She forgot her nose and her appearance for a moment, reaching down and placing a hand on the grass that was grey. It crumbled under the weight, just ash, nothing living anymore.
Was this the power her mother spoke of? She nodded to herself. This was the power but she felt sick. This is what the Guanyin were famous for. A necrotic kind of energy that was able to kill the cells at a molecular level. Something that couldn’t be healed except by other guanyin. The technique scared her. She was capable of this?
No, she didn’t have time to be scared. She reached to her backpack, the denim rough against her fingertips and gripped the zipper. Slowly pulling it open she reached into her bag and grasped a package of tissues. The tissues in her hand were like a pillow. Opening the flap she took out one of the tissues and plugged one nostril, blew and then the other. She took out a small plastic bag, placed the tissue inside of it and then took out another one. Dabbing her eyes she saw that the mascara she had put on this morning had run. Great, she would need to get a hold of that before continuing.
Grumbling she took out her mascara, eyeshadow, blush and a small mirror. Swallowing past some of the tightness in her throat she took out the blush, starting to repair the places where she had cried or rubbed off the makeup. Small brush strokes and a bare amount of blush was her style. She didn’t usually put on much makeup, just enough to make her features not look so washed out. Next came the eyeshadow, repairing it and making it all look like she had just recently put it on. A green eyeshadow that enhanced her clothing. Next was the mascara, the most annoying of the makeup as far as she was concerned.
She wanted to not put it on, but her eyes were washed out if she didn’t. After primping she sighed loudly and looked at herself with the small pocket-mirror. Perfect. After putting her compact and her makeup back into her bag, she returned the tissues and the bag of two tissues she had used to get rid of the tears to her bag in the small pocket on the inside of the bag. Zipping it she placed her hands in a boar sign. She wanted to make sure that she had enough time to get this done today. Perhaps she was over-thinking this. Just let the emotions wash over you…
Gritting her teeth she manifested a drakpo in her hand. It was a brilliant blue color. The raindrops slowed and the sword in the wind stopped. Without looking she knew that the other two had stopped and were now looking at her manifesting the weapon of the guanyin. She knew how to use it, she knew how to use it to deadly effect even. But she didn’t know how to use it in battle. This was to be used for medical purposes. His face sprang to mind and her chakra burned a hot red, she could almost feel it oozing out her pores, out of her skin. She growled, an inhuman noise and the Drakpo started to show veins of red. She was doing it. She was actually going to use the red Drakpo. Concentrating further she pushed more of the hatred into her chakra, letting it burn. She wasn’t a katon user, but she knew that it felt like a rush of hot air when it manifested.
Suddenly the needle blazed forth in a blood-red light, lighting the entire area like it had been. She nodded. This was the needle her mother manifested. This was the needle she would use on that man the next time she saw him. (-10 chakra) A twist of her hand and it flipped into the air and landed in her hand like any other senbon. This one was about a foot in length, though, and felt like it was heavier than it should be. Her chakra blazed out of it like that of a fire. Now to try to manifest the other Drakpo in her other hand. She closed her eyes and tried to think of it at the same time. The blue drakpo manifested in her right hand, but the red one winked out of existence (-10 chakra).
Well, that was to be expected. Fine. Perhaps it would be better to make two Drakpo and try to make one of them red. Her mind split and She manifested another Drakpo in her free right hand. Then she grit her teeth and tried to hate one and love the other. Trying to use her emotions, the feeling that she had the first time she manifested the red one. Both blazed a bright red before one winked out. (-10 chakra). Well fine then, she thought, I’ll just do this the old fashioned way. I’ll just have to figure out what I want to do with this particular senbon. She flicked it and then when it fell she placed her finger out, it spun around on the tip until it slowed, finally resting in the middle, balanced perfectly, like all of her life was. Or she thought it was. The blood red threatened to turn blue as she thought of how pretty it was.
Right, use it to destroy. Looking at a nearby tree, she nodded. Best to try it out on that. She gripped the length of it and rushed towards the tree, pretending that there was a ninja there, she deflected imaginary kunai and then rushed to the tree, stabbing it with the blood-red chakra senbon. It faded into the tree as soon as it touched and Chiaki found herself a little bit saddened. She had no idea why, but as soon as she touched it, the same ashen color sprang from where the needle had hit, and the tree started to rot away slowly, finally covering a one foot space, it looked bruised, cut, and damaged. She looked horrified.
Manifesting another Drakpo she placed the tip into it and it started to heal the tree in the same area. (-10 chakra).The rain of blows on the log started again as did the woman’s movements with the sword. Fine, she was part of the scenery like them. She would start by manifesting the other technique that she knew. It was called the “Pangolin’s Paw” She had a pet pangolin when she was a child, and was always in awe of how sturdy and lovely they were. Her Pangolin was a great cuddler, and loved to nuzzle her in her sleep. Chiaki had called him mister scaley, but his given name was Uto. Uto was a fat pangolin, as her family was able to import ants on a weekly basis. It was a wonder how many insects he was able to eat.
His powerful paws could not only harm the ant mounds, tearing through the ant hills like they were made of paper, but also they could hold little objects so tenderly that he could hold a paper crane, observe it and make such cute grunts when he was happy. He had no natural predators, and when some people had broken into her house, he had scared them off. They had no idea what a pangolin was, and thought that the family had a pet dragon. He was a loyal companion before succumbing to old age. She missed him dearly. Now she had a technique that mimicked his tenderness.
A large pair of scaled paws emerged from her hands, covering them in a soft teal light. She concentrated, trying to think of them as the same chakra as the Drakpo (-15 chakra). The light slowly and carefully changed to a blue one, marking her as a guanyin user, and the technique as a guanyin technique. Chiaki moved her hand and as she did, the paws opened and closed. A small and tender smile spread across her features, she remembered those paws from when she was a child, closing over her finger and staying closed throughout the night. The nuzzles from the long muzzle that was Uto’s.
A clap of her hands and the paws started to grow red, a groan from her as she felt the heat wash down her arms, a cold sweat starting between her shoulder blades and working its way down the small of her back, all the way down. A bead of sweat and then another formed on her forehead, they were like veined pangolin paws, but this wasn’t the power she needed. She needed to draw more, more chakra, more power into her hands. A short shout reverberated in the clearing, the patter of palms and knuckles on the log stopped, and so did the wind in the leaves that was the sword. Her palms came together again, and she started to yell, the yell coming into a high pitched scream as the red permeated the entirety of the paws. They started to ooze the necrotic chakra.
A grim smile as she held in her hands a sort of gauntlet. She winced in pain as they were finally the color of the guanyin’s battle-aura and they were a terrifying sight to see. The chakra that oozed to the ground broke down the grass, the leaves, and everything else it came into contact with on a cellular level. She pictured the man’s face and gave a war-shout. Pushing hard against the tree, she heard a loud snap as the wood broke under her palm, turning to dust an inch deep and cracking the surrounding area in the shape of the two pangolin paws.
She started to breathe heavily. This wasn’t the last that she would try this. She was sure of it. But for now a breather. After all, this was the first time in a long time that she had actually practiced jutsu. She would have to get it right before her missions in the future. Her survival hinged on this. Clenching her teeth she set her jaw and let her hair loose. From the sweat it unravelled and fell in a clump down her back. She took a brush from her bag and started to brush out the tangles and knots. The other two started their own training once again. Seemingly disturbed by her training they had forgotten their own again. Perhaps they were sizing her up.
A blush crept up her face as she thought about the possibility that one of them would want to duel her. She couldn’t take that sort of embarrassment. She just wanted to train. She wanted to train alone, and she wanted to get this right. Perhaps she was wanting too much when she came to a public place for this. But where else would she try this? At home was too risky, if it did this to the tree. She looked up at the two lacerated and blackened marks where her palms used to be, then what would it have done to her abode.
Chiaki sighed and clasped her hands together, they hurt a bit from smacking the tree, but it was nice to see that she hadn’t hurt herself with them. She wanted to make sure that she didn’t but she didn’t know what else to do at the time. Maybe she could get control of this, rather than losing her surroundings every time she used the technique and making sure that she had tunnel vision, perhaps she could control this. She wanted to control this. She had to control this before she used it in battle. A level head was necessary in battle, and she needed to make sure that she was ready for anything.
Nodding to herself, and making sure that she was ready for the next bout she took a couple of shaky breaths, the sweat cold on her back, in between her breasts, and on her legs. Her arms felt heavy from underuse of Chakra before this little escapade, but she knew that she had to push through the pain to reach her destination. The mastery of this chakra reversal.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember what her mother said about the technique.
Her mother’s visage came to mind, a black haired, red eyed woman with a small smile, her father had given her most of the features she displayed. She was also taller than her father. She had said what?
Oh right, “You can grasp yourself tightly enough that you will squeeze your very essence out, but you might not be able to see yourself as you are until you learn to gently grasp it. It is one thing to eek out your chakra and make it work for you like ninjutsu users do. But to truly grasp who you are is the essence of what it is to be a guanyin. You have to decide what your power is going to do for you. You are the one who is going to use this power, a great destructive power, for your own benefits. And they will be all your choice.
“The reason that I didn’t advance past becoming a guard for the hospital and a chuunin is because I am afraid of what I might become with more power than I already have. I am already at the limit of what I want to do to people. I can break bones, send people into intensive care. Becoming a shinobi means to tread the line between life and death and I am not really ready for that. You have to reach deep inside yourself and ask the hard question. Are there people out there that deserve to die? The best users of the guanyin technique have killed. It almost tore some of your predecessors apart. Some became wandering nin and became apathetic. Some became Kages and some descended into madness. Do with it what you will. But I use it to protect people. I have decided that I am not strong enough to kill.
“Will you be?”
She looked up at the tree and nodded. She was strong enough to kill. She was sure of that. That man that had assaulted her in her teenage years deserved that. She had no idea how many other countless women he had laid his hands on, but learning that he had become ANBU meant that she had a tough choice to make. Perhaps she would have to duel him, no holds barred and make it look like an accident when she killed him, or perhaps she would make sure that he didn’t hurt anyone like he had her that day. It was a tough decision, and one that she couldn’t make now. Slapping her cheeks she made herself ready.
She took a stance and breathed deep. The smell of the grass and the rush of the river. The tapping of the man’s hands on the wood, the whisper of steel through air. She was ready for this. A deep red chakra manifested itself around her, eating holes in her fabric. No. Concentrate! The holes weren’t big enough to reveal anything, but she knew that it wore her clothing threadbare in an instant. Concentrate! A needle formed in her mind, a bloodred thing, filled with passion, filled with conviction. She opened her eyes and saw the thing that she had created in her mind blazing forth with a light that chilled her with the thought that it might do what she had intended it to.
She gripped it by the handle (-10 chakra) and tossed six senbon into the air. The Chakra senbon burned in her hand. Twisting it and closing her eyes for a split second she hit each senbon as it came down next to her, twisting each upward again, moving like rain on the water, she moved around, catching each senbon with her own. One senbon missed and now five were in the air. Concentrate, keep up with the senbon in the air, don’t get ahead of yourself. “Plink!” one senbon sent high into the air, it would land near the tree. The next was coming down now! “Plink!” The next senbon went into the air and would be coming down next to that one. Good, now the third and fourth. They were too close together. Gritting her teeth she flicked her wrist, “Plink tink!” Rang out the small metallic iron needles as they soared through the air and one embedded itself into the ground not a meter away. Now there were four. “Plink!” That one will go where the other three are. The rogue one she would have to jump for.... NOW!
A small clenching of her calves and she felt herself twirling toward the senbon “TINK!” a hard hit that would send it far upward. This one would land in the viscinity of the others. They glinted in the light of day, clouds started to form overhead as she juggled the senbon. The next one came down, “Plink!” it rang out as it was tossed once more into the air. The others coming down in quick succession. She sent them toward her backpack. A blue aura erupted from her hands. NO! She screamed mentally as she concentrated on the Drakpo and it erupted in red light. Now with the clouds covering the sun it blazed forth on the ground, creating a little blood-red halo around her. She nodded to herself and sprang towards the senbon in the air, headed toward her backpack. She wanted to make sure that she was going to make it. The point was to protect her backpack. She wanted to make it in time! A springing and flick of her wrist and the Chakra created senbon lashed out into her hand, more like a small ruler than anything else and a small “Tink Plink!” rang out as she juggled the senbon and then smacked it with a twitch of her index finger back up. She juggled the senbon this way for a small time, letting them get only a couple of feet above her at one point in time. Beads of sweat started to rain down on her backpack (180/250 chakra) She flicked them away from her eyes and noticed that the clouds had started to form thicker overhead. Each flash of her Drakpo left a red streak in her vision. She could see the blood-red dancing of each senbon as it rained down around her. She could juggle four. Good. She had gotten better.
The red started to fade back to blue again as she started to concentrate on the senbon, making them come down in quicker succession by controlling their height, making them go up only a little ways from the longer chakra senbon. As she did so she noticed the blue color and growled, No! This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, in rapid succession she sent them variant heights back upward and concentrated. Dammit this wasn’t supposed to be the way that this went! She grit her teeth and glared at the vibrant blue senbon, her own senbon rained down indiscriminately, sinking into her shoulder. She cried out as she tried to make it red. It blazed forth with a more vibrant blue light. “NO!” she screamed at it as the second one came in, driving itself into her lower back, embedding itself there as she gasped in pain. “No no no no no no no no!” She rattled off as she shook the thing in both hands and it turned to a pink color. That was strange, threw her off enough for the third to come and embed itself in her hand. A short intake of breath as she shook her hand as if she had just slammed it in the door and the Drakpo shone a brilliant bright blue in the growing gloom. The next senbon came down gleaming just a couple millimeters from her left eye and nose.
Time stopped, it seemed like she could see herself in the senbon, or perhaps it was just the perception of slowed time when one messes up. It sank deep into the flesh right above her heart and she gasped in pain, losing control over the Drakpo, holding her uninjured hand over her now tender chest. A couple of quick gasps as the needle worked its way into her flesh from each she tried to figure out where it was. This was the problem with Senbon. If thrown by a skilled enough ninja they would create more damage than a kunai. While a Kunai would eventually work itself out and would make the victim bleed out, Senbon were geared towards slowing and hindering. They were precise tools that could puncture arteries, but more often than not were thrown at pressure points on the victims. This one had just hit a major one in her breast and as she gasped for breath the needle wormed its way into her flesh, tearing at the nerve there.
She fell to the ground, feeling each bounce, each jarring motion of each movement. The needle in her lower back was working its way into her flesh as well. The one in her hand she ripped out gingerly, a small bead of blood was the worst of that. It had been stopped by her thumb metacarpal. The one in her chest was too deep. She would need tweezers now, there was only a small bit of metal still sticking out. Dammit, she gingerly leaned forward, and the one in her back worked its way back out. Taking her uninjured hand she worked it out with a little cry in pain and a small tearing up.
She started to pant as she located the one in her shoulder and gingerly pinched it with her injured hand. The uninjured one now almost useless as it was slick with blood. A quick gasp as the one in her chest worked its way in more. She blushed, now she would have to get naked to get it out. Looking around she took out her tweezers, gathered the senbon and tried to look like she hadn’t just stabbed her own breast with a senbon. She placed them back into their pouch and walked calmly into the forest. There were places where one could get to that were secluded enough. Looking around she unbuttoned her blouse and undid her bowtie. There, in the pink flesh was a bead of blood, and, to her relief, a nub of uncaring and unwavering steel.
A small “Tink” of steel against steel and she took a quick hiss of breath through clenched teeth letting it out slowly as she pulled the needle out. She had to do it slowly or risk damaging the soft tissue that it had sunk into. Really, of all the places to land this had to be the worst, as it constantly moved and was probably one of the more sensitive areas. She gasped as she finally pulled the needle all the way out. Nodding to herself she held the little culprit in her tweezers, glaring at it. It seemed unapologetic as it dripped one singular drop of her blood to the forest floor. Fine, she would deal with it later. She massaged the wound and nodded to herself. It warranted a bit of medical attention, especially so that she wouldn’t ruin her already threatened clothing. She took out a cloth and wiped up the blood that was beginning to roll down her soft flesh and nodded to herself.
Buttoning her shirt, she placed the senbon on the ground with the tweezers. Looking around, she smiled. No one was around, and no one, hopefully saw that she had stabbed herself. She started to tie her bow tie. It was an involved process, but one that she had completed several times. She didn’t know why she really liked the look of a bow tie on herself, but she enjoyed it none the less. She wished that she had someone to show it off to, but as of now, she was squadless, friendless, and really quite alone in her ninja training. She had to get stronger. The store keeper would have wanted that.
Keeping the needle safe with her fingertips she made her way back to her backpack, or where it had been. Now there was no one there. No one and nothing. Looking around her voice and breath caught in her still hurting chest. No. She groaned inwardly. This couldn’t be happening. Not only did that have her dinner, which she wanted desperately. It had her week’s worth of cash and her ninja tools in it. The ground was soft and she looked up as a raindrop hit her on the crown of her head. She would have to find this sooner rather than later.
Sighing, she took her one senbon and tucked it into her hair for later use and started off at a sprint. The culprit would be in the city. And she would make them pay.
She rounded a corner and came to rest against a muscled back, the man that had been training. It was like running into a brick wall. She careened back and fell on her butt with a little cry of pain. After all, she hadn’t mended her wounds yet.
He looked back at her, a bit of concern on his face as he opened his hand to help her back up, “Sorry miss, I didn’t see you there. I didn’t mean to stop so suddenly.” He smiled, the smile making his eyes close slightly. She searched him and mentally was relieved that he wasn’t the culprit, she wouldn’t be able to ask for it back from him anyhow.
“I ah ahm… I ran into you, I didn’t mean to.” She blushed a deep red, and could feel it because her face got extremely hot. She hadn’t meant to run right into him, and hadn’t looked at where she was going because she was so focused on her back pack. He nodded and kept his hand out. Dumbly, she took it and he lifted her like she was weightless, making her feet come out from under her and lifted her quite a good ways off the ground before setting her down by her arm.
“Ah, don’t know my own strength. Where are you hurrying off to?” He asked and tilted his head, “Your boyfriend said that he would look after your things, so there isn’t any need to worry after that.”
Her stomach sank to the bottom of her shoes and she felt like the next words were coming from it, “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
He furrowed his brows, whether it was in righteous anger or confusion she couldn’t tell. He simply crossed his arms and sighed, closing his eyes. She had no idea what he was doing, but she would need to try to identify the culprit before he got too far off. “I remember what he looked like, and it’ll take you less time if I help you.” The man in the suit nodded and opened his eyes, “He was wearing a red hoodie with three white stripes that started at the hood and went down the arms. He had green hair, cut short on one side like you kids like nowadays and… hah, listen to me, I sound old. Anyhow,” He caught the look that Chiaki had given him and hastened to tell her the rest, “He was tanned, and wore bright green sunglasses. We should be able to find him, I remember what your backpack looked like too.”
“Thanks!” She said simply, and started to head off towards the right, while the gentleman nodded and walked calmly up the wall to her left. Ah, right! The rooftops!
She clambered up, without the use of jutsu to the top of the rooftops. Her hair was now a less than immaculate bun on the top of her head, and strands flew every which ways with the winds on the top of the buildings. The winds had been growing stronger and stronger. She had seen that it was going to start raining, and she hoped, prayed, that it would hold a little longer. Finding someone in the rain, she had no idea why, was harder than finding someone on a hot day. Perhaps because it was harder to hear someone.
A rogue rain droplet landed on her nose and she blinked away the residual splash of that deviant little bit of water. No, no this couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! She bit down on her bottom lip to keep herself grounded in the moment. A red hoodie, a red hoodie. She scanned the crowd and shook her head, no. He wasn’t here. She darted down the first roof and slid up the next. Weaving in and out of the way of higher ranked shinobi. Or rather, they probably weaved in and out of genin all day. They had bored looks on their faces. It seemed like the shinobi of the village used the rooftops for a sort of freeway while the byroads of konoha tussled with each other down below.
She looked up at the side of the cliff with the kage’s faces carved into it. Kages give me strength, she asked silently as she jumped from one roof to another, barely managing to grasp the shingle with her fingers she kicked her legs at the side of the building, and probably looked like a cat that had mis-measured the distance. How embarrassing.
Chiaki righted herself, patting herself down and looked downwards. There were people looking up with a bored expression. No, none of them wore a red hoodie. She grit her teeth and swore so loudly that a passing shinobi missed a step and tumbled a little, before righting herself and taking off again. Blushing against the embarrassment, she started to run a bit faster. The rooftops were becoming more and more slippery, she would not be able to stay on them without the walking technique after all. Darnit! She slipped, fell, and tried to clutch at the tiles giving a little shrill squeak as she fell.
Her eyes opened wide and she looked down at the crowd below her that tried to scramble out of the way of the clumsy genin that landed right in the middle of a puddle from yesterday.
Completely frazzled now, she sat up her face burning not only from embarrassment but from anger, disappointment and failure. She couldn’t keep this up for long. Rounding a corner was a red hoodie! She counted the stripes on the arm as he made his lazy way along and she counted three. And there was her backpack! Lazily hung at his side as if it were his.
Grumbling she pushed away a helping hand and patted herself to make sure that at least some of the mud was gone and she didn’t feel lopsided. That feeling wouldn’t go away though, because she had stepped into a puddle with one shoe and now it sloshed fabric against the inside of her shoe. She grit her teeth as she felt it squelch and slosh, squelch and slosh as she walked at a fast pace, trying not to call attention to her presence yet. A low and invuluntary growl escaped her lips as she rounded the corner and the man in the hoodie did the same. How dare he! She started to jog, the raindrops started to fall in more of a pattern now, sounding more and more like the gentleman that had been practicing before. The one that had promised to help her find the culprit. Well here he was, and the gentleman was nowhere to be found!
She rounded the same corner that the red-hoodied man had and found her backpack had been discarded. Picking it up, she found her tools, her lunch, and her cosmetics were still intact but her purse was gone. That thief! She blinked back tears. That no good thief! She looked around, he couldn’t have gone anywhere other than here. She looked at the trashcan next to her, and saw a partially formed foot print out of water on the lid. It looked about his size. So he had taken to the rooftops eh? Well, she would catch him. She flung her backpack around one arm and jammed the other one through. Clasping the midriff clasp she synched it around her waist and jumped, grabbing the tiles and felt her chakra burn in her system, collecting at the bottom of her feet. As she came to the top of the roof, a kunai whizzed past her ear and clattered across the rooftop of the house next to her. The man in the red hoodie flicked her wallet up, letting her see it, before snatching it out of the air and then running, quite a bit faster than her across the rooftops towards the residential district.
“Stop! Thief!” She shouted, a cliche, she knew, but she felt like she was helpless, and as she took off in a sprint, she let out a gasp, the toll of this morning’s training getting into her bones. He slid like a serpent, flew like an owl, and dove like a dolphin across the rooftops, and each one he crested he was a bit further ahead of her. In contrast, she dove like a hatchling, slid like a boulder, and flew like a hastily thrown frisbee. Her breathing started to come in little gasps and she saw a blur of black hit the red figure like a lightning bolt. The red man streaked across two rooftops and came to a sliding halt. The gentleman from before.
He wore a mask of displeasure, a calm and terrifying mask that was made all the more so by a flash of sudden lightning which he sidestepped with ease. Almost like he knew that it was going to be there. His suit and immaculate tie fluttered like a flag in the now brimming storm and she tried to shout to him but the tremendous blast from the lightning bolt, the one that made his clothing almost tear from his body and didn’t shake him not only drowned Chiaki out, but almost made her lose her concentration on her supernatural walking technique. She let out a little yelp as she jumped, at the last second to a nearby roof and righted herself. The gentleman, when she looked back up was gone, and when she looked to where the red hooded man was, she saw that the gentleman waited for the man to get back up.
He stood there, the rain hitting his suit, not caring with one hand in a flexed open position, completely straight, more of a spear than a hand, and looked like he was asking the man something. The rain started up even more, coming down in big droplets that soaked Chiaki’s clothing and made it stick to her as she ran across the rooftops. She was five away from that area. The red hooded man was injured and clutched his side, slumped towards where the damage was and seemed to be gritting his teeth. He coughed and put his hand into his hoodie. On the wrong side for her wallet.
“Watch out!” Chiaki shouted to the man as the man in red flung a kunai at the other shinobi and made the hand seal for “release” The other shinobi caught the projectile out of instinct and looked at it. Too late he realized that it had an explosive tag attached to it, and it sent the gentleman reeling off of the roof and into the crowd. Chiaki stopped, stunned with her mouth open as the other man gave her a devilish grin, licking his lips he started to hobble to the edge of the roof and dropped off of the opposite side of it as the gentleman. She had a choice to make. Risk losing the hoodie man or save the gentleman’s hand.
She didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, all of her earnings were in that purse, along with her genin card and it was a pain to get that back. On the other… ahhh FINE! She shouted mentally and ran to slide down the roof and next to the gentleman. He was gripping his hand and wincing in pain. It was far too extensive damage for her to mend. Dammit. She conjured her pangolin paws. Once again she went through the hand seals Serpent, ram, dragon, boar, hare, and once again she felt a surge of chakra rush into her hands and flexed the pangolin’s paws.
“Please work at least a little bit.” She prayed as she clasped her hands over his wounded one.
“No, go after that thief!” He grit his teeth and looked at her dead in the eyes, “My mistakes are my own, and I own them. Go after him. After all, it is for you that I went after him in the first place.”
“He’s stronger than me, and I wouldn’t know what to do against someone like him. What if he ha-” She was cut off by a glare as the other gentleman rolled into a standing position, holding his hand and wincing.
“Enough. I will go after him myself if you do not.” He started to walk towards the wall before she grabbed his coat, it was made of finer things than her clothing to be sure. It was soft and sturdy, nothing like the shirt she was wearing, “Wait- I- I’ll go after him.” She stammered out and looked at him with an apologetic and chastised look. Her face burning once more as a crowd had started to gather.
“Good, just… give him one for me.” She nodded to his words as he started to walk calmly holding his hand above his heart towards the hospital. A stoic look starting to come into his features with each footstep. No, don’t think about him, think about hoodie man.
She raced around the building to see that a crowd had gathered and he was trying to push them away. He was injured. Good. She locked eyes with him and he finally pulled out a rather long knife and slashed the air in front of him. The people gasped and screamed and fell over each other trying to get out of his way. Chiaki had about enough of this.
She heard the thrum of her chakra before she saw the after effects. Time slowed as she neared him, or seemed to and she caught a glimpse of herself from a puddle, not really looking down but still able to see herself.
She was caked in mud and soaked through. Her clothes hung limply around her frame, and didn’t hide much. Her face was red from anger and her mascara and eyeliner was running, along with her eye shadow to form a horrific visage. Chiaki’s hair was askew, to say the least, with almost half of it falling out of her bun in a frizzed and wet tangled mess. There were leaves and mud caked into it as well. Her eyes shone red with the light of her guanyin needle and she wore a grim expression on her face. She would get back at the man that had hurt an innocent, stolen her things, and dared to tease her about the whole thing.
The man looked taken aback and started to hobble off into an alleyway. Cornered, as she rounded the corner and stuck out the senbon like it was a sword, reaching a full foot now, she called out to him in challenge, “I am Guanyin Chiaki, and you have my purse. Give it back and turn yourself in!”
He laughed, imagine that, threw his head back and laughed, clutching his side as he did so. It pained him more than she knew, but she didn’t care, he deserved a couple fractured ribs for what he had done. “Another goody two shoes shinobi of Konoha.” He spat, and a glob of his spittle landed on her cheek. She walked towards him without wiping it off, her anger burning, her rage consuming her. He had disgraced her, humiliated her, disheveled her, hurt an innocent.
He brandished the blade, a wicked straight blade with one edge and it caught the guanyin’s blood-red color, making it look deadlier than it was. It was built for close-quarters, much like her senbon were. She nodded, letting the senbon slip from her hair into her hand behind her back in a fluid motion as she extended her arm in challenge to him, holding her chakra infused senbon as one would a rapier.
“Then come, show me that you are stronger than the law of Konoha.” She sounded dumb, she knew, but didn’t care. A low rumble came from her, or it must have as another peal of thunder crashed around them. There were spectators behind her, and someone was calling for the guards. Good, she only had to hold him off.
He started to attack, his movements, even though he was wounded, were faster than hers, and as he started to lunge towards her she threw the senbon at him. He deflected it mid-thrust and it sank into his shoulder. No, too shallow. She noted as the blade lurked mere inches from her breast, almost burying itself in her heart as she pushed the arm aside with her chakra senbon. When the senbon met the coat it penetrated and a cry of pain erupted from the man as he lost his blade and shook his arm, looking for all the world like something had bitten him. He clenched his teeth and his arm at the same time.
While he was distracted she moved like a quick striking serpent. She wouldn’t get another chance like this. Monkey, Hare, Boar, Serpent flew from her hands as she clapped them together and pressed her finger into his chest. She thought of his legs and watched as he tried to take a step forward, throwing his body weight into it to pick up his knife and stumbled, falling and catching himself with his hands and wincing at the pain.
“You won’t be able to walk for a while.” Chiaki said, as a guard rounded the corner. “Now give me back my purse.”
“Over my cold dead -” The man was cut off by a kunai in his shoulder from the guard, meant to subdue him he screamed in pain and grit his teeth.
“We have him miss, anything that belongs to you you can pick up from the administration building after we take his possessions off of him. Make sure to give a good description of it. And Thank you for apprehending him.”
“He also assaulted another shinobi!” She blurted out at the guard as he neared the man.
“I was viciously attacked by that shinobi. I was defending my-AAHHAH!” He screamed again as the guard kicked the kunai viciously into his shoulder once more.
“Shut up.” The guard said curtly and then looked at Chiaki. “Come with me, you both will need to make a statement.”
Chiaki, her head hanging low was escorted by the guards to the administration building, looking more the criminal than the actual criminal. His legs started working, once again, after about a minute of paralysis. A good technique to say the least, it helped even the odds for her and she apprehended him with minimal damage. As he rolled up his sleeves in the interrogation room, after she had been let go and her purse returned to her, she could see a small blackened area on his skin, where her needle had touched him and lacerations, burns, and a bit of broken skin abounded all over a one foot radius. He said that she had used a sort of snake bite to apprehend him, but she hadn’t.
It was the guanyin’s technique. The reversal. She had done it successfully in battle, she knew she could keep it up now. She didn’t know if the rage inside of her would ever quiet, or whether she was only able to do it when she was truly angry, but she didn’t care, at least she had apprehended this man.
After she was let out, and had signed her formal witness forms she went to the hospital where she pleaded with the nurse on duty to see the people who were in the hospital. Mitsuo, huh. Well, that was a nice name. She went to Mitsuo’s room and sat down quietly, he was resting, actually sleeping and his hand was bandaged. She couldn’t tell if he would keep all of his fingers, or whether he would be able to use his hand again, but she was grateful to him. Writing a little note with cute kanji, she left her information for him, with a little thank you and a “chu” on the card. She slipped it under his unconscious arm and left the room, turning down the dimmer switch on the lights.
She rounded the corner and looked out to the sky, it was still raining, but the thunder had moved on, and thus the eye of the storm was out of the city. She felt like the storm in her heart was the same, and that it had peaked right when hers had. Weather has a strange way of making people feel, and perhaps due to the rain she had felt more deeply than she would have liked.
She would have to bathe, of course, when she got home, but she hobbled along, her body now starting to show a bit of the pain from the training, the running, the falling, and the rooftop chase. She wondered if her drakpo would be able to get rid of it all and then shook her head at herself, stupid, no… She wouldn’t let herself be comfortable when Mitsuo was in the hospital, no. She would make her slow and steady way back to her house. Peel the clothing off and shower in the hot shower, the water burning over her battered and worn out five foot frame. She had done good today.
She was finally a full-fledged Guanyin.
(Word Count 9218)
Well fine, she would find that catalyst, she had decided. Setting her jaw she walked along the path to the training grounds, coming around the corner in the dense deciduous forest that permeated Konohagakure. Her heart dropped into her stomach. There were three others that were already utilizing the training grounds. Too many for her.
Grinding her teeth against her instincts to turn and go to another training ground she walked up to the grounds herself, lowering her backpack. She had decided to dress in her usual attire a short plaid skirt with black stockings and brown loafers. The loafers were made of tougher leather than most and therefore served both as work-shoes and casual shoes and maintained her high level standard of dressing. She had put on matching underwear and brazier under her pink shirt. A bowtie ensured there were no wardrobe malfunctions when training and a white sweater, buttoned at the bottom around her midriff made her look like she was dressed for some sort of school or job function. She had opted to tie her hair back into a ponytail, but as she walked she reached up and started to twine her hair into a quick and tight bun at the top of her head.
Her backpack was full of things that she wanted to use for training, such as kunai, senbon, and the like. But she wasn’t going to use those if there were others around. Instead she settled down on the ground, making sure that her skirt was under her and wouldn’t fly away should a sudden breeze come up. Her backpack beside her, with her lunch inside she reminded herself, she settled down into a meditative stance.
Something inside of her, huh? Something that would be limiting the way that she used medical ninjutsu. She concentrated on herself, on her breathing, on her surroundings. There was one man, a high ranking shinobi within the village, that was in a suit. His collared shirt was synched shut with a red tie. The tie didn’t move when he did, no matter how fast his movements. His hands were a blur of movement, each one tapping the tree. The sound they made was that of a gattling gun, only a quiet, “Tick, tick, piff. Tick, tick, piff.” so fast it wasn’t even a matter of counting the time that he hit the tree, but his movements were more of the patter of raindrops on the ground.
An older man was meditating like she was. His beard was white and lacked the mustache. The hairs on his chin quivvered as he concentrated. He was dressed in a shirt with bow tie, the shirt was plaid and the bowtie was plaid. Annoyance ran up her features like a fast growing fever. She tried to settle down.
The other one was a woman who had a two handed japanese sword, a Nodachi. She wielded it slow and steady, her hands never trembling. Back and forth, up and down. THe movements of a river. The mouth tremor from the old man caught her attention again and she grumbled into a sigh. The sounds of the other two ninjas were comforting at least. The patter of palm made rain and the slow gliding of steel against wind.
Chiaki took one deep breath, then another to calm herself. She closed her eyes, the people faded and there was nothing but breathing, the sound of rain and wind in the training grounds. The backpack fell away from her consciousness as she looked inward. What was she trying to find? What was going on with the chakra inside of her? She breathed deeply and looked inward trying to find the thing that was inside of her. The thing that hindered her.
Deep within something stirred. A rage, a fire. She tried to put that down, that couldn’t be it, no it couldn’t be a rage that she was suppressing. Instead she looked to the side. A childhood spurning, a missed opportunity that she had with her father. Her eyes filled with bitter tears. He had asked her to go with him to the hospital that day and she had turned him away to be with her boyfriend. She was only fifteen at the time, and didn’t know about many of the worlds twists or turns, and she wanted to experience as much of it as possible. She had been pushed down into a kiss, her clothing ripped before she realized she needed to get out of there. A swift knee and the taste of blood and she ran, ran through the streets in a disheveled manner. Ran back to her father, or rather her father’s house. He pursued her like a wraith, a haunting that she couldn’t shake.
She barred the door and locked it, running to her room to do the same. She could still hear the pounding of the front door, the angry screams through her window. She never told anyone about it, nor would she. She opened her eyes to a blurred world, a world that was no longer full of the harmony of rain and wind, but rather the disharmony of war torn emotions and hate. She hated that boy, it was one of the reasons she didn’t stay in the academy. She hated him and she wanted to make sure that he didn’t pass. He was a part of the ANBU now though, and so she was afraid. She was afraid of what he might do to the enemies of Konoha, especially the women he encountered.
She bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling, the tears now coming in rivulets down her cheeks. He was ANBU and she still a genin. She couldn’t move past it. A sob wracked her body as she doubled over, balling her fists and driving them into her forehead. He was out there, a part of society and there was nothing she could do to stop him from climbing the ranks. She could try to tell someone now, but what good would that do? He was a higher rank, and he could kill her without being caught. The ANBU were faceless, godless, and above the law. She couldn’t… couldn’t even defend herself. She growled, something snapped and she felt suddenly drained. She gasped and let go of that feeling.
The old man had gone, but the other two were still there, still working with their hands. She sighed, wiping away her tears with the back of her sleeve and sniffling to relieve some of the mucus that had built up in her nose from crying. She needed her backpack. There were some tissues in there, in case of an emergency like this. She started to reach toward it and something crackled underneath her like previously shattered glass. She looked down to see that the grass that she had been sitting on was now grey without wick at all. The lifeless grass looked as if it had been over-burned, and the grass around that was dead as well, though it looked like it was the middle of winter, rather than being completely dead. She forgot her nose and her appearance for a moment, reaching down and placing a hand on the grass that was grey. It crumbled under the weight, just ash, nothing living anymore.
Was this the power her mother spoke of? She nodded to herself. This was the power but she felt sick. This is what the Guanyin were famous for. A necrotic kind of energy that was able to kill the cells at a molecular level. Something that couldn’t be healed except by other guanyin. The technique scared her. She was capable of this?
No, she didn’t have time to be scared. She reached to her backpack, the denim rough against her fingertips and gripped the zipper. Slowly pulling it open she reached into her bag and grasped a package of tissues. The tissues in her hand were like a pillow. Opening the flap she took out one of the tissues and plugged one nostril, blew and then the other. She took out a small plastic bag, placed the tissue inside of it and then took out another one. Dabbing her eyes she saw that the mascara she had put on this morning had run. Great, she would need to get a hold of that before continuing.
Grumbling she took out her mascara, eyeshadow, blush and a small mirror. Swallowing past some of the tightness in her throat she took out the blush, starting to repair the places where she had cried or rubbed off the makeup. Small brush strokes and a bare amount of blush was her style. She didn’t usually put on much makeup, just enough to make her features not look so washed out. Next came the eyeshadow, repairing it and making it all look like she had just recently put it on. A green eyeshadow that enhanced her clothing. Next was the mascara, the most annoying of the makeup as far as she was concerned.
She wanted to not put it on, but her eyes were washed out if she didn’t. After primping she sighed loudly and looked at herself with the small pocket-mirror. Perfect. After putting her compact and her makeup back into her bag, she returned the tissues and the bag of two tissues she had used to get rid of the tears to her bag in the small pocket on the inside of the bag. Zipping it she placed her hands in a boar sign. She wanted to make sure that she had enough time to get this done today. Perhaps she was over-thinking this. Just let the emotions wash over you…
Gritting her teeth she manifested a drakpo in her hand. It was a brilliant blue color. The raindrops slowed and the sword in the wind stopped. Without looking she knew that the other two had stopped and were now looking at her manifesting the weapon of the guanyin. She knew how to use it, she knew how to use it to deadly effect even. But she didn’t know how to use it in battle. This was to be used for medical purposes. His face sprang to mind and her chakra burned a hot red, she could almost feel it oozing out her pores, out of her skin. She growled, an inhuman noise and the Drakpo started to show veins of red. She was doing it. She was actually going to use the red Drakpo. Concentrating further she pushed more of the hatred into her chakra, letting it burn. She wasn’t a katon user, but she knew that it felt like a rush of hot air when it manifested.
Suddenly the needle blazed forth in a blood-red light, lighting the entire area like it had been. She nodded. This was the needle her mother manifested. This was the needle she would use on that man the next time she saw him. (-10 chakra) A twist of her hand and it flipped into the air and landed in her hand like any other senbon. This one was about a foot in length, though, and felt like it was heavier than it should be. Her chakra blazed out of it like that of a fire. Now to try to manifest the other Drakpo in her other hand. She closed her eyes and tried to think of it at the same time. The blue drakpo manifested in her right hand, but the red one winked out of existence (-10 chakra).
Well, that was to be expected. Fine. Perhaps it would be better to make two Drakpo and try to make one of them red. Her mind split and She manifested another Drakpo in her free right hand. Then she grit her teeth and tried to hate one and love the other. Trying to use her emotions, the feeling that she had the first time she manifested the red one. Both blazed a bright red before one winked out. (-10 chakra). Well fine then, she thought, I’ll just do this the old fashioned way. I’ll just have to figure out what I want to do with this particular senbon. She flicked it and then when it fell she placed her finger out, it spun around on the tip until it slowed, finally resting in the middle, balanced perfectly, like all of her life was. Or she thought it was. The blood red threatened to turn blue as she thought of how pretty it was.
Right, use it to destroy. Looking at a nearby tree, she nodded. Best to try it out on that. She gripped the length of it and rushed towards the tree, pretending that there was a ninja there, she deflected imaginary kunai and then rushed to the tree, stabbing it with the blood-red chakra senbon. It faded into the tree as soon as it touched and Chiaki found herself a little bit saddened. She had no idea why, but as soon as she touched it, the same ashen color sprang from where the needle had hit, and the tree started to rot away slowly, finally covering a one foot space, it looked bruised, cut, and damaged. She looked horrified.
Manifesting another Drakpo she placed the tip into it and it started to heal the tree in the same area. (-10 chakra).The rain of blows on the log started again as did the woman’s movements with the sword. Fine, she was part of the scenery like them. She would start by manifesting the other technique that she knew. It was called the “Pangolin’s Paw” She had a pet pangolin when she was a child, and was always in awe of how sturdy and lovely they were. Her Pangolin was a great cuddler, and loved to nuzzle her in her sleep. Chiaki had called him mister scaley, but his given name was Uto. Uto was a fat pangolin, as her family was able to import ants on a weekly basis. It was a wonder how many insects he was able to eat.
His powerful paws could not only harm the ant mounds, tearing through the ant hills like they were made of paper, but also they could hold little objects so tenderly that he could hold a paper crane, observe it and make such cute grunts when he was happy. He had no natural predators, and when some people had broken into her house, he had scared them off. They had no idea what a pangolin was, and thought that the family had a pet dragon. He was a loyal companion before succumbing to old age. She missed him dearly. Now she had a technique that mimicked his tenderness.
A large pair of scaled paws emerged from her hands, covering them in a soft teal light. She concentrated, trying to think of them as the same chakra as the Drakpo (-15 chakra). The light slowly and carefully changed to a blue one, marking her as a guanyin user, and the technique as a guanyin technique. Chiaki moved her hand and as she did, the paws opened and closed. A small and tender smile spread across her features, she remembered those paws from when she was a child, closing over her finger and staying closed throughout the night. The nuzzles from the long muzzle that was Uto’s.
A clap of her hands and the paws started to grow red, a groan from her as she felt the heat wash down her arms, a cold sweat starting between her shoulder blades and working its way down the small of her back, all the way down. A bead of sweat and then another formed on her forehead, they were like veined pangolin paws, but this wasn’t the power she needed. She needed to draw more, more chakra, more power into her hands. A short shout reverberated in the clearing, the patter of palms and knuckles on the log stopped, and so did the wind in the leaves that was the sword. Her palms came together again, and she started to yell, the yell coming into a high pitched scream as the red permeated the entirety of the paws. They started to ooze the necrotic chakra.
A grim smile as she held in her hands a sort of gauntlet. She winced in pain as they were finally the color of the guanyin’s battle-aura and they were a terrifying sight to see. The chakra that oozed to the ground broke down the grass, the leaves, and everything else it came into contact with on a cellular level. She pictured the man’s face and gave a war-shout. Pushing hard against the tree, she heard a loud snap as the wood broke under her palm, turning to dust an inch deep and cracking the surrounding area in the shape of the two pangolin paws.
She started to breathe heavily. This wasn’t the last that she would try this. She was sure of it. But for now a breather. After all, this was the first time in a long time that she had actually practiced jutsu. She would have to get it right before her missions in the future. Her survival hinged on this. Clenching her teeth she set her jaw and let her hair loose. From the sweat it unravelled and fell in a clump down her back. She took a brush from her bag and started to brush out the tangles and knots. The other two started their own training once again. Seemingly disturbed by her training they had forgotten their own again. Perhaps they were sizing her up.
A blush crept up her face as she thought about the possibility that one of them would want to duel her. She couldn’t take that sort of embarrassment. She just wanted to train. She wanted to train alone, and she wanted to get this right. Perhaps she was wanting too much when she came to a public place for this. But where else would she try this? At home was too risky, if it did this to the tree. She looked up at the two lacerated and blackened marks where her palms used to be, then what would it have done to her abode.
Chiaki sighed and clasped her hands together, they hurt a bit from smacking the tree, but it was nice to see that she hadn’t hurt herself with them. She wanted to make sure that she didn’t but she didn’t know what else to do at the time. Maybe she could get control of this, rather than losing her surroundings every time she used the technique and making sure that she had tunnel vision, perhaps she could control this. She wanted to control this. She had to control this before she used it in battle. A level head was necessary in battle, and she needed to make sure that she was ready for anything.
Nodding to herself, and making sure that she was ready for the next bout she took a couple of shaky breaths, the sweat cold on her back, in between her breasts, and on her legs. Her arms felt heavy from underuse of Chakra before this little escapade, but she knew that she had to push through the pain to reach her destination. The mastery of this chakra reversal.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember what her mother said about the technique.
Her mother’s visage came to mind, a black haired, red eyed woman with a small smile, her father had given her most of the features she displayed. She was also taller than her father. She had said what?
Oh right, “You can grasp yourself tightly enough that you will squeeze your very essence out, but you might not be able to see yourself as you are until you learn to gently grasp it. It is one thing to eek out your chakra and make it work for you like ninjutsu users do. But to truly grasp who you are is the essence of what it is to be a guanyin. You have to decide what your power is going to do for you. You are the one who is going to use this power, a great destructive power, for your own benefits. And they will be all your choice.
“The reason that I didn’t advance past becoming a guard for the hospital and a chuunin is because I am afraid of what I might become with more power than I already have. I am already at the limit of what I want to do to people. I can break bones, send people into intensive care. Becoming a shinobi means to tread the line between life and death and I am not really ready for that. You have to reach deep inside yourself and ask the hard question. Are there people out there that deserve to die? The best users of the guanyin technique have killed. It almost tore some of your predecessors apart. Some became wandering nin and became apathetic. Some became Kages and some descended into madness. Do with it what you will. But I use it to protect people. I have decided that I am not strong enough to kill.
“Will you be?”
She looked up at the tree and nodded. She was strong enough to kill. She was sure of that. That man that had assaulted her in her teenage years deserved that. She had no idea how many other countless women he had laid his hands on, but learning that he had become ANBU meant that she had a tough choice to make. Perhaps she would have to duel him, no holds barred and make it look like an accident when she killed him, or perhaps she would make sure that he didn’t hurt anyone like he had her that day. It was a tough decision, and one that she couldn’t make now. Slapping her cheeks she made herself ready.
She took a stance and breathed deep. The smell of the grass and the rush of the river. The tapping of the man’s hands on the wood, the whisper of steel through air. She was ready for this. A deep red chakra manifested itself around her, eating holes in her fabric. No. Concentrate! The holes weren’t big enough to reveal anything, but she knew that it wore her clothing threadbare in an instant. Concentrate! A needle formed in her mind, a bloodred thing, filled with passion, filled with conviction. She opened her eyes and saw the thing that she had created in her mind blazing forth with a light that chilled her with the thought that it might do what she had intended it to.
She gripped it by the handle (-10 chakra) and tossed six senbon into the air. The Chakra senbon burned in her hand. Twisting it and closing her eyes for a split second she hit each senbon as it came down next to her, twisting each upward again, moving like rain on the water, she moved around, catching each senbon with her own. One senbon missed and now five were in the air. Concentrate, keep up with the senbon in the air, don’t get ahead of yourself. “Plink!” one senbon sent high into the air, it would land near the tree. The next was coming down now! “Plink!” The next senbon went into the air and would be coming down next to that one. Good, now the third and fourth. They were too close together. Gritting her teeth she flicked her wrist, “Plink tink!” Rang out the small metallic iron needles as they soared through the air and one embedded itself into the ground not a meter away. Now there were four. “Plink!” That one will go where the other three are. The rogue one she would have to jump for.... NOW!
A small clenching of her calves and she felt herself twirling toward the senbon “TINK!” a hard hit that would send it far upward. This one would land in the viscinity of the others. They glinted in the light of day, clouds started to form overhead as she juggled the senbon. The next one came down, “Plink!” it rang out as it was tossed once more into the air. The others coming down in quick succession. She sent them toward her backpack. A blue aura erupted from her hands. NO! She screamed mentally as she concentrated on the Drakpo and it erupted in red light. Now with the clouds covering the sun it blazed forth on the ground, creating a little blood-red halo around her. She nodded to herself and sprang towards the senbon in the air, headed toward her backpack. She wanted to make sure that she was going to make it. The point was to protect her backpack. She wanted to make it in time! A springing and flick of her wrist and the Chakra created senbon lashed out into her hand, more like a small ruler than anything else and a small “Tink Plink!” rang out as she juggled the senbon and then smacked it with a twitch of her index finger back up. She juggled the senbon this way for a small time, letting them get only a couple of feet above her at one point in time. Beads of sweat started to rain down on her backpack (180/250 chakra) She flicked them away from her eyes and noticed that the clouds had started to form thicker overhead. Each flash of her Drakpo left a red streak in her vision. She could see the blood-red dancing of each senbon as it rained down around her. She could juggle four. Good. She had gotten better.
The red started to fade back to blue again as she started to concentrate on the senbon, making them come down in quicker succession by controlling their height, making them go up only a little ways from the longer chakra senbon. As she did so she noticed the blue color and growled, No! This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, in rapid succession she sent them variant heights back upward and concentrated. Dammit this wasn’t supposed to be the way that this went! She grit her teeth and glared at the vibrant blue senbon, her own senbon rained down indiscriminately, sinking into her shoulder. She cried out as she tried to make it red. It blazed forth with a more vibrant blue light. “NO!” she screamed at it as the second one came in, driving itself into her lower back, embedding itself there as she gasped in pain. “No no no no no no no no!” She rattled off as she shook the thing in both hands and it turned to a pink color. That was strange, threw her off enough for the third to come and embed itself in her hand. A short intake of breath as she shook her hand as if she had just slammed it in the door and the Drakpo shone a brilliant bright blue in the growing gloom. The next senbon came down gleaming just a couple millimeters from her left eye and nose.
Time stopped, it seemed like she could see herself in the senbon, or perhaps it was just the perception of slowed time when one messes up. It sank deep into the flesh right above her heart and she gasped in pain, losing control over the Drakpo, holding her uninjured hand over her now tender chest. A couple of quick gasps as the needle worked its way into her flesh from each she tried to figure out where it was. This was the problem with Senbon. If thrown by a skilled enough ninja they would create more damage than a kunai. While a Kunai would eventually work itself out and would make the victim bleed out, Senbon were geared towards slowing and hindering. They were precise tools that could puncture arteries, but more often than not were thrown at pressure points on the victims. This one had just hit a major one in her breast and as she gasped for breath the needle wormed its way into her flesh, tearing at the nerve there.
She fell to the ground, feeling each bounce, each jarring motion of each movement. The needle in her lower back was working its way into her flesh as well. The one in her hand she ripped out gingerly, a small bead of blood was the worst of that. It had been stopped by her thumb metacarpal. The one in her chest was too deep. She would need tweezers now, there was only a small bit of metal still sticking out. Dammit, she gingerly leaned forward, and the one in her back worked its way back out. Taking her uninjured hand she worked it out with a little cry in pain and a small tearing up.
She started to pant as she located the one in her shoulder and gingerly pinched it with her injured hand. The uninjured one now almost useless as it was slick with blood. A quick gasp as the one in her chest worked its way in more. She blushed, now she would have to get naked to get it out. Looking around she took out her tweezers, gathered the senbon and tried to look like she hadn’t just stabbed her own breast with a senbon. She placed them back into their pouch and walked calmly into the forest. There were places where one could get to that were secluded enough. Looking around she unbuttoned her blouse and undid her bowtie. There, in the pink flesh was a bead of blood, and, to her relief, a nub of uncaring and unwavering steel.
A small “Tink” of steel against steel and she took a quick hiss of breath through clenched teeth letting it out slowly as she pulled the needle out. She had to do it slowly or risk damaging the soft tissue that it had sunk into. Really, of all the places to land this had to be the worst, as it constantly moved and was probably one of the more sensitive areas. She gasped as she finally pulled the needle all the way out. Nodding to herself she held the little culprit in her tweezers, glaring at it. It seemed unapologetic as it dripped one singular drop of her blood to the forest floor. Fine, she would deal with it later. She massaged the wound and nodded to herself. It warranted a bit of medical attention, especially so that she wouldn’t ruin her already threatened clothing. She took out a cloth and wiped up the blood that was beginning to roll down her soft flesh and nodded to herself.
Buttoning her shirt, she placed the senbon on the ground with the tweezers. Looking around, she smiled. No one was around, and no one, hopefully saw that she had stabbed herself. She started to tie her bow tie. It was an involved process, but one that she had completed several times. She didn’t know why she really liked the look of a bow tie on herself, but she enjoyed it none the less. She wished that she had someone to show it off to, but as of now, she was squadless, friendless, and really quite alone in her ninja training. She had to get stronger. The store keeper would have wanted that.
Keeping the needle safe with her fingertips she made her way back to her backpack, or where it had been. Now there was no one there. No one and nothing. Looking around her voice and breath caught in her still hurting chest. No. She groaned inwardly. This couldn’t be happening. Not only did that have her dinner, which she wanted desperately. It had her week’s worth of cash and her ninja tools in it. The ground was soft and she looked up as a raindrop hit her on the crown of her head. She would have to find this sooner rather than later.
Sighing, she took her one senbon and tucked it into her hair for later use and started off at a sprint. The culprit would be in the city. And she would make them pay.
She rounded a corner and came to rest against a muscled back, the man that had been training. It was like running into a brick wall. She careened back and fell on her butt with a little cry of pain. After all, she hadn’t mended her wounds yet.
He looked back at her, a bit of concern on his face as he opened his hand to help her back up, “Sorry miss, I didn’t see you there. I didn’t mean to stop so suddenly.” He smiled, the smile making his eyes close slightly. She searched him and mentally was relieved that he wasn’t the culprit, she wouldn’t be able to ask for it back from him anyhow.
“I ah ahm… I ran into you, I didn’t mean to.” She blushed a deep red, and could feel it because her face got extremely hot. She hadn’t meant to run right into him, and hadn’t looked at where she was going because she was so focused on her back pack. He nodded and kept his hand out. Dumbly, she took it and he lifted her like she was weightless, making her feet come out from under her and lifted her quite a good ways off the ground before setting her down by her arm.
“Ah, don’t know my own strength. Where are you hurrying off to?” He asked and tilted his head, “Your boyfriend said that he would look after your things, so there isn’t any need to worry after that.”
Her stomach sank to the bottom of her shoes and she felt like the next words were coming from it, “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
He furrowed his brows, whether it was in righteous anger or confusion she couldn’t tell. He simply crossed his arms and sighed, closing his eyes. She had no idea what he was doing, but she would need to try to identify the culprit before he got too far off. “I remember what he looked like, and it’ll take you less time if I help you.” The man in the suit nodded and opened his eyes, “He was wearing a red hoodie with three white stripes that started at the hood and went down the arms. He had green hair, cut short on one side like you kids like nowadays and… hah, listen to me, I sound old. Anyhow,” He caught the look that Chiaki had given him and hastened to tell her the rest, “He was tanned, and wore bright green sunglasses. We should be able to find him, I remember what your backpack looked like too.”
“Thanks!” She said simply, and started to head off towards the right, while the gentleman nodded and walked calmly up the wall to her left. Ah, right! The rooftops!
She clambered up, without the use of jutsu to the top of the rooftops. Her hair was now a less than immaculate bun on the top of her head, and strands flew every which ways with the winds on the top of the buildings. The winds had been growing stronger and stronger. She had seen that it was going to start raining, and she hoped, prayed, that it would hold a little longer. Finding someone in the rain, she had no idea why, was harder than finding someone on a hot day. Perhaps because it was harder to hear someone.
A rogue rain droplet landed on her nose and she blinked away the residual splash of that deviant little bit of water. No, no this couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! She bit down on her bottom lip to keep herself grounded in the moment. A red hoodie, a red hoodie. She scanned the crowd and shook her head, no. He wasn’t here. She darted down the first roof and slid up the next. Weaving in and out of the way of higher ranked shinobi. Or rather, they probably weaved in and out of genin all day. They had bored looks on their faces. It seemed like the shinobi of the village used the rooftops for a sort of freeway while the byroads of konoha tussled with each other down below.
She looked up at the side of the cliff with the kage’s faces carved into it. Kages give me strength, she asked silently as she jumped from one roof to another, barely managing to grasp the shingle with her fingers she kicked her legs at the side of the building, and probably looked like a cat that had mis-measured the distance. How embarrassing.
Chiaki righted herself, patting herself down and looked downwards. There were people looking up with a bored expression. No, none of them wore a red hoodie. She grit her teeth and swore so loudly that a passing shinobi missed a step and tumbled a little, before righting herself and taking off again. Blushing against the embarrassment, she started to run a bit faster. The rooftops were becoming more and more slippery, she would not be able to stay on them without the walking technique after all. Darnit! She slipped, fell, and tried to clutch at the tiles giving a little shrill squeak as she fell.
Her eyes opened wide and she looked down at the crowd below her that tried to scramble out of the way of the clumsy genin that landed right in the middle of a puddle from yesterday.
Completely frazzled now, she sat up her face burning not only from embarrassment but from anger, disappointment and failure. She couldn’t keep this up for long. Rounding a corner was a red hoodie! She counted the stripes on the arm as he made his lazy way along and she counted three. And there was her backpack! Lazily hung at his side as if it were his.
Grumbling she pushed away a helping hand and patted herself to make sure that at least some of the mud was gone and she didn’t feel lopsided. That feeling wouldn’t go away though, because she had stepped into a puddle with one shoe and now it sloshed fabric against the inside of her shoe. She grit her teeth as she felt it squelch and slosh, squelch and slosh as she walked at a fast pace, trying not to call attention to her presence yet. A low and invuluntary growl escaped her lips as she rounded the corner and the man in the hoodie did the same. How dare he! She started to jog, the raindrops started to fall in more of a pattern now, sounding more and more like the gentleman that had been practicing before. The one that had promised to help her find the culprit. Well here he was, and the gentleman was nowhere to be found!
She rounded the same corner that the red-hoodied man had and found her backpack had been discarded. Picking it up, she found her tools, her lunch, and her cosmetics were still intact but her purse was gone. That thief! She blinked back tears. That no good thief! She looked around, he couldn’t have gone anywhere other than here. She looked at the trashcan next to her, and saw a partially formed foot print out of water on the lid. It looked about his size. So he had taken to the rooftops eh? Well, she would catch him. She flung her backpack around one arm and jammed the other one through. Clasping the midriff clasp she synched it around her waist and jumped, grabbing the tiles and felt her chakra burn in her system, collecting at the bottom of her feet. As she came to the top of the roof, a kunai whizzed past her ear and clattered across the rooftop of the house next to her. The man in the red hoodie flicked her wallet up, letting her see it, before snatching it out of the air and then running, quite a bit faster than her across the rooftops towards the residential district.
“Stop! Thief!” She shouted, a cliche, she knew, but she felt like she was helpless, and as she took off in a sprint, she let out a gasp, the toll of this morning’s training getting into her bones. He slid like a serpent, flew like an owl, and dove like a dolphin across the rooftops, and each one he crested he was a bit further ahead of her. In contrast, she dove like a hatchling, slid like a boulder, and flew like a hastily thrown frisbee. Her breathing started to come in little gasps and she saw a blur of black hit the red figure like a lightning bolt. The red man streaked across two rooftops and came to a sliding halt. The gentleman from before.
He wore a mask of displeasure, a calm and terrifying mask that was made all the more so by a flash of sudden lightning which he sidestepped with ease. Almost like he knew that it was going to be there. His suit and immaculate tie fluttered like a flag in the now brimming storm and she tried to shout to him but the tremendous blast from the lightning bolt, the one that made his clothing almost tear from his body and didn’t shake him not only drowned Chiaki out, but almost made her lose her concentration on her supernatural walking technique. She let out a little yelp as she jumped, at the last second to a nearby roof and righted herself. The gentleman, when she looked back up was gone, and when she looked to where the red hooded man was, she saw that the gentleman waited for the man to get back up.
He stood there, the rain hitting his suit, not caring with one hand in a flexed open position, completely straight, more of a spear than a hand, and looked like he was asking the man something. The rain started up even more, coming down in big droplets that soaked Chiaki’s clothing and made it stick to her as she ran across the rooftops. She was five away from that area. The red hooded man was injured and clutched his side, slumped towards where the damage was and seemed to be gritting his teeth. He coughed and put his hand into his hoodie. On the wrong side for her wallet.
“Watch out!” Chiaki shouted to the man as the man in red flung a kunai at the other shinobi and made the hand seal for “release” The other shinobi caught the projectile out of instinct and looked at it. Too late he realized that it had an explosive tag attached to it, and it sent the gentleman reeling off of the roof and into the crowd. Chiaki stopped, stunned with her mouth open as the other man gave her a devilish grin, licking his lips he started to hobble to the edge of the roof and dropped off of the opposite side of it as the gentleman. She had a choice to make. Risk losing the hoodie man or save the gentleman’s hand.
She didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, all of her earnings were in that purse, along with her genin card and it was a pain to get that back. On the other… ahhh FINE! She shouted mentally and ran to slide down the roof and next to the gentleman. He was gripping his hand and wincing in pain. It was far too extensive damage for her to mend. Dammit. She conjured her pangolin paws. Once again she went through the hand seals Serpent, ram, dragon, boar, hare, and once again she felt a surge of chakra rush into her hands and flexed the pangolin’s paws.
“Please work at least a little bit.” She prayed as she clasped her hands over his wounded one.
“No, go after that thief!” He grit his teeth and looked at her dead in the eyes, “My mistakes are my own, and I own them. Go after him. After all, it is for you that I went after him in the first place.”
“He’s stronger than me, and I wouldn’t know what to do against someone like him. What if he ha-” She was cut off by a glare as the other gentleman rolled into a standing position, holding his hand and wincing.
“Enough. I will go after him myself if you do not.” He started to walk towards the wall before she grabbed his coat, it was made of finer things than her clothing to be sure. It was soft and sturdy, nothing like the shirt she was wearing, “Wait- I- I’ll go after him.” She stammered out and looked at him with an apologetic and chastised look. Her face burning once more as a crowd had started to gather.
“Good, just… give him one for me.” She nodded to his words as he started to walk calmly holding his hand above his heart towards the hospital. A stoic look starting to come into his features with each footstep. No, don’t think about him, think about hoodie man.
She raced around the building to see that a crowd had gathered and he was trying to push them away. He was injured. Good. She locked eyes with him and he finally pulled out a rather long knife and slashed the air in front of him. The people gasped and screamed and fell over each other trying to get out of his way. Chiaki had about enough of this.
She heard the thrum of her chakra before she saw the after effects. Time slowed as she neared him, or seemed to and she caught a glimpse of herself from a puddle, not really looking down but still able to see herself.
She was caked in mud and soaked through. Her clothes hung limply around her frame, and didn’t hide much. Her face was red from anger and her mascara and eyeliner was running, along with her eye shadow to form a horrific visage. Chiaki’s hair was askew, to say the least, with almost half of it falling out of her bun in a frizzed and wet tangled mess. There were leaves and mud caked into it as well. Her eyes shone red with the light of her guanyin needle and she wore a grim expression on her face. She would get back at the man that had hurt an innocent, stolen her things, and dared to tease her about the whole thing.
The man looked taken aback and started to hobble off into an alleyway. Cornered, as she rounded the corner and stuck out the senbon like it was a sword, reaching a full foot now, she called out to him in challenge, “I am Guanyin Chiaki, and you have my purse. Give it back and turn yourself in!”
He laughed, imagine that, threw his head back and laughed, clutching his side as he did so. It pained him more than she knew, but she didn’t care, he deserved a couple fractured ribs for what he had done. “Another goody two shoes shinobi of Konoha.” He spat, and a glob of his spittle landed on her cheek. She walked towards him without wiping it off, her anger burning, her rage consuming her. He had disgraced her, humiliated her, disheveled her, hurt an innocent.
He brandished the blade, a wicked straight blade with one edge and it caught the guanyin’s blood-red color, making it look deadlier than it was. It was built for close-quarters, much like her senbon were. She nodded, letting the senbon slip from her hair into her hand behind her back in a fluid motion as she extended her arm in challenge to him, holding her chakra infused senbon as one would a rapier.
“Then come, show me that you are stronger than the law of Konoha.” She sounded dumb, she knew, but didn’t care. A low rumble came from her, or it must have as another peal of thunder crashed around them. There were spectators behind her, and someone was calling for the guards. Good, she only had to hold him off.
He started to attack, his movements, even though he was wounded, were faster than hers, and as he started to lunge towards her she threw the senbon at him. He deflected it mid-thrust and it sank into his shoulder. No, too shallow. She noted as the blade lurked mere inches from her breast, almost burying itself in her heart as she pushed the arm aside with her chakra senbon. When the senbon met the coat it penetrated and a cry of pain erupted from the man as he lost his blade and shook his arm, looking for all the world like something had bitten him. He clenched his teeth and his arm at the same time.
While he was distracted she moved like a quick striking serpent. She wouldn’t get another chance like this. Monkey, Hare, Boar, Serpent flew from her hands as she clapped them together and pressed her finger into his chest. She thought of his legs and watched as he tried to take a step forward, throwing his body weight into it to pick up his knife and stumbled, falling and catching himself with his hands and wincing at the pain.
“You won’t be able to walk for a while.” Chiaki said, as a guard rounded the corner. “Now give me back my purse.”
“Over my cold dead -” The man was cut off by a kunai in his shoulder from the guard, meant to subdue him he screamed in pain and grit his teeth.
“We have him miss, anything that belongs to you you can pick up from the administration building after we take his possessions off of him. Make sure to give a good description of it. And Thank you for apprehending him.”
“He also assaulted another shinobi!” She blurted out at the guard as he neared the man.
“I was viciously attacked by that shinobi. I was defending my-AAHHAH!” He screamed again as the guard kicked the kunai viciously into his shoulder once more.
“Shut up.” The guard said curtly and then looked at Chiaki. “Come with me, you both will need to make a statement.”
Chiaki, her head hanging low was escorted by the guards to the administration building, looking more the criminal than the actual criminal. His legs started working, once again, after about a minute of paralysis. A good technique to say the least, it helped even the odds for her and she apprehended him with minimal damage. As he rolled up his sleeves in the interrogation room, after she had been let go and her purse returned to her, she could see a small blackened area on his skin, where her needle had touched him and lacerations, burns, and a bit of broken skin abounded all over a one foot radius. He said that she had used a sort of snake bite to apprehend him, but she hadn’t.
It was the guanyin’s technique. The reversal. She had done it successfully in battle, she knew she could keep it up now. She didn’t know if the rage inside of her would ever quiet, or whether she was only able to do it when she was truly angry, but she didn’t care, at least she had apprehended this man.
After she was let out, and had signed her formal witness forms she went to the hospital where she pleaded with the nurse on duty to see the people who were in the hospital. Mitsuo, huh. Well, that was a nice name. She went to Mitsuo’s room and sat down quietly, he was resting, actually sleeping and his hand was bandaged. She couldn’t tell if he would keep all of his fingers, or whether he would be able to use his hand again, but she was grateful to him. Writing a little note with cute kanji, she left her information for him, with a little thank you and a “chu” on the card. She slipped it under his unconscious arm and left the room, turning down the dimmer switch on the lights.
She rounded the corner and looked out to the sky, it was still raining, but the thunder had moved on, and thus the eye of the storm was out of the city. She felt like the storm in her heart was the same, and that it had peaked right when hers had. Weather has a strange way of making people feel, and perhaps due to the rain she had felt more deeply than she would have liked.
She would have to bathe, of course, when she got home, but she hobbled along, her body now starting to show a bit of the pain from the training, the running, the falling, and the rooftop chase. She wondered if her drakpo would be able to get rid of it all and then shook her head at herself, stupid, no… She wouldn’t let herself be comfortable when Mitsuo was in the hospital, no. She would make her slow and steady way back to her house. Peel the clothing off and shower in the hot shower, the water burning over her battered and worn out five foot frame. She had done good today.
She was finally a full-fledged Guanyin.
(Word Count 9218)
Hokage: 
Kazekage: 
Raikage: 
Tsuchikage: 
Mizukage: 